Here's to August!

I can hardly believe that it's the last day of July! The weather, with its cooler temperatures and consistent rain, has been reminding me of Pennsylvania, where Bret and I are from.

But with August comes the preparations for fall crops. We've pulled out all of the potatoes (with some much appreciated help from friends and shareholders), pulled out the first round of summer squash, and finally cleared the last of the spring beds. Some of the open space will be replanted in kale, broccoli, brussel sprouts, cabbage, lettuce/greens, carrots, and more. We will cover the rest of the open space with cover crops of daikon radishes, wheat, canola rape, or hairy vetch.

Also, August brings us to the beginning of the new school year. We have just over 2 weeks to continue working full-time in the garden before heading back to the classroom.

Well, I've got to start canning these tomatoes, so here (at last) is a recipe tomatillos!
Enjoy!


Tomatillo Salsa (Salsa Verde)

8oz. tomatillos (husked)
1 small white or red onion (chopped)
3-5 peppers
1 garlic clove

Bret roasts the tomatillos, onions, peppers, and garlic in a skillet, though our recipe call for these ingredients to be raw. If you choose to keep them raw, chop the tomatillos, peppers, and garlic.
Remove ingredients to chopper, blender, food processor, etc. and process. For the raw salsa, add enough water to bring to a saucelike consistancy. Stir in 1/2 tsp of salt (or to taste) and an optional 3/4 tsp of sugar.

thanks from (and to) greg

Bramble Hill Farm
(won't do you no harm - a poem)

the earth is a heart that feeds us
with roots and fruits and magic.
the earth we stand on is like this,
this hill that drinks up the sun
in big gulps
between the thunder and the rain.

look how many treasures it gives us
when loving hands pluck its fertile strings
and the earth sings sweetly beneath us.

much love,
greg

Welcome to June!

With a bit more than 2 weeks left of spring, the weather is starting to heat up and the rain is slowing down. This weekend proved to be sunny and sweaty! Our potatoes have grown tall enough to be hilled. So we hilled... and are still hilling. Hilling potatoes means to pull up the soil from between the rows of potatoes, onto the potatoes to encourage more tubers to grow. It also makes them easier to harvest.

With the onset of 90* temperatures, some of our spring crops are heading to seed and leaving our CSA baskets. This will probably be the last week for the snap peas.. what a treat they've been! I wonder how everyone is eating their spring produce? Raw? Cooked? Leave a comment and share a recipe!

We've been enjoying lots of salad and stir-fry. I usually leave the stir-fry to Bret, he does a great job of improvising sauces. My favorite ingredients are tahini, soy sauce, sesame oil, and of course garlic...

Hope to see you soon!
Stephanie

Helping Hands

As I sit here on our front porch, listening to our rain barrels filling with rain, I am thinking about the very busy week that has just officially ended and am enjoying the break that the rain is providing.

This past week we were fortunate enough to have some extra hands in the garden. Great thanks to shareholders Emma and Dave, who came out to the farm on Wednesday to help prepare our tomato plants for the long season ahead. They weeded and mulched our whole tomato crop! What a sight to come home to after our first CSA delivery!

On Friday, my mom (visiting from Pennsylvania) and another Bramble Hill Farm shareholder, Beth, helped transplant another crop of lettuce and prepare for more of our cucumbers. Soon thereafter, Bret and 20 students from the Abintra Montessrori School arrived ready to get their hands dirty! They helped prepare beds for planting, created bamboo teepees for beans, weeded existing beds, and planted the second half of our summer squash. This was a great start to the weekend!
Bret, my mom, and I spent Saturday soaking up the sun in the garden. A bit behind schedule, we transplanted eggplant, peppers, cucumbers, squash, and flowers. As I type, a beautiful steady, light rain is falling…perfect for the new transplants!

I hope you all enjoy your memorial day, whether in-doors or out!

Beginnings, a continuation, and endings

full rain barrels and plants in waiting

Hurray for spring! The CSA will begin next Wednesday May 20th!
We have officially welcomed in the harvest season with working shareholders Emma and Dave. They came out to get their hands (and clothes) dirty last Friday and we shared a lunch of fresh picked spinach con queso burritos with homemade tortillas. Thanks Emma and Dave for helping us make the most of a (semi) dry day!

As the rain continues, we are appreciating our hilltop garden! Luckily for us, the garden has been draining well and we have not to had very much rain damage (only a few tomatoes were lost to the oversaturated soil). We are hoping for a week of dry weather so we can prepare more beds for transplaning cucumbers, squash, beans, more tomatoes, more lettuce, etc, etc, etc....

With the end of May comes the end of the school year. Bret and I will both be finishing the school year at Abintra Montessori and A New Leaf Preschool and are excited to have more time to spend in the garden!

a break in the rain

blackberry blooms and bumblebees

I heard on the radio yesterday that this is one of the rainiest may's in 30 years! The rain has really slowed us down... its been a while since the garden was dry enough to transplant more vegetables.. The rain may slow down the start of the CSA, but filling the water table back up isn't something I'm about to complain about!
Needless to say, I really enjoyed today's sunshine and I hope you did too!

the chicken valley

strawberries

growing potatoes

snap peas and 3 rows of trellis

Dogwood Summer

Hello All!

This weekends to do list:
Saturday
- prepare chicken village for 30 new chicks!
- transplant more lettuce, onions, kale and TOMATOES!
- weed existing beds, mulch with grass clippings

Sunday?
- Cut and collect straw mulch with Hungry Gnome Farm!

Come Join Us!

EarthDay Potatoes!

L to R: Rose Finn Apple Fingerling, Kennebec, and Caribe Potatoes

Join us this Saturday morning/mid afternoon as we enjoy the warm sun, take advantage of the dry garden, and plant potatoes!

Morels, waxwings, and transplants!

Bret and I have been making the most out of these past couple sunny weekends! Last weekend was finally dry enough (in half the garden) to get some of our beds tilled, what a relief! So this Saturday and Sunday we transplanted, transplanted, and transplanted!!
We've added kale, cabbage, dill, swiss chard, lettuce, lettuce, lettuce, and onions to the garden!
We also directly seeded more turnips, more beets, and radishes into the garden!

Today's rainy day will be perfect for making soil blocks, our alternative to plastic seed trays! We have 1/2" blocks for seeds that like it hot! (tomatoes, peppers, eggplants), 2" blocks for most everything else, and 4" blocks for larger seedlings of tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, cucumbers and squash. Soil blocks reduce our reliance on plastic (something that shouldn't have a place in the garden) as well as builds up the soil. The blocks are made with a specific recipe from Eliot Coleman and includes soil, compost, green sand, colloidal phosphate, blood meal, and vermiculite.


Also this weekend, Bret and I spotted the arrival of Cedar Waxwings in anticipation of the berry season, what beautiful pests! These signs of spring led us into the woods hunting for morel mushrooms! The famed morels enjoy soil temperatures above 55 and can be found near the base of poplars, ash, and sycamore trees. Even though we were hiking with our two dogs (Tenny and Coyote), we still managed to collect 1/2lb for a delicious addition to our dinner! If you live near any of these trees, I highly recommend that you begin the hunt for morels!

April 10

Spring Break

This past week, Bret and I visited his sister for spring break. Maggie is going to vet. school at Ross University in St. Kitts & Nevis, a small 2 island country in the west indies... So we left our stresses behind for a week, and relaxed in the caribean with family!

We've picked up our dogs, counted our chickens (they're all still here!), and are ready to get back to work! Thank you to Beth and Eric for putting up with our pups for a week! Thanks to Rich & Morning, Alicia & Bert (Hungry Gnome Farm), and Larry for keeping our chickens and plants alive and well! And many thanks to Nancy, Greyson, and Cole for planting some of the many fig trees!!

We've got seedlings ready for transplant, greens and roots sprouting in the garden, and seeds waiting to be started!

Now...if only we can get that tiller to run....

..out to the garden!
Stephanie

Many Thanks!

When I came back to the house, after chicken chores this morning, I found a package of 50 fruit trees on our porch! Thank you John for connecting us to your orchard friends in Florida! I will now spend the rest of this wintry day digging holes and planting both fig and pear trees!
Another thank you to Abintra Montessori School, and Larry in particular, for letting us use their greenhouse! Larry will be watching over our beloved seedling while Bret and I visit his sister for spring break.

Friday...an overcast morning

March is here and seeds are sprouting!

Bret and I have been busy spending many hours both in the garden preparing beds and in the house starting seeds. Under our grow lights you can find: onions, cabbage, lettuce, kale, leeks, swiss chard, basil, and tomatoes! Once our nightly temperatures come up above freezing, we'll be planting carrots, beets, turnips, potatoes, and parsnips in the garden!

You can now find us on the LocalHarvest website!

We're still looking for CSA shareholders, so spread the word!

Working Shares!!

We would like to offer working shares to those who would love to get a CSA but can't quite afford it. The working shares will be decided on a case by case basis, with a variety of options available!

Some of the chores we are looking for help with:

helping with Wednesday's CSA basket pick-up
printing our weekly updates/recipes
weeding
harvesting
transplanting

Let us know if you're interested!
Stephanie

Sign up now! BHF CSA

At long last, Bret and I at Bramble Hill Farm are happy to announce our CSA for the 2009 season! We are looking for about 15 shareholders willing to buy into our farm for the growing season, and are offering a 15 week CSA beginning about the 3rd or ^4th week of May with 1/2 bushels (half shares) for $400. Shareholders have a choice of pick-up locations for their baskets; we will deliver shares to The Green Wagon (located at 4429 Murphy Rd in the Sylvan Park neighborhood) on Wednesday afternoons and offer an on-farm pick-up on Saturday mornings. If 15 weeks is not enough, a fall extension may also be in the future (weather dependant).

This spring and summer, the gardens here at Bramble Hill will be full of vegetables, herbs, fruits, and flowers. We have selected many rare varieties of plants due to their adaptability to the Tennessee climate, their natural pest and disease resistance, and their uniqueness. All of our produce is grown without the use of chemicals (pesticides, herbicides, or fertilizers).

If you would like to become a Bramble Hill Farm shareholder, please e-mail us for a copy of the contract!

Thank you and hope to hear from you soon!

Stephanie and Bret

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So…what is Community Supported Agriculture?

A CSA is a partnership of mutual commitment between a farm and a community of supporters which provides a direct link between the production and consumption of food.

By joining the Bramble Hill CSA, you become a shareholder of our farm and help to cover our yearly operating budget by purchasing a share of the season’s harvest. Shareholders make a commitment to support the farm throughout the season, and assume the costs, risks and bounty of growing food along with us. Each week you will be given a basket full of your share of the harvest.

Bramble Hill CSA

We are happy to let you know that this year Bramble Hill will offer a CSA running from May through September! We will have a pick-up at the Green Wagon, in the Sylvan Park neighborhood, on Wednesdays as well as an on-farm pick-up on Saturdays.

More details to come...