foxlinecityfarm

Best season ever for us!  Thanks to all for sharing and making this “stay at home/urban farm” life possible for our family.  We are grateful.  The season zipped by and stayed strong all summer long. Thanks for the survey returns from our members.  The feedback on these surveys shape future seasons.  Our thoughts….. We are pleased with our crops and rotations this year.  Broccoli was abundant!, summer onions had a great harvest this season.  The peas-just amazing to us what we pulled from the vines.  We were thrilled that we were able to provide lettuce every week all season long with great variety.  We loved our baby cabbages and the high volume of kohlrabi.  Longest harvest window in a long time with the tomatoes this year.  Pepper harvest was almost too much this season and we think we may scale back a tiny bit next season.  Potatoes were almost too abundant but wonderful.  We are bringing back purple potatoes next year too-I finally convinced Scott.  A huge Thank you to Scott’s relatives the Raupp Family for the “Squash runway” and allowing us to plant our potatoes and sweet potatoes at your beautiful farm-we could not do this without their wonderful sandy soil.  The beans never overwhelmed us and we think we hit just about the right amount.  The watermelon vines tanked for some reason with many under ripe melons on the vines that we opted not to harvest.  We hoped for more melons but what we did harvest was delicious.  A bit of a disappointment.  Sweet potatoes also had a lower yield.  Again, what we harvested was good but we wanted more.  We are going to attempt to lengthen our cucumber rotation a bit this year.  We had tons! but they shut down too quickly in our opinion.  Our second big rotation of cucumbers never really did much-same as last year.  So, we have a better idea to attempt next season.  We always want more carrots!-and colorful carrots….the new hoop house will be dedicated to carrots, beets and a few other speciality root crops that we want to pamper and keep our eye on…We are already talking about next season!

COOL FACT-12,133 pounds of produce went home with our CSA members this season.

SUMMER SHARE #20 FINAL SHARE OF 2019

WHAT IS IN YOUR SHARE-honey, ginger, potatoes, garlic, spinach, butterhead lettuce, sweet potatoes, radishes, ornamental pumpkin on a stick bouquet, winter squash, broccoli side shoots(full only) and sprouted legumes (full only)

Full Share.

Snack Pack Share.

Honey-Backyard honey from our hives.  Enjoy!

Ginger-Just dug.  Great in stir fry, bakery and teas.  Short storage life in fridge.  Best to freeze.

Just dug ginger.

Potatoes-Red norland and the last to come from the field.

Potato digger just went through…

and we scurried to pick them up before dark.

Maeve kept bringing us crates….

Garlic- The last of the garlic.  We replant next week.

Spinach-Another great harvest from the hoop house….We love it steamed this time of year.

Lettuce-A butterhead.  Sweet and juicy.

Mini butterhead ready to harvest.

Sweet potatoes- A bounty in this share.  2 varieties.  Looooooong storage life.

Harvesting the last of the sweet potatoes and chatting on the phone…

Radishes-A huge bag of snappy gems….

Ready to wash.

Pumpkin on a stick bouquet-An eggplant that looks like baby pumpkins…Snip the stems and enjoy a seasonal bouquet.  Careful stems are picky like roses.

Squash-  Snack Pack 1 Full share 2.  Members select their choice from the washed collection.

Thanks for the season….Enrollment for 2020 opens January 1st to past members and general public February 1st.

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A golden glow is everywhere.

With the chill of autumn and shorter days the pace slows in the garden. Our conversations shift to reflection of the season and goals for next.  With the completion of the hoop house-finally today!!! duties focus to clean up and get the garlic in!   Hardy crops remain.  Another 100 pounds of brussels sprouts were plucked from our wonderland.  What a great crop!

Brussels Sprout Patch July 3rd.

Brussels Sprout Patch October 16th.

Our final harvest came home from the squash patch….

Last load from the field.

The hoop house chugs along with leafy greens and crunchy radishes…

Leaf lettuce in the hoop house.

Snappy radishes for the final share….

Plastic will be on the hoop house before the end of the day-done!  We were waiting for the perfect non windy non rainy day and today it is!

Almost finished…

Scott’s “selfie” from the top.

A powerhouse happy season zipped by for us and hard to believe the final share of 2019 is next week.

SUMMER SHARE #19

Full Share

Snack Pack.

WHAT IS IN YOUR SHARE

Lettuce, squash, brussels sprouts, cutting celery, potatoes, carrots, beets, onions, pepper, cabbage (full only)

Head Lettuce-A snappy final summer crunch from the hoop house….

This week’s lettuce harvest.

Winter squash-A bounty season for us….CSA members chose their favorite….8 varieties this week.  1 for snack pack 2 for full share.

Winter Squash washed and ready to go home…..

Brussels sprouts-TONS! Nice big bags for all the shares…..2 varieties were harvested.

Scott weighing out the brussels sprouts.

Ready to be packed in shares.

Cutting Celery-Use for flavoring soups and stews.  Stronger than “normal” grocery store celery.

Potatoes-We had a fantastic potato run this year.  Red golds in the Snack Pack and red norland in the full shares.

Carrots-The last of the carrots from the hoop house.  We love the robust true carrot flavor of late season carrots….

Carrot expert.

Beets-Final beet harvest from our outdoor trough….delicious roasted.

Onions-We counted up all the storage onions and sent them home in the shares this week.

Final Peppers of the season…A great pepper year for us….picked these last gems before the frost.

Last pepper harvest before the chill.

BEST GUESS FOR NEXT WEEK.

FINAL SHARE

GINGER!!!!, honey, radish, garlic, lettuce, radish, potato, sweet potato, squash and more….

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A whirlwind of a week with not a lot of detail…..Maeve and Jennifer picked up squash and pumpkins from the patch and Scott plugged away at the hoop house every extra minute we had.  Perfect weather for the duties.  Frost is coming-maybe even snow on Sunday!  And we scurry about to get these last duties completed.

PROGRESS!

Another load of pumpkins!

And the shade cloth finally came off the hoop house….

Hopefully next week a photo of the completed hoop house…..

SUMMER SHARE #18

Full Share

Snack Pack

WHAT IS IN YOUR SHARE-SPINACH, LEEKS, POTATOES, BEAUTY HEART RADISH, WINTER SQUASH, ORNAMENTAL PUMPKIN/SQUASH, MINI LUNCHBOX PEPPERS, ITALIAN FRY PEPPER, PARSLEY, AND SEASON END SURVEY

Spinach-Another great (and bountiful) spinach harvest from the hoop house.  Enjoy!

Scott triple rinsing the spinach.

Air drying the spinach before we weigh and package.

Leeks-The last of our leek harvest.  And whenever I harvest these I think….these were started from seed in February.

Leeks cleaned in the field ready to be washed.

Potatoes-A fluffy dry variety called superior.  Perfect for potato leek soup.

Beauty heart radish-not too hot and a pretty surprise when you cut into it.

Winter Squash-1 for snack, 2 for full…..members choose whatever they wish.

Winter Squash all washed and ready for CSA Members to select a beauty.

Ornamental pumpkin/squash-Maeve and Jennifer brought truckloads in from the field.  Beautiful and unusual ornamentals.

Mini sweet pepper mix-We picked the last of the peppers with the expected frost on Friday night.  A great pepper year.

Italian Fry Pepper-the last are from the field and we have a bounty for this week and next.

Final pepper harvest of 2019

Survey-Year end survey is in your share this week.  We would love it if you took some time to give us a bit of feedback as to how the season went for you.  We read all and love suggestions….

BEST GUESS FOR NEXT WEEK-BEETS, BRUSSELS SPROUTS, FRENCH BREAKFAST RADISHES, ONIONS, LETTUCE, SWEET POTATOES, POTATOES, AND MORE…..

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An Autumn chill is in the air after 5 inches of rain came down.  Monday we hand forked the last of the orange sweet potatoes from the ground and it was HOT!  We even got a bit of a sunburn on the back of our necks…we knew we had to hustle as heavy rain was predicted-digging in mud is not fun.  Tuesday came the rain and we worked through it harvesting and washing and 4 complete outfit changes.  At least it was still warm….and then the cold.  It now finally feels like Fall has arrived.

Brussels Sprout harvest…

Harvest complete….and still smiling.

Scott is plugging along with the hoop house….and hopefully this weekend BIG! progress.

Final crops will be coming out of the ground the next few weeks.  1 more row of sweet potatoes to dig, beets, and can’t wait to peek at the ginger!  Hoop house spinach looks amazing this time of year….Such a strong season for us and we love sharing the bounty from the gardens.

Hoop house spinach-and the last rotation just went in behind me…

SUMMER SHARE #17

WHAT IS IN YOUR SHARE

Head lettuce, flat head cabbage, carrots, sweet potatoes, winter squash, garlic, brussels sprouts, beans, ornamental gourds.

Full Share

Snack Pack.

Head Lettuce-A great lettuce from the hoop house.  An oak leaf variety that is sweet and delicate.  Such a pretty color too!

Flat head cabbage-A mid sized variety that we love.  Delicious roasted or raw.

Scott counting out the cabbages for the shares.

Colorful carrots-A great harvest from the hoop house and more to come….

Maeve with the carrot harvest.

Sweet potatoes-Enjoy!  1 row done….and now onto the different colors.

Just dug sweet potatoes.

Winter Squash-You choose….6 varieties on the table and members pick their favorite.

Garlic-3 heads in each share.  Hard to believe it is time to plant again.

Brussels Sprouts-A fantastic brussels sprouts year for us!  Started harvesting the 2nd variety this week.  Still just sneaking a few off the bottom of the stalks and we weighed out 87 pounds!

Beans-The last bean harvest of the season.  We are shocked to be picking in October.

BEST GUESS FOR NEXT WEEK-HEAD LETTUCE, SPINACH, RADISHES, LEEKS, POTATOES, ORNAMENTAL PUMPKIN, WINTER SQUASH, BEETS AND MORE…

LAST SHARE OCTOBER 24TH

SEASON END SURVEYS WILL BE TUCKED ON ALL THE SHARES NEXT WEEK.

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