July 17th, 2023 Newsletter

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Dear Friends of the farm,

This is week 6 of 18 weeks of CSA.  This week you will be receiving red potatoes, onions, slicing cucumbers, pickling cucumbers, summer squash, carrots, garlic, kale, and MUSK MELON!!!!!  Let’s go, July!

Fruit Shares:  Another delicious week of cherries is headed your way.  They will be Rainier cherries, a beautiful white with a blush of pink.  Yum.  

 

We need your help harvesting garlic on Saturday the 29^th and Sunday the 30^th of July from 8 AM -11 AM.  Come and go as you please!  ***Not this weekend, but the next weekend***First, we roll through the rows of garlic with our handy harvester which lays the bulbs of garlic on top of the soil.  We then come through with trays and collect all the garlic.  This garlic lasts for the rest of summer CSA and all the way through winter CSA, too.  We would be honored if you would come out and help us collect the garlic into trays out in the field.  We then make stacks of the trays throughout the field and come pick them up with our tractor.  This is a super kid friendly task, and we welcome your friends and family members.  Parents, you will be 100% responsible for keeping your kids safe and away from all trucks, tractors, any equipment, and volunteers carrying trays.  Bring your whole crew and make a morning of it!  Make sure to wear long sleeves and pants, a hat, sunglasses, bring lots of water and snacks for the way here and home. If you want to use bug spray and sunscreen, please apply them at home and then wash your hands thoroughly before coming to the farm.  We grow a truly delicious heirloom variety of hard neck, porcelain garlic.  The bonus is that you can take home garlic seconds!  Come out and help us put the unity in Community Supported Agriculture. You do not need to contact the office if you can join us. Just show up! The more the merrier!

Flower bouquets available!  Some of you may have noticed that we are dipping our toes into flower production this year.  We are really stoked to be growing blooms.  Best of all, we now have enough to offer them to you all.  This week, we will be sending out sample bouquets to each of our distribution centers.  There will be bouquet sign-up sheets at each distribution center, as well.  The bouquets will be $20 each.  Please add your name to the sign-up sheet if you would like to receive a bouquet made with the flowers currently abundant on our farm.  We choose what comprises each bouquet.  We will bill your account accordingly.

Muskmelon:  Many people aren’t aware of the difference between muskmelon and cantaloupe.  There is actually a big difference!  Musk melon has a similar flavor to cantaloupe, but they are stronger and sweeter with a slightly “musky” taste.  The higher the sugar content, the sooner the melon needs to 

be eaten.   For this reason, you do not see them on grocery store shelves.  Muskmelon were originally grown in Egypt along the Nile River.  They love sandy soil, hot days, cool nights and loads of water.  Our farm is very sandy, and we often find fossilized mollusks in the rocks here! Musk melon has the same netting as their cousin cantaloupe except with ridges that run from top to bottom.  Hint:  They are best eaten at room temperature.  If you like them chilled, cut them open and let them sit for ten minutes.  Like a fine wine, they need to breathe to enhance their flavor.

Betty Jo’s Quick Scoop Melon Trick

-Wash your melon well

-Cut your melon in half and remove all seeds (don’t have a compost? Scatter them for the birds!)

-Grab a large spoon or an ice cream scoop

-Scoop out melon flesh into a mason jar or storage container, secure lid onto jar or container

 (You can get really cute with this and use a tiny scoop for little fingers to grab, or present them tapas style and put a toothpick in each scoop on a platter with or without prosciutto)

-Refrigerate

-Enjoy at your leisure

The sun goes down long and red. All the magic names of the valley unrolled – Manteca, Madera, all the rest. Soon it got dusk, a grapy dusk, a purple dusk over tangerine groves and long melon field; the sun the color of pressed grapes, slashed with burgundy red, the fields the color of love and Spanish mysteries. I stuck my head out the window and took deep breaths of the fragrant air. It was the most beautiful of all moments.

–Jack Kerouac

Thank you for being here with us!

Kyle, Sam, Jerry, Jacquie, Linda, and The Crew

July 10th, 2023 Newsletter

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Dear Friends of the Farm,

This is week 5 of 18 weeks of the Summer CSA. What’s in your share this week? Purple kohlrabi, broccoli, Yukon Gold potatoes, onions, slicing cucumbers, pickling cucumber, summer squash, red beets, garlic, and lettuce.

Musk melon update: We are expecting musk melon to arrive in your shares next week! Melons are such a delight for us to grow and we are ready for them to get here already. Can you relate?! When melons arrive, we know we’re finally headed into the thick of the season.

Fruit Shares: A note from First Fruits — Helllo from First Fruits Organic Farms! Fruit shares begin this week! We are excited to be delivering some amazing Bing cherries to begin the fruit season. We fed these cherries a healthy diet of organic nutrients making the cherries large, sweet, and crunchy. This variety is a true Bing. We also plan to deliver organic Rainier cherries next week. It’s an amazing fruit season in Paonia this year – despite freezing temperatures while fruit was in bloom, we have one of the biggest crops in years. We hope you are looking forward to seeing our fruit in your CSA boxes throughout the summer and fall! Enjoy the cherries! More soon. – Kacey at First Fruits Organic Farms

Mushroom Shares: Unfortunately, we must discontinue our mushroom share. We were not satisfied with the the timeliness of deliveries and the quality of mushrooms from Boulder Mushroom. We will automatically place a credit on each mushroom subscriber’s account. If you would prefer a check refund, please call, or email the office. This will reflect on your account within the next few weeks.

Olive oil: Monthly subscribers will be receiving their olive oil from Healthy Harvests this week.

Honey: Monthly honey subscribers will receive their honey next week.

Creamy Yogurt Cucumber Salad Ingredients

• 1 cup plain Greek yogurt (sub vegan yogurt)
• 3-4 cucumbers (any variety) sliced thinly
• 1/4 red onion thinly sliced & roughly chopped
• juice from 1/2 lemon
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh dill plus more for garnish (sub 4 Tablespoons dried dill)
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh mint plus more for garnish (optional)
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Instructions Toss the cucumbers and red onions in a medium to large bowl. Mix the yogurt, garlic, lemon juice, dill, mint, salt, and pepper together in a small bowl. Add the cucumbers and toss to coat. Add more salt and pepper as desired. Garnish with more mint and dill. Refrigerate for 1 hour before serving. **** This recipe is easy to cut in half or quarter if using less cucumber. ****

“When we accept small wonders, we qualify ourselves to imagine great wonders.” — Tom Robbins, Jitterbug Perfume

Many thanks to all of you for supporting our family farm! Wishing you many blessings this week!

With our heartfelt gratitude, Kyle, Sam, Jacquie, Jerry, Linda and The Crew

July 3rd Newsletter

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Dear Friends of the farm,

This is week 4 of 18 weeks of CSA.  Plants are starting to ramp up production, field tomatoes are bushing out, and it’s finally starting to feel like summer around here.  This week you will be receiving onions, garlic, green kohlrabi, Yukon Gold potatoes, summer squash, snow peas, pickling and slicing cucumbers and red Romaine lettuce.  Onions and potatoes have finally arrived, and we were very ready for them around here. We love the red Romaine lettuce in Cesar salad.  A little salad can really help get those digestive juices flowing.

New potatoes have such a tender skin that sometimes they can turn brown where the skin has rubbed off.  They’re not bad if they’re brown!  These newbies are tender and delicious any which way: Sauteed, pan fried, air fried, boiled, baked/roasted, or grated into latkes (and you can add zucchini into latkes as well!)

Kohlrabi is well known in Europe but not so much in North America.  It’s an awesome cultivar of wild cabbage.  You can prepare it both cooked and raw.  It’s crunchy and satisfying as a replacement for cabbage in coleslaw.  For coleslaw peel and then grate.  Dice and steam it for a very nourishing side dish.  Members of the cabbage family have much to offer us, containing many vitamins and minerals.

Produce Payment:  Half of all remaining fees on your account are now due unless you have made other arrangements with the office.  Allow one to two weeks for us to process your checks.  You will still get credit for them arriving on time.   We will do our best to get them processed as soon as possible.

Thank you to all our Tuesday members for rearranging your schedules for a Monday pick-up due to the Fourth of July.  We appreciate your cooperation!

We have been loving your social media posts 🙂 It gives us a lot of pleasure to see beautiful displays of your shares and what you’re making with them.

Egg cartons & olive oil bottles:  Croft Family Farm would like to have egg cartons returned to them.  Healthy Harvests will re-use all returned bottles.  Please run them through your dishwasher or handwash them prior to returning.  Egg cartons and clean olive oil bottles can be brought to your distribution center.  Let’s help them out with this and return those bottles & cartons! 

Shaved Kohlrabi with Mint, Tahini, and Pistachios

BY ANDY BARAGHANI

Top of Form

Ingredients

4 Servings

¼ cup tahini

1 tablespoon honey

4 tablespoons olive oil, divided

1 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest

2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice, divided

Kosher salt

½ cup coarsely chopped mint

1 tablespoon finely chopped chives

⅓ cup finely chopped toasted pistachios

3 medium kohlrabies (about 2 pounds total), peeled, thinly sliced on a mandolin or with a veggie peeler

1 tablespoon white wine vinegar

Preparation

Step 1

Mix tahini, honey, 2 Tbsp. oil, and 1 Tbsp. lemon juice in a small bowl to combine; season with salt.

Step 2

Toss mint, chives, pistachios, and remaining 2 Tbsp. oil in a large bowl; season with salt. Add kohlrabi, vinegar, lemon zest, and remaining 1 Tbsp. lemon juice; toss to combine. Taste and season with more salt if needed.

Step 3

Spread tahini mixture over plates; top with kohlrabi salad.

We hope you have a beautiful and delicious week, friends!  Keep an eye out for all the linden trees that are in full bloom…

Cheers to summer! Wishing you all a wonderful and safe July 4th! Happy Birthday, America!

Kyle, Sam, Jerry, Jacquie, Linda, and The Crew

June 26th, 2023

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Dear Farm Friends,

    Welcome to the third week of CSA!  This week, you will be receiving sugar snap peas, rainbow chard, garlic, garlic scapes, summer squash, pickling cucumbers, Hakurei turnips, and fennel.  You can eat both the bulb and the fronds or greens of fennel.  The fronds can be used in salads such as coleslaw or potato salad to give it a kick.  You can also dry them and use them as a pot herb. Keep in mind, if we give you the greens to any plant, they will be edible and can be used as an herb or cooked as a green.  Fennel is very kind on the tummy.   

July 4^th is a Tuesday this year.  Not this week, but next week we will move all Tuesday distribution to Monday, July 3^rd.  Connect with your distribution centers if you have questions about this. 

Payments due July 1^st for those of you who have only paid your down payment.  If you have a unique payment plan that we’ve agreed on, continue with that!  For everyone else, the remainder of your total is due either in full on July 1^st or in two payments on July 1^st and September 1^st.  Thank you for being timely with your payments. 

A note on beginnings: We know it may seem odd when we give you one or a couple small pickling cucumbers.  Think of them as a bite of what’s to come when we can really load you up.  We feel that it’s better than no cucumbers at all.  Remember, we often find ourselves in a pickle (haha) when we have a small amount of produce to spread out over hundreds of CSA shares.  It’s not a simple task.  We do an immense amount of planning to make sure we get you everything we are producing and that you are our priority.  So, while one pickle may seem ridiculous to you, to us that one measly pickle is a literal extension of our hearts and farm to you.  Our plants are just starting to produce right now.  You may not have noticed, but most other farms are not yet producing summer squash let alone cucumbers out in the field.  To be producing these crops with the spring we had has amazed us.  We are so grateful that we can distribute these items to you and that we have not been destroyed by the weather.   

Fun Fact:  Chard is basically the same plant as a beet except bred for their above ground parts whereas beets are bred for their underground parts!  Multiple plants can come from one seed.  For all the fellow plant nerds out there, the seeds of chard (and beets) are known as polyembryonic.

Basic Canning Instructions:  Since we are getting closer to full on pickle season, and we’re sure we will get enough fruit to can at some point in the season, we thought we would share these tried-and-true family tips with you. 

Here are some of our basic canning steps for the Front Range:

1.  Sterilize jars and lids.  Keep hot while filling other jars (the dishwasher is awesome for this).
2. Pack produce tightly while jars are hot.
3. Add hot brine/syrup & cover to half inch from top of jar.
4. Add lid and rim, tighten and set into canner.
5. Hot water bath for 15 min. plus 5 min. for every 5000 feet above sea level.  We sit at just over 4800 feet, so that makes our canning timer set at 20 minutes.

These steps have served us well for many years.  Jacquie’s mother and grandmother used the same rules, and we never had a problem with any of our canned goods!  Canning can be very therapeutic if you can get used to the heat.  You know the saying, “If you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen!”  Good luck!

SHAVED FENNEL, MUSHROOM AND PARMESAN SALAD

Servings: 4                                                                                                                    Author: Alice Waters

Ingredients:

• 2 small /1 medium or large, fennel bulb
• 3 large, white mushrooms
• 1/2 fresh lemon
• Parmigiano Reggiano cheese (sub vegan cheese)
• 4 tablespoons olive oil
• salt and pepper
• Directions:

Wash and trim fennel bulbs – cut away feathery tops and root end. If you can only find large bulbs, remove the tough inner core on the root end. Save the fronds for decoration.  Using a vegetable slicer or mandolin slicer, slice the fennel as thinly as possible and scatter over a plate or platter.  Drizzle with 2 tablespoons of olive oil and season with salt and pepper.  Shave mushrooms into paper thin slices and scatter over fennel.  Season with more salt and pepper, a squeeze of lemon juice and the remaining olive oil.  With a cheese slicer or vegetable peeler, shave about 30 thin slivers of Parmesan on top of the fennel and mushrooms. Do not toss!  Using scissors, decorate with chopped fennel fronds.  Serve immediately.

Simplicity (How happy is the little Stone)

Emily Dickinson

How happy is the little Stone

That rambles in the Road alone,

And doesn’t care about Careers

And Exigencies never fears

Whose Coat of elemental Brown

A passing Universe put on,

And independent as the Sun

Associates or glows alone,

Fulfilling absolute Decree

In casual simplicity

With gratitude,

Kyle, Sam, Jacquie, Jerry, Linda & The Crew

June 19th, 2023 Newsletter

Dear Farm Friends,

 Our first week was fresh and delicious but this week is even better!  What’s in your bag this week?  Garlic, garlic scapes, squash, (either zucchini, round zucchini, or yellow squash), sugar snap peas, Hakurei turnips, and green butter head lettuce.  The scapes are the tops of the garlic that if allowed would become a flower.  When we remove them from the still-growing garlic plants the garlic bulbs get larger.  It’s a win-win harvesting them.  They’re so delicious and removing them helps our garlic get big! Garlic scapes are a fleeting favorite of many.  They are extremely versatile.  They can be grilled or roasted and eaten as a vegetable, minced and added to salads & eggs (like green onion) and are fabulous chopped up and added to any stir fry.  You can also add them into pesto or into hummus.  Hakurei turnips can be shaved or sliced, dressed with oil and vinegar then eaten raw, steamed, or cooked any which way. We love to simply dice all these new veggies and throw them in together in a stir fry with salad on the side.  The turnip greens are easily revived in cold water and then can be steamed, or rubbed with oil and salt, then air fried or baked into chips.

Newsletters:  This is the last hard copy newsletter you will receive unless you notify your DC that you would like to receive one each week.  Ideally, you can head to our website www.monroefarm.com and subscribe to receive communications emailed to you directly.  Scroll down to the bottom of our homepage, enter your information, and hit subscribe.  Thank you for helping us cut down on our paper usage!

    Fruit:   We are expecting to start getting fruit in July with one of many cherry varieties!

    Honey:  Those of you who ordered monthly and bimonthly will be getting it this week.

Zelle payments: We still have a few Zelle payments that we haven’t been able to place with an account.  One was made in May for $215.00 and the other was made last week for $200.00. Please, if this could be you, call the office!  You must let us know if the payment is coming from a name that is not attached to your account so we can add that name to your account. 

Please make sure any emails from jacquie@monroefarm.com are not going to your spam folder.  We have one new member who we only have an email address for.  We need your other contact information.  If this is you, call the office or email us back!

What’s in your bag and how to use it all:  Remember, your bag may seem small now, but it will keep growing and growing.  Soon there will be extras on the side to grab such as tomatoes and melons.  Cucumbers are going to be coming on in full force very shortly.  It looks like we are going to have an awesome carrot year.   Certain crops could be delayed due to all the moisture we’ve been getting paired with how unusually cool it has been.  This week will be the first time we’ve gotten into the 90’s.  This lack of heat is rare for us being in the middle of June already. We need high temps for warmth loving crops like peppers, melons, and tomatoes.  Please remember that Linda in the office won’t be able to see into the future and tell you exactly what you’re going to be getting next week or the next.  If you’re at a loss with what to do with certain vegetables, ask your distribution center and remember there are thousands of recipes online.  Google can be helpful when seeking a recipe.  Consider ordering our CSA cookbook that has tons of community sourced recipes for each veggie you may encounter. 

Veggie Wash

Juice from a whole lemon

2 Tablespoons Vinegar

1 cup water

1 spray bottle & scrub brush

Mix and spray onto surface of veggies.  Let sit for a minute or two.  (Longer if trying to remove wax from store bought veg) Scrub lightly on soft skinned veggies and more aggressively on hard skinned produce like winter squash, cucumbers, root veggies and melons. Leafy greens simply should be sprayed, let sit 5 min. then rinsed.

Why couldn’t the turnip go to the party?  It was grounded. 

With gratitude,

Kyle, Sam, Jacquie, Jerry, Linda, & The Crew

First week of Distribution

Posted on June 15, 2023 by jacquiemonroefarmcom | Leave a comment

**Please don’t respond to this blog. We do not receive comments or questions from this page. ** Direct any questions or comments to the office. 970-284-7941

Hello to all of you Farm Friends! Welcome to the first week of distribution! We hope you all are doing well and are surviving these rainy days!

A few reminders for all of you: We know your bag is not full, but remember it is just the beginning. Every week we should be bringing you more and more produce! If there is something you are not familiar with, you can ask your distribution center about it. They may have suggestions on how to prepare and cook it. We also sell a CSA cookbook for $20 that has recipes for everything you may get. Google is also an amazing source of information and recipes!

We do not know what we will be harvesting and delivering to you each week. It is a surprise to all of us! A newsletter comes out usually on Mondays and has a list of what you should be receiving in your bag that week. Please watch for that.

ZELLE PAYMENTS – Please remember if you are sending payments through Zelle, to contact the office to let us know you are sending it and which account to apply it to. We are not able to see memos attached to these payments. The only information we receive with a Zelle payment is the name of the bank account holder. This may or may not line up with the names on the member list. Please check your statements and contact Linda if you are missing a credit on your account for a Zelle payment. We currently have received two unclaimed Zelle payments.

We still have spaces available at most of our distribution centers for your friends and family to sign up for. We have four distribution centers that are full and can no longer have more members added. They are listed as Denver’s 6th & York, Denver’s 29th and Monroe, Denver’s Colorado & Colfax, and Denver’s Logan and Louisiana.

Please reach out to Linda at the office for any questions, concerns, or suggestions. We all want to make this the best summer season for everyone.

With our greatest gratitude for each one of you,

Kyle, Sam, Jerry, Jacquie, Linda and the Crew

First week of distribution

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May 2023 Newsletter

Happy May!

We hope everyone is doing well! Please do not reply to this blog or comment on it. We do not have a way to check these. If you have any questions or comments, please contact the office at 970-284-7941 or email jacquie@monroefarmcom. Linda will reply back to you. This is the only email we have for the office.

    We are very excited for this new year and all the delicious food to come. Thank you for being a part of our farm.  We look forward to being your farmers. It’s so thrilling to arrive at the beginning of a new growing season!  We are one month away from the beginning of CSA!

Distribution:  We anticipate starting CSA distribution on the second week of June depending on the weather. You will hear directly from your Distribution Center within a week before we start. At that time, you will get their name, phone number, e-mail, physical address, distribution hours, day of week and any other information you need to know about picking up from their home. They will include information on what to do if you forget to pick up your share or if you go out of town for vacation.  Please keep in mind: these members volunteer their home and time to make this as convenient as possible for you.   They will work with you if you have strange work hours or travel for work.  We ask that you please respect their hours.  If you cannot arrive during normal distribution hours, please call them to make an arrangement for you to pick-up your share.  Please don’t show up before or after hours and expect them to be ready for you!

The following Distribution Centers are full: Wheatridge, 6^th & York, and Colorado Blvd. & Colfax.

Fruit:  We spoke with First Fruits about their trees and they said everything looks awesome!  They had some nights that were worrisome with low temperatures, but it looks like the trees made it through. They are doing a lot of planting new trees and pruning existing ones. Blossoms are blossoming and bees are getting to business. Kacey says it looks like we will have a stellar cherry crop ready by the end of June!  Ela Family Farms tells us that they have a few challenging nights to get through still but everything is looking excellent.  Fingers crossed for an epic fruit year!

Asparagus:  Asparagus is on!  We will be picking over the next four or five weeks.  We will attempt to get everyone out here (schedule dependent on your end), but flexibility is a must!  Please return any phone calls from the office, that way we can call others to come pick if you cannot make it!  Keep in mind that we don’t send email reminders.  There is still room for you to get on the Wait List; if you haven’t already.  There is no cost to you other than your time.  Being on time is greatly, greatly appreciated!

Pork:  We will be getting our piglets this coming week.  Currently, we still have a few hogs to sell.  If you are interested, send an email or go online to purchase.  Our hogs have their own pastures planted with things they love to root up plus plenty of grain.  We anticipate they will be ready for processing by November.  For more information, please contact the office and we will send you a signup form.

Lamb:  We still have lamb available.  These animals feast on our organic hay with an optional grain available evening and morning.  We anticipate processing will begin in late September or October.  Contact the office for more information or head to our website to purchase.

Our Newsletter and MailChimp:  By subscribing to our MailChimp you can make sure you’re seeing our newsletter each week once CSA starts.  We will send out other various communications if we want to let you know about member work days or you-pick opportunities etc. You can subscribe by heading to the bottom of our website’s home page (monroefarm.com) and filling out the “subscribe” form with your info.  We will be transitioning away from our blog! This maybe the last newsletter that is posted on the blog.

May is a huge month for planting.  Kyle and The Crew have been and will be planting non-stop through the month of May and June.   The rain, however, has stalled us from planting our popcorn, green beans, sweet corn, and some potatoes.  We did get hit by a hail storm.  There is damage across the entire farm. Because it’s early in the season, we can bounce back! So far, it looks like we haven’t lost entire crops.  Hopefully, the plants don’t rot from all the rain we’re getting.  We’ve gotten a half years’ worth of rain in the last month and a half.  Hail is the most challenging weather that we deal with!

It’s a very busy time of year and when the weather allows, planting will continue until the first week of August.  Crops such as beans, corn, squash, cucumbers, and melons must be repeatedly planted in order to harvest them throughout the summer.  If something goes awry with a planting, you may not see a certain crop for a few weeks.  Such is the way of nature and farming!

Zelle Payments: To send a zelle payment please use the email address: jacquie@monroefarm.com

“Sometimes I wish I could photosynthesize so that just by being, just by shimmering at the meadow’s edge or floating lazily on a pond, I could be doing the work of the world while standing silent in the sun.”
― Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass

With gratitude and love,

Kyle and Sam, Jacquie and Jerry