CSA Delivery August 5

Reminder: I will most likely(unless the tournament is cancelled) be at the theater parking lot across from the regular lot due to a softball tournament.

This week was a scorcher!! We have a great delivery this week.

You will receive the following:

• eggplant
• summer squash
• tomatoes
• jalapenos
• green bell peppers
• cucumbers
• WATERMELONS!!

I'll see you there!

Carrie

Delivery July 29

This week, I am going to do things a little differently. I am going to let you pack your own bags! I will have the veggies set out with the number you can take and you can choose your veggies and pack your own bag. This is due to space getting tighter in the van and it is easier to haul them down in boxes of the same vegetables, and it will save some time for me~about 3 hours of packing. I think you will enjoy getting to pack your own bags too!

This week you will get the following:

• tomatoes
• green peppers
• summer squash
• cucumbers
• bouquet of flowers

The amounts will be determined when I get it all counted.

Important!!! Next week, August 5 delivery will be at the movie theater parking lot across the street because there will be a softball tournament. If you have any questions call me at 573-694-5986. Also, if there is every a very bad thunderstorm, I may also be at the theater parking lot since I have been told that the Larry May Park is a lightening magnet.

Carrie

Delivery July 22

This is another late post, but for record keeping I will list what the delivery was on July 22:

1/2 share:

• 6 tomatoes
• 3 summer squash
• 4 green peppers
• 3 jalapenos
• 2 cucumbers
• small bag of greenbeans
• bouquet of flowers

Full share:

• 12 tomatoes
• 6 summer squash
• 8 green peppers
• 6 jalapenos
• 4 cucumbers
• small bag of greenbeans
• bouquet of flowers

Also this week, you received extra tomatoes and large zucchini if you wanted to take them.

Delivery Week of July 15

This week is a great one! Here is what you will be receiving:

Everyone gets the following (full share people are full portions, half share are receiving half portions):

• jalapenos
• green peppers
• tomatoes
• summer squash
• cucumbers
• basil
• flower bouquet

I recommend that you refrigerate everything but the tomatoes and basil when you get home. Some of you have asked for suggestions for using the basil. I suggest making bruschetta with the tomatoes or putting it in a nice soup. Pesto is always an option, but the amount you are getting may not be enough.

Here is a link to a plethora of zucchini/summer squash recipes:

http://southernfood.about.com/od/zucchinirecipes/Zucchini_Recipes.htm

Enjoy the weekend!

July 8th Delivery

This is a late post, but for my virtual record keeping I will still post what was delivered July 8th.

Everyone received:

• potatoes
• tomatoes
• kale
• flower bouquet
• cucumbers
• summer squash

Full share members received:

• double the amount of the half share members
• plus collard greens

CSA Delivery July 1

Hi Everyone!

Reminder: Our location for pickups has changed and is now at Lea May park in Rolla! The time is still 3-5 pm.

This week you will receiving the following:

1/2 share:

• small assortment of cucumbers (includes asian burpless and pickling varieties)
• small assortment of summer squash (includes patty pan and zucchini)
• bunch of chard or collard greens
• bunch of green onions
• bunch of basil

Full share:

• large assortment of cucumbers
• large assortment of summer squash
• bunch of collard greens
• bunch of green onions
• bunch of basil
• bunch of dill
• bag of kohlrabi
• several tomatoes

I hope you are enjoying the produce and the weather! Our greenbeans, tomatoes, and sweet corn are all looking really good:)

Carrie

CSA Delivery Week of June 24

Woohooo!! Summer has finally arrived....along with summer squash, cucumbers, basil, tomatoes, and very very hot weather! I was up today picking basil and packing up the shares at 5:30 am. I cannot believe how hot it got just by 7 am. This week, you will finally start seeing some summer vegetables in your share. On the left is a picture of some of the squashes you may get this week. The saucer shaped ones are called patty pans and some of you may see those in your bags.

Here's what you can expect in your bags:

1/2 share~

• lettuce


• basil


• cucumbers


• summer squash


• potatoes


• green onions


• greens mix that includes kale and beet greens

Full share~amounts are double what the 1/2 share receives this week, plus you get a couple of tomatoes and cabbage

I am including a recipe below for a summer squash dish that uses basil:

Summer Squash Ribbons with Oregano, Basil, and Lemon


You can also toss the ribbons with wide flat pasta, such as pappardelle, for a delicious entrée. While we recommend basil and oregano, use whatever fresh herbs you have on hand. Serve with a crisp sauvignon blanc and crusty bread.

Yield: 8 servings (serving size: 1/2 cup vegetable mixture and 1 1/2 teaspoons cheese)


3 small zucchini (about 1 pound)
3 small yellow squash (about 1 pound)
1 tablespoon extravirgin olive oil
1/4 teaspoon grated lemon rind
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 garlic clove, minced
1/3 cup thinly sliced fresh basil
1 tablespoon chopped fresh oregano
1/4 cup (1 ounce) shaved fresh Parmesan cheese


1. Shave zucchini and yellow squash into ribbons using a vegetable peeler, stopping at the seeds; place ribbons in a large bowl. Discard seed cores.

2. Combine oil, rind, juice, salt, pepper, and garlic in a small bowl; stir with a whisk. Drizzle oil mixture over vegetable ribbons; sprinkle with basil and oregano. Toss gently. Sprinkle with cheese. Serve immediately.



CALORIES 50 (52% from fat); FAT 2.9g (sat 0.9g,mono 1.6g,poly 0.3g); IRON 0.5mg; CHOLESTEROL 3mg; CALCIUM 62mg; CARBOHYDRATE 4.4g; SODIUM 207mg; PROTEIN 2.8g; FIBER 1.3g

Cooking Light, JULY 2008

Delivery Week of June 17

Hi Everyone! This week has been quite rainy and things are growing at a snail's pace. We got 6 inches one night last week and every night since we have had more rain so things aren't really getting a chance to dry out and grow like they do most summers. Nevertheless, we have a nice bag of produce for you to take home this week, and are looking forward to the bounty that awaits in the field:)

This week's 1/2 share includes:

• a bag of greens for cooking
• a cabbage
• bunch of green onions
• green garlic
• bunch of basil

This week's full share includes:

• a bag of greens for cooking w/ some broccoli
• 2 cabbages
• small onions
• green garlic
• summer squash
• basil
• kohlrabi

Crops to look forward to: yellow summer squash, patty pan squash, cucumbers, green beans, corn, eggplant, celery, sweet potatoes, tomatoes, peppers, watermelons, zucchini, winter squash, collard greens, brussels sprouts....all this is planted and then some!

CSA Delivery June 10

Hi Everyone! This week you will be receiving the following:

1/2 share:

• small cabbage
• 1 lb. new potatoes
• bunch of swiss chard
• parsley or mint (choose when you arrive)
• homemade rolls
• homemade strawberry jam

Full share:

• large cabbage or 2 small cabbages
• small bag of broccoli
• 2 lbs. new potatoes
• 1 lb. lettuce mix
• bunch of swiss chard
• parsley or mint
• basil
• homemade rolls
• homemade strawberry jam

I hope you enjoy it all!

Carrie

CSA Delivery May 27, 2010

We are glad that the weather has finally mellowed out and the crops are looking normal again! I am looking forward to seeing everyone again this week. You'll get some new things this week, one of which is kohlrabi, which is related to cabbage. We peel the bulb and eat it raw, or you can chop it and put it over a salad. The tops can be cooked as you would any other green. Here is a link for a great recipe using mustard greens:

http://blog.fatfreevegan.com/2009/07/balsamic-glazed-chickpeas-and-mustard.html

This week you can expect the following:

Half share:

• one small bag of lettuce greens
• one small bunch of mustard greens
• one kohlrabi
• one pint of local wildflower honey
• 1/2 dozen local farm fresh eggs

Full share:

• two medium bags of lettuce greens
• one small bunch of mustard greens
• one bunch of chard
• two kohlrabi
• two pints of local wildflower honey
• 1 1/2 dozen local farm fresh eggs

"Keep your chin up!"

That is all I can say. I have planted so much and had so many things in the ground on time and then we got a couple weeks of rain and absolutely no sun. Well, plants like to photosynthesize and kind of need that to grow and survive. I have never seen anything like this and have never seen my garden so ugly so early. I have plants and seeds that need to get in the ground, not to mention the weeding that needs to be done but can't be because of how ridiculously wet it is. It is hard to hoe when you are losing your shoes in the mud!
Izzy and I planted some parsley and basil into some plastic mulch that kept some of the soil dry-ish last week. Today, I got out and weeded some of our beets and tomatoes. I had to water our flats of plants on our benches for the first time in two weeks. I cannot even believe that we got enough rain to kill, yes kill, our spinach, cilantro, dill, and several tomato plants. "Keep your chin up," is all I can say!
Those of you that belong to the CSA, I so appreciate your understanding and kind words after having to cancel last week's delivery. There will be times of bounty coming! We have replacement plants for what we lost to this rain. We have about 60-80 summer squash plants that are growing well, along with about that many cucumber plants that we got in before the rain hit. They are in ridges under plastic mulch, so they are doing very very well.
We will have a delivery this week that will include honey and eggs to supplement the produce that we are harvesting.
Let's hope we will get some milder weather...I'm not so sure about this extreme heat right after all this rain either. There are 1,000 sweet potato plants staring at me and wanting to get put in the ground (that is not yet able to be tilled).

CSA Delivery May 13

Hello everyone!
I am so glad we have gotten this rain, but it is a bit soggy around here! Missed the boat to plant greenbeans and corn this past week, but we got cucumber, eggplant, and summer squash plants in the ground and everything else is coming along beautifully! I hope you enjoyed last week's delivery.

For this week, here is what you will be getting:

Half Share:

• 1 lb. lettuce mix (includes some arugala and spinach)
• 1/2 lb. greens for sauteing (includes chard, kale, mustard)
• small bunch of radishes

Full Share:

• 2 lbs. lettuce mix
• 1 lb. greens for sauteing
• 2 small bunches of radishes
• bunch of green onions
• white and green flower bouquet

In the ground or planted in seed flats are: potatoes, peas, cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, turnips, beets, onions, garlic, tomatoes, cucumbers, summer squash, eggplant, basil, dill, parsley, cilantro, peppers, chinese cabbage.

See you today!

Recipe Suggestion

Hi Everyone,
I am passing along a delicious recipe from a member. You will most likely get to try it with some more kale or chard this week:

Kale with beans soup
1 ½ teaspoons olive oil

4 large cloves garlic

½ medium yellow onion, chopped

2 cups chopped raw kale

2 cups low-fat, low-sodium chicken or vegetable broth

1 [15 oz.] can white beans such as cannellini or navy, undrained

2 plum tomatoes, chopped

1 teaspoon dried Italian herb seasoning

Salt and pepper to taste

½ cup chopped parsley as garnish, if desired



1. Heat olive oil. Add garlic and onion; sauté until soft.

2. Add kale and sauté, stirring, until wilted.

3. Add 1½ cup broth, 1 cup beans, and all of the tomato, herbs, salt and pepper. Simmer 5 minutes.

4. In blender or food processor, mix the remaining beans and broth until smooth.

5. Stir beans and broth combination into soup to thicken. Simmer 15 minutes or until ingredients are as soft as you prefer. Garnish with parsley before serving.



Makes 4 servings.



Cals. per serving: 182

Total fat per serving: 2.5 g

Cholesterol: 0 mg

Sodium: 269 mg

Total carbs: 31 g

Dietary fiber: 7.3 g

Protein: 1 g

First CSA Delivery This Week!!!!

The past month has been a doozie. We had a great visit with some of our CSA members this past Saturday at the Open House/Farm Tour. It was great to visit with everyone and we look forward to meeting everyone at the first delivery. If you are a CSA member, directions have been emailed to you and we will see you between 3 and 5 p.m. on Thursday.

Leading up to the Open House, we lost the plastic on our greenhouse. The wind won, unfortunately. The timing is just fine, though, since we are not worried about frost at this time of year. I was in the greenhouse when it ripped off half of the greenhouse and I thought I was not going to make it out before the whole thing collapsed. It was more loud than actually dangerous, but the winds kept flapping the plastic with the heavy metal tubing that it was connected to on the bottom. All 100 feet of it!!! Needless to say, Andy had to come home from work that day to help me detach it from the rest of the structure before it caused any more damage.

Replacing the plastic will be done in the late summer.

So....for this week's delivery, I have compiled the following links and recipes for you to try if you need some suggestions. We will be delivering kale, lettuce mix, radishes, fresh oregano.

Honey Mustard Dressing (for the lettuce):

Ingredients
5 tablespoons medium body honey (sourwood is nice)
3 tablespoons smooth Dijon mustard
2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
2 tablesppons olive oil
Directions
Combine all ingredients in a bowl and whisk until smooth. Serve as a dressing or a dip.
*courtesy Alton Brown @ Food network

Sauteed Kale:

Ingredients
1 1/2 pounds young kale, stems and leaves coarsely chopped
3 tablespoons olive oil
2 cloves garlic, finely sliced
1/2 cup vegetable stock or water
Salt and pepper
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
Directions
Heat olive oil in a large saucepan over medium-high heat. Add the garlic and cook until soft, but not colored. Raise heat to high, add the stock and kale and toss to combine. Cover and cook for 5 minutes. Remove cover and continue to cook, stirring until all the liquid has evaporated. Season with salt and pepper to taste and add vinegar.
* courtesy Bobby Flay @ Food network

Radish recipes link: http://kalynskitchen.blogspot.com/2007/06/roasted-radishes-recipe-with-soy-sauce.html

Oregano recipe ideas: http://homecooking.about.com/library/archive/bloregano.htm

I need to go move some irrigation around, see you soon!!

Need I say more?

Here's a little of what we have been up to.

CSA Sign-up window is closed.....

Hi Everyone! I cannot believe it has been more than a month since my last post, time is flying, flying, flying~~~ After a slow start and wondering if we were going to be able to do the CSA...We have had an overwhelming response to the CSA this year. We currently have about 25 memberships, the majority of which are 1/2 shares. We are looking forward to meeting everyone and growing delicious produce for you! Because of the response that we have had, we are no longer accepting memberships at this time. Keep us in mind for next year, and there are thoughts of a Winter CSA in the works.

What we have planted in the ground or ready to go in the ground now: lettuce, kale, broccoli, chard, spinach, peas, radishes, beets, potatoes, garlic, cabbages, tomatoes (in high tunnel), cauliflower, green onions.

What we are expecting to have ready for the first delivery: lettuce mix, kale, chard, radishes...maybe, possibly goat cheese from our goats. We had four pregnant nannies that had a total of 9 kids. Two had triplets, one had twins, one had a single, and 8 out of 9 of them are females. How's that for stats?? The herd is growing by leaps and bounds. All this from a one mama goat and her daughters that were all given to us when our almost 5 year old was just 1 year old. Did I mention time is flying yet?

We hope you are as excited as we are! Keep in mind that early in the season the variety is less, as are the amounts of produce, but as the season goes on you will get more than enough produce for your money! We have had a very wet spring, and hope we get another window of drying winds and higher temps to get in there and plant much, much more outside.

If you have joined our CSA, be on the lookout for an email from us in the near future making sure we have your email address on file and that it got typed into our records properly:)

Officially Spring Fever!!!

What a week, oversold the greenhouse crops (lettuce mix, arugala, broccoli raab, red choi) and have had an abundance of interest in the CSA. Thanks everyone for your emails and phone calls about the CSA this year. I owe a huge thanks to Dan and Phyllis for getting the word out, as well as some others that have just helped spread the word about our farm and what we are doing.
I think we are officially saying we are doing the CSA this year. We will have enough folks signed up to meet our goal of the equivalent of 10 full shares. It looks like most of the people that are signing up are signing up for half shares, which is great. I am so excited to meet more people this way.
This week has been awesome---great weather. We will be putting some tomato plants in the greenhouse/hightunnel in the next two weeks. We will transition from calling our hightunnel a hightunnel to calling it a greenhouse with the planting of the tomatoes. In the past few years we have not heated the hightunnel at all since the cost of propane is so high. This year we have left over propane in the tank from when we did cut flowers (maybe from 2006) and want to take another stab at extra early tomatoes. We are growing Oregon Spring and Mountain Spring varieties and two others, that I cannot remember right now.
Plants I started this week are: bunching onions, swiss chard, kale. spinach, parsley, cilantro, and dill. Plants already started are: broccoli, cauliflower, and cabbage. In a week or so we will be putting up a lowtunnel to plant our radishes, beets, more lettuce, spinach and carrots into. I am getting hungry and I just ate. Yum!
I spent the majority of my weekend weeding, as well. The chickweed is taking over in the lettuce beds. Conditions are perfect for this weed. If you get our lettuce mix, you probably are familiar with it. I do my best to keep it out when I am picking, but you know....I am not perfect!
If you signed up for the CSA you will be hearing from me the second week of March. I will call to let you know I will be depositing the checks and to say "hi".
More later!
Carrie

Lost Shoes

Hi Everyone!

We have been losing our shoes and boots in the mud! The snow has finally melted outside and left behind a never ending trail of boot-sucking mud.

I have been busy picking about 40 pounds of lettuce and arugula each week, ordering seeds, plants, planting more seed. My kids have been very good about staying busy, even with the nasty weather we have had. Now I just let them go crazy in the mud and make them undress before they come inside.

I am getting kind of dismayed that the CSA isn't picking up like I had hoped. I have some families signed up, but we still need at least 5 more to go ahead and do it. I am still planning on growing enough produce to support a small one and if it doesn't come to fruition, then we will sell to The Root Cellar in Columbia and try and pick up some more wholesale accounts. That's the way it works, you need to order your seeds, plants, start your seeds now or sooner, so that is why I am growing enough whether enough members sign up or not. I have local farmers that would like to offer beef and bratwurst through the CSA as well as a honey producer that would like to offer some products through it. I hope that the local food movement catches on in this area!

Our lettuce has become very popular this Winter. It is exciting to think about all the places our produce is sold and served. It is funny to go to a restaurant and recognize the greens on the sandwich, which happend last Fall at Uprise Bakery. Our produce has been served at at least 5 restaurants in Mid-Missouri. The Broadway Brewery, Uprise Bakery, and Sycamore's all in Columbia, The Farmer's Merchant in Owensville, and Meramec Vineyards Winery in St. James.
We are growing all we can for our established accounts and can't wait to see what happens this Spring and Summer.

If you know someone that may be interested in joining the CSA please have them contact me soon, so I know it's a go for this year. I am willing to work with people and make payment plans, because I am well aware that it is a lot of money to pay out upfront. My email address is: readcarrie@hotmail.com
phone: 573-646-3789

Our website is under construction but has an easy to use link for the CSA membership form: http://sweetleaffarm.com/

We have added some wonderful equipment to our arsenal this year, too! I mentioned we bought a tractor, but we also purchased a bed-former and a mulch layer. We are getting serious, folks! I can't see what happens when you move into the 20th Century with equipment. Remember, we had been doing this by hand and with horses and our tough BCS tiller for the past 10 years.

More later! Try and keep your shoes on this Spring!

~Carrie

I thought it was appropriate to post this picture from 2003 or 2004 that our friend Dave took, since we bought a tractor today! We haven't had one since 2000. We have relied on horses for the most part since then.

We'll be doing a lot more now that we are as modern as 1977, I think the year of the tractor is.

I will get a picture of the new toy up as soon as it arrives.....