Thu, Aug 30, 2007 · Filed under CSA, Harvest, Local food, Summer
A specially Thursday-picked Large share, tiny farm flexibility in action for a shareholder who missed the weekend pick-up. A Large is about one and a half the size of the standard Single share. This week: carrot (Touchon), beet (Golden Detroit, Scarlet Supreme), tomato (assorted heirloom), mesclun (9-lettuce), spring onion (Ramrod, Red Baron), summer squash (Sunburst, Golden Dawn III, Ambassador), potato (Gold Rush), pepper (Ace), onion (Stuttgarter), garlic (Music). The shares have been pretty good this year, not over the top (in a superabundant way) as they have been at times in the past, but definitely solid value for the fresh, local, organic dollar!
Tags:
beet,
carrots,
CSA share,
garlic,
heirloom,
highlights,
mesclun,
onion,
peppers,
potato,
summer squash,
tomato Possibly similar posts:
Permalink
Sat, Aug 18, 2007 · Filed under Harvest, Market & Stand, Summer, Tools, Veggies
Today’s wares set up behind the stand at the farmers’ market. First thing in the morning (that’s around 7 am), we open and arrange all of the crates and use them to stock the stand and assemble CSA shares. Here, we’re partway into the morning—as the day progresses, crates get stacked. Visible in the pic, an assortment of mainly heirloom tomatoes, carrots, assorted sweet peppers (we picked a lot of ‘em green before turning to red rather than let them shrivel in the near-drought conditions), various beets, garlic, and green and yellow beans pre-packed for the CSA. As for the traffic, the day was on the quiet side, despite great weather—it seems the fresh, local, organic trend so pumped in the media this year, and apparently somewhat sweeping the cities, is taking its time hitting the countryside. All in all, though, a decent Saturday!
Permalink
Thu, Aug 16, 2007 · Filed under Harvest, Local food, Summer, Veggies
Life imitates…candy! Picking cherry tomatoes may take forever, but it’s totally worthwhile for both looks and taste. This is newer tiny farm thinking for me. In my concern for quantity, having enough every week for market and CSA shares, I tended to favor things that grew BIGGER. Kinda primitive-practical (and I’m still biased against baby veggies, like tiny scallopini squash—just give ‘em a couple more days, no?! :). Only last year, I finally expanded the cherry selection from a couple of standard round, red varieties to a fair mix of heirlooms and modern hybrids. Today’s assortment includes Golden Cherry, Red and Yellow Pear, Ildi, Red Currant, Chadwick’s Cherry, Matt’s Wild Cherry, and Sweet Baby Girl. There’s supposed to be Green Grape in there, maybe they were passed over because they didn’t look ready to pick!
Permalink
Sun, Aug 12, 2007 · Filed under Harvest, Summer, Veggies
Taking a break during a drizzle (it’s not RAIN, and I doubt it’ll turn into it either), I piled up a few leftovers from Friday’s tomato harvest. The mid- and main-season toms aren’t yet ready, so we picked what we could, and didn’t keep track amongst the 50+ varieties. Still, I can recognize most of ‘em. There are smaller and larger heirloom Striped Germans (yellow with a beautiful red blush), the large round one in front is Polfast, a new early hybrid that isn’t behaving that early, the smaller reds are Stupice, there are a couple of red cherries, sliding in on the left is Tangerine, and more… Notably absent are the black tomatoes (Cherokee Purple, Black Krim and the others), with their distinctive deep green to earthy red coloring—the few that were ready were sold or eaten! The little yellow cherry tom nestled in the middle on the left was actually given to me yesterday at the market; called Garden Peach, it has a fuzzy peach-like texture, and great taste (I had a couple!). If I can’t find it in the catalogs, I’ll save the seed and hope for the best.
Permalink
Sat, Jun 30, 2007 · Filed under Summer, Veggies
For the third year running, and no surprise, Stupice is the first tomato to start fruiting. This extra-early heirloom is said to be from Czecholslovakia, and its performance hasn’t been even nearly beat for earliness in the 70+ varieties, heirloom and modern hybrid, that I’ve tried over the last four years. The toms are kinda small, maybe 2-4ozs (56-112g). Taste is tart (perhaps not for those sensitive to the mildly acidic) and, um, fantastic… This year, all of the tomatoes are really ahead, with fruit appearing on at maybe two dozen early and mid-season varieties before the end of June. Mmmmm…. (Now, to finish semi-staking, or shall we sprawl?!)
Permalink
