News and blog
Sprouting Acres will NOT be at the Downtown Market on Saturday August 14, 2011. We will be working at the farm instead this weekend.
Annual Farm Shin-dig
What: Farm Party Potluck and Tour
When: August 20th, drop in anytime from 12-3
Where: 1746 Hwy 73, Cambridge, WI 53523
Who: Open to all members &workshares, their family and friends of family
*Bring a dish to pass and copies of your recipe to share. We’ll provide drinks and a main dish. Leave with some extra veggies. We hope to see you there!
August is traditionally one of our busiest times of the season and this year is no exception. In July we are consumed with weeding and August it is harvesting and replanting. Zucchini and cucumbers are crazy producers and it is always tough to keep up with them. We harvest about 200 pounds of them every 2 days. Forgetting to bring long sleeves and pants during this time of the year is a mistake you don’t make twice...these plants will scratch you up horribly when harvesting this much. Aside from these, tomato picking keeps us busy mostly because it is a bit time consuming. The heirlooms cannot be easily packed due to their irregular shapes and must be handled very gently so they don’t bruise. The stem tips must also be removed so they don’t poke other tomatoes en route to your kitchen table. Many people refer to heirlooms as ‘ugly tomatoes’ but we wouldn’t think of not growing them. Their flavor is so good and it is nice to continue to keep these varieties around.
We finished up all of the garlic pulling this week (many thanks to those of you that came to the ‘pull-a-thon’), we planted some of the late summer crops and completed various other farm chores. But the true highlight of the week was to host a tour of our farm and meet with the owners of High Mowing Seeds, an organic seed company out of Vermont. It gave us an opportunity to collaborate on growing strategies and pick up tips from their expertise. It was a great experience!
Second round of flowers have started. From our own bouquet at home last week of sunflowers, we noticed that they drooped much too early in the vase. We are trouble-shooting this and tried a few different things this week. Would be curious to know how they hold up for you this week if you get sunflowers. Enjoy the veggies!
In Your Box This Week:
Beets
Garlic
Lettuce
Cucumbers
Green peppers
Zucchini
Summer squash
Carrots
Tomatoes: cherry & heirloom
Celery `
Flower Rotation
Veggie Tip
Cucumbers and zucchini do not like to be too cold. They can shrivel up and lose their crunch. Store them in plastic bags in the crisper or in the warmest part of your fridge.
Beets should be stored in a plastic bag and can last for weeks in the crisper. Just check on them to make sure they are not too wet. A paper towel every once in a while can help dry them up. But you shouldn’t wait weeks to eat them. Fresh is always best.
Kelly Bratt & Andy Watson, Sprouting Acres
We will be at the Saturday Market tomorrow. Hope to see you there!
Flowers are included in the boxes this year. We rotate pick up sites due to the number of members we have--that way everyone gets flowers throughout the summer. All sites have now had bouquets once this summer and we starting our 2nd round. Hope you are enjoying them.
Still time to register for Bike the Barns if you are interested! Check out the link to learn more:
http://www.csacoalition.org/our-work/bike-the-barns/
Happy Thursday Everyone! We hope you have had a good week so far. It is hard to believe that it is August already but we are so excited for the mid-summer veggies. Kelly has been busy baking zucchini breads and muffins. Her plan is to freeze a bunch for winter but they are eaten up too quickly! Good thing there is no shortage of zucchini on the farm! Enjoy the first cherry tomatoes of the season! The big ones are starting to turn as well but the early ones will be at market as we wait for the big tomato explosion for the boxes.
Bike the Barns is coming up quickly and we are very excited to be a route stop this year. There is still time to register if you are interested. Of the 550 spots, 419 have registered! It should be an amazing time. Check out our website for the link or go directly to www.macsac.org for more information. Ironically though, our farm’s barn was taken down a few years ago due to deterioration and safety. All that is left is the foundation and silo which doesn’t exactly make for a safe place for the little ones and it sure is an eye-sore when you pull in to the farm. This summer we are finally able to get them removed. We dream of being able to rebuild a large shed there someday to better wash, store and package. Although foundation demolition may not be too exciting, it marks the first step towards another long term goal for Sprouting Acres.
If you weren’t already smiling ear to ear over the foundation removal, you’re sure to when you hear about the tractor! After 43 years, we finally had to replace the rear tires on the John Deere. Andy’s father bought the tractor used in the early 70’s and has needed little maintenance since. Wade is hoping we can keep it running until he is old enough to use it someday! Enjoy your veggies and have a great weekend.
In Your Box This Week:
Red cabbage
Garlic
Lettuce
Cucumbers
Zukes, summer squash
Eggplant
Cherry tomatoes
Onions
Herb: Rosemary, Savory, Basil
Eggplant Tips
· Place the eggplant in plastic bag, store in the refrigerator.
- To freeze eggplant, blanch or steam first. It will keep for 6 to 8 months in the freezer.
- Eggplant absorbs oil like a sponge; dip in beaten egg and flour or crumbs when frying.
- For added flavor, lightly brush with olive oil and sprinkle with herbs before baking.
When it rains, it pours. Last night we caught up on the lack of water at the farm. We have had a couple of small rains in the last week or two, but last night was a good soaking rain. It is now time to get the garlic out of the ground before it gets too wet which can make the bulbs burst and end up splitting the paper wrappers leaving them impossible to store over winter. If you are looking to get your hands dirty on the farm, come on out this Saturday for a member work day. We will be pulling and bundling garlic, then taking it to the different sheds to cure. It takes a few weeks to cure properly, then we will trim the stem down to the bulb and store them for boxes and market. We hope that some of you can make it out.
The tomatoes are moving right along and the ones in the big hoophouse are just starting to turn color. I am anticipating the cherries will be the first ones you see and I am hoping for next week. The eggplants, peppers, and cucumbers are looking good. You got the first cucumbers in the boxes this week and next week there will be plenty more. The zucchini are just revving up and we are harvesting every other day. We picked over four hundred pounds in just 5 days. You will be getting a nice mix this week and there will be extras if you are interested in more
Based on our member surveys last year, we have been working hard to make our boxes more bountiful. One addition is the sweet corn. We purchased it from Zander Family farm out of Columbus; it is certified organic and I am happy to inform you that it was harvested yesterday morning. There may be a chance that a worm made its way to the tip near the silk. Just check each one and cut an inch or two off of the tip before cooking. We are looking at one more ½ dozen batch in a few weeks. We hope you enjoy this summer treat.
In Your Box This Week:
Cippolini Onions
Celery
Sweet Corn
Head Lettuce
Green Beans
Zucchini
Cucumber
Fresh Garlic
Herb: Parsley
Cippolini Onions: Pronounced chip-oh-LEE-nee this is a smaller, flat, pale onion. The flesh is a slight yellowish color and the skins are thin and papery. The color of the skin ranges from pale yellow to the light brown color of Spanish onions. These are sweeter onions, having more residual sugar than garden-variety white or yellow onions, but not as much as shallots. They are great peeled, then caramelized whole or roasted whole with a chicken, or marinated and grilled.
So if you were ever wondering if it was ‘worth it’ to belong to a CSA, I’m sure this week’s weather cleared that up! Who in their right mind would be out in this heat and humidity for hours each day, right? Well, the Sprouting Acres crew has been working early on in the day and late into the evenings, trying to escape the harsh mid-day heat. Farmer Andy has changed clothes so many times during each day that it feels like we run a Laundromat here…better than the stinky alternative.
Now that the heat has been cranked up, some of the tomatoes are just starting to turn red and we have baby eggplants as well. It shouldn’t be much longer before they are in our boxes. Of course, we’ve had to water a lot so we are hoping that rain will be in the forecast soon.
We have just returned to the Downtown Saturday Markets now that our box supply is strong. We usually offer similar produce to what you get in your box and a few different items. We will keep the website updated weekly to let you know if we will be downtown. And you can always find us at the Eastside Market in Madison on Tuesdays. We still are planning on a “garlic pull-a-thon” but our garlic needs a bit longer in the ground and the weather needs to turn a corner. We will let you know when we decide a date!
We hope everyone is keeping cool and enjoying the summer. Happy eating!
Aside from the storm that ripped through this Monday, we’ve had pretty amazing weather lately….your finger crossing and well wishes must be working! Keep it up. Our crops faired the storm pretty well, except some of the flowers. And we did have 2 work shares stuck en route to the farm on their bikes that day but our chauffeur service got them to the farm safely.
The mosquitoes have arrived but so far they aren’t too terrible but the Japanese Beetles are a bit maddening. They love the flower bed, especially calla lilies and sunflowers. Andy has noticed they are all over the weeds by the crops but they haven’t really ventured over to the crops yet. There isn’t a great way to get rid of them except hand-picking them and dropping into soapy water so we hope they stay away from the crops. There are a variety of things we’ve done at the farm for pest control in recent years. Last year, we added bat houses and a kestrel house and we think we have inhabitants this year! Each year we buy and release thousands of ladybugs in the greenhouses to eat up the aphids. Occasionally we cover newly transplanted crops with row cover until the plants are mature enough to fend off pests. And of course, some years are just better than others…we are hoping that the pests don’t have a good year.
You can store your cabbage in a bag in the crisper for quite a while if you are not ready to use it. When it is time to use it, just peel off an out leaf or two and it will be as good as new. Use the pac choi in a stir fry or slice in half, marinade in teriyaki or soy sauce, a little oil, and grill. Just remember if you do grill them, when you slice them in half, keep the root on so the two halves don’t fall apart on the grill. Happy Eating!
In Your Box This Week:
Green Cabbage
Fresh Garlic
Zucchini
Spring Onions
Chard
Sugar Snap Peas (Last ones)
Baby Pac Choi
Herb: Basil
Flower rotation
