Weekly Share November 17th – 24th

2 Lettuce (Red Rosie Romaine, Canary Tongue, Butterhead)
Asian Greens Mix (baby Mizuna, Tatsoi, Ruby Streaks, Red Rain, Japanese Mustard, and Fun Sen)
Bok Choi
Red Meat Radishes
Carrots
Cabbage

What a weird weather week. After frantically covering as many of our vegetables crops as was possible to avoid major damage during the cold front that got down to 21 degree lows, we now have what feels like spring weather again. Although it is nice to work in we are somewhat concerned that a few of our crops will be confused and start going to seed, especially crops that head up like lettuce, chicories, and bok choi. After an extremely dry stretch, this rain and warm weather will be very helpful though in bumping up our carrots, leeks, salad mix and beets for the near future. This is Virginia after all, where the weather seems ever shifting.

Today we moved our Turkeys to their final piece of pasture before they are processed for Thanksgiving. All in all they have been a good batch of Turkeys, foraging well and for the most part staying within their fence.  After lots of contemplation, we have decided that this will be our last batch of Turkeys, even though we enjoy raising them. On Tomten Farm, we have very limited pasture and crop land, so we have to be creative about how to maximize our space. Turkeys are not the most efficient use of our pasture. We can raise 200 meat chickens and grow our layer hen flock a bit using the same amount of pasture that it takes to raise 32 Turkeys. This will mean more profits in equal or less work hours and pasture footage used.

We hope you enjoy this second to last share for 2013. Please check out the recipes below and have a great week…Brian and Autumn

Bok Choy Recipe

watermelon radish + carrots salad with sesame vinaigrette

Gingered Soba Noodles with Watermelon Radish, Broccoli & Cabbage