Extended Season Week 2

This Week’s Harvest

Farm News

Our major fall root harvest is complete and we ended up with a trailer full of food! I was looking through old pictures and came across our “big” root harvest from 2016. I had captioned the picture “yesterday I felt less like a farmer and more like a squirrel”.

Nowadays this haul looks so small. Instead of a few 25 pound harvest bins of this and that we have dozens of 500 pound pallet bins. We have gradually scaled up to our current operation acquiring the necessary equipment overtime. First we needed a new tractor with a front end loader, which we were able to purchase in 2017. We also needed a more efficient way of washing the roots and our pack shed upgrades have included concreting the barn and assembling a wash-line of rinse conveyor, root washer and sorting table. The acquisition of pallet bins has helped make the harvest more systematic. And just last year we purchased a shipping container, which we rigged up with a homemade cooling system, giving us a place to store this increased production.

The John Deere has more horsepower and capabilities such as undercutting which lifts and loosens the soil making the harvest easy
The front end loader helps us easily move food around

We have scaled up our winter root production for a few reasons. A main reason is that we are able to grow them well (most of them! still working on a perfect potato crop). They also provide income during the slower winter months and all the washing and packing has been a good job to give our employees to provide more year round employment for some. Their storage capabilities are great and it is a nice to have a product that is more shelf stable for a change. In fact the last 2 years some of our storage crops have lasted all winter and spring and helped bulk out our first CSA shares of the following season! Added bonus- they taste so good!

Getting carrots from the trailer cooler to wash

Recipes

Kohlrabi and Carrot Mash

Kohlrabi and Radish Slaw

Deep Dish Pizza with Cilantro Pesto and Brussles Sprouts