Thanks For Your Support in 2011!

We'd like to extend a sincere thank you to all of our members and market patrons for a great 2011 season - from all of us here at Hillside.

Hopefully you enjoyed the Indian Summer as much as we did - it allowed us to pack the Fall & Winter Storage Shares extra full and to keep our market stand colorful and well-stocked.  (And who would've thought we'd still be eating tomato sandwiches in November?)

How fortunate we are as farmers to share these gifts with gracious folks like you.  Stay tuned for 2012 updates.  We look forward to working with you for another bountiful year!

intensive gardening

These pictures capture how intensively we try to use our limited space.   There are two beds in the above pictures.  In one, Spring planted spinach was followed by a late melon planting.  The melons have created a living mulch for the leeks (planting in between beds) and at the same time have been allowed to sprawl onto the onions (grown in sets of 4) that have already finished growing.  In a couple weeks the melons will have been harvested and died back, making way for the leeks and red onion harvest.  Not perfect but it allowed us to get in a second space hogging melon planting.

All For The Tomatoes

This year we started 1200+ tomato plants from seed, including over 30 different heirloom varieties.  And then had to find space for all of them!  Back in June, our high tunnel, mid-tunnel, and two low-tunnels were filled with young plants just beginning to blossom.  Over the course of two or three days, we set about the meticulous task of stringing them up; each individual plant needed its own string to climb and provide support for its heavy fruit.

 

They sure are high-maintenance little buggers, but come August, SO worth it: Voila!

Clockwise from top left - Virginia Sweet, Mortgage Lifter, Big Beef, Carbon, Italian Heirloom, Stump of the World, Goldie, Hungarian Heart, Paul Robeson, Cosmonaut Volkov, Cherokee Purple.

The Wash Station Experience

Ever wonder how the veggies get so clean?  Take a tour of our washing station!  (We always try to leave a little dirt just to remind you they're grown in the earth.)

tower of (Hakurei) turnips

 Step 1: Soak.  It's important to submerge them in water right away to take off the field heat.  We fill up the tub and let them soak for a few minutes in a cold water bath.

cylindrical beets

 Step 2: Rinse.  Next, we lay them out on racks and spray them with water to rid them of excess dirt.  The root vegetables especially appreciate this extra rinse.

baby carrots 

Step 3: Dry.  This step is included just so we can admire their beauty in the sunlight.

Purple Sun potatoes

Step 4: Bundle.  Our favorite step (ha!).  Here, Jacob bundles the night away.  Notice the brick platform for drainage and the valley (newly tilled this year, now full of tomatoes, southeast corner of the property) in the background.  The white fence is electric to keep deer out and dogs in.

busy bundling beets

 Step 5: Store.  Our vegetable storage prayers were answered this year by the CoolBot ($299 + shipping).  With proper insulation and a regular old window air conditioner, any room can be transformed into a walk-in cooler of sorts.  This has made all the difference in our harvesting routine.  What used to be a nightmarish task is now a dream come true - and we sure appreciate those few extra minutes of sleep!

View From the Cupola

Last fall, we added a cupola on top of the barn.  (The project had been in the works ever since the barn was built in the early 90s - nothing like getting things done!)

cupola construction - Fall 2010

Now we're in the perfect position to gain a bird's eye view of the garden.  Look how far we've come since last year - and even since last month!

cupola view - Fall 2010

cupola view - May 2010

cupola view - June 2010

2011 CSA shares

For anyone still interested in joining, it's not too late! However, our shares are quickly filling up.  We plan on taking new members up until the season starts in early June, space depending - So be sure to get your name in before then: prairiegrown.com
or stop by the Brookings farmer's market and talk to one of us!

young onions

Springtime makes for busy chicks

April showers bring . . . worms! and other fun things living in the ground for our chickens to root out and snack on.

Meet the flock:

Cogburn, The Enforcer

Eve, baby of the family

Jude, aka Broody Judy

Henrietta and Georgette, Golden Girls

Our lovely hens give us four eggs each and every day - two brown and two green -  and we are so grateful, we let them freely scratch around outside in the yard (when the dogs are securely inside the house).  Two dozen eggs per week is just about enough to satisfy our baking needs!  This summer, we'll use these eggs in cookies and other baked goods we bring to sell at the farmer's market.  Someday we'd like to be able to sell the eggs, too; so this spring we'll be raising another handful of baby chicks (just as we did last spring), gradually adding to the flock until we've reached our optimum number.  In the meantime, we just enjoy their bounty and their peculiarities!