Karen's Garden Delights Newsletter

Spring greetings from our farm! We have talked with several customers recently who are craving fresh produce again and our family is preparing to expand our growing to keep everyone well supplied. A portion of our winter reading focused on nutrition and learning how we can enrich our soil to grow food that is nutritionally dense. Truly a complex system that only our Creator God could have engineered. After studying more about how important healthy food is in the healing process I ended up with opportunities to put it into action sooner than planned. In March, Olin was laid up with a leg ailment, a few family members came down with colds and a couple of friends came asking for specific foods to help in their healing. I was quite thankful to have spinach and greens in the coldframes, dried herbs, frozen veggies and plenty of garlic to give everyone a boost. We'll continue to build our soil with compost, sea minerals, vermicompost, cover crops and more to provide your family with veggies that are full of good nutrients. As always, several new varieties will be showing up in the garden this year such as yellow snow peas, rat tail radishes and Thai bitter melon. Adding to the tomato kaleidoscope (I planted 25 varieties last week!) are Green Grape, Great White and Japanese Black Trifeles. Hopefully all this variety will mean that eating healthy doesn't have to be boring but can be quite elegant not to mention adventuresome.

Our Mission

To provide a local source of fresh naturally grown produce and offer services to encourage backyard gardeners.

What's Available:

Salad Mixes

We love great salad! About a dozen kinds of lettuce greens including arugula, mizuna, chervil, pea shoots,spinach and chard along with edible flowers will help make our mixes which are available mid May till the end of June and again in the fall.

$5 - Regular salad mix 2-3 heads lettuce, handful of mixed greens
$6 - Deluxe salad mix 2-3 heads lettuce, mixed greens, plus toppers such as scallions, radishes sprouts edible flowers, carrots, etc. Larger bags available during peak seasons. (The mixes come field rinsed and you do the final washing at home).

Veggie Baskets

These include meal size servings of at least 5 veggies in season (beans, cukes, zucchini, red potatoes, tomatoes, peppers, greens, snow peas, garlic and more plus fresh herbs). Available mid June through hard frost. Limited number available since we also plan to sell at the Orrville Farmers Market on Wednesdays.

$9 - Regular size veggie basket

$13 - Family size veggie basket

Free Range Eggs

$2.00/doz Delicious eggs from our laying hens on pasture.

Herb Medley

$5.00 for small bunches of 3-4 herbs in season plus a garlic or shallots.

Edible Flower Bag

$3.00 Enough to decorate a special cake, dress up several salads or create gourmet appetizers.

Other Seasonal Goodies

Rhubarb, strawberries, sweet cherries plus pastured chicken (June, August & October) and grass fed beef (June).

Flowers & Gift Baskets

Plenty of flowers will be growing in my gardens again this year for attracting beneficial insects, providing flowers for our church, allowing our kids to pick endless bouquets for the table and plenty to share with others. Some new ones I'm trying are blue Sweet Peas, Hen and Chicks Poppy, and Corn Cockle along with my favorite old stand-bys of Zinnias, Snapdragons, Sunflowers and others.

Bouquets

$4.00 - pint size bouquet
$7.00 - quart size bouquet

Check with me about bouquets for special events, church arrangements, offices, etc

Gift Baskets $15 & up

Give a unique gift that nourishes and blesses for a summer birthday, congratulations or special thank you. Baskets include a premium seasonal veggie assortment (i.e. deluxe salad mix, heirloom tomato sampler with basil, or stir fry combo), a quart size bouquet and handmade pressed flower card. You may also custom order a basket that includes a special recipe, fall decoration or etc. Just give me your price range and theme ideas. These are highly seasonal so please call ahead to see what might be available for your special occasion.

Fall Decorations

I will be growing sorghum, millet and sunflowers to make fall swags and shocks that can be fed to the birds later, along with gourds and Indian corn.

Botanical Cards

$2.50 - handmade paper cards embellished with pressed flowers.

Your Trash...Our Treasure

If any of these things are cluttering your garage, we will gladly recycle them:

Plastic green mesh pint baskets
Egg cartons
Produce baskets
Greenhouse pots/trays (especially larger bedding packs with 24-48 cells)
Cute glass jars for vases
Your fall leaves for great mulch & compost

Greenhouse Extras

I will have a limited amount of extra transplants available again.

Tomatoes in 4" pot - $1.00/each (when ordered by early May)

Sungold cherry, Yellow Pear, Heirlooms: Green Zebra, Brandywine, Persimmon, Cherokee Purple and more.

Mixed lettuce packs - $1.25

Plus assorted herbs, peppers flowers,...

Garden Seminars

I am glad to attempt to answer your gardening questions or give suggestions for planting times, garden layout, etc. I also am avaailable to speak to groups on various topics (see our website under Events for more details). We plan to occasionally host seminars on the farm as well. Watch for dates for the popular fall Cold Frame seminar.

Pickup Info

Fridays after 11am is the regular time for on farm pick-up but we can be flexible. We can also bring items ordered to the Orrville Farmers Market on Wednesdays (at Serpentini used car lot from 11-3pm June 6 thru Sept 26). Please contact me a day in advance for availability unless you are on a weekly pick-up schedule. You can reach us by e-mail at KarensGarden@toast2.net or at 330 857-1995. Check out our newly launched website http://members.toast.net/ok_res for information on what is in season, my garden journal and more about our farm.

Delightful Tidbits