2020 Native Hill Farm Shares are on Sale Now!

Hello Folks, 

Happy New Year to you all. New years eve for me, is always a time of looking both backward and forward.This year will mark our 12th season of growing food for our community and we are honored and humbled to have been able to grow good organic and local food for you and your families over the past decade plus! We look forward to the next 15 years with excitement. 

Farm Shares On Sale Now  https://www.nativehillfarm.com/buy-a-share

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Summer and Winter farm shares are on sale now and are already selling fast. We always sell out , so don't hesitate if you are interested. Your membership helps us get the season going as we are buying seeds, supplies, repairing equipment, and bringing staff on board to name a few on the many tasks right now. 

Share details:

Summer: https://www.nativehillfarm.com/summer-farm-shares

Winter:     https://www.nativehillfarm.com/winter-share

There are no changes to the farm shares this season except  the big news this year for the shares is that ALL summer members will be able to use the farm stand 7 days a week(in addition to the market) to pick up their produce at no additional cost. We are also building a better and bigger farm stand with more cooler space to serve you all. 

Here is to the new decade ahead of us and a world of delicious possibilities to eat well and cultivate community. 

Warmly, 

Nic and The Native Hill Team

2019 CSA and Farm Update

Dear Dedicated CSA Community,

We hope that 2019 has gotten off to a good start and that you are all doing well!  Your farmers have been busy looking to the future of Native Hill and working with PVCF (the land Co-Op)  in order to transition to the 40 acre farm at Montava.  There is still a lot to work out as we look towards this transition but it is a very exciting opportunity for the farm and more broadly, the Fort Collins community.  

In order to focus on the new farm as well as to give our current farm's soil a MUCH needed break, we have decided to take a year off of growing and selling produce.  We have gone through many different scenarios to try to keep the farm producing vegetables during this transition year, but in the end, we felt that the best outcome would only come from taking a year off to focus on the future.  We need a break from juggling while sprinting.  Sometimes you just have to close a road to actually fix it and we hope you see this year as an annoying but necessary detour. 

Don't worry though, we will still need your help to ensure our success with the new farm. We will be reaching out to you all throughout this strategic planning year with updates and opportunities to get more involved in supporting the transition. We are excited to keep you all engaged as we move forward and there will be moments to give feedback on things that you would like to see happen with Native Hill. 

We hope you will all view this news as a positive and exciting opportunity for your farm.  We LOVE farming and growing food for our wonderful community and we are so looking forward to providing you all with great food again for the 2020 growing season.  The best place to find updates will be our website, www.nativehillfarm.com, but please feel free to contact us with any questions that you have in the meantime. 

Love and Gratitude,

Nic and Katie

Farmer's winter work

Hi Ya Folks!

Hope you all are enjoying the January thaw and finding things to stave off winter boredom.  I always count us lucky this time of year when I hear about winter ice storms and power outages and endless gray days in other parts of the country. Although every region has its challenges, it is lovely to see the sun most of the winter. These last few weeks have been busy with farmer's winter work.  Tax prep, spreadsheets, and meetings are part of the every day now and it doesn't make us feel much like farmers.  Farm transition has been weighing heavily on our minds these days as we navigate the waters of the potential new farm in 2020. We have the new land leased and currently have it seeded into a winter cover crop but are planning to frost seed 21 types of perennial grasses and forbes in order to rehabilitate the soil and hopefully (fingers crossed) be ready to do some cropping in 2020.  It is a large acreage and will probably take a full day on the tractor and that will help us feel like farmers again. 

It's roasted green chili week!  For those of you who are new to the winter CSA, we grow, roast, and freeze Anaheim chilies to save for a distribution in the depths of winter and we are finally there! Coincidentally (or not), chili week always falls on the distribution before Super Bowl Sunday.   I can't say that I'm much of a sports junkie, but I don't usually let it stop me from using the occasion for some game time culinary fun.  A perfect game day Sunday for me is fill with lots of cross country skiing, a nice sauna and coming home to some type of green chili.  There are so many types of chili that can incorporate roasted chilies and I love them all.  Think chicken with white beans, oregano, cumin roasted Anaheim chilies and topped with some jack cheese.  Don't have chicken?  The Homesick Texan has a fantastically easy recipe for Chili Verde Con Carne that I have used at least twice this winter since we happen to have a lot of beef in the freezer.  I omit the tomatillos and it is still great.  Pork green chili is often a classic and I just happen to know someone selling pork tonight (I will let him know that folks might be asking for shoulder to go with their green chilies), but there are some great vegetarian green chili options too.  I often use black beans, sweet potatoes and frozen corn from the summer for this option.  Not feeling up for chili?  Our green chilies make excellent enchilada sauce.  You can make a big batch and freeze the left overs.  If you are not ready to use your chilies, they are already frozen and can be happily stored back in your freezer for a few more months.  If you are ready to use them, simply pull off the skins, seeds, and stems, but DO NOT RINSE THEM.  They will loose a lot of that precious roasted flavor!

For those of you picking up at the farm this week, be sure to look for a white cooler that will have your chilies in it.  Also a quick reminder to bring back your wax boxes!

This Week's Harvest

Red Russian Kale

Spicy Mix

Spinach

Arugula

Carrots

Watermelon Radishes

Fingerling Potatoes

Onions

Garlic

Roasted Green Chilies

Live firmly in the present and focus on winter

Hello Folks,

Nothing better than hearty greens in the dead of winter.

I hope you all had a restful and cheer-filled holiday break. The light is coming back and with this unseasonably warm weather, it is hard not to turn our thoughts to spring; however, to keep the anxiety levels hushed here at the farm we are going to live firmly in the present and focus on winter...at least for today. January always feels a bit austere and winter doldrums set in.  Restaurants are half full while the gym is packed.  I for one sorta like the forced quiet...a time for discipline, a time to start a new routine. It is a nice time of year to have more space to think about meals, to take more time to enjoy the cooking process and make something healthy for you and your family.

This week's box has a lot of hearty greens which are perfect for new years traditions as well as resolutions. If you haven't had your black-eyed-peas yet, perhaps pick up a smoked ham hock from Jodar tonight and get on it.  Served with a side of wilted collards, you can't go wrong with this new year tradition.  In the winter I am always looking for a warm lunch and I have found with a little bit of dinner left overs, I can make something extra delicious and nourishing.  This week's will be some left over brown rice and roasted beets thrown into a skillet and topped with some wilted kale and a fried egg.  Speaking of kale, we have loose leaf kale this week which is one of my favorite treats for roasting.  I do nothing but toss the kale in olive oil and salt and put it on a cookie sheet at 400 for 5-10 min.  It gets all crispy and sweet and is so lovely atop almost everything...or just eaten by itself!

Please remember to bring your wax boxes back tonight, we can't deliver the vegetables without them!

See you all real soon,

Katie

This Week's Harvest

• Kale

• Collard

• Chard (some boxes will have two collard rather than chard, sorry)

• Spinach

• Green Cabbage

• Carrots

• Beets

• Celeriac

• Onion

• Garlic