CSA Pick up June 30

This is the third week of pick up for the CSA. Because of all the rain and cool weather the plants are growing but very slowly except for the peas. They are in heaven. The Squash should have been ready this week but unfortunately, they are still small and so we have to wait another week. The green beans are up but haven't started to flower yet so we need to keep waiting.
The tomatoes are growing and so far do not have Septoria Leaf Blight. Because of all the rain it is showing up as a problem to farmers in Connecticut and could wipe out the tomato crop. I am optimistic about our tomatoes because of the weekly Nutrient Density Soil Drenches I am applying and I am trellising the tomatoes to keep them up off the ground. Planting through black plastic also helps stop the splash up of bacteria on to the lower leaves. The next few days are suppose to be sunny which is WONDERFUL. The plants want the SUN!!!!
Looking forward to seeing you tomorrow.

CSA Pick Up

Harvesting through the rain drops today and tomorrow, your pick up order will be ready for you. Because of all the warm weather and rain things are really growing. The veggies listed in red in the card on the left are what will be in your share this week. Not sure if the beets will be beets or just beet greens. I have been talking with UConn extension about the beets because a lot of the beets are long and slim and not round balls. There seems to be some concern that it is either the wet damp erratic cool weather or else a possible seed mix up with the supplier. The supplier would never admit to a seed mix up and because part of the beets are round the problem is probably the weather conditions. Any way I won't know till tomorrow morning if the beets will be just greens or actually have little round beets attached to them. You will find the second recipe Garlic Scape Carbonara is under the 2011 CSA recipe folder. Looking forward to seeing you tomorrow.

Recipes are here!!!

The recipes are here!! I have added all of last year's 20 recipes that we passed out at each week pickup. To locate the recipe page place the mouse arrow up at the Home tab under the heading and slowly move to the right. A new tab should pop up saying " 2010 Fire Ring Farm Recipes". This will give you some more ideas for how to use, and prepare the weekly vegetables that you pick up from the farm.

These are all delicious and some of them address special diets like Vegetarian, Vegan, Lactose intolerant, and Gluten free. As the season progresses I will be adding a new recipe each week for you to enjoy.

As I told a lot of you I also recommend the book "From Asparagus to Zucchini" http://www.amazon.com/Asparagus-Zucchini-Cooking-Farm-Fresh-Seasonal/dp/0972121781/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1307995218&sr=1-1 .

I am looking forward to a wonderful 2011 season.

Rocks

Rocks!! In Connecticut we have rocks and rocks and more rocks. This is one of the rocks Bruce uncovered (yes they hide down deep in the soil undercover) when he was clearing the South garden area so we could plant. First we decided to dig a deep hole and bury it. You know the saying "Out of site, Out of mind." Well it worked for about 3 hours and then Bruce uncovered a second rock in the field. Both of these rocks were to big for out Kubota Tractor so we went to our neighbor Art! One needs a neighbor like Art if you are going to run a farm. (We had a neighbor in Ohio - Dave that we needed when I was running my landscape business) Back on point, Art has access to a BIG machine and was able to uncover Rock #1 and remove both Rock 1 and 2 from the garden. There are still lots of baby rocks in the garden but now we have the beds formed, amended and almost all planted. I will show pictures on the next blog writing. I am still learning how to add more than one picture to my blog entry.

So the question for the day is which is better Ohio Clay Soil or Connecticut Big Rocks with Sandy Loam Soil. Both need amending and both can drive a person crazy!!