2012 C.S.A. Full Menu!

So these are the items that we will be growing for 2012. It is going to be another fun and exciting year with some new veggies that should add some spice to your palette.

Thz Chris

Pak Choi-Jay Choi

Swiss chard

Spinach

Cilantro

Asian Greens

Lettuce Blend

Kale

Brussels Sprouts

Cabbage

Broccoli

Beets (gold & red)

Cauliflower

Purple Cauliflower

radish

Kohlrabi

Yellow Beans

Green Beans

Cucumber

Turnip

Radish

Bolero Carrot

Purple Haze Carrot

Garlic

Parsnip

Mint (Many Varieties)

Cherry Tomato

Tomato

Pepper (Green, Red, Purple)

Banana Pepper

Jalapeno

Habanero

Eggplant (white, striped, classic)

Orange Flesh Watermelon

Seedless Watermelon

Cantaloupe

Spaghetti Squash

Summer Squash

Acorn Squash

 Butternut Squash

Hubbard Squash

Zucchini (Green & Yellow)

Ornamental Corn

Broom Corn

Sweet Corn

Decorative Gourds

Pumpkins

Tomato Varieties:

We are growing nine varieties. Some of the more familiar strains are

Celebrity, Golden Rave, Brandywine, & Roma.

Pepper Varieties:

We are growing eight varieties. Some of the more familiar strains are

King Arthur, Revolution, & Key largo.

Herb Varieties:

We are growing 18 varieties the common herbs being Basil, Dill, Parlsey, Fennel, & Caraway.

Potato Varieties:

We are growing three varieties of potatoes Kenebec, Sweet Potato, & Fingerlings.

Half Share Questions Some of you might Have? Answered Below:

Please read correspondence: This year we though about implementing new system we are still going to do this but in a hybrid type of way.

Chris,
Nice website!  The letter I received today was very well done, also.

Question about the single family half membership: pickup is every other week?  I recall some items that we only received for one week; so if I chose that option (there are only 2 of us here) there would be some items I wouldn’t get at all if the only week they were good was on the “off” week?

Please explain!

Thanks very much,
Deb Reiman

Re:
Dear Deb,

We have been going back and forth with the Half share. Would you prefer to receive a half share every week vs. a full share every other week? Let me know what you think, be honest. What one member say’s ten are thinking. I will change a.s.a.p. We are here for you! Also I am glad you liked the letter. Me and Martin spent hours packing them. Oh yeah, also the printing this year is a step up. Someone in the North Liberty Area who I can not name, traded me a Single Family Membership for more professional looking stuff for the members. He owns a printing company and had mentioned helping us out. Yippee for farm!

Any who,

Thz ChrisP.S. Mind if I post Correspondence on blog because I bet many have this question?

re:
Hi Chris –
Thanks for getting back to me.  Sure, this can go on the blog.  It might save you from having to answer a dozen emails on the same subject!

Seriously, I understand why every other week might be nice, especially if a person is making a special trip to the farm.  A stop there is basically on my way home from work, though, so a weekly trip is no problem for me. I guess receiving the half share weekly would actually be my preference because then I wouldn’t be afraid of missing the only week for green beans in a bad green bean year (for example)—plus, then I’d have access to the herbs every week, too.  Is part of the problem, though, that a half-share of an item might be too small to be a reasonable amount?  I can see that might be an occasional problem.  If you want to leave it the other way, I’m sure I can adapt —and at least try that for a year.  Or if you want to let me be the half-share-per-week test case, I’d be willing to do that!

What I really wish is that it made sense for me to buy a regular share—but since we only eat one meal per day at home, we often can’t make the best use of it.

I’m really glad to see that beets made the list this year.  I’ve never had gold beets; that will be a new adventure!

I like reading about your bartering for the printing; that arrangement makes perfect sense!  I was going to say that I am a certified copy editor and  would be more than happy to edit any of the printed materials you supply – or even web materials, for that matter—but it all came out so well this year that I doubt you need an editor!  But in case you do, I would be willing to do that for a season just for a reference and some material for my portfolio; I’m considering doing freelance copy editing after I retire from Rockwell Collins, and I’ll need something to be able to prove I know what I’m doing.  No big deal, either way, though; it will probably be awhile before I get to retire, anyway.

Thanks again for responding so quickly.  Let me know what you decide about the half-share.

Regards,Deb

re:

Dear Deb,

Thanks for your response. After further thought. We will leave it up to you and all of the other members. We can have both. Depending on each member’s individual needs. So you can pick every week half share or full share every other week. When we have our opening again this year to show everyone the crops. Remind me I will have a sign-up sheet for it. You can sign up for either option. Yeah I do a lot of bartering for some things on the farm. It works good because the farm is cash poor often. Especially when we purchase our inputs. The garden costs us about $83,000 for all of the inputs and labor to maintain for six months. That is why we also keep a retail produce store open on the weekends.

Thz Chris

Farm Update!

2/24/12

Hello All,

Well we have been very busy on the farm recently. We are gearing up for the C.S.A. season. We finally got the store ready. We finished painting the trim, & walls. It looks great, we painted the bathroom a new color too. We have just started seeding for the 2012 C.S.A. season. So far we have seeded fifteen flats of cabbage with another 30 to go. That is just cabbage. Also me and Martin have been busy making candles for the store. One of my lesser known talents, if you could even call it that. It is quite simple. The farm is looking great thus far. We are right on track where we need to be at this time of the year, actually a little ahead of schedule. I hope you all have received your mailers for the 2012 season. If you haven't email me A.S.A.P. Chris@bassfarms.org. Since we start all of our own plugs we had to expand our starting capability this year. We built six new, seed starting stands with lights to handle this. It is pretty sweet. We have the capability to start 150 flats @ a time. We start these flats indoors and move them to the greenhouse as soon as they germinate. I will post pictures as our cabbage decide to wake up this year. Well I hope this gives you some insight on what has been happening on the farm.

Thz Chris

Gluten Free Products!

Today was a great day at the farm. We repainted everything in the store but the trim. We are going to paint the trim tomorrow. Also our first shipment of gluten free products from Tipton arrived. This is great news because they are great products and extremely HEALTHY! They also have a 2 year shelf life. Sweet!

Chris

Farm Update!

Hello All,

Me and martin have been feverishly busy this winter. We attended one of the largest veggie conferences in the U.S. This year it was in Michigan and we had a great time but more importantly we learned a lot more about veggie farming. The truth of the matter is that you can never learn enough! So I am extremely excited for the 2012 C.S.A year. We have garlic planted. As noted in previous blogs I have not grown this before so this will be a good learning experience. I am hoping for moderate success.  We also learned how to grow ginger at the veggie show so we will be trying this as well. Although we will harvest it as baby ginger it is mush tastier that way. One more task we are tackling is the task of growing carrots, upon popular request the farm is investing in a special planter for carrots, beets, radishes. We are going to be growing these items on the top of the hill where it is the sandiest. Carrots need sandy soil so they can grow nice and strait and uniform.Their have been many changes to the farm and this is necessary as we grow. As we grow we learn more and we encounter new issues and we learn how to deal with these new issues and fix them. Some of the issues we had last year we wont have this year because we are constantly innovating. We had a great C.S.A. in 2011, but we always will strive for perfection. With this being said the farm has made some large capital purchases that will improve our efficiency on the farm and will result in better customer service and better quality product but most importantly will make it more sustainable for me and Martin. (On our bodies)

New Investments Farm Made:
2 ROW potato digger (Thank God!)
Digging potatoes by hand for 100 plus boxes was a challenge, It won't be any more. Eight hour jobs become a one hour job.

Willsie's Weeder
This is a highly specialized piece of equipment out of Canada. I really can't describe how awesome it is. It is basically designed to ride over the plastic rows and destroy all weeds in between rows. YOU must see to believe.

Seeding Machine

This piece of equipment will seed our flats for us. This will reduce the nights we worked in the greenhouse until 4 A.M. seeding flats. It will improve our efficiency greatly.

Cooler In Store:

We will have a produce cooler in the store this will keep that extra produce you occasionally get with your C.S.A. extra fresh. It will no longer be outside. It will be in a controlled environment to preserve the most possible freshness for you are customer. I also can't stress how excited I am that I am finally getting there. We have needed a cooler in the store for SO LONG!

Cooler in Garage:
Many of you might not know this but in 2011 we built 12x16 professional grade cooler in the garage.

Carrot Planter:

This is also a highly specialized piece of equipment. It plants tiny tiny seeds and this is what we will be planting our carrots, radishes , and beets with. It plants three rows @ a time.

The round bales have arrived and are placed already to protect our pepper patch 2012 from the wind.

ALSO THE MOST EXCITING PART OF ALL!!!
2012 half of the farm will be planted Using biodegradable plastic!!!

Also we need 150 members to keep the farm sustainable. I originally thought we needed 80. Last year we had 86. This is possible at 86 but me and martin were ran ragged. So please support us and tell your friends. We are just two young guys trying to provide clean produce in a local way!!!!  C.S.A info & signup on website.

Thz Chris

Spicy Pumpkin and Sweet Potato Soup

Spicy Pumpkin and Sweet Potato Soup

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon coriander seeds
• 2 teaspoons cumin seeds
• 2 teaspoons dried oregano
• 1 tablespoon fennel seeds
• 1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon whole black peppercorns
• 1 clove garlic
• 2 tablespoons olive oil, divided
• 1 medium sugar pumpkin
• 4 orange-fleshed sweet potatoes
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 1 1/2 quarts chicken broth

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C).
2. In a mortar or spice grinder, grind coriander, cumin, oregano, fennel, red pepper, salt and peppercorns into a coarse powder. Blend in garlic and 1 tablespoon olive oil to form a paste.
3. Wash pumpkin, and cut into 2-inch wide wedges, scraping away seeds. Peel potatoes and cut each potato lengthwise into 6 wedges. Smear the pumpkin and the potatoes with the spice paste and place in a baking dish.
4. Roast in preheated oven 30 to 40 minutes, until tender and just beginning to blacken at the thinnest points.
5. Meanwhile, in a large pot over medium heat, cook the onion in the remaining 1 tablespoon olive oil until translucent.
6. Chop pumpkin and potatoes into smaller chunks and puree in a blender or food processor with some of the chicken broth until smooth. Be sure to scrape the roasted spice paste off the baking dish and include it in the puree. It may be necessary to deglaze the dish with a little chicken broth.
7. Pour the pureed vegetables into the pot with the onions, and stir in as much additional chicken stock as needed to achieve the desired consistency. Heat through.

Pumpkin and Butternut Creamed Soup

Ingredients

• 6 cups cubed butternut squash
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 3 carrots, chopped
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 1 cup chopped celery
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 1 cup sour cream
• 8 cups chicken broth
• 1 tablespoon ground nutmeg
• 1 teaspoon ground black pepper
• salt to taste
• 6 small sugar pumpkins, halved and seeded
• 1 cup grated Asiago cheese, divided

Directions

1. Place the butternut squash cubes in a saucepan, cover with water, and bring to a boil over medium heat. Reduce heat; simmer until tender, about 30 minutes. Drain off water, and set the squash aside.
2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Spray a baking sheet with cooking spray.
3. Melt the butter in a large skillet, then cook the carrots, onion, and celery until tender, about 10 minutes. Place the vegetables, cooked butternut squash, cream, and sour cream into a blender. Cover, and puree until smooth, working in batches if necessary. Transfer the blended vegetables to a soup pot; stir in the chicken broth, nutmeg, black pepper, and salt. Bring the mixture to a simmer over medium-low heat, then simmer gently for about 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.
4. While the soup is simmering, place the pumpkin halves, cut sides up, on the prepared baking sheet, and bake in the preheated oven until the pumpkin flesh is cooked through, 15 to 20 minutes. Start the broiler, and place the pumpkin halves under the broiler about 6 inches from the heat source to brown the cut side of the pumpkins, if desired. Place a pumpkin bowl into a decorate soup plate; serve soup in the pumpkin bowls, and sprinkle each serving with Asiago cheese.