Tag: food

2025 in the Books

October 7, 2025

Each year of farming is different. From my first at Foxtail Farm in 2000 and to this one now a quarter century later, a season is defined by weather, people, mishaps, and my own general mood. This season stands out as the year of stupid deer and super annoying gophers. I’m so sick of this doe and her three fawns hanging around that I’m ready to go all Rambo on them with night googles and the whole bit to take them out. Bean plants and beets have been eaten on so many times I can’t even count. The gophers are a close second, descending on nearly every veggies just as it gets ready to pick. Wow, look at that beautiful, large slicing tomato. Oh, forget it, a gopher chewed on the bottom…you get the idea.

Especially after this 90-degree spell in October, I think we can also chalk up 2025 as a year of weird weather. Strangely, a lot of nights this summer were quite cool, which really pushed back a lot of heat-loving crops. We did, however, have some beautifully-timed rains, which was a real plus.

Lastly, 2025 was the year of raised beds for me. We ran this experiment doing some crops in 30-inch beds, a number of them with landscape fabric and some with new low tunnels. I’d say we had some success, but some things could have been managed better. I wouldn’t put cucumbers on landscape fabic (seemed to grow weirdly-shaped cukes), but I would put brussel sprouts back on fabric. I certainly will plant salad mix and other finely-seeded crops on raised beds next year and work to transition some of the peppers and tomatoes that direction.

After 25 years, we’re still learning new tricks, so for that I’m thankful, just as I’m very grateful for all of you who joined us for this CSA season – THANK YOU. I hope the CSA worked well for you and your family.

In the box:

  • Pie Pumpkin
  • Acorn Squash
  • Delicata Squash
  • Brussels Sprouts
  • A Couple Rutabagas
  • A Couple Scarlet Queen Turnips
  • Grape Tomatoes
  • Flat Leaf Parsley
  • Celery: Yes, little and stringy, but has good flavor – probably best in cooking instead of fresh eating.
  • Bag of Onions
  • Bunch of Carrots

End of Season Energy

September 22, 2025

I was telling a friend the other day about how my own energy changes across the course of the season. Last fall I think I had a set of buckets just sit in my yard for a month. I passed them everyday and thought about putting them away. I probably even wrote about putting them away on a to-do list multiple times. Still, the task just never happened. Those buckets suffered through a winter until spring, at which time I emptied their contents and got them put away in about 15 minutes. This is the curse of late season. Even the smallest of tasks becomes just too much after a summer of being on the veggie harvest ‘hamster wheel.’

After showing some people around on Saturday, I realized that I’m continually practicing this late season coping mechanism of simply ignoring things that just need to little attention as we trudged through a yard that needs mowing and passed our tiller abandoned in the middle field for the past month, poised to mow down crops that are long done. When surrounded by acres of crops in need of harvest, I think my mind blocks them out.

Why would I do any of these other things when there are literally tons of tomatoes in need of picking? If I simply put in a half hour, I could have 20 lbs on the farm stand for sale. What about the corn? Onions? Melons? Peppers? Potatoes? You get the idea. It’s kind of like being in one of those machines at a casino where the dollar bills fly around you and you try to grab as many as possible before time runs out. Same here. Run as fast as you can, Ryan, those crops won’t hold in the field forever!

Let me get another cup of coffee and get at it. I think I’ll push of mowing for another day 🙂

In the box:

  • Eggplant
  • Tomatoes
  • Butternut Squash
  • Buttercup Squash
  • Russet Potatoes
  • Carrots
  • Colored Pepper mix: Mainly red, purple, yellow.
  • Ancho Pepper: Dark green – this one is hot.
  • Spinach
  • Onion Mix
  • Garlic

Chef Inspiration

September 15, 2025

For those of you who made it to the Deep Roots Festival this weekend, I think we can all agree that the food was amazing. The guys at Spanky’s did a bang up job taking whatever we had in season and turning it into a something glorious. I was especially struck by how they combined our sweet corn, peppers, and tomatoes with some butter beans to make this corn succotash.

As I was sitting there eating with Mar and other festival goers, I was thinking, you know, this is how we should be eating all the time. On our good days, we certainly do. But, on the days we work too long or are simply out of juice, we eat like every other American on a weeknight – frozen pizza or some other pre-made thing – even though we have literally tons of fresh food sitting in fields surrounding our house.

So, the role of the chef? Get us inspired to do better! Fresh food in season doesn’t need to be complicated. This was Amy Thielen’s message at her demonstration at the festival and certainly one I needed to hear in this time of too many things going on. Get good ingredients, get slightly creative, and you’re good.

So I want to thank Zach at North Circle Seeds for hosting us and everyone who made this a great event. We started this as a way to celebrate the season and local foods. For myself, it just felt good to gather with a group of people as do this ritual as we transition from summer to fall. Maybe it’s just some deep tribal thing that’s in our genes.

  • Sweet Corn: Yes, this is the end. But this is a recipe that seems pretty close to what Spanky’s did on Saturday: https://eatsimplefood.com/butter-bean-succotash/
  • Yellow Onions: Cured in the field and will store at room temp in dry location
  • Carrots
  • Yellow Potatoes
  • Roma Tomatoes
  • A couple big Slicing Tomatoes
  • Spinach: Certainly not your baby spinach we’re used to buying – this stuff got big because it loves to grow when it’s wet and cool
  • Radishes
  • 1-2 Italia Peppers: Don’t let the long shape fool you – this is a sweet pepper
  • Buttercup Squash

Produce Labor on Labor Day

September 1, 2025

Well, we’ve hit the time of the season when too much is in season. What to pick? Can I pick it all in time? Welcome to farm labor 101. It can be a slog, but something certainly to appreciate on this Labor Day, a day we set aside to appreciate the worker.

As some of you know from reading this blog for a while, I grew up a blue collar kid in a blue collar town (East Grand Forks). Lots of times when people learn I farm, I’m often asked if my parents farmed. But I often say I come from a long line of landless peasants – we worked FOR the farmers, we weren’t the farmers. My grandpa made a career of being a hired man and working in the potato warehouses of EGF.

And that’s certainly a point to be made on this Labor Day. We’ve mechanized and modernized American agriculture a lot since my grandpa’s day. The migrant farm workers of my youth in the Valley are long gone, replaced by chemicals and vacuum seeders – no need to thin beets anymore. But in the world of fruits and vegetables, we’re still very much a labor dependent. Drones are not (yet) harvesting and bunching radishes or picking apples. That’s why we see such an impact on California produce with recent ICE raids. Those strawberries still need human hands.

But this newsletter is not about me adding my own hot take to a world awash in political pundits. Today, I simply want to appreciate all those who have labored the fields of Lida Farm with me including my family and all the apprentices over the last 10+ years: Kelsey, Mason, Sarah, Molly, Camila, Archer, Jane, Zach, Gretchen, Marissa, Maya, Emily, and Luke.

In the box:

  • Regular tomatoes
  • Golden Sweet Grape Tomatoes
  • Cantaloupe
  • Watermelon
  • Radishes
  • Salad mix
  • Mizuna: A Japanese green used in Asian cooking (could be mixed into a salad). A much younger me once made a video – see https://youtu.be/PlYV75UpST8?si=3-cQucxy8mcUoyot
  • Red Bell Pepper
  • Anaheim Peppers: Green long ones
  • A Couple Summer Turnips: The loose white radish looking things with tops. Actually quite similar to a radish, you’d simply slice and eat raw, not unlike a kohlrabi.

In the Box

August 26, 2025

Hey all – sorry time disintegrated on me yesterday! I got the box out the door and delivered in good time, but zero time til now to write you anything. At the very least, I need to let you know what’s in the box if you’re wondering about things. My apologies.

The only news worth noting is about this most recent study on the health benefits of the Mediterranean Diet: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/25/well/mediterranean-diet-diabetes.html Kind of validates my advise to just go with a whole food diet with plenty of fruits and vegetables – hopefully what we’re all getting through this CSA.

In the box:

  • Watermelon: I think most got our orange variety, New Orchid, but don’t be surprised if it’s yellow or red inside – the patches blend into one another.
  • Sweet Pepper Mix: All these peppers are sweet. About half are Shishito peppers, which are good sauteed aka frying pepper and the others are just straight up snacking types. See picture of cooking idea below.
  • Cherry Tomato Mix
  • Sweet Corn: This first patch is getting mature but certainly still has sweetness. Some really like corn at this stage, while, for those of you who don’t may consider a succotash situation (see below) or try it grilled. A lot of the grilled corn I’ve had seems mature – maybe that’s just how my Mexican neighbors like their corn? IDK. Pelican people – I don’t know if that corn is going to hold out til Friday -I’ll substitute something if it doesn’t.
  • Cucumber
  • Cilantro
  • Arugula: Tall oakleaf green. You can use in a salad with the lettuce, but this is standard arugula (not baby) so certainly lends itself to cooking. Think something like this https://www.sipandfeast.com/lemon-arugula-pasta/
  • Salad Mix
  • Radishes
  • Green Onions
  • Regular Tomatoes: Boy, these have taken forever to ripen and these are still the early small varieties.

This time of year I get tired of corn on the cob and try other things, such as this succotash I made for breakfast. I don’t do recipes…I typically just start sauteing things 🙂 I first did the shishito peppers on high heat with olive oil for a bit, followed by the corn cut off the cob (the picture is 4 peppers plus corn from one cob). After those got some color, I added in a clove of garlic and one tomato for the last couple of minutes and finished with a salt. Ate with toast. Could certainly add some feta or other cheese.