Box #2 contents!

I still can't believe Doro is finding enough strawberries out there for everyone to at least have a MUNCH... I only see a few red ones every time I am down there transplanting, weeding, watering, or applying compost! I'd thought our last berries were on the plants several weeks ago... but its nice that she stuck with digging around there on Wednesday mornings! She must have the magic eye...

Also, don't forget to keep your baskets, and the plastic and egg cartons within. I only have enough to spot everyone for about four weeks tops; ideally, we'd get the same ones back over and over again, to clean and keep re-circulating!

Email me if you have any questions or usage tips! BTW, the bagged greens are fully rinsed, while everything else is superficially rinsed... just be aware. This will be the case for every share until the end -- if its not in a zip lock bag, go ahead and assume its not been fully rinsed. Some things deteriorate more quickly after am overly thorough rinsing -- for example, the radishes. Many know if they've not been treated with pesticides, the leaves can be diced and used in a salad (for peppery effect).

BTW, if you ever get a conserve from me that ends up being totally NOT up you and your family's alley -- would you please, without regret or remorse, bring it back to me in the next week or so? Every conserve that I include in the share is something I (and many times also, my wife and kids) busted our butts to put up in the basement pantry last fall and winter. Its usually also stuff that we really enjoy eating =) So, if this applies to you, kindly bring the prepared stuff back to us, rather than it go to waste!

Finally, good job bringing in the old baskets/etc. today!!! We had about an 80% success rate with that, and it will allow us to consistently be sustainable = reusing as much as possible). Don't forget to comment here, if you have a recipe or just some simple preparation advice around any of this week's deliciousness!

Test Post #2 -- PLZ REPLY IF YOU GET THIS!

Share members, I'm hoping I fixed this, and that this note makes it directly into your inbox. I am testing again because it seems that as soon as I started using the Google Group email for us, the posts stopped making it to one or more of you. That means, some of you might have missed the last two posts (SORRY IF THAT IS THE CASE).

Please reply with 'got it' if you GOT THIS POST DIRECT TO YOUR INBOX. Then, go to coburncove.blogspot.com when you've got a free couple of minutes, and check out any recent post(s) that you missed!!!

Looking forward to seeing all of you at the Wedge tomorrow. Also, I'll have a little of my homemade apple cider for you to taste. Totally optional. And ONLY a very short pour, as I don't want staff at the Wedge to think I'm competing with their offerings... a sip may be best anyways -- as last Wednesday I was stuck with a pitcher of porter that no sharemember had the time to help me drink! =)

Recent happenings! And, sorry for the lack of more traditional greens...

I should have told you all, sooner than now, that a little over a month ago, practically all of the kale and cabbage starts that we put in the ground were eaten down to the bone by some unwelcome, previously unseen critter(s) down at the food plot we are managing. My first suspect was rabbits, but I could not find or catch any down at the plot (nor have I ever found any rabbit poop about). Shortly after that, when we put some beautiful new squash plants in the ground, we soon found several of the best plants with almost all of their foliage eaten. WTF?!?!

What in the world eats squash plant leaves? I'd never seen this before... researching, I found some people claiming that woodchucks might like them from time to time. Well, I eventually caught the culprit -- sure enough, a woodchuck -- and relocated him. Dried apple slices did the trick.

However the damage was still done/ =( I had hoped to have kale in everyone's share for week one... alas, we are left to focus on other gambles. Tomatoes are looking great, but their payout is some time down the road. Same for cucumbers and peppers! I have some of this conserved from last summer that I will share with you all soon. Other berries (black, wine) are soon to be in boxes, and I think the strawberry patch has more to give, too. We'll make it interesting whatever the setback! =)

Before I go, here are some pics from things that have happened in the last week or so: (hope you appreciate these little windows into the nuts and bolts of our attempt at multi-family homesteading)

Anyone want a rooster? We've got four, but wanted zero. They are cute and have personality, but... don't lay eggs!

Mr. Jerkface in the flesh, who single-handedly undid four hours of careful transplanting and watering, plus laid waste to half of our expensive (ie, not started in-house) squash seedlings

A chicken masqueraded as a duck, and laid on the ground (vs. in the more typical raised nesting boxes)

One of our few remaining leghorns died from a rapidly progressing internal condition. Egg bound or internal infection due to broken egg? She always laid these strangely thin-shelled eggs with dimples -- despite getting plenty of calcium. RIP dear 'Turkeyfeather'!

Damn potato beetle larvae, trying to eat our tomato plants (they are related, and I'm sure leaves taste similar to them)... Josie and Yanusz and I must've removed about three hundred of these, until we couldn't find any more!

Relaxing with my family on a blanket in the grass for daddy day... and enjoying some belly time with our most friendly chicken (who I am convinced thinks she's a person) -- Lazy Eye aka 'Knucklebird'!

Doro and Josie, helping me start one of the four new ~30 ft seed beds we made this past weekend. Sooner-to-mature stuff like certain herbs, greens, and small rooties (radish, etc.) should make it into your later-in-the-season boxes thanks to these!

Contents of first share!

Hey there, let's try and eliminate some of the mystique around this stuff (sorry that the picture here is from the one share that didn't get picked up today -- and so the contents don't appear as fresh as they could be):

NB: Everything here was grown without pesticides, and without artificial fertilizers. The lamb's quarters were gorgeous, perfect-for-eating, pre-flowering volunteers in the potato patch, and I just couldn't resist (they taste like spinach, are a relative of quinoa, and are just as healthy). Here are some preparation tips:

STRAWBERRIES: Eat or prepare ASAP -- they've got no preservatives and were picked uber-ripe (as opposed to white, as most commercial ones are)

LILIES: Dice up the pods and flowers and enjoy them fresh in a salad, or use the flower as a garnish, or you can also either stir fry or deep-fry them

LAMB'S QUARTERS: Tear leaves off stems (sorry, I would have done this for ya'll but ran out of time today), simmer in pan with olive oil and a tad garlic briefly (as you would spinach) -- or, put fresh on a sandwich!

KALE-CHI: For those who do not like the fermented / briney taste of a lacto-fermented super-food, here's a cool workaround to get it back to simply kale: fill jar with water, let stand for 5 minutes or so. Empty water. Then, put 'rinsed' kale-chi in frying pan with olive oil and a splash maple syrup (or other sweetener) and simmer for a few minutes. My kids finally liked it when I did it this way!

Please respond to this post with any recipe tips, or simple stories of how you ended up using things! And remember to bring back baskets, plastic, and egg cartons (if you can) next week... I'm very grateful to be growing food for you all!

What we're working on right now...

Just wanted to let you all know... all this rain, while a pain in the but for certain things we people like to enjoy doing while dry (hmmm.... basically everything? =) has been great for the thirsty clay soil over here at Coburn Cove Cooperative farmstead! This is good news for what is planted in the ground intentionally by us, but also good news for weed seeds... for example, today I saw a that a patch of the at first very innocent-looking weeds -- Hibiscus trionum aka 'fleur-des-heure' (named 'Flower of an Hour' based on the fact that it only opens its flower for a short period of time in the sunlit morning) -- had grown to nearly full size:

These guys can spread their seed quickly, and will make this (and every subsequent) year that we do the CSA here a nightmare... if we don't try and hack them down the next time the sun is out, and before they go to seed! They are literally the biggest problem weed in our plot... last year they literally ruined at least half, if not more, of our tomato crop (by preventing air circulation and encouraging mold growth). Friday, a day the weather service believes Candler (and neighboring Asheville) will have sunny skies, looks to be the day I will dedicate myself to hoeing thousands of these pretty little devils into oblivion (Project #1)

Look at the milkweed I brought from Chicago, and planted last year -- coming back, despite me tilling that entire row in with the tractor:

If its spread out FROM the clump where it exists now TO dotting throughout the plot, it will best attract pollinators (to increase fruit yields). Eventually, we'll have a perennial bed of them here, and I'll then help you learn how to enjoy the tasty 'wild' vegetable that is milkweed florets! Now, look at the corn, that my kids seeded way too close together about a month ago:

You know how kid help can be (ahem, usually is) not so much actual help, but rather, 'help.' =) These seedlings will now need to get moved to an area where they are at least two rows wide (helps cross-pollination), and spaced out to where they don't have to compete with each other. This way we'll have corn to eat towards the end of the season. Moving these two patches will be Project #2.

Finally, as soon as its thoroughly dry (and promises to be, the following day) I'll mow the grass in the small 'pastures' that we have, and use the clippings to mulch the tops of the row crops. I'd gotten used to Illinois' unbelievably easy-to-use sandy loam when I started gardening for multiple families back in Chicago, but fortunately have learned a lot about Western NC clay of late! When the soil surface here is directly exposed to sun and wind, it can dry into a painfully impermeable surface... so I need to protect it from that! This task, Project #3, will definitely have to wait until we have a longer period of sunshine.

Well, that's the news for this week at CCC. Pay attention (CSA members) to your email inboxes, as I'll be emailing out a survey asking you about BOTH an optimal date for our beginning-of-season party here at the homestead, AS WELL AS which of the downtown farmer's markets you'd prefer our distro be nearby to...

TEST POST

If you're reading this, then you probably already know what its for. Here's a few pics I snapped lately, of Doro and I (and some surroundings -- including some WILDLIFE I spotted):

Did the message (and pictures) of this blog post make it direct to your email inbox? If so, kindly let me know with a reply. Looking forward to our growing season together, y'all! =)

We're offering a (mini)CSA this year

Let me tell you a story that is becoming too familiar, around getting food-growing happening in and around city schools...

Late this past winter, some friends of ours helped us start several hundred vegetable seedlings, my parents down in Georgia started hundreds of heirloom tomato plants, and I prepared to say goodbye to just as many 'runner' strawberry plants in our patch here at the homestead. All of these things were being committed to a 'demonstration food plot' that Joan Pinegar and I were going to put on at Isaac Dickson Elementary School (IDES). We were going to 1) grow seasonal produce, row-crop (aka 'farm') style, for using fresh, cooking, and preserving; 2) do cooking demonstrations for the local community and basically give away much of the produce in the summer; and 3) let the school utilize as much of what we had growing in the spring and fall as possible.

However, (cue scary music, stormy sounds) the powers-that be in the downtown offices of ACS very recently informed us, in a sudden change of stance, that we are not to disturb any sod laid down at IDES this year... stopping our plans dead in its tracks. Geez, this is like what happened at Asheville Middle, all over again (at least this time, a generous ACSF grant was not basically squandered in the process). I am beginning to honestly think there are just one or two sour people at 85 Mountain St that, every year, say "You want to start a huge vegetable plot at a school? And let kids, teachers and parents taste it, learn about it, help with it? And let whole families in the nearby community reconnect with the empowerment that comes with growing, preparing and preserving food? Not while I'm around!"

I do not want to let these seedlings go to waste. And I really don't want to feel ENTIRELY defeated in this second attempt at starting up a community-oriented, food-growing enterprise.

Here's what I'm going to do: I have been mulling around the idea of starting up a micro-CSA out of our homestead in Candler ever since we moved here from Chicago (where I have some experience doing an urban version of the same; if you're the curious sort, I believe our old blog is still accessible here: 37gyouthveggies.blogspot.com). I've resolved to, this 2017 growing season, try my hand at growing food for 7-8 other families -- and to hopefully make some deeper and long-lasting connections with folks in the process. By word-of-mouth with friends and colleagues, we've got five share members already... now we're looking for just a couple more!

Our shares will likely be more akin to a traditional 'half-share' -- meaning, a young (ie, small) family of four will have enough produce to prominently feature in 5-8 meals out of the week. We will grow and harvest for you for 15 weeks, beginning the first week after school lets out (mid-June). We will include a half-dozen of our free-ranging chicken eggs in each share, plus I will strive to offer (as optional) as often as possible some other fun things that I enjoy doing: seasonal foraged foods that are of notable taste and nutriment, carefully gleaned produce from other nearby farms, and the occasional value-added product (like homemade jam, lactic acid ferments, etc.). If I feel that any given week was 'leaner' that I would have liked, we'll extend the growing season an extra week or two (or three) to make up for it.

The distribution site will most likely be coordinated nearby (in time and place) to either the River Arts District or French Broad Food Coop farmers markets (weekday markets). The idea is to be both convenient for people who work or live in the city, while giving you the option to stroll down the street and pick up a few more things (if you are for example trying to eat 100% of your food fresh and local this growing season). The cost would be $250, paid upfront as CSA shares usually are... I struggled for the last week or so with deciding on a price, because I really just want to make up for MOST of the material costs and a fraction (half? hah... if I'm lucky!) of the labor involved -- given that this will be a sort of 'practice' season for me. Methods will not involve synthetic fertilizers or pesticides, though I may move to use organic-approved treatments if I ever need to to save a crop! 

If you are familiar with CSAs, I think you will see that this is an exceptional deal. If you are not familiar with CSAs, you're welcome to comparison shop (https://mountainx.com/food/food-news/021710let_the_csas_begin/... info a little outdated but prices still very realistic) -- OR, you can take my word that this is a unique opportunity to get a 'taste' of one, without a super-long commitment or the fear of too much stuff going to waste! =) In any case, thank you for hearing me out... no matter if this fits with your plans, personal beliefs, wallet, etc. or not, I really look forward to continuing to know you all more and more, as summer emerges in this wonderful little city and at our homestead nearby in Candler!