Big Woods Farm CSA

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Recipes

Big Woods Fresh Tomato Salsa
Gazpacho (cold tomato soup)
Grilled Vegetables

Farm Report

The garden continues to catch up, a good thing since the temp hit a low of 40ºF here last night.   Tomatoes and melons play a large role in today’s share, with peppers and eggplant still mostly waiting in the wings.  We have a great crop of melons right now, and the tomatoes are really coming in .  At the moment we have a mix of  cherry, slicers and canning types.  Canning, aka cooking or processing, tomatoes have a lower water content (less juice down your chin) and so are great for fresh sauce/salsa.  We are also preparing fall crops:  hundreds of lettuce seedlings have been transplanted, turnips and other greens are growing under row cover (a thin blanket, to keep of flea beetles and keep temperatures up), the next crop of carrots is looking good, and fall spinach is germinating.  These fall crops like cool weather, and aren’t as bothered by the pesky frosts of the later fall.

U-pick tomatoes:

Canning tomatoes are available for u-pick this Friday, Saturday and Sunday.  There is enough for a couple households to pick a 1/2 bushel basket (a little less than the size of the brown box your share has been coming in) each of these days.  We would like to be here when you come, to show you to the tomatoes, so let us know when you would like to arrive and we’ll plan accordingly.  They are a bit of a jungle, so you may want long sleeves and pants.

David’s mom and dad are visiting from Gainesville, Florida.  While here, they enjoy cooking with the fresh produce from the garden,  and we enjoy the results.   We have had fresh tomato sauce, fennel au gratin, squash blossoms simply fried, made into soup and stuffed with ricotta cheese.   Would you like to try squash blossoms?  If we hear “yes!”  from a few of you, we’ll include them in next week’s share.  Squash plants produce both male and female flowers: the female flowers have a little round swelling at the base that, if pollinated by our honey bees or wild bees, develop into fruit – the squash.  The male flowers are the ones we pick and eat.

Hoophouse raising party postponed till further notice

Our hoophouse will not arrive until next week, so we will have to postpone the hoophouse raising party until the hoophouse parts arrive.  He have high hopes for the hoophouse once it arrives – we will be growing tomatoes in it next year (most of the nicer tomatoes in your last few produce shares are from our smaller hoophouse).  And it should help us weather inclement weather in the spring and fall.

Harvest Festival on Saturday, September 24

Come to take a wagon ride out to the winter squash field, help harvest the winter squash, pick a jack-o-lantern, and then partake of one of the best potlucks around!  More details will follow closer to the date, but put it on your calendar now!  The rain date will be Sunday, Sept. 25.

See full newsletter for more deta

Posted under Newsletter on September 6th 2011
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Fresh Tomato Sauce
Zucchini Pancakes

Farm Report

David’s mom and dad are visiting from Gainesville, Florida.  While here, they enjoy cooking with the fresh produce from the garden,  and we enjoy the results.   We have had fresh tomato sauce, fennel au gratin, squash blossoms simply fried, made into soup and stuffed with ricotta cheese.   Would you like to try squash blossoms?  If we hear “yes!”  from a few of you, we’ll include them in next week’s share.  Squash plants produce both male and female flowers: the female flowers have a little round swelling at the base that, if pollinated by our honey bees or wild bees, develop into fruit – the squash.  The male flowers are the ones we pick and eat.

Hoophouse raising party postponed till further notice

Our hoophouse will not arrive until next week, so we will have to postpone the hoophouse raising party until the hoophouse parts arrive.  He have high hopes for the hoophouse once it arrives – we will be growing tomatoes in it next year (most of the nicer tomatoes in your last few produce shares are from our smaller hoophouse).  And it should help us weather inclement weather in the spring and fall.

Harvest Festival on Saturday, September 24

Come to take a wagon ride out to the winter squash field, help harvest the winter squash, pick a jack-o-lantern, and then partake of one of the best potlucks around!  More details will follow closer to the date, but put it on your calendar now!  The rain date will be Sunday, Sept. 25.

Posted under Newsletter on August 29th 2011
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Recipes

We are hoping for rain

The weather is warm, and we should be having more tomatoes, peppers, and eggplant next week.  However the soil is extremely dry.  We have a limited ability to irrigate some of the crops, such as carrots, beets,  greens, broccoli, cabbage, but we are not able to irrigate many of the crops needing more open space, such as squash, potatoes and corn.  The sweet corn in particular is doing very poorly, with the worst crop we have seen in many years.  Almost every single storm over the last two weeks has missed our area (the east edge of Rice county), and we have received on about 1 tenth of an inch of rain in the past two weeks.  The soil in the corn patch is dry and cracked, and the plants are very stunted.

Hoophouse raising party postponed til after the Height of Summer festival

Our hoophouse will not arrive until next week, so we will have to postpone the hoophouse raising party until the hoophouse parts arrive.  He have high hopes for the hoophouse once it arrives – we will be growing tomatoes in it next year (most of the nicer tomatoes in your last few produce shares are from our smaller hoophouse).  And it should help us weather inclement weather in the spring and fall.

Height of Summer Festival on Sat. Aug 27

Our first Big Woods Farm event, the Height of Summer Festival, celebrates the middle of the summer produce season.  Go to the event link for further details.

Posted under Newsletter on August 25th 2011
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Recipes

Pear Tart

Farm report

Our time at the Minnesota Bluegrass Festival was great – good music, good times, and plenty of farm produce at our campsite. The weather got cooler while we were away, especially the nights. While these cooler temps are good for sleeping, it makes for slower ripening of our peppers, eggplants, melons, and field-grown tomatoes. We have plenty of plants all four of these, but the fruits are taking their time. Several members have asked about eggplant – we have lots on the plants, but they are ripening more slowly than usual. Some people (talking heads on TV and radio) have even been warning that field-grown tomatoes will not ripen much at all this year due to the weather. we have high hopes for our crop, but who knows what will really happen.

The soil is dry once again, so we are spending a fair bit of time setting up irrigation lines on the newly planted crops. This effort should pay for itself by keeping the carrots, beets, and everything else growing fast.

Hoophouse raising party

We are planning to build a hoophouse over the next week or two. If all of the parts arrive by next weekend, we might be able to do some construction during the Height-of-Summer festival on Aug 27th. We could use the help of anyone interested in helping build a 30′x60′ greenhouse structure. Help from mechanically-inclined people with tools (like cordless drills) would be much appreciated!

Share info available: Share contents, produce info, and recipes

Go to “Farm News” above to see latest info about Big Woods Farm produce shares.  Select Share Contents for a list (with links to our new produce gallery) of what’s in your weekly share and visit Recipes for some preparation ideas.

Height of Summer Festival on Sat. Aug 27

Our first Big Woods Farm event, the Height of Summer Festival, celebrates the middle of the summer produce season.  Go to the event link for further details.

Posted under Newsletter on August 18th 2011
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New Recipes

Feta-Walnut-Stuffed Cucumbers
Iranian Tomato and Cucumber Salad

Farm Report

The summer crops are are starting to come in – tomatoes, cucumbers, green beans and summer squash, and  peppers, melons, and eggplant.  The warm temperatures have allowed them the plants to grow fast, though the 100 degree temperatures a while ago shut down the flowering (and fruit production) on some crops, so there will be a delay on some peppers, tomatoes and eggplants.  We had a cool and wet spell at the beginning of the season which slowed down the develop of these summer vegetables, making the maturity much later than usual.

We are now planting crops that we will be harvesting towards the end of the season – fall carrots, turnips, fall beets, spinach, bok choi, Chinese (Napa) cabbage, collards, and some other greens.  As an adult and farmer, the movement of the seasons seems so much faster than when I was younger!  I can see the end of summer and an approaching frost (gasp), though not for another month or so.  We are hoping that will be a late fall, letting us savor a good harvest of peppers, melons, and eggplant.

This coming weekend has us going to our favorite music event of the season – the Minnesota Bluegrass and Old Time Music Festival.  This is a 3-day event that has camping (and showers), music, old time/square dances on Friday and Saturday nights, late night jamming in the campground, a lake with swimming beach,  and great kid-friendly activities.   Oh, and there is some great bluegrass music on the stages too.  We recommend it highly if you are looking for a fun family weekend.

Height of Summer Festival on Sat. Aug 27

Our first Big Woods Farm event, the Height of Summer Festival, celebrates the middle of the summer produce season.  Go to the event link for further details.

Posted under Newsletter on August 17th 2010
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Mon. 8/9 Share Contents
Thurs 8/12 Share Contents

Farm Report

We returned from our one-week vacation to Montana and find Minnesota is still the stickiest, humidest place we can imagine.  Luckily, the warm-weather crops have been liking the temperatures.  As a result, the peppers, sweet corn and melons are ready for harvest.  In my mind, summer is here when we can have sweet corn and BLT’s for dinner, and melon with vanilla ice cream for dessert. You should also look for some new varieties of tomatoes, cucumbers, and summer squash in your share over the next several weeks.   We have had some good rain over the last several days, so we have not had to irrigate very much lately.  This is a nice plus, since laying out our drip-irrigation tape is hard work in 90-degree weather. Thanks to everyone who attended the midsummer festival and potluck.  The potluck had a great selection of dishes, and we are always excited to see what tasty treats can be made with our produce.

Thanks to member Kate S. for calling several kid-friendly dances.  The children had a good time playing in the yard, and then some music was made around the  campfire until the wee hours.  If you missed this festival, put Sept 18th on your calendar for the Fall Harvest Festival.

U-Pick Veggies

Ready now:  Basil (including Italian, Thai and Cinnamon),  Sungold (orange) and Sweet 100 (red) cherry        tomatoes and cutting flowers for bouquets. Ready in about 1 week:  Green beans and processing (aka canning or Roma) tomatoes. You can come pick whenever we are here, which is much of the time – it’s simplest if you let us know by e-mail or phone what times work for you and then we’ll either let you know what works for us, or leave you a map. One nice option is changing your pick up in a given week to Monday at the farm – you can then get your weekly share and u-pick goodies at the same time.

Posted under Newsletter on August 9th 2010
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