Leffler Family Farms Weekly Update, 6/15
Field picture tour…
The following pictures were taken over the last few days.
Black from Tula heirloom tomatoes with beets in the background.
From left to right:
onions, fava beans, lettuce mix, spinach, rainbow chard, and edamame
All-star Gourmet Lettuce Mix after a nice watering.
From left to right:
Sunflower patch (dry area left side of pic), peppers and eggplant interplanted with spinach, dill, cilantro, and lettuce (just freshly irrigated),
and Beefmaster tomatoes in black plastic mulch.
Beefmaster Tomatoes up front, Bhut Jolokia Ghost Peppers in next row.
First flower on the Mexican garbanzo beans.
Around the farm…
We are really starting to see great progress in the field. The recent hot days plus getting irrigation water down all the crops this past week has proven to be a great combo for the recent growth. Our patch of sweet corn is up nicely and the pumpkins/winter squash are finally just starting to break through the soil. We planted about an acre of solid pumpkins/squash with over 30 different varieties. As late as it is in the planting season, we will finally be done transplanting tomatoes, peppers, and flowers in the field. We will begin to focus on weeding on a daily basis as this is one of the toughest battles we face all season. Insect loads have been light so far in the field due to the unusually cold April this past year. We are really excited to see the progress and CSA members should start to see much more variety and a slight increase in volume of weekly shares. We have been blessed with ideal weather this month, we love it and so do the plants!
Companion planting
Our farm tires to be as efficient as possible and utilize as much of our land as possible when growing all these different types of veggies and flowers for CSA. Author Louise Riotte, wrote the book “Carrots Love Tomatoes” which is a great reference for companion planting. The idea is to plant intensively and successively all season to maximize your production. As you can see in the third from the last picture we interplanted our eggplant and pepper transplants with shorter, faster growing veggies that we will harvest out before the eggplant and peppers get to a large size. I seeded lettuce, spinach, dill and cilantro in lines next to the transplants which are in the middle of each row. We will begin to harvest these faster growing items in a few weeks, while the peppers and eggplant will begin to ripen come August. Most of our tomato transplants are interplanted with carrots this season in the field!
Pop, pop, pop!!!
We planted 16 rows of popcorn this season that are roughly 800 feet long and we are thrilled to say that they are coming in strong! This is an experimental plot to see what will do best for us so I planted several varieties. We planted miniature pink, Cherokee multicolor, Red Beauty, Dakota Black, Japanese Hulless White, Calico, and Pennsylvania Butter Yellow.
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Spotlight: beet greens
Two cups of chopped beet greens contains about 17 calories and almost two grams of protein. Two cups provide up to 160% RDA of vitamin A (as beta-carotene), 25% RDA of vitamin C, 253% RDA of vitamin K and 8% RDA of vitamin E. They also contain small amounts of all B-vitamins (except for B12).
When it comes to minerals, two cups of beet greens provide 89 milligrams of calcium (9% RDA), 2 milligrams of iron, 16% RDA of copper, 13% RDA each of magnesium and manganese, 12% RDA of potassium and 11% RDA of sodium.
Like most fruits and vegetables, beet greens contains all essential amino acids. They are particularly high in the essential amino acid, tryptophan, containing about 10% RDA. Tryptophan can be used by the body to produce the neurotransmitter, serotonin, which regulates mood and sleep cycles in humans. Getting adequate tryptophan in the diet might prevent mood imbalances and promote healthy sleep cycles.
Beet greens are usually a valuable source of lutein/zeaxanthin (Lutein and zeaxanthin are two carotenoid phytonutrients that play an important role in health, and especially eye health). One cup of raw beet greens may contain over 275 micrograms of lutein! Beet roots are not nearly so concentrated in lutein, although some beet roots – like the roots of yellow beets – may be valuable sources of this carotenoid. (Lutein can contribute to the yellow color of vegetables, and so yellow root vegetables—like yellow carrots or yellow beets—often contain more lutein than orange or red versions of these foods.)
Beet Greens Smoothie Recipe
* any smoothie recipe will taste great with beet greens instead of spinach.
Apple-Strawberry Beet Greens Smoothie 1 large apple, cored 1 medium banana, peeled 1 cup whole strawberries 2 cups beet greens, chopped 4-6 ounces of water
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Happy Father’s Day!
Anthony and Sarah
Leffler Family Farms
Local Motion CSA
970-689-2355
(f) 970-454-3588