2011 Produce Subscriptions Available In East Vancouver

For 2011, Rosemattels is currently offering produce subscriptions in the East Vancouver Area!
June-October full and half subscription pick ups just off of Mill Plain in the Fircrest neighborhood.
Contact the farmerette for more details!

CSA Season Almost Done...

Harvests pick ups are winding down for this season, in the next few weeks I will be evaluating what is left in the ground for some extra pick up days at a nominal fee. Our mild fall, so far, has allowed many items to continue to grow for many more weeks of harvesting. Let me know if you would like a list of what is left at the end of October, if you are interested in getting a bit more for your foodie needs.
Now is the time, too, where row clean ups, mowing, soil amending and cover cropping commences as well as preliminary seed starting for early plantings at the end of the winter phase. I will also be putting together 2011 contracts for early sign up incentives for those of you who would like to help support this Farmerette get ready for next year. I will be implementing some additional row tunnels, ground cloth for sure as it just was too iffy this year to take another chance at the lack of "tomoatoship" the microclimates offered me at my farming location in Brush Prarie. I would like to thank many of my returning subscribers for giving me the heads up they are ready to sign up for next season. I am thankful they have understood the seasonal eating and working with mother nature aspect that my CSA farm encompasses.

Have a great October!

Paper Bag Tomato Season

Been keeping a watchful eye with wishful thinking on night and day temps that are directly related to the success of the summer veggie offerings. At the farm we have several micro-climates that when combined with soil and air temperatures hold the destiny to how abundant the main season is supposed to be. The well planned out "days to maturity" for any veggie can be disregarded just by what Mother Nature gives us for growing weather. In a more predictable growing season we would be overflowing with full size ripe summer squash, peppers, tomatoes etc. by now. All the labor put in to crop planning, seed starting, soil amending, tilling, planting, weeding and fertilizing is ultimately up to our growing climate as to weather or not the plants perform to their ideal harvest dates. Did you know that pollinating bees don't even like to come out when it is cool? Of course it would be so less labor intensive to just insert the plant into the soil, water, wait and pick-bypassing all the other steps it takes to get the final destination.... growing in the dream world is not reality especially this year! I know I am not the CSA Farmer frustrated by this phenomena and there are many customers out there csa subscribers, farmers market customers and backyard gardeners who are just as frustrated about why "x" isn't ready on time if at all. This has been a very challenging season indeed. This is the first year of my now 4th growing season that there has not been an abundance of anything to do trade outs in. All the crops we over planted that were ready for example onions and french carrots had to be distributed to shareholders for lack of planned crops. These could have stayed in the ground to obtain a larger size but then the shares would be smaller than they had been and we have to be resourceful with what we do have. Wishing we had more control over the situation is an understatement! But at least for our CSA customers we can assure you we have not sourced out veggies from other farms to give the illusion that everything is just fine. Everything our shareholders have been getting has come directly from our farm.
When the flowering on the warm season crops seem to just sit there I kept planting more lettuce and the like hoping to jinx the weather a bit. To no avail the lettuce kept coming up ready to pick while the things like tomatoes took their sweet time in making real fruit. Four plantings and harvesting of lettuces later, we finally have been able to harvest the tomatoes at the green glossy stage. As a result our share holders have been receiving bags of green tomatoes with an apple or two in them to speed up the ripening process.
I pulled the following article up this morning I hope you find it useful.

Weather Eye: Cool summer brings back old memories

By Pat Timm

Thursday, September 2, 2010

Pat Timm

Ah, the first day of fall was actually rather nice, a few lingering showers, some blue skies and sunshine, highs still in the low 70s. Yes, September for us weather and climate folks is always the beginning of a new season as the rest of you await the official change on the calendar later this month.

But for the record books, we have stored away the statistics for the meteorological summer, June, July and August. And that will show that it was indeed a very cool season; however, we did manage 12 90-degree days. To me, it was ideal, except for the gray and damp days of June. And some of you with gardens have harvested red tomatoes while many are still waiting except for those tasty cherry tomatoes. It may be a struggle to get a large harvest this year, as I don’t have really good news in the extended outlook, either.

1993 was a cool summer, and looking back at some of my columns on this date in 1993, I began my column with this quote, “Summer until further notice” were the words spoken the other night by KPTV’s David Apple.” I added, “Good news albeit two months late.” The entire summer was a bummer with nearly 2 inches of rain in July and temperatures below average.

In my June 22, 1993, column I said this, “CLOUDS, CLOUDS, CLOUDS! The first day of summer officially began at 2 a.m. Monday and just shortly after, around 2:20 a.m., the clouds rolled in and drizzle began by 6 a.m. What a way to start the summer season.” I went on to say in that column, “ But what could you expect? After all, we had just completed five dry, mostly sunny days with pleasant temperatures. That incidentally, was perhaps our longest dry spell all spring.”

And it didn’t get any better than that the rest of the summer. Yes, there were many green tomatoes that year. And so it goes. See you next on a perhaps rainy Sunday.

Pat Timm is a local weather specialist. His column appears Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays. Reach him at http://weathersystems.com.

Catching Up!

Have been extremely busy keeping up on the weeding, fertilizing and consecutive seeding of later season crops that take 30-60 days to yield. The spring lettuce is long gone and the summer is coming this way for harvest as baby leaf stage. Usually if it gets too hot too soon the lettuce does not like the warm soil temperatures but this year we are using shade cloth and extra watering to coax it in to the summer growing season. Last year the kale varieties had been a staple of shares and to my surprise, our shareholders wished for more chard instead so that is what we have planted extra of and the timing of it I must say has been wonderful. If you plant the chard too early it bolts with the change of temps which some did do but the majority of it is doing fine and well so far. We are in to thinning the second and third planting of carrots. The wallas are bulbing up fine and you will see a few more as the tops fall over, after that the onions of a smaller diameter are sweet yellow and white but they will not be as large as what you have been getting.
The beets have been touch and go so we are doing another planting of them for later in the season.
Spinach just wasn't a happy camper for spring so we are going to reseed for luck with it in the late summer.
We have pak choy and bok choy second leaf stage ready to go in to the ground in next week or two as well as dill, rutabaga, more lettuce, basil starts (now that the tomatoes are flowering and the basil eaters are hiding under the dry soil), and the second planting of kohlrabi is responding greatly to having gained their ground after they were transplanted and the weeds were having their way with them??!!
The summer squash varieties are flowering away alongside the winter squash which for winter varieties they are grown in the warm season and then harvested for storage to be eaten in the winter season. It takes about 4 weeks to cure the winter squash, at least once they are harvested so the sugar content of the veggie shifts to a delectable taste. Some may be harvested as baby squash which goes great on the BBQ cause they are firmer and do taste like summer squash.
Green beans in the shades of green, purple and yellow are developing as we speak we should begin the harvest of these by end of this week. We did grow extra of these for pickling and for farmers markets if you need a bulk order of these let us know so we can put some extra aside for you.
The Fresh Shell beans are a bit later maybe say in another month. Towards the end of September we should be harvesting the dried beans as well for fall and winter soups.
Cucumbers are showing babies, but not quite the amounts we need for all shareholders in the beginning. I promise you will not have to be burdened with the multitudes of pickling cucumbers like last year as we did not over plant those this time around.
Based on last year's spring it has been a challenge replanting and reseeding basic veggies as the slugs were enjoying the fruits of our labor and as a result everything has been ready to yield alot later than last season. If any of you have seen the movie Ground Hog Day, I can relate that movie to what has been going on at the farm especially for this year's growing season more so than before! It is because of this type of replanting over and over again that we have had to end up cancelling any spring open house. With any luck of catching up, looking at a late summer open house date TBA.
As the warm season veggies come along you will be getting less of a greens assortment to make the weekly harvest more diverse.
We want to take this time to remind you that if you cannot pick up your share to please call us at least by the morning and let us know if you want us to donate it. Because the farm is located 5 miles from my house and another 3 miles from the drop spots it would save the Farmerette some petro expenses and if it is not picked up we have to take it home and find a place in the fridge for it to yet again either have it moved back to the farm for a second chance to pick it up or we have to fit in a special trip to donate it after that point if it is not picked up at the farm. We can plan accordingly and use less time and fuel if we ended up having to donate your share at a more convenient time for us. Our phone number is 241-1278.
I am placing a bag holder for extra bags at the farm pick up, and are in need of more. Plant pots are also greatly appreciated as I have needed to rebuild the pot inventory. Thank you so much for the empty pots, boxes, etc.
Here are some Swiss Chard Recipes-Remember that the less you cook it the better it is for you and of course the more palatable it is if you have picky eaters!

http://simplyrecipes.com/recipes/swiss_chard

http://allrecipes.com//Recipes/fruits-and-vegetables/vegetables-a-m/greens/chard/Main.aspx

Bon Apetit,

The Farmerette

Happy Springy Summer!

For those of you who have been getting shares either from my farm or someone else's in the area, you may have tried the usual preparation routine with radishes which are in abundance in the cool weather. Along with lettuce and various greens as well, baby carrots are sure to be a part of the early offerings and all is not lost when you cut off the greens of these babies. A few of my subscribers have been eating the green tops in sautees and purees as they do taste better cooked than raw. As with all food allergies, some may be sensitive to it's properties and may not be able to eat them.
Follow this link for information as to one idea for what to do with them.
http://hubpages.com/hub/Consider-Adding-Carrot-Greens-to-Your-Family-Recipe-Collection

Here are some recipes for radishes as well. Remember folks, you can eat the tops of the radishes as well as the root. Surprised to know the tops taste like radishes :)? Of course they do!

http://allrecipes.com/recipes/fruits-and-vegetables/vegetables-n-z/radishes/top.aspx

Out to the field I go, heard it is going to be sunny for next few days, nice to be able to work outside of the rain!

Til later....
The Clark County Farmerette

Harvesting Commences This Week!

For our early season subscribers Rosemattel's begins the harvesting for 2010 shares today! This CSA is closed for any new subscribers for regular season. Please stay in touch if you may be interested in the Fall/Winter offerings. We will have a better idea of this option the closer we gets to mid summer.
Depending on when subscribers signed up determined if they were starting this week or the following if they chose a half share which is a full share picked up every other week. We have to spread out the half shares so that we are not overharvesting one week and then find ourselves with a void in the following week's harvest. It helps balance the crop production out evenly.

Remember: The Barberton Grange is Mondays 430-530, farm on Tuesdays after 1pm and the BG Farmers Market on Saturdays 9-3.

22 Week Subscriptions:
We had to delay the 22 week subscriptions due to the crazy weather til this week and will begin today.

Corporate Subscribers:
Our shared corporate CSA customers begin this Wednesday as we work with Hunters Greens to eagerly meet their veggie needs.

17 week Subscriptions:
17 week subscribers begin pick up

15 week Subscriptions:
In two more weeks!

Remember-
Depending on when subscribers signed up determined if they were starting this week or the following if they chose a half share which is a full share picked up every other week. We have to spread out the half shares so that we are not overharvesting one week and then find ourselves with a void in the following week's harvest. It helps balance the crop production out evenly.

Please call my cel at 241-1278 if you have any questions!! I have sent out emails over the last week to remind 22 week and 17 week subscribers of when they begin their pick up. I will email the 15 week subscribers by the beginning of next week.

Please remember that if you have missed your pick up, the veggies cannot be re-harvested. We will donate it to the local Share House Women's shelter if you do not pick up your veggies. We do not have a way to store your share for another day or time so please if you cannot make it at least send a friend to pick up for you!

Normally I do not do weekly newsletters as we get in to the busy season of harvesting but will update this blog as we go along at least monthly if not more often :)

Till then,
See you soon!
The Clark County Farmerette

Milk In Glass Bottles-Yum!

Lori, one of our farm produce subscribers is getting a milk share arrangement and is looking for like minded individuals to go in a share of it with.

Here is her email-
I'm getting milk delivered from Noris dairy (www.norisdairy.com) but they require a weekly subscription with a minimum of $18 for delivery. Unfortunately I don't need quite that much dairy. I'm hoping you might know someone else who subscribes that I can piggyback my order with (preferably on the west side of Vancouver) or who might be interested in going in with me. They're a bit spendy but I love the glass bottles and how fresh everything is (the milk is typically "good" for only about a week). Any ideas?

I don't want to post her contact info online, so please email me at battlegroundfma@yahoo.com and I will forward your inquiry!

Great Two Days of Growing Weather!

Great Two Days of Growing Weather!

Spent the last two days intensively taking advantage of the pristine weather opportunities at the farm. The baby lettuce is starting to catch up with the scheduled timing of size. The strawberries have officially been reclaimed from the weeds that flourished during the weeks of rain and are flowering nicely with green berries. The apple trees have received their first spraying of a kaolin based protectant to help deter the "not so welcomed" pests. Though the tomatilloes( still in the cold frame) are not ready to take the strength of night temps at this farm-they are already flowering, yay! Spinach, chard and kale varieties had to be reseeded in the ground as the mice were real hungry and found a drive by veggie start pit stop. I had done these twice before in seed trays and finally gave up. I would see the seedlings appear and then the next day or two later, they were getting nibbled down. With the hopes of coming back I brought them to the outdoors and covered them with plastic and another barrier but they were too far eaten down to make any sense of them. The other direct seeded chard, spinach, beets that were done 2 months ago are just as big as what I direct seeded again a month later. The gourmet salad mix is a slow gower as well. Some of the pre-grown onion starts I had added to the regular onion starts that were planted a while back, to my surprise, are going to seed already???? When the temps go from high to low back and forth sometimes the plant is tricked in to making seeds. Luckily most of them are not doing this, just some. The peas should begin flowering now and just are not.....they will be ready later rather than sooner.
To sum this up things are delayed by at least a week of target harvest on account of the weather. I will touch base with you all in another week or so to see if we need to delay the 22 week subscriptions pick up. The subscribers who are starting later in the harvest season, things will be alot more predictable as far as greens are concerned. Let's all be happy for the sun and pray for more!!!
Til later :)
Clark County Farmerette

Posted by Battle Ground Farmers Market at 6:26 PM

The rain game.......

We have had record rainfall this spring....
Easy to work with when putting seedlings in to the ground during the luck of dry days and neatly tossing the direct seeded crops in short windows of opportunities to do so.
Peas are now about a foot long and the chard and lettuce starts are slowly coming around. The potatoes are revealing their green tops which means it is time to hill and straw them up for baby potatoes first and larger ones later. The tomatoes, peppers, tomatilloes and basil in the greenhouse are screaming to come out and play ! Unfortunately the questionable night temps and soil warmth is something that has to be more predictable during a safe time to take the chance of being on their own out there in the fields.
Yes on a small scale of warm season veggie production one could set them out and use various covers of frost protection but when it is a field of them, it would not be cost effective for us to do so as we work with mother nature and what she gives us for growing in. Seasonal growing and eating is part of what CSA is about. For some folks, the understanding of what goes on behind the scenes in this type of growing arrangement can be quite educational indeed.
The strawberries are showing the buds of blooms but not quite opening up yet. The blooming succession of apple trees is definitely one challenge to get to this year as the non-petro spray we will be applying can only be done in dry weather to make it effective. It is like a dance we do to have apples with pretty faces in the summer and fall.
Pending a corporate contract tied in with the CSA farmers I am sharing land with, it looks like this farm could be full. We are waiting for a few details that need to be firmed up from them to get a better idea of where the subscription status stands. This means I am taking folk's info through my website to be placed on a waitlist for the regular growing season. Fall and winter shares availability will be decided on at a later date in the Summer so there may be an opportunity there-will keep you posted!
Adieu!
The Clark County Farmerette!

Two Sunny Days In A Row!

Yay, two sunny days in a row!
Yesterday my son Joshua helped me transplant around 5,000 onion starts, water the plants in the greenhouse and rototilled some more soil amendments in the soil.
Today I made our special recipe soil mix (Steve Solomonish) transplanted peppers and tomatoes into larger containers as well as garden flowers for part of the insect management program I have in my growing spaces.
The lettuce is 1/2 inch tall in the fields, peas are about an inch-kinda slow going with the cold nights so they will most likely be producing later than planned.
Hunters Greens shared some wintered over veggies with me. Not enough to say hey let's do a late winter share but enough to perhaps bring to the BG Farmers Market when it opens on April 24th!
Just the nicest csa farm people!
Anyways, til next time enjoy your week!

The Clark County Farmerette

Weatherly Charms!

What really really nice weather to farm in for March! What really cold and wet weather to farm in March! This March we got some of both! It is great to be able to have some dry days in a row to till, then plant then have the rains come and water it in. Yet when we have the rainy cold days stacked up against each other, some crops that were wanting to get going are at a stand still out in the field. In the greenhouse hut I share with Hunter's Greens, there are tell tale signs that the previous 3 months of consecutively seeding away are finally paying off. Last week I was able to transplant the broccoli seedlings that were started in February. Also was able to safely remove the short growing tunnels in the "hut" plot where the bok choy, gourmet salad mix and baby lettuces were leafing out.



The bush peas have been veering through their soil beds as a reminder that the heavier winter soil did not do them in. Funny going out there today the pole peas planted 2 weeks later are also on their way to needing a climbing apparatus very soon!

The mesculine mix located in the same plot with the pea selections were subject to some yummy liquid fish fertilizer which I must say after visiting them today enjoyed it!

Two varieties of strawberries have been planted and are anchoring themselves nicely despite the down pours over the last few days. Hoods and an everbearing variety I reclaimed from my folk's place up north are now calling Rosemattel's their new home!

The "marking " rows of radishes are prevalent in all three major plots of the farm and had to be thinned today. Few more weeks and we will see how this original planting did. Every 2 weeks or so in the cool portions of the year I do consecutive plantings of radish, lettuce varieities.
The closer we get to the mid to late spring also known as x amount of days to last frost the carrots, beets, spinach and other cole crops are consecutively seeded as needed.

At the house I had started the pepper and tomato varieties, and now they are leafy and tall enough to pot up in to a larger amount of growing medium to then transfer to the farm growing "hut". It is such a cute greenhouse!

Lastly over the last month, the 3 varieties of french fingerling potatoes settled in to their soil future. Can't you just taste the butteriness already?? Of the potato that is :)

Til later,
Spring we welcome you back!!!
The Clark County Farmerette at Rosemattels!

Farm Activities Last 30 Days Part Two!

West field tilled and ready for seeding! Close up of almond tree blossoms, so pretty!

Pictures of Farm Activities Last 30 days Part One

West Field to left and House Field to right some "before" pictures taken in Late January 2010.
Gathering fresh cut grass after the field was tilled to continue my compost layering for summer crop amending after the spring crops are done producing.

Preliminary List of Veggie Seeds Ordered

The following list is derived from the first series of seeds ordered for 2010 Rosemattel's CSA Subscriber's Bounty. All of the varieties below will go to subscribers first as we work through the harvest season. Any veggies left over will go to farmers markets as secondary outlets and will be charged at a higher value pending any subscriptions not yet spoken for.
We still have room for more subscribers!

Beans & Peas>Provider Bush Green Bean, Royal Burgundy Bush Bean, Blue Coco Pole Bean, Jackson Wonder, Bush Lima ,Bean Mammoth Melting Sugar Snow Pea, Provider Bush Green Bean, Isar Yellow Green Bean, French Fragrano Bean , Maxibel Beans
Greens & Lettuce>Space Spinach, Tyee Spinach, Tom Thumb Lettuce ,Summertime Lettuce, Bronze Mignonette Lettuce, Kagraner Sommer Lettuce ,Kinemontpas Lettuce,
Vietnamese Pea Shoots, Red Streaked Mizuna, Red Komatsuna, Par-Cel Tangy Greens, Green Zen Oriental Greens ,Buttercrunch, Red Bor Kale, Red Russian Kale, Dinasour Kale, Chinese Cabbage, Pak Choy, Bok Choy, Baby Carflex Cabbage, Swiss Chard Giant and Rainbow
Herbs>Spicy Globe Basil Anise Basil Lemony Catnip Celery Stevia Italian Flat Triple curled
Root Veggies>Scarlet Nantes Carrot, Danvers Carrot, OG Over the Rainbow Carrot Mix,
Hailstone Radish, Plum Purple Radish, Zlata Radish, Laurentian Rutabaga, Blankomo Beets, Forono Beets ,Caraflex Carrots, Negrovia Carrots, Nectar Carrots
Melons>Hannah’s Choice Muskmelon ,Charentais, Sugar Cube Melon ,Ma Cheri , Sweet Ambrosia
Tomatoes>Black Krim Tomato, Amish Paste Tomato, Rainbow MIX, Pineapple Tomatillo, Original abe lincoln, Marzano, Roma
Eggplant>Diva Eggplant, Hansel ,Eggplant ,Dancer Eggplant
Cucumber>Richmond Green Apple Slicing Cucumber, Lemon ,Super Zagross Middle Eastern Slicing Cucumber, Sour Mexican Gherkins
Squash>Sunburst , Patty Pan, Eight Ball, Benning’s Green Tint Patty Pan, Summer Squash, Uncle David’s Dakota Dessert Winter Squash, Yellow, Green Butternut Winter
Onions>King Richard Leek, Prisma Shallots ,Lincoln Leeks, Walla Walla, Alisa Craig, Yellow Sweet
Peppers>Baby Bell ,California Bell , Ancho
Potatoes> Red, White and Yellow Plus Small Yields of Fingerlings

Glimpses of Farmers Behind the Scenes!

Produced by Peaceful Valley Seed Company

http://www.freshmanfarmer.com

Valentines Day Poem For Foodies

Cabbage always has a heart;
Green beans string along.
You're such a Tomato,
Will you Peas to me belong?
You've been the Apple of my eye,
You know how much I care;
So Lettuce get together,
We'd make a perfect Pear.
Now, something's sure to Turnip,
To prove you can't be Beet;
So, if you Carrot all for me
Let's let our tulips meet.
Don't Squash my hopes and dreams now,
Bee my Honey, dear;
Or tears will fill Potato's eyes,
While Sweet Corn lends an ear.
I'll Cauliflower shop and say
Your dreams are Parsley mine.
I'll work and share my Celery,
So be my Valentine.

Author Unknown

Gearing Up For Eating Seasonally

Alas the sun is definitely out today! As I prepare for a local foodies meeting here in Vancouver, I thought I would share some of the recipes Rosemattel's CSA subscribers have to look forward to as they venture into "seasonal eating" !

Spring Green Soup/ Serves 4 – 6

6 Tbsp butter or olive oil
1 C chopped onions or leeks
8 C loosely packed radish leaves or other spring greens*
2 C diced peeled potatoes
6 C liquid (water, vegetable stock, chicken stock)
1/2 C cream (optional)
Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

Melt 4 Tbsp butter in a large saucepan, add onions or leeks, and cook until golden, approximately 5 minutes. Stir in radish tops, cover pan, and cook over low heat until wilted, 8-10 minutes. Meanwhile, cook potatoes in liquid until soft along with 1 tsp salt. Combine with radish tops and broth, and cook, covered, for 5 minutes to mingle flavors. Puree finely in a food processor. Add cream if desired. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
*Can be made with radish tops, Swiss chard, beet greens, dandelion greens, kale, spinach, or whatever other greens you have available.

Spring Radish Salad/ Serves 4

1 bunch fresh radishes
2 - 3 Med sized carrots
2 bunches arugula or baby spinach
salt and pepper to taste
Extra virgin. olive oil for drizzling
2 Tbsp freshly grated Parmesan cheese (optional)
Lemon wedges

Trim the radishes and slice them thinly. Peel the carrots and cut them on the diagonal into very thin slices. Snap off the tough stems from the arugula. Gather the arugula into a bunch and cut it crosswise into strips.
Arrange the arugula on a platter. Scatter the sliced radishes and carrots over the arugula. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Drizzle with enough olive oil to lightly moisten the vegetables. Sprinkle Parmesan over the top if desired. Serve with lemon wedges to squeeze over the salad.

Radish Slaw Serves 4

1 bunch radishes, cleaned well and shredded (about 2 Cups)
3 C finely shredded cabbage
1 C coarsely grated carrots
½ C thinly sliced red onion
2 Tbsp fresh lemon juice
½ tsp sugar
2 Tbsp olive oil
2 Tbsp finely chopped fresh cilantro, mint, or parsley leaves

In a bowl, toss together all the ingredients, then add salt and pepper to taste. Although this recipe calls for both cabbage and carrots, it’s very tasty without!

Kale Chips--a.k.a Seriously Addictive Snack Serves 4

1-2 bunches kale
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
1 tablespoon oil
coarse salt (to taste) or favorite seasoning blend (we love hot n' spicy Spike)

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Wash and de-stem kale. Chop or tear into "chip" size pieces.
Spread onto baking sheet. Pour the apple cider vinegar, oil and seasoning (1-2 tablespoons) onto kale. Mix to coat all pieces.
Bake for 10 minutes or until crispy. Serve immediately!

Veggie Selections For Seed Ordering

CSA farming is quite exciting this time of year. We csa farmers have almost an information overload when it comes to seed ordering! As for me, I would like to order everything that looks great in the pictures in various seed catalogs but really so much more goes in to a seed order than what is appealing to the eye. Taste, reliability of a particular germination rate for specific breeds, previous year's seed performance, open pollinated varieties, no ties to genetically modified organisms so prevalent in commercial seed, heirloom history, yields, etc. are just some of the details I review before settling in on the key seeds best for my farm subscribers food. While it could be easier to just go get the popular ones, learning about how new ones and never tried before veggies is how I expand and retract what worked in the past and the many possiblities of what I can add to the tasting experiences of eating seasonally.
Let me know your wish list of which varieties of the following you would like me to grow for part of your share choices at Rosemattel's CSA Farm. The list of types of veggies are as follows:
Lettuce, Salad Mix, Radish, Asian Greens, Asian Root Veggies, Carrots, Beets, Spinach, Kale, Chard, Italian Veggies, Green Beans, Summer Squash, Winter Squash, Summer Melons except for Large Ones as they require too long of time in the field, Tomatoes, Peppers, Eggplant, Cucumbers (except for pickling), Potatoes (except for purple and blue too risky based on last year's yields), and any thing else you think I should try. If there is something you have chosen from the sources below that I had tried but did not have the most stellar performance I will let you know.

At the end of this posting I have provided you links to the various suppliers I have used and may be using for 2010.


http://www.fedcoseeds.com/forms/ogs32_cat.pdf
http://www.seedsavers.org/Items.aspx?hierId=8
http://www.territorialseed.com/prod_detail_list/vegetable_seed
http://www.johnnyseeds.com/c-1-vegetable-seeds.aspx
http://www.cooksgarden.com/vegetables_seeds_and_plants