Return of the Buckhorn Blogger

I am pleased to announce an end to the Buckhorn Blog hiatus! My name is Alison, I'm from Seattle, and I'm the newest intern here at Buckhorn Gardens. I've been here for about two weeks and have loved every minute of it. Now for all the summer updates!

Summer has just truly begun in our neck of the woods. We are finally harvesting tomatoes; today we picked 72 pounds! Summer squash and cucumbers are also booming right now. We have two types of reasonably-sized cucumbers, one for slicing and one for pickling, and one type of unreasonably-sized cucumber, the Armenian, which some of you have ventured to try at your CSA pick up or at the market. Our hot peppers are heating up as well, some choice varieties being Beaver Dam (light green and short), Anaheim (light green and long), and Jalapeno (dark green and short). Next week we will be posting pictures of all our different types of tomatoes and squash, to help you identify what you picked up at CSA or market.

Last week we pulled up the entirety of our garlic crop and it is currently drying in the goat barn. You had the opportunity to pick up some of our varieties last week at CSA and market, such as Red Russian and Purple Crystal. This week we weeded and mulched the former garlic beds to prepare them for a cover crop of Buckwheat, which will help improve the soil for the next crop we decide to plant.

Speaking of seeding, we planted several autumn crops this week that you can start looking forward to, including broccoli, cabbage, spinach, Asian greens, beets, and radishes. And maybe it's a bit too early to start talking about this, but don't forget to consider becoming a member of our potential Winter CSA. We intend on featuring one or two bags of greens like lettuce, spinach, kale, and chard per week, as well as garlic and an onion and winter squash option. Don't hesitate to talk to any of us about this possibility, as we'd like to gauge the level of interest amongst our current members before setting anything in stone.

Farm projects have, of course, carried on throughout the summer. We just finished installing a walk-in cooler which greatly expedites the process of packing to go to market on Friday and Saturday mornings. We are now gearing up for the construction of the third hoop house, which has yet to be named. Any suggestions?

Thanks for checking in with us even after such a long break. We'll get some pictures up next week. See you this weekend!

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Recipe

Quiche

9 inch unbaked pie shell
1 and 1/2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
6 beaten eggs
1 cup milk, added to eggs
1 bag spinach, kale or chard chopped
1 head tatsoi, mizuna or small bok choi chopped
1 bunch scallions and/or green garlic chopped
1 cup shiitake mushroom chopped
1 bunch any herb

Saute mushrooms, onions, garlic, greens and herbs until soft. Add to pie shell followed by cheese and then egg mixture. 35-40 minutes at 400 degrees.

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May 28th Farm Update

The greens just keep on coming. This week we started to harvest some greens from outside. We were a little worried after about 5 minutes of a heavy hail storm on Tuesday, but most everything still looked great. For the last 4 weeks most of our veggies have been coming from Polaris (we finally named our first high tunnel, which is on the north side). The next few weeks we will be phasing out the cool season crops from in the high tunnel and start harvesting them from outside. However, we still have a few veggies in Polaris that have just started to produce, like snow and snap peas which we will have this week and carrots for possibly next week.


As for the rain, well we wish it rained like this more often! We have spent the rainy days planting in the greenhouses. In the dome we transplanted some citrus trees, planted our honey fig and some hot peppers. We also trellised our melons which already have baby melons! Mars is completely filled with tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, basil,okra, sweet potatoes, more melons, pole beans, cucumbers and some squash. In Polaris we have transplanted artichokes and now we need to start taking out the spinach and other greens to make room for more melons and tomatoes. In between the rain showers we planted over 180 strawberries, transplanted more tatsoi and mizuna and of course weeded. Any volunteers to help weed?

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May 21st Newsletter 3

Well, week 4 is here and guess what, more greens! More spinach, kale, chard, perpetual spinach, mustard greens and salad greens. Our salad greens consist of lettuce, kale, chard, mustard greens, mizuna, tatsoi, beet greens, pea shoots, arugula and sometimes spinach. This is our spring mix and it will change depending on the season. During the summer when its hotter the mix is mostly lettuce. Last week we had some new veggies like broccoli, Japanese summer turnips, radishes and beets. This week more of the same, however this will be the last week we have parsnips until late fall.

Last week we covered Mars, our second high tunnel with plastic. Just one more to build! So far we have planted over a hundred tomato plants in Mars. We will also be transplanting artichokes, sweet potatoes, hot peppers, bell peppers, eggplant, okra, melons, cucumbers and some summer squash into our high tunnels. Our first high tunnel still needs a name, any suggestions? Outside we have been laying weed barrier in pathways. First we tackle the weeds with the weedwacker and then cover them up forever! There has been lots of bed prepping too, for strawberries, lettuce and celery transplants. Have a good week...

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Thank You Ridgway 4th and 5th!

We always have so much fun when the school groups come out! Last Friday we had the Ridgway 4th and 5th graders. This was their second time on the farm. Last fall they came out to dig potatoes and pull weeds. Last Friday they came out again and helped us plant potatoes, shallots, onion sets and of course helped us pull more weeds. Man, did it show that they were experienced. Everyone walked in the paths and not in the beds. Planting went smoothly and everyone seemed as they had been pulling weeds for a long time. Favorite activities as always were feeding the chickens and finding left over veggies from the year before! Thank you Ridgway 4th and 5th. We are looking forward to your next visit.

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May 7th Newsletter 2

I can't take credit for this picture, this was all Darren! We hope everyone enjoyed the vegetables last week. This week will be a similar choice as of last week. More chinese cabbage, bok choy, spinach, green garlic, scallions, parsnips, and many greens. Some salad greens will also be in the rotation this week, along with alfafa sprouts. America is new kind of spinach that is now in the rotation. It is a super thick, deep green, savoy leafed spinach that I thought was succulant tasting. We have added some recipes to the blog and will keep adding them under the recipe post. Next week you can look forward to some radishes and possibly beets and turnips.

Kassy arrived from Oklahoma last week. We have kept her busy with lots of outside seeding and weeding. Yesterday we seeded radish, turnips, parsnips, beets, carrots, broccoli raab and more salad greens. Today we started planting the 100# of potatoes. Thats 12 different varieties! Yumm I can't wait for the new potatoes (the little ones we "steal" from the plant before they are fully developed).

Here are a few pictures from last weeks harvest.

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