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| Great Day Grains We have been mentioning our farm-grown wheat and corn products for several weeks now and we are excited to announce they are now available for sale in time for your holiday baking! Our products are derived from our “Cateto Sulino” corn and “Turkey Red” wheat we grew using ecological practices and harvested this summer. We cut, shucked, threshed, shelled, and cleaned all this grain before taking it to our friends at Deep Roots Milling where they were ground using a water-powered stone mill! This means our products have been passed through very few hands before you take it home with you. We should add that both of these are open-pollinated heritage varieties. This means they are more like what your great-great-grandparents ate, 100% non-GMO and non-hybrid. We are especially excited about the corn products, which have a deep orange-yellow color and a delicious flavor. Keep this in mind when you are planning your cornbread, stuffing, and cookie recipes this winter! Here’s what we have:”Turkey Red” Whole Wheat Flour”Cateto Sulino” Cornmeal”Cateto Sulino” Polenta”Cateto Sulino” Grits |
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| Saying Goodbye to the Tomatoes After nearly a year, we have finally taken down our tomato plants. They worked hard for us, producing nearly 700 pounds of tomatoes throughout this season. Arden started the seedlings in February, using our heated greenhouse to allow the seedlings to grow, despite the still frigid temperatures. In April we planted four rows of those Hyloom (hybridized heirloom variety) tomatoes in the same greenhouse. A thick layer of straw and the plastic of the greenhouse helped to protect these tomatoes from pests, disease and changes in temperature. We used the “lean to” system in order to allow them to grow upwards of 16 feet. Throughout the season we harvested these tomatoes two to three times a week, distributing them to our CSA and our two markets. Unfortunately, tomatoes are an annual crop and would struggle through the colder winter months. We began to notice the tomatoes were not ripening as quickly, nor was there much growth. With the need to plant new crops under the protection of the greenhouse roof, we clear harvested (picked every tomato, green or otherwise), took down the clips keeping the plants attached to the string, and used our walk behind tractor to mow them down. It will take us a while to get used to the open layout of the greenhouse. After all, it had looked practically jungle like for eight months but we are excited to show you the new plants soon to take up this ever-changing tunnel! We still have a lot of tomatoes to sell both green and ripened, so don’t forget to stock up while you still can! |