Questions about the farm, CSA, or witty advice please email me at kathyjross19@gmail.com.

Thursday, May 31, 2012

Day 62

New things a brewing! Today we started out with trellising the tomatoes in lower field, which took 3 1/2 hrs, not good times, but good that we have it done...for now. Those plants are shooting way up there! Erica took a before shot of the soon to be trellised tomato trees, then was so tired forgot about the after shot (I forgot my camera all together). Ripe tomatoes coming soon...Oh and after shots of trellising so you can message how great they look.

After that, we headed on to plant lettuce in the hoop house. We prepped the beds then transplanted three different varieties. This lettuce got a fancy shade cloth because it's not a summer crop and needs the shade. I agree with the lettuce, too hot, it was about 100 degrees in the hoop house today. I would have bought air conditioning today if it had been possible. They need people on the road selling air conditioning for your house, car, hoop house Fantastic idea #238746.
Is there room under there for two, lettuce?


Pretty Beans...green ones

Wild Tomatillo
 Lunch break for all, then I went to harvest with Cory while the others transplanted more sweet potatoes. You see, market is tomorrow instead of Saturday. There's an event at the church where we have our market this Saturday, so they switched us to Friday night 4-8. I'll be going on that adventure. There's supposed to be an Iron Chef Competition and it's also supposed to rain, more on that tomorrow though. While harvesting green beans I ran right into an Asian wonderland plant, okay, it's not really called that but it should be with those little lanterns. It's a wild tomatillo, a weed, but a cool one and contains cancer-fighting compounds and has been linked to the cure for cancer! Move over garlic flower, I got a new favorite plant...weed. We finished up harvesting komatsuna, cauliflower, broccoli, kale and garlic for market and called it a day.
I love them
ps, Erica and I cooked the kohlrabi tonight and it turns the water purple, which is about the only awesome thing about it. Raw it tastes somewhat like a cabbage, mashed it just didn't cut it. It looks cool, but buy a potato.

Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Day 61

The end. No, okay, I'll start at the beginning, but just know the end is the part I like most! We harvested sunflowers for a florist working with a couple asking for organic flowers for their wedding. Then we pulled up all the carrots in the bed next to the hoop house *ahem* as seen in pic. After carrots we split up and intern Jason and I went to harvest potatoes, the Purple Vikings and Kerrs Pinks.

Now the fun part, and by fun I mean work...which isn't really fun but more so the outcome is fun. Get on with it I know, we did the assembly line for CSA. Here's what's cookin, or about to be!

In the box:
-2# mixed Summer Squash and Zucchini
-1# Cucumber
-1 head Komatsuna
-1# Broccoli OR Broccolini
-1 bunch Swiss Chard
-1 bunch Carrots OR 1 pint Blackberries (but probably carrots...)
-2 heads Kohlrabi
1.5# New Potatoes- purple and white
-1 head Garlic
 I delivered today and was running late which I'm still not getting used to, I'm going to have to sneak away 30 mins early from now on. I did get to talk to new restaurant owners at The Spence, and a lot of CSA members that were there to pick up the goods. They all wanted to chat about just what is kohlrabi or komatsuna and how do you cook it? I referred them to Cory's email: "Komatsuna isn't as frightening as it sounds. Another Asian green, it can be prepared with any of the greens recipes, we've shared before. It has a thicker leaf that stands up better to longer cooking times, so we like to think of it as an Asian Collard." He also compared the Kohlrabi to an alien spaceship which is so immature, it clearly looks like an octopus. He went on to say "The crunchy globes are extremely versatile, and can be eaten raw, steamed, mashed or sauteed." Yummy!

After finishing up my late day I found a little Jamaican shack advertising veggie wraps, smoothies, etc. I tripped in all in a hurry and he told me to calm/sit down and started making my wrap while singing to some Reggae music. So I did.

Tuesday, May 29, 2012

Day 60



And I'm back! It's always hard going back to work after a great, long weekend, but it's hard to be in a bad mood after picking blackberries. Here's my day's rundown, Cory showed me the honey they collected yesterday and told me that we are going to check on them in two weeks to make sure the queen is there and happy...doing queen stuff. The old queen abandoned ship with half her workers because they were too crowded, queens need there space people. Hopefully the workers built a new queen; they do that by selecting certain larva and feeding them royal jelly. Side note: I also eat royal jelly and if I start taking on royal-like tendencies don't be alarmed. They actually build several queens but the first one out will stab the other queens, yikes! A queen can keep her stinger and sting multiple times. In other words, don't mess with the queen.


Kohlrabi
 We harvested for CSA today and began with garlic, broccoli, broccolini (eat the stalks not so much the flower), komatsuna, and kohlrabi. What's kohlrabi? Good question! Think of it like cabbage. The taste and texture of kohlrabi are similar to those of a broccoli stem or cabbage heart, but milder and sweeter. The young stem in particular can be as crisp and juicy as an apple, although much less sweet. Or so I've heard, haven't tried it yet but will keep you kohlrabi updated. I made the deliveries today around town and was running behind, well, we were running behind...I'd be on time if it were up to me. ;) We picked blackberries around lunch, I taste tested them and they were delicious...and safe for customers (I'm here for you customers, I do a lot of unauthorized taste tests...for you). Anyhoodly, we harvested more potatoes and packaged up most everything to get ready for me to deliver around Atlanta tomorrow.

Largest Zucchini...Ever
There's a whole bunny family by the barn

Friday, May 25, 2012

Day 59

I'm writing this mid-day because farmgirl has an awesome weekend planned and will need to leave right away! So, harvesting. We harvested more sunflowers than I ever thought possible, and they were beautiful and I felt like apologizing to each one when I cut them. Then we harvested carrots, squash, chard, kale and broccolini. Also some Zinnia's that were looking sizzling today, that sounded like I was hitting on them or something, I'm not, but they did look nice.

We also have some watermelons coming up!!!! Oh yeah! So Cory and I picked blackberries while Erica went on a run to Farms on Floyd. The shocker of the week is that the strawberries have made a come back and are ready for the sequel part 8 or something, amazing...couldn't believe it.

Next on the agenda is harvesting some potatoes for market, which we've never done before. I did try some of them and they were good. One of them was purple, Purple Viking, you cut open the tater and purple on the inside too! Go figure.


Have a wonderful Memorial Day Weekend everyone!

Thursday, May 24, 2012

Day 58

These are my pants...clean
 12+ hour workdays...did it! We started out bright and too early prepping the beds in the hoop houses. That means hoeing, raking, more raking, composting, "the claw"(wheel hoe attachment) breaks up the soil, then raking again cause why not? Once that was finished Erica and intern Jason planted cucumbers while Cory and I wheel hoed at Gus' for a hot minute, 25 hot minutes to be exact, before calling it quits for lunch.

We rallied and headed to pasture field to pull up old sweet potatoes plants in the strawberries. Apparently you can replant them and they do just fine. Cory had a hard time ordering slats for cheap; organic sweet potatoes are $1 a slat which adds up fast! Cory said one chef can't wait for these and said our sweet potatoes tasted like toasted caramel. Toasted caramel?!! I might turn into a sweet potato burglar if that's true.
Sweet Potato Chaos!
 I put water in the transplanter then helped Erica, Daniel, and Jason with plastic row coverings. Side contemplation: I think I would do without the plastic on my next farm given the choice it's unnecessary with enough (wo)man power among other reasons. After that Daniel found a few tomato hornworms, and I admit I was fascinated and will have trouble killing them. They look like they have eyes on their sides and they really have a horn! Cory said there's tobacco ones too, only they're brown, which makes me think of the caterpillar in Alice in Wonderland smoking that hookah, you know, hippy caterpillars, I guess the tobacco hornworm is a redneck version of that.
Wicked!
Next Cory, Logan his brother, me and Brody the collie went to lower field 2 to plant the sweet potatoes. We had a hiccup when we missed a planting hole for 3 rows (wasn't working properly no water) so we went back and mixed up varieties. Cory said he works better with chaos anyway, it's nice to have a laid back boss. We got off around 7:20...what a day!
Brody show dog/farm helper



Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Day 57


Pretty good day! We got a lot done, starting with Kale. Lemme tell you a story about kale. Kale is very healthy for you and I feel like patting myself on the back everytime I eat it; Kale is rich in Vitamins A and C, high in potassium, calcium and iron, and is a good source of fiber. We cleared part of Gus' field to make room for new veggies, but before chopping down the kale and cabbage, we saved the seeds.
Bush Hog, it's really called that!

This is how:
Death by hanging
Kale, like many greens, will continue producing leaves you can harvest and eat during cool weather, but once the temperatures rise, kale plants will start producing seeds, a process called bolting. Kale plants create hundreds of tiny flowers on stems that grow out of the center of the plant. After the flower petals fall off, in a couple weeks, you can see little pods forming on the stems (where the seeds are).  The pods ripened and dried on the plant, then we cut the stem and took those little pods back to the barn. We hung them up to dry  for a few weeks. Next we'll remove the seeds from their pods and save them until August, when they're ready to grow again! If you can't stand the heat get out of the field.

After that, Erica and I bunched basil which smelled so nice and looked pretty, I remember the days when I used to feel like that. Right now I'm sewing a knife sheath, sure that's not what mom had in mind when she taught me to sew. Enough about pretty and sewing, on to good stuff, next we set up for our CSA assembly line:

In The Box
-1 bunch white spring Onions
-1 bunch mixed Beets
-1 bag Burge Salad Mix (Lettuce, Arugula, Baby Asian Greens)
-1 bunch Lacinato Kale
-1.5# Summer Squash OR Zucchini
-1 bunch baby Radishes or baby Turnips
-1 bunch Swiss Chard
-1# Cucumbers OR 1 bunch baby Carrots
-1 Sunflower/Basil Bouquet
Erica delivered 75 boxes to Atlanta, while we irrigated everything like crazy. Intern Jason and I pulled off the trellising and Daniel let me try to pull up the T-Posts. There's a tool that helps but when I put all my weight on it it didn't budge so I jumped on it and hung...didn't help but I think the guys got a kick out of it. Some were easier then others and we got it done in about 45 mins. I weedeated around the hoophouses and watered the greenhouses then called it a day! Whew!



Tuesday, May 22, 2012

Day 56


We'sa startin early folks! Went in today at 7:00am and will from now until we go in even earlier. Yikes! We did get a lot accomplished this morning, shall I start? So, intern Jason harvested cucumbers and squash, I harvested sunflowers, Erica harvested beets. Then I moved on to radishes and turnips and Erica harvested carrots. After a 30 minute lunch we returned and headed to Jeff Cook field. Erica and Jason harvested Lacinato Kale, and I was in charge of Rainbow chard. Reflection: This is my second time choosing to harvest the chard, I don't even like chard but I think the bright colors draw me in.

We journeyed back to clean and bunch before the Tuesday drop off CSA delivery. I think this was the smoothest harvesting day we've had in 5 weeks; we had enough, dare I say, produce! Some veggie's were picked too early, like the onions and radishes, but overall it's an awesome box this week.

Okay, so the best part of today, we got off early and Erica, Puddy, and I went to hang out by the pool :) Good times! I'll spare you the pictures because my farmer's tan might blind you. Then chef Andrew came out with his sous chef Penny and we chatted and I asked about inside the Main House because I'm nosey like that. They said it was open, chef Andrew was doing a scotch tasting tonight. So we toured around and I saw a Renoir! Beautiful.

Sorry, there's wasn't a no glare angle

Then we ventured up to the spooky museum attic. I'm not kidding, spook city. There were old clothes, dolls, a ouija board, photos, awards, cameras. Just about everything...for a Ghost Hunters episode.  

Monday, May 21, 2012

Day 55

Bittersweet day; we worked in my favorite field doing my two nemesis jobs: weeding and trellising. Started out with me and intern Jason transplanting tomatoes in the remaining empty rows. These needed to be transplanted about three weeks ago (they already needed a trellis), so this was a new challenge transplanting plants that come to my knees! After that I wheel hoed for a hot minute until I went to help Daniel with the T-Posts.

Daniel and I went on an adventure after that. It's always an adventure because you never know where you're going with him, he'll say "Khaki come bailing twine, water, harvest". Which ended up meaning, "Kathy would you come with me to harvest squash, grab more twine for trellising then water the greenhouses?" Yes, I will and did. The squash looked amazing, there's Zephyr squash (yellow) and over with the zucchini you'll find Italian striped showing off. Those Italians.

I had a whole cucumber for a pre-lunch snack, a perk of working on a farm. This is off topic, but now I dream about farm things, like I dreamt of cured onions the other night, do you know how odd that is when you wake up and think back, yep those were onions in my dream? Anyhoodle, cucumbers are amazingly delicious, yet another vegetable that tastes completely different coming from the farm. I wish you could taste it, perfect summer time veggie. They originated from India, and have been cultivated for at least 3,000yrs. These dudes need to be trellised otherwise they start growing crazy circular and not elongated with tapered ends.




After my adventure, I went back to the field where we did more trellising and weeding. My technique went back to what I used at first which was weaving in and out of the plants for trellising instead of just pulling tight on each side from post to post. Oh, and when I was walking home I ran into these guys :)  

Saturday, May 19, 2012

Day 54


  Market Day. Cory went to Boston, so it was just me and intern Jason at the wheels! I met up with Jason around 7:30 to set up everything. We call Cory a food stylist because he has a talent for staging the produce which he will admit to every now and then. Jason and I have little practice with food styling but gave it our all. Then depending on what was selling we repositioned. Hey, this is important sales is looks, strategy, and bargaining. We had some of that ;)
Everyone setting up for market


Today was slower, we sold out of strawberries, asparagus, carrots and towards the end beets, radishes and surprisingly rainbow chard (go chard!). I met one of the chefs from the Ritz Carlton and sold him some garlic flowers to use in some of their dishes. He said he dehydrates the flowers to keep them longer and uses the stem as well. One pastry vendor whom I had sold red cabbage to and talked to for awhile brought me two of her red cabbage strudels today, how sweet! I also bought some okra pickled with vinegar, salt, peppers, garlic and dill, so good! Thanks market.

Okra pickling girls and puppy!