2016 Harvest 3

Howdy folks and welcome to week three of your Tumbleweed Farm CSA. It's a crazy time of the year on the farm where we are running around trying to stay on top of chores and doing our best to not fall too far behind. The days are spent tending to early spring crops, harvesting for markets, restaurants and CSA, prepping beds for summer crops, seeding, transplanting, irrigating, weeding, irrigating and weeding--- Rinse and repeat! We love the chaos but it's also a stressful time of the year when the heat arrives and the entire farm is constantly thirsty. With that being said, the future is looking very bright.  Despite the heat we have some tasty veggies that will be making their seasonal debut very soon. Sugar snap peas, snow peas and summer squash are all looking really healthy and should be popping up in the boxes very soon! Beets aren't far behind and the tomatoes, eggplants and peppers are all looking really healthy. The lettuce transplanting is in full force--we transplant 500 heads of lettuce from the greenhouse out into the field each week and the leaves are so tender and delicious this time of the year we can't get enough. We hope you all love the lettuce as much as we do.

Because of our major crop devastation of spring broccoli and cauliflower you all won't be receiving it at the same time this year. With that being said, each week for the next month or so we'll do our best to make sure each box receives broccoli at least once.  The gophers didn't wipe out the entire planting so we're able to harvest a small percentage of what they left behind which we're stoked about! We're sowing our large fall plantings of broccoli and cauliflower this week and we are hopeful the the fall harvest will prove to be abundant. 

We hope you enjoy your week 3 box and the recipe suggestions below. 

Cheers from your farmers!

Harvest 3

  1. Red Choi (a baby bok choy variety)--this little guy tastes really good tossed on the grill
  2. Collard Greens (see the recipe suggestions below for these tasty greens!)
  3. Garlic Scapes (awesome grilled!)
  4. Head Lettuce
  5. Dill
  6. Turnips
  7. Spicy Spring Mix (eaten raw or lightly sautéed these pack a little spice. See the recipe suggestion below.

Recipe Suggestions 

2016 Harvest 2

Howdy folks and welcome to week two of your Tumbleweed Farm share. We hope you enjoyed last weeks harvest and are hungry for another round of fresh veggies! This week you are receiving a few repeats from last week along with a few new items to experiment in the kitchen with (yay garlic scapes!!!) Hopefully you aren't feeling overwhelmed by all the greens but enjoy them while they're here because we've got some HOT weather coming to the farm this week and certain greens are not going to do well with the predicted forecast. 

News from the field this week has been pretty uneventful (phew!) The seeding schedule is in full force and within the next two weeks the entire farm will be in full production! We've tilled the last of the cover crop and are preparing the final section of the farm for planting. We finally got our act together and hired a farmhand this season too! We have a part time employee who has been helping out a few hours each week and it's made our lives so much easier. It's amazing what another set of hands can help get done. This coming week the forecast is looking pretty darn hot which means we'll have to be on top of irrigation more than ever. Aside from watering like crazy we'll continue to seed, plant, harvest and repeat. It's a busy time of the year around here but we love it!

Alright, we hope you all enjoy the bounty this week. It wont always be radishes and kale (we promise!) but we hope you enjoy them while they're here! As always, there are some recipes linked to help you find ways to use up some of the veggies if you need a little inspiration. Thanks again everyone for being a part of the Tumbleweed Farm family. We're so damn thankful for you all! 

Cheers!

Andrea and Taylor

Harvest 2

  1. Kale
  2. French Breakfast Radishes (remove the greens from the tops and store them separately so the radishes don't get soft.)
  3. Turnips (remove the greens from these too!)
  4. Arugula
  5. Garlic Scapes (our favorite!)
  6. Microgreens 
  7. Mustard Greens & Mizuna
  8. Bok Choy
  9. Leeks

Recipe Ideas

Mustard Greens with Balsamic-Glazed Chickpeas (you can also use the mizuna that's in the mustard green bunches!)

Mustard Greens with Balsamic-Glazed Chickpeas (you can also use the mizuna that's in the mustard green bunches!)

2016 Harvest 1

Howdy folks and welcome to week 1 of your 2016 farm share. Thank you to everyone who has joined us for another season and to all of you new folks who are on board with us for the first time. We hope you're hungry!

We're stoked to be back out in the dirt again and hope you all enjoy the fresh spring bounty as much as we do. Over the next few weeks I know we'll all be getting into a flow of harvesting and cooking/eating through the seasons. Spring is a great time to clear out the ol' fridge and make room for some fresh new ingredients. Make sure to stock up on some staples at the store--oils, vinegars, grains, beans, meat and cheese--once you've got the staples mealtime should be pretty easy with the produce you receive each week. We'll include a few recipe ideas each week too if you're in the mood to experiment with some of our favorite ways to prepare what's in your box. Always remember, we're eating the same things as you are because it's whats available on the farm so feel free to check into dishingupthedirt.com for weekly recipe ideas. We hope you have fun in the kitchen and enjoy the fresh taste of Tumbleweed Farm!

Currently on the farm we are planting a lot of summer crops and even have all of our winter squash in the ground! We're planting lettuces, herbs and kale weekly so that we'll have a healthy supply of greens all season long. The greens are looking beautiful and are more flavorful than ever! With that being said we wish we could say the same for the broccoli and potato plants. Unfortunately we've had a horrible battle with gophers who have decimated hundreds and hundreds of plants. We put in another bulk order for potato seed and after a week of panic mode they arrived to the farm and we promptly got them in the ground.  The first round of broccoli has succumbed to gopher damage and root maggot damage and we're bummed to say that we won't have broccoli for quite a while. (we're really sorry about that!) But enough about the damage---the tomato plants are looking beautiful, the kale is plentiful and turnips (which are one of our favorite root vegetables) are sweeter than ever. If you've never had the pleasure of eating a raw turnip please take a bite out of one before cooking it! They are wonderful when cooked but enjoyed raw they simply cannot be beat! Also, the radishes are HUGE and crunchy and delicious. A little butter and sea salt is all you need for a tasty farm fresh snack!

There will be a lot of leafy greens and brassica crops that you'll find in your first few boxes. They are extremely tender right now and are loving this cool spring weather. Enjoy them while they're here because once the heat of the summer comes there flavors will naturally become stronger and some of the greens will be replaced with other summer crops as the season grows and the harvest list changes. 

Thanks again for joining us this year and we look forward to sharing the farm season with you all. 

Cheers from Tumbleweed Farm!

HARVEST 1:

  1. Kale

  2. Bok Choy

  3. Red Choi (a baby bok choy variety)

  4. Arugula

  5. Leeks

  6. Turnips

  7. Radishes

 

Recipe Suggestions: