Root Bottom Farm: June 2014

Monday, June 30, 2014

Goodbye June...

Berry and sweet pea microgreen salad

For the next few weeks, I will be posting a few recipes that find there way to Root Bottom Farm's dinner plate. The majority of the garlic is out of the ground and hanging in our tobacco barn. The cucumbers are blowing up, the blackberries are just turning and our root crops are making an appearance at the table. Tonight we had Root Bake (our potatoes, beets, carrots, garlic and dried herbs), salad (our microgreens and our mixed berries) and homemade Tzatziki salad. See recipe below.

Root Bottom Farm has roots.

Chioggia Beet

Mason jar of the week

Evening watering

Elephant garlic doesn't mess around.

Barn light work station

photo by Kathleen

Chickory and wild irises. photo by Kathleen

Rainbow roots. photo by Kathleen

Making watermelon wine

Taylor (6'3") and the trellised tomatoes

New restaurant account in Asheville - 20 lbs of lettuce a week !!

Onions coming on..

Cucumber harvest

Emma "Boomerang" and the Cucumber jungle

Root Bottom Root Bake

Give us a few months...and we'll turn watermelon and honey...into wine.

Recipe of the week. Use those cucumbers.

TZATZIKI SALAD

Mix in a bowl:

2 Cups Yogurt

1 large cucumber, diced

1 tsp salt

Mash together:

4 cloves garlic, 2 pinches of salt

And then combine all of the above with:

3 teaspoons white wine vinegar

2 teaspoons fresh mint

2 teaspoons dill

salt and pepper to taste

1 tablespoon olive oil

Serve as a chilled side

Tuesday, June 24, 2014

Summer is here....

Upper Annual Field

Happy Summer Solstice! Summer is officially here and the farm is green with life and full of color. This week we have been selling microgreens, lettuce mix, head lettuce, garlic scapes, fresh garlic, scape butter and Kesto (homemade kale pesto). At home, we have also been eating Rainbow chard, collards, kale, raspberries, wild black raspberries, mulberries and blueberries. A few cucumbers have made an appearance and there are tomatoes, grapes, blackberries and Winter and Summer squash showing their young fruit. The garlic harvest is in full swing and the barn rafters are filling up. The greenhouses are over shoulder high and growing more every day. I try to photograph the fields and greenhouses at the beginning and end of each week to show the change. So cool.

We marked a lot of projects off the list this week including; almost finishing the renovation of the old tool shed into an outside dining/music/hangout spot by the creek (big thanks to our friend Caleb!!), kitchen cabinet/countertop renovation and installation to double our kitchen, starting 140+ strawberry runners for next year's crop, painting a new farmer's market sign, bottling (and drinking) dandelion wine and jarring up dried thyme and oregano from the garden.

We had a Summer Solstice party and it was great to see so many good friends on the farm and around the fire. This farm has come so far from the derelict tobacco farm we found three years ago that had succumbed to decades of hording and junk collecting. To say it has been a “labor of love” is almost too easy. It has been a long, physical road to get this place back up and running, but I know it makes us appreciate all of its beauty even more.