spring Archives - Archie's Acres

March 13, 2019March 13, 2019

2019 CSA Produce Guide!

For those who have signed up, thank you for choosing to eat local, fresh and chemical free food by being a part of our CSA!

It looks like Spring may have started to arrive after an excessive winter here in the Midwest. It has been wonderful to see the chickens out and about the last few days because they haven’t left the coop in months! Not exaggerating one bit.

So we wanted to go over our expected crops for this year. This list is a general estimate based on years past, but we’re (mostly) confident in it’s accuracy. The intention is to give our CSA customers a general idea of what to we’ll have available each month.

If you prefer a visual, please scroll our Instagram feed to see all the yummy stuff from last season: https://www.instagram.com/archiesacres/

April & May

Asparagus, arugula, spring onions, radishes, spinach, leaf lettuce, Swiss chard, herbs, rhubarb

June

Peas, garlic scapes, kohlrabi, beets, green beans, tomatoes, Swiss chard, lettuce, kale, herbs, eggplant, raspberries, zucchini, cucumbers, snap peas, snow peas, asparagus, arugula, spring onions, radishes, spinach, leaf lettuce, Swiss chard, herbs, shishito peppers

July

Garlic scapes, kohlrabi, beets, green beans, tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, zucchini, cucumbers, radishes, mulberries, bell peppers, shishito peppers, ground cherries, Mexican sour gherkins, tomatillos

August

Onions, carrots, tomatoes, shishito peppers, bell peppers, hot peppers, cucumbers, eggplant, sweet peppers, beets, herbs, onions, potatoes, green beans, garlic, zucchini, cucumbers, mulberries, ground cherries, Mexican sour gherkins, tomatillos, peaches, apples, pears

September

Onions, carrots, tomatoes, peppers, hot peppers, cucumbers, eggplant, sweet peppers, beets, Swiss chard, kale, lettuce, herbs, onions, potatoes, green beans, garlic, zucchini, cucumbers, Mexican sour gherkins, apples, pears

October

Delicata squash, butternut squash, carnival squash, spaghetti squash, beets, carrots, Brussels sprouts, potatoes, Swiss chard, kale, lettuce, herbs, onions, carrots, green beans, garlic, tomatoes, hot peppers, sweet peppers, pumpkins

It’s not too late to sign up!

If you’re in Northern Illinois and would like to join our 2019 growing season, we still have a few CSA spots left. Please check out our previous post: https://www.archiesacres.com/our-2019-csa/

And/Or complete this form:

April 25, 2018

Celebratory Spring Cocktail – Cucumber Mint Smash

All work and no play…

It appears as though Spring has finally sprung. Yay, finally! So yesterday, after a hard day of trying to catch up on farm work, we needed a refreshing cocktail to enjoy while relaxing on the porch. Enter the Cucumber Mint Smash! This cocktail was exactly what the farmer ordered!

You can use whichever spirit you prefer for this recipe – we’ve tried it with both Vodka and Gin, and both work “smash”ingly! And as far as gin goes, we use Hendrick’s, which by itself is outstanding, so imagine how amazing it works in cocktails! The recipe below is very user friendly and easy to follow…

Cucumber Mint Smash

Great refreshing cocktail to celebrate spring and summer!

Course Beverages

Cuisine Cocktails

Prep Time 5 minutes

Servings 2

Ingredients

4 oz Vodka or Gin
1/2 Cucumber (peeled)
3 Sprigs Mint leaves
6 oz Sparkling water/Soda water
4 dashes Bitters

Instructions

Peel your cucumber, roughly chop half of it and place in a shaker.
Add your vodka or gin and mint to the shaker.
Muddle the cucumber, mint and alcohol together. Add several ice cubes (4ish) then shake vigorously.
If you don't care for seeds/pulp in your drink, use a strainer to keep them out. Pour half of the mixture in the shaker into each glass.
Add 2 dashes of bitters to each glass and add ice.
Add your sparkling water (we love to use the Lime LaCroix flavor for this cocktail), stir gently.
Garnish with sliced cucumber and mint sprig (optional) and enjoy!

So there you have it! Let us know what you think! We always appreciate comments or suggestions for improvements, so please let us know.

Cheers! And Happy Spring!

April 19, 2018

We Thought it was Spring??

We hope you’re having a warmer Spring than we are. At this very moment it’s alternating between hail and snow outside and all the animals are upset about it. Goats wonder, "where is Spring?"

Even the cats and Archie are mad…at us, as if this weather is our fault. But Spring in the Midwest can be like this so there’s no point in complaining about it. Cold weather is a great excuse to take some time to read a book, cleanup your house, watching a movie or just relax. It’s actually a pleasant excuse to just take a break! And that’s awesome… unless you have crops to plant. We currently have 100+ potted seedlings hanging out in front of every South, East & West facing window in our home. Plus usually by this time we would have planted potatoes, onions, leafy greens, and peas in the garden but the ground is too frozen to get the potatoes in and too wet for the others.

Seedlings want to get outside — Plants congregating in front of our kitchen window

Getting a little stressful at this point…

It’s a major bummer. Time seems like it’s flying by and farmer’s market season is getting closer and closer. It’s stressful to feel so far behind so early in the season! We’re hoping to get these little plants in the ground at the end of next week. All that stress aside, the plants are happy in their current situation, but would be happier if they were outside getting pollinated by honey bees instead of an electric toothbrush. Oh which reminds me…we’re very worried about what this weather is doing to our bee hives. The cold Spring/extended winter could be disastrous and it’s too cold open up the hives to check on them. We don’t want to release any remaining heat in their hives and endanger them further. We’re staying hopeful though.

Our CSA signup has gone great. We still have 3 spots remaining so get one while you can! https://www.archiesacres.com/sign-up-now-for-our-csa/

Hoping to have a post detailing prepping the garden and planting very soon!

January 15, 2018March 7, 2018

We are starting a CSA!!

Yay! We have exciting farm news!

We have finally crunched the numbers, finalized our seed orders and planned our gardens and fields, so now it’s time to announce that we are doing our very first CSA sign-up this year!

What is a CSA?

CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture and it’s the best way for farmers and consumers to partner to help farms match production to their markets. CSA subscribers purchase, up front, a share in the farm’s growing season in exchange for produce over a set number of weeks of the season. Large farms are capable of doing a drop-off every single week of a spring/summer season, however, small farms like us don’t have the means to produce that much. So most small farms, especially 1st timers, keep the delivery to a couple times a month. Typically, there is a drop-off site or sites where CSA members pick up their weekly shares each week/month, or they come directly to the farm.

2018 CSA number crunching.

Since this is our first year running a CSA we are only doing a signup for once or twice a month produce deliveries. Each delivery will contain $30 worth of fresh, seasonal, organic produce delivered to a location near you. Our season will start Saturday, May 26th and go until Saturday, October 27, a full-season will be $300 for 11 weeks, delivered twice a month or a half season will be $165 for 6 weeks, delivered once a month. Every box will include farm fresh eggs, but otherwise the produce and herbs will change depending on that week’s crop.

Caribbean Red Habanero and Peach Hot Sauce

We will also include some jellies, jams, hot sauces, salsa etc from time to time as well. A small sample of this season’s crops include 5 varieties of lettuce, 3 varieties of spinach, 3 varieties of eggplant, 15 varieties of peppers (hot and bell), 15 varieties of tomatoes, 3 varieties of apples, Bartlett pears, Jubilee peaches, Bing cherries, Detroit dark red beets, kohlrabi, 7 varieties of radishes, 7 varieties of carrots, Concord grapes, broccoli, delicata squash, acorn squash, pumpkins, 3 varieties of onions, 4 varieties of garlic, shallots, zucchini, cauliflower, purple and green brussel sprouts, 2 varieties of tomatillos, 3 varieties of green beans, black raspberries, blueberries, red raspberries, watermelon, snow peas etc…the list is long. We are really looking forward to the upcoming season and are soooo ready for Spring!

Farm Fresh Produce can now be delivered to you!

This is going to be a lot of fun. We’re so excited to get the ball rolling on this. It will be nice to know that every single thing we grow will find a home. The 2018 season is going to be great!

If you are interested in joining our CSA, drop us a line!

April 20, 2017April 21, 2017

Farmlife is a busy life!

Yes yes, I realize that it’s been forever since we’ve posted an update. So I’ll do a top 10 list of things that we’ve done since I last checked in.

TOP 10 THINGS WE’VE DONE ON THE FARM…

1. Those blue egg layer Cream Crested Legbar and Whiting True Blue eggs finally hatched! We have 7 beautiful new chicken babies! I’ve been actively humanizing them by relentlessly picking them up, so they’re a friendly little crew.

2. Our windbreak has been massively added to on the West and North sides of the farm by planting 25 arborvitae trees, 10 plum bushes, 10 serviceberry bushes and 10 nannyberry bushes. They’re all only about 2 feet tall, but seem to be doing well. Now we just have to wait 5 years…

3. We tilled our entire 150′ by 35′ garden. Since we don’t own a tiller yet, so we borrowed our neighbors. Geez, tilling is hard work!

4. We planted over 150 potatoes. Many many radishes, onions, peas, carrots and Brussels sprouts seeds went in the ground too….

5. We re-potted over 150 tomato, pepper, cauliflower, flower and broccoli seedlings. Some of the rarer tomato and peppers seedlings will be sold at the Rockford Green City Farmer’s Market this summer for the first few markets anyway. We’ll be there every 2nd and 4th Friday until the end of September.

Here’s the link to find out more about the market:

http://www.rockfordcitymarket.com/

6. We built a deer and rabbit fence around the entire garden. The rabbit and deer population is impressive out here. When we come home in the evening, there are always at least 8 baby rabbits running across the driveway. And we learned last year that they are ferocious eaters!

7. We weeded, re-roped and trimmed back our Centennial and Chinook hops plants to get them ready for Spring. This is the 2nd year for these hops so we should get an even better crop this summer! Last year we only got enough to do 2 batches of beer. So this year we’re hoping for at least 4 brewing sessions with our own hops.

8. We just started hatching quail eggs! Last night, in fact. We have 20+ cortunix quail eggs in our incubator. So far 3 have hatched. They are so cute! And surprisingly loud. We plan to sell quail eggs this summer. Quail develop surprisingly fast, they’ll be fully grown and laying in only 2 months!

9. We have moved all of our Iowa hatchery chicks out to a pen across from the chicken coop to get them acclimated to life outside. They’re all over 7 weeks now so they have all of their feathers and can survive the elements. Happy to report that all are doing well!

10. We have finalized our farmer’s market paperwork with the Rockford Farmer’s Market. We’ve bought all of the licenses that Illinois requires for every single thing they can think of. And it’s a lot. We have an egg license, I have my ServSafe food handling certification, a food handling permit and our individual licenses to sell in each county where we plan to sell. Plus our LLC insurance, FEIN and sales tax ID requirements are all squared away. We have all the required packaging and labeling materials to sell in Illinois, it was tedious and over-the-top, but that’s finally done. Phew.

Life is good here at Archie’s Acres. Spring has the trees and flowers blooming, the grass is green and the woods are coming back to life! It’s so fun to watch nature do its thing every spring.

For daily picture updates about Archie’s Acres, follow us on Instagram! @archiesacres

https://www.instagram.com/archiesacres/

A beautiful Spring day at Archie’s Acres.

March 27, 2017March 27, 2017

Gardening season is almost here!!

Nothing beats Springtime in the Midwest!

As Midwesterners, after struggling through blizzards and freezing temps all Winter, springtime is always welcomed with open arms. However, this Spring is extra special, because we now have a yard (5 acres of it) with copious amounts of garden space. And we are over the moon about it!!! At our apartment in Chicago, I only had a 4′ by 5′ area on our deck to use as my personal garden. I had just enough space to grow a couple pepper and tomato plants. But now our current setup is a lower vegetable/fruit garden of 150′ by 30′ and an upper herb/flower garden about 18′ by 18!’ I’ve always hoped to be able to put my green thumb to work!

150′ by 30′ garden?! Only in my wildest dreams!

Having this much gardening space is amazing. And because of the endless space opportunities, I went a little crazy on seed buying. We have some very pretty and unique plant seedlings growing in our indoor greenhouse right now. Tomatoes and peppers are taking up the vast majority of pods at the moment. Mainly because they are best started indoors before transferring outside, unlike our radishes, kale, mesculin greens, melons, arugula, corn, peas etc which are best grown from direct sowing.

100+ starter pods are sprouting!

Greenhouse sprouting success! 22 varieties of happy little tomatoes.

22 varieties of tomatoes

We have blue, tie-dye, green, chocolate brown, yellow, orange, pink, orange /red striped, purple of all sizes…the list is a lot longer. We’re so excited for you to see them! And we’re even more excited to sell them at farmer’s markets this summer! Here is just one of the 22 varieties that I’m super pumped about…

Tigerella tomatoes. These are going to be beauties.

We also have 7 bright and colorful varieties of belle peppers. Purple and chocolate varieties included, of course. Here’s one of my favorites…

Purple belle peppers; not only yummy but super pretty too!

We have 7 varieties of hot peppers. The shishito peppers are a personal highlight, I’ve been obsessed with them for over a year now! Shishito peppers are small Japanese peppers that have the sweetest/most pungent flavor, they taste like a belle pepper x 100, but they’re considered a hot pepper because 1 out of 10 is spicy. They’re so delicious, even if you get a hot one, which isn’t really that hot. I first tried them at Bangers & Lace in Evanston, IL. The head chef at the time, Justin Schaub, sautéed them and tossed them in with the fried cheese curds. The app was a real showstopper.

the color Purple looks great on food!

Not only do we have purple tomatoes and peppers but we have purple broccoli, kale, potatoes, cauliflower, green beans, Brussels sprouts, corn and tomatillos! We are not only growing delicious, organic food but we want it to be pretty food!

Tag: spring