foxlinecityfarm

A happy HOT! week of progress.  We are trying something new this season.  We seeded in loooooooong rows of spinach seed directly into hoop 2.  Tight rows densely seeded in.  We are going to try for the perfect baby spinach.  We read up on it last winter and thought we would give it a shot.  So, 2 huge rows are transplanted with 1000+ spinach transplants (as usual) and then we did 5 tight rows of direct seeding to see what happens.  We are excited to see the results.

Our usual transplanted spinach…and to the right in this image the directly seeded spinach.  I’ll take a picture when it germinates.

We had a great carrot harvest this weeks and also transplanted out long beds of radishes for Fall harvest.  This may be the end of the cucumbers for us.  What a great run!  Congratulations to all for eating more cucumbers this season than ever before….holy cow we were blown away by the volume.  And also very surprised that the 1st rotation kept producing all season long.

Another great carrot harvest.

Several cabbage rotations are coming in from the garden and the tomatoes have hit their peak we think.  Colors are turning in the garden and the mornings are dark.  It feels like Autumn is around the corner even though it is blazing HOT!

Irrigation runs around the clock these days….the rain has always missed us.  Maybe today.  We are hopeful.

#14

WHAT IS IN YOUR SHARE-HEAD LETTUCE (2 VARIETIES), EDAMAME, CUCUMBERS, SWEET LUNCHBOX PEPPERS (SNACK ONLY), BABY GREEN BELL PEPPERS (FULL ONLY), SLICE TOMATOES, CHERRY TOMATOES, ZUCCHINI, RED NORLAND POTATOES, MINI UPSTATE POTATOES (FULL ONLY), BABY CABBAGES, GREEN BEANS (FULL ONLY), GARLIC

FULL SHARE

SNACK PACK

Head Lettuce (2 varieties)- Beautiful! lettuce this week.  We are thrilled.  2 varieties in every share….

Edamame-A summer treat.  Quickly steam in salty hot water, drain, cool slightly salt again and pop from the pods and eat.

Scott bringing up the monster edamame crop up from the garden….

Jennifer sitting with the haul a very long time and removing the pods from the stalks.  

Cucumbers-This may be the end….I picked them big again just for fun.

Sweet Lunchbox Peppers (snack only)-These are sweet!  Delicious raw and in salads.

All weighed out and ready for the shares.

Baby green Bell peppers-(full only) Another harvest of these little gems…

Baby Bells!

Slice tomatoes-HUGE! harvests again this week.  Our best tomato year in a very long time.

So pretty.

Cherry tomatoes-The perfect snackers and also fantastic roasted in the oven.

Full share double pints again this week!

A pretty variety called blueberry that turn deep pumpkin orange when ripe.

Zucchini-The 2nd rotation is carrying us now.  Morning daily harvests of 30-35.

Zucchini double in size in 1 day.

Red norland-We are working hard on getting all the potatoes out of the ground.  Not an easy job in this heat.  2 rows out this week…..red norland and the cute little white mini guys.

Delicious white mini potatoes ready to be picked up.

Baby cabbages-We love to grow these….perfectly sized for a meal-the best sweet slaw and they are fantastic sliced and grilled.

Morning harvest.

garlic-A great garlic year for us….plenty for us to enjoy.

Green Beans-(full only) This was a surprise yesterday!  We thought we had a week…more to come-picked enough for full share.

A surprise when we checked the plants yesterday!

BEST GUESS FOR NEXT WEEK-head lettuce, potatoes, carrots, zucchini, green beans, tomatoes and more…..

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We rocked it this week…!  HUGE! tomato harvests,  spaghetti squash and a carrot rotation for a future share all came up from the garden…fantastic cucumbers and summer squash from the 2nd rotation-high volume of produce to haul and process but we are thrilled.  We sleep well at night and the garden is a bit shaggy around the edges right now but all good.

Empty crates from the daily harvest.  Headed back to the garden.

1000 spinach transplants went in hoop 2 and we transplanted a ton of Fall lettuce into hoop 1.

Lettuce transplants hoop 1.

Final crops going in the week and it sure does feel like Autumn with the cool dewy mornings.

#13

WHAT IS IN YOUR SHARE-HEAD LETTUCE (SNACK ONLY) MINI ASIAN MIX (FULL ONLY), ARUGULA, CUCUMBERS, ZUCCHINI, BROCCOLI (SNACK ONLY), PURPLE FILET BEANS (FULL ONLY), CHERRY TOMATOES, SLICE TOMATOES, SPAGHETTI SQUASH, ONIONS, SHISHITO PEPPERS (SNACK ONLY), BABY BELLS, BANANA, EROS SWEET PEPPERS (FULL ONLY)

FULL SHARE

SNACK PACK

Head lettuce (snack only)-A beautiful dark tricolor…sweet flavor.  Perfect summer lettuce.

Lettuce in the morning sun.

Mini Asian Mix (Full Only)  LOVE! this mix.  Enjoy as a fresh salad or saute.  It is fantastic with a bit of garlic and a squeeze of fresh lemon juice.

Asian mix ready to harvest.

Beautiful!

Arugula-zippy peppery flavor.  Spicy.  Add to salads or lightly wilted.

Arugula in hoop 1 ready to harvest.

Arugula triple rinsed and ready to weigh out for shares.

Cucumbers-We had a member request…big old fashioned cucumbers-so I kept myself out out of the patch for a day and we grew some big guys on the vines.  Instead of daily harvest we went to every other day just for something different this week.  My Grandpa Lang always harvested big cucumbers.  Grandma then prepared them sliced with vinegar, sour cream, mayo and TONS! of onions.  A summer staple in their home.

BIG Guys…..

Broccoli-(snack only)-Side shoot bounty…we are thrilled with side shoot production this week.  Enjoy!

Cherry tomatoes-HUGE! Harvest  Pint in Snack double pint in Full.

Beauties….

Slice tomatoes-I think they have peeked this week.  TONS! Enjoy the bounty.

Spaghetti Squash-We harvested the tan beauties this week-snack pack…and the orange guys in full share.

Scott harvesting the spaghetti squash…planted between the amaranth.  We plant it because it is pretty…and the birds like it too.

Onions-Yes finally the last week!  We have had the best onion crop EVER!

Peppers- Shishito (snack)/baby bells,banana, and eros (full)-pepper season has begun.  We NEVER put hot peppers in our share.  Hot peppers will be an “extra” and we will ask if you would like them.  Shishito are a delicious thin walled japanese pepper.  kinda green pepper flavor.  VERY mild.  baby bells, banana and petty eros in full share are all sweet too.

shishito peppers…

Cute little eros peppers…

BEST GUESS FOR NEXT WEEK….BABY CABBAGE, HEAD LETTUCE, PEPPERS, TOMATOES, GARLIC, POTATOES, SUMMER SQUASH AND MORE….

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A bit of a delay as HUGE! harvests fill our mornings…all good and we are grateful for the bounty.

As usual for this time of year the week zipped by.  We are thrilled with the tomato bounty.  Our big goal was to grow some decent beets and we did-finally!  We have not excelleled in this area in the past.  It feels good to have a great harvest.

Beets!

We did plant a final broccoli crop-just to see if it makes it.  A late variety that we have harvested in the snow in past year.  We will see.  Always fun to try.

Peppers are coloring up. We had to do some selective thinning on the italian fry peppers as there are tons on the plants and they are crowding themselves out.  Green fry peppers went in the full shares this week.

A big cabbage harvest is in front of us this coming week and the tomatoes too are strong.

CSA #12

Full Share..

Snack Pack.

what is in your share…head lettuce, cucumbers, leeks, potatoes, zucchini, kohlrabi, beets! carrots, watermelon, slice tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, and green italian fry peppers (full only).

Head lettuce-a pretty head from hoop 1 this week.  Sweet juicy leaves.

This week’s lettuce harvest in the morning sun.

Cucumbers-I thought we would quit picking the 1st rotation weeks ago…they keep producing.  BUT, I can see a slowdown the last few days with the shortened day length.  I love picking the cucumbers small with a tiny seed cavity.  Just delicious.

It is still beautiful to me to find cucumbers on the vine…even after I have picked millions of these rascals this season,

Daily cucumber pick.

Leeks!-I love leeks!  This is a early season leek variety.  We start these seeds in February.

Hand forking the leeks…

Carrying up to be cleaning.

Nice sit down afternoon job…leek cleaning.

triple rinse….

and bundle…

Potatoes-OF COURSE we had to include flaky dry superior potatoes with the leeks.

Zucchini-2nd rotation is taking over this week…this should be the last week we pick out of the 1st patch.

Kohlrabi-This is a cool german jumbo variety.  No woodiness at all…shave it in salads or fantastic in coleslaw….

Jumbo kohlrabi.

Beets-As mentioned earlier…we really wanted a good beet harvest and here it is!  Enjoy!

Pretty Gems after a rinse.

Carrots-We are thrilled with the carrot harvest.  Nothing better than “real carrots”

Hoop 2 we love you!  3 more rotations of carrots in there for us to enjoy.

Watermelon-this is the final week of watermelon from the patch.  A sweet harvest.  Remember last year we lost the crop early to disease.  Great to have a fantastic harvest. Watermelon is summer to us.

Tomatoes-HUGE! harvests every other day and we are thrilled.

A bounty!

Cherry tomatoes-The perfect snack.  We love the deep brown ones best called “brown berry”.

Cherry Tomato Washer.

Keeping it fun….

Green Italian Fry Peppers (full only)- more to come….

BEST GUESS FOR NEXT WEEK-CABBAGE, TOMATO, CHERRY TOMATO, LETTUCE, ARUGULA, ZUCCHINI, PEPPERS, SPAGHETTI SQUASH AND MORE….

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Well, after a quick check on Friday night in the watermelon patch we realized that Saturday was the happy day of the harvest!  What a delicious bounty and we got our square!

The evening watermelon check…they are ready!

We had a bit of trouble releasing it from the mold and had to drip vegetable oil down the sides and it slipped right out.

Our square watermelon all polished up.

Our week zipped by again….huge tomato harvests and potato harvests too.  We are blown away with the cucumber crop this year.  We must have got our timing right on the rotations as they are fantastic this year.  Daily picks down the long trellis rows.

1/2 the cucumber trellis row.

My morning routine….cucumber harvest.

The cooler mornings are here….and it feels bit like Autumn…days will transition.  No more in the garden by 5:30 a.m.-it’s too dark!  Colors change and the harvest too.

This looks like Autumn!  Orange spaghetti squash.  We harvested these beauties this week.  They need to cure for a bit but then will make their way into the shares along with the traditional tan ones.

CSA #11

WHAT IS IN YOUR SHARE

Dark head lettuce or lovelock lettuce, baby bell peppers, fantastic little potatoes, cucumbers, zucchini, Slice tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, sweet onions, broccoli, purple filet beans (full only) and watermelon!

Full Share.

Snack Pack.

Dark head lettuce and Lovelock-Beautiful and delicious head lettuce from hoop 1 this week.  We picked 3 varieties.

This week’s pretty lettuce.

Ready to harvest.

Beautiful!

Lovelock.

Baby Bell Peppers-Pepper season is just starting….these little gems are a fun way to kick off the pepper bonanza.  Several in every share.

Little potatoes-A new favorite!  Dry and flaky.  Great steamed, grilled or boiled.  We trialed 5 pounds of these little marvels last year and loved them…this year we put 25 pounds of seed potatoes in the ground.  They are fantastic.

This week’s potato harvest.

Potato Digger in action…Cousin John at the wheel.

They look like little marbles all clustered together….

Cucumbers-Can you believe it…a bounty again.  American, European and Asian in the shares.

Morning Cucumber harvest.

Zucchini-We started the harvest off the 2nd rotation this week.  45 Zucchini a day.  This is the morning routine…. zucchini pick so they are nice and small.  Perfect raw in salads or we love them grilled.

Zucchini at the 2nd rotation row.

Sweet Onions-long storage life in the refrigerator.  Best season ever for us.  We planted 3 varieties.

Slice tomatoes-Tomato season is here!  A bounty in every share.  They have not even peaked yet.

Our best heirloom year ever!

All shares will have a variety.  Different and complex flavors.  Enjoy!

Broccoli-Gorgeous summer broccoli.  This is a variety that grows great in heat. Nice tight bead and silver green heads.

Purple beans(full only)-This may be the end of the purple bean harvest.  And a break before the new rotation of green starts.

Watermelon- Perfectly sweet!  A summer treat.

Several varieties of watermelon were harvested.

1 of the 3 loads of watermelon going up for storage.

BEST GUESS FOR NEXT WEEK-carrots, cabbage, leeks, garlic, zucchini, cucumbers, tomatoes, watermelon, head lettuce and more…..

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