We’re gearing up for our first Farm Tour of the fall season and can’t wait to see you! The tour takes place this Saturday, October 4th, from 11am-12pm. You’ll get an exclusive look at what it takes to get the farm ready for the fall season in addition to all of the delicious veggies we’ve been planting. Our tours are open to the public and suitable for all ages. No fee or signups required – simply show up at 11am on the farm porch ready to go!

The arrival of October brings the first harvest of our Cherry Belle radishes! These beautiful, vibrant radishes are crisp and crunchy with a peppery bite. They can be enjoyed raw in salads, sandwiches, and tacos and are a great candidate for quick-pickles. If you want to mellow their peppery flavor, try roasting them alone or with a mix of other root veggies. Make sure to stop by the Grab-and-Go coolers to snag a bunch or two this weekend!

Block out the morning of October 18th on your calendar and join us for our Orchard Beautification Day! This volunteer opportunity takes place on Saturday, October 18th from 9am-12pm right here on the farm. With your help, we’ll be weeding and mulching the trees in the orchard. We’ll also be planting a couple of rows of thornless blackberries and a native pollinator bed at the entrance. This event is open to the public and is a great way to leave your mark on the community. We hope to see you there!

In Season at the Farm Stand: Radishes, Scallions, Summer Squash, Okra, Eggplant, Zucchini, Cucumbers, Lunchbox Peppers, Jalapenos, Bell Peppers, Shishito Peppers, Poblano Peppers, Basil (Italian, Lemon, Thai, and Tulsi), and Flower Bouquets and Stems

Remember the French breakfast radishes we seeded in the high tunnel at the end of September? We harvested the first of them this week and they are now available at the Farm Stand! Since radishes grow fairly quickly, they are typically the first root veggie to make their way into season in the fall. French breakfast radishes have a delicious crunch and a mellow bite. Enjoy them raw in salads, slaws, and sandwiches for a peppery bite. Or, you can roast them until tender to mellow their flavor.

Did you know that a large portion of the varieties that we grow during the cooler seasons belong to the brassica family? Brassicas, also commonly referred to as cruciferous vegetables, prefer cooler temperatures and can tolerate reduced daylight hours thus they’re grown during the fall, winter, and early spring months. Members of this extensive family include leafy greens like kale, collards, and mustards in addition to broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, and Brussels sprouts. There are also root veggies in the Brassica family including radishes and turnips.

We’ve been harvesting leafy greens from our roselle plants all summer long and now that the daylight hours are growing shorter, they’re starting to produce these gorgeous red pods! After our roselle plants bloom and the flowers drop off, they form the ruby red pods you see below. The red portion is called the calyx and it surrounds a green seed pod. The calyx has a tart cranberry-like flavor that can be used for teas, jams, sauces, and chutneys. We expect to make the first harvest within the next couple of weeks so keep an eye out at the Farm Stand!

In Season at the Farm Stand: French Breakfast Radishes, Kale (Curly and Dino), Komatsuna, Collard Greens, Amara Mustard Greens, Baby Butternuts, Korean Melons, Asian Eggplant, Roselle Greens, Okra, and Long Beans.

The greenhouse is in spring mode and is bursting with life! Spring favorites like cucumbers, zucchini, basil, and summer squash are swiftly growing and nearly ready to be transplanted. In addition to all of the veggies and herbs, we have several different flower varieties growing! Farmer Anna is most excited for these and can’t wait to be able to offer fresh cut flower bouquets again. Here are some of the varieties you can expect to see this spring and summer: cosmos, sunflowers, nasturtium, stock, zinnias, and strawflower. 

We direct-seeded one last round of quick-growing crops in the high tunnel before we shift our focus to tomatoes. We sowed both salad radishes and arugula which are typically ready for harvesting in about a month. That’s as fast as food gets around here! Our goal is to be able to have these harvested before we need the space for our tomatoes. You can expect to see arugula and radishes make their way to the Farm Stand in the next couple of weeks.

Don’t forget to pick up some of our fennel at the Farm Stand! Fennel is in the same family as carrots and has a mellow anise-like flavor. Both the bulb and fronds of fennel are edible and pair really well with root veggies and citrus. Farmer Anna loves adding it to a seasonal veggie roast along with our colored cauliflower, watermelon radishes, and carrots. You can pick up fennel along with our other seasonal crops at the Self-Serve Farm Stand any time that’s convenient for you throughout the week. If you prefer to see us in person, make sure to pop by on Saturdays from 9am-noon.

In Season at the Farm Stand: Chioggia Beets, Fennel, Carrots, Watermelon Radishes, Kohlrabi, Broccoli, Cauliflower, Collard Greens, Kale, and Parsley.

We’ve officially started preparing the field for fall planting! The first step is to weed and clear any old crops from our beds. Then, we use the broadfork to help aerate and break up compaction in the soil (pictured below). After broadforking, we’ll add a layer of compost and organic fertilizer to the tops of our beds. These will be mixed in by hand with a rake or the harrow attachment on our BCS tractor. After that, our beds will be ready for plenty of delicious fall crops!

Our arugula and radishes are doing really well in the high tunnel! Now that we have more beds prepared, we direct-seeded a round of Hakurei turnips this week along with a mix of red, golden, and Chioggia beets. Just like our arugula and radishes, Hakurei turnips are a quicker growing crop. Once they germinate, they will take about 40 days to reach harvesting size. Beets take slightly longer to reach maturity, about 50-60 days. We hope you are as excited as we are to see root crops make their way back into season!

If you’re eagerly anticipating the fall season, we hope you’ll join us on Saturday, September 30th at 10:30am for our next Farm Tour! This tour will feature the first fall crop harvest along with a preview of what we’ll be growing throughout the upcoming season. You’ll have the opportunity to sample what we’re harvesting and ask any farm-related questions you might have. Our tours are open to the public and free of charge so we hope to see you there!

In Season at the Farm Stand: Long Beans, Malabar Spinach, Armenian Cucumbers, Eggplants, and Okra.

Remember the bed that we planted in the high tunnel last week? As you can see in the photo above, it’s germinating! We planted this bed with a mix of arugula and Easter Egg radishes. Since these are quick-growing crops, we expect to be harvesting them for you in the next 2-3 weeks. These will be our first fall crops of the year so we are incredibly excited to share them with you! We’ll let you know as soon as they’re available at the Farm Stand. 

Fall planting continued in the greenhouse this week. Just like our fall succession of dragon’s tongue beans, we’ll be sowing seeds for herbs that will do well in the mild fall temperatures. We’re planting both dill and cilantro (pictured below) to lend a fresh herbal flavor to our fall harvests. While these herbs are often thought of as spring and summer crops, they will pair incredibly well with our fall root veggies! 

Were you able to try our Korean melons earlier this summer? We’re happy to report that we have one last succession of them growing that should be ready for harvesting in the next couple of weeks! These brightly colored melons were one of our favorite farm snacks over the summer so we can’t wait to be able to share them with you one last time. They have a unique pear-like flavor and crisp texture that is incredibly delicious. Make sure to keep an eye out for them at the Farm Stand!

In Season at the Farm Stand: Long Beans, Malabar Spinach, Armenian Cucumbers, Eggplants, and Okra. 

Preparations for tomato planting are officially underway on the farm! This week our focus is to get all of our beds in both the field and the high tunnel prepared and ready to go for planting next week. This process involves re-shaping the existing beds and adding amendments like compost and organic fertilizer. If you’re curious what varieties we’re growing this year, check out this post. We can’t wait to see all of these rows filled with beautiful tomato plants!

We’ll have the first icicle radishes of the season for you at the farm stand this weekend! As their name implies, these radishes are long and white in color. Icicle is a mini-Daikon radish variety with a peppery bite and crunchy texture. Farmer Alex recommends using them for a batch of pickles (here’s a great recipe) or to make kimchi. If you’re interested in making your own kimchi, we also have Napa cabbages available at the farm stand!

Look at how big our garlic is getting! We planted two soft neck garlic varieties (Italian and Inchelium) at the beginning of January. Soft neck garlic does better in areas with mild winters and hot summers while hard neck varieties are more cold-hardy. Unlike hard neck varieties, soft neck garlic will not form a scape (an edible central stalk). While we’re still far away from a mature garlic harvest, we will be able to harvest green garlic in about a month. Similar to our spring onions, green garlic is simply immature garlic that hasn’t fully formed. We’ll let you know once we’ve harvested some so that you can try it!

In Season at the Farm Stand: Icicle Radishes, Broccoli Rabe, Kohlrabi, Celery, Spring Onions, Sugar Snap Peas, Salad Radishes, Turnips, Kale, Collards, Cabbage, and Cilantro.

This transitional time from winter to spring is the perfect opportunity to crop plan! During these cold and rainy days, we’ve been mapping out all of the spring varietals (like cucumbers and summer squashes) that we’ll be growing as we begin to gain more daylight hours back. We’ll be focusing on a mix of tried-and-true favorites along with several experimental varieties! If you’d like to get a jump-start on your spring garden planning and are interested in growing from seed, we highly recommend checking out High Mowing Organic Seeds or Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds.

A huge thank you to everyone that attended our Farm Tour in January! We had a great turn out and got to answer plenty of awesome questions. We really love these opportunities to connect with others about farming so we hope you enjoyed it as much as we did! If you missed out, you can join us for our next Farm Tour on Saturday, February 11th at 10:30am. Our Farm Tours are free of charge and open to the public but we ask that children be accompanied by an adult. Looking forward to seeing you on the farm!

Radishes are making their way back into season this week just in time to add their vibrant hue and peppery snap to winter dishes! These radishes are among the quick-growing crops that we planted in the high tunnel and they only took about 30 days to reach harvesting size. How’s that for some fast food?! These radishes are perfect for eating raw but if you’d like to mellow their spicy flavor, make sure to roast, sauté, or pickle them. You can score some to enjoy at the farm stand this weekend.

Upcoming Events

• Farm Tour on Saturday, February 11th at 10:30am
• Pop-Up Farm Stand at Heights Mercantile Farmers Market on Sunday, February 12th from 9am-1pm

In Season at the Farm Stand: Radishes, Sugar Snap Peas, Rainbow Carrots, Arugula, Scallions, Lettuce, Cabbage, Brussels Sprouts, Kale, and Cilantro.

We’re harvesting a new radish variety for you this week: icicle! These radishes are long and white in color. Icicle is a mini-Daikon radish with a peppery bite that is great for pickling and adding to salads. They’re also perfect for adding to your next batch of kimchi! If you’re interested in making your own kimchi, we’ll also have the first Napa cabbages for you next week!

In addition to the icicle radishes, we’ll also be harvesting the first kale, mustard greens, and cilantro of the season. We’ll have two different kale varieties available for you at the farm stand: Lacinato and Red Russian. Lacinato kale tends to be a bit sweeter than other varieties making it ideal for a kale salad. If you’re looking for some kale recipe inspiration, Farmer Alex recommends braising your kale with some miso or adding it to a strata.

Remember the section of the farm that was planted with a cowpea cover crop? The cover crop was mowed down back in September and the rows were prepared in anticipation of fall planting. Last week we planted those rows with the next succession of fall crops! As you can see in the photo below, our fall crops are thriving! We’re optimistic that these crops will continue to flourish thanks to our nitrogen-fixing cowpeas. This block is planted with a couple of broccoli varieties, cauliflower, purple cabbage, and Napa cabbage.

In Season at the Farm Stand: Kale, Mustard Greens, Collard Greens, Swiss Chard, Arugula, Cilantro, Dill, Radishes, Cucumbers, Okra, Eggplants, Sweet Peppers, and Marigold and Sunflower Bouquets.

Upcoming Events: Harvest Market on Saturday, November 5th from 9am-noon at the farm

We are incredibly excited to share two new crops with you at the farm stand this week: radishes and arugula! This round of radishes is the “Easter Egg” variety so you’ll see a mix of red, pink, purple, and white radishes in the bunches at the farm stand. They can be enjoyed raw, pickled, or cooked. Don’t forget that you can eat their leafy green tops, too! Head here to read all about cooking with radish greens. Since arugula is back in season, you could whip up a quick arugula salad with thinly sliced radishes and dress it with a creamy pesto dressing made with the radish greens. You can get both of these fall veggies at the farm stand.

Our Harvest Market is coming up on Saturday, November 5th! This special market is a collaboration with The Informal Grub, the team behind the Rice Village and Heights Mercantile Farmers Markets. The Harvest Market will take place on the farm on November 5th from 9am-noon and will include 20 different vendors with an assortment of locally made or grown goods like eggs, meat, prepared foods, and flowers. This market is free to attend and is open to the public. We hope to see you there!

In Season at the Farm Stand: Arugula, Radishes, Winter Squashes (only available at the Saturday farm stand), Okra, Asian Eggplants, Italian Eggplants, Indian Eggplants, Sweet Peppers, Roselle Greens, and Zinnia and Marigold Bouquets.

Coming Soon: Cucumbers, Collard Greens, and Swiss Chard

In order to get a jump on spring, we transplanted the first tomatoes and cucumbers in the high tunnel. The warmth provided by the high tunnel allows us to extend the season of crops that are more temperature sensitive. Tomatoes are one of Farmer Alex’s favorite crops to grow so we are super excited to have the first ones in the ground. If all goes well, we’ll be able to share the first tomato and cucumber harvest with you in the next couple of months!

If you love tomatoes as much as we do and want to have some in your own garden this spring, make sure you stop by the farm stand on Saturday! We’ll have tomato transplants for sale along with our produce. Tomatoes can be planted as soon as you bring them home, just make sure you’re able to protect them and keep them warm in the event that the temperature drops to freezing. Next week, we’ll be adding more transplants for you like cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, and Swiss chard.

We harvested a couple of new things for you this week: spring onions and radishes. Spring onions are simply bulb onions that have been harvested while they are young. We harvested a mix of 1015 yellow onions and red Southern Belle onions. They have a beautiful delicate flavor that is also a bit sweet. You can get both radishes and spring onions at the farm stand this weekend. We hope you enjoy them!

In Season: Spring Onions, Radishes, Carrots, Spinach, Cabbage, Sprouting Broccoli, Kale, and Brussels Sprouts

When raw, daikon radish can be a bit spicy or pungent. But, if you cook it in a flavorful broth until it is meltingly tender, it becomes earthy and a bit sweet. Flavored with miso, ginger, garlic, and star anise, the braising liquid not only tastes delicious, but is good for the digestive system. Serving the braised daikon over steamed rice or quinoa makes it both filling and comforting.