In Season: Bamboo Shoots

At YellowTree Farm, we're big on gleaning and foraging.  Open your eyes; there's plenty of food all around us just going to waste. Bamboo shoots are in season right now, and we're selling plenty of them at the Maplewood Farmer's Market.  Fresh, springtime bamboo shoots are considered a delicacy all over Asia, and they're an excellent source of fiber, protein, vitamin C, potassium, vitamin E, and iron.  

If you're already a fan of the frozen or canned bamboo shoots available in grocery stores or in your delivery of Asian takeout, you simply must try our locally foraged fresh version.  Just peel back the outer layers until you come to the tender, bright green insides.  Slice them up, boil or sauté them with some salt and oil, and you've got a hyper-local side dish to any meal.

Looking to Learn More?

Thinking about raising your own flock of chickens for eggs?

Wondering if a goat would make a great lawnmower?

Next month, we'll be teaming up with the people at Brick City Gardens to lead a workshop on raising livestock in an urban setting.  You can learn the in's and out's of caring for and maintaining a variety of animals like chickens, ducks, goats, rabbit and quail.  We'll teach you a myriad of things including what legalities to be aware of, proper ways of slaughter, and tips on how to succeed.

The event will be held at Schlafly Bottleworks, Maplewood on Saturday, April 30th from 9:00am-12:00pm.  Cost is $40.  To pre-register email Sue at brickcitygardens@yahoo.com or call (314) 630-5910.  Learn more here.

CSA Coming Your Way!

It's true.  We've decided to do a CSA this year, with pickups to be held at our booth at the Schlafly Farmer's Market.  We're doing things a little differently than how typical CSAs are set up:  We are offering shares in more affordable tiers of $500, $200, or $100.  This is structured so that you get to enjoy our specialty produce and still have enough money in your pockets to spend throughout the farmer's market.  It also serves as a great introductory CSA plan if you're a newbie to CSAs, if you're hesitant to sign up for one based on expense, or if you're afraid you'd waste unused produce.

There are roughly 30 market days at Schlafly from April-October.  Our $500 share provides for pickups of items at nearly every market date, with the value of each pickup being $18-$20.  The $200 share allows for half the number of pickups (to be set up, for example, every other week, or however you like), with $15-$17 as the value of each pickup.  The $100 share provides a small taste of the items we offer, with pickups valued at around $8.  It won't be enough produce to fill the fridge, but it'll provide a great opportunity to sample and try our unique items.
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Meet the Kids...

We've been on "goat watch" for the last few weeks, as two of the does at our Waterloo location were pregnant.  We spent entire weekends and much of our spare time on weekdays waiting for the girls to give birth, and they finally did just the other day (within days of eachother, too).  We've now got three kids:  Two males and one female.

See You Tonight

We'll be at Schlafly Bottleworks in Maplewood at 7pm tonight for Slow Money St. Louis' first meeting.  Slow Money is a wonderful organization, and we're very excited about St. Louis starting up their own chapter.  We're even presenting our plans for 2011 at the meeting, so you should stop by to hear more about what we've got in store for this year!



End of Fall Update

With it being just hours away from the official start of winter, we don't want to let the seasons change without providing a recap of all we've been able to accomplish this fall.

If you've been following us on Twitter or Facebook, you know we built ourselves an outdoor kitchen last summer (primarily to beat the heat while still being able to cook amazing meals).  In the early part of fall we were blessed with an upgrade to our kitchen:  a six-burner, two-oven Wolf range with a flat top.  It's been in use virtually every day since we got it, and it's so enjoyable to cook on.

In animal news:  We obtained more squab to replace the ones killed by the raccoon last summer, and they seem to be doing well – pairing off and making nests.  We've also begun raising quail again, and nearly two dozen quail chicks hatched just a few days ago.  We also hatched a handful of ducklings, and welcomed two litters of rabbits to the homestead.

We managed to get our garlic and spinach in the ground before the cold temperatures set in, and we'll let them grow throughout the upcoming winter and spring before they'll be ready to harvest next year.

Now that the days are short and the nights long, we keep warm by staying indoors – flipping through books and seed catalogs, carefully planning what we're going to do next year.  We've got plenty of exciting things in development, that's for sure, and we can't wait to share them with you in the upcoming months.