Crazy Weather

Yesterday I picked almost a whole row of young cabbage, that filled up one and a half giant coolers.  I would not have picked it but since we have been getting so much rain lately I was afraid if I did not pick it I would soon loose it because of all the water that is sitting in between the rows.  Normally at this time of the year all my vegetables would be done for the year, due to the cold weather.  Not this year, this year in January instead of loosing everything to the freezing cold, I will most likely end up loosing everything to the excessive rain.  You never know what the weather may bring.

 Lots of Water

but I still have turnips, radishes, kohlrabi, pac choi, kale, and scallions

and at home I have lettuce, arugula, romaine, mustard greens, collards, and more kale.

I look at this picture and it reminds me more of spring more than winter.

Here is a picture of the same area without all the water, taken about a month ago.

One cooler full of young cabbage, that I will be making into sauerkraut today.

This will be my first time making sauerkraut, I will have to do a post if it comes out good.

 

Merry Christmas to All!

I just wanted to wish everyone 

A Very Merry Christmas!!

from everyone at Real Veggies Farm!

Upcoming event- Saturday December 19th

Our last show of 2015 will be this weekend at:

Avant-Garde Art & Crafts Show Fairlawn
St. George's Fellowship Centre
3204 Ridgewood Road, Fairlawn, Ohio 44333
Saturday, December 19, 2015
10am- 5pm

Hope to see everyone there!

Christmas in the Valley

Yesterday we had lots of fun at Christmas in the Valley in Valley City!  It was great to be selling back in Valley City again after going all over the place to craft shows.  It was so nice to see so many customers and fellow vendors again that we know from the farmers markets.

To kick off the day they started with a small parade with the Buckeye High School Marching Band and Santa on a horse drawn carriage.  The parade started off at Samoskys and ended at the Depot.

A view form our the window where we were set up inside Samosky's Pizzeria.

Santa making his way to the Depot, where he stayed from 1pm- 5pm for pictures.  There were also cookies and punch available at the Depot.

 Our tables at Samosky's Pizzeria.  

We had our pasta, jams, jellies, bread, gift baskets, personalized Christmas ornaments, and veggies (spicy salad mix, lettuce and greens salad mix, lettuce and romaine salad mix, kale, mixed greens, carrots, turnips, radishes, pac choi, mustard greens, and arugula).

Samosky's had cookie decorating for the kids, and pizza by the slice and bakery available for everyone!

Horse drawn carriage rides around the town were available, 

donations for the ride went to support a local animal sanctuary.

So if you missed the fun this year, you will have to mark your calendars for next year, same time, same week, same location, Christmas in the Valley at Valley City.

Merry Christmas!

From everyone at Real Veggies Farm:

April, Ed, and Sandy

Christmas in the Valley - December 13th

Come see us this weekend at Christmas in the Valley!

Upcoming Events - December 12th and 13th

So excited for this weekend on Sunday December 13th I am going to be back in Valley City selling at Christmas in the Valley.  I have been selling all over the place and it is going to be so nice to be back in Valley City.  I am also really excited that I will be able to bring along some veggies to sell.  It has been a really warm November and December and I still have a lot of cold crops growing, such as lettuce, kale, turnips, pac choi, scallions and hopefully some others.

So stop by this weekend and see us at:

"Tis The Season"
VFW Hall
Saturday, December 12, 2015
9am- 3pm
25742 Royalton Rd, Columbia Station, Ohio 44028
https://www.facebook.com/events/439902962862258

Christmas in the Valley
Vendors will be set up throughout the city in different business locations, we will be at:
Samosky's Pizzeria
6738 Center Road, Valley City, Ohio
Sunday, December 13, 2015
1pm- 5pm

Upcoming Event - December 5th and 6th

This weekend we will be selling at:

St. Julie Billiart Parish Craft Show

5500 Lear Nagle Road

North Ridgeville, Ohio 44039

Saturday, December 5, 2015
9am- 5pm
and
Sunday, December 6, 2015
10am- 3pm

Ladies Night Out!

Tomorrow you can come and see us at Bullfrog's Sports Cafe for a ladies night out!
We will have our usual pasta, jams, jellies, and bread.

Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving!
Here are some pictures from our Real Veggies Farm Thanksgiving.

While cooking was going on in the kitchen, we started out with some live entertainment, and even some dancing.

Not the clearest pic, but you get the idea.

And here are this years Thanksgiving food pictures:

Our Thanksgiving Turkey

Scalloped Carrots 

(unfortunately in this picture you can not see the beautiful colors of the carrots, yellow, white, orange, purple, and red)

Macaroni Salad 

(with of course our pasta)

Creamed Corn

Beans with Basil Butter

Pan Fried Turnips, Potatoes, and Radishes

Garlic Bread

(The only thing I actually messed up, everyone is aloud to mess up every now and then right.  Lesson learned from this one do not use the broiler on hi, always use the low setting.  Believe it or not they still did not taste bad, just look a little burned.  I also manged to forget the Parmesan cheese, oh well, but it was still good.)

 Stuffing made out of my Onion Bread

Garlicky Beets

My plate served with some of our friends homemade wine.

Of course like always I forgot to take a picture of the pumpkin pie, maybe some year I will remember.

Like every year everything that we ate was either grown by us or from our friends.  That is what makes Thanksgiving so special to us here at Real Veggies Farm!

Happy Holidays Everyone!

 

Upcoming Events - November 21st and 22nd

This weekend we will be attending the following shows:

(We will have our pasta, bread, jams, jellies, gift baskets and some veggies.)

North Royalton High School PTA Craft Show

Saturday, November 21, 2015

9am- 3pm

6579 Royalton Road, North Royalton, Ohio 44133

https://www.facebook.com/events/909527822447405/

Skypark's Craft Show/Open House

Sunday, November 22, 2015

Noon- 5pm

Skypark Airport

3071 Greenwich Rd. Wadsworth, Ohio 44281

Radishes

We have lots of beautiful radishes available right now.  I believe I should have around 8 different varieties that I planted.  Just had to post this pic thought it looked so beautiful!

Mixed Radishes

We Have Lettuce! And Don't Forget the Bread!

Just wanted to let everyone know that we have some really good lettuce available right now.  If you would like some lettuce or other veggies that we have available now, you can send me an email or call, to put in an order.  We will not be bringing any veggies to our craft shows that we will be attending, unless someone puts in an order for something.

The salad mixes that we currently have available are:
~ Just Lettuce Mix- A mix of about 12 different varieties of lettuces.  Many different colors, and shapes.  The below picture is a picture of our Just Lettuce Mix.
 ~ Lettuce and Greens Mix- A mix of a variety of different lettuces, swiss chard, collards, and a variety of different kales.
~ Spicy Salad Mix- A mix of a variety of different lettuces, and a variety of different spicy mustard greens.
~ Lettuce and Endive Salad Mix- Two different types of endive, mixed together with a variety of different lettuces.
~ Lettuce and Romaine Salad Mix- A mix of a variety of different lettuces, and Baby Green Romaine.
~ A Little Bit of Everything Salad Mix- A mix of all of the above.  Lettuce, kale, swiss chard, collards, romaine, endive, and mustard greens.

~ Bagged Greens Stir-Fry and Salad Mix- A mix of swiss chard, collards, and a variety of different kales.  Can be added to a salad or used for a stir-fry.
~ Bagged Mixed Kale- A mix of about 8 different varieties of kale.

We also currently have available:
~ Turnip Bunches
~ Mixed Radish Bunches
~ Pac Choi
~ Chinese Cabbage
~ Scallion Bunches
~ Mixed Colored Carrots
~ Mustard Green Heads

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Order your Thanksgiving bread now!

I am now taking orders for our Onion Bread, Garlic Herb Buns/Rolls, and our Garlic Braided Bread, for Thanksgiving.  Depending on where you live, we do deliver our bread, and will be doing so Thanksgiving week.  Send me an email or give me a call and we can work something out.

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Don't Forget to come to one of our craft show's that we will be attending throughout November and December, and pick up one of our gift baskets for your family or friends, for the holidays.  We can personalize the baskets with almost any color you would like.  What would be better than to show up at your families house on Thanksgiving or Christmas with a basket of pasta, jams, jellies, and recipes, to say thanks for welcoming us into your home.

Upcoming Events- November 14th and 15th

Here are the fliers for the next events we will be attending this weekend.

Upcoming Event - November 7th 2015

Our next event will be at the 4th Annual Medina Early Childhood PTA Harvest & Holiday Craft Fair on November 7th 2015.  We will have our pasta, jams, jellies, bread, and gift baskets available.  Hope to see everyone there!
You can check out their facebook page for a list of the other vendors that will also be attending:  https://www.facebook.com/events/974506792588398/

Craft Show Pictures

Today we were at the Relay for Life Craft Show, this was our first craft show, before this we have always just done farmers markets.  Thanks to everyone who came by today our first craft show was a success.  It was so nice to be set up inside, we did not have to worry about the sun, wind, or cold.  This was another first for us.

Our table at the Relay for Life Craft Show 

One of the challenges for me was trying to figure how to fit everything on one 6ft. table.  That was fun, but I did it!  I had to build a couple of displays, but in the end I think it looked pretty nice.

 Building my new bread display.

 The finished product at the show.  I think it worked out pretty good.

Relay for Life Craft Show - October 24th

Just a reminder to let everyone know that we will be at the Relay for Life Craft Show at Erhart/York Fire Station at the intersection of State Rt. 18 and Columbia Road (Rt. 252).  It is this Saturday October 24th for 10am to 3pm.  We will have pasta, jams, jellies, bread, and gift baskets.  Hope to see everyone there! 

Garlic Planting Time!

It is garlic planting time, and today I was able to get a lot of my garlic in the ground.  I planted at total of 16 different varieties.  My garlic garden at home is now full, and tomorrow I will be planting more out at the farm.

Garlic waiting to be planted.

 

Garlic garden at home all planted.

Introducing New Garlic Herb Buns!

For a while now I have been wanting to make up some buns out of the same dough that I use to make my garlic herb braided bread, well yesterday I finally made some!  I had a couple bags today at the at the Valley City Farmers Market, as a trial, and I will defiantly be making them again.  I plan to have some next Saturday at the Erhart/York Craft Fair.  I can not wait to make up a sandwich with these buns, they do taste great by themselves though.

New Garlic Herb Buns

Just like the our famous Garlic Herb Braided Bread, but in a bun!

Pancakes with Veggies

This morning I decided to make pancakes for breakfast.  I made my buttermilk oatmeal pancakes.  When I had about a quarter of the batter left I came up with the idea to add some of my veggies to the mix.  I chopped up real fine, a sweet pepper, tomato, some kale, and a small summer squash.  I then added it all to the pancake batter and cooked just like I did the rest of the pancakes.  It gave the pancakes a nice hearty vegetable taste.

So next time you are making up your favorite pancakes try adding some veggies for something a little different.

Upcoming Event- October 24th 2015

This weekend Saturday October 18th 2015 we will be selling at the Valley City Farmers Market location from 9am- Noon.  Our normal location.

We will have all our normal goodies: pasta, jams, jellies, gift baskets, bread, cut flowers- dahlias, veggies such as tomatoes, peppers, summer squash, radishes, scallions, greens, lettuce, carrots, beans, and more.

I am still not sure if we will be setting up the following weekend (Saturday 10-24) at Valley City, I will let everyone know when the time comes closer.

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Next Saturday October 24th 2015 we will be at the Erhart/York Firefighters Association 4th Annual Craft Show, from 10am- 3pm.  It is located at the corner of 252 and 18.  This will be our first time at this event.

We will have our pasta, jams, jellies, our gift baskets, bread, and maybe some other things.  Hope to see everyone there!

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Pumpkin Festival Pictures

Here are some pictures of our table at the Country Pumpkin Festival this past Saturday at Brunswick.  Unfortunately I did not get to take any pictures from around the event like I had been planning on ended up getting too busy and did not get a chance.  I guess I will have to wait until next year to get more pictures.

Our tables at the Pumpkin Festival, we had:

pasta, bread, veggies, herbs, apples, cut flowers, jams, jellies, butters, and gift baskets. 

Real Veggies Farm Gift Baskets

Consisting of:

4 pasta of choice

2 jellies, jams, and butters of choice

3 recipe cards of choice

tissue paper, bow, and to from card, of choice

and of course the basket is included

 Our pasta display at the market

We had 22 different varieties of pasta this past weekend

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Brunswick Farmers Market

Brunswick Farmers Market has come to an end for the season (so sad).  I would like to once again thank all my wonderful customers, and hope to see everyone again next year in June when the market starts again.

Valley City Farmers Market

We will still be at Valley City Farmers Market this weekend.  I am not sure how much longer we will be still setting up at Valley City, it should start getting colder now and a frost is coming soon.  I will keep everyone updated here.

Fall/Winter Plans

I am planning on going to some events around the area this fall and winter.  I already have a few events in mind and will be posting info here about where I will be selling.

Also if anyone is interested in any veggies, pasta, jams, jellies, bread, and gift baskets send me an email.  Email and list of what is available is on the right side of the page.

Eggs and Veggies for Breakfast

I have been so busy lately preparing for the Pumpkin Festival I have not had a chance to make up a really good breakfast.  So since the Pumpkin Festival is over now I figured I had to make up a really good breakfast.

Chopped up scallions, shallots, summer squash, peppers, tomatoes, kale, and swiss chard.

All of which I added to the eggs.

Scrambled Eggs with Veggies, and Toasted Onion Bread

You can use any combination and quantity of veggies that you wish here is what I used.

Ingredients:

Scallions

Shallot

Sweet Peppers 

Tomatoes

Kale and Swiss Chard

Summer Squash

Garlic Clove

A little Basil

1 Pound Ground Pork

Eggs with a little Milk

Mozzarella Cheese

2 tablespoons butter

Directions:

Over medium heat add the butter, scallions, shallot, and ground pork.  Cook until meat begins to cook through.  Then add the peppers and summer squash.  When they begin to soften add kale, swiss chard, garlic, basil, tomatoes, eggs and milk.  Just before you remove from heat add the cheese, mix to melt cheese and remove from heat.

I like to toast up some bread, and eat the scrambled eggs with the toast kind of like a sandwich.

Brunswick Pumpkin Festival

This weekend Brunswick Farmers Market is going to be having the second annual Pumpkin Festival.  This year the Pumpkin Festival will run for two days, Saturday 10am- 5pm, and Sunday 10am- 4pm, at the Heritage Farm, 4613 Laurel Road, home of the Brunswick Area Historical Society.  There will be free parking, free entry, free face painting and free grab bags for the kids.  And this year it is going to be big, over 80 vendors will be selling a variety of items such as vegetables, fruits, baked goods, popcorn, bread, pasta, lots and lots of pumpkins, flowers, mums, jams and jellies, caramel apples, dog treats, jewelry, wood crafted games and other items, gift items and holiday items.  There will also be live music and some of the vendors will be bringing their farm animals along to add to the fun.

We will have all our regular items for sale plus some other special items just returning for the Pumpkin Festival, such as Kale Bread, Garlic Rigatoni Pasta, Garlic Pasta Shells, Beet and Kale Rigatoni, Lemon Pepper Poppy Seed Rigatoni, Leeks, Shallots, Apple Nut Bread, Colored Carrots, and More!!

We will also have gift baskets available at the market so if you are looking for a great gift for someone we have what you are looking for.  The gift baskets are only $25 and include 4 bags of pasta, 2 jellies, jams or butters, 3 recipe cards, of course the basket, and tissue paper, to from card, and bow color of choice.  I will have some already made up at the market or I can make up personalized baskets at the market, just for you!

More about the Pumpkin Festival.

Garlic Pasta

Just bagged up some garlic rigatoni and garlic pasta shells for the Pumpkin Festival this weekend.

If you have never had my garlic pasta, I make it with my own fresh garlic so it is nice and garlicky.   

Homegrown Tea

Today's market at Brunswick was cold and windy.  When I got home I felt all stuffy and chilly from being outside for half the day in the cold.  So I figured, perfect day to make some tea, and after I did I felt so much better.

Ingredients:

Chamomile flowers dried

Spearmint

Basil

Garlic

Honey

Water (of coarse)

I take a tea ball and fill it with chamomile, spearmint and basil.  I mostly use chamomile and spearmint.  I add the tea ball to the water in the pan, and bring it to a boil.  Once it begins to boil I add the garlic (about one clove, cut into slivers), and remove the pan from heat and cover.  Let it sit for at least 15 minutes.  Fill the mug, add the honey, and enjoy.

I have never been a tea person, but once I started to grow my own herbs and made my own tea out of everything I grew myself, to me it seemed so much better than the store bought stuff.

Market Pictures

Just thought I would do a quick post with some pictures I took today, of our table at Valley City Farmers Market.

 We will still be selling at Valley City Farmers Market till at least the first week of October, and some other vendors should be joining us also.  Hope to see everyone there!  Also we are still up at Brunswick Farmers Market till the Pumpkin Festival, which is on October 10th and 11th.

Purple and Green Kohlrabi

Purple and Green Kohlrabi

 

Cooking Kohlrabi

Both the leaves and the bulb can be eaten.  Leaves can be used just as you would kale or collards.

I think that the purple and green kohlrabi taste the same, they also look the same inside.  The only difference that I noticed is I think it is easier to peel the purple kohlrabi than the green.  If you slice off the ends and then slice it in half, you can almost peel of the skin by hand, there will still be a little bit of strings left and you can then use a potato peeler to easily peel the rest off. 

 Many people say that kohlrabi tastes like cabbage, and it is a member of the cabbage family.  I think it cooks like, and can be used similar to potatoes and turnips, except it does not take as long to cook as potatoes do.

Kohlrabi can be eaten raw, boiled, sauteed, steamed, baked, boiled, grilled, or roasted.  

It is great for just snacking on raw, or can be grated and added raw to salads.

They can also be added to soups or stews.  

They can be boiled and mashed together with potatoes or turnips.  

We sliced some up the other day and grilled them with some other veggies and olive oil, when they were just browned, it almost tasted like a french fry.

I should still have kohlrabi available at my markets for at least the next couple weeks.  I am going to be starting some more plants from seeds very soon, so once my spring planting is gone, I hope to have some more available again in late summer.

What We Have Growing

I walked around the farm the other day when I was out there picking and took some pictures of some veggies we have growing.  Most of which should be available soon.

 

Red Malabar Spinach

This is not actually a true spinach plant, instead it is a heat loving vine, which can be used in place of spinach.  It can be used just like you would spinach, can also be stir-fried, or added to salads.

 

 

Bleu De Solaise Leek

 

 

Zebrune Shallot Onion

 

 

Purple Peacock Broccoli

A broccoli kale cross.  Can not wait to be able to harvest some of this.

 

 

Some of our tomato plants, even though it has been really wet they seem to still be doing ok.

 

 

Scarlet Kale

It is such a beautiful kale, with large leaves for a purple kale.  I have been picking this for the last few weeks, which I have been adding to my mixed kale bunches.