Seemingly in the blink of an eye 74,000 chile plants have been planted. It is... kind of astounding! Normally our team of 4 holds down the fort, but we hire extra help during planting and harvest. This year with 6 additional pairs of hands during the course of a week our entire farm got planted by hand (!!).
It's a tremendous moment on our plants journey. They leave the controlled environment of the greenhouse to harden off, and then are whisked down a tube into the ground to fend for themselves (ok, ok, under Nacho's watchful eye). It is a labor intensive process which is why accomplishing it in a week is a rather amazing feat. More peppers than we've ever grown before, planted, arguably, faster than ever.
We've added just two new varieties this year as we continue to refine our lineup. We're growing the Japones chile for Curio Spice Co, for one of their signature blends.
And after years of trial and error (remember when that seed company sent us just, like, the wrong seed, and didn't apologize), we've scaled up our production of pasilla chiles, and are excited to be able to offer them this winter!
In their opening week or two in the fields, I always feel like the plants look pretty bad. But with the magic of a few good days of heat and time that lead to new growth, the plants really begin their march towards production. It's an exciting, yet nerve wracking, moment.
Gideon and the Boonville Barn Team
Save the Date: July 13th in Sebastopol, CA
Join Krissy at Gold Ridge Organic Farm for a Pizza Pop-up with Chef Bruce Hill, featuring a collaboration between Gold Ridge Organic Farms + our chiles!
50 miles Northwest of San Francisco, Gold Ridge Olive Oil is home to 70 acres of olive trees and 16 acres of heirloom apples and citrus trees. You can join us in eating some delicious pizza and celebrating summer with 360 views of Sonoma County. Ticket and food info coming soon!
BEANS BEANS BEANS BEANS BEANS
Over the years we've continued to grow and expand our bean production. For those that follow us on Instagram, or pay close attention, you may remember last year the complete elation that erupted when our Turkish made bean thresher arrived. While it replaced the much talked about bicycle powered bean thresher, it turned weeks work of work into hours, and I think helped make our beans into a profitable crop.
This years new addition came via another farmers account on Instagram. This fancy wheel thing that plants the beans as you walk along behind it. Previously we'd planted similar to the peppers, tossing an individual bean down the tube to plant. With these new machines we averaged planting an acre in under an hour and a half!
This made planting the half acre of land we're leasing from our neighbors down the road a breeze! Pam and Roy have been farming Blue Meadow Farm since 2002 and as Pam turns 81 this year we're excited to experiment with what it would look like to rent some of their incredibly productive, and well cared for land for a season.
Somehow Krissy conned me in to growing 11 different varieties of beans this year:
- We're retiring Controne and Peruano (the beans didn't hold up in our new thresher, and had a pretty low yield),
- adding Anazape (Developed by Rio Del Rey in 2018, a cross between Anazasi and Rio Zape),
- and adding Baja Azufredo (similar to the Peruano).
Even with the addition of half an acre of bean production we're still expecting our our supply to sell out. The best way to be the first to know is to sign up for a 'back in stock' email on one of our bean product pages. We tend to restock them all at once, so signing up for one will let you know that they're all available.
What We're Cooking
- Krissy has been playing more with the Sugar Rush Peach - adding it to honey butter and sprinkling it on peaches to complement cheesy biscuits for breakfast over the weekend.
- Our old friend the Calabrian Chile Garlic Knots made an appearance over the weekend as well. As usual, we ate them all in one go.
- Julia Turshen's Pizzeria Salad is a genius, and delicious, way of prepping the salad (dressing goes on the bottom), that allows you to get ahead if you're cooking for a crowd. Simple, delicious, and easily customizable with what the farmers market has!
