Buckhorn Gardens

Onions and Leeks in the Dome!

2012-01-06T20:32:00.004-07:00

January,6,2012
Today we seeded onions and leeks! We want to share all the varieties with you.
We seeded:
New York Early
White Wing
Clear Dawn
Copra F1
Walla Walla
Yellow of Purma
Red Long Tropez
Candy F1
Borrettana Cippoloni
Jaune Paille Des Vertus
Bronze D' Amposta
Alisa Craig
Stuttgarter
Flat of Italy
Violet de Galmi
Bianca Di Maggio
Australian Brown
Purplette
Pearl Drop
Pacific Pearl
Gold Coin
Red Marble
Leeks:
Bleu de Solaise
King Richard
Giant Mussel Burgh
Prizetaker
Lincoln
Our Favorite is Violet Di Galmi from Southeast Niger. It has been grown for over 100 years! It has a purple-pinkish color to it and a bit flat in shape. We are very excited about it and we hope we can harvest many of them:)We grew this variety in Mississippi and we really enjoyed them. We are going to give them a shot in Colorado!!!! If anyone has onion recipes please email us and share them.

New Managers at Buckhorn Gardens!

2011-12-19T12:41:00.004-07:00

Hey all! We are so excited to be here at Buckhorn Gardens. We arrived two weeks ago to take over. This week will be our third CSA pick-up for the winter! A big thanks to Breigh for all she has done for the Gardens. She will be missed but Idaho is lucky to have such an energetic person. Also, a big thanks to Buckhorn Mountain Ranch for enabling us to farm such beautiful land. We will be updating this blog weekly now to help share the activities of the gardens. We cannot wait to meet all of the customers that have supported Buckhorn Gardens thus far. We would like to give everyone a little bit of biographical information about the farmer's in residence!

HORTON: I was born in the great state of Mississippi in 1982, in Tupelo, the lovely home town of the one and only Elvis Presely. During my youth I grew up in Mississippi and Alabama and always enjoyed the home-cooking out of my grandpa's garden. I went to Mississippi State University where I obtained a degree in Banking & Financing. During my last summer of school a group of friends and I lived in Edwards, Colorado. After finally graduating school I moved back out to Colorado and landed in Telluride. I worked at a few different places in town but my main job was at Allred's Restaurant. It was at this nice restaurant where I gained a new respect for good food. At the same time I was also gaining a new found respect for mother nature and the way we humans are living on this planet. While working at Allred's I met a co-worker named Darren Cloud. Many long post-work discussions later, we decided it would be good idea for me to come visit Buckhorn gardens on our days off to help his girlfriend, Breigh. Before I knew it, I was spending all my down-time out at Buckhorn getting my hands dirty! By the end of that first Summer at Buckhorn, I had convinced myself that i needed to go back to school and further my education in agricultural ecology/ soil science. I spent two years at CSU, where I was so lucky to meet my love, Genevieve. During this education stint I spent one summer coming back to Buckhorn to be a full-time intern, and the second summer as a full-time employee on CSU's C.S.A. research farm. Also, while I was attending school I worked for Dr. Keith Paustian at the Natural Resource Ecology Lab and Dr. Frank Stonaker at the Specialty Crop Farm. After these two years of school and an exhausted student loan account, Genevieve and I thought it would be a great idea to move to some family land in Mississippi and start our own farm! And we did! For two years we ran a 25 member CSA, Isis Gardens. We started this farm from absolute scratch on five acres of pasture behind my great grandmother's house. The soil had never been cultivated, so it was challenging to say the least. All of our financing came from our community supported agriculture members and somehow we made it work. But after two grueling and pleasurable years we got a call from a friend (Breigh) saying her time was up at Buckhorn and she was moving to the north, Idaho that is. Breigh explained that there might be an opportunity for us to come back to Colorado and take over the great gardens that she had created. Of course this threw us for a gigantic loop, but after many sleepless nights we decided that we should pursue this opportunity to the fullest. After bringing our CSA to a close in Mississippi and painstakingly shutting down the farm we had built, we made the move early December 2011. With snow covered everything we have taken over a bustling CSA/market farm in the start of a winter CSA season......We are really looking forward to meeting everyone that has supported this farm in the past and we hope to see your continued support for fresh, local, and natural food!

Genevieve: HEY! I was born and raised in Canton, Ohio. I moved to Colorado my senior year of high school to au pair for a family in Edwards. After my time in Edwards I moved back to Ohio to train for triathlons, as I was part of the Jr. National Triathlon team for a few years. When I turned eighteen I decided to go to college in Westerville, Ohio. I studied at Otterbein University for one year and decided that I wanted to go back to Colorado for good. I enrolled myself at Colorado State University where I studied International Relations and Medieval History. While in college I took a couple of semesters off to study art history/wine in Florence, Italy. I also took time off school to work at the Basile vineyard in Cinigiano, Italy. I found my true love for agriculture in Cinigiano where I decided that growing food was something I wanted to do for the rest of my life. I met Horton in college at Colorado State University. We both share the dream to become more sustainable as well as living a life where making things and watching growth is part of our everyday living. We moved to Mississippi in 2010 where we started a small CSA farm on Horton’s great grandparents land. While in Mississippi, I was working part time teaching kids along the autism spectrum. Horton and I were able to get many of the kids I worked with out to our farm where they could be a part of their food. We are now here at Buckhorn Gardens with exorbitant amounts of energy to make a healthier environment around us. We cannot wait to be more involved with the community and share our very lucky fortune of having such beautiful land to grow food on.

Winter at Buckhorn

2011-02-03T14:55:00.002-07:00

Once again vegetables are thriving here at Buckhorn!

The nights have been cold, but we at Buckhorn Gardens are still growing food, and now we are back to blogging as well! The herbicide contamination made for a difficult summer. Test came back positive that milestone, created by the DOW chemical company (makers of all those wonderful chemicals from agent orange to napalm and the worlds largest maker of plastics) was the culprit.

Fortunately for us here at Buckhorn, the herbicide exposure was through wind drift (verses brought in through compost). It took about 70 days for the chemical to break down sufficiently so that our crops could again begin to flourish. It was too late for most of our tomato, legumes, potato, and pepper crops, and anything we had seeded within that 70 day period, but we were able to produce enough greens, squash, leeks, kohlrabi, bok choi, eggplants, and tomatillos to continue participating in our local farmers' markets. We also produced enough to put away canned goods for the winter. Lots of salsas, pickles, beets, apples sauces, jams, and of course fermented foods. It was also a great season for mushrooms so we were able to dry lots of hawk wings and porcinis, we also froze many chantrelles.

Getting ready to make some pickles

The beginnings of tomato sauce

An abundant mushroom harvest

We were also able to produce and store enough winter squash and garlic to provide the Winter CSA members. This year the Winter CSA runs for sixteen weeks from December through March. Shares include large bags of our salad mix every week, along with turnips, radishes, celeriac, chard, bok choi, leeks, herbs, head lettuce, collards, kohlrabi, and more. Many thanks to Straw Hat Farms and Circle A Garden for supplying us with organic potatoes and parsnips since these were crops we lost due to the herbicide. We are so fortunate to have these great neighboring farms!

Alyssa watering scorpio this winter.

Snow helps insulate the sides of high tunnels, however it can also block the sunlight when the sun is low in the horizon.

The last two nights have been our coldest yet here on the farm at 14 and 15 below zero. If you make it out to the farm during the day, be sure to take a peek inside the high tunnels -- there's nothing nicer than seeing the rows of greens standing happy and healthy despite the frigid temperatures. We love working in the greenhouses on these sunny, cold days, so come on up and say hi!

Herbicide Drift

2010-07-28T17:39:00.007-06:00

Summer has arrived here on the farm. We've been sweating buckets out in the fields, and normally we would be harvesting tomatoes, peppers and potatoes right about now. Unfortunately, our hot-season bounty will be considerably lighter this year, as we believe many of our crops were contaminated with herbicide drift.

About a month ago, we started noticing that the leaves on our tomatoes and potatoes were curling inward. This is one of the signs of a virus known as curly top, so, with much sadness, we pulled up the affected plants. Still, something seemed fishy; curly top usually doesn't show up this early in the season, and it seemed weird that it was spreading so rapidly. So Breigh sent in a few plants to be tested. When the tests came back negative and two soil scientists said the plants looked like they had chemical residue, we started doing some heavy detective work.

It turns out the ranch next door sprays an herbicide called Milestone to control thistle in the pastures that surround the farm. They use hand sprayers and only spray targeted plants, but it's been extremely windy this year, and we believe the herbicide drifted onto our farm. The active ingredient in Milestone, aminopyralid, is a hormonal herbicide that affects broad-leaf plants. It is effective in extremely small concentrations, and tomatoes, potatoes, beans and peppers are especially susceptible. The herbicide also shows up in manure of cattle who have eaten sprayed plants, and aminopyralid is released when the manure is dug into the soil and microorganisms start to break it down. The chemical can then prevent seed germination.

We have pulled up all of the plants that showed signs of contamination, but since we do use manure from the ranch, the question now is whether our soil is contaminated as well. We have sent plant and soil samples in for testing and we are anxiously awaiting the results. Until then, there is a little good news. Studies have found that aminopyralid is not metabolized by humans (that's why it shows up in manure -- it goes right through). It is also not present in milk or eggs of animals that eat contaminated plants.

It's scary that this could happen here at Buckhorn, where we thought we were part of such a safe, closed system. If you care about healthy, chemical-free food, spread the word. This particular herbicide was banned for a period in England and is currently illegal in the state of New York. There is no reason we should be using it here in Colorado. I just talked to a friend of mine who is spending the summer on a ranch in Montana. Her farm rents out goats to graze pastures and take care of thistle. No chemicals needed.

We'll touch base again when we get our test results back. On a happier note, some of us interns made enormous quantities of pesto yesterday with of our genovese basil. At least we have a couple summery crops on the farm. Here's our recipe:

- 1 clove garlic

- 1 large handful pinenuts (or you can use almonds or walnuts)

- pinch of salt

- splash of lemon juice

- zest of half a lemon

- about 2 cups of basil leaves

- olive oil

Process the garlic and the nuts in the food processor until ground up. Add the salt, the basil the lemon juice and the lemon zest and process again. While the food processor is running, add the olive oil until you reach the consistency you like. Enjoy!

June Hailstorm

2010-06-16T16:10:00.005-06:00

Saturday's hailstorm put a bit of a damper on the Montrose Farmers' Market, but up at the farm it was fifteen minutes of pure panic! Breigh, Abby, and I were prepping the cucumber bed when we heard the storm coming. We wondered aloud why it was unusually noisy, then took off toward the dome at a full sprint as we dodged the mothball-sized hail. It wasn't enough to get ourselves under cover though -- we had to keep going out in the storm, braving the hail to bring in all the pepper and melon starts sitting outside to harden off. After the storm passed and our adrenaline rushes subsided, we headed outside to survey the damage to our crops outside. The chard, cabbage, and broccoli were hit the hardest, with some holes poked in their large leaves, but everything seems to have made it through ok. Then, to soothe our frazzled nerves, Abby and I went home to make delicious farm-fresh kimchi! You can read about our food adventure on Abby's blog.

Despite the unpredictable weather, we managed to have a productive week of planting. After much weeding, we transplanted eggplant, summer squash, winter squash, pickling and slicing cucumbers, over a hundred tomato plants, and five kinds of basil. We've all been working long hours to get all the crops in as soon as possible, but the days of planting rows and rows of vegetables are some of the most satisfying. Many thanks to CSA member Gail for coming out to plant summer squash! We're planning a big final push to get everything weeded and planted on Saturday, so this weekend would be a great time to come out and get your work day in.

A warm welcome to our fourth full-time intern, Mindy! Mindy is a Ridgway native who has been volunteering on weekends for over a month. We're so glad to have her around all the time!

The Telluride Farmers' Market Kicked off last week, and we had a great time. We sold out of all our root crops, and had to pick more beets, carrots, and turnips to have enough for the Montrose market. We'll be there every Friday, so come check out the market and pick up some extra treats to supplement your CSA share. All of the interns will rotate working at Telluride, so you'll have a chance to meet the whole Buckhorn crew!

Now that the days are so hot, we've been having lots of salad for farm lunches. Here's a quick and easy salad recipe using our root crops and herbs. Items available in this week's share are in bold. Enjoy!

Beet and Radish Salad

8 small beets or 2 medium beets

8 radishes

1 tbsp olive oil

1 tbsp lime or lemon juice

1 tbsp chopped mint

1.5 tbsp chopped chives

salt & pepper to taste

Trim and roast the beets in foil until tender (about one hour). When cool, peel and cut into wedges. Cut radishes into bite-size pieces and combine with beets. Make dressing by combining olive oil, lime or lemon juice, mint, and chives. Toss dressing with beets and radishes, season with salt and pepper and serve!

The Return of Ridgway 4th and 5th

2010-06-02T16:32:00.005-06:00

Many thanks to the 4th and 5th graders from Ridgway who came out to help last week! These students come out twice a year to help us with projects on the farm. Last fall they came out and planted cloves of garlic, and this week they weeded those same beds of garlic. The garlic they've been working on is now over a foot tall! The students also used teamwork and wheelbarrows to move huge rocks away from the fence line, and planted more than sixty trees along that fence. The trees are part of our edible landscaping effort and will someday produce wild plums, chokecherries, many colors of currants, and Siberian peas (a legume similar to lentils). We're looking forward to our next visit from the Ridgway students!

This week we also welcomed a new intern, Abby. She spent some time farming in Central and South America, so she's been a great help right away. On her first day working, we all went to the new greenhouse and planted more tomatoes. The greenhouse is looking good -- it's really starting to fill up! The holes in the black plastic are where we are going to plant peppers.

The weather is getting warmer, and the crops planted outside are starting to recover from the cold May nights. The broccoli, cabbage, kale, and chard are looking good, and this week we began picking spinach from the beds outside in addition to the beds inside the greenhouse. The potatoes I wrote about two weeks ago are starting to come up already!

We've got lots of root crops in the CSA share this week, but still have plenty of greens including some new greens selections. This week we'll have a few bags of a braising mix including beet greens, collard greens, kale, chard, mustard greens, and kohlrabi greens. We've also got turnip greens for those of you who want the greens without the turnip! And for those who are looking for a new way to eat all these greens, here's an easy and delicious warm salad dressing adapted from a recipe by The Seasonal Chef. They suggest serving over turnip, mustard, or collard greens, but arugula and perpetual spinach would work as well.

Warm Pecan Dressing

2 tbsp. balsamic vinegar
2 tsp. honey or agave nectar
1 tbsp. Dijon or stoneground mustard
2 tsp. vegetable oil
½ cup pecans, roughly chopped or broken

In a small bowl, combine vinegar, honey or agave, and mustard. Heat oil in a saucepan till hot but not smoking. Add vinegar mixture and pecans and cook, stirring, for 2-3 minutes. Pour over chopped or torn greens -- I used 6 oz. collard greens and 6 oz. turnip greens -- and toss well so all the greens are slightly wilted. Serve immediately.

Tomatoes!

2010-05-26T16:22:00.016-06:00

We got the plastic on the greenhouse last week, and the 74 tomato plants inside are looking happy! Last Thursday morning was remarkably devoid of wind, so we took a little break from harvesting to get the plastic cover over the high tunnel. On such a calm day, it only took five of us to get the plastic up and well secured over the frame. After Jon and Evan finished up the doors and sides, we were ready to transplant tomatoes. The beds had already been dug by the crop mob, so all we had to do was amend the soil, lay down drip, and put down red plastic over the beds. The red plastic helps tomatoes grow by reflecting far-red light up into the plants, which triggers the release of a natural growth protein in the plant. We lay down sheets of red plastic over the beds, cut holes where we want to plant the tomatoes, and drop in the tomato starts. Next up in the new greenhouse: peppers!

Harvest day went incredibly smoothly this week, thanks in large part to our great volunteers! Christel, Lisa, Rachel, and Sarah all came out to help pick, wash, weigh, and bag greens. With the weather getting warmer, it's all the more important to get the greens picked and clean early in the day, so they can go in the cooler before the heat really hits. With all these extra hands to help we had a nice easy harvest and got to take our time enjoying lunch with friends.

Another big timesaver during harvesting is our new washstand. We'd previously been washing greens inside the dome, in a low, two-basin sink. The new washstand is outside and has two three-basin sinks. No more bending low to wash pounds and pounds of salad mix! We also bought a second salad spinner, so now with twice the sink space (and our wonderful volunteers!) we can almost double our greens-processing throughput.

This week in the CSA we are adding in a few bags of collard greens to choose from, and we'll have some fresh basil and cilantro available as herb selections. We've also got quite a lot of carrots, radishes, turnips, parsnips, and leeks! Evan, our resident chef, came up with an interpretation of green goddess salad dressing featuring herbs and leeks from the farm. It got raves at a recent potluck, so here's the recipe, with items available from Buckhorn in bold.

Green Goddess Dressing (version 2.evan)

2 c. Extra virgin olive oil
4 oz. Oregano, de-stemmed
2 oz. Thyme
2 oz. Basil, de-stemmed
4 ea. Egg yolks
1/4 c. Vinegar (I like apple cider vinegar, but any will do)

Kosher salt and pepper to taste (approx. 1 t. salt, 1/2 t. pepper)

Juice and zest of one lemon
Juice and zest of half an orange

3 ea. Leek tops (the green part), blanched
Sugar to taste

Gently warm the oil until slightly hot to the touch but certainly not hot enough to burn. Pour over half the herbs, and infuse for as long as possible (preferrably overnight but at least for a few hours). Strain. In a blender, combine egg yolks, salt, pepper, vinegar, citrus juice, and citrus zest. Blend on high for a few seconds. While blending, slowly pour in about half the oil in a thin stream. Add the leek tops and remaining herbs. Continue blending in the remainder of the oil. If at any point the dressing becomes too thick to blend, thin or "loosen" it with a small amount of liquid (vinegar, lemon juice, water, etc. - a tablespoon at a time) with the blender running, and continue adding the oil. Taste the finished product, which will be very thick, and adjust the seasonings as you like. You might find a little sugar useful here. Since salad dressings tend to used in relatively small amounts, they are generally very strongly flavored and seasoned. I enjoy Green Goddess because it derives its potency from fresh aromatics rather than an overabundance of vinegar.

About blanching: To blanche a green vegetable, bring very salty water (approximately 1/2 - 1 cup salt per gallon of water) to a full, rolling boil that you can't stir down. Plunge the leek greens into the water for 15 to 30 seconds, until the green becomes very vivid. If cooking something other than leeks, simply leave it in the water until it attains a texture that you enjoy, almost never any more than two minutes. Strain out the greens; plunge them immediately into ice water, and chill them well. The leeks have now been blanched. If I were condemned to perform one and only one task in the kitchen for eternity, it would probably be blanching green vegetables in a huge pot. Nowhere else in the kitchen is proper technique so readily and noticeably apparent.

Buon appetito!

Rest in Peace Raja

Potatoes!

2010-05-19T16:28:00.007-06:00

We got a lot of planting done this week! Potatoes were the big project. Several weeks ago, we chitted all our seed potatoes, which is a method of sprouting the eyes by exposing the potatoes to a moderate amount of light and warmth (we used the shady side of the grow dome). Once the potatoes had some good growth going, we sliced them into pieces with each piece having one or two sprouted eyes. After letting the cut edge of the slices dry up for a day or so (this helps prevent disease in the potato plant), we were finally able to plant. Eight rows of potatoes went in -- we had so many potato pieces to plant that we ran out of space for the fingerling varieties! Breigh is deciding where to fit in the fingerling potatoes and we will plant those later this week. Here are some of the varieties we did manage to get in the ground:

Yellow Finn: These pear-shaped potatoes have yellow skin and moist, firm yellow flesh. They are a great storage potato so we planted a lot of them!

German Butterball: Also a good storage crop, these potatoes have deep yellow flesh with an almost flaky texture and buttery flavor.

Red Pontiac: Also known as Dakota Chief, this potato has deep red skin and white waxy flesh.

Sangre: Developed in Colorado, this red-skinned potato is excellent for boiling and baking.

Irish Cobbler: This is an early-maturing variety with smooth, cream-colored skin and white flesh.

All Blue: This gorgeous purple and white streaked potato keeps its color when cooked and is high in anti-oxidants.

In addition to all the potatoes, we also transplanted kohlrabi and scallions, and seeded beets, carrots, turnips, radish, lettuce, and arugula in the beds outside. Next up will be planting lots of bell peppers, hot peppers and tomatoes in the new beds prepped by the crop mob! These beds are inside what will be our third high tunnel, and before they get planted we have to get the plastic over the greenhouse frame. We're planning to do this on Saturday, weather permitting -- please let us know if you'd like to come and help! The more hands we have the better, especially if the wind picks up at all.

This week's CSA share will have all the choices available last week, plus the first few bunches of beets and carrots. We will have more of these delicious root crops in the coming weeks, so don't despair if you aren't able to get a bunch with this week's share -- we'll soon have plenty to go around!

Crop Mob: Great Success!

2010-05-13T12:37:00.007-06:00

A big thank you to the 20 or so people who came out to the first Western Slope Crop Mob on Saturday! The group together dug and weeded 1750 linear feet of beds, and laid down weed barrier in the walkways between them. These beds are now ready to be planted with veggies for the coming year!

In addition to hard work and good spirits, the group shared a feast of chili and Jon's amazing kombucha. The crop mob brought together a range of folks from the community, including CSA members, non-members, and fellow farmers alike. Thanks to our friends at Tomten Farm and Circle A Garden for joining in -- we love the cooperative spirit between the farms in this area. Circle A Garden will be hosting the next crop mob on Sunday, May 16. Directions to their farm can be found on their website. Hope to see you there!

Breigh and I were unable to be at the crop mob as we were working at the Montrose Farmers' Market on Saturday. We bring fresh vegetables and herbs to market, and lots of starts so you can grow your own as well. Right now we have an incredible variety of tomato, pepper, eggplant and herb starts, as well as lots of basil and strawberries. Soon we will also be offering window boxes planted with a mix of herbs for a quick and easy herb garden. We're at Oxbow Crossing every Saturday morning; drop by and check out the market! This week Jinelle will be manning the Buckhorn booth; it is her last week here as an intern so be sure to wish her luck. She and her dog Sheba are off to Iowa to do prairie restoration for the Fish and Wildlife Service. Jinelle has been a presence at Buckhorn since the beginning and we will all miss her.

Spring is the busiest part of the season, and the loss of our greenhouse coupled with the unseasonably cold nights have set back some of our crops and frost-damaged others. With Jinelle's departure and lots of catch-up to do, we are in need of a new intern! Please let us know if you think you or someone you know would be a good fit for our farm. In the meantime, every Friday and Saturday are workdays at Buckhorn! Please come by anytime between 10 and 4 to help us with weeding and planting for the upcoming season. Don't forget, all CSA members need to come out this season -- one six-hour day for a partial share, two for a full share. We're looking forward to working with you!

The CSA share this week includes everything we've offered in the previous two weeks, plus some head lettuces, broccoli sprouts, and delicious hakurei turnips. These sweet and juicy turnips are great raw or cooked, and the greens are highly nutritious with lots of vitamin A, vitamin C, and calcium. As a choice in the herb category, we are also offering bags of nasturtium flowers and leaves. Nasturtiums are also high in vitamin C, and lend a great flavor and gentle spice to foods -- including Arugula Pesto! See recipe below; bolded ingredients are ones you can pick up in your CSA share or at the Montrose market.

Arugula Pesto

2 cups arugula leaves

2 cups nasturtium flowers and/or leaves

1 cup nuts (pine nuts, walnuts, macadamia nuts, or whatever mix you like!)

3 to 5 stalks green garlic (or garlic cloves)

1.5 cups olive oil

salt & pepper to taste

handful of grated parmesan or other cheese (optional)

Blend and enjoy!

One Greenhouse Down!

2010-05-05T16:43:00.004-06:00

I didn't knock wood after writing last week's blog post -- the 65 mph winds last week did eventually get the best of our high tunnel, Polaris. After holding strong most of the day, the tracking that holds on the plastic sheeting finally tore away from the greenhouse frame. Once the tracking came loose, the wind caught the 100-foot plastic sheet like a sail and pulled it up and away. Breigh, John, Darren, Jinelle, and friends Eric and Eliza managed to catch and hold the sheet to prevent it blowing away entirely. That's no small feat with only six people in high winds! Unfortunately, the plastic was torn by the wind so it can no longer be used to cover the greenhouse. We are reusing the plastic by cutting it into strips for the mini-tunnels that will cover individual beds. This method of protecting the plants was proven effective the night we lost the cover off Polaris -- the low that night was 19 degrees, but with those beds covered in their mini-tunnels of Reemay and plastic, we didn't lose any of those crops.

Despite the mishaps of last week, we are progressing with our planting schedule and getting things in the ground outside. This week we've transplanted hundreds of broccoli, cabbage, kale, and chard starts, and they are looking good outside despite the cold weather.

We've been fortunate this harvest day to have some great helpers: Kassie, a farm friend and former intern, and her mother Dee have been visiting this week and helping us get all the greens harvested, washed, and packaged. The CSA share this week will be similar to last week, with plenty of salad mix, asian greens, and root crops. Check out our recipe for Sweet and Gooey Parsnips for a quick and delicious way to prepare this great vegetable. This week we are also offering radishes and mustard greens as choices in your CSA share.

The baby birds are getting big! The geese and ducks are growing particularly fast. They are now living inside the meat bird pens, where their tractors are shifted every few days so they have access to fresh grass. Hopefully we will be able to let the ducks and geese wander loose before too long!

Our first farmers' market of the year is this Saturday in Montrose. The Montrose Farmers Market has a new location this year and we are hoping to see a great turnout in the new place. The market is held from 8:30 am - 1:00 pm at Oxbow Crossing. Please come out and support your local farms -- and then, drop by the farm to join the crop mob!

Alyssa

First Spring Harvest

2010-04-28T16:41:00.004-06:00

Our first harvest day of the spring CSA has been busy and windy. Once again we have to thank the volunteers for getting that inflated double layer of plastic on the greenhouse -- we are getting gusts of 60+ mph today but the high tunnels are holding steady! Through the wind we've been picking, washing, and bagging goodies all morning for the CSA pickup t0morrow. The share this week will consist of your choice of greens (choose from kale, chard, spinach, arugula, and perpetual spinach), root vegetables (choose from scallions, radishes, parsnips, green garlic, and leeks), asian greens (choose from Chinese cabbage, bok choi, mizuna, and tatsoi), and herbs (choose from oregano, thyme, rosemary, lemongrass, sage, and marjoram).

Don't forget to bring a bag or two to take it all home! The share also contains a great salad mix including mustard greens, pea shoots, vitamin greens, arugula, minuta, cress, mixed lettuces, and baby greens of spinach, kale, chard, and beet greens.

We'll also have some of our eggs for sale for $4.50 per dozen. Our chickens are fed only non-GMO feed along with plenty of weeds, vegetable scraps, and grubs from the gardens. This highly varied diet gives their eggs the bright orange yolks and great flavor that are often lacking in eggs from the supermarket. The turkeys get all that plus an extra treat -- since turkeys don't scratch up the soil, as chickens do, they are allowed to roam in the garden during the day and eat as many grasshoppers as they can catch! Grasshoppers are chewing holes in the greens, so we appreciate the turkeys helping us to keep down the pest population. Our other form of grasshopper control is to set out dishes of NoLo Bait near where the grasshopper damage is the worst.

NoLo bait is not harmful to humans or any animals other than those in the grasshopper and locust family. It's not a poison, so it takes time for the grasshopper population to dwindle, because it works by infecting grasshoppers with a spore that will only grow inside the grasshopper's body, decreasing its appetite and eventually killing it. The spore is transmitted between grasshoppers and eventually takes hold of the population enough to keep the damage down.

Our other main pest problem right now are the flea beetles snacking on the smallest and most tender leaves in the greenhouse. We are addressing this problem by mixing flour and cayenne pepper and sprinkling it lightly on the greens.

The flour deters the beetles from eating the leaves since it gums up their mouths when they take a bite, and the cayenne gives it a kick to make it even more unpleasant for them. Hopefully they will get tired of it and leave our tatsoi alone. We do rinse the greens twice after harvesting, but you may see a small amount of flour left on some of the arugula and salad greens. Don't worry! It is perfectly edible, though you may want to give the greens an extra rinse if you are unable to eat wheat.

Belle's second baby finally got her name -- Blue and Creme are our two newest dairy goats! We hope you will come say hello to them at the Crop Mob this Saturday. Please get in touch with John if you are interested in coming. There will be good food and some good hard work! Hope to see you there,

Alyssa

Crop Mob

2010-04-24T21:50:00.000-06:00

Calling all locavores, foodies, wanna-be farmers, csa members, sustainability activists, local community members, local community builders, and food activists to the first...
Western Colorado Crop Mob!

While not everyone can start their own farm this is a way to become an active participant in the local food movement. Some people may decide to plant a garden, others will buy organic, or shop at the farmers market, but if you want to be more involved this is your chance.

What is a crop mob?

A crop mob is a group of people that descend on a local farm and knock out large projects while, at the same time, meeting others interested in local food and ultimately having a good time. My friend Stu calls it an "old fashioned Amish Barn-Raising but without the barn" - though we're not ruling out a future actual barn raising. We are forming a loose group of mobbers, there is no commitment involved, just come when you can and be ready to get your hands dirty. Join the group by sending me an email or becoming a member of the Western Colorado Crop Mob facebook group http://www.facebook.com/?sk=2361831622#!/group.php?gid=114351791921970&ref=ts.

These are the tenants of a crop mob:
No money is exchanged..
Work is done on small-scale, sustainable farms and gardens.
A meal is shared, often provided by the host.
This is not a charity. We crop mob for crop mobbers

This is not my idea, it is happening elsewhere in the country- check out cropmob.org or a ny times article about it at http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/28/magazine/28food-t-000.html

So now the gritty details on the first crop mob.

May 1st
Buckhorn Gardens
Buckhorn rd.
Bed Digging Party
Lunch will be provided, please rsvp at jon.clayshulte@gmail.com

Hope to see you there

Jon

Springtime update

2010-04-23T15:57:00.004-06:00

Happy Spring!

We've woken up to snow on the ground for the last few days, but spring is still here on the farm -- and with it, spring projects! A huge thank you to everyone who came out to help with doubling the plastic on the greenhouses. With the help of many friends and community members, we were able to add a second layer of plastic to the two high tunnels (not a small feat in the high wind!). Inflating the space between the two layers with a small pocket of air helps slow down wear and tear on the greenhouse and will keep our high tunnels in good shape for years to come. The air pocket also helps insulate the greenhouse further, elevating the minimum winter temperature an additional four degrees. Those four degrees will protect the crops and extend the growing season, which will pay off in the winter and spring CSA boxes! We couldn't have done it without all our wonderful volunteers and neighbors, and we are so grateful for your help!

Springtime is full of babies, and we have got a ton. Baby chickens, turkeys, ducks, and geese are living under heat lamps inside the dome, and are being transitioned to a heated chicken tractor outside as they grow feathers. In addition to their chick feed they also get snacks of pond weed, weeds, and grubs from the garden -- it is amazing how quickly they grow! We also have four baby goats this year. Belle, the herd matriarch, had two baby girls who we will be keeping as milkers for next year. Her older daughter is named Chevre, so we'd like to name these two girls after cheeses, too. The black and white doe is going to be called Blue, but we're still trying to think of another good cheese name for the white doe. Any suggestions?

With a full barn, we've got a full intern house to match. Jinelle has returned to pass on her knowledge to the new interns, and John is also back to take on new projects. The new interns are Alyssa (the new blogger! Hello!), and Evan, whose culinary degree will come in handy as he contributes recipes and cooking hints to this blog in the coming weeks.

We interns (and Breigh, of course!) have been working to dig out the outside beds and prep them for planting. So far we've got onion, leeks, shallots, spinach, and peas planted outside, and are hoping to get in broccoli and cabbage soon. In the meantime, our high tunnels are bursting with greens, so look forward to your first CSA box of the spring next week!

Wonderful Colorado Sun

2010-03-09T20:28:00.006-07:00

A pomegranate blossom in the dome

Hi Folks

Our winter CSA was a great success! Even with December being the third coldest on record all of our greens and vegetables grew unfazed in our unheated high tunnels. The coldest night recorded back in December was 11 below, however it stayed a cozy 22 degrees under our mini hoops. Pretty amazing! All thanks to the awesome Colorado sun. During the day the soil is heated and at night the mini hoops covered with an agricultural blanket and plastic hold in the heat that the ground has collected all day. Under our mini hoops we grew kale, chard, perpetual spinach, salad mix, lettuce, carrots and beets. In the dome we grew chinese cabbage, bok choi, scallions, turnips and radishes. Next year we will grow more carrots however if we grow beets again we will need to start them earlier so they have more time to bulb up.

We grew greens and root crops all winter long under the mini hoops in our high tunnels

We grow our radishes in grow tubes to help use all that vertical space in the dome

Now we are gearing up for our summer CSA which starts end of April/beginning of May. We have started onions and shallots for transplanting outside in April. Peas, scallions, beets and carrots have all been seeded in the high tunnel and are already up. Kale, chard, spinach, tatsoi, mizuna and head lettuce are being transplanted this week. Next week we will seed turnips in the dome and greens in the high tunnel.

The dome this winter filled with lots food

With the left over veggies from the winter CSA, I have been making lots of yummy kale chip and nutritious kimchi.

A farmer's vacation

2010-01-08T19:41:00.019-07:00

One of the many handsome residents of Kauai

After a well needed vacation from the farm, Darren and I returned home this week to sunny Colorado. Fortunately for us, Darren's sister (who lives on Maui), had her wedding there on the winter solstice. John and Jinelle, our trusted interns did an excellent job caring for the farm and harvesting for the winter CSA. Our night time temperatures have been averaging from around -5 degrees to 12 degrees here at night, but all the veggies are growing strong, especially now that the days are slowly getting longer.

While on the Islands; we visited farms, met farmers, and shopped at farmer's markets. For a wedding gift, we bought a CSA share through Neil at Sanctuary Farm in Kula, Maui. We found his information on Localharvest.com and like our farm, he farms without the use of tractors and chemicals and follows the philosophy healthy soil means healthy plants equals healthy people. Neil gave us a great tour of his small but very productive farm. His orchard was breathtaking and he fed us some of the best fruit we had on the islands! Unfortunately, we did not take any pictures of his beautiful farm that over looks the valley from a couple thousand feet up.

After Maui, Darren and I finished up our vacation on Kauai, the garden island. On our day of arrival we headed over to the Koloa Farmer's Market, man what an experience. The market starts at noon, but you should get there at least 15 minutes earlier to get in line before Branch (maybe the market manager) blows the whistle signaling the opening of the market. Its quite a show waiting behind the cones, getting a spiel about the market from Branch, walking down the road with hundred other people to the market, then rushing in to your favorite vendor before they sell out.

Darren and I also enjoyed many hikes around the islands. On Maui we hike up into the Haleakala volcano at 10,000 feet and walked through bamboo forests. On Kauai we trampled through mud in one of the most beautiful places I had ever been to, the Napali Coast. Darren found morel mushrooms, however not enough for a meal. We hiked with a neem tree farmer, an iron man competitor and many wild goats.

While hiking, Darren and I enjoyed munching on thimble berries

And lots of sour guava

Taro, definitely not my favorite

I called these giant asparagus stalks, but I have no idea what they are.

The silversword only grows on the Haleakala volcano on Maui

Longans, we couldn't eat enough of these, there awesome!

The Koloa farmer's market. I especially liked the bumber stick, No Farmers, No Food

Looks like the stuff we're growing

Winter Projects

2009-12-14T12:05:00.020-07:00

Well, you would think because winter has arrived the farm duties would slow down, however we have been busier then ever finishing up projects before the snow covers the ground. Lucky for us the days are short this time of year and Mother Nature is taking her time covering us with snow. We have missed out on two major snow storms, receiving just a dusting while areas around us are measuring their snow fall in feet. Every year our final projects are planting garlic, putting our beds to rest and clean up/pickup. The reoccurring landscaping project seems to get rescheduled to spring and then back to fall every year! The winter CSA started last week and despite numerous nights with below zero degrees, the greens look great.

After three years we are sill finding giant rocks in the beds

I always wonder "how did we miss these rocks the last time we worked in these beds!"

Collecting leaves from town and transporting them to the farm.
After weeding the beds, we sheet layer them with plant matter, leaves, manure and then straw

A new growing space for next year

The garden beds all put to rest for a long winters nap

You Lose Some, You Gain Some

2009-11-28T08:40:00.016-07:00

On Monday Jinelle and I (the return of the old blogger, Breigh) drove up to Grand Junction to drop off Alison at the train station. She will at last be reunited with her love, Jesse! We will miss her great blog entries and positive attitude.

Ode to the Blogger
By John

She came with books and a french degree
Excited to grow and write
Her quick sailors wit kept us laughing and baking kept us fed
She headed east, our gardening friend, to a love in cold Wisconsin
Stay warm out there
We will miss you dear
The blogger is gone, but we must go on...

Here is on more blog entry by Alison....
Last Wednesday the farm adopted three llamas from a neighbor down the road. Breigh, Jinelle, John, and I drove over in the kubota, then Jinelle, John and I each walked a llama down to our goat barn.

Walking the llamas back to our barn
Eventually these llamas will probably have a home up at the farm site, near the turkeys and chickens, but for now they are cohabiting with the goats. This is a bonus for us, because it ensures that our goats won't be harmed by coyotes.

From left to right, Dusty, Samson, and Scout

On Tuesday we said our goodbyes to our enormous turkey, Rocky. Darren and John took care of the harvest. Once cleaned, the bird weighed over 30 pounds, probably 35 pounds if not more. Breigh and I put him on our scale in the wash shed, which maxes out at 30 lbs, and could not get an accurate reading.

Our newest intern, John, getting ready to harvest Rocky

Thanksgiving, of course, was a day of cooking, feasting, and hanging out outside, where the sun was shining. Breigh did most of the turkey prep, Darren was in charge of stuffing, Jinelle was on mashed potatoes, John made biscuits and sweet potatoes, and I made the green bean casserole. Everyone helped with dessert making the night before, and we had four pies to split among five people. It was a Thanksgiving feast to be remembered for a long, long time. We hope you all had a marvelous holiday as well.

CSA Members Pick-Their-Own

2009-11-25T18:22:00.003-07:00

The Buckhorn Crew would like to extend a special thank you to all the families who came to the farm on November 7th to harvest their own veggies. Members got to experience the joy of picking lettuce, spinach, and braising greens leaf by leaf. Many families busted out shovels to harvest onions, leeks, and parsnips. We also had tomatoes, potatoes, and cabbages already picked for people to choose. Around noon we took a break for a potluck lunch, feasting on lasagna, butternut squash dip, and salad. Everyone had an excellent afternoon!

We would also like to say thank you for a great CSA season all around. If you'd like to sign up for next summer's CSA, renew your membership by January 15, 2010 by contacting Breigh via email or telephone. We look forward to hearing from you and growing your nutritious, flavorful organic produce next season!

All of the many children who came to the farm had a great day

Tinctures, Infused Oils, and Salves: An Afternoon with Ashley

2009-11-25T17:48:00.006-07:00

Apologies for the extended absence! It's been a crazy month here at Buckhorn, but I'm going to try to update you with as much as I can. This post will be devoted to telling you about the afternoon we spent with our friend Ashley, who is an intern at Dancing Willow in Durango. She shared with us her knowledge of making tinctures, infused oils, and salves out of herbs from our garden.

We planned ahead and picked several herbs to dry the day before the session. Borage, comfrey, calendula, ashwagandha, and gotu kola were the herbs we picked ahead of time. We harvested rosemary the day of the session and made fresh rosemary oil.

We used the dried borage, comfrey, and calendula to make an infused oil using cold pressed olive oil and a blender. The ashwagandha was used to make a tincture by soaking its dried root in a large jar full of grain alcohol.

Our last and most ambitious project was the salve we made at the end of the day. We used 2 ounces of beeswax, 2 ounces of cocoa butter, 1/2 ounce of the comfrey/borage/calendula oil, 1/2 ounce of purchased essential rose oil, 4 ounces of pure oil (not infused or essential), and 2 ounces of shea butter. We heated all of it in a double boiler, poured it into small containers, and let it harden overnight. In the morning we had a fabulous hand salve!

Crushed borage and comfrey on the left, dried calendula flowers ready to crushed in the food processor

Breigh pouring infused rosemary oil out of a blender through a cheesecloth

I'm helping Breigh get every last drop of that rosemary oil

Pouring the hot salve into vessels to harden

Snow Daze

2009-11-02T18:11:00.010-07:00

Hello all, I hope you've enjoyed the 60°F weather we've been having after all that cold snow! The farm is doing just fine after all of the extreme temperatures. Our low was 10° on Thursday night, but all the vegetables pulled through just fine.

Breigh and Rajah outside the dome in new snow

Fresh snow caked on the dome, seen from the inside

Your friendly Buckhorn blogger, shoveling snow off of cabbage and cauliflower with the help of Rajah

The temperature in the dome stayed around 39°F and the temperature in the high tunnels were around 33°F. "The soil keeps the temperature in the high tunnels surprisingly high during the extremely cold weather," explains Breigh. The small leafy greens that we seeded and transplanted last week stayed fairly happy and productive thanks to the mini high tunnels we constructed over each row in both Mars and Polaris.

The mini high tunnels

We uncover the mini high tunnels every morning and recover them every night

The dome is now fully planted with head lettuce, spinach, radishes, scallions, and a few other miscellaneous greens. All the transplants look great, so be sure to check it out when you come for the pick-your-own extravaganza this Saturday! (Don't forget to RSVP by Thursday the 5th!)

Today we planted some of the many, many garlic cloves we will be planting in the next few days. This afternoon we got Spanish Rojo, K's Backyard, Khabar, Kettle River Giant, and Panesco Blue in the ground, so you can start looking forward to those and many other varieties around next July. We have a lot more varieties to plant. So many, in fact, that we are having a hard time coming up with beds to put them in!

We hope to see many of you this coming Saturday for the pick-your-own and the potluck at noon. If you are curious about the Farm Tour we took a month ago, find the blog entry from October 9th that I just posted a few minutes ago for a synopsis of the excursion and lots of pictures. Until Saturday, be well!

Pea greens sprouting up fast in Mars

Preparing for Winter

2009-10-21T18:28:00.007-06:00

Hello again everyone, sorry about the brief hiatus. We've had a few technical difficulties and some hectic weeks here at Buckhorn. The temperatures have begun to drop and covering and uncovering beds has become a frequent chore. We had a morning of steady, cold rain today and there was some snow up on Buckhorn (Storm King). We've been spending the bulk of our time ripping up old beds, amending them, and replanting them for our winter crops.

Several trays of seedlings waiting to transplanted in Mars the hoop house

A new row of Red Russian kale transplants in Mars
This has been going on in the greenhouses and the dome for the most part, since this is where the bulk of our winter crops will be grown. Long rows of kale, chard, spinach, and lettuce have been planted in the greenhouses as well as partial rows of carrots, beets, leeks, and scallions. Radishes and daikons as well as more lettuce and carrots will be planted in the dome. Some of the radishes as well as some basil have been planted in the dome already.

A freshly dirt-filled bed in the dome, waiting to be planted

Lately we've been lending a helping hand at some other farms. Two weekends ago, Breigh and Darren helped the folks at Circle A Farms tighten their hoop house (greenhouse), so as not to be lost to high winds. Last Friday Breigh, Darren, and I drove to Tomten Farm on Hastings Mesa to help with the construction of a 33-foot diameter dome that is new to their operation. I had a great time meeting other farmers and seeing other farm sites.

After the work day, we all went to the Telluride Farmers Market Dinner, which was held at Cocina de Luz on Main Street. Buckhorn Gardens would like to send out a big thanks to Chris, the farmers market director, and all of the other folks who helped to put that event on. Everyone had a great time eating delicious food donated by all the farm vendors.

Some information for our CSA members who pick up at the farm and who live in Telluride: We will be having this week's pick up on Thursday, as usual. This is also the case for the Thursday October 29th pick up. Thursday November 5th will NOT be a pick up day. Instead we will be hosting a "Pick Your Own" CSA Day on Saturday November 7th. Bring your family, friends, and work gloves if you feel like pitching in with some bed amending or weeding after you pick your own share from the garden.

I hope everyone is having a great week, take care!

Jack-o-lanterns carved down at the intern shack -- Happy Halloween!

Farm Tour '09

2009-10-09T15:32:00.011-06:00

The last weekend in September, Breigh, Noel, Jinelle, Jesse, and I set out on a road trip to New Mexico. After doing chores on Saturday morning, we packed the car and headed for our first stop, the Durango farmer’s market. Here we chatted with other farmers, compared prices, and bought apples. We had some lunch in Durango then hit the road for our next destination, Taos, New Mexico.

Driving in to Taos, we passed the “world headquarters” for Earthships, houses made entirely from recycled materials and built into the ground. It was a neighborhood consisting of over 100 Earthships. You couldn’t even see them all from the road and they spread over miles. We returned to this site on our way home, to have a look around the visitor’s center (which is an Earthship), but we found a seminar under way that prevented us from going inside. There were license plates from as far away as Ontario and Alberta in the parking lot.

The first farm we visited on Saturday was called Hondo Seco Farms, or “2 Blondes Farming” located just outside of Taos in a small town called Arroyo Seco at about 7,600 feet. We visited one part of this farming operation (it is somewhat spread out) and were welcomed by a charming blonde woman named Julie in overalls and knee-high rubber boots. “I’m doing irrigation today,” she explained. Irrigation was, in fact, one of the most interesting aspects of this farm for me.

At Buckhorn, we use only drip lines and hand watering as of now. At Hondo Seco, they use a system of small ditches to water their fields. They do this only once a week. Julie explained to us a peculiar ritual that they take part in order to obtain their water. They use the old acequias to water their fields and every six days they must visit the mayor and ask for their water to be turned on.

Hondo Seco also had a medium-sized hoop house, a mature and lovely orchard, a beehive, and a very nice looking chicken coop that housed a handful of young chickens.

View of the Blondes' main field

Sweet chicken coop with young chickens

Jinelle and Noel inspecting the greenhouse

Irrigation ditches - fascinating!

Saying goodbye and thank you to Julie at Hondo Seco, we hopped in the car to drive to our next destination, Beneficial Farms, in the hills outside of Sante Fe. Steve, who welcomed us, is farming at about 7,000 feet and living completely off the grid. He has owned the land since 1979 and began farming it 1994. The farm is part of a year-round CSA cooperative with several other farms in the area. It also produces 150 - 300 eggs a day from its large flock of chickens, which Steve sells wholesale. One greenhouse is home to tomatoes and peppers, and the roof can be opened during the summer.

The adobe/hay structures were one of the most impressive aspects of this farm. The intern/guest house has two sides made of hay, one of solid adobe, and the fourth of wooden frame. This structure is also the packing/processing center and there is a sunroom/green house attached on the south side. All of the living spaces, farming spaces, and animal spaces are completely off-grid, as I mentioned. Steve uses rainwater catchments, solar power, and wastewater recycling to accomplish this. Below is a photo of just two of the rainwater catchment tanks.

Steve's fields and the adobe structures in the distance

Two rainwater catchment tanks on the side of the intern/guest house

Steve left us with some words of wisdom on the value of obtaining ones own land and staying on it. He said that 30 years on the same patch of land has given him the ability to not only read his own land very well, but the ability to read unfamiliar land almost immediately as well. This skill allows him to time his crops well and to know what his soil needs. His thoughts were taken to heart among the five of us guests and I think we all ached a little inside just thinking about getting our hands on land of our own.

That night we camped out in Sante Fe National Forest, then headed back to Taos the next day for our final farm tour. We pulled into Morning Star Farms, back in Arroyo Seco, and Melinda, the farmer, greeted us warmly. Like Benefitial Farms, Morning Star practices Biodynamic farming. She has been farming for 12+ years and has had her CSA running for about 10. This year the CSA has about 54 full shares, all of which is produced on about 2 acres, much like ours, and she doesn't use a tractor either. She has two green houses full of tomatoes, basil, and many other warm season veggies. She also grows corn, which was impressive to us, given the size of our stalks this year. Her crops were grown very close together, which was some advice we learned from Steve the day before, in order to maximize water efficiency. As the soil gets better at Buckhorn, we should be able to start doing the same. Morning Star also attends the Arroyo Seco farmer’s market and also sells to local restaurants.

Noel regards the corn with wonder

Morning Star's adorable farm dog, whose name I never caught

There were at least two more rows of basil just like this. Pesto anyone?

We said goodbye to Melinda and prepared for the long drive home. It was an excellent, educational, and beautiful trip.
--

Where's Fall?

2009-10-07T17:47:00.008-06:00

The weather here at Buckhorn has taken a sharp dive past autumn and straight into winter. We've had many nights in the low 20s this past week, our lowest being 21°F. This has been uncharacteristic for the area. We all love an Indian summer, and sadly it seems we will be found wanting this year. As a result of the wintry temperatures, we've lost a lot of vegetables despite the fact that we double covered most of our outdoor crops. Beets and broccoli will not be making another appearance this season and some of the greens have suffered frost damage. Wednesdays are our day to harvest greens and it was quite the challenge. Many leaves have brown tips, so we have to do our picking with an even more selective eye than we usually do.

In preparation for the forecast cold snap, we completely tore up the two green houses. Last last week we harvested several hundred pounds of green tomatoes, which are currently ripening (fingers crossed) in our root cellar. While we wait (and hope and pray) that those turn red, we're working on finding some recipes for green tomatoes. Those will likely be making their way to you CSA members in a few weeks.

Now that all the tomatoes, squash, cucumber, melons, and other miscellaneous veggies have been uprooted from the green houses, it's time to get the beds prepped for their winter residents. We have begun doing this in the past couple of days. First we soak alfalfa pellets, which we then spread on the beds to add nitrogen to the soil. Next we spread a layer of dry, crumbled leaves to add organic matter. If we're lucky, we can put down some pine needles as well, which are naturally acidic and benefit the alkaline pH level in our soil. The next layer is one of cow manure and compost, which contribute more organic matter and nitrogen to the beds. Our next step was to use the small rototiller to mix up all the aforementioned ingredients. This is a step that we will skip in the future. It chops and thus multiplies the roots of weeds we worked hard to eradicate. Second, it destroys the "structure" of the soil, which in turn compromises the diversity of micro-organisms that benefit the plants. Further, after time it can cause the formation of a "tiller pan," a layer of hard packed soil just below where the blades of the tiller reach in the dirt. This is the last thing we need in our clay-ridden soil. Newer beds, like the ones we are working in, do benefit from the rototilling, so we decided to use the contraption again this time.

What will go in these beautifully prepped beds? We have over a dozen flats of transplants readily waiting in the dome. These little plants include cold-hearty greens like kale, chard, arugula, spinach, and perpetual spinach. We are also going to directly seed lettuce and our special "lettuce-less bliss mix" (a label coined by Darren mere minutes ago). After these crops are planted and transplanted, we are going to use an Elliot Coleman technique to aid in their protection from cold. With hoops of wire and long strips of remay and plastic we will basically create mini hoop-houses over the rows of veggies. This should double up the warmth kept around the greens as they grow.

The last bit of exciting farm news is that we are now hosting a billy goat to breed with our oldest and best-milking goat, Belle. The other two goats, Fanny and Chev, have gone away so that Comanche and Belle could have the barn to themselves. Comanche (ko-MAN-chee) smells pretty bad, so we have special "goat clothes" that we wear to the barn to milk Belle now.

That's all there is to report from the farm this week. See you all tomorrow or at market, be well!

Recipes!

2009-10-07T17:37:00.002-06:00

Sweet and Gooey Parsnips

1 pound parsnips
2 tablespoons butter
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
Salt and freshly ground pepper

1. Scrape or peel the parsnips, then cut them into sticks about the size of your little finger. Dry well with paper toweling.
2. In a heavy 10-inch skillet, melt butter; then add the parsnips, shaking to coat. Sprinkle with nutmeg. Cover tightly and sauté on medium heat for about 5 to 10 minutes. The parsnips should be tender and gooey, and slightly caramelized. Add salt and pepper to taste.
Yield: 4 servings

Cock-a-Leekie Soup

2 1/2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breast halves
3 cups water
1 stalk of celery, diced
2 carrots, diced
1/2 cup barley
1 cup chicken broth
2 bay leaves
2 teaspoons minced fresh rosemary
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
3/4 pound leeks white and green parts, sliced (about 1 1/2 cups)

1. In large saucepan, combine the chicken breasts, water, celery, carrots, barley, chicken broth, bay leaves, rosemary, salt, and pepper. Heat to boil. Reduce heat, cover, and simmer for about 30 minutes.
2. Add the leeks, heat to a boil, reduce the heat again, and simmer until the chicken is tender.
3. Remove the chicken and let cool. When it is cool enough to handle,cut into bite-size pieces.
4. Skim any fat from the broth and remove bay leaves. Put the chicken pieces back into the broth and reheat for about 5 minutes.
Yield: 6 servings

Two Eventful Weeks

2009-09-29T17:14:00.006-06:00

Greetings everyone! Sorry about the week-long delay. We had two busy, eventful weeks here at Buckhorn. Two weeks ago we tore up most of the beds in the dome, including the melons, the tomatoes, and the kale. We left the hot peppers, the perennial herbs, and some miscellaneous plants like nasturtiums, alyssum and datura. Next we will amend the beds and plant some cold hardy veggies. If you're a CSA member who picks up your share at the farm you should definitely poke your head in the dome - it looks pretty darn empty now!

The next weekend Breigh, Darren (and his parents) and my fellow interns worked a long Monday off in order to get all of the beds covered with frost blankets. For this we used mostly Remay, a white mesh material, and some old bed sheets that Jinelle scored from the thrift store. We situate the blanket over the length of the bed then secure it tightly with large rocks so that the wind doesn't pick it up. The frost did happen Monday and Tuesday night last week, so we were right to have covered everything, but we reached a low of 28°F so some of the crops were effected anyway. Squash, melons and cucumber production has definitely slowed down due to the cold. Outside tomatoes, peppers, eggplant and beans were all lost. All the beds are uncovered at the moment so they can carry on with their photosynthesizing, but they will need to be covered again before the end of the week - there's a chance of snow on Thursday!

The reason the blog didn't get updated last Tuesday was because we harvested the kid goats. Darren and Jesse did that dirty work while Noel, Breigh, Jinelle and I did another sort of dirty work - shoveling out the goat barn so the mother goats could have clean living quarters in exchange for their kids. I helped a little bit with the kid harvesting process and it was eye opening to be sure. I figured that I will likely be partaking in the goat meat so I thought it would be appropriate to lend a hand.

This weekend was very exciting because we, Breigh and the four interns, took a farm tour! I plan on devoting an entire blog entry, including pictures, to this excursion because it was so fun and so educational. We had the opportunity to visit with three farmers to see how they run their operations. It was a great road trip and I'm looking forward to talking more about it in another post.

Today was an exciting day for Breigh and I here on the farm because we welcomed the 4th and 5th graders from Ridgway Elementary to help us with a few special tasks. They moved around the farm in three groups. One group helped me dig up potatoes, another group popped and planted seed garlic, and the last group hauled rocks into one of the new beds in the dome. All the kids had a great time getting their hands dirty and we were able to experience the unique gratification that comes with instilling the value of earth-tending in the next generation.

That about does it for the past two weeks. I hope you're enjoying the last of the warm weather as well as the transition into the coziest and loveliest of seasons, autumn. Be well, we will see you soon!

A Typical Week at Buckhorn

2009-09-15T17:42:00.008-06:00

Half of our booth at the Telluride Farmers Market

This week on the farm wasn't nearly as eventful as last week, with our spontaneous, educational field trip. Thursday was devoted to CSA and market prep as usual and Friday was market day for Breigh and me. We spent Saturday pulling up the melon beds in the southern hoop house Mars to replace them with carrots and beets and weeding various outdoor beds like the new carrots and the cover crops.

After two restful days off, during which Breigh canned tomatoes and made peach fruit leather, we returned to work today to pull up more outdoor beds, weed them, and plant radishes and turnips. We also weeded two-thirds of the 100-foot spinach bed.

I was unable to locate the information I promised concerning who to contact about the anti-uranium mill cause. My apologies there - the sheet we had with the contact info was conveniently lost in the proverbial shuffle.

Next week we'll be posting pictures of peppers and eggplants for identification purposes. Check back to determine which of your peppers are spiciest! Have a great week everyone.

A picture of some of our winter squash, which will be available through the winter CSA.

Buckhorn Field Trip

2009-09-09T18:58:00.003-06:00

On a Wednesday morning, we interns expect to wake up at 5:30 AM, bounce groggily to the farm site in the trusty Kubota, and pick the greens for your salad and braising mixes until about noon. Today, having been given a more forgiving wake up time, we rolled up to Breigh and Daren's house around 7:40 and were immediately herded into the van. Breigh was exclaiming that she'd been calling us and we needed to pick the lettuce as fast as possible so that we could go to a meeting about uranium in Montrose. We were all a little confused, but we did as we were told, and soon found ourselves in a large gymnasium/meeting venue of sorts with about 150 other people all interested in learning about the Pinon Ridge Mill, a uranium processing plant that is in the works for construction east of Montrose.

The meeting was not only informational, but served as a venue for members of the community to voice their opinions supporting and opposing the construction of the plant as well. Us farm folk went to support those who opposed the mill, and their numbers certainly needed fleshing out. Most members of the community who were present and who spoke were in strong favor the mill because it would provide roughly 1,300 jobs and supposedly boost the area's economy. None of them seemed to comprehend the serious repercussions the presence of this facility would have on not only the environment, but on the health of the area's residents for hundreds of years.

We all know the terrible effects of radioactive materials like uranium, and if this mill should be constructed, the harmful byproducts will be in the air, the water, and the soil all over the area. While the mill itself is many miles outside of town, there will be trucks driving through town and on other local stretches of highway (including by our farm) delivering enriched uranium away from the mill and toxic chemicals like sulfuric acid to the plant.

"If this mill is built," Breigh says, "we will not be farming here."

This is a serious and valid statement. Would you continue your CSA share knowing the produce you were receiving was contaminated with uranium byproducts like radon? The fact of the matter is, this project must be stopped. It is currently being reviewed by the commissioner of Montrose County as well as an evaluation committee, who were present today at the meeting. State scientists are also evaluating the situation on a chemical level, and this should play in to the decision of county leaders who are approving the special permit. Please, make your voice heard on this topic by contacting county leaders. I will probably be posting information on who to contact and how next week if not sooner.

Back on the farm, we harvested a whopping 217 pounds of tomatoes before CSA and market last week! This was Buckhorn Gardens’ largest harvest of tomatoes in its three-season history. We also tore up old beds of cauliflower and carrots in order to transplant broccoli and spinach seedlings. This afternoon we finished processing the garlic that has been drying the barn for a few weeks. The harvesting of squash, cucumbers, and tomatoes continued as usual along with various weeding projects. This post was on the longer side, so thanks for reading until the end! Best wishes from the crew at Buckhorn Gardens, we’ll see you soon!

Recipes and Chicken Harvesting

2009-09-02T19:29:00.003-06:00

My apologies for the late blog post! This week was a bit different on the farm because we shifted our weekend in order to harvest chickens this Monday. We raised 40 feed chickens over 14 weeks and processed 39 of them in about 10 hours (we lost one to a suspected coyote a couple of weeks ago). It was a long day during which we experienced some technical difficulties with our borrowed equipment. However, once we solved all the problems, the operation went very smoothly, especially with the help of the trusty plucking machine! This somewhat violent contraption vastly aided in the feather removal process, virtually eliminating the need for human hands to go over the carcasses with tweezers for a fine-tune cleaning. We now have 39 beautifully vacuum-sealed chickens in the walk-in fridge.

That was our major event for the week, but weeding and harvesting continued as usual. We harvested a whopping 145 pounds of tomatoes before the CSA pick up last Thursday. Bed preparation for winter crops continued as well. I pulled thistles out of four 75-foot beds to make way for my bind weed-pulling comrades. Good progress was made overall!

And now for some of the recipes I promised last week. Wondering what to do with all the squash and cucumbers you've been getting from your CSA share? Here are some ideas for you!

Cuke Dip

1/2 cup (or more) finely chopping cucumber
8 ounces cream cheese
2 tablespoons sour cream
1/2 clove garlic, minced
1/8 teaspoon pepper
2 teaspoons wine vinegar
2 tablespoons fresh minced parsley
3 tablespoons paprika

Mix to blend well. Makes 1 1/2 cups. Serve with corn chips, assorted vegetables, or chunks of French bread.

--

(Beef) Zucchini Ratatouille
You'll notice this recipe has quite a few veggies you can get from your CSA share or market. Plan ahead for this dish this week, and make it vegetarian if you prefer.

2 large onions, diced
2 tablespoons olive oil
1lb zucchini, thinly sliced
1lb tomatoes, peeled and sliced
1 small to medium eggplant, peeled and sliced
1 green pepper diced
1 clove garlic, minced
(1-1 1/2 pounds ground chuck)
1/2 teaspoon salt

Sauté onions in olive oil for 5 minutes. Add zucchini, tomatoes, eggplant, green pepper, and garlic to onions and cook for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. (Brown meat, drain, and add to vegetables. Cook 5 minutes, season with salt.) Serves 5.

Have a wonderful week, see you tomorrow!

ID Your Produce!

2009-08-25T17:43:00.016-06:00

Greetings from Buckhorn Gardens! August is moving right along and so are our projects. We spent the last week getting transplants of spinach, kale, chard, and scallions into the dirt. We continued preparing beds for the planting of more fall crops and spent plenty of time chasing the turkeys out of the lettuce beds. Progress is also being made on the construction of our new storage sheds.

This week, as promised, the rest of our blog will be devoted to helping you determine which varieties of fruit and veggies you selected at the CSA pick-up or at the market. We'll be identifying tomatoes, cucumbers, squash, and melons.

In the first image we have three varieties of our largest, knobbiest tomatoes. From left to right, you're seeing a Goldie, a Soldacki, and an Italian Heirloom. From left to right in the second image, we have an Abrason, a Black Grim, a Green Zebra, and a Tigerella.

Next we have several varieties of cucumbers. The large pale green cucumber, a close relative of the Honey Dew melon, is called an Armanian cucumber, and this is actually a small example of one such fruit. We grow these up to two and a half feet! Don't be shy about them, give one a try sometime and make yourself an epic cucumber salad. The long dark green cucumber in the image is called a Japanese Long. The shorter light green one is a Poona Kheera, which is an heirloom variety originally cultivated in India. Both of the latter are characterized as crisp, sweet, and mild.

Next we have a couple of rounds of squash and zucchini. The yellow team consists of Saffron, Zephyr, and Lemon squashes, from top to bottom. The green team consists of the little round White Scallop Patty Pan on the far left, and Sultan, Raven, and Cocozelli from top to bottom. Note the nutty flavor of the Zephyr squash. The Saffron is an open pollenated variety. The White Scallop is a very ancient Native American heirloom squash grown by northern tribes for hundreds of years and is very tasty fried or baked. Don't forget that if your squash has darker skin it is better for your health because darker skins contain higher levels of antioxidants!

In our last ID category, we're addressing some of the tasty heirloom melons you may have selected at the CSA pick up or at market. From left to right you're seeing a Kansas, a Charentais, and a Cochiti Pueblo. The Cochiti Pueblo is an ancient variety of melons originally cultivated by the Native Americans whose name they share outside of Santa Fe. These and the Kansas, which is a rare variety, are similar to what you'd think of as a cantaloupe. The Charentais (pronounced "share-on-TAY"), a sweet, firm French melon, is slightly more fragrant and toothsome.

That does it for our produce ID! Be sure to let us know if there is another type of fruit or veggie you'd like some help identifying. Keep an eye out of recipes and more pictures in the weeks to come. Take care!

Return of the Buckhorn Blogger

2009-08-18T19:28:00.007-06:00

I am pleased to announce an end to the Buckhorn Blog hiatus! My name is Alison, I'm from Seattle, and I'm the newest intern here at Buckhorn Gardens. I've been here for about two weeks and have loved every minute of it. Now for all the summer updates!

Summer has just truly begun in our neck of the woods. We are finally harvesting tomatoes; today we picked 72 pounds! Summer squash and cucumbers are also booming right now. We have two types of reasonably-sized cucumbers, one for slicing and one for pickling, and one type of unreasonably-sized cucumber, the Armenian, which some of you have ventured to try at your CSA pick up or at the market. Our hot peppers are heating up as well, some choice varieties being Beaver Dam (light green and short), Anaheim (light green and long), and Jalapeno (dark green and short). Next week we will be posting pictures of all our different types of tomatoes and squash, to help you identify what you picked up at CSA or market.

Last week we pulled up the entirety of our garlic crop and it is currently drying in the goat barn. You had the opportunity to pick up some of our varieties last week at CSA and market, such as Red Russian and Purple Crystal. This week we weeded and mulched the former garlic beds to prepare them for a cover crop of Buckwheat, which will help improve the soil for the next crop we decide to plant.

Speaking of seeding, we planted several autumn crops this week that you can start looking forward to, including broccoli, cabbage, spinach, Asian greens, beets, and radishes. And maybe it's a bit too early to start talking about this, but don't forget to consider becoming a member of our potential Winter CSA. We intend on featuring one or two bags of greens like lettuce, spinach, kale, and chard per week, as well as garlic and an onion and winter squash option. Don't hesitate to talk to any of us about this possibility, as we'd like to gauge the level of interest amongst our current members before setting anything in stone.

Farm projects have, of course, carried on throughout the summer. We just finished installing a walk-in cooler which greatly expedites the process of packing to go to market on Friday and Saturday mornings. We are now gearing up for the construction of the third hoop house, which has yet to be named. Any suggestions?

Thanks for checking in with us even after such a long break. We'll get some pictures up next week. See you this weekend!

Recipe

2009-05-27T21:55:00.004-06:00

Quiche

9 inch unbaked pie shell
1 and 1/2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
6 beaten eggs
1 cup milk, added to eggs
1 bag spinach, kale or chard chopped
1 head tatsoi, mizuna or small bok choi chopped
1 bunch scallions and/or green garlic chopped
1 cup shiitake mushroom chopped
1 bunch any herb

Saute mushrooms, onions, garlic, greens and herbs until soft. Add to pie shell followed by cheese and then egg mixture. 35-40 minutes at 400 degrees.

May 28th Farm Update

2009-05-27T21:50:00.005-06:00

The greens just keep on coming. This week we started to harvest some greens from outside. We were a little worried after about 5 minutes of a heavy hail storm on Tuesday, but most everything still looked great. For the last 4 weeks most of our veggies have been coming from Polaris (we finally named our first high tunnel, which is on the north side). The next few weeks we will be phasing out the cool season crops from in the high tunnel and start harvesting them from outside. However, we still have a few veggies in Polaris that have just started to produce, like snow and snap peas which we will have this week and carrots for possibly next week.

As for the rain, well we wish it rained like this more often! We have spent the rainy days planting in the greenhouses. In the dome we transplanted some citrus trees, planted our honey fig and some hot peppers. We also trellised our melons which already have baby melons! Mars is completely filled with tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, basil,okra, sweet potatoes, more melons, pole beans, cucumbers and some squash. In Polaris we have transplanted artichokes and now we need to start taking out the spinach and other greens to make room for more melons and tomatoes. In between the rain showers we planted over 180 strawberries, transplanted more tatsoi and mizuna and of course weeded. Any volunteers to help weed?

May 21st Newsletter 3

2009-05-20T21:33:00.006-06:00

Well, week 4 is here and guess what, more greens! More spinach, kale, chard, perpetual spinach, mustard greens and salad greens. Our salad greens consist of lettuce, kale, chard, mustard greens, mizuna, tatsoi, beet greens, pea shoots, arugula and sometimes spinach. This is our spring mix and it will change depending on the season. During the summer when its hotter the mix is mostly lettuce. Last week we had some new veggies like broccoli, Japanese summer turnips, radishes and beets. This week more of the same, however this will be the last week we have parsnips until late fall.

Last week we covered Mars, our second high tunnel with plastic. Just one more to build! So far we have planted over a hundred tomato plants in Mars. We will also be transplanting artichokes, sweet potatoes, hot peppers, bell peppers, eggplant, okra, melons, cucumbers and some summer squash into our high tunnels. Our first high tunnel still needs a name, any suggestions? Outside we have been laying weed barrier in pathways. First we tackle the weeds with the weedwacker and then cover them up forever! There has been lots of bed prepping too, for strawberries, lettuce and celery transplants. Have a good week...

Thank You Ridgway 4th and 5th!

2009-05-20T18:40:00.009-06:00

We always have so much fun when the school groups come out! Last Friday we had the Ridgway 4th and 5th graders. This was their second time on the farm. Last fall they came out to dig potatoes and pull weeds. Last Friday they came out again and helped us plant potatoes, shallots, onion sets and of course helped us pull more weeds. Man, did it show that they were experienced. Everyone walked in the paths and not in the beds. Planting went smoothly and everyone seemed as they had been pulling weeds for a long time. Favorite activities as always were feeding the chickens and finding left over veggies from the year before! Thank you Ridgway 4th and 5th. We are looking forward to your next visit.

May 7th Newsletter 2

2009-05-06T22:57:00.006-06:00

I can't take credit for this picture, this was all Darren! We hope everyone enjoyed the vegetables last week. This week will be a similar choice as of last week. More chinese cabbage, bok choy, spinach, green garlic, scallions, parsnips, and many greens. Some salad greens will also be in the rotation this week, along with alfafa sprouts. America is new kind of spinach that is now in the rotation. It is a super thick, deep green, savoy leafed spinach that I thought was succulant tasting. We have added some recipes to the blog and will keep adding them under the recipe post. Next week you can look forward to some radishes and possibly beets and turnips.

Kassy arrived from Oklahoma last week. We have kept her busy with lots of outside seeding and weeding. Yesterday we seeded radish, turnips, parsnips, beets, carrots, broccoli raab and more salad greens. Today we started planting the 100# of potatoes. Thats 12 different varieties! Yumm I can't wait for the new potatoes (the little ones we "steal" from the plant before they are fully developed).

Here are a few pictures from last weeks harvest.

Recipes

2009-05-06T22:15:00.008-06:00

Spring Rolls
1/4# snow peas, turnips or beets
8 shiitake mushroom, julienne
1 carrot, julienne
3 scallions or green garlic, chopped
1 head napa cabbage, shredded
1 cup bean sprouts
1 cup spinach, kale or chard chopped
1/4# tofu, meat, fish or keep it just raw veggies
1 bunch cilantro
2 tablespoons sesame oil
1 teaspoon hot pepper flakes
20 or so spring roll wraps

Heat oil in wok. Add mushrooms and tofu/meat with pepper flakes. Remove from heat, stir in the scallion/ green garlic and cilantro. Place in a colander to drain and cool. Fill a large bowl with hot water. Dip a wrap in the water for 1 second or until soft. Add veggies and cooked items and roll up like a burrito. We like to dip them into a peanut sauce made from a mixture of rice vinegar, sesame oil and peanut butter.

Spinach and Rice (Spanakorizo)
1/3 cup olive oil
2 onions, chopped
2 pounds fresh spinach, rinsed and destemmed
1 (8 ounce) can tomato sauce
2 cups water
1 teaspoon dill
1 teaspoon parsley
to taste, salt and pepper
1/2 cup uncooked white rice
Feta cheese, crumbled, optional garnish
freshly squeezed lemon juice, optional garnish

Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Saute onions in the oil until soft and translucent. Add spinach, and cook stirring for a few minutes. Then, pour in the tomato sauce and water. Bring to a boil, and season with parsley, dill, salt and pepper.
Stir in rice, reduce heat to low, and simmer uncovered for 20 to 25 minutes (or until rice is tender). Add more water if necessary.

Mustard or any other Green, Nepalese-style
3 tablespoons peanut or grapeseed oil (olive oil has too low a smoking point for this recipe)
1 pound greens, cleaned and coarsely chopped
1 teaspoon crushed red pepper, or to taste
1 tablespoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground turmeric

Heat the oil until almost smoking. Add the greens and stir to prevent burning. Once wilted, add the spices. Stir thoroughly, turn the heat to low, cover, and cook for about 5-15 minutes.
Add a little hot water if the greens start to burn. Make sure all water has evaporated before serving.

Chard with Pine Nuts and Raisins
2 bunches Swiss chard,
3 tablespoons olive oil
3 tablespoons butter
1 teaspoon thyme
1 teaspoon marjoram
1/4 cup raisins
1/4 cup pine nuts

Put the raisins in a small bowl and cover them with hot water. Let them soak until you are ready to add them to the dish. Cut chard into 1/2 inch pieces. Put the butter and oil in a large saute pan and melt over a low heat. While the butter is melting, use a small frying pan to toast the pine nuts. Heat the pan over a medium heat. Add the nuts, and toast, stirring frequently until they begin to brown slightly. When the pan with the oil is heated, add the thyme and marjoram. Stir and add the chard promptly. As soon as the chard is down to a manageable volume, add the drained raisins. Turn the heat very low and cover for just a few minutes until the chard wilts completely. Taste the chard, and add salt and pepper as desired. Immediately prior to serving, stir in the pine nuts.

Herb Dressing
1 teaspoon dijon mustard
2 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon wine vineger
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil (we prefer grape seed oil)
1 tablespoon flax oil
1 teaspoon finely chopped fresh herbs, such as parsley, oregano, rosemary, thyme or basil

Mix mustard and vinegar. Add oil in a thin stream until well mixed. Stir in flax oil and herbs.

Kimchi (Korean Sauerkraut)
1 head chinese cabbage, shredded
1 bunch scallions, chopped
1 bunch green garlic or 3 cloves, minced
1 bunch radish, grated (optional)
1 cup carrot, grated
1 tablespoon grated ginger
1/2 tablespoon dried chile flakes (or more)
1 tablespoon sea salt
4 tablespoons whey (if not available, use an additional 1 tablespoon salt)

Place veggies, ginger, garlic, red chile flakes, sea salt and whey in a bowl and pound with a wooden pounder to release juices. Place in a quart size, wide mouth mason jar and press down firmly until juices come to the top of the cabbage. The top of the veggies should be at least 1 inch below the top of the jar. Cover tightly and keep at room temperature for about 3 days before transferring to cold storage. Eat anytime after the 3 days but the longer it stores the stronger it gets!

Miso Broth with Greens
1 bunch scallions, baby leeks and or green garlic
3 thin slices fresh ginger root
5 cups dashi stock or vegetable or chicken stock
1 bunch greens, bok choy, chard and/or kale
2-3 small carrots, cut jubilee
7 ounces firm tofu, cut into 1 inch cubes
4 tablespoons red miso (or more to taste)
red chiles for some heat

Add scallions, ginger and carrots to stock. Heat mixture until gently boiling, then lower and simmer for 10 minutes. Add greens and cook for a few minutes. Mix 3 tablespoons of the miso with a little of the hot soup in a bowl, then stir it into the soup. Taste soup and add more miso to taste.

Chinese Cabbage Asian Stir Fry
2 tablespoons peanut oil
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes (or more)
1 head chinese cabbage, shredded
1 tablespoon garlic, minced
1 tablespoon rice wine
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 teaspoon sesame oil
1 tablespoon ginger, minced
1 tablespoon toasted sesame oil

Stir together rice wine, soy sauce, sesame oil and ginger. Set aside. Heat oil in wok over medium-high heat. Add garlic and pepper flakes and stir fry until aromatic but not scorched. Add cabbage and stir fry until limp not mushy. Add sauce mixture, stirring in 1-2 minutes, until liquid is absorbed. Sprinkle with sesame seeds.

Balsamic Dressing
3 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 tablespoon dijon mustard
2-6 cloves garlic, chopped
1/4 cup salad oil (I like grape seed oil)

We add everything to a mason jar and shake thoroughly. Enjoy on a spinach salad!

April 30th Newsletter 1

2009-04-29T22:01:00.003-06:00

Well folks, this is where it all begins, fresh vegetables from our farm to your kitchen (and stomach) for the next 28 weeks! Today we were busy harvesting greens, lots of them over 40#, all hand picked! All of our greens are "rinsed" twice and then bagged. Tomorrow you will have to choose from three different kinds of spinach, two different kinds of kale, swiss chard, perpetual spinach, mustard greens, bok choi, tatsoi, mizuna, chinese cabbage, head lettuce, parsnips, green garlic, leeks, scallions, sprouts and numerous kinds of herbs.

The spinach types are Tyee, a crinkled type hybrid from Johnny Seed company. We like growing this type because of its holding ability (not bolting) when it gets hot. The second variety is a Italian heirloom called Merlo Nero from our favorite seed company Baker Creek. Merlo Nero, also a savoy type was chosen to be grown here on the farm because its from Italy and those Italians know good vegetables! Monnopa is the third type, it is from Seed Savers Exchange and is my favorite spinach. It's supper sweet, high in vitamin A, C and E and low in oxalic acid. Low acid improves the absorption of calcium and other minerals. We also have some great kale choices like Toscano and Red Russian. Personal I like the Red Russian more because I think it is sweeter, however Toscano seems to be very popular at markets. The reason may be because of the appearance of Toscano which has bumpy looking leaves, hence its other name "Dinosaur Kale"! Make sure you try some Gator Perpetual Spinach in the next few weeks too. I have to say this is wonderful. It is similar to swiss chard in appearance, but tastes more like spinach that just melts in your mouth. If your feeling like something more spicy, then check out the mustard greens. With all these greens we like to saute them in the morning (with herbs of course) and eat them with eggs topped with sprouts.

Enjoy your first week of fresh veggies!

Spring Projects

2009-04-27T21:07:00.009-06:00

Thousands of leeks and onions later....there all planted. This is just one of the many projects we are working on, now that spring has arrived at 6,700 feet! Before we plant, first we prepare the beds. We weed, add compost, rake and level out the bed and lay out the drip irrigation. Sounds quick but sometimes the weeds take over and we end up spending a lot of time weeding. We always add mulch after we transplant or seed and give the plants a good drink. Even though it's just spring, the sun will drain our soil of all the moisture.

Darren has been busy in the orchard. Here he is spraying a dormant oil on the trees. It is used to protect the trees from fungus, insects and other diseases. The fruit trees were pruned about two weeks ago. Its does not take us long because they are still young and small. We have also spent time weeding the base of the fruit trees and will soon fertilize them.

Our really big project this spring has been putting up another high tunnel. It has taken us a while because the weather has not been cooperating and planting is the main priority. We are close to being finished and are now waiting for a windless day to put the plastic on. The interns helped us dig out the beds last Friday and today we finished up with adding the amendments. I think we all need a trip to Orvis to soak our sore muscles.

More Snow and Prehistoric Alligator Bugs!

2009-04-05T18:27:00.012-06:00

Just when you think, oh we can plant outside, sure enough more snow. Actually 8 inches! This was the dome on Saturday evening. However, by Sunday afternoon all the snow was gone. Now we are left with mud mania. The dogs, our boots, our pants and even my hair...MUD! All we need now is good day of Colorado sun.

While it was snowing out, we released some more
lady bugs. We use many different insect predators, but lady bugs seem to work the best. They are also entertaining to release because they end up crawling all over you. We order about 70,000 lady bugs and release some every week spread out over about 6 weeks. They are stored in the refrigerator where they stay dormant. The lady bugs are thirsty when they wake up so we release them after we water. They eat aphids, our most persistent bug problem in the green houses. We also grow flowers like alyssum because they feed on the nectar. Its always exciting after a few weeks when you start seeing the lady bug larvae (a.k.a. prehistoric alligator bugs). They actually eat more aphids then the adults.

Buckhorn would like to welcome Jesse Jacobson, our second intern to arrive for the season. He is a returning intern like Miss Kubly and is also from Wisconsin. He is planning to stay for the whole season, maybe we can convince him to become a farmer one day. If you are out here on the farm please give him a warm welcoming.

Warm Dome on a Cold Day

2009-03-30T20:17:00.010-06:00

Well, we were a little bummed when we did not get our spinach and peas planted about two weeks ago. However, low and behold it started snowing and it has not stopped. The moisture is warmly welcomed as our garlic was thirsty and the land was dry. Now with 8 inches on the ground we feel thankful we did not plant. Instead we have been building a new bed in our dome, transplanting peppers, tomatoes, eggplant and starting more vegetables by seed. The dome is always a great escape on a windy snowy day.

Building the beds is quite the process. First we staple a bunch of sand bags in half, so that the beds are not too wide.
We then use a special contraption to fill the sand bags which then are stacked into the shape we want. As we build the bed, we also add chicken wire to help hold it place as well as providing foundation for the stucco. We have learned not to build the bed completely up before adding the chicken wire as we have knocked over beds before! The next stage we use garden staples to hold the chicken wire close to the sand bags, so that we use less stucco mix. Now we are ready for the first stucco layer, we are just waiting for a warm enough day to make up the mix. We will apply two layers and after it drys we will be ready to fill it with some soil. We like this system because the beds hold high amounts of thermal mass, they are fairly cheap and easy to fix. However, they are time consuming to construct but we usually can find some volunteers to help out.
We plan to plant melons (which are pictured here on the left), two satsuma mandarin, a lemon tree, a lime tree and a honey fig in April. We will train the melons to grow up the trellising and the trees will provide shade in the summer and yummy fruit. More medicinal plants will be added too, like the Chinese wolf berry, chaparral and sushni which all will be fantastic additions to our gotu kola, monstrous aloe plant, skullcap and numerous herb plants. The dome will soon be our own walk in medicine cabinet!

2009 CSA Information

2009-03-16T08:00:00.008-06:00

We have opened our 2009 CSA program to the public until we have filled all of our shares.

This years costs are $795 for our full share and $500 for our partial share. The price is based on an average weekly cost of $28 and $18 respectively. The memberships will last seven months, approximately April to October/November. The size of each share will vary each week depending on the season and the weather. We encourage everyone to participate in a full share for increased variety and value.

Pickup days is Thursday here at the farm from 4pm to 7pm. We also offer an alternative pickup location in Telluride on Thursdays from 5pm to 6:30pm for an additional cost.

Each membership will be supplied with a reusable tote bag for transportation of produce. You will also receive a weekly newsletter via our blog with news from the farm, wonderful recipes and produce to expect the following week.

Please feel free to contact us with any questions you may have or if you want to visit the farm.

Winter Planting

2009-01-07T18:48:00.000-07:00

Although there isn't a whole lot to be done over the winter, we occupied ourselves by planting the dome full of delicious vegetables.

The beds were cleaned out of overgrown and dying vegetation and manure from the cows outside, alfalfa pellets, coffee grounds, dried leaves, and moss that grows and floats upon the pools that regulate the heat in the grow dome, were added as a good base of fertilization for the upcoming growth. In the beds we planted arugula, spinach, lettuce mix, turnips, beets, mustard greens, tatsoi, kale, and swiss chard. Go figure, things will grow in the dead of winter!

Darren, the genius that he is, devised a way to grow things vertically in the dome through the use of grow tubes made of pvc pipes that hang along the walls last spring. Those also needed to be planted. Although you can't grow as much in each tube because of their size, it works well for greens and root vegetables (obviously not carrots). Scallions, turnips, radishes, arugula, and spinach were planted in the tubes.

We also worked a few days ago on pulling up strawberry runners that have been growing in the dome since the fall and placing them in hanging baskets to sell at the farmer's markets in the spring. Its a great way to enjoy strawberries in an easy and transportable way!

While searching for photos to put up on the blog, i found this photo of Cali, one of the local dogs we love, stepping into the dome during the warmer days of the year. It gives us hope that the snow will melt again and then we will be out and about working in the gardens once more.

Welcome to Buckhorn Gardens!

2009-01-02T17:57:00.000-07:00

Howdy all!

Buckhorn Gardens is a small vegetable/herb farm located at the base of Buckhorn Mountain bordering Montrose, Colorado. The farm is part of a 12,000 acre cattle ranch, but we only manage about 3 acres of vegetables and herbs. We can't forget about the goats and chickens!

This past season was our first attempt at a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) and we had almost 30 members take part from late May to early November. Although this was our first year working with CSAs, it was our second year in production. The first year we had provided our produce only to restaurants in the area as well as the Telluride Farmers Market. Along with the CSA this year, we also maintained our relationship with the folks up in Telluride providing our produce once more at the farmer's market, but we also introduced ourselves into the Montrose area starting at the Montrose Farmer's Market.

Along with the 2 acres we have in production, we had a 51ft geodestic grow dome (growingspaces.com), complete with a self sufficient heating and cooling system. The dome is most useful from the fall to the spring because we are able to grow desirable crops during some of the coldest days of the year. For instance this winter we are able to grow peppers, lettuce mixes, varieties of greens (arugula,

spinach, mustard greens), herbs, beets, carrots, tomatoes, artichokes and we even have a few citrus plants in the making.

This summer and into the fall a huge hoop house was also erected with a lot of hard work which made it much easier for us to grow more crops well beyond the first hard frost. In fact we are still harvesting greens from the hoophouse for neighbors and past CSA members. Here are a few pictures of the process.

So besides all of the produce we grow we also have lots and lots of animals. Some might say we are a bit of a dog sanctuary. We currently have five dogs living in the house, three of which are locals and two are just visiting. We also have our friendly ranch dog, Bud, who loves hanging out with all of us. Along with the dogs, we have around 40 laying hens and one mighty powerful rooster as well as two female goats. This summer we were at our fullest with two mama goats and four babies, but as the summer drew on, it was time for the three boys to be harvested and one of the moms to be shipped out to a local farm in need. Belle and Chevre are what is left of the goat crew, but fear not, it is mating season, and in five month we will have babies stomping around the yard. We use the chickens for their eggs and sell them at the farmer's markets and to CSA members, the goats produce wonderful milk which we make into cheese and sometimes even the best ice cream around and also sell them at the farmer's markets and to lucky CSA members.

We hope you all have a wonderful and safe new year! Don't hesitate to contact us if you have any questions!