The Boulder Belt Blog The real poop about what we do. Plus news and notes about the state of organics and local foods. Updated several times a week
What We have at the Eco-Farm Store this Week
We grow all of our food using sustainable methods. This means no synthetic pesticides or fertilizers, ever. We choose to use a holistic approach to our farming that depends on ecological balance and growing great soil. This way of farming may not be as easy as using synthetics but as science is beginning to prove, it makes for tastier and nutrient dense food.
Leeks $1 ea, the leeks are coming in and they are huuuge! A real steal at a buck apiece.
Garlic $1 each
Parsnips $3 pound
Kale $3 pound 3 types
Collard Greens $3pound
Rapini $3 pound
Spring Mix $3 1/2 pound bag
Bright Lights Chard $3 pound
Lettuce $3 pound many varieties to choose from
Daikons $2 each
Celeriac $1 each
Cilantro $2 bag
Bok Choy $3 a head (these are well over 1 pound)
Napa $3 Head AKA Chinese Cabbage or Napa lettuce
Golden ball Turnips $2 Pound
Rutabagas $2 pound
Hamburg Parsley/Root Parsley $3 bunch
Keiffer pears $2 pound
Scallions $1.00 bunch
Shallots $3 1/4 pound box
Italian Parsley $2 bag
Sage $2.00 a bag
Oregano $2.00 Bag
Catnip $3.00 1/2 ounce bag: Cats of SW Ohio agree, Boulder Belt Catnip is the BEST
Thyme $2 a bag
Dakota Black Popcorn $3 1/2 pound bag. Beautiful black kernels pop into huge white melt in your mouth popcorn. You will eat no better
Garlic Powder $5 an ounce. We make this in small batches by hand from our 4 kinds of hard neck garlic. Dehydrated on low heat so they powder is not cooked. It is Powerful Good
Coming in Fall/Winter 2012 to the Eco-Farm Store
Cabbage
Popcorn
Carrots
Broccoli
more...
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We Sell the Best and Compost the Rest
German Thyme-the best thyme you can have
Welcome to our virtual farm store where you can see what we have to offer at our Eco-Farm store.
Store Hours 10 am to 7pm seven days a Week
Mid spring through early summer has been bone dry and hot, hot, hot. The end of June through the first week of July saw an 11 day heat wave with 5 of those days over 100˚F. This has meant irrigating daily to keep the crops alive.After a record warm winter we are steaming into an alternately cold and warm and always dry spring. The trees all leafed out in the 80+ degree warmth that fill most of March. Strawberry plants that were left uncovered all winter leafed out and flowered by mid March, a good 8 weeks early if outside and even a week or two before they have ever flowered in a hoophouse!. The asparagus started coming up in mid March, 6 weeks earlier than ever before and 8 weeks earlier than average. So we opened the farm store the last week of March instead of the first week of May as we always have in the past. It is late July and we are in a heat wave. After a cold and wet spring we went right into a hot, humid and dry summer and it shows in our yields, they are down about 1/3 over previous years. But you know what? It's been the hardest year we have faced so far in our 17 years of farming. And if we were not so good at dealing with this sort of thing we likely would not have much of anything to sell yet and be looking at badly diminished yields. But that is not the case with us. Granted, our yields are down over previous seasons, by about 1/3. But we still have been able to bring in a wide variety of produce to the Saturday farmers market, stock our store with a lot of great food consistently day after day since we opened up in May. And while the FSI shares are smaller than last year, they have been decent size and of good variety. This is because we are careful and skillfull growers who pay attention to conditions and can jump on opportunities quickly as they arise (such as a decently cool day to get a lot of work done, which hasn't happened in a couple of weeks). We have worked hard to get our eroded soils into shape via applications of compost, green manures, Organic fertilizers and knowing when and when not to work the soils and despite the weather things seem to be coming together.It is spring and that means we have asparagus, strawberries and lettuce in stock at the store. It has been a wet and cold spring for the most part and that has slowed our production down a bit but now that it is almost summer the heat is on and things are growing well.
The store is open 7 days a week and it on the honor system. We have a friendly box that will take your money and dispense change, if needed. Prices are clearly marked on the items as well as on the list on the chalk board and on the change box. Going on the honor system has allowed us to more than double the hours we can be open (7 days a week vs 3 days a week in past years) and we can keep on working. We are in and out of the store a lot throughout the day so chances are we will be there to say hi and/or answer questions.
It is now September and it has been a rough season. It's was too wet in may and June causing some of the garlic to rot in the soil and a harvest that started 3 weeks early (fortunately we ended up with a lot of very very nice garlic despite losing around 10% to wet conditions). the wet season was followed starting July 4th by a hot dry period that is still happening. These conditions has made farming challenging this year. On top of challenging weather, we lost a great dog in July so now we are down to one farm dog (which is not enough but he is keeping the deer from devastating the market garden). Fall cannot come quickly enough.
If you do social networking and are a member of Facebook check out The Boulder Belt Fan page and "like" us. I do daily updates, post photos and even do "Face Book Fans only" specials at the store on occasion
Want updates as to when the tomatoes or pears will be ready, when the store is open or when we will be at a farmers' market? Get on the Boulder Belt Mailing list. It's as easy as sending us an email We will never sell or trade your email address
