Many of the vegetables and herbs we have all been enjoying this past month have been grown at the new farm site at The Children’s Home. Also many of the spring crops we’ll enjoy towards the end of the season are already growing there. We already planted our tomato and eggplant crops and they are growing well (even though they got slightly shocked by the unexpected cold a week and a half ago). We are giving them some special organic fertilizers to help give them an extra boost. Also the potatoes are sprouting very nicely in their furrows, we should be enjoying them sometime in mid April and May. This week we hope to plant our first of two batches of squashes and cucumbers. Like the tomatoes, we water these using drip irrigation. This is a way to keep moisture off of their sensitive leaves and avoid fungus and other leaf diseases.

This week we expect to continue harvesting broccoli and lots of lettuce. Both of these might be a little smaller then we hoped, this is because of the warmer weather we’ve been having. They are still looking good and tasting very delicious. We are also harvesting Joi Choi which is my favorite kind of Bok Choy. The crunchy stems can be eaten raw in a salad or as a refreshing snack, try spreading nut butter and dry fruit on them. The new planting of bulbing Fennel is ready as well, the entire plant is edible and delicious. My little farm girls love to eat the leaves raw. Also try adding them to your salads for a nice anise flavor or make a cup of fennel-leaf tea for a digestive aid. The bulbs are great in root bakes or stir-fries.

Thanks again for your support, Sweetwater is a true model of local sustainable, organic agriculture.

Peace

And so we begin our plans for next season.  We encourage our Members to plan ahead as well.  CSA Renewal Memberships will go on sale March 1st, just around the corner.  During the month of March, current CSA members will have the first opportunity to join us again for the 2012-2013 season.  Beginning April 1st, we will open membership to the public.  If our waiting list from last year is any indication, we can expect to sell all of our 200 memberships by the end of this season (end of May).

More information and applications will be coming your way soon…

Whether or not this season’s members will choose to embark on another farm to their fork adventure will depend on their willingness and ability to adapt to the constraints and limitations of a single farm.  If history is any indication, about a quarter of you will leave for greener pastures making room for new members to give this crunchy lifestyle a try.  But the majority of you will commit to return for another season.  And for those returning members, the healthy soil of Sweetwater Farm will sustain another season of growth, and the veggies and the people will flourish.

The last couple of weeks we’ve had a surge of school-aged children taking part in our field trip program at the farm.  We’ve watched these kids touching, smelling and tasting the beautiful veggies, herbs (and weeds!) that grow here.  By the end of the trip, the kids have grown too.  They’ve learned where good, healthy, local, organic food comes from and how it helps us all.  They have planted seeds, harvested a salad, soaked up information on composting, and enjoyed being a “farmer for a day”.  Your continued support of our farm brings the necessary funds to continue these important programs.  Join us for our first Farm to Table Supper on the 11th of this month and enjoy a wonderful meal while helping to further our outreach and educational opportunities.

We are getting really close to saying good bye to one of our long time growing site, the Bern’s Steak House farm. We still plan to harvest one more week’s worth of Daikon Radish, two week’s of carrots and some beets. We have enjoyed our time growing on such fertile organic soil for these past years and thank the folks at Bern’s for this unique opportunity.

The harvest at the new farm continues, this week we will harvest some nice looking lettuce and continue to harvest radishes and some mizuna from the Children’s Home farm. Get ready for some tasty salads!

Last week our neighbor shared some pickled Daikon Radish with the farm crew, it was delicious and a great example of how to preserve excess share items. There are many recipes on line, this week we will harvest the roots without the greens.

Also, the broccoli and cabbage are beginning to be ready this week. It has taken a while due to this mild winter but they are looking and tasting great. My little farm girls give their approval! We expect more to come in the following weeks.

The later start on the harvest is just a reminder of how susceptible our food production is to the weather patterns. Every season holds new surprises, let’s embrace them, happy seasonal eating!

So now that the certified organic seed potatoes are in the ground, we need to wait about 3 weeks for them to sprout while we keep them weeded, and then begin to ‘hill’ them to encourage root growth. This year we planted many varieties; Yukon Gold, Rose Finn Swedish Fingerlings, Praire Blush, King Harry, Island Sunshine and Butte. We should be enjoying some delicous white, gold, pink and russet tators toward the end of the harvest season.

This week in your share find some young tender Mizuna, this Asian green is similar to arugula but with less bite. Great as a substitute for lettuce in salads or sandwiches and also taste great in stir-fries, or steamed over mashed potatoes or fish. This cut will be especially mild tasting because of how young the plants are and the cool weather in which they grew.

This week we will also harvest Eros Endive, this is a plant in the Chickory family, slightly bitter but very rich in many vitamins and minerals. Excellent addition to a mixed salad with other sweeter ingredients like mizuna.

The radishes this week are the second crop we are harvesting from the Children’s Home field. The greens are looking pretty healthy and are a great cooking green that can be used in stir-fries, soups or beans. Also very delicious in a green smoothies, remember radish greens are food too, don’t let them go to waste.

Hope everyone is enjoying the share vegetables this season. The farm team has been enjoying growing the vegetables and being part of this conscious sustainable community. Most of the varieties we grow are things that have grown well here over the past 15 years during specific times of the season. Some are not common vegetables but all are seasonal varieties specific to this Tampa Bay growing environment. During some growing seasons, some varieties grow better then others. This season Hakurei Turnips and Daikon Radish take the prize, but have performed poorly in previous seasons. By focusing on the vegetables that grow well here during the time of year they grow the best, we can utilize our soil in a more sustainable way and enrich it every season instead of depleting it. Since I arrived at Sweetwater six growing seasons ago, I have been exposed to and learned to grow and cook with many vegetables I had never heard of. Learning how to use these to keep my family happy and healthy has been the greatest reward of being part of this local, sustainable, organic community. I encourage all of you to experiment and be creative with your food. If your veggies are in season and grow good together, they probably go good together in the kitchen, so lets let nature be our guide. And remember that we are in a technological world so when you don’t know what to do with all those strange vegetables, just ‘Google it’. Peace

There’s been a little confusion – our new farm at The Children’s Home simply adds to the land that we have available to grow organic veggies for our members.  It is not open to the public (unless you accompany us there to help in the fields).  All of our main operations will remain at our Sweetwater Farm on Comanche Avenue as usual.

In the share this week is beet greens. We are working on thinning the beets bed in order to allow the remaining beets time and space to grow a large root. This method allows us to harvest two crops from one planting. Beet greens are delicious fresh in salads, sandwiches, juiced or as a cooking green. They are very high in vitamins K and A as well as antioxidants.

New in the share this week is Florence Fennel also known by its Italian name Finocchio, a highly aromatic Mediterranean herb which has a bulb that can be used as a vegetable. Try the bulb sliced in a salad, grilled, sauteed or baked. The leaves give an anise flavor to salads, juice or teas and act as a digestive aid.

Last week the Broccoli Raab was finally ready to harvest, sorry for all the false alarms in the past CSA share lists, it just grew slower then expected. Remember that all parts including stems, leaves and flowers can be eaten raw or cooked and can substitute broccoli in most recipes.

We still have some Daikon radish growing in the fields, it did much better then expected and loves growing during this cooler weather. The leaves are an excellent cooking green very high in vitamin A, while the root which can be eaten raw has a high amount of vitamin C. The roots are great shredded and placed over a salad, or in a veggie wrap, or try just cutting them into raw chips.

Enjoy creative seasonal cooking,

Peace

Expect to see some vibrant arugula, mizuna, cabbage, radish, broccoli and cauliflower in the coming months.

We are thankful and grateful for our time at Bern’s, and happy to be settling in to our new location.  Our farm at The Children’s Home still needs work and your thoughtful donations bring us ever-closer to completion.  If you would like more information about how you can help, please Contact Us.

With the cooler weather we rely on our Member volunteers to come out to the farm and help.  Volunteerism generally slows down in the cooler months, but the work that needs to be completed at the farm remains the same.  Consider joining us on a Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday or Sunday to help out in the fields and washing veggies.

We very much look forward to a wonderful 2012 with our Sweetwater community… here’s to a peaceful and bountiful New Year!

Thursday and Saturday we will gather at the Sweetwater barn at 8:30am and then head out to harvest. Good way to meet wonderful people, learn about how your food is grown and get some productive exercise. If you have young children, bring them out to join in on the fun, growing food and community is a family affair.

This week we are continuing to harvest the Joi Choi, this is the white-stemmed Bok Choy. This delicious choy has juicy crunchy stems that are great raw for dipping in hummus or spreading with nut butters. Also fantastic in stir fries, salads or use the leaves as a wrap. And finally the cilantro is ready to harvest, I’m especially excited since I use this herb in all of my cooking.

Happy new year to all, wishing you much Peace and Love.

Our Sunday Market will be closed on Christmas Day, the 25th.  And again the next Sunday for New Year’s Day.  It will re-open on Sunday, January 8th with great local live music, awesome vendors, and our Farm Tour with Joel from 2:00-3:00.

We appreciate each and every one of you and hope that you have a happy, healthy holiday.