foxlinecityfarm

Well, we had a bit of excitement around here this past week.  Scott discovered around suppertime on Friday that the compressor was not running on the cooler.  It must have just cut out as the temperature in the box was still at 40. Not the thing you want to have happen on 1 of the hottest days of the year and at the start of a weekend.  We were relieved that the cooler was not packed with produce as the CSA pick up was the day before and a delivery went to the Baraboo Food Pantry that morning.  However, there were several totes of our daily harvested items that needed a cool home and more veggies to coming from the garden the next day.  We needed to solve this problem fast.  We are extremely grateful to those that helped so quickly……Shane from Weber Enterprises was here shortly after the call that we had “cooler issues”, the wonderful women at Invictus offered cooler space in their walk in for as long as we needed it and Brian and Tracy Jordan Baker fielded our flip flop and flop flip thinking and questions if this was the time to expand our cooler and the options available to us.  The story ends well.  The cooler was back on before the weekend was over and life moves on as normal with very little anxiety or trouble thanks to the amazing people that are part of our life.

SUMMER SHARE #9

690 pounds this week from the gardens….it just keeps getting better.  A crazy good year for us.  Enjoy it all.

SNACK PACK

Sweet Corn!-We do not grow the corn.  Scott’s Uncle Jim conventually grows the corn at his farm in Reedsburg.  Enjoy this treat!

Head Lettuce-Delicious and perfect head lettuce from our hoop house.  A small miracle at this time of year as it is very difficult to grow lettuce in high heat and humidity.

Pretty lettuce ready for a morning harvest.

Zucchini-A few long assorted summer squash picked small. This is the last of it for awhile. We are going to pull the patch next week as the plants are slowing down and also the area is turning into a jungle out there.  New plants are already planted and zucchini will appear again a few weeks out.

Sweet Pepper-1 in every share.

Peppers ripening on the plant.

Sweet Summer Onions-A great crop for us this year after a “so-so” crop last season. Must be refrigerated.  Enjoy!

Beans-1st picking of the next rotation.  A tricolor blend with more to come.

We had to call in additional help to make our way down the long rows.  Scott’s daughter Amy lent a hand on a hot morning.

Scott making his way down the other end of a long bean row.

Cucumber mix-Another big bag.  The last bag for awhile as we are pulling the vines from the trellis and the 2nd round should be producing soon.

Dill-Harvested small and tender to add to your cucumber salads.

Cherry Tomatoes-A great harvest this week with more to come.  We remove all the stems and wash before packaging so they are ready to eat.

Maeve was your cherry tomato cleaner this week.

Slice Tomatoes-The beauties are here and a bumper harvest.  Delicious!

1st big tomato harvest of the season.

FULL SHARE

Sweet Corn!-We do not grow the corn.  Scott’s Uncle Jim conventually grows the corn at his farm in Reedsburg.  Enjoy this treat!

Head Lettuce-A perfect head of a summer variety called Muir from the hoop house.

Beta Mix-Another offering of this fantastic leafy mix.  My favorite.  A combination of baby beet tops and assorted baby Swiss Chard.  Enjoy fresh or saute.  We  pulled the crop for the season.

Beta Mix in the wash tank after morning harvest.

BIG Patty Pans- Several members asked if we could grow these out to a larger size.  We did!  Hollow them out and fill with your prefered “casserole” combination and bake.

Summer Squash-An assorted mix.  We are pulling the patch on Monday and the new patch will be producing in a few weeks.

Sweet Peppers-A couple in each share.  A great crop for us this year.

Jimmy Nardello Sweet peppers ripening on the plant.

Jalapeno Hot Peppers-A few to spice up this weeks meals.

Sweet Onions-A great harvest of these delicious summer onions.  Must be refrigerated.

Just pulled Sweet Summer Onions ready to be cleaned.

Beans-1st picking off a pretty tri color blend.

1st picking of the yellow beans.

Holy Cow!  What a harvest.

Cucumbers-A nice big bag and this will be it for awhile as we are pulling the vines from the trellis.  They will reappear in a few weeks from the next rotation.

Dill- Picked small  to enjoy with your cucumber salads.

Cherry Tomatoes-A great crop for us this year.  16 varieties in this pretty mix.

Cherry Tomatoes on the vine.

All washed up and ready to be boxed.

Slice Tomatoes-A great harvest of many varieties and colors.

BEST GUESS FOR NEXT WEEK-corn, head lettuce, leeks, potatoes, tomatoes, peppers, beans and more…..

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Look what we found in Maeve’s Pine Tree.

All is well and we are happy.  Another HOT! week in the garden and the plants (and weeds) are loving this weather. Fun and a bit amazing to see the growth and production in the gardens in the heat.

Watermelons growing fast in the hot days and nights.

We are on top of the massive harvests coming from the gardens and had some big transplanting and seeding jobs to take care of this past week and we watched the weeds grow. We went from feeling great about our weed management to a bit overwhelmed in 1 week.  Darn.   Next week we have projected as our “maintenance” week.  New Carrot and beet beds need to be tended to,  our “living” walkways manicured, primp the tomato patch and prep areas transitioning to Fall planting.  This is the time of year for that fast growing portulaca weed and we have a healthy “crop” out there.

Scott hand dug all garlic in our garlic beds in 2 days.  “Best crop ever!” we kept saying over and over as the bulbs were coming out of the ground.  With the help of Scott’s mom on Sunday we got the entire crop processed and stored for curing. We are estimating 2000+ beautiful bulbs came from the patch this year. We save part of the harvest as our “seed garlic” to replant for next season’s crop.   The harvest is a huge job and one that we usually drag out for days in past seasons.  The patch is tilled and ready for a new crop this coming week.  It’s ALL done and we are pleased.

Scott hauling up another load of just dug garlic to be processed and cured.

SUMMER SHARE #8  WOW! 648 pounds in the shares this week.  A great bounty from the garden.  

SNACK PACK

2 lettuces, zucchini, cucumber medley, eggplant, sweet onion, early red potato, fennel, carrots, pepper, cherry tomatoes.

Head Lettuce(2 varieties)-The Hoop house is chugging along with wonderful lettuce.  We are grateful as it gets a bit tricky to grow lettuce in high heat and humidity.  A bounty and delicious.  A head of a snappy summer crisp and a personal favorite…..Little mini butterheads called Nancy.  Dark green sweet and juicy.

Summer Crisp at harvest.

Cute little Nancy heads ready to harvest.

Zucchini-An assorted few of the summer staples picked small.

Cucumber Medley bag-A big bag of assorted snacking cucumbers.

Cucumbers loaded on the trellis.

Eggplant-The plants are loaded! A great eggplant year for us.

Eggplant harvest.

Sweet Summer Onions-Here they come!  Big beautiful sweet onions.  We just started the harvest with many weeks to come.  These are NOT storage onions and must be kept chilled in the refrigerator.

Cleaning the onion harvest in the shade.

Early Red Potatoes-A treat of fresh dug early reds.  Great roasted, steamed or fried.  Delicious chilled in potato salad too.  Enjoy!

Potatoes at harvest.

All hand dug.  A bumper crop this year.  “THANK YOU!!” Uncle Jim.

Fennel-A snappy flavor that is a great addition shaved in fresh salads, delicious with apples, make a pesto with the fronds,  or grill with mix veggies.

Scott processing the fennel as it chills in cold water at harvest.

Carrots-More delicious carrots from our new carrot trough this year.

Pulling carrots from the new carrot trough.

What a bounty!

Sweet Pepper-1 in every share.

Cherry Tomatoes-Here they come! A beautiful mix in every share.

Just picked cherry tomatoes.

FULL SHARE

2 varieties of head lettuce,  zucchini, cucumber medley, sweet summer onions, early red potatoes, fennel, carrots, cherry tomatoes, pepper, jimmy nardello pepper, beets, cherry tomatoes, 1 slice tomato!

Lettuce(2 varieties)-Great lettuce from the hoop house this week.  A big fluffy head called 2 Star and cute little butterheads named Nancy.

2 Star at harvest.

Butterheads chilling in the dunk tanks.

Zucchini-An assorted mix of the summer staple.  Picked small and tender.

Cucumber Medley Mix-A really big bag of mixed snackers.

Favorite white cucumber on the trellis.

Long English Cucumber-2 in each share.  Thin skinned and delicious.

Sweet Summer Onions-A great crop for us this year.  Big sweet onions.  These are not Storage onions and must be kept in the refrigerator.

Onion Harvest.

Early Red Potatoes-Another huge harvest this season.  A treat!  Enjoy steamed and chilled in salads, roasted, or fried.  Nothing beats the flavor of fresh dug potatoes.

Early red potato harvesting….

I love this pictures….rusty work truck, fashionable headwear, styling dirty work clothes and GREAT! potatoes. Perfect!

Fennel-Beautiful bulbs from the garden.  Enjoy shaved in fresh salads, delicious roasted with chicken or other veggies, and the fronds make a great pesto.

Beets-We had to add a few to go with the fennel. A perfect pairing.

Carrots-Another great harvest from our new carrot trough.

Carrots after washing.

Sweet Pepper-A nice big sweet pepper from the garden.

Jimmy Nardello SWEET Pepper-From the looks of it you would think it would be hot…a sweet heirloom.

Pepper harvest with Jimmy Nardello on top.

Cherry Tomatoes-A sweet and colorful assortment in every share this week.

Eggplant-The plants are powerhouses this year for some reason.

Slice Tomato-Choose 1 beauty from this early harvest.

BEST GUESS FOR NEXT WEEK-Cherry tomatoes, kohlrabi, mini cabbage, lettuce, beans, peppers, lettuce, summer squash, cucumbers, garlic and more…..

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Another big week in the gardens.  A HOT! one too.  We plugged along in the thick muggy days and got the work done.  The plants love this weather and even though we wilt a little in the heat and the humidity it makes us very happy to see the gardens thriving.  Our focus for the week was harvest.  With the high temperatures, bright sunshine and a few perfect rains many crops need to be harvested daily.  Zucchini, cucumbers and beans all need to be picked every morning now.  The harvests have been huge and we spent many hours crawling down long rows wondering when we would reach the end.  Our tomato plants are thriving too.  Scott spent 16 hours over several days in the tomato patch securing the new growth to the trellises.  It looked like a jungle over there!  Nice and neat now and the vines are loaded with fruit and supported well.  We have started picking the cherry tomatoes and a few heirloom slicers are just starting to show some color.

Cherry Tomatoes ripening on the vines.

look what we found this morning!

The watermelon patch seems to double in size in this hot weather and we peeked and found a few tiny beauties.

The melon patch.

A watermelon growing in the sun.

Scott weeded and prepared new beds in the evenings when the heat was not so oppressive-often times with a head lamp on.  Small transplants of cabbage, broccoli, and cauliflower fill the rows growing strong for late summer harvests.

New seeds are started weekly in the greenhouse to ensure a steady supply of new crops from the gardens and hoop house…..

This week’s seed starting.

And germinating quickly in the heat.

SUMMER SHARE #7

632 pounds from the garden this week.  Another fantastic share of great produce.  Enjoy.

SNACK PACK

Romaine head lettuce, beta mix (combination of baby beet tops and colorful swiss chard), green beans, zucchini, patty pan, cucumber mixed bag, sweet pepper,  garlic, small cabbage and basil plant.

Romaine Head Lettuce-Another great harvest of Romaine this week.  We way over plant lettuce in the hoop house at this time of year to ensure a steady supply.  It often times suffers in the heat and a few lettuce crops may fail.  Not this year!  An over abundance of fresh perfect greens this week.  Enjoy!

Gorgeous Romaine at harvest.

Beta Mix-A surprise to us.  With heavy shade to protect from the heat and ample watering we were able to get a great harvest off this difficult summer crop.  Baby beet tops and assorted colorful baby swiss chard.  Great for fresh eating or saute.

Beta Mix at harvest.

Green Beans!-A huge bag.  We had a great harvest off our first bean planting rotation this week.

Morning Bean pick.

Scott making his way down the bean row.

Zucchini-Several of these tender summer squashes picked small.

Pretty Zucchini flowers in the morning.

Patty Pan Summer Squash-A couple of these little gems in every snack pack share this week.

This week’s patty pan harvest.

Cucumbers-A nice big assorted bag in every share.  The vines are just starting to really kick in.

Cucumbers on the trellis.

Peppers-We have started our pepper harvest!  1 in every snack pack share. All Sweet peppers.

1st pepper harvest of the season.

Garlic-1st garlic of the season too.  1 head in each snack pack share.

Scott hand digging this week’s garlic.

Gorgeous!

Mini Cabbage Head-The perfect size for fresh eating, slaw or added to stir fry.

Basil Plant-We were hoping to have these with the 1st tomatoes of the season but with all this heat they are ready now!  Big beautiful plants.  Enjoy.

FULL SHARE

Romaine head lettuce, Lime green Buttercrisp Lettuce head, Beta Mix (combination of baby beet tops and colorful swiss chard), Green Beans, Zucchini, Eggplant, Cucumber mixed bag, Long English cucumbers, Sweet Peppers, Jalapeno peppers, garlic, medium head garlic, cherry tomatoes and basil plant.

Romaine head lettuce AND a beautiful head of a summer buttercrisp.

Summer buttercrisp lettuce chilling in the wash tanks after harvest.

Beta Mix-A combination of baby beet greens and colorful swiss chard.  Enjoy fresh in salads or saute.

Beta patch after harvest.

Green Beans! A super huge bag for all the Full Shares this week.  A bounty harvest.

I finished my side of the bean row.

Zucchini-Another great harvest this week and several assorted beauties in the shares.

Zucchini ready to go in this week’s shares.

Cucumbers-A nice big bag of assorted snackers.

The cucumber bagging team.

Long English Slicing Cucumbers-2 in each full share.

Peppers!-Our crop looks great this year and the first pick of the season. 2 sweet peppers in each share.

Jalapeno Peppers-We snuck a few off the plants for each Full Share.

Jalapeno Peppers at harvest.

Garlic-Fresh dug and delicious. 2 heads in each share.

Cabbage-A medium sized head.

Scott making his way down the cabbage bed.

I follow behind and pick up the heads and remove the outer leaves before they go in the wash tank to chill.

Basil Plant-A beautiful plant we were hoping to add to the shares with the 1st slice tomato harvest.  With this heat they are ready a week or 2 early.

Eggplant-2 for each full share this week.

Just picked and ready for the shares…..

Cherry Tomatoes-A few for all full shares!  Enjoy!

1st Cherry Tomato harvest of the season. 

BEST GUESS FOR NEXT WEEK-fennel, beans, cucumbers, summer squash, potatoes, carrots, cherry tomatoes, summer onions!!! and kale-really! (we held off this week due to the over abundance of lettuce from the hoop house.)

Beautiful Onions for next week’s harvest.

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The gardens look great!   We are not sure life can get any better around here.   2 soaking rains right when we needed them most.  The tomato plants have hit our head height on the trellis and are loaded with fruit, the pepper plants are heavy, watermelon and cantaloupe vines have blossoms and the onions are growing plump.  We will start digging the garlic next week with fresh garlic around the corner. It is energizing and makes us happy to see our hard work and planning pay off with such wonderful bounty.  Summer crops are strong and we are busy removing all the early Spring crops and transitioning those areas to Early Fall and Late Fall harvest crops. A whole new rotation of Fall cabbage will go in and those jumbo kohlrabi that are such a treat at the end of the season run a long row.    It’s like planting a whole new garden!  The late broccoli and cauliflower are quickly filling in any open rows available.  Oh, carrots and beets too…. again.  We are trying to find a spot for 1 more rotation of beans with 3 in the fields now.  A bit of a scurry but this is the time to do it if we are going to have several big harvests before Fall sets in.  Best news ever to report is we are almost on top of our weed management this year.  A detail that often  gets away from us-not this year!

SUMMER SHARE #6

We are overwhelmed with abundance this week.  A good problem to have.  A fantastic harvest from the gardens.  Grab your forks and enjoy the bounty. 449 pounds from the garden is going home with CSA members.

SNACK PACK

Green beans, cucumber mix, new baby reds, romaine head lettuce, zucchini, carrots, and parsley.

Green Beans-They are here!  We planted several rotations of beans this Spring to ensure a steady supply.

Green beans ready to be picked.

Cucumber Medley-We planted several different varieties and a mix is included in the share this week.

Just picked cucumbers.

A great harvest of white cucumbers from the garden.

Potatoes!  New Baby Reds…. and we have a bumper harvest that we  just started digging. Thank you Uncle Jim for making this possible.  Nothing compares to the delicious flavor of a fresh dug potato.  Images below of the 1st harvest from the potato patch.  Dug on the 4th of July before the fireworks.

Flat Italian Parsley-Of course we had to include this in the share this week.  Parsley buttered potatoes.  A nice big bunch for everyone.

Parsley in the garden.

Romaine Head Lettuce-Nice big heads.  We love romaine in the summer and more to come….

The romaine ready to be cut.

All harvested and ready for the wash tanks.

Zucchini-The plants are growing HUGE!  Here comes the summer squash.

Ready to harvest after the morning rain.

Carrots-Finally!  We sure had to wait for these snappy guys.  Many weeks to come….

Scott pulling carrots from the new carrot trough.

Just pulled carrot.

We wash our carrots in an old wringer washer.  It gets the job done quickly.

Full Share

Green beans, cucumber mix, english cucumbers, new baby red potatoes, romaine head lettuce, zucchini, patty pans, carrots and parsley.

Green Beans-A nice big bag to enjoy this week.

Working my way down 1 side of the long bean row.

Scott picking the other.

Scott with his bean bounty.

Cucumber Medley-A mixed bag of these fantastic snackers.  Including those delicious white gems.

Portioning out the cucumbers for this week’s share.

Long English Slicing Cucumbers-2 for each full share this week.

English Slicing Cucumbers.

New Baby Red Potatoes-2 pounds in your share this week. 1 of my favorite crops.

All washed up and drying.

Ready to be weighed and bagged for the shares.

Flat leaf Italian Parsley-Big bunch.  Parsley buttered potatoes!

Romaine Head Lettuce-The perfect summer lettuce.  More to come….

this week’s romaine.

Zucchini-Picked small and tender….

Patty pans-Several cuties picked small.

Carrots-Finally!  They are here and they are delicious.  Several weeks ahead for us to enjoy.

Fresh from the washing machine.

BEST GUESS FOR NEXT WEEK-garlic, zucchini, cucumbers, potatoes, peppers!!!  (yes really!), head lettuce, kale (for sure), beans and more….

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