Potatoes!

We got a lot of planting done this week! Potatoes were the big project. Several weeks ago, we chitted all our seed potatoes, which is a method of sprouting the eyes by exposing the potatoes to a moderate amount of light and warmth (we used the shady side of the grow dome). Once the potatoes had some good growth going, we sliced them into pieces with each piece having one or two sprouted eyes. After letting the cut edge of the slices dry up for a day or so (this helps prevent disease in the potato plant), we were finally able to plant. Eight rows of potatoes went in -- we had so many potato pieces to plant that we ran out of space for the fingerling varieties! Breigh is deciding where to fit in the fingerling potatoes and we will plant those later this week. Here are some of the varieties we did manage to get in the ground:

Yellow Finn: These pear-shaped potatoes have yellow skin and moist, firm yellow flesh. They are a great storage potato so we planted a lot of them!

German Butterball: Also a good storage crop, these potatoes have deep yellow flesh with an almost flaky texture and buttery flavor.

Red Pontiac: Also known as Dakota Chief, this potato has deep red skin and white waxy flesh.

Sangre: Developed in Colorado, this red-skinned potato is excellent for boiling and baking.

Irish Cobbler: This is an early-maturing variety with smooth, cream-colored skin and white flesh.

All Blue: This gorgeous purple and white streaked potato keeps its color when cooked and is high in anti-oxidants.

In addition to all the potatoes, we also transplanted kohlrabi and scallions, and seeded beets, carrots, turnips, radish, lettuce, and arugula in the beds outside. Next up will be planting lots of bell peppers, hot peppers and tomatoes in the new beds prepped by the crop mob! These beds are inside what will be our third high tunnel, and before they get planted we have to get the plastic over the greenhouse frame. We're planning to do this on Saturday, weather permitting -- please let us know if you'd like to come and help! The more hands we have the better, especially if the wind picks up at all.

This week's CSA share will have all the choices available last week, plus the first few bunches of beets and carrots. We will have more of these delicious root crops in the coming weeks, so don't despair if you aren't able to get a bunch with this week's share -- we'll soon have plenty to go around!

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Crop Mob: Great Success!

A big thank you to the 20 or so people who came out to the first Western Slope Crop Mob on Saturday! The group together dug and weeded 1750 linear feet of beds, and laid down weed barrier in the walkways between them. These beds are now ready to be planted with veggies for the coming year!

In addition to hard work and good spirits, the group shared a feast of chili and Jon's amazing kombucha. The crop mob brought together a range of folks from the community, including CSA members, non-members, and fellow farmers alike. Thanks to our friends at Tomten Farm and Circle A Garden for joining in -- we love the cooperative spirit between the farms in this area. Circle A Garden will be hosting the next crop mob on Sunday, May 16. Directions to their farm can be found on their website. Hope to see you there!

Breigh and I were unable to be at the crop mob as we were working at the Montrose Farmers' Market on Saturday. We bring fresh vegetables and herbs to market, and lots of starts so you can grow your own as well. Right now we have an incredible variety of tomato, pepper, eggplant and herb starts, as well as lots of basil and strawberries. Soon we will also be offering window boxes planted with a mix of herbs for a quick and easy herb garden. We're at Oxbow Crossing every Saturday morning; drop by and check out the market! This week Jinelle will be manning the Buckhorn booth; it is her last week here as an intern so be sure to wish her luck. She and her dog Sheba are off to Iowa to do prairie restoration for the Fish and Wildlife Service. Jinelle has been a presence at Buckhorn since the beginning and we will all miss her.

Spring is the busiest part of the season, and the loss of our greenhouse coupled with the unseasonably cold nights have set back some of our crops and frost-damaged others. With Jinelle's departure and lots of catch-up to do, we are in need of a new intern! Please let us know if you think you or someone you know would be a good fit for our farm. In the meantime, every Friday and Saturday are workdays at Buckhorn! Please come by anytime between 10 and 4 to help us with weeding and planting for the upcoming season. Don't forget, all CSA members need to come out this season -- one six-hour day for a partial share, two for a full share. We're looking forward to working with you!

The CSA share this week includes everything we've offered in the previous two weeks, plus some head lettuces, broccoli sprouts, and delicious hakurei turnips. These sweet and juicy turnips are great raw or cooked, and the greens are highly nutritious with lots of vitamin A, vitamin C, and calcium. As a choice in the herb category, we are also offering bags of nasturtium flowers and leaves. Nasturtiums are also high in vitamin C, and lend a great flavor and gentle spice to foods -- including Arugula Pesto! See recipe below; bolded ingredients are ones you can pick up in your CSA share or at the Montrose market.

Arugula Pesto

2 cups arugula leaves

2 cups nasturtium flowers and/or leaves

1 cup nuts (pine nuts, walnuts, macadamia nuts, or whatever mix you like!)

3 to 5 stalks green garlic (or garlic cloves)

1.5 cups olive oil

salt & pepper to taste

handful of grated parmesan or other cheese (optional)

Blend and enjoy!

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One Greenhouse Down!

I didn't knock wood after writing last week's blog post -- the 65 mph winds last week did eventually get the best of our high tunnel, Polaris. After holding strong most of the day, the tracking that holds on the plastic sheeting finally tore away from the greenhouse frame. Once the tracking came loose, the wind caught the 100-foot plastic sheet like a sail and pulled it up and away. Breigh, John, Darren, Jinelle, and friends Eric and Eliza managed to catch and hold the sheet to prevent it blowing away entirely. That's no small feat with only six people in high winds! Unfortunately, the plastic was torn by the wind so it can no longer be used to cover the greenhouse. We are reusing the plastic by cutting it into strips for the mini-tunnels that will cover individual beds. This method of protecting the plants was proven effective the night we lost the cover off Polaris -- the low that night was 19 degrees, but with those beds covered in their mini-tunnels of Reemay and plastic, we didn't lose any of those crops.

Despite the mishaps of last week, we are progressing with our planting schedule and getting things in the ground outside. This week we've transplanted hundreds of broccoli, cabbage, kale, and chard starts, and they are looking good outside despite the cold weather.

We've been fortunate this harvest day to have some great helpers: Kassie, a farm friend and former intern, and her mother Dee have been visiting this week and helping us get all the greens harvested, washed, and packaged. The CSA share this week will be similar to last week, with plenty of salad mix, asian greens, and root crops. Check out our recipe for Sweet and Gooey Parsnips for a quick and delicious way to prepare this great vegetable. This week we are also offering radishes and mustard greens as choices in your CSA share.

The baby birds are getting big! The geese and ducks are growing particularly fast. They are now living inside the meat bird pens, where their tractors are shifted every few days so they have access to fresh grass. Hopefully we will be able to let the ducks and geese wander loose before too long!

Our first farmers' market of the year is this Saturday in Montrose. The Montrose Farmers Market has a new location this year and we are hoping to see a great turnout in the new place. The market is held from 8:30 am - 1:00 pm at Oxbow Crossing. Please come out and support your local farms -- and then, drop by the farm to join the crop mob!

Alyssa

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First Spring Harvest

Our first harvest day of the spring CSA has been busy and windy. Once again we have to thank the volunteers for getting that inflated double layer of plastic on the greenhouse -- we are getting gusts of 60+ mph today but the high tunnels are holding steady! Through the wind we've been picking, washing, and bagging goodies all morning for the CSA pickup t0morrow. The share this week will consist of your choice of greens (choose from kale, chard, spinach, arugula, and perpetual spinach), root vegetables (choose from scallions, radishes, parsnips, green garlic, and leeks), asian greens (choose from Chinese cabbage, bok choi, mizuna, and tatsoi), and herbs (choose from oregano, thyme, rosemary, lemongrass, sage, and marjoram).

Don't forget to bring a bag or two to take it all home! The share also contains a great salad mix including mustard greens, pea shoots, vitamin greens, arugula, minuta, cress, mixed lettuces, and baby greens of spinach, kale, chard, and beet greens.

We'll also have some of our eggs for sale for $4.50 per dozen. Our chickens are fed only non-GMO feed along with plenty of weeds, vegetable scraps, and grubs from the gardens. This highly varied diet gives their eggs the bright orange yolks and great flavor that are often lacking in eggs from the supermarket. The turkeys get all that plus an extra treat -- since turkeys don't scratch up the soil, as chickens do, they are allowed to roam in the garden during the day and eat as many grasshoppers as they can catch! Grasshoppers are chewing holes in the greens, so we appreciate the turkeys helping us to keep down the pest population. Our other form of grasshopper control is to set out dishes of NoLo Bait near where the grasshopper damage is the worst.

NoLo bait is not harmful to humans or any animals other than those in the grasshopper and locust family. It's not a poison, so it takes time for the grasshopper population to dwindle, because it works by infecting grasshoppers with a spore that will only grow inside the grasshopper's body, decreasing its appetite and eventually killing it. The spore is transmitted between grasshoppers and eventually takes hold of the population enough to keep the damage down.

Our other main pest problem right now are the flea beetles snacking on the smallest and most tender leaves in the greenhouse. We are addressing this problem by mixing flour and cayenne pepper and sprinkling it lightly on the greens.

The flour deters the beetles from eating the leaves since it gums up their mouths when they take a bite, and the cayenne gives it a kick to make it even more unpleasant for them. Hopefully they will get tired of it and leave our tatsoi alone. We do rinse the greens twice after harvesting, but you may see a small amount of flour left on some of the arugula and salad greens. Don't worry! It is perfectly edible, though you may want to give the greens an extra rinse if you are unable to eat wheat.

Belle's second baby finally got her name -- Blue and Creme are our two newest dairy goats! We hope you will come say hello to them at the Crop Mob this Saturday. Please get in touch with John if you are interested in coming. There will be good food and some good hard work! Hope to see you there,

Alyssa

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Crop Mob

Calling all locavores, foodies, wanna-be farmers, csa members, sustainability activists, local community members, local community builders, and food activists to the first...
Western Colorado Crop Mob!

While not everyone can start their own farm this is a way to become an active participant in the local food movement. Some people may decide to plant a garden, others will buy organic, or shop at the farmers market, but if you want to be more involved this is your chance.

What is a crop mob?

A crop mob is a group of people that descend on a local farm and knock out large projects while, at the same time, meeting others interested in local food and ultimately having a good time. My friend Stu calls it an "old fashioned Amish Barn-Raising but without the barn" - though we're not ruling out a future actual barn raising. We are forming a loose group of mobbers, there is no commitment involved, just come when you can and be ready to get your hands dirty. Join the group by sending me an email or becoming a member of the Western Colorado Crop Mob facebook group http://www.facebook.com/?sk=2361831622#!/group.php?gid=114351791921970&ref=ts.

These are the tenants of a crop mob:
No money is exchanged..
Work is done on small-scale, sustainable farms and gardens.
A meal is shared, often provided by the host.
This is not a charity. We crop mob for crop mobbers


This is not my idea, it is happening elsewhere in the country- check out cropmob.org or a ny times article about it at http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/28/magazine/28food-t-000.html

So now the gritty details on the first crop mob.

May 1st
Buckhorn Gardens
Buckhorn rd.
Bed Digging Party
Lunch will be provided, please rsvp at jon.clayshulte@gmail.com

Hope to see you there

Jon

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Springtime update

Happy Spring!

We've woken up to snow on the ground for the last few days, but spring is still here on the farm -- and with it, spring projects! A huge thank you to everyone who came out to help with doubling the plastic on the greenhouses. With the help of many friends and community members, we were able to add a second layer of plastic to the two high tunnels (not a small feat in the high wind!). Inflating the space between the two layers with a small pocket of air helps slow down wear and tear on the greenhouse and will keep our high tunnels in good shape for years to come. The air pocket also helps insulate the greenhouse further, elevating the minimum winter temperature an additional four degrees. Those four degrees will protect the crops and extend the growing season, which will pay off in the winter and spring CSA boxes! We couldn't have done it without all our wonderful volunteers and neighbors, and we are so grateful for your help!

Springtime is full of babies, and we have got a ton. Baby chickens, turkeys, ducks, and geese are living under heat lamps inside the dome, and are being transitioned to a heated chicken tractor outside as they grow feathers. In addition to their chick feed they also get snacks of pond weed, weeds, and grubs from the garden -- it is amazing how quickly they grow! We also have four baby goats this year. Belle, the herd matriarch, had two baby girls who we will be keeping as milkers for next year. Her older daughter is named Chevre, so we'd like to name these two girls after cheeses, too. The black and white doe is going to be called Blue, but we're still trying to think of another good cheese name for the white doe. Any suggestions?

With a full barn, we've got a full intern house to match. Jinelle has returned to pass on her knowledge to the new interns, and John is also back to take on new projects. The new interns are Alyssa (the new blogger! Hello!), and Evan, whose culinary degree will come in handy as he contributes recipes and cooking hints to this blog in the coming weeks.

We interns (and Breigh, of course!) have been working to dig out the outside beds and prep them for planting. So far we've got onion, leeks, shallots, spinach, and peas planted outside, and are hoping to get in broccoli and cabbage soon. In the meantime, our high tunnels are bursting with greens, so look forward to your first CSA box of the spring next week!

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