Hey Folks!

We’ve always heard about raccoons eating people’s sweet corn, but have never really had a problem.  They would eat an ear here or there, but not too much.  This week we learned what raccoons can do to sweet corn.  We went to pick some sweet corn that we watching closely and it was going to be just about perfect!  Apparently it was perfect, because in a 1000 foot row of sweet corn, we found 13 ears 🙁 The raccoons had decimated the patch!

On a more positive note, the tomatoes have started to come on like gang busters.  It’s looking like a beautiful crop!  This kind of production usually begins earlier in the year, but the wet spring delayed pretty much everything around here.  At the farm, we like to say “We may not be the first, but we’ll be the last,” which isn’t a good motto for a sprint, but we like to think of this a marathon and we know we can be there at the end.

We had zucchini in the high tunnel (greenhouse with no heat) once again this year.  We had hoped to get a bunch to you earlier, but have a hard time getting the bees to go into the tunnel.  Without the squash bees pollinating the zucchini, the plants put on fruit but the zucchini never get larger around than a quarter.  I like to call them mon petit zucchini, Ryan just calls them “Not Worth It.”

I want you all to know that we talk about vegetables, fruits, and managing vegetables and fruits daily in our house.  This is probably not a surprise, but you need to know that we talk about them in the dead of winter, on date nights (in winter), while shoveling snow, at family gatherings, and anywhere else you can imagine.  Just in case that is not enough vegetable talk, I worked at the Butler County Fair last week as superintendent of the horticulture crops.  I’m happy to say that we had more vegetable entries in this year’s fair, than the past 5 years I have been there.

We also had fun at the Dwight Czech festival over the weekend.  In addition to games, food, water slides, and a car show, we participated in the parade at the end of the weekend.  This year, we took the little tractor and water wheel transplanter.  The kids rode the transplanter, Ryan drove the tractor, and Joel (dressed in a carrot costume) and I walked along.  As any good parade float does, we threw out tons and tons of candy.  But if you were lucky enough to be at the parade, you will know that we also threw okurky (or cucumbers for you non-Czech speaking folks) – and I mean threw.  Hope you all have a great week.  Enjoy the produce!

Your Farmers,

Ryan, Katie, and Crew

---

What’s in this week’s bag?

Tomatoes

Broccoli

Zucchini

Onion

Cucumber

Eggplant

Yellow Squash*

Cauliflower*

*indicates items only in the full bag

Hey Folks!

I am happy to say that this week you will all be receiving sweet corn!  Unfortunately, here is where we apologize in advance.  After this week, it looks like the sweet corn will be a little spotty for a bit.  This means that half of you may receive sweet corn one week, while the other half of you receive a different item.  We will track this closely and make sure that it all comes out evenly, so please be patient.

Last week’s heat was hard on everything on the farm – including humans.  The crew has been starting at 6 am for a while, trying to beat the heat and water is everybody’s and every-plant’s best friend.  We are continuing to move pipe this week to set up more irrigation.  For those of you familiar with the movie, Finding Nemo, irrigating follows a motto from Dori: “Just keep swimming, just keep swimming, just keep swimming…”  From this point until fall, we basically run irrigation all day, every day – from every hydrant and pump we have.  We think about what we can irrigate overnight, how far we can push water, and we live by alarms that we set on our phones to tell us when to turn off irrigation and move pipes and hoses to a new home.

If you didn’t know it, Ryan thinks growing hay is fun.  Honestly, the alfalfa is very pretty – especially the pretty purple flowers!  We’ve baled two times so far and been rained on each time, but it looks like third cutting hay is going to be short, so as usual, as soon as the rain stopped, we need more rain.

This week, we set cabbage, broccoli, and cauliflower. We put out 110 trays (72 plants per tray) and filled up 2/3 of an acre, or so.  If you are looking for a fun activity, you can come hoe purslane with us (ha ha!) as this is an ongoing challenge.  The pumpkins are late due to a late start and funky weather, but they are gorgeous.  The pepper crop doesn’t look so good.  The weather has been pretty much backwards for what they need.

Finally, you can come visit us at the Dwight Czech festival this weekend.  There is a road rally Friday night, Sand Volleyball tournament on Saturday, a car show Sunday morning, Bohemian food at Dwight Assumption from 10:30 am – 2pm, kids games outside, a train ride for children and kids at heart, a parade at 5 pm with copious amounts of candy ANNND a surprise treat being thrown from the Pekarek’s Produce float.

Your Farmers,

Ryan, Katie, and Crew

---

What’s in this week’s bag?

Corn

Broccoli

Carrots

Cucumbers

Zucchini

Tomato*

Eggplant*

Onion*

*indicates items only in the full bag

Hey Folks!

This week we are introducing our newest crew member: Tater.  She is a 10 week old beagle-lab mix that is not even as big as our boots.  Tater instantly found her place on the farm among the potato patch, although she finds that carrot tops provide excellent shade for taking a nap since she is not yet a foot tall.   She has had it pretty tough since joining us on the farm.  The crew, including tater, has been starting work at 6 am this week to avoid some of the heat.  Even with temperatures in the 90s and lots of humidity, the attitudes have been great.

I have been in South Dakota this week at a national conference for Agriculture Agents and our kids have gone to their grandparents, which means Ryan has been a bachelor. While this may sound relaxing to some, for Ryan, it has meant the opportunity to get more farming done!

Every year there is a constant weed pressure on the farm.  After three hours of hoeing in the heat yesterday, feeling ready to pass out from exhaustion, one member of the crew, Courtney, said “you have to have an eye for the weeds,” which I think is the equivalent to saying sometimes, “you can’t see the forest for the trees.”  – Our crew is wise beyond their years.  Everything on the farm looks beautiful after it’s been hoed.

We are excited to say that we have started picking in the sweet corn patch this week, so there will be some available at the Seward farmer’s market starting tonight. For three weeks, we’ve been saying that we were going to have to start irrigating potatoes if we didn’t catch a rain.  This week, we finally started irrigating potatoes.  This means Ryan and crew have been moving pipe and checking irrigation.  It’s amazing how easily you can turn on the water, walk away, and forget that you are irrigating until you are lying in bed.   Some of those transplants we are growing in the greenhouse have been transplanted this week, mostly cabbage.  Today the crew seeded zucchini, cucumbers, squash and cantaloupe.

Finally, I am happy to tell you that today is our 9 year anniversary and to celebrate, we are writing this CSA newsletter and selling vegetables at the market.  Aren’t we romantic 🙂

Your Farmers,

Ryan, Katie, and Crew

---

What’s in this week’s bag?

Beets*

Cabbage*

Potatoes

Cucumbers

Picklers (Sun Dills anyone?)

Broccoli

Zucchini

*indicates items only in the full bag

Hey folks!

Thank you to all of you who were able to come out to the farm on Sunday for our farm tour.  We had an amazing turnout and a great time!

As usual, there are many activities happening on the farm.  Quite a bit of time is dedicated to harvesting and washing produce at this point.  We are starting to dig potatoes.  It’s kind of a fun process – we use an old horse drawn potato digger that digs the potatoes, tosses them in the row, and then we come in and pick them up by hand.  We grow five different varieties of potatoes, both red and white.

The green bean harvest has also begun in the last week.  The first official harvest came into the house in a small bowl, but we now have beans at market as well.  Tomatoes took a little bit of a lull over the last week.  The first tomatoes we were picking were coming out of the greenhouse.  Unfortunately, some of the cloudy, cool weather that happened in May made the plants drop its blossoms and we are seeing the effects of not having fruits now.  Luckily the tomatoes in the tunnel are starting to kick into production

In other news… we’ve talked about rain and mud for so long, it’s hard to imagine anything but mud.  It dried off quite a bit this last week.  We did get 0.40 inches of rain Tuesday night.  But as we drove through the countryside we saw farms that are already starting to irrigate.  It looks like we will probably follow suit, as we will probably need to start irrigating potatoes next week.

There is a big batch of broccoli and cauliflower in the field that is starting to grow.  Sweet corn is coming along and it looks like we will have a limited supply for next week.  Zucchini are moving forward verrrry slowly – keep waiting, you’ll see some soon.  Those pumpkins and hard squash we planted last week are looking nice. Looks like every plant came up.  The only little problem we’ve had with them is the ground squirrel who decided to eat some of the seeds in ground.

As always, every week we are working out some mechanical issues.  We had to take the big market truck in to get worked on this week, but it looks like it’ll be up and running again by market on Saturday.  There were some frustrating issues with tools that hooked up to the tractor, but those looked to be solved as well… for now!

As usual, we hope you enjoy this week’s produce.  If you have any questions, feel free to call or email, or drop a note in your bag.  Have  a great and safe Independence Day!

Your Farmers,

Ryan, Katie, and Crew

Hey Folks!

I am happy to say that we had a brief reprieve from the mud this week and, as Ryan would say, “we did some farming!”

Sometimes it is hard to believe that we are planting for fall already. Last week we were seeding fall broccoli and cabbage, this week we planted our no-till colored pumpkins and hard squash. We are hoping to finish harvesting some of the spring broccoli yet this week so that we can get the ground worked and finish planting the remaining pumpkins where the broccoli is currently. Most of the ground we farm sees at least two or three crops per year. The trickiest part about this is that certain vegetables can’t be planted on the same ground year after year. For example, planting broccoli and cabbage in the same spot all of the time can result in a fungus problem. So, it is essential for us to use crop rotations.

Just as the ground in the field requires crop rotation, high tunnels also require a variation of vegetable crops. This tunnel was full at one time, but following the final harvest, after tilling the residue into the ground and letting the heat “cook” the bad stuff out – the smell was wonderful (or horrible, depending on your take). After a week of “cleaning it out” we will come back in with more crops – yet to be determined.

For those of you with the full bag, you are receiving both shelling peas and snow peas. The snow peas are the flat peas. You eat the entire pod. The shelling peas are in everybody’s bags this week. These are the kind of peas you break open and only eat the inside.

We often get asked what is our favorite way to eat certain types of vegetables… our answer is almost exclusively “raw!” But we still come up with many different ways to cook them. For a simple dish, sauté snow peas in sesame oil with minced garlic and an onion to make an easy vegetable side dish.

Also be sure to enjoy the onion this week! After tasting your fresh Pekarek’s Produce onion (you are receiving the Vidalia-type), you will never want to buy another winter storage onion from the store. These onions are so sweet, you can eat them like an apple – although some people prefer to slice their onions with cucumbers and vinegar. I love to sauté these onions to use in fajitas, top a steak/hamburger, on a potato, or as filling in an omelet.

Don’t forget that the 2015 Pekarek’s Produce Farm Tour is being held this on June 28 from 3-5 pm. That’s this Sunday – we hope to see you all then.

Your Farmers,

Ryan, Katie, and Crew

---

What’s in this week’s bag?

Beets

Shelling Peas

Onions

Cucumber

Snow Peas*

Broccoli Florets*

Purple Kohlrabi*

*indicates items only in the full bag

Hey folks!

Here’s the summary for the week: mud… mud… Mud… Mud… MUD… MUDDY… MUDDY… MUD – MUD – MUD! In the month of June we have had rain eight of the first 16 days. The crew has been in irrigation boots for a month and a half at this point. Sometimes we think this helps the crops, but in reality there hasn’t been much sun for the crops to grow and the temperatures have been cool. So other than about three days last weeks, things are pretty slow. We are guessing we are 2 – 4 weeks behind!

We have had sweet potato slips sitting in the shed for several weeks now that are now rotten. We’ve tried to order more for the fall, but at this point we are not sure if they will get here soon enough, so there is a possibility we won’t have sweet potatoes this year.

But it’s not all doom and gloom here – we think it might be dry enough to farm today!! Ryan is thinking that it might even be dry enough to use a tractor today. So while we’ve been doing everything by hand to this point, we might be able to mechanize today. We also have a large batch of broccoli and cabbage that are almost ready. And, since we have had rain, we haven’t had to irrigate yet.

It’s hard to believe it, given it’s been a cold wet spring, but we are going to do some fall seeding today. It’s definitely time to start cabbage and broccoli for the fall.

So some of you may ask: what do I do with my turnips and kale? We suggest peeling your turnips with a vegetable peeler first, but this is optional. You can cut raw turnips into sticks for use with dips. Grate turnips and use in salads or coleslaws. Of course you can always roast turnips, like any other root vegetable. Kale is another vegetable that some of you may be unfamiliar with, but this little gem has gotten a lot of attention for the nutritional punch it packs in recent years. Probably the most popular cooking option is to make Kale chips. There should be a balance between crunchiness and chewiness without burnt edges. Rinse the Kale, drizzle lightly with olive oil (1/2 -1 tsp per baking sheet of Kale), rub the olive oil in, season to taste and then spread into a single layer on the baking sheet. Put them in the oven at 300 degrees F for 10 minutes. Rotate the pan and put them back in for another 25 minutes. Enjoy the adventure!!

Just a friendly reminder, please return your bags each week 🙂

Mark your calendar for the farm tour: June 28 from 3-5 pm.

---

What’s in this week’s bag?

Cabbage

Turnips

Tomato

Cauliflower*

Kale*

Head Lettuce

Kohlrabi

Cucumber*

*indicates items only in the full bag

---

Your Farmers,

Hey Folks!

We hope you enjoyed your first week of the 2015 CSA. We know some of you did not receive a newsletter the first week. If that happens, be sure to check out the blog for the weekly newsletter along with some other little farm tidbits and recipes for the week.

What’s in this week’s bag? Radishes Carrots Broccoli Sugar Snap Peas (eat the whole thing)* Leaf Lettuce Cucumbers Green Onions* Tomato* *indicates items only in the full bag

As per usual, it’s been pretty muddy around here, but we’ve been blessed with a string of four mostly dry days, but the mud just doesn’t seem to want to go away. I know that weather usually seems like small talk, but around here it’s so much more J Ryan’s been chomping at the bit patiently waiting for the field to be dry enough to get some planting and field work done. If it were not for the use of plastic, your CSA bags would not have nearly as much in them this year! What do I mean?

On the farm, we have 1 greenhouse and 5 high tunnels of various sizes. What’s the difference? Not much. A high tunnel is a hooped structure with plastic covering it. Plants are still grown in the dirt, but the plastic provides protection from things like wind, hail, varmints, and this year – rain. A greenhouse is the same thing, a hooped structure with plastic covering it, except it also has heaters and fans. This means we can get things growing a little earlier. We have mostly used the greenhouse this year to start transplants which eventually make their way to a home in the field.

We also use something called plastic mulch. It’s one way to keep weed pressure down and gain a little heat early. Basically we put out a bed of plastic with drip tape for irrigation and then poke holes in the plastic so we can plant transplants.

This week has seen a lot of things accomplished. Sweet corn was planted, ground was hilled for sweet potatoes,  broccoli and cabbage transplants were planted, tomatoes were transplanted and cucumbers and squash were seeded in plastic mulch outside.

Want to actually see what we have on the farm? Well here’s your chance. On Sunday, June 28^th, we will have a farm tour from 3-5 pm. We will have hay racks for you to get around, so if walking too far poses a problem, we have your alternative. Please remember, though, that this is a farm. I seem to get dirty just looking outside, so make sure to wear some farm clothes. We hope you can all come!

Your Farmers,

Ryan, Katie, and Crew