Happy December everyone! We have quite a few additions this week, many of which are Bradford Farm grown. Candy Roasters, Taylor Turnip Tops, ‘Stampede’ sunchokes to name a few. Read about them all below. Also, a few crops are either done or are close to the end of their availability. No more Cushaws,
SPECIAL REQUEST: We kindly urge you to consider adding at least one of our own Bradford Farm grown crops to your weekly orders. We are working with quite a number of other farms to bring you the best access to regional flavor that we possibly can, but the heartbeat of our farm is our homegrown crops. We can’t exist without moving our own crops too. So please review the crops we offer under Bradford Farm Crops below and consider adding one or more of them. It helps us more than you know.
Important Info
-
Taylor Turnips Tops (Bradford Farm) available! See highlights
- Candy Roaster Squash (Bradford Farm) available! See highlights
- Sunchokes (Bradford Farm) available now! See highlights
- Winter crop Bolero carrots and Baby Bolero carrots from Clem’s available now
- Offering Pink blush Cauliflower from Ricky James for a limited time
- NEW WHOLE PLANT COLLARD PRICING: $4.00/# (10# and 15# cases)
- Last week of Dorr Farms’ sweetcorn
⚠️ **Highlights of the week**⚠️
Taylor Turnip Tops - Bradford Farm
This is the absolute very best turnip tops we’ve ever had! They are not bitter like the common turnip greens available. In fact, these mild flavored greens are great even raw! Especially nice are the sweet, crisp, juicy pencil thin stringless stems.
Our dear friend, Bill Taylor, shared his family’s precious turnip seeds with us some years ago. After growing a small crop to save seeds on, we realized this was not just your typical turnip greens. These do not produce a root crop, just the greens. But with greens this great, you won’t miss the turnip root.
Like many of the heirloom crops we grow, the Taylor Turnip Top had never been outside of the garden walls of Bill’s family until he shared them with us, and certainly never served in a restaurant. We are so blessed to be able to steward and share Bill’s family’s amazing turnip tops with chefs and their customers. This is truly the best way to preserve at-risk seeds and flavors and ensure they do not go extinct. We value the role of all you wonderful chefs in this important preservation as well. Purchasing these heirlooms from us, adding them to your menus, sharing the stories with your patrons not only ensures these flavors don’t disappear, but also ensures we at Bradford Farm have the support we need to continue seeking out rare, at risk flavors and seeds to cover the cost necessary to preserve, promote, brand and provide them to you.
For further reading, checkout this article by Post and Courier on the Taylor Turnip Top!
https://www.postandcourier.com/food/carolinian-seed-saving-brings-rare-turnip-top-to-charleston-area-restaurants/article_68149344-4320-11ec-9374-97ed389f2e83.html
Available in 7lb cases
Candy Roaster Squash - Bradford Farm
This is a great native vegetable bred and developed by the Cherokee Indians of the Piedmont region of the Carolinas in the early 1800s. It has been gaining in popularity among chefs and the public in recent years, although the mountain folk have maintained it as a mainstay in their home gardens for generations. What you’ll find most commonly today are the smaller banana shaped candy roasters that are features in seed catalogs. The ones we grow come from a more ancient version of this variety. It’s closer to what the Cherokee would have been familiar with: a large cylindrical hard squash. Of course there is a lot of variability in sizes and colors as with many heirloom crops, but the ones we grow tend to weigh between 10lbs and 20lbs - some even over 30lbs!!
We got our original seeds through friends of an old mountain couple that gave them one. It sat on our shelf for 18 months before we finally decided to cook it. The flesh was dense and silky sweet even after that much time! We saved the seeds and have been steadily increasing the crop ever since.
Sunchokes, Stampede - Bradford Farm
This is our third season offering sunchokes, and the first season where we have some of our own Bradford grown sunchokes available. The most popular variety in the trade is ‘Stampede’, and is the variety we have this year both on our farm and our partner farms. It is a thin skinned variety and not necessary to peel, which saves a lot of prep time.
But we are super excited to let you know that we are currently amassing a collection of heirloom and historic strains that date back over 100 years to begin trialing them for flavor, texture and other qualities. Why? Because it’s what we do at Bradford Farm. We are always on the quest to chase down the best and most flavorful varieties of crops. Many of these are difficult to find. Some are maybe impossible, and may only exist in old ag journals and documents. But we will do our best to find them if they can be found! So stay tuned as we embark on our sunchoke journey.
Sunchokes are in 5# cases and pre-washed, but will need more thorough washing.
Cauliflower, Pink Blush - Ricky James’ Farm
Cauliflower from our partner farmer Ricky James. Available for a short window only! This amazingly fresh and super crisp cauliflower has an added bonus right now. These sunny fall days create the added affect of the cauliflower to naturally produce anthocyanin which gives them an attractive slight blush color. This is what gives color to blackberries, blueberries, pomegranates and other antioxidant-rich fruits and vegetables. That means a boost in healthy antioxidants. This natural phenomenon only occurs when good sunlight exposure pairs with cold air, so take advantage of this rare seasonal crop while it’s here!
The florets are firm and clean, they also carry a subtle sweetness. Broken down, they roast nicely — the edges caramelize, the centers stay tender, and that faint pink blush deepens to a warm, rosy tone. Steamed or gently braised, the flesh stays pale and almost creamy, holding onto its structure without going watery.
Packed as whole crowns in 10lb cases
🔥 Current Deals / Offers 🔥
Bradford Family collards
- Standing order commitment and volume pricing incentive through January, 2 skips:
- 1 case 20# bagged/chopped collards 5% off
- 2 cases 10% off
- 3 cases and up 15% off
Dutch Fork Butternut Pumpkins
- Standing order commitment through season, 2 skips
- 1 case (30#), 5% off
- 2
cases or more, 10% off
Charleston Wakefield Cabbage
- Standing order committed through season, 2 skips:
- 1 case (20#), 5% off
- 2 cases or more, 10% off
Key:
** - limited availability
*OUT- currently out of stock
*OFS- out for season
NEW- recent addition
✅ Bradford Farm Crops: ✅
-Dutch Fork butternut pumpkin
-NEW! Taylor Turnip Tops
-NEW! Candy Roaster squash
-NEW! Stampede Sunchokes
-Bradford collards bagged/chopped
-Bradford collards whole plant
-NEW! Fall Charleston Wakefield cabbage
-GoldTart™️ tangerines
-Citrumelo lemons
-Hybrid green cabbage
-Purple cabbage
-Shredded hybrid cabbage
-Shredded purple cabbage
🤝 Partner Farms: 🤝
-NEW! Cauliflower, Pink Blush - Ricky James
-NEW! Fall Bolero carrots - Clem’s Organic Gardens
-NEW! Fall Baby Bolero carrots - Clem’s
-Baby Appalachian Gold potatoes - Clem’s
-Watermelon radishes - Clem’s
-Hakurei Turnips - Clem’s
-Rainbow Daikon Radishes - Clem’s
-Parsnips - Clem’s
-Curly Mustard Greens - Dorr Farms
-Fall squash lineup
——Acorn
——Delicata
-Appalachian Gold Potatoes - Clem’s Organic Gardens
-Davidson River Red Beets - Clem’s
-Scotch Curly Kale - Dorr Farms
-Apples - Lively Orchard
——NEW Arkansas Black
——NEW Pink Lady
——Jonagold
——Granny Smith
——Ambrosia
-Blue Lake Pole Beans - Dorr Farms
-Jalapeños - Dorr Farms
-Fall broccoli - Dorr Farms and others
-Green butter beans, frozen- Johnny McNair Farm
-Speckled butter beans, frozen- Johnny McNair Farm
-Pinkeye field peas, frozen- Johnny McNair Farm
-White Acre field peas, fresh- Johnny McNair Farm
-NEW Fall (iron & clay) peas, fresh - Johnny McNair Farm
-Zucchini
-Yellow Squash
-Kirby Cucumbers
-Green Bell peppers
-Red Bell peppers
-Pecans: Mascot Farms (GA)
-Sweetcorn - Dorr Farms - LAST WEEK
-Grape tomatoes
-Green tomatoes
-Red round tomatoes
-Roma tomatoes
-Tomatillos
-Pee Dee sweet potatoes - Dixon Farms
-Beets, Golden
Coming soon:
-
more from Lively Orchard
- ‘Sugar Lips’™️ (Bradshaw)sweet potato - CROP FAILURE
- Feaster mustard - 1 week
- Gilfeather turnabaga - currently large sprouts
LOTS MORE COMING SOON
….let us know if there is something else you are interested in that isn’t on our list