What are Heirloom Tomatoes?

Heirloom tomatoes! You may have heard of them and even eaten them a few times. You might grow them in your garden, or even buy them at the farmers market/grocery store. August is a prime month for fresh homegrown tomatoes (although often times gardeners' tomatoes are ready sooner) One of my favorite vegetables to look forward to in the garden are the tomatoes, all different kinds. Let's talk a little about heirloom tomatoes in this post, one of my favorite edible parts of summer!

So what does heirloom mean for heirloom tomatoes?
For heirloom tomatoes the word heirloom refers to the tomato seeds that have been harvested from certain varieties and passed down for generations because of their favorable and desirable characteristics and qualities.

How are they grown?
Heirloom tomatoes are grown the same way as any other tomato. Here are some pictures of green heirloom tomatoes just a few weeks before they will start turning colors.

Why do people want specifically heirloom tomatoes?
Heirloom tomatoes have not be changed for traits such as shelf life, color, and size/uniformity like the average tomato you see more often. Heirloom tomatoes have more of what people call and "ugly" look to them with different coloring, deep cracks, and bumps.

Where can you buy heirloom tomatoes?
You can find heirloom tomatoes at most farmers markets. A lot of farms that offer a CSA membership might add heirloom tomatoes to their weekly shares as well. Since they are becoming more popular, they are more readily available in several grocery stores as well.

Heirloom tomatoes are great to enjoy just as you would any other type of tomato. Be sure to try out some recipes specifically using heirloom tomatoes as well.

What is the difference between onions and how they grow?

Growing onions is simple. Poke a hole in the ground and plant a small onion plant or an onion set and you're on your way to a great onion crop, grown easily. So what are the different types of onions, how do they grown, and what are they used for?

Different types of onions can be grown from seeds, sets, and plants, with planting from seed taking the longest to mature as it starts out much smaller. For green onions, plant onion sets. For larger red, white, or yellow onions (sweet onions) plant onion plants.

Which onion is right for you to grow?

Onion sets are small, dry bulbs that are grown the previous year. They are the easiest to grow. When you buy a bag of onion sets, simply pop them in the soil, cover slightly so the tops are showing, and the onion quickly starts to grow. They are sold as white, yellow, or red onion sets and are grown for green onions or left in the ground a little longer to form a onion bulb.

Onion plants are best if you are wanting large, firm onion bulbs. You'll most likely find the plants bundled together around groups of 25 or so. These plants are grown from seed the year they are sold. They are pulled and bundled to sell and grow for larger onions. To plant these onion plants you simply can did a trench and lay them in. Straightening the plant and covering the end with soil as you completely plant them. Generally they are planted in the spring and harvest large onions in the fall. These onion plants come in an assortment of different varieties like, Walla Walla, Candy, Red Candy, Yellow Spanish, etc. You would choose the right varieties that fit the needs you are looking for in onions (short day, long day, sweet onion, best for storage, etc).

Onions are always a must on our "To Plant" list every year! We plant both onion sets for green onions  that we pull and harvest in spring and mid summer, as well as onion plants, that we plant in the spring and harvest the large sweet onions in the fall and later in the growing season.

If you don't already grow onions in your garden, be sure to add them in the following years to come! They are super easy and great to cook with!

Where can you buy locally grown produce?

I am often asked about the produce we grow and our CSA program. Consumers are interested in how they can join our CSA or where they can purchase our produce. I am asked what farmers markets we attend. Our CSA program and our local farmers markets are where we sell our produce. We sell our produce directly the consumer.

We love to welcome new members to join our CSA program as it is a great way to experience a variety of produce throughout the growing season! CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture and I talk about the program and its advantages here. Our CSA is delivered in weekly shares and I talk about that here. We have a smaller CSA program, but happily deliver about 20 shares each week to our town and surrounding communities. We also encourage consumers to attend our local farmers market. To find a farmers market near you check out Local Harvest, and it will show you all the local markets close to you. 

By selling the produce we grow directly to the consumer it is nice to build a farmer-consumer relationship with our customers. We appreciate when they give us feed back. We love to hear recipes they share with us on how the prepared the produce purchased from us. 

We also grow pumpkins! In the fall we have what we call Fall Harvest Days, about 4-5 weekends the end of September to October depending on how the weekends fall. This is where we invite the public to come out to our farm and pick out pumpkins and join in some of the kids activities. We grow our pumpkins off site, about 2 miles from our farm, so everything is picked and brought to our farm for the Fall Harvest Days. We also sell fall decor that we grow ourselves, such as grouds in all shapes, color, and sizes, straw, shocks, Indian corn, as well as fall produce. We also sell our pumpkins and fall decor to some local shops and stores to sell to their customers. 

We are proud produce and pumpkin growers and look forward to the growing and market season each year! You can support our farm and farms like ours by attending your local farmers markets or looking into a CSA program near you. Also by doing your yearly creative pumpkin carvings and decorating for fall, you are supporting my farm and others like mine! 

What to plant in your garden?

Gardening season is here and I am already looking forward to fresh vegetables!! It feels great growing your own food! Growing a vegetable garden is one of the most rewarding activities you can do as a family. There is something about eating a juicy tomato picked right out of the garden. Or any produce for that matter. Homegrown vegetables taste better, have more nutrients, and are fresher than those store bought since you can pick them the same day you want to use them or at their ripest point.

I have gotten several questions from others asking about tips for what to plant in their gardens or suggestions on what to plant in their first gardens.

A great way to start is start with what you eat.
-Plant vegetable plants and garden seeds for the produce you know you will eat. You can try growing new things after you get some garden experience behind you. Growing produce you like, will help you give your garden more attention. Look at the food you eat regular and find out if you can grow what is in it.

If you are limited on space, there are a few ways you can look at what to grow for your garden.

Container gardening (also known as kitchen gardening or patio gardening)
-If you enjoy eating a lot of salads, this is a great option as lettuce has shallow root systems and do well in containers.
-Radishes and green onions grow quickly, you just need deeper containers
-You can also grow tomatoes and pepper plants in containers as well to add to your container garden.
-Container gardening is also great for growing herbs
Vegetable suggestions for container gardening:
      *leaf lettuce
      *spinach
      *green onions
   


Save money on groceries
-If you have more space you can grow a wide variety of vegetables, but make it easy for you.
-Are you a family that eats a lot of fruits and vegetables and purchases from the grocery store? Gardening is a great way to help your grocery bill.
             -for example: 1 bell pepper generally costs $1-$2 at the grocery store. You can buy a pepper
              plant for $2 or less (4 inch pot or a 4 pack tray) and yield several bell peppers.
Vegetable suggestions for gardening with more space:
           *green beans
           *

You will find that having your garden and growing your own produce is so rewarding! You will taste it in the freshness of the vegetables you are eating.
Enjoy gardening season and producing healthy food!
       

Garlic Parsley Brussels Sprouts

Brussels Sprouts!

I'll be honest I never used to "like"  Brussels sprouts. Or that is what I said anyways. I had never had them. 

My husband likes Brussels sprouts so we grew them one year for our fall CSA. He made them one evening for dinner and this was the first time I tried Brussels sprouts and I LIKED them! We now have them somewhat regularly and still continue to grow them in our garden and for our CSA/farmers markets. 

                               

              

There are several ways to prepare Brussels sprouts. I think there might be others out there that may think the same as I did as in not "liking" them, but maybe it's because have never had them or unsure what to do with them. Today, I'm going to share one recipe of how we enjoy Brussels sprouts as part of our meal. 

               

Garlic Parsley Brussels Sprouts 

•Clean the Brussels sprouts and cut off the bottoms and cut the sprouts in half. 

•Place the halves in dish with water to just cover sprouts

•Place in the microwave to steam them until just tender 

•Drain 

•Place in skillet with butter, garlic powder or fresh garlic, and parsley 

•Stir until Brussels sprouts are well coated with butter/garlic/parsley.

Simple and easy! Great way to enjoy a green veggie as part of your meal and maybe one you haven't tried before! 

                     

What to expect in your CSA shares?

CSA or Community Supported Agriculture programs are becoming relatively popular across the United States among produce growers and communities. If you are eager to join others who are wanting to eat healthy, locally, and more sustainable, but don't have room to establish and grow your own vegetable garden, then joining a local CSA is the next best thing.

As you may recall in a previous post, I talked about what a CSA is and great reasons why to choose a CSA to join. Today, I am going to answer a question we get asked often when talking about CSAs. I am from a rural/farming community so the community isn't as familiar with what a CSA program is all about.

We often get asked "What all does a member get in their CSA? How does it work?"
Well each CSA is different, depending how the farm wants to run their program. A great resource to see what different CSA's offer is Local Harvest. Some offer CSA memberships for 10 weeks to 25 weeks. Some may add eggs, bread, and/or meat to their CSA. There are so many different options, it just depends on how the farm wants to operate their CSA program.

I can share with you how our CSA works.
Our Spring/Summer CSA is 15 weeks long. It starts roughly mid-May and runs for 15 weeks. Each week our members get a box of 6-10 different vegetables. We offer full shares and half shares. The full shares are designed to feed a family of 4 for a week or a couple that likes to eat a lot of produce. A half share is designed for a couple or a family who doesn't eat as much produce. Both options are popular with our customers. Our weekly CSA are dropped off for home delivery or picked up on the farm.

So what comes in these weekly CSA baskets?
We give an assortment of 6-10 different vegetables based off what is in season at the time.

                                                        An example of a Spring CSA share is :
                              Radish, green onions, spinach, kale, loose leaf lettuce mix, and arugula

An early Summer CSA share:

Red potatoes, kohlrabi, sweet onion, green beans, zucchini, green onions, kale, and broccoli

A late Summer CSA share :

Eggplant, sweet onions, tomatoes, green beans and yellow wax beans, zucchini, yellow squash, radish, green onions, potatoes, sweet banana peppers, pickles, and cherry tomatoes

Each week varies for CSA share based on what produce we have in season at the time. One year there might be several weeks of sweet corn, and another they're might only be a few. The same goes for all produce. We change up each weeks basket to offer a variety, but when potatoes are ready, for example, we provide them every week. 

After our Spring/Summer CSA is over, we open up a Fall CSA that is 7 weeks. Here is an example of a Fall CSA share

Carrots, sweet potatoes, kale, popcorn, eggplant, butternut squash, spinach, and yellow onion

This is our 9th year growing produce, our 6th year offering a CSA, and we are excited about another year. Are you part of a CSA where you live? What are your favorite vegetables to get in your weekly share?

Winter months for produce growers...

Produce growers provide fresh produce throughout the spring, summer, and fall months, but what goes on in the winter months?

The farmers markets may be over for the season, but produce growers still continue to work hard during the off season. Some farms continue to grow greens and other cold season crops in high tunnels throughout the winter. Others end their season around at the beginning of freezing temperatures. For example, our local market ends usually the beginning of October, but our fall CSA continues until mid-November. We then take the winter months "off" until our market and CSA start again. 

When the end of the season is near, our customers generally ask us, what were are going to do this winter or our time "off." As much as we love the busy production and market season, we welcome the end of the season as well. Life slows down just a little. It gives us time to prepare for the next season. So what do produce growers do in the winter months?

-Place the seed order for the upcoming year
-Maintenance on equipment
-The new season's planting schedule
-Maintenance or modifications to greenhouse structures
-Promote their CSA program and accept members
-Start seeds indoors for transplants

These are just a few of the things that goes on during the winter months for produce growers. Then there are the other projects or vacations that they haven't been able to get to during the busy growing season, like giving their kitchen a much needed face lift like we are doing here. More details on that later. 

I'm looking forward to sharing with you more about CSA programs and produce growing. Even on a smaller scale as we are, it is a very busy and fun adventure. 

Why choose a CSA?

A little Q&A today:
Why choose a CSA?

First let me introduce CSA or Community Supported Agriculture. It is a partnership between you and the local farmer. A CSA supports sustainable farming and provides healthy food for your family. Each CSA farm has their own program designed specifically for their farm production, but generally CSA members pay up front, or many have payment plans, providing the farm with working capital during the season of preparation and planning. In return the CSA members will receive a box of fresh, locally grown produce each week based on their farms program. The CSA members share some of the risks of farming as well. For example, they may receive more of one product and less of another depending on the weather and other factors on the farm.

With the beginning of the new year, also brings CSA signups for the majority of produce farms that offer a CSA program. CSA, or Community Supported Agriculture, farms provide fresh produce to members during the growing season. We are often asked about our CSA program, so I thought I would start with the benefits of being part of a CSA.

So why choose a CSA?

- You will receive the freshest produce. We pick our produce for the CSA the night before and/or the day of delivery. With a CSA, the members are receiving produce that is picked ripe and fresh. At grocery store chains produce may sit on the shelf maybe up to a week before it is purchased or thrown out. Also, when stores have to purchase produce to be shipped to them, it is often picked before it is ripe, resulting in loss of some nutritional value. When buying from the farmer, you are leaving out the middle man, which is providing fresher produce for you.

One of our summer CSA shares

-You are buying local. You are supporting your farmer and keeping profits within your community helping your overall local economy. We can build up our local economy by supporting local farmers, artisans, creators, and businesses that meet our family's needs. CSA programs have a pick up option, typically at the farmers market, a delivery option, or both.

-Eat healthy. When you are eating the produce that comes in your CSA share, you're providing yourself with high quality, nutrient filled food. Not only is it healthy to eat your vegetables, but also having a wide variety that comes in your CSA shares, is a great contributor to overall health.

One of our fall CSA boxes

-Experiment with new foods. Kohlrabi, fennel, swiss chard, brussel sprouts, eggplant. You may get some vegetables that you haven't heard of or haven't tried before in your weekly box, but that is part of the fun of a CSA. How many times do you eat the same thing over and over. With a CSA, you get what is in season, and with that, you can work with, try new recipes, and eat foods you've never tried before or wouldn't think about using. Make smoothies by adding kale, spinach, or carrots. Change up your omelet by adding a different mix of vegetables each time. Add any of the vegetables to casseroles, salads, every meal. Eat them raw or cooked. So many possibilities.
You might check out these cookbooks to help with cooking farm fresh vegetables.

-Knowing where your food comes from. If you aren't able to grow your own garden or grow enough to meet your family's needs, joining a CSA is the next best thing. When joining a CSA, you know the produce is in good hands from seed to harvest to delivery to you. This also allows you to connect with the farmer, know who the produce is coming from, and learn and see how it is grown.

Picking sweet corn for our CSA shares and farmers market

-Save money. A CSA membership can cost anywhere from $350-$600 for a 15-20 week membership, depending on the farm and their CSA program offered, you end up only spending roughly $20-$30 on vegetables weekly. Since the produce comes directly from the farm, providing fresher produce that last longer, resulting in less waste. Some CSAs also offer meat, bread, egg, and fruit shares that you can choose as part of your CSA. Some may include select fruits as part of their CSA. Some farms may also offer half and full size shares based off of how much your family needs.

-Preserve and store food. By joining a CSA, some weeks, you may receive excess green beans, tomatoes, or pickles, for example, that you know you won't eat before they go bad. By preserving the excess produce when it is in abundance is a great way to enjoy them after the season is over. Canning and/or freezing is also a great way to save money but still enjoy the produce you received from your CSA and all the benefits above.

A productive tomato juice canning day for me.

What better way to start the new year than to join a CSA for all the above benefits! Check out Local Harvest to find a CSA by you.

Canning Green Beans

We LOVE green beans! We love them fresh right out of the garden, cooked, in casseroles, and canned. We plant several plantings during the growing season to have a good amount for our CSA and farmers market, so I am always sure to can several quarts for our family to to enjoy after the season each year. It's a lot of work to snap all the green beans but it is so worth it in the middle of winter, or any time really, to go grab a jar of homegrown green beans! So let me share with you my canning process for green beans.

Start by picking your green beans from the garden, or if you don't garden, a lot of farms sell beans at bulk prices. Check with your local produce farms.

Have your clean and sterilized jars ready to fill. Be sure to check over your canning equipment. Remember canning safety during your canning process.

Start the snapping process. Simply snap off each end and then snap the remaining part of the green bean in two or three pieces. I grab two bowls, one large and one smaller. I place my snapped parts I plan to process and can into the large bowl and all the ends or snapped off bad pieces in the smaller bowl.

Dump your freshly snapped beans into a sink of water and swoosh around to wash them off, then drain.

There are two ways to can green beans, hot pack or raw pack. I prefer the hot pack method. Probably because that is how I learned to can green beans with my mom. So for hot pack, place the prepared green beans in a pot and cover with boiling water. Boil the beans for 5 minutes.

Then using a slotted spoon, fill the jars. Shake the jars so the beans move down, then add more beans to each jar. Once the beans are in, fill the jars with the boiling water. Be sure to leave 1 inch headspace. Remove any air bubbles, simply by sliding a small rubber spatula between the jar and the beans.

Next you'll need to add your lids and rings, but first be sure to place the lids in boiling water for about 30 seconds or so to sterilize them. Then grab a damp cloth and wipe around the top of the jar. This removes any standing water or green bean pieces and allows for the lid to seal properly. Place the lids on the jars, add the rings and tighten.

Next is processing the green beans. You need to process the green beans with a pressure canner. The acidity of green beans isn't high enough to just process them with a water bath. Pressure canners have different instructions, so be sure to read your manual that comes with the canner. I use a Presto pressure canner. My canner calls for 3 quarts of boiling water in the bottom of the canner. Then place the canning rack and add your jars.

Place the lid on the canner and tighten down. Keep the burner on high heat until the steam comes out the vent pipe. Allow the steam to flow for 10 minutes. 

Place the pressure regulator on the vent pipe. Continue to heat canner until the pressure dial gauge reaches the desired pressure needed. For my canner for green beans, I need to process at 11 pounds pressure  - 20 minutes for pint jars and 25 minutes for quart jars. You may have to adjust your burner to maintain the correct pounds of pressure. Set your timer for the amount of process time. If your processing above 2,000 feet altitude - check your pressure canner manual for recommended pounds of pressure. 

At the end of processing time, turn your burner off. Let the canner sit and cool and the pressure drop to zero on it's own. This may take a while. Do not take the lid off the pressure cooker and do not quick cool. 

When the pressure of the canner has been completely reduced, you can take off the pressure regulator from the vent pipe and let canner set for 10 more minutes. Then remove the canner lid. Remove jars from canner with a jar lifter and place on a towel to cool and dry. 

When jars are cool, check seals by making sure the lids are not popped up, wipe jars down, label and store in a cool dry place. You can also remove the rings to use for more canning. 

Then that's it! You now have yourself some canned green beans to enjoy this winter! Happy Canning!! 

This post is part of The Backroad Life Freezing & Canning series. 

Gardening With Kids - Gardening Gives Food and More

I left off in the last post talking a little bit about harvesting produce with kids from the garden. The garden provides nutritious and delicious food for us to eat....and also preserve if you have abundance.

There is nothing like a fresh garden meal in the summer!

Picking your vegetables right out of the garden and using them in your meal - you can't get any fresher than that!

You might make fresh salsa from your tomatoes, peppers, onions, and cilantro in your garden.

You might enjoy stuffed peppers.

Sweet corn is always a delicious summer treat with any meal.

You might have a wonderful crop of green beans and can them to enjoy during winter.

Of course, picking fresh lettuces, spinach, radish, and green onions for salads is always refreshing.

Allow your children to cook meals with you. Sometimes its hard with little hands, but you might be surprised what they will eat knowing that they helped prepare it from what they helped grow and harvest.

Sometimes room is not available to grow everything you would like, such as fruits, where several plants are needed to pick a larger quantity. Look for local u-pick farms in your area and take your kids there to experience picking at a specialty farm. We go to a blueberry farm and strawberry farm every summer to pick bulk amounts of berries to freeze and make jam from. You might want look for local specialty farms in your area to pick strawberries, blueberries, apples, peaches, pumpkins and more.

For your kids to see these large specialty farms puts a whole new perspective on how and where produce is grown. For example, we just went to a u-pick blueberry farm and driving down the lane to where we would pick, my son said "These are ALL blueberries?!" They can see acres of one type of plant growing. I explained to him that the blueberry farm has workers to pick blueberries for customers to pick up or they can come and pick them themselves. Seeing these specialty farms helps put the whole idea of farm size into perspective. Kids can see that your backyard garden feeds your family. There might be some abundance of certain vegetables that you can share with others. Large farms, such as berry farms or pumpkin patches provides for several families, sometimes several hundred to thousands.

Gardening with kids has several advantages and provides such wonderful experiences.
- It educates them on where food comes from.
- Showing them planting to harvest and getting them involved is a great way to share the farm to    fork process.
- It teaches them what it means to live a sustainable and healthy life.

I hope you will show your kids where food comes from and enjoy the farm to fork process!

This post is sponsored by Indiana's Family of Farmers but all opinions, photos, and ideas are mine.