Miraculous – 4 days without rain!

June 16, 2013

We typically shoot to put frost-sensitive crops in the ground around June 1.  This year, as is plain to see, was not going to cooperate with our plans.  We planted our pumpkin plants and some other squash Thursday night (June 13), only about two weeks too late.  It’s been a real struggle to not only get plants in the ground, but also do all the other necessary things to get them to produce: cultivate, hoe, and fertilize.  Instead, plants just sit there looking short and weak, unable to grow in cold rainy weather where saturated ground chokes plants of necessary oxygen.

So, you can imagine my surprise yesterday when I woke up and it hadn’t rained!  REALLY?  Ever since the snow melted, whenever there has been even a 40% chance of rain, we got rain.  Since there was a 60% change of rain on Friday, I thought for sure I’d be spending another Saturday looking at weeds growing in the fields and thinking about how far behind I’ve gotten.  There would have been nothing new in that; I’ve had a number of days worrying about work I have to get done without being able to do anything about it.

Instead, we finally started to make some headway yesterday.  I was able to hoe and fertilize a number of crops like onions, brassicas (cabbages, broccoli), and garlic.  We also got the pea trellis up, which is always a nice image.  Some jobs on the farm are hard to see, but putting up trellis makes me feel like I’ve really accomplished something since it’s so visible.

 

Pea Trellis on Lida Farm

Looking for Local Produce Delivery?

March 29, 2013

If you’re looking for fresh local produce delivered to your home or business in the Detroit Lakes, Pelican Rapids, Vergas, or Cormorant areas, check out Lida Farm CSA.

2013 will be our 8th year as a CSA operation where we deliver only the freshest produce in season each week.  Forget traveling across town to the farmers market before it closes on Saturday morning or making sure you get to the CSA dropsite in time, we deliver right to your doorstep on Friday afternoons.  
To see what our boxes looked like last year, see our Facebook photostream at https://www.facebook.com/lidafarm/photos_stream 
Check out our 2013 CSA information page for details.  Fill out the order form to sign up but confirm that we still have space with Ryan or Maree at 218-342-2619 or lidafarmer@gmail.com

Coming out of Hibernation

February 26, 2013

If you follow this blog, you’ll see a big gap between my last post at the end of September and today.  Maree and I typically collapse at the end of the produce season and fall into a hibernation state, I like to say.  I don’t think about farming through the winter months at all, which is tough since my home gardener friends like to talk about planting as soon as they receive their first seed catalog and I’d rather talk about just about anything else – it’s a defense mechanism to keep myself sane since produce takes over my life the rest of the year.

Still, just this past week, my mind has begun to turn and I’ve come out of hibernation.  Not only am I actively assembling seed orders, but, when this happens, I get this burst of energy to make some things happen like shoveling the winter’s manure pack out of the barn.

One of the surest signs of spring and a favorite spring ritual is shearing day.  I finally got smart a couple years back and starting hiring this done instead of myself torturing the poor animals with sheep shearing “amateur hour.”  We have a small flock of North Country Cheviot Sheep, a hardy breed you might know from their appearance in the movie “Babe”-you know, the talking pig?  The whole operation from start to finish takes just 90 minutes.

Curious Sheep – “Before Shearing”

In the Act 

Cheviot Sheep Ready for Spring – “After Shearing”

   

Farms and Community

September 28, 2012

Last Saturday night we had about 70 CSA members and friends at the farm for our harvest dinner – a great turn out!  We spent a couple days clearing out our hayloft to set up tables for the event to squeeze everybody in.  I have to say it looked pretty cool.

I do wish all our CSA members were able to attend since the harvest party was just one small way to thank you for being members for the season.  Like I told those in attendance, we honestly would not be able to do what we do without CSA members.  Your making a decision to get your veggies in a way other than at your local grocery makes our farm viable.  With only a roadside stand or a stall at the farmers market, market gardening is a volatile, and, frankly, brutal business.  However, CSA members across the nation take the risk when writing a check in the spring that a tornado not destroy the crop and trust a local grower to provide an ample harvest.  This makes not only our farm a reality, but also hundreds of other small farms just like our own.  When a couple farms in upstate New York began the first CSAs in the early 1980’s, this was time when the family farm seemed doomed, especially here in the Midwest.  Operations were foreclosing left and right in the farm crisis.  Today, however, small family farms are making a comeback, albeit in a different form.  Many of us may not operate traditional 40-head dairies or 160-acre row crop farms, but our heart is in the land just the same.  So, if you are a CSA member, take pride in knowing that you are not just “part” of a movement, you ARE the movement.

In the Box:

  • Brussel Sprouts on the Stalk: Simply pull the brussel sprouts off the stalk and put to work.  I don’t know what to do with the stalk afterwards…croquet mallet? 
  • Parsnips: Look like white carrots.  
  • Napa Cabbage
  • Acorn Squash
  • Butternut Squash: These turned out really well this year.  Good color, good size.  
  • Red Kuri Squash: Cook as you would any other winter squash (buttercup, etc).  We made a coconut squash soup last night with Red Kuri and it was excellent.  We thought a good description for the squash was nutty, almost chestnut like.  
  • Russet Potatoes 
  • Swiss Chard
  • HaralRed Apples: These are pretty good for fresh eating (a bit sweeter than a Haralson), but, like a Haralson, are great for baking and sauce.