Blue Fox Farm

What’s at the last market? November 24th 2009

Here we are! The last market of 2009. Things are slowing down on the farm as far as vegetables go but we’re busy with a zillion other projects too.

We’ve been expanding our main barn allowing for more storage and better curing of our crops. No more blue tarps covering the onions. We’ll have the spacious expanse of our barn.

We’re also trying to get our planning for next year done early this winter. Trying to prep as much  as possible before the baby shows up in March. Demian is the only one currently “ready” for the next addition to the fam. Melanie and I have piles of work to do still.

Speaking of additions, we just bought a new (but old) cultivating tractor to add to the farm system. It’s a 1952 Farmall Super A and should help us immensely in our mission to rid our farm of ALL weeds. This is going to take some work but we have to head that direction at least.

I’ve driven it less the Demian. It seems it is his tractor:

So this week at market we’ll have piles of food. We just cleared the fields. And we’re bringing piles of storage onions and potatoes as well.

Here’s the full list:

• Arugula
• Beets
• Stir Fry Mix
• Cabbage
• Carrots
• Collards
• Garlic
• Kale- Red Russian, White Russian, Dino
• Leeks
• Mustard Greens
• Onions- Red and Yellow
• Parsnips
• Parsley
• Shallots
• Potatoes
• Radishes
• Salad Mix
• Spinach
• Winter Squash
• Pie Pumpkins
• Salad Turnips
• Kohlrabi
• Fennel

That’s a nice list that should help fulfill your Thanksgiving Day food wish list.

See you at Market!

What’s at Market? Week of November 8th

The cold is setting in. Today was quite the soggy harvest day. It really is amazing the amount of food coming out of the fields still. Last night was a pretty hard freeze too. 27 degrees when I woke up this morning. A windshield scraping kind of day. We’ll have plenty of food to keep your families warm and full tomorrow at market. Thanksgiving is quickly approaching. We’re planning to have extras of all the Thanksgiving necessities on the last Tuesday market- the 24th. This weekend- the 14th will be our last Grants Pass market. All good things must come to an end. We’re always so thankful for the amazing support we receive each season from our loyal eater base. Thanks to all of you! See you at market.

This week at market:

• Arugula
• Beets
• Stir Fry Mix
• Broccoli- We’ll have the last of the broccoli this Tuesday. The rest is gone due to the killing duo- rain followed by a hard freeze.
• Cabbage-Red, green, Savoy
• Napa Cabbage
• Carrots- Oh so sweet!
• Chard
• Cilantro
• Garlic
• Kale
• Leeks
• Lettuce-Red and Green Leaf
• Onions
• Parsnips- Getting sweeter by the minute
• Parsley
• Shallots
• Potatoes
• Radishes
• Salad Mix
• Spinach
• Winter Squash
• Turnips
• Fennel

That’s about it. Stay dry and warm, and we’ll see you at market!

What’s at Market? Week of October 25th

It’s almost November. We still have quite a bit of food coming to you fresh out of our fields. Until I talk with farmer friends in other parts of the country, I forget each year how long our growing season is here in southern Oregon. Good season, good food.

This Saturday will be the last Saturday Ashland market, however the Tuesday Ashland market will continue until November 24th. That’s the Tuesday before Thanksgiving.

The Grants Pass Growers market will continue outside until the end of November, and will be moving indoors up until Christmas. We will be attending the Grants Pass Saturday market until the 14th of November, unless the weather gets extremely wet and cold, in turn knocking out our remaining field crops. We’ll see what the weather brings.

This week at market:

• Arugula
• Beets
• Baby Bok Choy
• Stir Fry Mix
• Broccoli
• Cabbage
• Carrots
• Chard
• Cilantro
• Collards
• Napa Cabbage
• Garlic
• Kale
• Leeks
• Lettuce- Red Butter, Red Leaf, Romaine Hearts
• Onions
• Sweet Onions
• Parsnips
• Parsley
• Shallots
• Potatoes
• Radishes
• Salad Mix
• Spinach
• Winter Squash
• Tatsoi
• Turnips
• Celery Root
• Fennel

See you at market!

What’s at Market? Week of October 18th

Cause and Effect. That’s what our two year old has been learning about over the past couple of weeks. Tonight it was: Throw your tomato at the dog’s mouth, he will catch it (Isaac is an amazing ball catcher;high speed even) and then eat it. Demian paused, looked in amazement at what had happened, looked at me, and then belted out the loudest cry. I looked at him and was speechless. I had nothing to say but, “You throw the tomato at him he’s going to eat it. Wouldn’t you do the same thing?”. Demian stopped crying, looked at me and replied with a very complete “yep”. Problem solved. Wish all problems were that easy to solve.

Sometimes I forget the “cause and effect” of farming. Aphids moved into the last two rounds of broccoli and cauliflower. Effect: We have very little broccoli and cauliflower this fall. What would you do if you were an aphid and there was an entire forest in front of you of your favorite food? You’d eat it. “Yep”

Oh, well I won’t worry about it then. We have plenty of other great food to bring to market. We actually do have a bit of broccoli and cauliflower tomorrow- just not a lot. Darned insects.

This week at market:

• Arugula
• Beets
• Baby Bok Choy
• Stir Fry Mix
• Broccoli
• Cabbage
• Cauliflower- I have maybe 5 heads going to market tomorrow. hrmph.
• Carrots
• Chard
• Cilantro
• Collards
• Napa Cabbage- Make that Kim Chi now!
• Fennel- Oh yeah, fennel, first time this season. A sign that fall is here.
• Garlic
• Kale
• Leeks
• Lettuce
• Onions
• Sweet Onions- Just a few more weeks of these
• Parsnips- Getting sweeter by the week
• Parsley
• Shallots
• Potatoes
• Salad Mix
• Spinach
• Winter Squash
• Tatsoi
• Salad Turnips
• Celery- The very last week for celery.
• Celery Root

What’s at Market? Week of October 11th

Things must be slowing down a bit. This is what we did on Sunday:

But things are still looking pretty nice at the farm too:

We’ll see how everything fares after this storm that is supposed to roll through starting tomorrow. We’ve already had several freezes on the farm. Some moisture would definitely be nice.

Come brave the weather with us tomorrow or wait and visit us at one of the markets (Grants Pass or Ashland) on Saturday. Either way we’ll be there.

This week at market:

• Arugula
• Beets
• Baby Bok Choy
• Stir Fry Mix
• Broccoli- Just a bit, get there early if you’re looking for Broccoli
• Cabbage-Savoy,Red, Green, Napa
• Carrots
• Chard
• Cilantro
• Collards
• Garlic
• Kale- Try out our White Russian Kale. It’s awesome, and loves the fall/winter. It’s cold hardy!
• Leeks
• Lettuce
• Onions
• PARSNIPS!!!!! yum! our favorite.
• Parsley
• Shallots
• Potatoes
• Radishes
• Salad Mix
• Spinach
• Winter Squash
• Tatsoi
• Salad Turnips
• Kohlrabi
• Celery
• Celery Root

That’s it for this week. Enjoy the fall weather…..See you at market!

What’s at Market? Week of October 4th

Now it is fall. I think for real this time. This week we’ll start having 5 pound bags of bulk onions and potatoes at market. They’ll be selling for 25 cents a pound cheaper than our loose onions and potatoes. Same quality onions and potatoes, just giving you a price break for buying 5 pounds at a time.

I hope you’ve been enjoying the celery this year. We’ve really enjoyed growing it and eating it ourselves. I think we’ll continue to grow more in the future.

Winter Squash are now in full swing. The Scarlet Kabocha and Delicata are our favorites. Kabocha for making soups (with fried sage) and the Delicatas we twice bake. That’s autumnal heaven for us. It only gets better when the parsnips start coming out of the field- which should be in the next week or so. We’ve been waiting for some nice frosts first to sweeten them up.

Here’s our list of what we’ll have at market this week:

• Arugula
• Beets
• Stir Fry Mix (Great for braising or soups too!)
• Cabbage (Green, Savoy, Red)
• Napa Cabbage
• Carrots
• Chard
• Cilantro
• Collards
• Garlic
• Kale (Red Russian, White Russian, Italian)
• Leeks
• Lettuce
• Sweet Onions
• Red Onions
• Parsley
• Shallots
• Bell Peppers
• Sweet Peppers
• Potatoes
• Radishes
• Salad Mix
• Spinach
• Winter Squash (Kabocha, Buttercup, Butternut, Delicata, Pie Pumpkins)
• Tatsoi
• Turnips (Salad and Purple Top)
• Celery
• Celery Root

Enjoy the weather and we’ll see you at market!

What’s at Market? Week of September 27th

Hmmmmmm, let’s see…a week ago this evening we were without internet, having finished a harvest day that topped 100 degrees, where we lost power due to the fire going on in Medford, all the while not knowing if we’d actually have a market to sell at in Ashland due to the fire going on there. Then last Tuesday when I awoke for market at 4 am the temperature was 38 degrees and the humidity was 65%. By the time I returned to the farm in the afternoon the temperature was 101 and the humidity was 6%. And now we’re looking at rain tomorrow, with a possible freeze sometime this week. So I know the sign in Grants Pass says, “It’s the Climate” but I never realized that the sign wasn’t a positive or negative sign. It’s simply just a statement, “It’s the Climate….. (emphasis on the dot, dot, dot). Our line of work depends solely on this climate, so I keep a close ear to what’s going on with it. Maybe a little too closely at times but I like to keep tabs on what’s going down in the weather world.

I think we’re all ready for a shift in weather. Melanie and I are definitely ready for a nice freeze- not only to finish off the Zucchini for the season- but to sweeten up all those Parsnips we have in the ground. We can’t wait! Parsnips are in our top five list of veggies. Our family here is very pro-”fall crop”.

We’ll have a few new veggies at market this week. Some of our first fall Broccoli- it seems to be running late for us this season as well as the cauliflower. We have some nice Napa Cabbage showing up this week- time for Kim Chi! And our first winter squash (Butternut and Scarlet Kabocha) will be coming to market this week too.

Here’s the full list of what we’ll have at market this week:

• Arugula
• Beets
• Stir Fry Mix
• Cabbage
• Napa Cabbage
• Carrots
• Chard
• Celery !!! This celery has been awesome! Our first year growing it, let us know what you think of it. Should we grow more next season?
• Cilantro
• Collards
• Cukes (Maybe the last week for these)
• Eggplant (On their way out)
• Garlic (Last week for the Red Grain- next week will be our softneck- California Early)
• Kales of many types
• Leeks
• Lettuce
• Sweet Onions
• Red Onions
• Parsley
• Shallots
• Strawberries (They keep cranking out new berries! Non-Stop)
• Bell Pepper
• Sweet Peppers
• Red and Yellow Potatoes
• Salad Mix
• Spinach
• Winter Squash (Scarlet Kabocha and Butternut)
• Salad Turnips
• Zukes
• Celery Root
• Kohlrabi

Hopefully the rain will stay away until after market tomorrow and Saturday. See you there!

Saturday September 19th at the Ashland Co-Op

We’re sampling our Stir Fry mix and our garlic at the Ashland CoOp tomorrow from 11 to 1. Come by and say hi.

What’s at Market? Week of September 13th

Ahhhhh fall. It was somewhat fun and interesting to have two days this past week over 100 degrees. But now it seems we’ve moved into a fall pattern. The veggies have moved into a fall pattern too.

We’re excited about two new crops we’re growing for the first time this year: Celery and Celery Root.

We hope you’ll give one or both a try and let us know what you think. It’s always fun to try new crops- especially when they work out.

Our summer crops are starting to come to an end. Tomatoes, Zucchini, Basil, and Cucumbers have a limited time left in the mix this season. Green Beans are done. But a pile of great fall food is on the way in the coming weeks:

Broccoli, Cauliflower, Turnips, Salad Turnips, Radishes, Winter Squash, Parsnips, Napa Cabbage,Baby Bok Choy just to name few.

Here’s what we’ll have this week at market:

• Arugula
• Basil
• Beets
• Stir Fry Mix
• Cabbage
• Carrots
• Chard
• Cilantro
• Collards
• Cucumbers (Armenian Cukes are back in full force this week!)
• Japanese Eggplant
• Garlic (The Red stripe continues- such a beautiful tasty garlic)
• Kales of many sorts
• Leeks
• Lettuce
• Sweet Onions
• Red Onions
• Parsley
• Shallots (Yellow and Red)
• Strawberries just don’t stop.
• Bell Peppers
• Sweet Frying and Pimento Peppers
• Potatoes (Carola and Red Gold)
• Salad Mix
• Spinach
• Tomatoes
• Zukes
• Kohlrabi
• Celery Root
• Celery- This is a super full flavored variety with a lot of crispness and crunch. It’s quite tasty.

Photo Descriptions starting at top: Kabocha, Long Island Cheese, Buttercup Squash; Red Shallots; Fall Brassicas; Lettuce, Napa, and Kohlrabi; Da Boys inspecting Celery; Savoy Cabbage; and More Cabbage and Salad Mix

What’s at Market? Week of Sept 6th

We had patches of frost on the farm this morning. And it’s supposed to hit the upper nineties this Friday. Go Figure.

We still have piles of food coming to market:

• Arugula
• Basil
• Beets
• Beans
• Stir Fry Mix
• Cabbage
• Carrots
• Chard
• Cilantro
• Collards
• Cukes
• Eggplant
• Garlic
• Kale
• Leeks
• Lettuce
• Onions
• Parsley
• Shallots
• Strawberries
• Bell Peppers
• Sweet Peppers
• Potatoes
• Salad Mix
• Spinach
• Tomatoes
• Kohlrabi
• Zucchini