Looking for a little culinary inspiration when it comes to our summer produce? We love sharing recent favorite recipes during our Saturday Farm Stand from 9am-noon! Recently, we’ve been chopping up and blanching long beans to use in salads throughout the week. Farmer Chandler made a niçoise salad with long beans recently that was phenomenal! You can use this recipe as a guide and sub in long beans for the green beans. Even though it’s a simple preparation, we love roasting okra throughout the summer and enjoying it as a side dish, piling it on tacos, or pairing it with remoulade for an appetizer. We recommend trying this simple roasted okra recipe and changing up the seasonings to suit your tastes. 

While we can’t grow cool season greens like kale and chard during the summer, there are delicious summer alternatives like roselle greens and Malabar spinach. We just planted a round of roselle in the field and have Malabar spinach in the greenhouse that just germinated! Roselle (above) is a multi-use crop that provides us with tangy leafy greens in the summer and tart ruby-red pods in the summer. Malabar spinach (below) is a tropical vining plant with succulent leaves that is not a true spinach, but rather has a similar mild flavor. We are excited for both of these leafy greens to hit the Farm Stand later this summer!

In Season at the Farm Stand: Cucumber, Long Beans, Okra, Eggplant, Tomatoes (last week!), Zucchini, Jalapenos, Bell Peppers, Shishito Peppers, Poblano Peppers, Carrots, Basil, and Flower Bouquets and Stems

Don’t forget to come join us this Saturday (August 12th) at 10:30am for our next Farm Tour! Attendees will be able to see all of the varietals that are thriving in the summer heat followed by plenty of taste testing. This tour will also include an exclusive sneak peek and discussion of our early preparations for the upcoming Fall season. Grab your favorite sun hat, some cold water, and come join us! As always, our tours are open to the public and free of charge.

Volunteer Spotlight

Meet one of our newest farm volunteers, Ava! She is a high school student that is interested in learning more about plants and gardening, especially vegetables. Ava is eager to experience the farm to table process and has already helped us harvest and weed. She had a large part in harvesting the Malabar spinach you’ll see at the Farm Stand this weekend so we hope you enjoy it! If you’re interested in volunteering with us, send us an email at JordanRanch@Agmenity.com. 

Remember the Malabar spinach we planted a few weeks ago? You’ll have access to the very first harvest at the Farm Stand this weekend! The succulent leaves of Malabar spinach have a mild flavor and can be eaten both raw and cooked. One of our favorite ways we enjoyed it last summer was to use the larger leaves like a lettuce wrap! You can also enjoy it in salads and stir-fries. Or, you can combine it with some of our okra and eggplant in a flavorful curry like this one. 

In Season at the Farm Stand: Malabar Spinach, Armenian Cucumbers, Eggplants, Okra, Sweet Peppers, Serrano Peppers, Jalapeno Peppers (limited), and Cut Flower Bouquets (limited and only on Saturdays).

The end of one crop often marks the beginning of the next one! The kale and squash in these beds is being mown down with our BCS tractor as the first step in our bed preparation process. Once a crop has made it through its life cycle, we leave it in place and mow over it rather than digging it up. This chops up the plant matter which can then be left in place on top of the beds as “green manure”. As the plant decomposes, it adds organic matter back to the soil which is incredibly beneficial for the next crop that will be sown in its place.

Last week we planted one of our summer greens: Malabar spinach! Though not a true spinach, the succulent leaves of this tropical plant have a mild flavor similar to spinach. Malabar spinach (pictured above) is heat tolerant, making it a great leafy green option to grow during the summer season. Farmer Anna is really excited for this crop and can’t wait for you to try it! We should be making the first harvest within the next couple of weeks.

Do you remember the Armenian cucumbers we grew last year? We’re happy to share that our current crop will be ready for harvest in the next week or two! Though technically a melon, Armenian cucumbers taste and look similar to a standard cucumber. They’re a great summer crop due to their ability to tolerate the heat. The variety we’re growing this summer is ribbed and has skin that is a lovely light green color. We can’t wait to share them with you!

In Season at the Farm Stand: Eggplant, Watermelons (limited), Korean Melons, Long Beans, Okra, Sweet Peppers, Serrano Peppers (limited), Jalapeno Peppers (limited), Onions, and Cut Flower Bouquets (limited and only on Saturdays).

We’ve got a new summer green for you at the farm stand this week: Malabar spinach! This tropical plant (pictured above) isn’t a true spinach but rather the succulent leaves have a similar mild flavor. The leaves and shoots of Malabar spinach can be eaten cooked or raw. For a raw preparation, Farmer Alex recommends using it like a lettuce wrap or taco shell. If you’d like to enjoy the greens cooked, you can use them just as you would chard or spinach leaves. Make sure to stop by the farm stand to try some!

The shade cloth on the high tunnel has been immensely helpful for our crops that are more sensitive to the intense heat and sun of summer. We planted a round of pole beans in the high tunnel last week that will hopefully benefit from the presence of the shade cloth. The pole bean variety we planted is called Bai Bu Lao. When harvested young, this variety resembles a tender green bean. If left to mature, Bai Bu Lao begins to flatten out and resemble a Romano bean. We can’t wait to share them with you!

We are entering what we like to call our “lean season”. The ongoing hot and dry weather pattern is incredibly challenging for a young farm. Instead of expending all of our time and energy into keeping the whole farm in production mode, we’re beginning preparations for fall. One major way we’re doing this is to plant several of our vacant rows with cover crops. This will allow us to nurture the soil before it is replanted in the fall season. And, it gives us plenty of time to dream up a delicious fall crop plan!

In Season at the Farm Stand: Malabar Spinach, Egyptian Spinach, Italian & Asian Eggplants, Jalapenos, Fresno Peppers, Cayenne Peppers, Criolla Sella Peppers, Sweet Peppers, Okra, Armenian Cucumbers, Bitter Melon, Zucchini, Tomatillos, Long Beans, Delicata Squash, Spaghetti Squash, Cherry Tomatoes, and Basil.

June 24th, 2021

It’s officially summer on the farm! That means tomatoes will be making their way out of season in the next couple of weeks and we will be focused only on crops that can thrive in our hot and humid summer weather. We were able to transplant more of our summer greens this week and we’re pretty excited about the variety that we’ll be able to offer. We’ll be growing purslane, red amaranth, Malabar spinach, and Tetragonia (New Zealand spinach). If you’re curious what some of these crops look like, the red amaranth can be seen above and the Tetragonia can be seen below.

In order to make way for more summer crops, we’ve been focused on preparing our vacant beds for planting. Since we farm predominantly with a no-till method in order to keep the soil food web intact, bed preparation always starts with a broadfork to help aerate the soil. Once we broadfork our beds and add amendments like compost and organic fertilizer, we’ll be transplanting more successions of summer crops like peppers, okra, squash, and luffa.

Have you had a chance to make it out to our farm stand yet? The farm stand (located right on the farm) is open on Wednesdays from 4-6pm and Saturdays from 10am-12pm. It provides a sustainable option within the community as you’re able to get the produce directly us which greatly reduces fossil fuel consumption. A tomato from us travels less than 50 feet before it gets to you while a tomato at a grocery store may have traveled a thousand or more miles. Also, the closest grocery store to our location is approximately 8 miles away by car! This Saturday, we’ll have the following for you at the farm stand: cherry tomatoes, slicer tomatoes, cucumbers, green bell peppers, long beans, okra, eggplant, basil, and fresh cut flower bouquets.