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Garden Gate:  CSA's & Garden Calendar  |
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FlipFlopFarmer
True Blue Farmgirl
198 Posts
Carla
Molalla
Oregon
198 Posts |
 Posted - Aug 08 2006 : 09:40:01 AM
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My husband and I are miserable gardners. We're simply too busy with the dairy cow, steers, chickens, bees, dog, cats...oh yeah and don't forget the kids and that we both work full time. This year we did a fairly good job only to look our our window and see that one of our steers had gone through the fence and eaten and/or trampled the whole garden except the pumpkins. Looks like we'll be eating a lot of pumpkin this year. 
I've been thinking about joining a local CSA for our fruits/veggies. Do any of you belong to a CSA? If so, how did you locate them? We're in Oregon and I've gone on a few websites and haven't really found much in my area. There a quite a few that deliver in Portland but that's too far for me. Of those of you who are/were members of a CSA, did you like it?
Also, I was thinking, it would be great to locate a garden calendar for your particular zone that would give you hints, tips, reminders of things to do. It seems I always wait until it's too loate to put out my peas. Anyone know of something like this?
 Carla
Live simply.
Love generously.
Care deeply.
Speak kindly. |
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garliclady
True Blue Farmgirl
274 Posts
Reidsville
NC
274 Posts |
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FlipFlopFarmer
True Blue Farmgirl
198 Posts
Carla
Molalla
Oregon
198 Posts |
Posted - Aug 09 2006 : 3:01:30 PM
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Thanks for the CSA link garliclady. Looks like most CSA's are wrapping it up for the season.
I found a cool seed sowing calendar on the You Grow Girl website. Here's a link
http://www.yougrowgirl.com/grow/seedstartingchart_lazy.php
You just insert your last frost date. They even give you a link to the Fammer's Almanac to get that info and TA DA...a seed chart for your zone.
Carla
Live simply.
Love generously.
Care deeply.
Speak kindly. |
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ThymeForEweFarm
True Blue Farmgirl
705 Posts
Robin
An organic farm in the forest in
Maine
USA
705 Posts |
Posted - Aug 09 2006 : 5:12:31 PM
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Carla, it's not too early to start contacting CSAs for potential membership for next year. Fees are usually collected in the winter so that the farmer has money for seeds and other expenses. Some farms allow a payment plan as long as the fee is paid in full by a specific time. Most of the CSA farmers I know are sold out by March.
Robin
www.thymeforewe.com
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brightmeadow
True Blue Farmgirl
2045 Posts
Brenda
Lucas
Ohio
USA
2045 Posts |
Posted - Aug 09 2006 : 5:20:12 PM
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You sound like me! Early this spring I decided to join a CSA because I am busy all the time and it seemed like a good way to commit to healthier eating.
It has been a mixed blessing. We are eating much healthier (I have lost 10 pounds and DH has lost 15) because we have SO MANY VEGETABLES!!!
Plus, our farmer has introduced me to some veggies I would never have eaten on my own like mache, kohlrabi, and collards. Like you, I have my own garden too, and right now I am kind of discouraged because of weeds, tomato bugs, rabbits, green bean bugs, too much dampness, etc. But, I am still harvesting tomatoes and cucumbers and occasionally lettuce from my own garden in addition to what I am getting from our farmer.
The problem I mostly have with the CSA is that my schedule doesn't seem to coincide all the time with the deliveries. She delivers to our local farmers Market on Saturday, or to the college campus 1 mile from my work on Wednesdays, or at her farm 7 miles from me on Wednesday evening. I have to let her know 2 days in advance if I am not going to pick up a scheduled delivery. Normally I get my veggies on Saturday, but that doesn't work when my husband and I go out of town, or if I have something else to do on Saturday morning. One week I scheduled the pickup early on Wednesday because I knew I wouldn't be there Saturday, but then forgot all about it and had to end up going to her farm in the evening to pick up the veggies. She has been very accomodating, it is just a little inconvenient for me, and a 15-mile round trip to her farm is a lot of gas/time to spend when I could just supplement my own garden veggies at the grocery store (which now has an organic section, by the way. It would be different if I didn't have my own garden.
The other disadvantage is that my refrigerator is FULL! I thought if I had extra I would give it to my grown children, but they keep turning down my offers of yellow squash, zucchini, corn, lettuce, Swiss chard, etc... I am going to have to start learning to make relishes.
I am trying to decide right now whether to continue with the CSA next year or not. She offers organic brown eggs, probably cheap at $2.50/dozen, but on the other hand I am buying free-range eggs at $1.00 a dozen from another lady periodically (three miles away), so there's another special trip.
I'm not sure how earth-friendly my habits are if I am driving 100 miles a month to get my groceries!!!
I did sign up to get a 1/4 steer of organic Angus beef with a local farmer I found through http://www.eatwild.com, so maybe I won't be going to the grocery store nearly as much any more, making the CSA more attractive.
As far as the garden calendar, another place to look is Mel Bartholemew's Square foot gardening, he really lays out how soon and how late you can plant various veggies for succession gardening. (At least in the older version of the book that I have)
You shall eat the fruit of the labor of your hands - You shall be happy and it shall be well with you. -Psalm 128.2
Visit my blog at http://brightmeadowfarms.blogspot.com, web site store at http://www.watkinsonline.com/fish or my homepage at http://home.earthlink.net/~brightmeadow |
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Nance in France
True Blue Farmgirl
1438 Posts
Nancy
St. Laurent de la Salanque
France
1438 Posts |
Posted - Aug 10 2006 : 07:58:43 AM
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| Especially for Carla, Flip Flop Farmer (do you have any idea how hard it is to say that five times fast?)! And of course, the rest of you gals... Here is a yummy idea for your big stash of pumpkins. It is a Pumpkin Tomatoe Soup my hubby makes. Peel pumpkin; skin and seed the tomatoes; cut pumpkin in good size chunks, put in a saucepan with tomatoes and cover with water. Simmer until pumpkin is soft; using a hand blender or mixer, puree veggies. Add a piece or two of Laughing Cow brand soft cheese and stir until blended in. Add salt and pepper to taste. It is gooooddd!! Bon appetit!! |
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garliclady
True Blue Farmgirl
274 Posts
Reidsville
NC
274 Posts |
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Bluewrenn
True Blue Farmgirl
1122 Posts
Erin
Texas
USA
1122 Posts |
Posted - Aug 10 2006 : 6:52:57 PM
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I have a great pumpkin recipe - take a whole pumpkin, cut the top off like you would for a jack-o-lantern and clean out the seeds and membranes from the inside.
If you need to slice a piece off the bottom to make it sit flat, do that but don't cut all the way through the pumpkin. Thin out the sides by cutting small portions of pumpkin from the inside, but leave it thick enough to serve as a bowl - the pumpkin will hold your soup... Put this into a shallow baking dish and set aside.
Then make some beef stew, like you normally would, browning the beef and adding potatoes, onions and whatever other veggies you like. Add the pumpkin portions that were removed from the pumpkin, diced like potatoes.
This stew is great with both sweet potatoes and regular potatoes.
Add some curry powder to the stew (to taste) and when the stew is mixed and ready, pour it into the pumpkin shell and bake in the oven for about an hour (I use 325-350 degrees and just kind of watch it... you want the pumpkin to cook with the stew in it and you want the veggies in the stew cooked.)
Serve with hot bread.
My Homesteading Journal
http://toomyvara.livejournal.com
My craft journal
http://bluewrenn.livejournal.com |
Edited by - Bluewrenn on Aug 10 2006 6:55:53 PM |
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LJRphoto
True Blue Farmgirl
760 Posts
Laura
Hickory Corners
MI
USA
760 Posts |
Posted - Aug 10 2006 : 8:48:32 PM
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Wow, both of those soup recipes sound delicious. Makes me wish I had planted some pumpkins!
"I would feel more optimistic about a bright future for man if he spent less time proving that he can outwit Nature and more time tasting her sweetness and respecting her seniority." -E. B. White
http://www.betweenthecities.com/blog/ljr/
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Garden Gate: CSA's & Garden Calendar |
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CSA's & Garden Calendar
