January...the beginning

First off, wow. Norman has officially become as cool as anywhere else in the US. I can’t wait to see this take off.

WOW! This sounds quite interesting. When is the deadline to sign up….You said you are limited to 30 subscriptions per season. For me, the price is quite a chunk of change. $325 per season. If we wanted to sign up for the Spring one for instance, can we pay the end of February?

Two cents from the farm…

We really like growing the unusual as well as the ordinary. We can’t wait to find out what a purple carrot tastes like and to share that with you. This will be an adventure for us, too!

Sara mentioned beets— wow, do we grow beautiful beets. I started pickling beets when I was just a kid and haven’t been able to eat store-bought beets since. Then, two years ago, we were introduced to roasted beets. Oh, my— a whole new world opened, and we now roast everything at least once to find out how the flavors change. Just amazing. (Someone remind me to roast the purple carrots…)

One of the advantages of a CSA-type food system is that you, the buyer and eater of the food, has a say in what’s offered. RIght now you can send an e-mail and request additions to our growing list. The seeds for March are already ordered, but for crops grown the rest of the year, you can help create the menu. Tell us your favorites and we’ll do the best we can!

We’re really looking forward to this and hope to bring you the best that can be grown in Oklahoma. When you come on your farm visit (included in your membership) we’ll tell you the story of how our tagline came to be “We grow beautiful food!”

Dev & Kip
High TIdes & Green Fields
Middleberg, Oklahoma
hightidesok@gmail.com

Hi Dev,
Have you ever grown tomatillos or parsnips? Those are 2 items I’ve never come across locally, can they grow here?

Joann-
Technically, there is no deadline, we will sell memberships until were are full (this year we are limiting it to 30 per season).

Please email me at sara@nativerootsmarket.com to discuss payment options.

We are going to be growing tomatillos this year! One of our OSU student farmers is taking them on as a project. Expect to see them in mid-July.

Parsnips are a difficult crop here because the best time to start seed is early May, which would bring the parsnips ripe in the middle of summer. As the soil temperatures can reach into the 90s, parsnips tend to get woody. We’d be happy to experiment with them as a winter crop— seeding in September and letting them winter over. Look for them in your first basket next March!

“Hi Dev,
Have you ever grown tomatillos or parsnips? Those are 2 items I’ve never come across locally, can they grow here?”

Dev,

I know there are different methods of growing natural foods – natural, organic, biodynamic. Yours is certified natural I think I read and you don’t use any chemical fertilizers. What do you use to ensure that your produce contains plenty of minerals, vitamins etc.? Produce can look really beautiful, even in typical grocery stores, but be really lacking in nutrients. I think this is one of the big reasons we have so many illnesses in this country. I personally wouldn’t mind eating banged up or misformed produce if I knew it was choc-full of minerals and vitamins!!!
Thanks for growing real food,
Sharon

Hi Dev and Kip,

I posted a question yesterday, but today it is gone! I was wondering what you will be fertilizing your soil with in order to assure maximum vitamin/mineral content in your produce?

You can either respond on the blog or email me at swils64@gmail.com.

This is amazing! I keep a garden through the fall that produces most of the veggies my husband and I need, but I will tell everyone I know about this new project. I’m so excited to see Native Roots growing and expanding in new ways. I can’t wait to see where you guys will go in the future!

Hi Sharon,

We use composted manure, compost, worm castings, Fertrell’s organic 2-1-1, bone meal, and lots of straw and leaf mulch left to decompose in place. Our soil is a sandy loam that requires organics (compost, spent plants) to be tilled back into it.

We tend to each plant type separately based on the growth pattern of the plant.

An example: when transplanting tomato plants, I dig a hole, add bone meal, compost, and some crushed egg shells. Peppers I don’t add anything, but mulch the aisles and up to the outside edge of the plant row. Peppers prefer hot soil, so the center of the row is left open. About two weeks after transplant, I give the peppers some Fertrell dilution (we use seaweed juice and fish emulsion) to give the plant a nitrogen boost. The tomatoes will get a top dressing of compost instead. Different habit, different regimen.

Plants do not respond in a “vitamin in, vitamin out” manner. The plant will seek the nutrients it needs to produce the particular fruit. If the plant finds what it needs and is healthy, the fruit will be nutritious. We keep our plants healthy — it’s good business as well as a guarantee of good quality. The plants are healthy, the produce is beautiful.

Your biggest advantage in the Garden Club is that the produce will be in your share within 24 hours of harvest (some will be even less). Unless you come and pick it from our gardens, you won’t get it any fresher. And fresher is the key to nutritious vegetables— green beans start losing vitamins within a few hours of picking, peas undergo a change in the starches making them less sweet, any kind of refrigeration will change the flavors and natural sugars (never refrigerate a tomato! that’s why the store-bought ’maters taste bland). The big guys may be able to sell you organic produce from Timbuctoo, but how long was the produce on a truck and at what temperature?

This blog has had some technical issues, and the Native Roots gurus are working on it. We don’t monitor this blog every day (but maybe we should!) and you may email us direct with any questions.

Thanks for asking!
Dev

A request for warm weather:

There is a type of okra called either Louisiana Okra or German Okra. It is short and stubby with more than six divisions (8, 9, 10 or more?)
In it’s raw state it seems to be tough and woody but when cooked it is tender and tasty. Please add it to your summer crops. We second or third the tomatillos!

Charley

Hi Charley!

We are planning to grow some really interesting okra this summer and will happily add the German to our list. We’re also growing Cajun Jewel, Clemson Spineless, Silver Queen, Hill Country Red, and Star of David (the last two are for pickling*). The one you requested is called Beck’s Big Buck at the bottom of the page:
http://www.southernexposure.com
(enter Online Shop, then Okra)
We’re also having a friend ship some seed from Louisiana called Cajun Queen.

Thanks for asking!
Dev at High Tides

• Pickling okra is so easy you’ll wonder why you never tried it before. No processing involved, just start looking for large-mouth jars.

As to the blog kinks…we’re working it. Just so you know, even if the posts sometimes disappear into cyberspace, I can still access them and we’ll do our best to get them back out and answered as soon as possible.
Thanks,
Sara :)