Dobry Den!

We hope you have been enjoying your weekly CSA bags this year! Just a reminder that on week from today will be the last CSA bag of the year! Our last day will be:

Wednesday, October 16

As usual, the farm is hopping.  The deadline we set for the greenhouse to be up has come and gone.  Hopefully, we will share a picture of the greenhouse all closed up and finished in the last newsletter, but here’s what she looks like now:

We are continuing deliveries to Super Savers in Lincoln as well as deliveries to dining halls at the University of Nebraska – Lincoln.  This means we are harvesting large quantities of produce.  In the picture below, potatoes are being sent through the wash line and Ryan is sorting them.  The round table at the end spins in circles so you can sort your produce as you package it – It always reminds me a little bit of the I Love Lucy episode where she is sorting chocolates!

The weather has been very cooperative this year, so we have several crops still growing. Tomatoes look great, peppers are pretty and the fall crops are coming on too!  Be sure to enjoy all the fresh produce as the growing season comes to an end.  And as always, if you need anything for canning, pickling, freezing, our sauerkraut-ing, be sure to let us know!

Your Farmers,

Ryan and Katie

 

Dobry Den!

Wow!  Can you believe we’re into October already?  That means we are drawing near the end of the CSA and its time for some housekeeping issues.  Our last CSA bag for 2013 will be on Wednesday, October 16.

We’ve officially decided that this is the best fall cauliflower we’ve ever had.  It’s both pretty and yummy.  We’ve also seen some huge heads of broccoli this fall.  We officially started delivering broccoli to Super Savers this week.

As you can see from the picture, we picked a lot of broccoli!  This was bin number 1 of 5 for the day.  These bins are quite heavy, as are many of the other things we work with on the farm, so we rely on machinery to help us move things around.  The tractor, trailers, four wheelers and a pallet jack.  Unfortunately, our pallet jack broke on Saturday, so by Monday morning we were off to get a new one.  (A pallet jack is a tool that lets us move large pallet loads of produce around the building without having to do as much lifting). Thank goodness for the machines that make our loads a little bit lighter.

As usual, the greenhouse is coming along.  It consumes most every free minute and we hope to have it completed soon.

As the temperatures dip in the coming weeks, let us know if you are interested in bulk orders of squash, potatoes, sweet potatoes, onions, or anything else for the winter.  We can arrange the specifics on an individual basis, but for example some folks have wanted 25 or 50 pounds of potatoes for the winter.  And for those of you that are still trying to catch up with summer (like us) we still have tomatoes and other summer crops for canning!

Finally, lets end with all things pumpkin!  This week you each get to pick a pretty pumpkin.  Put it on your porch and tell your friends where you got it.  J

Your Farmers,

Ryan and Katie

Dobry Den!

Now that the calendar officially says its fall, we can really turn to all things pumpkin and squash.  This week we started picking ornamental pumpkins.  While some of my very favorite pumpkins did not come up this year, we have a great selection of varieties. The warted ones (front left of the picture) are probably my favorite!

Down over the “hill” near the pond we have a lovely cabbage patch that is producing some beautiful heads.  This always reminds me of the cabbage patch dolls I had when I was little.  In the picture below, Ryan is standing in the cabbage – much of which will be delivered to Super Savers and Russ’s Markets along with a good supply of broccoli.

We are also happy to report we got almost an inch of rain last week.  We worked in mud and rain gear and loved every minute of it!  Hope you enjoyed the rain as much as we did! 🙂

As always, if you have any questions, concerns or suggestions send us an email or give us a jingle and we’ll get back to you as soon as we can.

Your Farmers,

Ryan, Katie, and Crew

Dobry Den!

We are in the middle of September now and with the weather change, we feel like it’s time for fall.  We’ve got a few cool crops coming off now that make us think its fall too – from kohlrabi to pumpkins to sweet potatoes.

Pumpkins and winter squash are looking pretty good.  Finding the time or additional labor to pick the crops will be the challenging part of pumpkins this year.

 

In other news, the crew has again changed and dwindled to primarily Ryan.  This means he is going six ways from Saturday on the farm.  Amongst the normal picking and packing, we are still trying to finish that greenhouse for the winter strawberries.  It is looking pretty good, but it would be nice to have the plants in it!

Ryan has also cleaned out the high tunnels.  Now it is decision time – winter crops such as radishes, lettuce and spinach would be great in the tunnel!  But cover cropping inside the tunnel would offer some benefits to improving the soil health inside the tunnel.

Sometimes we don’t let you know this enough: We love what we do and are so happy to have you as part of the CSA.  We hope you are enjoying the vegetables as much as we are enjoying your participation in the CSA!

Your Farmers,

Ryan and Katie

Dobry Den!

While we’ve all been sweating it out in the last few weeks, the tomatoes, peppers and cantaloupe have been growing like gangbusters!  On Monday alone we picked around 1400 pounds of tomatoes…  Did you all know that we sell canning tomatoes? Give us a call and place your order today! 🙂

It’s strange to think that it is September now, kids are back to school and it will soon be time to turn to fall crops.  We are as excited as little children when we check on our winter squash and pumpkins and are happy to report that they are coming along well for fall.  We’ve tried a new variety of butternut squash that is a little bit smaller and is sure to please.

We are also happy to report that the sweet potatoes are sizing up nicely and should make a nice crop this year.  As usual, the Beauregard variety of sweet potato will be making an appearance on the Farmer’s Market stands, as will a new variety for our farm: Evangeline.

The greenhouse is progressing as we look forward to winter strawberries this year.  The next eight to twelve weeks hold some great promise for produce!

Dobry Den!

Its good to be back to the CSA Newsletter.  This week you will get the week 11 and 13 newsletter all in one bag!  Don’t ask what happened to the rest of the newsletters. 🙂

This week, as normal has been a little crazy.  With school officially in full swing, we are working with a smaller crew to accomplish everything.  We continue to do our daily harvesting activities – including some of the best tasting sweet corn you can get!  We’ve recently been asked what machine we use to pick our sweet corn – well that’s Ryan (and crew).

We’ve also been enjoying a great harvest of cantaloupe and watermelon this year.  Although cantaloupe prefers even drier and hotter weather, they’ve been growing like gang busters.

Some of you may not be aware that we do have vegetables available at special pricing for those of you who may be interested in canning, pickling or other bulk orders.

Your Farmers,

Ryan and Katie

Dobry Den!

Let me start off by apologizing for the lack of CSA Newsletters in the last two weeks.  There has been so much activity on the farm, that it seemed impossible to get anything done inside.

For one thing, Brett (our transplant grower in Sutton) dropped off some plants at our house a week and a half ago.  So last Wednesday, we transplanted 11,000 broccoli plants!  We used our transplanter that seats four, but soil conditions and plant characteristics meant that we had to tuck  many of these plants in by hand.

We also started putting up the new greenhouse.  If you’ll recall, we are going to work with UNL this winter/spring to see if it is feasible and profitable to grow winter strawberries in Nebraska.  This means that we need to have this greenhouse up and in production by early September.

We’ve also had a few monuments in personnel.  Most of our workers started back to school on August 12, including our Kindergartener and Pre-schooler.  The remaining two will go back to school next week.  In their absence, we have been making changes to the crew.

 What’s in Today’s Bag?

Full Share:

Cantaloupe, Potatoes, Cucumbers, Corn, Tomatoes, Onion, Zucchini

 Partial Share:

Cantaloupe, Potatoes, Pickling Cucumbers, Corn

Your Farmer’s

Ryan, Katie, and Crew

Dobry Den!

So as usual, there has been so much going on at the farm this week its almost difficult to know what to share with you.  Easily the most exciting activity was the new greenhouse.

It started in the middle of last week.  Before we put the greenhouse up, we needed to level off a pad.  We had dirt delivered in a few loads and leveled off the area with the tractor.

Then came the semi-truck.  It doesn’t look like as it comes off the truck, but these boxes (plus a few extra) and pieces are going to become our very first heated greenhouse.  Although the high tunnels have many benefits, the heat of a greenhouse gives us new potential.

  

This greenhouse will be up in relatively short order as we intend to use it for winter production of strawberries.  We will be working with UNL to determine if it is economically viable to grow winter strawberries in Nebraska.  This means that we want to get our strawberries growing in the greenhouse around the first week of September.

And on another strawberry note, we planted 1200 strawberry plants on black plastic in the field for next year.

This week’s full share has:

• Potatoes, Bell Peppers, Red Onions, Beets, Egg Plant, Kohlrabi, Tomatoes, Cucumbers

This week’s partial share has:

• Potatoes, Bell Peppers, Red Onions, Carrots, Tomatoes, Cucumbers

As always, if you have any questions, concerns or suggestions send us an email or give us a jingle and we’ll get back to you as soon as we can.

Your Farmers,

Ryan, Katie, and Crew

Dobry Den!

Here’s the most important reminder of the week.  We will be having a farm tour on

Sunday, July 14 from 4:00 – 5:40.

We will hop on a hay rack, meet the crew, take a tour around the farm and see what’s happening.  RSVPs are appreciated to Katie Pekarek.  You can call, text, or email at (402) 560-3110 or pekareksproduce@hotmail.com.  We are located on14 miles north of Seward right on Highway 15.  Our address is 2447 Road O.

There’s been a lot of excitement on the farm next week.  We’ve been busy seeding romaine and transplanting cabbage.  But the biggest accomplishment has been getting pipe laid.  The majority of our crops are drip irrigated.  This means connecting drip lines (hoses) to hydrants located around the farm.

This is a very efficient way to irrigate, however crops that are under drip tend to have a relatively shallower root system – which is fine in most cases.  Sweet corn needs to have deeper roots or it will blow over in our Nebraska winds, amidst many other problems.

This week’s full share has:

• Zucchini, Cucumbers, Broccoli, Green Onions, Cabbage, Onions, Snow Peas

This week’s partial share has:

• Zucchini, Cucumbers, Broccoli, Green Onions, Cabbage, Onions

As always, if you have any questions, concerns or suggestions send us an email or give us a jingle and we’ll get back to you as soon as we can.

Your Farmers,

Ryan, Katie, and Crew