The farm is starting to go off with produce. Not as much as it will in August but the fist harvests of the season are definitely exciting. Today is in preparation for the Wednesday Night Market. We picked six types of lettuce heads, krinkly kale, red stemmed chard, asian greens (bok choy), sugar snap peas, spinach and radishes. Radishes have to be the most photogenic vegetable. As you pick them, you assemble a bouquet like you would with flowers...big ones in the center and smaller ones around the edge. They are more than just a "sit there and look pretty food" though. As I always like to say, "when in doubt, roast it!" Just slice'em up and toss'em with olive oil then roast in the oven like you would beets or other rooted veggies. Season with salt & pepper and enjoy! Roasting makes them sweeter and mellows their intensity. The kale was beautiful to wash. When you dunked the bunches underwater, water droplets clung to the edges of the leaves and shimmered like mercury. As you pulled the bunches out of the water they sounded like pom-poms as you shook them off. Here is Ben and Jared packing a bin for market. Go Team!
This week we have four students from the Culinary School of the Rockies volunteering with us. CSR has a "Farm to Table" program to train chefs to source food organically, locally and in season. They have to do a three week farm rotation as part of their course work. Almost every day we have at least one volunteer who comes out for 4hrs. or so. We love our volunteers. And we always need more. There is Nicki, the yarn spinner, who comes on Monday, Malinda the ex-synchronized swimmer who comes on Tuesday and Elijah the 14yr. old hippie who comes on Wednesday and knows more about veggies than I do. Really impressive how much knowledge this kid has. It is especially fun to see the reaction of a first time volunteer when they work on the farm. Listen to me! I sound like I've been here for two years not two weeks. But you get assimilated quick, haha ;) Anyway...yesterday, we were preparing a bed for planting and pulling out the thistles. It's pretty time consuming and you have to wear gloves. Hilary, one of the CSR students, said, "I have so much more respect for produce now that I understand how much work goes into the production." I smiled and thought to myself, "exactly!" We got another one hooked!
This week we have four students from the Culinary School of the Rockies volunteering with us. CSR has a "Farm to Table" program to train chefs to source food organically, locally and in season. They have to do a three week farm rotation as part of their course work. Almost every day we have at least one volunteer who comes out for 4hrs. or so. We love our volunteers. And we always need more. There is Nicki, the yarn spinner, who comes on Monday, Malinda the ex-synchronized swimmer who comes on Tuesday and Elijah the 14yr. old hippie who comes on Wednesday and knows more about veggies than I do. Really impressive how much knowledge this kid has. It is especially fun to see the reaction of a first time volunteer when they work on the farm. Listen to me! I sound like I've been here for two years not two weeks. But you get assimilated quick, haha ;) Anyway...yesterday, we were preparing a bed for planting and pulling out the thistles. It's pretty time consuming and you have to wear gloves. Hilary, one of the CSR students, said, "I have so much more respect for produce now that I understand how much work goes into the production." I smiled and thought to myself, "exactly!" We got another one hooked!
RSS Feed
