Farm News:
It feels like the shift from summer to fall this year was abrupt and quick! We’ve been experiencing more days of foggy, chilly and wet mornings out at the farm than not. I’ll be the first to admit, farming in the cold and wet is definitely not my favorite. Which is one reason why I could never be a winter farmer. That being said, I’ve been really enjoying the change of seasons and the slightly slower pace of things as we move towards winter.
This time of year brings some of my favorite crops for eating and there’s really nothing like the flavors of fall. Winter squash, hearty greens, root vegetables and storage crops are heading to CSA shares in full force. It’s the season of roasted veggies, soups and baking.
While it has yet to frost, it’s coming soon. What’s this mean for the farm? Tomatoes, peppers, beans, summer squash, pumpkins, cucumbers, cut flowers and other warm season crops will die back. Falls crops actually will get sweeter with the frost because the cold produces more sugar. These are things like carrots, turnips, kale, broccoli, beets and other hearty greens.
You don't want to miss out on our Cornucopia Share, which will be our final offering of the 2021 season. This share will highlight all of our storage vegetables, hearty greens, root crops and herbs. You can still sign up for a box by going to our profile on harvie. Shares will be available for on-farm pick-up or home delivery Nov. 19th.
Kitchen Notes:
How do you prep your kale? The way I like to prep my kale no matter how I'm using it, is first removing it from the stem and then chopping. I will typically keep the stems and saute them first with onions and garlic so they can cook down a bit before I add in other veggies. If I am prepping/eating kale raw I will save the stems until I can use them later!
Curry is one of my favorite go to’s in the cooler months. You can literally put anything into a curry, which makes it super versatile and easy to use up any veggies I have in the fridge. Here’s a recipe for a vegan pumpkin curry.
One of my other favorite things about this time of year is the abundance of greens. I love roasting veggies and making hearty veggie bowls. Check out this hearty kale salad recipe.
Local Spotlight:
If you’ve been to the farm then you probably noticed our five bee hives. We are so happy for Kyle and Ian, and the addition of the bees at the farm.
Here’s a note from Kyle:
“My husband Ian and I started urban beekeeping in 2017 with one hive in the rose garden at our house in Rose Village in Vancouver. I had recently gotten interested in organic gardening and had completed the Clark County Master Gardener program in 2016. I had done a lot of reading on the subject and was really impressed with the natural beekeeping approaches and absolutely fell in love with the simplicity of a top bar hive. The work that the bees can do in the spring to build comb to help the hive succeed was so inspiring to watch and we were completely hooked on beekeeping.
In 2020 we met Lyndsay through Sprout and Blossom Farm’s CSA program and by that time we were probably keeping far too many bees in our rose garden. Lyndsay was happy to host bees at the old farm and we were glad to have a happy place for them to live. The bees had a great 2020 and overwintered well. Earlier this year we met Kelly and Patrick at Flat Tack Farm when they teamed up with Sprout and Blossom and they welcomed bees at the new farm. The five hives at the farm this year have been quite successful, and we look forward to continuing to keep bees at the farm in the future.“
Hope you all have a great week,
Cheers!
Lyndsay and the rest of the Sprout and Blossom/ Flat Tack Farm Crew
