In the Off-Season

We made it! The last week of fresh vegetables from our farm is heading out to our members kitchens today. We are sighing a bit of relief in making it to the end with a few items left to share with you despite how quickly summer moved out and winter moved in. Unfortunately there are some things we planned for fall that won’t make it. The past several weeks not much has grown with the cold temps and lack of sunlight, a complete one-eighty from one year ago. Our lettuce, radishes, cabbages, beets, rutabagas and more have all come up short. We will are considering some adjustments to be better able to deal with irregular weather patterns next season.

We are always asked what we will be doing for the winter. The new furnace project is about halfway complete. With this upgrade, we will be capable of heating several buildings including a 20×24’ building soon to be a greenhouse that we are repurposing from another part of the farm. This new heated space will allow us to expand our spring transplants to not only meet our growing needs, but also allow us to offer organic plants for our gardening customers. We have found organic transplants to be difficult to find locally, not to mention this addition will provide income in the early season when we have the most input costs. We are also considering growing salad and microgreens inside this new space during the winter.

So what do we do? Our boys get more one-on-one time with us as the days grow shorter. We slow down and spend more time in the kitchen. We go for walks in the woods. We spend evenings visiting with friends. We spend days pouring over seed choices, creating planting calendars and drawing field maps. We spend time recruiting CSA members. We attend educational courses to learn to be better farmers and stewards of our land. We both work jobs off the farm. Our chaotic house gets organized and cleaned.

In our parting words, please know that we are grateful for each and every one of you for being part of our farm in 2018. We can not do this without you. Your kinds words and support have been our driving force to carry on when it wasn’t easy to do. Please consider rejoining for the coming season and have a wonderful off-season as well!

Ready for a rest,

Week Twenty Newsletter

Soggy Harvest

As this letter is being put together, we are in a flood watch until mid-week. Luckily, yesterday for our Pumpkin Pick Event, we had a much needed dry day. We had families come out to the farm all day long to pick their pumpkins, visit with the animals on pasture, enjoy the fall colors, and have conversations with their farmers and other CSA supporters. Thank you to everyone who took time to make the trip to We Grow. We appreciate it.

Unfortunately, the wet weather we are getting now is arguably the worst time to get rain in excess in regards to farming. We deal with wet spells throughout the growing season by making adjustments like raising the beds size, increasing organic matter, ceasing irrigation, etc. But this fall, there are not enough heat or daylight hours to dry out between rains and the soil has become increasingly waterlogged making it impossible to get in and harvest.

Many farms in our circle are dealing with the inability to drive a tractor into a field to begin a harvest. This impacts more than vegetable operations. Those with corn and soybeans or small grains need to be able to drive into their fields without sinking into the mud and getting stuck just as importantly as us. The looming factor is hard frost. If we don’t get those crops out before Thursdays overnight low near 20, those potatoes still in the ground will be damaged and probably left in the field. It will be a tricky balance to figure out what we can get harvested and what we chalk up as a loss.

On Thursday last week, we had a nice weather day. It gave us an opportunity to visit our friends at Red Door Family Farm. Much like us, they had some weed issues growing carrots in seasons past so this season they tried some new cultural techniques and hit a home run. With more carrots than they can possibly ever use or harvest alone, they invited us over for a work day. With Susan joining our crew, we spent the day working in Red Door’s beautiful carrot field. In exchange we have a bounty of orange roots in our cooler for our members and customers to enjoy the rest of the season. This cooperative effort has us appreciating our farm connections more than ever.

Seeing orange spots,

Week Nineteen Newsletter

Warming Up To Veggies

As we were working together with our ten-year old son in the pack shed on Friday bagging greens, he explained that he is the only kid in his class who even knows what tasoi looks like. While we didn’t argue his point, we were quick to consider the diet of the other kids in our community. What are their parents doing to break down their picky eaters and get their kids to fill their plates half full of fruits and veggies? If you struggle with your children or grandchildren, we have some tips that can help.

First, get the kids involved in the meal planning process. Take them to the farmers market, store, your freezer or fridge and have them choose the vegetables that will go with your meal. Try not to leave the choices open ended. Give them two or three items to choose from to make it easier.

Second, make them help with prep. They can wash or peel or maybe even chop depending on their age. Some will be able to stir the pot or mix together seasonings. Not only are they invested in the meal, they are more likely to eat it having helped create the dish.

Third, keep it simple. There are several veggies that our eight-year old will eat raw but turns his nose up when cooked. Rutabaga, kohlrabi and turnips to name a few. And really, what is it going to hurt to set aside some carrots or broccoli from the steamer and letting them eat it raw? We often make casseroles and this displeases our picky eater. He likes his veggies separate from the other ingredients. Keep it simple and turn to blended dishes that already contain veggies that you know they like. And don’t underestimate the power of butter to mask the bitterness of vegetables!

Fourth, avoid eating snacks before mealtime. Our kids are good at ransacking the cupboards before we come in the house to make supper. They are “starving!” but come supper time they don’t eat. Make sure they are hungry or don’t plan on eating a big meal. And don’t forget to set a good example yourself. Embracing veggies will become second nature and lead to a life of healthy eating if you push your kids to love veggies today.

Playing every trick in our book,

Week Eighteen Newsletter

Sweet Surprises

For the past five years, we have been attempting to keep bees. Just when we feel like we have them figured out, we are reminded that we do not. Some summers the bees are content and build perfect frames of honey. Other summers, they swarm every few days and the whole farm crew is on their toes watching for the bees leaving to find a new home.

This past winter we lost all ten of our hives. We haven’t had 100% loss since our first year when we only had one hive on the farm. Not so many years ago winter survival of honeybee colonies was not a major problem in our area. Experts are reeling to determine exactly why so many colonies are dying even when they have stores of honey left to eat. Most scientific articles point to two things and assume they work with each other to create the problem. The first is pesticide chemicals on our landscape and the second is a tiny beetle, called the viroa mite that parasitizes the weakened bees.

We originally purchased the hives with the intent of achieving better pollination in our vegetable crops. This is an important and often overlooked step in the growing process. We figured that cucumbers, squash and other cucurbits would be the primary attractant for our bees. That first growing season, we planted cukes right next to the hives. Much to our surprise, we never really saw our honeybees in these plants. Only native bumblebees and other pollinating insects. The same went for most of our varieties that require insect pollination. Matter of fact, the bumblebees built the underground nests right in our high tunnel two seasons ago and caused quite a commotion every time we came close to stepping on them.

What we’ve come to learn is that our non-native honeybees are absolutely beneficial for fruit and nut trees, but not so much for a vegetable garden. What is important is maintaining a safe place for the native pollinators. Eliminating chemicals that cause weakened immune systems in insects and reducing the urge to mow every square inch of our property. Perhaps even go so far as to plant some wildflowers or shrubbery for pollinator habitat.

With sticky fingers,

Week Seventeen Newsletter

Rediscovering Remedies

Did you know that sweet potatoes, spinach and cashews all help fight depression? Have you heard that dark leafy greens and grass-fed meat can reduce your migraine symptoms? And apples, cranberries, celery and onions can heal the inflammation in your stomach caused by acid reflux? Before foods were fortified with nutrients, we ate spinach, black beans and asparagus for folate to ensure a healthy pregnancy. Although it probably wasn’t a conscious effort. The required nutrients were already in our diet, we didn’t have to make an extended effort to find 100% of our daily requirements.

While we do need to be careful of the health affects we make claims to, it is no secret that the remedies to many of our most common maladies can be found in nutrition. It also shouldn’t be a surprise that our ancestors didn’t suffer from many of the same illnesses that modern society experiences either. The top four causes of death at the turn of the century were infancy death, death from childbirth, death from infections, and death from accidents.

Today, the leading causes of death are heart disease and cancer. Clearly, something has changed.
If you think people didn’t live as long 150 years ago as they do today, that is not exactly correct either. The average life expectancy figure is greatly skewed due to infant mortality rates. In the year 1907, the rate was nearly 10%. Today it is closer to 0.07%. Back then, many people lived long into their 80’s and 90’s despite their diet loaded in fats.

We focus so much on the quick cure for our ailments, that we forget all about the cause. At the root of our modern health crisis is our modern diet and desire for a quick fix. All of this fueled by million dollar marketing campaigns. The numbers are staggering! Unfortunately, family farms can’t compete. Mainstream America has come to trust infomercials instead of trusting their instincts to feel better by eating better. Eating real food, simple food and overpowering illness with nutrition and living a long healthy life.

Crunching on kale,

Week Sixteen Newsletter

The Downhill Slide

The late season crops that we planted just for our late season CSA shares are about to start. It feels like there is a little transition period here, but soon the late planting of broccoli, cabbage, kohlrabi, beets, brussel sprouts, greens, radishes, turnips and more will be heading your way. As home gardeners, we were quick to put the garden to bed by this time pulling out all of the expired plants and giving up trying to keep up with the weeds. It seems like everything was done by now and we were done as well.

The challenge as a CSA farm offering weekly shares is to keep it going as long as possible. There always seems to be a few frosty night in mid-September and then we get a return of our mild weather just long enough to get our membership through mid-October. The late season lettuce and radishes begin to slow their growth. They just sit there and sweeten, waiting to be harvested or waiting for snow to fall, whichever comes first.

In some ways we simply wing it, but in other ways we plan out exactly what we will have and figure out how to fill in as needed. Calculating which weeks we will need to grow a crop of microgreens or sprouts for the gaps. We have the winter squash sorted and counted to make sure we have enough squirreled away for one for each member for the last seven weeks with a few extra in case of loss in storage. Onions and garlic too. It is a great feeling to have these items ready and waiting for you. Almost like a rainy day savings account that is there when you really need it.

Most of our husband and wife, farmer to farmer discussions this time of year take place out in the field over a harvest bin. We go over again and again what we need to do better next season and how we are going to do it. What we can afford for equipment and facility expansion and how we are going to prioritize certain things differently. We go over the whatifs of returning employees and volunteers. Potential farmers market or wholesale accounts we can add to our schedule to both make money and not add another harvest day to our weekly routine. The excitement and anticipation of the coming season is already present and we still have five weeks of growing left to complete.

Coasting into fall,

Week Fifteen Newsletter

Laboring on Labor Day

The origins of Labor Day were the topic of discussion on the farm today. Your farmers spent the day harvesting for Tuesday’s share distribution. In planning for not having a crew here like a normal Monday, we tried to choose “easy” items for the share thinking we could get a few things done on our own without our workers. Bear in mind that all summer we have had four hardworking women harvesting and washing on Mondays in addition to ourselves. We did not get a lot done without them.

The holiday was initiated well over 100 years ago while our nation was struggling to improve working conditions. There was no such thing as an eight-hour work day and there were no age limits in the workplace. People were working seven days a week, often 12 hours a day. Children were employed in factories because they would work for less money than adults. There were no safety regulations. The holiday was born from the labor movement during the industrial revolution to give people a break from grueling, hard work. It was during this time that people were starting to organize and work as a group to demand better wages and better working conditions.

What those people did back in the 1800’s isn’t completely different from what needs to happen today in farming. Folks need to figure out how to work together to make things better for the whole. But instead of striking for the attention of the company boss, farmers need to work together to improve markets and stabilize the chains of supply and demand increase the value of our commodities. We aren’t talking about corporate farms, we are referring to the little guys, family farms. Sustainable growers like us, trying to make a difference. Those without a voice and no such thing as a marketing budget. There is a group trying to do just this. It is called the Farmer’s Union and we are proud to be members. There may not be a national holiday for farmers, but there is a lot to celebrate compared to where we were as a nation when Labor Day was initiated in 1882.

Laboring on our terms,

We are missing week 13, but will try hard to find it. We apologize for the inconvenience!!

Until next time,

The End of Summer

To many it feels like summer is just about over. Traditionally, Labor Day marks the end of those relaxing summer days spent staying cool by the lake or taking family trips. You’ve been working hard to keep up with the yard work or running this way and that with for kids. We crossed the half way point of the share season last week. How can we only be half way?!

We are excited for the summer that remains in the month of September although it claims some of our hardest, longest harvest days. Digging root crops mostly. With the cool fall weather, it truly is our favorite time of year. The crops are at their peak abundance and the weather is enjoyable. Who wouldn’t want to work outside? Unless there is a cold rain. We stay inside on those days and cook soup.

That first frost marks the end of another of our seasons, but unlike the end of summer for the kids, it brings relief not despair. The average annual first frost for our area is September 12. Fortunately we farm on a high spot geographically and we usually gain a day or even a week over the folks who live in lower areas around us. Last season, we did not get that frost until well after CSA season was over. While we would love to base our decisions on last season, we have to go off of the averages. There is a lot of farming left to do after that first frost. This is a time when season extension tools like tunnels and row covers show their worth.

Many crops require cooler weather. The fall crops we plant just for this time of year require 50 degree or cooler nights to grow. Lettuce won’t germinate if it is any warmer. Neither will spinach. Radishes bolt in the heat, but grow perfectly in the cool days of fall as do rutabaga, turnips and arugula. The longest crops we plant are brussel sprouts and sweet potatoes with 100 and 110 days to maturity. Sprouts taste even better with a light frost sweetening their starchy complex flavors. While we hope to stretch the growing season as long as possible, we appreciate the normalcy of a standard growing season and look forward to the calm at the end.

Ready for the season change,

Week Twelve Newsletter

Cooperative Farming

Our members are each receiving a gift from our amazing friends. Last season, following a very stressful day, we left the farm to run some borrowed equipment to Red Door Family Farm which is on the way to Athens. They weren’t expecting us to pop-in, so we helped them with the work they were doing just so we could get our mind off our troubles. When their potato harvest was done, we all plopped down on makeshift chairs in their pack shed as Tenzin cut into a sun jewel melon that had just been harvested out of the field. The unfamiliar looking melon was still warm and had an intoxicating sweet flavor. Mmm, that first bite! It tasted so much better than the watermelon and cantaloupes we had tried growing in the past.

When this season started, we planted these jewels on our farm. Alas, they were not a success having chose a bad location. Poor drainage in heavy clay soil and one heavy rain drowned the little seeds. Jump forward two months… after helping serve an awe-inspiring farm-to-table dinner at Red Door, we were sitting around the campfire discussing our melon maladies. Stacy and Tenzin, did not hesitate to extend the offer to share their melon bounty with our CSA members. Last night, we went to their farm and helped harvest the deliciousness and you are receiving them today.

We have touched on the topic of cooperation between CSA farms in the past, but it is worth mentioning again. One thing that has truly taken us by surprise is the willingness of other CSA farms in our area to help out and extend some very generous offers at the drop of a hat. Everything from bed shapers to root vegetables. One might have assumed we are in competition with these folks but upon meeting them, it doesn’t take long to realize that we are all in this together. And as long as we are all working toward the goal of getting more people to embrace and choose local food, we are all winning. We owe Red Door (and our farming friends at Stoney Acres and Cattail Organics too) a bit of thanks for having helped us in so many ways these past four years. If you get the chance, please express some gratitude on our behalf.

Feeling appreciative,

Week Eleven Newsletter

Restaurant Digestion

We increasingly feel that restaurant menus simply don’t offer much that we find both appealing and healthy. We often feel like we could make better food at home. We’ve evolved to appreciate simpler, boldly flavored dishes with a seasonal rhythm. We’ve come to despise the same old protein-focused menu with ribeye or breaded shrimp that every eatery offers all from the same white food distribution truck. Oftentimes, restaurant food makes us downright sick and we know this and plan for the digestive discontent that will follow before we walk through the door. Why have we settled on paying for food that doesn’t make us feel good?

But the concept of a “healthy restaurant” would never sell. Right? Well, that depends on one’s concept of health food. The old notion of tofu and sprouts step aside. A new “healthy” is emerging. The concept that vegetables and fruits can take center stage, with lean protein in smaller portions to accompany. Boost the nutrition by including farm-to-table greens, roots, and legumes prepared with healthier oils like avocado and olive. All of this combined with fresh, bold herbs and fresh ground spices. A whole new concept of healthy restaurant dining. Flavor! Show us a menu that doesn’t include bloat, indigestion and night sweats. Don’t even get us started on the kids menu. Chicken tenders, grilled cheese or burger. How creative!?

What is preventing local restaurants from making their food healthier? A large part of it is cost. It is cheaper as well as easier to offer partially processed, starch laden food. The other big factor is demand. When a local restaurant offered a new roasted winter squash salad with nuts and fruit we heard all about it. This seasonal offering quickly became a full-time side dish because people raved about the quality and flavor. Customer feedback and requests is how we get our eateries to change. Have a conversation with the host, wait staff or owner about their fresh or local menu options. Seek out establishments with a menu that changes regularly and includes local food with seasonal flavors. Browse thru FarmShed Farm Fresh Atlas available at our booth to find eateries that offer something a little fresher. Don’t settle for digestive discontent!

Until next time,

Week Ten Newsletter

Wasted Food Epidemic

As Americans, we hold the title of “greatest food wasting nation in the world.” This isn’t the most appealing honor, but perhaps it is debatable. Or maybe some of us waste far less than the average one pound per day while others must be picking up our slack and wasting much more. It really depends on what you mean by waste. Simply having been grown and not consumed by humans, then yes, we waste a lot. Or harvesting and never making it to the table, or perhaps being used to supplement an animal’s feed or compost pile… there is room for interpretation.

By now you have noticed that not all of your veggies are picture perfect. Far from it actually. While we are getting a little better at what we do with each season, we still have cucumbers just a bit bigger than planned, dill with a few dead leaves, potatoes with bits of skin removed, lettuce with brown tips, and the list goes on. We apologize and thank you at the same time. We rely on our CSA members to lower their standards. We hope that you will take an extra second to trim instead of throw the entire piece out. On our farm, if we threw every damaged piece of produce away there wouldn’t be much left! This is the way it is on all produce farms, don’t be fooled.

This past Tuesday at market, we had some oddly shaped, heirloom tomatoes on the sale table. A young girl pointed to the fruit with a disgusted look on her face and insisted her mother look at the ugly tomato. Her mom replied something along the lines of the ugly tomatoes taste better. They went back and forth a bit, but the mother could not convince her young daughter that she too could learn to appreciate flavor over appearance of the ugly tomato if she just tried it. I praised the mother for her efforts and we conceded that hopefully one day the girl would grow a garden of her own and come to understand.

This week’s produce is no different. You might find some insect damage on the cabbage or a crack in your tomato. Please continue to help us waste less by taking time to make ugly food into beautiful, nourishing meals.

Enjoying the beauty of the garden,

Week Nine Newsletter

Downright Dirty

In light of a conversation this weekend with our farming friends about employee woes, we realized we are fortunate to have the people we have working with us day in and day out. We don’t always get to do exactly what we want all the time. There are tasks on the farm that we dread. Green beans are the least favorite item we have to harvest, largely because there are so many and they don’t hold well in the field so we can’t really push it off until tomorrow and jeopardize the crop. In order to pick the entire 250’ three row bed, two of us would need to spend about 4 hours harvesting. We grow bush beans, so it is a lot of bending over.

Friday we had every crop crossed of the pick sheet except the beans and there was only an hour left in our day. Enough procrastinating! We had a wholesale order to be delivered that afternoon calling for 60 lbs. It had been raining all day. We were on our second change of clothes and soaked through again. But our crew, tackled the task with little complaint.

Every week there is physically taxing, downright dirty work on the farm. Pulling thistles and weeds as tall as our ten year old, ripping out expired brassicas, picking rock, hauling manure and the list goes on. But we have come to learn that even the worst of jobs can be tolerable and maybe even fun with the right people working with you. We are fortunate enough to have those people on our farm. Not a single one of us wants the other to overdo themselves or have to pull more weight. We are always taking turns on the fork, or on our knees, or with our hands in the cold water to make sure we each get a break. And there is no whining and very few complaints other than joking about the who is more miserable. The simple humor and vegetable puns never end and an accidental bump into the pile of poles with the van full of harvest bins keeps us laughing for days. A far cry from our days of laboring on a road crew or being in a dramatic office setting. We love what we do because of the people doing it with us.

Carrying on,

Week Eight Newsletter

A Social Farm

Last week, we told you about selling our farm by creating connections. The past few days we have been busy doing just that. There were 108 people on the farm for dinner on Friday night and it was a fantastic evening! Our guests got to taste and savor the flavor of each bite of food just feet from where it was grown. Fresh, never frozen or processed and it was a treat. For us, one of the best parts is seeing people all seated together at the long tables.

Talking with friends and strangers alike. Listening to the strumming of the guitar. Patiently waiting for each course to be served and wine glass to be poured while honeybees visit the floral centerpieces. Slowing down enough to enjoy the meal for more than just the food. Making connections with fellow fresh food enthusiasts.

Looking ahead, we have one more week of preparing for guests on the farm. Thursday’s Wisconsin Farmers Union event will be a different type of connecting with both beginning and experienced farmers gathering on our farm. Agriculture as an industry is struggling. We are at a point in time when farmers are receiving an all time low percentage of the food dollar when you consider inflation. One conversation or cooperative effort with another farmer can be the difference in profit or loss for an entire season. We take to heart others’ stories of success and failure as there is a learning opportunity in these conversations. Simply gathering together with our farming neighbors is another long lost tradition making a resurgence, much like eating fresh from the farm.

Thursday morning, Mr. Quan Ban will bring his students to the farm. He keeps an incredible garden at Prentice School complete with a nursery of native plants for prairie restoration, honey bee hives, grape arbors, and apple orchard. He is working to inspire a green thumb in his students and give them the knowledge needed to grow their own food. He also teaches them that people can make a living in agriculture in rural areas hoping to retain young people in small towns like Prentice. Bringing people together to spark conversations about growing and eating local food will be even more important for these young people interested in farming as our local food movement continues to take shape. Getting people to connect to the land where food comes and the farmer who grows it comes one small victory or farm visit at a time.

As always,

Week Seven Newsletter