Easter was a terrific day for planting tubers

A potato with many sprouts

 Easter morning was full of sunshine and the soil was slightly muddy but workable. We decided to take the morning to plant potatoes. We planted over 100 potatoes in just a few hours. Each "seed" potato is supposed to produce about 5-8 potatoes in about 90-120 days, so we are hopefully going to have 500+ potatoes. The process of growing potatoes is different than most plants. As the plant sends up its taproots, we will mound the dirt up higher and higher around each plant. In each of those mounds, that's where the potato will grow.

Damian putting 3" of soil on top of the planted potatoes

Vietnamese pho soup with lots of veggies

One of our favorite types of food is Vietnamese food. It's light; it's fresh and usually has a lot of vegetables. The other night we made Vietnamese soup with lots of vegetables. It turned out great. We wanted to share the recipe with you. Don't be scared off by all the ingredients; it really can be cooked rather quickly. Also, it can be adapted for vegetarians easily.

1 tablespoon of minced garlic
1 teaspoon of ground chili paste
1 teaspoon of red chile sauce
1 tablespoon of chopped dried cilantro  1 teaspoon of pepper
1 tablespoons of olive oil
5 cups of low sodium chicken stock
1/3 pound of medium shrimp, peeled & deveined
4oz of rice vermicelli noodles
2 + cups of assorted vegetables (pac choi, radish, carrot, mushroom, tomato, onion)
1 tablespoon of lemongrass
1 tablespoon of fresh ginger
2 tablespoons of  lemon juice
2 tablespoons of fish sauce
1 tablespoon of brown sugar
Fresh cilantro & basil for garnish

Heat oil on medium in a soup pot and add spice mixture to the pot until fragrant, about 20 seconds. Add chicken stock and let simmer for 5 minutes. Add lemongrass, ginger, lemon juice, fish sauce, & brown sugar. Bring to a boil. Add vermicelli noodles. 4 minutes later add vegetables. Boil for 4 more minutes and add shrimp. Take off heat and add garnish. Enjoy!

1500+ Transplants and Growing

While the cold rain and sleet mixture was happening outside today, we planted more cabbages, herbs, and lettuces indoors. After adding it all up, we calculated that we currently have about 1500+ plants growing indoors under lights. We are officially maxed out of space under our lights. We are ready to get these plants in the ground at the farm and under the sun, but we have to wait for the risk of frost to decrease. In St. Louis, the last frost date is around April 11th-20th. It can't come soon enough!

We are also excited to announce that we officially have several CSA members already signed up for our 2013 season. It feels good to be adding a CSA this year and watching our farm business grow. We look forward to sharing the harvest with our CSA members and building a community of people who love fresh, organic veggies!  We have more CSA memberships available, so pass on the word to friends and neighbors.