foxlinecityfarm

Well, we just keep rolling….a fantastic Spring for us in the gardens and we did a fast hustle the week break between last Spring Share and 1st Summer Share.  650 pounds of seed potatoes went in….1800 leeks-triple that number for onions, 350 pepper plants, 100 eggplant and seeded in the hoop houses with carrots and leafy greens.  The cutting celery and parsley went in as an “end of day job” and we put a long row of tomatillos in just for fun.

Onion planting….2 per hole forever……

A second wave of broccoli and cabbage was seeded in and Maeve helped upgrade all the basil to larger containers.   Scott got the tomato trellis up and tomato planting will be our last big job.

Tomato trellis going up.

Our tomato plants hanging out until the go in the garden.

We are loving the new hoop house!  Early carrots and beets seeded in and the spinach is the best we have ever grown.  We are looking forward to a happy STRONG summer with bountiful, delicious produce.

SUMMER SHARE #1

Full Share

Snack Pack

WHAT IS IN YOUR SHARE-Spinach, head lettuce, beta mix (beet/swiss chard greens), pac choi, tokyo bekana, turnips, and kohlrabi

Spinach-delicious thick walled sweet spinach from our new hoop house.  We are thrilled.  Nice big bags for the Snack pack share and even more for Full.  We love it wilted as a side with dinner and make tons of spinach balls and patties.  Enjoy!

Morning Spinach harvest.

Juicy sweet spinach leaves….

Head lettuce-Amazing lettuce harvest this week.  Encino is the variety in all shares-Spring and Full. AND Full shares have an additional butter head.

This week’s lettuce harvest.

Headed to the dunk tanks for a triple rinse.

 Full Share Butterheads air drying.

Beta mix-A favorite!  Great flavor chopped and added to salads raw-the skinny stems are delicious.  Or slightly wilt/steam.  Amazing.

Beta mix at harvest.

And rinsing in the dunk tank.

Pac Choi-Hoop 1 was loaded with assorted pac choi for 1st share.  We eat it raw as a snack and love it added to broth.  Full share also received a bag of cut mini itty bitty pac choi too…

Green choi getting a chilling rinse.

Tokyo Bekana-Full Share only-Adds loft to fresh salads.  Tastes like a fluffy chinese cabbage.

Morning Tokyo Bekana harvest.

Turnips!-1st turnips from the new hoop house.  A great harvest and a favorite Spring crop.

Spring Turnips!

Kohlrabi-Surprise!  We were hopeful we could pull this off for the 1st share.  Enjoy.  Raw with a little salt-nothing better.

Look at those little gems!

BEST GUESS FOR NEXT WEEK-HEAD LETTUCE, RADISHES, FENNEL, BASIL PLANT, PEA SHOOTS, SPINACH AND………FINGERS CROSSED-CARROTS!

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A delayed update as we have been hustling in the gardens….

A fantastic week again.  All good news. We row covered alllllll the outside planting and inside too in the hoop houses for 5 nights to protect from frost.  A huge job to get them under cover but worth it.  We lost nothing to the freezing temps and we are grateful.  Always a bit risky putting in the early crops.

Covering up the outside crops….we had to haul tons of rocks to hold the row cover down.

And uncovering all when the danger of frost over.

Hoop houses all tucked in too every night.

We are glad the extreme cold seems to be behind us now and we can carry on with direct planting in the gardens.

The huge job for the week was onion planting.  We start our onions from seed that we start in late February.  We wait and plant a bit later than most to let the seedlings bulk up a little.  MUCH easier to transplant.  Years ago when we use to plant early with itty bitty seedlings Scott said to me “it is like sticking yard down a hole”.  Very funny to me…but a true statement and not easy to do.   So we wait a few weeks and the job is much easier.

4000+ onions went out this past week-Sweet, storage and a few fun early varieties too.

Onion planting….

The focus is to “get the garden in” and hours of transplanting is how we organize our days.

Finishing up a row in the setting sun.

Beans have been seeded in, long rows of kale and kohlrabi out and cucumbers seeded in for later transplants.  We are on a roll and look forward to a productive week ahead getting the last of the big crops in and slowly transition the hoop houses to summer production.

SPRING SHARE #4

WHAT IS IN YOUR SHARE.

head lettuce, leaf lettuce, turnips, spinach, chives, potted cilantro, arugula, mini pac choi

Head lettuce-A favorite early season variety.  Harvested out of your new hoop house.  Juicy and sweet mini heads.

Lettuce at harvest.

Leaf lettuce-A second and final cutting of the leaf lettuce rows.  Tender and delicious.

Leaf lettuce ready for morning harvest.

Arugula-2nd and final cutting of this leafy crop.  Snappy and has a peppery taste.

Arugula in Hoop 1 ready to harvest.

Spinach-We are blown away with the Spinach this Spring.  HUGE!! juicy sweet leaves and 97 pounds again. Our best Spring Spinach harvest ever.  Enjoy.

1 week’s growth of the spinach.

Chives- A nice sized bundle cut from the row next to the green house.  Delicious with eggs.

Turnips-More of these little springtime gems.  Best raw. Sweet flavor.

Maeve in the turnip top cutting factory.

Potted Cilantro-  Best placed in a sunny window and snip to add to favorite dishes this week.  OR transplant out into a garden or window box.

Maeve took this picture as the Cilantro was growing in the greenhouse.

Green Mini Pac Choi-A little guy to add a bit of crunch to your salads.

FINAL SPRING SHARE THIS WEEK.  NO SHARE NEXT WEEK.  SUMMER SHARE #1 THURSDAY MAY 28!!!!  DETAILS WILL BE SENT DIRECTLY TO MEMBERS EMAIL NEXT WEEK.

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And the week flew by just like that. A delayed post.  After the CSA delivery schedule for the shares yesterday we had to cover all exterior plantings with row cover to protect from frost-we worked until dark.  A wonderful week in the gardens.  We transplanted 2 varieties of early broccoli out and 3 different cabbages.  Over 3000 plants went in over 2 days.

The early broccoli rows.

Scott got the irrigation all set up and the last of the plastic down.

We seeded in radish beds and had a huge turnip harvest from hoop 1 which we quickly reseeded with leafy green mixes for Summer CSA.

The turnips came out….

And by the next day 3 leafy green mixes seeded in.

Maeve and I finished upgrading the peppers and started all the watermelons and zucchini  The greenhouse is FULL.  We wait for this coldsnap to pass and then we can sprawl out a bit.

Filling pepper pots at our “dirt” station…

SPRING SHARE #3

And the bounty continues….asian mix, baby kale mix, beta mix (baby chard/beet tops), mini head lettuce, turnips, and another variety of spinach.

Asian mix-A second cutting off the crop we harvested 2 weeks ago.  Snappy and spicy in flavor.  Raw or saute.  It is delicious.

Asian Mix Harvest.

Beta Mix-baby beet tops and mini swiss chard…this is my favorite mix we grow.  I eat it raw in salads.

Beta Mix at harvest.

Beta mix after a triple rinse.

Baby Kale Mix- love this mix lightly wilted with a bit of olive oil.  Delicious in broth too.

Baby kale at morning harvest.

Mini head lettuce-A springtime favorite. Sweet and juicy.

Lettuce ready to harvest.  This is our 1st lettuce crop out of hoop 2.

What a beauty.

Spinach-A new variety for us we wanted to try.  HUGE leaves….great spinach variety for fresh eating in salads or smoothy drinks.  Sweet flavor.

Turnips-A fantastic harvest.  Spring turnips are the best.  Texture is like butter and the flavor is sweet and juicy.  Raw is best but can be stirfried.

HUGE harvest….

and a lot of snacking…

BEST GUESS FOR NEXT WEEK…MORE TURNIPS, HEAD LETTUCE, CILANTRO, PAC CHOI, CHIVES, AND MORE….

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A fantastic week for us!  We continue to be blown away with the greens in both hoop houses.  It was all we could do to keep up with the harvesting and washing.  We are thrilled and always chuckle how it takes us a bit to get our garden bodies and minds dialed back in….routines need to be reestablished and our bodies are a bit stiff.  But we are happy.  Scott got all the plastic down for the rows and is getting all the irrigation lines in place.

Plastic is done and Scott is “scratching” between the rows to level it out. The beds are slightly raised and makes a trough between that is a pain to walk in all summer long if not leveled. Hose in front is our temporary feed to Hoop 2.

Tons of lettuce and pac choi was transplanted out in both hoop houses and we continue to seed in next rotations in the greenhouse.  The massive spinach harvest out of hoop 2 took over 5 hours and Scott said 2 days to wash it all after that!….97 pounds.  We were estimating 60-65 pounds.  It is juicy and sweet and near perfect.

Spinach at harvest.

Scott finishing up the spinach harvest. The leaves you see in the rows are the very 1st leaves the plants shot out and they are tough leathery and lime green in color. Not tasty. We pull them off and discard to so they do not decline in the beds.

Hoop 2 was planted over existing gardens and even with a semi load of organic compost mixed in weeds are a challenge.  It was expected but we realize how spoiled we are in Hoop 1 that is well established and weed free.  So, every spare second we are weeding in there.

SPRING SHARE #2

WHAT IS IN YOUR SHARE

spinach, tokyo bekana, leaf lettuce, pac choi, arugula and sprouts

Spinach-A huge bag of delicious Spring Spinach.

The amazing Spring Spinach in Hoop 2!

Tokyo Bekana-A fluffy chinese cabbage-and a favorite of mine.  Enjoy fresh in salads or lightly wilted.

Tokyo Bekana at morning harvest.

What a beauty!

Leaf Lettuce-Sweet delicate leaves.  Leaf lettuce tastes best to me in early Spring.  Makes a wonderful light side salad.

Leaf lettuce ready to harvest.

And on it’s way to the dunk tank for a triple rinse.

Pac choi-A juicy green variety.  We love it raw.  A go to snack for Maeve.  Also, delicious saute with garlic and onions and a squirt of vinegar or lemon juice on top.

Pac choi in the hoop house.

Ready to harvest.

Arugula-Snappy and peppery in flavor.  This is a mild arugula and we love it.

The arugula bed.

Sprouts-Cute little blend of radishes and chois that have a bite.  Great on salads, soups or garnish. Just harvest with a scissors.

BEST GUESS FOR NEXT WEEK-CHIVES, HEAD LETTUCE, PAC CHOI, MINI KALE MIX, ASIAN GREENS MIX, BETA MIX TONS! OF SALAD TURNIPS AND MORE…..GET READY FOR ANOTHER BOUNTY!

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