Happy New Year - 2017 CSA Now Open!

Cheers! 2017 CSA now open! (Photo by cliff cottage collective)

Happy New Year Folks!

We trust you are all enjoying the quiet of winter and hope you were able to enjoy the holidays with family and friends.  Now that the days are officially getting lighter, your farmers are working hard to ramp up for the 2017 growing season.  This means purchasing supplies, fixing broken equipment, and combing seed catalogs for interesting new varieties of vegetables that we think might grow well in our Colorado home.  In just a short while, we will be firing up the greenhouse and starting many of the seedlings that will eventually turn into sweet, juicy August fruit.  In order to make this all happen, we count on CSA folks like you to help us get a head start on the season.  How is that you ask?  By purchasing your vegetables in January, you are making August tomatoes a reality and sharing the risk and rewards of local agriculture with your fellow community members.  Not only do you receive delicious, local produce for your up front support, but you also receive a 10% off of our market prices for your commitment.

There are two ways to sign up for your 2017 market CSA share.  You can sign up electronically here and pay via a credit card. You can also sign up for the 2017-2018 winter CSA at the same time or wait until we get a little closer to the new season...say around August.  Our 2016 members will have until January 31st to guarantee their spots in our 2017 summer program. After that, you can still sign up and receive your 10% discount as along as long as there are shares available, but we will not longer be holding a spot for you.

Quick Farm Update:

We anticipate another great growing season for 2017.  We are moving into the digital age here on the farm, with things like a - wait for it...gasp - a Facebook page and an electronic point of sales system that will make our CSA accounting much more efficient and less prone to errors.  For those of you who are like farmer Nic and like to geek out on farm equipment, we are also purchasing an antique root harvester that should help us grow more of our famous carrots in hopes of having them all winter. Finally, for those of you tracking with Poudre Valley Community Farms, our land cooperative project, we are in the final stages of securing our first land purchase.  We are hoping to be at the closing table come March! 

We hope you will join us for another great season, please email info@nativehillfarm or call us at 970-980-1366 if you have any questions!

Warmly,
Native Hill Farm
 

Winter Market Opens Today!

Get your fresh Native Hill veggies all winter long at the Winter Farmers Market at Opera Galleria! The Fort Collins Winter Farmers Market is run by the Northern Colorado Food Cluster with all proceeds going to improve the market and support our farmers. We hope to see you there!

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