Getting Creative on the Farm

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Hello Friends,

Your farmers are in a tizzy to get some stuff in the ground before the next storm and there is much to do while the sun shines.  We have late tomatoes, summer squash, cucumbers, peppers, and celeriac to get in the ground, as well as seeding July beans, cultivating garlic, potatoes, onions and mixed greens. We have peas to trellis and of course lots of food to get out of the ground, wash, and bring you good folks at the market this week.  Diversified vegetable farming is tricky business in Colorado when it rains.  We are perhaps the only farmers on our ditch system that need water in the ditch right now to keep planting and watering but no one else is calling for water...so we have to get creative as to how to move forward in our planting windows.  Good thing we have a farmer/engineer on the team that can rig up water to come from almost anything....a neighbor's well, a 250 gallon tote, a city tap with a really long hose...you would be surprised what we do on our farm for that life sustaining element that is water!

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Due to the snow, we do not have any salad mix for the market today.  We should be back up and running either this weekend or next, depending on how fast we have some regrowth.  We have some arugula that we will be selling at a discount because it is from last week's harvest.  We do not normally do that, but we also don't normally have snow in late May!  Other than that, we should have a good variety of greens for you folks this week, although we may come up a bit short on volume due to the storm.  Please be patient with us while the plants recover.

Native Hill Farm Stand is open every day from 8am-6pm. Come on by!

Native Hill Farm Stand is open every day from 8am-6pm. Come on by!

Just a quick FYI, Beaver's market is a little challenging to get to right now as Shields Ave is closed from Laporte to Vine.  If you are trying to get there from the North, just get over to mountain from Laporte before you get to shields.

See ya soon!

Katie

This Week's Harvest

Spinach

Spicy Mix

Discounted (but still delicious) Arugula

Radishes

Kale

Collard Greens

Rainbow Chard

Green Garlic

A New Season Begins!

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It was great to see many of you at our first Wednesday market and we hope to see many more at the Saturday markets. As all springs, this one has been uniquely the same as all the other springs....or at least that is what we decided yesterday while harvesting your kale.  You never know what the weather or the season is going to do, but you are always prepared to for the chaos.  This spring has been a bit of a roller coaster.  Just when you think it is taking a turn toward stability, it changes its mind and decides to snow.  We haven't had a frost in weeks and now...snow!  Spring 1, farm 0.

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For those of you who have been with us for some time, you know how the season always starts with leaves!  As much as we might want to do something different, maybe start with tomatoes or carrots, we are at the mercy of plant biology and will always have to start with leaves.  Lucky for us, the leaf portion of our season is quite delicious and in case you are still looking to slim down for that summer swim suit season that is right around the corner (supposedly), mother nature will oblige you in those goals. 

Pasta or pizza with wilted arugula and green garlic, spicy salad mix with pea shoots, dried figs, and a green garlic dressing, tahini herbed butter served with radishes and sea salt...yes please.  Tip on the green garlic: it is young, undivided garlic cloves.  It is more mild than cured garlic and you can use all of the garlic up to where the first leaves branch off.  Just chop it up and add it to the pan towards the end of the cooking process to ensure the most flavor.

See you soon!

Katie

This Week's Harvest

Kale

Collards

Chard

Spicy Salad Mix

Salad Mix

Arugula

Radishes

Pea shoots (reduced yields due to deer pressure)

Green garlic

Happy New Year - 2017 CSA Now Open!

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

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