Sat, Aug 27, 2011 · Filed under Market & Stand, Summer, Veggies
This is our second Saturday market with quite a solid harvest, both selection and quantity. Last week was fine, this week we’ve added the first of the fall spinach, also, an unexpected bushel of radish that sized up practically overnight, picked at the end of the day yesterday at the perfect maturity moment. For the record, we have: green onion (Ramrod), two kales (Red Russian, Nero di Toscana), green and yellow beans (Jade, Indy Gold), two carrots (Nelson, Touchon, mixed), radish (Rebel), cherry tomatoes (a mix of 7-8 varieties, hybrid and heirloom), Asian greens mix (mustards, mizuna, tatsoi, etc, our custom blend!), arugula, Swiss chard (Lucullus, a pale green heirloom), beet (Kestrel), salad mix (four varieties of lettuce), summer squash (Golden Dawn III, Baby Tiger and Raven zucchinis), cucumber (Fanfare and a few round heirloom Lemon), and spinach (Bloomsdale). For those who like lists!
Tags:
arugula,
Asian greens,
beans,
beet,
carrot,
cucumber,
green onion,
kale,
lettuce,
radish,
spinach,
summer squash,
Swiss chard,
tomato,
zucchini Possibly similar posts:
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Sat, Aug 20, 2011 · Filed under Market & Stand, Summer, Veggies
Friday’s harvest to Saturday’s market is the way it is! We still go direct from field to stand, with no cooler in between, and that seems to work out. And the stand itself hasn’t changed much in the last few seasons: raw cedar bins on boards on sawhorses, baskets up front, under the 10′x10′ E-Z UP canopy. What’s new is our latest in DIY veggie sign technology: the usual cards printed in marker with description and price, but now mounted with tape on long, thin coffee stir sticks, stuck right in with the produce. Anyhow, good weather, a decent turnout, a fine morning all round!
Tags:
Asian greens,
basil,
beans,
beet,
carrot,
cucumber,
farmers' market,
green onion,
kale,
market stand,
mesclun,
mint,
radish,
stand,
Swiss chard,
tomato,
zucchini Possibly similar posts:
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Fri, Aug 19, 2011 · Filed under CSA, Harvest, Summer, Veggies
A pretty satisfying second installment of our “experimental” Weekly Harvest Share: ”Like CSA, but one week at a time…”! Satisfying because, for the first time this season, harvest day felt kinda normal, with around 20 items harvested, enough variety to have to pick what went into the shares. And the winners, the veggies that made it through thick and thin: kale (Red Russian—no worries about running out of RR…), beets (Kestrel), carrots (Nelson), zucchini (Golden Dawn III, always there in numbers), cukes (Fanfare, Lemon), baby leaf lettuce (house blend, and a nice first cut!), beans (Jade, Indy Gold, first picking of this planting), assorted cherry tomatoes, green onion (Ramrod), sweet pepper (Cubanelle, picked young and green), onion (yellow cooking, from sets, kinda…compact), peppermint & spearmint (bagged, for tea!), and eggplant (old reliable Dusky). So, better late than never!
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Tue, Nov 24, 2009 · Filed under Autumn, Veggies
The star by far of the last planting of brassicas, that mostly didn’t size up in time for market or CSA, is without at doubt this unusual Nero Di Toscana strap kale. This Italian heirloom, apparently from Tuscany, is hardly better looking than the cold-beaten rest of the motley-looking crew: tiny cauliflower, mini savoy cabbage, some collards and this kale. But it’s growing back—been picked twice since October—and it’s amazingly, distinctively tasty. In the post-freeze veggie garden, looks aren’t everything! I’ve had the seed for a while, but grew it for the first time this season. It’ll definitely be back.
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Sat, Mar 28, 2009 
Filed under Farm lab (research!), Seed starting, Spring, Veggies
At first, it looks like some sort of horrible, fuzzy mold, about to devour your newly germinated seeds. But when you get really up close, it turns out to be superfine, hairlike extensions growing from the radicle. These kale sprouts pushed themselves right out of the seedling mix, probably because they weren’t pressed in and covered deeply enough.
Kale, broccoli, cauliflower and other brassicas do this in a very visible way during a surface emergency, sending out a mass of fine root hairs in search of water. Root hairs are normal below ground, but I’ve only really noticed them growing exposed on brassicas, other newly emerged seedlings with bared roots usually seem to just dry up. An unusual glimpse of what plants are up to with their vast root systems down below.
Given half a chance—a little surface moisture—these guys can actually manage to burrow down and root themselves. Pretty cool trick.
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Sat, Mar 21, 2009 
Filed under Indoors, People, Seed starting, Spring, Veggies
It’s spring! The ground is clear, hasn’t snowed in a while, but it’s still cold, and the tiny farming action remains mainly indoors. We’re steadily filling up the racks (here, Lynn populates a plug sheet with Red Russian kale; under the lights, parsley and onion). I’m spreading things out a lot more than usual, instead of starting a whole lot on one day. We’ll see what difference a few days or a couple of weeks make to the various veg… It likely won’t be much, but some interesting things could happen if we get really drastic week-to-week weather changes around transplant time, like we did last year. An experiment!
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