Seed Order

The seed order is done! Crop planning and the great tetris that is planning a farm season commences. Ordering seed, equipment and planning for a small diversified farm is no small feat, it takes about 22 different spreadsheets and weeks of math problems to figure out what crops to grow when, how many and where to put them all. Each type of vegetable, of which we grow hundreds, all have different rates of seeding, prices, days to harvest, nutrient needs and space required. It is a mind-bending task to get it all to fit into one realistic picture. A mentor of mine once told me that CSA farms would not exist without Excel. She is not wrong. 

The stats:

We are growing 255 different varieties of vegetables this year, 9 types of potatoes, 2 varieties of garlic, 15 kinds of flowers, 17 types of herbs, and 36 varieties of transplants for spring plant sales.

It's going to be amazing.

Scenes from the farm: seed order command central; what Duma does during crop planning; Phoenyx doing some winter work- trimming the fence; sunset over Gravity Hill after working on contour field layouts

The Share:

salad mix

spinach

head lettuce

cabbage

dry beans

parsley

cilantro

Choice of roots (7lbs): carrots, beets, potatoes, celery root, rutabaga, radish, turnip

Choice of canned goods (2): ketchup, tomato sauce, tomato puree, salsa, tomato butter

Recipe of the week:

Orecchiette with Carrot-Hazelnut Pesto

INGREDIENTS 

  • 6 small carrots (8 ounces), peeled and coarsely chopped
  • 1/2 cup toasted whole hazelnuts, plus 2 tablespoons, chopped, for serving
  • 1 small clove garlic
  • 1/2 cup grated Pecorino Romano (2 ounces)Coarse salt
  • 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for drizzling1 pound orecchiette

DIRECTIONS 

  1. Combine carrots, whole hazelnuts, garlic, and cheese in the bowl of a food processor; season with salt. Pulse until coarsely pureed. With motor running, slowly add oil, processing to a paste. 

  2. Bring a large pot of water to a boil; add salt. Cook pasta until al dente, according to package instructions. Drain; transfer pasta to a bowl. Add pesto and toss to coat evenly. Drizzle with oil, top with chopped hazelnuts, and serve immediately.

Malaika SpencerComment