Boulder and Longmont tomorrow

We'll be at both Boulder and Longmont Farmer's Markets so stop by either location. This will probably be the last chance to buy garlic at the Longmont market. At Boulder we will likely be bringing garlic until the end of October.

Karen with freshly harvested garlic in July

Longmont Market photo and Westword publicity

Garlic at Longmont Farmers Market. by Linnea Covington

Longmont market was a success last Saturday, and we will be there again this Saturday. Westword writer Linnea Covington was there buying food and took this photo of our display. Here is a link to her piece
http://www.westword.com/slideshow/farmers-market-finds-discovering-longmonts-dirt-candy-9493515/36

Karen at the Boulder Market, photo by Louis Krupp

It was nice and cool at the Boulder market and although crowds were thin at the market in general it was very busy at our stand with so many people suddenly in the mood to cook! Bring your umbrella for this coming Saturday and enjoy the change of weather...

See us in Boulder or Longmont this Saturday, Sept 16th

In Boulder we'll be at our usual spot near the food court. Or come see us in Longmont and say hi to Georgia from WeeBee Farms! We look forward to seeing you and the cooler weather they are forecasting for the weekend.

See you at market tomorrow, July 29th!

Our first market with garlic this season!
We will be at Boulder Farmer's Market with 8 kinds of garlic for sale. The crop was great this year and we have lots of the early season garlic- the kind you can eat fresh on crackers, with pesto, hummus and guacamole. We'll  bring some good cooking garlic too! Come by and say hi. Light rain is predicted after noon so don't forget your raingear...

       We'll have German Extra Hardy, Persian Star, Uzbek Turban, Tzan, Shantung Purple, Metro Porcelain, Chesnok Red and Inchelium Red for sale. With a few other kinds in bargain bags and variety bags.

garlic drying on racks

The garlic harvest is finished! Stay tuned for our first market sales day.

It was a bumper crop this year! The garlic had no major problems and looks great! There is a LOT of it!! The harvest started early and was reasonably easy. Now all the garlic is drying in our barns, shops and 2 boxcars. After 3 weeks of "curing" it is full flavored, will store well and is ready to eat and sell. We will be selling Tzan, Persian Star, German Extra Hardy, and "Metro" at our first market which will probably be July 29th in Boulder.
We will sell at the Longmont Market too, on September 16th and 23rd.

Garlic Update- Harvest has begun!

The early "Turban" garlics were harvested 6/15, and now we are starting into the main harvest about a week earlier than usual. Some of the Turbans were small or had only formed "rounds" (no cloves) due to cold-stress in the Spring. But many were decent size.

"Shantung" garlic harvested 6/15

Notice the bottom leaves have fallen off. All in all half the leaves were brown and the stems were starting to fall over on this semi-hardneck type.


Today we harvested the German Extra Hardy with the bottom 4-5 leaves having turned brown (out of 9 leaves total). It looks great!! The Inchelium Red will be harvested next.

One of our two fields on June 15

Garlic Scapes For Sale!!!

Scapes ("Garlic Curlies") will be at market at WeeBee Farms June 17th and June 24th

How to use cooked: Put in your eggs, beans, potatoes, pasta, soup, stir fry, burrito.  Sautee for a minute, add salt and serve as your pasta topping. You may want to cut off the bottom part if it is tough, and the tip. You can use the flower part in your food if you like. They are great grilled whole too!
How to use raw: Slice thinly and add to a green salad, potato salad, hummous, tabouli, tuna salad, dips.
Make pesto (puree with olive oil and salt) and spread on bread, sandwiches, pizza crust.
For more ideas go to http://www.dailycamera.com/garlic-scapes
Scapes will store for 2 months 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. 
If you grow your own- Here's how to harvest Your Scapes- (Hardnecks only) Clip or break the central seed stalk when they make a loop, or shortly afterwards (usually in June.) Taking the scapes off will give you larger bulbs. (However your bulbs will store longer if you keep the scape on.) Eat the scapes! Harvest time comes about 3 weeks after scapes. Stay tuned for a post on when to harvest garlic (or search posts from previous years)

Scapes of all shapes!

A graceful scape...

Creekfest report

Buy your Pepper Plants on June 3rd!

Peppers for sale May 27th- Lots more on June 3rd. With cool temperatures we recommend waiting one more week!

Sweet Peppers • Hot Peppers!

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 or produce well if planted too early.) We have gotten a good crop of peppers every year for the last 22 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.

Hot Peppers! • Sweet Peppers 

 We have many kinds of hot and sweet peppers including our very favorites that grow well at WeeBee Farms.  For hot peppers we are growing Early Jalapeno, Anaheim, Serrano, Bulgarian Carrot chile, Santaka hot Asian. Fatalii and Shishitos are available too- see below. The Sweet Italians are our favorites and we have Oranos, Belcanto and Jimmy Nardello. Also look for Lunchbox mini sweet peppers . These are all varieties that we have grown here and have produced well for us. 

(http://www.highmowingseeds.com/organic-non-gmo-seeds-Shishito-Pepper.html)

                                        Fatalii Pepper is Fiery Hot-

Fatalii pepper

Fatalii is a type of habanero, but matures a bit earlier. (Habaneros usually don't grow well here since the season isn't long enough) http://sustainableseedco.com/heirloom-vegetable-seeds/pe-t/pepper-heirloom-seeds/hot-peppers/fatalii-pepper-seeds.html

Belcanto Sweet Italian- A favorite sweet pepper in our gardens for 5 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.)

Belcanto Sweet Italian

The only ones we could not find organic seeds for are the Serrano, Santaka Hot Asian and Bulgarian Carrot Chiles. The rest are grown from Certified Organic seed.

Saturday May 6th- come get your garden started!

Look for our Pollinator friendly flowers! Sunflowers, licorice "mint",  poppies, hummingbird mixes and Honey bee mixes and colorful dwarf jewel and "fiesta" nasturtiums. As beekeepers we make sure that all of the flowers are 100% safe for pollinators. From organic seed, soil mix, compost.
For your veggie garden: Broccolini, greens, lettuces, kale bok choy, mustard greens, arugula, cilantro, swiss chard and Salad Bowl planters!
Tomatoes and Basil Next week through June 1st is the right time to plant basil and tomatoes. We will have super -healthy plants at the right time for planting. All from Organic seed. See descriptions listed under "Pages" at the top left of this page.
Peppers! We will have lots in 2 weeks. Plant June 1 thru June 10th. 95% from organic seed.