Full Share Photos Fall CSA

 Our final week (shown above)  included turnips, beets, 

micro greens, cauliflower, spring mix, broccoli, and cabbage.

 

  Week #11 (above) included kale, red ruby grapefruit, beets, 

micro greens, spring mix, broccoli, and butter nut squash.

 

 Week #10 of our Fall CSA program included satsuma citrus, spaghetti squash, 

sweet potatoes, micro greens, cauliflower, spring mix, and broccoli.

 

 Full Share Week of 11 23 shown above.

Sweet potatoes, satsumas citrus, baby arugula, tomato, micro green mix, 

butternut squash, salad mix, green beans

 

 Full Share of Week of ll 17

Sweet potatoes, red bell pepper, satsumas citrus,  

tomato, red ruby grape fruit, kale  micro green mix, 

 

 Full Share Week of ll 10

Red bell pepper, Salad mix, green beans,  

tomato, red ruby grape fruit, kale  micro green mix,, zucchini

  Full Share Week of ll 2

Mustard Greens, red bell pepper, persimmons,  

tomatoes, cucumbers, salad mix, portabella mushrooms,  micro green mix, 

  Full Share Week of 10 13

Red bell peppers, Salad mix, green beans,

tomatoes, storage onion, sweet potatoes, spaghetti squash

 Full Share Week of 10 6

Mustard Greens, Italian eggplant, Summer Squash, 

 salad mix, portabella mushrooms,  zucchini, micro green mix, 

 

Fall Open House, 2011

Photos courtesy of Lesia Streckfuss

 Nope,  I haven't begun preaching; just visiting with interested farm visitors from my "tractor pulpit."

 Kiddos enjoying the tractor ride.

A panoramic photo of the school house and adjacent yard.

A view of one of our ponds.

Early December and already a frost bitten shrub. 

About 8000 of our strawberry plants resting on the hill above the pond.

Hopefully they'll begin producing next month.

Notice the raised beds outlined in black.  

Another angle.

Shorter days resulting in Sweet Gum leaves turning into a nice Autumn shade of rust.

Setting out on the farm tour. 

Parents walking next to the trailer as their children ride the tractor drawn trailer.

 Waiting in front of the ol' school house.

Weather was pretty good.

The ol' school house, majestic but rustic.

What a great asset for our farm; community room, commercial kitchen, and facilities.

Without the school house, farm events would be a tad more challenging.

Thanks to all of you that visited us.

School Tour

Students from Montessori schools in Kingwood and Livingston converged on our farm a few weeks back and had a great time. Most of the teachers/adults walked, while the students enjoyed the hay ride behind the tractor. 

 

 Thumbs up? Yes-Sir!

  Our Smoked turkey, our fresh cut salad greens and warm bread; what a great lunch combination.  

Okay, so our hay bales provide good lunch table seats too.

Our group photo in front of the "ol' school house" at Wood Duck Farm.

Strawberry Plantings Fall 2011

Our efforts for our winter/spring 2012 strawberries began back in late August preparing the soil via making raised beds as shown below.

 Strawberries like moist soil, but require good aeration. Raised beds provide a good environment for strong root development.

 We follow the raised beds with a mulch layer as shown above. The mulch layer lays the irrigation drip tape, immediately followed by the mulch. The black mulch provides warmth to the soil in the winter, as well as prevents competing weeds from growing. Weeds not only compete for soil nutrients, but also can  harbor bad insects. During dry conditions, the mulch helps prevent soil evaporation.

 Drip tape laid across the bed center (black strip in bed center) provides 

an efficient method of trickle irrigation.

 Irrigation drip tape connected to a central "header pipe," located at the end of a raised bed, provides the water flow to all beds.

Looking pretty bad huh? Not to worry! These strawberry plants are fresh dug roots from Quebec and have traveled here to Texas via refrigerated truck. They will likely loose their leaves, but once the roots re-establish, they will generate new life and hopefully create flowers that will turn into strawberries.

 

Once the roots are transplanted, they require both drip irrigation as well as overhead sprinklers to protect them from the hot October sun here in Texas.

Our strawberry plantings basking in the sun on a cold November morning. They still need a few weeks to really get growing, but the recent rains have been very beneficial to giving them a good start.

These strawberry plants were planted in August with the hope of December berries. We planted them under the shade cloth of one of our greenhouses.

 Yes we get an occasional strawberry or two, but it seems as the plants are just waking up from their dormancy. Our strawberry grower friends over in Louisiana, tell us to get ready as they should be good bearers of fruit come January. Dang we hope so!

 Ice droplets on our broccoli plant leaves this morning.Not to worry they can handle the cold.

 Cold hardy Fennel bulbs welcoming the warm morning sun after a frosty morning. Notice they too are growing next to their drip tape irrigation source. Just knowing that this fennel will find itself in some tasty stews or potatoes come this winter.

So what happens when it gets really cold? Row cover my freinds.

More to come.......

Spring 2011 Open House

A few weeks ago we had over sixty adults and lots of kiddos' attend our Spring 2011 Open House here at the farm. The weather was hot, but merciful as a steady breeze kept us cool for the most part. We started off with a farm tour where lots of kids and adults alike piled onto the tractor towed hay wagon. While others traveled on foot, we made a short circle around some of the growing areas where a brief explanation of what was growing provided by "yours truly."  We returned to the ol' schoolhouse where our friend, Charmaine LeBlanc, provided a one hour demo on canning everything from green beans, to making pickles, to making peach preserves. Meanwhile some of the kids enjoyed playing dodge-ball underneath a water sprinkler. The evening was wrapped up with a "pot-luck" dinner.

Here we are about to cross the dike that separates our two main ponds, which act as natural wetlands for waterfowl. Hence the reason we named of our farm, Wood Duck Farm. 

Everyone seemed to stay in the shade as much as possible.

 

 "Yours truly" explaining how we filter our pond water to irrigate all of our field crops such as tomatoes, watermelon, onions, squash etc.

Eager attendees listening to Charmaine providing some insights on canning techniques. *Thanks Charmaine, we were so fortunate to have your assistance.* We are also fortunate to have relocated this building for hosting events such as our farm dinners, open house etc. This building was reportedly built in 1912, and was a one room schoolhouse for several years prior to Great Depression up near the community of Evergreen, TX. 

Green Beans almost ready for the final phase. Peach preserves are next!

 Aah! The "pot luck" buffet finally begins. Dinner time at last! 

This little guy skipped the casseroles and went strait for the sweet section. 

Can't blame him as some excellent peach cobbler was waiting.

THANKS TO ALL OF YOU THAT ASSISTED IN MAKING THIS OPEN HOUSE A SUCCESS!

Photos courtesy of Lesia Streckfuss.

 For more photos visit our facebook photo album at Spring 2011 Open House FB Photo Album

  Please remember that our 2011 Summer CSA program begins next week, June 15th. Visit this link for more info CSA Registration

Another reminder that our Fall Creek Location has changed to be 8202 Emerald Meadow lane, 77396

A link to this location can be found at the following:

Fall Creek CSA Pick Up Location

Open House at the Farm This Saturday

Yikes, the weather forecast for the week is for highs to be near 94 and little chance of rain.  I think we are all getting accustomed to the drought, but darn it seems way too early to be in the mid 90s. Fortunately here at the farm we have been blessed with some moderate rain showers over the past week or so; nothing measurable but enough to keep the dust down to some degree. If you come to our open house this coming week, you'll see where we have begun plowing up some of our spring crops to make room for some of our summer plantings.

Speaking of our open house, it will be held at this coming Saturday between 4 & 7. It is open to all so please feel free to bring your family and friends. The open house will be held at our "ol' school house" which we relocated to our farm several years ago.  Originally built in 1912, we have modified it to have a working kitchen, dinning area and rest rooms. Depending on the weather, we may have most of our  activities outside, i.e.  pickling/canning demonstration and our "pot luck" dinner. We need to plan so we ask everyone to send us an email to csa@woodduckfarm.com  if you're coming (RSVP).     PLEASE LET US KNOW HOW MANY WILL BE IN YOUR PARTY, Adults and Kids. We're going to smoke some BBQ treats and will have plenty of water, ice tea and apple juice. When you enter the front gate, bear to the right and drive on down and we'll be waiting for you.

What Should You Bring?

·         This is a potluck, so if your last name begins with the letters

                  A~I = a side dish (slaw, beans, casserole, potato salad etc.)

                  J~R = fruits, salads or breads

                  S~Z = Desserts

·         Be sure to bring chairs and of course your family! 

·         Coolers welcome - filled with beverages of your choice.  Please drink responsibly!

·         PLEASE NO DOGS

R.S.V.P. by Wednesday, May25^th

csa@woodduckfarm.com

If you would like to help with any of our open house planning please let us know!

 What to do with Kale and Squash? We received these recipe below from two of our CSA members  

I wanted to share a SUPER easy and delicious Kale recipe. I made these just now and they are incredible! Apparently, you can do this with a lot of different greens but Kale is the most popular. 

Thanks,

Jennifer

Kale Chips 

• about one bunch of kale, rinsed and dried
• Olive oil
• Salt, to taste

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
2. Make sure the Kale is dry- try a salad spinner if necessary. Cut the tough ends off the kale, and pull bite sized pieces off the inner stems. 
3. Place kale chips in large bowl. Toss in about 1 tablespoon of olive oil. Lighter is better! Then sprinkle in sea salt. Salad tongs work great for tossing. 
4. Put the kale pieces in a single layer on a baking sheet, using parchment if available.
5. Bake for 12-15 minutes or until crisp, watching the baking around 12 minutes to ensure they aren't burning and to check to see if they are crispy enough for you! 
6. Experiment! For more smoky or spicy flavor, lightly dust the kale chips with paprika or cayenne pepper power.

  
Summer Squash casserole

Ingredients

• 1 small Vidalia onion, chopped (about 3/4 cup)
• 2 pounds yellow squash, cut into 1/2 to 1-inch cubes
• Kosher salt and freshly cracked black pepper
• 1 cup good quality mayonnaise
• 1 1/2 cups grated Gruyere cheese
• 1 1/4 cups crushed Ritz crackers, divided
• 1 1/2 tsp. fresh thyme, chopped
• 1 to 2 Tbsp. olive oil

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

In a heated skillet, add olive oil.  Add the onions. Cook until lightly brown. Add the squash, season with salt and pepper, to taste, and cook until the squash is tender, about 8 to 10 minutes. Remove the skillet from the heat and stir in the mayonnaise, 1 cup of the cheese, 1 cup of the crumbled crackers, and thyme. Pour the mixture into a 1 1/2-quart baking dish. Sprinkle with remaining cheese and top with remaining 1/4 cup of butter crackers. Bake until the casserole is bubbly around edges, about 25 minutes. Remove the casserole from the oven and serve hot.

Kristina

Below are a few photos over the past  two weeks.

It takes a lot of manpower to pick wash sort and pack our CSA boxes.  We do everything outside, so tents are required to protect the veggies from the sun.

 Lots of Baby Carrots last week. More coming this week.

 

 Week of May 17th Full Share Above which included cucumbers, microgreens, salad mix, baby carrots, cauliflower, radishes, snow peas,onion, rainbow swiss chard and russian  banana potatoes.

 Week of May 12th, Full Share Above, 2 bags of Salad Greens, Summer Starburst Squash, Cheddar Cauliflower, Broccoli, 2 heads of Cabbage, Radishes, Beets or Salad Turnips, Snow Peas, Onions

Tomates Are Coming Soon

Trying to harvest our spring crops while planting for the summer requires the farm to be run in "full throttle mode," which makes idle time scarce. This hopefully explains why we have not had a lot of time to update you in more than a week. We've provided a few pics below that will hopefully "tell a thousand words."  As with most farms this time of year, we're currently wishing that there were eight days in the week rather than seven. Guessing though in retrospect that wouldn't make a much of a difference though as goes the adage "... a farm's work is never complete."

News from the farm:

Rain:  About a week ago, we received over an inch of rain which was so very welcome. The bad news was that it all came in about 30 minutes, which resulted in a little flash flooding on our fairly flat farm land. Oh well beggars can't be "choosey." We only wish that all of our farm friends could have participated in it as well.


Summer CSA Registration To Begin in mid-June:  Yes, we were able to begin our 2011 Spring program early enough to have a summer program as well. We're planting lots of summertime favorites such as watermelon, cantaloupe, grape tomatoes, sweet corn, purple hull peas, as well as your normal staples such as cucumbers, squash, green beans, eggplant, and green garlic. Just like last summer, we're hoping to participate with other local farms so that we can add summer fruit, such as peaches, blue berries, figs etc., to your farm shares. More info soon, but you can contact me directly at csa@woodduckfarm.com if you'd like to go ahead and sign up.

Farm Open House    Looking at the calendar, we're thinking the weekend of Saturday, May 28th may be a possible date to welcome some of you that are interested in seeing the farm. More info later. We are going to try and find someone to demonstrate canning summer veggies like cucumbers for pickles etc. Let us know if you have someone in mind.


Website Facelift  We're working to make our website more user friendly. This should ultimately help us with some of our back-office "organizational/growing pains." We'll keep you posted as this develops.


Pick Up Location Punctuality:  We have ideas as to how improve our delivery "on time" scoring which has been dismal of late, especially for those of you that pick up in the west Houston area locations.Please hang in there as we fully understand your frustration. Hopefully you'll begin to see a difference this week.

Meat & Poultry Subscription Plan: Our next and second delivery for our Spring 2011 Meat/Poultry Share is scheduled to be next week, May 17th. FYI the meat subscription plan is for three deliveries over ten weeks.
  

Shown above is our commercial pea sheller, a "used" but new edition to our farm. Although  We're hopeful that this pea sheller will come in handy during our summer CSA program. This "gem" is supposed to shell 1 bushel of peas in 3 minutes; compare this to when I used shell about 1 pint in about 30 minutes.

Well summer is coming and we're growing purple hull peas. For those of you not familiar with PH peas, they're "cousins" to black-eyed peas, an "ol' time" summer southern favorite. I remember shelling PH peas as a child, usually watching either "Dark Shadows" or the Atlanta Braves. (I  was about 7 or 8 yrs old, growing up in Georgia, played Dixie Youth baseball, slept via an attic fan (no AC), and watched TV on a RCA Black & White model w/outdoor antenna being required.  If I was not at baseball practice, I was usually riding my bicycle, playing in my "tree house" or reading an army book. Lots of good memories, but I'm not wishing shell peas anymore.)

"Rocky Raccoon" an unwelcome neighbor

We have not had predator problems in a long time, but a few mornings ago we started seeing chicken parts laying outside the chicken coup. Not sure if this raccoon is the culprit, but it got caught in our "have-a-heart" trap. Overall we lost around 15 chickens. Not to worry "Rocky Raccoon", it'll be okay as we'll release you down near the river. Hopefully your short time in confinement will result in your being rehabilitated into a "kindlier gentler raccoon." Yea Right?

Some of our pastured poultry enjoying some fresh forage after their pen was just moved to a new location a few feet away.

Like a lot of commercial growers we use stakes and twine to support our field grown tomatoes. Above is an example of our tomatoes planted on plastic mulch to inhibit weeds and enhance moisture retention and supported with baling twine. Notice the green tomato. Just a few weeks away before CSA shares begin receiving tomatoes.

Lots of time needed to plant, stake and maintain our tomato plants

Normally we get rain here in SE Texas which requires adequate spacing between rows for good air circulation. This helps retard fungal development which is the primary "bad guy" for tomato plants in the south. So far our plants are looking pretty healthy. Perhaps a silver lining to the drought?

We picked a few tomatoes today. Real small, almost plum size. Bigger ones coming soon.

Our full share for the week of May 3rd included summer squash/zucchini, 3-4 sweet onions, green beans, Russian banana heirloom potatoes, 5-7 red beets, 5-7 Japanese turnips, radishes, kale, 2 bags salad greens.

Full share from the last week of April,  Micro Greens, 2 bags salad greens,  3 bunches kale, large bag of spinach, green beans, beets, turnips, potatoes, radish.

 

2011 has been a hot dry spring for growing spinach. Here we are washing some after harvest a few weeks back.

Baskets of fresh cut lettuce, arugula and assorted mixed greens ready for rinsing.






Until Next Time,


Van