Planting crops early in the Spring is both exciting and daunting with the temperamental nature of.. well, nature.  However, since we had a bit of luck today with the beautiful weather we were more than eager to get planting!

When the email shipping notification of these bad boys [there are three more boxes of onions not pictured] got to us we were a little surprised that the time was quickly approaching to make our first ground breaking for the year at the farm.  

After stirrup hoeing, shaping, broadforking and raking, we were able to start planting our first bed of leeks! It felt great to have something planted in the ground, and even better to actually touch dirt and grass after a long and snowy winter.

Hopefully next weekend will have merciful weather so we can plant the other three boxes of onion starts.   

LIFE!! It's official, the first signs of living, carbon dioxide breathing life at the farm.  It's always amazing to see those little stems and leaves vigorously poking through the soil and mulch like little trophies of a hard worked planting day in the fall.   Truthfully it's just good to know that a majority of them didn't fall victim to Mrs. squirrel, who I did witness munching on a few right in front of my face as if to say 'thank you, but I prefer the more expensive variety.' 

[seen here, also obliterating a pumpkin after nearly 10 butternut squash fell at her hand in the fall]. Maybe it's me, but isn't it worrisome how close squirrels let you get to them?

The garlic cloves we planted in November are doing amazingly too!  We were a little worried about these with those warmer days earlier in the season that were followed promptly with blizzards, but it seems that they are doing very well.  We will be covering them in straw as soon as we can to help insulate them from any more of those impromptu weather changes and to preserve the soil and water conditions. Can't wait for more things to start growing!

As all Clevelanders know, the weather here is always a little less than cooperative.  However, 2013 is starting out to be especially hard to predict and starting seeds in our new start house has been difficult with the extremely cold nights and indirect light during the days.  This will be the first spring the farm partners will benefit from an onsite seed starting area!   

Shawn from Refugee Response was gracious enough to donate a used wood burning stove to the project and Todd lent his amazing building skills and time to fit the stove's original parts to a new chimney that he created. For the first few weeks of March we decided to start a portion of our seeds in flats at our apartment where it will be guaranteed 70-80 degrees for germination.  Planted and waiting to be transported are kale, kohlrabi, collards, cabbage, lettuces and a few flowers.  We plan to move our seedlings into the start house as soon as next week and continue planting on schedule.  

Its been unseasonably warm this December and we had a beautiful pickup day this weekend! 

We are at the second to last week in our CSA for this season and happy to still have storage crops like onions, garlic and winter squash as well as fresh picked potatoes, beets, cilantro and romaine lettuce for our members!

'Read More'  to see our weekly email to our members along with a great recipe!! .......

We're kind of starting to feel the cold December coming on this weekend, but we still have some great produce available to our members!  This week they received 2 acorn squash, a bag of sweet potatoes, a bunch of carrots, salad mix, radishes and a bunch of Dinosaur kale!  

'Read More' to see our weekly email to members...........

After a week off for the holiday we are proud to announce our parsnips are ready! With all the leftovers and heavy foods consumed over the last few weeks, we thought it would be a nice change of pace to not include any heavy squash or starchy potatoes.  Parsnips will be the exception, because they are amazing,

This week members received a bunch of beets, parsnips, a large bag of carrots, radishes, a bag of salad mix and a huge bag of kale.

'Read More' to see our weekly email to members and recipes for this share.........

Our favorite holiday is just around the corner! And in light of its awesome food yielding glory we are doing a double share this week!  Members will not have to pick up their share next Friday or Saturday and can instead recover from the holiday and/or eat left overs all day.

In this double share is a giant butternut squash, 2 acorn squash, over a pound of fingerling potatoes, a huge bunch of rosemary and another of thyme, a big bag of salad mix, a pint of yellow onions, 2 heads of garlic, a head of fennel, and two beautiful varieties of sweet potato cured and ready to make for Thanksgiving!

'Read More' to see our weekly email to members and for recipes included with this share in mind........

We are excited to have our first harvest ever of Salsify this week! It's kind of an odd looking root, but we hear good things.
Members this week received a gigantic spaghetti squash, 2 bulbs of fennel, a pint of yellow onions, radishes, bell peppers, salsify and kale!

'Read More' to see our weekly email to members and recipes for this share...

This week our CSA members received over a pound of fingerling potatoes, 2 acorn squash, a pint of beautiful red onions, a bag of mixed salad greens, 2 bell peppers, a huge quart of purple string beans and a bunch of rosemary.

'Read More' to see our weekly email to members and for recipes for this share!....

We are just a few days away from November and have some amazing plants that are holding on until the very last frigid day that they can! This week members went home with a sweet yellow/light green bell pepper and serrano chilies, a bunch of collards, red onions, thyme, a pie pumpkin, a huge butternut squash and 2 giant bulbs of fennel!!

We sent our weekly email out with an absolutely amazing soup recipe that was so good we ate it all and made it again the next night.  

To see our weekly email to CSA members and the recipe I mentioned click 'Read More...'