Wave of Autumnal Colors: Delivery #12

Full Spectrum Wave of Dahlias

 Hello Moon Bears,

This is your Final Official Delivery for 2015.
There will be one more Bonus Delivery on September 17th. We'll trade the last ice chests in for the season then.

Thank You for a beautiful season. 

We so loved connecting with you and sharing the joys and challenges of the garden with you.

We have a grab-bag of goodness on this, our final week. Check out the photos of all plants showing off for the rain clouds:

Concord

Dahlia

The End of an Old Compressor Tank

At the Cleaning Station

 On Your Full Share Menu This Week
Rainbow Carrots
Gold and Purple Tomatillos
Beautiful Heirloom Tomatoes
Concord Grapes
Heirloom Apples
Lemon Cucumbers
Sea Kale
Rainbow Chard
Garlic
Various Items from the Cabbage Family like
Kohlrabi
Savoy Cabbage
Brussel Sprouts 

Tomatillo

Baby Zucchini
Winter Squash, Spaghetti and Carnival
Sweet Mini Bell Peppers

kohlrabi

Pictures Below: Notice the Doe on her way to much on the kale bed. When she saw me coming she went and hid behind the greenhouse. I just let her be, figuring that Autumn was a time to share the wealth.

See you on Thursday.
Rick

Sliding into the Fall Harvest: Delivery #11

Hello Moon Bears,

This is your second to last official delivery. A bonus delivery will occur, however, on September 17th.

On You Full Share Menu This Week

• Concord Grapes
• Honey Crisp Apples
• Super Sweet Corn
• A Dozen Varieties of Tomatoes
• Small Detroit Beets
• Wax Beans
• Viking Potatoes
• Last of the Summer Salad
• Purple Hawaiian Sweet Bell Peppers 
• Rainbow Carrots
• Garlic

Did you notice a theme here in the flavors: Sweet and Savory.

Blessing to you this last week of August.
Thank you for believing in this small farm.

Rick



(c) Copyright Rick Sievers, Moon Bear Produce, August 2015

Sweetness in Summer: Delivery 10

 Hello Moon Bears,

The tomatoes are really coming on strong. We harvested 110 pounds from the 35 mature plants this morning. Also the corn and concord grapes will be ready and SWEET next week.

Here's Your Menu For a Full Share

• Delicata and Carnival Squash
• Sea and Siberian Kale
• Ten Varieties of Tomatoes
• Green and Wax Beans
• Nantes Half Long Super Sweet Carrots
• Venersborg Garlic
• Savoy Cabbage (Frilly and sweet)
• Fresh Red and Sweet Basil
• Rose Finn, Pontiac and Yukon Gold Potatoes

Thanks,
See you Soon,
Rick


(c) Copyright Moon Bear Produce, Rick Sievers, August 2015

Rainbow of Roots: Delivery #9

Many Carrots Are Not Naturally Orange

 Hello Moon Bears,

Only 2 1/2 weeks left of August. Looks like the tomatoes have finally arrived. And we're seeing the final root crops coming in this week and next.

We had a funny frustrating occurrence this week. We've been discovering the pepper plants in the greenhouse eaten down to the ground. I thought of two possible culprits:  rabbits. But we'd installed a 500 foot rabbit proof fence around the perimeter of the north garden and greenhouse this year. Should be no rabbits, right? Well, I just saw a rabbit scampering around in the kale bed outside the window. The funny thing about armoring up is that it not only keeps the warm fuzzy creatures out. It keeps them in. Looks like I trapped a lonesome bunny in paradise this year. Now, if we could only trap him and drop him off at the neighbor's farm... only kidding.

Here's the Menu for a Full Share this Week:

• Green, Purple and Yellow Beans
• Barbecue Perfect Onions
• Tomatoes of Many Stripes and Colours
• Small Pumpkins... hey they're ready. Why Not?
• Spaghetti Squash
• Fresh Basil
• Lemon, Armenian and Tender Green Cucumbers
• Zucchini
• Maybe some Concord Grapes... We'll see
• Golden and Cylindra Red Beets (The last)
• Purple, yellow and White Carrots 
• Beira Kale
• Yukon Gold Potatoes

Coming Your Way

Thanks for Eating Local and Fresh.
See You in the Garden

Rick


(c) Copyright Moon Bear Produce, Rick Sievers, August 2015

Slowing Down in a Catawampus Season: Delivery 8

Almost Ripe

Baby Bears

This is a season of topsy-turvy surprises. Like how did the pumpkins get ripe before the tomatoes? Or the salad has grown strong almost all summer despite the big heat. What about the clouds of grasshoppers, when we've never even seen a hopper before this year?  There's no doubt about it weather and gardening know how is changing quickly. With this in mind I've been taking the following prescription for my befuddlement:

Just be still. Put down the tools. Stop the worrying about voles and moles. Find a shady patch of garden and simply sit there.

Bees LOVE the Corn Tassels

Sound simple? Well, it's the most difficult behavior in the world for this would be farmer. But I tried it again yesterday. I sat  down in the cool rustle of the corn rows. Silky fronds moved lightly across my neck. And then I heard it; not silence per se', but the bees. A thousand bees swarming and dancing and slinking their way through the tassels of pollen. There was a buzzing symphony of sweet contentment. There are no GMOs or sprays in this garden, so I knew the bees were safe. Then, listening to them I knew I was safe too.

Try the prescription sometime and simply stop, set everything down (and I mean literally empty your hands) and then just  be there the best you can. You may find some otherworldly visitors coming in the form of buzzing bees or the caressing hands of the rustling corn.

On Your Full Share Menu this Week.

• Alas, the tomatoes are still on the green side
• Ruby Queen Beet Greens
• Cylindra Beets
• Nantes Carrots
• Purple and Yellow Beans for 1/3 of the folks. More again next week.
• Venersborg Garlic
• Summer Salad Mix
• Mega Load of Lemon Cucumbers
• Armenian Striped Cucumbers
• Red Pontiac Potatoes
• Siberian and Russian Kale

The Pumpkins go into the root cellar until September.
Looks like just about everything else will come ripe next week including Squash, Tomatoes.

Thanks,
See You In The Garden,
Rick

(c) Copyright Moon Bear Produce, Rick Sievers, including words and all images except the bee, August 2015

Sliding Into the Fun Season in the Garden; Delivery #7

Cone Flower. i.e Echinacea

Finding that the carrots ripened overnight.

Hello Moon Bears,

This is the fun time of the season. The garden becomes so overgrown that hidden groves of veggies are rediscovered. Like finding Walla Walla Onions beneath the edge of the potatoes. Or discovering ripe tomatillos way back in the corner of the greenhouse, and we did not even plant tomatillos this year. Just when I thought farming was mostly work and defending against disease and predators, the Earth explodes with bounty.

Here's You Menu This Week For a Full Share

• A few Ripe Tomatoes. This is the down payment of many hundreds to come in the next month.
• Tomatillos. Also a down payment.
• Baby Carrots
• Lemon, Tender Green and Pickling Cucumbers
• Summer Salad
• Fresh Bunches of Fresh Basil.
• Russet and Yukon Gold Potatoes
• Green and Yellow Zucchini
• Sea Kale
• Siberian Kale
• Rainbow Chard
• Venersborg Garlic

Lemon Cucumbers

Filling the Box today for Our Millennium Friends

The Greenhouse is Overflowing

 Native Bee Sleeping in the Sun Flower

Today I'm just remembering the bounty and grace within the work. Thanks for sharing the garden journey with me.

Rick






(c) Copyright Images and Words, Moon Bear Produce, Rick Sievers July 2015

Watering for Garden Health: Delivery #6

 Hello Moon Bears,

We're half-way through our CSA season. About 35% of the garden is cleared out or replanted with cover crops already. The dry wind has been a tenacious water sump to the soil this year. Lots of care is going into both conserving and applying enough water. I find that hand watering, except for the drip systems on the squash and tomatoes, is best for the plants.


Here are a few tips I've learned over the years on watering:

• Don't splash dirt or water from ground on tomatoes or squash if possible. The splash is often a vector for fungal diseases.
• Be careful about overhead watering pole and bush beans. Make sure the leaves have lots of time to dry out before nightfall. Beans don't like water sitting on their leaves overnight.
• Use drip irrigation if possible on larger plants. It's worth the effort. I generally use 2 gallon per minute nozzles once a week.
• Remember to  check the soil for moisture with a household moisture probe. Poke around the root zone, and go deep if possible.
• Not too wet. Roots suffocate and rot if really wet.
• And Not too skimpy on water either. I give One big dose of water and then let the ground dry out over the week.
• Many plants will naturally have a little leaf droop in hot weather. Just make sure the leaves spring back before the sun comes up again the next day.
• For conservation and minimizing evaporation use landscape fabric under squash and tomatoes. I also leave grass between rows instead of bare dirt.
• Watering is an art. Let the flow be such that there is no run-off. You can see the soil suck in the water. When it is full it will tell you.
• I sometimes run a little furrow with periodic dirt dams between the rows to catch the irrigation.  
• I like to use the battery operated timers. The orbit is my favorite because it's easy to use. Link Orbit Timer

Here's your Menu for a Full Share this Week:

• The first of the green beans
• Caraflex Cabbage. Cone shaped deliciousness.
• Fresh Warba Potatoes
• Salad Mix. Still holding its own, despite the heat.
• Detroit Beets
• Small White Onions
• Sea Kale. Think Smoothies.
• Siberian Kale
• Rainbow Chard 
• Garlic

Thanks,
Rick


(c) Copyright Moon Bear Produce, Rick Sievers, July 2015

Organic Choices and Integrity: Delivery #5

Hello Moon Bears,

Summer is nearly at its peak now. The garden is transitioning into hot weather produce, like tomatoes, tomatillos, peppers and corn.  The potatoes are also ripening. Check out the interior view of the All Blue Variety above. Mid Summer also brings its share challenging critters. Which leads an organic farmer into all sorts of quandaries. Consider the meadow vole. This is a small mouse-like rodent that lives in meadows and gardens. It is bigger than a mouse and it's abundant. In our area the vole can comprise up to 80% of the mammal life. Wikipedia Meadow_Vole

The Culprit

In our garden the vole is pest #1. In fact I have a difficult time not hating this creature. Yet, it has a right to live and thrive in our world. But where does a micro-farmer draw the line between rights and excesses? Or is it just a matter of surrender? This week, 70% of our beet crop has been chewed or hollowed out by these hidden creatures. This leaves one with some hard questions if one is to remain faithful to organic and compassionate beliefs.

The average farmer would poison the critters. But the poisonous rebound effect on predators such as owls and coyotes is devastating. Also, the neighbor's cats are at risk of death if they eat a poisoned vole. Some folks have suggested cats in the garden to patrol. But think about what cats do in well tilled succulent dirt. They leave deposits which have potentially dangerous pathogens to our customers. So cats are out.... They just patrol the perimeter of the garden. The natural predators are being killed by the locals who fear for their little dogs which run wild. So they are not in the picture either. Organic repellants are touted to be effective, hot pepper spray, something called Plantskydd, predator urine etc. But none of these have worked here. And trapping thousands of these creatures is out of the question. 

After a Vole Attack

Look at the damage they cause the beets. And when the beets are pulled up they will move to the carrots and the potatoes. Our strategies have been mostly to plant A LOT of roots vegetables and hope we have enough. They take an average of 25% of our entire root crops. That's a chunk. And a disappointment every single year. Every organic farmer has a nemesis or two. The regular world just poisons what ails them. Which ironically allows the same poison to enter the human food chain. And that's worse than crop damage.  

When you see organics being a higher price remember, this set of issues is one of the reasons. It can be hard to remain with integrity when faced with such predation on the plants and profits. Yet our customers and earth deserve only the best the earth's farmer has to offer.
 
On You Full Share Menu this Week:

• Summer Salad Mix
• Swiss Chard
• All Blue and the Best Russet Potatoes Ever
• Fresh Garlic 
• Beira Kale Also called Sea Kale. Great for Smoothies
• Siberian Kale
• Russian Kale
• Golden and Ruby Beets (What's left)
• Red and White Onions 
• Armenian Striped Cucumbers
• Sprouting Broccoli

Also, we are making another organic choice. We will begin transitioning to non petroleum based produce bags in the next couple of weeks. There's some fair amount of misinformation out there about "Bio-degradable" bags. Some supposed biodegradable bags are only petroleum based bags with unproven chemicals put in to "speed" degradation... which can still take 500 years. 

Last year we did an experiment with one of the potato chip bags that claimed to biodegrade within 90 days. We put the bag in our compost pile for a Year. Everything in the pile was composted Except the bag. It was still whole and even had all the lettering on it, like new. So buyer beware of eco-friendly claims. Here's a resource for info.: do-biodegradable-plastics-really-work

With that being said, we are buying into the corn based bags. The cost will be four times what a regular bag would cost. That's a small price for integrity. Here's info on the new bags: Bio Bag.



Thanks,
Rick


(c) Copyright Moon Bear Produce, Rick Sievers, July 2015

How to Bee Happy: Delivery #4

Honey Bee on a Wild Onion Bloom

Turnips Fresh From Their Beds

 Hello Moon Bears,

I had a moment in the squash patch when I Knew that This is what the Earth is Truly like underneath all the fierce challenges happening right now in our environment. The Summer Squash were bursting out of the plant bases. Their flowers waving lazily in the gentle breeze. All around me were honey bees and the big fuzzy native bees. They spiraled in and out of the flower forest. Some spun around my head. The buzzing was ecstatic. I felt the brush of their wings on my neck and arms as I reached in to harvest the bounty. And I brought back a smile along with the squash. This is what the Earth offers us in the garden: Joy, especially when we treat her with reverence and integrity.

FYI: If you want to make the bees happy, let some of your garden crops go wild and flower. Bees love radishes, kale and onions when they bloom. In fact, a single radish plant will stand about four feet tall, with a thousand blooms, if you let it bee.

Check Out Our Golden Beets

On Your Menu This Week:

• Rainbow Chard
• A Trinity of Kale
• The Last of the Ruby Turnips
• Tender Green and Armenian Cukes
• Golden and Detroit Beets
• The Best Russian Banana Fingerling Potatoes
• Dutch Yellow Onions
• The Last of the Pre-Heat Wave Lettuce
• Small Summer Garlic

Tender Green and Lemon Cucumbers

Thanks,
See You in the Garden

Rick





(c) Copyright, Words and Images, Moon Bear Produce, Rick Sievers, July 2015

4th of July: Red White and Blue Potatoes. Delivery 3

Red White and Blue Potatoes Coming Your Way

Hello Moon Bears,

The potatoes we planted on March 24th are finally here. Three months in the ground. Pulling them is Always such an amazing process, like hunting Easter eggs. For any of you that have planted your own potatoes here are a few tips I've learned along the way. They generally take around three months to get to dinner size portions. Though you can reach your hand under the plant well before and snatch a few new potatoes for breakfast, kind of like collecting eggs from beneath a hen. When the plants flop over and begin to look less vibrant (maybe with some yellowing leaves) then the harvest is near. Remember, the actual potato tubers generally do not ever grow deeper than you originally planted them. That's why you hill them up over the length of the season.

When you come to the harvest time spare yourself potato puncture wounds by observing the following tips: 

• Use a spade well past the drip line and dig Deeper than the original seed potato.
• Keep the spade always deeper than the original seed and work your way into the heart of the root system, levering up softly.
• Take your time and try not to get too excited by digging willy-nilly in a fast pace. Meditative, if possible.
• Eat the ones you accidentally slice first.
• Grub around with your hands in the loose dirt you will always find a few outliers.
• When you clean the Fresh spuds don't use a hard spray or course brush. The skins are pretty delicate at this stage. I usually just put them in a bath of fresh clean water and swirl them around. then brush them in the water bath.
• I use a very soft veggie brush bought at Fred Meyer.
• Remember the miracle provided from the deep mystery of the Earth.

On Your Menu This Week for a Full Share:

• The fore mentioned potatoes. Purple, Russet and Rose Finn Fingerling. Mmmm We have a lot more coming this year too.
• The last of the Oregon Giant Snap Peas
• Maybe some Broccoli. We'll see if the second wave is ready.
• Butter Head Salad with delicate and sweet Purslane.
• Detroit Beets
• Rainbow Swiss Chard
• The last of the Walla Walla Onions. Get ready for more onion varieties next week.
• Yellow and striped Zucchini
• Purple Top Turnips
• And the beginning of the Cucumbers. Armenian, Burpless and Lemon. Yay!

Thanks for thinking and eating locally. Thanks for choosing organic. The Earth and Your Body thank You.

Rick

(c) Copyright Rick Sievers, Moon Bear Produce, June 2015

Blazing Sun and Blazing Hearts. Moon Bear CSA Delivery #2

Upper Mid Garden on the Art Farm

Hello Moon Bears,

We're getting ready for the second delivery of 2015. Last week we literally cleared every ripe and ready item out of the garden for delivery #1. Which always happens. And like every year before we just prayed that the Earth would be bounteous over the coming week and fill basket #2. Which always happens. We have always had just enough, and the garden has always given a 100% to our members. I'm super grateful.

On the Menu for a Full Share This Week:

• Rainbow Chard
• Rhubarb
• New Potatoes
• Butter Lettuce Salad
• Sweet Snap Peas
• Detroit Beets
• Walla Walla Onions
• Fresh Garlic
• Siberian Kale
• Striped Zucchini



It's Hot Out There!

• Broccoli, if it grows a little more.

Star Shine Salad bagged and Ready for the Cooler

Lettuce and Spinach for 13ish CSA Boxes

Ruby Queen Beets Getting a Bath

Callie, The Supervisor and Security Guard

Thanks for believing in organic and local agriculture on a micro level.

See You For deliveries on Thursday.

Rick


(c) Copyright Words and Images,  Rick Sievers, Moon Bear Produce, June 2015