Thank You for a Great Season

We delivered our last CSA box on October 10 and we'd like to thank all members for joining us for the season.  Like all seasons, there are ups and down, but, overall, I think it was a great year.  We hit a lot of milestones on the farm such as getting certified organic, becoming authorized to accept EBT, and building our deep winter greenhouse.  We also hit our largest number of CSA members ever in 2014, delivering 40 boxes week in and week out.  All told, I'm pretty tired with a number of fall chores yet to tackle.  I wish everybody a restful winter and hope to hear from you in the spring.

It got cold out!

Wow, what a difference a day makes.  We spent yesterday planting garlic and harvesting for the box in the 60's with full sun.  This morning, I had to plunge my hands into water at a temperature most commonly found off the shores of Antarctica.

Late Night Washing Vegetables

Every so often I was able to stop shuddering today, and, looking around, found some beautiful sights.  The colors on the trees right now are incredible and it's wonderful to see how even the weeds and grasses I curse all summer color with autumn hues.  The birds on the farm are taking turns bolting upwards in the strong winds, and, I also appreciate seeing our wind turbine spinning away - we're really making a lot of power today!

As we edge into fall, we're turning our attention ever more to finishing our winter greenhouse.  Right now we have a lot of rafter up, which is great because we feel like we're making real progress.  For a long time, the whole project was just a big pit in the ground with some rocks in the bottom, but it's starting to take shape.  Next we're shoveling in a one-foot layer of sand for the radiant floor tubing.

Monarchs in Minnesota

Much has been said and written about monarch butterflies as of late.  Like others, we have not seen many monarchs this year, however, today, Maree had a nice surprise to find a monarch chrysalis attached to a black cherry tomato when picking today.  It's tough to see in the picture, but, when up close, you can see the orange color of the monarch's wings.  

It's Official...Lida Farm is Certified Organic

One of our major undertakings this year besides building this deep winter greenhouse and root cellar has been going through organic certification.  This is a process where we lay out for a third-party certification agency (ours is OCIA) lots of details about how we farm and exactly what inputs and materials (fertilizers, seeds, etc) we use to produce crops for the last three years.  Certification is pretty much the only way to obtain the label and right to the term organic.  Together with this paperwork we get inspected by that agency to make sure we are doing what we say we are doing and make sure that our inputs fit organic standards.

This sound simple enough, but what I realized is that how we grow is very complex.  Staff at OCIA said that most people's paperwork comes in at about 25 pages, ours was 110 pages.  This is due to the large number of types of crops and how we handle each one.  For example, we grew 393 different seed varieties in the past three years and have nearly 75 vegetable beds, many of which we treat quite differently due to the different crops grown in each.  An organic row crop farm may have 4 or 5 seeds and treat an entire 40 acre field the same.

All told, however, I feel really good about finally coming around to certifying.  After thinking about certifying for many years, I realized this is still the best way to assure you and all others that we take organic production very seriously and grow with integrity.  No longer do I have to yammer for 5 minutes about each of our farm practices when asked if our stuff is organic at a farmers market.  It's the real deal.  Receiving this official certificate in the mail this week, I felt quite proud.

Pretty Stressful Week

Many think that organic farmers like us live an idyllic life, watching over sheep in fields at sunset and waxing poetic about whole grains and our stewardship of earth.  Although we have done these things, this week certainly didn't give us moments of ponder and relaxation.  Instead, I was thinking that this may have been one of the most stressful weeks of farming ever.

A few overlapping projects and circumstances came together to make this a week to remember.  The primary stress was the weather, as I'm sure you may have experienced yourself.  We received hail not once, but twice this week,, both Monday and Thursday. The biggest issue, however, was the 4 inches of rain which poured out of the sky in two hours.  Thursday morning I woke up at 3:30 to close up the high tunnel so it didn't blow away, spent an hour sopping up water in the basement with a sponge, pulled the battery on our van since it rained so much in the open windows that the horn was stuck in the "on" position, and saw that the north wall of the barn collapsed on my way out to my dayjob at seven.  Whoa!

The rain also bowed out the bottom of the greenhouse we're constructing and put a small lake in our front field, putting under water the carrots we planned on harvesting and once again drowned the potatoes which should have gone in the box this week.  This all happened under the backdrop of starting delivery to the new food hub in Fergus Falls on Wednesday, getting a new batch of chicks, all the usual harvesting and produce orders, and greenhouse construction in our spare time (which this week entailed a form a prison labor shoveling rock).

Man, I'm getting tired, but at least this espresso is kicking in and the sun is shining.  I know it's going to be alright and we'll press right on through these challenges, the farm season, and all our projects just fine.  

Become a part of the movement to make local foods available year-round!

Lida Farm is now embarking on a project to build an efficient and low-energy solar greenhouse to take our CSA to into the depths of winter.  Over the next 30 days we're running a Kickstarter campaign to fund the project.  If you'd like to see clean energy and local foods come together to produce something great, please contribute: http://kck.st/1peQpEg

My semi-lame video tells the story:

High Season Extravaganza

A member favorite: cherry tomato mix

Walking around the garden this week, I stumbled upon a sight of high season I just adore: ripe melons!  They just kind of crept up on me.  I've been keeping an eye on them since July growing in the vines, but it seemed like it would still be a while.  I couldn't believe these guys were ready.  I immediately walked in my house and looked at the calendar: August 20!  Really? 

I tell this story not as evidence of my being out of touch, but to illustrate how I'm just as taken aback as anybody by how quickly summer comes and goes around here.  I'm just guessing that you feel the same.  I swear we were just setting plants in the ground a few weeks ago, but here we are with the end of the growing season in sight (we almost always have a frost in mid-Sept).

Even though time is flying by, this is still an exciting time on the farm - a time of the year when we are just running to keep up.  All of the high season crops are in: tomatoes, peppers, sweet corn, potatoes.  Each day we go out to the fields and spend hours simply harvesting, pulling in thousands of pounds of ripe produce.  It's a great feeling to see that abundance!  This is also the time of year when we start preparing for next year, mowing down fields which are way too overgrown with weeds.  Boy, that is probably the most satisfying feeling ever for me.  Things go from a terrible mess to a clean field in a matter of minutes.  

In the CSA box: 

Sweet Corn: most of it is a yellow variety called "Bodacious" but there is some "Silver King" white corn, and some bi-color "Luscious" variety mixed in. 

Mix of Cherry Tomatoes: I love the look and taste of these new "Artisan" variety you'll see mixed in with cherry types.  They are oblong and have tiger stripes.  They also really pretty up the pint. 

A Couple Red Slicing Tomatoes: This is a traditional "Celebrity" variety, my old stand by. 

"Cherokee Purple" Heirloom Tomato: This is a great tomato for fresh eating, just slice and eat with salt.  Certainly don't cook with this guy, it would be a shame. 

"Norland" Red Potatoes

Carrots 

"Red Wing" Red Onion

"Fastbreak" Canteloupe: We were a little short, so a select few of you got a variety called "Sun Jewel" which is a white-fleshed Asian variety - a real nice melon with good sweetness but really firm. 

"New Orchid" Watermelon: This is a orange flesh variety, really nice. 

"Bianca" Peppers: Yes, they are white, but have the taste and work like a green. 

Small "Stonehead" Cabbage

Cabbage Succotash

from the St. Paul Farmers Market Produce Cookbook

3 ears fresh sweet corn, peeled

3 cups green cabbage, chopped

2 cups lima beans, cooked (you can certainly substitute some other bean)

2 T butter

1 medium onion, chopped 

1 1/2 t balsamic vinegar

1 t salt 

1/4 t pepper

In a large pot, cook corn in boiling water until tender, about 7 to 10 minutes.  Cut kernels off the cobs with a sharp knife. 

Steam cabbage until tender, about 7 to 10 minutes.  In a large skillet, heat butter and saute onion until soft.  Add the cooked corn kernels, cabbage, balsamic vinegar, and mix well.  Salt and pepper to taste.   

Deep Winter Greenhouse Production

Site for greenhouse and cabin we recently moved for future interns

We at Lida Farm are currently in our 10th year of vegetable production here in Otter Tail County.  Like any organization which reaches such a milestone, we began to ask ourselves what's next.  And, like many others who have been part of the local foods movement in the Upper Midwest, we've decided to extend our season to the extreme by building a deep winter greenhouse.  The idea is to build a structure which will allow us to grow some greens and crops which could do well not only is the cooler temperatures of winter, but the low light intensity as well.

Right now we have a really big hole in our backyard which is making us a bit nervous because it looks like a bigger project than we expected.  However, as soon as tomorrow we'll start framing a structure which will hold 10-inches of insulation in the walls and sit 5-feet below grade to take advantage of the constant moderate temperatures of the earth at that depth.  In the five feet below the soil, we'll have a network of tiling in rock and radiant floor tubing to keep the greenhouse above freezing, even through winters as nasty as the one we left behind in April.  Since we're digging a big hole in the hillside near our house, we also decided to incorporate a small root cellar as well - why not, right?  Our major plans are to offer a limited number of winter and fall CSA shares to provide members greens and storage root crops during the time of year we really crave some good produce.  

In this week's CSA box:
Sweet Corn: Hey, we made it!  It's a mix of varieties, including Bodacious (Yellow) and Luscious (a bi-color variety from organic seed)
A mix of tomatoes:  These are just starting to turn as well, but boy are we happy they are starting up.
Japanese Eggplant: These guys taste just like a standard Italian one and you prepare the same way.
Basil
Sweet Onion
Pepper: Most received a purple variety called Islander which tastes like a green one.  Others got a light-green variety called Biscayne
Summer Squash: Most received green zucchini, but some received a yellow type.

Recipe: Our suggestion is to simply grill everything.  Easy.  Delicious.  You can't go wrong.

The Week in-between the Seasons

I think of this week and the week in-between.  As I go out and scout the fields, I see a lot of tomatoes, but very few changing color.  I see many little eggplants, ears of corn not yet ripe or filled out, and peppers close, but not yet mature.  It always makes me both excited and anxious.  Excited for what's close to mature, and anxious because I really want to fill the CSA box with all these wonderful crops.  Typically the week in-between comes earlier, but, here we are, still waiting for these high-season crops at a the beginning of August.  When we look at the forecast, it sure looks like we're going to have some good growing weather with hot sunny days and nights in the 60's.

In the box:
Green Onions
Bunch of Beets
Mini-head of Romaine
Parsley
Kohlrabi
A couple Cukes

Salad Turnip
A little tomato or a pepper (I found a whopping 10 ripe tomatoes out there today, so I thought you would appreciate a sample anyway - everybody else received a Biscayne or Islander pepper)
Red Torpedo Onion
Sweet Onion

Beating Back the Weeds

Last night, like many a night before, we continued with our battle against really big weeds.  This time of year, in good soil, weeds like redroot pigweed and lamb's quarters turn into small trees with roots 6

Our Tine Weeder

inches in the ground.  When I should be looking over our onion field with row after row of beautifully-spaced and maturing white bulbs, I instead see a forest of green going to seed.  We got to this place this year from a wet spring which continued into early summer.  Oftentimes people think the major issue with lots of rain is that it sets back planting, but, on an organic farm like ours, the biggest challenge with a long, wet season is the inability to control weeds.  We use mechanical cultivation to take out weeds when they are just emerging.  Our cultivation equipment consists of an old Farmall H with shovels attached and a tine weeder which drags over the bed.  When not even able to walk on the totally saturated soils in June, we sure were not able to drive a tractor out there, and, once a full flush of weeds germinated at got to a good size, tractor cultivation doesn't do a great job of killing them.  So, it's come down to us, a lot of time, and our hands.  After a few weeks, I feel we are starting to win this war of attrition as we reclaim territory row by row.  It certainly is a great sight when I get to the end of a bed and can look back over the uncovered plants - ah, relief!  Recently rescued crops include the second planting of beans and a pretty bed of carrots.  

It was nice to see some members last week who came out picking peas.   But I know a lot of members still haven't been out.  Please know you are welcome and I'd be happy to show you the sights.  Got kids, maybe they'd like to see the pigs or give Peanut, the milk cow, a leaf of hay?  If you are in the neighborhood, stop on by.  Sunday's are typically good as we are almost always around.  

I hope you've been enjoying the "early season" veggies (hard to believe I'm saying that at the end of July).  I saw some cherry tomatoes turning in the high tunnel a couple days ago and melons starting to swell on the vine.  Over the next couple of week, expect to start making a transition to high season as corn, tomatoes, and peppers begin to ripen.

In the box: 

Cilantro 

Dill 

Red or Green Leaf Lettuce

Dino Kale 

Cucumbers 

Green Beans: Most of these are a variety called Grenoble I really like because of their dark color and waxy texture.

Pattypan or Staightneck Summer Sqaush

Sweet Onion: A variety called Ailsa Craig

Simple Cucumber Salad

Simply in Season (page 100)

So many of us (myself included) always reach for vinegar and salt when preparing cucumbers for the table, but, with so many now coming in, here's a creamy version which will use a few things from the box

3 cups cucumbers, thinly sliced 

1/2 cup sweet onion, thinly sliced 

3/4 cup plain yogurt

1-2 tablespoons fresh dill weed (chopped)

Place cucumbers and onion in a large bowl and sprinkle with 1 teaspoon salt.  Let stand one hour.  Drain.  Add yogurt and dill and serve. 

A 4-H Family Tradition

Sylvia's champion produce arrangement

When our daughter, Sylvia, was asking about what to bring to the fair, our obvious answer was "vegetables."  Being that this is the first year she could show and place (she graduated from Cloverbuds), it took us a bit to figure out exactly how to present the veggies for the fair.  We read through this publication Extension put together back in the 70's - an oldie, but goodie, I guess.  Then, Tuesday morning, we trounced out to the garden to pull in a assortment consisting of a cabbage, peas, cucumbers, beets, swiss chard, and summer squash.  Maree and Sylvia must have a good eye because she was awarded champion at the West Otter Tail County Fair.

One neat thing about the kids now getting into 4-H and the fair is that they are picking up on a long family tradition started with Maree's great-grandfather, Charles Goetschel.  Settling in Lake Elmo in the 1840's, Maree's family operated a diversified dairy operation up until early 2000's; I always say Maree grew up at the last remaining dairy farm in Lake Elmo, although I really don't know if that's true.  Apparently these guys were fierce competition at both the Washington County Fair and the State Fair, especially in field crops.  Maree's mom passed on this little clipping from the 30's about her grandpa Wally in his last year of 4-H.  

In the CSA box: 

Napa Cabbage

Bok Choi

Green Beans 

Summer Squash: Yellow and zucchini

Cucumbers

Swiss Chard: Colorful green with a blue band

'Imperial' broccoli
Bunch of Cilantro: One with a red band around it.  

Fennel: This one seems to freak people out, but there's a recipe below

Green Bean and Fennel Salad with Shaved Parmesan 

From foodandwine.com

1. 1 pound green beans
2. 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
3. 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
4. Salt and freshly ground pepper
5. 2 small fennel bulbs (about 1 pound)
6. 2/3 cup shaved Parmesan cheese (about 3 ounces)

1. Cook the beans in a large saucepan of boiling salted water until nearly tender, about 6 minutes. Drain them in a colander and refresh under cold running water. Drain well.
2. In a medium bowl, combine the olive oil and lemon juice and season with salt and pepper. Thinly slice the fennel lengthwise, add it to the bowl and toss, then transfer the fennel to a platter. Add the beans to the bowl and toss with the remaining dressing, then transfer them to the platter. Garnish with the Parmesan shavings and serve.

Lida Farm now accepting SNAP benefits

In order to local foods more accessible to more people, there has been a lot of effort over the last few years for farmers markets to accept SNAP benefits (formerly known as food stamps) through EBT (Electronic Benefits Transfer...folks get a card like a credit card).  Our own farmers market in Detroit Lakes got authorized to accept SNAP  about 4 years ago.  It was not a great success.  We tried again last year, but the vendors chose not to pursue it again for this year.  Many felt we were not reaching enough people for all the logistics and effort involved - dealing with credit card companies and the wireless terminal technology does take some effort, much less communicating the program to all vendors at a time of year when everybody's under the stress of the farm season.  

I've always felt that good local food should be accessible to everybody.  Too often the only people at farmers markets or signing up for a CSA have graduate degrees and drive a Subaru or Volkswagen (things which also characterize myself).  So, recently we authorized Lida Farm itself to accept SNAP benefits and got enrolled in a program called Marketlink, funded through the USDA.  Since we were the only vendor authorized at our farmers market, we qualified and now have a iPhone with a card reader and even a wireless printer for receipts - pretty slick.  We will be able to start accepting SNAP at the Lakes Area Farmers Market in DL on Saturdays and also accept SNAP for CSA payments.

For CSA members we'll be open Sunday for a Pea Pick.  If you would like to pick some more peas, please come on out to the farm anytime from 9 am to dusk.

In the CSA box:

• Green Cabbage
• Kohlrabi
• Snap Peas 
• Radishes 
• Salad Mix
• Beets
• Summer Squash: Most got a yellow summer squash and a zucchini.  You'd use the yellow the same as the green 
• Cucumbers

Summer Squash Fritters

I'm really into these for breakfast.   They are good topped with some sauteed greens and green onions if you still have some around from a previous box.  

2 eggs 

2-3 summer squash 

Salt and pepper

T oil

Grate the summer squash like hashbrowns into a bowl.  Crack in a couple eggs, mix with a fork. Season with salt and pepper.  Heat up the oil in a skillet at medium-low heat.  Pour in the fritter mix and fry til firm and browned a bit underneath.  Flip and brown the other side.  Top with salsa, sour cream, whatever you like. 

Haying Season

We've finally reached one of my favorite times of the year: haying season.  I was a long time coming because of the rain, which has been messing with everything this year.  This has caused the fields to become overgrown and unruly.  One thing I most appreciate about hay cutting is the feeling I get when all the bales are being driven to the barn loft for stacking.  Looking back over the field, everything look so clean; together with smell of the baled hay, and you really have a rich feast for the senses.  .  I liken it to vacuuming your house or even getting your hair cut.  For just a little while, all is in order and you can sit back and appreciate.

Sylvia's photo of front hayfield

We actually have a lot going on in the fields and pastures this year.  In our front hayfield we currently have 5 pigs who will be assisting us in working up the field.  If there's one thing hogs like to do, it's rutting in the ground.  Since we're running out of space for produce, we need to utilize that field, which probably hasn't seen anything other than bromegrass for about 20 years. I'll first chisel plow the field and later we'll let the pigs loose on it!  Nice thing is that they fertilize while they work.  Starting this spring we now have a family milk cow in the back pasture plus a calf - exciting because bovines are new to us.  Throw in the bees behind the barn and our small flock of sheep, there's a whole lot of life going on out there!  Like the pigs working up the front field, the key to all these animals on a vegetable farm is that they integrate well into the operation to support the fertility of the fields so plants are healthy, and, in turn, the crops feed the animals.  It's a beautiful thing.

In the box:
Basil: Please don't refrigerate unless you like black basil.  There are two schools of thought to keep basil.    One, treat it like a flower; cut the end and put in a shallow vase.  Two, wrap in a damp paper towel and    keep in an open plastic bag to retain moisture.
French Breakfast Radishes
Snap Peas: These are edible pod peas, so don't shell them, just eat them
Strawberries: These aren't the prettiest of berries, but I think the flavor's there.
Dino Kale: A nice dark green kale...my favorite which Mar will make into kale chips - great.  See recipe  below from Simply in Season
Zucchini Summer Squash
Green Onions
Green Leaf Lettuce
Kohlrabi: Funny looking bulb.  Many simply peel, slice, and eat raw...can be added to salads like a radish.

Savory Kale 

(page 203 for those with cookbook)

1 onion, thinly sliced: In a large frypan saute in 1-2 T olive oil over medium heat until brown and crisp, not just soft.  Remove to a serving dish. 

1 bunch of fresh kale or swiss chard: Stack leaves, roll together and slice about 1/4 inch thick.  Saute in frypan for 1 minute. 

Several tablespoon and 1/4 teaspoon salt to taste: Add, cover, reduce heat and steam until tender.  Add water as needed.  Kale cooks in 10-15 minutes; swiss chard cooks a bit faster.  When greens are tender, drain in colander.  Return onions to pan and heat to sizzling. 

1 T tomato paste: Add and stir.  When this mixture is hot, return the greens to the pan.  Mix, heat through, and serve.  

Starting a new CSA season

I've been blogging about our farm since 2006 and today marks the beginning of my weekly blogging for 2014.  I'm really off and on during the off-season, but, since this is the first week of the CSA, I consistently write about farm issues and provide news from Lida Farm every week as well as provide information about what's in the CSA box with a recipe. 

Like a teacher looking at the new school year, I'm always a bit apprehensive about a new growing season.  Will first box be ready in time?  How do the veggies look?  Will insect pressure overwhelm us?  How about weeds? Weather?  Stress?  Kids?  Oh, boy, no matter what's thrown at us, the season is started and there's no turning back for the next four months.  

Putting together the box for today, however, a lot of those beginning of season fears fall away as the lettuce looks really good as we're harvesting, there's more broccoli than I thought, and, yes, we actually got a cultivation in with the tractor before this weekend's rain.  A sign which gave me even greater comfort was the garter snake which surprised me this morning near the lettuce patch.  Like any reptile or amphibian, the snake is a sign of good health and I appreciate their presence even though I'm deathly afraid of them.  It was almost as if he made his appearance today to welcome us to a new season.  

In the Box: 

Green leaf lettuce 

Bok Choi (small stalk with round, green leaves)

Green onions aka scallions

Swiss Chard (bunch of greens with colorful stems)

Mizuna (bunch of light greens with jagged edges )or Tatsoi (dark green bunch of greens with round leaves):      These are both Asian green which are great to add to a stir-fry right at the end or simply saute a bit and        top eggs

Broccoli 

Arugula (bunch of greens with elongated oak-like leaves): I like these in pasta or raw in a Italian-style salad with olive oil, balsamic, and parmesan cheese...you can also make an arugula pesto.

Parsley

Recipe of the Week:

Arugula Pesto from Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything

2 cups arugula

1 clove garlic crushed

2 T. walnuts or pine nuts, lightly toasted in a dry skillet

Salt and ground black pepper to taste

3/4 cup olive oil, more or less

Place arugula in a food processor or blender with the garlic, nuts, salt and about a 1/4 t. pepper.  Add 1/4 cup olive oil and pulse a few times.  With the motor running, add additional olive oil to make a creamy sauce.  Use within a day.

We like to add cheese and use it as a substitute for traditional basil pesto with pasta. You can also throw in some of the parsley to make the arugula taste more mild.  Bittman suggests using the pesto on grilled chicken or shrimp.

Working between the Rains

The veggies are growing, although not at the rapid clip one would expect this time of year.  We were able to cultivate once with the tractor so far just before a rain about ten days ago - that first rain was much appreciated but it doesn't seem to want to stop.  Rain keeps out of the fields and we just stand by and watch weeds grow.  

Mulched High Tunnel Planted to Tomatoes

Still, we are making headway.  Last weekend's heavy rains gave us a nice opportunity to really dive into work in the high tunnel where all our cherry and some specialty tomatoes are planted.  We hoed, weeded, trellised, and mulched all eight rows and things look great.  It's now just a matter of giving them some time, and, in that environment which plants love (they are kind of like couch potatoes in the high tunnel), they will get as tall as me and just pump out tons of perfect tomatoes. I really can't wait.   

Late Spring

Here at the beginning of May it is only now starting to feel more like spring than winter.  At Lida Farm we feel the produce season is well on its way.  

Picture of Lida Farm Emerging from Winter

Although there's not a single seed in the ground yet-with heavy soil we have to be patient and wait for the ground to dry and warm up-we have signs of life in the greenhouse for sure.  Tomatoes and peppers are still in seedling stage, but cool-season crops like onions, broccoli, and cabbages are ready to go and waiting for the opportunity to get planted outside.  

This time of year is also when we try to get those time-intensive spring chores out of the way before the summer ramps up like shoveling out of the barn, building new animal housing, and repairing the greenhouses.  We know the heat is right around the corner, and, if you're anything like me, you're looking forward to the change after this long, cold winter!

We're looking for members for 2014

It's annual membership drive here at Lida Farm.  We're finally starting to come out of hibernation and looking towards the next farm season.  But to make things happen, we need you.  Check out details about the CSA on the 2014 CSA Information page.  If you sign up between now and March 15, you'll receive a free copy of an excellent cookbook to assist you to eat through the season called Simply in Season (one cookbook per membership).    

Sweet Sundog Picture Mar took during a December cold snap