Vermont…Local Foods Mecca.

September 22, 2006

Awesome Farmstand in Vermont,

Well, you probably thought I had disappeared…I was “right on” getting an entry into the blog every week until recently. I blame it on my day job. I’ve had to travel quite a bit lately, including a trip to the American Mecca of local foods as evidenced by this picture I’ve posted…boy, I wish I had a place like this one day.

One trip I just made was to Burlington, Vermont for an Extension Tourism conference. If you are at all interested in local foods, organics, and dairy products, Vermont is your place! I ate at a couple of restaurants which feature local foods. One called Flatbread uses all local ingredients for all food as well as the beer produced on site. Wow. It was impressive.

Just think if our own region of Minnesota started to connect as well with local farms…our region benefits from both quality food and the support to local economies. And what’s really holding us back from doing so? Not much…we just need to connect and meet each others needs. Consumers need to think twice about where their food is coming from and give local producers a chance…local producers need to really hear what customers are looking for and grow to meet their needs.

Menu for Saturday’s Market:
Tomatoes
Cucumbers
Peppers (sweet, colored, hot)
Red and White Potatoes
Red and Sweet Onions
Winter Squash (delicata, acorn, butternut)
Arugula
Edamame
Beets
Turnips and Rutabagas
Leeks
Greens (kale, collards, swiss chard)
Tongue of Fire shelling beans
Romanette green beans (flat pod)
A few cateloupe
Fresh herbs

Check it out folks…we dodged a bullet this past week, but I guarantee the frost will be here soon! All those peppers, tomatoes, etc. will be gone. This is your last chance.

Get into summer before it’s too late

August 24, 2006

Transplanter and Cultivator
Saturday’s Market Menu:
Canteloupe: new
Watermelon: both yellow and red
Turnips: new
Sweet corn: bi-color
Cucumbers
Summer Squash
Tomatoes: heirloom, roma, and beefsteak
Cherry Tomatoes: Sungold and grape
Beets
Eggplant
Potatoes: Yukon Gold and Norland
Cut Flowers
Leeks
Onions: red, sweet, and yellow
Garlic

Summer is just flying by if you havn’t been paying attention.
It seems like just last week I was selling lettuce and early brassicas like kale, but I can already see the end from where I stand. Frost seems to appear by the second week of September…for those of you counting, that’s just three weeks away!

New Pictures

August 17, 2006

Market menu for Saturday, August 19:
Watermelons: Sunshine (yellow variety) and Sugar Baby (regular)
Tomatoes: cherry tomatoes, romas, heirlooms, and regular beefsteak varieties
Potatoes: Yukon Gold and Norland Red
Corn: Bodacious bi-color variety
Onions: yellow, sweet, red
Peppers
Beets
Garlic
Leeks
Some yellow beans…
Flower Bouquets
Turnips
Radishes

My Uncle Duane was visiting our farm back in July and he lives for taking pictures! He lives in California and so it was great he could spend a couple of days with us. Some of his shots are below.

Sunset over Greenhouse looking North

Barn with pasture and thistles

Moving drip irrigation lines…my dad helping, my grandmom supervising.

Setting up irrigation…a common sight in July

Hot!

August 3, 2006

A absolute nightmare heat descended on Minnesota last week. My father-in-law follows weather like a hawk online and he said Vergas had a temperature of 97 and a dewpoint of 83 last sunday for a heat index of 122 degrees!! Man, it was insane.

As you can imagine this is not good for any crop. Even vegetables like melons and tomatoes which really like heat just shut down and try to survive, especially with such little moisture in the soil. Luckily we got nearly an inch of rain last Friday night, so I think all the plants have made it “over the hump.” So, pray for a solid 80-some degrees with a weekly rain from here until frost.

Saturday’s menu:
Juliet paste or plum tomatoes (new)
Taxi yellow tomatoes (new)
Valley Girl tomatoes (new)
…all these small, early-variety tomatoes are just coming in, so supply won’t be great.
Beets (new)
Mix of Cherry Tomatoes: Grape, Sungold orange variety, and Washington Cherry variety
Cucumbers
Summer Squash and Zucchini
Sweet Onions
Red Onions
Garlic and a couple Garlic Braids
Bok Choy
Last of Broccoli
Red Cabbage
Cut Flower Bouquets
Norland Red Potatoes

I’m out of town until Friday night, so let’s hope I have time and energy to pull off harvest!

July is a Trying Time

July 27, 2006

Staked Tomatoes
Although a field of 900 tomatoes plants all staked and in neat little rows is a beatiful sight…










Mar and I Staking Tomatoes

I think staking tomatoes used to be a medieval torture treatment. Basically you need to string 4 lines of twine along side of every tomato. You do this by extending a line under the foliage of the plants and tighten the line around each stake. And you try to do this without knocking off any little tomatoes or blossoms!










Striped Cucumber Beetle – most hated insect ever!
Enemy number one: Striped Cucumber Beetle. This guy is really making my July tough.

I’ve been battling this bug since early June, but it has really exploded since early July and is really insult to injury in our dry conditions.

They like anything in the cucurbit family which includes all melons, squash, and cucumbers. Right now they are eating all blossoms and crewing on the fruit of the plants, especially the zucchini.

I have been treating the plants with a substance called PyGanic, which is an organically-approved (OMRI) insecticide made out of Pyrethrin, a natural insecticide made from a plant.

Still the battle is not as successful as hoped. I am now tossing out about 1/3 of all summer squash due to insect damage. So, if you see some little pock marks on a zucchini, sqush, or melon throughout the season, you now know the culprit. But don’t worry, it’s only cosmetic.

Saturday’s Market Menu:
Red Potatoes (new)
Cherry Tomatoes
Red and Sweet Onions
GreenBeans
More Zinnia Bouquets
Mini Bok Choy (new)
Cucumbers
Garlic
Summer Squash
A few Eggplants