The Weekly Harvest: “Kissing 100 degrees”

10,000 heads of garlic harvested this week!

Hello Folks, 

Well, summer has arrived quickly this week with temperatures in the mid to upper 90's as far as the 10-day forecast goes, with some days kissing 100 degrees. These temps usher out the spring crops in a hurry as we move into the waiting game for more summer crops to come. We use the cool mornings and harvest every day to get the food into the cooler (32 degrees) for the week. 

We are irrigating around the clock right now and using every cool Colorado morning to harvest, harvest, harvest. The annual garlic harvest is done as the crew 10,000 beautiful heads out of the ground and into the shaded greenhouse to cure. We continue to trellis the tomatoes as they grow taller by the day. Planting also continues this week as we plant the storage carrots that will be harvested at the very end of September and in cold storage well into next spring. 

Dig into salads this week and fire up the grill so you can keep your house as cool as possible. There are tons of ingredients for straight and dressed up lettuce salads of any kind as well as massaged kale and chard salads. Zucchini and Italian parsley pair well together for a nice cooling salad. Or try a hydrating cold cucumber gazpacho in a to-go mug for sitting down by the river. 

Eat Local & Be Well, 
Nic and The Native Hill Crew

This Week's Harvest:

• Salad Mix

• Red Romaine Head Lettuce

• Green Summer Crisp Head Lettuce

• Hakurei Salad Turnips

• Curly Green Kale 

• Tuscan Kale

• Rainbow Swiss Chard

• Kohlrabi

• Cucumbers

• Zucchini

• Italian Parsley 

• Basil

• Carrots

• and maybe some other surprises 

The Weekly Harvest: "Your farm is a community venture"

Photo credit: Jimena Peck

Hello Folks, 

Happy Independence Day! Wow, time flies as July always sneaks up on us here at the Farm. I hope you all will be able to pull out that grill and relax with family and friends at whatever distance you feel comfortable doing. This week's harvest should be able to get you all set up with salads of all types and grillable veggies (think zucchini, broccoli, garlic scapes, etc).  The english shelling peas are in and delicious, and will be a quick flash in the pan for this week and next, so make use of them in salads, pastas, even Mac N' Peas for the kiddos

On the Farm we continue to plant for the fall and winter and tend to the summer crops. Believe it or not, this coming week will be harvesting the garlic that was planted last October and seeding the storage carrots which we will have on hand from October through next March and beyond.

There are green tomatoes on the heirloom tomato plants so we may be right on track for beginning of August to be into the heirloom tomatoes and possibly cherry tomatoes. The peppers, eggplant, beets, carrots, Sweet onions, and beans are not far off. So lets celebrate this last push of Spring produce till it joins us again in the Fall. 

The blur of planting, planting, planting has slowly begun to slide into tending to Summer crops, harvesting, weeding, and looking towards our Fall and Winter crops. Garlic marks the start of storage crops coming out. We hope to have some fresh garlic at market and the Farm Stand starting next week or two so keep an eye out for it. 

My farmer thought of the week that I have been meaning to convey to our community is that your farm is a community venture in all aspects. We serve the community and are run by the community and strive to create community.  Thanks for being a part of it and we hope it is delicious, healthy, and brings value to your family. 

Reminder for Farmers Market goers: we will be back in our original spot starting this Saturday and onward, which we are very excited about!

Eat Local Be Well, 
Nic and The Amazing Native Hill Crew

This Week's Harvest:

• Salad Mix

• Arugula (last week)

• Spicy Mix (last week)

• Spinach (last week)

• Red Romaine Head Lettuce

• Green Leaf Head Lettuce

• Green Curly Kale

• Tuscan Kale

• Rainbow Swiss Chard

• Kohlrabi

• Fennel(last week)

• Cherry Belle Red Radish (last week)

• French Breakfast Radish (last week)

• Hakurei Salad Turnips

• Garlic Scapes (last week)

• Broccoli 

• Zucchini 

• Yellow Squash and patty pan squash (Farm Stand only)

• English Shelling Peas

• Napa Cabbage (limited)

• Broccolini (Farm Stand only)

• Cucumbers

• Spring onions (Farm Stand only)

The Weekly Harvest: “Your salad is pampered and delicious”

Photo: Jimena Peck

Happy Start of Summer Folks, 

Feels like we have already been through a year with all that is going on. I have high hopes that this summer brings rest, healing, fun, and family time for all. 

Your farmers have been busy bees scurrying about harvesting an ever increasing array of farm fresh veggies for your table. Harvesting, weeding, and irrigation take center stage on the farm as summer begins and spring draws to a close. The first of the spring fields are being taken out of crops and put into soil building cover crops which we will irrigate and grow to rejuvenate the soil life for the next crop. Soil Health is a key practice of organic agriculture, the saying goes "healthy soil grows healthy crops which grows healthy people. Health starts in the soil."

This week and next we will say goodbye to a number of spring crops such as radishes, turnips, sugar snaps, arugula, spicy mix, and spinach. But not to worry they will be back on the table in the fall. We are now going to jump on the Native Hill Summer Salad train. We try very hard to make sure that you have ready access to high quality Salad mix and head lettuce throughout the summer with many successions, special shade greenhouse, specific varietal selection, and even a sprinkler cooling mid day if it gets above 95 degrees. Your salad is pampered and delicious!

This week you will notice a couple new things popping up at the market and farm stand such as the first broccoli of the season. Spring Broccoli in Colorado is a gamble much more than getting a great quality fall crop. Broccoli doesn't much like to be out of the 70-75 degree window, which is, oh about ten minutes mid late morning some days. But we are going to attempt to have broccoli throughout the summer this season. Wish us luck. 

Remember to grab some garlic scapes, they are delicious grilled or sautéed! They will last for a couple weeks in a sealed bag in your fridge.  This is the season of salads and grilling so celebrate it. 

Eat Local & Be Well, 
Nic and The Native Hill Farm Crew

This Week's Harvest:

• Salad mix

• Red romaine head lettuce

• Green leaf head lettuce

• Garlic scapes

• Curly kale

• Tuscan kale

• Rainbow chard

• Collard greens

• Hakurei salad turnips

• Spring onions

• Kohlrabi

• Fennel

• Broccoli

• Cucumbers

• Cherry bell radish

• French breakfast radish

• Sugar snap peas

The Weekly Harvest: "June is for getting through"

Happy almost beginning of summer folks, 

It sure has arrived with some heat and sunny days. The spring crops are slowly on their way out and the summer crops are soaking it all up. We are through the huge spring planting push and are still pushing hard on the spring weeding of beets, carrots, and beans. Lots of growth happens in these few weeks around the summer solstice so we make sure that the crops have the most ideal environment for growing to become great food for you. The saying on the farm is that "June is for getting through." Your farmers are digging deep and bringing it all to the table to get this food to your family, it is an honor to do this work. 

In other news, we are thrilled about the positive comments about the new Farm Stand and we are excited to announce that we are working on getting the farm stand back to honor system over the next two months, think modern honor system. We are working to keep improving the Farm Stand experience for everyone. Don't worry, the amazing team of Lasha, Christa, and Madzie will still be around the Farm! 

Get excited about the flash in the pan end of spring delicacy of Garlic Scapes. This is the flower stalk of hardneck garlic which we have to snap off in order for our heritage garlic varieties to size up even more. We grow a handful of garlic varieties which have been grown on this farm and in this area for almost 35 years. My market saying for garlic scapes is think lightly garlic flavored asparagus and use accordingly. They shine on the grill with some of the grilling onions.These will only be around for a week or two so grab some and put them in a sealed bag in your fridge, they should last weeks.  

We hope to be back on track very soon with some of the loose leaf salad greens after the hail storm a week ago. I imagine next week arugula, spicy mix, and spinach will be back for a last spring hurrah. 

Eat local, Be well, 
Nic and The Native Hill Farm Team

This Week's Harvest:

• Head Lettuce (late week)

• Curly Kale

• Tuscan Kale

• Collard Greens

• Rainbow Swiss Chard 

• Cucumbers

• Sugar Snap Peas

• Baby Fennel

• Purple Kohlrabi (late week)

• Garlic Scapes (late week) 

• Hakurei Salad Turnips

• Cherry Belle Red Radish

The Weekly Harvest: Snap peas are here!

Hello Folks, 
What a wild ride we are all having on the roller coaster that is springtime in the Rockies. We got a little beat up on Monday night with the strong storms that moved through the area, but as always it could have been worse. We might be a little tight on supplies of delicate greens such as salad, spinach, arugula, and spicy mix until the next successions grow in. We do what we can to prevent hail damage but its pretty inevitable that at least once a year we get beat up by a storm. Just part of living in the unique environment that is northern Colorado. 

In other Farm news, we have been pruning and trellising the heirloom tomatoes in the high tunnels so that they can begin their journey upward toward the sun. And we have all got in on the great sugar snap pea picking that will happen for a couple weeks now. The sugar snaps look and taste great so be sure to pick some of these up at the Market and Farm Stand - what a spring treat simply eaten raw.  The spring onions will be taking a little break to recover from Monday night and size up a bit more. On the horizon I see some garlic scapes coming and some beautiful baby fennel. 

As new crops come online I am doing my best to allocate them fairly between Market and the Farm Stand, but sometimes as they just start to trickle in, you will first find them in the Farm Stand. This is because 85% of y'all mentioned you would much rather frequent the farm stand instead of the market! Thanks for the feedback and for your continued support.  

Eat Local, Be Well,
Nic & The Native Hill Crew


This Week's Harvest:

• Baby Bok Choy

• French Breakfast Radish

• Cherry Belle Radish

• Broccoli Raab (aka Rapini) 

• Curly Kale

• Tuscan Kale 

• Rainbow Swiss Chard

• Cucumbers

• Sugar Snap Peas

• Baby fennel (late week)

• Potentially some Spinach and Spicy mix

P.S. We post this weekly harvest list on our website. Bookmark it for quick reference!

---

What to expect at the Farm Stand & the Market?

Read our blog post about what you can expect when you visit us at the Farm Stand and the Farmer's Market. Looking forward to seeing you all!

Next Farmer's Market: Saturday, June 13, 9am-1pm
Farm Stand Hours: Open Daily, 10am-6pm