We are past the winter solstice. As the days grow longer the growth of the young arugula, spinach and lettuce in High & Dry Farm’s hoop houses speeds up. Spring is still far off, but we can dream.
Hoophouse Sunrise
A cake for Mark’s birthday
Foraging on the farm
This year we have harvested at least 5 pounds of delicious wild field mushrooms (Agaricus tempestris).
Sorrel Soup
Springtime = sorrel soup time.
Here is a terrific and easy recipe for sorrel soup.
Ingredients
- 2 sticks butter
- 2 large yellow onions, sliced thinly
- 4 garlic cloves
- 10 cups packed sorrel leaves, stems removed
- 4 cups chicken stock
- 1/2 cup flat-leaf parsley
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp ground black pepper
- 2 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
- pinch cayenne pepper
- sour cream and fresh chives for garnish
Procedure
- melt butter in large pot. Saute onions and garlic until translucent.
- Add sorrel, cover, and cook until fully wilted (about 5 minutes)
- Add stock, parsley, salt, pepper, nutmeg and cayenne and simmer 45 minutes,
- Puree with immersion blender, blender, or food processor.
- Adjust seasoning and serve, garnished with drops of sour cream and sprinkled chives.
Certified Organic
OK! High & Dry Farm has just received its Organic Certification
These are the tomato varieties that we will grow this year.
Fresh Sheet
All our products are certified organic.
- Fresh thyme, oregano, sage, bay leaves, rosemary, spearmint, basil, cilantro $1/oz
- Salad mix, baby lettuce, $8/lb
- Sorrel $8/lb
- English cucumbers, $2/lb
- Heirloom tomatoes (cherry, beefsteak, canning, saucing) $3/lb
- Cabbage $1/lb
- Yellow Transparent Apples $1/lb
Coming soon – green figs, green beans
Last updated – July 24, 2020
To order, e-mail [email protected] or text message 425-268-2198
Subscribe to our e-mail list to receive copies of the Fresh List whenever it is updated.
Fresh Sheet
- Fresh thyme, oregano, sage, bay leaves, rosemary, $1/oz
- 3-4 oz heads romaine lettuce $10/lb
- Carrots, $2/lb
- Salad mix, baby lettuce, $10/lb
Last updated – January 3, 2020
To order, e-mail [email protected] or text message 425-268-2198
Subscribe to our e-mail list to receive copies of the Fresh List whenever it is updated.
Farm Dogs Love Christmas
Farming Software – Organic Farmer 2.0
Maintaining organic certification requires keeping complete, extensive and detailed records about all aspects of farm work, and requires keeping copies of receipts for all purchases of seeds, fertilizers, etc. Even market gardeners that do not seek organic certification must maintain extensive records to be compliant with food safety laws as codified in the FSMA. As I am an intrinsically disorganized person, I have created a relational database to facilitate keeping and maintaining the required records. The beauty of the database is that it runs in the cloud on Airtable, which allows access by smartphone from the field, as well as via web browser from a laptop or desktop computer.
When High and Dry Farm recently received its initial inspection for organic certification, the inspector was blown away by the power of this system. A standard part of such inspections is for the inspector to point to a recent sale of a farm product, and demand that the farmer show records demonstrating that the product in question was indeed grown on the farm and was grown using organic methods. The inspector pointed to a sale of 10 lbs of fennel. Using the data base, within 60 seconds, I was able to show that the fennel in question was planted in the greenhouse, on a specific date, using seeds purchased on a specific date from Johnny’s Seeds, and the database provided an image of the seed package and of the purchase receipt. I showed records indicating that the plants were transplanted into Bed D of plot #2 on a specific date and harvested on a specific date, and I showed records indicating that the bed in question had been amended on a specific date with organic fertilizers, showing images of the receipts for the fertilizer purchases.
We am now making this database system, Organic Farmer 2.0, available to farmers completely without charge. Sign up for a free Airtable account here. Once you have signed up, download a copy of the Organic Farmer 2.0 database to your Airtable account here. Detailed instructions for use of Organic Farmer 2.0 can be found here.