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Happy Independence Day Trevor-
Our trucks are on the road and farmers are busy preparing this week's produce. On a farm, the plants and animals don't recognize the holiday. We'll get done early today, but the crews are working full steam ahead to keep you fed.
This week, we have a little less going on. Our staff is settling into the new warehouse and we have a lot of customers and employees on vacation.
For this week's bag, there are only a few online promotions this week:
Zucchini Bread. The farm kitchen is swimming in zucchini too, so this week we are featuring a seasonal favorite - homemade zucchini bread for just $5.
Strawberry Rhubarb Pie. Last week. We thought we'd be on to blueberry, but there aren't enough available yet, so we were able to squeeze out a few more strawberry rhubarb pies.
Sale Items: see below
Happy Independence Day!
Trevor and the FFM Staff
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We just harvested a giant batch of chicken, and now we are loaded up on chicken products. More birds were bigger than we thought, so we ended up with a lot more ground chicken than usual. It needs to move out!
Ground Chicken - 1# pasture raised ground chicken, just $5
Chicken Breast - Sale $7.50 per lb
Skin on, boneless breast, 2 breast per pack
Feta - Goat feta, perfect for summer salads or to work into a ground chicken feta burger. Try adding spinach, roasted red peppers, or even garlic scapes or onion greens. Easy homemade burgers. Sale for $6
Mushrooms - our mushroom guys have been really doing a great job increasing production, and this week with the vacations we are expecting to have too many. On sale for $6 per clamshell, 6 oz package.
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No Till for Soil Conservation | |
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We get a lot of customers asking about no-till. The idea that tillage - turning the soil over - is somewhat destructive has caught on with the consumers. It invites erosion, oxidation of minerals, and can compact the soils, preventing drainage and creating a hostile environment for the good biology that lives in good soils.
No till, however, is most often used in association with mono-cultures and chemical farming. That's not to say it's not used on regenerative farms - as I use it - but to point out that no till doesn't always mean better.
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Above is a no till drill." The drill is an implement pulled behind a tractor. It takes two discs to cut a sliver in the ground. A tube drops the seed between the discs and two more discs move the soil back over the seed.
This allows for very precise planting at a specified rate of pounds per acre and a specific depth.
To control the rates, there are a series of sprockets that the farmer can change out. It takes some trial and error to figure out the right set of sprockets for the size and density of seed you use. Grains, like corn and beans, are easier to meter than grasses, such as rye, and legumes such as clover. The latter are very small and very light seeds.
The no till drill can be used to plant hay fields, row crops, and more. Generally in a traditional ag setting, the farmer first sprays a herbicide to kill any existing vegetation - weeds and crop. In some scenarios, the crop residue acts as a mulch for the next round of weeds that would germinate. Either way, the broad use of herbicides, in my opinion, is not good.
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On a regenerative farm, we use it a bit differently. The no-till can be a good tool to strengthen pastures that are getting bare.
It can also be used to put in some annuals, such as sorghum or sunflowers.
To the right is a photo of our turkeys from last year. The turkeys hit pasture in the heat of the summer - August - and need some shade. I've found that if I provide shade shelters, they crowd under there and deposit so much manure that it kills the grass.
Further, they then tend to peck around on the ground, increasing the chance of infection from clostridium or other pathogens present in manure.
So, we use the no till (like this week) to seed sorghum, sunflowers, and oats into existing pasture. We first graze down the grass further than usual with the beef. This exposes the ground some. We then run the no till across it and then take the brush hog to the remaining crop residue and chop it up.
The sorghum, sunflowers, and oats pop up quickly in this heat and can get ahead of the cooler season grasses. We put them in at a lower population rate to not crowd out the grasses.
The sorghum gets tall - like 6 ft - and eventually sets seed. The turkeys get shade beneath it and stomp it down. They peck up to eat the seeds and this prevents infection from pecking around on the ground.
These small victories are the most rewarding part of farming!
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Peas, Routes that Still Need Them | |
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Each week when we advertise the bag contents, the crops aren't harvested yet. It's a total rush to get totes out the door, particularly if the inputs are short or late getting in.
Last week, the trouble crop was peas. If you were to go out and look at a field of peas hanging on the plant, you likely couldn't guess anywhere close to how any pounds there are.
Last week our Tuesday harvest was good, but the Thursday and Friday harvests were a lot lighter than the farmers thought.
We didn't have any good options for substitutes last week on peas, and we figured you probably didn't want kale again, so this week we owe some routes peas.
We will be adding peas to the following routes that were short them last week:
Friday:
Middleburg Heights
Shaker Heights
Hudson
Saturday:
OCP
Rocky River
Bratenahl/Mentor
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Small Omnivore
Spinach Feta Chicken Brats
Broccoli
Kohlrabi
Zucchini
Candy Onion
Lettuce
Cherries
Parsley
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Small Vegetarian
Broccoli
Kohlrabi
Zucchini
Candy Onion
Lettuce
Cherries
Parsley
Beets
Garlic
Kale
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Mini
Broccoli
Kohlrabi
Cucumbers
Candy Onion
Lettuce
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Large Omnivore
Spinach Feta Chicken Brats
Broccoli
Kohlrabi
Zucchini
Candy Onion
Lettuce
Cherries
Parsley
Pork Chops
Tomatoes
Beets
Red Potatoes
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Large Vegetarian
Broccoli
Kohlrabi
Zucchini
Candy Onion
Lettuce
Cherries
Parsley
Beets
Garlic
Kale
Red Potatoes
Tomatoes
Cucumbers
Eggs
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Small Vegan
Broccoli
Kohlrabi
Zucchini
Candy Onion
Lettuce
Cherries
Parsley
Beets
Garlic
Kale
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This week's odd-ingredient-out is parsley. Our farmer was supposed to have it for week 1 for the chicken, but it was reallly late.
When I think parsley, the first thing I think of is Chimichurri.
Sounds intimidating, but it's about as easy as you can get. Here is a recipe from Bon Appetit. You don't have to follow it to a T. I never use oregano, and I have omitted cilantro before and did just parsley and garlic.
In short, get creative with the concept of parsley, onion and/or garlic, oil and a hint of vinegar to create a condiment that can be used to dress steak, marinade a pork chop, chicken, or steak, put on a burger, serve over scrambled eggs, and so much more!
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