Owosso Organics

richard in greenhouse, owosso organics

    Things are slowly drying out on the farm and we have been able to get some planting done. All of the brassicas are in the ground, leeks went in last week, peas are up, onions are finally in and one of the early greenhouses is planted wall to wall. Now if things could just warm up. The last two nights it went below 32. We are wary of planting the warm crops remembering the frost we got last year on May 28.

   The CSA is now full and we are putting folks on a waiting list or asking them to contct us early next year. Thanks to everyone!  We will contact everyone if we  decide we need to push back the first pick up date.

   It has been quite a few years since we have seen this much rainfall in Shiawassee County in the month of April. I think there has been almost 5″ this month. We have tons of standing  water here at the farm and haven’t been able to even get in the greenhouses. Whereas usually this time of the year we would have most of the early greenhouses planted, we have only about 30% of one of the drier houses planted We are kind of freaking out, well really I am freaking out. Richard is walking around cool as a cucumber as usual talking to me about patience. It’s like the last couple weeks of pregnancy when you are really, really ready for this baby to come out of the cooker but you just have to wait because you have no choice. We have transplants, huge, healthy, beautiful transplants ready to go into the greenhouse and the fields but we just have to wait.  I follow Richard around the farm complaining. Then I remember Doris Day. My mom was a huge Doris Day fan and that is some of the first music I remember as a child. You remember it too (song written by Jay Livingston and Ray Evens) “Que Sera Sera, What ever will be will be.” I calms be down….slightly.

    On the good side our CSA is pretty much full. I will have to put any new inquires on a waiting list. But, we will more than likely have to delay the first pick up until later in June when we actually have food to distribute. I will contact all CSA members on this decision.

I’ll post some pictures of the wet soggy farm this evening after my camera charges.

Owosso Organics Grafting Chamber

     One of the things we are trying this year on the farm is grafting tomatoes. Lots of research, especially out of Cornell University shows that grafted tomatoes are much higher yielding and grafting helps control the foliage growth which is especially important in the greenhouse. We will plant some in the greenhouse but we thought we may trial some in the field and see how they do. We started about 200 rootstock plants in February and we are doing the grafting today. It’s really important to provide a very warm, very humid healing chamber for four or five days after grafting, so Richard built this out of scrap materials from the cooler project.

   The nursery greenhouse is almost full! We will move into the Quonset greenhouse (30′x45′) in a couple weeks. It is amazing how fast things move along once the earth warms up.

   Thanks for all the shareholders who have signed up already.

inside nursery greenhouse

Here are some things growing in the nursery greenhouse. Spring is here!

Little tomato plants

owosso organics nursery greenhouse

    We are planting seeds everyday and have loads of activity happening in the nursery greenhouse. I wanted to post some pictures so you can see what the nursery greenhouse looks like, some baby plants etc. It is our smallest house at 9′x45′, so is the easiest to heat which we do with a simple propane heater.

   We have begun to take CSA shareholders commitments for the 2009 season. All previous shareholders should have gotten a brochure in the mail last week. If for some reason you didn’t receive a brochure from the farm, e-mail me and I will get one out to you ASAP. More than likely we will take approximately the same amount of shareholders as last year so if you know you want to do CSA again this year, don’t delay. Good to hear from all of you. I’ll add pictures later.

     We are up and running! Most of the seeds have arrivedfrom our favorite seed companies and we have started planting. Yesterday we seeded in some leeks, snapdragons, early greenhouse tomatoes and the first lettuce of the season. I plan to send out the 2009 CSA brochures on March 1 so you should be getting them in the mail next week. If you did not get a brochure and  would like to join our CSA or just find out more info, e-mail me your adress and I will get one off to you. We are very excited about this season with some new veggies varities to try and some refined planting schudules to keep those veggies coming all season long.I hope to do some regular blogs to keep everyone updated on our season.

The thermometer reads -4 degrees this morning! Wow, about makes your snot freeze when you go outside.  My good buddie, CSA member and fabulous musician Doug Berch continues to teach me more about managing this website so hopefully I will be able to add some pictures and have a continuing communication via this blog part of Owosso Organics. I’m working on getting the 2009 CSA  brochure up on the website so folks can download a copy, fill it out and mail with payment to the farm.  I’ll be mailing all former CSAers a copy in February.  For now, here are some pictures from last year so we all still remember what the weather was like when it was warm.  Stay warm everybody.

Bitter cold winter day.  Sadly,our big winter greenhouse collapsed on December 19 due to heavy snowfall followed quickly by 25+ mile per hour winds.  We are waiting to hear from our insurance company to see what will happen for rebuilding. It is very sad to look at each day right out the front door of the farmhouse. Also a ton of cleanup work once the weather warms. Other than that we are ordering seeds, working on the website and planning for this spring. Keep in touch. I’m hoping to be adding some pictures soon also the 2009 brochure should be on the website soon. I will be mailing everyone a brochure via snail-mail in February. Stay warm everyone…

  We made it! This is the last week of the season and just in time as Saturday morning on my way to the farmers market the thermometer read 34 degrees. Yikes that was cold! We lost most of the solanaceous crops that day, the field tomatoes, basil for sure, lots of the flowers, summer squash… It’s been a good long season; the frost came almost three weeks past our average first frost date. The plants and farmers are getting tired.

Thank you, thank you everyone! It was a great season. Thanks for picking your boxes up every week, thanks for bringing back the boxes (still time for that, even when the seasons over we sometimes find boxes appear out of nowhere on our door stop months after CSA is done) Thanks for trying new veggies you had never seen before ( Wow, we love Kale now! was a comment from a new CSAer this summer), thanks for all you support, thanks for putting up with yet another year of a bumper crop of sweet and hot peppers, thanks for wishing for but not getting again a CSA potluck on the farm (We are so lame but we promise to try again next year, really…),Thanks for supporting local agriculture and this crazy idea of making a living on a small family farm. We are so thankful for your support.

In your boxes this week:

1. Winter Squash: A mix of a few different kinds. I cook them all the same way. Cut squash in half, scoop out the seeds. Bake in a pan with and inch or so of water with the cut side down at 350 degrees for about 45 min until the flesh is soft. Mix with butter and salt. I am freezing some already cooked squash. I haven’t tried it yet but it looks good in the ziplock bag, retained it color nicely.

2. Popcorn: We just picked it today so it must dry for at least a few months. Leave it out in the open air to dry. Remove the kernels from the ears and pop. Try popping a few kernels in December and see if it pops. If it’s too wet, it just won’t pop at all. It is a gourmet variety of popcorn that is hull-less and delicious.

3. Garlic: So good! It will last about 4 months.

4. Sweet peppers:Too many? Of course there are too many: freeze, freeze freeze. Or roast them with potatoes, garlic, onions, cubed winter squash any veggies you have hanging around. It uses up a lot of veggies. Mix in a bowl, drizzle with olive oil, soy sauce, balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper. Spread on cookie sheet. Bake 375 degrees for about 20 min until veggies are fork tender.

5. Hot peppers: pablanos, Serrano and garden salsa.

6. Celery:Strong and aromantic. Be sure to use the leaves too. Put in an air tight bag to last longer.

7. Eggplant: The very last of the season. A beautiful mix.

8. Cabbage: Delicious and crisp. Coleslaw anyone?

9. Tomatoes: Lots of heirlooms of all shapes, colors and sizes.

10. Dried hot peppers:  Hot off the dehydrated. These are great for stir fry, in pasta on top of pizzas. Store in glass jar. They keep indefinitely. You recieved some of last years crop eariler in the season.

11. Kale: It gets better with the cooler weather.

 ”The ground  is locked up, the farmer’s exertions must relent, and now for him is the time to indulge in thinking and speculating upon what is passed and what is likely to come.”

                                                     J.M. Gourgas, New England Farmer January 25, 1828

I’ll be sending everyone a 2009 brochure in Feburary. Thanks again everyone, it was an honor growing food for you.

                                                                                                                    Always, Pooh, Richard, Cody and Taylor

   Here we are, down to the last two weeks of the 2008 CSA. I’m sorry I’ve been remiss about the newsletter for the last few weeks. Things got pretty crazy around here handling the lisianthus harvest, beans, summer squash, tomatoes, too much rain after not enough rain…. Life on a vegetable farm. Every year my goal is to do a better newsletter, more recipes, more news of the farm etc., but the farm seems to take over from lisianthus to tomato harvest. So if anyone is interested in helping me with the newsletter for a discount on your share in 2009, let me know.

In your box is a survey for the season. Please fill it out as honestly as possible. Your feedback is vital in making your CSA more fitting your needs. Thanks you for taking the time to fill it out. You can mail it back to us or return it at the last pickup next week. Remember next week is the last pickup so please return all those boxes that have been filling the corner of your garage.

It’s been a great season and we want to thank everyone for being apart of our farm. I’ll be sending out a 2009 brochure to everyone next winter.

In your box this week:

1. Tomatoes: With all the rains last weekend (6″ to be exact) we had to harvest hard. I know this is a lot of tomatoes but they are fading fast.

2.Winter squash: They can keep for up to 4 months. Store in cool dry place.

3.Sweet peppers:Again a lot of peppers. They are soooo easy to freeze.

4.Celery: Very strong and pungent. Use the leaves to flavor soups and casseroles. The celery itself is very delicious.

5.Leeks: Probably the last distribution of leeks. They are smaller than the first two harvests.

6.Garlic: More this week and more for next week too.

7.Hot peppers: A nice mix. Fresh salsa can use up lots of tomatoes, sweet peppers, leeks, garlic and hot peppers. Hmmm.

8.Kale: See recipe below.

SQUASH AND KALE with WHITE BEAN STEW

A very hearty fall meal that gets better the next day.

3 cups cooked white beans

2T olive oil

1 large onion diced

1 head garlic, about 4-7 cloves

1 bay leaf

1 T sage, fresh or dried

1 t cumin

pinch red pepper flakes or fresh hot pepper sliced to taste

1 large winter squash, Acorn, Carnival, butternut, your choice peeled, seeded, cut into 2-inch cubes.

3 cups veggie or chicken broth or water more as needed.

1 bunch kale, thick stems removed chopped or coarsely torn.

Heat oil in deep dish baking pan or dutch oven. Add onion garlic sage cumin and fresh hot peppers or red pepper flaked and cook until translucent.

Add the squash; stir to combine. Add stock. Bring to simmer. Add the kale; cook until the squash and kale are tender, about 20 minutes. season with salt and pepper. Stir in cooked white beans, simmer until beans are heated through.