Wild Onion Farms
  • Home
  • Produce
  • Produce Guide
  • CSA
  • Photos
  • News from the farm
  • Contact

salad season

4/27/2015

0 Comments

 
Picture
spring greens soaking up the rays on a rare sunny day
April is egg season; we eat eggs morning, noon and night trying to keep up with the supply.  May is salad season, and yep, you guessed it, that means salads several times a day!  Our lettuce is just starting to come in, and in high season through the next month.  We're taking the first cuts off of out spring kale, chard, and spinach plantings, and the leaves are oh-so sweet and buttery-tender.  You can make some delicious raw salads out of these early delicate greens as well.  The moral of the story?  Eat your greens now!  The sturdier cool-season veggies like broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, onions, beets, and carrots take a little longer (think June); May is the month to enjoy spring's more delicate treats.  Check out the recipe to the right for what my breakfasts typically look like in May!  Yes, salad.

We should be in the heart of asparagus season right now.  Asparagus spears emerge and grow taller by the hour on warm sunny days.  It's usually a bit like watching your grass grow in June (groan...but I just mowed yesterday!!) and has to be cut daily, if not twice a day.  We had a chilly wet weekend with well below normal temperatures, and I haven't harvested more than a handful of asparagus since Friday.  Monday and Tuesday look to be maybe a little brighter and warmer, then we're back to another chilly wet spell.  I am not expecting much at all in the way of asparagus this week.  I am leaving it off this week's availability list altogether, and let's all hope for more seasonal temperatures and sunshine next week.

Hey gardeners!  If you want home-grown ripe tomatoes in July, you need to get those plants in the ground as soon as possible.  Wait much longer, and you'll be hanging around 'til August for your harvest.  I still have a nearly-full selection of tomatoes and peppers, but we are running low on squash and cucumber plants.  As always, there's only so much I can fit on the truck headed to the farmers market, so feel free to email me with your wish list, and I'll be sure to have them at the market for you.  You can also go for a little drive, visit the farm, and pick your own plants right out of the greenhouse.  We have regular pick-up hours on the farm Wednesday and Friday evening, and Saturday afternoons; if those times don't work for you, contact me to make an appointment.

Thanks so much for your business, eat well, and have a great week!
0 Comments

farm babies!

4/20/2015

0 Comments

 
Picture
farm babies
Oh, you were expecting something doe-eyed and fuzzy?  I'm sorry.  Those are ladybug babies!

We've harvested the last of the cool-season crops out of the big greenhouse.  I went out there this morning to clean up the remaining plant residue, turn things over, and get ready to replant it with summer crops.  And found that I suddenly have quite the ladybug hatchery in the greenhouse.  Thousands of newly hatched ladybugs.  We do not use insecticides on this farm, which means either trapping and squishing a lot of pest insects, or encouraging those insects' natural predators to do it for me.  (I vastly prefer the latter option).  Ladybugs are one of our most important predator bugs, that at any stage of their life cycle consume endless pest insects, and even act as helpful pollinators in their adult phase.  So today's plans to switch seasons in the greenhouse are on hold for a bit, while I play momma to a bunch of baby bugs.  This may sound slightly insane to some of you, but makes me very happy!

We're finally moving on to harvesting the spring crops that were planting outdoors...quite late.  A bit thin in the fresh veggie selections this week, but we're getting oh-so-close to harvesting much more.  Lettuce and chard for sure next week, maybe some early spring kohlrabi, and the spring scallions are fattening up by the hour.  I spent most of my day today (when not mesmerized by crowds of baby ladybugs) thinning endless rows of big healthy-looking beet seedlings.

Thank you Midtown Farmers Market fans for a fabulous opening day last weekend!  I sold through almost all of the garden plants that I managed to squeeze on the truck in record time last Saturday.  We'll be loading up an extra vehicle with many more for next Saturday, and be sure to get some of every variety on board.  I know it's been hard to find dry time lately to get a garden (or a farm) worked up into shape, but the middle of this week looks sublime to be outdoors.  Go get dirty; now is the perfect time to plant a summer garden full of tomatoes and cucumbers, squash and peppers!  Look here for specific varieties: we have 20 different types of tomatoes, 10 varieties of peppers, 4 varieties of summer squash, and 3 different kinds of cucumbers!
0 Comments

market time!

4/13/2015

0 Comments

 
Picture
The Midtown Farmers Market re-opens in full for the year this Saturday, April 18!  We have loads of tender spinach and arugula, sweet crunchy turnips and radishes.  All the fresh eggs you can eat which are at their peak quality of the year with rich, deep orange yolks.  Probably the last of the over-wintered carrots - what remains are on the small side (think baby carrots) but we need to get them out of the ground to make room for new plantings of other crops.  And asparagus! everyone's favorite springtime treat.  We never seem to have as much asparagus as you all could eat, but it's all the asparagus I have room to grow. 

We are admittedly starting out the market season a little light on produce, but remember that we were still buried in snow and ice up through early March.  There are not too many vegetables that will go from seed to harvest in the four or five weeks since that time.  The quantity and variety that we have to offer will steadily increase from here on out though!

Your vegetable starts are looking great, and will be available for this weekend.  We're in the process of easing them all out of the greenhouse this week a bit at a time; getting them accustomed to the 'real world.'  They should be nice and sturdy and ready for your garden by Friday.  Check out the list of individual varieties here.  I do not have room on the truck for large quantities of every last variety, so if there's something you have your heart set on, or you're looking for large quantities of plants, let me know ahead of time and I'll be sure to pack up what you want to pick up at the farmers market.  Or take a nice drive out to the country, visit the the farm and pick out your own!  And know that if gardening isn't your thing, we're more than happy to grow all that and more for you.

Thanks so much for your business, eat well, and have a great week!
0 Comments

one week 'til chaos

4/6/2015

0 Comments

 
Picture
Sam the loyal farm hound watching over a few thousand tomato plants being hardened off for planting out.
Eek!  Our regular farmers market season begins next week!!

We just finished up planting the last of the spring crops at dawn this morning, then immediately turned around and started prepping fields for summer crops.  Talk about a seasonal whiplash.  We usually get at least a few weeks in between those two big blocks of planting to get ahead on the weeds, get the last of our supplies rounded up for the year, and just get our heads wrapped around the start of a new season before the biggest plantings of the year go out.  Not this year.

We have some slightly insane goals for the week...to get all of our summer-crop plots fertilized and finely tilled up, laid out with irrigation and plastic mulch, and then there's row after row of stakes and fences that need pounding in for trellises on the possibly too-many rows of cucumbers and tomatoes we have planned before the first plant meets soil.  The chicken coops need repairs and renovations before warmer weather settles in for good.  Then there are thousands of plants to put in the ground (tomatoes, squash, cucumbers), along with still more direct-seeded crops (corn, beans).  Summery temperatures and frequent spring showers should make for an excellent planting week!

We usually take the week prior to the start of the full market season off from deliveries, pick-up's, and markets.  This year I think we especially need it.  Spring didn't sprout up until a few weeks ago, and now it's already starting to feel like summer.  No complaints about that, but it does leave us crunched for time.  We also hope to find a few hours at some point for a little R&R; as it's likely our last chance until late fall, and we've been on a bit of a personal tilt-a-whirl the past few weeks.  Sustainable farms need to be minded by sustained farmers, or they aren't sustainable at all.

Your vegetable starts are looking great, and I expect to have all available next week - go get your garden beds ready!  We'll see you all next week with asparagus and arugula, radishes, turnips, carrots, and more sweet spring treats.
0 Comments

    Author

    Write something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview.

    Archives

    May 2019
    February 2019
    September 2018
    March 2018
    August 2016
    July 2016
    April 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly