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.
Kale $3.00 1/2 pound bag. We have heirloom White Russian kale, Winterbor and Dinosaur.
Spring Mix $4.00 bag; The spring mix is back and it is wonderful. I dunno about you but I have missed this crop.
Bright Lights Chard $3.00 bag
Specialty Zucchini $3.00 pound; we have several kinds of zukes including the sublime Costata Romanesque, Sunburst patty pan and several others.
Carrots $2.50 a bag, orange; $3.00 bag Rainbow Mix; The carrots have been wonderful. The rainbow mix includes red, yellow and orange carrots.
Tomatoes $3.00 pint box: The frosts have come but we still have some maters from a hoop house-Look for Paul Robeson, Glick's Pride and Boulder belt Striped
Lincoln Leeks $1 ea; This has got to be the best crop of early leeks we have ever grown. Huge in size and exquisite in flavor. You will not find a better leek at any price (and the price is right)
Beets $2.50 a bunch; The fall red and Golden beets are coming in. We have bunches with the greens right now
Pears $1.50 pound; wonderful heirloom Keiffer pears, hard and sweet and a real fall treat.
Delicata Squash $2.00 pound; AKA Sweet potato squash this is the earliest of our winter squashes
Butternut Squash $2.00 pound; The butternuts are harvested and cured and delicious
Acorn Squash $2.00 pound
Cushaw Squash As marked
Sunshine Squash $2.00 pound: beautiful bright orange winter squash with a firm orange sweet flesh.
Strawberries $4 pint box; probably the only local fall berries in SW Ohio
Mitsui Rose radishes $2.00 Bunch: AKA Watermelon radishes because the outer skin is usually greenish and the interior meat is a deep pink. These are a spicy sweet radish traditionally used for cooking.
D'Avignon Radishes $2.00 bunch. Beautiful and delicate french breakfast radishes
Red Turnips $1.00 a bunch. The red salad turnips are back for fall. this is a multipurpose turnip that is wonderful raw in salads or can be used for cooking purposes. the greens are delish too.
French Tarragon $2.00. Real French tarragon for your culinary needs
Fresh Savory $2.00 bag This is one of the most versatile herbs grown (and the reason we call it a savory dish)
Italian Parsley $2.00 bag A big bag of the best cooking parsley around
Thyme $2.00 bag; Thyme is a wonderful herb with lots of punning opportunities.
Sage $2.00 bag; Sage is one of the necessary poultry herbs, along with rosemary.
Rosemary $2.00 bag
Cayenne Peppers 15¢ ea or 10 for $1; Beautiful and hot cayenne peppers for your hot pepper needs.
Red, yellow and orange sweet peppers $1.50 each. The peppers are ripening and they are huge, gorgeous and a steal at a buck fifty.
Green and Purple Peppers $0.75 ea: The green peppers are on the wane as they ripen to red, yellow and orange but we still have loads of beautiful purple peppers
Shallots $3.00 pint box: It has been years since we grew shallots. We are offering two types, Prisma (Purple) and a brown Dutch type. Eating these is one of the best allium experiences I have ever had (and I love alliums).
Scallions $1.00 Bunch; beautiful green onions for your eating pleasure
Garlic $1.00 ea; The garlic harvest is in and it looks like we have had another good one. Expect to see, in the coming weeks, German White, Shivlisi and Persian Star, all wonderful heirloom hard neck garlics we have grown for years from our own seed stock
Catnip $3.00 1/2 ounce bag: cats of SW Ohio agree that Boulder Belt catnip is a fine herb.
Garlic Powder $11 3 oz jar; This is a blend of the 3 hard necked garlics we grow. I slowly dry them in an Excalibur dehydrator than grind the dried garlic into a powder. This garlic is powerful strong, the best you can find.
Potatoes $2.50 quart box; The taters have been great this year. Very tasty and oh so fun to cook with. We have Kennebec white, Pontiac red, Russian banana, French fingerling, German Butterball and Peruvian Blue.
Rutabagas $2 pound; wonderful swedes, aka Gilfeather turnips. Like so many other crops these are of excellent quality and the best we have ever grown. These are essential for a great soup or stew.
Garlic chives $1.50 bunch; Aka Chinese chives, these have a nice mild garlic flavor
Dried Herbs (Basil, Tarragon, Savory, dill, rosemary, coriander, cinnamon basil and sage)- $4.00 jar
Honey Locally grown, $8.00 for a 2 pound jar
Coming in Late Summer/Fall to the Eco-Farm Store
Celeriac (celery root)
Celery
Red onions
Parsnips
Purple Top Globe Turnips
Apples
Lettuce
Musselburg leeks
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We Sell the Best and Compost the Rest
Freshly harvested Winter squashes of all kinds
Welcome to our virtual farm store where you can see what we have to offer at our Eco-Farm store.
Store Hours Wednesday, Thursday, Friday noon to 5pm
It's Mid September and the fruits of our labors just keep coming in. We are transitioning to our fall crops now. While we still have tomatoes, peppers and eggplants, other summer crops like the cantaloupes, water melons and cucumbers are done for the year (and what a year it was for those crops-pretty much the best we have ever grown). The warm weather foods are replaced by winter squashes, roots such as carrots, (yes we have these in summer but the fall carrots are far superior), turnips, parsnips and radishes. the greens come back as well with a wonderful selection of heirloom lettuces, our famous spring mix, arugula and kale. fall is the most bountiful time of year for us small farmers
We have a new sign so people can find us better (you can read the saga of the new Boulder Belt Eco-farm Sign at our blog This replaces the old unreadable sign and now folks can find us far more easily.
August is also the month we open our farm to the public. Early August we do the 127 Yard Sale, AKA The World's Longest Yard Sale. This event brings thousands of people from all over the country to our farm. this year we had over 6000 (that's right, THOUSANDS) people show up over the 4 day event. At the end of August we will be hosting our first farm tour at this farm. We have partnered with the Innovative farmers of Ohio and will be doing a tour that will show case our sustainable strawberry production. this event from 3 to 6pm Aug 30th, is free and open to the public.
It's almost mid July and the market garden is putting out a lot of great stuff despite rather weird weather. May was hot and dry. So was the fist part of June. Than it got cool and wet the second half of June. Than hot for a short while and cool again but with scant rain. This weather has apparently done a number on the pest insects-numbers on bugs such as Japanese beetles and bean beetles are way down from this time last year. This is a good thing but probably won't last. And this is not to say we have zero populations of these insects. No they are around, they just have not yet become a problem. The weather has been great for the crops. Not too hot and not too cold so even with lower than average rainfall things are not too stressed.
This means we have high quality crops being harvested right now. Everything from red raspberries (boy has this been a spectacular berry season so far) to Galia melons to potatoes to tomatoes. we have over 30 items available at the store and new items coming in from the field regularly
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