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