Diamond R Family Farms

Delivery Day

Clockwise from the tub at the top: Kale, Swiss Chard, Kohlrabi, Cabbage, Broccoli and Green Onions.

Kohlrabi as it grows in the garden.

Baby Cabbages

    I want to recommend a web-page that I enjoy for recipes and information on a variety of topics kitchen related. With limited time to send out information on how to prepare the food in your baskets, this site would far surpass any attempts I could make in offering you suggestions. Jenny takes the mystery out of preparing  wholesome, natural, nutritious food and presents recipes, meal planning and nutrition facts in words we all can understand. See what you think.

 

Go to the recipes page, then put in any name of an item in your basket in the search bar at the top right hand corner of the page. She has a great post on what to do with the foreign food items in a CSA basket.

www.nourishedkitchen.com

Count Down to Delivery Day

 Four weeks from today you will be experiencing delicious, nutritious, locally and naturally grown goodness. Guess what..... we are already are!

GARDEN ART

                        

   

Have you ever stopped to look beyond the leaves, stems, flowers or fruit and really SEE what is in the garden? Here are some of the art forms I see when I pause in my weeding.

                       

                      Do they grow patty pans on Mars? Looks like a prototype for a UFO.

                      

                     

Most often we would notice the yellow bloom that is an infant nursery for a tomato. Instead look at the silvery hairs that cover the stem.

                    

                                                          THE GREEN QUEEN

Look at this and what you FEEl is anticipation for the first bite, of the first vine ripe tomato of the season. Notice the symmetry of the eight points ringing the stem like a crown and what you SEE is   "La Reina Verde". At least when you're twelve years old that's what you might see.

Summer Promise

The very, very, first baby squash of Summer 2009. Papaya Pear by name.

Cauliflower emerging from it's protective nursery of leaves.

Sweet Garden Peas.  Garden Goodness in an edible pod. 

DELIVERY DAY

Delivery Day dawned bright and early at 5:30 a.m., no need for an alarm today. My brain saying this is IT! and the internal alarm clock right on the minute requested.  I've waited for days and weeks and months for this day.  A little bit cloudy.  

 Chelsea and I spent the time needed to pick green onions, arugula, spinach, radishes, kale, broccoli and lettuce. Gathered the eggs and headed for the house.  Much washing to remove the sand that had splashed up on the leaves during the weeks prior. Sorting, bunching and tying it up in neat bundles.

Happy Day, load it up in the trusty 4-runner and off for the first delivery of the season.  The past weeks of waiting, faith that the ground would yield it's fruit, the rain would quit, the sun would shine, and the promise of a seed reveal itself above the earth. Waiting, hoping, praying, waiting, waiting,...

First Delivery, HAPPY,HAPPY DAY !

SUNSHINE AND BLUE SKIES

 

    The skies were gray on Wednesday until about 12:00 noon, then the sun emerged and so did our family from it's remodeling work inside.  Out came the lawnmowers that had just received a tuneup in anticipation for just such a moment.  Look at all that beautiful free mulch growing for the garden.  

 

    One of the less pleasant chores of gardening is hand picking pests from the plants. Potato Bugs took advantage of the rain to feast on the leaves.

 

Mulching the newly planted tomatoes, peppers, and squash.

HOW DOES THE GARDEN GROW?

Every day I take a walk down the driveway and around the cedars to see if there has been a huge significant jump in the growth of the vegetables waiting at the bottom of the hill.  I walk, head bent, up and down every row examining the progress. Seems like for weeks I have slipped on boots or sloggers, dodged the mud puddles, and stepped through flowing streams to make my inspection. I'm glad to say that the garden keeps growing, but not in the leaps or bounds that comes when warm sunshine bathes the earth. The oats and peas in the fields beyond the garden bow their heads in gratefulness for the moisture, and looking for the silver lining, I remind myself that the heat of summer is just around the corner.

                                                         

Looking at this picture taken a week ago, I see a big difference today. This is a row 

of cauliflower that I couldn't resist planting. The best time to plant broccoli and 

cauliflower is in the fall, but just a taste is what I craved, or at least something to 

grow during the cold months of early spring.

 

Peas, above, reaching for a hand hold and

Mixed salad greens, below, love cool weather.