Firefly Hill Farm

Firefly Hill Farm Firefly Hill Farm is a small organic farm using regenerative practices. We don’t have a public store.

We are a subscription also known as a CSA where people pay upfront for a season and get produce each week. Our weekly newsletters are available here

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1Wg_HQqmMe7pPoOg8I0fNdYJ5SBNn-dw7

In case you missed the memo last week, it is the last bag of 2026! Last bag means we give everything we can possibly fi...
08/30/2026

In case you missed the memo last week, it is the last bag of 2026! Last bag means we give everything we can possibly find so more types of things than typical - 14 different produces today at about 14 pounds.

Here’s the full rundown:

1. Baby salad mix with lettuce and chard! The lettuce we kept trying to plant in between heat and rain wash-out grew enough for baby lettuce mix - over 10 different types of lettuces! Plus baby chard mixed in that we planted in case the lettuce didn’t make it. So it all mixed together to make a delightful baby salad mix.
2. Potatoes- 2 pounds for the regular bags (& 1 pound for half) and if you want more for the fall there will be extra to grab. (Free). The only thing to remember is these potatoes have been washed so they need to be refrigerated.
3. Carrots
4. Kale
5. Purple cabbage - finally came on the last week!
6. Tomatillos- get your salsa verde recipes out again!
7. Onions
8. Cherry tomatoes and/or a tomato
9. Peppers
10. Hot peppers
11. Basil - regular Genovese basil plus Thai basil
12. Cucumber and / or a zucchini
13. Your garlic bouquet
14. Watermelon!!!! I buried the lead! We never promise it because there’s so many things that can go wrong … but we have some watermelon to end the season with!

Besides the extra potatoes if you want there are also more “ugly” tomatoes (very ugly now) and a few green tomatoes.

Every off season we assess how we are feeling and decide if we want to do this again, and we assume you do the same. But if you already think you might want to do it again next year, there will be a 2027 interest chalkboard to write your name on.

As always it has been our privilege and joy to grow food and share it with you. Thank you for bringing your support, enthusiasm and kind words every week.

Elise & Nox

The back to school bag comes just as it’s finally feeling more like fall around here. These cooler nights are a literal...
08/23/2026

The back to school bag comes just as it’s finally feeling more like fall around here. These cooler nights are a literal breath of fresh air.

You may have noticed or heard me talking about how with Labor Day so late this year the weeks between Memorial Day and Labor Day are one more than we usually have. The garden is a little tricked too, most crops are ending - as if they expect the end of the season is here. This - plus a personal thing happening for me with a surgery soon - has helped me decide to have next week be the last bag instead of Labor Day weekend. That means I’ll consolidate things that would be in the 2 bags so it’ll probably be a bit more things than usual, and a few extras for fall like extra potatoes and garlic.

I’ll try and keep reminding you so you don’t accidentally come on Labor Day weekend 😀 and thanks for your support as always.

In the meantime, the bag this week has a special reprise …. A taste of lettuce is back!!
Here’s the full list for the week

1. Lettuce - finally cooled off enough for one of our plantings to grow!
2. Corn - the last of the corn - as shared earlier it’s tasty and uneven in its kernel pollination
3. Tomatoes- just a couple - they peaked and about finished all about the same time
4. Cucumbers - also peaked and finished about the same time
5. Radishes- it finally got cool enough for them too - a few to make a little salad with 😀
6. Napa cabbage
7. Onions
8. Garlic
9. Beans - this week back to traditional green beans with a few purple ones for some of you
10. Potatoes - a mix this week you might get red, white or blue - or maybe all three!
11. Peppers
12. Hot peppers

Plus there are about a million ugly tomatoes for free

See you soon and enjoy the nip of fall in the air while you can.

Most of you probably know that one corn plant usually only produces one ear - two at most. But to the plant it’s more li...
08/21/2026

Most of you probably know that one corn plant usually only produces one ear - two at most. But to the plant it’s more like 800 little fruits because each kernel is pollinated to make it grow. In fact, it may surprise some of you to learn that each kernel is connected to one of the silks that we remove when we shuck corn. Each silk connects to a pre-kernel thing and to become a milky kernel on the cob the silk has to be pollinated from the tassel on the top.

I say all this because if corn gets knocked down so the tassel pollen can’t pollinate the silk you get cobs with uneven kernels and really tiny cobs. This is what happened with the last planting of corn. Some of it is perfect and much of it is uneven and/or small. The kernels that formed are all tasty - so we decided to harvest even the weird, uneven small ones so we could eat tasty but not so perfect looking corn.

Yes there will be corn in the bags this week!

If you’re interested here’s some of the more detailed agricultural science

https://www.agry.purdue.edu/ext/corn/news/timeless/silks.html

What about those red noodle beans? They are new to us too and a few have been asking about how to use them. Essentially ...
08/18/2026

What about those red noodle beans? They are new to us too and a few have been asking about how to use them.

Essentially you can cook them like any beans - many people chop them into pieces (so losing some of their uniqueness) and then you can steam, boil, sauté, stir fry just like any fresh bean.

They are used more in Asian cooking and so a lot of recipes I see are from that tradition - high heat stir fry style with garlic and ginger.

Here’s an example of a recipe that looks good to me https://foxhollow.com/blogs/recipes/red-noodle-beans-with-sesame-seeds

Some recipes keep them long which could be fun too but also a little unwieldy but certainly cooked that way.

So essentially- don’t be afraid - they’re just beans and most of you all have been cooking beans your whole life!

Here’s another recipe to help you build your intuition

https://foodiowa.com/2022/04/26/thai-style-chinese-red-noodle-bean/

I’d love some pics of your experiments

Happy mid-August bag. You may be surprised that we could still have new for the season things this late but we do! Beets...
08/16/2026

Happy mid-August bag. You may be surprised that we could still have new for the season things this late but we do! Beets are finally here - typically they are earlier but … weird season this year… need I say more 🤷🏼‍♀️. And it’s edamame time! More people are familiar now with edamame but if you aren’t, they are essentially fresh soybeans. Here’s a link about how healthy they are and some ideas of how to make them. https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/280285
My go to is to simply boil them (in the pods) in salty water for 5 minutes (only 5 minutes because they’re so fresh) and then dry them off a little and salt them - and pop them out of the pod into your mouth!
All told it’s 12 things today and 15 pounds or so. Here’s the list

1. Corn - as per my post yesterday, this planting got knocked down by a storm so we thought it was a loss. But we found enough for a taste for everyone!
2. Tomatoes
3. Cherry tomatoes
4. Cucumbers
5. Garlic
6. Kale!
7. Carrots
8. Beans - a mixture of types - you could get green, purple and red noodle
9. Peppers
10. Edamame
11. Beets
12. Potatoes- this week it’s our all- purpose white russet style - great for baking and a fluffy mashed.

Plus free “uglier” tomatoes.

Have a great week. Maybe it will be less dramatic weather-wise around here 🤞

Back a few storms ago - one of them came through and flattened the last 2 plantings of corn. The 2nd to last was especia...
08/15/2026

Back a few storms ago - one of them came through and flattened the last 2 plantings of corn. The 2nd to last was especially bad.

I didn’t share this picture then because it felt a little too much to take at the time.

The thing about corn is it really tries to stand back up when it gets knocked down. It reaches for the sun. When it’s not more than 45 degrees down, you can count on it standing back up. And sometimes it can right itself when it’s even more down that that.

So the last planting was able to stand itself up and next week we should have a nice last harvest of corn.

Clearly in this picture you can see, the 2nd to last planting wasn’t close up 45 degrees. It’s like mostly 0 degrees off the ground! But, to make a short story long … some of it did stand up a bit and I went in today to see what might be salvageable for us to eat a few ears.

Well the bad news is about 2/3-3/4 was down and didn’t form ears. But the good news is that still leaves more DELICIOUS ears than we can eat. So there will be 1 or 2 token ears in the bags tomorrow. Better than nothing … and a super tasty white corn variety.

So that’s your corn update 😆

It sure has been a crazy weather season

No new lettuce yet, but surprisingly there’s more kale already! The kale last week was the 1st cutting of the 2nd planti...
08/15/2026

No new lettuce yet, but surprisingly there’s more kale already! The kale last week was the 1st cutting of the 2nd planting. Usually we retire the 1st planting after about 3 harvests. Then replant the 2nd round in the same bed. But this year we planted the 2nd round in a different bed to let the 1st planting keep going.

And keep going it has! These are plants started inside back in March! And as we cut the leaves we leave the growth cone at the top and they just keep growing taller with new leaves.

Eventually the moths find their way in and the worms start to win out … but it’s pretty amazing this bed is going as strong as it is.

Yes, we like many people in the White Oak community spent some time in our basement yesterday while the sirens sounded a...
08/12/2026

Yes, we like many people in the White Oak community spent some time in our basement yesterday while the sirens sounded and the news warned “White Oak, you need to be in your safe place.” And we are okay - no tornado touched down on us. We’ll assess damage later this morning, but nothing noticeably catastrophic.

Yes, we like many people in Cincinnati still have no power. A few years ago that would have meant all the things pre-harvested would be no longer refrigerated.

When Nox got his Ford Lightning one of the exciting aspects was its ability to power things with its battery. We’ve never had the chance to use it before but the truck has been powering the cooler since yesterday afternoon with no problem and only used a few percent of its charge.

Peace of mind! (We also ran an extension cord from it to the coffee maker this morning!)

With school almost starting and pre-season football in full force, it may make you think summer’s over - but it’s not ov...
08/09/2026

With school almost starting and pre-season football in full force, it may make you think summer’s over - but it’s not over yet! And this bag celebrates that! It’s a doozy.

12 things at 17 pounds or so with lots of summer treats. Here’s the run down

1. Tomatoes- let’s be honest, they’re all a little ugly by this time in the season but they still taste like summer
2. Cherry tomatoes
3. Cucumbers in abundance!
4. Zucchini and/or yellow squash
5. Kale is back!
6. Basil
7. Dill
8. Garlic
9. Purple cauliflower! We’ve been trying it the last couple years and the jury’s still out. The yield this year wasn’t what I hoped for but the weather didn’t favor broccoli either so maybe I won’t give up yet
10. Potatoes- this week it’s our favorite purple / blue. It’s called blue Adirondack and has blue flesh even
11. Beans - unique varieties this week. Mostly Dragons Tongue - a purple streaked variety we’ve grown occasionally but not for a few years. A new one for us - red noodle - some are a foot long! See what you think. (And a few regular green beans mixed in for some of you!)
12. Corn! Corn this week is our yellow variety Sugar Buns. We had some last night and it tastes great. But it does have some issues. First the heat and humidity made the bugs plentiful and aggressive this year, so I found some bug spots I had to cut out. Also we had some intense wind storms when it was pollinating so there are some ears with spotty kernel coverage. So plan on some small ears that may require some attention. But it’s worth it!

Plus extra “uglier” tomatoes for free
And the least ugly extras for $2 a pound if you need even more!

Have a great week and keep celebrating summer while we have it!

Update: boats of zucchini are taken 😀The good news is the next succession of zucchini came on fast and furious and the b...
08/08/2026

Update: boats of zucchini are taken 😀

The good news is the next succession of zucchini came on fast and furious and the bag this week will have a couple pounds.

The bad news is it grew so fast a couple got away from us. So 2 zucchini “boats” are available. If you want in on one, 1st to claim gets one.

The picture shows they are both as big as my arm to my elbow😀

Address

5386 Hanley Road
Cincinnati, OH
45247

Opening Hours

1pm - 5pm

Telephone

+15135127689

Website

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