May 30, 2012 by kharner

Delivery Begins

Welcome to Harner Brothers CSA. We appreciate the opportunity to work with you and for you through the growing season.

The great news is that delivery has started and as the season progresses, you will continue to see your culinary options grow. We are excited to see the daily changes and growth in the garden. Today, we saw our second planting of potatoes and sunflowers peeking through.

PICK-UP AND DELIVERY

Remember that pick-up and deliveries will be on the schedule you have arranged with Harner Brothers CSA with harvest on Wednesday evenings. It is your responsibility to know that the pick-up or drop-off time will occur at the agreed upon time, and it is your responsibility as a shareholder to know this and be responsible for the produce at that time. If you are unable to utilize your share that week, it is still your responsibility: find someone else to pick it up or donate it to the food shelf.

Each box is labeled for each family. The same boxes will be used for your family throughout the season. Boxes and containers should be returned the following week. Bags will only be used once.

CALENDARS

Looking ahead to the season there will be a few changes to note on your calendars. Please make note of the following:

July

4th of July – Deliveries and pick-ups will occur on Thursday, July 5

August

August 8 will be changed to Thursday, August 9.

September

September 12 will be changed to Tuesday, September 11

YOUR BOXES OF PRODUCE

This list is prepared before we harvest your share. Some guesswork is involved! We do our best to predict which crops will be ready to harvest, but sometimes crops are on the list that are not in the share, and sometimes crops will be in the share even though they’re not on the list.

Rhubarb – one pound equals about 3 cups. Wash, cut the ends off, chop into 1/4 – 1/2 inch pieces and you can freeze it in a Ziploc bag and use for months to come. Our family loves it in muffins, breads, jam, pie, crisp, sauce and torte. Check out earlier posts on Rhubarb for recipe ideas.

http://harnerbrotherscsa.com/2012/04/10/rhubarb-torte/

Asparagus – wash and run a knife gently over the darker arrow pieces on th stem. Cut into 1 inch pieces and place in microwave for a few minutes. Follow your microwave directions. Sprinkle with some parmesan cheese.

Black Seeded Simpson Lettuce – wash, cut off longer stems. Enjoy in salads or sprinkle a little bit of sugar over it.

Spinach – wash, cut off longer stems. Great for salads.

Radishes – wash, cut off the tops and also the bottoms, slice and enjoy in salads. Some enjoy dipping in salt.

Herbs – chives, lemon thyme wash then chop up chives into small pieces. http://www.goodhousekeeping.com/recipes/cooking-tips/fresh-herbs-cooking-guide

Fresh cut arrangement – includes Hosta leaves. These last forever in a vase of water. After a week, give them a fresh cut, and they will last longer. The greenery in the house is a day brightener. I had hoped to give you more peonies and irises, but the storms this weekend were uncooperative.

May 29, 2012 by kharner

Planting Completed for now…

A glimpse of Harner Brothers CSA on a cold May 29 day.

This past week, we were very happy to receive the rain and that the hail in the storm clouds stayed away. The garden is growing, and each day brings something new. The growing season has been interesting as many flowers and asparagus have ran their season a lot earlier then normal.

Now, the time we have all been waiting for, enjoying the joys of a garden. See what has all been planted.

Lettuce: Black Seeded Simpson Lettuce, Simpson Elite, Red Oak Lettuce,

Spinach

Carrots: Danvers and Nantjes

Radish: Cherry Belle and French

Peas

Green Beans

Rhubarb

Cucumbers: both for canning and eating

Summer squash

Butternut Squash

Spaghetti Squash

Tomatoes: Big Boy, Yellow Girl, Roma, Brandywine and Cherry

Peppers: green, red, orange and jalepeno

Potatoes: Norland, Kennebec, Yukon and Blue

Strawberry Popcorn: can be used as an ornamental or popped – the kernals will be red but the insides will be white

Ornamental Corn

Broom Corn

Pumpkins : Jack O’Lanterns, white, green, Rouge Vif d’Etampes, Baby Boo, Jack Be Little and Big Max

Several varities of zuchinni: summer and fall – good for grilling and baking

Watermelon: Moon and Stars and Yellow

Several varities of herbs including: Basil, Yellow Basil, Lemon Thyme, Cilantro, Chives

Cut flowers: a variety of sunflowers, Zinnias, Cosmos, Bachelor Buttons, Hostas and more

May 13, 2012 by kharner

Planting on May 13

This has been a most interesting spring. One minute you are bundled up planting, and the next it is so extremely hot. Today was hot!

: Keith and Steve getting the seed bed ready.

: Keith planting 10 rows of onions: Walla, Walla; yellow; white and red.

: Keith and Kristin both agree that even if we don’t need all of these onions, they will go to good use at the local food shelf.

: We planted onion sets for all of the varities.

: We planted 56 tomato plants: Big Boy, Yellow Girl, Brandywine, Roma and cherry tomatoes. We also planted a variety of peppers and broccoli.

: Steve prepares trenches for us to bury the edges of the mulch.

: We are trying green mulch this year to decrease soil borne diseases on the produce and assist with weed control. According to a studies the color green should increase production as well. Keith is getting a good strength workout on this project.

: Steve, Sam and Keith the day we installed 12 rows of mulch. Yes, we were all tired that night. But, we are anxious to see the results it produces.

May 6, 2012 by kharner

Rhubarb Jam

Mix together and set aside until a juice forms

6 cups rhubarb sliced into 1/4 to 1/2 inch pieces

3 cups sugar

Add one can of pie filling (cherry, raspberry, blueberry, strawberry) or 10 oz of fresh or frozen fruit.

Cook these ingredients for 20 minutes. Remove from heat and add 1 package of 3 oz jello (use Jello that is of the same flavor as the pie filling). Mix well. Pour into containers. Refrigerate or freeze.

: Wash rhubarb. Cut ends off and any bad parts. Cut into 1/4 to 1/2 inch pieces. Until you have 6 cups.

: Keith carefully slicing the rhubarb that he helped to harvest. We always use a plastic cutting board for our fruits and vegetables and a wooden cutting board for our meats to avoid cross contamination.

: Rhubarb in pan.

: Keith measuring out 3 cups of sugar. Did you know that Minnesota is the largest producer of sugarbeets in the United States. Sugarbeets are used to make granulated, brown and powdered sugar as well as molasses.