Spring CSA Week 6

Crazy week!

Lots of food!

In this week's share:

Head of Lettuce
Awesome Salad Mix!!!  Finally a good spring for growing a great mix!
Swiss Chard--very tender first cutting of a light green leaf
Asparagus--just keeps coming!
Spring Onions!  Tender and delicious addition to anything you make!
Spinach--flat leaf, tender
Pea Shoots!!!!!! Wow, first good germination all spring!!!! Tender and delicious.  What to do with peas shoots!


Hope you enjoyed the spring share!!!! After a rough start I feel we kicked into high gear.  I'm confident we distrubute the most food of any local CSA!!! All spring members who would like to continue on for summer, let me know.  Thanks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Eat Well!!!!!

2014 Spring CSA Week 5

Things are progressing like clockwork.  Radishes, arugula, asian greens come out, tomatoes go in.  Now, if we'd get some consistent warmth...The cucumbers, peppers and eggplant haven't made much progress since we planted them 2 weeks ago, but the zucchini looks good, the beans have germinated and the next generation of spinach and lettuce are coming on.  Onions, leeks, and garlic love the rain.  We narrowly missed a horrendous hail storm last week--5 miles further east and we may have been wiped out.   First taste of kale or chard this week, the last of the radishes for spring, and likely the peak week for asparagus is now.  I experimented this week by letting a bunch of the asparagus stay in the field until today--some of the heads are nearing flowering, but I just had some, and it remains remarkably tender.  I think it's better than harvesting early and refrigerating.

By the way, our current favorite way of eating  asparagus is to cut it into 1 inch pieces, blanch briefly until tender but still crunchy, plunge into cold water, and toss over out lettuce greens.  Toss with olive oil, vinegar, salt and pepper.

Still time to commit to a party in the Garden!!!!! http://friendsofgardenofideas.blogspot.com/

Anyone interested in our 4H club: come to the Garden on Saturday at 10 or 2 for information.  Our first formal meeting will be June 7.

The once a month spinning and knitting club is growing and thriving.  What a lovely sight to see a dozen ladies with their colorful yarn projects in the garden on a beautiful May day.

In this week's share:

Arugula
Chard or kale
Asparagus
Lettuce!!!!
Mixed asian greens
Last of the radishes
Garlic chives!!! Delicious!!!! Makes a great pesto. (Feel free to omit the parsley in that recipe for a really punchy pesto!)

Eat well!!!!!

Spring CSA Week 4

I wish I had time to walk the labyrinth!!!!

Lots in the share this week:

Arugula--as it gets warmer, flavor gets stronger.  I love it in a salad with chipped asian greens, but also as a pesto or wilted into a bowl of pasta.  Here are other ways to use it:  Arugula recipes

Spinach--lovely right now

Mixed Asian greens--tender and mild

Asparagus--it just keeps coming!!! 2 or 3 more weeks?

Radishes!!! Huge bunches this week.  My lunch everyday right now is diced radishes and radish greens sauteed in butter with salt and pepper.  That's it.

Leeks (first thinnings) or microgreens--more microgreens than leeks.  Inconsistent temps have been difficult wiht the micros so far this year.

Rhubarb!!  Just a bit.  Keep it simple--rhubarb compote over vanilla ice cream is the way to go!

Eat well!  Enjoy!

Oh.  We've got the grass fed cow butter back in the stand.  Let it warm up to room temp. Fantastic.

Spring CSA Week 3

We've finally had some weather even a turtle finds suitable for basking.  All of the outdoor crops find it equally hospitable.

The rest of the first spinach crop is in this week's share, and in its place will go tomatoes!!!  We look to be possibly frost free for the season; that is always the most exciting time for the vegetable grower.

Cucumbers, squash, peppers, and eggplant are all planted.  Beans go in tomorrow.  Lettuces are sizing up, and we offer small bags of small heads in this week's share as we thin them out.  More and bigger ones will be coming.

In this week's share:

Spinach
Asparagus
Arugula:  too much arugula?  Make Arugula pesto
Chives:  DITTO!!!!!
Lettuce or beets
Big bunch of perfect radishes!!!



Eat well!!!!!!!

Remember our benefit on MAY 31!!!!!!!!!
$125 for party attendance and raffle ticket for sculpture.  $50 just for the party.  See our new greenhouse going up.

Not much room: register now!!!!!  Register here by hitting donate button!!!!

Lots of interest in 4H club.  E-mail if you are interested!!!!  More info to follow those who have e-mailed already.

Spinning and Knitting club in Garden this Sunday at 11.  Great group!!!!!

Spring 2014 CSA Week 2!!!

Ok, things are turning, growing, ready for harvest.  A much improved share this week.

But first a word from our sponsor:

The above sculpture is entitled "God Explains to the Chicken Why the Chicken Can't Fly".

A ticket to our May 31 benefit gives one a 1 in 75 chance of winning this!

Details here (should be fun!):

Friends of Garden of Ideas Benefit

Space is limited.  Respond soon!!!!

Another word from our sponsor (this one won't cost you anything!!!)

We are very pleased to announce that we have been accepted to start a 4-H club at the Garden of Ideas. Our focus will be on vegetable gardening, backyard chickens, and exploration of the natural world.  This will be a serious commitment for interested children between the ages of 8-12.  Please let me know if you are interested; we will likely hold membership to a dozen of so.  This is a great organization with a long history.  Benefits are impressive:  http://www.4-h.org/about/youth-development-research/positive-youth-development-study/


Thanks for listening!!!!

This week's share:

Arugula--this is so insanely delicious.  I eat it all day long.

Asparagus--a small handfull, so good.  Keep it simple.

Spinach or baby radish.  The radishes are true babies, and they and the leaves are so tender.  For a treat, chop the leaves and radishes into bite size pieces, saute quickly in butter and salt and pepper.  Eat.

Chives.  Hope you liked them last week.  We've had chive pesto everyday for a couple of weeks.

Microgreens.  For newcomers, these are the nutrient laden young leaves and cotyledons of pea shoot, radishes, kale and mustard.  Tangy and fresh, add them to a salad, or dress them alone and eat.  Add them to sandwiches.  Feel energized all day.

Ramps!!!! I've sourced a hidden spot.  Dug a few for each of you.  Enjoy!

More stuff coming on--beets, turnips, more asparagus, arugula, lettuce coming on fast, asian greens likely next week,younger spinach, green garlic!!!!!

Real food.  Eat well.

Week 1 Spring 2014 CSA

Haha.  The past 10 days have been a cruel joke.  Everything stopped in its tracks since last we talked.  Today is absolutely the last day with a hint of March to it.  March...how about February!!! When you eat your fiddleheads, think of Tio and me hunched over in the rain, cutting ferns at ground level in the rain at 39 degrees this morning!!! April 30.  T.S. Eliot knew some things.

So this is a light week.  Chives. I eat chives nearly every day and I will live to be 120!!!!
French Sorrel.  Sorrel is an amazing plant!!!!
 Red Ball Radishes.  Make soup with the radish tops! It is really really good!
  A handful of fiddleheads.  Fiddleheads are wonderful!

 I was hoping for microgreens and pea shoots, but they literally
stopped
            in
               their
                      tracks.

I was hoping for asparagus.  Spears were just below the surface 10 days ago.  They've barely broken the surface now.

Next week.

The hoop houses are verdant with baby foliage that will be harvested next week: arugula, spinach, asian greens...

The onion sets have sprouted.

Seeds I sowed outside 10 days ago that should have germinated in 3 or 4 days have not germinated yet.  We planted a thousand transplants outside 10 days ago;  haven't seen much growth.  Some.  Not much.

But the 10 day forecast is a thing of beauty.  And as Mr. Keats said, "Beauty is truth, truth beauty."

So bear with me in this winter of our discontent, as Richard III--or was it Francis Underwoood?--once said.

At the farm stand:

Ithaca whole milk, chocolate milk, cream
Water buffalo Yogurt in 2 sizes
Sauerkraut
KimChee
Honey
Eggs!!! Brown or Ameracauna(blue)
Muranda blue cheese
Organic Polenta from Cayuga Pure Organics
Organic black chick peas and organic purple barley
Red Jacket Juices

2014 CSA Details

We have expanded our growing fields, so we are able to open up some more room in the CSA this year.  We think 100 for summer will be our maximum, and would like to reach it this year.  Our spring maximum is 70, and fall will be somewhere between 85-100, depending on how the growing season goes.  A few spots usually open up each spring, so please be sure to let me know if you'd like to be on the spring waiting list.

The spring share this year is the 6 weeks from April May1- June 5.  The cost is $195.

The summer share is the 16 weeks from June12-September 25.  The cost is $525.

The fall share is the 6 weeks from Oct. 2-Nov. 5.  The cost is $195.

Please e-mail us at gardenofideas@outlook.com if you would like to join our CSA or if you have any other questions.  Thanks so much!!!