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Archive for April, 2015

 

 

Spring Share #1

Spring Share #1

Happy 1st Spring Share!  We are thrilled to be starting a week earlier than expected this season and pleased with the delicious produce going home with members tonight.  It is a Spring bounty of treats.

Pac Choi-A juicy Spring Variety called Shiro.  My favorite of all Pac Choi and only grows well in the cool temperatures of Spring and late Fall.

Salad Leaf Lettuce Assortment-Hoop house grown and double rinsed.  A colorful mix of leafy greens.

Leaf Lettuce crop ready to be harvested.

Leaf Lettuce crop ready to be harvested.

Leaf Lettuce after harvest.  it will regrow for a second and maybe 3rd harvest.

Leaf Lettuce after harvest. It will regrow for a 2nd and maybe 3rd harvest.  There’s those green onions in the foreground too that we will be eating this week.

Leaf lettuce harvest ready to be transported to the washing station.

Leaf lettuce harvest ready to be transported to the washing station.  Future tomato garden in the background.

Mild Asian Greens Mix- This assortment can be enjoyed fresh or braised.  Eat as a fresh salad mix or combine with other fresh green offerings this week for a fancy deluxe and beautiful salad.  This Asia Greens mix contains an assortment of mild mustards, kales, assorted brassicas, and mizuna.

Scott double rinsing the Asian Greens at the washing station.

Scott double rinsing the Asian Greens at the washing station.

Spinach-Beautiful Spinach.  A mix of 2 varieties.  Space and Red Kitten.  The Spinach selections this week were planted last Fall in the hoop house and wintered over for early Spring Harvest. And it is a bounty!  Wintered over Spinach has wonderful flavor and juicy thick leaves as it grows slowly in the cool temperatures of Spring.  Next week we will start harvesting off our 1st early Spring seeding  in the hoop house.  Enjoy the Spinach harvest raw for fresh eating or saute/braise and add to sauces, eggs and other warm dishes.

Spinach in the first rinse tub.

Spinach in the first rinse tub.

Spinning out the Spinach and then laying it out to air dry before packaging.

Spinning out the Spinach and then laying it out to air dry before packaging.

Maeve with the Spinach bounty.

Maeve with the Spinach bounty.

Radishes-A early wonder called D’Avignon-know as French Breakfast.  A mild traditional radish from the south of France.

The radish patch.

The radish patch.

Tokyo Bekana-That lime green beauty in your share this week.  An Asian Green.  Tastes like a fluffy Chinese Cabbage.  This too can be enjoyed fresh in salads or sauted.

Green Onions-A nice bunch with mild flavor.  Use the white base and green stalks.  We planted these late Fall in the hoop house as an experiment to see how they would winter over for Spring Share.  A success!

Maeve helped harvest the Onions.

Maeve helped harvest the Onions.

 

And felt pretty cool about it.....

And felt pretty cool about it…..

Cilantro-Grown in the warmth of the greenhouse as a Spring Treat.

Daffodils-A flower bouquet to celebrate the start of our season…..enjoy on your table this evening with your delicious dinner of fresh produce.

Arranging the daffodils.

Arranging the daffodils.

All shares are packed this week in our FoxLine green totes……Please return next week with 2nd pick up for reuse with future shares.

 

BEST GUESS FOR NEXT WEEK.

head lettuce, round radishes, mizuna mix, arugula, pea shoots, a different variety pac choi, fingers crossed our favorite!!! japanese white salad turnips (they are almost ready), more spinach, a cool baby beet top/swiss chard salad mix that is beautiful, chives

 

Our life in the garden has been fun and busy….

Scott is thrilled that he has all the plastic mulch set and irrigation down.  This is the earliest in Spring he has been able to get into our clay soil gardens.

Scott's 1st pass in tilling the garden.

Scott’s 1st pass in tilling the garden.

Maeve of course had to help.

Maeve of course had to help.

Scott and I  planted all 300 pounds of seed potatoes by hand in just under 4 hours last week AND could walk the next day standing up right.  I was worried as we have not had time to ease into the physical side of gardening after our restful winter…..

I was able to have a bit of fun too this last week and put my other cap on for a few hours….  I was asked to do the florals for a beautiful wedding.

Working on a pretty bridal bouquet

Working on a pretty bridal bouquet

Fun succulent boutonniere.

Fun succulent boutonniere.

All the onions, shallots and leeks will go in this week.  Another crunched over fussy job but well worth it.  It will take us a few days to get this big job completed.

Another huge carrot bed is going in.  This is the year of the carrot at FoxLine!  We are going to dedicate ourselves to carrots and carrots and more carrots….

For those of you waiting for Maeve’s Cards the 2nd run is here. Maeve will have her cards for sale with Spring Share Pick up this afternoon. $4 each/4 styles are available.

 

Enjoy the week!

 

 

 

 

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Sunny Fun Days!

It is such fun to walk in the hoop house in the mornings and see everything growing strong in these warm sunny days.  The early Spring Greens are almost ready for the 1st Spring Share pick up on Monday April 27th.    We are starting to pick the wintered over Spinach with gusto and the radishes are oh so pretty.   The pac choi is a beautiful shiny green and the carrots that take so long to germinate are finally looking like carrots.  Everything is just so pretty after a long gray winter…..  We would be hard pressed to find anything to complain about these days…

Hoop house growing strong.

Hoop house growing strong.

French Breakfast radishes......a favorite.

French Breakfast radishes……a favorite.

 

Tender French Breakfast radishes ready for harvest.

Tender French Breakfast radishes ready for harvest.

 

carrots and more carrots and more carrots.....

Carrots and more carrots and more carrots…..

Here's what I did yesterday....

Here’s what I did yesterday….

Seed starting is a daily thing around here….yesterday was the 3rd rotation of lettuces to be planted and tons of kohlrabi, cabbages, broccoli, and swiss chard for outside in the garden.  I also seeded in beets to transplant.  We did it last year and were pleased with the results.  Gives us a 3 week jump on outdoor beets when we cannot plant the seed directly in the garden just yet.

Every morning something new has sprouted....kale!

Every morning something new has sprouted….kale!

Checking on the little seedlings.

Checking on the little seedlings.

onions and leeks and shallots hardening off outside and ready to be planted next week.

Onions and leeks and shallots hardening off outside and ready to be planted next week.

SNACK PACK AND FULL AND STORAGE SHARES STILL AVAILABLE…..

 

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Grandpa's rhubarb peeking through.

Grandpa’s rhubarb peeking through.

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And garlic’s up!

Sure signs that Spring is on it’s way.  We are enjoying our days outside with the sunshine and warmer temperatures.  An exciting time of planning and seed starting and organizing the rotation and planting schedule in the garden.

The hoop house packed with Spring Share goodies!

The hoop house packed with Spring Share goodies!

We have to keep an eye on things in the hoop house as the temperature can rise quickly.

We have to keep an eye on things in the hoop house as the temperature can rise quickly.

We are so pleased with the how well the hoop house is growing.  Scott had to double row cover the crops last week with the overnight cold but when he peeked under the cloth it was a comfortable 40 degrees with outside air temperature in the low teens.  Relief!  All of the leafy greens have doubled in size and I planted a long LONG! section of Swiss chard and fennel this week.  We had to squeeze these crops  in and harvesting will be tight but we will dance around and not wear our big garden boots and it should all work out and it is so worth it!  Nothing better then Spring Greens.  We’ve started to  harvest Spinach and expect a bounty harvest next week…..Spring is rolling in fast around here.

That pretty Red Kitten Spinach.  A favorite!

That pretty Red Kitten Spinach. A favorite!

 

More Red Kitten....

More Red Kitten….Look at it all!

Scott caught me weeding (and smiling)...a fun and relaxing job at the start of the season.  At the end of a season-not so much fun.  I am going to enjoy now.

Scott caught me weeding (and smiling)…a fun and relaxing job at the start of the season. At the end of a season-not so much fun. I am going to enjoy now.

Other big deals around here…our organic seed potatoes arrived.  All 300 pounds of them!  We are hoping for 10-13 pounds of harvested potatoes for every 1 pound planted.  That’s a lot of potatoes….!  We have a pretty good planting routine so it doesn’t take too long to get it all in the ground. Depending on the weather we will start planting mid April.

Scott and Maeve with 300 pounds of seed potatoes.

Scott and Maeve with 300 pounds of seed potatoes.

Outside spinach was seeded in this week.  Maeve is giving it a drink.

Outside spinach was seeded in this week. Maeve is giving it a drink.

And miles and miles and miles of peas were planted by hand…….sugar snap, shelling, and snow.

Pea planting.

Pea planting.

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well, maybe not miles and miles and miles but at the end of the BIG! job my back sure felt like i crawled around on the ground that far all day.

well, maybe not miles and miles and miles but at the end of the BIG! job my back sure felt like I crawled around on the ground that far all day.

We are getting the garden ready for a bit of tilling and prepped for planting…  Loose ends getting cleaned up for mulch laying.  It is a dry Spring and we think we will be getting in the garden sooner this year.

Scott pulling out the brussels sprouts "stumps" from last seasons late harvest.

Scott pulling out the brussels sprouts “stumps” from the late season thanksgiving harvest.  The ground froze before we could do this final duty.

WE STILL HAVE SUMMER SNACK PACK AND FULL SHARE MEMBERSHIPS AVAILABLE…AND A FEW WINTER STORAGE SHARES TOO!  CONTACT US IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO SHARE IN THE BOUNTY OF FOXLINE THIS SUMMER.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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