Our Farm Update

Visiting Farms in South Louisiana, Dec. 2011

2012-01-01T09:17:00.000-08:00

Between Christmas and New Years, 2011, my friend Lesia and I were able to visit New Orleans for a few days. While we stayed and experienced the French Quarter during the evening, we exited the city limits during the days to seek the surrounding attractions.

Below are some pics that I took along the way.

On a visit to St. Rose Parish, we had lunch at the "Port Side" restaurant. It resided just a few feet from the Mississippi River dike and was a great "working man's" place to eat. The owner visited with us about the history of this eatery while we dinned on gumbo and hush puppies. He even shared a collection of arrowheads that he had collected over the years. Interesting touch; in the corner of the dinning room were two slot machines.

We took a tour of the Destrahan Plantation, which was a great educational experience about early Louisiana history. Interesting to learn that the average height of a man in early 19th century New Orleans era was 5'3". Thus, the door knobs were really low. Above, Lesia poses at the foot of plantation store.

Always interested in seeing local agriculture, so we stopped by this "cabbage stand" and asked "...where's the farm?" FYI, this farmer donates sales from this cabbage stand to the local high school baseball team fund. How generous is that?

Nice size cauliflower growing here at this farm which rests adjacent to Mississippi River Farm. The owner says his farm soils come from the American mid-west as they developed over centuries via the ebb and flow of the Mississippi River.

Rows or broccoli, onions, beets, cauliflower, cabbage, turnips and more.

More cauliflower needed, so "out of season" baseball players help out with the harvest.

We caught a ride back on the farm wagon "full to the brim" with cauliflower.

This is a different day and different farm. Located near Ponchatoula Louisiana, this farm has about 45+ tillable acres under of production; 15 acres being in strawberries every year. Above workers remove runners from strawberry plants. Kind of like "suckers" on a tomato plant, removing the runners helps in growing better fruit.

The white fabric, shown above, is "row cover" which is spread out over the plants when the danger of frost develops. While strawberries can take cold weather, frost can burn the blooms. As you may know the flower blooms are what eventually develop into the fruit.

Younger strawberry plants basking in the early day sun. In case you are wondering, the plants are grown on raised beds and covered with black plastic. The plastic keeps the root zones nice and warm as well as prevents weeds from growing which can compete for nutrients.

Owner Eric looking at another field of strawberry plants. Eric's farm grows about 225,000 strawberry plants each year.

The strawberry season for Eric ends each year around Memorial Day Weekend. The farm's focus then becomes Blueberries. Shown above are Blueberry plants remaining dormant until the days begin to get longer and little warmer. The white vertical pipes are sprinklers that assist in frost protection for those late spring frosts. Eric also grows purple hull peas, tomatoes, squash and other summer vegetables. He can be found every Thursday at the Baton Rouge Farmers Market.

Full Share Photos Fall CSA

2011-12-28T04:16:00.000-08:00

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

2011-12-06T17:42:00.000-08:00

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

2011-11-30T18:13:00.000-08:00

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

2011-11-28T20:23:00.000-08:00

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

2011-06-09T12:10:00.000-07:00

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

2011-05-23T06:08:00.000-07:00

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:

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
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.
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.
Put the kale pieces in a single layer on a baking sheet, using parchment if available.
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!
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

2011-05-10T05:02:00.000-07:00

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

It's Going To Rain Soon, Right?

2011-04-21T16:06:00.000-07:00

My gosh, it has been the driest spring since I have been market farming. It is only April, and our largest pond, about 5 acres, is completely dry. Our second pond, about 4 acres, is supplemented with us pumping well water into it every night. From this pond we use both "trickle" and overhead irrigation for most of our row crops on the back side of our farm. Our greenhouses, where our baby greens are grown, are irrigated with well water. This afternoon we noticed that almost all of our spinach, beets, turnips, and radishes were wilted from the constant wind that blows from the south every afternoon. We've now got over half of our tomatoes transplanted in the ground, along with most of our summer squash, zucchini, and cucumbers. With no rain forecast in site, one has to worry if we have enough well capacity to keep everything going. We're optimistic that we'll be okay. Below are a few photos of our last two weeks of CSA shares etc. The wonderful sugar snap peas are about finished, too little rain/too much heat. The good news is that we are hopeful that the green beans will begin next week and Red Lasoda "new" potatoes in a few weeks. Strawberries were good while they lasted but they are gone for the season. The native "dew berries" that grow wild on our farm are about ripe for picking, so blackberries will soon be ready. Hopefully we'll find a local sustainable source of blackberries as well. For those of you that are CSA members and wondering what to do with all those beets you received this week, we have provided a recipe, courtesy of one of your fellow farm members, found further below.

In our Full Shares the week of April 20th, two bags baby salad greens, bunch of spring onions, 6-7 Beets w/tops, 6-7 Radish w/tops, small box micro greens, bag sugar snaps, assorted baby summer squash/zucchini.

In our Full Shares the week of April 13th, two bags baby salad greens, bunch of spring onions, 5-6 Beets w/tops, two bunches of mustard greens, bag sugar snap peas, small box micro greens, a few summer squash/zucchini , pint strawberries.

Lots of baby beets just picked and freshly rinsed

Our delivery trailer almost filled up. The back of our pick up truck was full of coolers containing our frozen pastured pork and poultry as our CSA Meat/Poultry shares began this week too. So happy that this is just a once per month delivery in the spring/summer. Whoever invented dry ice, we're grateful.

A recipe note from a fellow farm member:

Hey Van,

I made this recipe with your beets tonight --it was a hit ! The beet greens were delish too. We used vinegar in the beets as opposed to the butter option. Thought I would pass it along for you to share if you'd like. We are really enjoying our veggie share :)

Best,

Roasted Beets and Sauteed Beet Greens

Yield 4 Servings

Ingredients

1 bunch beets with
greens
1/4 cup olive oil, divided
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tablespoons chopped onion (optional)
salt and pepper to taste
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar (optional)

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees (175 degrees C). Wash the beets thoroughly, leaving the skins on, and remove the greens. Rinse greens, removing any large stems, and set aside. Place the beets in a small baking dish or roasting pan, and toss with 2 tablespoons of olive oil. If you wish to peel the beets, it is easier to do so once they have been roasted.
Cover, and bake for 45 to 60 minutes, or until a knife can slide easily through the largest beet.
When the roasted beets are almost done, heat the remaining 2 tablespoons olive oil in a skillet over medium-low heat. Add the garlic and onion, and cook for a minute. Tear the beet greens into 2 to 3 inch pieces, and add them to the skillet. Cook and stir until greens are wilted and tender. Season with salt and pepper. Serve the greens as is, and the roasted beets sliced with either red-wine vinegar, or butter and salt and pepper.

Nutritional Information

Amount Per Serving Calories: 204 | Total Fat: 13.9g | Cholesterol: 0mg

Spring 2011 CSA begins

2011-04-10T15:41:00.000-07:00

It has been a few busy weeks here at the farm which might explain our prolonged absence sense our last update. In any event, our Spring 2011 CSA program kicked off last week and seems to have received good reviews. Directly below is a photo of what full share holders received in their boxes beginning this past week April 4th. Partial Shares received about 1/3 less.

Two bunches of spinach, 3-4 medium sized spring onions, micro greens 3 or 4 heads of broccoli, 2 bags of salad mix, pint of strawberries, approx. 1# sugar snap peas

A few weeks back we poured a nice size slab for our soon to be packing shed and walk-in cooler/freezer

We had some extra ready mix left over, so we poured a sloping wash station where we will be able to wash our baby field greens.

Slow going, but we're making progress. Above is a 16x`18 walk-in unit, one half is a cooler and the other a freezer.


In spite of the drought, our veggies are hanging in there. Above are some spring onions; thirsty but hanging in there.

Summer is a coming! Piggies can't sweat and can sunburn too, so they need protection from the hot sun. Consequently we've moved our pigs from the open winter pasture areas to the shady woods. Above is junior resting his head on a "senior fellow."

Above are some red beets planted on raised beds. Even the weeds are having difficulty.

Our pastured chicken coups sitting on wheat pasture. Water twice a day required for these chicks. We'll have to provide them shade soon.


It may be hard to see in the photo above, but we've got overhead irrigation going almost non-stop.

Spring Farm Dinner Set for Saturday, April 2nd

2011-03-03T12:18:00.000-08:00

Red Bud trees in bloom and the Houston Rodeo in full swing: time to plant green beans and red potatoes.

On another note, several of you have inquired as to when we are going to host another dinner event here at the farm. Call it “spring fever” or something, but we’ve gotten motivated and selected Saturday, April 2^nd to be our first dinner event for 2011. Jon Buchanan, Executive Chef at Trevisio, will be directing the culinary team. The Saturday evening dinner will begin with a reception staring around 3:30 or so, followed by a farm tour around 4:45, with our first dinner course to begin around 6:00, and the final course likely being complete around 8:30-9:00. You can then take a seat over next to the camp fire to finish your coffee or spirits if you'd like prior to heading home. The dinner menu, still under development, will focus on locally grown seasonal food, and will likely include four or five courses. To get a “grasp” and more info/photos about our five farm dinners held back in 2010 visit WDF Spring Dinners . A lot of participants in the past have put together groups of 4-12 to make a party within a party. Some rent a bus, some hire a limousine , and some just rendezvous here at the farm. Seating is "family style" so no matter if you are a party of one or twenty, you'll have more friends when you leave than when you arrived.

“Early Menu”

Field Greens with Fried Green Tomatoes, Pickled Red Onions,

Pola Cadoc Steel Eye Blue Cheese Dressing and Homemade Bacon

Gumbo with Pastured Chicken Sausage,

Texas Gulf Coast Shrimp, Oysters and Texmati Rice

Texas Red Fish with Remoulade and Veggie Slaw

Whole Roasted Hog, Braised Greens with Herbed New Potatoes

Strawberry Shortcake with "Way Back When" Whipped Cream

Coffee, Herbal Tea & Spring Water

Alcohol Welcome, BYOB


Lots of planting this past week at our Rogers Farm Lease, located just down the road about 2 miles from the farm.


Broccoli, Cauliflower, Radicchio, and Onions being overhead watered. Nice clean beds now, but with water and sunshine later comes the weeds, arrggg!

Pac Choi Plugs Ready To Be Transplanted.

What’s Growing? Although it has been extremely dry here at the farm, the weather has been good for planting. Consequently, we’ve got a huge amount of planting taken care of since our last update, both transplants and direct seeding. Potatoes and green beans are in the ground too. We just ordered 20,000 linear feet of row cover for our warm weather veggies. Row cover is a thin sheet of “gauze like” fabric which helps keep warmth in and frost out; kinda’ like a blanket. While it can only protect plants down to about 29F, or so, it is good insurance for unpredictable Texas spring weather. Hopefully we’ll never have to use it. With that in mind, we’ll begin transplanting tomato plants into their cozy raised beds next week. Summer squash, zucchini and cucumbers are soon to follow. We’re still a little behind, so the spring CSA is not set to begin until possibly the 2^nd week of April. Why? Well, back around Jan. 31^st we went through two weeks of cold enough weather, about 19F, to freeze a lot of veggies that were set to be our early March harvest. Having to replant has resulted in us being a few weeks behind. Those of you that visit us at the Farmer’s Market know that we have not had any arugula or salad mix since mid January. We want your experience to be a good one, so please be patient as we’re confident this is going to be a great season.

New Clear Lake Pick Up Locations Added: We have been looking for a friendly location to provide for customers living in and around the Clear Lake/Sea Brook area. Well “low and behold,” we may have found two at the same time. We contacted the fine folks at The Coffee-Oasis located in Seabrook at 4650 Nasa Pkwy, 77586; a few weeks ago and after providing them more information about who/what we are etc, they’ve agreed to give us a try. For a map to their location visit Coffee Oasis Map . The other Clear Lake area location, Cullen’s, is located about 20 mins. north from the Coffee Oasis. We have known Paul Lewis, the Executive Chef at Cullen’s, since when he was the Sous Chef at the Four Seasons of Houston. Paul was the guest chef last summer at the Outstanding in the Field Event over at Jolie Vue Ranch located in Chapel Hill, so he really understands the “buy local” concept. We have been delivering our farm produce and herbs to Chef Paul since they opened a few years ago, so it seemed like a natural fit for us to have Cullen’s as a CSA pick up location. Cullen's Upscale American Grill is located at 11500 Space Center Boulevard, Houston, TX 77059 or visit this link for a Map to Cullen's. We’re looking for both of these locations to be Thursday delivery days, i.e. 4:30-7:30. We’ll have both of these on our website soon. As mentioned last week, we recently added The Beans Café & Coffee House, located in the Energy Corridor of West Houston. This is going to be a great location as it has great parking and is only about one mile south of the I-10 Katy Fwy on Eldridge Pkwy. For a visual, visit this link for a Map The pick up times are set to be Wednesdays between 5 & 7:30, possibly earlier. We’ll keep you posted if the times are adjusted to earlier in the afternoon. We are still visiting with prospective locations down near Pearland as well as in Spring. Smart Meals Location Changes? Our fine friends over at Smart Meals have decided to regroup and “close their doors,” while they refocus on a new business plan. Not to worry however, as our nearby Upper Kirby host Joyce has told us that she welcomes the CSA customers that were set to pick up at Smart Meals. Joyce’s house is only about three blocks away and can be found at 4208 McDuffie St. Houston, TX 77098. Visit this link for a map to the Upper Kirby Pick Up Location

CSA, What’s That? For those of you not familiar with the term, CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture and is a direct partnership between you and the farmer. C.S.A. members pay in advance for a share of the upcoming harvest, thus the farmer is ensured a consistent market and the consumer is ensured high-quality local produce. Produce is delivered to many of our Houston neighborhood pick-up locations within 24 hrs. of harvesting. For a link to where we deliver, visit CSA Pickup Location s For inquires email us at csa@woodduckfarm.com or call us at 713 876 8645 for more details. As mentioned previously, you can get an idea of what size volume a full shares is by viewing some photos on Our Farm Blog (You'll need to scroll down a tad from the top.) FYI Partial shares receive about 1/3 less than full shares and are geared towards the two member household. Our Spring CSA registration form can be found at this link Spring 2011 CSA Registration . We think we have simplified the registration process to be just a few clicks and some of contact info and then pay with your credit card. If you’d rather mail in your registration, you can go to this link WDF CSA Mail-In Form We have added an Alternating Week option to our Full share size. The Alternating Week option is for those not wishing to receive a full share every week. So with the AW option, a farm member receives a Full share every odd week of the ten week program, i.e. weeks 1,3,5,7, and 9.

Customer Survey Results & Comments: For those of you interested in hearing what some of our CSA members have said etc, please visit this link Customer Comments & Surveys

Grass Fed Meat/Egg Subscription Program: Visit this link to register online CSA Registration. Scroll down to middle of your screen. We listened to your comments and have created two options, 1) our Full Share priced at $210 for a three-month program and/or 2) our Poultry Share priced at $165 for three months. You can add on a dozen eggs with either program (a dozen eggs for the entire 3 month program for $15.) You can go to this link Meat Subscription Svc to read more. Too much meat for your family? Consider splitting a share with a friend. The first month will likely be March, which should coincide with our Veggie CSA deliveries

Twitter?: Find us @WoodduckFM.

WDF has facebook page, but this link will take you to Van's page, from there you need to search for Wood Duck Farm. Go figure huh.

All the Best,

Van Weldon

Cell 713 876 8645

www.woodduckfarm.com

email csa@woodduckfarm.com

Kids Say The Darndest Things

2011-02-21T11:27:00.000-08:00

Everyone has probably experienced first hand, or at least heard of a story where a parent realizes their child is evolving from a kid into a teenager. A few weeks ago I decided to surprise my son Morgan by visiting him, unannounced, for lunch at his school. Well after a brief visit at the lunch table, my soon to be thirteen year old son, looked up at me and remarked “… okay dad, you can leave now. I want to spend the rest of my lunch with my friends.” Well my jaw about dropped, but I understood. So thinking he was now maturing to another level, I decided that Morgan was probably ready to learn how to drive a tractor. When I announced to him later that week I was going to put him in the “tractor seat,” his boyish grin surfaced ear to ear. A few days later, the late afternoon learning experience went according to plan as we took our largest tractor out to a frost withered broccoli patch which was far away from water pipes, trees, fences, chicken coups and anything else that could likely be a potential accident. After several passes in a large circle, I decided to join him and sit on the fender well, which is above one of the rear tires and parallel to the operator’s seat. “Okay,” I said “…let’s go over there to that ol’ corn patch” and so off we went. The tractor had an implement called a “disc” attached to the rear end, which is used to rip up old plant residue and mix into the soil. After making several practice runs, I told Morgan to drop the disc. Well Morgan lowered the tractor hydraulics lever and down went the heavy implement crunching the dead corn stalks along the way as they rolled underneath the numerous steel discs, churning the soil along the way. To his delight, Morgan would occasionally find the need to press the tractor throttle to assist pulling the heavy implement through the soft damp soil. In doing so, a big black puff of smoke would exit the exhaust just as the engine would momentarily get louder. To make things more eventful, every so often we could look down from our vantage point and see field mice scurrying out of the path of the “steel beast!” As the sun was beginning to set, I told Morgan to “… let’s head to the house.” He lifted the hydraulic lever, which raised the discs up from heavily stirred soil, and carefully began steering down the tractor path towards home. With the tractor now “purring rather than roaring,” Morgan looked back at the field that we had just disced and remarked “…wow dad, we really did some destruction!” I just smiled as I remembered what Art Linkletter used to say… “Kids Say The Darndest Things."

Morgan makes his debut at operating a tractor.

Yikes! Harvest time for some of our broilers.

Yep these birds are pushing ten weeks old and pretty big.

Above pictured is bed shaper, a fantastic tool that uses discs to form our soil into nice uniform raised beds for planting. We first have to till the soil so that it is loose and then we pull the bed shaper with our tractor to from the beds to a specific width and height. Here we are making beds for our tomato and pepper plants. Before we plant tomatoes next month, we will add drip irrigation and mulch to keep our transplants cozy.

What’s Growing? What a difference a week makes huh? Almost 80F here at the farm yesterday. Remember those four days at 19F hit us hard, so except for warm weather veggies, almost everything will be transplanted in the ground this week. Most of these crops take 45-65 days from transplant to harvest, so our mid March time target to begin our spring CSA may be a little one-sided on certain veggies, if not postponed a few weeks. Still sowing tomatoes, peppers, with squash and zucchini happening this week. Cantaloupe and watermelon not too far behind.

New Pick Up Location Added & Changes: This past week we were fortunate to add a new location, The Beans Café & Coffee House, located in the Energy Corridor of West Houston. This is going to be a great location as it has great parking access and is only about one mile south of the I-10 Katy Fwy on Eldridge Pkwy. The pick up times are set to be Wednesdays between 5 & 7:30, possibly earlier. We’ll keep you posted if the times are adjusted to earlier in the afternoon. We are still visiting with prospective locations down near Pearland and Clearlake, as well as in Spring. For a list and map of when/where we deliver in Houston visit CSA Pickup Location s . We need to find an alternate pick up location for those of you that live in Katy as the elders at the Presbyterian Church we were using had a change in heart about us using their facility as a pick up location. Let us know if you have any ideas. For inquires email us at csa@woodduckfarm.com or call us at 713 876 8645 for more details. As mentioned last week, you can get an idea of what size volume a full shares is by viewing some photos on Our Farm Blog (You'll need to scroll down a tad from the top.) FYI Partial shares receive about 1/3 less than full shares and are geared towards the two member household. Our Spring CSA registration form can be found at this link Spring 2011 CSA Registration . We think we have simplified the registration process to be just a few clicks and some of contact info and then pay with your credit card. If you’d rather mail in your registration, you can go to this link WDF CSA Mail-In Form We have added an Alternating Week option to our Full share size. The Alternating Week option is for those not wishing to receive a full share every week. So with the AW option, a farm member receives a Full share every odd week of the ten week program, i.e. weeks 1,3,5,7, and 9.

Customer Survey Results & Comments: For those of you interested in hearing what some of our CSA members have said etc, please visit this link Customer Comments & Surveys

Grass Fed Meat/Egg Subscription Program: Visit this link to register online CSA Registration. Scroll down to middle of your screen. We listened to your comments and have created two options, 1) our Full Share priced at $210 for a three-month program and/or 2) our Poultry Share priced at $165 for three months. You can add on a dozen eggs with either program (a dozen eggs for the entire 3 month program for $15.) You can go to this link Meat Subscription Svc to read more. Too much meat for your family? Consider splitting a share with a friend. The first month will likely be March, which should coincide with our Veggie CSA deliveries

Twitter?: Find us @WoodduckFM.

WDF has facebook page, but this link will take you to Van's page, from there you need to search for Wood Duck Farm. Go figure huh?

All the Best,

Van Weldon

Cell 713 876 8645

www.woodduckfarm.com

email csa@woodduckfarm.com

PS If you have moved or not interested in receiving our updates, please click the "unsubscribe" link above to "option out" of any future emails.

Good Agricultural Practices

2011-02-11T08:32:00.000-08:00

Ever wonder about the quality of water that irrigated the farm produce you eat or how many times the fine folks that harvest the produce wash their hands? Well fortunately most farmers use common sense when it comes to harvesting produce, but a new law was recently enacted which now places the FDA in charge of “ready to eat” produce. Please don’t misunderstand, as this is not a complaint, as we all realize that pathogens can’t differentiate between small family farms and large industrial farms. Trying to learn more about the upcoming changes, I attended an Ag trade industry seminar earlier this week that discussed the details of the new law known as Good Agricultural Practices,( aka GAP) and how it might impact our farm. Basically, each farm is supposed to have its own a set of operating procedures that encompass common sense topics like water quality, produce storage & worker sanitation, temperature control etc. . For the record, small farms are not required to comply with the new GAP guidelines. This having been said, while it may be a burden of sorts, we plan on enacting the new GAP guidelines over the next few months here at our farm as we wish to make our customers more comfortable knowing that we have procedures in place that help insure a quality product.

Morning shadows fall on this freshly tilled ground now ready for planting.

A Hawk, enjoying the winter sunrise while perched on an uncovered hoop house. Look Out Chickens he's looking for breakfast.

19F this morning at the farm. This pond reflection altered by the surface ice.

Sun rising through the pines on a cold winter morning.

What’s Growing? This morning it was 19F at the farm. Almost everything that was growing outside is now not harvestable. Fortunately we have lots of items in our greenhouses that are ready for transplant such as broccoli, cauliflower, napa cabbage, parsley etc. More tomatoes seeded this week as well. The good news is that next week is supposed to be more spring like which is great as our seed potatoes are due to go in the ground. I was speaking with another local grower and he said the severe weather has cost him about $35,000 in lost income due to destroyed crops. Unfortunately, no USDA crop subsidies for the little guy.

Shameless Marketing: Registration is in full swing for our Spring CSA program. We currently deliver in the Houston and surrounding areas, visit CSA Pickup Location s for a current map/listing. For inquires email us at csa@woodduckfarm.com or call us at 713 876 8645 for more details. As mentioned last week, you can get an idea of what size volume a full shares is by viewing some photos on Our Farm Blog (You'll need to scroll down a tad from the top.) FYI Partial shares receive about 1/3 less than full shares and are geared towards the two member household. Our Spring CSA registration form can be found at this link Spring 2011 CSA Registration . We think we have simplified the registration process to be just a few clicks and some of contact info and then pay with your credit card. If you’d rather mail in your registration, you can go to this link WDF CSA Mail-In Form We have added an Alternating Week option to our Full share size. The Alternating Week option is for those not wishing to receive a full share every week. So with the AW option, a farm member receives a Full share every odd week of the ten week program, i.e. weeks 1,3,5,7, and 9.

Customer Survey Results & Comments: For those of you interested in hearing what some of our CSA members have said etc, please visit this link Customer Comments & Surveys

Grass Fed Meat/Egg Subscription Program: Visit this link CSA Registration to register online. Scroll down to middle of your screen. We listened to your comments and have created two options, 1) our Full Share priced at $210 for a three-month program and/or 2) our Poultry Share priced at $165 for three months. You can add on a dozen eggs with either program (a dozen eggs for the entire 3 month program for $15.) You can go to this link Meat Subscription Svc to read more. Too much meat for your family? Consider splitting a share with a friend. The first month will likely be March, which should coincide with our Veggie CSA deliveries

Twitter?: Find us @WoodduckFM.

WDF has facebook page, but this link will take you to Van's page, from there you need to search for Wood Duck Farm. Go figure huh.

All the Best,

Van Weldon

Cell 713 876 8645

www.woodduckfarm.com

email csa@woodduckfarm.com

PS If you have moved or not interested in receiving our updates, please click the "unsubscribe" link above to "option out" of any future emails.

Onward through the fog; or cold weather this week!

2011-02-04T13:24:00.000-08:00

What a week huh? Everything appears to be okay here at the farm. The livestock seem to be okay and we’re not really sure how many busted pipes we have in the field just yet as everything has been frozen since Tuesday. Good news is that our baby tomato plants like being in their “little nursery.” Last year we decided to create a “hoop house" inside our greenhouse. This way we can better “micro manage” the environment needed for ideal germination and growing our spring vegetable plants. : Not sure how some of our early plantings of spinach will fair the freezing temps. Even the mustard greens and cilantro look pretty burned from the sustained low temps. We’ll prevail though. Onward through the fog; or cold weather this week!

Sad "sack face" huh? So what do ya' think he's thinking? I guessing something like "It's dang cold out here!"

Red onions covered with ice. They'll be ready come spring.

Our first week of eggs.


Our "Coup with a Hoop" aka Chicken Tractor. These Broiler are being raised for our Meat Subscription Program

Our Hoop House within our Green House for germinating our spring vegetable plants

Remember these? This batch of tomato seedlings are now three weeks old.

Spring 2011 CSA Program: Registration is in full swing for our Spring CSA program. We currently deliver in the Houston and surrounding areas, visit CSA Pickup Location s for a current map/listing. For inquires email us at csa@woodduckfarm.com or call us at 713 876 8645 for more details. As mentioned last week, you can get an idea of what size volume a full shares is by viewing some photos on Our Farm Blog (You'll need to scroll down a tad from the top.) FYI Partial shares receive about 1/3 less than full shares and are geared towards the two member household. Our Spring CSA registration form can be found at this link Spring 2011 CSA Registration . We think we have simplified the registration process to be just a few clicks and some of contact info and then pay with your credit card. If you’d rather mail in your registration, you can go to this link WDF CSA Mail-In Form We have added an Alternating Week option to our Full share size. The Alternating Week option is for those not wishing to receive a full share every week. So with the AW option, a farm member receives a Full share every odd week of the ten week program, i.e. weeks 1,3,5,7, and 9.

Customer Survey Results & Comments: For those of you interested in hearing what some of our CSA members have said etc, please visit this link Customer Comments & Surveys

Twitter?: Find us @WoodduckFM.

WDF has facebook page, but this link will take you to Van's page, from there you need to search for Wood Duck Farm. Go figure huh.

All the Best,

Van Weldon

Cell 713 876 8645

www.woodduckfarm.com

email csa@woodduckfarm.com

Lots of Texas 1015 Onions, shallots and garlic

2011-01-21T18:55:00.000-08:00

Lots of Texas 1015 Onions, shallots and garlic

Tomato Seedlings, about two weeks from germination. Looking good so far!

A photo of our chicken coup with a hoop. Notice the brooder box inside. This box is kept warm with a heat lamp.

Full share contents for the week of Dec. 21st, 2010

2010-12-21T18:59:00.000-08:00

Full share contents for the week of Dec. 21st, 2010: Sweet Potatoes, micro radish, micro arugula, grapefruit, head broccoli, two heads cauliflower, two bags baby leaf salad mix

Full Share contents for the weeks of Dec. 13th, 2010:

2010-12-13T19:01:00.000-08:00

Shown here are the Full Share contents for the weeks of Dec. 13th, 2010: 2 bags baby leaf salad, greens, radishes, grapefruit, sweet potatoes, cabbage, turnips, mushrooms

Full Shares received the first week of December, 2010

2010-12-07T19:03:00.000-08:00

Shown here is what Full Shares received the first week of December, 2010:
Cabbage, 2 heads cauliflower, green beans, new potatoes, micro green blend, white mushrooms, and 2 bags of baby leaf salad mix,

Full shares for this week, Nov. 29th

2010-11-29T19:05:00.000-08:00

Full shares for this week, Nov. 29th received
new potatoes, grapefruit, micro green blend, eggplant, baby arugula, salad mix, radishes and green beans

Smoking Turkeys for Thanksgiving

2010-11-25T19:09:00.000-08:00

Smoking Turkeys for Thanksgiving. Trussing them is time consuming, but carrying them 120' to the smoke house is a challenge.

Our 5th and final Farm Dinner of 2010

2010-11-13T19:13:00.000-08:00

What a lot of fun; our 5th and final Farm Dinner of 2010. Chef Jon Buchanan in charge of the kitchen

Students from the Kingwood Montessori School

2010-10-26T19:16:00.000-07:00

Shown here are students from the Kingwood Montessori School touring our farm on a day trip excursion. A visit through the corn patch, a visit with the pigs, a short hay ride.

"Outstanding in the Field" event held over at Jolie Vue Farms in Chapel Hill

2010-10-02T19:25:00.000-07:00

Via our good friend, Chef Paul Lewis, we were invited to attend the "Outstanding in the Field" event held over at Jolie Vue Farms in Chapel Hill. What a great venue and evening. Wood Duck Farm contributed the arugula salad and micro basil.