Pictured here is a collection of kaleidoscope carrots grown on the farm and ready for your salads.

Happy New Year!!  This is the first weekend the farm stand will be open for the new year.  It is also the Farm Vendor Market and Tonopah Rob has invited several vendors for the market. Here is a list of vendors coming to this week's market.  Joe the Fish Man will have plenty of Alaskan Salmon and he is the most popular and has the best salmon in Arizona.  Pierre's Prime Beef Ranch will be selling their grass-fed beef.  I bought a quarter cow from them too.  Their ranch is way up north in the rim country.  Mark and Tracy, owners of the Edge Knife Sharpening Co. will be ready to sharpen your knives, tools and fingernails.  Fonda Hooks owner of Big Red's Hot Sauce will be another new vendor this month.  She has quite the selection of flavors and they are delicious.  Mom and Pop's Bagel Shop will return this Saturday and Lidia, the daughter of Mom and Pop's will be peddling her hot out of the oven breads, pastries and bagels. I really like all of her yummlicious recipes.  Desert Pickin's owned by Evie and Frank Wainwright.  Evie is the baker and soap maker of the duo.  Her and Frank will be selling cookies, soaps and jams.  Ester, owner of Soul Alkemy will stack her tables with buttermilk soap products.  Her soaps are so good for the body and its tender spots.  Conrad Farms owed and farmed by Dave and Ester Conrad will be at the market selling their dates, citrus and pomegranates.  If you like kumquat and specialty citrus they are the folks to visit.  And of course, me, Tonopah Rob will be at the farm stand selling veggies and overseeing the market as well as convincing you to come join me for the farm fund-raiser dinner and speaking of the dinner I would like to introduce you to Arizona's most talented chef.

Hello everyone. My name is Chef Christopher Wolf. I am the Executive Chef, and a Chef Instructor, at the Arizona Culinary Institute. A few months ago Rob contacted me at the school wondering if I knew anyone that could possibly help him with a fundraiser dinner for his farm. After explaining the event to me and what it entailed, I told him that I DID know someone who would be willing to help him…..me. I loved the idea of a farm dinner where almost all of the ingredients used for the event would be pulled directly from the farm. The menu would revolve around what happened to be in season at that moment, and we could let the crops tell us what to cook. So, this past Sunday (December 21st), I took my family out to check out Tonopah Rob's operation. I must say, I was truly impressed…both with the farm and with him. I love the philosophy of the farm: everything grown the way nature intended, NOTHING fake. He showed us the grounds, my wife and I hanging on his every word, while my son spied on the chickens and turkeys. One of my favorite moments of the day was the look on my son's face as he watched Rob pull broccoli directly off the plant. My son is a picky eater, but he LOVES broccoli. There was something magical about watching my son realize for the first time that broccoli isn't born in the grocery store, it's grown on a farm. The story gets even better when we took the broccoli home, cooked it for dinner, and my son said (without prompting) that, "farm broccoli is way better than grocery store broccoli!"

More beautiful carrots!

When I see someone growing food without all the fake stuff that is so common these days, someone who is trying to feed people REAL food, someone with integrity and ideals about farming that I can really get behind, I feel obligated to help. In the relationship of cooking, it all starts at the farm. Without the farmer, cooks have nothing to cook! So I will be happy to be on the farm in March, cooking using what the farm tells us to cook, and I hope to be serving a lot of folks that care about real food and eating the way nature intended. Thank you so much for the opportunity Rob. My crew will be there, and the food will be spectacular!

Tickets for the dinner are 150.00 dollars a plate and 200.00 dollars for the head table. You can send your check to the farm, address is in the information box (top right corner of web site). Make check payable to Tonopah Rob's Vegetable Farm. Deadline for the tickets is January 31, 2015.

If you have any of the following items you could donate to the farm for the dinner, it would be a great help.  Sets of silverware, dinnerware, glassware, coffee mugs, cloth napkins and folding chairs.

From left to right: Onions, Golden and Red Beets and Daikon Radish.

Also, if anyone wants to purchase a CSA share for the farm stand only please talk to me, it's not too late to buy a membership to the farm. I encourage you to vote with your fork and support my farm, it is extremely important to support my local farm.  If you want to donate money to the go fund me account which is good but the organization takes a chunk of the donation from my pocket or you can donate directly to the farm by sending your check to the farm as many of you have done and thank you to all of you whom as visited my farm to bring your financial support.  The gofundme account link is: http://www.gofundme.com/izbbhc . I'm tugging on your heart-strings to give to the farm or come out and get veggie with it!!

Here's the veggie list:

Salad Sweeties

Red Stem Turnips

Baby and Bigger Carrots

Assorted Beets

Daikon Radish

Watermelon Radish

Broccoli

Spinach

Swiss Chard

Turnip Greens

Collard Greens

Romaine Salad Mix

Oranges

Lemons

Grapefruit

Fresh Eggs

Turmeric

Ginger

Romaine Lettuce Heads

Cilantro

Baby Butternut Squash

maybe a surprise or two

don't forget to bring your egg cartons, large shopping bags and your friends and neighbors.

On January 17, 2015 the farm stand will be closed because Tonopah Rob is moving the market to the City of Buckeye Farmers Market located at the Sundance Park right off of Watson Road. The address is 22865 W. Lower Buckeye, Buckeye, Az 85326. Market time is 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. All CSA members must go to that location to pick up their produce for this week only. Here's the directions:

take I-10 west to Buckeye, AZ

take exit 117 for South Watson Road

turn left onto W. Yuma Road

turn right onto S. Rainbow Road

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