In Between Seasons At The Market

It seems as if there is this 'in-between' stage for farmers and growers as crops of one season begin to slow down and fill fewer baskets holding out for hope that the next season's crops hurry up get here to refill those same baskets.

This winter season, we've really loved filling our farm store baskets with gourmet lettuces, spicy arugula, mizuna, swiss chard and different varieties of kale. For many weeks we've been able to provide  spinach, beets, radishes and carrots.

And, as the weather warms up you'll begin to see less and less of these wonderful cool weather season vegetables because we'll be transitioning into the warm weather crops of things like our beautiful heirloom tomatoes, eggplant, peppers, okra, cucumbers, melons and more.

We don't know about you, but we're really looking forward to this next season {here}

Cooking With Mustard Greens

While walking around our farm, I'm always picking and eating the greens - especially mizuna. I LOVE that stuff! It has a nice nutty flavor with a gentle kick. It's not at all like salad or arugula...it's well...like mizuna. 

I snip fresh mizuna and make a salad - the mizuna as the only green - drizzle it with some good olive oil then sprinkle it with a tinch of sea salt and pepper THEN add Michael's raw chevre to the top. 

I found another way to enjoy mustard greens {here} at Epicurious. The addition of cumin sounds wonderful!

We still have a bit of mizuna to offer at our farmer's market tomorrow! 

Today At Our Urban Farm - Little Yellow Boots

note: hand to mouth = graham cracker = chickens like = chickens go for = one sad little guy = "no bawk bawks no!"

oops! tossed it a bit too hard.

We count and log our daily eggs. He knows that.

 
Now off to feed the girls some treats.

Ha....good job little farmer. Taking care of your flock!

The End.

What You Can Expect This Spring From The Simple Farm

Here's just a quick list of what  SOME of we've seeded (in our green house) and what's coming up!

Peppers:

Anaheim Chili

Bell Sweet Peppers

Sweet Asian Peppers (long and short)

California Golden Wonder

Jalapeno

Eggplants:

Long Purple Japanese

Black Beauty

Rosa Bianca

Squash:

Black Beauty Squash

Cucumbers:

Mirella Lebanese

76 Cucumbers

Okra:

Red

Clemson Spineless

Tomatoes:

Tons of heirloom varieties 

Beans:

Asparagus

French Filet (green and yellow)

Melons:
Those lovely French ones!

They're Back. Bummer . . .

. . . is what I said to myself and then out loud as I took a walk over to tomorrows planting area.

Coyote. But, of course, this really is the place they call home. And, we call it ours. Our little LGD is {hopefully} growing strong for The Simple Farm. We need her/him.

Tree Experts. . . Now

Unfortunately, I didn't make it to yesterday's Tree Pruning Workshop with Certified Aborist John Eisenhower of Integrity Tree Service.  That 'special' flu bug has hit a few of the people in our home and I was so snub to think it'd passed me by.  Nope. It gripped me like a .....well, never mind.

I understand that the workshop was a success and that those that attended went away encouraged with a "you can do it" attitude of confidence.

A HUGE thanks to John for sharing his expertise with The Simple Farm!   

The next event at The Simple Farm is {here}

The Days are Full

The past two Tuesdays we closed our farm market store due to the need to do freeze cover preparations and then this past Tuesday - spring cleaning of sorts.

Our vegetables stayed covered for a good three days and to be honest I was afraid to lift the coverings off to see how things looked.  We did take a bit of a hit - but isn't that how farm life goes?

We've been pulling out older plants that have gone to seed making room for new plantings.  Wednesday Michael tilled 100' along the vintage fence. There's nothing like fresh tilled ground.  He trenched out that 100' row, laid down sprinkler hose so I could come back and add soil amendments like kelp and humic acid so the sunflower, asparagus and French filet beans will end up happy.  76 Cucumber heirloom seeds will go in on Monday.

I've been adding some color spots to different garden areas while Michael planted pomegranate and pecan trees and added a few little fencing structures.

The end of December Michael built our Simple Farm Greenhouse out of pvc pipe.  I couldn't have been more proud of him. After hours and hours of research and scratch pieces of paper with different designs and drawings he built a wonderful green house perfect for our present needs.  I imagine as we grow the farm he'll be building a second one.

The greenhouse is full of about 300 + heirloom tomato starts, basil, 3 kinds of eggplant, 2 kinds of okra, cucumbers, beans, thyme and different kinds of peppers.  I can't wait for the soil to warm up so these babies can find their new spots in the ground.