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

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

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

Magical Turnips and a Super Moon, Week 5 of Your CSA

Purple Top Turnip.

Hello Moon Bears,

What a succulent harvest this week on the Art Farm. 

Just look at that turnip. 

Besides the Moon, that root was the most beautiful essence rising out of the clay this week.  
By the way turnips are great mashed with potatoes.

 And beets: gold, white, crimson.

We're also in the midst of expanding our cleaning station for field washing right after harvest. I inherited a 10 foot long  double stainless sink. Thanks mom. So obviously we had to ensconce it within a brand new structure. Just another week long project to wile our time away.

 

 

Heather has also been busy making recipes in the kitchen. 

Roasted Beet Salad with Beet Greens and Feta 

Mmm.

   

Finally carrots have arrived. 

Solar yellow are the first to enter the world. 

Next week we'll have red and purple carrots too.

And here is the picture of The One that watches over y/our garden on these sultry summer nights.
The July Super Moon was incredible, a silent presence gliding through our dreams.

On the Menu This Week for a Full Share:

• Solar Yellow Carrots
• Gold and Crimson Beets
• Sprouting Broccoli
• Rainbow Chard
• Siberian Kale
• Dutch Yellow Onion
• Baby Turnips
• Gold and French Zucchini
• A few Cabbages

See You In the Garden.
Rick and Heather


(c) Rick Sievers, Moon Bear Produce, July 2014

Summer CSA

New Veggies are stretching from their dreams.

Come See us on Saturday 4/26 at the Clark Home and Garden Fair. Besides us there will be lots of plant starts, other farm vendors, socially and ecologically minded organizations and hands on demos for living a healthy happy life.
CSA:  Our weekly veggie subscription service is starting in June. Give me a call if you want to sign up. Not sure if you want to join a CSA? Here are the benefits of our CSA:

• Reasonable Cost. Only $350.00 ($325 for Legacy/Kaiser employees at Salmon Creek) That's half of many CSAs. We  wanted to provide veggies at a cheaper rate than you'd pay if  buying them individually at the markets.
• Focused on individual member needs. Our CSA will only have 10. Being small is part of our business plan. So we will know you as people we care about individually. Which means if there's something you want more of or less of we will try our best to accommodate.
• Easy Delivery. We will deliver to both Salmon Creek Markets. You can pick it up from our cooler on the farm near Battle Ground. Or we can deliver for an extra charge.
• Good Mix of basics like potatoes, beets, lettuce, summer squash, onions etc. And we'll provide a few fun and tasty veggies that you may just be getting acquainted with, like: fairy eggplant, personal sized cabbage, glass gem popcorn. We won't overwhelm you with things that you are unfamiliar with or won't use easily.
• Our Greatest benefit: Food grown with integrity and love...We'll never spray your food with artificial herbicides or pesticides. More than that, our soil is rich and alive. We grow everything with diversity in mind, mixing the plant habitats and providing companion planting. Something else which we feel makes an infinite difference in the vitality of your food: We work in the garden with a contemplative and prayerful attitude, with reverence for the earth and her creatures.
• Weekly Farm blog with current veggies and berries that are ripe, recipes, farm events and market specials.

 A Few Specifics of or CSA Delivery Service:

1. Season runs at least twelve weeks, starting sometime in late June. Most seasons have run somewhat longer.
2. Boxes come weekly, about a bushel. Think orange crate size box.
3. We request a full payment up front by May 15th. In special circumstances we will do a month by month service or work on other payment options/plans. 
4. Being a Moon Bear member affords you the chance to visit and be a part of your farm. Come out and see us. Help us if you want, or not. We have occasional member potlucks and other farm events (writing groups and poetry gathering) which are free to members.

Contact us soon. We have seven spots open. We love doing this for a living. It's not just work, it's joy.

First Lettuce for 2014

See You In the Garden,
Rick
(Three Six Zero) 904-Four Three Two One
moonbearsfarm@yahoo.com 



(c) Rick Sievers, April 2014