Pictured above: Chef Caroline Morrison at Fiction Kitchen in Raleigh, NC used the Taylor Turnip Bloom Shoots to create this delightful and warm spring dish.
Hello chefs! Spring is on the mend, blooms and sprouts are popping up seemingly every hour on the farm, soil temps are steadily rising and we have a ton of seeds ready to go into the ground. I’d like to discuss some of the things happening on the farm right now and other news revolving the business.
Firstly, Collardini with the flowers will be available for another two weeks and then it’s gone to seed. We have some young collards in the field which are ready to bolt which means we are offering Baby Collards for the first time ever: very mild flavor, tender and sweet.
Up next are our plantings. We have a large selection of awesome herbs going in the ground over the next week or two. This will be the first time we’ve ever attempted to grow and offer herbs to you guys and the hope is that it’s a huge success, so we can continue to experiment with the herb catalog to further help you try new things and bring out even more flavor in your dishes. You’re probably curious as to which herbs we’ll be rolling out this year… so I’ll whet your appetite with a few that we are most excited about: lovage, sprouting coriander (bolted cilantro), dill & dill flowers, red amaranth (4th sister to corn, beans and squash), St. John’s Wort, Huacatay (Mint Marigold). There are a lot more we have ready to plant but that’s just a few we find particularly special. We expect this to come into season at different times but the window is late spring - summer.
In addition to herbs, we have rare, heirloom peppers, eggplant, tomatoes, and carrots started in the greenhouse courtesy of our friends, the Bussarts at B’s Greenhouse. Lots of beet varieties will be going in the ground in a week or two. Expecting those to come into harvest over the summer season. We also will have squash blossoms in summer and maybe some baby sweet corn (let me hear your thoughts on that).
A new development with Florida farms: the freeze and tremendous damage they experienced which reached farms all the way down to Miami has caused a huge change in the market. Tomato prices have sky-rocketed as have some other Florida specialties like cucumbers and eggplant. There is far less supply than usual and these farmers have suffered a ton of crop loss. We are holding off on those crops until the market stabilizes and prices go back down, we aren’t equipped to buy wholesale at these prices and sell at a reasonable markup. I hope you will be patient with us through this time and keep these farmers in your thoughts.
We fully expect these farms to bounce back later in the spring (around April) and summer with incredible produce to offer.
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
- New! Baby collards
- Bradford Collard Bloom Shoots are here for two more weeks!
- Clem’s Bolero carrots are here!
- Large selection of HERBS going in the ground soon. (Cilantro/Sprouting Coriander, Lovage, Huacatay (Mint Marigold), Red Amaranth, St. John’s Wort, Sweet Marjoram, Dill, and more)
- Hakurei turnips (Clem’s) coming in a few weeks.
⚠️ **Highlights of the week**⚠️
NEW! Baby Bradford Collards
Baby collards are here for the first time ever! We have limited availability so get them while they are here. We planted these collards not too long ago but they’re slow growth in late winter paired with the sudden heat shift has caused this little crop to start bolting. Some of these plants have little bloom shoots and others are just starting to form them in the center.
Taste - these young collards are exceptionally tender, with a very mild brassica flavor paired with a pleasant level of sweetness.
Available online now - 5lb cases
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. We’ve been offering them in 5# cases as a separate item and now this week we are starting to offer them by the pound too, the 5# case offers a lower price rate but we want to provide this wonderful ingredient to those who aren’t looking for bulk too.
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. (Flower count will increase as the blooms open up)
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: ✅
-NEW Bloom Shoots with flowers, Bradford Collard
-NEW Baby Bradford Collards
-Gilfeather Turnabaga no Tops (Slow Food AOT, heirloom)
-Candy Roaster squash (SlowFood AOT) *OUT -thank you for a great season!
-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 *OUT FOR SEASON
-Watermelon radishes - Clem’s
-Baby Appalachian Gold Potatoes - Clem’s *OUT FOR SEASON
-Appalachian Gold Potatoes - Clem’s *LIMITED STOCK
-Rainbow Daikon Radishes - Clem’s
-Pecans (fresh, shelled, halved) - Johnny McNair
-Field Peas and Butter Beans - Johnny McNair
——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 *OUT (temp)
-Red round tomatoes *OUT (temp)
-Roma tomatoes *OUT (temp)
-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
- Late March: Santee Sweet Onions (Dorr)
MORE COMING SOON
….let us know if there is something else you are interested in that isn’t on our list