Are you ever stumped by what to do with all of the produce in your weekly share? Or do you struggle with how to throw things together to make dinner on a busy weeknight?

I’ve teamed up with Tentiko, a Denver based organization who puts together fun experiential events, to offer a special cooking class. Participants will bring their produce from their weekly share and together we will create and cook a meal with fresh-picked, local produce. The class will be on Tuesday, 9/10, from 4-6 in the evening, and will be held in my gourmet kitchen.

We’ll pool all our produce and brainstorm a delicious dinner showcasing our shared ingredients, and I will provide additional pantry staples plus protein options to round out the menu. You’ll go home with a four- to six-serving feast!

I expect this classes to fill quickly, so head on over to the Tentiko website to sign up right away!

Newsletter – July 1, 2013

Dear Members,

This week you are getting garlic, white onions, white turnips, radishes and summer squash. The summer deliciousness is just beginning! Some crops are starting to catch up because of the hot weather. Each week we should be seeing something new! Very Exciting!!!

2012 Blog Review

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2012 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

4,329 films were submitted to the 2012 Cannes Film Festival. This blog had 14,000 views in 2012. If each view were a film, this blog would power 3 Film Festivals

Click here to see the complete report.

Newsletter: October 2, 2012

Dear Friends of the Farm,

This is week 18 out of an 18 week season. What a great season it has been. The quality & variety just could not be beat! This week you are getting Yukon Gold potatoes, garlic, sweet white onions, gorgeous orange carrots, long hearty Daikon radish, beautiful Watermelon radish, red and orange bell peppers, Anaheim peppers, slicing tomatoes and Black Velvet tomatoes. The Full shares will be getting a bag of lettuce. Normally this would not happen…but, we planted one of the cold frames with greens for the Winter Share. It is so warm outside, they came on early! Surprising, yes?

Fruit Share: Again, what a season, especially compared to last year! Both years you did receive the same amount of fruit. But this year we had such a nice variety and it was spread out better over the summer. Very tasty and good quality too. Thank you First Fruit for all the hard work!

Beef, lamb & Pork: Jerry tells me that it look like the pigs will be ready for processing in November and December. The steers will go to the processor in December and the lambs will go to the processor in January. I will give you a call a few days before we take them to Valley Packing to get your processing order and/or to give you instructions on what you need to do.

Winter Share: Don’t forget that the Winter Share should start the 31st of October. Your Distribution Center will be contacting you about hours of operation, location, phone number and what to do if you forget to pick up. It is not too late to Sign-up, but please contact me first! I will save your space if the Distribution Center is not filled.

Snow: We need everyone to do the snow dance this winter! Our water comes from snow run-off (melting snow). We have until the 1st of April to fill all the reservoirs. Without a few good storms this winter, we will be short of water next summer. So pray for snow!

Thank you: We want to thank you for allowing us to be your farmers this summer. We are passionate about what we do and love sharing it with you! The issues confronting farmers today are enormous. Keep us in mind as you watch community leaders make decisions about water and labor issues. Be vocal about supporting Colorado farms and ask your leaders to be vocal too.

Thank you for your lovely letters, cards and gifts. Several of you gave me gifts at the Harvest Festival, but did not leave a card with a name on it…so thank you very much for the apron, home-made soaps & candles, baked goods, jams and jellies. We appreciate them very much!

See everyone next year! Have a wonderful, restful winter!

Jacquie, Jerry, Kyle and Alaina Monroe

Newsletter

Hello Everyone!

This is week 17 out of an 18 week season. I cannot believe how fast this year has gone by! You are getting sweet potatoes, garlic, red onions, carrots, red & yellow bell peppers, banana & jalapeno peppers, Globe eggplant, Cherokee Purple & our regular red tomatoes. The Full and Half Share will be getting muskmelon and new this week will be Zebra tomatoes. This tomato is green or greenish-yellow & striped, small and delicious!

Harvest Festival 2012

This year’s Harvest Festival was so much fun!  Here are a few pictures we captured of the day!  Can’t wait until next year!!

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Harvest Festival Update!

Just a quick reminder to everyone from Jacquie that if you are planning to pick any vegetables while you’re at the harvest festival on Sunday, you’ll need to bring your own bags or boxes. When you check in for the festival you’ll see a sign listing which fields and which vegetables are available for picking.We’re adding a fun demo station at the farm for this year. Do you or your kids struggle with how to quickly separate egg yolks from the whites without cracking the yolk? Stop by the egg separation demo table and try out a quick, easy, and fun technique. See you all on Sunday!

Newsletter: September 10, 2012

Dear Friends of the Farm,

This is week 15 out of an 18 week season.  You are getting yellow cooking onions, red beets, carrots, red & orange bell peppers, anaheim & banana peppers, Japanese eggplant, slicing cucumbers, edamame beans, Golden Globe, Black Velvet and Cherokee Purple or Brandywine tomatoes along with muskmelon & orange flesh honeydew.  We are done with watermelon, corn, squash and green beans.  This week may be the last week for the cucumbers and honeydew.  Crops are slowing down or stopping all together.  With the season being a whole month early, crops will discontinue earlier also.

Water:  Our water was shut off last Thursday for the summer.  We have filled all three ponds and with cooler weather, that should last us through the week.  We don’t see that it will affect your produce bags that much, because crops were slowing down anyway.  It feels & looks like October in the fields!  Maybe by the end of the week it will feel like fall too!

The Harvest Festival is this Sunday from 11am to 4pm.  It sounds like we are going to have a beautiful day with daytime temperatures sitting around 75 degrees.  Can’t ask for better day than that!  We still need a ‘Grill Master’ from 12 to 1:30pm.

Check in before doing anything or going anywhere at the farm.  This is for safety reasons and for me to know who came by.  You can pick up a map of the farm with directions to u-pick crops.  Please follow the directions, or your car will be heading the wrong way!  There will also be directions for a self-tour.  If you have any other questions, that is the best place to stop in and ask.  If they don’t know the answer..they will come find me!

U-Pick Crops:  Jerry will take a look after Distribution Thursday to see what crops may be in abundance.  I’m pretty sure you can pick pablano or anaheim chilies plus sweet peppers too.  You will not be able to pick tomatoes.  We normally have a few special things in the barn and I think there may be a few edamame beans left in the field.  There will be other things; I just don’t know what they will be at this point!

Roasting Chilies:  It will cost $5 to roast chilies.  Please start inside the barn.  You will get a tray for picking.  When you are done, you must check in at the barn again, pay your fee and get a ticket.  Your ticket will match a bag of roasted chilies laid out in trays.  No waiting in line, but it does take quite a bit of time to roast, so don’t be surprised if your chilies are not ready when you are!  We are limited to roasting 35 trays, so after that, you will need to roast them yourself.  We are interested in people showing up early to pick chilies so we can get the roaster started earlier.  Feel free to come help at 9am and picking afterwards!  (around 10 or 10:30)  the more hands we have to help with chores, the sooner everyone can get started picking!

Bring sturdy shoes, a hat & a large dish or dessert to go along with hamburgers and hot dogs.  No bug spray or sunblock should be applied on the farm.  Please do this at home!

This is our way of thanking you for being members.  Hope to see you Sunday!

Jacquie, Jerry, Kyle and Alaina Monroe