Tractor Work and Irrigation Drama

So far this week we've had long busy days of great weather and we are trying to make up for all the time lost to the rain. We've planted so many different crops! Beans, cowpeas, melons, corn, more tomatoes and peppers.... Chelsea planted a lot of it while learning how to drive a tractor straight. Here she is trying to drive straight and backwards at the same time. She's really good at it. I was down by the pond for most of it and only heard her cussing a few times.




I was down by the pond because our ramshackle irrigation set-up was failing, presumably because I was using an old jacuzzi pump to pump pond water. I guess I wore out the impeller, it just stopped pumping. This whole irrigation thing is eating my lunch. I've been through three pumps now, one was donated, one was salvaged from a jacuzzi headed for the dump, and another was purchased for $6 at auction. Sometimes I think we try to nickel and dime too many things. Well, we got sick of it and finally bought a brand new jet pump with a pressure switch and everything. Now everything seems to work fine, but after all that headache and hassle, when I looked up at the pond this is what I saw!



The good news is that after about three weeks of hassle trying to find new tie rod ends for my tractor I finally found them and got them installed. This is a photo of my hat and I next to the tractor with no front wheels or axles.

Chelsea will be at the Wednesday market tomorrow morning from 8-12. We have beets, baby red lettuce, snap peas, shelled peas, snow peas, strawberries, kale, and turnips! Holy cow!

-Don

Organic Pest Control -Squish!

If you've ever grown nightshades - the family of peppers, eggplants, tobacco, potato, tomato, tomatillo, et al. You have probably heard of the Colorado Potato Beetle. It is the bane of any no-spray potato producer. They start to appear once it gets fairly warm outside (like now) and the big old beetles just crawl into your potato or tomato patch. The adults don't eat much - their appetites are more carnal than epicurean - as evidenced by the proliferation of neatly arranged orange eggs under the lowest leaves of your nightshades. The eggs soon hatch into soft red larvae that will voraciously eat every leaf off of your precious nightshade. They are the hardest on potatos, and are the reason we didn't grow potatos this year.
We don't know of any organic solutions to the Colorado Potato Beetle problem except finding them and squishing them. If you can catch them early, that is the best time. Kill all of the adults and squish all of the eggs before they hatch. If the first wave of eggs hatch you are in big trouble, because the generations will start to overlap and you'll have a magically unending supply of red squishy larva eating your leaves.

We didn't get any larvae picture because we only had a few. Chelsea fortunatly noticed the adults before the eggs hatched. When searching for eggs, larva, and adults sometimes you have to look really carefully at the plant and the area around the plant because they love to hide from you! This one is hiding under a teeny tiny Horse Nettle plant. They love this little weed that is also a nightshade. We don't like it because it stings you when you try to uproot it barehanded. We think it is a wild host for the Colorado Potato beetle and are trying to eliminate these weeds from around our tomatos.

Check out this awesome anti-potato beetle propaganda poster!

What Do You Do with Pea Shoots?

The question everybody asks us at market is: what do you do with pea shoots? The usual favorite is to garnish a salad with them. They are the tender sweet growing point of the developing pea plant and they add a crunchy texture and a pea taste to any salad. When we pick them, some flowers are included to add color to your dish. As you can see peas are strong vines that grow out in many directions; so removing the peas shoots doesn't cause much harm to the plant or its production of actual peas. You can cook with them too. Chelsea came up with an original recipe Sunday morning and it was very tasty.

Pea Shoots and Sunflower Seed Stir-Fry

Ingredients:
1 bag pea shoots, Chopped
½ cup sunflower seeds
½ cup chopped green garlic
butter, olive oil, or bacon grease
Cooked bacon, chopped (optional)

Brown the green garlic and sunflower seeds in oil. When the garlic starts to carmelize, add the pea shoots and toss while stir-frying at high temp. Add the bacon pieces toward the end for extra flavor and body. Salt and pepper to taste. You may want to serve with a splash of soy sauce or tamari.

Above is a pic of our strawberries. We have so much work in our strawberries! We started with 4,300 and we are probably down to about 3,300 because of the poor irrigation and lack of water over the winter. Now we are making up the difference in water though! We've had more than the average amount of rain in May over the first two weeks. It has been so rainy that we haven't planted a seed since April. We've managed to get a few transplants in by hand but there is no way we can get the tractor into the field with all the mud. Back to the strawberries, we spent many hours weeding them by hand today and only got about half-way finished. The good new is that we could tell that we are only a few days away from harvesting a bunch of strawberries. So get ready for the strawberry recipes because we will have lots! May I suggest strawberries smoothies and margaritas?

Here is our first row of tomatoes! Each row has about 150 plants. We will need to watch our backs with that many tomatoes around. You can never be too careful with Nightshades.


-Don

A Message from the Kale Foundation

We had a long day out at the farm, but it was filled with sunshine, pretty flowers, and a cute rabbit! So all in all it was a good day. The soil is finally drying out so we got a chance to plant about 75 more tomatoes, and harvest a butt-load of greens, pea shoots, and flowers. We figured we ought to pick some flowers for mothers day. We have bouquets of Bachelor Buttons, Indian Paintbrush, Poppies, Yarrow, and a few flowers that we haven't figured out yet :)

There is Don picking pea shoots. Harvest is slow going for these sweet little greens, but it is well worth it. Pea shoots are perfect for salads or just eating plain. They are sweet, tender, and taste like peas! We also picked bunches of Kale, Mustard greens, and Turnip greens.

We've decided we need to start a Kale Education Foundation- now accepting grant money:) No really, we just want people to know how awesome kale is. It tastes great in many dishes and it is very good for you. I came up with a new recipe today for Kale Fritters. I tested them out on some friends and got good reviews.

Kale Foundation Fritters

Ingredients:
1 bunch kale
2 eggs
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp corn starch
1 tsp salt
butter or oil of choice

Chop the kale up into fairly small pieces, and sautee it for about 2 minutes. Then rinse the kale in cold water and squeeze out the water as best you can. Mix all the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, and corn starch) in a bowl, then beat in the eggs. Toss in the sauteed kale and mix it all up. It looks like it will fall apart when you fry the fritters, but trust me, it won't! Melt a generous amount of butter (or oil) in a skillet on medium heat. When it is hot, ball up the batter into small pancakes and place in the skillet. Sprinkle them with salt while they are cooking. I let mine cook about 5 minutes on each side, or just until they were brown and crispy. This recipe made about 10 fritters. Enjoy!

-Chelsea

Gone muddin'

Hey ya'll. Don and I have spent a long day in the mud and rain harvesting and having a blast (kind of)- mostly because we are working together now! I've been full time out there for a whole week and a half. I miss my dear Topeca Coffee Roastery, but it has been awesome running my own business, getting organized, and playing in the dirt! Today, I harvested a bunch of spinach and Kale for the Wednesday farmer's market . That one is from 8am to noon at 41st and Peoria (Ace hardware parking lot). I hope it doesn't rain all morning!

If you don't know what to do with Kale, here is a recipe I came up with a few weeks ago. I had a friend call me the other day and tell me it was one of the best dishes he had ever cooked. Kale is a sturdy leafy green, too tough to eat raw in a salad, but tender enough that you don't want to cook it too long. The three basic ways to cook it are steaming, sauteeing, and stir fry. Here is a quick sautee recipe that really brings out and complements the kale flavor.

Ingredients:
a bunch of Kale (It cooks down a lot!)- washed and chopped in thin strips.
1 beet and/or 1 carrot - grated or sliced very thin.
hand full of chopped green onions (or green garlic from Three Springs Farm).
hand full of Almonds- slivered.
Butter or olive oil.
lemon juice.

In your cast iron skillet, start the butter sizzling on medium and toss the green onions and almonds in. when the almonds are golden, throw in the grated beets and/or carrots and sautee for another few minutes. Here is where I toss in some spices. I don't think you can go wrong with: black pepper, salt, tumeric, and a pinch of red pepper. Now toss in the kale and stir until it cooks down. Shouldn't take too long, maybe 2 or 3 minutes. Now, just add a squirt of lemon juice and you're done. Enjoy!


-Chelsea

Meet the new farmhand, John Deere!

We've finally purchased a tractor of our own! After much searching, we bought it a couple of weeks ago from a guy in Coweta. As soon as we get it working right we won't have to mooch Jeff's tractors anymore. We weren't sure if we were going to keep it because it has a few problems. We got such a good deal on it though that we couldn't turn it down. It is a beast. It growls, pulls and pushes our little truck out of mud holes (twice yesterday!). Pretty amazing. It is a John Deere 2030 circa 1973 - four pistons ready to pump out some farm power. It has a big hydraulic pump on it that can handle this over-sized loader. The loader is removable too which is great because it is so front heavy that the rear wheels don't have the pulling power they otherwise would.

Here is the list of things that need to be repaired. The 3-point control shroud needs to be cut off and re-welded, both front tie rods and the linkage rod need to be replaced, and both rear wheels have to be replaced with wheels suitable for our beds. This is the cost of buying cheap used equipment. It certainly has charm though, especially since somebody decided to paint over the trademark JD green with a lovely teal color. When we get the time we'll give it a slick new green paint job.
The rear wheel replacement is the first job on the to-do list. I've already arranged a veggie trade with Jim at OKtractor.com who has been really helpful in locating some rather rare wheels and tires. He deals with older Allis-Chalmers parts mostly but his wheels will be interchangeable, and orange. Fortunately he is nearby, in Mounds.

I just wish I had a shed or barn to keep it in and work on it. It is sitting out in the rain right now and I'm sitting in the house. Oh well, someday I'll have a barn or at lease a garage.

Chelsea will be at the Cherry Street Farmer's Market Saturday unless it is lightning. She will have Tender-green Mustard and Russain Kale for sale. I'm going to take advantage of rainy day and go stand around at Chupp's Auction and try to score some cheap farm tools.

-Don