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Rising River Farm
13208 201st Ave SW
Rochester, WA 98579 360-273-5368
contact@risingriverfarm.com
www.risingriverfarm.com
July 4 ***** Box 3
Whew! Another scorcher. I hope your veggies didn’t suffer
too much in the heat. We harvested all day Tuesday and in
this morning so everything got a little time to chill in the
cooler before going into the boxes. I’m sure all will
perk up beautifully after some time in your fridge. The only
crops to mention today are kale and green onions. We planted
a token amount of kale (Red Russian and Winterbor) just to
give out occasionally. Fall, to me, is the best time for kale
so we don’t want to overdo it now when there is so much
more to choose from. You may see it every 3-4 weeks. I mention
scallions again because some of you may not know that you
can use them for more than just tabouli and pasta salad. I
personally just can’t bear to go and buy a regular onion
at this time of year so I use scallions in any dish that calls
for onion. I use them all the way up to the tips. So go and
be liberal with your scallions!!!!
LIFE ON THE FARM-A PEEK
Without getting too detailed and technical, I’ll attempt
to give you a month-by-month glimpse of what we do from January
until now and I’ll keep you updated as the season goes
on.
January is when the seed catalogues come and we get itchy
fingers. Still too cold and wet to even consider work with
soil or plants, so we fix things, do our taxes, make grand
plans for the upcoming season, and enjoy our “down-time”.
Threat of flooding and our love of home keep us from travel.
February: Seeds start arriving, the air freshens and buds
start swelling. We can feel everything waking up. The frogs
return to the surrounding wetlands and serenade all night.
Still fixing things (I swear, it is never-ending!), still
enjoying sleep and books, getting awfully sick of kale and
craving fresh salads once again.
March: Planting is my domain, while field managing is Jim’s.
This is when I start greenhouse work. I’ll seed onions,
shallots, and leeks the first week, lettuces, tomatoes, peppers,
and eggplants the second week. Throughout the month I’ll
start more successions of lettuce and herbs and perhaps the
first broccoli.
April: If we are lucky and get a dry window, Jim will plow
and spread fertilizer (I’m still too chicken to try
my hand at plowing. I’ll till, mow, seed…anything
but plow.) Most years we get in a planting or two of peas,
carrots, spinach, beets, radish, dill and chard. Some years,
however, we are waiting, waiting, waiting until May (and freaking
out slightly, I might add) until the weather breaks. We typically
don’t have any crew yet as there is no consistent work,
so Jim and I do the work ourselves.
May: We continue to prep the fields for planting and put in
the first of the corn, summer and winter squash, cukes, green
beans, dry beans, potatoes and continue succession plantings
of carrots, beets, radish, spinach, herbs, etc. A skeleton
crew will help us transplant the onions, leeks, and shallots
in the first week. By mid-May we’ll transplant tomatoes,
peppers and eggplants. We cross our fingers for a few weeks
and pray there won’t be a freak late frost. It is rare,
but has been known to happen.
June: We are really busy now. Still more planting, both in
the field and greenhouse, and now, there is a lot to weed.
The first rogue bed of radishes is ready to harvest (usually
before anything else!) Thankfully, we have the bulk of our
crew by now. Market starts for us in late May or early June
and CSA the 3rd week in June.
July: Here we are. There is finally a yummy diversity of tasty
things to eat. We tank up on all the goodness. All of the
one-time planted crops are in (like potatoes, squash, onions,
tomatoes, etc.) and growing nicely. Herbs and lettuces are
still being planted once a week to ensure even successions,
while beans, beets, and carrots, are planted every other week.
The last few plantings of broccoli, cauliflower, and cabbage
will be started in the greenhouse for later transplanting.
Weeding takes up a huge part of our days, while harvest comes
a close second. CSA deliveries happen every Wednesday and
we are at the Farmers Market in Olympia Thursday through Sunday
from 10-3. And, yes, Jim is STILL fixing things!
THE CREW
Jim and I can only do so much in a day, esp. with two small
kids. (Cylas is 9 and Hazel is 5). We rely on a solid crew
to help keep it all going. This year the majority of the crew
is returning. Rigo and Rita are going on year 7. Greg is on
his 3rd year. Brad, Christine, and Sergio are back for a second
season, while Jonathon and Isaac are the new folks. It is
nice to not have to train every single person. There is a
high turnover in this line of work and not because we are
mean and horrible bosses! (We are still friends with most
of the folks who have ever worked here.) It is hard and sometimes
uncomfortable work. People either decide they like it and
want to start their own farm or realize that the education
and experience were great, but it is not their life-calling.
We completely understand, having both worked on other peoples’
farms and then wanting to start our own.. So a big thanks
to all of the folks mentioned above for the great work they’ve
done so far and work that still awaits.
And now a recipe….You can never have too many recipes
for beets!
Cilantro Beet Salad—A recipe shared with me by our neighbor
Betsie DeWreede
Dressing:
1 garlic clove, crushed
salt to taste
2 ½ T. lime juice
1 T. lemon juice
2 T. chopped scallions ½ t. cumin
¼ t. dry mustard powder
1/3 c. olive oil
2 or more T. chopped cilantro
-Prepare dressing by mixing all ingredients above. Then proceed
with beet preparation.
-Using 3 or 4 2” beets (or roughly 2 cups grated):
-Grate beets and blanch briefly by dropping in salted, boiling
water for 3 minutes. Towel dry (on a dark-colored towel that
you’ll want to rinse immediately to get the color out).
Toss in dressing while still warm. Serve warm or cold.
-I decided to use the beet water to cook some pasta and I
got beet colored pasta, with a delicate, sweet flavor that
was great with basil pesto.
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