Tag Archives: organic

Delvin Farms Delivers Winter CSA

November 9, 2015

Summer is over but our winter CSA program still delivers fresh organic, farm vegetables. For the two months of November and December we shift from summer crops to traditional hearty vegetable crops that we all associate with the holidays and shorter days of winter. Certain types of crops excel in cooler weather and cold nighttime temperatures and these become the focus of the winter growing season for us. Green curly kales, broccoli, cauliflower, turnips, arugula, cabbage, lettuce, and tatsoi seem to crave the lower tempe

ratures and double in size in a short period. Gone are the worries of weeding and watering as the frost takes care of most weeds and frequent rains keeps the plants hydrated and growing.

Our 15 acres of sweet potatoes and butternut squashes are harvested and stored in our packing shed. As they cure and dry out after the harvest, the starches turn to simple sugars creating a sweeter, more complex flavor that these vegetables are know for. These stored vegetables are good for months and will be featured in our CSA and farmers markets throughout the upcoming holiday season.

Our winter CSA is harvested in four pickups over the months of November and December. Each 1/2 bushel of organic vegetables are harvested fresh from the fields or in the case of sweet potatoes and winter squashes from our stores of fall harvest.

Fall and winter favorites that are included in our CSA boxes include: sweet potatoes, butternut, green kale, collards, lacinato kale, tatsoi, arugula, turnips, sweet potatoes, broccoli, cheddar cauliflower, white cauliflower, red and green cabbage, lettuce, and brussel sprouts.

Our first winter CSA share saw the last of the tomatoes, peppers and green beans. Organic sweet potatoes, butternut, kales, radish and cabbage filled the remainder of the box.

Fall is for Organic Green Beans

September 18, 2015

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Fall is for organic green beans! As the nights cool down, the days shorten and humidity starts to leave us, the green beans on the farm seem to explode. September and October bring some of the best beans of the season, flavorful, crisp, plump and dark green. “SNAP, SNAP” is the sound of the fresh green beans. With little insect pressure and moisture in the ground, the beans will take off in size and double every 5-7 days. Normally, we harvest the beans three times a week and are included in our CSA shares as well as farmers market’s produce assortment. If your looking for purchasing organic green beans, check out our farmers markets page and pay us a visit in September and October.

Organic Watermelons

August 24, 2015

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Organic watermelons are in season late summer through the fall. Deep red, juicy, super sweet, delicious are descriptions often given to us by our market and CSA customers; we would have to agree. Everyone loves watermelon. Yes? August and September of each year are the times when melons are in peak harvest.

How We Grow Them

Seedless melons are our favorite but are the most difficult to grow as they are slow to germinate and require a pollinating plant. For this we plant rows of seeded, 30 lb watermelon every three row for cross pollination to the seedless plants. Most of the seedless melons are a 12-15 lb. fruit with an outer light green striping and juicy red center. The ample honey bees we have on the farm are critical to having a lot of melons set in the field.We will start the transplants in the greenhouse in early to mid June. The fields are prepared by spreading organic fertilizer, tilling, laying plastic beds and drip irrigation lines. Plants are translated on 30″ centers in the center of the beds. The low flow, low pressure irrigation system is turned on and the plants start to grow and spread. Depending on the rain (and this year we have had a lot), we will plow out the weeds between the rows one to two times. In one month’s time, the watermelons have covered the ground and small , yellow blooms appear. Melons are ready to harvest 80-90 days time.

Harvesting

Harvesting the melons can be back breaking, heavy work but is the kind of work that gives you a feeling of accomplishment and progress. The watermelons all typically ripen at the same time in a given patch and all the melons are picked up by hand and placed into storage bins. 40-70 melons will fit into a bin, depending on the size of the fruits.

How To Enjoy Them

I think it can safely be said that most people love a sweet watermelon. They are perfect for a family gathering, picnic, luncheon on the deck, kid’s school lunches or blending into a refreshing drink. An uncut melon an be left at room temperature, out of direct sunlight, for a week or more. Once cut, the melons should be sliced up, eaten or stored wrapped in plastic wrap in the refrigerator. Best served chilled, the seedless melons can be cubed and stored in refrigerator for many days.

Corn, Pepper and Black Bean Dip

August 18, 2015

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Corn, peppers and tomatoes are overflowing at Delvin Farms. I picked up these colorful ingredients, hoping to hang onto the taste of summer and spend another evening outside. Many people are back to the swing of the school year and new “fall” schedules, but I’m refusing to let summer go. This dip requires little prep time in the kitchen so more time can be spent soaking in the last of August.

As summer would have it, I prepped this Corn, Pepper & Black Bean Dip amidst an afternoon thunderstorm. Hoping the clouds would clear away before guests arrived for an outside party just as quickly as the mess in my kitchen will disappear too.

Ingredients:
+ 8 mixed size bell peppers, variety of colors
+ 3 cups tomatoes, diced
+ 2 ears of corn, cooked and removed from core
+ 1 can organic black beans, rinsed
+ 1-2 jalapeños peppers
+ 3 medium sized shallots, diced finely
+ 4 tbsp. olive oil
+ 2 tbsp. balsamic vinegar
+ Dash/Pinch OF all-purpose spice (shown here with local, East Nashville Spice Co. spicy blend)
+ Tortilla chips

Method:

Toss all ingredients together into a large bowl. Pour over the olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Season with all purpose spice, salt & pepper. Fold together gently. Let chill in the fridge for a few hours to let all of the flavors blend together before serving with hearty, tortilla or pita chips.

This dip is very easy to make and would make an excellent side for grilling out or taco night.

— Amanda Barnhart is an art director, food enthusiast, and cat lover. She curates & photographs new recipes weekly on her vegetarian food blog, PlatedColor.com. You can see more photos and read about this recipe there.

Organic Cantaloupe in August

August 4, 2015

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Our organic cantaloupe are best of the season when august rolls around. The summer heat and sunshine ripen the fruits to a juicy, soft, sweet, orange flesh.

Planting the Cantaloupe:

Our organic cantaloupes are planted from mid may to the end of June. We will plant 4-5 acres of melons in 3 or more plantings of about one acre each. All the seeds are started in the greenhouses in small flats or seed trays and then transplanted into the field. We use a plastic mulch system for our organic production which reduces the amount of weeds around the plants by blocking the light and holding in soil moisture which conserves our irrigation. A small drip tape line is installed under the plastic right next to the plant that delivers the water directly to the root zone of the cantaloupe and not to the weeds between the rows. Plants will flower in 3-4 weeks from transplant and be pollinated by the many bees we have on the farm specifically for that purpose. Cantaloupes will be ready to harvest in approximately 70 days from day of transplant.

Harvesting the Cantaloupe:

We harvest the Cantaloupe in the morning hours before the sun has a chance to heat the melons up and before the have a chance to soak up the day’s heat. After cooling overnight, the melons are firmer and cooler in the center. Not all the melons ripen at the same time so we choose those melons that have a light tan to orange skin with a slight softness around the stem end. Green melons or immature melons are left on the plants to ripen in the next few days. Harvesting on a patch of melons will typically be done over a 10 day period with 2-3 pickings of fruit. Crews will work through the field selecting and piling up those melons that are ready. Next we toss the melons from one person to another and gently place them in the bins for transport. Reminiscent of grade school “field days” and the egg toss, harvesting melons is not much different!

Delivery, CSA and Farmers Markets

Our organic cantaloupes will make it into the CSA boxes several times throughout the season. As we move from patch to patch the cantaloupes are available from mid July to mid September. Succession planting is key in us having the melons available over a long harvest season and is why we will typically have four or more plantings.

We think the best way to consume our cantaloupes is chilling them in the fridge for a few hours and then slicing into chunks directly into a bowl. The sweet, orange flesh needs no additions and is perfect for any meal; breakfast, lunch or dinner. Like many of our organic fruits such as strawberries and blackberries, the cantaloupes are only here for a short season mid to late summer. Enjoy and come see us at the farmers markets.
Looking for something different in a cantaloupe recipe? check out our Mint, lime, cantaloupe chiller recipe, click here.

Delvin Farms CSA Delivers to Nashville

July 22, 2015

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CSA (Community Supported Agriculture)– Supporting Farm and Community. Delvin Farms Organic CSA is Nashville’s largest and one of the longest running CSA programs. Our CSA delivers freshly harvested produce to over fourteen pickup locations in Nashville area from Mid May through the end of October. Why CSA? It it for me? Read on.

July CSA box. Blackberries, tomatoes, garlic, cherry tomatoes, kale, cabbage and potatoes

Summer is in the air and as it was once said “A young man’s fancy turns to love”. But lately, with more and more community awareness of the importance of buying local, spring not only brings images of young love, it brings images of sweet, sweet strawberries. It brings images of freshly harvested vegetables plucked at the peak of maturity in the early morning dew from a local farm right in your own community. Those tantalizing thoughts then turn to investing your food dollar into a local farm through a CSA program.

CSA is so much more than just “supporting” a local farm, it supports the community. Think of it as your food dollar at work to keep communities alive. Much of your CSA dollar is reinvested locally on employee wages as well as countless community businesses supported by local farms. Land purchases, farm equipment, fuel, utilities, seed companies, local Farmers CO-OP, tire companies (have you ever priced just one huge tractor tire?) truck purchases, truck rentals, organic fertilizers such as fish emulsion, worm castings, seeds for cover crops like wheat, rye, vetch and yes, even sunflowers are purchased by farmers. When you purchase your CSA, farmers in turn use their dollar in the community, supporting local businesses and employees of that said business.

Running a farm is a delicate balancing act which requires careful scheduling, knowledge of the weather, botanical expertise, labor management and a sundry of other skills. CSA provides a living connection between farms and the communities they serve.

At Delvin Farms our commitment is growing the best quality, certified organic fruits and vegetables and delivering them to our members at the peak of freshness, packed with nutrition supplied through our rich, nutrient dense soil. There is a lot that goes into a CSA box, but the most important thing is the care that goes into land and the commitment to grow your food in the most healthy, environmentally sound soil without pesticides, herbicides or harmful chemicals. These are two things that we have cared deeply about since the first day that our first CSA share went out, and it will be the two things that will be our top priority for years to come.

Ready to Join? SIGN UP HERE NOW.

Sweet and Savory Toast

July 7, 2015

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Summer means more time spent outside and less time in the kitchen. Quick, easy snacks or light breakfast meals are a must with schedules packing calendars and sunny skies begging to be enjoyed with family and friends.

Delvin Farm’s blackberries hit the market a few weeks ago and pairing it with mascarpone seemed like a sweet treat for a lazy Sunday morning. I also snatched up the bightest red tomato and basil bundle for another toast recipe I had a craving for with hummus as a base. Toast doesn’t have to be boring and it can serve as a substantial snack, sweet or savory!

TOAST WITH MASCARPONE, BLACKBERRIES & HONEY
+ Toast whole wheat oatmeal bread, let cool slightly before spreading mascarpone (a lighter, Italian cream cheese). Top with whole blackberries and drizzle with local honey.

TOAST WITH HUMMUS, TOMATO, AND FRESH BASIL
+ Toast bread, spread with hummus. Halve tomato and slice into thin wedges. Arrange on toast and sprinkle in small, fresh basil leaves.

Juliet Tomato is Summertime Favorite

July 6, 2015

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We grow a lot of organic tomatoes on Delvin Farms but by far one of the favorites among our family and customers alike is the Juliet Tomato. With a rich tomato flavor but sweet and small seeded, the part plum, part roma, part cherry tomato is so versatile in recipes.

Juliets are a meaty, firm textured tomato with just the right amount of sweetness to add them to salads, salsas, and spaghetti sauces. Eaten simply, we enjoy them sliced in half with a little salt or even with fresh mozzarella and basil. Like a mini roma, they are perfect on sandwiches or a toasted panini.

One of the first tomatoes we harvest in early June, Juliets are with us all summer and will be included in our organic CSA shares and all of our markets till early fall. From a growers perspective, we love the juliet because of the volume of tomatoes it produces on vigorous , indeterminate vines. Plants can grow in our high tunnels to lengths of 10,12,15 feet long and produce hundreds of blooms that turn into clusters of small grape size tomatoes. The fruits are crack resistant and generally all sized uniformly. The plants are the longest producing plants for us and will often keep putting on flowers and fruits well into the fall.

Juliet Tomatoes Grown in our Tunnels can grow to 15′ in length and produce tomatoes for months.

Rain Delays and Honey Bee Inspections

April 22, 2015

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Sunny days like today, while waiting for the ground to dry from all the recent rains, gives me opportunity to open the honey bee hives and check their progress. April and May are busy months for the honeybees on the farm. The queen bees are laying 2000-3000 eggs a day, worker bees are tending the larva and brood, field bees are gathering nectar and pollen for the hive. To successfully produce a honey crop, the boxes must be chock full of 40,000-60,000 bees. After coming out of the winter with 15,000 bees, the hive has a lot of young bees to raise in a short order. Nectar flow starts in mid April or first of May with the arrival of white clover. This year, with all the rain in April and cool temperatures, it is shaping up to be a great honey production season. The bees have a little extra time to build up their numbers and the main flow of nectar should hit mid May.

At Delvin Farms I manage between 15 and 20 beehives for both pollination and honey production. We get a little honey each year but the main objective is for pollination of our organic vegetables and maintaining a hive that will last through the winter. I’ve been keeping bees for 5 years and it does get easier as experience has taught me what works and does not work. Raising bees is not easy because of all the non native predators and diseases that have moved into the area in the last few decades like verroa mites and hive beetles. The mites and beetles will kill a weak hive and /or at least cause severe stress. I do choose not to treat my hives with the commercial chemicals however and instead try to raise bees with genetics that can live in our area. Each beehive has one queen which is hatched by the overwintered hives on the farm.

Because she comes from existing stock, she should be able to survive through our winters in Tennessee, live in our humid climates during the summer and combat the natural predators. Since we have added the bees to the farm, we have seen a huge increase in the number of bees in the vegetable fields. Cucumbers, squash, pumpkin, blueberries, blackberries, and apples rely on insect pollinators like bees to fruit and grow a crop. We provide the flowers for the bees to feed and the bees in turn provide honey for us to harvest and benefit the plant by assisting the production of the fruit.

Frame of honey bees with brood about to be hatched. Approximately 4000 bees, 18 days old. This frame shows excellent pattern and comes from a strong hive.

Full box of honey bees at Delvin Farms. Bees are raised in 10 frame boxes, two boxes deep. Honey supers are added when needed in spring.

Full frame of capped honey from 2014 harvest. Spring honey is light color, crisp taste, floral.

Strawberries Mark the Beginning of the Season!

April 21, 2015

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Strawberries always mark the beginning of the growing season for us on Delvin Farms. Our organic strawberries are extra large, plump, deep red and delicious. Voted best berries by taste at many of the six farmers markets we attend, they are by far our customer’s favorite fruit we grow on the farm. During the peak of the season we harvest between 2500-3000 quarts of berries each week from mid May to early June. We have become well known for having some of the

How do we grow our Berries?

Strawberry growing begins in the fall with the purchase of 35,000 organic plug plants. We grow two types of berries, Chandler and CamaRosa, both of which are June bearing varieties meaning they fruit and harvest over an eight week period in the spring and early summer. Raised beds covered with a plastic mulch and centerline driptape provide the perfect conditions for growing big plants with lots of berries. The berries are

What makes our Berries taste so good?

That is a hard question to answer but I’m convinced it is from growing in a living, organic soil full of microbes, organic matter, micro and macro nutrients alike. We water the berries heavily during the fruiting season using the water conserving drip irrigation system. Most importantly, the berries are allowed to fully ripen on the plant before we harvest them. The mid May heat, sunshine, organic soil and water are the perfect combination to create a sweet, juicy strawberry’ie taste.

Come get your Delvin Farms strawberries at any of our farmers markets starting end of April til early June or secure your order by signing up for our CSA program. The 2015 season is shaping up to be a great year for the berries with big plants, lots of blooms and mild temperatures. Come early to the markets as they sell out fast !!