Thank you for a wonderful season!

Thank you for a great season! We love feeding you!

Greeting Y'all,
We made it!  Phew!  The last week of the 2016 market CSA season is here and we are a jumble of mixed emotions on the farm.  We are always bummed when the season ends because we miss the warm days, farm food, and getting to see all of you great folks at the market; however, we have a lot of responsibility to keep you all fed and so there is a little relief when we have completed another market season and feel as if we left you fat and happy for the winter (fat is a figure of speech).  To quote Dennis Stenson, the end of the season for us at Native Hill is a bit like juggling while sprinting.  We have to stay focused on getting out the last of our market stuff but still be getting ready for our winter obligations.  There is a lot of food to get into storage before the snow flies and a seemingly narrow windows to make it happen.  We have hundreds of pounds of garlic to plant, thousands of pounds of roots to dig, wash, and store, and tunnel greens to seed and weed.  Our goal is to get it all done before Thanksgiving, but sometimes we are even more rushed depending on the first storm.  Time will tell!

We'd like to thank you all for a really wonderful season.  As Wendell Berry says, "eating is an agricultural act" and we are grateful to have each of you supporting local agriculture.  We recognize that it is not the most convenient choice to join a CSA for your vegetable needs, but we hope the pros of eating fresh and supporting local, organic farmers make up for the trouble and we hope that you will join us again next season. 

Shares for the 2017 season will go on sale next January, so keep an eye out for an email at that time.  If you want to share the farm love, gift certificates to the market stand or towards CSA shares are available for the holiday season.  Its a great way to keep your loved ones healthy and to support a local, sustainable business.  

For those of you who are not participating in the winter CSA, you can find winter staples from Native Hill at the Winter Market in the Opera Galleria.  We will be there Nov-March, just look for the Native Hill banner.  The first market is Nov 5th and runs 9am-1pm. 

Thank you all again!
Katie, Nic, and the Native Hill Team

This Week's Harvest
Kale
Spinach
Arugula
Spicy Mix
Broccoli Rabe
Carrots
Beets
Turnips
Broccoli
Cauliflower
Leeks
Potatoes
Radishes
Celeriac
Head Lettuce
Garlic
 

The fall hustle is real

The Jax Harvest Moon Salmon Bake was a success! Thanks to everyone that came out for the event. (Photo by Fortified Collaborations)

Hello Folks,
Although we are still experiencing high's in the 80s, the nights are cold and it is beginning to feel like autumn on the farm.  Cold hands in the morning make picking spinach and kale challenging but by mid-morning the farm looks more like a public beach, layers of warm clothing abandoned as the mid-morning sun does its job of warming up the earth.  Speaking of amazing fall weather, the recent farm dinner was picture perfect and we couldn't have asked for a more lovely evening.  Thanks to all of you who were able to join us and all of you who volunteered to make this dinner possible.  It was definitely a night for the farm scrap book.  Aside from recovering from a busy weekend, your farmers have been busy this week preparing for winter.  Seeding greens for January, deconstructing and reconstructing tunnels, picking the last of the Roma tomatoes, storing onions, final fall weeding and winter ground prep are all on the list this week.  The fall hustle is real.

This week is the final week for anything summer.  Say goodbye to eggplants, beans, and Roma tomatoes.  Time for fall salads, roasted roots, and braised vegetables.  I am always a sucker for the sweet mixed with the savory and apples and pears are some of my favorite things to mix into fall dishes.  The front range apples have exploded this year and it isn't hard to pick a bucket from an abandoned tree.  Think freshly chopped on a bed of arugula with a maple vinaigrette and toasted walnuts.  Fennel apple pie is another one that comes to mind.   I like to caramelize the fennel first with butter and then add the apples for a subtle and mild flavor.  Speaking of fennel, when added to cabbage and carrots, it makes a wonderful slaw for some weeknight fish tacos or a crunchy lunch side.  Roasted kabocha squash with green chilies is another favorite fall dish.  Kobocha flesh is sweet and flaky.  Delicious in curries or just on its own.  They are also hard to grow because they are soft sided and succumb to pest pressure easily and we don't have them every year.  Be sure to enjoy them while they are here!

See you all soon!
Katie

This Week's Harvest
Kale
Arugula
Spinach
Head Lettuce
Carrots
Beets
Potatoes
Red Onions
Eggplant
Fennel
Green Cabbage
Yellow and Dragon Beans
Broccoli Rabe
Pac Choy
Radishes
Salad Turnips
Winter Squash
 

Happy First Day of Fall

The colors of Fall! (Photo by Cliff Cottage Collective)

Hello!

And happy first day of Fall!  Although it has been feeling more and more like a second round of summer this week with highs hitting close to 90 degrees!  This again poses a challenge for irrigation in Colorado farming as we bank on our plants needing less and less water as the temperatures get cooler.  We are just crossing our fingers for some precipitation (not Sunday though!) or for some reprieve from the endless summer (sorry Brian Williams). Counting today, we have 5 more weeks of CSA left in the market season and its hard to know when the first frost will be, so be sure to enjoy the summer stuff while it is still here.  There are still a few spots left for the winter, so don't delay if you have been thinking about joining the fun.  We love it!  

This week we bring back some cool weather favorites including baby bok choy and broccoli rabe.  Both are great in a quick weeknight stir fry, but also shine as simple sides by themselves.  If you are milking the grilling season, bok choy is delicious grilled and dressed whole with your favorite marinade.  Skillet rabe is great on a burger, pizza, or pasta.  I love it sauted with some onion and garlic and tossed with some roasted beets and goat cheese.  It makes a great accompaniment to roasted acorn squash stuffed with pork sausage, onions, and apples.  The skin of the delecata squash is edible which makes it the easiest squash to prepare.  Just slice down the middle, scoop out the insides and cut into little half moons.  Roast with plenty of salt and olive oil at 400 for 25 minutes.  Throw in some hakurei turnips to mix it up and it is melt in your mouth delicious. 

We have roasted chilis for anyone who would like them.  We are selling them by the case, there are 6 full bags in a case.  One case is $30.  They are amazing and you will be thrilled to have them this winter. Please email me and let me know which day you would like to pick them up (Wed or Sat).  First come first serve!

Warmly,
Katie

This Week's Harvest
Kale
Chard
Head Lettuce
Salad Turnips
Radishes
Beets
Napa Cabbage
Green Cabbage
Cherry Tomatoes
Broccoli
Beans
Bell Peppers
Potatoes
Onions
Baby Bok choy
Broccoli Rabe
Arugula
Spinach
Winter Squash
 

First Frost and a Canning Party!

Farm fresh peppers (Photo by Cliff Cottage Collective)

Hi Folks!
For those of you who have been with us for previous years, you know that our farm is close to the river which has its pros and cons.  The main pro is that the soil is much sandier than some of the other places that we have farmed in Colorado while a con is that it is often much colder than the rest of Fort Collins.  We can regularly be 7 degrees chillier than the rest of you folks on the hill and that causes us to get early frosts.  This time of year I continuously check the lows to be sure that we won't be close to the 32 degree mark, but the weather folks were off last Friday evening...by A LOT!  We got our first sneaker frost which put the nail in the coffin for the already declining cucumbers and summer squash vines.  Luckily it was light enough to just kiss some of the other frost sensitive stuff and we will have continued abundance of beans, roma tomatoes, and peppers for the foreseeable weather future (which is not saying much I suppose).  Wildlife update of the week: After the frost we were harvesting some beautiful French roasting pumpkins and found an early Halloween surprise.  Several of them had huge pregnant black widows hanging out on top of them!  This was the first time I had ever encountered these creepy spiders on the farm and I hope it is the last!  Luckily we no one was bit!

All smiles at the Larimer County Farmer's Market. (Photo by Cliff Cottage Collective)

Frosts are bad for summer crops but great for the fall stuff.  It makes all the leaves and roots sweeter and more delicious than they  might otherwise be without the cool weather.  This week we find fresh cabbage at the market, both green and napa.  Napa is great fresh in an asian salad but is really the work horse of a good kim chi.  Try fermenting it with some different veg like hakurei turnips, radishes, and carrots.  The fresh market cabbage is delicious but not as dense as storage cabbage.  I love it braised, but it is extremely good stewed, krauted (is that a word?), or put into a soup.  This week I think we are going to stew some with tomatoes, fennel, chick peas and warming indian spices and serve it over some basmati rice.  Broccoli is just starting to trickle back for the fall.  Will have just a teaser this week but will have more next.  We are diligently roasting chilies for the freezer and will start selling cases next week for $30.  Be sure to save some room in your freezer for these guys.  We will also start to have winter squash at the stand this week.  Some varieties need to cure for a couple of weeks before they become sweet while others can be eaten fresh off the vine.  We will be bringing the varieties that do not need curing first such as delecata, acorn and spaghetti and then follow up with different types as they become ready to eat. 

Finally, if you have been wanting to can for sometime but are intimidated by the process, we are partnering with the cooking studio for their canning party this Saturday, September 17th.  Here is the schtick: 

The Cooking Studio is have a Tomato Canning Party on September 17 and Native Hill CSA members get an extra $10 off each all-inclusive ticket.  All the tomatoes and as much produce as possible for salsa will come from our farm.  Visit http://www.the-cooking-studio.com/class-calendar/ for all the details and to sign up.  Use discount code NATIVECSA10 to receive the $10 off.

See you all real soon!
Katie

This Week's Harvest
Kale
Chard
Spicy Mix
Head Lettuce
Arugula (Saturday only)
Spinach
Radish
Salad Turnips
Carrots
Beets
Fennel
Green and Napa Cabbage
Potatoes
Eggplant
Tomatoes
Broccoli
Peppers
Garlic
Winter Squash
 

Heading Towards the Fall Transition

Triticale goes to seed on our new 50 acre plot. (Photo by Cliff Cottage Collective)

Greetings!

Leaves are turning, breezes are cooling, and the farm is heading towards its fall transition this week.  Food abounds as we find ourselves in the first full week of September and it is difficult to choose what to eat!  The geese on the other hand seem to know exactly what to eat as the wildlife saga of 2016 continues.  We have been waiting all summer to let the triticale seed on our 50 acre plot go to seed so that we could mow it in hopes of re-establishment. Turns out the geese have been waiting all summer as well and it has been a real cocktail party out there ever since we cut it.  Every evening I hear them flying in for dinner and word travels fast...they are multiplying quickly!  If they weren't eating all the seed I would almost think it was funny listening to their conversations as they fly-in.  I swear one couple in particular was a bit lost, honking back and forth at each other about needing to stop for directions. 

I, like the geese, am also fattening up for winter.  Fall is a time for rich full flavors and good smells permeating from the kitchen.  Tomato and fennel pie baked with a hearty rye crust in a well seasoned cast iron skillet.  Serve with a fresh arugula salad or braised fall greens it will make you want to pull out the wool and put away the whites.  Maybe cook down some tomatoes and peppers into a nice thick paste.  Add some black beans and spinach and serve over piping hot polenta.  Pickle some hot peppers and add them to your grilled tomato and eggplant panini... or your homemade pizza.  Oven fries and  a side of kale or dragon lingerie beans complete a farmer's happy meal....try serving your burger Aussie style with a grilled beet, cut thin and grill over med-high for 30 min.  Or better yet, make veg burgers with shredded kale, carrots, and beets.  Its always latke season here on our farm, but now is the time for homemade apple sauce and maple syrup. Traditionally made with potatoes, but can be done with almost any shredded vegetable.  Get creative, its the best time of year.

I have had a couple of folks looking for the link to the farm dinner on September 25th, so I am sending it out again.  I was just discussing the menu with the chef and it looks to be stupendous, especially dessert, so don't miss out!  Purchase tickets here.  We hope to see some of you there!

See you all soon,
Katie

This Week's Harvest
Kale
Chard
Spinach
Arugula
Head Lettuce
Carrots
Beets
Zucchini and Summer Squash
Potatoes
Basil
Tomatoes
Eggplant
Peppers
Fennel
Beans
Onions
Radishes
Japanese Salad Turnips