Thank you to our 2022 Farm Share members! Your Farm Share membership has been an important part of our family farm business for the past 16 growing seasons. You truly matter to us!
With your membership, we together:
Donated access produce to local churches, the COOL food pantry, local schools, and families we know that needed help.
Managed and maintained habitats allowing for the regeneration of soil and animal life.
Supported local farming and food-producing families by sourcing products for our CSA programs.
Brought hundreds to the farm to learn, tour, engage, shop, taste and better know the people who grow local food.
We hope you will join us for the 2023 growing season!
Our Commitment to You
We share stories to keep you connected to local agriculture, climate change adaptation, land stewardship and family-scale farming. The CSA newsletter provides a unique opportunity to stay connected and a window into the personal stories behind midwest food production. We strive to provide recipes, storage tips and ideas that inspire you in the kitchen with your shares!
We offer members the best of what we have to offer. We prioritize our crops for our farm share members first. Members always receive the best and most diverse offerings from our farm and our farm partners.
We invite members to the farm. This year, we invited CSA members back to the farm for a spring sale, open house/u-pick event, and the farm stand featuring products from over twenty local farmers. We've begun planning a spring garden sale and we will continue to invite members to the farm in 2023.
We are happy to accommodate. We know life is changing and busy. If you're unable to make it to a pickup, we're happy to coordinate alternative pickup arrangements for your shares.
We offer payment plans. Please contact us if you have any questions.
Together, we share the risks of planting a seed and share the rewards of a bountiful growing season. Your membership and support make this possible.
Thank you for making us your farmers! Jeff & Jen Miller and family
Farm Journal
Good evening, from your farm!
Despite the grizzly exterior of this farming yeti, he's a softy at heart! First thing Monday morning, the Bigfoot Farmer snuck up on our unsuspecting crew members for the early morning meeting. Bigfoot grunted plenty of farming instructions for the workday to plenty of giggling. Luckily, grunting is an international language!
This week marks the final two weeks of the outdoor farming season. Sometimes these weeks are filled with rushing to plant garlic and close down the farm well to prevent frozen pipes before an impending snowstorm! Unlike the snowy Halloween we had a few years back, this year's mild weather allowed us to plant garlic in t-shirts and keep the well turned on making these final irrigation days easier to manage.
As the mild weather continues, so do our field harvests. This seems to happen more often than not these days and we continue to adapt our fall patterns to adjust. One way we did this was to start our Winter Share earlier than ever (end of November) to take advantage of these late seasonal field harvests. Another way we adjust is to have several levels of contingency plans should the weather change significantly or if crops react poorly during this extended growing season. That all said, it is truly glorious to harvest popcorn without frozen fingers!
Luckily, we're not the only ones adapting to changes in our environment to build resiliency. Seed companies continue to take note of our changing environment adjusting new seed varieties to the needs of farmers experiencing climate changes. Just this week, High Mowing Seed Company shared their Champion Collards seeds which are said to "hold in the field up to two weeks longer than other varieties for an extended harvest." As seed catalogues begin to arrive soon, there's sure to be new innovations that we'll consider for the upcoming growing season.
This winter, we'll serve on the advisory committee for the research project entitled, “Optimizing Pest Management in High Tunnels to Increase the Resiliency of Local Food Systems” funded by USDA-Specialty Crop Research Initiative. We intend to share our first-hand experiences with how we manage pest pressures that are adjusting and adapting to environmental changes with researchers who will continue to conduct studies within our hoophouses next spring.
Speaking of winter planning, we spent time this weekend finalizing our winter family trip to New Orleans. We haven't taken a vacation since our trip to Tucson before the pandemic (pictured above), so we're looking forward to this work-and-play vacation! We'll be visiting colleges for Owen, we'll take part in a three-day experienced organic farmers' gathering with growers from throughout the US, and we'll enjoy all that New Orleans offers with a swamp tour with plenty of food and music. At the growers' gathering, we'll discuss everything from adjusting to climate shifts to trends and innovations in our industry to holistic farm planning for the future. We'll be sure to share what we learn!
In the meantime, we're very grateful and humbled by the ongoing CSA registrations placed for the upcoming 2023 season. Thank you for your trust and we look forward to continuing to grow for this wonderful community!
Warmly, ~ Jeff, Jen and the Prairie Wind Family Farm team
Notes from the Farm Kitchen
Rutabagas are creamy and starchy with a pale yellow flesh. Rutabagas are rich in vitamin C, dietary fiber, potassium and antioxidant compounds. They work well for mashing, roasting and braising. We like to use them in place of potatoes or combine with potatoes for a mashed rutabaga and potato dish. Rutabagas, along with the other roots shared this week, store extremely well when wrapped in a plastic bag in your refrigerator.
Fall field spinach makes another first appearance in shares this week, as this precious cool-weather crop is deep green, delicious and excellent right now! The stems simply need a bit more time to cook but also add nutrients and texture.
Cranberries can be kept in a plastic bag and used within several weeks, or into a ziplock bag in your freezer for use at a later date.
