We're HIRING! - and Farm Shares for August 16, 2023 - Farm Happenings at Broadfork Farm

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We are hiring! We have a full-time and a part-time position available. The full-time position is farm/field based. The part time position is Tues/Wed/Saturday and focuses on pack-room, distribution, and market booth. Please see details on our website here and forward this to anyone you may think is interested.

We have most of our potatoes out of the ground and have them as an option in this week's shares. We grew white potatoes and purple potatoes this season.

Our Summer Beet Crop will come to a close soon! We're still recommending this Beet Smoothie recipe! The image below was made with the recipe in that link using red beets. We also improvised a beet smoothie this weekend using one large beet, frozen strawberries and bananas, ginger, and milk. It was delicious!

Compounds in Beets relax/dilate your blood vessels, lowering blood pressure and improving athletic performance (and/or recovery) by increasing blood flow (thus oxygen and glycogen) to your muscles. Win-win. There are also many other recipe options online or in good, old-fashioned, modern nutrition cookbooks

Suggestions for crops we're harvesting now include...

BEETS - Above mentioned Beet Smoothie. Or steam them then chill them and put on top of salads galore. Or roast them and serve them alongside evvvvverything.

A medley of Tomatoes, Peppers, Cucumbers, and Basil go wonderfully in recipes like this Bean Salad, or this Quinoa Salad, or this recipe below. There are many similar recipes. Have fun!

Pro tip: These salads often don't keep well as leftovers. The cucumber in salads like these usually goes bad before other ingredients, in our experience. So mix up a quantity that you'll eat within a reasonable time. We like to keep cooked beans (we buy them dry then soak and cook them) and/or cooked quinoa on hand and then add in fresh vegetables and herbs for one day's lunch and/or dinner.

SWEET BULLHORN PEPPERS - The heroes of the second half of July and all of August are these Italian Bullhorn peppers. They are like bell peppers, but better! They grow better than bell peppers in organic conditions, and they taste better, too! Eat them raw, roast them, stuff them... the second photo below comes to us from Fine Creek Brewing. We're just starting to harvest these peppers this week, but we hope for abundant harvests from them soon. See our collection of Pepper recipes here.

SHISHITO PEPPERS - These are frying peppers. Saute them WHOLE (stems and everything!) in the oil of your choice until they blister, then sprinkle with sea salt. To eat: pick up a pepper by the stem, bite the pepper up to the stem and enjoy their amazing flavor. So, so good.

LUNCHBOX PEPPERS - These are snack size sweet peppers. We prefer to eat them raw, on their own, as a snack. But you can slice them on salads or stuff with cheese and roast.

Bread Share members: You just got a SEPARATE email to customize your bread share a few moments ago.

To Customize Your Share:
Each time you are scheduled to have a share, you'll receive an email from us 2 days prior. It should have subject line "Time to Customize Your Share." The software will create a default share for you (based on your indicated preferences and what we have available to harvest) and list those default contents in the email. The email also contains a link saying "Want to make changes to your share or add extras?" Click on that link to customize your share! Customization ends between 6 and 7 am on the day before your pick up day (depending on the time of year and thus how early we start harvesting). The cut off time is always specified in the email.

For Pick Up:

- Please remember to bring your own bags each week.

- At Self Serve locations: Our vegetables are in plastic boxes at the pick up location, labelled with members' names. Find the box with your name on it. - Empty the vegetables into your bag and leave the empty box for us to collect.

- Loaves of bread and bags of Tomatoes during Tomato season, for those who have ordered them, will be near the green boxes, labeled with your name. Pick up your bag(s) if you are due one or more. (Some people have purchased a Bread Share for a loaf each week of the season. Some people order a loaf when they please.)
- Same for cooler(s) at pick up locations with any cold items that aren't vegetables (eggs, fermented vegetables, etc...See below for more info.)

- At Staffed locations: One of us will be there to quickly gather your items for you to bag up and bring home.
- Preparation ideas and recipe suggestions are in your email. Also check out our Pinterest Page for lots of recipe ideas, organized by vegetable.

EGGS: Steve Ault of Aults' Family Farm and Ring-a-Bell Farm in Pamplin offer their eggs for sale through us. Their chickens live on pasture and are fed supplemental non-gmo feed from Sunrise Farms. Their eggs are fabulous and we trust their farming practices completely. You can purchase their eggs in our self-serve FarmStand at our farm and you can order them through the Harvie system "Extras" when you customize your share.

Our FarmStand is at our farm and open every day of the week, 9am-dusk (or 7pm, whichever is earlier). Visit us to see where your vegetables grow and pick up some extras for yourself or a friend. We have vegetable and herb plants for your garden available in the Spring, in addition to a host of our vegetables, and we have flower bouquets most weeks of the summer. Driving directions here.

You are also invited to shop for our goods at the farmers' market where we vend on Saturdays: Farmers' Market @ St. Stephens.

Finally, we have a Facebook group for our members to share recipes ideas, etc.

Visit and join here.

Any questions? Just reach out! And remember to log in and check your delivery days and location details.

We so deeply appreciate the opportunity to farm for you. Thank you for being the most important part of our farm! We love you!

With blessings on your meals ~
Janet, Dan, and the whole Broadfork crew (Julie, Siera, Leah, Erica, Tait, Alisa, Jen, and the farm kids)

Owned and operated by Janet Aardema and Dan Gagnon, Broadfork is a small family farm in Chesterfield, VA providing the metro-Richmond area with Certified Naturally Grown vegetables, herbs, and flowers.
We use traditional European methods of biointensive, raised bed production while maximizing soil and plant health for nutrition and sustainability. No synthetic/chemical fertilizer, pesticide, herbicide, or fungicide is ever used in any part of the process of growing your food. Everything we sell is grown by us, and we farm full-time, supporting ourselves and our four children through our farm business.

Growing practices at Broadfork utilize only ecological methods: compost, cover crops, organic fertilizer, and minerals are used to feed the soil that feeds our plants. Raised beds are used to prevent soil-compaction, allowing for happier plant roots. We use organic potting soil and fertilizer, as well as amendments like fish emulsion and sea minerals. No chemical fertilizers, herbicides, fungicides, or pesticides are ever used on your food and we are Certified Naturally Grown (which follows the same national standards used for Organic Certification). We are also proud members of the Virginia Association for Biological Farming and Slow Food RVA. Janet and Dan both hold Bachelor’s Degrees in Biology from Davidson and Lafayette Colleges, respectively. Janet holds a Master’s Degree in Education from the Harvard Graduate School of Education. We both thrive on putting our biology backgrounds to use in a farm setting and share a passion for farm education.

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We're HIRING! - and Farm Shares for August 16, 2023

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