CSA week 3

Only one thing to write about this week: rain. Our rain gauge total for the month thus far is 3.49 inches - going no more than 2 days without recorded rainfall. And rain is in the forecast for tonight and tomorrow. Obviously other sections of the country have had much worse experiences with excess rainfall recently and all we have is soggy soil, but there's been no tilling, no cultivating and no direct seeding here. That leaves a lot of hand weeding! Admittedly these are good conditions for that, but it takes up a lot time. And we've been able to get a few already prepared beds transplanted. I am sure we are not the only farmers in the area worried about the diseases that struck so hard last year under similar conditions - late blight and downy mildew. We'll be scouting for signs of their arrival!
As you can see below we are beginning to harvest a few more crops. Including garlic scapes. Please note our always popular garlic scape pesto recipe and enjoy some on your pasta while they last!

Raw Scape Pesto

Garlic scapes make a pesto that is a pretty green color and a knock-your-socks-off rich garlic flavor. If this pesto is too strong for your taste, add mayonnaise or sour cream to dilute by 1/1 or even 2/1.

½ lb. scapes (chopped into 1" sections)
1½ c. olive oil
2 c. grated parmesan cheese

In a blender, combine the scapes and olive oil. Pour mixture into bowl and blend the cheese in by hand. Can be used as a cracker or pizza spread. Can be frozen in plastic ice cube trays and used later - this applies to the other pestos, dips, and dressings as well. Put them in a freezer bag, use all year for making bruschetta, with pasta or pizza.

ALSO, garlic bread: 2 or 3 cubes thawed works great as a substitution for the oil component of bread.

This week's vegetables:
Kale
Chard
Broccoli
New Potatoes
Peas
Beets
Garlic Scapes
Lettuce
Lettuce Mix
Frisee
Spinach

Next week's (expected) vegetables:
Broccoli
New Potatoes
Peas
Beets
Garlic Scapes
Lettuce
Lettuce Mix
Carrots
Zucchini/Summer Squash
Raspberries

2nd week of CSA

First of all I apologize for the late post. Blogger has been giving us troubles in posting and uploading photos. So, sorry but still no pictures.

As I'm sure you've noticed the harvest season has gotten off to a slow start - as usual. You've gotten mostly greens and the quantity has been rather low.

But with all this rain the crops are growing well. And thanks to those CSA members who came out for our weeding session last weekend we were able to eliminate the weeds in our broccolis and cabbages and most of our tomatoes and peas were trellised, too.

If we could download photos you'd see some of the newly hatched chicks in the birdhouses Liz has placed around the farm. And you'd see Liz planting our ginger in the caterpillar tunnel. And the lush, new green growth of the tomatoes planted at our May CSA event.

And you'd see pictures of our poor truck after it had been rolled. Yes, that right! Liz was driving home from farmers' market last Thursday when it happened. We had been up late the previous night and had been up early harvesting. Then after a busy day at market, Liz says she must have been more tired than she realized and when she opended them again she was driving on the side of the road. It was when she tried to get back on the road that the truck rolled. Amazingly she crawled out of the truck with only a few cuts and the x-rays and catscan at the emergency room all were negative.
Let this be a lesson to everyone - don't drive tired. Take a nap!!!
And if we could show you photos, you could see our new pickup truck! This is not the time of year for us to be without a truck for any length of time. So, as if we needed something else to do, Saturday we went out truck shopping and came home with our previous truck's green twin.

This week's vegetables (I know its kind of late):
lettuce
greens mix
radishes
frisee
carrots
green onions
spinach

Next week's (expected) vegetables:
lettuce
garlic scapes
baby carrots
beets
broccoli
new potatoes
radishes
maybe kale and chard
a few zucchini

Thought you might appreciate a salad dressing recipe!:

Staple Maple Dressing
1 c Canola Oil
5 oz. Olive OIl
1/2 C balsamic vinegar
1/4 tsp fresh ginger
1/4 tsp. salt
pinch of pepper
1 1/4 tsp crushed garlic
2 T maple syrup
3/4 soy sauce

Mix together.

CSA week 1

Welcome to Muddy Fingers Farm CSA's 8th year.





Our May 22 CSA workday was a pleasant event with nice weather and several families coming out to experience the farm. After lunch we headed to the field and planted 2 beds of tomatoes and 2 beds of potatoes. While the potatoes are not up yet, the tomatoes are doing great in all of this heat we had last week. Thanks to all who showed up to lend a hand.





Farm Update:


Its been hot, hot, hot. We've irrigated the last couple days for the first time


And we've been getting in all of our summer crops as fast as we can - beans, tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, cucumbers, summer squash. While hoping that our mature spring crops - radishes, lettuce, spinach can hold on for our first week CSA harvest before they start to bolt.

Good thing we finally got our new (used) cooler put together and the air conditioner and Coolbot installed (The Coolbot is a nifty little device that connects to the air conditioner and tricks it into continue cooling the room down to as low as 32 degrees)

We also got our new root washer. It is not installed yet and we probably won't need to use it until August.

Hopefully Blogger will cooperate with our computer again soon and we can get some more pictures posted

This week's (expected) vegetables:


Carrots


Frisee/Endive


Lettuce


Dill


Cilantro


Spinach


Leeks


Radishes

CSA right around the corner now...

Hello friends of the farm, I hope the spring is treating you well. It has been a weather rollercoaster around here. We’ve had heat, we’ve had cold, we’ve had rain, and we’ve had none, it seemed that we would have to be watering back in late April until the rain started coming reliably and so much so that we have had trouble getting in to till the soil. In all weather fun, we even had our first hail storm! NO damage, so don’t worry, it would have been funny to see us from the outside of the house, noses pressed against the window as we watched those little pellets fly. It was the longest minute of the day, but we made it!

Speaking of dramatic weather, we were away for the night on Friday to go to the memorial service for Matthew’s beloved grandfather. Our neighbors were kind enough to water our greenhouse and care for the farm. We had no idea that there would be a windstorm with 40+ mile per hour gusts. One or more of which took the top right off of our greenbarn! (Our greenhouse that is used like a barn) Our neighbor was kind enough to pick up everything in the building that would get ruined by being rained on, it was so nice to come home and find every single tool and cardboard box safely stored in our walk in cooler, where it would stay dry.

And speaking of normal weather, worry not about the frosts and even snow flurries of the last few nights. We certainly have lots of plants in the ground and the only ones that could be harmed by a frost are the few rows of the earliest potatoes that are up six inches tall. We covered them last night, but even if they do freeze, they will regrow, but we would like them as early as possible, so we don’t want to lose them.

This is a busy week, we are glad to be hosting two high school groups and to be speaking at a middle school career day all through the career development council. It is really gratifying to have farming be considered a career that we may want to introduce our youngsters to. With the average age of farmer’s today being well in the 50s, we will be glad to have young people entering farming in the future.

For those members who pick up in Elmira, we hope you will be excited to see the farmer’s market that will be happening in Grove park on Monday evenings. While we have not technically received permission for the market yet, at this moment we are just waiting for the paperwork from a few of the farms to get turned into the city. We will let you know when it is official, but for now, we have ourselves, a flower vendor (corning and WG members will recognize Christina from high meadow flower farm from those markets), an egg and meat vendor, a fruit and veggie vendor, and just today we talked to a food vendor who expressed interest, we’ll see how it pans out. We had asked an ice cream vendor but it doesn’t seem that they will be attending.

We’re thinking tomatoes right now, we spent a little while tonight potting up our plants into larger cells. Last year we tried grafting our favorite tasty heirloom varieties onto disease resistant root stock, but did a poor job of it. This year we tried again and achieved much more success, not a 100% success rate, but far better than last time. When we first attached the tasty variety on the top of the disease resistant bottom, they were very wilted and looked like there was no chance that they could live (see photo) many or most of them took and now they are growing on top of totally new roots- amazing!

Speaking of tomatoes, we will plan to do some transplanting of them at the May 22^nd CSA get together, hope you can make it, we will be starting with a potluck at noon followed by a tour and a little transplanting.

praying mantis case on a tree in the orchard, (they are beneficial insects and we are glad when we see their egg cases.)

that about does it for now, hope to see some of you on saturday the 22nd. and the rest of you in the first week of june when the CSA pickup begins.

liz and matthew

what the heck, weather coordinator?!?

cutting potatoes to plant

plamting potatoes

i would like to lodge a complaint with whomever is in charge of weather. We have had lots and lots of lovely days lately including today, and yesterday, and at least half of Sunday. But Saturday, a nice day it was not! And we hosted our first CSA get together that day, too!




farm tour


When the phone rang at 11 o'clock, i was certain that it would be someone calling to cancel, but what?- it was someone calling to say that they were coming and had not RSVPed, wow! It was chilly with a wind that was a times stiff. But our CSA members were by and large unperturbed! How grand!



we all enjoyed a lovely potluck lunch (inside by the heat of a cozy fire) and then took a tour of the farm. Then we left it up to how we felt if we were going to go out and do a farm project of some kind. when the question was, will you stay or will you go, a four year old member, felt strongly that we should go do something, and i guess everyone else felt that way, too, since we ended up getting three different kinds of potatoes planted. Fun, and thanks for coming out, gang.



we will be crossing our fingers for the may 22nd date that the weather will be warmer and maybe a little sunnier, too. especially since there may be a film maker in attendance. We are taking part in a beginning farmer film series, which cooperative extension, Tompkins county got a grant to do. it will be brief videos of different farm tasks and we are so glad that it is being made, where was this kind of thing when we were getting started?

planting is in full swing and right now onions, broccoli, cabbage, lettuce, carrots, beets, chard, kale, potatoes, spinach, and leeks are in the ground. if you are gardening along at home, its okay to have all of those things in the ground in our area of the country.

happy week, time for sleep!
liz and matthew

.

It has begun!

Hello lovely CSA members, and other various blog readers! The peaceful waiting that we wrote about last time is gone and it is replaced with lots of "to do" lists. Plant this, water that, till this, mulch those over there. Each week has a list, every day has another list. Don't forget to call this place, pick up the last few supplies from the place in penn yan, mail the insurance form to that place before tommorrow, write a letter of support for the grant and find a few other farmers to do it, too. Get final permission in place for the new farmer's market in elmira. Spend hours outside listening to the lovely spring sounds. It is so much fun to be back into the season! (this is not sarcasm, don't worry, we really do like what we do.) the rodents and the snakes have both arrived since we last wrote! here is evidence of the rodent's arrival. No pictoral evidence of the snakes yet, sorry!

lettuces and frisee

I would say, "you should see the farm right now"! It is so beautful, cherries and plums in bloom the garlic plants stretching up through the mulch. Teeny little lettuces in straight rows down the beds, lots of birds nests in funny hidden places (inside a barrel in the hoophouse, two birds in hollow holes in the same dead tree, maybe ducks at the pond), baby broccoli plants under covers in the field. There are brand new plantings of hazelnuts and elderberries (we meant to plant them last year, but had a mixup on the order, so we didn't get them) and soon will be more new yellow raspberry plants. I said, "would say, you should see the farm right now" because you can see the farm right now --saturday is our first CSA get together day! We will start the day with a potluck at noon, bring a dish to pass, then we will have a brief farm tour, then we will be planting some onions and leeks as well as potatoes for an hour or so. Hope you can make it! we will email directions out soon. Don't forget our second CSA get together day which is may 22nd, put it on your calendar now, please!

gemini and liz with the new hazelnuts before they were caged to keep out rabbits, and mulched to keep them moist.

we are planting more ginger this year, here is our unhappy cat modeling how cool the "mother plants" look before we cut them into smaller pieces and plant them.

don't worry, once the CSA season starts, we write every week with recipes and updates, for now, we seem to make it happen monthly, thanks for checking in!

hope to see you saturday, and that your spring is busy and good, too!
liz and matthew

farming, in march

a few old shots of the snow storm that is now ancient history, see the drift outside though?

This time of year feels like the last few days of a pregnancy- restless, ready for the change, aware of the storm of work that is about to arrive, yet not able to begin it until the time has come. The warm beautiful weather is enjoyable, we walk and feel the sun on our faces, we plant the seeds in the greenhouse that it is time for, we check our supplies, and order last minute ones, things lay in the ready, but the time to begin in earnest has not yet arrived. Soon we will look back and wonder what was so wrong with reading for a few hours or taking a walk around the orchard just to enjoy the morning. For now we are restless.

Despite the sense of waiting, it’s a joy to live on a farm and really be a part of the cycles of nature. We wait eagerly each late winter for the signs that spring is arriving. Several weeks ago, we saw the first snow geese heading north- white wings with the lovely black tips, the arrival of red wing black birds lifts our spirits with their distinctive call causing our hearts to give a joyful beat, we can hear them as we sit and seed in the greenhouse. The robins arrive and we are reminded of how they follow us down the beds after we work the soil, getting an easy meal and sticking close to where the soil is being turned. The killdeer calling its own name is a good friend and reminds us to be mindful of where they place their nests on the ground so that we don’t spoil it with the tractor. We remember the times they have nested right in our field and spent hours over the course of the nesting period, faking a broken wing to keep us away from the nest that we are well aware of already. We are holding our breath to see if bluebirds will move into one of our nest boxes again this year, as last year we scored our first brood and we glad to see them hatch and fledge successfully. Last night on the way to light the woodstove in the greenhouse, long vees of Canada geese could be heard moving overhead under the constellations. It is truly a magical time of year!

Most of the action at this time of year revolves around our horse manure hotbed. Basically manure mixed with the bedding in a frame of hay bales , the manure gives off heat as it decomposes, and we keep our seedlings sitting a few inches above it- the right temperature without the use of fossil fuels! We have used these every year that we have been farming, and this year we have answered questions from four other farmers about the “system”, we’d love to see other people get free heat for their seedlings, so it is great to answer questions about it. All of the seedling trays begin in that spot and once they have germinated, they are moved off to make room for the next batch. The greenhouse is better than half full now, and filling with more trays every few days.

there are snow drifts in this one, too, but this is the hotbed with plants being started on top.

Its always exciting to have a sunny warm day at this time of year, because you can almost watch the first tomatoes as they pop up through the soil in the light. Yesterday morning, there were about five tomato seedlings up and visible, and over the course of the day, another 50 or more popped right on through! I’m sure today many more will make their dramatic appearance, slim neck dramatically unfolding from out of the soil to ease any doubt that it knows what its meant to do.

The next step in the cycle is for the rodents to move in. Every year it happens all of a sudden we notice the tunnels in the surface of the manure, and then a few seedlings clipped off (sometimes more than a few). And then the snakes arrive and suddenly the problem is gone. The rodent social network must be faster than the serpentine one, but they always arrive eventually. Then lifting trays becomes interesting, because sometimes you’ll find your finger resting on a strangely smooth, scaly object and as the realization of what is happening hits both parties involved, it slithers rapidly away, and drops neatly down into the manure and disappears.

we had a delicious meal the other night of multi-colored pierogies, which was exqisite! this is a look at them before they were sealed and cooked.

we hope you are eating well and biding the last few days of winter in good spirits and health. Please don't forget the first two CSA days of the season, april 17th and may 22nd. we still have room if you haven't signed up, please do so!

sunny thoughts, liz and matthew