If you’re looking for something to do on Christmas Eve morning, we invite you to come see us at The Heights Mercantile Farmers Market! We’ll be there with a delicious selection of our farm-fresh produce including beautiful lettuce heads, first of the season scallions, and much more. The Heights Mercantile Farmers Market is located at 714 Yale Street in Houston. The next market takes place on Sunday, December 24th from 9am-1pm. We would love to see you there! 

We are happy to report that spinach is in season at the Farm Stand! Spinach is one of the few leafy greens we grow during the cooler seasons that is not a member of the Brassica family. It’s in the Amaranth family along with familiar favorites like Swiss chard and beets. Spinach has a lovely mild flavor that is perfect as the base for salads. It’s also great in soups, pasta dishes, quiches, and casseroles. Farmer Anna loves to add spinach to an omelet and highly recommends giving it a try.

We are growing an experimental round of cutting celery and are really pleased with its germination rate and growth thus far. Cutting celery differs from standard celery in that it produces slimmer stalks with a richer aroma and flavor. Last week we thinned each cell in our transplant trays down to a single celery plant (above). This process allows us to ensure each plant has access to the nutrients it needs without any competition. Since celery is a slower growing crop, we expect to be transplanting it in about a month.

In Season at the Farm Stand: Lettuce Heads, Collard Greens, Swiss Chard, Mustard Greens, Kale, Broccoli, Cauliflower, Spinach, Napa Cabbage, Hakurei Turnips, Radishes (limited), and Dill

Coming Soon: Scallions, Carrots, and Beets

Spinach is officially back in season! We made the first harvest of the season last week and it was truly an exciting moment. We might be biased, but we think it’s an incredibly delicious and versatile leafy green. Farmer Alex loves to make palak paneer, an Indian dish made with spinach and paneer cheese. Here’s a recipe if you’d like to try it! As for Farmer Anna, she likes to make a huge spinach salad with toasted pecans, tangerines or pears, and a balsamic vinaigrette. You can grab a bag or two of our spinach at our self-serve farm stand!

Remember our plan to fill the available space in the high tunnel with quicker growing crops? At least one of the rows is being planted with spinach. Our goal for this succession of spinach is to harvest it in the baby stage. That means we’ll plant the seeds much more densely using our Jang push seeder. We should be able to harvest our baby spinach in about 40 days.

Earlier this month we attended the Heights Mercantile Farmers Market and it went really well! Our goal in the new year is to attend this market once a month. It will allow us to broaden our reach in the larger Houston community and provide more people with our delicious farm fresh veggies! We’ll make sure to keep you updated on our next market attendance. In the meantime, make sure to take advantage of our self-serve farm stand.

In Season at the Farm Stand: Spinach, Beets, Radishes, Hakurei Turnips, Tromboncino, Scallions, Collard Greens, Cabbage, Napa Cabbage, Bok Choy, Hon Tsai Tai, Salad Mix, Kale, Mustard Greens, Broccoli, Cauliflower, Cilantro, Dill, Sweet Peppers, and Eggplant.

Upcoming Events:

• Free Farm Tours on Saturday, January 14th, 9am-noon

There are two new veggies that are coming soon to the farm stand: Hakurei turnips (pictured above) and head lettuce (pictured below). Hakureis, often referred to as “salad turnips”, can be eaten raw or cooked. They have a crisp and tender texture with a mild sweet flavor. Try adding thinly sliced Hakurei to a salad made with our chopped head lettuce and dill. Or, you can create a simple side dish by braising them in a flavorful stock like in this recipe.

We planted the first spinach of the season (pictured below)! Spinach is a cool season crop due to its ability to withstand temperatures in the upper 20s. It’s also one of the few crops that we grow during this time of the year that is not in the Brassica family. Spinach is a member of the Amaranth family along with Swiss chard, beets, and quinoa. Though it can be enjoyed in its baby stage, we’ll be harvesting it once it has matured a bit more.

It’s always an exciting moment when we plant something for the very first time on the farm. Last week, we planted celery (pictured below)! This will be the first celery grown on the farm so we are looking forward to seeing how it does. Celery is a slow grower so it will be a couple of months before we’re able to make the first harvest. We’ll make sure to keep you updated in the meantime!

In Season at the Farm Stand: Hakurei Turnips, Beets, Salad Radishes, Watermelon Radishes, Broccoli, Cauliflower (limited), Dragon’s Tongue Beans (limited), Scallions, Roselle, Head Lettuce, Bok Choy, Kale, Cabbage, Napa Cabbage, Collard Greens, Salad Mix, Arugula, Sweet Peppers, Eggplant, Cilantro, and Dill.

March 3rd, 2021

Spring preparation is in full swing on the farm. Our snap peas have been swiftly growing since the freeze so we added a trellis system for them this week. Snap peas have a vining habit so they do best with a support structure like a trellis. As the snap peas grow, they begin to produce specialized leaves called tendrils. These tendrils are able to coil once they come into contact with a solid object like the netting on our trellis. If you look at the photo above, you’ll be able to see the first tendrils already beginning to wrap around the trellis! Training our peas to grow up the trellis will help to prevent disease from lack of air circulation and it will make it much easier when it comes time to harvest.

Tomato transplanting continued this week and like our peas, we’re incorporating a trellis system to provide support as they grow. We’re aiming to be more intentional with our growing space this year so we’ll be regularly pruning our tomatoes in order to allow us the room to interplant low growing vegetables in the beds with them. As the tomatoes grow, they will create shade that crops like lettuce and carrots will benefit from as the temperatures begin to rise. This allows us the ability to maximize our growing space while also increasing our crop diversity.

We’ve been focused on planting several quicker growing crops since the freeze in order to make up for our losses. In the field we’ve planted crops like spinach, arugula, and Hakurei turnips. In the greenhouse, we’ve been experimenting with sunflower and cress microgreens. Microgreens are young vegetable greens that are harvested when they are between one and three inches tall. They have a much more concentrated flavor than their mature counterparts and are often denser in nutrient content. We’ll have our sunflower microgreens available at the farm stand this Saturday for you to try! Sunflower microgreens can be used in salads or sandwiches and as a garnish for tacos or soups.

As much as I love pasta, it can sometimes feel a little too heavy in the middle of summer. Spaghetti squash makes a great pasta stand-in that is both grain free and incredibly delicious. After being roasted the squash is scooped away from the skin and tossed with pesto, fresh tomatoes, and creamy cannellini beans.