fertile crescent farm

chickens, organic certification, pics and other stuff

2011-06-27T17:52:00.024-04:00

Unlike the posts of summers past, I've been lax at the mention of our chickens. As she grows older Lucy's interest in the chickens has waned and so my time spent with them this summer has been negligible. Though when we do visit them to collect eggs they are still as entertaining as ever.
Of the 16 hens, I think, it's hard to count when they keep moving, we've had 6 go broody, one of them twice. I think that may be somewhat unusual. Unfortunately, not many of the eggs have hatched. We have two roosters, which is one too many and that may be the problem. The smaller of the two, who I will refer to as "the intimidator" spends the majority of his time antagonizing sweet Red rooster and there in lays the problem. The intimidator is too busy grandstanding for the sake of his roosterness to give the hens any lovin' and Red is too busy being bullied and hen pecked, leaving him completely lacking the confidence to attend to his biological duties. This I believe is interfering with the 2 seconds of potential passion that is shared between each of the 16 hens and a rooster!

Movin' on!

We've had a lot going on this month. To start we've started the process of having the farm certified organic. When I say started the process, I mean we are reading about the certification process, filling out the paperwork and keeping in contact with a certifier who is great at answering our multitude of questions. Adam and I took a class on organic certification a few (or more) years ago. At the time we decided the certification wasn't for us, but now that we've established our farm we've decided the time is right. We learned a lot about the standards of organic farming when we worked for Amy Hicks of Amy's Garden and through the certification workshop. We've since put that knowledge into action on our own farm. So after four years of owning and operating our own farm we have decided that this would be a good time to move forward and get certified. Since we've pretty much followed the standards we are hoping to be able to get the USDA's stamp of approval right away.

In other news, we'll be on the local PBS program Virginia Home Grown tomorrow June 28th at 8 p.m. Richard Nunnally, along with his camera crew, came out to the farm for an on location visit. He and Adam talked mostly about our farming practices. They also filmed some of the farm and I believe what is said about the camera adding 10 pounds is true. It's not as weedy as it looks, those weeds are just 10 pounds heavier!!

Also this month pictures of our farm are included in an exhibition called Groundwork now up at Corporate Museum and Frame. The exhibition is based on a book of the same name by Gordon Stillman. Groundwork consists of photographs from the Virginia Sustainable Agriculture Documentary Project . The photos of our farm date back to 2009, when Gordon first started the project. There are several images of the Richmond farmer's market as well as farms in and beyond the Richmond area.

Goodness, the weeks go by so fast.

Do you remember these plants from a few post back? My how they've grown! This is Lou and her tomatoes in the Green house, showing of her handy work. She almost single handedly got all of our tomato plants off the ground, weaving them up towards the sky. Making them much easier to pick.

We also had a day of mob weeding. Several friends and CSA members came out to help pull the dreaded Johnson grass and boy did we have fun! Just look at the joy on those faces! No, I guess you can't see their faces for the most part. Well, I'm here to tell you of the expressions you can't see, believe me, there was nothing but pure joy radiating from those faces! Would I lie about that?!
Thanks for helping everyone!!!!!

This week the onions were harvested and they're being cured, along with the garlic, in the hay loft of the big barn

the past few weeks on the farm we've....

2011-05-30T21:02:00.017-04:00

been doing a bit of everything. With the help of Tim, a talented potter working part time here on the farm and our new farm help Lou, we've been weeding, planting and harvesting and attending the farmer's markets. This year we're continuing to sell our produce at the South of the James Farmer's Market, which I'm so happy to say is a producer only market this year (woo hoo!!!) and at the Byrd House Farmer's market, which is not producer only (boo hoo). We've also started vending at a new producer only farmers market in Goochland called My Manakin Market It's set in a lovely grove of trees right off of Broad street between the shrinking edge of the country and the growing edge of the burbs. We'll be there every other Saturday this season.
Along with the old regulars like lettuce, kale, collards and the like, we're growing a new (to us) vegetable to add to our seasonal repertoire - the tasty kohlrabi. You've probably noticed it at our stand and you may be one of the many people who ask "what kind of vegetable is that?" I must admit, neither Adam nor I know much about kohlrabi. It's our first year growing it and it's not something I would pick up at the grocery store if I saw it. Not because it has the love it or hate it status of a vegetable, oh, like eggplant or the herb cilantro, it's just never been introduced to our kitchen. I didn't realize until selling it that so many other folks had also neglected the introduction of this unusual plant into their lives so I decided to do a little sleuthing on the subject in order to answer your questions and here is what I have learned about this visually eccentric vegetable. The word Kohlrabi (Brassica oleracea variety caulo-rapa) is a German word unchanged and accepted into our food language, Kohl meaning cabbage and Rabi meaning turnip. A description of the vegetable dates back as early as the 16th century in Northern Europe but doesn't make it's debut in the United States until the early 1800's. It most likely, along with cabbage, kale, broccoli, cauliflower and brussel sprouts, is the cultivated ancestor of a wild cabbage.

It has a deliciously mellow flavor cooked or raw like that of a mild turnip rather than that of a cabbage. The Richmond Food Collective has a great recipe for kohlrabi chips and I've also found an interesting recipe in a Bon Appetit magazine (yes, I do reference their recipes often, they are generally no fail and flavorful!)

Curried Red Lentil, Kohlrabi, and couscous salad
for those of you who are gluten free as I am quinoa would be and excellent substitute for couscous

•1/2 cup white wine vinegar
•1 1/2 tablespoons sweet curry powder
•2 garlic cloves, pressed
•2/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
•1 16-ounce package red lentils (about 2 1/4 cups)
•3 large kohlrabi (about 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 pounds); leaves stemmed, thinly sliced; bulb peeled, cut into 1/3-inch dice (about 3 cups)
•1 cup plain couscous (about 6 ounces)
•1 cup chopped green onions
•1 5- to 6-ounce package baby spinach
•1/2 cup chopped fresh mint

•Whisk white wine vinegar, curry powder, and pressed garlic in medium bowl to blend. Gradually whisk in olive oil. Season dressing to taste with salt and freshly ground pepper.
•Cook lentils and kohlrabi leaves in heavy large saucepan of boiling salted water until lentils are barely tender but not too soft, about 6 minutes. Drain; rinse under cold water to cool. Drain again.
•Bring 1 1/4 cups water to boil in same saucepan; remove from heat. Add 3 tablespoons dressing, sprinkle with salt, then stir in couscous. Cover pot and let stand 5 minutes. Transfer couscous to medium bowl. Fluff couscous with fork to separate grains and cool slightly. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
•Meanwhile, transfer lentils to large bowl. Add 1/2 cup dressing, diced kohlrabi bulb, and chopped green onions; toss to coat. Season mixture to taste with salt and pepper.
•Arrange baby spinach leaves over large rimmed platter. Drizzle spinach with 2 to 3 tablespoons remaining dressing. Sprinkle spinach leaves with salt and pepper. Mound lentil mixture in center of platter over spinach leaves. Stir mint into couscous. Spoon couscous around lentils and serve with remaining dressing.

Five things to do with the vegetables found in your share or at the farmer's markets this week

2011-05-18T17:54:00.020-04:00

Arugula and orzo pasta salad

This recipe comes from one of our CSA members. In his words (I hope you don’t mind me sharing this Robert)
“It’s a romantic dish to be sure, containing four alleged aphrodisiacs: arugula, cherries, basil, and pine nuts. Basil has long been considered sacred to lovers (see Keats’ poem Isabella, or the Pot of Basil). “
If only all recipes could manifest so much amore!

While it’s not warm enough for us to have basil ready for market quite yet, this will be a good recipe to revisit very soon.

• 1 lb orzo, dry
• ¼ cup olive oil
• ¾ cup dried cherries
• 2 cups Arugula (or more, to taste)
• 8 oz feta cheese, crumbled
• 12 leaves basil, sliced thin
• ¼ cup toasted pine nuts
• 3 tbsp lemon juice (fresh)
• 1 tsp salt
• ½ tsp pepper
Cook the pasta and allow cooling. Toss pine nuts in a non-stick pan on medium heat to toast, and then allow cooling. Combine ingredients and toss

Mustard greens pesto

• 1/2 cup plus 1/3 cup olive oil
• 1/4 cup pecans
• 2 garlic cloves, peeled, quartered
• 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
• 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• 3 cups (loosely packed) coarsely chopped mustard greens

Blend 1/2 cup oil, pecans, and garlic in processor until finely chopped. Add vinegar, then Parmesan; process to blend. Add mustard greens alternately with remaining 1/3 cup oil in 2 additions each; puree until almost smooth. Season pesto with salt and pepper. Transfer to small bowl. DO AHEAD Can be made 6 hours ahead. Cover; chill. Let stand at room temperature 1 hour before using.

Green garlic seems to all of the rage right now! Recently it's been written up in the New York Times Recipes for Health. For us it wasn't so much as being on the cutting edge of the latest hip food, it was more like a happy accident! We had one patch of garlic last year that didn't fare well. We pulled a few garlic from the ground, but the bulbs were really too small and the patch was full of weeds that were often being mistaken for stalks of corn. So instead of pulling them we left the garlic alone, allowing the patch to succumb to the assault of the weeds. The wonderful green garlic we've had for the last few weeks is the result.

Green Garlic Mayonnaise

whip together
• 2 whole eggs
• 1 teaspoon or a little less Dijon mustard
• 4 stalks green garlic, cleaned as you would leeks and chopped roughly
• 3 teaspoons lemon juice or rice wine vinegar
• 2 teaspoons more rice or white wine vinegar
• 1 1/4 cups corn or other vegetable oil
add a little salt and ta-da, everyone will want to know what your secret ingredient is in your devilled eggs!

Radish and Mango Salsa
• 2 ripe mangoes, peeled and cut into 1/4-inch dice
• 2 small bunches radishes, trimmed and thinly sliced
• 1 small red onion, finely diced
• 2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
• 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
• 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger
• 1 teaspoon toasted sesame oil
• 3 tablespoons minced fresh cilantro
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Combine all of the ingredients except the cilantro, salt and pepper in a glass or plastic bowl. Stir gently to combine. Just before serving, add cilantro and season to taste with salt and pepper.

Southern style collard greens

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1/2 large onion, chopped
• 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
• 1 clove garlic, finely chopped
• 1 pound collard greens, chopped
• 3 cups vegetable stock
• 2 tomatoes, seeded and chopped
• 1 shredded carrot

In a large pot over medium heat, heat oil and butter. Sauté the onions until slightly softened, about 2 minutes, then add the red pepper flakes and garlic, cook another minute. Add collard greens and cook another minute. Add the vegetable stock, cover and carrots and bring to a simmer. Cook until greens are tender, about 40 minutes. Add tomatoes and season with salt and freshly ground black pepper

spring has arrived

2011-04-18T15:00:00.017-04:00

I have just been frettin' myself thinking about how long it's been since I last posted a blog entry. We've been working a lot and I have to admit I'm always a little too tuckered out by the end of the day to turn on this pollen encrusted computer and share a little bit about what we've been doing 'round here. This beautiful weather has been an inspiration to get outside and get our hands in the dirt. After (what always feels like) a long winter Adam and I are always chompin' at the bit to get this farm back into operation. As with this one you may find the season's posts to be short of words but abundant in pictures!

The Strawberries look great this year. I'm seeing countless little green strawberries right now. Can't Wait!!!!!

This picture of some spring greens was taken a couple of weeks ago.

here they are today

here they are little closer

and closer

Adam moving plants out of the greenhouse a few weeks ago to harden them off

A little of what was being moved out. These are now out in the field.

Compost tea brewer hard at work. Adam, the mad scientist, has concocted a new recipe for the compost tea increasing it's microbial activity which is making it really foamy.

Once the greenhouse was cleared of plants that needed to be hardened off we planted tomatoes. Here they are last Thursday.

Here they are today

Tomatoes on their way out to be planted

I couldn't have planned this any better. Lucy just stepped into the shot!

Our first planting of tomatoes this season

in the beginning...

2011-02-10T15:30:00.008-05:00

I thought I'd share the happenings of the farm with pictures. It may seem as though there are a gratuitous amount of sprouting seedlings, but I couldn't help myself from posting them. If you take a look you may notice they appear to be dancing!

days like these cannot be ignored

another greenhouse going up

"germination chambers"

results of the chamber

In memory of an old tail wagger and a few barnyard entertainers

2011-01-30T13:09:00.012-05:00

This past Wednesday was Lamont's last day with us on earth. He'll always be in our memories, we'll miss him.

We also lost four chickens to a fox in the same week. Two of them were very sweet and tame. A gorgeous orange rooster, the color of fire and Lucy's friendly black chicken she called "cow".

Lucy and Cow

he preferred to eat feed out of our hands

I know chickens are mostly a commodity, but as we all know once an animal is named they begin to embody human characteristics as Cow had for Lucy. She talks to both the dogs and chickens as though they're going to answer back. She did this often with Cow so we haven't told her that her friendly fowl is gone. We really don't want to. I never thought I would be so dishonest, but I am currently looking for a black replacement chicken.

fox prints in the snow

Here I go again, I only dedicated two sentences to our dog we'd had for ten years, but I generously gave the chickens 8 sentences. This season I promise far less posts about chickens!

On a more positive note we've put up a greenhouse and we'll start seeding this week. Pictures of vegetable sprouts to come soon!

this post is in need of a joke
-
What do you get if you sit under a cow?
A pat on the head!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

2011-01-02T19:06:00.009-05:00

Included in these pictures of the beautiful snowfall on the farm is a picture of the Woolly Bear caterpillar. This picture was taken mid November and according to the Old Farmer's Almanac, the longer the middle brown band, the milder and shorter the coming winter; the shorter the brown band, the longer and more severe winter will be. This woolly winter predictor and others I noticed had large brown bands. Mild winter? That would be heavenly!

last farmer's market of the season

2010-12-03T14:51:00.005-05:00

This Saturday you can find us at the South of the James Farmer’s Market. It will be our last market of the season. Many of our customers ask - Are you looking forward to the last market.- I can't lie, yes, a little bit. Do you get a winter break? A short one, we're already getting seed catalogs in the mail and Adam's been perusing through them thinking about next year. After the holidays we'll be right back at it, ordering seeds and putting up a new green house for starters. It seems somewhat unfathomable to be planning for the summer so soon. Every spring around the first harvest I think, "Wait, wasn't it just Christmas?"

Spring will be here soon enough!

The CSA opens December 7th!!!!!

2010-12-03T14:19:00.005-05:00

We are offering an early bird discount if you sign up by January 31st!

This year we're making some changes to the CSA. We are not offering a half share and full share. Instead we are offering, what we are calling, a mid size share. I would say that it will feed a family of three. But, it's all relative to how many vegetables you and your family can eat in a week.

The 2011 season for the CSA members will be 15 weeks long, starting in May and ending in August.

All of the information needed to sign up, or fulfill your curiosity as to what we are offering, will be up on the Fertile Crescent Farm website by December 7th.

I promise this is not a high pressure sales tactics, but you should know we are downsizing the CSA by half and we are offering a limited number of pickups at the South of the James location. Sign up early!

season's end - Rejoice! it's behind us

2010-11-02T20:20:00.019-04:00

The CSA ended a few weeks ago, the Byrd House Market and St. Stephen's Market have ended and the final weeks of the South of the James Farmer's Market are just around the corner. I usually try to write a little something about the year as well as give thanks a little earlier than right now, but this time it's taken me a while to sit down to write anything. I think it's because I don't want my words to resonate as someone who is whining about a bad season, because there was a lot of good sprinkled into this year's challenges. It was a really tough year for so many reasons, but I'll get into that later. The good stuff deserves a mention first.
Some may wonder whether or not buying local really makes a difference, in our experience as a farm offering a CSA and a farmer's market vendor, it does. Each and every week the folks who are market regulars make the rounds, buying delicious fresh produce from one or several different vendors, five dollars here, ten dollars there. It doesn't seem like much, but it is. Without uttering a word, your saying "thanks, I'm glad you’re here.” Along with our super CSA members we couldn't do this without your enthusiasm for good fresh food. I'd like to thank all of the folks dedicated to the farmer's markets; you made all of those uphill days worth it. It's so great to connect with you. We, as growers, get so much out of it beyond sales. We really appreciate you! (Big hug here).

I like to use this end of the season post to give thought to this past season. Reflect. In this thinkin' and reflectin' and all, I recognize there have been A LOT of posts about the chickens. Before Lucy's interest in the chickens Adam and I never paid them any mind, except to collect eggs and feed them. Now Lucy and I spend hours upon hours with them. She loves them, or loves to torture them in chase. I'm not sure which. She may be spending a little too much time with them though. The other day she sat on one of her bath toys as though it was an egg and said in her sweet 2 year old voice. "Look ma ma, hatching Elmo.".

As usual, my digression has led me away from talk of the farm.

Even as modern as farming has become we still have only so much control over what and how we grow, nature has the most it seems. Each year the growing season is a little different - climate wise- and the most fruitful vegetable plants are a little different each season. Last year it was beans, beans, and more beans! Oh, and did I mention we had lots of beans last year? This year it was eggplant. Funny thing though, I was campaigning to stop growing eggplant early in the season. Our first planting of eggplant pretty much bit the dust after the flea beetles had their way with them. Once they destroy the leaves of the plant you end up with weak plants and not too pretty, pip squeak eggplant. This happens every year; we've never had much success with eggplant. After the devastation of the first planting I said to Adam "why don't we just stop growing eggplant. It's a waste of time, money and bed space." I probably said this about ten times throughout the week. I really thought we should just stop growing it completely. Oh ye of little faith. But not Adam, ever the optimist, he ignored my anti-eggplant lobbying and allowed new eggplant to take root. He won; those plants grew and grew and grew producing eggplant for what seemed like forever! We were picking hundreds of pounds of eggplant off of one bed for the entire summer! Wonders never cease.

I can honestly say, I never want a repeat of year like this one! Aside from the heat slowing us down and slowing down the production of the plants, we had a lot of our most important and necessary machinery break down. For fear of sounding like I'm just doing a bunch of bellyaching I won't get too into the details of it all, instead I'll list our summer breakdowns, more like facts than boo hoos. Early spring - lawnmower breaks down, tractor breaks down- now Adam had to use the BCS walk behind tractor to till the soil, this takes 10 times as long to do everything. Weedwacker breaks. Unmowed grass and weeds everywhere. BCS walk behind tractor breaks down in August and the tractor is still not fixed. Now Adam has to use a leaf rake to till, if you want to call it that at this point. Minus the irrigation, we are doing some pretty prehistoric style farming, it's being done all by hand. Now that's dedication!! This struggle was all compounded by the constant heat and deterioration of plant production and sometimes death.
You see now why this was not the summer of love.

We learned a great deal this year and feel like this summer's experience has better prepared us for next year.
On the plus side the car, truck and van never broke down, the irrigation never caused any problems, our garlic was magnificent, carrots,(though late to mature, as they were supposed to go to the CSA) were amazingly sweet, the electric fencing was worth its weight in gold - no deer pressure this year, Claire and Amy, our farm employees, rocked and all in all, despite the setbacks we still managed to have beautiful, cream of the crop (so to say) vegetables to take to market and give to the CSA!!

Last words: I am still on a crusade for a producer only farmer's market!!!! If you want that too let the market managers know.

the itsy bitsy spider......

2010-10-12T20:02:00.001-04:00

is just a plain 'ole house spider!

is this a brown widow spider?

2010-10-05T10:36:00.008-04:00

I'm obsessed with finding out what kind of spider this is. I found the little fella in a crate of apples. It looks like a brown widow spider (minus a few missing legs) but it has a black hourglass on it's abdomen instead of an orange hourglass. It acts like a widow spider, it curled up into a ball and played dead when I put it in a drinking glass for more observation. But I suppose that's a natural reaction for a lot of spiders who feel threatened. I've read that Brown widow spiders are not found in Virgina, so what is this Brown Widow impostor?

Baba Ganoush recipe (loosely)

2010-10-04T10:21:00.004-04:00

This recipe comes from Nancy, one of our CSA members, and it sounds delicious! I haven't tried it yet, but I have heard from another of our CSA members, who is a friend of Nancy's and apparently a frequent dinner guest, that she is an exceptional cook.

4 large eggplants
salt and pepper to taste
lots of olive oil, I mean LOTS :)
about 2 tablespoons of tahini sesame paste
2 cloves of raw garlic

Put 1 inch thick slices of eggplant drizzled with olive oil on a baking sheet and broil on high for about 10 minutes til very soft (i.e. baby food consistency). I like to keep the skin on so they char just a little bit - adds a smokey flavor to the dip. Mix all ingredients and blend with a hand blender. Add more salt, pepper, olive oil for taste and consistency. Serve with crackers, pita chips or crusty bread!

Enjoy!

the magical never ending eggplant

2010-09-25T15:14:00.009-04:00

Our CSA members have been getting eggplant for, oh I don't know, something like five weeks now, so I thought I might post a few recipes. I'm guessing by now CSA members, you may have a surplus of the stuff in the vegetable drawer of your refrigerator, or as the drawer is called in our household, "the rotter"!

This recipe is out of Vegetarian Times

Cumin Roasted Eggplant with Sweet Peppers and Chickpeas
serves4
4 cups diced eggplant
1 medium red onion cut into small wedges
1 yellow pepper, cut into bite sized wedges
1 15 oz can chickpeas, rinsed drained and patted dry
3 Tbs. garlic infused olive oil - or just olive oil and garlic to your taste
3/4 tsp. ground cumin
3/4 tsp. ground coriander
1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper

Yogurt Sauce
1/2 cup plain yogurt
2 plum tomatoes or whatever tomatoes you may have on hand
1/4 cup chopped fresh mint

Roast eggplant: preheat oven to 450, place eggplant onion and pepper into large bowl. Add chick peas, oil, cumin, coriander, and cayenne. Toss to coat and season with salt and pepper. Scatter vegetable mixture on baking sheet and roast for 20 minutes. Turn occasionally with spatula. Increase heat to 500 (if your oven goes up that far) and roast vegetables 10 minutes more or until tender.

serve yogurt sauce on top of vegetables

I found a delicious shepherd's pie in Bon Apetite. It calls for lamb, but chicken could easily be substituted and meat could be omitted entirely if desired - just add extra veggies.

Lamb and Eggplant Shepherd's Pie
8 to 10 servings
1 1/2 lbs. eggplant, unpeeled, cut into 3/4 to 1 inch cubes
coarse kosher salt
7 Tbs. extra virgin olive oil
2 Lbs. well trimmed lamb shoulder cut into 1 inch cubes
3 cups chopped onion
1 cup dry white wine
1 28 ounce can diced tomatoes in juice
3 cups beef broth organic of course
8 garlic cloves, chopped
1 Tbsp. dried oregano
Topping
2 1/2 lb potatoes, cut into 1 inch cubes
1/4 stick of butter
2 Tbsp olive oil
2 garlic cloves minced
3/4 cup whole milk
1 1/4 cup coarsely grated Romano cheese

Scatter eggplant on baking sheet and sprinkle with salt. Let it stand for 1 hour and then pat it dry.
heat 3 Tbsp oil in large pot over medium heat. Add eggplant and saute until tender about 15 minutes. Transfer to medium bowl
Add 1 Tbsp oil to same pot add onions cook until tender. Add wine. Increase heat and boil until wine evaporates. Add tomatoes with juice, broth, garlic and spices and bring to boil. Add lamb and reduce heat.
Simmer for 45 minutes - add eggplant salt and pepper and simmer for 15 more minutes.
Transfer to 13x9x2 inch glass baking dish.
Topping
Preheat oven to 375
Boil potatoes in pot until tender about 15 minutes
While the potatoes are boiling melt butter and add garlic then add milk to simmer
Drain potatoes, return to pot and add milk mixture. Mash potatoes until smooth. Stir in cheese.
Drop potatoes over filling
Bake for 45 minutes and enjoy!

vermiculture and worm castings in the words of Don Dillon

2010-09-24T21:37:00.004-04:00

I asked Don if he could write a few words (uh, this is a lot more than a few Don!)about vermicomposting because 1- he's really good at it and 2 - folks ask us about composting and in regards to making compost we are mediocre at best(don't mention to Adam I used the word mediocre!)so it's better to have the words of someone with more expertise to answer those questions and 3 - it's interesting!
so with much adieu

Don's words on vermicomposting

Worm Castings
Worm castings are the end product after worms have digested the remnants of decaying plant matter, animal manure or other organic materials such as leaves, twigs, vegetable scraps, etc. Worm castings are rich in water-soluble plant nutrients and contain an abundance of organic humus. Humus increases the soil's ability to store these nutrients and prevents them from leaching away by rain or irrigation. A worm eats organic material that is being broken down by bacteria, fungus, and other microbial life in the soil. A worm’s digestive tract is also filled with these beneficial microbes that break down the organic material to release nutrients for the worm to absorb as food. These microbes multiply in the worm’s digestive tract and are expelled along with excess undigested organic material as ‘castings’ from the worms. In fact, there are so many more microbes leaving the worm then are ingested, the output castings become biologically dense with this beneficial biology. This living biology is very valuable to the plants ability to absorb nutrients and the overall health of the soil.

Plants and Living Soil
The maintenance of a living soil environment is very important for the health of a plant. When there is sufficient beneficial microbial life in a healthy soil, a symbiotic relationship is developed between the plant and the soil. The bacteria provide nutrition for the plants by breaking down the minerals and elements locked in the soil, making them readily available for the plant to absorb. The plant roots in turn release a variety of compounds to encourage and regulate the beneficial microbial community in their immediate vicinity. By creating an area that is conducive to the beneficial bacteria around their root zone, the bacteria will thrive and continue to supply the necessary nutrition for the plant.

Using VermiCompost
The worm castings are integrated into the plant/soil environment by many methods; mixed into potting mix, directly into the soil as a soil amendment, top dressing an established plant, or steep as a tea and applied as a foliar spray or fed to the root zone. Adding directly to the soil or plant creates a long term benefit by adding the living microbes into the soil where they will continue to reproduce and increase the fertility of the soil for the plants. A compost tea has the added benefit of applying the beneficial microbes and nutrients directly onto the plant leaves and stems when applied as a foliar spray. Spraying has the added benefit of directly feeding the plant, and allows the beneficial bacteria and microbes to establish residency on the plant surface. Establishing this residency removes available surface area for pests and harmful microbial entities to attack. The tea can also be used as a soil drench, which saturates the plant root zone with needed nutrients and beneficial bacterial immediately.

Compost Tea
“Passive" compost tea is prepared by steeping worm castings in a bucket of water for 1 or more days to extract the populations of beneficial bacteria and microbes. The water is then strained and applied to the plant leaves as a foliar spray, or fed directly to the roots. Since the compost tea will not harm or burn the plant, it can be freely added as often as desired. Many irrigation systems allow for direct injection directly into the main line so it is dispensed throughout the entire system.
“Aerated Compost tea” is an oxygenated tea brewed with a food source— such as molasses, kelp, rock dust, humic-fulvic acids. The castings are added to water, the food source is added, and the tea is kept highly oxygenated by use of air pumps or bubblers. By adding the food and oxygen, the microbial life multiplies exponentially (often > 10,000 times the original number of microorganisms) over a 12 to 24 hours period. Application of Aerated tea is the same as for Passive tea, but applies much more of the beneficial microbes then the passive method. Often, very specific recipes are use to target which bacteria or fungus is desired to grow in the tea to be used for specific applications such as fruiting trees, pest resistance, flowers, etc.

Raising worms and harvesting castings
At Eli’s Greens Nursery in Farmville, Va. We raise worms in raised beds, very much like a garden raised bed. We currently have three worm bins that are 10’ long by 3’ wide by 3’ tall, and have plans for several more in the fall. The worms are composting worms known as ‘Red Wigglers’. Compost worms differ from Night crawlers because they live only in the top, organically rich compost of the soil layer. Night crawlers are earth digging worms that will maintain a tunnel going down into the earth sometimes 6 to 8 feet in depth.

A worm bed is composed of organic material, with a usual carbon to nitrogen mixture of greater than 40 to 1. Carbons are usually things like dried leaves, sawdust, straw, and paper or cardboard. Nitrogen rich material is stuff like green leaves, vegetables, and fresh grass clippings. Since the worms eat decomposing organic material, and everything in the worm bed is organic material, everything is eventually is broken down by the bacteria and microbes and fungus and all the other critters that are part of the decomposition cycle, and is consumed by the worms and converted into castings.
To harvest the castings, we have what is called a rotary sifter. It uses a 1/4 inch mesh screen to separate the finished casting from the worms and larger unfinished pieces. After separation, the worms and big pieces go back into the worm bin, with some new bedding and food to start the process all over again.
It’s been said that given perfect conditions, a worm can eat its own body weight in food every day and the population will double every 3 months. Unfortunately, I can’t validate the accuracy of this because doing a census count on worms is impossible, but I will say that they do seem to eat a lot of organic material and produce a lot of grade AAA castings.

Trend update: red is out - green is in

2010-09-13T13:08:00.019-04:00

This is a great time of year for so many reasons. For one, the change in the weather is spectacular, we can all breathe a sigh of relief, the brutality of this summer has passed. And second, this is when there is quite a bit of diversity in the produce being grown in Virginia. Tomatoes and peppers, reminders of the summer are still here while greens and winter squash hint of the autumn season to come. Mmmm I can almost smell Thanksgiving dinner just thinking about it! Though I'm going to miss the long days of summer and spending much of my time (when I'm not out in the fields) in bare feet. Goodness, I sound so nostalgic and summer hasn't even left us yet!

Well, enough about me and my thoughts of the seasons, this is supposed to be a farm blog...... so here it is

Farm news

The last batch of tomatoes are slowly turning red, I don't think this one is going to be a bumper crop.
It's green, greens, greens out here!

our wee one is a chicken whisperer

Adam and I harvested honey from the hive about a week or so ago. There was one super full of honey. I don't know how much it will be, someone told me a super is about a five gallon bucket full. It doesn't look like that much, but it could be because the super probably weighs close to 50 lbs. We'll find out soon enough, hopefully we'll be able to extract it from the combs this week.

This year we've learned compost tea rocks! And buying compost from a company your not too familiar with sucks! We keep the compost tea brewing and it's doing it's job better than ever. We made our last batch using vermicompost - worm poo. Our friend Don Dillon makes it, it's quality stuff! Occasionally he and his worm poo can be found at Eli's Green's at St. Stephen's and South of the James farmer's markets, ask him about it. For you home gardeners interested in making your own compost tea it's pretty easy, all you need is a five gallon bucket, water, high quality compost and and aerator, like those used in fish tanks.

Eventually the rest of this drum of compost tea will fill up with foam. That's when you know it's good.

On the flip side of compost, it is possible to get inferior compost. We bought some, as in a few dump truck loads, from a company near Richmond because their delivery rates were cheaper than the folks we usually buy it from and boy are we sorry we did. It's filled with weed seeds and that's not something we need more of here!
You may say, well maybe those weed seeds were already there and then I would say not so, because new weeds that we haven't seen here are popping up in the beds and not the aisles, the proof is in the pudding.
an example of the wretched weeds

tilled beds with compost added and little carrots sprouting up through the ground

a few week later - pigweed pigweed pigweed carrot pigweed pigweed carrot pigweed pigweed...you get the drift

they are a nuisance, but luckily, easy to weed

Henny Penny update
As of today she successfully hatched 5 chicks - 4 of them are white and they came from white eggs so those I know are from the white leghorns. The fifth is black and brown, I think that one came from either the Speckled Sussex or the Golden Laced Wyandotte hen. Of the three that survived the first brood two are looking like they're roosters - darn it! We don't need any more roosters, the other two supposed to be hens roosters are having their last rites preformed tomorrow.

Phaseolus vulgaris, my word, there's nothing vulgar about the greenbean

2010-08-25T09:27:00.005-04:00

Hallelujah, it's cooled down and the beans are growing!!! (finally)

This was not the year for the Phaseolus vulgaris, otherwise known as the green bean. They do not like HOT HOT weather. Beans were scarce at the farmer's markets and scarce in our CSA shares this year. Which is contrary to where we stood at this time last year, it was a bean bonanza! This year our first planting of beans was lovely, the first pick of beans are always the prettiest. Then came the Mexican Bean Beetle, he's a rotten little fellow. We've never seen them here before this year, but apparently they got the word from some other insect comrade that this is the place to be. They reproduce fast and eat fast, destroying plants fast. The best biological defense against the bean beetle is a parasitic wasp called the Pediobius foveolatus, also nicknamed the pedio wasp for obvious reasons. The Pedio lays it's eggs in the Mexican Bean Beetle larvae. Wasp larvae feed inside the Bean Beetle larva, kill it, and pupate inside it, forming a brownish case or ‘mummy’. About twenty five adult wasps emerge from one mummy. These wasps are not native to our area, so they have to be purchased from an insect rearing laboratory (who knew there was such a thing) and delivered via overnight shipping. We didn't order the wasps this year, which probably ended up being o.k., because even though we were planting beans every two weeks or so the heat caused the blooms to drop, the rabbits were eating them down to nubs, or the plant was just frying up in the heat. This means we never had any substantial amount of bean plants for them to live off of. I'm hoping their numbers are low and that there isn't another generation behind this one (that is called wishful thinking!) We'll see how it goes, they were new to us and now we know better for next year.

In other farm news Henny P has decided to cut the apron strings and let her chicks forage for insects without her protection. She is laying on another clutch of eggs!

a hen crows

2010-08-02T10:22:00.016-04:00

You may remember the sweet little chicks I introduced you to back in April. We purchased them from a poultry swap outside of the Tractor Supply store in Farmville and were assured they were going to all grow up to be beautiful egg producing hens. Hrmfff, I have a funny story about those hens. A few weeks ago, early in the morning as I lay in bed I heard an owl. We have oodles of owls here. In the early spring you can hear them sing to each other all night, but I've never seen one. So as you can imagine this owl hooting got me pretty excited. He was so close by, near the chickens, I was sure of it. He was probably scoping out the baby chicks. I had to find him. I ran downstairs, out the front door, to the chickens, looking up the whole way. There wasn't an owl in sight and I wasn't hearing him anymore either. Oh well, maybe next time. A few days later I hear this hooting again, this time I'm near the car. Craning my neck so that I can see through the trees, there he is! No, not an owl, but one of the hens cracking it's voice, like that of a teenage boy. And that's exactly what that he is, a teenage rooster.
Darn it!
Out of eight chicks two have turned out to be roosters. Anybody want a rooster?

Our fruit trees are looking pretty spectacular right now.

The peaches have just about plumped up. We only have one peach tree , so it's really hard to share! They ripen all at the same time so most will be frozen for future use. The apple trees, well that's another story. We have five apple trees and three of them are loaded. Our CSA members can expect to see them in their shares once they ripen.

Sunday was spent picking up the apples and peaches that have fallen off the trees onto the ground in hopes of keeping the wasps and yellow jackets away. This makes picking them so much easier when the time comes. Nothing is more distracting than trying to dodge the giant European Wasp while picking apples! By the time most of the fruit hits the ground it's pretty rotten or on it's way, those are a delicacy to the chickens. The rest, the ones I deem salvageable, will be baked. The apples aren't ripe enough to eat, but they're tart enough to put in a pie or tart. Richmond Food Collective has a great recipe on their site.

As I said, the chickens get the rest

Sunday was also spent making tomato sauce.

My intentions had been to can the sauce, but I'm a little afraid of botulism. Unless it's going to freeze the wrinkles on my forehead (it's natural, right?). Instead I put the cooled sauce into freezer bags, laid them on a cookie sheet and put them in the freezer. Not to mention how much easier it is to freeze sauce than sitting it in a canning bath for 35 minutes.

R.I.P - we lost two of the chicks henny penny hatched out.

goodby July

2010-07-26T19:32:00.009-04:00

In all of this heat what would you imagine we and other farmers in the area are thinking about right now?
O.k., so it's a trick question - no, not sitting poolside with a cool fruity drink, well, yes, sitting poolside with a cool fruity drink, but in terms of farming we're thinking about our Fall harvest. Believe it or not in our region the official first frost date is mid October. That's only two and a half months from now, yes, that's right, two and a half months before our first frost date! In 100 degree weather it's hard to grasp the idea of waking up to frost, but that's what we're working and planning for right now.

Carrots have been sowed in the field. Broccoli, cabbage, greens, scallions, beets, chard and kale have all been seeded and are in the green house, emerging out of the soil already. This week we'll start direct seeding more fall crops, broccoli rabe, parsnips, rutabagas, and collards directly into their beds.

We still need more rain, so I was thinking collectively maybe we should all keep our car windows rolled down for the rest of the summer.

what to do with all of that squash and zucchini!

2010-07-21T12:40:00.010-04:00

By now the season for squash and zucchini is in full swing and you've been seeing and maybe eating lots of it. I know we've been eating it several times a week!

I'd like to share two of our favorite recipes with you
the first is found in Bon Appetit's June 2010 issue

Zucchini Cakes
Makes 24 small cakes or 12 large

We modify this one a great deal by adding more vegetables to the mix, the sky's the limit with this delicious recipe.

1 lb of zucchini and/or squash grated
1 tsp salt
1/4 cup all purpose flour
2 tbs of finely grated parmesan -
we've also used feta - in my opinion, feta makes everything betta
2 tbsp minced shallot -
we use what ever vegetable we have around the house that represents some sort of onion
1 large egg plus one large egg white, beaten to blend
1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper
canola oil
1/3 cup sour cream
we've also used plain yogurt with mint or dill in it

Once zucchini/squash has been grated, liberally add salt and set in a colander to drain for about a half an hour.
Transfer zucchini to medium bowl, stir in flour, parmesan, and shallot then sir in beaten egg and pepper.
Coat frying pan with oil and over a medium high heat drop mixture (tablespoon size for 24) onto skillet. Flatten them by using a spatula, flip as needed.

Bon Appetit recommends accompanying the zucchini fritters with a glass of champagne, hmmmm, it's more likely to be washed down with the champagne of beers here (in a can of course)!

Zucchini Crusted Pizza is from a Moosewood cookbook

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

The Crust:

3 1/2 cups grated zucchini or squash, coarsely grated
3 eggs beaten
1/3 cup flour
1/2 cup grated mozzarella
1/2 cup grated Parmesan
1 Tbs. fresh basil minced
salt and pepper to taste

Salt the zucchini lightly and let it sit for 15 minutes. Squeeze out all the excess moisture.

Combine all crust ingredients, and spread into an oiled 9 by 13 inch baking pan. Bake 20-25 minutes until the surface is dry and firm. Brush the top with oil and broil it, under moderate heat for 5 minutes.

Top pizza with your favorite toppings, sauce, and cheese (pesto makes a wonderful sauce!) and bake for an additional 25 minutes.

pictures worth ten thousand words

2010-07-19T15:44:00.020-04:00

I'll start with this pic because Claire looks super cute! (I think her smile is betraying her true feelings - hot and tired)

SHOCKING - we're harvesting squash!!!!!

This is a carpenter bee coming in for a landing onto the flower of an okra plant

and leaving

trellised cherry tomatoes

more cherry tomatoes

beds and beds of winter squash and melons

picture perfect watermelon

click on this picture and it will reveal a close up of squash bug eggs on the flower and a tiny little squash bug near the winter squash

this pretty little burst of sunshine is the dreaded mexican bean beetle larva
little did he know, there's a new immigration detention facility out here, his days are numbered

Farm inspection!

come rain or come shine

2010-07-04T21:56:00.002-04:00

This past week seemed to go by so quickly. We spent most of our time harvesting and Adam spent a good deal of time making new beds. Last year it seemed that I wrote A LOT about weather and deer. So I feel it's time to mention them both again. I've been seeing a good deal of deer out on the sides of the road (alive I mean) at all times of the day. Looking for green things, I suppose. Since we put up the electric fencing they haven't been a problem for us, I can't say the same thing for the rabbits. Their eating habits are like those, well of rabbits. They graze. Unless it involves edamame. Those were plowed through and we're pretty sure it was the rabbits.
This hot weather and lack of rain has been tough on us. I haven't talked with any other folks who farm, but I'm assuming we're not the only ones. We have an excellent irrigation system, but it can only do so much. Drip tape definitely doesn't take the place of a good soaking rain occasionally. Even the weeds are looking pretty brown.
Pray for rain!

This weeks the share will be some variation of - tomatoes, peppers, fennel, squash, onions, potatoes, garlic and maybe a few surprises

how hot is it?

2010-06-28T08:09:00.013-04:00

So hot that when we dug up potatoes, they were already baked!

So hot, today I saw a chicken lay a fried egg!

Despite the heat things are moving right along. Some plants really like this weather - peppers- and then others, not so much - salad greens.
Late last week and this week we started harvesting garlic.

In Virginia garlic is usually planted mid October and it's harvested mid June into July. I would say garlic is in the ground longer than any other annual crop. Luckily it's pretty carefree. The variety we're growing this year is called Music.

Claire and I checked on the bees today and they're looking great and they're making lots of honey

Please enjoy the rest of the pics!

Did I mention that it's hot?

This week the shares will receive (a variation of) potatoes, tomatoes, onions, garlic, carrots, cabbage and squash

six chixs!

2010-06-20T21:53:00.005-04:00

Henny P now has six adorable chicks following her around! They all hatched out Friday afternoon and are they cute!!! It's so exciting, I've been talking about it as though I had been the one sitting on them for three weeks. Three of them are hers and the other three are are the Buff Orpingtons (I knew that sneaky girl was slipping her eggs into Henny's nest!). What I find to be so wonderful about this motherly hen is that even though three of those chicks biologically aren't hers she's totally unaware of it, or at least acts like it. If we get too close to the babies she kind of growls a chicken like growl, it's such a strange growl I don't think I can describe is as other than chickeny, she then puffs her little self up and the chicks hide under her, little heads peaking out beneath her feathers.

It's been a hot week and everyone's been working hard despite it. We are so very thankful to have wonderful and dedicated help.

This week for market we'll be harvesting tomatoes, peppers, okra, tomatillos, beans, swiss chard, baby squash and dill.
For the shares we will be harvesting fennel, basil, cabbage, salad mix, arugula, spring onions, green garlic potatoes, squash zucchini cucumbers and beans.
Tomatoes will be showing up the shares very soon, as soon as we have enough for all of the CSA members, I know everyone is looking forward them!

more about compost tea

2010-06-14T12:07:00.014-04:00

We are just loving the new compost tea brewer! It was built by our friends Jason and Dan at Living Soils Compost Tea. They can be found at the South of the James Farmer's Market selling compost tea by the gallon or half gallon. More information about them can be found at www.liviningsoils.net. For us they suggested a tea recipe that Harvard University's maintenance department is using to care for the vegetation in their landscaping. This recipe is designed to promote the growth of both beneficial bacteria as well as fungi. What is beneficial bacteria you may ask and why would someone want fungi in their soil? Well, good bacteria is sort of the same concept for the plants as the now popular probiotics are for people. Just as we need good bacteria in our systems so do plants. In short, these bacteria and fungi lock up plant nutrients until they’re needed, making nutrients for the plants more readily available and less likely to be leeched from the soil. They are also excellent decomposers, by breaking down plant material they are able to make food and nitrogen available for plants. When sprayed on the plants the fungi and bacteria also help prevent diseases. Artificial insecticides and chemical fertilizers can kill bacteria, fungi, and other beneficial microbes. We're using a combination of homemade compost and vermicompost, molasses, kelp meal, fish emulsion, alfalfa meal, and rock phosphate in our tea. Our new brewer is able to make 50 gallons of tea at a time, so we should have plenty of this good stuff for all of the plants.

We've had a broody hen sitting on her clutch of eggs for a few weeks. They only need a 21 day incubation period and then they'll hatch. It's hard to really say how long she's been sitting on them. I have to admit, I wasn't paying too much attention to her for the first week she was on them. I don't know how many she's sitting on, but I can tell you our slightly lazy Buff Orpington was laying eggs beside her so that she could have little miss henny penny (that's what we call her) hatch a few out for her. Henny P is a bantam chicken so she's a pretty small bird, I don't think she's sitting on many eggs. But like I said, it's been a while, I don't even know if they're fertilized. Our rooster just hasn't been as randy since his last flock was lost to a dog.

The bees look like they're doing well. There's been a lot of activity!

bees on a frame with capped brood
looking down at bees in a brood box

I think that's it for the excitement this week. Please enjoy the rest of the pictures!

zephyr

summer's first tomato

garlic scapes

washing radishes

bagging lettuce

This week our shares will receive (a variation of)
spring onion, squash, cukes, collards, cabbage, escarole, beets, chard, and green garlic
We will also have salad mix, sungold cherry tomatoes, tomatoes, okra, basil, beans and broccoli at the farmer's markets.

upon reflection...

2010-06-10T11:39:00.005-04:00

Upon reflection I think I was unfair to suggest the market manager's are being lax. They work very hard, everyone behind the scenes of the market works hard, so I apologise for that comment. We enjoy vending at all of the markets we attend and wouldn't be selling produce with out them. My point didn't really have anything to do with the market managers so much as that I worry when purveying happens at the markets it hurts the sales of the farming farmers, as well as ruins the concept of buying fresh, local produce, which is why I think most people shop the markets. If shoppers at the markets catch on to this happening then why would they come to the market if they know it's the same stuff they can buy at the grocery store?

There are so many wonderful growers out there trying to make a living at this, why bring in people who are reselling what they are buying from someone else?

Also in regards to the past post - blueberries are in season now. They weren't in season and were being sold at the markets when I had originally intended on posting my grievances.

and since you gave us some dough, let it grow, let it grow, let it grow

2010-06-06T21:47:00.012-04:00

It's been a good couple of weeks around here. Planting, picking, planting, picking, oh yes and weeding. You can add weeding about three times in between planting and picking. What loves sunshine, irrigated and well fertilized soil more than vegetable plants? - WEEDS!! This is the time of the season when it's really important to stay on top of them.

Better than picking weeds this week has been the arrival of our new intern, Claire. She's coming to us via a farm in Massachusetts, via our friends at Frog Bottom Farm. She was their intern for the summer of 2009 and apparently built up quite a reputation within the CSA circuit. A reputation that could be liken to a celebrity status. A week before her arrival here at Fertile Crescent I had more people than I can remember stop by our tent at the St. Stephens Farmers Market letting me know how thrilled they were that Claire was back on Virginia soil. I had no idea of her popularity, we're happy to have her with us. I just hope all of this adulation doesn't go to her head because she's still gonna have to pull weeds!!

Last week my lost post was mostly about eating seasonal food and how some of the local growers are getting frustrated at how lax the farmer's market managers have been getting about letting purveyors in. I won't go as deeply into it right now, but I would recommend if you shop the markets and see blueberries right now or cantaloupes or anything suspiciously out of season, it probably is and it probably came from a distribution warehouse. Anyone can go to one of these distribution whorehouses, oops, I mean warehouses and purchase produce from here to Florida and bring it to the farmers market. I've said this before and I'll say it again, if you care about buying produce from a person whose hands were in the dirt tending to the vegetables you are buying - ask questions! There seem to be a lot of Agri-fakers out there - of the fruity kind. But like I said, I won't get into too much right now, I was feeling much more passionate about it last week and it's probably good my post was lost!

Excuse me while I step down from my soap box and get back to the farm.

I must praise the uses of compost tea. Earlier this season we had a late spring freeze that turned the leaves of several rows of our tomato plants black. We thought they were gonners for sure! Adam sprayed them with a compost tea, a miracle tea of a sort.... holy water you could say..... and today they are GORGEOUS. Praise be to the rotted vegetables, coffee grinds and a sundry of other compostables that made this tea.

Eggplant - mehhh, that's another story. The flea beetles have decimated the leaves of the plants. They'll make a comeback too. This happens every year. There's not much to do about the dreaded flea beetle except wait it out. They don't seem to be so bad in the summer.

This week we'll be harvesting
kale, collards, spring onions, salad mix, endive, pac choy, squash, zucchini, cukes, okra, green beans, basil, swiss chard, broccoli rabe, beets, cherry tomatoes and radishes
Some of this will be in shares and some will be found only at the farmer's market until we have enough for all of the members.

More pics to come this week!

This week we have........

2010-05-31T10:49:00.003-04:00

I could cry.
The computer has been acting up and I just lost my nice post about the farm and a little blurb about the vegetable this week.

I don't have time to write it all again so this will be brief.

CSA members you will be receiving salad mix, Swiss chard, squash, zucchini, a stir fry mix of Asian greens, purple top turnips, spring onions and Belgian endive for the full shares.

There will be more information to come! (when I'm finished drying my eyes)

Easy roasted radish recipe

2010-05-25T21:41:00.002-04:00

This came to us as a recommendation from one of the CSA members. Even though radishes weren't in all of this weeks share the Japanese turnips might work in their place.

bunch of radishes, trimmed and cut into fourths
1 1/2 T roasted olive oil
1 T soy sauce mixed with 1 T water
2 green onions (scallions) sliced thin (or one spring onion)
1 T toasted sesame seeds

Preheat oven to 425 F. Wash radishes, trim ends, peel if needed, and cut into same size pieces. Slice green onions.

Toss radishes with oil, then roast about 20-25 minutes, stirring one or two times. When radishes are tender and starting to brown, remove from oven, toss with soy sauce to coat and mix in green onion slices. Put back in oven and roast about 5 minutes more.
Sprinkle with toasted sesame seeds. Serve hot.

The belly rules the mind ~ Spanish Proverb

2010-05-25T21:08:00.005-04:00

This recipe looks great!

Baked Rigatoni with Italian Sausage and Broccoli Rabe
- serves 2 to 3 - double it for more
Adapted from marthastewart.com

Ingredients
2 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 onion, diced
1 28-ounce can tomatoes
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1 pound spicy Italian sausage, removed from casing
1/2 pound rigatoni
1/2 bunch broccoli rabe, tough stalk removed
2 ounces mozzarella
Butter, enough to rub casserole dish
Salt and pepper

Procedure
1. Preheat the oven to 375°F. Pour the oil into a large skillet set over medium heat. Add the onions and cook until very soft, about 5 minutes. Dump in the tomatoes and the oregano and thyme. Cook, breaking up the large pieces of tomato with a wooden spoon, for about 20 minutes. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

2. Meanwhile, bring a large pot of water to a boil. Roughly chop the broccoli rabe. Add to the water and cook for about 1 minute. Remove with some tongs and drain in a colander. Rinse under cold water to stop the cooking.

3. Return the large pot of water to a boil and add the pasta. Cook until very al dente, about 3 minutes less than the package says. Drain and rinse under cold water to stop the cooking. Set aside.

4. Form the Italian sausage into 1-inch balls. Saute them in a large skillet set over medium-high heat. There should be enough fat from the sausage, but if the meat sticks then add a drizzle of oil. Cook until browned on a all sides. Add to the tomato sauce.

5. Rub some butter on the inside of a casserole dish. Dump in the pasta and broccoli rabe. Pour on the sauce. Top with a sprinkling of the mozzarella. Bake for about 30 minutes, or until the cheese is bubbling.

the CSA begins!

2010-05-20T21:46:00.005-04:00

All the hustle and bustle of farm life and the start of the CSA has left me a bit delinquent in writing about everything we're doing. So much is happening I hardly know where to start.

First I think I'll start with the CSA. We doubled our small CSA from last year to a not so small, not too big CSA. So we have quite a few new members this year. Now that the CSA has started and Adam and I have met most of you I can say it's great to put faces to all of the people I've been having e-conversations with! With all of the correspondence and anticipation of the first day of shares it almost feels as though our first meeting is like a first date - and we have 19 more.

The weather has been mostly favorable. A bit warm at times for early spring, but as you know that hasn't stopped the salad greens from growing. We've been coming to the farmer's markets for the last three weeks heavily loaded down with delicious (I must say) and tender salad mix. I don't mean to brag - oh yes I do - but I really think we have some of the best salad mix around!

Things are growing wonderfully, we picked our first cucumber of the season Saturday afternoon and Adam, found and ate a sungold tomato. Telling you this is a bit of a tease though, both actually have a ways to go before they're producing enough for the markets and CSA.

This week it looks like it's going to be broccoli raab-o-rama. We have quite a bit of it ready for harvest. Here on the farm, we're having it for dinner tonight and tomorrow night and the next night.... you get the drift. It will be my muse this week. My inspiration for finding a new recipe. In case ya didn't know, Broccoli Rabe is known by several other names, those being, Rapini, Broccoletti, Broccoli di Rape, Cime di Rapa, Rappi, and Friarielli (in Naples), it's a common vegetable in Sicilian, Chinese, Italian, and Portuguese cuisine. Broccoli Rabe is a highly nutritious dark green vegetable with a slightly bitter, spicy taste. It's classified as a brassicca and is a distant relative of the turnip. It is believed to have originated in the Mediterranean and/or China.

The beehive is also worth a mention. I went into the hive about 2 weeks ago after Adam told me he thought he may have seen a swarm, but he wasn't positive. I did this because I needed find the queen. This will indicate weather or not they swarmed. When they leave the hive in a swarm the bees take the queen with them. With the bees left behind without a queen trouble for those bees may not be far behind. If they're a small and weak hive then it's possible that they could be wiped out by robber bees from another hive. These bees will fight their way into the weak hive and steal all of the honey, and as it turns out this hive had lots of honey. After going into the hive I discovered that sure enough, they did swarm. When a hive is going to swarm they'll start making a new queen. I looked and looked for a queen, but never found her. I pretty much knew I wouldn't find her, I did however find two queen cells and very few brood cells. This was the confirmation I needed, the swarm Adam saw was from this hive. The good thing I discovered is that they were working hard fashioning honey out of pollen - amazing! They had filled so much of the hive with honey that they ran out out space and were forced to leave. Bees don't like to be crowded. Boy, I've got to tell you, I was surprised to see so much honey so soon. I underestimated how quickly they wold fill up the frames in the boxes, so I added another box. This way they'll they have the space they need when the future queen gets to work making more brood. I went back into the hive today, it looked good. I didn't have time to look for the new queen or to see if they were even successful making one. I'm going to spend more time in the hive next Sunday, I'll keep you up date!

This week we'll be harvesting -
Salad mix, Head Lettuce, Garlic Scapes, Squash, Japanese Turnips or Purple Top Turnips, Broccoli Rabe, Mustard Greens, Arugula, Yukina Savoi (tatsoi) Spring Onions, Kale, Swiss chard

The CSA shares will be a combination of some of these vegetables.

2010-04-19T20:58:00.012-04:00

Spring's first strawberries

Amy our summer helper - summer fun

'lil onions

Young squash plants

What's under cover?

It's tomatoes!! This one has a beautiful bloom

eating wild onions

spreading compost by hand - this acre will receive about 30 tons of compost - crazy!

the best kale salad ever

2010-04-18T21:21:00.003-04:00

We were introduced to this delicious salad on Saturday. It would be unjust to not share it. Even those who do not think they like kale will enjoy this salad.

2 Bunches kale, washed, dried and chopped
1/2 medium red onion, chopped
1 medium apple, seeded and chopped
2 teaspoons minced garlic
2 teaspoons fresh ginger, peeled and grated
1 whole, ripe avocado, peeled and chopped
2 tablespoons lemon juice
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 teaspoons Tamari soy sauce or Bragg's Amino Acids
1/2 cup cashews, raw, chopped

Wash, de-stem and chop kale. Place in large bowl. Add lemon juice and avocado. Mix together with your hands until the avocado is smooth. Add remaining ingredients and mix well. Serve immediately and enjoy!

What does sustainable mean?

2010-04-18T15:00:00.007-04:00

A few days ago I was reading the website of a local farm and on it they claimed to be sustainable, but they disclosed that did use chemicals when necessary. Well I thought "that's not sustainable, you can't call yourself sustainable when it's convenient". Or can you? It seems the word sustainable has turned into just another buzzword, and unlike the word "organic" in terms of labeling, "sustainable" is not regulated. So I got to thinking "what does sustainable agriculture mean exactly?". Perhaps this farm is sustainable, maybe by definition a farm can be sustainable and still practice conventional methods of farming using whatever chemicals they deem necessary. So I googled "What is Sustainable Agriculture" and found varying, but similar interpretations. I'll share a little bit of what I discovered it to mean.

As found in the farm bill, Congress defines sustainable agriculture as “… an integrated system of plant and animal production practices having a site-specific application that will, over the long-term—(A) satisfy human food and fiber needs; (B) enhance environmental quality and the natural resource base upon which the agriculture economy depends; (C) make the most efficient use of nonrenewable resources and on-farm resources and integrate, where appropriate, natural biological cycles and controls; (D) sustain the economic viability of farm operations; and (E) enhance the quality of life for farmers and society as a whole.”

America.gov's explanation of sustainable agriculture refers to farming methods that conserve the environment by minimizing damage to soil, water sources, species habitat and other natural resources. Examples include no-till farming, crop rotation, and prevention of runoff or leaching of fertilizers and pesticides.

The principle of sustainable agriculture is explained on the ATTRA website as one that produces abundant food without depleting the earth’s resources or polluting its environment. It is agriculture that follows the principles of nature to develop systems for raising crops and livestock that are, like nature, self-sustaining. Sustainable agriculture is also the agriculture of social values, one whose success is indistinguishable from vibrant rural communities, rich lives for families on the farms, and wholesome food for everyone.

So, while I'm reticent to say it, my conclusion is that yes, by definition a farm can be sustainable and use chemicals if necessary. My heart says "That's a bummer", but my head understands. Farmers who integrate conventional with ecological is better than straight conventional. So how do we know if we're getting clean food? As consumers we have to ask questions and not make assumptions that just because someone is a local farmer or someone is selling at a farmer's market they practice safe and responsible farming. I believe as consumers the more informed we are, the smarter our decisions can be.

On the lighter side of things!!!!

We tried an early fruiting variety of strawberries this year. They're in and they taste great. The plants fruited earlier than we would ideally want. We have lots of strawberries now and the farmers markets don't start for a few more weeks. Oh how tragic, I guess I'll have to eat them all myself!
Fear not CSA members, we still have plenty of the later fruiting varieties. They'll be ready in a few weeks.
delightful!

hi ho hi ho it's off to work we go

2010-04-05T20:19:00.011-04:00

The past month started out slowly, but my how a little bit of sunshine can change all that! This is one of the busiest times on the farm, prepping beds, planting and seeding - non stop activities. What a great feeling! Having many of the late spring/early summer vegetable plants in the ground has gotten us so excited about eating and providing you with farm fresh vegetables. We also have a few new additions to the Fertile Crescent Farm family, eight to be exact. We purchased some adorable chicks a few weeks ago, they're all hens - I think- I hope- They won't be laying eggs though for another 6 months or so.

Here are some pics of the happenings -

this is a baby chick a little over two weeks ago - cute huh?

I think it's now going through it's awkward pre teen stage

compost on what will be some beds

squash heading out to the fields

tomatoes headin' out

earthy goodness

2010-03-09T11:05:00.004-05:00

Whew, I think we can all breathe a sigh of relief. February is over! There is and there isn't a lot happening out here on the old homestead. So I'll admit I'm searching for something interesting to eek out from the past few weeks. The ground has dried up a bunch - hooray!!! Adam is getting the ground prepped this week. This consists of plowing the soil, adding amendments,and laying down drip tape. The soil amendments we use are compost, green sand, rock phosphate and alfalfa meal. The new deer fencing should arrive sometime this week. We've torn down the old fence already, so hopefully the new one will go up later this week or next week. Then we'll be putting stuff in the ground. Whoop! Whoop! This is the moment we have all been waiting for!

Interesting little fact.... mice love pepper seeds. Who knew?

IS IT SUMMER YET?

2010-02-15T16:57:00.006-05:00

I believe we are now officially in Mud Season!!!

We are, as with all farmers right now, waiting for the ground to dry up! I promise, I will never take good weather or our (usually) balmy Virgina winters for granted again!!!!!

Currently we are waiting for a few consecutive sunny days to take down our old deer fencing (or what's left of it) and get a new and different deer fence up. We are switching it up, because quite honestly, if a deer wants to get into your vegetables, it will find a way. We've learned this the hard way, so we are putting in an electric fence specifically made to keep deer out.

Yeesh, I'm seeing a trend here in my posts. deer and weather - my two (not so)favorite topics! Let's hope for great weather throughout the season and no deer so you don't have to keep hearing about them! Then I'll be able to move onto my third favorite subject - BEES!! - oh and of course vegetables.
But let's get back to bees.

The hive sounds o.k. right now. It's too cold to take a peak, but by listening with an ear up to the hive body, one is able to hear the buzz of the bees fluttering their wings and keeping warm. We'll be getting a few new hives this spring and we're also getting one hive that will be a specific CSA hive. If there is honey at the end of the season, it will be divided among the CSA members. I'm really excited about this. My intention is to blog about the bees, take pictures and if CSA members want to come out to look at their bees, we will have a couple of beekeeping suits available. This way everyone can get involved if they wish to. The whole concept sort of reminds me of when grade schoolers get a bunch of eggs to incubate, and the whole class participates in hatching and raising those chickens. Or at least that's what I think happens. I recall as a first grader waiting for eggs that never hatched.

I am happy to report the CSA is filling up quickly. I attribute this to our delicious produce, wonderful returning members, adventurous new members and the fabulous folks who spread the word about how great the CSA's are in our area!

2010-02-01T22:15:00.013-05:00

wintry wonderland

2010-02-01T22:11:00.002-05:00

sprouting broccoli

2010-02-01T21:02:00.002-05:00

Future farmer!

we're gettin' serious 'bout our seeds

2010-01-29T20:47:00.018-05:00

It feels good to be back in the greenhouse. With all the seed orders almost in, the new season has begun. We've been staying busy this past week with the first round of seeding in the greenhouse.

While pouring over all the seed catalogs this year we really began to think about and research where many of the seeds we wanted to purchase came from and who was growing them. As consumers, how many of us really think about the seed from which the vegetable we eat was grown, or the seed that produced the grain that the chicken you're eating for dinner came from? We think this information is just as important as knowing the farming practices being used on the food we consume. We order over half of our seeds from a co-op in Maine called FEDCO. One of the reasons we like them so much is because they tell you what farm and/or companies are growing the seeds that are being sold in their catalog. At FEDCO each seed is either grown by a small seed farmer, a family-owned company, domestic or foreign, a domestic and foreign corporation (not part of a larger conglomerate), a multinational company not engaged in genetic engineering, a multinational company engaged in genetic engineering, or a Monsanto variety. We appreciate having this information, it enables us to be able to make choices that reflect our own farming values and practices. We do not purchase any genetically modified seeds or seeds grown by Monsanto. The extent of the seed market that Monsanto controls is significant and over the past several years they have been buying out many of the larger seed companies, one of which is Seminis. Seminis produces many popular varieties such as Big Beef, Better Boy, Early Girl, and Celebrity tomatoes, Pacman Broccoli and Candy sweet onion. These varieties, just to name a few, are widely grown in our region and can readily be found at most farmer's markets. Even though they are not genetically modified we still have chosen not to knowingly grow any of these varieties or any other owned by Monsanto/Seminis. We were surprised to find that Monsanto/Seminis seeds were so popular and found in so many seed catalogs. Fedco only carries one Monsanto/Seminis variety and this will be its last year. So, this may be obvious and needless to say, but I'll say it anyway - we don't want to support Monsanto. They specialize in genetic seed modification, which they thinly veil as being innovative and a way to feed the masses. I've included a couple of web addresses that are about their practices and how they affect farmers, including their home page, because everything I may say about the evils of Monsanto comes from what I have read or seen in documentaries, it is my opinion and I encourage you to form your own.

www.newfrontier.com/asheville/bad_seed.htm
www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=122498255
www.monsanto.com/

The rest of the seeds we buy are from Johnny's Selected Seeds, also in Maine. Johnny's was started over thirty years ago and is now employee owned. They carry many certified organic products, and their own farm is organic. Unfortunately, they still carry about 30 Monsanto/Seminis varieties. Like Fedco they are planing on fazing out all of the Monsanto varieties as they find replacements.

More of our favorites are Southern Exposure, right out of Louisa, High Mowing Seeds and Seed Savers Exchange.

New Year!

2010-01-11T11:25:00.005-05:00

The seed catalogs for the new year started arriving in the mail before 2010 had even made it's grand debut and boy was Adam excited! His eyes devoured the material as if he had just received the new Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue. This has also inspired me to emerge from my blogging hiatus. Since late fall we have mostly been working on fixing up the old farmhouse. I didn't really think it was interesting enough to blog about and after all your reading this because your interested in the farm, not the ennui of sanding old floors.
O.k, so I exaggerate - we have done a few farm related projects since I last wrote, the most exciting of which was learning how to make cheese! Our friends Steve and Chris at Ault's family Farm got a few of their cheese making friends and non cheese making friends together to exchange and share information and techniques. Adam and I learned how to make feta, mozzarella, chevre and ricotta. The cheeses tasted so fresh, i'm hooked. Making cheese is an activity I hope to explore a bit more. I'll be carrying out this new endeavor in our house kitchen, which is not USDA inspected, so I can't sell it, but if I can make a tasty cheese our CSA members might find a sample gift in their shares!

Our fall farming endeavors also included planting strawberry plants, garlic and onions, to be ready in the spring and early summer.

We are also trialing a few varieties of wheat for Roundabout farm in C-ville. I believe the inspiration to do this came from the fellows who bake and run Sub Rosa. Their bread is delicious and just as wonderful is the fact that they are dedicated to finding sustainably grown and or Virginia grown wheat! If your ever at the Byrd House Market in Richmond check them out, you'll never go back to store bought bread again!

Adam will be firing up the greenhouse by the end of January and we'll start seeding for the spring. Woo hoo!!!! This means i'll have more to write about so look for updates every few weeks or so. I'll try to add some new pictures as well.

Reflection

2009-10-06T10:11:00.008-04:00

Twenty weeks goes by so fast. It has been a pleasure for us to meet all of the CSA members. While I wasn't at the markets enough to get to meet everyone I know I can speak for Adam and share with you that he enjoyed seeing and talking (when he wasn't too busy) with you each and every week. You all are such an integral part of our summer and so important to us. You are why we grow food!

Each year we face new challenges and some old ones as well - deer - that one's not so easy to solve. But with these challenges, new and old, we are always learning (I did learn I really like venison). I don't think it would be as fun without being forced to do some problem solving. Easier? Yes! As interesting? No!

We are so thankful we get to do what we enjoy and be with our family everyday. It's so fun to watch Lucy become our little helper. She's always so eager to take clean veggies out of a crate and put them in dirt! And then clap, always so proud of her hard work!

Every year I am always amazed at the marvels of the earth. It's incredible to me that all it takes is a tiny seed, some even smaller than an ant, mixed with healthy, fertile soil and water, to sprout and turn into a generous plant, abundant with food and ready to feed us all. Sometimes I think we take that amazing little seed for granted, if we let big agriculture take over that little seed is going to be obsolete and most of our food producing seeds will be produced in a lab. It's already happening. So it is here that I want to say THANK YOU!, by supporting a CSA you are supporting the permanence of those seeds.

At the end of each season we realize that it takes a lot of faith along with hard work and knowledge of farming to believe in the process of nature. These days it seems like we hear a lot about how we need to treat the planet as a precious resource, but when we're out there working in the dirt all day, seeing nature at it's finest and it's worst, it's then that we can see how truly vulnerable the earth is and we are proud to be a good stewards of the planet.

I would like to share one final recipe of the season. This week you will be receiving cilantro in your share and seeing those beets and cilantro together reminded me of a delicious wrap I once ate at Edible Garden in Goochland. It's been years since i've eaten there, but I still remember this lunch. It consisted of roasted sweet potatoes and roasted beets in a yogurt, cilantro and lime dressing with lettuce wrapped in an orange tortilla. Super simple and delicious
I've made my version at home and I think it came out tasting just as good. I don't have a recipe, but I will share how I made my wrap at home. I used one beet and one sweet potato to make enough for four wraps, but I guess how full you like your wraps will determine how many you can get out of one s.p. and beet. I sliced them both long into strips, lightly coat with olive oil, place them in a glass baking pan and throw in a smidgen of salt and pepper. Bake at 375 for about 20 minutes or until they are at your preferred tenderness. I would also suggest preparing the yogurt dressing to your own taste. The ingredients are yogurt, lime and chopped cilantro. I haven't tried it, but a little tiny bit of cumin might be good in it too! Well, the rest really needs no explanation - throw in a little lettuce or arugula and wrap it up!

Impress your friends and family with this Apple Tart/Cake

2009-09-30T22:53:00.007-04:00

For this cake, it is particularly important that your oven temperature is accurate. If it runs too hot, the base of the cake could burn before the apples are fully cooked, and the topping, too, could burn before it has time to set.

Also, if your apples aren’t terribly tart, you might consider reducing the sugar in the base a little bit, down from 1 cup to maybe, say, ¾ cup.

1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking powder
5 Tbsp. cold unsalted butter, cut into a few pieces
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 large egg, lightly beaten
3 large Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored, and sliced very thinly

For topping:
3 Tbsp. granulated sugar
3 Tbsp. unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 large egg

Preheat oven to 350°. Butter and flour a 9-inch springform pan.

In the bowl of a food processor fitted with the steel blade attachment, combine the sugar, flour, and baking powder. Pulse to mix. Add the butter, and pulse until no large lumps remain. Add the vanilla and the egg, and blend well, until it resembles cornmeal. Dump it into the prepared springform pan. Nudge it around with your fingertips to distribute it evenly, and then gently press it along the bottom of the pan. You’re not trying to really tamp it down; you just want to compact it a little. At the edges, let it curve up ever so slightly, like a tart shell with a very low, subtle rim. Arrange the apple slices over the base in a tight circular pattern. It may seem as though you have too many apple slices to fit, but keep going. Really squeeze them in. Slide the pan into the oven, and bake for 45 minutes.

Meanwhile, make the topping. Combine the ingredients in a small bowl, and whisk to blend well. After the cake has baked for 45 minutes, remove it from the oven, and spoon the topping evenly over it. Bake for another 25 minutes or so, until the topping looks set. Transfer the pan to a wire rack, and cool for 20 minutes. Then run a thin knife around the edge to release any areas that may have stuck, and remove the sides of the pan. Cool completely before serving.

Note: This cake is even better on the second day. So if you can, make it a day ahead: just wrap it in plastic wrap and leave it at room temperature until you’re ready to eat it. We ate ours plain, but I think it would be great with vanilla ice cream.

Yield: about 8 servings

Autumn bliss

2009-09-29T22:05:00.004-04:00

Things have really begun to slow down here on the farm, o.k., we've begun to slow down! It's so hard not to, this beautiful, humidity free weather inspires relaxation.
We are growing lots of greens and root crops and it looks like the apple trees are done for season. By August I can't wait until the arrival of Fall, but once Fall makes it's appearance I find it to be bittersweet. Yes, the weather's great, but i'm going to miss those tomatoes!
Last Sunday we attended a potluck hosted by our friends at Frog Bottom Farm and I ate the most wonderful apple torte! I wanted to eat the whole thing! As soon as I get it, I will share the recipe with you.
CSA members, this week and next you will be receiving (a variation of) arugula, mesclun, radish, mixed cooking greens - kale, broccoli rabe, swiss chard and mustard - as well as basil, garlic, apples, carrots, green pepper and beans.
Oh yeah, I should mention it as i'm thinking about it. I know some of you are a little beaned out. If you are finding yourself with several pounds of beans from the last few weeks that you haven't been able to eat yet, freeze them. Blanche them in boiling water for about a minute, drain the water, let them dry out a bit, dump them in a freezer bag and throw 'em in the freezer for soups or casseroles later in the year.

The final weeks are upon us

2009-09-14T21:02:00.002-04:00

I can't believe it, after this week we have three weeks left of the CSA! Where has the time gone?
With the Fall season close at our heals it's time to pick the apples! Hooray! I don't mean to boast, (o.k. yes I do) but I look forward to this time of the year because our apples are DE-LISH!!!! The best ever grown! The flavor kind of reminds me of an apple flavored Jolly Rancher candy. I have no idea what variety these wonderful apples are, the trees were here when we bought the place. This year the trees were not nearly as productive as last year. I have been told that a lot of fruit trees alternate their productivity each year. This may be an off year, but there are still a decent amount of apples on the trees and I wanted to share in the bounty. They aren't the prettiest apples, the yellow jackets and giant European Wasps love to munch on them, but the flavor more than makes up for it!

This week and next our CSA members can expect salad mix, arugula, asian greens, carrots, radishes, basil, sweet potatoes, apples, roma beans and green beans in their shares. Mmmmmmmmm

2009-08-25T13:51:00.004-04:00

Bees and Beans

2009-08-25T11:13:00.013-04:00

Just got back from "working" the bees and my goodness, am I excited - We have honey!! This year I am only tending to one hive. At the most we've had three, but two didn't make it through the summer last year. I suspect it was from my lais a faire management style. When it comes to bees I prefer to leave them alone as much as possible. There's a fine line between over management - this is when you spend too much time going into the hive for inspections, it disrupts the groove of the hive and it sets the bees back. Kind of like when your at work and a friend comes to visit you on your lunch hour and your having such a good time you take more than an hour for lunch and when you get back it takes a while to get your head back into what you were working on when you left the office, so you check your email, your favorite website, make a few calls and ahh, now your settled back in to your work - with just a little productivity lost, but over and over again it adds up! And then there's the other side of the fine line, under management. I've found myself on this side of the line when it comes to bees more often than I would like to admit. Under Management is when you completely ignore them and let mother nature take it's course, I mean they're bees after all, they've been managing fine without us since the beginning of bee time. O.K., so it's not that simple. Domesticated bees need a little tending to, there are several factors that can destroy a hive and some of them are wax moths (been there), mites, fungal diseases or an old queen. The latter happened to my hives last year. Instead of requeening (purchasing another queen from a reputable dealer) - yes, i'm afraid queen bees do get pimped out - I relied on mother nature to do her thing, but she didn't. The queen died without an heir to the throne and without a queen eggs can't be laid and the colony dies out.

I don't know how I completely digress, this is not what I was going to write about. I guess i'm just happy the bees are happy. So anyway, now i'm ready to harvest the honey - Steve, if your reading this HELP!!

O.K. I know what you're thinking - When am I going to hear about some vegetables??!!!

I just get caught up in the lives of the bugs on the farm, believe me I could go on and on about it!

So from bees to beans we go!

By this time CSA members you've had the opportunity to try at least two or three of the different bean varieties we are offering this year.

The three seen most often are three different varieties offered as a tricolor mix. They are the traditional green bean, snap, no explanation needed there, a yellow wax bean, a snap or string bean that is a variation of the green bean, And a purple bean called Royal Burgundy, ditto on the variation of the green bean.

Another divine bean is the purple and green noodle beans. This is a favorite among many of the CSA members. It is also known as the asparagus bean, because it has the flavor of asparagus, not because it does weird things to your pee.

One of Fertile Crescent Farms favorites is the haricot vert, also known as the french green bean. This bean is very similar to a regular green bean, but is cultivated to be a bit more slender and sweeter to the taste.

The last two to be mentioned are the Italian Roma beans. This is a long, wide, flat bean. We are growing two different varieties of these. The smaller of the two is a bush bean and the larger is a pole bean. The pole beans are called Marvel of Venice, a yellow Roma and the Northeaster, a green Roma. The pole Roma bean is just coming in now and I hope everyone gets the opportunity to try them this season.

For the next two weeks everyone in the CSA will be receiving tomatoes, potatoes, onions, garlic, noodle beans, roma beans, basil and carrots.

Weird and Wonderful

2009-08-10T23:02:00.005-04:00

Italian Tomato Sauce

2009-08-10T22:52:00.003-04:00

This recipe can be found in Moosewoods Cookbook.
I use this as a base recipe, but alter it depending on the ingredients I have at hand and the abundance of them.

Saute in large skillet

3 Tbs. olive oil
1 cup shopped onion
1 Tbs. minced garlic
1 cup chopped green pepper
2 tsp. basil
1 tsp. oregano
2 bay leaves
2 tsp. salt

When onions are clear and very soft, add:

1 1lb - 13 oz. can tomatoe puree - or this can be made from scratch
16 oz. can tomato paste
2 Tbs. dry red wine
1 cup freshly chopped tomatos
1/4 tsp. black pepper

Turn heat way down. Cover and simmer at least 45 minutes, stirring accasionally. Then add:

1/2 cup freshly chopped parsley
if necessary, more salt and pepper

Summer has arrived!

2009-08-10T21:44:00.004-04:00

This is the time of year when the insects and critters start having their way! Perhaps it's the heat, perhaps it's the gourmet style buffet spread all about the field. In comparison to a blade of grass or a weed leaf a green bean or succulent watermelon tastes so much better to us all! Adam caught three groundhogs (in a humane trap) this week and while he's sorry to break up a family, he's happy to get them out of the gardens. Earlier last week one day after planting cucumber plants Adam went out to take a look at them and 2/3 of them were turned into little nubs - destroyed. It was enough to make a grown man cry! And I thought he just might.
Once the groundhog has been captured in the trap we take it down the road, way, way, way down the road, and set it free. Usually we find possums and the occasional ferrell cat in the traps, but we just let them go, reset the trap, and wait for those giant rats to take the bait.
The deer however, are not so lucky, lets just say the last deer we ate tasted suspiciously like green beans and watermelon.

So CSA members, if your wondering where your watermelon is, it's been enjoyed by the many, i'm pretty sure large herd, of deer. This week they left you tomatoes, potatoes, onions, garlic, squash, maybe carrots, and maybe beans.

Take Action

2009-07-27T20:42:00.002-04:00

The House of Representatives is working on H.R. 2749, the Food Safety Enhancement Act of 2009. It's an attempt to address the worst problems in U.S. agriculture, but as it stands the bill threatens to undermine the best things in U.S. agriculture - small farmers producing for local markets.
H.R. 2749 needs to draw a clear line between small local processors and direct market growers selling locally and the industrial, multi-sourced food supply chains where food borne pathogens have appeared and created problems.

This letter is from Brian Snyder, Executive Director, PASA
Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculture.
Dear friends,
I’m going to make this as succinct as possible, while also giving you enough background to understand what’s going on. In brief, the Food Safety bill in the House of Representatives (HR 2749) is expected to move as early as tomorrow (if no bumps in the road), but certainly by early next week. The goal of the Energy and Commerce Committee (E&C) is to move this bill under “suspension,” meaning with limited debate and no amendments, which requires a two-thirds vote, and to do so before the August recess starts in two weeks. Delay of healthcare legislation at this point means they will try to move forward on food safety first, aggressively and somewhat undercover of the healthcare debate.
PASA has been centrally involved in consulting with E&C on this legislation since March, along with our friends at MOFGA (Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Assoc.), NSAC (National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition) and others across the country. Last week, PASA farmer member Nick Maravell (Potomac, Maryland) testified in a hearing on the bill before the House Ag Committee and did an incredible job of raising the most important outstanding issues.
To date we have achieved some things we can be proud of, including exemption for direct marketers from most traceability requirements (including for sales to restaurants and grocery stores), and now including some clear language in the bill to define what on-farm processing activities might be exempt from FDA registration as well. Things are still in flux as I write, but we believe all such processing will be exempt as long as 50% or more of sales (including by Internet and mail order) are made directly to individuals (i.e. retail, as opposed to wholesale). And a huge gain just this week will likely be another exemption on sales of feedstuffs for livestock from one farmer to another, which had been included in the Bioterrorism Act of 2002 (thaaat’s right…) as an activity requiring registration. There have been other gains in specific wording of the bill, too detailed to enumerate in this email right now.
But we’re still disappointed that the fee being assessed to eligible businesses, including some on farms, will be the flat rate of $500 instead of our preferred sliding scale for smaller operations, including a minimum size below which no fee would be charged. We in fact would prefer to see a much higher fee paid by the largest food processing companies, from which most food safety issues seem to emanate in any case — but that may not be achievable at this point. We also have other language we’d like to see in the bill that would focus attention on high risk aspects of food production, protect organic farmers from duplicative paperwork and expand the research agenda into more diversified systems. All of these concerns are contained in an amendment being sponsored by Representatives Farr, Kaptur and others that E&C must deal with if they expect to get their two-thirds vote to limit debate.
So, we’re asking ALL of you to take a little time out of your busy summer schedules to help advance the sustainable farming agenda with respect to food safety even more than what we’ve been able to on our own. Call your representatives, and maybe a few others, and express strong support for the exemptions now contained in HR 2749 for direct marketing, and ask them to support the Farr-Kaptur Amendment that would do even more to focus food safety efforts on the REAL problem areas. To be clear, they will need to insist that language of the amendment get into the bill before it is introduced on the floor. Also, let them know what you think of a system that would charge a small on-farm processing operation the same fee as facilities operated by the largest food companies in the world! Following are links where you can find contact info for members of the House of Representatives:
Find your Rep: http://www.house.gov/house/MemberWWW_by_State.shtml
Phone listing: http://clerk.house.gov/member_info/mcapdir.html
This has already been a long slog, and if this bill passes we’ll now have to begin working with the Senate, and then a likely Conference Committee, to make further improvements. As usual, we are greatly outnumbered and outsized ($$) by groups that would rather see sustainable farmers pay the price of food system sins that have originated elsewhere. But we’ve been here before, and prevailed. A few minutes of your time today could make sure that common sense wins out again!
Thanks for your care and attention to this important matter.
Brian SnyderExecutive Director, PASAbrian@pasafarming.org

The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly

2009-07-26T14:57:00.017-04:00

The Good - The Braconid Wasp -

the little white eggs you see protruding from the body of the caterpillar are the pupal cocoons of the Braconid Wasp. This tiny wasp is a parasite of the Tomato Horn Worm and friend to the farmer (who doesn't use pesticides).

The Bad - The Tomato Horn Worm -

an infestation of these 4 inch caterpillars can be damaging to a garden, but are not known to wipe out a crop. The prominent horn at the rear of their body is what gives them their name, although they are actually the pupae of the large Hummingbird/Spinx Moth, which has a wing span of 4 to 5 inches. In order to maintain that girth they have to consume a lot of food - your food! Their damage can be found on tomatoes and the leaves of the tomato plant. Usually hiding out under the plants leaves, in a nice shady spot, they can be hard to find. If you suspect you have them in your own garden the evidence can be found by their poo, which is dark green or black in color and is quite geometric in shape.

The Ugly - The parasitized Horn Worm -

the adult Baraconid Wasp injects her eggs underneath the skin of the hornworm using an ovipositor. As the larva in the eggs grow they slowly feed on their host (wouldn't want to be the host throwing that party!). The eggs hatch into young wasp grubs that then tunnel through the caterpillar's body feeding on fatty tissues. When the wasp grubs are ready to metamorphose they emerge from beneath the caterpillar's skin and weave themselves into those little white cocoons you can see standing on end all over the hornworm’s back. They will emerge from their cocoons as adult Braconid.

Agriculture the way nature intended!

Yummy, now that I have whet your whistle, i'm going to tell you what you can expect to see this week in the CSA shares. Heirloom tomatoes, long or green beans, blackberries (probably), squash and/or zucchini, basil, sweet peppers, eggplant and garlic.

I should mention that the Horn Worm photo on the left is from a Clemson website (please don't sue me Clemson for ripping it off) - because it's better than my blurry photo on the right.

If insects interest you as they do me then you may want to check out http://www.drmcbug.com/ and go to the beneficials page for more information on the bugs you will want to keep in your gardens!

you say tomato I say tomAto

2009-07-13T16:46:00.008-04:00

Tomatoes are in!

In an earlier blog I mentioned the Black Cherry tomato being a rival to the Sungold - O.k. I lied. Now that I have had the opportunity to trial taste them together I still favor the oh so delectable Sungold.

CSA members you can expect TOMATOES!! (for a while). They are so good, why do we even eat the toms that come from the grocery store? Nothing can compare to a home grown tomato.

You will also be receiving cukes, basil, onions, garlic, potatos, peppers, peaches and fennell. Other items to come are beans, when the deer have had their full, dangnabit! eggplant, blackberries and squash.

Chow!

Lime and peanut coleslaw

2009-07-05T10:30:00.001-04:00

This recipe was recommended by one of our fabulous CSA members. It comes from http://www.101cookbooks.com/about/ . This site looks like it has some tasty recipes.

Lime & Peanut Coleslaw (this looks good even without the peanuts)

Leave out the jalapeno if you like it milder.

1 1/2 cups unsalted raw peanuts
1/2 of a medium-large cabbage
1 basket of tiny cherry tomatoes, washed and quartered
1 jalapeno chile, seeded and diced
3/4 cup cilantro, chopped
1/4 cup freshly squeezed lime juice
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/4 teaspoon + fine-grain sea salt

In a skillet or oven (350F) roast the peanuts for 5 to 10 minutes, shaking the pan once or twice along the way, until golden and toasted.
Cut the cabbage into two quarters and cut out the core. Using a knife shred each quarter into whisper thin slices. The key here is bite-sized and thin. If any pieces look like they might be awkwardly long, cut those in half. Combine the cabbage, tomatoes, jalapeno (opt), and cilantro in a bowl.
In a separate bowl combine the lime juice, olive oil, salt. Add to the cabbage mixture and gently stir to combine. Just before serving fold in the peanuts (add them too earl and they lose some of their crunch). Taste and adjust the flavor with more salt if needed.

Serves 6 as a side.

Au Gratin Cabbage

2009-07-03T21:31:00.000-04:00

2 cups cabbage (shredded)
1/2 cup carrots (shredded)
1/3 cup green onions (chopped)
saute until crisp - tender in fry pan coated with cooking spray (I Just use olive oil)
Transfer to greased 1 quart baking dish

1/2 cup milk
1 egg
3 tablespoons of cheese (shredded)
combine is small bowl. Pour over vegetables. Garnish with 1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley and 1 table spoon of grated parmesan cheese.
Bake at 350 for 30-35 minutes

Here's to good eatin'

2009-06-30T12:32:00.000-04:00

Where does the time go. It's seems like yesterday that we were finalizing our CSA member list and packing the first shares and now we are into week six! The shares are starting to transition into our summer fare. CSA members, you will be able to see that this week - less greens. I know, some of you are letting out a groan, while others are saying hooray! This week you can expect arugula, carrots, swiss chard, potatoes, onions, red and green cabbage, fennel, basil and sweet pepper. As you know there may be a variation of this depending on the day you pick up.

It's amazing what a little sunshine can do. Everything is looking beautiful and growing, growing, growing - including the weeds, but i'll take weeds over a swamp any day!
We started seeing our first few tomatoes last week. We are tying out a new cherry tomato this year called Black Cherry. It's a little larger than your typical cherry tomato, but it's still bite sized. Personally I think it's one of the best cherry tomatoes I've ever tried, it even rivals the sungold. I can't wait until we have enough to share, I don't mean to be a tease.

This week I would like to highlight another wonderful brassica - the cabbage. The name 'cabbage' is derived from the French term 'caboche', which means 'head'. I believe this is because the cabbage has a round shape, kinda' like your noggin'!
In these modern times I don't think the cabbage gets enough credit for its diversity and distinct flavor. But back in the day of the Romans and Greeks, it was the king of vegetables, known for it's healing qualities and for it's ability to lessen the effects of a night of heavy drinking, it has it's own mythological following. Cabbage has been farmed and has been a staple in the human diet for more than 4,000 years. It was the Celts who brought cabbage to Europe from Asia around 600 years B.C.
And let us not forget the cabbage patch doll, it's incarnation is derived from popular cabbage lore that when a child would ask "where do babies come from?" Mothers would answer "babies are gathered in the cabbage patch."

Hopefully now the cabbage has earned your respect and you will never turn your head away from that lovely aroma of cooked cabbage!

In farm news, our full timer, Bridge is leaving for Oregon, we think, he thinks or something like that. We have hired a local lady by the name of Mo to replace him. She's a student from Longwood University, enjoys being outdoors and doesn't mind a little sweat and we think that's great!

Sausage and Greens Soup

2009-06-16T21:33:00.000-04:00

A friend recently made this soup and I was lucky enough to be invited to her house for lunch to try some. VERY GOOD!!! Lip smackin' good!

1/2 lb bulk sausage - I recommend pastured raised (not as fatty as a hog raised in a warehouse type facility)
Brown in soup pot and drain all but a spoonful of fat. Remove meat.

1 cup onion, green onion, chives or garlic scapes
Saute in reserve fat until soft

4 cups chicken or vegetable broth
1 cup potatoes
salt and pepper to taste
Bring to boil, reduce heat, and simmer until potatoes are soft - 10 to 15 minutes

1 1/2 cups evaporated milk
1-3 cups of fresh spinach, kale, chard, lambs quarters, dandelion or any other young tender greens
parsley to taste - optional
Add and cook until tender
Serve with freshly grated Parmesan cheese and enjoy!

Hail to the Kale

2009-06-15T21:49:00.000-04:00

I'd like to share a story with you. Last week an old friend stopped by our farm stand at the South of the James Market and she told the sweetest story, it was about her six year old son "Sammy" (we'll call him that for the sake of privacy!). A week earlier "Linda" ( we'll call her that because of privacy and all, ya know she may not want anyone to know she's into the green stuff!) - o.k., so Linda stopped by with her partner and their son Sammy. We chatted a bit, caught up on old news whiled Linda shopped. She purchased, among other delicious items, some kale. Her family is not too into kale and i'm not sure if they've even eaten it before. I think, as a friend, she was being nice and making purchases she might not otherwise if she was shopping at the grocery store. But I digress, let's get back to the meat (or greens) of the story. The next Monday night Linda fixed the kale for dinner and Sammy, as any child would be, was apprehensive. He had no interest in eating this green stuff, so Linda, being the creative thinker she is, told him that he if he ate his kale he would get a flag in his flag football game. Something he's never done before. Later that week, at his flag football game, Sammy got TWO flags!!! It was the kale alright and that was why she was back. He's going to eat it every week - or at least until flag football is over!

Kale is a super food , it's a member of the Brassicus family, you know them, they live just down the street, the family who never mows their lawn. Just kidding, it sounds like i'm trying to start some ugly rumor about the Brassicus family, but really they're great. They have a reputation as being cancer fighting foods (i'm no doctor, but I play one on the internet) and kale is loaded with vitamin A, beta carotene, vitamin C, iron and potassium, just to name a few nutrients.

You lucky CSA members, you'll be getting your super food this week! Along with kale you will be receiving salad mix, baby carrots, swiss chard, new potatoes, little onions, squash and/or zucchini and cukes. This week will be a bit lighter than others. It's a combination of the near constant rain and we are transitioning into more of a summer fare. Next week will be similar. There may be some variations.
Enjoy!

Squash and Basil Salad

2009-06-02T10:16:00.001-04:00

One of Fertile Crescent Farm's favorites!

3-4 medium summer squash Julienned (obviously more if you are using baby squash)
2-3 tablespoons of fresh basil chopped
3-4 tablespoons of Parmesan cheese
1-2 tablespoons garlic scapes chopped
Toss together

1/4 cup red wine vinegar
1/4 cup olive oil
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1/4 teaspoon sugar
combine and pour over the salad mix. Chill one hour and serve. It is best eaten the same day.

as found in Simply in Season

'taters

2009-06-01T22:52:00.000-04:00

Two weeks have passed since I last posted and I am happy to say these have been the most uneventful 2 weeks! Plant, Harvest, wash lettuce, plant, harvest, wash lettuce. We like it that way.
We've been doing quite a bit of Colorado Potato Beetle eradication. The tools required for this process are one thumb and one index finger and the ability to not be entirely grossed out after squashing hundreds of larva! We can never get rid of them entirely, but this keeps the population of beetles low enough for the potato plants to continue growing strong. And they are! We pulled a few plants up earlier this week to see what was going on underneath all that dirt, and what do you know, some delectable looking new potatoes - some of which our CSA members will see next week.

Speaking of CSA members, I would like to mention that it has been a pleasure meeting everyone and we are getting lots of positive feedback about the produce in your shares - Thank you!

This week our members can expect to receive the oh-so popular salad mix, garlic scapes (you can treat this as you would a scallion),radishes, turnips - not the japanese kind this time, but the more familiar purple tops -yummy roasted-, baby tatsoi, wrinkly crinkly cress (spicy with a super cute name), ruby streaked mizuna, red russian kale, basil, baby squash, zucchini, and pak choy.

Whew, that's a lot of stuff. If this was paper and not a computer, I would have run out of space by now! But I haven't, so I will take this technological opportunity to mention a few things that our CSA members might be receiving next week - arugula, baby carrots, swiss chard, mixed asian greens, new potatoes as well as some of our past favorites!

rain rain go away

2009-05-18T07:28:00.000-04:00

What can I say, all we farmers want to talk about is the weather - what's headed our way, what it's like today and what it was like last week.

That being said - Man, I can't believe this weather hot, cold, rain, hot, cold, rain. It is predictably unpredictable and presents us with new challenges every day. I'm certainly not complaining though. We learn from those challenges and sometimes we learn how to do things better.

This will be the first week the CSA members will be receiving their shares. Some produce in the shares may look familiar and others not so familiar. CSA members, if your not quite sure what to do with some of these items may I suggest one of my favorite cook books - Simply in Season - it offers great seasonal recipes and so far every recipe I've tried has been a success. I will try my best to keep recipes posted that relate to the vegetables our CSA members receive each week. Check out the strawberry sorbet recipe!
This week bags will be filled with yummy, spring Virginia fare. Here is list of what we will be offering this week - salad mix - 2 bags-, arugula, strawberries, mustard greens, baby nappa cabbage, and maybe sunflower shoots, radishes and scallions. Each pick up location will receive basically the same thing, although it may vary in regards to the sunflower shoots, radishes and scallions.
We are looking forward to a great growing season, we are so very appreciative of our CSA members, we look forward to providing everyone with delicious seasonal vegetables.

2009-05-18T07:16:00.000-04:00

Strawberry Sorbet

Our friend/farm worker Bridge found this delicious recipe in the New York Times a few weeks ago. WE LOVE IT, oh yeah, and it's easy - that helps!

Ingredients
1 lb of frozen strawberry (or any seasonal berry)
1/2 cup yogurt, creme fraiche or silken tofu -we used yogurt, I recommend whole fat, but low fat works
1/4 sugar, more or less - when Bridge made it he used 1/2 white and 1/2 brown sugar

Directions
Put all the ingredients in a food processor along with a couple of tablespoons of water. Process until just pureed and creamy, stopping to scrape the sides of the bowl as needed. If the fruit does not break sow n completely, add a little more water through the feed tube, a tiny bit at a time, being careful not to over-process or the sorbet will liquefy.
Serve immediately or freeze it for later.

makes 4 servings

2009-05-18T06:51:00.000-04:00

ASIAN SLAW

This is great for bringing to potlucks or cookouts and it's delicious. I doctor mine up a bit though. The recipe shown is the original version, but I will share my secrets with you.

I do not use a 3" piece of ginger (not a fan of the taste - I find it a bit overwhelming). Instead I make the dressing without the ginger and then add some in- specific to my taste-. I also add a touch of honey to the dressing as well, maybe a teaspoon, I'd say play with it, until you like it. I also use natural peanut butter, it gives it more of a nutty flavor. Which brings me to my final trick, you can either add some chopped peanuts to your salad or top it off with some crushed peanuts when you serve it. MMMM

(CSA members - this recipe calls for 1 head of napa cabbage and the ones you are receiving this week are babies so it may take more than one head of cabbage.)

Ingredients
1 (3-inch) piece ginger, grated fine
1/2 cup rice wine vinegar
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 lime, juiced
2 tablespoons sesame oil
1/2 cup peanut butter
1 head Napa cabbage, sliced thin
1 red bell pepper, julienne fine
1 yellow bell pepper, julienne fine
2 serrano chiles, minced fine - I recommend making this slaw to the specific heat you like so 2 chiles may be too much or may be too little
1 large carrot, grated fine with a peeler
3 green onions, cut on the bias, all of white part and half of the green
2 tablespoons cilantro
2 tablespoons mint
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
Directions
In a small bowl, or food processor combine ginger, vinegar, soy sauce, lime juice, oil, and peanut butter. In a large bowl, combine all other ingredients and then toss with dressing. You can save some of the dressing to dress noodles that can be added to this dish along with stir fried pork to make an entire meal.

AHHHHHH SUNSHINE!!!!!

2009-04-27T17:39:00.000-04:00

Everywhere I look - green green green - the excess of early spring rain paid off, the plants look beautiful and everything is growing. O.k. I can't just give the rain credit, Adam and the folks who work for us, Bridge and J.J, should get a little credit too. They have all been toiling away in the fields - soil toilers - say that 10 times fast!

Everyone's favorite fruit bearing plants- the strawberry - are overflowing with little green strawberries. I only hope those little rascally rabbits living nearby aren't keeping vigil, waiting for those little fruits to turn into juicy bright red snacks!!! They are too good to share.

We are looking forward to an exciting season. This year we have opened up a lot more bedding space so we are trialing some new and interesting varieties of vegetables. I will add posts with more information and fun recipes that will include the produce you will be receiving as the season progresses.

Our CSA for the Byrd House Market will begin Tuesday, May 26Th. The South of the James Farmer's Market CSA pick up date will be on the 23rd of May.