July Twenty-Fifth Ode to the Worker Shares Do you ever wonder how we get it all done? When there are only 24 hours in a day and no way to negotiate with the gods for more time? The Small Family Farm is run by a small family, of course, but also with the help of […]
July Eighteenth A blessed 1/2 inch of rain fell on our farm early Sunday morning. While the farm is now on life support (irrigation), it gave us a reprieve from the hustle of filling the irrigation tank, laying out lines and pumping the water. The stress-o-meter went down a couple notches Sunday morning and our […]
July Eleventh I know that there are a few of you out there who are opening up your CSA box each week and you’re pulling out these bunches of collards, kale and swiss chard, and you’re thinking to yourself, “what am I supposed to do with this?”. This newsletter is dedicated to those of you, […]
July Fifth The dog days of summer have arrived. They have brought with them the worst drought that we have ever experienced on our farm in the seven years that we have been running our CSA program. Our brows are sweating and we’re a little nervous about the long term affects the heat and dry […]
June Twenty-Ninth Have you eaten up that kohlrabi yet? How about the fennel? Or, those collards, did you like those? How receptive is your household and your stomachs to all of these new foods that are (hopefully) making it onto your dinner plates. Are you embracing the adventurous culinary spirit within? If the funky items from […]
June Twentieth The longest days of the year are here. My body knows this very well. We sleep with the windows open at night and the sunlight and bird-songs come creeping in the window all too early for a tired farmer’s body. The chickens are photo-sensitive animals who, when not fooled by artifical lighting, reach […]
June Thirteenth I was once asked by an interviewer for a newspaper shortly after we bought the farm how I felt about moving into a vocation that is so deeply dependant on weather pattern and with the idea that climate change is here, how was that going to affect our success as farmers. It was […]
June Sixth Once upon a time, it was a young girl’s dream to be a farmer. Raised in a river-city in the heart of the midwest, she was born to a German-Irish family that instilled a rip-snapping work ethic, wrinkle-ironing social manners and a lick-your-plate-clean sort of appreciation for food into her that she would […]
More Pictures embedded in all of the archived newsletters. Browse through our newsletters from previous years to read about the season and catch a glimps of the times! Basil plants ready for transplantingBeautiful bunches of beets w/ greensFarmer Jillian in Tomato land!Jillian and Adam as American GothicRutabaga washed and readyNeatly cultivated brassica […]
October Nineteenth Congratulations, you’ve officially become a Locavore! You’ve eaten your way through the Spring, Summer and Fall of an entire Midwestern growing season. You’ve learned how to identify the appropriate season in which certain vegetables are grown. You’ve finally warmed up to zucchini, gotten creative with a bag of tomatoes and tried at least […]
October Twelfth We’re so thankful to everyone who came out the farm on Sunday to show their support, walk around with us, and share food with us! We’re thankful for the beautiful weather that made Sunday a success and for a bountiful fall harvest that has allowed us to be able to fill your CSA […]
October Fifth The garden is in pick-up, shut-down, and clean-out mode. After two more consecutive frosts on Friday and Saturday night green tomatoes are left dangling on dried out, dead and brown plants. The frosts put an end to any of the warm weather crops that have been hanging on and eeking out any last […]
September Twenty-Eighth A very interesting thing is a woman farmer. A female farmer with a husband and aspirations to have children is suddenly an astounding endeavor. Who will farm when the woman becomes a mother? Who will do a full day of tractor work while the mother is tending to a new life? Who will […]
September Twenty-First Your farmer’s left the farm this weekend past! This is big news for us folks, so big in fact that it’s making it into the Weekly Dig Newsletter! Our lives are usually re-arranged as such that we make it clear to most of our close friends and family members that other than a […]
September Fourteenth So….how is the veggie consumption coming along? How are your Spring ambitions to eat more fresh vegetables living up to your promise to yourself? How has the look of your dinner table changed since the vegetables from the farm started filling up your refrigerator and countertop? How has this experience changed your lifestyle…or […]
September Third All at once a shift happened on the farm this week. On Friday morning around 7:30am a 15 second gust of 60mph winds ripped through the farm and tore two large branches off of our beloved (and huge) willow tree that grows snug up near the north-west corner of our home. As good […]
August Thirty-First It’s that time of year, isn’t it? The days are becoming noticeably shorter, the nights are noticeably cooler and the reality that summer is waning is beginning to set in. The kids are all going back to school, the pools are closing, and everyone you know with allergies is walking around with pinched […]
August Twenty-Fourth We all have our heirloom family dishes, dressers and Afghans, but so few of us have heirloom family tomato seeds. I suppose that if this were Italy, we would have all four. But since the concept of heirloom varieties of vegetables is a bit ‘Greek’ to all of us, I’ll do my best […]
August 17th A little fact about me is that I rarely leave the farm. I’m a bit of a spoiled country girl that has a husband that does my bidding off the farm and runs my errands for me and a lovely mother to help with delivering CSA boxes on Wednesdays so that I can […]
August Twelfth By now you may have noticed that the vegetables you receive in your CSA share box don’t always look like the vegetables on the shelves at the grocery store. Our “specs” are a bit looser than those growers who grow 10 acres of the same crop. Our peppers might not always have four […]