Farm News May 28, 2024
Our Farmstand is in full swing:
Tuesday, Thursday, & Friday: 2 - 6:30 PM
Saturday: 8 am - 12:30 pm
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After a mild and wet winter, we’re back in the saddle again here at Fort Hill Farm. This spring found us once again building more greenhouses. We now have almost an acre of enriched soil under cover at the farm, and we’ve been using it to produce even more crops just a little ahead of the season. That’s how we can bring crops like fennel, celery, and bunched carrots to market about a month ahead of schedule. The good news is that many of these tunnels are largely unheated, using solar energy trapped by the greenhouse during the day to warm up the ground ahead of schedule.
Monty and Diana show off the VERY TINY crop of asparagus from our personal patch.
The spring main event is producing transplants for planting in the fields and for folks to pick up and plant at home. We have plenty of garden seedlings available at the farm, the Westport Farmers’ market, and at New Morning store in Woodbury. There is still plenty of time to get a garden in the ground this spring, and we will have the best selection for roughly the next week.
Danniella peeks out from behind the robust celery patch. Yes, that is voluptuous fresh basil in the foreground.
Field prep and planting have been in full swing for a month now. We produce and spread some 400 yards of compost each season. This is a labor-intensive task that can sometimes slow us down, but the investment we make in the soil now pays big dividends later in the season, especially for long-season crops like tomatoes, peppers, potatoes, carrots, and strawberries.
And speaking of spring’s star attraction, strawberries are beginning to ripen and should be ready for picking soon. We will update picking conditions on Facebook a couple times a week. Please remember that the delicious strawberries we grow are a labor of love—we don’t use herbicides or synthetic pesticides on them, so they require huge numbers of hours of weeding and picking on our hands and knees to get a crop, as well as fall mulching, spring uncovering, tillage, compost spreading, and spring planting. Please walk carefully in the patch, pick all ripe berries in your area, and remember to check out all the other healthy and delicious spring crops we have available!
We hope you enjoy the harvest.
Paul, Rebecca, and the Fort Hill Farm crew
Featured veg:
Celery: Early celery from the greenhouse! We are excited to be offering celery again this year, because classically, our soil has not supported successful celery crops (our last failed trial was in 2009, just to give you an idea). Given all the fine tuning of soil with micronutrients and minerals that Paul has done, he tenaciously wanted to give it another shot – we are glad he did! This celery may seem slightly different than you are used to, as it is very fresh, with firm stems and deep celery flavor.
Fennel: We rushed this crop along with a February sowing and April planting…it’s a Mediterranean native, with a sweet anise flavor that is wonderful in salads, and is very yummy brushed with olive oil and salt and tossed on the grill. Store for at least a few weeks in the fridge crisper.
Also available:
Head lettuce; salad mix; arugula; pea shoots; curly and lacinato kale; rainbow chard; kohlrabi, fennel, baby bok choy; red and French Breakfast radish; cilantro, parsley, basil; escarole; carrots; spinach (new patch just coming in) ; sprouting broccoli (as available); purplette onions (just coming in); radicchio (just coming in); scallions;
Coming Soon:
Strawberries! beets
Pick Your Own:
PERENNIAL HERBS:
Coming soon!
Recipes
Suggested by Rebecca Batchie
For more recipes, check out the Fort Hill Farm Recipe Database
Spring Salad with Fennel and Orange
From Allrecipes
Servings: 8
Ingredients
Dressing:
¼ cup white sugar (optional)
¼ cup red wine vinegar
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon chopped fresh basil
salt and pepper to taste
Salad:
1 (10 ounce) bag mixed salad greens
1 medium orange, peeled and broken into sections
1 small fennel bulb, thinly sliced
½ medium red onion, thinly sliced
½ cup slivered almonds
½ cup dried cranberries
Directions
Make the dressing: Whisk together sugar, vinegar, oil, basil, salt, and pepper in a small bowl until sugar dissolves.
Make the salad: Toss salad greens, orange sections, fennel, onion, almonds, and cranberries together in a large bowl.
To serve, pour dressing over salad and toss to combine.
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