Farm Happenings for August 28, 2024

PLEASE REMEMBER that your TOMATOES are always kept separate from the rest of your vegetables. Gather up those bags with your name on them.

Ohhh this is the slump in our harvest that tends to happen during years in which the weather is less than ideal for the plants we grow. (2024 has definitely had sub-par weather. 2023 was great!) However, we still have a great abundance. Cherry tomatoes are doing wonderfully, Eggplants are experiencing a resurgence, we still have Lettuce (though modest amounts), beans are producing, numerous other summer crops are still on the scene, and we're planting fall crops *now*. See here baby Kale and Cabbage plants:

Summer Squash plants as of this morning:

Here's the greenhouse full of babies for the fall, and we're working on some new farm projects (more about that SOON!), so we keep cranking. :)

Let's zoom in on the mesmerizing part:

Isn't that pleasing to your eyes?? The orderly tidiness full of potential is quite appealing.

Below shows how we plant. Pictured is Christina, planting Chard.

Inside the high tunnels/greenhouses, there are tomato plants of various stages/ages, plus cucumbers on their way to being done, young pepper plants, and chard and kale just coming into maturity.

Here are some harvest updates and new recipe suggestions below:

Our Cherry Tomatoes are still ROLLING! Hundreds and hundreds of pints of Cherry Tomatoes! Eat them as a snack alllll day long, or slice and enjoy as or on top of a salad, or roast with oil and salt for a caramelized treat that is like gold for the taste buds. Serve alongside anything or on top of pasta with some cheese sauce.

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

More recipe suggestions:

- Panzanella! Chunks of bread plus tomatoes plus basil plus onions plus cheese...and add in Cucumbers, just because.

- Eggplant Parm Lasagna. It's a thing. It takes a while. Plan ahead. Then savor.

- Pickle yo' Okra. Here's how.

- Slice Tomatoes and include them in grilled sandwiches with mozzarella cheese and slices of turkey or tofurkey. Bonus points for using our Cranberry & Pepitas bread or Seed bread for these super tasty sammies.

- Roast Cherry Tomatoes as in this recipe and put them on anything! Pasta, sure, but also...anything.

- Stuff Jalapenos with cheese and top with breadcrumbs and roast. Serve with a cold beverage.

- Toss whole Okra with oil, salt, and curry powder. Roast (whole!) on a baking sheet until almost crispy. Deeelicious!

- Pan fry WHOLE Shishito peppers in oil until they blister, then sprinkle with sea salt and eat by holding the stem and biting just up to the stem.

- Roast big chunks of Tomato, Eggplant, Pepper, and Squash. Serve on pasta with a roasted-vegetable sauce of your choice.

- Roast Eggplant and make Roasted Eggplant Dip a la Cava and make at-home Cava bowls. Apparently folks on TikTok show you how to do that here.

- Stuff our Bullhorn Peppers with tofu salad/chicken salad/tuna salad.

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

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 usually ends at 6am on the day before your pick up day, and sometimes at 5am when our harvest days need to start extra early.

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 they are available.

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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