Hello! Welcome to week 17!
Farming in the Midwest gives us 6 to 7 months of food production. One way to extend the season is to grow in a controlled atmosphere. Introducing our two new hoophouses! Each house is 30' by 96'. These will allow us to grow even earlier in the Spring and much later in the Fall. They will make possible very early tomatoes and sweet peppers as well as sweet hearty spinach and carrots grown through out the winter.
Here is a delivery of compost since ours is not ready yet. In the background you could see furthest away our greenhouse and then closer up one of our two hoophouses that doesn't have the plastic on yet.
The piles of compost are then spread in the two hoophouses and tilled in with the soil.
We then measured out the widths for our beds and our walk ways between the beds. A 12" walkway was hand shoveled out to make 8- 30" raised beds in each house.
Last week we seeded spinach and carrots, here Chris is checking out the germination. Now that the winds have calmed down over here we'll be able to put on two layers of plastic on these houses on Wednesday morning. A small inflation fan will then keep an insulating layer of air between the two layers of plastic. With this type of structure we'll rarely need to use our heaters, even when the temperatures are hovering around 0*. We're ready for Winter!
Harvested just for you..........
Broccoli
Yellowstone and Bollero Orange Carrots
Scarlet Turnips
Lettuce Mix
Red Onion
Parsnips*
Italian Green Peppers
Fresh Sage
*Parsnips are grown by Harmony Valley Farm.
Extended Fruit Share for On Farm Members............
Honeycrisp (This ever popular apple is a descendant of the Keepsake Apple and another unknown variety, from Minnesota 1991. This apple stores well and is best eaten fresh.)
Senshu (A variety from Japan, a crisp and sweet apple, best eaten fresh)
Northern Spy (this apple originated about 1800 in East Bloomfield, NY. This makes a great cooking apple and stores well.)
Golden Russet (this apple originated in the 1700's in Burlington County, New Jersey. Excellent for eating and drying and is best known for making hard cider.)
Fruit Share for City Members (last week! extended fruit share begins Oct. 10)......
Honeycrisp
Golden Delicious
Empire
A reminder of the heirloom apples: clockwise, Northern Spy (2), Grimmes Golden, Jonathan (2), Golden Russet (3) and Mutsu in the center.
Your wonderful Fall Broccoli.
A few recipes for the cook..........
Roasted Chicken with Carrots - add parsnips alongside the carrots!
Enjoy the bounty!
Your farmers,
Tania and Chris Cubberly
