Week 6&7 2012

Steed Farms set a new time record for fastest harvest-2 hrs.  That is the fastest we have ever harvested.  We had to sprint the whole way as I went out to the truck on Saturday and found a flat tire.  The bigger problem was that thieves broke into my truck to pull their truck out of the mud as they were stealing my metal about two months ago causing about $1700 worth of damage to the truck.  I didn't realize until I tried to change my tire that they also stole my jack handle (which was also metal along with my battery that was mounted under the hood) and I couldn't lower my spare tire.  So we all piled into the van and ran to our local tire supply (McGee Tire) and had to buy a replacement.  Then make a mad dash to the farm and pick.  We managed to finish up just as our supporters were arriving.  What a crazy morning. 

We have been having up and down temperatures lately and things seem to be just sitting there.  My strawberry experiment is not yielding like I had hoped.  The tomatoes are looking great and I just planted eggplant in the greenhouse and will be adding cucumbers shortly. 

This last week we planted spinach, beets, more carrots and diakons, turnips, leeks, more onions, and broccoli raab (which I love).  The regular broccoli is starting to bud and should be picked next week along with kholrabi.  Lettuce is slowly gaining size and will be picked either this week or next. I am not sure if some of the potatoes we planted are going to grow back or not.  We had some that were just breaking through the soil and froze back to the ground.  They are starting to regrow but I'm not sure they will make a crop.  I hope they do. 

I was happy to see one bag of the red new potatoes left after the pick up last week.  They were a hit in our house.  Anna even wanted to take them to school for lunch!  That is the Irish side of her.  I'm the same way.  If I had to pick between fresh eggs or potatoes as our members did last week, potatoes would win out every time for me.

Some of our members had asked about the roselle jam we made so I thought I would include the recipe.  I took the roselle buds (about 2 cups) and removed the seed pods.  Then I put them in a blender just to get bit size pieces.  Then I added about 2 cups of sugar and boiled it until it was frothing.  I then added the sugar free pectin and allowed it to cook in.  Then just follow normal jam making proceedures and place into jars.  It was absolutely delicious.  Here is a link to more than you probably ever want to know about roselle.  http://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/morton/roselle.html