Full Sun Farm

Mixed Greens with Cumin and Paprika.

admin — Sun, 19 May 2013 23:08:49 +0000

Serves 3-4.

The greens cook down!

Steam 12 cups mixed chopped greens, collards, kale, chard, broc raab, bok choi, kohlrabi greens. Set aside. Pound or mash 4 cloves of garlic with 1/2 tsp salt and then add to 1 cup chopped parsley and 1 cup chopped cilantro. Warm 2 tsp paprika and 2 tsp cumin in 3 tbsp olive until they release they flavor. Stir in garlic mixture then add greens until extra moisture has evaporated. Add salt to taste. Garnish with olives, lemon juice or some chopped tomatoes.

News from the Farm – May 18, 2013

admin — Sun, 19 May 2013 22:55:24 +0000

Cucumber & Summer Squash enjoying the warmth under a temporary “greenhouse”.

planting some lettuce mix (usually done with a mechanical transplanter so the rows are a little more straight!)

We hope everyone has enjoyed last week’s box and are ready for this one!

We got a phone call from another farmer on Tuesday morning asking for advice. Unfortunately we couldn’t offer much help. Every season brings new challenges. Some are easier to deal with than others. This spring has been exceptionally cool and wet. As many of you have probably seen in the Citizen-Times, this spring is the third wettest since 1875. Water is a blessing and a curse to the farmer. There is almost never the correct amount freely given by mother nature. It’s either too much or too little and never timed to our liking. Our friend’s, other farmers, had called saying that nothing they had planted had grown much in the last few weeks and they had nothing to sell or offer their CSA members. We are a little more lucky, in that we have been able to take produce to market and put together two weeks worth of boxes for you all. However, we may be in the same boat as them in the coming weeks.

We were able to get a lot of early planting done because we made a few good decisions last fall. We had beds made up then, so we’d have them in the early spring when the ground is generally too wet to work with a tractor. We also covered much of the early planting with row covers to keep them warmer. But we had only so much space to plant into, and that was filled up weeks ago and we haven’t been able to get anything in since. Thankfully that did change on Wednesday and Thursday of this week. We were able to plant a LOT: a bed of sunflowers, broccoli, cabbage, chard, two beds of sweet corn, a mixed bed of lettuce mix, bok choi & kohlrabi, and a couple of beds of mixed flowers. We also sowed beets, carrots, soybeans, and snap beans. What a couple of days we’ve had. What we’re afraid of is a gap in production and some tough or unpleasant choices we may have to make concerning your boxes. Perhaps all will be fine, but being farmers, we worry.

Please return your CSA box next week. These boxes are waxed and are not recyclable, but we reuse them. So PLEASE remember to bring them back next week.

What’s In Your Box – May 18, 2013

admin — Sun, 19 May 2013 22:52:16 +0000

Green Leaf Lettuce
Red Oak Lettuce
Spring Onions
Green Kale
Swiss Chard
Baby Bok Choi
Rhubard
Strawberries (2 pints)

Roasted Rhubarb

admin — Sun, 12 May 2013 21:04:53 +0000

Preheat the oven to 350.

Thickly slice the rhubarb and put it into a deep oven-proof pot.

Add 1/4 cup of sugar and 1/4 cup of red wine.

Split open 1 vanilla bean and add them to the Rhubarb.

Roast the rhubarb until very tender, about 30 minutes.

This makes a wonderful sauce that you can add to ice cream or yogurt. Yum!

News from the Farm – May 11, 2013

admin — Sun, 12 May 2013 20:59:33 +0000

Sami & Ben harvesting flowers

Andrew doing the same, with onions & garlic in the background.

Here we go again! The box this week looks pretty good to us. We hope you all enjoy it.

We had a little bit of a hard time finding our crew this year, but in the end we have a great crew. You’ll see them at market on a rotating basis or if you come out to the farm we’ll be able to work with them. We have Sammy from Maryland, working her first full season on a farm after a couple of shorter stints on farms in the Northeast. Andrew from Connecticut, the pianist. He’s joining us after working on a small farm in Vermont. And Ben, from Virginia, whose interest in farming started after working on a Zen retreat center in the Bay area. We have one more intern joining us a little later in the season, Maggee, an Asheville native.

Everyone was happy to have the sun come out over the past few days. We’re not able to do many of the tasks we’d like to be doing: planting more vegetable starts, but we have spent our time doing jobs in drier portions of the farm. We trellised all the greenhouse tomatoes, made drying racks for the onions and garlic that will come out in the next few weeks, as well as digging quite a few little ditches trying to drain various wet areas of the farm.

Please return your CSA box next week. These boxes are waxed and are not recyclable, but we reuse them. So PLEASE remember to bring them back next week.

What’s In Your Box? – May 11, 2013

admin — Sun, 12 May 2013 20:54:34 +0000

Oak Leaf or Baby Romaine Lettuce
Lettuce Mix
Spring Onions
Collards
Swiss Chard
Radishes
Spinach
Rhubarb 1/2#
Strawberries (1 pint)
Arugula or pea shoots

News from the Farm – October 5, 2012

admin — Sat, 06 Oct 2012 15:17:13 +0000

October! Here we are in the home stretch. All the strawberries and over-winter flowers were planted last week and watered in. Tuesday’s big rain made sure everything got plenty of water! The cover crops are up and growing. We spent much on Monday of this week digging sweet potatoes. We dug somewhere between 600-700# of sweet spuds in one bed. There’s still a bed and a half left to dig. We grew three varieties this year: Beauregard, Georgia Jet, and Centennial. The Centennial’s have a very light ora skin to them, where the Georgia Jet’s are pretty close to fushia, and the Beauregard is more of a light brown. They all seemed to grow very well this season with some individual tubers weighing in at 3 or 4#!

We’re finally going to break ground on the farm pond next Wednesday. What a process it has been. Yikes. It should take about a week to finish the work, and by the end of the month we should have a full pond. We’ll let it settle over the winter and we’ll dig a new header line connecting the current system to a spot close to the pond where our pump can be set up. Next season we will have reliable and clean water, no more worries about what’s happening up stream from us.

Clean up is the name of the game at this point in the season. We’re taking down the tomatoes in the greenhouses, cleaning & folding up landscape fabric, mowing down the last of the summer crops, and rolling up a little more drip tape. There are a few more things going in the ground before the end: garlic & onions will go in around the 15th and there are some more lettuces & kales to plant in the greenhouses for our late December markets and to sustain the farmers over the winter.

What’s in Your Box – October 5, 2012

admin — Sat, 06 Oct 2012 15:16:31 +0000

Sweet Potatoes 3#
Head Lettuce
Carrots
Red Beets
Rainbow Chard
Garlic

Corn and Barley Salad on Arugula

admin — Sat, 06 Oct 2012 15:15:49 +0000

Ingredients:
1 cup pearl barley
Salt
1 1/2 cups fresh or frozen corn kernels
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons white wine vinegar
2 tablespoons chopped basil or oregano leaves
2 tablespoons sliced chives
1 cup diced red tomatoes
Freshly ground black pepper
8 ounces baby arugula leaves, rinsed and thoroughly dried
3 tablespoons fresh goat cheese, optional

Directions:
1. Rinse barley, place in a bowl and cover with 4 cups of water. Soak for several hours or overnight.
2. Transfer barley and soaking water to a medium saucepan. Add 1/2 teaspoon salt and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer until tender and most or all of water is absorbed, about 20 minutes. Meanwhile, if using frozen corn, cook according to package directions; fresh corn does not need to be cooked.
3. If necessary, drain excess water from barley. Return to pot and immediately add corn; mix well. In a large bowl, mix together oil and vinegar. Add basil or oregano, and chives. Add barley mixture and tomatoes, and mix gently. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
4. To serve, spread arugula on a platter. Top with corn and barley salad. Garnish with dollops of goat cheese, if desired, and serve.

Turnip Bisque

admin — Sat, 06 Oct 2012 15:14:59 +0000

Ingredients:
1 teaspoon olive oil
4 medium turnips, peeled and cut into 1-inch pieces
1 small baking potato, peeled and cut into 1-inch pieces
2 1/2 cups chicken broth, homemade or low-sodium canned
1 1/4 teaspoons salt
Freshly ground pepper to taste
3 tablespoons milk
1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves

Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Brush a baking sheet very lightly with oil. Using a vegetable peeler, make long, very thin strips from 1 of the turnips. Place the strips on the baking sheet and bake until crisp and partly browned, about 6 minutes. Set aside.
2.Cut the remaining turnips and potato into 1-inch pieces and place in a medium-size saucepan with 2 cups of the chicken broth. Bring to a boil ove