Still some garlic left to buy!

We have bulbs and bargain bags of Persian Star- one of our most popular garlics. Also Inchelium Red -  mild, smooth and long-storing.  We've been giving out taste samples of the Inchelium Red at the last few markets and it seems like everyone loves it!
There are a few other miscellaneous garlic bulbs we'll have too.
     Although this has been a very challenging farming year the amount of support and goodwill we received at market has been wonderful and inspiring. Thank you all for visiting WeeBee Farms and buying our "not so pretty" garlic this year!!
The Boulder market will be going til November 21st, with the Winter Fair happening in early December.
        •Persian Star- Spicy, exotic, and very flavorful. Try on salads, in dips or in pesto. Great stir-fried with veggies! Slice thinly and serve on crackers. Also is versatile for all kinds of cooking from sauteing to sauces and soups. Originally from Uzbekistan. Stores to December. 
 

Selling Garlic tomorrow October 3rd and Saturday October 10th

Yes, we are starting to run out of garlic! There are lots of bargain bags and variety bags to choose from including some long-storing garlic. We also have some individual bulbs of Inchelium Red, Amethyst, Canadian, Shantung Purple and a few more. And some variety bags of planting garlic. New this week: Bogatyr (description below.) Next week we will have some Siberian garlic as well (strong and spicy!). If we don't sell out on the 10th we'll be back on Oct 17th.

KGNU interview link

This morning KGNU was at the market doing a live broadcast. Robin Claire did an interview with me. If you'd like to hear it go to the archives from this morning (Saturday 9/26) during "Old Grass GNU Grass". It plays from 2:40 -2:46. Here's a link http://kgnu.org/shows.php
Robin did a nice job and it was fun.

Garlic Report, descriptions

We have 3 new types of garlic to sell this week: Canadian, Brown Tempest, and Amethyst. The descriptions and color codes are below.
Unfortunately we are out of the individual bulbs of Chesnok Red- but we do have lots of "Bargain bags" of it left for the next two weeks or so. The bargain bags have smaller, blemished or split garlic which we have a lot of this year thanks to hail and flooding and muddy fields. It still tastes great, but won't store quite as long if it is split.

Garlic color-codes from garlic we sold on September 5th

Gourmet Garlic From WeeBee Farms

(Color codes- bulbs are marked on top with colors)

To taste, slice thinly (raw) & serve on a cracker

• Chesnok Red- Excellent-tasting hard neck garlic, originally from the Republic of Georgia. Earthy with a unique zesty bite. For roasting, sauteing, casseroles & soups.

Highly medicinal. Stores to December.    PINK

 •   Inchelium Red-  Softneck that is excellent for roasting.  Discovered on the Colville Indian Reservation in Washington State. One of the best-tasting softneck garlics with a mild but lingering flavor. Stores til Dec. or Jan.     RED  

• German Extra Hardy- Great sliced raw, an addictive garlic taste, with full flavor. Big, easy to peel cloves. Excellent in red sauce: put in at end of heating. Loses flavor if cooked too long. Will keep to November.  BLUE

• Killarney Red-   The ultimate garlic for garlic bread! Has a  mellow, smooth flavor when cooked but is spicy raw. A Rocambole hardneck variety that peels easily. Eat by October. ORANGE

• Basque-  Super mild, yet very flavorful. Try raw on salad, cucumber slices or mixed with avocado and olive oil. Very addictive!  Harvests very early. Stores to November.    BROWN

• Tzan - (Also called “Mexican Red”). Superb Taste &  EASY to Peel! Tangy &  flavorful with pasta and for oriental cooking. A delicious raw garlic. Will stay firm through November, but sprouts early.  Harvests 3 weeks earlier than others GREEN

• Uzbek Turban-  Delightful flavor  -smooth and mellow.  Excellent choice for gazpacho, bruschetta, fresh tomato sauce.  A hardneck Turban from former USSR. Harvests very early. Stores to November.    NO COLOR

Update for August 29th Market

We will be at market tomorrow with 8 kinds of garlic in bins, some variety bags (5 different garlics) and "deluxe" variety bags (8 different garlics). We'll have lots of bargain bags too. So much of the garlic came out small or split due to the June hailstorm and flood here that much of the garlic has ended up as bargain bags. The Chesnok Red turned out especially small and "not pretty" so we will sell out of it earlier than usual. The German Extra Hardy won't last long either. It is mostly split open and so has also gone into bargain bags (great for Pesto making!).
In our main bins tomorrow we will have German Extra Hardy, Chesnok Red, Inchelium Red, Khabar, Tzan, Uzbek Turban, Redneck Wild and Chicago Italian. Under the table we'll have a little bit of Killarney Red, Malaysian and Shantung Purple. Ask if you want any of these.
Hope to see you soon!

The garlic harvest saga

We hoped to harvest with the tractor, but it only lasted a half day before rain stopped us

 Garlic harvest was the hardest ever in 19 years of growing because of the hail and 5" rain we got on June 4th, and the rains that came as harvest started. The June hail pounded the soil for an hour and compacted it so there was an inch and half of hard-packed clay on top. Underneath was still pretty wet. The tractor harvester didn't work well, but then I modified it so it looked like it would be OK. We harvested half a row before the unexpected rains came and turned everything to mud. No more tractor harvesting! It dried out with a few days of hot sun, to the point the mud hardened and was extremely difficult to get off  of each head. This made harvest take 4 times longer, and now the bulbs are decaying quickly in the ground. We are getting showers every afternoon now. Today- we went crazy digging it out of the ground and "whapping" the mud off and made a lot of progress on the last few rows. Thanks to Jock, Ryan, Caley and Sam for your help!

Some of the garlic looks OK, some very tiny, some with weird shapes, some decayed on the outside but OK on the inside. What a year!

Right before the rain. (Bootsie walking the rows)

The very muddy, hail damaged garlic- not as pretty as usual

A few slimy days of harvest

 The good news is I haven't found the "White Rot" disease so far!

As they say there's no better garden than next years' garden!

Jock helping with the extra-strenuous digging

Big mud balls were extremely hard to remove

Happy to have a harvest in spite of everything

When Do I Harvest My garlic? ( A repeat posting from last year)

Quick answer: When half the leaves are brown.

Harvest- Dig up when half of the leaves are brown (including the bottom leaves which have fallen off), usually June 25- July 10 for me. "Turban" garlics such as Tzan and Shantung Purple are usually ready 3 weeks before the rest (June 15 or so).

Harvesting Garlic Now. Won't be at Market til August 1st

There is a lot of garlic that looks OK, but so far it looks quite a bit smaller than usual, due to the hail damage.

Scapes for Sale!

We will have lots of garlic "curlies" (scapes) for sale on Saturday! Come get them while we have them. They store for several weeks in the fridge in a plastic bag.

We will have generous bags for $1.50 (or $1.25 if you bring your own bag). We'll also have some cucumber and squash plants, flower starts and a few other plants for your garden.
WeeBee Farms will not be at market in July and then will come back August 1st with garlic bulbs for sale. We will probably be at market June 2th with a few more scapes and plants.

• Chop and add to cooked beans, chili, eggs, omelets, quiche, soups, stir fry, tomato sauce and veggies.
• Chop and sautee in olive oil for a minute. Serve generous amounts over pasta or veggie dishes
• Chop fine and eat raw in cold salads, potato salad, tuna or salmon salad, hummous, tabouli
• Roast on the grill whole with a little olive oil and salt
You can use the whole thing including the blossom, maybe slicing off part of the tougher ends.

Scapes only appear on hardneck garlic, not softnecks like Inchelium Red. They should be harvested when they make a full loop on top. This will help the bulbs get bigger. Leave a few on for fun, and for longer storing garlic bulbs.

The bulbs aren't developed yet, but will be soon. When half the leaves are brown- it's time to harvest! For us this is usually around July 1st. Two or three weeks earlier for the Tzan and other Turban types.
Look for garlic bulbs at market starting August 1st or so. Check back here for the exact date.

Flood and Hail Recovery, garlic report.

Thank goodness, some of our garlic looks normal and has made scapes!! We weren't sure, after most of the leaves were shredded and the early scapes got "hailed off". We harvested the early garlic ("Turban" types, about 10% of our crop) on June 11th and it looks great. These had already formed their bulbs before the hailstorm. Although they were extremely muddy, they all came out of the ground just in time before we got another .6 inches of rain. Some of the unharvested garlic looks pretty bad, as it was pummeled from the side and has slits in the stems with lots of strange growth coming out of the slits. Some of the garlic looks OK, but I won't know for sure for another week or two whether it will be normal and what size it will be.

Shredded garlic after June 4th hailstorm

Flooding on June 5th into the garlic field

Huge Hail storm, If we are at market will have scapes, pepper and tomato plants....

Unfortunately last night's storm hit us hard. We were pummeled by hail for about an hour, and got about 2 inches of rain on top of that. We got another inch in a quick storm late this morning. Now we are dealing with some flooding and trying to rescue the bees.
I'm thinking I'll be at market with the plants that were untouched under shelter and in the greenhouse, but not sure- it depends on the forecast. The garlic is shredded- some of the bulbs may turn out fine. We'll just have to wait and see

constant lightning illuminated the photos

flooding got worse after this photo and came up to the garlic field

garlic lost most it's leaves

Pepper Time June 1st- 10th

Peppers! And more peppers! Ideal Planting time is June 1st-June 10th.

Sweet Peppers • Hot Peppers!
• All but 3 types are from Organic seeds

It's finally getting close to time to plant peppers!  We will plant ours around June 10th (they can often go in a bit earlier in Boulder). They do NOT like cool ground temperatures! (The peppers just don't thrive if planted too early.) We have gotten a good crop of peppers every year for the last 20 years with the late planting strategy. Some will have to be covered when we get the first frost in September or October. Most of the green ones will turn red by September, some in August.

We have many kinds of hot and sweet peppers. Many are ready to sell at market on Saturday including our very favorites that grow well at WeeBee Farms.  For hot peppers we are growing Jalapeno, Anaheim, Ancho (Poblano), Serrano, Hungarian hot wax, Bulgarian Carrot chile, Santaka hot Asian. The Sweet Italians are our favorites and we have Oranos, Belcanto and Jimmy Nardello. For Bell Peppers we have King Crimson and  Jupiter. Also look for Lunchbox mini-peppers and a few more kinds. These are all varieties that we have grown here and have produced well for us.
The only ones we could not find organic seeds for are the Serrano, Hot Asian and Bulgarian Carrot Chiles. The rest are grown from Certified Organic seed.

Belcanto- A favorite in our gardens for 4 years.  In our search for good organic pepper seeds we found this one that turned out to be amazing. These huge red Italian peppers taste SO sweet, and the plants are really productive! We got lots of these last year and used them for salads, stir-frying, stuffing and eating fresh off the vine. These are definitely worth growing. The Oranos is the orange version of the same pepper. It's just as good and gorgeous in salads. (The Belcanto are almost identical to the "Atris" pepper we sold in the past.)

ARE YOUR PLANTS HARDENED OFF?

Ask before you buy!

It's especially important with the challenging weather we've had.

Read below, or the "page" at top right for more info.

• Hardening Off" (Acclimating your plants before planting)
• WeeBee Farms takes pride in selling you plants that are ready for planting today. However, during periods of extreme weather, we need to protect the plants in the greenhouse and they may need re-acclimated to the outdoors. Or you may have kept your plants indoors or in the shade for a few days and will need to harden them off yourself before planting.
• How to get your plants ready for planting

Getting plants ready for planting...

This has been a super challenging May for gardening! And for plant-selling!
The greens have been outside in their pots for a month getting huge in their pots waiting for the soil to dry out enough for planting.
A few of the tomatoes, cucumbers and basil were out for a week hardening off and now have been stuck in the greenhouse. The rest of the basil and tomatoes haven't been out of the greenhouse yet.
Peppers- hate the cold soil most of all (with cucumbers running a close second.)

Tomatoes, Peppers Cucumbers and More! Ideal planting time coming soon!

Carmello
Started from Organic Seeds
The All time Favorite at WeeBee Farms
EXCELLENT, sweet flavor! Has produced huge amounts every year at WeeBee Farms under all kinds of conditions. Medium to large tomatoes that are fabulous in salads and also our favorite for salsa-making.  An older French market tomato. Disease-resistant, and resistant to blossom-end rot.    75 days,  Indeterminate  To see our full selection look at the "Page" at the top right part of the blog...

Plant Sale • Sunday, May 17th • 10am to 3pm

All Plants are safe for honeybees and other pollinators

Not at market today after all...

I headed out towards Boulder and it started pouring rain. I noticed Left Hand Creek was really high and heard the flood warnings so decided to turn back to the farm.

Not sure if we'll be at market tomorrow after all.

Stay tuned. The van is full of salad bowls, but If I come it may be for only a couple hours. 
I have dozens of flats of beautiful salad greens to plant (and broccoli, kale, mustard, peas, bok choy) and they have grown huge!! If you want to get a large order for next Saturday, or possibly pick up at Wednesday market please let me know (weebeefarms@gmail.com).

the Rapini (in the middle) is about ready to eat!

Lettuce, Chard, Kale and cabbage waiting to be planted

How to garden in the rain?? We will be at market in the rain tomorrow until noon or beyond...

This salad bowl has Arugula, Chives, Red Komatsuna (mustard) and lettuces.

Luckily the rainy weather is forecast to clear up next week but until then you can get a salad bowl and eat fresh greens from it. The greens are growing super-fast in this weather! They can (and should) be left out in the rain and snow.
These make super gifts for Mother's Day!
If you haven't planted your other cool-weather greens, there is still time, but they may need some protection from the hot sun coming up.
Wait until your soil has dried sufficiently before trying to work in it or step on it. Compacted soil can be a long-lasting problem.

Finally! A broccoli that grows well in Colorado!

Piracicaba Broccoli (also sometimes called "Broccolini")

Normally broccoli barely produces a good size head before going to flower with the hot days of May. (I think Broccoli would much rather grow in Seattle!)
I have found that Piracicaba Broccoli works much better for our climate. Harvest some looser, smaller heads, and lots of side shoots and leaves instead of waiting for a big head.
Here's a link to a story about it from the Washington Post http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/18/AR2006101800375.html We have it for sale for the next 3 weeks or more and it's a good time to plant it now (the sooner the better, as it prefers cold weather)

We will also have Broccoli Rapini, Collard greens, Bok Choy, 9 types of Kale, Mustard Greens, Onion starts and all the cool weather plants that we usually offer ...

Photos from our first market on April 4th

 It was a fun and successful Easter Egg "Hunt"

This coming week we have kale, lettuce, onions, Chives, Arugula, Broccoli, Swiss Chard,  Salad Bowls and more....

Free Parking with a view!

View from parking garage

This shot is from where I parked last Saturday morning- 2nd floor of the parking garage above the RTD station at 14th and Walnut.
It's a short walk and keeps the van cool and shady on hot days.
Enter on the North side on Walnut Street a half block East of 14th. For more free parking ideas see the Farmer's Market website at www.BoulderFarmers.org

Spring weather

A garlic field at 8am on April 3rd

1:30 pm on April 3rd- just5 hours later!

Our garlic field on the day before our first market. Our Spring snow was pretty but didn't last long!

First market is in 5 days!

Right now the little seedlings are out in the hot sun and wind getting acclimated to the outdoors. On Friday they'll get some cold weather to contend with and then be ready to display at market. Most of them should be ready for your garden, and if not, they will be ready for next week.
Market day will probably be pretty chilly, at least til lunch time, but come by and say hi and take a look at what we've got!

cold-hardy lettuces

Pea plants ready to go outside

Garlic still looks good!

We are about ready to put the drip lines down, but so far the winter moisture is keeping the ground moist.

Getting Ready For First Market - April 4th

We're getting ready for the April 4th opening of Boulder Farmer's Market.

We'll have some cold weather starts for your garden: lettuce, kale, onions, chives,  Caley's pea plants, Kitty grass, a few Salad Bowl planters and more. Stop by and say Hi!

Later we'll have broccoli, rapini, parsley, bok choy, mustard, arugula, swiss chard and collards. All of these plants can and should be planted in the cold weather and can withstand plenty of frost.

Watch for warm-weather plant starts in mid-May. Tomatoes, Basil, peppers, cucumbers, eggplant, melons, squash and beans.
There will be more flowers this year! Especially pollinator friendly flowers for bees. (Never any chemicals used- see our growing practices below)

Garlic is growing like crazy!

The garlic seemed to grow 2 inches yesterday! Everything looks great so far. Let's just hope for reasonable weather - unlike the Spring of 2013 with near zero temps in April and a May 1st blizzard.

The garlic came up right on time at the end of January. The early garlics are about 2 inches high and the others are just barely showing. We've started sowing seeds for Spring plant sales- onions, lettuce and kale so far. Stay tuned.