Open House and First Markets

The last two weekends have brought our season at  Simington Gardens into full swing. May is the time when everything really starts to grow and it begins to look more like summer at the farm. Kale planted outside is large enough for bunching, outdoor beets start to bulge and tomatoes are getting planted outside without protection. It is a fun and busy time of the year and with markets having started, we get to harvest our spring crops, which also means we get to eat a lot more vegetables from the farm.

Beginning with our farm open house, we were fortunate enough to have sun and warm weather for the day. Friends, family and Farm Share members came out to tour the farm locations, talk about vegetables and share some snacks from the farm and drinks made from Organic hops grown down from HUB the road and Kombucha from Soma, a frequent farm client and supporter. We had a great time showing off the farm and it was great for Farm Share members and friends to really learn where their food comes from. If you missed this last open house, we plan on having another early June for new Farm share members. We are still taking new members for the Farm Share, check out the Farm share page for more details. Alma, below, was a guest at the open house. Though less than a year old, she has logged quite a few hours at the farm doing random tasks, most recently adding tractor work to her resume.

Following our farm open house were our first two markets of the season at Beaverton and Oregon City. Both were met with familiar, welcome faces and new additions to the vendor lineups for each market. We were pleased to offer a good variety of spring crops, such as radishes, head lettuce, salad mixes, Japanese turnips, garlic, chicories, several varieties of kale, beets and almost thirty varieties of plants for sale. Come check out the markets this weekend!  www.beavertonfarmersmarket.com and www.orcityfarmersmarket.com. It is not too early to start planting tomatoes outside, almost never too early or late to plant greens and about time to get going on basil and peppers. We have many varieties of all of these for sale at the markets. All starts are also Certified Organic.

With markets going, harvest for restaraunts, weekly seedings and plantings, we are busy at work trying to have a good variety this season. Once May starts, the farm is really going back on “schedule.” It is a welcome, almost official start to the season that seems as though it has already been going for some time. We are looking forward for the days ahead, where more warmth and time brings bigger and more exiciting harvests. Untill then, we have been really enjoying salads of all manner and coming up with some creative ways to use radishes. It turns out that having a few go to salad dressing recipes makes all that extra produce dissappear pretty rapidly. Look for some new recipes in the next post, including salads and the dressings and ways to squeeze in as many vegetables as we grow into breakfast.

Thanks again for all the support and we look forward to the lengthening days and warming weather. Please let us know if you have any suggestions, especially recipe ideas, at info@simingtongardens.com