Tuesday, June 11, 2013

First CSA Week!


Edible, beautiful and oniony!
These chive blossoms were raked carefully from the top of the chive plants.
Break them up lightly with your fingers and sprinkle liberally over your salad, potatoes, soup or make a gorgeous compound butter for grilled meats and veggies.



 
This is an ALL SHARES week...Full Vegetable, Half Vegetable & Fruit Shares!
That means that everybody picks up their shares from their respective sites this week.
 
Pick up is Thursday, June 13th.
 
Next week is ONLY for those with Full Vegetable and Fruit Shares.
 
 
 
 
 
 

Your Vegetable Harvest for this Week...

 
 
 
 

Your Fruit Harvest for this week...





**Just a note seasonality. This season couldn't be any different from last season. Things are moving
along very slowly but steadily with the very cool nights. We'll take this season over last season any day even though it does require some patience.
So Remember...this isn't the grocery store...this is reality. (in northern Illinois anyway.)
 
 
 
 

                            Know your pick up site??

 
 
On the farm!
CSA Pick Up and Farm stand!!
 
4 - 7 pm
17970 W. Millburn Road
Old Mill Creek, Il. 60083
 

 
Lake Forest!
 
4 - 7 pm
The Simpson Residence-
1490 N. Green Bay Road
Lake Forest, Il. 60045
 
 
 
Logan Square in Chicago!
 
4 - 7 pm
Provenance Food and Wine-
2528 N. California Ave.
Chicago, Il. 60647
 
 
 
 
Mowing down a fall cover crop of winter rye and hairy vetch.
The stubble was immediately tilled in and later will be more space for our
on going planting schedule.
 
 
 
 
Here you see 15 little hogs under a giant Willow.
We welcomed these charming creatures to our farm a few weeks ago.
Believe it or not, these small hogs will reach a weight of between 250 - 300 lbs. by the
time mid-October rolls around. They will get to that market weight with a certified organic corn and soy ration along with roots, tubers, nuts, grubs and lots of vegetable scraps in their outdoor home.
 
 
 
 
A few weeks ago we prepared some of our fields with plastic mulch.
We use plastic mulch on tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, most cucurbits and sweet potatoes.
We are constantly on the look out for better and more inert/less environmentally impactive products that a small vegetable farm business can afford. There are companies producing degradable and bio-degradable mulches but these current products have problems associated with them and are way out of our price range. Some would say, 'use straw for mulch'. I would say yes but straw presents a whole new set of built in weed problems.
 
 
 
 
This video was taken in March but I just had to share it.
It shows another one of our favorite creatures living here among us at the farm.
This is a mother Killdeer playing as if she is injured to divert a would be attacker (coyote, skunk, mink, raccoon or farmer with an iphone) away from her precious nest of eggs and attract them to her instead.
Notice her beautifully speckled and perfectly camouflaged  eggs are very precariously nestled directly in the center of one of our fields. 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 

Please stop by and see us to purchase retail farm products.....

 
Every Thursday 4 - 7 pm on the farm

Every Saturday 8 am - 2 pm on the farm
 
Every Sunday 10 am - 3 pm at the Logan Square Farmers Market
 
Every First and third Sundays of the month
May 5 through October 20, 2013 9 am - 3 pm at Chicago Botanic Garden

 







 
 
 
Posted by Tempel Farms Organics News