Welcome to Week 1
Shady Maple Farm CSA 2015
4th Harvest Box Season
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| Today's list. Half of the boxes received a pint of strawberries the other ones received asparagus. We will flip flop for next week if the garden and weather cooperates. We are expecting unusually high temperatures for this time of year. |
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| One of today's harvest boxes. |
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Always a good thing to watch out for in farm fresh produce.
Slugs go for the good stuff, too. |
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| Today they will be picked for bouquets. They are ready for it! |
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| These are also ready and waiting to be put into bouquets. |
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| These lilies have buds for later bouquets. Almost as tall as I am. |
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| My niece Angie and my great niece Louise are on a hunt for strawberries. |
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| Lisa's flower house is set up with water in the buckets and the first flowers picked hydrating on the right. |
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| My view as I drive in this morning. Who wouldn't enjoy this welcoming committee? |
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| Ethan helps his mom, Anna, pick what appears to be the world's largest spinach. |
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| This bed of lettuce will be harvested about 3:00 and dunked in clean, cool water to hopefully get any slugs to float to the surface. Slugs are always a possibility in really fresh produce. |
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| I am on pea picking duty. Such crisp, pretty peas! |
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| Florencio pulled/dug the green onions and trimmed them up nicely. You might notice part of the pile of trimmings behind him on the ground. |
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| One of these "Purple of Sicily" cauliflower heads was ready. One lucky box holder will be eating this soon. Very tender and creamy. |
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| Broccoli has timed itself just right. Each box will get either a head of broccoli or the one head of purple cauliflower. |
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| In a few minutes this row will look a lot different. A few side shoots will be left to produce for our families to nibble on. |
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| The Sylvanberries are loaded. The up and coming warm weather will help them sweeten and ripen up. Getting excited! |
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| The shelling peas aren't filled out enough for this Tuesday. Maybe next week. Shelling peas are different than snow peas. Snow peas are eaten in their entirety, shelling peas have a more fibrous pod therefore we only eat the little peas inside. |
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| The asparagus will be cut later and allowed to hydrate in clear, cool water. The red and black plastic mulch will soon be covered as the plants grow and spread. |
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| White foxglove near the farmhouse will be used in bouquets today. |
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| Lisa picking the verbascum by Grandma Daisy's trailer. |
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| Lemon cucumbers to pick for someone's box today. |
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| The greenhouse tomatoes to the left have overgrown their bamboo stakes. They have many green tomatoes on them. |
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| The space between the plants seems to shrink every time I try to walk through. |
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| Nice size to this variety. We have different varieties in here, too. Some are larger and some are "cluster" type tomatoes. Like the ones you might buy "on the vine" in the grocery store. Our's will taste better :) |
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| We experimented last year growing cherry tomatoes in the greenhouse. Some luck. Here are a few little Sun Sugar soon to be orange cherry tomatoes. |
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| Time is spent sorting and organizing so all 20 boxes get equal portions of what is harvested each Tuesday. Here Grams (my mother in law, Mary) sorts and organizes the green onions into bundles and then will label them. We do more labeling early in the season, not as much later. |
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| Angie and I are about to double team the rhubarb bed. Going in! |
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| Green onions are bundled and tagged. |
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| Lisa's flower house is filling up. She and I built the rolling benches over the winter to keep things at a convenient height. |
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| The view from inside. |
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| There are many kinds of flowers ready this time of year. |
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| These orange Irish Poet flowers are new to us this year. Our Oregon State roots are showing in this color choice. Dad would be proud. :) |
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| Peonies are in full bloom, too. |
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| Pink lupine along with blue delphinium we have grown from seed. |
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| One bleeding heart was ready to join in the bouquets. |
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| Eucalyptus we grew last year from seed is mature enough to harvest for the bouquets. They smell so good. |
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| Green Bells of Ireland add a different color to the bouquets. |
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| One of the many colors of Sweet William. |
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| Delicate white peonies. Mom loved her peonies. Lisa and I remember these always being here on the farm. We moved here in 1961. |
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| Pink peonies are planted alongside the white peonies in the very well established bed by the house. |
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| Verbascum adds a "cottage flower" feel to flower arrangements. |
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| Florencio is cutting the asparagus and Angie is wading in to harvest parts of the kale. It is very healthy. |
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| I am picking the many colors of Swiss chard. |
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| Dad always enjoyed all the different colors of everything. He liked variety. (Even though he was color blind.) |
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| Red Magic Swiss chard. |
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| This orange one is in the Neon Blend variety. |
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| Old time "Fordhook Giant" Swiss chard. |
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| Two of the four buckets Angie selected from half the kale bed. |
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| Grams ensures every box gets some of each color. Way to go Grams! |
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| Florencio pulls the beets which he will then wash. |
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| Emma is home from kindergarten and resting with some coloring options. Love her apron. |
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| 2 month old baby Levi is all cozy. Anna is helping sort and organize when she doesn't have both hands full. She will also make us a yummy lunch. |
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| Harvested sorrel hydrating. I don't mind harvesting this as I snack as I go. |
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| Florencio has sprayed the soil off the beets. The greens are even beautiful. |
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| Enough asparagus for half the harvest boxes to get a good sized bundle. Next week the other half will get a bundle. |
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Fresh healthy produce chilling in cool, clean water.
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| A colorful cart of beets and radishes joins the party. |
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| Angie hiding out in the nice HOT greenhouse picking basil. We refer to this as "getting our basil cleanse on". The two of us take about 15 minutes to pick enough basil for all the boxes and then high tail it out of the heat. Whew! |
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| Pretty basil. We will pinch it back to right above a node and the side shoots will mature, hopefully in time for next week. |
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| A different variety of basil " mammoth leaf". Very large leaves on a smaller plant with a slightly licorice/anise flavor. |
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| Each cello bag has at least one of the mammoth leaf basil sprigs on the top of the bag. These smell wonderful. |
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Bouquets await selection by box holders. Pick me, pick me!
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I was able to capture a few of our box holders picking up for Week 1 2015. Happy people :)
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Hmmm. Will these scissors cut through the greenhouse? Well yes.
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Many lessons learned on a farm. Apology accepted. He learned how to mend a greenhouse today.
Mom and Dad were on top of this. He also did some extra chores.
Ahhh the life of a sweet 4 year old. |
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| Lisa sewed some of the colorful seed packets together to make this lovely banner for inside the potting shed where boxes are picked up. |
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She also made these fabric banners. She is gifted in many ways.
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That's all for this installment of life on our family farm.
See you next time.
Lorrie
