Sorry to miss last week,just had a busy one.Fall smells are in the air,that vaguely tannic odor that lingers in the cool shadow of trees,where the temperature is at least ten degrees cooler anyway.Tie dyed maple leaves litter the ground and float listlessly down the river.Even though it is august still,my mind is conjuring greens and radishes,salad turnips and sweet potatoes.Tomato vines are black and crunchy,the last vestiges of once bountiful fruit set swing indolently in the breeze.I normally associate this kind of weather with September,but there is no beefing with mother nature,she always gets her way.As it should be.Saw recently a quote from the great Masanabu Fuquoka,Japanese sage and master farmer,who wrote the one straw revolution.He said that farming is less about growing food than becoming a better human being.Somehow it really resonated with me.After a week of wheel bearing blow outs,pest paranoia and the glorious birth of our newest farm family member Pluto,Gerda's calf.Who I carried on my shoulders,all seventy pounds of squirming newborn bovine a clear quarter mile ,he pissing freely down my front and back,me,stumbling through creeks and up muddy paths to the corral.In those moments,when calf piss is floooding accross your chest,Checkers is chasing a car,the girls are arguing I believe old Masanabu was right,that our daily life as farmers,what with animals,kids,veggies and machinery make us able to deal with so many facets of one lifestyle.When one crop fails and you look into the future and see a cornucopia,even if no one else can see it.

Just harvested near a literal ton of taters yesterday,me on digging fork,the rest of the crew on soil scrabble and tater recovery.We had the opportunity to use a potato plow from one of our neighbors,but I love the feeling of christmaslike joy when you turn the forked soil over to discover a huge nest of gigantic tubers,born in the andes who knows how long ago.For those eating with us,the next couple weeks may be a little slimmer,due to the flex time between the summer and fall crops.

Here's my best guess!!!

taters

basil

peppers

eggplant

onion

garlic

greens

Enjoy it all!!!!!

peace

gaelan

Hey Everyone!

Just another wet one here on the banks of the south toe.The farm has that untended dreadlock thing going on,leaving me to be quite self concious whenever folks come down to swim at the hole.Reminds me of many summers as we were just starting out here.Rain and mud,fruit rotting on the vine and yet as a farmer and eternal optimist,my day can hinge on a glimpse of flashy green hidden under row cover,or the subtle sizing of sweet tater tubers.I can judge how much rain we recieved by the ammount of water in the pigs wallow.Normally I have to fill up their crater in the earth,so they can coat themselves with mud to avoid sunburn.But here lately the sky has been helping me out.I always wonder what other folks think when they see me out in public,mud spattered,torn clothing,painted toenails a la Carmella,my youngest.Somehow being clean seems false and impure,like drinking bottled water,or worrying about getting grit in your teeth when you eat a carrot.Lest I seem whiny about the rain,it has given us the jump on radishes and turnips,greens,spinach,lettuce and other fall goodies.Seeds pop through the sodden crust,hungry for sun and the far off bellies that they will fulfill.Surrender to the whims of nature is the core tennant of any farmer.Some folks love to bungee jump,I have always found that farming greatly outdoes all adrenalized sports.Morphing to the conditions at hand,rather than always thinking of ways to get around them makes a better potentially wiser farmer.Sometimes nature can seem like a sodden muddy morass,with unclear pathways on which to tread.Yet seeing the systems,the form and design of weather patterns,animal behavior and soil cycles is what makes this life we lead astounding.Where else can you get a first hand electricity lesson by holding onto an electric fence in a lightening storm?On that note!!!

basil

garlic

onion

eggplant

celery

taters

tomatoes

Que disfruten!!!!

peace

Wassup everyone!

No rain for a few days,makes one feel thankful for the sun and all its warmth.Gone are the days of tidyness and order,sea of green,undulating in the appalachian breeze.Now weeds shoot up their seed heads,early summer plants are withered and dying.Hard not to think that everything is in a slow decay.Yet fall greens ride out the flea beetles under row cover,broccoli and cauliflower battle it out in the open air.Every day,new seeds are sown and if you know where to look,there are tons of veggies waiting for the right hands to pluck them lovingly from mother plants.August is a hard month,like sailing ships that would hit the doldrums we squint into the glare of the afternoon sun,smiling for the bountty that has been and anticipating the change into fall.Farmers would make bad buddhists,never content with what the weather brings,obsessively digging in the fresh turned earth for the tender seeds to see if they have germinated.Instead of chanel no.5 and axe , we smell of fish emulsion and serenade,earth and sweat.Days are made by the simple thick line of carrot seedlings promising that sweet carrot crunch down the line.This is the mid season crisis time,when all eyes are on the tomato crop.Sometimes we forget where we live,the amazing temperate rain forest that surrounds us,the river rolling through.Our eyes are on the earth so much,poking digging,cutting hoeing.The tomatoes are hanging on,their leaves are black and dying about half way up,yet fruit is thick and pendulous,blushing like a shy girl you have just complimented.Oh tomato,denizen of the americas,how you ensnare us in your web of lust.From timid shrub of Mexican origin,you have blossomed into multiple pound monsters of exquisite taste,inspiring us ,goading us into peroxyms of joy and anguish.Love a tomato,spend time letting its juice dribble down chin and under shirt.Make sauce,make love,eat!

My best guess for your bellies this week.

celery

taters

eggplant

garlic

basil

beans

cilantro

Enjoy!!!!!!!!

PEACE

gaelan

Howdy Everyone!

Damn it's wet out there.Have'nt seen a July like this in probably six years or more,mushrooms sprout with abandon as entropy surrounds us.The river is sleek and brownish green,rippling with power,a far cry from the tame rivulet it was last July.This is a nerve wracking time on the farm.Rain is always welcome,bringing trace minerals from the atmosphere and the deep soaking of plant root systems is always necessary.Yet this ammount threatens the teeter totter balance we walk as farmers between good rain and rain that melts,molds,mildews and blights.You all see us when we are out and about,arms full of sparkling goodies,smiling on the outside,even though inwardly our guts are knotting and we stock brown paper bags in the vehicles to help with hyperventilation.Dreams are nightmares of crop loss and other horrors.But we pick out the good things,get our dander up and battle the blight for the tomato crop,pick our minds from the ankle deep mud and imagine bushels of ripe maters,slices stuck between two crusty pieces of bread,salt pepper,maybe mayo too.AHHHHHHH! That's life right there!Fall seedlings burst in growth,sweet taters swell and all is actually quite copacetic.Gerda our milk cow is lactating again,her swollen belly swings from side to side when she runs to greet me.I sneakily squeezed myself a teat treat today,could'nt resist the swollen udder.Nothing in the world like grass fed raw milk.

I dream of a world where we eat food that inspires us,prepared by chefs that we love,bread baked by our buddies and meat grown by friends.Animals graze and grunt,kids flit in and out,barefoot laughing wildly.Then I realize thast this is no dream.It is my daily life,filled with friend who inspire and wow us.Soil that gives to us and a sun that never vanishes fully except to set.Love it all,rain,shine,mud ,dust.Keep those farmers out in the drought states in your thoughts.We are all part of this great web.

celery

taters

lettuce

beans

squash

garlic

basil

cilantro

carrots

Enjoy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

peace

gaelan

ello Good Folks!

Lost track of the weeks already,grown over with weeds and gargantuan tomato vines.When my arms and hands are not on fire from squash prickles,my digits are black with tomato juice.Bean Back fast approaches and all my clothes are perpetually grungy.This is the life!Pigs cavort haphazardly ,gourmet designer baby squash stuck like stogies in their mouths.Who could imagine the final resting place of such a chic item.A pig's digestive tract.Great pork though,as the oinkers grow,they consume more and more,looking at me longingly whenever I pass them by.I can never be sure if its the food I feed them they want,or me.They say to never pass out in a hog pen.Happy times!At this time of year,the farm becomes a chess match with nature,balancing the moisture,diseases,heat,germination,fall crops ad nauseum.Most of the time I lose just barely,coming upon a bed of arugula,only to find brown gunk where once a waving forest grew.My feet have cracks in them,my hands feel like claws and cold beer is like a the honey wine of the ancient norse gods,soul delivering.The animals stand under their shade trees,swatting the flies with tail and tongue,while we bare our heads to the sun and flex bicep and thigh in the name of farming.I am honored to stand in the ranks of small farmers worldwide,who toil with their bodies,so that we may all feed our bodies well,but also feel the tears,sweat and love that makes a cherokee purple tomato taste like honey nectar.Tend to your stomachs good people,let not this time pass without gorging yourselves on the sun's bounty!Here's the lineup for this week.

carrot

squash

celery

fennel

tater

basil

cilantro

garlic

Buon appetito!!!!!!!!!

peace

gaelan

 

A rainy afternoon,something not all that common for July,but welcome nonetheless.We have gone from a totter,to the hundred yard dash here on the  banks of the crystalline Toe.Squash lives in my dreams,a vast vining serpent,hurling slender nutty fruits at my unassuming cerebrum.Beans threaten us with mutiny,their pods growing by the minute.The tomato clan is starting to shift,our first thirty pints and twenty pounds of fruit safely consumed by unsuspecting mouths.They will never be the same.Seeds spun from the earthway seeder sprout in a matter of hours not days and weeds frolic.Looking out onto the main field,it is a mat of green.No longer a mosaic of brown soil patches,now a frontal assault of verdancy invites the senses.Can you tell I love summer?My hands smell of a combination of basil ,cilantro and dill.My lips smack of fresh pulled carrot and anise flavored fennel bulb.Carmella my fierce seven year old daughter chows whole fennel bulbs like lollipops,just a chip of the old block.New potatoes litter the soil behind me,purple,red,golden.I ingest them as homefries,gnocchi,mashers and tater salad.Great to harvest things when you are hungry.Most people advise me to eat breakfast,but somehow I never get around to it.In a way it spurs my creativity in the kitchen,as each member of the veggie family informs my culinary juices as to its intent.

Pigs grow ,frolicking in the rain,rolling like land whales in their mud wallow.Gerda our milk cow grows in girth ,a baby calf is expected in August.Even at the zenith of this cascade of veggies, we have to keep our eyes on the fall and what we plant now will determine how abundant that season is.For now though,let us dwell in the sweetness of summertide!Here are your homeboys and homegirls for this week.

squash

cukes

carrots

fennel

lettuce

taters

basil

cilantro

Eat well dear people!!!!!

Howdy folks!!!!

Sorry for the miss last week.I guiltily admit to being in NYC with Nicole,scouring the city in blind euphoria.Take a farmer and put them in the city.It's a beautiful thing.Brought back alot of memories from my days running bread about the then extremely third world city,through blocks of crack houses and burned out cars.Worked the Union Square market in my teens.Most farmers still carried bats and knives to keep the junkies off.Now it's so mellow,artisans,musicians and the odd pickpocket or so.But hey it's the big apple.

The first thing I did on my return was frantically root about in the soil for the new potatoes that I knew would be there.Sure enough,my hands trembling with excitement,I plucked the first sweet orbs out the ground.I have started to measure the days,not by their names,but by the new veggies that I eat.It's happening that fast.A veritable tumult of yellows,greens and reds.Summer is in the air,heavy sweet humid air,drenching me in sweat,leaving me blissfully sated at the end of the day,floating freely in the river.It promises to be an incredible summer cavorting with my favorite hooligans.Speaking of which,here are this weeks fellows and dames.

lettuce

greens

squash

broccoli

fennel

cabbage

new potatoes

Eat up!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Or else......................

peace

gaelan

Hello All,

A little late on this one,too much time spent wandering the farm,scratching my calloused digits through the loamy soil,seeking those pesky seeds yet to germinate.As with many years,my mind and the weather gods seem to be in some kind of syncopated rythm.Every time I even THINK about the need for any kind of irrigation.Boom,it rains just the right ammount.Sometimes out in the field,the lacey rows of carrots,stark green against the soil ensnare me.The gentle curve of the bed so voluptuous.I can feel summer scratching at the screen door,as the summer squash ramp up,beans shoot skyward and just the other day we ate the first sungolds from the tomato tunnel.Taters are starting their bloom,signaling the beginning of tuber set.Sweet potatoes shoot off  like tropical rockets and even the field tomatoes are joining the boogie,flowering.

Our once tiny piglets have made their pasture home,a far cry from the distressed sunburnt factory pigs they once were.Now they rip and root,roll in their wallow and look at me with that devilish gleam in their eye.Prompting me to wonder what the hell they know that I do not.I hope you will join me in my ecstasy over the coming summer bounty.a time of year when farm to fork doesn't even happen,it's more like fingers to mouth.Happy eating to all!!!!!Here are the ruffians for this week.

peas

broccoli

greens

lettuce

onion

choi

Enjoy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

peace

gaelan

 

Sky has been baby blue this morning after yesterdays relentless downpouring.Growth is in the air,all manner of things are snaking upward toward that lovely golden orb in the sky.I have been guiltily snacking on a few of the early ripe peas,forcibly holding myself to the earth so as not to be transported heavenward by such luscious flavors.Peas always make me dream of this pasta dish my father and I had in Orvieto in Tuscany way way back.Orvieto is a walled medieval town,perched amazingly on a kind of plateau.One can see the walled scity from miles away,we happened upon it,just toward sunset.Sky was flaming purple and pink.Once settled,we strolled about,looking for a suitable eatery.By chance,we happened upon this hole in the wall spot,with a patio out back,covered by ancient grapevines.I ordered the Carbonara,peas,green onion,scrambled egg,pancetta.It was a seminal moment in my eating career .So now,when biting into a freshly picked pea pod,I close my eyes and feel yhe tuscan air on my skin.

It is an amazing time of year,full of hope and promise.Our backs and muscles are not spasming from constant fruit harvest,but the farm is starting to sparkle.Harvested the first summer squash and cauliflower today,oohing and ahhing over the miracle of this food we grow.Winter squash is up,potatoes are hilled and looking fab.The first sweet orbs should be graceing your plates oh about mid to late june.Sheep are sheared,their wool waiting for me and my spinning wheel.Don't really want to think about that right now.Anyway,enjoy the growing cacaphony of veggies on your plates and in your bellies.Buon appetito!

carrots

radish

lettuce

onion

greens

garlic scape

choi

Enjoy.

peace

gaelan

 

Hey Everyone old and new!

Just cut our grass for the first time,as it was starting to resemble a tropical rainforest,not a yard.Getting to the clothesline was starting to feel like Burton and Speke looking for the Nile's source.The smell of fresh mown herbiage will forever remind me of those glory days of summer.When all I cared about was which swimming hole I would frequent and which girl I had a crush on.............................anyway,now it's here again.After an early spring filled with perfect growing weather,peepers peeping and all things growing downright voluptuously.No other way to say it,when overnight,the green of the carrot tops goes from an okay green,to a bone jarring intensity.Broccoli glints in a grey ,blue ,green forest.Lucky,since when we planted it out we got the truck high centered on the only boulder on the farm.Rain pouring,ourselves drenched and grinning like the eternal optimist fool farmers we are.Somehow we managed to push,pull and mudhog our way out of the field,a dramatic start,now a footnote compared to the broccoli sure to grace your plate in the near future.Sometimes after a good shower,the sun shining again,I like to sit on that pesky boulder and I swear you can hear the thrilled calls of the crops as they photosynthesize and reach upward.I hope you all are ready to get it on in the kitchen.Every year, due to that psychotic symptom called optimism that we suffer from,I tend to laud this year as THE YEAR!But in all reality,each year has its enormous successes and abject failures.THIS IS THE YEAR.For what I am not sure yet,but the peas are looking sexy,basil is smelling fine,tunnel maters are flowering and those andean  miscreants the taters are poking lustily from the loamy soil.If you cant already tell,I am excited to be here again,sharing our lives and bounty with y'all.For those in Asheville,pickup is tomorrow at the Montford Market between 2 and 6pm.Celo folks,Friday at the barn,4 to 6pm.Here are your A team members!

arugula

spinach

lettuce

bunched greens

onions

radish

turnip

See you soon!!

peace

gaelan

 

Rain has been gracing us with its magic these past few days.Now of course the ground is saturated and the creeks running full tilt.Hard to envision those dust filled afternoons of midsummer when rainy times like this seem obscene and surreal.Peas and fava beans are in full bloom,reminding us that fruit is just around the corner.Pastures and forests are electric in there greeness.You can tell the pasture grass is growing well, when the sheep don't greet you with a chorus of baaing every time you enter the back field.Lambs are bulking up,no longer worried and skittish.Gerda our milk cow is expanding exponentially,her calf is due in July or August.The new piglets root their way around their pasture,discovering a whole new world from the concrete jungle of their early days.

Down in the main field,the soil sits ready for the onslaught of planting that will happen this week.Rye cover crop slowly melts into the soil,releasing clumps of fungus and masses of wriggling worms.Fecundity,decay,the anticipation of the unknown yet familiar.The broccoli and cauliflower have started to button up,carrots are sizing up,beets look delicious if only the deer didn't think so too.Taters have sprung through the brown loam with alacrity and show good vigor in a field hitherto unused by us.This spells good news for y'alls stomachs and plates,palates too.Just looking at the cherry tomatoes dangling temptingly in the high tunnel ,while still green, they hold the promise of summer.Here are the characters for this weeks farce.

spinach

lettuce

onion

greens

radish

turnip

perhaps something else as yet to be decided.Enjoy these greens,for the heat shall soon be upon us and they will be a mere figment.Peace

gaelan

 

Nicole DelCogliano
Gaelan Corozine

murphy's law

Today the air was lush with scent. We went out early in the shadow to plant. It was sopping, the rain yesterday soaking the beds to a sponge like quality. Today was tranquil compared to yesterday.
We had about 4000 seedlings to transplant with our trusty Planet Junior and Senior (Me and Gaelan's arms). The broccoli, cauliflower, kale, chard and onions do not wait for weather. Really though we should have waited,. but due to G's leaving for a trip, we've got to get these babies in the ground.
Yesterday started by G trying to fix the broken lug nuts on the tractor tire, which caused it to almost fall off! That in, in of itself proved okay, almost got the truck stuck in the mud while trying to help out! We got the tilling and planting mostly done, racing against the thunder and lightening. Just keep bending and keep planting , the rhythm almost mesmerizing, the motions done over and over. ..
As the thunder crashed we dashed to the truck and sat in a downpour. I asked " do you think we can get the truck out of here " as I see rivulets of mud streaming down the gravel path we are to take out. I guess I jinked us because it just got worse! The truck got stuck and then sort of in the way of a huge boulder we excavated out of the field some  years ago. We had to use the tractor to move the boulder, in the process of which the irrigation tubing got all tangled in the spader which was dragging on the ground for leverage... Then the tractor had to push the truck out of the muck!! All said and done, covered in mud and soaking wet, we prevailed in getting the truck out of the field and home. Today all the plants were planted out and we did not drive into the field! We learned something for once.
The air was so fragrant today and the plants happy!!

Planting out

What a great day to plant out! IT was in the 70s again. Our neighbors from Mexico say "Marzo loco" and I agree, March is crazy! We started out the day setting out our onion seedlings - white and red. We hoed our little lettuces and spinach that we sowed in Late January. They're so cute! Direct sowed beets and carrots too. The tractor had a tire hiccup at the end of the day- the lug nuts broke on the back tire! That 's why  I don't drive the thing! Hopefully we'll fix it tomorrow so we can prep the beds for all our beds of broccoli, cauliflower , cabbage and greens that need to be planted out before Gaelan leaves for the Grand Canyon Sat.
Farming is on!

February planting

It was 70 degrees today! What a day for planting. It's been nothing if not mild, so hopefully our January planting will give us an earlier start. We went out in the field today to plant another seeding of radishes, turnips, greens, arugula, spinach... We started off spreading one load of  compost on the beds and as we returned for the second load, the tractor quit. It had been belching some black smoke earlier... IT took almost an hour of clearing the gas line of diesel junk to get going again. G spent some time sucking on the lines trying to clear it, but we had to disconnect hoses and thread wire through the hoses to get blockage out. Lesson: don't run the diesel down to empty..... we knew better...
All ended well, the girls helped on the tractor as Carmella chanted for me as I ran the seeder down the bed. The smell of soil and hot sun on the back felt great! Onward to Spring!!

New season 2012

Wow, we haven't added anything since the crush of August. That can happen after August. It felt like a marathon.. September and October mellowed out somewhat but not enough to blog I guess!!
Well, 2012 is upon us already. We luckily ordered all our seeds right after Christmas and had a big package waiting for us on our return from Puerto Rico (our January getaway!).
It has hardly been a winter here and most places. So, ala global warming, we decided to plant some seeds outside a month ahead of when we normally do. Although it feels good, in a way, it also feels really weird. It's warm, the sun is shining birds are chirping but it's January (or was). We sowed spinach, turnips, radishes, lettuces, greens, fava beans, beet and carrots (all outside under remay cover). If it stays mild they should actually grow. We also started our onions in the greenhouse as normal.
Somehow even though it's warm, my body is still hibernating. I don't have Spring fever yet to be out and active entirely, at least in a farm work sense. I still feel the need for rest and reflection. The markets and serious busyness will be upon us before we know it and then I will lament the hours I can't spend reading by the fire.
I read Jane Austen's "Persuasion" in two days over the weekend. I hadn't read her since high school  probably and while I"m not going to go on a Jane Austen spree, I enjoyed it. The writing is so subtle and the lifestyle expressed SOOO different from mine, that is in interesting.
I am also reading Galileo's daughter- mostly a book about Galileo and his life and work, but also about his relationship with his daughter reconstructed from letters she wrote him. Very compelling.
So, that's kind of where I am. Contemplating the busyness to come, the season is certainly spiraling our way. Intern references to check, market meetings to attend, seeds to plant, but also books to be read by the fire still!
Nicole

Harvest week 14

Hey Everyone!

It's official, we have started the long slow slide from high summer to fall.  Nights are now dipping into the high forties and the air has that crisp pungency to it. Swims in the river are quicker , lying in the sun has never felt so good. What a summer it has been, back torquing, mind bending, hand cracking river swimming, fruit harvesting.  Literally thousands of pounds of fruits have been plucked by our fingers,  f eeling for ripeness, twisting the stubborn stem until you hear the satisfying snap of fruit released from vine. Our hands are connected to your bellies in quite a visceral way.  Priorities and color schemes change now, I find myself dreaming of lush greens and zesty root crops.  Can't really say I would turn my nose up at a roated lipstick pepper though. The farm seems almost barren, the lush bushyness of squash, beans and tomatoes all but gone.A nimals are shifting in their attitudes, less needy, more calm. Lambs and hogs put the pounds on and I can detect a faint thickening to the cows coat. Still recovering from team Knife and Fork's win in the WNC Chef's Challenge. I was a team member under the genuis guidance of my friend, culinary mentor and brilliant chef Nathan Allen. We went through four rounds of competition to get to the final, matched up against the Biltmore. There is something so poetic about real food turning people's palates and hearts ,showing folks, that through the food we grow and then cook, we can create a revolution,or revelation. Maybe both. I cherish my relationships and my quasi membership in that exalted world of cookery. Honored to call someone like Nate my friend.

Anywho, you should expect a shift in veggies,tomatoes fazing out, potatoes in .Here's the list for this week.

taters

tomatoes

cherry toms

peppers

garlic

basil

eggplant

celery

Enjoy the season's change!

peace

gaelan

Harvest week 13

Howdy All!!

Sorry for not being in touch last week, but we were at the beach, leaving the farm in the capable hands of Nick and Grace for the week. They greeted us on our return with dazed looks on their faces and wild eyes, the farm it seems almost driving them over the edge. What would we do without them !  The farm has started to shift again, as cukes and squash fall away and you can almost hear the rustle of fall in the air and see it in the leaves, changing hues ever so gently.  Nights are cool and the air is crystalline,l  eaving every spruce tree on the ridge in clear view. Hasn't rained in a good while,but that good ole south toe river keeps the plants roots happy and wet. Winter squash lie naked outside, their lush vines dead and gone, the yellow squash gradually turning that smooth butternut color. Tomato vines are slowly dying, but the fruit cascades , leaving all of us in tomato bliss-land.  Eggplant and peppers are filling up our boxes, almost leaping in of their own accord.  It's time to think and imagine, whereas in June and July there was no time for daydreaming, imagining what next season will bring.  Kale, broccoli, cauliflower, chard and many other fall greenage are growing well and looking good. So wonderful to merely tip the potatoes into the baskets, no more painful days of spud harvesting. The summer has seemed so full, bountiful, the way I dream of in the deep of winter,when all these wonderful veggies are mere figments of my fevered imagination.  Hope you all are busy grilling, boiling, chopping and slicing,' cause I know I am! Here are the hitters for this weeks line up.

tomatoes

peppers

eggplant

garlic

cherry toms

basil

carrots

celery

Be well

peace

gaelan

Harvest week 11:the midpoint!

Whew!!! There is so much dirt stuffed up underneath my nails as I write this, that it hurts.Just finished the mad potato dash,three hours of sunbaked madness,as tuber upon tuber emerged gold and purple from the crumbly earth.Some people employ all manner of gadgetry to harvest their solanum tuberosum,but I like to take it back to their Andean heritage,using the fork and the biceps in solidarity with the old ones.Also, I just do'nt like to spend money.Carmella staunchly refused to go swim with Asha,saying she had to finish working,after two hours of full sun and dirt,she finally relented.The yield so far has been fantastic,about 1.5 pounds per foot,that translates to about 900 lbs.harvested and about 1000 more to go.Needless to say,I can barely recall ripping my shirt off and sliding under the river,staying on the bottom 'til my lungs were screaming.Days now are heat induced hallucinations, polka dotted with melons and tomatoes.The pigs do what we all secretly wish we could do, lie blissfully in a soupy cool mud morass,grunting ecstatically whenever we approach.I love the heat,because the mornings and evenings are so cool and gentle,giving me time to make myself ready for the blast furnace.I am sorry I did'nt get to this before the Ashevegas folks received their bounty,but there are now 900 lbs. of Satina and Purple Vikings, neatly packed in boxes,waiting for your bellies.On that note!!!!! tomatoes cherry toms. celery lettuce melon cukes squash carrots beans garlic basil eggplant If that does'nt say MID-SUMMER I do'nt know what would.Anyway,enjoy it all!!! peace gaelan Nicole DelCogliano Gaelan Corozine Green Toe Ground Farm, Celo, NC www.greentoegroundnc.

harvest week ten!!!

Hello Folks,

Been a wild and wooly one here on the farm,seesawing from cloud cover and high 60's, to blast furnace.This past week, we tilled under all the spring greens and cabbage, sowing summer oats to hold the soil down and to add some organic matter later on. Full, brazen summer is here, tomatoes blush, not out of modesty though, melons turn red on the inside and the beans are starting their annual pain parade, from back to belly and other B words you can imagine. Squash and cukes keep up the fusillade,accruing by the 100lbs. in the walk in. Winter squash inflate irrepressably on the vine and at the end of every day I open my eyes under the cool of the river and thank the Big One for my life, my hand glued to a cold beer.

As always though, there was something a little bit special about the week. Namely that I caught a bee swarm .Have'nt done that in maybe eight years. I wondered as I was improvising pants out of Nicole's raincoat, whether I still had the magic. My philosophy in farming is to leave parts of the day free in my mind, for those random occurances that make what we do worthwhile. Catching an early morning swarm was one such occurance. Maybe 20 thousand bees,clustered on a flower stalk, as I donned the veil and gloves, warning Nick and Grace to a safe distance. I wondered if it would be a teachable moment, or a disaster with me running for my life. Back in my cowboy years, when it seemed I was untouchable I used to handle bees half naked and barefoot all the time. Many stings later, I like the veil just fine. After a half our of wetting their wings and slowly scooping and shaking, those beautiful winged geniuses were ensconced in a closed hive body. As I was marvelling at the sound of thousands of beating wings, I realized that all the fruits you enjoy every week are due to our friends the bees.So thank a farmer, but treasure our bees.

Your bounty for the week.
 squash

cukes

beets

carrots

eggplant

cabbage

garlic

beans

cherry tomatoes

Man ,that's some happy bellies!Enjoy!!!!!!!

peace

gaelan

Nicole DelCogliano
Gaelan Corozine
Green Toe Ground Farm, Celo, NC
www.greentoegroundnc.com
www.greentoeground.blogspot.com

harvest week nine

Hi All!!!

Whoee!!It's been hot, wet, in short, summer is hitting us with its best shot. I can tell how hard I work, by how early my eyelids rebel against gravity or obey it. Afternoons are a series of sweat soaked hours,cooled by frequent riverine submersions.Yesterday I cut open the first watermelon, one I had been keeping an eye on. It was'nt all the way ripe, but I could of sworn I was transported to some farmers nirvana, as the sweet juice rolled down my chin and under my shirt, soaking my shorts.And it wasn't even ripe yet!!!

The beans are beginning their green cascade, I  got a good case of Bean Belly yesterday, as we picked the first 60 lbs. Sweet taters are spreading out, battling the creeping winter squash, which if current trends hold, will bury us in delicate butternuts and zesty delicata's.My mind is like a calculator stuck on the multiplication button, constantly reviewing , planning and fretting as the farm is threatening to bury me with its bounty .We've had moments of panic recently when packing the truck for market. Stuff literally will not all  fit! It's like a geometric jigsaw puzzle. Last Wednesday when I left for market and looked out the window en route, my table was hanging out the window! Luckily we fixed it before it fell out.

 Last week we got rained on so much I was freaking out over the possibility of late blight on the tomatoes.So far so good though, as they remain startlingly green and the fruit set looks superb.The sheep love the cooler wet weather, not greeting me with a cacophony of baaing when I see them, but contentedly munching on the lush grass.Gerda our cow is producing enough milk for an army,a full three gallons a day.Such a great way to start your day, leaning against her warm flank, listening to the milk streams hiss into the bucket, getting whipped in the face with her wet poopy tail....

.Hope you all are enjoying this years bounty, we feel it has been a great one so far. On that note.

lettuce

cukes

squash

eggplant

cabbage

beans

carrots

Enjoy this while it lasts, fall will be here before you know it!With a bit of melon and tomato thrown in isoon enough .Happy eating!

peace

gaelan and nicole