Farm Happenings for June 29, 2024

Customization ends at 5:0am on Friday this week. Our day has to get started earlier than usual!

We keep notes about the weather. This may not surprise you. It's hot. And dry. Irrigation is a big demand right now, and we're grateful that water flows to us, though we have very few gallons per minute from our sources so we can only water small sections of our fields at a time. Sigh. The good news is that our harvests are delicious!

Tomato, Eggplant, Pepper, Onion, Basil, and Garlic harvests are now in full swing! Dice it all up, stir it up, maybe saute it up, and add olive oil, vinegar, and salt. The picture above is our quasi-Panzanella Salad before tossing with toasted cubes of our bread. We like chunks of mozzarella in ours. Improvise to your liking!

For our every-other-week members who missed the media updates in the newsletter last week, see below:

We had a little media blitz during the past two weeks. NBC 12 interviewed Dan about how to get crops to grow in the summer that actually prefer spring and fall weather. The strategies he describes are what we've been working on since we started the farm more than 13 years ago. Watch it and learn a bit!

Solar United Neighbors interviewed Janet about why we invested in Solar power here on our farm. They will make a short film to help spread the word about the benefits of using solar power for electricity on farms. We'll share the link when it's complete.

Meanwhile, we farm and grow food! Lavender bloomed last week and we loved it. Tomatoes are now rolling in and we've started the Spring carrot harvest. Eggplant harvest started rolling last week and sweet peppers are ripening up.

Need to check on or make changes to your pick up dates? Log in here.

Bread Share members: You get a SEPARATE email to customize your bread share.

Spring and Fall are heavy on GREENS and ROOTS. The vegetables that, botanically speaking, are actually fruits (things with seeds inside them) take a longer season and more heat to mature. So, those items increase in availability as the summer heats up.

Chop up those greens and make lots of salads! Wilt the greens and serve them with any meal: with eggs or in an omelet for breakfast, as any number of delicious salad types for lunch, and combined with oil, salt, fat, and protein for dinner.

A quick recipe round-up from our family's meals during the past week: (google and choose your fave recipe!)

- Slice Cucumbers and toss with Rice Vinegar and sea salt

- Make Quick Fridge Pickles with Cucumbers using Mrs. Wages Kosher Dill Pickle seasoning mix, available in most grocery stores. (It's easy and ingredients are actually decent! Just mix powder with vinegar and water, slice cucumbers, put in jar, pour liquid over top.)

- Steamed Beets (don't peel! cut into chunks in the size you want)...keep them in the fridge and add them to salads alllll week. Great with cheese and nuts.

- Make Salads interesting by adding chopped fresh herbs (Parsley and/or Dill) and GRATED RAW BEETS (plus cheese and nuts if you wish).

- Sauteed Summer Squash with our Scallions plus sausages

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 at 6am on the day before your pick up day.

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: Ring-a-Bell Farm in Pamplin offers 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.

Also see recipe suggestions on our website here. We also have a Pinterest page with recipes here.

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, Alisa, Jen, Clara, Tabea, Christina, Jackson, and the farm kids)

Want to follow along during the week, including Farm Stand updates? Visit us on Facebook or Instagram

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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