Happy Wednesday, friends.
And welcome to March. Our first crop of daffodils now is flowering, and available at the Farm Store. Expanded volumes of sunlight are compelling the many greens we have nurtured all winter to spread and rise. More than 100 pregnant ewes will begin bearing lambs next month. And while it’s not viscerally evident at the moment — it’s snowing as we write — March will welcome a more reliable and steady rise in temperatures. Soil will loosen, seeds will germinate, roots will branch and lengthen and our farm and the entire local foodshed will return to the stuff of lively abundance.
Bring on the green!
In March, named after the Roman god of war Mars because it’s the month when war returned after the cold winter, we welcome the full moon, called the Worm Moon, on March 7; Daylight Savings Day on March 12; St. Patrick’s Day on March 17; the Spring Equinox on March 20; and Ramadan, beginning on March 22. It’s a busy month indeed.
And after two months of snow-covered, often frozen fields — interspersed with mud — we return to the land with a bit more vigor in March. By the time of the first Boulder County Farmers Market, this year on Saturday, April 1 (exactly four weeks from today!) strong plants will lift row cover feet into the air and we already have been prepping fields for intensive planting. For Front Range farmers, it’s a month of busyness and anticipation for the long growing and harvesting season ahead.
We look forward to taking care of you at the Farm Store and at our bustling hive of conviviality and culinary excellence, Bramble & Hare, all week and weekend!
The Black Cat Organic Farm CSA
If you haven’t signed up for our 2023 CSA yet, spots still remain. Our CSA differs from most: Instead of us filling sacks or baskets with vegetables for you to pick up, for our CSA we invite you to visit the Farm Store 20 times between June and October and fill Black Cat CSA totes with produce. In addition, CSA members enjoy 5% discounts on all store items, plus a bonus U-Pick credit based on share size.
The link contains loads more information about how the CSA works, as well as a way to sign-up. Welcome to the Black Cat family.
Farm Store
Another Store highlight? Our own ketchup, crafted from heritage tomatoes we grow in our Certified Organic fields. With most ketchup, we think it’s good with just two things: burgers and fries. It’s often too sweet for anything else, and extremely one-dimensional. But our ketchup? We drag crackers through it. We might put a few dollops on a small bowl of warm pasta for a quick lunch. And while it would never occur to us to combine standard-issue ketchup with the glory that is Project Umami tempeh, now we occasionally will put aside of few nuggets of fried tempeh, destined for a big salad, and dip them into Black Cat ketchup for a flavor explosion. It’s soooo good. We’ve got a decent supply, for now, in our freezers. Do try it, even if you identify as a mustard freak and ketchup foe. You’ll come back for more. You may even — gulp — drizzle some ketchup across the top of a hot dog, along with the mustard. Until we made our own ketchup, we were mustard-only diehards for hot dogs.
Please visit us this week and weekend at the Farm Store, located at 4975 Jay Road and open Wednesday through Sunday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. for:
Mushrooms
Salad mix
Kale
Arugula
Tat soi
Spinach
Potatoes
Beets
Turnips
Carrots
Onions
Squash
Pumpkins
Dried beans
Black Cat Grains and flours
Popcorn
Flours from Black Cat Organic Farm grains
Meats
Grama Grass & Livestock Beef
Cuts of Black Cat heritage lamb
Cuts of Black Cat heritage pork
Black Cat Farm Provisions
Tomato sauce with basil and garlic
Basque piperade
French Onion soup
Yellow Tomato Sauce with French thyme
Tomato shallot fonduto
Salsa amarilla con rajas
Spicy harissa
Ketchup
Local Provisions
Plains & Prairie goods
Humble Suds cleaning products
Bee-Och Organics tooth powder, muscle pain rub, beard oil, deodorant
Growing Organic probiotic soaps
Purple Fence Farm lotions, soaps, bath salts, facial toners and salves
Annie Bee’s Hand-Poured Beeswax Candles
Bluecorn Beeswax Candles
Havenly Baked Gluten-Free Bread
Pueblo Seed cookies, porridge, cream of wheat, chile powder and more
Boulder Broth
Bee Grateful Honey Caramels, in chocolate, espresso and salted flavors
Bjorn’s Colorado Honey and doggie treats
Boulder Valley Honey
Bolder Chip salsa, corn chips and tortillas, and uncooked flour tortillas
Green Tahini dips and dressings
Heartbeets Veggie Burgers and doggie treats
Spark + Honey Granola
Mountain Girl Pickles
Project Umami Tempeh
Silver Canyon Coffee
French mustard
Gorgeous Italian balsamic vinegar
Ambrosial Italian apple cider vinegar
Vegan charcuterie from Greece
Italian risotto rice
Bramble & Hare
A Bramble experience — highly recommended — incorporates what must be the coziest, friendliest room in Boulder County with service so gracious that you’ll never want to leave.
And then there’s the food. Most of the ingredients come from our 425-acre Certified Organic farm, including the pork belly on the appetizer menu, done adobo style with roasted potatoes and kimchi. The pork and potatoes come from the farm. The kimchi? Of course — we grow lots of cabbage, peppers and the rest of what goes into a proper kimchi, and then we ferment it ourselves.
Have you ever eaten at a restaurant that grows nearly all of it’s own food? If you haven’t dined at Bramble, chances are the answer is no. Is it often that you spend an evening at a restaurant where a balance of the ingredients are organic? It’s rare — if ever.
We are here to take care of you with heart-warming, savvy service, cheerful vibes and a culinary experience that you’ll want to repeat again and again.
See you soon!
