Dear Adobe House Farm CSA Members,

This Tuesday is our first CSA pick-up at Linda’s Local Food Cafe from 3-6 (unless you’ve arranged for delivery).

Your share will include: spinach, kale, chard, garlic scapes, basil, cilantro, turnips, mini sweet red and white onions

Spring on the farm has been full of challenges in the process of opening an acre of new growing space. For the first time, we’re irrigating from a pond that is fed from the Reid Ditch, although our greens, greenhouse, tunnels, strawberries, garlic and onions are remain on city water. Unlike some of our farming friends this season, we will likely have irrigation water all summer since our water source comes from the Animas River. So far, at least 3 of the farms at farmers market will be cut off from their irrigation water in the next few weeks! Werner Heiber has been the master mind behind our irrigation system this year. Having tried to make use of the existing sprinkler heads, we soon realized we needed to access the main irrigation lines in order to have a consistent water supply for our 15,300 feet of drip tape. We also found that the initial drip tape we used was not distributing water evenly and have since replaced it with a type that contains larger openings. We filter the ditch water using disc filters which we clean daily and we will install a sand filter this coming week. In addition, keeping plants alive when they are getting established requires our ongoing attention since we share water rights, pumps and lines with the land owners and our neighbors. Hopefully we’ve solved all the irrigation issues we will be faced with this season!

Our favorite harvest from the farm so far is hands down the kale and sweet onions. We started our onions in a tunnel on Valentines day so they are already bulbing and super sweet. We’ve included a recipe below for a raw kale salad that includes a way to use the onions as well. The kale is so packed with nutrition and tender this time of year, we will find it hard to ever eat lettuce again!

We are so excited to share our experiences farming with you throughout the summer. Please feel free to come by the farm and take a look, but make sure you call us first so we can show you around (the land and houses do not belong to us). Finally, thank you so much for your support which is helping to fulfill life-long dreams of your farmers.

Sincerely,

Linley, Peter, Werner 

Mama Smith’s Raw Kale Salad

• 2 Tablespoons nutritional yeast
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 4 teaspoons rice vinegar
• 4 teaspoons toasted sesame oil
• 1 clove minced garlic
• 12 oz kale, leaves cut into slender ribbons, massaged with 1 teaspoon olive oil
• 1/2 cup red onion
• 1/2 cup shredded carrots
• 3 Tablespoons toasted sesame seeds
• 1/4 cup toasted sliced almonds
• 1/4 cup rice noodles

Mix first five ingredients together for dressing. Toss salad and add dressing right before serving.