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Posts Tagged ‘winter’

Wrapping up the Winter Harvest

January 17th, 2010
DeepSeeded Community Farm | Blog

Well… It’s been a great, long season of harvests; and now it’s over. We kept it coming for 32 weeks this year, which is longer than any of the CSA farms in the area, and longer than I’ve ever kept it going before. For the 6-week Winter CSA add-on we had 94 member-households. The harvests were abundant and diverse, and folks were pleased to be getting farm-fresh produce long after the Farmer’s Markets had ceased.

But I’m glad to have stopped when I did. There is still a lot of produce at the farm, but the diversity of the offering is going way down. While the serious locavores might be thrilled with a late-winter harvest of Chard, Kale, Cabbage, Leeks, Potatoes, and Beets, many of my members would get a bit tired.

A realization that I’ve come to is that our climate is not all that great for a late winter CSA. We have enough cold that the crops need to be hardy, but then we get warm, wet stretches that cause roots to rot, leaves to mold, and plants to start bolting long before spring. It seems that the best climates for all-winter CSA’s are those that are either warm enough for crops to keep growing, or consistently cold enough for the field to become like a refrigerator.

Anyway… it’s been a great season, and I’m truly grateful to all who supported me in the farm’s first year!

Tags: CSA, winter, climate, hardiness, diversity

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The Winter CSA has Begun!

November 28th, 2009
DeepSeeded Community Farm | Blog

This year at DeepSeeded Farm, we’ve decided to keep the harvest coming for a few weeks into winter. I planted an acre or so of crops that would mature in the fall and provide harvest a ways into winter. Though it is possible to harvest something from the garden all year long in this climate, I decided to keep the winter CSA to just 6 weeks for a couple of reasons. One, it’s great to get a break from harvest at some point in the year. Secondly, after a while into winter the diversity of crops available for harvest in our climate starts to diminish, and keeping the CSA baskets diverse and interesting becomes challenging. Two farms I like to keep tabs on that are doing all-winter CSA’s are Oakhill Organics in Dayton, OR, and Mendocino Organics in the Redwood Valley area of Mendocino county, CA.

Our winter CSA runs 6 week for $120 ($20/wk) and includes eight to ten of the following items each week: Arugula, Beets, Broccoli, Brussels Sprouts, Bok Choi, Cabbage, Carrots, Cilantro, Chard, Celery, Cauliflower, Fennel, Kale, Lettuces, Leeks, Parsnips, Potatoes, Spinach, Sunchokes, and Winter Squash. We are now full at 90 members!

Tags: winter CSA, variety, oakhill organics, mendocino organics

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Transition

November 15th, 2009
DeepSeeded Community Farm | Blog

Among the things I love about farming is the seasonality. Though there is much work to do throughout the year on my farm, and I can definitely feel run through the wringer at times, I feel lucky to not be doing the same thing day in and day out. Next week marks the end of our mainseason CSA, and our winter CSA begins the following week. We will shift from two CSA harvests each week to just one. In the fields, cover crop is now germinating on all the crop-free ground, our overwinter crops are… Read the rest of this article »

Tags: cover crop, winter CSA, seasonality, overwinter

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Photo-Preview of the Winter Harvest

October 25th, 2009
DeepSeeded Community Farm | Blog

Our Mainseason CSA goes for just four more weeks, and then we’ll jump right into the Winter CSA. I’m offering an additional 6 weeks of harvests to keep supplying my members with ultra-fresh local produce after the Farmer’s Market has ended! While there are CSA’s that harvest the entire year, and I’m definitely inspired by what they do, a 32-week harvest season is as much as I’m willing to take on at present. Our winter harvests will include: Carrots, Beets,… Read the rest of this article »

Tags: farmer's market, winter CSA, seasonal eating

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Chipping Away at the Fall Projects

October 25th, 2009
DeepSeeded Community Farm | Blog

What a month! On top of the still-abundant harvests, there is so much to do to get ready for winter. The crew, the interns, and I have all been working hard and making serious progress. We’re almost done digging potatoes, the winter squash is in, all of the outdoor fall/winter crops are planted, the garlic is in, beds are ready for next year’s strawberries, mulch & drip lines are out of the field, old crops are under, aisles are tilled, row-cover is on… But we’re… Read the rest of this article »

Tags: cover crop, greenhouse, harvest, winter, strawberries

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Jerusalem Artichokes!

October 17th, 2009
DeepSeeded Community Farm | Blog

Although my CSA harvests lean heavily toward the most popular produce items, I do like to throw in some less common foods. One of these this year is Jerusalem Artichokes (Helianthus tuberosus), or Sunchokes. I like to brush them with olive oil and roast them in the oven with other roots, or to chop them into my minestrone soup. They have a mild, nutty flavor and are high in iron and fiber. As a crop in the garden, they are super productive - my patch yielded about 3.5lbs per row foot! They… Read the rest of this article »

Tags: winter, storage, recipes, sunchokes, prolific

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Still Catching Up

October 15th, 2009
Four Frog Farm | Blog

The rain is here…the fields are wet…20 weeks of CSA boxes filled…I still want to catch you up on early October. The beginning of the month brought a vacation for Logan. That was much-needed for him. We just continued the regular - harvesting, weeding, and also taking up irrigation in fields in preparation for disking and planting cover crop. We knew the rains were coming sometime this week, so our efforts were spent preparing space for garlic (to be planted after these rains),… Read the rest of this article »

Tags: rain, winter squash

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The Winter Garden

August 9th, 2009
DeepSeeded Community Farm | Blog

The main-season CSA at DeepSeeded Farm still has 15 weeks to go, but for the last few weeks my mind has been on the winter garden. I’m planning on offering an additional 8 weeks of CSA harvests beginning right before Thanksgiving, and most of the planting for this is now done. We have a pretty mild winter climate here, so we can easily harvest veggies from the garden throughout the winter ...but unlike many other parts of California, most cool-season veggies will not continue to grow… Read the rest of this article »

Tags: CSA, greenhouse, winter, storage crop

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A lot is happening…

February 2nd, 2009
Four Frog Farm | Blog

It has been a while, but now that the throes of winter are deep (or super hot like it has been here) now’s a good time to catch up. I’ve been doing a lot of relaxing, a lot of staring at my computer, a lot of spread-sheet making. A lot of overkill planning for this upcoming season. That is the funny thing about farming in the foothills. The season is long. However, there’s enough of a break to make your hands idle. And, you know, idle hands end up doing… Read the rest of this article »

Tags: andrew, cold season, damping off, four frog farm, starting, tomatoes, winter

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Last Market finito

October 29th, 2008
Four Frog Farm | Blog

I went to the last Tuesday market in Nevada City today. It was a busy market. So many people came out. We haven’t had such a busy market all year. It was nice to end it with plenty of shoppers. For my part, I brought lots of kale, chard, eggplant, peppers, lettuce mix, winter squash, cherry tomatos, peas, basil, celery and broccoli. It was a nice close to the season for me. Although, I have a solid week of work before the season is over for me. Honestly, these last two months have… Read the rest of this article »

Tags: basil, broccoli, celery, chard, cherry tomatoes, eggplant, farmer's market, kale, lettuce mix, peas, peppers, winter squash

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Three farms are starting from scratch.

They are turning the dirt and hoping to be successful enough to turn a profit, and to become a valuable part of their communities as suppliers of organically grown food.

Peaceful Valley is giving them a head start by offering them special pricing as part of this Freshman Farmer program.

The Farm Blogs

Freshman:
New Farms Coming Soon!
Sophomores:
	Daily Grace Farms Crescent City, CA
	Freestone Family Farm Vernal, UT
	Wise Moon Farm Redding, CA
Graduates:
	Coyote House Farm Palermo, CA
	DeepSeeded Community Farm Arcata, CA
	Driftwood Farm Fort Bragg, CA
	EarthDance Farm St. Louis, MO
	Ellwood Canyon Farms Goleta, CA
	Four Frog Farm Penn Valley, CA
	Hand Sown Homegrown Heritage Farm Poulsbo, WA
	Home Plate Organic Farm Orleans, CA
	Honey in the Heart Farm Nevada City, CA
	Willow Springs Farm Penn Valley, CA