FROST WEEK!  We were very busy yesterday scurrying around the farm getting everything together for the first hard freeze of the season.  we found the following items out in the field for you this week.

Collard Greens

Siberian Kale- If you haven’t tried last week’s kale fritter recipe with this variety try it this time.

Turnips

Daikon Radish

Carrots-  These just seem to get sweeter as the weather gets colder.

Swiss Chard

Sugar Pumpkins

garlic

Broccoli

Japanese Eggplants- This is the end of a delicious crop this year.

Enjoy everything this week!

After a soggy week we were thankful to have a sunny day to harvest!  It’s hard to believe that we only have three more weeks to go for summer CSA.  We hope you are all continuing to enjoy everything.  This week’s shares have the following contents:

Turnips- Purple topped

Black Radish

Broccoli- The fall planting is always so sweet, enjoy this stuff.

Carnival Winter Squash-  This variety is similar in flavor to the Acorn Squash and it also makes a pretty fall decoration.

Red Potatoes

Salad Mix- Don’t be scared if you find blades of grass in your salad mix!  🙂  We do a large scale wash, but always recommend that CSA members invest in a salad spinner to wash with as well.

Garlic

Sugar Pumpkin- For eating, carving or throwing.  (As demonstrated by two small children at the farm.)

Siberian Kale-  We have been loving the kale fritters!   The Siberian variety works very well in this simple recipe.  Chop and steam 10oz. or so of kale.  I like to either chop it quite fine, or put it into the food processor for a few pulses.  Mix the kale with 4 beaten eggs, 1/2 cup of breadcrumbs (or equivalent if you don’t do gluten), Cumin, salt and pepper.   You can also include finely chopped onions if you like.  Mix everything together and place small balls of mix in a large frying pan in the preheated oil of your choice.  We use a combination of butter and Sunflower Oil for pan frying.   Once they have settled into the oil flatten them with a spatula and flip over when first side is evenly browned.  These are amazing with a nice dipping sauce of tomatoes, sour cream and a touch of chili powder.

Swiss Chard-  You could also use this in the above recipe.

Have fun cooking for the week everyone!  There is something very sweet about the cold crisp days and a warm stove top of farm food.  Hooray for fall!

Hi all!  Sorry we didn’t get a post up for last week’s harvest.  We go into no frills mode over here when both of the wee ones are sick along with Mama.  I think I am on day 11 today, although the days have all melted into one big stuffy mess.  Alex has been farming solo while I nurse the kids and myself back to health.   he managed to come up with a great fall share this wee:

Salad Mix

Spaghetti Squash-Cut these in half and bake face down on an oiled baking sheet at 375 until soft.  Scoop out into a casserole dish, mix with butter(optional) and pour tomato sauce over top. (You all have some frozen from a few weeks ago when we were sneaking those extra pounds of tomatoes into the shares, right?) Top with whatever types of cheese you have around and salt and pepper.  We like to use Mozzarella and Parmesan.  Return to the oven until the dish is bubbly and the cheese starts to brown.   You can also use Pesto in place of tomato sauce for this dish and it is fantastic.

Garlic

Sugar Pumpkin

Onions

Black Radishes

Collard Greens

Japanese Eggplant

Broccoli-  Making a return appearance with the maturing of the fall planting.  We are always proud when we can get this final planting of broccoli to produce before the end of CSA season.

We have had a really wonderful growing season this year in our new fields along the Deerfield River Valley.  We have so much bounty this fall that we have decided to do a simple Winter CSA box.  Please follow the link to learn more.  Very simply put, we are charging $75 for 50 lbs of organic winter storage crops.  All will store well in your own kitchen, pantry, refrigerator or basement root cellar.  I know some of you may have stock piles you have been starting from your summer shares with us so if you don’t need anything don’t worry!  If you could, please help us spread the word and send friends to our website if they are interested in a storage crop share for the winter, we’d really appreciate it!

Wish us luck getting everyone healthy for next week!

It’s Friday harvest time! Your shares have the following this week:

Japanese Eggplant

Cubanelle Peppers

Cayenne Peppers- Salsa ?

Tomato array 🙂

Collard Greens -Here is a recipe for stuffed collard greens from the New York times.   I tend to be really bad with following exact ingredients or amounts with recipes.  I think the main idea with this one is to grab some sort of nut, whatever herbs you have around, rice and tomato.  Personally we tend to throw random pieces of cheese into this dish as well!  Don’t forget, if you are not cooking the collards with some sort of meat, use plenty of butter and even a broth to help break down the leaves as it cooks and give them that melt in your mouth taste.  Don’ be afraid to leave them simmering for a long period of time.  Collards are a prehistoric plant dating back to the ancient Celts, Romans and Greeks.  (and probably farther for all we know.) Channel your ancient ancestry and eat some greens!

Swiss Chard

Hakurei Turnips-the first of our fall planting, these are the sweet and tender ones that you can eat raw or roasted.

Red Potatoes- I am making a nice batch of potato salad as we speak.

Basil- this is the end of it I believe.

Garlic

Summer Squash- Cube and put in your stuffed collard greens.

I am not making any promises about extra stuff not being thrown in your boxes this time of year so look out!   Next Saturday we will be dropping off shares in Worthington and Pittsfield but are taking the week off from attending the market.  If you are a part time Pittsfield member and want to pick up next week please email us so we can set up a drop off point for your produce on Saturday.  Have a great week everyone.

Hi Folks, Sorry I missed the post day this past week.  I hope you are all enjoying the veggies, we wanted to get this up as their were a few items in this past week’s share that were a bit more esoteric than the standard CSA fare.

Tomatoes- lots of the Mariani Romas and Green zebras this week.

Daikon Radish- Those long white ones.  http://www.seriouseats.com/2011/11/in-a-pickle-sweet-pickled-daikon-radish.html this is one recipe for pickled Daikon if you want to try a small batch.  There will be more of these as the fall progresses.

Garlic

Swiss chard

Collard greens

Summer Squash

Japanese eggplants

Potatoes- some fingerling and some of the bigger “Superior” variety which make great baking potatoes.

Turnips-  try roasting these in butter and apple cider vinegar with some salt and pepper and maple syrup.  let them cook in the oven at 375 for quite some time until they are nice and soft.  This cooking method takes some of the bitterness out of them.

We hope you are well on your way to finishing this week’s basket so you can make room for more on Saturday!

Holy Harvest!!!!

Today was a long day but we have some great stuff to bring you this week.   Full swing look out!

Tomatoes-  Moskvich, Black Krim, Green Zebra, Indigo Rose and Mariana oh my!

Baby carrots

Basil

Garlic

Summer squash

Japanese Eggplant

Potatoes- Fingerlings this week.

Cayenne Peppers- Don’t forget you can dry these for crushed hot pepper in the winter too.   Cayenne is medicinal as well and can be used for pain and depression.

Swiss Chard

Kale

Black Radishes- This is a beautiful heirloom variety of large radish.  These store well in the cooler months, hopefully we can hang onto some until then.

We have a very full walk in cooler and barn tonight and this is translating into bountiful csa shares this week.  I believe we harvested something in the range of 300 lbs of tomatoes the past several days.   A farmer’s work is never done! We hope you enjoy your meals this week.

Hello sunny Friday!  What a harvest this week, we hope you enjoy everything.

Summer Squash- Flying saucers from the second planting.

Garlic

Fingerling Potatoes

Carrots- We had to battle the weeds for several rounds, but we have managed to win the war to bring you these delicious rainbow carrots.  This is the best snack around.

Tomatoes- Lots of Romas this week, the Mariana variety.  This might be a good time for some sauce, although these work perfectly well as a sandwich tomato too.  There are also Green Zebras in your shares.  (Hint-these are ripe when soft, they don’t turn red, hence the name.)

Basil – For your tomato sauce perhaps?

Pumpkin

Kale

Dill

Parsley

Bell Pepper- These are just starting to produce and look great so far.

Enjoy your meals this week!

Cabbage – a Savoy variety this week.  Tender and delicious

Basil- We like to make our pesto with sunflower seeds or almonds instead of pine nuts. The best way to store your basil for a few days is to trim the ends and put the bunch into a glass of water.  Leave it in a cool spot on your kitchen counter.

Parsley

Kale

Garlic

Potatoes

Tomatoes

Patty Pan Summer Squash

 

Sick Child = No frills post and farm this week.  🙁

Wow, we are almost halfway through summer share season!  I hope everyone is feeling great and enjoying the changing flavors of summer.  Your share has the following items this week:

Basil

Dill

Cilantro-  Throw this in with some chopped tomatoes and a hot pepper or two for fresh salsa.

Japanese Eggplants- Eggplant contains a bitter juice which can be removed before cooking.  Cut them into whatever form you need them in for your dish and toss them with salt.  Leave covered at room temperature for 1 hour.  Pat dry with a towel.  The salt causes the bitterness to weep out and makes them taste even sweeter once cooked.

Summer Squash

Potatoes-  This week is the Chieftan variety, a large Red potato.  Add the dill to these for a beautiful potato salad.

Garlic

Kale

Tomatoes-  The darker colored steak tomatoes are the Black Krim, this is a full flavored heirloom variety with plenty of that juicy tomato goodness that you can only get from a farm fresh tomato.  We can’t even eat tomatoes anymore when they are out of season because the mealy things they label as “tomatoes” in the grocery store bear no similarity in flavor to these beautiful fruits.  The lighter colored slicers are the Moskvich, another heirloom variety hailing from Russia.  These are slightly smaller than the Black Krim and have more of a fruity flavor.  My favorite thing to do with these is to slice them, add salt and pepper, some basil leaves and if you have it around, some balsamic vinegar and fresh mozzerella.  YUM!  Of course some evenings we are tired and end up just snacking on whole tomatoes, that tastes pretty good too.   We have 5 more varieties of tomatoes on their way to ripening so the flavors will continue to change throughout the next few weeks.

Eggplant Torta Recipe-  This is from the book Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon, a must have kitchen reference.  This book is a dense educational read for any of you wanting to learn more about traditional foods and diets.

This dish can also includesummer squash sliced and cooked in the same way if you want.  Slice eggplants the long way and place on an oiled baking sheet.  Brush with olive oil and salt and pepper and bake at 375 until soft, about 15 minutes.

Take and oiled spring form pan and layer the bottom and sides with eggplant slices.  Spread tomato sauce over eggplant and sprinkle with grated cheese of your choice.  (we like monterey jack and Parmesan in ours)  Make another layer of eggplant followed by sauce and cheese.  Repeat once more, or until you run out of ingredients.  Poke holes in the torta with a fork and pour three beaten eggs over the top so it soaks in.  Sprinkle the top with Parmesan.   Bake on top of a baking sheet at 350 for about 30 minutes or until browned and bubbly on top.  let it cool a bit before you release the spring form and slice it.

this is like lasagna with no wheat!  The eggplant absolutely melts in your mouth.  You can also serve it with extra sauce.  We are still trying to use up our final few containers of tomato sauce that we made last summer so we have been liking this recipe and hope you enjoy it too!

We are inside from another long day of harvesting.  I also just managed to delete this entire post when it was almost complete. (I pressed the save button and was taken directly to the login page, boo wordpress!)  So here goes the abbreviated re-creation.

This week’s share has the following delights:

Japanese Eggplants- The white ones are the Gretel dwarf variety.  You  don’t even need to skin them.

Anaheim Peppers- A medium heat pepper.

Potatoes- The La Ratte Fingerling this week.  This is an heirloom variety from France that will melt in your mouth.  We are also very impressed with its disease resistance.

Garlic- we had a roasted potato dish that included 4 heads of garlic this week.  We may not smell good but we rarely catch colds!

Kale

Summer Squash

Cabbage

Cilantro

Dill

Basil – After we seeded all of our basil this spring we received a call from our beloved Fedco Seed Company.  They informed us that there was some Lemon Basil mixed in with our Genovese seed.  You will recognize this in some of your basil bunches as the smaller leaved variety.  This stuff is great with chicken and fish, but not as good for a traditional pesto.

Next week I will include a favorite dish of mine that involves eggplants and summer squash, a torta.  The computer decided to delete it and I am too tired to re type the whole thing.  🙂  We hope everyone had a great week!  Many tomatoes are looming on the horizon…