As spring makes its presence more definite, here are a few bits of news and updates from the farm week:
Spring ground work: smoothing tunnel beds for seeding beets and carrots with the power harrow, after loosing the soil with broad forks. Outside, beds mulched for winter with alfalfa hay, and a caterpillar tunnel with overwintered chard, kale, and beds ready for peas.
Last Thursday marked the very first of the baby greens seeded in the ground. We’ve been seeding in the nursery for weeks, but it’s always a big milestone to put the first seeds of food into the actual earth. Protected with row cover inside of the tunnel, they just started to emerge this week, while the next rounds of seeds, including one tunnel full of beets and carrots, went in right on time too. It’s crazy to realize that this kicks of the start of 30 weeks in a row, now through mid-September, of seeding a suite of greens every single week, and additional crops on many of those weeks as well.
2021’s first greens emerging.
This time of year, a lot of our days are spent getting ground ready—broadforking, hand-pulling perennial weeds, moving tarps, setting up trellis, spreading soil amendments like alfalfa meal, compost, and other slow release organic fertilizers. On Friday Sabrina tackled quackgrass in the caterpillar tunnel that will get the next round of salad greens, Noah kept up the push on the upgrades to Tunnel 1 (because what would spring be without at least one infrastructure project taking more time than we anticipated?), we started using our new vacuum seeder purchased through a grant from CFAC, to seed many more flats of greens, lettuces, and scallions for spring transplanting.
Trellising for peas, going into the caterpillar tunnel next to overwintered chard and Kale, which are supplying the leaves for our cooking mix and Frittata kits!
Support beginning farmers!
We also have almost entirely filled our farm membership; just a couple of feedbags remain, and we are so appreciative of everyone who has joined. Since we are practically full, we want to encourage the rest of you to consider supporting some other beginning farmers; if you’ve been on the fence about a full 6-month membership commitment with us, didn’t get around to signing up before we filled, or just want to try something new, check out the CSA offerings from Jay and Ashlee at Fern Co in Stevensville. They just started farming here last year but have years of experience working for another farm, and will be growing some great food for the community this season. Talking with them lately as we sort out some group orders, borrow and lend tools, etc., has us remembering how challenging our first years of trying to fill memberships were, before anyone really knew us. It makes us ever more grateful for the relationships we’re a part of in our community, that allow us to spend more time in the spring planting seeds instead of working so hard on member recruitment. A few selling points of the Fern Co. farm membership: 18 weeks of produce, great for folks who might not be so keen on the shoulder-season offerings (like the greens, greens, greens of May), or are interested in monsly peak-season produce. Second, they just invested in a heater for their greenhouse, meaning tomatoes far earlier than most farms in the area! You can learn more about their program and options here.
We really believe that more successful, thriving farms in our community is a good thing for all of us, so please check them out. On a similar note, did you know that The O’Hara Commons is offering an online market, assembling products from a range of local producers? Check that out too, at https://www.theoharacommons.org We have a few offerings there each week—they are more expensive than at our farmstore because the organization has costs associated with assembling, storing, and handling the products, but the advantage is you can pick up loads of things from other producers too—ferments, diary, cheeses, meats, honey, and more, all in one stop.
Support beginning chickens!
The poultry Class of 2021 is really starting to come into their own, filling two solid baskets of eggs per day. Many are starting to size up to standard large size, but many eggs are still in the petit size category, which we sell at $6 per 18-pack, as pullet eggs. Pullet is just a term for young hens; we realized recently someone thought it might be a totally different species of bird! Basically these are the first efforts, the eggs of beginning chickens, if you will. They are stil totally tasty and delicious, but it’s true they can throw off a recipe that calls for X number of eggs. That’s one reason we are making a special meal-pack deal with the pullet eggs this week: spring pullet egg frittata kits. For $10, pick up a 1.5 dozen carton of pullet eggs, a bag of cooking mix (small tender leaves of rainbow chard and kale), and a bag of micro-greens for garnish. It makes a great spring meal, paired with your favorite crusty bread or whole grains, and leftovers are a staple farm breakfast.
Colorful cooking mix of chard and kale.
SweetRoot Spring Frittata Directions:
In addition to the ingredients from the farm, you’ll need:
-large slosh of milk, cream, or ½ and ½ (third to half a cup)
-cup or so of grated cheese of your choice
-one medium onion
-couple of cloves of garlic (2 to infinity, depending on your taste)
-oil or butter for sautéing
-salt and pepper to taste
-2-3 tablespoons fresh herbs, or 2-3 teaspoons dried herbs. The possibilities of herbs to use are endless, but some of our favorite combos are: basil/ rosemary/ thyme; parsley/ celery seed/ black pepper; cumin/ red chili flakes/ cilantro; thai chili flakes/ thai basil/ curry powder; chives/ parsley/ celery leaf or celery seed.
How to make an SRF style frittata:
-preheat oven to 350-375
-chop onion, garlic, cooking greens, and any other veggies you want to include
-heat up a large skillet that can also go into the oven for baking (cast iron is ideal)
-sauté onions and garlic for a few minutes till they soften
-while they are cooking, crack and beat the entire 18-pack of pullet eggs in a large bowl, with the milk or cream
-add ½ the herbs, a little salt (we probably use about ½ teaspoon) and the chopped greens to the pan, cook another 1-2 minutes, just till greens start to soften and turn brighter green
-turn off the heat, and pour the eggy mixture into the pan, nudging it around to distribute the veggies evenly and remove any air bubbles
-sprinkle the grated cheese and the second half of the herbs over the top (it’s ok if you forgot and added all the herbs already, that works too), and slide the pan into the oven to make for 35-45 minutes (will depend a lot on the size of your pan and the depth of your frittata). It’s finished when it has puffed up to the max, the cheese is nicely browned, and a knife inserted in the middle comes out clean, no runny egg residue.
Add the microgreens, whole or chopped, to the top as you serve for an additional taste of spring!
Way behind the scenes: bits of farm-made hardware, new and reclaimed lumber, and our custom sliding tunnel door setup from the air, as work on updating tunnel 1 continues. At least Noah has a big spread of chickens in view in the background as he works.