Harvest: Mucho

Every plant is pumping out produce right now. Today we harvested swiss chard, fatali peppers, salad mix, green beans, roma tomatoes, green peppers, striped eggplant, cucumbers, beefsteak tomotoes, jamaican hot yellow hot peppers, banana peppers and jalapeño peppers.

Surprise Party for Farmer No. 2

Farmer No. 1 went all out planning a surprise birthday party for No. 2. It was a very touching ode to the Minnesota State Fair replete with:
the amazing produce showcase,
a butter sculpture (margarine actually) of No. 2's head courtesy of Jon,and homemade pies.

There was much more including a fake mustachio show and a cotton candy machine. More pictures soon.

Harvest: Orange Oxheart Heirloom Tomato

We planted two heirloom tomato plants this season. The black plum tomato plant fared well for the first month and a half yielding a couple dozen delicious golf ball sized tomatoes. The other plant, the orange oxheart, has been growing prolificly; five or six feet in height since Farmer No. 1 bought the seedling from the Green Market. In all that growth, it has only yielded this one single tomato. The plant has flowered over and over, it just didn't take. On his visit, Nick the Farmer looked in disgust when he saw we planted pepper plants in the same area. I was only able to translate the concept that the 'roots no like each other'.

Inheritance Update: Fig Tree

Found: this interesting article on the history (and drama) of fig trees in the Brooklyn Farm neighborhood.

Our own fig tree finally popped out a ripe one. There are a hundred or so green bulbs on the tree that'll eventually turn. That's Farmer No. 1 in the background tending to the field.
This fig was delicious (natural sweetness) and functional (natural laxative).

Infarmation: Garlic 101

Farmer no. 1 recently purchased garlic at a local corner store and noticed the words "GROWN IN CHINA" on the label. Think of all the pesticides, soil conditions and pollution in China....alarmed by this thought, the garlic was immediately thrown away. We started checking the garlic at all the local grocery stores and found "GROWN IN CHINA" at every store. Why are our local grocery stores selling something that can easily be grown locally?

Very upset by this discovery, we immediately went to the farmers market to purchase locally grown product. The subject was discussed with a local farmer and he said that most garlic in U.S. grocery stores is grown in China, and what is currently in stores was harvested last year!

The Brooklyn Farm will now officially begin growing garlic...and you might consider planting a few bulbs too. It is very easy to grow and Fall is the ideal time to plant garlic for the optimum bulb and shoot development.

We will order our bulbs now and plant in October. Check out the Garlic Store in Ft. Collins, CO. to purchase organic, USA grown bulbs available in lots of interesting varieties. By Spring, we'll have fresh, organic garlic. In the meantime, we recommend buying garlic solely from the farmers market.

For more information on growing garlic, click here.

Harvest: Bok Choi in the Boxes

We planted three short rows of baby bok choi in one of our boxes. The crop has been growing perfectly. Every single seed sprouted and it's all been pest free. The earlier crop grew so well we wanted a second go of it.
Flavor wise this plant doesn't bring much to the table, it's very mild. Color and texture are it's best qualities. 

Brooklyn Farm: Colorado Branch

Farmer no. 1's mother is the original green thumb. 12 foot sunflowers in the high altitude of Colorado Springs (6,000 feet above sea level). It is more challenging to grow in higher altitudes because the temperatures are cooler and the growing season is shorter. The altitude in Brooklyn is around 100 ft above sea level, and our crops are a month ahead of Colorado crops. But we definitely don't have sunflowers like these...nice work!

Harvest: Carrots

Brooklyn Farm's Carrot No. 1 and Carrot No. 2
We planted only five feet of carrot seeds in the beginning of May and we have only gone through a third so far. We'll still plant more carrot seeds this year; carrots can tolerate lower air temperatures because they are root vegetables in the relatively warmer ground.

Food: 13 Farm Ingredients

Farm Friends M+K came over and helped us consume recent harvests. This was a big production using as many different vegetables as we could find in the field. Eggplant parmigiana with farm eggplant, fresh tomato sauce, basil and local mozzarella. The salad made use of farm bibb lettuce, salad bowl lettuce, arugula, basil, thyme, cucumber, carrots, beets and peppers. Thai chili peppers were thrown in to the cucumber salad.

Harvest: Habañero Pepper

The hot little nuggets have arrived. The habañero peppers have begun to turn peach color indicating that they are ripe…if you're gutsy enough. The measure of hotness is called the scoville scale and hotness units are Scoville Heat Units (SHU). A bell pepper has 0 SHU, jalapeños have between 2,500–8,000 SHU, our peach friend above has between 100,000–350,000 SHUs. And official US government issue pepper spray has between 2,000,000– 5,000,000 SHUs. You can see how wide the scale can get… even on the conservative side these peppers are 10x hotter than a jalapeño. Farmer No. 2 sliced up the pepper to and is planning to play tricks on people with beverages. 

Harvest: Cucumbers, Beets and Peppers

Nick the Farmer

Our interaction with Nick the Farmer is usually confined to speaking through a fence where he points to plants and tells us what are doing wrong. A bit of a curious character (he speaks to us in italian with fragments of english), one thing is for certain—Nick knows plants. 

This weekend Nick the Farmer stopped by and gifted some beautiful italian green beans he is growing next door. We are always hungry for tips so was ushered straight back to the farm where we spent a good half hour barraging him with questions, begging for more tips. Here the state of the cucumbers is discussed.

Here, Nick the Farmer teaches Farmer No. 1 how to give the concord grape vine a haircut. Pulling off leaves around the grape bunches makes it easier to see and pick them when they become ripe.
A lot was discussed. More tips and more on Nick the Farmer to come soon.

Food: Tomatoes with Basil

Farm Friends No. 1 and 2 visited last night and helped us with the recent tomato harvest. We sliced the black plum tomatoes, fresh basil, crumbled feta cheese, olive oil, balsamic vinegar and some salt and pepper.