Harmony Valley Farm

Eat your Veggies!

2009-07-16T11:46:00.005-05:00

Just a list of June & July CSA box contents, to match up with the pictures: Red leaf lettuce, Red Boston lettuce, Kohlrabi, Spinach, French Breakfast Radishes, Purple & White Scallions, Garlic Scapes, Yukina Savoy, Asparagus, Rhubarb, Arugula, Sauté Mix, Basil, Strawberries, Red Radish, Broccoli, Salad Mix, Napa Cabbage, Red Komatsuna, Yukina Savoy, Romaine Lettuce, Sugar Snap and Snow Peas, Summer Squash & Zucchini, Chard, Amaranth, Red Beets, Fennel, Fresh Garlic, Sweetheart Cabbage, White Cipollini Onions, Chioggia Beets, Carrots, Thai Basil, Cucumbers, Baby Bok Choi, Cauliflower, Sweet Spanish Onions, Green Savoy Cabbage, Gold Beets, Green Beans.

July update

2009-07-09T10:29:00.003-05:00

Happy Summer! We are definitely in the midst of the peak season here at the farm and are keeping busy, busy, busy!

We had another hatching of chicks last night, so will have to do some rearranging in the chicken coop. The last bunch of chicks are ready to join the outside world and general poultry population, just in time to make room for these fluffballs.

Last week we started digging the garlic and sending it as fresh garlic to the CSA, as well as drying the bulk of it for later in the season. This week's CSA newsletter tells the whole Harmony Valley Farm garlic story. It's not easy, but it is so worth it!

The other animals are doing well and getting bigger every day! Adam & Darin rave about the beautiful pastures our cattle graze on and how well they are filling out. Dan keeps an eye on the goats and pigs - the pigs are fat & happy in their big pasture! Besides a whole bunch of veggie trimmings and compostables, they also get a couple buckets of organic grain each day.

Flame Weeder

2009-07-09T10:16:00.005-05:00

I finally got to see the flame weeder in action! On Wednesday Richard trained José in on the art of burning up weeds in the carrot field. The carrots were planted about a week ago and some were just sprouting, but Richard said they were planted pretty densely so if some got burnt the field could afford that loss.

Basically the flame weeder is used when little weeds come up before your crop - you can burn the weeds off, leaving a clean field. A far more dramatic operation when done at night, but still pretty cool.

Barn dance!

2009-06-30T17:27:00.002-05:00

I'm glad to see that so many people came out to enjoy some juicy tasty berries last week. For those of you who just can't get enough Harmony Valley, or for those of you who were unfortunately unable to make it to Strawberry Day on the 21st (I fall into this group), don't forget about our upcoming BARN DANCE next weekend, Saturday, July 11th! This is a big deal, because it is the only Saturday the whole season we aren't at the Dane County Farmers Market.
Join us at 2:00 for field tours, followed by a potluck dinner, and then dancing until the cows come home... or whenever.
We'd love to see you here! Don't forget to keep the "C" in your CSA. Take some time to relax, enjoy some good food and music, and meet the people who have been growing your tasty veggies! Check out our website and click on "events" if you'd like a little more info.

Thank you! Strawberry Day inspiration

2009-06-24T16:45:00.003-05:00

I just wanted to take the time to thank all the members who attended the Strawberry Festival on Sunday. (special thanks to the first time CSA members!)

It’s wonderful to know where our food goes and how much it’s appreciated. What an inspiration you are! I’ll be sure to think of you all the next time I’m having one of those days when things aren’t going according to our plans (bad weather, equipment malfunctions).

You make it easy to keep on keepin’ on – farming that is.

Thank you!!
Sincerely yours,
Farmer Darin (picture soon come!)

First CSA box for June

2009-06-03T19:51:00.008-05:00

We've had a wonderful and delightful, if cool, spring this year & here comes summer! What is that rhyme (nearly a limerick) my friend & co-worker Mike says? Something about the weather and fun things to do in the great out of doors. I'll have to try to remember it.

Here's some pictures of what we're getting out of the fields and into the CSA boxes these days.

Some may think I'm strange, but dang those baby white turnips are sexy!

Spring veggie pizzas

2009-05-26T16:09:00.002-05:00

After work last Friday, I left the farm with an armload of leftover produce (okay, so it was a shopping bag, an overflowing shopping bag) and headed home for the weekend with fresh Harmony Valley arugula, spinach, salad mix, green garlic, and some tiny red beets leftover (and still fresh!) from the fall.
My parents and sister were visiting for the weekend, and I thought it would be a fun idea to have a few neighbors over for a little pizza party. My mother was concerned that cooking for 11 people might not be a relaxing way to spend a day off; I tactfully pointed out that after cooking for 35 people a day, dinner for 11 ain't no thang.
For pizza # 1, I finely chopped several bunches of green garlic, then pureed it in the blender with olive oil and a little apple cider vinegar. I spread it raw on an uncooked pizza crust and topped it with mozzarella and sliced summer sausage.
For pizza #2, I roasted all those tiny little beets with olive oil until super tender, then peeled them and pureed them with balsamic vinegar, oil, oregano, and black pepper. I spread this on my pizza crust as the sauce for a pizza featuring fresh chopped morels (the last of my stash for this year!) simmered in butter, Fontina cheese, and a little bit of Sterling Country Jack goat cheese. Yum.
Pizza #3 was a simple combo of sundried tomato, Capri goat feta, and lots of chopped spinach with just a little olive oil.
Served it all with a huge lovely bowl of salad and a maple balsamic vinaigrette.
So how did it turn out? Well, definite thumbs-up to the green garlic sauce. Try it. The pie's cooking time was just long enough to take the edge off the raw garlic bite, but it was still robust enough to be fun ("fun" and "garlicy" are basically synonyms in my mind.) I have been having a reeeeeeeally good time with the green garlic these last few weeks.
The morel and beet pizza was equally delightful, although the flavor of the morels sort of got buried in all of those other ingredients. I tried to select milder cheeses for this one, and felt that the earthy flavor of beets would be a nice complement to the tasty wild mushrooms. I guess the mushroom to crust ratio was just a little low. Eh, c'est la vie. There's always next year.

Spring Field Tour

2009-05-12T21:26:00.012-05:00

Read this week's CSA newsletter for the (loose) narrative. Here's the pictures to go with it (taken Sunday, May 10 - love you Mom!):

Sunchoke, (Richard goofy on) spring radish, spring spinach, lettuce, garlic field, freckles, currant blossom, blueberry blossom, asparagus, arugula under cover.

yum.

Goats on parade

2009-04-30T13:38:00.003-05:00

If it can be said that there is anything fun about washing dishes, then for me, the fun part is gazing out the kitchen window. The window overlooks the wooded slope behind the house, and this is where chickens, and recently goats, put on daily parades for my personal entertainment. For some reason, watching the entire troop of goats wander back and forth across the hill together just tickles me. It is especially exciting to watch the goats climbing trees-- there is a fallen tree that extends several yards above the ground, and some of the goats like to jump onto the trunk and walk the balance beam, as if showing off for each other. Goat gymnasts.
I was raised in the suburbs, which are pretty deficient in goats and chickens. Perhaps someday the novelty of this will wear off. But it hasn't yet.

CSA members, start your engines...

2009-04-28T13:53:00.002-05:00

Well, I'm sure we are all very excited for the beginning of CSA boxes starting next week. Here in the Harmony Valley kitchen, I am charged with preparing dinner using the vegatables in each week's CSA box -- one week ahead of the actual pickup date. So this week I have a box full of next week's forecasted CSA veggies. The week's lead time gives me a chance to experiment with veggie combinations and, hopefully, develop some fun recipes for the newsletter. So I am your guinea pig here on the farm. Actually, Andrea, Terri, and Richard are the real guinea pigs.

So far this week, I have made a burdock beef stir fry (not bad- the burdock retains a pleasant crunchy texture. Make sure to cut it pretty small, or it becomes a tiresome mouthful) and am planning a turkey and sorrel salad for tomorrow night's dinner. I have ideas for the ramps, chives, spinach, and of course the parsnips, which are always a delight to work with. I'm not quite sure yet what to do with those sunchokes. This is complicated by the fact two members of the household are not on very friendly terms with sunchokes. Still, eat from the box we must, and eat from the box we shall. We'll find something to do with those sunchokes.

Root veggie study session

2009-04-21T15:09:00.003-05:00

Well, my first two weeks cooking on the farm have been very interesting. For our meals, we try to eat from the farm as much as possible. During the early part of the growing season, before there is very much harvesting going on, this means eating lots of storage crops from last season. I had expected that this would mean lots of potatoes, winter squash, and maybe some rutabaga. Actually, I am amazed at the wide variety of veggies that Harmony Valley grows and stores for the winter. Besides the expected potatoes, we have several kinds of radishes, beets, carrots, cabbage, onions, garlic, turnips, celeriac, parsley root, parsnips, and newly harvested sunchokes and burdock. Wow. With all of these root veggies around, it can be a little daunting for a new chef trying to remember what's what. I have, on several occasions now, mistaken beets for radishes and radishes for turnips. Although, in my defense, those beauty heart radishes are huge. Like no radishes I've seen before. And those chioggia beets are very exotic looking. Nothing like the predicatable red and brown beets I am used to.
But I'm learning! That's why I am here. So, I have decided that I would benefit from a set of root veggie flash cards. If anyone knows where I can get these, please let me know.

Good enough to write home about!

2009-04-17T08:45:00.003-05:00

OMG it smells so good up in the office! I can't believe I have to smell these smells & not eat for another 3 hours!

Meet our new Summer Chef, Bri. She is awesome. She spent last week getting acquainted with the kitchen, planning some menus & doing an inventory of meat & pantry supplies.

This week she got a practice run, cooking for an abbreviated crew of about 15 before the rest of the crew arrives on Monday & she'll be cooking for about 40! (Word is that ALL of last year's crew passed their H2A interviews & will return, plus a bunch of new guys. Yay!)

Here's what we've had this week:

Monday - Cream of parsnip soup with ham, Sunflower bread (homemade) & strawberry jam, coleslaw
Tuesday - Beef chili, Rhubarb corn muffin (yum!), steamed carrots & turnips

Wednesday - Beans & sausage, braised cabbage, biscuits, fruit salad (apples & strawberries -yum!)

Thursday - Lasagna, garlic bread (homemade - I should have taken a picture - the loaves were so beautiful!), apple walnut cabbage salad (yum! this woman is creative with the cabbage!)

Friday - this is what I smell this morning, I bet it will taste as good as it smells! Turkey dumpling stew, roasted veggies (she's not sure yet what veggies she'll do - she doesn't want to repeat the turnips & carrots (even though they were really good), but since we've been cleaning the coolers & rearranging, she can't find exactly what she wants), & chocolate cupcakes.

It's always a good sign when a bunch of the crew goes back for seconds!

She also cooks dinner for Richard, Andrea & myself (and anyone else who might come to live at the farm). She can be a little more experimental with us and maybe test out some new recipes to use in the CSA newsletters. Here's what we've feasted on this week:

Monday - Cheeseburgers with carmelized onions, burdock fries, baked apples with rhubarb & walnuts

Tuesday - Garlic ginger pork (yum!), rice, orange almond salad (OMG yum!)

Wednesday - Steak with a ramp & bleu cheese sauce, sweet potato wedges, quinoa salad (which garnered a "this girl is cool" response from Richard):

Spring Confetti Salad
This colorful, crunchy side dish gets its flavor from fresh ramps, one of our customers’ favorite early spring vegetables.

½ cup quinoa
½ cup black radish, grated (or lightly steamed chioggia beets, sliced)
½ cup Carrot, finely diced
½ a bunch of fresh ramps
2 Tbsp olive oil
Salt to taste

1. Rinse the quinoa in several changes of fresh water. If you do not have a fine enough sieve or colander, you can strain it with the lid of a small saucepan.
2. Cover with fresh water and bring to a boil. Cook covered for about 15 minutes, or until tender. Strain off any excess water and chill quinoa.
3. Rinse the ramps and cut off the leaves from the white stalk. Reserve the white part for use in another recipe. They are great lightly sautéed, or use in any recipe as you would an onion.
4. Cut narrow ribbons of the leaves crosswise with a sharp knife.
5. Mix cooled quinoa, carrot, radish, ramps, and olive oil. A good, flavorful oil is best. (we like the Frog Hollow 2008 pressing!)

Last night, Thursday: Roast turkey & giblet gravy, mashed potatoes, glazed carrots

Tonight, I look forward to a corn chowder with bacon & a grilled cheese sandwich (maybe on some of my sister & brother in law's bread from their bakery, Falls Baking Co.)

I really look forward to tasting what she creates with the multitude of ingredients that will soon be available to her!

Update from the greenhouse & Fields!

2009-04-16T10:30:00.007-05:00

Besides the 3 acres of greens Adam & Richard planted on Saturday (April 11), Cody and Richard planted chard, carrots, turnips, beets and started on parsnips. Very dry here, so early to plant -which is a great start!

The greenhouses are full and thriving! The curly willow have really filled out,

the peppers have been transplanted, the basil is amazing, and look at those onions & fennel!

Outside, there are some volunteer violas in the midst of the empty flower tunnel - nasturtiums were just planted to add to our salad mix for a dash of color and spice.

Our H2A Visa applicants/crew from Mexico had their interviews in Monterrey yesterday, so we should be getting word soon on who & how many will make it to the farm for the season. We submitted 25 names this year, and have a couple more on standby/as seconds. Sometimes a good worker will fail the interview or get rejected for mysterious reasons so it's good to have extra names. But we hope all of last year's guys will make it back! Once they start (hopefully on Monday), we will really get busy in the fields.

Cold Frame Action

2009-04-16T10:14:00.004-05:00

On Monday, the cold frames were cleaned and ready to be filled up with seedlings - look at the lovely salad and kale & bok choi and kohlrabi! Big thanks to Hector who has been watering and nurturing all the plants in the greenhouses this spring. We don't know what we'd do without his hard work and goofy humor. Seriously, he is a goof.

Sweet Overwintered Spinach

2009-04-16T10:05:00.004-05:00

Available only in the early spring, overwintered spinach is the sweetest and most tender spinach you'll ever taste.

Still too short to cut, it should be ready to harvest in a week or two!

Dirt Angel in the Sunchoke field

2009-04-10T08:33:00.004-05:00

Last Friday we had a crew out in the sunchoke field, digging and picking up the overwintered sunchokes. It was a beautiful day for it & it seems most everybody was happy to be working out in the field again. Adam drove the machine that dug up the rows, with the crew following behind to pick up the sunchokes by hand and put them in buckets. Then the full buckets get dumped into the bins on the wagons. We store the sunchokes as is (dirty) in the bins, until they are ready to be packed.

I thought Adam was thrusting his arm in the dirt up to his elbow, checking the rows to make sure the machine was doing it's job (depth etc). But no, he was so dang happy to be outside, digging in the dirt, away from the shop where he'd been cooped up all winter. When I saw him later, at quitting time, he told me that I missed his dirt angels - he was so happy to be out there he laid on his back in the dirt & made angels. Spring fever?

April in the Nursery Greenhouse

2009-04-06T08:20:00.010-05:00

First Farmer's Market in two weeks (April 18!).
First CSA delivery in 4 weeks - May 7/8/9!

Simone and María spent a couple days transplanting celeriac. Delicate work! Celeriac is started in the 1020 trays (theoretically 10 rows with 20 seeds each row, but we plant more thickly than that) and then when the seedlings are big and strong enough, they are transplanted into the "200" trays (200 individual cells). We use the 1020 trays mostly for germ testing, but also for other crops with tiny seeds, such as tomatoes.

You can't really tell yet, but these trays on the heat table will soon be tomatoes!

Good looking lettuce germ test.

April 2 Greenhouse update

2009-04-06T07:51:00.010-05:00

Lacinato Kale

Basil!

Fennel & Purple Kohlrabi
Broccoli and Bok choi

Greenhouse Action!

2009-02-27T07:45:00.005-06:00

The nursery greenhouse is up and running - I mean growing! It seems earlier than last year, but Andrea says it's about the same time.

One big change is our fancy new vacuum seeder. In the past, the trays have been seeded by hand, which is quite time consuming, especially with little tiny seeds! This machine has a row of needles (that can be changed according to seed size) that suck up one single seed and shoot it down the tube, aligned over a socket in the seed tray, neatly planting as many or as few seeds as we need in each tray. (Hector is our expert operator)

After the seeds are planted, they are covered with a bit more soil and vermiculite. We tuck them in and cover them each night and say "Good morning little onions" every new day. Once we have the big greenhouse cleaned and sterilized and the seedlings are big enough, they'll move across the road to make room in the nursery for new young food seedlings!

February at the Farm

2009-02-07T16:09:00.016-06:00

Gerardo, Simone, Hector & Michael had a better day for willow harvest yesterday. It was way warmer than last week, when they had to go out in -5 degree weather! That day, they couldn't even turn off the tractor in the field for fear that they wouldn't get it started again. They are working on the curly willow now & waiting for the pussy willow to bloom. They cut it in the field and put it on a wagon pulled behind the tractor. Then it goes into the greenhouse where it will be trimmed and bunched and then moved to the allium cooler until it's time to take to market.

There isn't much more time to use the greenhouses for cleaning or storing items, as we expect to have them set up & ready to grow soon!

Ezequiel (driving the skid steer), Adam and Michael did some repair to the nursery greenhouse and set up the tables inside. The black hose will carry warm water to keep the seed tray soil warm, for good seed germination. Adam (with the beard) is our resident animal expert & helped white mama goat give birth the other day. Adam says that the kids imprinted on him right away so they'll probably be friendly with people.

The little kids remind me of puppies at this point, wagging their tails and tripping all over their gangly selves.

Yes, Andrea is yelling at that rooster. He makes her so mad when he hassles the hens, brutally pecking the feathers right off their backs! We have too many roosters so he better shape up or he will be shipped out. Andrea keeps warning him, but he's rather incorrigible.

Baby Goats

2009-02-06T13:14:00.003-06:00

White mama goat had two kids yesterday! Adam delivered them, cleaned them up & started them suckling and they made it through the night. Thankfully it wasn't as cold as it has been (it's a balmy 38 degrees right now), so they should be out of the woods now, as they say. We recently lost two little babies - both were born on super cold nights and didn't make it. It's our own dang fault for leaving the billy in with the nannies for far too long, getting them pregnant just in time for a midwinter birth.

The babies aren't scared of people yet, so Andrea & I will go out later this afternoon to give some love and take more pictures.

Career Opportunities

2009-02-05T09:18:00.011-06:00

Hiring for 2009 - See descriptions below!

Field & Harvest Coordinator
Field/Shop Crew Member
Farm Chef
Delivery Driver
Packing Shed Coordinator
Bookkeeper
Madison Farmer's Market Stand worker

We are always in search of hard-working individuals with an interest in being part of our team. We have several year-round positions in addition to employing 15-20 seasonal employees during our peak season from April-November. While we actively recruit after January 1 of each year, we invite you to contact us any time of the year. Send us an email outlining your interest and experience as well as attaching your resume or a completed application from our website and we will let you know our current needs.
Please send inquiries to:
Harmony Valley Farm
S 3442 Wire Hollow Rd.
Viroqua, WI 54665
Phone: 608-483-2143
Email:
andrea@harmonyvalleyfarm.com

Benefits
In addition to an hourly wage, all employees are eligible to participate in our retirement benefits and health insurance programs. We also offer lunch for all employees prepared by our farm chef during the peak season, April-November. You will have access to produce from the farm when available. Opportunity for advancement always exists for individuals demonstrating a strong work ethic and superior performance.

Hours of Operation
During our peak season, April-November, work hours are 7:30/8:00 am-6:00 pm with a 1-hour lunch break. In the off-season, work hours are 8:00 am- 5:00 pm. Keep in mind this is a farm and there may be times when these hours will vary based on weather conditions, farm events, or other variable factors.

POSITIONS

Field & Harvest Coordinator—Hiring for 2009
We are looking for an organized, people-oriented individual who has a minimum of 2 years farming experience, with an emphasis on growing fresh market produce. In this position, you will work with the management team to plan field and harvest tasks and expedite job completion while working with a field/harvest crew of 12-20 people. You will manage quality control of product being harvested, supplies, and time usage. Basic tractor operation skills are required. Additional opportunities, based on experience, may include greenhouse management, planting, irrigation and other field work. Spanish language skills a plus. Responsibilities include, but are not limited to:
§ Daily & Weekly harvest scheduling
§ Manual & Mechanical harvest
§ Quality Control
§ Ensure appropriate post-harvest handling of product
§ Transport of harvest from field to packing shed
§ Record Keeping
§ Other production related tasks may include transplanting, weeding, mulching, pruning, mowing, and other field maintenance.
This is a year-round position. During the off-season, tasks may include helping as needed in the packing shed, doing inventory of seeds, seed ordering and receiving, germ testing and end of season record keeping and production reporting. Basic computer skills are a must, advanced computer skills a plus.
Position available March 23, 2009.

Field/Shop Crew Member—Hiring for 2009
We are looking for an individual with 2 or more years of experience working on a farm to be part of our field/shop crew. Must be willing to learn organic farming methods and be a flexible, cooperative team member. Experience with operating tractors and implements required. Skills with welding, maintenance and repair of machinery and facilities, and computer skills are preferred. In this position you may work independently or as part of a team to perform the following responsibilities:
§ Pasture management
§ Fencing
§ Caretaking of animals (cattle, pigs, chickens, and goats)
§ Irrigation management
§ Equipment & facility repair and maintenance
§ Soil preparation
§ Transplanting & seeding
§ Mechanical cultivation
§ Mechanical harvest
§ Seeding cover crops
This is a year-round position with tasks varying with the seasons. We are looking to recruit individuals with an interest in working here for a minimum of two years in order to build a strong team with continuity from one season to the next.
Position available March 16, 2009

Farm Chef—Hiring for 2009
Are you looking for a creative culinary challenge and a chance to connect directly with your source of organic ingredients? We are looking for a creative individual with cooking experience and an affinity for organic ingredients who is interested in writing and preparing their own weekly menus based on the seasonal produce available from our fields and meat from our pastures. You will cook lunch Monday-Friday for a crew of 30-35 and dinner for farm residents and guests, usually 2-5 people. The sky is the limit as long as the meals are nourishing enough to fuel the appetites of our hard working crew and emphasize ingredients from our farm, supplemented with staple organic ingredients from other local producers and our local food co-op.
You will also have the opportunity to serve as a resource for our CSA members by providing weekly recipes and information for our newsletters on vegetables they receive in their boxes, participating in and planning on-farm events, and attending the weekly farmer’s market in Madison. The experience is yours to create!

You must have previous experience and references for previous work in the foodservice industry. Also must have basic computer and writing skills. The Chef’s contract is for our peak growing season, April 6, 2009-November 13, 2009.

Delivery Driver—Available for 2009 Season
We are looking for an experienced truck driver with a valid CDL and a clean driving record. You will drive a 27' straight truck on a delivery route to Minneapolis/ St. Paul or Madison. If driving to the Twin Cities, you will leave the farm Wednesday evening, stay overnight in the Twin Cities, and complete deliveries Thursday morning before returning to the farm in the afternoon/early evening. If driving the Madison route, you will leave the farm very early on Saturday morning, complete deliveries and return to the farm in the afternoon. We are looking for more than just a truck driver; you will be representing Harmony Valley Farm to our customers. Responsibilities include:
Delivery of wholesale produce orders to warehouses
Delivery of retail orders to stores and restaurants
Delivery of Community Supported Agriculture boxes to home sites
Meticulous set-up of CSA sites which involves neatly stacking the correct number of boxes, and set-up of a newsletter and brochure table.
Keeping careful logbook entries
Attention to detail and accurate box delivery a must!
Position Available May 6, 2009

Packing Shed Coordinator—Hiring for 2009
We are looking for an individual with excellent communication and organizational skills to work in our packing shed. In this position, you will work with our current packing shed coordinators and management to plan and coordinate the flow of production to complete washing and packing of product for distribution to our CSA, wholesale accounts and farmer’s market. Your primary responsibilities include the following:
Wholesale/Retail Sales: Receive orders, communicate with Sales Manager, Bookkeeper & WS coordinator in the packing shed to ensure orders are filled and shipped correctly. You will also schedule and plan trucking, coordinate consolidated shipping /cross-docking.
Market: Ensure product being harvested for Farmer’s Market is received from the field, washed, sorted and stored appropriately for market quality standards. Pack product for market and load the truck including all needed supplies. Complete inventory of product upon return from market.
General responsibilities include overseeing wash/pack operations to ensure proper packing, maintain quality standards. Prepare packaging needs (labels, boxes, containers, etc). Wash and pack produce. Uphold sanitation practices, help maintain general orderliness of supplies, inventory and work areas.
Required Skills Include:
Computer Proficiency (Microsoft Word, Excel)
Able to work as a part of a team with effective communication
Experience operating fork lift and pallet Jack
Spanish language skills a definite bonus

Position available April 6, 2009

Bookkeeper—Position Available Immediately
We are seeking an organized, detail-oriented professional to do the bookkeeping and manage the financial information for our business. The primary responsibilities for this position include, among other things:
Keeping the financial records
Managing Accounts Payable and Accounts Receivable
Payroll and related HR financial accounting and reporting
Processing CSA orders
Maintaining a product cost system
Providing financial reports to the management team
Participating in financial analysis of the business
Invoicing for Wholesale Sales
Required personal skills:
Ability to work independently and collaboratively in a small team setting
Self-starter able to take initiative and follow tasks through to completion
Effective verbal and written communication skills
Required technical skills:
§ Previous work experience in business or accounting with bookkeeping skills
§ Proficiency and experience in using Quickbooks, MS Word, MS Excel, MS Access and Outlook
§ Accuracy with numbers
§ Attention to detail

Farmer’s Market…It’s Just around the corner and we need you!
We’re in search of friendly faces to work at our stand at the Dane County Farmer’s Market from April-December. We attend all the outdoor markets from mid-April through November and four indoor winter markets. In this position, you will help set up and take down the stand, restock vegetables, assist customers with sales as well as answer questions about the produce, cooking, the farm and our crops. As a representative of the farm, we will train you in basic facts about Harmony Valley and the vegetables we grow and sell. We are looking for individuals who are physically fit, friendly and able to communicate well with the public. Sales or customer service experience, good math skills, an interest in organic vegetables, and a smiling face are required. An interest in cooking is very helpful as well. You would be expected to work 2-3 Saturdays a month. Hours are usually 5:30 am-1:30/2:00 pm. Compensation includes $85 for the day and $15 in veggies from the stand. If you would like more information, contact andrea@harmonyvalleyfarm.com or 608-483-2143 ext 4

Winter seed orders

2008-12-29T20:42:00.002-06:00

Wow, do I love winter! Finally, the last farmers market for the year done, miss it already and yet so nice to move on to winter projects. Finishing our LLC and land trust documents, office cleaning, filing and planning for next year. AND my all time favorite, ordering seeds. The catalogs have been coming in since just before Thanksgiving, glossy colored pics, and the desciptions! (no spell check, arg), 'brick red overlaying a bright green' red boston lettuce or the new personal size melon, 'suger cube', a dealer told me tasted one in the growers field and it was so good!, but wait, the grower treated the whole seed crop with Thiram fungicide, idiot, will try again next year. The small melons are so hard to find, there are only a half dozen varieties out there and we have only been able to get two untreated, maybe three this year. No wonder that we are on a fast track to learn seed breeding. Would you want one melon the size of a basketball that takes 4 days to eat or 4 small melons to eat one each day? I know the answer to that one! And can you imagine trying to pack a basketball into a csa box? Varieties are so important.
What's new this year? We are planning on trying the red striped horticultural bean 'red dragon', a very tasty snap bean or let dry for a bright red dry bean. Maybe some ground cherry will make a comeback here, eat fresh or make a salsa with tomatoes!
Any good suggestions that you have seen?? Richard

Ice is broken! Terri, pics, please?

Who the man?

2008-10-19T19:35:00.001-05:00

Timbaland

And what she says.

What's in the Box

2008-09-11T16:05:00.007-05:00

I haven't posted photos of our beautiful CSA boxes for weeks now! We're really in the busy part of the season, both in the field & the office. I think it's busy here all the time, but I'm told it's really going to start getting hectic now. So much food is ready for harvest but the weather really isn't cooperating. It was cool & rainy much of today & while the moisture is welcome, we could still use some more heat. I mean, I still have so many popsicles to hand out! Paletas, anyone?

August 28 box (above) September 4 (below)

September 11 delivery