Bluebird CSA

Wednesday, July 31, 2013

Become a Member!

 2013 Fall Season Community Supported Agriculture Program
Fall CSA Vegetable Boxes
The Fall CSA is 8 weeks long and runs from October 2nd until November 20th.  Pickup on Wednesdays in Hickory or Morganton.  Fall CSA boxes are a little bit smaller than our full season CSA boxes and  cost $120 for 8 weeks. ($15 week)
Here's an example Fall CSA box.
1 kale bunch
1 Swiss chard bunch (or tender baby collards)
1 head of lettuce
1 bag of arugula
1 bunch radishes (or 1 bunch of herbs)
plus a few others...
Other Possible Vegetables that may be included
sweet potatoes
tomatoes
sweet bell peppers
carrots
beets
scallions


Become a Member- Sign Up Here

Pickup Locations- Wednesdays

Morganton- Nature's Bounty

4-6pm.  Pickup your veggie share and egg share at Nature's Bounty, 306 South Sterling Street, in downtown Morganton.  The shares will be dropped off at the location by 4 pm.   Nature's Bounty closes at 6 pm. 

Bluebird Farm

4-6pm.  Come on out to pick-up at the farm. Pickup your box of veggies in the walk-in fridge at the barn.

Hickory- Hickory Farmers' Market

10-3pm.  Pick up your share at our market stand at the Wednesday Hickory Farmers Market.  October 2nd-October 30th.
Final three dates November 6th, 13th, and 20th location and time T.B.D. (market will have ended) (Pickup hours will include the lunch hour...noon to 1pm)

Pick up your box as early as possible during the market to ensure the freshest produce.


What's the weather like for us farmers? Check out the blog post about the flooding and our summer crops.  >>>Jump to the full post<<<

Can a place an order for weather like this?

Friday, July 26, 2013



Liina’s Roasted Rosemary Potatoes
My friend Liina made this recipe at least once a week during college, filling the Warren Wilson College Eco-Dorm kitchen and common room with the cozy aroma of rosemary.

2 1/2 pounds of potatoes, quartered or chunked into 1 inch by 1 inch pieces
4 Tbsp. olive oil or cooking oil
2 cloves garlic, minced (Liina left out the garlic)
5 Tbsp. snipped fresh rosemary or 2 Tbsp. dried rosemary, crushed
½ tsp salt
¼ tsp pepper

1. Preheat oven to 375 F. Place potatoes in gallon bag or very large Tupperware tub.  Add oil, garlic, rosemary, salt and pepper to potato container and shake well to mix. 

2.  Add seasoned potatoes to several shallow roasting pans or cookie sheets, keeping the potatoes from touching.  (I use at least large 3 pans.)  


3.   Roast, uncovered, for 40 to 60 minutes or until tender and brown on the edges, stirring every 10 minutes.  Add additional salt and pepper if desired.

The Market Shopping List

Vegetables

Always grown with organic methods- compost, cover crops, organic fertilizers, organic pesticides if needed.

No synthetic chemicals. No synthetic pesticides, herbicides, fungicides, or fertilizers.  

Potatoes- Boiling and Roasting! These are new potatoes- which means that the skins are not thick. So tender and delicious!

Scallions- What a zing! This is one of the last weeks for scallions

Beets- Fresh and sweet 

Cucumbers- Crisp and sweet

Kale-  Out of season for now- It will be back in late September

Pastured Pork
Delicious pastured pork. Taste the quality. Our hogs are fed GMO-free certified organic grains and raised outdoors on pasture.·        


Thick bone-in chops
Country sausage
Spare ribs and country backbones
Spicy chorizo sausage
Sweet Italian sausage
Thick sliced side meat
Ground pork

 Free Range, Pastured Eggs-

Our hens are raised outdoors in the sunshine! The pastures are green and the hens are exploring with the sheep flock. 

Our laying hens are fed non-medicated conventional grains and rotated through pastures with their portable hen wagon coop. (We are not using organic grains this year, ask us at market about the switch back to conventional grains for just the layer hens)

Pastured Chicken-

Chicken: Cut-up, whole chicken ..all of our meat chickens are fed Certified Organic Grains) The meat chickens run and flap through grass pastures.  Sunshine and fresh air make for healthy birds.  We raise the Freedom Ranger meat chicken breed on grass pastures, and we feed 100% certified organic grains, GMO-free.

>>>See our Herb Roasted Chicken recipe here.<<<

Weather challenges are always huge obstacles for farmers. 

What is more disheartening is to have losses from weather, harvest what you have left in the fields, and then not sell the harvested vegetables at the Farmers' Market.  

Every little purchase counts.  (Even the $2 ones.) Pass it along to your friends!

We haven't had any severe damages with the flooding and wet weather (no floating cars or animals or completely wiped out plants), but many plants have been struggling and not producing well  (lettuce, tomatoes, peppers, squash, eggplant, potatoes, basil)  That's because it's been cool and the field has been flooded or saturated with water.  (roots don't like to drown.)

This is for all you out there that have wanted to know the details..We don't want to sound negative, but here's a bit of the damage in the vegetable field.  The water table is at the surface of the field for the 7th?(stopped counting) time.  This means there are small ponds and standing water in many places.  The squash blossoms have rotted on the plants. The bell peppers plants are alive but toppled over almost to the ground.  Some potatoes have rotted in the ground.  The weeds are ferocious and grow 3 inches a week.  Some beans plants and cucumbers plants are rotting at the base of their stems.  The pigs are happy "as a pig in mud," but we are keeping them moving around the farm into new paddocks so they don't make mud bricks!

The Positive Side...

We'll have some beautiful tomatoes and peppers if the plants can handle the weather stress.  We currently have beautiful cucumbers. Beautiful!  Beets aren't a sexy vegetable like a tomato. They just aren't natural divas like tomatoes are.  But we have some very handsome beets.  Very sweet tasting and good-natured beets for you to enjoy

And...We've got our packets of amazing organic seeds, the organic fertilizer, and a positive outlook on beautiful fall vegetables.  More kale, Swiss chard, lettuce, radishes, Hakerai turnips, carrots, beets, arugula, and scallions.  And hopefully peppers and tomatoes will produce well all the way into the end of September.  Sweet potatoes should be making an entrance around the 3rd week of September.

Here's to fine summer farm eating! 


Friday, July 19, 2013

We're growing for you! 

We thank everyone for their farmers' market purchases and CSA farm memberships!

We can't be around to farm without your support.  Thanks for the support! 

Summer Markets
We're asking for your continued support throughout the summer and fall.   Even when our market table is looking less full than usual, our vegetables still want to go home to your kitchen with you!  


Fall CSA Vegetable Boxes
Become a Member

The Fall CSA is 8 weeks long and runs from October 2nd until November 20th.  Pickup on Wednesdays in Hickory or Morganton.  Fall CSA boxes are a little bit smaller than our full season CSA boxes and  cost $120 for 8 weeks. ($15 week)
Here's an example Fall CSA box.
1 kale bunch
1 Swiss chard bunch (or tender baby collards)
1 head of lettuce
1 bag of arugula
1 bunch radishes (or 1 bunch of herbs)
plus a few others...
Other Possible Vegetables that may be included
sweet potatoes
tomatoes
sweet bell peppers
carrots
beets
scallions


Become a Member- Sign Up Here

Pickup Locations- Wednesdays

Morganton- Nature's Bounty

4-6pm.  Pickup your veggie share and egg share at Nature's Bounty, 306 South Sterling Street, in downtown Morganton.  The shares will be dropped off at the location by 4 pm.   Nature's Bounty closes at 6 pm. 

Bluebird Farm

4-6pm.  Come on out to pick-up at the farm. Pickup your box of veggies in the walk-in fridge at the barn.

Hickory- Hickory Farmers' Market

10-3pm.  Pick up your share at our market stand at the Wednesday Hickory Farmers Market.  October 2nd-October 30th.
Final three dates November 6th, 13th, and 20th location and time T.B.D. (market will have ended) (Pickup hours will include the lunch hour...noon to 1pm)

Pick up your box as early as possible during the market to ensure the freshest produce.