BADSEED Farmer Dan, outstanding
(in a hole, on his new farm)
in his field.
(in a hole, on his new farm)
in his field.
~~~
IT'S THE LAST
FIRST FRIDAY
for 2010!
FIRST FRIDAY
for 2010!
Fellow Food Revolutionists and Farm-Fresh Junkies -
This is Farmer Brooke and I'm here to SAY that BADSEED is back in a major WAY..........
OK....sorry about that. I have a tendency to slip into cliche 80's rap lyrics when I am really tired. For some reason I have a god-awful Vanilla Ice song stuck in my head, perhaps due to the fact that I have been feeling like a (vanilla) ice cube all day long in this frigid weather! BUT don't despair.....a little cold will surely not phase my gregarious gang of die-hard growers. Our frozen finger tips are proud to bring you an assortment of local/organic delights this Friday at the BADSEED Farmers Market from 4-8 PM. Take note: we now close at 8 for the winter months. Besides, 9 PM was past our bedtime.
Mini Farm Up-Date:
Bye Bye BADSEED -
Well folks, it is the end of an era on good ole' BADSEED Farm as Dan and I witness the final "killing freeze". What was once a thriving backyard farm is now a dazzling graveyard riddled with the frozen corpses of crops that will never come to bear fruit again. It is a sad time for a Farmer to say goodbye to the dirt that nourished her for the past four years. I started BADSEED Farm at the ripe old age of 24, and at 28 I will turn my back on that blessed earth and plow new ground (13.5 glorious acres of new ground to be exact) on the east side of town. Although my heart is heavy, the future is full of FRUITS.
City Fruits with Urban Roots -
Aaaaahhh.....the Orchard!!! It has been a dream for Dan and I, ever since we met, to plant out an apple orchard together. For us, the Apple represents all of our hopes and dreams and the core of our love for one another. We have been working the land together for two years now, and the planting of these blessed fruit trees seals our fate. We will cultivate these trees together until the day we die and our "fruitful" legacy will be left for our great great great grandchildren to enjoy. We have carefully selected full size trees for our antique apple and pear varieties. Most of today's production orchards plant semi-dwarf trees which allow more trees to the acre and easier management. However, these trees are ripped out and re-planted every 15 to 20 years and lack the integrity of full-size trees. To the contrary, our magnificent apple trees will live to be well over 100 years old and our pear trees will live beyond 300 years!! As if that isn't crazy enough, these "timeless" trees will thrive smack in the middle of Kansas City.....I mean for crying out loud - I can see the downtown skyline while standing at the top of my field!! This is pretty darn special. In 5 to 7 years Kansas Citians will be enjoying organic fruits from their very own urban orchard. This fall planting consists solely of apples, pears, and chestnuts. Come spring we will plant peaches, plums, and cherries. In due time we will plant out the vineyard as well as the blackberries, raspberries, and blueberries. Geez, I get tired just typing about it.....but when I imagine the delicious splendor of it all, I get goosebumps.
A BIG THANK YOU -
Alright Alright.....enough romance! The truth of the matter is orchard planting is freaking hard work. Especially when your bones are aching from a tremendously long farm season and you could just about kill for a day off. (Dan and I haven't seen one of those since last March??). Early this morning as I headed out to the field with snowflakes dancing about my frigid exterior, I felt like crying. Dan and I had reached a true moment of panic. We had a small window of opportunity to get 1000's of dollars worth of trees in the ground and simply not enough man power (or the proper equipment) to do it. For the past few days we had been digging the orchard holes by hand because our tractor powered auger bit just wasn't wide enough for the job. With full-size root stock the width of the holes must be close to three feet. At first we had been optimistic. "Oh sure....we're tough as nails", I had said. "We'll knock those holes out and have the orchard planted in no time". Wrong! The number of holes we were able to dig in a full day simply wouldn't cut it. "We are fools", I lamented, "this orchard aint gonna happen". Then low and behold, the lovely Laura of Blue Door Farm literally saved the day. Around noon this ultra tough chick shows up with a 2.5 foot auger bit attached to some man-handling machine called a Dingo. We agreed that Dan would start the tree holes with our tractor-powered auger and Laura would widen them with her machine. As I stood frozen and dumbfounded in a half-dug hole, I watched Laura and Dan work their way up the field knocking out hole after hole......Dan manning Root"N"Toot"N" (our 1968 International tractor.....that always breaks), and Laura manning Dingo. They had dug 30 freaking holes by the time I finished my measly one. It was nothing short of a miracle. The orchard holes are now officially dug and tomorrow we will begin planting trees. Hallelujah!! You can personally thank Laura of Blue Door Farm in 5 years when you are happily chomping away on one of our delicious urban-grown fruits!
Totally (chest) NUTS !!!!
Before I move on to this week's offerings, I wanna give a big shout-out to
CHESTNUT CHARLIE'S Tree Crops
Deb will be at market again this Friday with her totally delicious Fresh Organic Chestnuts from Lawrence, KS
*If you didn't get a chance to sample them roasted two weeks ago, you simply must. They are off the radar. I bought three pounds and have been devouring them in a number of dishes (not to mention over ice cream drizzled with chocolate). I made a killer Chestnut Stuffing for Thanksgiving with leeks, fennel, and apples. Everyone loved it. I loved it so much, I'm planting chestnut trees tomorrow!! Crazy......
This Week's Organic Offerings:
BADSEED Farm, Brooke Salvaggio & Daniel Heryer (South KC) www.badseedfarm.com
**I will have the following IF I can get out to the field and harvest it and IF it hasn't frozen solid! The priority right now is getting the orchard planted, so keep your fingers crossed that Farmer Brooke manages a Thursday harvest for Friday feasting!!!).
*Bodacious Braising Mix!!!! (with tender BABY KALE and BABY RAINBOW CHARD...yum)
*Arugula!! (peppery and perfect)
*Gourmet Oasis TURNIPS!! (eat em' raw like an apple)
*GARLIC, yes, GARLIC!!! (sadly, this is our glorious seed garlic and we were unable to plant it all....we ran out of time due to our orchard showing up in the mail!!!)
Bigg Blue Farm, Stan & Carmen Biggs (Mosby, MO)