December 2007
We have been busy, busy, busy here on the farm the last few
months. We're just now wrapping up our crazy Fall planting
season and Mother nature was kind enough to bring us a nice
Winter rain this past weekend to give our new plantings the
boost they need.
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We've planted lots of greens, spinach, carrots, broccoli, cauliflower
garlic, onions, fennel, cabbage, lettuce, beets, turnips, radishes,
cilantro, dill, parsley, and much more. We expect to have a good
variety of veggies to offer our CSA members well into the upcoming
Winter season and beyond.
LETTUCE
Our lettuce is now in full swing...we've got
lots of mixed, loose-leaf lettuce as well
as head lettuce (Romaine, etc.) to share
with our CSA members.
BABY BOK CHOI
Our members have been enjoying lots of baby
bok choi over the last few weeks. Look to our
"RECIPE" page on the web-site for some great recipe
ideas featuring Bok Choi.
OUR CARROTS OUR HERE!
Our first generation of carrots are growing
nicely and we should be sharing them with our CSA
members all Winter and well into the Spring.
TURNIPS
We have a nice selection of a variety of turnips
to share with our members this season...from
traditional purple-top turnips to white Japanese
turnips to the pretty Red Scarlet turnips.
The Japanese and Red Scarlet turnips are delicious
grated into salads or lightly cooked in stir-fries.
The larger, purple-top turnips can be baked just like
potatoes.
THE GREEN GARLIC IS BACK!
The garlic we planted in October is finally large
enough to start harvesting as "green" garlic or
some people call them "garlic onions". These guys
look, and can be used just like green onions, but
have a wonderful garlic flavor to them.
GREENS, GREENS, GREENS....
Fall and Winter are prime "greens" season here
in the desert. We grow lots of salad greens, braising
greens and cooking greens here on the farm. These include
arugula, kale, collards, mustard greens, bok choi, broccoli
raab and spinach to name a few. Greens are packed with
vitamins and minerals and we've got lots of cooking ideas
on our RECIPE page.
CILANTRO
We're also growing a few culinary herbs in our fields to
compliment our selection of veggies...right now we have
cilantro, dill and we'll soon have parsley.
OUR SPINACH IS COMING...
We should be ready to cut our first batch of spinach by
mid-December....WHEW HOO!
BROCCOLI & CAULIFLOWER ARE COMING...
We've been planting quite a few successions of broccoli
and cauliflower and hope to have our first harvest for the
start of the upcoming Winter season.
PAPER BAG RECYCLING
We go through lots of paper grocery bags here at the farm
in our effort to distribute our veggies to all of our wonderful
CSA members.
We encourage you to recycle the paper bag that your veggies
arrive in each week.
If you leave your paper bags outside your front door on veggie
delivery day, we'll pick them up and re-use them.
If you pick up your veggies at one of our coffee shop pick-up
locations and would like to recycle your bags, you can arrange
to meet me at the coffee shop on Saturday morning when I drop off
the veggie bags to return your paper bags. Please do not burden
the coffee shop owners by asking to leave your bags with them...
please make arrangements with me personally: kellysaxer@hotmail.com
THANK YOU!
FULL CIRCLE COMMUNITY COMPOST PROGRAM
Thanks to everyone that participates in our farm composting program.
All of the food scraps that we collect through this program are added
to our farm compost pile along with manure from our horse, cow and
alpaca neighbors. We compost the manure and food scraps and then add
them back to our growing fields. So, thank you for your participation
in this process.
If you are not currently participating in the compost program, and would
like to just send me a quick e-mail and I'll include a compost bag with
your next bag of veggies.
Unfortunately, the composting program is only viable for our CSA members
that either receive home delivery or pick-up their veggies here at the
farm. If you pick-up your veggies at one of our coffee shops we don't
currently have a system in place to collect compost from these sights.
A FEW TIPS FOR PARTICIPATING
IN THE DESERT ROOTS FARM COMPOSTING PROGRAM
1. Please use the compost bags that we provide you - they are made of
compostable corn and are meant to be thrown (bag and all) into our compost
program.
*If your bag is leaking, you may put the compost bag inside a plastic bag,
but please do not put any plastic inside the compost bag....we're having
quite a problem with plastic in our compost pile and then in our fields.
2. In an effort to keep the process neat and clean, please put your compost
bag out for pick-up every week. The bags are meant to break down over time
and by week two, you may find your bags has started the composting process
right on your kitchen counter - YUCK!
3. We've found that if you keep your compost bag in the fridge or freezer
during the week while you're filling it, this will help keep the bag
from breaking down before we get a chance to pick it up and get it to
our compost pile.
WOULD YOU LIKE A FARM T-SHIRT?
Vist the merchanise shop on our farm web-site to view all the nifty
farm products available....T-shirts, sweatshirts, hats, mugs, and
canvas shopping bags to take with you to the grocery store.
Desert Roots Farm Merchandise
WINTER SEASON BEGINS THE WEEK OF JANUARY 8TH
The Fall season of the Desert Roots Farm CSA is coming to a close.
The last veggie delivery/pick-up of the Fall season is the week of
December 18 (Tuesday-Dec. 18, Thursday-Dec. 20 and Saturday-Dec. 22).
There are no veggie deliveries or pick-ups for the weeks of:
December 24
December 31
The Winter season begins the week of January 8, 2008. Renewal letters for
the Winter season went out in the mail last week. If you have already
prepaid for the Winter season you will not receive a renewal letter in the
mail - you're already set.
Winter season renewals are due back no later than Thursday, Dec. 20....
so, don't delay and risk finding yourself "veggie-less" this Winter
Well, that's what's happening at Desert Roots Farm.
Thanks for visiting our web-site.