Let us eat lettuce!

Hello!

We’re heading into the last May market, and it’s looking to be very similar to the first two May markets with one new addition – head lettuce! It’s really crisp and tender this time of year, having not yet been subjected to the heat of summer.

We’re still moving a little more slowly in the field than we had hoped, though. As you may recall, Bill is using a new field this year. Four acres – a record area for Bill to manage. By all appearances, it should be functioning like the Garden of Eden – dark, black, crumbly floodplain soil adjacent to a babbling brook. Unfortunately, it turns out that the sandy component of the soil (which is great for root crops to grow through) facilitates the leaching of key nutrients under extremely wet conditions. So last fall’s and this spring’s heavy rains likely washed out much of the nitrogen that had been fixed into the soil by last year’s planting of soybeans and clover. As a result, the plants aren’t growing as fast and Bill has switched into his “Bill Davison, Soil Scientist” mode. He’s testing the soil, amending it with organic materials, and doing little dances to the god of soil to encourage faster growth. Like I said … very scientific.

Ben is doing his part as a farmhand. Although he appears to be dressed to hop into the next boxcar for a hobo adventure, this is actually how he dresses to farm (on a cool day -- sweater, quilted flannel, scarf, and train engineer hat). I really don't know where he gets his sense of style.



Did you know that the market is offering credit card/debit card payments? I’m a bit fuzzy on the details, but you can go to the farmers market tent (not the individual farmers’ stands) and use your credit/debit card to get cute wooden tokens in various denominations. You can then spend those tokens at the farmers’ stands. We get reimbursed accordingly. We do make change for the tokens, so there’s no penalty for using them. We are also able to accept tokens through the WIC and Senior Nutrition Program, although we can’t give change for those tokens.

Thanks to everyone who patronized Noah’s Art Stand, set up directly north of the green garlic. Noah brought a few kindergarten art pieces and sold them for $.25 apiece. He made $4.55 (extra five cents thanks to a tip from Scrogin Farm!). Intoxicated by his financial windfall, Noah declared that he is coming to the market every week to sell art! (We only brought them this week because the sitter was out of town.) He doesn’t even have a plan for spending it … he just likes having it! He obviously hasn’t yet heard of his obligation as an American to stimulate the economy by wasting it on some little trinket. We’re working on that. Ha ha.

For the next market, here’s what you can expect:

Head Lettuce
Spinach
Beets
Green Onions
Green Garlic
Nettle
Salad Mix.

If you have any questions (veggie, fruit, cooking, calculus, quantum theory), please don’t hesitate to call us at 309-467-9228. You can also email us at blueschoolhouse@yahoo.com, although during the farm season we can’t guarantee that we’ll be checking the email as often as usual.

Mercy

Sunny Skies for Saturday!

Hey all!
Thank you so much for coming out to see us last Saturday. It was a trifecta of suboptimal weather conditions – cold, windy and gray. Rain would have made it unbearable. I hope that the delicious vegetables made it worth the trek through the bad weather. The green garlic is really perfect right now, as are the beets. We had at least one first-time beet eater – you know who you are, and we’re dying to know how it went!
This coming Saturday will definitely be worth the trip because we are bringing two serious crowd pleasers … salad mix and spinach!! If you haven’t had fresh leafy greens since last fall (and I don’t mean Earthbound Farm pre-washed greens!), you are in for a real treat. The salad greens are a diverse mix of early spring favorites – leaf, bibb, romaine, speckled, and more! The spinach is to-die-for. Sweet and crisp enough to eat as a snack. Our boys go nuts for it. By the following Saturday, we hope to bring head lettuce.

We’re also bringing more nettle. Don’t be afraid of the stingers – they melt away when you drop them into boiling water. Blanch for two minutes, and then use it like you’d use spinach. I’m not just saying this … nettles are awesome! They are every bit as good as cooked spinach. We use them in omelets regularly, and we make nettle soup on occasion.
This week I had the opportunity to “teach” a group of 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders at Northpointe Elementary School. They were al l members of the school’s Ecology Club. The topic – local food. The kids were really into it! I brought some Earthbound Farm arugula and baby spinach for sampling and a bag of some other brand of baby carrots, broccoli, and cauliflower. I revealed the truth about “baby” carrots (they’re just mature carrots that have been put through a lathe). It was a blast! (Especially the part where we talked about heritage turkey breeds. It didn’t occur to me how funny the 5th grade boys would find the discussion about broad breasted white turkeys, whose breasts are so large that they can’t stand up. In reality, it’s a very disturbing fact about factory-raised turkey. However, for a 5th grade boy, it’s just a chance to laugh about big breasts.)
Just when life couldn’t get any better for the boys, our farmhand Phil brought them a TRASH BAG full of his old Legos. Do you know how much space is taken up by a dumped-over garbage bag of Legos? About half of your living room. When Ben asked Noah if he could find tractor pieces in the pile, Noah answered, “Ben you can probably find anything you want in there.” Lego nirvana.


The boys also found the first ripe strawberries of the year. Whoopee!

Out in the field, Bill and the farmhands have been very busy taking advantage of the recently dry weather. They transplanted 600 sweet potato plants, weeded 6,000 onions and 8,000 garlic plants, transplanted 280 tomatoes, 250 eggplants, and 300 peppers, planted ½ acre of sweet corn (keep your fingers crossed and we may get some if we can keep the raccoons away), weeded four 150-foot beds of spinach, mulched about 1/3 of the 1200 pounds of potatoes that we planted, mulched the kale, collards, and Brussels sprouts. Bill also hooked up and tried out his new 1960’s New Holland 450 sickle mower for cutting hay. It works, but it needs a new sickle blades to be really effective.


Potatoes after hilling


For the next market, here’s what you can expect:
Spinach
Beets
Green Onions
Green Garlic
Nettle
Salad Mix

If you have a burning veggie question, please don’t hesitate to call us at 309-467-9228. You can also email us at blueschoolhouse@yahoo.com, although during the farm season we can’t guarantee that we’ll be checking the email as often as usual.
Best,
Mercy

Coming to a market near you ... the Blue Schoolhouse Farm!

Just when you thought it was safe to go online … out of nowhere comes a new posting on the Blue Schoolhouse Farm blog! Yes, that’s right. We’re back. Mercy, Bill, Noah, Ben, whatever cats are currently living here, and various family members who drop in for extended stays. I really don’t know how you were able to make it through the long, off-season months without hearing about our madcap farming adventures. Ha ha!

The off-season was great. Here’s a quick recap: Noah did well in kindergarten, Ben passed his kindergarten screening, both boys took beginning swimming lessons, Bill made 100 pounds of sausage, and I ran the first-ever Champaign-Urbana half marathon with friends. That’s it! Six months in one sentence … I find that to be oddly comforting.

Oh wait, I forgot that Noah learned the “F” word! Now that’s been fun. Noah came home last week and announced, “Mom, I learned four new curse words today.” I said, “OK, what are they?”, expecting him to list off something innocuous. Oh no. And the rest of this paragraph is R-rated for adult language … Noah answered, “Fuck.” Just like that – totally matter-of-fact. I about fell over. It’s really weird when your little baby (OK, he’s almost 7!) says something like that. I gasped and said, “Well, you’ve hit the jackpot. That’s the big one. The one you can never say again. You just say ‘the “F” word.’ Where did you learn that?” I was expecting him to say that he’d learned it on the bus from one of the big kids. (6th graders will say anything, as you know.) He told me he’d read it on the back of some playground equipment. I guess that’s what we get for teaching kids to read so young! Anyway, I thought I was clear about him never, ever, ever repeating that word in front of me or other adults when he asked “What does the ‘fuck word’ mean?” Once again, my jaw dropped. I told him, “It’s the ‘f word.’ You don’t say the whole word. And in any case, I’m not going to get into details. It means different things depending on how you say it. Just forget about it.”

I thought that was it until we came back from the field later in the day, and Noah had written the “F word” (spelled out, of course) in chalk on the sidewalk along with a list of words that rhyme with it – duck, luck, buck. You get the idea. He had turned it into a little language lesson. On some level, I was glad to know that he could rhyme and spell so well! And we haven’t had any further “F word” incidents since then. I’m keeping my fingers crossed.

And while we’re talking about the boys, both Noah and Ben have become big fans of clip-on ties. They found one in a box of clothes, and they’ve never been the same. We had to go buy two more at the resale shop just to avoid a fight over the one they found. They wear them everywhere (Menards, for example and with anything (ever seen a clip-on with a t-shirt?). I feel like I’m living with two little Alex P. Keatons.


In farming news, our new field along Walnut Creek is beautiful. The soil is much looser than our upper field and we expect great improvements in our crops. Time will tell, but right now things look really good. Things in the greenhouse look wonderful. Check out the beets! We’re also including a pictures of the shooting stars (native prairie plant) that we grow in front of our house. It’s our 4 square foot attempt at “landscaping.”



And how have you been? You’d be surprised how often we think of you. And I mean individually. Like “Oh boy, customer X would knock over a little old lady to get this arugula!” So we’re very excited to start bringing you the vegetables that you love in the 2009 season. The first market is set for next Saturday, May 16 from 7:30 a.m. until noon. We will have our stand in the same place, although parts of the market will be relocating to the south side of Washington. You’ll figure it out as soon as you arrive – no worries! (Although you do need to be careful when crossing Washington, as traffic will not be blocked.) This unusual reconfiguration of the market is brought to you complements of … THE RECESSION. The recent economic downturn has hit the City of Bloomington in the pocketbook, and as I understand it (which is always sketchy) they needed to cut back on the expensive overtime costs required to have city employees close off Main Street west of the history museum.

As you have likely noticed, this spring has been a bit wet. From what I hear, a lot of farmers are about two weeks behind with many crops because they weren’t able to get out into the fields at the typical time. Bill managed to get things into the ground here and there when there were 24-48 hour periods of time when the soil was dry enough, but it was really nerve wracking. We called in reinforcements (Read: Friends who are too nice to say “no”) for potato planting, and I spent hours on my knees one day rescuing the garlic from the weedy oats that were growing through last season’s mulch, which was cut too late due to rainy weather issues. I’ve also been spending lots of time in the greenhouse weeding the beets (which look fabulous!).

That’s all to say that we’ve had our challenges this spring, but it’s still looking awesome out there! For the first market, here’s what you can expect:

Beets
Green Onions
Green Garlic
Nettle
Salad Mix
Carrots
Onions
Celery Root
Black Spanish Radishes
Rutabaga

Note that none of the above will be available in great quantities, so I’d advise you to get to the market early. You may want to consider a helmet and elbow pads just in case other customers get frisky over the limited offering.

As always, if you have questions, give us a call at 309-467-9228 or shoot us an email at bluescoholhouse@yahoo.com.

Looking forward to seeing you on Saturday!
Mercy

Thanksgiving Market, Here We Come!

Hello my baby, Hello my darlin', Hello my ragtime gal ...

Aaaahhh, the Thanksgiving Market. We’ve had just enough time to rest and relax that one more intense market just sounds like FUN! If you were at our stand at last year’s Thanksgiving market, you probably recall the crazy crowd, the long lines, and the empty crates. Bill and I never dreamed that the market would be that successful, so we didn’t bring any help and couldn’t manage the long line very well and had no chance to re-stock the crates. We’ve learned our lesson! This year, we’re bringing 2-3 helpers. Our friend Kannan has been selling our vegetables at the stand all season, so he’ll help keep the line moving along. And current farmhand Pete and former farmhand Kevin will keep the crates stocked.

We’re also going to try to keep the lines away from the crates so that you can actually get to the food! The plan is to have two lines on opposite ends of the stand with the people lining up away from the crates. I really hope this works! Be sure to come by the market at the Coliseum on Saturday, Nov. 22 between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. We plan to bring a ton of food, so if time gets away from you and you realize that it's 1 p.m., come on down!

And now for the important part of the email. What are we bringing?? A LOT OF VEGETABLES! If the weather cooperates, we’ll have many of the awesome greens that we had at the October markets. And regardless of the weather, this market will be dominated by the ROOTS!



Root Cellar Loaded with Your Root Vegetables



The Root Cellar "Guard Snake" (Bill found this snake living in the root cellar about three weeks ago. It's trying to hibernate, but the temperature probably isn't quite cold enough, so it keeps moving around.)

I’m going to list the vegetables that we’re bringing below with some basic information and cooking/eating tips. After that list, I’ll list STORAGE INFORMATION. And I’ll wrap up with some recipes. It’s a lot of information, but we really want you to a) come to the market and b) buy lots of food! Be sure to check out http://www.downtownbloomington.org/index.php?id=6 for more information about the market in general, which promises to be even better than last year’s event!

Roots
1. Beets (Traditional and Chioggia) – Beets are one of our TOP FIVE best sellers every season. That should be enough to convince you that they’re a must-eat! Beets can be grated fresh onto a leafy green salad or into a grated root salad. We typically roast them, skins on, for a deep, surprisingly sweet flavor. You don’t have to do much once they’ve been roasted or steamed – a simple balsamic vinaigrette is perfect.
2. Brussels Sprouts – A few rules from Elizabeth Schneider: Buy them small and superfresh. Do not overcook them. Do not undercook them. Last year we brought them on the logs, but this year we’ll be snapping them to be purchased by the pound. Brussels sprouts are a vegetable that gets better after a few good frosts, so Bill’s Brussels sprouts will be about as good as it gets. They also store well for a couple of weeks in plastic.



Brussels Sprouts

3. Rutabaga – Elizabeth Schneider nailed it: “Rutabaga is sharp-sweet when raw, mellowed by cooking; it is neatly cuttable into trim batons; it can be pureed in soup or slivered into slaw, grated and gilded as little pancakes, steamed in dumplings, braised with sweet spices and on and on. There’s really just one way NOT to cook it: in lots of water for a long time.” Our kids LOVE rutabaga, either mashed with potatoes, added to a pureed root soup, or roasted with other root veggies. Here's a series of photos depicting Ben's contribution to the rutabaga harvest ...



The Rutabaga



Boy Meets Rutabaga



Boy Sizes Up the Rutabaga



Boy Takes on the Rutabaga



Rutabaga Appears to Be Winning



Boy Resorts to Digging



Boy, Triumphant!

4. Carrots – No need to talk up the carrots! Bill’s fall carrots are amazingly sweet and crisp. We got a lot of positive feedback from people who purchased many pounds of carrots last year for storage. They ate them for MONTHS and agreed that the carrots were fabulous right up to the end. We stored about 100 pounds of them last year and ate them until late April!



Carrots!

5. Celery Root – Also called “celeriac,” celery root is just about the ugliest vegetable ever to be cultivated. Fortunately, celery root is really delicious with a mild celery flavor. Elizabeth Schneider describes it as an “earthy prize … imbued with herbaceous pungency.” I dislike fresh celery but LOVE celery root. I like to grate it into a fresh, grated root salad with a light lemon vinaigrette dressing. I also like it cubed and steamed and then added to potato salad. It’s also wonderful in a pureed root soup.



Celery Root

6. Japanese Turnips – It seems that many people have discovered the delightful Japanese turnip. They have a thin skin and a juicy sweet turnip flavor, which makes them perfect for eating raw. You can also roast or braise them, and they’re a natural combination with potatoes either mashed or in a gratin.
7. Parsnips – A classic fall vegetable, parsnips are sweet, nutty and earthy all in one. It’s hard to imagine the cold months without parsnips. They’re indispensable in pot roasts, roasted root vegetable dishes, and in soup/soup stocks. You can also puree them with potatoes. Parsnips are at their best after the weather has turned very cold, and they store well.
8. Radishes – All of the radishes are at their peak right now. With the exception of the spicier Black Spanish, all of Bill’s varieties are sweet and crisp. Radishes are often overlooked. Some people think they’re just too hot. Others worry that they’ll get radishes with a pithy heart. The truth is that Bill’s radishes are amazing this time of year. Crisp through to the center and beautiful in appearance, radishes should play a key role in your Thanksgiving feast – a simple fresh veggie platter is your best bet. (According to food diva Alice Waters, a meal at her nationally known restaurant Chez Panisse is not quite complete without radishes!) We’ll have 5 varieties:
French Breakfast – Half pink, half white, 100% delicious
Daikon – This Asian radish is at its best in late fall. Its distinctive elongated white shape makes it a good candidate for matchsticks.
Rose Heart – Don’t miss these. They are the most beautiful of all the radishes, with a crazy bright pink interior. They’re irresistible on a fresh veggie platter. If you peel the outer skin off, they are more like a carrot than a radish. When we take cut up roots to a party to share with friends the rose heart radish is always the first one to be eaten.



Rose Heart Radish

Cute Little Red Radishes – Classic radish with unparalleled cuteness.
Black Spanish – Locavores take note! This radish should be an important part of seasonal eating. They are meant to be stored and they reach their peak from December to April. Thus filling in at a time when the typical small radishes are not available. Pioneers relished them, so can you. Cocoa colored on the outside with an ivory flesh, the Black Spanish radish is an ancient variety. The dense flesh permits it to be stored for long periods without becoming pithy. The flavor mellows over time. We favor cooking them with other roots, rather than eating them raw. Cut into bite-sized pieces for roasting, and they’re much like turnips. Shredded into soup, stew or a braise, Black Spanish radishes add a unique flavor.
8. Potatoes - We're bringing fingerlings, russets, and more! It wouldn't be Thanksgiving without potatoes. Fingerlings make the most AMAZING potato salad ever, and russets are a classic, floury potato -- perfect for mashing!

Bulb
Garlic – Every dinner should incorporate garlic in some fashion, and not the kind that you shake out of a container with salt! If you’re feeling ambitious, roast garlic in aluminum foil (sealed).

Swollen stem vegetables
1. Fennel – Your first bite into raw fennel is quite an experience. It has the texture of celery and a very mild anise flavor. I personally like neither celery nor black licorice, so I was shocked to really enjoy fennel! We like to sliver it raw into salads or use it to replace celery in potato salad. Alice Waters also parboils fennel bulbs for pastas, caramelizes them as a side dish, braises whole bulbs, and adds to stocks. You can eat the entire plant.



Fennel in the Field



"Fennel Butts" (the technical term)

2. Kohlrabi – Our fall kohlrabi is spectacular, absolutely as good as they get. I find them to be irrisistable. I like to think of kohlrabi as a cross between an apple and a turnip. Elizabeth Schneider describes it as a cross between broccoli stalks, water chestnut, and cucumber. I hope that sounds good to you, because it really is! We tend to eat kohlrabi raw, cut into matchsticks and served with a tahini dip or a smear of soft cheese such as goat cheese or bleu cheese. Perfect for a fresh veggie tray.

Greens – I’ll write more about these later if we’ll be bringing them!
Salad Mix
Head Lettuce
Bok Choi
Arugula
Ruby Streaks
Tatsoi
Stir Fry Greens
Kale
Swiss Chard
Collard Greens

Storage Tips

All roots – store in the fridge in plastic bags OR in damp sand in a garage*, basement or root cellar. (* The damp sand will protect the roots against cold weather until it gets down into the low 20s, at which point some damage may occur. If your garage is insulated or if you put the damp sand into an insulated cooler, it should be fine.) We have eaten roots into April from the previous fall season, stored in damp sand, and they were fabulous. You can also use crumpled newspaper or untreated sawdust (be sure it’s untreated!). We will have already cut off the greens, which is appropriate for storage.

Kohlrabi is best stored in a plastic bag in the fridge.

Brussels sprouts store in a plastic bag in the fridge for many weeks, although they are best eaten sooner rather than later.

Note where they can buy sand this time of year.

Garlic – Store garlic on the kitchen counter, not in a plastic bag. Good air circulation is important. If you want to keep it for months, it’s best to find a cool, dark place like a basement. (Don’t take them apart into cloves until ready for use.)

The greens will be a question mark until closer to the market. It all depends on the weather. I’ll try to send out another email the week of the Thanksgiving market when we can tell what will know for sure about the greens.

Since we're always telling you what to do with your food, we thought we'd end with a list of what you should ask Santa for this Christmas ...

1. Stick blender (Mercy)
2. Vegetables A to Z (Elizabeth Schneider)(Mercy)
3. Japanese Santoku kitchen knife, a big improvement over your German knives. Just search for them on Google. I just got a Masamoto Santoku, it is a pure joy to use, and worth every penny. (Bill)
4. Smoker (Bill)
5. Chinois strainer for soup and stock (Bill)
6. Elizabeth David, James Beard, and Richard Olney books (Bill)

Our best to you and yours during this holiday season!!

Mercy, Bill, Noah and Ben Davison

Season Finale -- Won't You Join Us?

First, a word from the farmer …

We would like to thank all of you for making this a tremendous year for our farm. The season was not without its challenges, but overall it was the best year we have had yet. We could not do this without you and we sincerely appreciate your support. Our sales at the market were way up this year and they held steady right to the end. Our newly re-started CSA has also been a great success. Several factors came together to help us have such a good year. First of all, we had another crop of great interns. Then there’s the electric cultivating tractor, regular rains, moderate temperatures, our boys are getting big enough to actually help, my younger brother visiting for several weeks, and my getting better every year at figuring out the most efficient way to do any given task on the farm. Of course, it still involves a tremendous amount of work and virtually no break from March until November. But I love every aspect of farming and I derive great satisfaction from growing food for people who truly appreciate our vegetables.

I am already really excited for next year. The local food movement seems to be gaining more momentum every year. Have you heard about Will Allen? He is an organic farmer from Milwaukee who works with young inner city kids to teach them how to grow their own food. He just received a $500,000 genius grant from the McArthur Foundation. Also, Michael Pollan wrote a great piece for the New York Times magazine a couple of weeks ago entitled Farmer in Chief. He lays out what it would take to have a sane agricultural policy in this country that relies on sunlight and photosynthesis rather than fossil fuels. When the new president takes office, let’s all hope he appoints Pollan as the new Secretary of Agriculture!

And a note from the farmer’s wife …

I echo Bill’s gratitude. You all are really the best customers a farmer ever had! What Bill does for a living is a passion. But as much as he loves it, he could not keep at such hard work without knowing that people are enjoying his produce so very much. So pat yourselves on the back for supporting the Blue Schoolhouse!

We really, really hope to see you this Saturday. Why? It’s the LAST SATURDAY MARKET of 2008 AND it’s supposed to be rainy and nasty. That’s right … total crapola for the season finale. So don’t let us stand out there in the cold rain by ourselves. Join us! Seriously, we’re planning on going out with a bang. We aren’t going to pick just a little bit of everything, figuring that the customers will all stay home in their nice, dry homes. On the contrary, we know that you know that this is one of your last chances to get the best fresh produce in central Illinois! And you’ll all be out at the market in droves, right? Right!

And don’t forget the very last chance for Blue Schoolhouse veggies at the Thanksgiving Market. On Saturday, Nov. 22 from 10 a.m. until 1 p.m. the farmers will bring their produce, meat (we’ve heard rumor of a BISON vendor!), and a variety of prepared foods to the Coliseum for a pre-holiday extravaganza. That’s your chance to impress your foodiest friends with the delicacies of fall … salad greens, arugula, root vegetables of all kinds … it will be awesome! The event will also feature fine arts and crafts and a cool jazz ensemble.

This week’s photos …

The picture of the field with the four round bales is the location for next season’s garlic. In fact, Bill needs help planting and mulching garlic over the next few weeks. Are you interested? It is as fun as it sounds. Ha! Ha! It’s not that bad, and you’d be helping to get the 2009 season underway. And of course, we’d send you home with veggies just for helping! Email if you’re interested.

The jack-o-lanterns are Ben and Noah’s first. Uncle Aaron carved them based on the boys’ artistic skills. The one with the googly moogly eyes (as we call them) are a Ben original.

The leaf picture is a “find-the-boy” exercise. The bright, blue eye is Noah’s. Ben helped to cover him in a leaf pile, which inspired quite a bit of fun time together.

Please let your friends know about the blog. Call us at 467-9228 or email us at blueschoolhouse@yahoo.com if you have questions.

Thanks!
Mercy Davison

Loads of Food in the Home Stretch!

Hello Friends!

We’re still going strong. Lots of greens, beans, salad mix, and roots – you don’t want to miss it! Last week’s market was great, although we did notice a slight drop in attendance. What does that mean to you? Less competition for great vegetables! We will have a ton of food for you this week. Don’t miss it.

Bill’s brother Aaron is unexpectedly in town for two weeks. He’s a total work horse. Thank goodness! Right when Bill needs the help! That said, Bill still wants to extend an open invitation to customers to come out and help harvest on any of the remaining three Fridays of the market season. It’s really fun – just ask the 11 people who came out last Friday! The age spread was remarkable, from 18 to 78. There’s something for everyone.

This week we’re including a picture of one of our CSA members, who rides his bike most weeks to the vegetable pickup. He’s got a classic, one-speed bike that he’s rigged up with baskets for the 2-HOUR ride from Morton to Eureka. Can you believe that?! He also came out to harvest last week, which makes him a superhero in our book.

We’re also including pictures of delicious vegetables AND a photo of the new field where Bill will be planting the garlic in late October. (By the way, we’ll need help with the garlic planting!)

Don’t forget we have TWO MORE MARKETS AFTER THIS ONE!

Here’s what we’ll be bringing to the market this week:

Salad Mix
Potatoes
French Filet Beans
Dragon Tongue Beans
Eggplant
Beets (Traditional, Golden, and Chioggia)
Kale
Parsley
Swiss Chard
Cucumbers
Garlic
Leeks
Head Lettuce
Sweet Peppers
Bok Choi
Arugula
Ruby Streaks
Radishes (French Breakfast, Daikon, Rose Heart, and cute little red ones)
Japanese Turnips
Fennel
Apples
Tatsoi
Stir Fry Greens
Celery Root
Parsnips
Carrots
Collard Greens

Bill will continue to deliver to the Garlic Press in Uptown Normal on Thursdays through the end of the season, but we’re done with Common Ground until 2009. So if you need Bill’s veggies prepared into a fabulous meal, Garlic Press is right down the road.

We’ll see you at the Downtown Bloomington Farmers Market on Saturdays from 7:30 a.m. – noon. BRING YOUR BAGS!!

Please let your friends know about the blog. Call us at 467-9228 or email us at blueschoolhouse@yahoo.com if you have questions.

Thanks!
Mercy Davison

Farming -- It Takes a Village

Hello Friends!

With the help of modern medicine (big doses of ibuprofen to the rescue!), Bill’s back is feeling quite a bit better. He still can’t really lift anything, and he’s avoiding too much bending, but at least he can now put on his own socks and shoes!

We had a great response to the cry for harvest help! Five people have said they’d come out for a portion of Thursday and Friday. Whoo-hoo! We are so grateful for the help, and we know more of you would have come out if it weren’t for work-week obligations. Of course, with people coming out, I guess I’ll have to clean the bathroom …

This past week has been primo weather for the cool season crops. When you come out to the market on Saturday, you will see a stunning array of fall veggies. Did you see the spread last week? It was our BIGGEST WEEK aside from two tomato weekends in August. We were floored by the amount of people that came out and the amount of vegetables that we sold – THREE TIMES what we sold on the same Saturday last year. Whoa. We plan to bring just as much this week, so please come out!! We have only FOUR MORE WEEKS of the market, and you don’t want to miss a single one. The last market is on Saturday, October 25.

What’s on this week’s menu? I’ll list everything below, but let me highlight some of the most exciting items. First, the salad mix. Ahhh. We’ve been eating it just about every day. Our kids (ages 4 and 5) eat it by the bowl-full, and then ask for seconds! What better testimonial could you have? Second, the head lettuces. The heads are just beautiful right now. Third, the four types of radishes. According to Bill, the French Breakfast radishes are awesome this week. They are in perfect condition and are much milder than usual because of the cool weather.

In addition to all that, we’ll be bringing a few butternut squash. Jackie at the Garlic Press has been very impressed with the flavor of the squash this season. (And it’s the first time we’ve brought them to the market in years – Bill usually isn’t so successful in growing them!) We’ll also have amazingly sweet and tasty carrots and parsnips. It’s root season – time to make roasted vegetables, pot roasts, and soup!

The rest of the greens will also be amazing! The arugula is in perfect condition as are the ruby streaks, collard greens, swiss chard, and kale. The various chois (bok choi, tatsoi) are also crisp and delicious. And if you can’t quite decide, pick up a bag of the mixed stir fry greens.

Bill had an ISU horticulture class come out for a tour this week, and he got to meet the new hort professor (Dr. Kopsell). Dr. Kopsell is a major fan of kale, telling his students that “it’s the healthiest vegetable you never eat.” He also noted that it has more betacarotene than carrots and more calcium than milk!

So we’re just moving into our fall routines out here. Bill and Pete have now ripped out all of the tomato plants, tilled under most of the warm-season crop beds, and planted cover crops (which are coming up already!). Pete got to “top” the brussel sprouts (which makes them mature at the top of the stalk rather than continuing to grow) – he had a great time chopping those heads off with a sharp knife. It was a bit of a samurai experience for him.

We also had our first bat-in-the-house experience. It was last Saturday night. We were sitting in the kitchen drinking beer with the Mitchells (of Mitchell Farm fame), and the kids were out in the living room watching a movie in the dark. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a fluttering shadow near the ceiling. I quickly realized that it was a bat. We were so excited! Fortunately, everyone in the house loves bats, as they are very useful little creatures (eating bugs, esp mosquitoes -- who doesn't love that??!!). We calmly herded the kids into the bathroom, and then Carson Mitchell (age 14) gently scooped the bat into a mason jar after it landed on our bed. He (the bat) was very small, perhaps only 4 inches in length. We let him out after taking pictures, which unfortunately did not turn out. Oh well. It was quite fun!

Here’s what we’ll be bringing to the market this week:

French Filet Beans
Traditional Green Beans
Dragon Tongue Beans
Eggplant
Beets (Traditional, Golden, and Chioggia)
Kale
Parsley
Swiss Chard
Cucumbers
Garlic
Leeks
Head Lettuce
Sweet Peppers
Bok Choi
Arugula
Ruby Streaks
Radishes (French Breakfast, Daikon, Rose Heart, and cute little red ones)
Japanese Turnips
Fennel
Apples
Grapes
Tatsoi
Stir Fry Greens
Celery Root
Parsnips
Carrots
Collard Greens

Bill will continue to deliver to the Garlic Press in Uptown Normal on Thursdays through the end of the season, but we’re done with Common Ground until 2009. So if you need Bill’s veggies prepared into a fabulous meal, Garlic Press is right down the road.

We’ll see you at the Downtown Bloomington Farmers Market on Saturdays from 7:30 a.m. – noon. BRING YOUR BAGS!!

Please let your friends know about the blog. Call us at 467-9228 or email us at blueschoolhouse@yahoo.com if you have questions.

Thanks!
Mercy Davison