Farmers Market Corner for 4/9/16

The Black Cat Farm booth at the Boulder Farmers’ Market will include the following produce on April 9, 2016:

  • Arugula
  • Beets
  • Carrots
  • Collards, Asian
  • Greens mix
  • Kale
  • Mache
  • Parsley
  • Parsnips
  • Rapini
  • Scallions
  • Sorrel
  • Spinach
  • Turnips

Mulefoot pork cuts, sheep pelts, and pig leather will also be available.

 Spring produce

Overwintered arugula.
Overwintered arugula.

In the late summer and throughout the fall, we plant greens and root vegetables so that we have fresh produce throughout the winter for our restaurants and in the early spring for the Boulder Farmers Market.  While our goal is to harvest throughout the year, it does not always work out that way in the winter, especially if the weather is consistently frigid.

The weather was mostly mild this winter so were able to harvest all but eight days of the year,  our most successful effort ever at supplying our restaurants with fresh produce throughout the year.

Currently, all of the greens and baby carrots at the market have been overwintered from last year. Overwintered produce tends to be sweeter than most other times of the year since the plant sugars concentrate in the winter to protect the plants.

Greens and pigs

We might have had a greater variety of greens to offer at the market except for a destructive byproduct of last month’s Front Range snowstorm. The two feet of snow knocked down fences, including those penning in our pigs.  Like humans, pigs love tender greens. When they escaped from their pens, the pigs rampaged through our vegetable fields, mowing down rows of greens. Among the casualties was our overwintered Swiss chard.

Swiss chard after snacking pigs.
Swiss chard after snacking pigs.

We have been planting new greens since last month, so anticipate a large assortment of fresh new greens in late Spring.

Another byproduct of the storm was deep thick mud throughout the farm once the snow melted.

Post-storm spring mud.

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