THIS WEEK’S SUBSCRIBER MENU:
• Pea Shoots
• Mixed Spinach and Yokatta-Na Greens, for salad or stir-fry
• Mizuna (use raw, or lightly sautéed, or wilted—mild, mustardy flavor)
• Spicy Pepper Cress (use in salad, or in a sandwich—it IS peppery)
• Green Onions
• Fresh Mint
Click on the links above for information and recipes about these crops.
COMING SOON:
Spinach
Lettuces
Zucchini
Beet Greens
Sweet Onions
Peas
We are continually lured into believing it’s summer, only to be dragged back into March. How cool it’s been again! I’m seriously tired of talking about weather, but how can we help it? It’s unusual and crazy!
The good news: the snap and shelling beans have all popped up and are growing. They did not rot this year. That’s a plus! The shelling peas are starting to bloom, and that means peas in a couple of weeks! The sweet onions are coming along nicely, and we should be picking those in a couple of weeks as well. As much as we want to start eating them, we will just use them up too fast if we pick them small. Better to wait and eat more onion volume. Walla Walla and Torpedo onions—woohoo! The next crop of spinach, and this planting of carrots and beets has germinated and is growing pretty quickly, all things considered. They did not fare so well in the last planting. We have many other greens planted, and they are germinating. The early broccoli crop is growing quickly now, finally. Two foliar feeds of fish emulsion have given it a jump start and the plants are finally ahead of the dreaded Flea Beetles.
Perhaps the sunniest news though is that the zucchini plants we started inside the greenhouse are actually starting to bloom! That means we’re pretty close to zucchini, and those will be closely followed by cucumbers. This is a new experiment—we always plant them outside in the ground. We thought we’d get a jump on it by planting them inside in the lovely manure left behind by the cows. Never have I seen such healthy, dark green plants.
The flower garden is coming along, and many varieties have buds: Poppies, Bachelors Buttons, Corn Cockle, and Rocky Mountain Garland. If it’s warm we should be able to start cutting next week. If it’s cool, it will be two weeks.
Only 150 days or so until Thanksgiving!
We picked up the baby turkeys last Friday, and they are growing quickly. Only 5 months to Thanksgiving and we have 5 turkeys not spoken-for. If you want one, reserve it ASAP. Our friends, who also raise Dexter cows in Covington have grass-fed beef for sale. They are selling ground beef and have two steers to sell as halves. Let me know if you are interested in those too, because they will go quickly. It’s good beef—remember the ground beef from last year? Everyone wanted more after they tasted it.
This is where the word "ruminate" comes from. It's what cows do best. Chew and ponder the universe.
Planting will continue in earnest now. The greenhouse is full of starts waiting to go out, and I am ready to fill it up again with flats that I will plant this week.
Whistling Train Farm 