We are excited to announce our partner farm Clem’s Organic Gardens Bolero carrots are back! Available beginning on Tuesday. We are driving up to Pisgah, NC early Monday morning to pick up our first order for 2026! They will be rushed back and packed to go out on Tuesday deliveries.
And from our farm available immediately for Monday deliveries is our very own Bradford Collard blooms shoots! This is a short window of availability, so don’t miss out. Read all about both offerings below.
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 a ton.
Important Info
- Bradford Collard Bloom Shoots are here! Limited Taylor shoots.
- Wakefield cabbage is done until spring crop
- Clem’s Bolero carrots are here! Available for delivery Tuesday.
- Gilfeather Turnabaga (SlowFood AOT) will be offered without the tops moving forward (greens sustained storm damage) - will be here for the spring
- Kirby cucumbers will be out of stock for a little bit. The quality has slipped as Florida farms are recovering from the devastating freeze they suffered a couple weeks ago. If you receive Florida produce please keep in mind the farmers there are dealing with a lot of damage.
- Out of Stayman Winesap apples until fall harvest
⚠️ **Highlights of the week**⚠️
NEW! Bolero carrots - Clem’s Organic Gardens (Appalachia)
Before we get into this delightful Bolero carrot grown by Clem’s, I want to share with you a short story about carrots and how we have arrived at this particular carrot available to you today. Carrots trace their roots back to Central Asia — modern-day Afghanistan — where early purple and yellow types were first cultivated. From there, they moved west through trade routes into Europe. By the time carrots reached France, growers began refining them through seed selection and traditional plant breeding methods for tenderness and sweetness, shaping what would eventually become a defining vegetable in French cuisine.
The Nantes Foundation
In the 19th century, around the city of Nantes, French growers selected a carrot that broke from the older, woody field types. The Nantes carrot was bred for a blunt tip, uniform cylindrical shape, deep orange color and primarily for a tender core (coreless), and sweet/mild flavor.
It was developed specifically for market growers — carrots that pulled clean, washed well, and ate well both raw and cooked. That profile carried it across the Atlantic. Nantes types became foundational in American market farming and thus its cuisine because they performed reliably and appealed to consumers who wanted sweetness without bitterness.
This brings us to the arrival of the Bolero carrot after some generations.
Bolero is a modern F1 hybrid bred from the Nantes line.
“F1” stands for “first filial generation.” It means two carefully selected parent lines were crossed to produce a first-generation hybrid that expresses consistent, uniform traits — stronger vigor, better sweetness, and predictable shape. This is at the heart of traditional plant breeding done with care and precision.
Bolero keeps the pure the essence, or soul, of Nantes but improves on it in meaningful ways:
Immediately noticeable, it boasts an extra crisp texture – some serious snap when eaten raw. I had one a few weeks ago right out of Clem’s dirt and a totally volunteer and uncontrolled smile stretched over my face. This is what carrots were meant to be and were like before agricultural geneticists pushed out the flavor genes to make room for shipping and shelf life genes - the carrots most of us grew up eating.
Bolero’s strength lies in its higher natural sugar levels and a unique and very subtle fruit-forward flavor – almost subtle stone-fruit undertones.
But it also brings the farmer improved yield and storability – producing abundant harvests and consistent sizing that holds quality and flavor longer in the cooler.
For the cook, it’s versatile. For the farmer, it’s dependable.
Grown in Clem’s Alluvial Soil
These Boleros are coming out of Clem’s Organic Gardens, planted in rich alluvial soil lying roughly 50 yards from the Davidson River, just below where the French Broad River and Davidson River meet.
Alluvial soil is built by centuries of river movement — sand, silt, and organic matter layered and re-layered by seasonal floods. That kind of ground drains well but holds nutrients, which is exactly what carrots want. Roots grow straight and smooth. Sugars concentrate without stress bitterness. You can taste when a carrot grows in river ground — it finishes clean.
Ways to Use Bolero Carrots
Raw
- Peeled and chilled with good salt and olive oil
- Shaved into salads for crunch
- Cut into batons for dip boards
- Fresh-pressed carrot juice
Cooked
- Slow-roasted whole with thyme and butter
- Glazed with honey and apple cider vinegar
- Pureed into soups (naturally sweet base)
- Charred and served alongside roasted meats
- Braised gently in stock until just tender
Because of its crispness and sugar content, Bolero caramelizes beautifully without collapsing. It holds texture in soups and stews. It’s equally suited to refined plating or a simple Sunday roast.
At the end of the day, Bolero is what careful breeding and good soil can do together — French lineage, modern precision, and river-grown depth — a carrot that works as hard in the field as it does in the kitchen.
NEW! Bloom shoots from the Bradford collards
Our collards now have the bloom shoots ‘Collardini’! Some will be included with the whole plant collard cases. But we are also offering them in 5# cases as a separate item. These are only available for about 2-3 weeks a year. Better than broccoli rabe and broccolini! They truly are the fireworks at the end of the show! These only occur with fall planted collards that survive the winter. These cold hardy, sturdy plants that weather winter make one last effort to bloom and ensure their genetics pass on for the next generation. These shoots are crisp and sweet, and the flowers are stunning! Consider these delectable ephemeral delicacies a gift from nature as we welcome in spring and say goodbye to winter.
Key:
** - limited availability
*OUT- currently out of stock
*OFS- out for season
NEW- recent addition
(SlowFood AOT)- appears on the SlowFood Ark of Taste for its exceptional qualities, flavor, story, and historical significance and/or usage.
✅ Bradford Farm Crops: ✅
-American Groundnuts (Slow Food Ark of Taste) *limited stock*
-Gilfeather Turnabaga no Tops (Slow Food AOT, heirloom)
-NEW Taylor Turnip Top Bloom Shoots (heirloom) *extremely limited, must inquire
-Feaster Mustard Greens (Slow Food AOT, heirloom) *OUT
-Candy Roaster squash (SlowFood AOT) *EXTREMELY LIMITED
-Bradford collards bagged/chopped
-Bradford collards whole plant
-Winter Charleston Wakefield cabbage (SlowFood AOT) *OFS (returns spring)
-Hybrid green cabbage
-Purple cabbage
-Shredded hybrid cabbage
-Shredded purple cabbage
🤝 Partner Farms: 🤝
-Purple Top Turnips (heirloom, SlowFood AOT) - Ricky James’ Farm
-Scotch curly kale - Ricky James’ Farm
-Stampede Sunchokes - Craig Weiner and Clem’s Organic Gardens
-Brussels Sprouts - Hickory Bluff Berry Farm
-Broccoli
-Parsnips, grade No. 2 - Clem’s Organic Gardens
-Watermelon radishes - Clem’s
-Baby Appalachian Gold Potatoes - Clem’s *Limited Stock
-Appalachian Gold Potatoes - Clem’s
-Rainbow Daikon Radishes - Clem’s
-Pecans (fresh, shelled, halved) - Johnny McNair
-Apples - Lively Orchard
——Stayman Winesap *OUT
-Washington State Apples
——Granny Smith
-Field Peas and Butter Beans - Johnny McNair
——NEW! Butter peas, fresh-frozen *OUT
——NEW! Dixie Lee field peas, fresh-frozen
——J Mac Small Summer Crowder Pea, fresh-frozen
——Speckled butter beans, fresh-frozen
-Jalapeños - FL
-Zucchini
-Yellow Squash
-Green Bell peppers
-Red Bell peppers
-Grape tomatoes
-Red round tomatoes
-Roma tomatoes
-Tomatillos
-Pee Dee sweet potatoes - Dixon Farms
-Beets, Golden
-Beets, Red
Coming soon:
- 1 week: Baby bolero carrots - Clem’s
- Purple eggplant
- Banana peppers
- Late March: Monetta Farm Heritage Asparagus
- Late March: Dorr Farms and Hickory Bluff Berry Farms spring Strawberries
MORE COMING SOON
….let us know if there is something else you are interested in that isn’t on our list