Gener8 Farms

This year, Jodee has taken a position with Purdue Extension as the Local Foods Coordinator. This is an amazing opportunity to forward the work for small farmers and local food in Indiana. Unfortunately, that means that we will not be offering CSA shares this season, nor will we sell at the Bloomington Community Farmers’ Market. We will continue to be active in the Monroe County growing community through our family farm and with Purdue Extension. If you are interested in hearing about local food, here is a link to Jodee’s brown bag talk from 15 April 2013. Please keep in touch as we strive to reopen next season.
Best,
The Elletts

Autumn is such a beautiful time at the farm.  With the heat and humidity of summer long gone, there’s nothing better than playing with the kids out in the fields and harvesting the bounty of our 2012 season.

But you never know when that day is coming– the first hard freeze that spells the end of so many crops.

Here in Ellettsville, this week was our freeze out… This means that our weekly CSA deliveries of diverse goodies has come to an end. However, although we are already missing the fresh tomatoes, peppers, eggplant and green beans, we will continue to harvest kale, chard, beets, broccoli and the like.

So for those of you who are addicted to the fresh, green diet– fear not– we are pleased to continue feeding this addiction for weeks to come! Just contact Jodee or Kevin to make arrangements for how we can best meet your needs. And keep in mind that our final potluck at the farm is right around the corner. This will be a delicious tribute to the challenging, yet rewarding 2012 season!

September is the time when we begin to wind down from summer’s bounty and into the cool weather crops of autumn.  In your weekly CSA basket (photo at right) you’ll notice a wonderful mix of summer goodies like melons, peppers, eggplant and tomatoes, along with new varieties of greens and the return of favorites like potatoes, green beans, beets and radishes over the coming month.  We hope you enjoy this transition of flavors as much as we do!  Note that our weekly delivery to IU, COOK and Park Ridge East is now on Friday instead of Tuesday so please let us know if you have any questions via a comment (below), e-mail or phone.  Cheers!

The market was absolutely superb this weekend– thank you to all of our friends and supporters who delighted in our great diversity of Lycopersicum!  For those of you who missed us on Saturday, you can take advantage of our weekly produce delivery to IU, COOK and Park Ridge East on Tuesdays by placing your order on Local Dirt.  Jodee will receive your order via smartphone directly in the field and then harvest and deliver to you the freshest possible produce.  If you have any questions about placing your order on Local Dirt, feel free to contact Jodee at 812.three six one.8517.

Our special this week is the Tomato Lovers Box where you will receive $4 off of your box full of heirloom magic! Many of us were excited to read about the latest research from Jodee’s clan of mentors at UC Davis where they uncovered the scientific basis for why the heirloom varieties have superior flavor and nutritional value.  We weren’t making this up– check out the recap in the NYT, along with some wonderful recipes for heirlooms by Mark Bittman.

106 degrees??? Did I read that forecast correctly??? The fires that are regular in the Western US may be coming to a Midwestern forest near you this year! Out at the farm the soil is dry a foot down. Digging potatoes has been particularly easy for our potentially heavy soils! Fortunately, I managed to install a drip irrigation system for the entire acre plus Mam’s Garden so that our plants will receive water directly to their roots. Unfortunately, I can barely keep up with the demand. It has been a tough June (or is it August?) but the nightshades are enjoying the dry heat, for the most part. Zucchini are coming on, and there are loads of tomatillos and tomatoes in the field, ripening and growing – and often wilting. I’m hoping that we will get some rain here soon, so I can plant the rest of our winter squash crops and various other succession plantings that do well to establish themselves in more forgiving conditions.
In case you have not been able to order using localdirt.com, we are harvesting the following items this week: mixed salad greens; cooking greens: kale, chard and pac choi; potatoes; onions; radish; basil; dill; cilantro and hopefully more zucchini!
Here’s to a safe return of Kevin from the Montana Field Station, where he has been evacuated for the Pony Forest Fire.

A big thank you goes out to our member families who contributed their wonderful dishes to our recent Dinner at the Farm event.  We really had it all– a little work, a lot of play, a delicious feast, and a beautiful sunset to cap the day.  This is the essence of Gener8 Farms and we’re already looking forward to hosting next month’s Farm Dinner event and camp out under the stars!

As many of you know, Jodee has been very busy with the Local Grower’s Guild Board to help develop a new Food Hub, or local food distribution system here in the Bloomington community. As part of that effort, the LGG is working to pilot a new online marketplace aimed at expanding opportunities for individuals, businesses, and institutions like IU to purchase more local goods. Gener8 Farms is pleased to now offer this online shopping opportunity to our members and friends.  It’s called localdirt.com and it’s a wonderful new way to connect you with our farm products and for you to customize your weekly CSA box.  Your use of localdirt.com will also help us evaluate various aspects of the planned online marketplace for all LGG members later this year so please consider giving it a whirl.  Plus it’s really easy and requires no credit card info. etc…  All you do is:

Go to https://www.localdirt.com/
Sign up as a Buyer
Search for Gener8 Farms
Place your order for farm fresh produce
If you are a G8F member, insert your promo code for discount (e-mail Jodee)
Payment (cash or check) is made at time of delivery or pick up
See our G8F Calendar for available dates of delivery/pick up

And for those of you who are looking for great recipes for our local, seasonal offerings please check out http://localfoods.about.com/

With the arrival of May comes our first delicious harvest of the season!  Mam’s garden is absolutely lush with spring goodies including kale, chard, spinach, lettuce, cabbage, beets, bok choy, arugula, daikon radish, and mustard greens.

We were particularly excited to have some of our CSA farming members out in the field with us this past weekend and it’s wonderful to see the kids dive right into action.  The 2012 season is off to a wonderful start and we’re thrilled to be sharing the experience with our member families– thank you for joining us!