The Season Winding Down

This season had some really great successes and also some learning opportunities.  We are super grateful to have had our first successful CSA season with our handful of customers.  Hopefully next year we can grow food for even more people.  

One success, for sure, was a KILLER spinach harvest in both spring and fall: 

I also celebrated turning 35 (!!) this week.  I don't usually care for anything extravagant for my birthday.  This year we took the dog and headed down to Bull's Island to walk to the stone jetty and get some riverside water vibes.  It was a beautiful fall walk.

A fantastic fall dinner -- all local.

Found these rainbow carrots embracing each other and just had to save the moment with a photo.

Also got some internet love from customers making salads out of the greens and veggies!  Such a great feeling to grow FOOD. 

CSA Week #10

This week's share: Kale, lettuce, celery, beets, radishes, carrots, butternut squash.

M also bottled up some of the honey harvest from this year.  We will eat this on bread and in recipes all winter until the bees are buzzing again.

Our philosophical leader -- Cara.

Nothing better than a jar full of dahlias and zinnias.

Also met this cool spider - argiope aurantia.  She's my ally in the garden because she eats all kinds of insects.  Plus I love looking at the design of her web.

There's something about harvesting carrots that brings a lot of wonderment for me -- you never really know exactly what you're going to get until you pull them up....

CSA Week #9

CSA Week #9: Swiss chard, carrots, butternut squash, kale, celery, lettuce, peppers, eggplant.

Made some pizza with the rest of the golden tomato sauce we canned.

Living my best life -- podcast and tomato harvest.

End of the Summer

When the plants start going to seed is when you know the season is starting to wind down.  They are preparing to make sure their ancestors live on next year.  Here is an artichoke going to seed, first with it's purple-ish flowering on top.

Some bread M. made:

Summer's swan song -- eating watermelon...

More homemade pasta with roasted garden vegetables.

My garden, porch, and daily companion (aside from M.).  :)

CSA Week #8

This week's CSA share: kale, lettuces, peppers, tomatoes, beans, eggplant, carrots.

Scrambled eggs from our chickens, microgreens grow by me, and grape tomatoes from the garden.  Yum!

Got all the fall lettuces in this week as well -- always planning ahead!

This is golden beet juice -- beet is good for detoxifying the liver.

Also on the menu this week was some homemade egg pasta with a golden tomato sauce we made from our golden tomatoes.  This was a meal to remember, for sure.

CSA Week #7

Our CSA this week included kale, beets, beans, ground cherries, carrots, tomatoes, eggplant, and cantaloupe.

We've also been playing around more with making bouquets with the limited flowers we have growing in the garden this year.

Also - I grew these ARTICHOKES from seed!  To be able to grow my favorite vegetable is just incredibly gratifying!

CSA Week #6

I can never decide if watermelons are worth the amount of space they take up.... until, of course, we eat them at the end of summer.  Then I'm convinced all over again about how delicious they are and worth their space in the garden.

Cara is always up for hanging out in the garden with me.

The ground cherries this year have been super plentiful -- it's amazing how much only three plants produce!  In my opinion, they are best covered in chocolate.

There's nothing like the morning in the gardens.

In other exciting news, our fig tree is producing!  We may actually get to eat some homegrown figs this year!

CSA Week #5

I'm still so happy that even though it's mid-July, we can have so many good greens!

This week's share: lettuce, kale, rainbow chard, French radishes, beets, baby arugula, onion, and potted succulent.

As an experiment we are also growing leeks and potatoes this year.  So we had to pull some from the field for sampling and decided to go with potato-leek soup (my favorite).

Also in big exciting homestead news -- we bought a juicer and I have been in all my glory juicing all kinds of concoctions from the garden.  It was a pretty affordable masticating juicer from Amazon (only around $100), and so far I'm pretty pleased.

I've also fallen in love with celosia.  Be still my heart.

CSA Week #4

CSA Week #4 Share: kale, collards, cabbage, celery, swiss chard, lettuce, onion, and microgreens.

I also have enough flowers coming up that I can play around with and try my hand at arranging bouquets.  I still have a lot of learn, but I was pretty happy with this one I did on the fly.

Even though these tomatoes are "early girls," they are still not ripening!  I am so looking forward to tomato season...

As growers, we also support other local farms and right now we source all our herbal medicinal needs from Fields Without Fences, right here in Frenchtown.

CSA Week #3 & Almost the End of School

Farming and teaching high school at the same time is a madness I'm starting to love.  But in a few short days, the school year will come to and end and we can focus on our CSA full time!

In this week's share: collards, carrots, kale, lettuce, radishes, celery, microgreens, red onion, and garlic.

The weather has also been unseasonably warm for this early in the season and the breeze on the porch is just what I need after work + harvesting...

These Seascape strawberries are just unbelievable and I can't believe we've gone this long without growing strawberries!  We will definitely be adding more plants next year.

CSA Week #2 & Some Firsts...

This week's CSA included head lettuce, red/white onion, spinach, collards, arugula, kale, radishes, live microgreens, and a potted petunia.

Some "firsts" here on the farm are our first strawberries from our newly established Seascape strawberry patch.

And also here is the first flower I've ever grown from seed (I know it's hard to believe, but I'm only just getting into flowers).  It's an English Daisy.

Annnnnd, for lunch this week is.... salad again!  Truth be told, I eat salad all year long, but it always tastes better when it's grown right outside my door.  😁