asparagus!

this week, we harvested our first spring crop - asparagus. even though asparagus is a perennial, it is still pretty exciting to see some results from all the hard work we do. now that it is here though, we have to cut it every other day. otherwise it gets too tall and will start going to seed, or flowering. when that happens, it tells the plant to shut down and it will stop producing. so we have to keep up with cutting it often. this also means the farm stand needs to be opened soon so we have somewhere to sell the asparagus, since regular markets haven't started yet. (though it was a nice surprise to be able to take 14 bunches of asparagus to a special winter market at oakmont last wednesday...and sell out.)

i cooked some last night and it is good. as with everything that is so fresh, it is so tender and flavorful.

busy busy busy

that's an understatement. i don't even know if i can remember all that we did this week, but i'll give it a go...

dale and i planted flats in the field...broccoli, purple broccoli, pac choi, tatsoi, dill, head lettuce and artichokes. more salad beds were planted (leaf lettuce, mesclun mix, rhubarb swiss chard, arugula and spinach). a second planting of spring onions and spring root crops (carrots, beets, turnips and radishes) was planted. another 100 (or was it 150?) raspberry plants were planted. second planting of peas was planted.

all those seeds i started for plants to sell at landis valley were repotted this week, from those small cells to 4" pots - tomatoes, eggplants, peppers and tomatillos. the parsley and basil plants are not ready to be transplanted yet. all the plants are still young, but the hope is that they will grow in these larger pots in the next three weeks before the sale. once i figure out the final numbers, i will post them. i had some poor germination with some varieties, unfortunately.

onions and leeks arrived this week. we receive them as very small plants. think of a leek, now downsize that by about 100 times. that is the size we receive them. the onions are slightly larger. we receive them as bare roots, basically...they are not in soil, but bunched together. we received 1800 leeks, 1800 walla walla onions, 1800 candy onions and 1800 red zeppelin onions. we will direct plant the onions in the field on plastic. the leeks will not be on plastic as they need to be 'hilled' (more or less buried) every few weeks throughout the season. the hilling is what creates the white part of a leek. since the leeks are so small, and in previous years they have pretty much gotten lost in the field, this year we are planting them in cells (slightly larger than the 72 cell trays) and waiting about a month before planting them outside. they should grow to a more manageable size in the cells, then we will plant them out.

we had a frost warning for thursday night. that kind of sucked because we had to spend a lot of time on thursday making sure all the plants that have been planted out were covered with clear plastic. then we had to spend a lot of time friday morning uncovering all the plastic rows. but, you neither take the time to protect your plants, or you risk losing everything you've done so far...

that is just about it for this week. i am not sure my 'to do' list will ever be finished. it seems like every time i cross one thing off, i add three more. but nonetheless, progress is being made and things are getting done. for the most part, plants in the fields look good and the things we have direct seeded are sprouting. before long, we will be harvesting for markets.

essex farm note

essex farm is a farm way up north in NY state. they do just about everything there. they send out a weekly newsletter of the farm's happenings. i don't believe they have a website, but you can find them on facebook at 'the dirty life,' which is a book written by kristin kimball about her transition to farm life. this newsletter caught my attention more than usual (copied exactly from her e-mail newsletter). it is how farm life, and life in general, goes sometimes. everything seems like it is going to shit...there is too much to do and not enough time, the weather isn't cooperating, people don't show up to help... but then things fall into place...the rain stops, the seedlings grow, the tractors work.

Week 15, 2011

Sometimes it goes like this. Your kids have colds and nobody has slept for two nights for the hacking but it’s Sunday and you’re going to sleep in for once because a person we’ll call Twinkie Malone has contracted to milk for you on Sundays in exchange for milk. Mark will do chores and you and the two runny-nosed kids will snuggle back in for a little more dear, dear sleep. But just as you drift off Mark comes in to say Twinkie has not shown up and you need to get up and pack the sick kids in their snowsuits and put them in the stroller so you can go out and milk the cows. The mood can now be described as extremely not happy and the kids pick up on it, especially the elder, who resists the snowsuit, kicks off the boots, declares that she needs breakfast before she goes out. This last bit, actually, is reasonable. So you butter a piece of bread for her and pour yourself a cup of cold coffee from yesterday’s pot, then look at the clock and hustle. Tears now from both small sets of eyes, to go with the streaming noses. But then they are both in the stroller, bread in one hand, mittens on all the others, and you’re rolling.

You get to the barn and recruit Jane to push the baby around, a tactic meant to occupy them both. You get the first cow’s udder prepped and you’ve just put the claw on her teats when the stroller rolls into the gutter. You run to rescue the baby and the cow kicks off the claw. You try again, employing the cats this time to entertain Jane, parking the besmirched baby in front of the milker, where you hope the suck-suck noise will soothe her. You feel guilty for raising your kids on a farm. When a cat scratches Jane, you mistakenly dump the milk into the already full milk can and half a cow’s production runs onto the floor. You yell for Mark in a voice that implies that it’s all his fault. He leaves his chores, notes the milk in the gutter, scoops up the kids, takes them to the milkhouse, and plops Miranda on the floor, where you can hear her crying herself to sleep. That’s when Zea takes note of your inattention and decides to kick you, landing a good one on the kneecap. Silent rage, not toward the cow but toward the Twinkie.

Something else is wrong, and you’re not quite sure what it is until you spy the cup of cold black coffee on the step to the loft. Caffeine should improve the attitude, which is spiraling fast. You milk Sis, your favorite, a descendent of good old Delia, inheritor of her sweet nature. You can hear Mark singing with Jane in the milkhouse now, cockles and mussels, Jane correcting her dad on the lyrics; Miranda is quiet, asleep. You take the claw off Sis and put your coffee cup under her. There is still some good hindmilk in the back teats and you grasp one warm and soft in your hand and strip it out. The rich milk hits the coffee and foams, a farmer cappuccino. You milk and milk until your coffee is both light and warm and you sip. Milk is different right out of the cow. Sweeter. Mixed with the coffee, it’s heaven. You feed the cows and drink your coffee. You stand still then and listen to the sound of the cows munching and your family singing and you silently thank Twinkie, thank the god of the she-cow, thank the twisted and bumpy road that brought you to this very moment, this perfect place.

And that is the news for this spring peepers! 15th week of 2011. Find us at 963-4613, kristin@kristinkimball.com, on twitter @k_kimball, or on the farm, any day but Sunday.

-Kristin & Mark Kimball

lambs lambs lambs

the sheep are done lambing. they have been for awhile, however, we had a late delivery a couple of weeks ago. this picture is of the newest addition and his mom. the ones who were born in january and february are getting big. they are all out in two different fields with their moms. the black ones are such a true black, they really stand out next to the green grass. there is always lots of baaing, moms calling their lambs or lambs calling their moms. in total, we had 9 ewes and 15 rams, 13 blacks and 11 whites. while the lambs will start being dinner in 6+ months, it is nice to enjoy their cuteness now.

rain, rain, go away

it has been a busy and frustrating week. it keeps raining. the fields are wet and muddy and hard to do much in. a lot needed to be done this week, but so much is weather dependent at this point. it is great once the rain stops, but fields need time to dry out, you can't just rush out there and do what needs to be done. you need several days in a row of no rain. and the nights are still getting into the 40s, so even if it is not raining, the temperatures aren't helping things to dry out.

so what did get done this week? the herb plugs arrived. perennial herbs are very hard to start from seed, and with everything we start from seed, they cost time and money. so we order herb plugs. they are similar to what our seedlings look like in the 72 cell tray, only smaller. once we get the plugs, they all need to be repotted or planted in the herb garden, and fairly quickly so they can start growing. they call them plugs because you fill a pot up with soil and literally just push, or 'plug,' the tiny plant into the soil. the majority of these will be taken to landis valley to sell (and those are the ones we repotted), but we are still growing and developing our own herb garden on the farm so many plants were for us (and planted directly into the herb garden). the herbs we received were chives, arp rosemary, fresh tarragon, lady lavender, greek oregano, lemon thyme, lemon verbena, fennel and fernleaf dill. (we are expecting to receive english thyme as well, but that variety had production issues and we won't receive it for a couple of weeks.) we potted 545 plants to take to landis valley and planted 115 plants for us in the herb garden. (our dill hasn't been planted yet because it is going in the big field on plastic where it is more likely to get the nutrients it needs.) we do not use plastic in the herb garden so we use another method to keep the weeds under control - cardboard and straw. we cover the garden with cardboard and then cover the cardboard with straw and then wet everything down. if everything was dry, it would just blow away. once the cardboard and straw start to degrade a little, they will stay in place. we can't just use straw because it wouldn't take long for the weeds to grow up through. but with the cardboard under the straw, the weeds will be kept under control for most of the season. once all the weed protection is laid, we poke holes in it to plant the herb seedlings. parsley and 3 types of basil will also be planted in the herb garden throughout the season, but for the most part the herb garden is done. cutting and preparing fresh cut herbs for market is time consuming and kind of a pain in the butt, but people do seem to appreciate.

we planted 25lbs of french fingerling potatoes, the first planting of fingerlings. about 8 rows of black plastic were laid in the main produce field. there is more that needs to be laid, but that is all time and weather allowed for. i planted 3 more flats of lettuce in the field. all of the coolers were scrubbed well. (we have about 20 coolers and they are not the easier things in the world to clean.) they have been collecting a lot of dust and dirt over the winter. (we pack all our produce and meat in coolers to take to market.) more lettuce seeds were started. the asparagus to up...we might be able to cut it for market this week. some of the strawberry plants have buds. much of the garage was cleaned out. we use the garage during the regular season to sort through, wash and pack our produce. we have a big commercial size double sink we use to rinse greens.

so despite the rain, a lot was accomplished this week. some outdoor plantings are falling behind because of the weather, but not much we can do about that. there will be a lot of projects to do inside next week, mainly repotting the seedlings i started for landis valley.

this little piggy went to market

okay, i finally got one right, though a bit delayed. market last weekend was a good day. not as good money wise as other winter markets, but still a lot of regulars, all the greens we took with us sold and there were many individual customers spending a lot all at once. still worth the trip to havertown for the afternoon. and at least the sun was shining.

this little piggy had spinach

i also cut a lot of spinach today for market on saturday. this is the spinach that was planted last september outside and has been growing and cut from all winter. spinach is one of very few greens that will not only survive the winter, but also continue to grow even once cut. (we also have kale that was planted in september and has survived the winter, but once it was cut in october/november, it didn't regrow until warmer temperatures and sunnier days arrived.) we usually sell baby/small spinach assuming people will use it in salads. that we bag at a quarter pound. but this spinach is getting pretty big, so i bagged it at half a pound. this is assuming people will cook it and since you lose so much volume when cooking, you need more to start with. it is definitely still tender enough and tasty enough to eat raw, but the leaves are pretty big. so out of that huge mound on the table in the picture, i got 19 half pound bags (nine and a half pounds). spinach is a good seller at market and i don't believe i will come back with any leftover.

this little piggy had lettuce

all the root crops and the salad beds were planted on thursday, a good amount of planting done.

today i got ready for the oakmont winter market that will be on saturday (tomorrow). the weather is suppose to be low 60s with some sun, so it should be a good turn out. in the picture is a pile of baby lettuce. this was growing in the greenhouse, but has been moved just outside the greenhouse and gets put under plastic as necessary. after cutting it, washing it and bagging it there was a little extra that i ate tonight. so good...so small and tender and colorful.

all greens are cut, with scissors mostly, put into a dish pan/tub and washed. washed means double rinsed in two sinks filled with water - one sink is luke warm water, the second sink is cold water. the idea is that the warm water allows the greens to take in water, while the cold water closes them up so they retain that water...both temperatures allowing the greens to look fresh and stay fresh. but once the greens get so wet, we must dry them out a bit, otherwise they would just rot. so we put them into a mesh laundry bag and put them in the washing machine on spin cycle. yes, the washing machine. it acts as a big salad spinner. all the excess water is spun off and the greens come out ready for packing. all greens are weighed (different weights are applied to different greens) and bagged. in a time when so many people are trying to get away from using plastic bags, we use a lot. but we haven't found a better way to keep our greens fresh. especially in the heat of the summer, at market the greens would just wither to nothing. we use several different sizes of bags so the product fits in the bag, with little wasted space.

the baby lettuce in the picture was bagged at an eighth of a pound and all that lettuce in the picture gave me 12 bags of that size - one and a half pounds. and we do charge more for lettuce so small. you need a lot to fill a bag than if it were allowed to grow larger. hey, if whole foods can charge more for baby/micro greens, so can we! :-)

now it's spring

despite the slightly cooler than normal temperatures, i truly feel it is spring. on monday, dale and i planted eleven flats of plants. eleven flats times 72 plants per flat is...792 plants. granted some flats have empty cells because the seeds didn't germinate, but nonetheless, a lot of plants were planted. we planted three flats of swiss chard, one flat of collards, one flat of cauliflower, four flats of head lettuce and two flats of cabbage. (please note - every flat is a different variety. for example, the swiss chard varieties were northern lights, virgo and rhubarb.) that took us all day. and now that they are outside exposed to all the elements, we had to make sure every row we planted in had hoops, clear plastic for covering and weights to hold down the plastic. we are still having some nights in the 30s and we have to protect the plants as much as possible. if we waited until there was no more risk of freezing and frost (about mid-may in this area), we would never have enough produce to sell at our markets, all of which begin sometime in may.

today, was another big planting day. dale and i planted four flats - two flats of kale, one flat of broccoli and one flat of cauliflower. and again, had to make sure there was enough plastic covering and and weights for everything. then we planted 24 pounds of spring onions. we plant spring onions from spring onions, as opposed to starting them from seed in the field.

on the schedule for tomorrow is - plant the rest of the spring root crops, which will be direct seeded in the field. the root crops include - carrots (red, white, orange, purple), turnips (gold, white, purple and white, red), beets (purple, gold, red, white) and radishes (red, white, gold, pink, purple). three pounds of shallots are also on the schedule. (shallots are also planted from shallots, not seed.) hopefully the ground will not be too wet to plant salad beds. salad beds are direct seeded in the field and used to plant the lettuce blend, mesclun mix, cilantro, cress, spinach, arugula and rhubarb swiss chard (for salad mixes to add some color). (spinach will switch to amaranth greens in the summer, since spinach doesn't like the heat.) this will be the first planting of the season for salad beds, though they will be planted every other week throughout the year. the beds are about four feet wide and every planting will be about 90 feet long.

that sounds like a lot of planting, and it is, but it is only the beginning...