February/March 2011 Newsletter

The promise of regeneration resides in every flowering tree. It seems there is a hard, cold stretch before a thing of beauty can take shape. And when it does, it is unexpected, and a treasure to behold. Nature reminds us in March that out of difficulty and out of seeming death a thing of beauty can grow, and, if the conditions are right, feed and sustain another. Spring is a persistent season, urging us to break from our drab winter cloak and greet the sun with flying colors. And she can be cold, sending us right back into our shell. This in-between time leading into full-blown Spring is like a recalibrating of sorts, and if we are attuned, we can acknowledge the shifts and grow alongside. Spring was always the most difficult season for me, until I got into growing…then I forgot about most everything else...as Spring has become something like marathon nursing. With each decision, I’m asking the question, “How can I create the conditions for optimal growth?” and “How can I cultivate a semblance of order amidst all this green opportunity?”

I’m answering the first question each time my Dad and I stack a load of wood next to the water stove, knowing it will keep the tomato seedlings warm on these chilly nights. I’m answering every time I hand-water seedlings, getting a better feel for their thirst as I gain experience. I answer every time I decide it’s dry enough to till, feeling the earth crumble, knowing the resulting mix will breathe and relax and not clench up and bake when the sun burns hotter. I’m answering with each decision to transplant into the field, with a faith the plants I’ve nursed in the most optimal of conditions will survive and thrive in an uncertain environment, this fickle Spring.

The second question (“How can I create a semblance of order amidst all this green opportunity?”) is an easier question to answer, and yet a more difficult one to put into practice. By “green opportunity” I refer to weeds and tilled ground. As Peter Fossel states, “Weeds are nothing more than nature’s attempt to bring stability to what she considers a highly unstable and volatile environment…Nature wants a…high degree of biodiversity. What we want is a high degree of corn or broccoli.” Last season, our weeds grew too mature, too quickly for us to handle manually. So we’re taking a different approach this season. We’re answering the question at hand by investing in the tools and materials we need to confront the many waves of emergence. Where we cannot weed around sensitive squash, melons and sweet potato vines, we are laying plastic. Where added soil heat may improve yields we are also laying plastic. Everywhere else we are planting rows at least 10” apart to allow easy passage of our beloved wheel hoe. It is essentially a stirrup-shaped blade that sits behind a wheel and below two handles. And I will tell you, this hoe on a wheel will be busy. Its continued use at the right times (when weeds are at their “white thread” stage and preceding a rain) should, at the very least, allow us to find our crops.

Some folks have asked me, “What is fresh at this time of the year?” These are lean times indeed in the garden. We have found ways to stretch our winter harvest with minimal effort. We erected a couple of row covers late last fall to protect some spinach, arugula, lettuce, carrots (and leeks). We are trying the theory that spinach grows best if fall-panted, and so we planted some in each season to compare. We’ve found that its performance may also be more cultivar-dependent than some other vegetables, as one variety (Tyee) is far outperforming the other (Bloomsdale). We’ve been munching on much steamed spinach, as well as the fall-planted lettuce, green onions, kale and carrots. The greatest surprise by far was the lettuce’s survival. Planted in early November and withstanding a cold winter, we are still harvesting cuttings. From our experience this winter, gardening in winter is quite easy if you leave enough food under row covers in late fall…it doesn’t grow much, but the plants are preserved like little living monuments to the fall garden.

We have continued to erect row covers into Spring. Asian greens (pac choi, tatsoi) and anything in the mustard family (including most mesclun mix ingredients) fall prey to flea beatles in April. The surest way to protect them is simply to hide them. If our little experiment works, we should be able to provide a greater a variety of succulent greens come May. And well, if they’re shot full o’ holes you know we tried.

By now, I’ve seeded just about all our Spring and early-Summer crop, and we’ve planted most of our potatoes and onions. The potatoes we planted are Yukon golds, a couple red varieties and two types of fingerlings. I went a little crazy on the onions, planting thousands, but I alone am not to blame, as we had a little help from our friends: Grant, Wendy, Virgil, Ted, my dad Kevin and my wife Holly all pitched in. Grant is here almost every Saturday, wide-eyed and sometimes bushy-tailed. Family friends from St. Louis, the O’Neals were in last week, and we were fortunate to have the help of Mark erecting trellises and daughter Isabel to transplant tomatoes and herbs in the greenhouse. A big thank you to Holly for all her hard work in the greenhouse this Spring and to my Mom, Wendy, for the delicious meals, and, I should add, for both of you for putting up with your manure-slinging farm husbands, no easy task for sure.

While I’m handing out thank-yous, I should thank all of you that have placed your faith in us to grow your produce this season. We are doing everything in our power to prepare for the harvest. May it be abundant! I should note that we have five 2011 CSA memberships still available for purchase. If you’ve put it off, now’s your chance! To enroll, please make check payable to Harmony Ridge Farms, 3835 Bowens, Rd., Tobaccoville, NC 27050. Basic program is $675 and "plus" $895. You may read more here: ______________

I would also like to thank Wildfire Creative for designing our new logo, as seen at the top of this screen. I admit being finicky during the creative process, but Chris, Tony and company had the uncanny ability to decipher exactly what stood in my mind's eye.

Thanks also to Peter V. Fossel for writing "Organic Farming: Everything You Need to Know." I referred to the chapter "Weed Limits".

I will leave you with a few more pictures from the farm and a fond farewell.

(1)These have all been moved to the field. (2) Oh so many onions. (3) Ted and Virgil

January 2011 Newsletter

A long shadow is cast by the great white oak in front the barn: a solemn reminder winter’s long in the passing. The same birds gather here for breakfast at the foot of the old tree, arriving each on time and trading stations on schedule, this hour bringing the cardinal and blue jay. The jay will by nature strut and eat and intimidate the new arrivals like some bullying senior cadet. The cardinal will live and let live, taking only what she needs. Her unprepossessing grace an easy extension of her drab coat – a scarce fleck of orange an outward murmur of her inner strength.

In the distance, beyond the checkered and chilled vegetable plot at the crest of the hill, the necks of Canada Geese bob up into view, each taking their turn to lookout, then back down to peck and scavenge amongst the corn stubble. There is a line of sleeping and skeletal hardwoods behind them, their white vulnerability set off by the evergreen virility of the occasional pine and cedar. Above that, a sky of such muted lavenders only a winter morning could produce.

It’s the kind of scene that dredges up some dormant and big gratitude, and, with a sudden turn of thought, a sadness brought by the realization that many are barred by circumstance from experiencing these wonders. And, many who do have access see it merely as something separate – land worth possessing for whatever profit it is most suited.

When we can relate, recognize and be lifted by nature in its many forms, we can enter unclouded by any estimation of its worth. We may accept the scene not as ours to mold, but as an extension of our physical selves, as family. Just as we do not own our brother or sister, nor do we truly own this land or its inhabitants, for it, like family, is bigger than the sum of any one of us. Its wisdom knows no bounds, and it is our constant forgetting of this wisdom that brings on the sudden sadness. Our juvenile refusal to coexist – or at least acknowledge – underlies our seperation. It’s like family: when mama ain’t happy, ain’t nobody happy. In other words, we’ve been strutting around like the jay much too long.

I suppose these thoughts are brought on by the prospect of acquiring more land near the farm and the attendant thoughts of land ownership and its meaning as other than a blank slate to be “written upon”. So much former farmland is being lost forever – the rate of loss is among the highest in NC (766,000 acres of prime NC farmland were lost between 1982 and 2007 according to the American Farmland Trust). I call this the “blank slate disease”. The greatest rate of return is to develop, and there are sometimes good reasons to do so. But, to develop is to inevitably lose the land’s intrinsic value, its many lifeforms, and lose it forever. So much attention is given to forest conservation (and rightly so), but farms are disappearing right alongside our wild brethren. Small farms are being swallowed by agribusiness and our country's lifeblood and food security right along with it. We cannot hinge our country's future on a wholly unsustainable food system. It will be up to small farmers and organic farmers to continue to protect the integrity and tradition of land stewardship. I'm proud to be a small part this movement, which is nothing really new at all.

The land we may buy lies just beyond the aforementioned line of trees and would significantly expand our potential vegetable production. Although we have enough arable land (about 3 acres) now to allow for a good bit of growth for our farm and CSA, our ability to allow for a proper crop rotation is hindered, particularly if we are to allow some tracts to lie fallow in cover crop and ensure a continued increase in soil fertility. Essentially, more land will allow for continual, sustainable farm growth (just as a greater tract of preserved forest would allow for sustainable animal populations). To sustain a diversified vegetable operation, variety and vigor of microbial soil life is everything

Winter’s shown little sign of letting up of late, so a day here or there in the greenhouse helps us chase away the winter blues. Most sunny days temperatures reach the mid to upper 70s under plastic, allowing for enough potential growth to justify early planting. We sowed onion seed and some herbs, while munching on some of the lettuce and mesclun mix we kept alive through the winter. We propagated some chard from last year’s side shoots, and it has held on nicely through the winter (pictured in pot). As soon as our organic soil provider can exchange out the overly wet medium they brought us this winter, we can really get sowing. Broccoli, spinach, cauliflower, lettuce, salad mix, kale, chard and beet seeds will be planted next week, along with a wide range of culinary herbs and some Spring-planted flowers.

Diversity is a key ingredient in any natural system. Where one variety may fail, another may flourish, and so we really try and mix it up out in the field. If I may, I’d like to profile some of the more delectable and interesting varieties that will color our fields this year:

Red Long Onion of Tropea

Italy’s most prized onion was born along the stretch of coastline between Capo Vaticano and Vibo Valentia in the region of Calabria. The Tropea Long is one of the sweetest red onions, and having the lowest lacrimal factor, it does not make you cry. It has a slightly elongated shape and a deep red, wine color. We will also grow the much-vaunted Candy as well as two more Italian heirlooms: Rosa di Milano and Bianca di Maggia.

Delicata Zeppelin Squash

As those who bought from us last fall can attest, this winter squash has fabulously sweet and moist flesh, and is great roasted or for pies. At about a pound each it is the perfect size to share between two people. It is the squash for lovers or just two squash lovers sitting down for a helping of squash.

Hillbilly Tomato

This tomato is quite large, sometimes 2 Lbs and colorful. The flavor is subtle as its name suggests. Mild and nuanced, just like a taciturn hillbilly.

Nyagous Tomato

This one is not only red, it’s Russian. I tried one grown locally last season and was intrigued. It is the dry white wine of tomatoes. There’s a range of Russian heirloom tomatoes, and all of them are quite strange.

Oregon Giant Snow Pea

This is a large podded, sweet-berried snow pea with possible extended harvests into July. We will grow loads of Snap Peas and try these on for more variety.

Lemongrass

Popular in Thai and Vietnamese cooking, Lemongrass adds an exquisite flavor to curries, soups and sauces as well fish and chicken dishes. It also makes a great hot or iced tea.

Music Garlic

Music is large-cloved, porcelain hardneck garlic. Its flavor is very rich and musky, strong and robust and sticks around for a while. Last year we grew exclusively softneck varieties, trying not to venture too deep into the art of hardneck garlic culture. They can be finicky and the process demanding, but the rewards, chefs attest, are worth the trouble. Hardneck garlics, fresh or cured are truly an experience to be savored, as are the “scapes” or green tops that may be harvested in Spring…sautéed they are like garlicky asparagus.

I'll leave you with the Music growing in our field:

Harmony Ridge Farms 2011 CSA Registration

It is my pleasure to announce open registration for Harmony Ridge Farms’ 2011 CSA program. We are looking forward to a season of many harvests, many smiles and some (but not too many) surprises. With a year’s experience under our belt, we feel better attuned to the needs and well-being of our crops, our clients and ourselves. This year we will have a tractor, walk-in cooler, an additional acre+ cultivated space and, perhaps our most exciting addition, an intern! He goes by Tyler, and I’m sure you’ll all be meeting him come Spring. It has been a joy scouring the colorful seed catalogs and seeing in my mind’s eye the many beautiful plants that will bring our fields and bodies back to life. We hope you’ll join us along our earthbound journey here in 2011.

With more tillable land, additional hands and a bit more experience we are able to offer additional shares this year to interested families, couples or individuals. We will limit the number of members, like last year, to ensure we can provide high quality product and service.

We are not offering half-shares this year, but we will carry over half shares from 2010. We encourage you to ask a friend or family member to purchase a joint membership if need be.

Your weekly produce shares will be customizable to the extent that you can request not to receive items you or your family will not eat. We do not want to waste food that may be enjoyed by others.

Here are the benefits a subscriber can expect to enjoy:

• Abundance. A season full of fresh, naturally-grown and nutrient-rich vegetables and herbs grown by us for you. The season will run from early to mid-May to mid-September. (We will start as early as Mother Nature will allow.)

• Variety and Tradition. Vegetable varieties selected for flavor and delivered at the peak of freshness. We grow many hard-to-find heirloom vegetables, and a full compliment of the traditional standbys. We time our harvests to allow for the utmost variety on any given week, but do not skimp on the old favorites.

• Unparalleled freshness. Much of the produce is picked within a day of delivery.

• Weekly recipes. With each produce delivery you’ll find a set of recipes selected for their tried and true flavor, ease and for their inclusion of our vegetables. Often the herb cuttings we provide are called for in the recipes.

• Family involvement. The opportunity to help out and learn basic skills on the farm (if so desired).

• Eco-Sound. A contribution to the local community and ecosystem by supporting a (near) carbon-neutral, low-waste and chemical-free food production system.

• Proximity. We are 3 miles Northwest of Winston-Salem, off Reynolda Rd. Scheduled visits are welcome.

• Social opportunities: A Spring farm tour/barbeque, a Summer farm to table dinner at Willows Bistro and perhaps another event or two depending on time available.

• Participation. Be a part of ever-evolving family enterprise. We want you to feel a part of the farm and we believe our personalized service reflects this warmth and gratitude. As we wish to evolve and continually enhance our CSA, we welcome your feedback and advice.

• Peace of mind. Know your family’s vegetables are au natural and grown just down the road.

We have valued the above benefits at $675, to be paid upfront. (This works out to less than $34 per week at 20 weeks.) Payment received prior to the harvest season ensures your place as a member and ensures we have the resources we need to provide you with the most vibrant and varied produce possible.

“Plus” Membership

Harmony Ridge will also offer a ‘Plus’ program. ‘Plus’ members will receive all of the above listed benefits in addition to the following:

• Locally sourced (really) free-range, vegetarian-fed eggs
• Locally sourced raw honey
• Locally sourced, seasonally available fruits and berries. All fruits will be as naturally grown as we can find.
• Potted herbs for trying on your greenthumbs at home.

We have priced the “CSA Plus” at $895. The added cost of the “Plus” program figures in the cost of sourcing, including the time we spend picking fruit and traveling to acquire these goodies.

To secure your place in our CSA please send a check payable to Harmony Ridge Farms, 3835 Bowens Rd., Tobaccoville, NC, 27050 ($675 for regular membership and $895 for a “plus” membership) by Tuesday, February 15th. Please include also your contact information for our records. You may direct any questions to me, Isaac, at 336.922.5611 or harmonyridgefarms@gmail.com.

A few notes on CSA deliveries. After much deliberation and consideration of your feedback, we’ve decided to stick to the schedule we followed last year. Members may choose between one of four options: 1.) Pick-up shares at the farm on Thursday evenings between 5 and 7:30, 2.) meet me at New Planet Yoga, Burke St.,West End Fridays between 10:30 and 11AM or 3.) meet me on the front porch of my parents’ house in the Greenbriar Farms Neighborhood at 3620 Rosebriar Circle, Winston-Salem, 27106 Fridays between 11:45 AM and 1:15PM or 4.) request home delivery at an additional charge of $165. We ask that you choose one option and continue your schedule every week. We can accommodate reschedules with sufficient notice. I should explain to the folks requesting deliveries earlier in the week that it is quite difficult to source highly perishable items for the “plus” program more than once a week. Also, bundling our deliveries around the same time of week ensures consistency in the quality, quantity and freshness of the produce as it is divvied out, as crop readiness can vary from day to day.

Thank you all for your time and consideration.

August/September 2010 Newsletter

The dog day doldrums are lifting and there are signs that time indeed passes. No longer the ever-predictable, conk-you-in-the-mug sizzle of summer. The morning glories invite the midday rays that a week ago would have shriveled its silken cups. The patch of sungolds, given the chance to hold their blooms by the cooler night air, come alive like a hundred little suns switched back on. The first yellowing poplar and the red tips lining the understory of a barnside maple tell of a fairer fall all too near. The morning and evening skies are given depth by the darkening of the blue hues and we know there is much gathering to be done and, yes, seeds yet to sow.

The withered squash vines are stripped clean of their impossibly beautiful ornaments. The strange armored bugs that cling to them like members of some medieval butternut cult are swept off their buff skins and stomped in vain attempt to prevent their procreation. The pepper plants, many sprawled out over the ground from the weight of their prodigious growth, will be plucked of their peppers and eaten, sold or canned. Early fall tomatoes will see the same fate, their vines removed and destroyed to check disease. Basil will be gathered until the kitchen drips with sweet, pungeant perfume and pesto will join blueberries, tomato puree and peppers in the freezer. Melon vines, eggplants, legumes and other annual crops will succumb to the mower and the tines, and will return to the soil to feed the organisms that allowed them to grow and bear. Come early October, excepting those sections designated for the fall garden, summer growth will be cleared and tilled to make way for all-important winter rye. The rye will quickly establish itself in the cooler weather, growing alongside volunteer vetch, holding the topsoil through winter’s rains and come Spring its powerful roots will crowd out weeds and aerate the soil until its tops are mowed and integrated as green manure for next year’s bounty. The fall garden will also be “ryed” but not until late winter, and won’t be planted in vegetables until summer, if not left fallow.

As I write in mid-September the fall and summer garden harvest begins to overlap. The earliest greens of fall, arugula are approaching maturity, and in full form - free of flea beetles and their taste for spicy Spring greens. Radishes will be plucked alongside with the potential for some lively salads, something we’ve missed around here. (We made some attempts at growing Summer lettuces, with some limited success growing Jericho Romaine, but, well, the dry heat prevailed.) Surely it won’t be so hot and dry next year. Farmers. Always the eternal optimists…and surely I don’t speak too facetiously.

We’ve been graced with visitors human and animal this August and early September. Let me begin with our feathered friends. Beginning late July we heard the unmistakable sound of bobwhite quail calling nearby. Their calls have continued and remain very close, localized to an area on or near Harmony Ridge. Our neighbor says he hasn’t heard quail around Bowens Road in some twenty years. Their decline in the piedmont has been alarmingly precipitous. Their presence indicates a healthy diversity of flora and habitat necessary to support their survival. Their decline is not surprising considering the widespread use of herbicides and the perpetual mowing of any land not in crop or woods. Quail need a combination of woodlands, brush, grass and croplands. They like the in-between places: fencerows and the brushy sumac and briar stands at the edge of forests. They particularly enjoy seeds, produced in great numbers by sheltering weeds. Anyone that has visited our farm since July knows quail will feel right at home here. I’m also encouraged to find out that quail will spend around 75 percent of their lives within a ½ mile foraging range. This means the covey that we’ve so enjoyed hearing could call Harmony Ridge (and its unkempt beauty) home.

As for those visitors of the human persuasion, we’ve had quite a few of late, some of them quite helpful. In early August, CSA members Keith and Rebecca Ammons brought their nieces (in town from Wisconsin) to help with farm chores. We were able to clear an overgrown vegetable bed that is now supporting beet, carrot and arugula. A few weeks later I got an e-mail from a guy, like me, having two first names, Grant and Doug. Turns out he just moved to the area and wants to spend time helping at the farm. I say O.K! On labor day, a group of special needs folks visited and helped harvest. It was a truly wonderful experience for (I hope) all in attendance. An especially enthusiastic member of the crew, Jeremy, showed up clad in John Deere gear ready to jump on our loaner tractor and till up the bottomland. I would like to thank Christina of Dragonfly Farms for coordinating their visit, as I’m sure it won’t be the last.

Let me speak just a bit more about our fall garden. We left part of our main plot on the hill fallow this summer, finally tilling the rye in early August – by this point a tangled stubble. We were pleased and somewhat surprised at the degree to which the soil beneath had responded to our cover cropping and fall greensand treatment. What was last August near-hardpan clay, is now a red loam, still in need of additional organic matter, but certainly quite workable. So we’ve planted it in fall crop: broccoli, green and red cabbage, kale, beets, onion, carrots, radishes, arugula, spinach, tatsoi, mustard greens, collards and turnips. And soon Chinese cabbage, lettuces and bok choi will be ready for transplanting. I plan on offering fall produce at the downtown Krankies market on Tuesdays. Although, if I had enough interest from customers wanting to purchase produce on-farm, I may just open up shop at Harmony Ridge…I will keep you posted on our plans for fall. Perhaps a Saturday morning farmstand? I should mention also that our last week for CSA shares is fast approaching: we will wrap up our 2010 CSA season Friday, October 1^st.

We’ve mixed things up of late, harvesting some different legumes: crowder peas (close relative to the black-eyed pea) and limas. We hope you’ve enjoyed them, particularly the limas, as they require a good four hours of three pairs of hands picking. If our next batch is able to mature in the (somewhat) cooler weather, we will be able to offer more…by request this time.

CSA plus members will be receiving organic apples this week: a mixed bag of just-picked Jonagold, Crispin, Red and Green Delicious and Winesaps from Fairview, NC. For those interested in purchasing extra, they are $2 a Lb. (Limited quantities available.)

They are not unblemished, but are certainly not lacking for flavor.

One of this week’s spotlighted vegetables was okra. Turns out we ran a little short to provide okra to everyone this week. Those not receiving it should expect to see those lovable “ladies fingers” in next week’s share box.

A couple more CSA announcements…if you want extra sweet or hot peppers for cooking, freezing, drying, canning, or stacking into pepper towers please let me know. There is also a load of basil. If you’d like enough for pesto this upcoming week just say the word. And speaking of basil, we will be processing another batch of holy basil tea. If you tried it and liked it and want more I can include a more generous amount in this week’s box.

Lastly, an announcement to all CSA members and “civilians at-large”: I will be e-mailing a weekly “menu” for produce available for purchase on-farm. The menu will be sent out Fridays for pick-up Saturday at a time TBA. If you wish to receive a weekly menu, please let me know.

Thank you all again for your unwavering support and have a splendid weekend.

-K. Isaac Oliver

An early September CSA share / The Ammons family and I.

Newsletter #5: June/July 2010

I hope you all are enjoying the fruits of our labor. We certainly are...almost every night we plan our meals around what's been harvested that day. To be reinvigorated and sustained by the very thing that exhausted you in its creation is somehow incredibly gratifying. Tonight it was a creamy raw zucchini pasta on greens, German Butterball hash, and buttery sweet corn. The mandolined zucchini made a surprisingly full-bodied linguine, the butterballs an almost delicate hash and the corn, well, there's nothing like fresh sweet corn. Yesterday we sampled the butternuts harvested early in July, stuffed with goat's cheese, walnut and carmelized onion. It was quite good, but I'm going to let them cure just a bit longer before passing them (and acorn squash) on to you all.

I believe, especially considering the intense heat and June drought, that the summer harvest has been plentiful. Let's just say drip irrigation saved our collective behinds. (I've pictured here items included in a sample "plus" option mid-July box: zucchini and crookneck squash, heirloom and assorted cherry tomatoes, Jericho romaine lettuce, basil, garlic, charleston bell pepper, chili pepper, hungarian hot wax pepper, diva cucumber, along with organic figs and bread sourced locally. June brought two of my favorite bed buddies into the light, garlic and potatoes, and we continue to pull them from our "root cellar" supply. This week's fingerlings ought to please the most discriminating of potato palates. We've been pleased as well with corn production of late - surpassing our early yields - and expect to harvest it through the month of August. The next round of corn is around 10 ft. tall...we can only hope it bears ears to match.

To address the overflow of tomatoes (and lettuce before that) Holly and I have been attending the Krankies Farmer's Market downtown. It's been a gratifying experience and a terrific way to interface with other farmers and the community. We have not been in a couple weeks and it looks as though we won't be returning until possibly fall. Our harvest, while ample, is not so much to justify our presence there for the next couple months...more importantly, we would never risk shortchanging our CSA members by selling an excess of produce. The amount we've brought to market has been carefully calculated so as to avoid overselling. I mention this because some farm CSAs have been accused of doing this to make a few extra bucks, and I wish to be steadfast in our commitment to our shareholders. We've thoroughly enjoyed serving you all (so far) and I hope you all have relished the experience as well. It is truly an amazing feeling to do what you love and have a community at your back, particularly one benefitting directly, and on such a basic level. I can hardly begin to count my thank-you's to you all for helping our family build something so important to us...

Before I get trapped in the sap, I would like to discuss some cultural adjustments I'd like to make for next year's main season. First off, tomatoes. We'd like to provide them June through September, and while we will continue to include them in our shares this season, production has been tapering off. We've provided around 3 Lbs plus cherries every week since mid-June. This will drop off steadily until our late-planted tomatoes produce in earnest. Next year we will better space the plantings to better ensure a plentiful supply through the end of the summer. We will also plant more root crops and succession plant them to extend and (hopefully) increase our harvest of carrots, beets, potatoes, onions and garlic. Most of these have gone directly from the ground to your shareboxes, with smaller amounts going to storage. While I'm sure you all have tasted and appreciated the wonderful richness that is a new potato or onion, it's nice to save a bunch to divy out as time passes. As for beets, I don't necessarily plan to store them (though I do appreciate a good pickled ginger beet), but I would like to have plenty of them come June and July of '11.

I should talk a bit about peppers. First off, we will grow a different variety of main-crop bell pepper next year. The mini-belles you've received are California Wonders - we've wondered why they're not larger. While they're extremely prolific, they've also been strangely small...I believe we received the wrong seed. (It couldn't be our fault.) Thankfully we grew other varieties, and of all the sweets, the Flamingos have greatly outperformed the other varieties. (They're the pale yellow to orange variety in the boxes this week.) As for hot peppers, they're ridiculously productive, as usual. We mixed hungarian wax (pale yellow/orange), jalapeno (smaller green or red) and chilipeno peppers in the boxes this week with a recipe for stuffing them, although there are many ways to prepare them. (Thanks, Nancy, for the sample jar of hot pepper jam - superb.)
Another item you all have received lately are royal burgundy beans. They're to be treated like green beans, though I find the flavor somehow better - maybe it's a trick played by the novelty of them. Your kids will marvel at how they turn from purple to green on the skillet. I'm interested to hear any ideas on preparing them, as we've not had time to experiment much since harvesting. I find garlic and butter go well with most anything!

This morning we harvested watermelons and cantaloupes. It turned out quite a few watermelons were hiding amidst the vines, and we pulled more than expected. We will be passing on some of these modest melons on to you all this week. As for the cantaloupes, let's just say we swallowed the evidence. There will be more ripening in a few weeks or so, hopefully they will resist rot better than those we fished out of the straw this morning.

So a couple of reminders...please try and return all used containers (clamshells, egg cartons, etc.). Please let me know if you need particular herbs for your boxes as I will be happy to provide them. Right now we have genovese, thai and red basil, oregano, rosemary, thyme, dill, mint, lemon balm, sage and chives. Also, we will be drying some batches of tulsi (or holy basil) tea. We've grown quite a bit of it to dry for the tea we drink daily. It has many health benefits, lowering blood pressure and regulating metabolism. I will be happy to provide a sample to anyone requesting it.

Once thank you all for your continued support. Farewell and goodnight.

-K. Isaac Oliver

I leave you with a few photos.

(1) Red Rubin Basil
(2) Cosmos
(3) Clover. One of the many weeds calling our garden home.
(4) Hairy Vetch and a Monarch.

Newsletter #4: May 2010

What could a farmer relish more than a string of rainy days, for his vines to swell, his gait to soften and his mind to wander, burying the debris of to-dos in the bliss of blankets and blankness. It is one of the great pleasures of farming to take a respite when Nature suggests it prudent. And rest has never felt so prudent. It is easy to live inside a to-do list, to order your existence around an illusion of tidy efficiency. It is one thing to continually “achieve” completion but quite another to achieve the clarity of knowing nothing is complete and to be O.K. with imperfection. It is enough to know that if you act according to your truth, your every action is complete.

Organic farming challenges any illusion of stasis in life. Change reigns supreme…you ride the wave or get swept out by the tide. Tidy as you may try to be, growth will continue, and growth can hurt, like weeding a hundred-foot row of onions. Weeds are like emotions – kill them off in one fell swoop (with, say, Roundup) and those that survive will regenerate into uber-weeds, peskier than ever. Bury an unwanted emotion or trauma, and the hurt becomes a complex of hurt, increasingly more potent. Somehow hand-weeding is more like “dealing” or “talking it out”. Satisfying? Not necessarily. But it sure is easier to sift and manage the buggers before they spread unchecked. I think you catch my drift.

Besides weeding and psychobabbling, we are still planting. Some crops are best succession planted so the harvest is spread out. Its better having just enough sweet corn to eat (or to sell) for a month than to have a lot all at once, so we are trying to extend our projected harvests of most crops to achieve a sort of drawn-out smorgasbord. In addition to planting, we are considering trellising the many green trails leading every which way. I say considering because there is a long way to go in this department. Tomatoes, Pole Beans and Cucumbers are the first to come to mind…they grow best upright. And if there any hope of winning the battle of the weeds, much straw will be spread.

Early heat and the miracle of drip irrigation, mixed with a bit of sweat on the brow and eventual rain has brought on a flush of growth: sugar snap peas and sugar beets are ripe and sweet fennel is near. Potatoes and garlic are blooming, meaning June harvests a possibility. We began eating cherry tomatoes here and there last week, though we don’t expect to get a proper harvest until it heats up once again. All you CSA members can expect more lettuce for as long as we can fend off the hot, hot weather and broccoli for at least another week (to be followed by cabbages). I hope all you “Plus” members enjoyed the all-natural strawberries provided by Ken Vanhoy of Rail Fence Farm in Kernersville. They were perhaps the finest I’ve tasted. The eggs are compliments of Christina Nazarro of Dragonfly Farm in Pfafftown and Donna Dunlap of Pinnacle. The eggs will be mainstays of the “Plus” program.

I’m sure some of you are wondering why some of the lettuce and broccoli you have been receiving are not like your standard grocery fare. Commercially grown vegetables are typically varieties bred for two characteristics: shelf life and uniformity of appearance. These characteristics come at the expense of taste and character. The lettuces you have been eating are rarely found in markets because they are tender: they wilt and thus quickly shed the illusion of freshness. (Grocery chains are not so much interested in freshness but the appearance of it.) The same goes for broccoli. You all have been receiving (mainly) heirloom, or open-pollinated varieties that have not been hybridized for shelf-life or uniformity. Heirloom broccoli can grow limp quickly, as it is meant to be eaten right out of the garden. Tenderness is a quality in vegetables, like meat, that lends itself to palatability and downright tastiness. Essentially the flavor has been bred out of so many commercial vegetables. Perhaps that is why a child that won't eat salads will change their mind after eating delicate Bibb Buttercrunch or rosy Rouge D’hiver. (Such was the case with a certain CSA member.)

Heirloom plants are those whose characteristics have not been hybridized over time; the seeds have been harvested and handed down over generations, so that when they are planted they are true-to-type. Preserving this tradition helps preserve the diversity of edibles that have colored our culinary and cultural history. Many of the crops we grow at Harmony Ridge are raised from heirloom seed stock. This is why our vegetables have character.

I’ve been pleased with the ease with which the CSA deliveries have been conducted thus far. I would like to thank you all for being as prompt as possible. I have been quite lenient in these first two weeks as far as providing special arrangements for those unable to attend the designated delivery times. However, I cannot guarantee that this will always be the case due to time limitations. If you are unable to attend, please have a friend pick up your basket for you. However, I am a reasonable man, and sometimes a back-up plan is necessary. Any baskets that go unaccounted for I will leave on the front porch of our barn inside a cooler through the weekend. Those that go unclaimed will be donated to my kitchen.

A few other things swimming around my head…recipes are meant to be kept. You may either leave the plastic attached to the basket to be reused or keep it – it’s up to you. Any containers, particularly berry quart boxes or egg cartons may be left inside the previous week’s basket to be reused. The lettuce, as you may know will keep outside the fridge as long as the root ball remains moist. It will keep in the fridge just as well. If the leaves are removed from the plant, they may be preserved per the instructions for storing greens provided by my mom, Wendy. I hope you all have been enjoying her recipes. I would like to thank her for all the hard work she’s put into providing these and for making each week’s delivery less like a plain, old crate of vegetables and more like a neatly wrapped present.

Which leads me to an outpouring of gratitude. There are some family members whose gracious help has egregiously gone unmentioned. My Dad, Kevin, and grandfather, Dale, are the foremost in my mind, as they have given much time and effort not only to help out with the many farm chores but to help shape the man I am. As many of you know, my Dad works full-time in a high-stress position and still manages to be here almost every day putting in his very best. Dale and my grandma Betty helped shape my desire to live an honest life on a farm as I spent many-a-summer on their small farm in Ohio as a youth. At almost 80 years old, Dale has a work ethic like no one I know: when he visits, I can scarce keep up with him. Much of the wood we have stockpiled for next winter was cut by him (and my Dad). I would also like to thank my “Uncle” Phil of PA. He handled our BCS walk-behind tractor like a champ. Thanks also to Mark O’Neil, a good friend of the family from St. Louis. He helped me accomplish in a couple hours what would have taken me an entire day. Thanks also to my wife, Holly, who has provided much needed moral support.

I look forward to seeing you all later this week for our third round of CSA deliveries. As indicated, you all can expect a little more variety this week: beets and sugar snap peas in addition to broccoli, herbs, spring onions and lettuces. To recap our revised weekly delivery schedule:

Thursday, on-farm, between 5 and 7 PM. 3835 Bowens Rd., Tobaccoville, 27050.

Fridays at New Planet Yoga between 10:30 and 11 AM

And then at my parents’ house between 11:45 AM and 1:15 PM. If any of you need to change your usual pick-up locale please let me know. Once again, I ask you to please stick to a weekly routine so your share winds up in the right place. Oh, and don’t forget to bring last week’s empty crate!

I wish you all a salubrious week.

K. Isaac Oliver

of

Harmony Ridge Farms

P.S. To any of you wishing to join our CSA or know of anyone interested, I have begun a waiting list. We may open up more shares for purchase in the near future.

I leave you all with some more pictures from the farm…

Ken Vanhoy's Strawberries

Wanted to share this...Ken grows the strawberries all you "plus" members received last week. He's a good man. Growing all-natural strawberries is no easy task. http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/notes/krankies-farmers-market/strawberry-fields-forever-ken-vanhoys-quest-for-pesticide-free-strawberries/121138874574077