Farm News Crop Forecast
U-Pick Recipes Nuts and Bolts
******WE WILL BE OPEN AS USUAL ON JULY 4th*****
Greetings!
A couple weeks ago it was a dry morning then it rained, again, with a 20% chance forecasted. We were trying to squeeze a pepper planting in before it arrived, but we only got 20 plants in that day. We put everything away and were feeling aimless and out of rainy day projects, so we shrugged our shoulders and went to town and had lunch together. It takes a lot for us sit down that long in the middle of the day!
And that was 2 weeks ago! Since then we’ve had 9″, spread out over many cloudy days. It has been challenging but ok. For our crops and soils, the rain being spread out, with occasional sunny dry days in between (some even windy), has been a huge benefit. Once in 2012 we had 6″ in 2 hours, on top of saturated soils. Other years we’ve had 2-4″ in an hour, a day, or a night. Now we are saturated (the last MN drought designations were removed 2-4 weeks ago), and the strongest showers we’ve had have probably been one inch per hour, only an inch or less at a time. So, it’s been a lot of volume, but like we always say, it’s the hard pounding rains that do the most damage to veggie plants. It bruises and breaks leaves, allowing bacteria and fungi to enter. So far, we’re seeing almost no disease on any of the hundreds of thousands of plants we’ve seeded or set out this spring. That’s amazing!!!!! And we’re very grateful for it. The plants look healthy and ready to take off. We hope they stay that way, since in weather like this plant diseases can spread in a hurry.
The other major challenge with this amount of rain is erosion. Growing veggies at our scale pretty much requires having bare, exposed soil. We’ve done so much to reduce erosion — feeding and building soil with minerals and compost, cover cropping every winter and some fields in the summer too, and building berms and waterways. The berms and waterways are really working great — this much rain 10 years ago on this farm would have made much larger and longer lasting “puddles”, and moved a lot more soil. We’re proud to say that (to our knowledge) no soil leaves our farm, and when water does, at the height of the intense rains, it is clear water and has filtered through at least 20 feet of tall grass. Still there’s room for improvement, on our driveways and maybe with a couple more berms. Add it to the list!
As for those healthy plants, what happens the next couple weeks will be critical in determining how bountiful a harvest we have. Too many more cloudy rainy days and the fungi and bacteria will probably take hold and spread, like mold in a shower. Sometimes that reduces yields a lot, sometimes it doesn’t. Enough dry days and they’ll stay at bay; and enough warm and sunny days and they’ll grow faster than Jack’s magic beanstalk. They’ve got good roots now and are primed and ready.
The dry days we’ve had have been just enough for us to get in the fields and do what needs doing — weeding, planting, cultivating. Also we’ve been able to spray probiotics and fish fertilizer, and some extra micronutrients, to help the plants have what they need to stay healthy and fight off the pathogens. We’ve done this for many years — we learned the hard way after a bunch of very wet years that the crops really benefit from the extra boost. We sent our first leaf/sap samples to “the lab” last week — with a consultants help, we’ll compare the nutrient levels we have now with target levels, and go back out and foliar feed the nutrients they need to thrive.
In addition to finding more rainy day projects — cleaning, organizing, fixing — the last few weeks have been filled with planting, watering and weeding, and the harvests for your shares. The next couple months are a steady round of plant, weed, harvest (and water if we ever need to) — but the planting now is at a much less furious pace, and the weeding is more spaced out as the crops mature and the weeds grow at different rates too, depending on when they were last weeded. We’ll seed greens and lettuce every week for 20 weeks (we’ve already planted 7) , herbs and beans every other week, broccoli and cabbage every 1-2 weeks (we’ve done 6 of 10 so far), summer squash and cucumbers every 2-3 weeks (just one more left), and more. We have 3 plantings of tomatoes and 4 of peppers, to spread those harvests out as long as we can into the fall. Carrots and beets we seed every 3 weeks, and the last ones of the year (for October harvest) will get planted in the next couple weeks.
It’s always weird to plant the last planting of some crops before the harvest has really gotten rocking. But we put them in and hope, and trust that the plants and soil have what they need to feed us all even in rough weather. And we eat what’s here now!
Crop Forecast
These couple weeks are a transition from spring to summer crops, so we will have some new things but likely will need to have limits on the summer crops as they gain momentum.
This week — Leaf and head lettuce, scallions, radishes, salad turnips, boc choi, kohlrabi, kale and chard, and some broccoli and cabbage. Beets and carrots next week. The warmer it is, the sooner we get to eat this next round of crops!
The cool weather has been great for the spring crops though, keeping them mild, preventing radishes from splitting and head lettuce from going.
Next week we should have summer squash, zucchini, beets and carrots. Asparagus is done for the season. We have a small final amount of scapes for this week.
The first tomatoes should be in mid-July — the earliest plants have fruit on them, and all the plantings of tomatoes look good. The Asian eggplants are flowering and look good too!
What’s for U-Pick?
The Strawberries! They peaked last week, and we got them pretty well picked before the rain hit again Thursday night. There was a lot of light red berries but they weren’t fully ripe yet and a few have held on through the wet weekend. Many rotted as they ripened. The rains every few days make it hard to get it all picked at just the right time — thanks to those of you who have been picking and tossing aside the mushy ones as you pick the good ones.
It’s such a short season. We’ve tried a few things to stretch it to 3 weeks, but it always seems to jam itself into 2 gonzo weeks, then some gleaning afterwards. This year is shortened a lil by the rain, but the amount for everyone is a little higher than many years.
Currently it’s worked out be an total per full share of 7 quarts for this strawberry season (3.5 quarts as a split share). If you haven’t got this amount yet, this is the week to do it. We will likely be into unlimited gleaning by the end of the week.
When you’re picking, if they’re squishy and or dark red, be suspicious. There may even be some that seem fine and taste bad… hopefully the last couple days of sun makes it easier to tell which is which.
Peas should start next week! They still need to plump up. They’ll have a flag and they’re staked with fence posts, in front of your cars. They’ll trickle in , so we’ll probably have a small limit next week and it’ll probably be a quart (per full share) the week after. Peas season is 2-3 weeks depending on temps. They love these cooler temps, and will be short-lived if we get into the 90s. More mid-80s would be great all around!
Pick peas with two hands – hold the plant with one hand and pull off the pea with the other. Or get fancy one-handed and hold the stem between two fingers while your thumb pops the pea off. The key is don’t yank on the vine.
Beans are later than in a warm year too, and will start to trickle in next week.
Cilantro — we’ll have a gap for a week or two due to a planting error, but we left some of the bolting platns for the die-hards (taste test before using).
Dill is plentiful.
Basil will probably be open this week with a small limit. The best way to pick basil is to pinch the tops off, at a leaf joint which has new leaves waiting to grow out. That was the plants grow more growing tips or tops which can be pinched. Ask Erin or Alex if you’re unsure about this, we’re happy to show or explain.
Thistle — We have nearly eliminated thistle in our field except in the Upick areas (sorry!) We’re now convinced that it comes in on the straw we buy for strawberries. We’ve switched farmer-suppliers a couple times but it’s still happening. We’re gonna work hard to track down some oat straw — not many farmers grow oats around here anymore, but we used it a long time ago and oats are harvested earlier than rye, which is easier straw to get. We might get to try an innovative wool felt mulch (using waste / low grade wool) from our friends at Get Bentz Farm. Or we could grow our own oat straw but it has always seemed like extra work which we can cheaply avoid; but now it’s costing us in thistle management and scratchy toes for everyone, So maybe we should do it if we can’t find someone growing oats…..We’ll keep trying throughout the summer to keep the thistle out of the way, but it’s a good idea to bring close-toed shoes and some deep breathing to pick herbs this year.
This spot in the newsletter will keep you informed, and always check the U-pick board when you’re here to see what’s available and picking amounts.
Nuts and Bolts
Bulk Produce for You
Check here each newsletter for what we have available for extra purchase.
You might know that while a lot of the produce we grow goes to you, some of what we grow is sold to wholesale accounts. Once we get going later in August , we deliver 2-3 times a week to Just Food Co-op, St. Olaf College, Carleton College; plus Minneapolis Public Schools, and distributors who sell to schools, restaurants and stores, a soup maker (Chx Soup Co), and a couple food hubs/aggregators. Mostly for peppers, fall kale and cabbage, carrots beets and other roots all winter. We don’t do it much in the summer — we’re plenty busy with harvesting your shares and tending summer and fall crops — but really get rocking with bigger harvests in mid-August.
We like to offer you the same produce beyond what you get in your share, at or just above our wholesale prices, to use for parties, special events, serving guests, or just filling your family’s bellies each week.
To place a bulk order, simply email us at least 2 days ahead of the day you’d like to pick it up. Orders can be picked up at the farm during our regular pickup hours, but it doesn’t have to be your share pickup day. Usually we can make an order on the spot, too.
An email for TOMATO BOX PREORDER will come out in a couple weeks.
This week’s selection is : Lettuce Mix for $6 / lb . More next time!
Share Pickup Hours TUESDAY and THURSDAY 1:30-6:30 pm.
Change Pick-Up Day Form — Click here. Please fill out this form instead of emailing us. Thanks!
Where is the farm? 4151 320th Street West, Northfield.
Please Drive Carefully —Children are everywhere.
If You Send Someone Else to Pick Up Your Share — Please forward them the basic pickup video in this link , which was also sent in an email earlier in June. Then just tell them to introduce themselves to us in the barn, just so we know and we can show them around.
We love having all of you come to the farm! Thank you for making it such a great place to be!
Your farmers,
Erin and Ben, with Allia, Alexandra, Elliott, Seneca, Sai Ding and Crew
RECIPES
Boc Choy in Ginger Sauce
from recipetineats.com
- 6 small bok choys , up to ~17cm/7″ long, or other Asian greens (Note 1 + photos in post)
- ▢2 tbsp vegetable oil
- ▢1/4 cup ginger , finely julienned (or 1 tbsp garlic)
- ▢1/4 cup water
▢3 tsp cornflour/cornstarch- ▢1 1/2 tsp light soy sauce , or all-purpose soy (Note 2)
- ▢1 tsp oyster sauce (sub vegetarian oyster sauce)
- ▢2 tsp Chinese cooking wine (Note 3)
- ▢1 tsp sesame oil , toasted
- ▢1/4 cup water
- ▢1/4 tsp cooking salt
- ▢Pinch white pepper
Instructions
- Cutting – Trim the base of the bok choy then separate all the leaves. Leave the delicate baby bok choy in the centre intact, it’s precious! Cut giant stems in half lengthwise so they are all roughly the same size. Rinse in colander, shake off excess water (don’t need to dry fully).
- Sauce – Stir Sauce ingredients except water in a jug until cornflour is dissolved. (Easier to make lump free with less liquid). Then stir in water.
- Gingery oil – Put the ginger and oil in a large non-stick pan. Turn onto medium heat. Once the ginger starts sizzling, sauté for 1 minute until it turns light golden and is a bit floppy. Add bok choy then use 2 spatulas to toss the ginger for around 15 seconds to coat.
- Steam – Turn heat up to medium, pour water over. Cover with lid and steam for just 45 seconds.
- Sauce – Remove lid (bok choy will still be a bit underdone), pour in sauce, toss for 30 seconds until sauce changes from murky to clear, and thickens. Bok choy should be just floppy but still soft crunch, not mushy. If your sauce gets too thick (Note 4), add a tiny splash of water and mix.
- Serve – Pour the bok choy and all the sauce onto a serving plate, then eat!
Spring Arugula Salad
from 7barrels.com
- 5 ounces arugula
- 1 apple cored and diced (use large apples, such as Fuji or Gala)
- ½ cup pecans lightly toasted
- ½ cup cranberries dried
- ¼ cup Red Apple Balsamic vinegar
- 2 tablespoons Miller’s Blend Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Instructions:
In a large bowl, add arugula, cored and diced apple, cranberries, and half of the toasted pecans (¼ cup).
Chop up the remaining half (¼ cup) of toasted pecan into small pieces. Set aside.
In a small bowl, combine Balsamic vinegar with olive oil, until emulsified.
Drizzle the Balsamic vinegar and olive oil mixture over the salad. Sprinkle the salad with chopped toasted pecans.
Note: you don’t have to use the whole amount of salad dressing. Use just enough to drizzle.
Enjoy!
Open Hands Farm 