CSA 2010: Week 3

In the CSA this week we got:
- Radishes and lots of lettuce bunches used in a big salad for our 4th of July BBQ
- Garlic scapes used in a steak tip marinade and they were served with Beets. The beet greens and remainder of the scaped will likely be stir fried.
- Asian greens blend an Kale which I plan on stir frying
- Snow Peas, Snap Peas and Shell peas that I just eat raw as a snack until they are gone. I love these!
- Red raspberries which are Sue's favorite snack
- Cilantro and Parsley which honestly I never us all of, but they smell very nice

Fruit in the Yard

The apples and blueberries that I planted last summer are producing some fruit. Here is one of the half-dozen-or-so red delicious apples growing right now:
And this is one of the 6 blueberry bushes that is starting to yield a few ripe berries:

CSA Week 2: 2010

Week 2 of the CSA included the following:
· Cilantro
· Chard
· Lettuce
· Collards
· Onions
· Radishes
· Dill
· Blizzard snow and sugar ann snap peas

CSA Week 1: 2010

Week 1 of our CSA has finally arrived from Many Hands Organic Farm. As expected, it is very green heavy. It included 2 bunches of green onions, some sort of Chinese cabbage, namy heads of lettuce, kale, beet greens (with a few small beets mixed in), garlic scapes, spearmint, peppermint, and strawberries.

Today, the family returned to Tougas farm to pick Strawberies.
This year we only had to walk a couple hundred yard to the fields where they were picking and spend about 30 minutes our in the field.
We picked just shy of 13 pounds.
Sue froze 2 cookie sheets worth of berries (2 - 3) quarts and tomorrow I plan to make Jam. I have a feeling that the 13 pounds will be gone before we know it!

The Garden is in

While I have not been blogging the past 2 months, I have been working on the garden. Back in Late March I made a garden plan:
I then placed an order to Johnny's Seeds. I actually planted only Soybeans in the back row (no butter beans) and Garden of Eden's instead of the Marvel of Venice. This year I added lots more beans, cucumbers, and a second variety beets. Sue started seedlings back in early April, but then I got swamped with work and coaching. I never managed to clear the garden and plant the early crops. Last Friday the garden looked like this:
On Saturday, I managed to clean the garden and plant the the ledt and middle quadrants of the garden. The soil is awesome! I added buckets of compost to each bed I planted, but even without the additions, the compost, rock phosphate, and green sand from last year clearly had an impact on the soil.

I wrapped up the planting this afternoon and here is what the garden looks like now:
I was not able to plan as many squash as I planned (only 1 winter and 1 summer) because the seedlings did not come through. Sue did start some pumpkins which worked great so I planted them in that area too. Also, the far left I planted the potatoes in bags. I am hopeful this will boost the yield.

More later, I promise.

Boiling Down the Sap

I had collected nearly 4 gallons of sap over the past 2 weeks, so I decided to boil down the sap to syrup. For this I broke out a new toy that I bought last month: the Bayou Classic Propane Burner. I bought this for 2 reason, making syrup and making beer.
Compared to last years very slow boil down on the grill, this thin was Awesome! I was able to get from 4 gallons to 1 gallon in about 3 hours and then moved it into the kitchen to boil off the remaining water.
I finished with just under 16 oz which is a good yield. Hopefully we have one more stretch of sap running days before the month is out and I can make a bit more.