Good day all,

As I look at the thermometer with its balmy 33 degrees reading this morning, it reminds me that we are in the middle of November. Although our first frost that put an end to the 2012 growing season was on the later side of the October 15, plus or minus two weeks projected date, November 2^nd to be exact, we have since had several hard frost and our growing season is definitely over. Yet we are still busy, getting the various garden areas weeded, tilled, and covered for their over-winter rest.

As we are clearing the last of the frost burnt pepper plants, we remembered each variety. Almost all of them should return next year, and we are deciding which new varieties to introduce. More on that in the spring.  Here were some of our standouts from 2012:

 

Sweet Banana Peppers.  They were outstandingly productive and sweet and tasty. We have several jars of them pickled, and more in the freezer to top pizzas throughout the winter. They were delicious fresh in salads and in stir fries.

 The sweet peppers: 

 

 Jimmy Nardello

 

 Orange Sun

Tequila

Red Bells

The Jimmy Nardellos are one of the sweetest peppers around. Great raw and grilled. Orange Sun was also a sweet, thick walled bell. Great as a stuffer. Tequila was a dramatic dark purple with a dark green interior. Also sweet and thick walled. A veggie tray with the multiple colored peppers was striking. All of these peppers, along with the Chocolate peppers (not pictured) will return.

The hot peppers:

Purple Jalapeno

Fish Pepper

 Not pictured: Jalapeno M, Ho Chi Minh Cayenne.

The Purple Jalapenos were on the milder side with a striking color. Fish Peppers were also visually appealing and hot! We made some great hot pepper jelly with them.  The Ho Chi Minh cayenne was smoking hot and wonderful in stir fries, if you like heat. We dried several for use later.

But enough of looking back, a farmer has to think ahead. Garlic has already been planted and has started to sprout. This is good, as it allows them to establish a root system before the winter begins in earnest. They need the cold weather to ensure proper clove formation. (Unlike last year!)  Spinach has also been planted and also started to sprout. It is very cold hardy, and will give us some early spring salads

Swiss chard plants are biennials, meaning they will die back over the winter and then re-sprout in the spring. Remember those “dinosaur leaves” in your first baskets? Those were from overwintered Swiss chard. Although they were quite dramatic, we won’t let them get that big next spring. But the roots have been put to bed to lay dormant until next year.

The long, warm, fall caused some of our other crops planted for spring harvest to keep right on growing. The broccoli is already setting heads.
 

All this for one family?

Oh well, we will enjoy a LOT of broccoli in our freezer and plant more in the spring. The tatsoi, kale, and mizuna should overwinter, depending on what Olde Man Winter dishes out this year, and also give us some early spring greens.

 

Tatsoi plants

We would like to thank each and every one of you who made this past season such a successful one and also welcome back all of you who have already renewed your subscription for the 2013 season.  Like any business, we hope that this next season will be better than the last. We believe that it will be, barring any more surprises that Mother Nature may throw at us!  We have plans to continue with most of the tried and true crops and also add some of those that were suggested in our survey. We will let you know of our finial listing of crops for the 2013 season in our newsletters in the beginning of next season.

Some of the highlights from this past season…

The spring gardens were wonderful…conditions were just perfect for the leafy greens. And the late long spring weather allowed for an extended harvest. The salad mixes were a hit, and several subscribers mentioned how surprised they were to actually LIKE the fresh beets. (Great roasted!) The carrots did well; we will definitely plant more of the Sugar Snax next year.

Summer session went well.  While the weather was not kind to some crops, such as beans and cucumbers, the tomatoes and peppers were (eventually!) very productive and the shares reflected this.  I even heard some grumblings from the Mrs. as she processed, canned, and froze the many pounds of tomatoes and peppers that we had on hand.  However, I know that she will enjoy them over the course of this coming winter. The All Blue and Yukon Gold potatoes were a hit. We were so sad to see them come to the end of their season.

Fall saw the summer crops continuing to produce, but we were still able to include some of the cooler crops in your baskets. The basil held out to the end of its extremely productive year.

We also have our guardian of the gardens. A hawk has taken up residence in our area and we see him (or her) perched on the fence post most days. This will keep the field mice and other rodents out of the garden and we hope that his/her stay is a long one!  Our only concern is that the hawk doesn’t take interest in our chickens… (or cats as the Mrs. would like me to add!)

Speaking of chickens, we are happy to report that the flock is fully integrated. Cruella has decided to let the newbies into the bunker, with only a few pecks to let them know who is boss. All is well, and the new birds should be in full production by the time we start Session I next year.

This will be our last newsletter for this year.  We will pick them up again in late January to bring you up to date and keep you informed of what is going on here on the farm as we prepare for the 2013 season. We wish each and every one of you a warm and safe holiday / winter season.

Till next time,

Jeff & Sandra

(This was our October Newsletter-now being added in January!)

 

Hello all,

The renewals are starting to come in for next year’s CSA. Thanks to you all, we are looking forward to another delicious season! A reminder, all subscriptions, including any of your friends or family that would like to join, received by November 1^st will receive the discounted price. We have increased our vegetable real estate area (What? Did you think we were taking it easy after the season ended?) so we will be able to offer more shares this year. You can fill out and mail in the form from our flyers, or cut and paste from the webpage at http://www.jsminifarm.blogspot.com. Go to the tab labeled “CSA Sign Up Form”.

We have some new arrivals. 18 Rhode Island Red pullets (young hens) have joined what was left of our original flock.

They had never been outside before; it took them a while to figure it out.

Well, “joined” is a rather loose term. After a week of getting to know each other through the fences we let the flocks mingle. The alpha hen promptly proceeded to terrorize the newbies. There is a reason bullying is called “hen-pecked”! We expected this, and gave them plenty of room to sort out their differences. What we didn’t anticipate was almost two weeks later she still won’t let them roost at night in the “Biddy Barn Bunker”. This is a problem. While we weasel-proofed another area for the transition period, it is unsuitable for long term living because 1) it is too small for 18 full grown hens, and 2) all the laying boxes are on the other side. These new hens should reach maturity and start laying at the end of November.  Hmmm, next to try: putting Cruella in the small area at night, and letting the new birds have the bunker.
 

 

We’ll see how that works.
 

We’ve been taking stock on the performance of the tomatoes this season as we save seeds for next year. Which tomatoes will we grow again in 2013?

Sun Sugar

 

Sun Sugar? Definitely. This was our fourth year growing them and we are more and more impressed each year. This year’s drought only made them sweeter and they stayed prolific throughout the season. We cannot save their seeds as they are not open-pollinated, but they are well worth ordering.
 

Red Cherry
 

Oops, forgot to get a picture of just the Red Cherry, here it is mixed in with the Sun Sugars

We have absolutely no idea what the name of this Red Cherry is. It just showed up in our first year garden, and keeps coming back each year as a volunteer. We have never deliberately planted it. But is the most prolific and vigorous vine we have. It was the one that was trying to take over the yard. This year we saved some seeds as we can longer afford (space wise) to let it grow wherever it decides to pop up. A keeper.

 

Juliet

The one that looked like a small Roma (oval) tomato. Another keeper. It was also prolific and tasty. It freezes well, and due to the low moisture content makes an awesome roasted tomato. I’ll get some directions and recipes on the webpage this winter. It is great roasted, frozen, and used to top pizzas throughout the winter.

Black Krim

 

We agonized over this. The taste just cannot be beat. We got the most favorable feedback on this one. But getting it to you in one piece…. Well, let’s just say we got a whole lot more than you did, but we usually had to cut half of the tomato off before we could eat it. They were the ones that were literally exploding in our hands as we tried to carry them in. We can’t afford the real estate of a plant that only about a third of its crop is marketable. Sadly, this will not be on the list next year.

But….

Black Prince

 

(Picture from our seed source, TomatoGrowers.com)

We were impressed with this black tomato. It was billed as a sturdier alternative to Black Krim with the same great taste. We agree. It is somewhat smaller, but there were no compromises in the taste department. It was actually a little more productive than the Black Krim. We’ll keep this one.
 

Green Zebra

This tomato was a little slow getting started, but actually pumped them out at the end. Its tart flavor made it great for grilled cheese sandwiches. A tomato plate with alternating slices of green and red was visually stunning. And it made an interesting green tomato sauce (and soup!). Another keeper.
 

Costoluto Genovese

(Again from TomatoGrowers.com)

The tomato that looked like a pumpkin. We’ve grown this variety for almost 10 years in two different states. Prolific, tasty, juicy, versatile, sturdy, and the most resistant to the blight. Keep.
 

Ceylon

No pictures, not worth it. The one that looked like a miniature Costoluto Genovese. First to succumb to the blight, split like crazy, not hardy, not a keeper.

Hawaiian Pineapple
 

The big, huge, orange, beefsteak tomato. Not very prolific (the big beefsteaks usually aren’t) but the flavor and visual appeal can’t be beat. And it was fairly sturdy. Keep.

Next time we’ll discuss peppers!

This is our final week of regular deliveries. After the make-up deliveries next week, the 2012 season will be over. Where has it gone? We have had many trials and tribulations our first year:  hail, wind “events”, blistering  (and early) heat, drought, voracious and overwhelming bean beetles, weasels, and one highly destructive little black cat.  Even after 25+ years of gardening we learned so much, and accomplished more than we thought was possible. Now the temperatures are dropping, the summer crops are showing their age, the fall crops are at their peak, and we start our preparations for the next season.

Next year we will apply the lessons we learned this season to make some changes. Some of them we have already mentioned. Based on your feedback we will grow more varieties. Over the winter we will add information about nutritional content and how to handle the veggies to our webpage. We will post more recipes.

We are now open for applications for the 2013 season. In your baskets this week will be flyers with an application form. There are some extra, so if you know of anyone who is interested please hand them out or direct them to our webpage. We will have a copy there also. All applications, new and renewing, received before November 1^st will have the discounted price.

We will keep this newsletter going, although not as frequently, through December 1^st and will show the preparations for the next season so you will know exactly where your food comes from and how it was grown. After the holidays we will start the new season in January.

In closing, let us both say it has been such a pleasure doing our deliveries! Going through the baskets with you and talking about the vegetables is a pure joy. We enjoyed hearing about the special meals you made with produce we grew. It is humbling to realize that we made those meals and memories possible. You know exactly who grew your food and how fresh it is. It truly reminds us that we are not only supplying produce, we are establishing a community. For this, we thank you.



We will leave you with a few shots:

Fall bok choi

Tatsoi

 



Sweet Basil

Fish pepper

Red Bells

 

 



Yellow and red Swiss chard

 

Chive blossoms

Juliet tomato

Sun Sugar tomato

 

 

Jeff and Sandra

9/10/2012

Here we are in the second week of September and it is so very hard to believe that the 2012 season is just about over.  For most of you there are only two more deliveries left, with your last delivery during the week of 9/17.  For those who took advantage of the ability to defer a week for vacations, you have your make up delivery during the week of 9/24.

The weather has certainly been….interesting this season. Yesterday was no exception. The high winds and heavy rains played havoc with the greens. Most are lying sideways on the ground. The good thing about greens is that they should all pop back up to normal with the blue skies and warm sunshine scheduled for the rest of this week.



 

The view across the street. Is that rotating?







Sideways bok choi

Our fall greens are now coming into their prime. The bok choi, mizuna, kale, and tatsoi have all grown well and will be part of this week’s baskets. (More about tatsoi in your basket info sheet.) Now that we have hot peppers we have been able to make an organic flea beetle repellant with hot cayenne, garlic and basil mixed with a little dish soap. It worked really well, until a few days of rain prevented us from re-applying and the flea beetles feasted. The pinpoint holes on the fall green’s leaves are cosmetic only, but we were hoping to prevent it from happening. Oh well, we needed the rain. We’ll dry the cayenne and try again in the spring.



Mizuna and kale

Purple bok choi

Speaking of rain, the tomatoes are, well, having “issues”. With the rains came the dreaded tomato blight. It is caused by the same fungus that caused the Great Irish Potato Famine and is just as deadly. Growing heirloom tomatoes using organic practices pretty much makes it inevitable. In fact, a new strain showed up in 2009 that is particularly aggressive.  Crops throughout the United States are being devastated. We have actually been lucky holding out this long-the dry summer helped prevent the blight (the silver lining?) until the recent rains.

Notice the dead leaves?

All we can do is remove the infected leaves (NOT compost them!) and hope the remaining tomatoes will ripen before the plant completely dies. Oh well, once they finally ripened it was a good tomato season, and there is always next year

Bare stemmed plants

 



As we wind down the 2012 season, we are looking ahead to the 2013 season. In fact, many of our plantings are being done now for the spring 2013 harvest.

If the winter is mild these will be next spring’s broccoli

We are taking time to look back on this year’s experiences and see what we did right and where we can improve our practices. We had a very good response to the Survey and will be incorporating many of your comments and suggestions. Next year we will include more of a selection of herbs and produce.  We will increase the quantity of some items, and not overwhelm you with others.  We will switch to two ten week sessions so that everyone will have the opportunity to have both cool and hot weather crops. We will give more guidance on how to handle your produce, and how to preserve surplus. (Tomatoes and peppers can be frozen.) We will expand the webpage to include more produce information. (Some is there already, take a look!) We will be starting the 2013 season earlier to better match the asparagus season.  We also plan to resume our egg offering now that we have increased the coop security from predators and once we purchase more chicks this fall. We will look at our succession planting practices to see if we are maximizing our available real estate. As always, if you have any comments or suggestions feel free to call, email, or leave a comment on our webpage at http://www.jsminifarm.blogspot.com.

Also, the price for gas continues to rise with no end in sight. We deliver 100% of our shares. We must take into account the financial well-being of the business. Thus, next year the share prices will be $24/week. However, for our returning shareholders, and any friends and family members whom you refer and sign up by November 1^st, we will discount the price to $22/week.

The price schedules for the 2013 season are as follows:

Discounted-sign up before November 1st

Session I (10 weeks) Late April/early May-early/mid July	$220
½ Share Session I (delivery every other week)	$120
Session II (10 weeks) early/mid July-mid/end September	$220
½ Share Session II (delivery every other week)	$120
Full Season (Sessions I and II) 10% Discount	$396
½ Share Full Season (Session I and II) 10% Discount	$216
Egg subscription-1 dozen per week  Session I or Session II	$30
*Egg subscription-1/2 dozen per week Session I or Session II	$20
Egg subscription Full Season (Sessions I and II)	$60
*Egg subscription-1/2 dozen per week Full Season (Sessions I and II)	$40
*If you also sign up for a ½ share of produce you will receive 1 dozen eggs every other week with your veggies.   Egg shares only available with a vegetable subscription.

 Normal 2013 Price 

Session I (10 weeks) Late April/early May-early/mid July	$240
½ Share Session I (delivery every other week)	$130
Session II (10 weeks) early/mid July-mid/end September	$240
½ Share Session II (delivery every other week)	$130
Full Season (Sessions I and II) 10% Discount	$432
½ Share Full Season (Session I and II) 10% Discount	$234
Egg subscription-1 dozen per week  Session I or Session II	$30
*Egg subscription-1/2 dozen per week Session I or Session II	$20
Egg subscription Full Season (Sessions I and II)	$60
*Egg subscription-1/2 dozen per week Full Season (Sessions I and II)	$40

 We hope you have enjoyed this inaugural year as much as we have! While the weather has been challenging to say the least, and the predators (for both plant and animal life) overwhelming; we can honestly say that this has been a very good year. In these growing conditions we count ourselves lucky to have had such a good harvest with only a few crop failures. Many other small farmers have lost everything. We take a moment to think of those in worse drought stricken areas, or who suffered even more severe weather than we had. Remember the connection between Mother Nature and your food supply!

In closing, here are some shots of other, non-vegetative varieties in our garden. Sights like this are why we use no pesticides.

 

 

Ok, the last two we could do without. Forrest strikes again.

Until next time,

Jeff and Sandra