foxlinecityfarm

A beautiful day!  Ample rain and sunshine and the garden is growing lush and strong.  The pea vines are blooming and beans are up.  Sure signs that summer is rolling in.  We are transplanting the peppers, tomatoes, eggplant and summer squash out in the garden and all the melons soon to follow.  We have increased our watermelon/cantalope area this year and planting 3 new varieties in addition to those planted in the past.  Our first radish crop has been harvested from the outside gardens and Scott will prep the space for more carrots.  Rmember we have a powerhouse carrot goal this year!   The seeds for the second round of broccoli and cabbage will be started as soon as all the peppers clear from the greenhouse.    Our hoop house will soon be fully transitioned to summer crops and  the shade cloth up.  Seems we are in full garden mode around here.

We have to water the hoop house 2 times a day on sunny days…..here I am watering the spinach the day before harvest.

SUMMER SHARE #1

We are excited to start the Summer Season and looking forward to weeks of wonderful fresh produce.  Thank you to all for sharing the season and welcome all new members to FoxLine.  We are thrilled to be sharing our gardens with all of you.

Paper receipts for your 2015 share purchase will be at all pick up sites in green envelopes with member’s name on the front.  Check with your health insurance provider as discounts or credits may apply.

SNACK PACK

Snack pack produce is packed in a green bag.  Please return your bag and any reusable packaging material the following week with your pick up.

Spinach-Beautiful hoop house grown big “donkey ear” leaves.  This variety is called Space and we love it.  Next week we will start spinach harvest from the outside garden.

Scott harvesting the spinach in the hoop house.

Head lettuce-Juicy lime green heads from the hoop house.  This variety is called Bambi and only grows well in Spring and Fall cool temperatures.

Lettuce cooling in the wash tank.

Beets!-A great early harvest from the hoop house.  Seeds were planted in early March and they grew slow and sweet.  Enjoy!  2 early varieties were planted.  Oven roasted beets are delicious!  But, we do enjoy a beet hummus (which is really pretty).  Remember the beet greens can be eaten too. Tasty with citrus.  Beet greens can be sauted, eaten raw in salads, baked to make “crisps” like kale chips or added to smoothies.

Harvesting beets.

Pac choi-A mini variety from the hoop house.  Enjoy fresh added to salad or on it’s own or saute with garlic, onion and soy sauce.

Radishes-French Breakfast harvested from the outside garden.  Mild flavor and crisp.

FULL SHARE

Full Share produce is packed in a orange bag.  Please return your bag and any reusable packaging material the following week with your pick up.

Spinach- A  jumbo bag of beautiful hoop house grown big “donkey ear” leaves.  This variety is called Space and we love it.  Next week we will start spinach harvesting from the outside garden.

Head lettuce-Juicy lime green heads from the hoop house.  This variety is called Bambi and only grows well in Spring and Fall cool temperatures.

Lettuce set out to dry a bit before packing.

Beets!-A great early harvest from the hoop house.  Seeds were planted in early March and they grew slow and sweet.  Enjoy!  2 early varieties were planted.  Oven roasted beets are delicious!  But we do enjoy a beet hummus (which is really pretty).  Remember the beet greens can be eaten too. Tasty with citrus.  Beet greens can be sauted, eaten raw in salads, baked to make “crisps” like kale chips or added to smoothies.

Another view of the beet harvest.

Pac choi-A mid-size beauty from the hoop house.  Best fresh in salads but can also be sauted with garlic, onion and soy sauce.

Radishes-French breakfast.  Also know as d’avaginion.  Long skinny radishes with a mild flavor.  These were harvested from the outside garden.

Radish harvest.

Fennel-A nice addition added to salads.  Shaved thin for a delicate anise flavor. The bulb can be roasted with to add a mild licorice flavor to a dish.  Taste great with chicken.  The stalks and fronds can also be chopped and added to a fresh salad or as a garnish to soup or pasta.

Best guess for next week-  leaf lettuce salad mix,  mixed green saute mix, carrots!!!!, lettuce, spinach, canton (asian green), rhubarb, and more.

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The usual theme of another power house week!  The big deal-just over 2800 leeks went in.  Not a typo-really 2800…. Scott and I planted all in just under 3 hours. Scott created a perfect row marker and a fancy “hole driller” and I followed behind and planted our pencil thick leek starts.  3 different varieties.  Early, mid and late season wonders.  We’re excited to start harvesting this crop around mid September.  Obviously we love leeks and we’re excited to share with members (and others) starting late summer.   We did things a little differently this year and started the seeds in late Feburary in deeper containers and let them grow larger than past years.  MUCH!! easier to plant and a stronger start to the season.

Scott prepping the leeks for planting.

We started another round of brassicas and finished the melon and cucumber seed starting.  Our greenhouse is full-over FULL as the tomatoes are huge and taking up way too much space but with the projected cold temperatures the next 2 evenings we are keeping them warm, tucked in the comfort of the greenhouse and dance around all the flats of vegetables waiting to go in the ground. Our plant sale will be the last weekend of the month and then space will free up again.  Challenging but a happy challenge.

Our greenhouse.

View from outside the greenhouse.

This is the last week of Spring Share and Summer Main Season projected to start Monday June 1st.  The crops look strong and we hope to have a bumper pea crop this year.  The next round of leafy greens are are plumping up in the hoop house and baby carrots forming.  Our garlic crop looks great and I think the scapes are about to form.  An early surprise.

Rows and rows of garlic.

SPRING #4-FINAL SHARE

Rhubarb-Our pretty Canadian Red.   I always like to mention that I have my grandpa’s rhubarb plant from his garden so a few of you too will be enjoying grandpa’s rhubarb.  Special to me.  Grandma always made a custard rhubarb pie.  My favorite.

Harvesting rhubarb at dusk.

Scott washing and weighing out the Rhubarb.

Spinach-Another big bag of hoop house grown spinach.

Fennel-A tasty treat started early.  Great shaved in a salad or roasted.

Head Lettuce-An assorted mix this week in the shares.  A combo of a dark upright variety called Outrageous or fluffy butterhead named Nancy.

Leaf lettuce-A Spring mix.

Beta Mix-Our new favorite mix!  A pretty combination of baby beet and swiss chard tops.

Mizuna-Spicy Asian green that can be eaten raw in salads or delicious braised.

Arugula-A nice bundle of this peppery green.

Radish-Our first outside harvest of the season.  French Breakfast.

Your radish harvester this week.

Swiss Chard-A tender and colorful mix from the hoop house.  This is the time of year that chard is the best!

Cutting the chard.

Cilantro-Greenhouse grown as a nice fresh addition to dinner this week.

Honey!-A Sweet Treat as a happy “thank you” for sharing the Spring Season with us.  Enjoy!

Scott and Maeve extruding the honey.

Our hives.

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Hope everyone had a Happy Mother’s Day yesterday!

Another powerhouse week of crawling around on our knees.  We were transplanting fools out in the gardens and it felt great!  The early broccoli, cauliflower, cabbages, collard greens, kohlrabi and brussels sprouts went in.

Cauliflower transplanting.

A super long row of 9 varieties of kale transplanted out right as a rainstorm rolled in.  I wanted to get it done so a bit muddy as the downpour hit but job completed.

Just finished the kale transplants and the rain stops.  No comment on my styling “roomy” size large rain pants.

We are pleased with the rain this past week and all the seeded in crops are germinating strong…..along with a healthy crop of weeds!  This week’s duty is to stay in front of those ever present weeds.  Lots of hand weeding and hoeing ahead.

Greenery is poking up in the potato patch and the garlic looks strong and prolific.  The peas are loving all this rain and Scott will get the trellis up this week as they are ready to climb.

Peas!

We have had a strong Spring and staying in front of all the “to do’s” in our days. The hoop house is transforming again-now to  Summer mode with additional Summer share crops going in this week.  Our grenhouse duties will continue with the next round of seed starting-finish up the cucumbers, melons and squash and the next wave of brassicas and somehow find room for everything with the tomatoes and peppers taking up space as they grow wait for the warm weather of early June to transplant out.

SPRING #3

Spinach-A huge harvest this week picking off 3 plantings.  A big 1 pound bag!  This is the last of the beautiful red kitten spinach.  Scott will pull the crop as it is slowing down.  Enjoy.

Spinach ready to pick.

Hauling up the spinach harvest from the hoop house.

Spinach in the wash tank.

Scott spinning the spinach.

Asian Greens Saute Mix-A nice mix to add a bit of zip to fresh salads or my favorite braise with garlic and a bit of soy sauce and eat with eggs.

Leaf Lettuce Mix-Tender baby leaves for fresh eating.

Harvesting the leaf lettuce. Next week’s fennel in the forground.

Carlton (Asian Green)-A brassica.  Traditionally used in Japan in stir fries and soups.  Excellent braised and can be eaten raw in salads.

Head Lettuce-Either a fluffy lime green beauty called Panisse or a dark juicy head named Nancy.

Turnips!-We love LOVE! this Spring treat.  A nice big bundle for everyone out of the hoop house.  Remember the greens can be braised and eaten too.

Chives-A flavorful bundle.

Shallots-Held over in the root cellar.  Sweet!  Wonderful with Spinach either raw or sauted.

Maeve and I harvesting the onions and shallots last season.

Hauling the empty harvest crates back to the garden.

BEST GUESS FOR NEXT WEEK-swiss chard, lettuce, spinach, fennel, baby beets (fingers crossed-they are almost ready!), arugula, rhubarb and a special garden treat!

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A wonderful and needed rain last night.  A nice soaking 1/2 inch for the garden.  Perfect timing for all the planting that went in the fields last week. We had loftly planting goals for our week and hit them….I spent a good portion of my days hunched over getting seeds in the ground.

Planting the carrots.

Starting the 2nd bed of carrots. I teased Scott and told him that I decided to go with ALL purple carrots here because I thought it would be “pretty” in the boxes later in the season. You should have seen his face. Just Kidding! But, there are 2 different varieties of purple planted as well as yellow and red beauties in this bed.

We are going gang busters on the carrots this year.  750 feet went in this week with dedicated irrigation.  Another long bed planned too for next week.  Carrot madness is the plan.

Our other HUGE! goal this week was to get those onions in.  A long fussy duty which we finally finished on Saturday afternoon. We tripled our plantings from last year.  Lots of sweet summer onions, storage and a few interesting grilling ones too.  Scott likes firm numbers in our planning I tend to think in terms of “a lot” or “really long”.  For those of you that think like Scott 1600 feet of onions went in by hand 1 hole at a time….those that think like me….the rows are MILES long.  The job is done and we are pleased.

Onion Bed #1 all sweet summer onions!

That’s Scott way down there getting the job done!

A close up of onion planting.

We start our onions by seed in flats in the garage in Feburary and then to the greenhouse and then outside for a few weeks before transplant.

The focus this week is fill the garden with our transplants….broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, kohlrabi, tons! and tons! of kale, collard greens and more are all on the list to be be planted.  In the greenhouse the cucumbers will be started along with zucchini, and all the melons. More lettuces and leafy greens are going into the ever changing hoop house…. It’s hustle time.

Beets and radicchio companion planted in the hoop house for future harvest….so pretty.

SPRING SHARE #2

It is a beauty this week.

Spinach-The springtime candy from the garden. A nice big bag.  3 plantings are in the mix this week.  And as expected we started our first harvest on the Spring planted crop planted in Feburary.  Thick, dark green juicy leaves.  Enjoy!

1st picking of the Spring planted Spinach.

Another bed of Spring planted spinach with pretty Swiss Chard in the background.

Head Lettuce-2 varieties to make a beautul salad this week.

Your lettuce in the hoop right before harvest.

Beta Mix-I think this is going to be our new favorite salad mix.  It is stunning and sweet and delicious.  Beautiful baby greens.  A combination of beet tops, kales and swiss chard.  Enjoy sauted or fresh eating in salad.

Beta Mix. In the wash tank. Beautiful!

Scott washing the Beta Mix.

Radishes-Pretty little round ones this week.  Crunchy Royale is the variety.  Pleasantly mild flavor.

Radish harvest for this week.

Pea Shots-Trim as a garnish for salads, soups or sandwiches.  Tastes just like fresh peas.  Keep in a bright window in the kitchen on a plate.  Water as needed and trim with a scissors to eat.

Pea shoots.

Arugula- A nice spicy bunch.  2 early cold tolerant varieties are in this mix.

Maeve helped bundle the arugula this week.

Mizuna-Another delicious Asian Green.  In the mustard family with a slight peppery flavor.  3 different varieties in this mix.  A Purple, a lime frilly green and a solid dark green.  Great addition to a fresh salad or sauted in a stir fry.

Spring Turnips!!-I thought there would be a “few” for us this week as an early sample of what’s to come…. and when I went to harvest last night-Holy Cow! They are ready.  Enjoy one of our favorite Spring Treats.  Maeve cannot get enough of these things….She eats them like apples.  Smooth buttery texture with a sweet flavor to these gems.

Maeve with the turnips.

BEST GUESS FOR NEXT WEEK

more turnips!, salad mix, baby asian greens mix, head lettuce, spinach, asian greens, chives and a few other surprise treats.  We can’t wait!

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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 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.  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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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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A fun time of year for us with transitions to different duties.  We took floral orders for Thaksgiving Centerpieces this year for the first time and it was lots of fun for us to see so many past floral customers and dip creative fingers back into floral design again.   We love celebrating Thanksgiving and grateful for the happy support.   The “want to” tasks around the house get tackled now that all the “have to” jobs have faded away with with the arrival of the winter cold.  Soups and stews simmer on the stove while we clean up the tools, inventory and store the packaging materials for the food shares (on a snazzy new storage shelf Scott had time to build), Scott also installed improved lighting in the garage,  and on sunny days we prepare the hoop house for Spring in tee shirts. Raspberry Syrup was made with the gallons of berries we froze this Fall and the honey was spun.  We’ve ordered our seed potatoes and seed catalogs arrived.  We are starting our lists for next year’s plantings and enjoy evenings reading over all the selections.  Our seed orders are placed by Christmas to ensure we get a few superstar veggies that sell out quickly.  We only have a short break until the greenhouse heater goes on again in Feburary and it all starts over again.

We hosted our Wreath Workshop again this year.  What fun!  And what beautiful wreaths made by all.  A time filled with Holiday music, the fragrance of evergreen filling the air, and lots of laughter.

Wreath artists hard at work.

Look at that Beauty!

The 2nd and Final Winter Storage Share is one of our favorites to prepare.  With the pick up date so close to the Holidays it is fun to tuck a few special treats in as Holiday surprises.  Enjoy the bounty and this special time of year with loved ones, family and dear friends!

WHAT IS IN YOUR SHARE

A little over 550 pounds of food today!  Happy Holidays and see you in the Spring……..

Autumn berries harvest and froze to make syrup.

Raspberry Syrup- Made from Autumn Harvested Berries and steam extracted.  A favorite in our family.  Delicious drizzled on baked goods, over cream cheese treats, morning pancakes or waffles or a few drops added to water for a refreshing drink.  Low sugar and sweet raspberry flavor.

Empty trays after Scott has cut the comb and spun the honey. We will save the bees wax for future projects.

Scott spinning the honey.

Fall Honey-Deep rich flavor.  Another Holiday treat.

Potatoes-A big bag of Molly and another smaller bag of waxy reds perfect for roasting or frying.

Sweet Potatoes-More of our amazing bounty crop this year.

Winter Squash-An assorted collection of Hubbard, butternut, acorn, and carnival for long term Winter Storage.

Onions-A big bag of onions for storage.

Shallots-A big bag of these delicious sweet wonders for holiday cooking.

Garlic-German Red and Music in each bag.

Daikon Radish-A few from the last harvest of the season in the garden.

Row cover protecting the crops in the hoop house.

Lettuce in the hoop house at harvest on December 6th. WOW!

North Pole Lettuce.

Lettuce-YEP! Lettuce…..just harvested from the hoop house. Amazing to us that they are here after the extreme early cold this year. We are thrilled that it pulled through under 2 layers of row cover.  Winter Marvel and North Pole are the varieties.  Fun names and sweet.  Not many people in Baraboo can say they are eating locally harvested lettuce.  Enjoy!

Harvesting the Spinach.

Maeve harvesting the green Space Spinach.

Spinach Harvest.

Picking Red Kitten Spinach.

I just like this photo for some reason….

Spinach-A big bag of this sweet treat. A mix of 2 varieties of green and a bit of the fancy Red Kitten added to the mix.  Juicy thick leaves.  It is the  best time of year for Spinach for flavor.  Just harvested from the hoop house for you.

Sneaking a few green onions out for the share.

Green Onions-Another hoop house crop and a few for a treat.

Pac Choi-A few saved from our final harvest of the season.

Storage Cabbage-The Mini varieties we love so much. A few for everyone.

Chinese Cabbage-A juicy head that will store all winter in a thin plastic bag.  We held 1 last year until May in the fridge.

Celeriac Root-The perfect addition to soups and stews.  Rich robust flavor.

Baby Carrots planted in Crates in August for Winter Share Harvest.

Baby Carrot Harvest.

We planted 3 different varieties to test.

Baby Carrots-Started late in the season for a Winter Share Treat!  SWEET as candy.  Enjoy oven roasted, steamed, braised, or best fresh…..

Sprouts-A spicy mix. Russian Blend. 4 days old.   Mix contains red clover, onion, mustard, funugreek and dill.  Store on a bright windowsill on a plate.   Flush the container with water twice a day and watch them grow.  And some tasty mung beans too.  Both can be enjoyed as a garnish for soups and stews, on sandwiches or a salad topping.

Fox Line City Farm Soap!-Happy Holidays .  My favorite made by a friend.  A nice big batch to share.  Enjoy.

Thank you to everyone of you that has made this life possible for our family.  We are grateful for this experience and honored to share our gardens with you.

Jennifer, Scott and Maeve

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The main garden is put to bed.

Tomato, melon and leek patch all cleaned up.

Hoop House in the morning. Still chugging along.

It is a whole new world around here.  The final crops are being pulled from the garden and hoop house and we LOVE! the fact that we are eating wonderful greens harvested in November! Delicious.  We have been very busy with autumn clean up and getting the last of the crops out and final winter over crops in.  It is a lot of work and time to pull down all the tomato vines and clean up the space. The trellis all need to be removed and stored, plastic mulch removed and irrigation pulled before the soil is tilled and prepped for Spring.  And then we repeat the process with the cucumber area and then focus on other areas of the garden with tidy, tidy, tidy.  Having things all set before the snow flies and ground turns solid makes life so much easier in the Spring.  We are in great shape with a few tiny “want to” duties to tackle but the BIG “have to” duties have been checked off the list.  We are grateful the weather has been comfortable and mild for finishing up the season.

Winter over spinach well established out in the garden all set for Spring.

Garlic Beds.

We spent a long day planting 2400+ cloves of garlic by hand!  Scott had the leaf mulch on by dark and we were happy the job was complete in one day.    Our favorites-Music and German Red were planted.   The garlic harvest this year was abundant and strong and we were able to save and replant our own supply.  A first for us not having to buy in organic seed garlic.

We are already catching ourselves planning out next year.  Fun to do and dream about next year’s garden…..Seed catalogs will arrive and our potato order will go in soon.  We are already excited about 2015 season.

With the garden clean up well under control, tools properly stored away, and the greenhouse and hoop house ready for winter we felt there was time to work on another favorite job again.  We are even taking orders this year for Thanksgiving Bouquets.

Jennifer working on floral pieces for a special event.

WHAT IS IN YOUR SHARE

We have had a fantastic finish to the season and thrilled to share the bounty with all of you.  An amazing pick up this week with lots of wonderful surprises.  A BIG! box and a Foxline tote of goodies for everyone to take home for Thanksgiving cooking. 33 pounds!!!  WOW! Enjoy.

Get ready for the long DELICIOUS list………

Arugula-A snappy bunch for fresh eating or braising.

Mazuna Mix-Lime green and purple-A mild mustard flavored green.  Delicious fresh or braised.

Lettuce!-REALLY Lettuce….Juicy heads of romaine.

Spinach-A huge HUGE! bag of delicious green leaves and another bag of the beautiful Red Kitten.

Scott harvesting Red Kitten Spinach.

Jennifer harvesting the big juicy Space Spinach.

Scott double rinsing the spinach.

Pac Choi-A mix of 2 varieties.  Win Win and White Flash.

Mini Pac Choi- A bag of tiny pac choi.

Radish- Nice big bag of the mild French Breakfast.

Maeve said they look like peppermints or candy canes.

Kale-A mixed bunch of young kale leaves.

Brussels Sprouts-FINALLY!  They are smaller this year but they are here.  We were worried there for awhile that there was going to be nothing.  Enjoy the bounty!

The Brussels Sprout Patch. We will see if we can get 1 more harvest out of it this year.

Brussels Sprouts harvest.

Broccoli/Cauliflower Mix-A big bag of those delicious broccoli side shoots and small cauliflower heads.

Sweet Potatoes-Our best year ever with this crop.  3 Pounds each.

Potatoes-A variety called Molly.  6 pounds each.

Garlic-A combination of Music and German Red.

Onion-2 pound bag of storage onions.

Squash-A butternut and 2 acorns.

Carrots-Sweet storage carrots.  Hoop House grown.

Scott hand digging the carrots.

A great final carrot harvest.

Leeks-Scotts goal this year…Grow big thick leeks.  Here they are.  Enjoy.

Sunchokes-A nice big bag of these nutty treats.  Will store ALL winter in the fridge in a plastic bag.

Scott digging the sunchokes earlier in the Fall.

Rosemary-A washed bundle.

Sage-A washed bicolor mix.

NEXT STORAGE SHARE PICK UP MONDAY DECEMBER 8

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Happy End of the Summer 2014 Season!

First off-Thank you to all that shared our best season ever!   We are grateful to all of you that provided us with this purposeful rewarding way of life and time home with our young daughter Maeve.  We love our garden and all the work involved in growing the perfect tomato, or cucumber or sweet, sweet melon.  We truely believe in growing organically delicious, healthy, and beautiful produce for our family and love sharing the bounty with others.  Again, heartfelt thanks to you.

Reflecting on the Summer 2014 season we are pleased.  The cooler growing temperatures made work so much easier but also made us wait for a few weeks for the heat loving crops.  Each season has it’s success stories that shine.  Yipee!  Sweet potatoes.  Finally! Big monsters that are beautiful.  We loved!! all those mini snacking cucumbers that we trialed for the first time this year.  Perfect.  We have plans already to grow these beauties again next season.  The spinach was a powerhouse and we are thrilled we finally got this crop down.  Thanks to the hoophouse we were able to provide delicious spinach in several weekly shares all summer long. The hoophouse also kept us in sweet juicy lettuce all season long.  Great variety and quality.   The snacking carrots were amazing, and the cantalope so sweet and bountiful.  The tomatoes were tasty and we were pleased with our variety selection.  A bit disappointed with the volume given the cooler temperatures but feel we all had enough to satisfy.   Beans were wonderful this year and we were happy with the rotation. Oh, and the garlic! Abundant and nice sized heads.   The disappointments were few but still disappointments.  We are still waiting for the Brussels Sprouts to do “something” more than itty bitty buttons.  We LOVE! these sprouts and look forward to this crop all season long.  We are hopeful that they will plump up some before winter share.  Watermelon did not thrive like the cantalope this season and perhaps it was our error where we chose to plant the patch this year.  The popcorn crop experiment almost made it but did not reach maturity before the first frost.  Next year we will have it in early and this is a big goal for 2015. We are glad we had a steady supply of broccoli and cauliflower that was delicious but we are still striving for the BIG huge heads.  These crops will be our winter research reading and next year we should have it down.

Our duties now shift to major garden clean up.  The tomato “graveyard” needs to be all tidied up and all the irrigation throughout the garden pulled and hopefully we can get it tilled before it freezes.  Our hoophouse is packed-we even planted in the walking aisles to ensure a wonderful Winter Share season….pleanty of growing season remain for the cool loving crops.

WINTER STORAGE SHARE PICK UP DATES NOVEMBER 10TH AND DECEMBER 8TH

Scott packing the final shares of the season.

WHAT IS IN YOUR FINAL SHARE WEEK 20

All shares are packed in Fox line tote bags this week.  Keep the bag as an end of season thank you and a happy reminder of the garden all winter long.

536 pounds of Autumn delights in the shares this week.

GRAND TOTAL WEIGHT FOR THE SEASON…….8615 POUNDS OF FOOD FROM THE GARDEN!

SNACK PACK

The spinach harvesters in the hoophouse.

Spinach-A big bag of delicious juicy green leaves.

Garlic-A few heads of Music or German Red.

Storage Onions-Several to carry you into the Fall.

Leeks-The big thick Autumn Leeks that are the best!

Scott digging the sunchokes.

Sunchokes/Jerusalem Artichokes-A favorite late season crop. Those funny knotty looking things…..  The roots have a slight sunflower taste to them.  Best oven roasted or in soups and stews.  Long storage life in a sealed bag in the refrigerator.

Sweet Potatoes-Delicious!  Enjoy our season’s pride and joy!  All cured and ready to eat.  Store at room temperature.

Heading out to cut the parsley.

Parsley-Big bunch of Italian large leaf.

Radish- Our favorite radish to grow.  French Breakfast.  Mild and pretty.

Butternut Squash- Perfect size for roasting or soup.

FULL SHARE

Harvesting the Red Kitten spinach.

Spinach-A jumbo bag of dark green and red kitten spinach.

Arugula-We could not help ourselves…….it is so good and perfect right now.  1 more bunch for you.

Garlic-A few heads of Music or German Red.

Storage Onions-Several to carry you into the Fall.

Shallots-Wonderful mild flavor and a long storage life.

Leeks-The big thick Autumn Leeks that are oh so good.

Sunchokes/Jerusalem Artichokes-A favorite late season crop. Those funny knotty looking things…..  The roots have a slight sunflower taste to them.  Best oven roasted or in soups and stews.  Long storage live in a sealed bag in the refrigerator.

Sweet Potatoes-Delicious!  Enjoy our season’s pride and joy!  All cured and ready to eat.  Store at room temperature.

Parsley-Big bunch of Italian large leaf.

Here is your radish picker this week.

And cleaner.

Maeve said they look like peppermints or candy canes.

Radish- Our favorite radish to grow.  French Breakfast.  Mild and pretty.

Mini Green Cabbage-A small head of our favorite mini variety.

Hubbard Winter Squash- Our #1 favorite for flavor and texture.  A smaller hubbard variety and a bit more manageable.

Carnival Winter Squash-A perfect squash for single serving or stuffing.  Rich sweet flavor.

Trying to find a few brussels spouts ready to pick.

The bucket is slowly filling up as I make my way down the long rows.

Brussels Sprouts OR Pepper Mix-We were able to harvest enough brussels sprouts to cover 1/2 the full shares.  Bag of brussels sprouts OR the final pepper harvest mix.

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Frost on the oregano.

Chilly mornings and we have had our first hard frost.  8 days earlier than last year.  We have picked our last beans, tomatoes, zucchini and peppers for 2014.  The garden focus now shifts to clean up, taking care of the cold loving broccoli in the field, harvesting the last of the storage cabbage and tending to the powerhouse hoophouse.  VERY hard for us to believe that we are nearing the end of the season.  Next week is the final pick up!  A whirlwind of a wonderful summer that flew by.  It seems that we were just picking strawberries and waiting for that first taste of a cucumber and now hustle to get it all tidied up before the snow flies.  Garden clean up in a snowstorm is not fun.

Frost kissed zinnia Saturday morning.

Row cover to protect a few tender plants in the garden from a chill.

A reminder that next week-Monday October 13th is the final pick up of the season.  Please return all boxes,bags, and packaging material to your pick up site.

WHAT IS IN YOUR SHARE

A fantastic Autumn Share this week.  595 pounds of wonderful!

SNACK PACK

Lettuce-Another seasonal favorite.  A delicious green bibb called Bambi.  GREAT! flavor and texture.

Frosty Kale.

Kale-A friend called this week to wish me Happy National Kale Day…..who knew there was such a thing?   In honor of this great holiday a nice assorted frost kissed bunch that is so flavorful.  Maeve loves to eat bowls full of kale crisps as a snack.

Storage Onions-A few in each share.

The sweet potato harvest curing in the green house.

Sweet Potatoes-They are here! AND they are delicious.  We are so thrilled with this year’s harvest.  Enjoy!  Cured for several weeks so nice and sweet and ready to eat.

Scott cleaning the Celeriac root.

Celeriac root getting a quick bath in the washing machine.

Celeriac Root-That odd little knotty thing in the bottom of your bag.  Delicious celery flavor.  Great in soups and stews.

Carrots-A nice sized bag of those tasty snackers.

Winter Squash-A slender Delicata. Very sweet.  Excellent for stuffing and baking.

FULL SHARE

Pretty Bambi in the hoophouse.

Lettuce-2 mini green bibb heads in each share.

Kale-A friend called this week to wish me Happy National Kale Day…..who knew there was such a thing?   In honor of this great holiday a nice assorted frost kissed bunch that is so flavorful.  Maeve loves to eat bowls full of kale crisps as a snack.

Storage Onions-A few in each share.

Scott harvesting the Napa Cabbage before the frost.

Napa Cabbage at harvest.

Napa Cabbage/Chinese Cabbage-Excellent storage life.  We had one in our refrigerator until May last year!  Light sweet taste.

Beets in the hoophouse.

Getting beets ready for the shares.

A final bundle added to the pile.

Beets-We get pretty excited about beets for some reason around here.  Enjoy this fantastic treat!

Celeriac Root-A few of these funny little knotty roots in each share.  Wonderful celery flavor.  Long storage life.  I made a very creamy celeriac root soup this past week with a few leeks and chicken stock.  A hit!

Pulling carrots!

Scott cutting the tops off the carrot harvest in the hoophouse.

Carrots- A big crunchy bag.

Winter Squash-Sweet Butternut and Carnvel.

Cauliflower OR Broccoli-A small bag of either cauliflower or broccoli side shoots.

Cherry Tomatoes-Surprisingly those few warm days last week pushed a few more cherries through for us.  Truely the end of tomatoes.

BEST GUESS FOR OUR FINAL WEEK-SQUASH, SWEET POTATOES, SPINACH MOTHER LOAD!, BRUSSELS  SPROUTS, ONIONS, LEEKS, GARLIC, RADISHES, AND MORE!!!!!

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A beautiful week of warm weather for garden clean up with a nice burst of heat to push the last late summer crops from the garden.  Scott pulled all the cucumber vines down and to the compost pile, the melon vines are all cleaned out.  The start of the tomato patch clean up is scheduled for this coming week.  Truely the end of the summer gardening season but lots still going on and growing!  We have Autumn loving cool crops still outside in the the garden that are thriving. Late broccoli, Kale, Swiss Chard, Chinese Cabbage, Cauliflower, Celeriac Root and more….. we seeded in long rows of spinach outside this week to winter over for Spring Shares and continue to transplant seedlings in the hoophouse for Winter Shares.  Gardening does not end for us until December when we pull late carrots mulched in the hoophouse and perhaps pluck a bit of spinich nestled under double row cover from the hoophouse too.

Cauliflower heading up in the garden.

Cool loving Arcadia broccoli plants going in the hoophouse for Winter Share harvest.

Planting long rows of Arcadia Broccoli in the hoophouse.

Transplants to go into the hoophouse yet this season……cold lettuces, pac choi, kohlrabi, radicchio and more.

Tiny radishes.

We are still picking a pint or 2 each day of Fall Raspberries that we freeze for making future jams and syrups for a treat in the Winter Storage Share.

Raspberry picking after school.

The end of season survey will be in your share this week.  We would love to read what your thoughts are on the season and any suggestions are always appreciated.  Please return the survey with your box/bag return.

LAST PICK UP IS MONDAY OCTOBER 13TH!  PLEASE RETURN ALL EXTRA BAGS/BOXES AND PACKAGING YOU MAY HAVE FLOATING AROUND YOUR HOUSE OR VEHICLES.  THANK YOU!

We have a few Winter Storage Shares available if anyone is interested….  Baraboo Pick Up Only. Pick up Dates are November 10th and December 8th.  $160

WHAT IS IN YOUR SHARE.

364 pounds of garden produce went out the door today!

SNACK PACK

Leaf lettuce mix-A delicious just cut assortment.

Portioning out the arugula after a double rinse.

Arugula  ready to be banded.

Arugula-A nice big bunch of this snappy treat.  Several members mentioned on their surveys last season that they would like more arugula throughout the season…..hope this was enough for all the arugula lovers!

Salad Turnips-Wonderful!  Enjoy this Spring and Fall treat.  A Japanese variety called Hakurei.  Best eaten raw.  Greens are edible too.

Leeks-The wonderful Fall leeks we have been waiting for…..

Potatoes-We could not put leeks in the shares without potatoes.  Just did not seem right.  Adarondack Reds for everyone.

Green Beans-A surprise for us as we did not think this crop would amount to much in the cold weather a few weeks back.  A late season bounty.

Garlic-Music or German Red in every share.

Cherry Tomaotes-The end of the ripe tomato season for us.

FULL SHARE

Red Kitten is back!

Scott weighing out the Spinach.

Spinach-A huge bag of Spinach this week.  A green variety called Space and the pretty Red Kitten returns.

Arugula-A nice big bunch of this snappy treat.  Several members mentioned on their surveys last season that they would like more arugula throughout the season…..hope this was enough for all the arugula lovers.

Salad Turnips-Wonderful!  Enjoy this Spring and Fall treat.  A Japanese variety called Hakurei.  Best eaten raw.  Greens are eadable too.

Leeks-The wonderful Fall leeks we have been waiting for…..

Maeve weighed out the potatoes again this week-after we made a crown to make the activity seem “fancier”.

Potatoes-We could not put leeks in the shares without potatoes.  Just did not seem right.  Adarondick Reds for everyone.

Green Beans-A surprise for us as we did not think this crop would amount to much in the cold weather a few weeks back.  A late season bounty.

Broccoli-A bag of the smaller side shoots harvested off our summer  broccoli.

Storage Onions-A few in every share.

Winter Squash-A Variety called Carnival. A multi colored sweet dumpling. Sweet tender orange flesh.  Great for stuffing.

Summer Squash-A few little gems to mark the TRUE end of this summer staple.  The second patch vines are done.

Garlic-Music or German Red in every share.

The last cherry tomato harvest.

Cherry Tomates-The end of the ripe tomato season for us.

BEST GUESS FOR NEXT WEEK-BEETS, CARROTS, SWEET POTATOES!!!!!, LETTUCE, KALE AND MORE.

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