Spring

We thought Spring had sprung.   The grass was green, the maple buds swelled.    Daily highs were in the 70's.   We transplanted the onions, adjusted the winter mulch around the garlics, started all manner of tomato, pepper, beet, basil and several flowers indoors.   The seed potatos were inspected.    No rot, no wilt, no nematode larvae and only just a few had sprouted beyond the desired eyes.    Hundreds of purple majesty, all blue, all red, yukon gold, white Finn and a few Russett were cut, dried, planted and the rows were well heaped.    Alfalfa was planted in the 2010 field where tomatoes, okra, sweet potatos, and potatos were planted last year.    This will be a cover crop to improve soil organic levels, add some nitrogen and improve the environment for the parasitic insects, which attack and kill or eat the unwanted insects.    Cover crops will be crimped and killed, incorporated into the seedbed and support the lettuces, greens and mixed vegetables that will take their place.    Buckwheat and rye will also be planted as cover crops soon.

We transplanted the curly willow, fanned pussy willow and regular pussy willow.    We will be the local source for floral buds, sticks and twigs for some florists.

This coming week, we will plant new evergreens (concolor fir, white fir and spruce) in the established windbreaks where the pines and cedars are at their life spans.    That is, if we do not have frozen soil.    Yes, it's going to be one of those years.

The 2011 field contains the potatos, will receive the beans, melons and squash.    It triples our total garden space, allowing better crop rotations in future years.    New this year are litlle islands in the field that either attract pollenators or harbor and over-winter predatory insects.   Also new this year are two beetle berms.   Think of them as company towns for our workers, the beetles and spiders, who do the necessary work of eating eggs, larvae, pupae of insects we really need to control.    You will see the usual marigold and mustard borders around the 2010 and 2011 fields, as well as around the main garden.

When you visit, there will be red and crimson clover in the vineyard and under the apple trees.   Pollenators love these clovers and they are obstacles to the larvae of the moths we would just as soon not have.    You'll see the mini zinnias more prominently in the three gardens and near the soon to be planted highbush cranberries.

Sunday, we will try to plant more hazelnut seed, hoping to get 200 bushes to transplant next year.     We are starting rooting of Traminette, a wine grape, several red and one green seedless table grape variety.    These, like the blueberries, hazelnuts and our juvenile fruit trees, are long term investments, which will not bear fruit for 3 to 5 years.   

Get ready for the Farmer's Markets.    We will open at the site of Harlan Farmer's Market in May.   Look for the sign at the intersection of 59 and 44.   The rest of the vendors will join us in June.   You may purchase our jams, jellies, bread, sweetbreads, salad greens, rhubarb, kohlrabi, kale, asparagus, radishes, raspberries and plants for your garden spots.   

Look for our asparagus, rhubarb, radishes, salad greens, herbs and jams at Tomato-Tomato, the fresh market in Omaha at 156th and West Center.    Great things are happening there and we are proud vendors.

Winter

The big freeze hit our gardens after Thansgiving.    Now is a time of renewal.    We are incorporating the organic matter produced on farm into selec cells of the garden.    Depending on what is needed to prepare the individual cell, we are either:

• tilling in compost produced this summer
• deep digging and burying leaves, worms and stalks, stover, straw or uncomposted field waste using the French trench method
• tilling in the crop freeze-killed to reincorporate the vegetative matter and nutrients.

We are also in process of tilling, when the soil is not frozen, to produce beds that will allow us to triple our production in 2011.  

Our goal is to increase production of salad greens (our specialty) and to produce commercial quantities of radishes, carrots, onions, garlic sweet potatos, herbs, peppers, squash and sweet corn.

Our customers can purchase our jams, apple butter, dried herbs and syrups at Tomato-Tomato.    The store is located at West Center Road in Omaha.

Our delivery service to select customers will resume in the Spring, when the first plantings of radishes, spinach and salad greens are harvestable.     Our jams, syrups, breads and apple butter are available on-farm, as well.    Please call ahead, to assure we are present and to check on the items available.

Thanks for your patronage and we hope to see you at Farmer's Markets in Harlan, Exira and Atlantic this coming Spring.    As always, if it is not fresh, we won't sell it.    If it is not prime, we won't sell it.     If it is not organically produced, it is not fromNishnabotna Naturals.

September 7,2010 - What's happening naturally at Nishnabotna

We've been selling at Atlantic and Harlan Farmer's Markets now since the markets started this year.  

The offerings varied by month.    First were the Tongue Tickler Salad Greens Mix, fresh rhubarb and our radishes.    The Atlantic market visitors quickly became regular purchasers of the salad greens and radishes.    When Harlan started, we were done with radishes, starting to sell cucumbers, squash, our raspberries and raspberry canes to plant in home gardens.    We continued selling rhubarb, both fresh and frozen.    We had progressed to the Summer Savory Salad Greens Mix and won some devoted customers with Doris's jams, breads and pies.   

We now are offering our Autumn Savory Salad Greens Mix:

• Arrugula leaves-tangy, with long frilly three dimensional leaves
• baby Swiss Chard leaves-colorful , packed with nutrients and antioxidants and just a mild taste
• Amish Deer Tongue lettuce-shaped as advertized, tangy, with a low sweetness
• Green Oakleaf lettuce-that special sweet aroma and taste you have enjoyed in the other two mixes
• Rouge de Hivre-romaine like reddiwsh green leaves that predominated in Tongue Tickler mix
• Beet greens-small leaves from late-developing beets with unmistakeable beet flavor

The Autumn Savory mix would benefit from a sweet dressing, with a vinegar base.     Our Vinegarette is easy to make:     1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
                  1 tbsp olive oil
                  1 tsp dried basil leaf (we use purple basil)
                  1/2 tsp italian seasoning dried
                  1/4 cup water
                  1 tsp honey or sugar.
Mix vigorouosly and allow to set 10 minutes.    Mix vigorously again and serve.

We will be selling raspberry canes and spearmint plants at the markets beginning September 14.  

Pumpkins are in.   We have two types:   Jack O' Lantern and sweet pie.

Blue and purple potatoes are in and very popular.    They have blue or purple meat, as well as skin.   Tasty and fun.

In late September, we will be selling some of Doris's quilts, taking orders for her Ukranian decorated Easter Eggs and taking orders for wood toys for holiday gifts.    As always, we have Doris's jams:

Apricot, Strwberry-Rhubaqrb, Raspberry-Rhubarb, Cherry-Rhubarb, Apple Butter and Apricot-Pineapple......Enjoy!