The Black Cat Farm booth at the Boulder Farmers’ Market will include the following produce on November 7, 2015:
- Arugula
- Asian greens mix (chrysanthemum, ruby streaks mizuna )
- Cardoons
- Kale, curly leaf and red
- Komatsuna (Japanese mustard greens)
- Leeks
- Lettuce mix
- Lettuce, Bibb
- Mizuna (ruby streaks, standard)
- Mustard greens
- Radishes (black, Japanese winter, red)
- Rapini
- Sen Po Sai (Chinese collards)
- Sorrel
- Squash (acorn, butternut, Tromboncino)
- Swiss chard
- Tatsoi
- Tatsoi, Pak Choy mix
- Turnips (Hinona Kabu, magenta)
Mulefoot pork cuts, sheep pelts, and pig leather will also be available.
More grains
After successfully growing and milling polenta corn, the Black Cat Farm is expanding further into growing grains. Recently, the crew sowed spelt and winter wheat seed. Visions of bread and other baked goods using fresh homegrown Black Cat Farm flour at Black Cat Bistro and Bramble and Hare are dancing in our heads.
Eric says that spelt, also known as farro, is a mainstay at the restaurants. It is included on plates as a staple grain throughout the year, included in a farroto risotto, featured in a summertime salad much like tabbouleh but more toothsome, and included in the batter of some baked goods.
Winter wheat is a traditional crop in Boulder County and grows well in this area. It seems fitting to grow something with deep roots in the local landscape.
Getting ready for the winter
During the winter, the Black Cat Farm staff substantially shrinks. To make it easier for the skeleton crew, which includes Eric and Jill, to maintain farm operations, the full crew is currently occupied with tasks like laying in water lines for a wintertime watering system for the chickens and sheep, so watering can be automated rather than manual. (Eric has tales of transporting water to the sheep that freezes in the truck during cold weather before it gets to the sheep.)
Other improvements include adding more farrowing barns to accommodate the growing pig herd and avoid juggling spaces for sows farrowing at the same time and upgrading the electricity to the 63rd Street and Oxford Road property fields. Upgrading the electricity will enable lights rather than cell phones and car headlights to illuminate late night farming in the future. And, hopefully, Eric will stop destroying cell phones by driving over them with the backhoe in the dark.
