Week of July 25th

This week we have "baby" on the brain! The baby is still comfortably in Cory's belly, but all we can think about is the first time we will get to see her (or him). Cory is very ready, and doing very well. Our crops are hanging in there despite all the hot, hot days we have been having. Thankfully we are getting plenty of rain as well. We have started harvesting green/yellow beans again, and they are good! There should be limited quantities available for this week, as well as plenty of tomatoes and potatoes. The farm is finally getting back in order, and we are excited to say that most of the lawn business has been overtaken by the young man that has been working with me this season! It is amazing how much time is required here, thankfully we love it! Tuesday's drop-off will remain the same, and as always, anyone is welcome welcome to stop by the farm to pick up as well (recently mowed everything, so please take advantage of this opportunity! It would make all the sweating worthwhile!)

This week we have:

Tomatoes - $2.50/lb

Cherry/Roma Tomatoes - $3.00/pint

Potatoes - $2.00/lb (red/white)

French Fillet Beans - $4.00/lb (string-less)

Yellow Wax Fillet Beans - $5.00/lb (string-less)

Tomatillos - $2.00/lb

Swiss Chard - $2.00/bunch

Beets - $2.00/lb (great for juicing!)

Blueberries - $4.00/pint, $7.00/quart, $20/gallon

Squash - $1.50/lb

Cucumbers - $1.50/lb

Zucchini - $1.50/lb

Have a good week! Please email your order by Monday evening, or stop by anytime! Also, feel free to visit us at the farmers markets as well: Thursday in Blowing Rock 4-7pm (I here they have really good lemonade!), and Saturday in Boone 7-12pm.

Waiting for someone to sample lotion...

Found someone!

That was hard work!!

Smoothie time!

Tomato Day

Beautiful, red, organically grown Moskvich tomatoes....

The rest of today's harvest, with plenty more in a couple of days....

Ever seen a Green Zebra? Here it is....

Some pruned, basket-weaved tomatoes...

More....

...

Hoop house squash, very fast growing....

Our little girls...

Farm Update 7/11/10

Well we had another great week here at the farm and at our markets! The chickens have been a hit! We have been definitely enjoying them! All of the rain that we have had this week has been great, and the new crops are coming in very strong. We are trying to keep up with the mulching, which helps tremendously to keep the moisture in the ground. Our second plantings of squash and cukes are doing great, and soon we will have an abundance of them, so remember to stock up for winter canning! If you are interested in canning, we also have tomatoes that will be great for that purpose. They may have a few bad spots, or a split due to the rain, but the flavor and size is perfect for canning. Well our hawk issue has been solved! Thankfully we were able to deter the hawk from coming back simply by running string back and forth from fence to fence (a lot of string!). It appears that it confuses the hawk into thinking that the area is covered! I was pleased to find that the idea i had about doing this had already been tried by others, so it gave me a little more motivation to try it. The bucket of poly line is very inexpensive, so it works great to cover a large area! I was not looking forward to having to purchase netting! Well I tried some of the sesame shoots we had been growing, and they are very bitter. Apparently, from what I was reading, sesame is very soil depleting, so I plan to try again with a richer soil mixture to see if that helps, a lot of trial and error with some of these things, but it sure is fun when it turns out! We are about to start planting lettuce again. I have a bed prepared that is in a much cooler area, so it should work, which means we should be able to offer lettuce again soon!

Tomatoes - $2.50/lb. (slicing) We have Cherokee Purple, Brandywine, Striped German, German  Johnson,   Green Zebra, Dafel, Celebrity, Moskvich, Black Prince.

     Most of the slicing varieties are heirloom, and we may only have a couple lbs. of each  available depending on the demand! They are all very flavorful

and great choices if you are unfamiliar with the varieties.

Roma/Cherry Tomatoes - $2.50/pint or lb.

Canning Tomatoes - $1.00/lb.

Cucumbers - $1.50/lb.

Squash - $1.50/lb. (Yellow Zephyr, Sunburst Patty Pan)

Swiss Chard - $2.00/bunch

Potatoes - $2.00/lb. (red and white)

Onions - $1.50/lb. (purple, white and yellow) we have been eating a lot of onions, very sweet!

Garlic - $1.00/lg. bulb - $.50/sm. bulb (mild flavor)

Honey - $12.00/qt. (limited supply)

Whole Chicken - $3.00/lb.

Chicken Processing Day 2

We had an awesome processing day! We finished by 12 and processed 130 chickens and 1 turkey. Very good day, with lots of great help! I just wanted to let everyone know that we also have boneless-skinless chicken breast and legs and thighs for sale as well. We do have a limited supply this time, so if you are interested please let us know by the weekend, they are sure to go fast at the markets! We are eating chicken for dinner tonight, and soon we will eat the turkey. The turkey ended up dressing out at 11.5 lbs, so we are going to let the others grow a little longer.

Whole Chicken - $3.00/lb. (average weight 4.5 lbs.)
Chicken Breast/tenders - $8.00/lb. (average weight 1.25lbs/2 breast/2 tenders)
Legs/thighs - $3.50/lb. (average weight 2 lbs./2 legs/thighs)

July 6th CSA/Availability

     Hello, Happy 4th to everyone! Hope everyone had a good time and good fellowship! We had a great time up in Bethal with some good friends! Well this week we have a few special extras to offer, which is good because a lot of crops have slowed down due to all the heat! We have Organic Blueberries, freshly picked by us, and they are very good! We sold 10 gallons on Saturday morning before 10 at the market, everyone loved them! This week we will also be offering local honey from a friend of ours, and its some of the better tasting honey we have had. Tomatoes are coming in pretty good now as well. Chicken processing day will be this Tuesday, so if anyone is interested in coming out to the farm on Tuesday evening, let us know. The time and place is still the same, at the Kozaks in Forest Hills between 5-6pm. Here goes:

Tomatoes - $2.50/lb. (slicing, cherry and roma) Most of the slicing varieties are heirloom, and they taste awesome!
Potatoes - $2.00/lb. (red and white)
Onions - $1.50/lb. (purple, white and yellow) we have been eating a lot of onions, very sweet!
Garlic - $1.00/bulb (mild flavor)
Blueberries - $4.00/pint or $7.00/qt. (excellent sweetness)
Honey - $12.00/qt.
Whole Chicken - $3.00/lb.
    
All of these items will be included in the CSA members boxes (chickens as well, if you signed up for that!) as well as beets, swiss chard & pea shoots. I am also trying sesame shoots (not ready yet), so soon we will see how that turns out!