The Winter Share: From Field to Table

Native Hill Farm’s Winter Farm Share extends our Summer Farm Share for an additional 20 weeks, spanning much of the shoulder season both before and after our summer season ends. This 20 week CSA allows us to grow many of the longer season storage crops and allows for a harmonic distribution of fresh greens all the way through the dark winter and early spring months.

Crops included in the Winter Farm Share include kale, spinach, Swiss chard, arugula, spicy greens, broccoli raab, bok choi, collard greens, salad six, carrots, beets, kohlrabi, celeriac, parsnips, cabbage, onions, garlic, variety of winter squash and some other fun surprises.

Photos by Jimena Peck

collards and swiss chard soaking up some winter sun in one of our high tunnels

Zoe harvesting curly kale in a caterpillar tunnel. These were seeded in the late summer months, and provide us with bounty through about half of the winter.

Greens are the last to go in the box before being loaded onto the tractor

Winter CSA Shares are packed up inside the Native Hill pack house.

Winter Shares enjoy a quick little tractor ride over to the coolers.

Loading up the cooler with Winter’s abundance.

February’s first winter share featured spinach, mustard greens, salad mix, baby red russian kale, rainbow carrots, parsnips, daikon radishes, onions, garlic, and shallots

Interested in purchasing a Winter Farm Share? Native Hill’s 2021/22 Winter Shares are on sale now!

New Year, New Land!

New year, new land! Imagine the possibilities!

Even with its many challenges, your farmers are grateful for the bountiful 2020 season and the strong support from all you folks in the community. As we turn the page on a difficult year, we have some great news to share with you all who are following along on the land front. Working with Poudre Valley Community Farms and the City of Fort Collins Natural Areas, we have landed (pun intended) a long term lease on a historic farm in northwest Fort Collins that the city's Natural Areas Department recently purchased.

The 30 acre farm is located on the north side of West Vine Drive between Taft Hill Rd. and Overland Trail. The land has type 1 soil and senior water rights and is the perfect size to allow us to grow the farm as well as build and maintain the health of the soil. The extra space will allow us to begin diversified grazing of our cover cropped land and bring even more vibrancy to the health of the soil. Healthy soil grows healthy crops and healthy crops grow healthy people! This new lease will allow us to focus on energy, soil, and water conservation while growing organic and economically viable crops. We are excited to integrate even more native beneficial habitat into the farm area which in turn will increase our biodiversity and give us a synergistic relationship with the City's Natural Area's goals for working landscapes. We will even be working with the City Natural Areas staff to design a trail system so it can coexist with a working conservation farm operation.

Happy New Year! We've already started work at Kestral Fields!

We will be integrating the land at Kestral Fields (Its official name) this coming year as well as maintaining the home farm at Taft Hill. It has been a long row to hoe in order to get to this point and we wouldn't be here without your enthusiastic support every season and the endless support of so many community members. We are honored and humbled to do this work for our community and can finally look forward to a long term future as a community farm in Fort Collins. Thank you is an understatement.

Cheers to a New Year!
Nic + the Native Hill Crew

P.S. The land at Montava is still in our future and we continue to cover crop it and work closely with the development team. Stay tuned for updates.

Summer & Winter Shares Go On Sale Jan. 18, 2021!

Hello Folks,
We hope you all had a wonderful holiday with delicious, home cooked meals on your table. As 2020 comes to an end (phew!), we want to let you know that Summer & Winter Farm Shares go on sale January 18, 2021. Don't miss out on your chance to eat fresh, locally grown food all year long! To purchase your share visit: www.nativehillfarm.com/buy-a-share

Are you a 2020 Summer and/or Winter Member? You will have early access to our 2021 Farm Shares starting Jan. 1, 2021!

It's been a tough year to say the least but we have lots to look forward to in 2021 and we hope you will continue to be a part of our farm community.

Eat local + Be well,
Nic & the Native Hill Crew

Farm Stand Open All Winter + Storage Tips

Hello Folks,

We hope this message finds you healthy and well! We are happily settling into slower days on the farm while we tend to and tuck in our cold weather crops. We want to remind you that the Farm Stand remains open through the winter, with our winter hours being Monday through Friday 10AM - 4PM. You are welcome to bring your own shopping bags. You can pay with cash, check and credit card at the self-service kisok.

It's time to stock up on Thanksgiving goodies for you and your family. The farm stand is full with Blue Hubbard pie pumpkins, both Butternut and Kabocha squash, as well as many other tasty roots and greens. What's available at the farm stand changes weekly based on what crops are coming out of our greenhouses and cold storage.

In the Farm Stand this week:

• Rainbow Swiss Chard

• Spinach

• Carrots

• Curly Kale

• Leeks

• Celeriac

• Cherry Belle Radish

• Watermelon Radish

• Fall Medley Radishes

• Red Beet

• Heirloom Garlic

• Yellow Onion

• Shallot

• Blue Hubbard Pie Pumpkin

• Butternut Squash

• Kabocha Squash

• Yukon Gold & Fingerling potatoes from Strohauer Farm (coming in tomorrow)

As many of you know, having the farm stand open for the winter is new for us. We will not be attending the Winter Market this year, but with your support, we can keep the farm stand open, providing the community with fresh, local produce all year long. We hope to see you soon!

Be well & Happy (almost) Holidays,

Nic + The Native Hill Crew

Storage Tips:

- Greens & Roots (Leeks, Cabbage, Fennel, etc) want to be in sealed plastic bags (nothing fancy needed, just sealable) in your fridge. Think high humidity and cold.

- Garlic & Onions - for longer term storage, store them in your fridge but not in a bag, think cold but ambient humidity. If you put them on your counter, make sure you eat them within a week or two.

- Winter Squash (and pumpkins, etc) - they can live in your pantry or on your kitchen table as they like the temperature and humidity in homes. Do not refrigerate them or put in an unheated garage. The butternuts and kabocha squash you are getting now should be able to store in that environment into next year.

- Potatoes - They can be stored in the fridge but they will convert their starches to sugars. But they don't really want to be on your kitchen table either as it is too warm and they will get soft and sprout unless used in about a week. So a cool pantry would be ideal.

Thank you for a great season!

Hello Folks,

Well, we all did it - we have made it to the last week of the farm share season with snow on the ground and below zero temps. Seems to be pretty standard for this year - another 2020 surprise for us all. We weathered the storm and were as prepared as could be for the big snow and the record cold. We are thankful for the moisture and natures help with the area's wildfires. We are also thankful to see the blue skies and sun return to allow the snow to melt and soak in so we can get back into the fields to work on our fall field clean up and final harvests.

The list is still long for us with field clean up, planting garlic for next year, harvesting final storage crops, seeding winter cover crops, reskinning high tunnels, and generally tucking the farm in for the winter. We then start right away with planning for the next season and we hope to be able to share some very exciting news with you all regarding our ongoing land tenure saga.

This week's harvest brings us back to spring a little with greens returning and a lot of the fall crops still on the menu. We are enjoying having the oven and stove on again with roasted root veggies, winter squash, and braised cabbage as well as soups and fall salads sprinkled throughout the days.

Thank you for being an integral part of our farm this season and moving with us through all of this season's challenges. We hope that the farm was a bright spot for you while also providing delicious, fresh and nutritious produce for your table.

We could not, and would not, do this without the enthusiastic support of you - our community. It is an honor to do this work and we look forward to feeding you all for many years to come.

Thank you for a great season,
Nic and The Native Hill Farm Crew

This Week's Harvest:
Spinach (fingers crossed we can dig it out or it melts out in time)
Arugula (farm stand early week)
Broccoli Raab (farm stand early week)
Cherry Belle Red Radish
Fall Radish Medley
Watermelon Radish
Fall Greens Mix (petite curly kale, tuscan kale, and swiss chard) (farm stand early week)
Baby Red Russian Kale
Hakurei Salad Turnips (Sweet Turnips)
Shallots
Yellow Onions
Fennel
Leeks
Green Cabbage
Red Beets
Carrots
Heirloom Garlic
Mixed Fingerling Potatoes
Yukon Gold Potatoes (farm stand only)
Blue Hubbard Squash
Pie Pumpkins (farm stand only)
Butternut Squash
Kabocha Squash
Handmade forever wreaths (farm stand only)
Dried Everlasting Bouquets (market)

Note: Store winter squash in your house or pantry (ideal temps at 50–60°F/10–15°C, with 50–70% relative humidity and good ventilation). If you are decorating with them outside, pull them inside if their will be a low below 40 degrees F.