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What's happening on the farm right now:
The edition was written by our apprentice, Theo Gould.
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When I first started the season, I would often remark at how, as farmers, what we were doing was a Sisyphean task. You know the myth of Sisyphus: the mortal who taunted the Greek gods, so was cursed to spend the rest of eternity rolling a boulder up a hill, only for it to fall back to the bottom once he’d reached the top. Sitting in the middle of a row of lettuce, pulling weeds that would grow right back, I wondered if what I was doing was futile.
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On a harvest day we work all day to fill up the cooler, just to empty it all and start over the next week.
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That tool that you just put away? Turns out we need it for another task in a different field.
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It’s an uncomfortable feeling, to wonder if my actions are worthwhile.
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I’m not sure when my perspective shifted, but after spending a season watching the constant cycles of the farm, I don’t believe anymore that farming is a Sisyphean task. Farming is not futile. What we are doing here matters. Growing food matters. There are repetitive aspects of farming, certainly, but that’s just the nature of the beast.
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As farmers we are the enactors of change. Sisyphus had no choice but the push the same rock up the same hill. There are always a variety of tasks to be done on the farm. Something must be mowed, weeded, seeded. We are the creators of the change in our environment. There’s power in that.
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If farming had to be personified by a Greek myth, I think it would be the story of Demeter and Persephone. Maybe it’s a bit too on the nose, but farming is just so cyclical, so rooted in the seasons, to be anything else.
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My first few weeks here, we cleared out the beds in the high tunnels. They were full of flowers and we turned them into tomato houses. This week and last, we’ve spent our days enacting another transformation. The tomatoes are gone. The soil has been churned and fertilized. We planted the over-wintering flowers. Even in the dead of winter, strawberries, onions, snapdragons, and more will be growing. Sisyphus is nowhere to be seen.
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First of overwintering flowers planted
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What's available in the store and at market this week?
Baked winter squash is the perfect fall meal, sweet but not too sweet, easy to make, warming and good for you. We have all kinds, delicata, acorn, honeynut, butternut, jester, sunshine kabocha and tetsukuto. The best ones for storing are butternut, sunshine and tetsukabuto. There's more info about each type of squash listed in the online store. We've got frost kissed greens and lettuce this week. The frost makes everything sweeter, so the collards are just right. We have yellow and red onions, no more sweet onion though. For potatoes, we have yellow, white and the last of the reds. We have sweet peppers and jalapenos. Cilantro and parseye. Oh so sweet carrots and a few bunches of beets.
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We'll have a few flowers bunches at market too. We have already started digging the outside dahlias but we have some under cover that are still going strong. We also trialed some heirloom mums this year and they'll be debuting at Saturday market this coming week.
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North Asheville Tailgate Market hours are
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Saturdays 8am-12pm on the campus of UNC Asheville.
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Last Saturday market will be December 16th
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River Arts District Farmers Market hours are
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Wednesdays 3-6pm at the Smoky Park Supper Club, 350 Riverside Drive.
Our last Wednesday will be November 15th
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Dahlia tubers, next year's blooms in root form
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John's Recipe of the Week
| John Loyd is our dear friend, neighbor, CSA worker member and a gourmet Southern cook. His delightful observations on gardening and cooking appear here each week. |
“We all eat and it would be a sad waste of opportunity to eat badly.”
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POTATO SALAD – For us, there are never enough recipes for potato salad. This one is from “My Mother’s Southern Kitchen” by Martha Pearl Villas and her son James who has authored a number of cookbooks. It’s a fine cookbook and worth having it if you can find one on a site like ABE. 6 to 8 servings
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2 pounds new potatoes, scrubbed gently
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2 medium-sized onions, diced
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½ small green pepper, seeded and diced
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½ cup diced sweet pickles
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2 cups Hellman’s mayonnaise, or Duke’s or homemade
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Cut the potatoes into ½ inch dice and boil until the potatoes can be pierced a knife, about 7 minutes. Drain the potatoes in a colander and transfer them to a large bowl. Add everything but the mayo and toss a bit. Then add the mayo and toss gently, cover and chill at least one hour.
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PUREED CARROT OR SQUASH SOUP – Cook’s Illustrated has a number of cookbooks we go to a lot. This is from “The Best Recipe”. This can be served cold but you need to use oil as the butter will congeal.
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2 tbsp. butter, olive oil or vegetable oil
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1 medium onion, 3 shallots or 1 medium leek (white and light geen parts only)
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2 tbsp. dry sherry or white wine
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1 ½ pounds of carrots, peeled, halved lengthwise, and sliced thin (about 4 cups). For squash, 2 ½ pounds winter squash, peeled, halved, seeded, and cut into ½ inch cubes to yield about 5 cups.
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2 cups of stock, chicken or vegetable
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Pinch of nutmeg. For squash use 1 tsp. ginger instead
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2 tbsp. fresh tarragon, mint, chive, or parsley.
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In a large sauce pan on medium- high, heat butter or oil. Add the onion and sauté until golden, then add the carrots and sherry and cook until the sherry evaporates (about 30 seconds). Add the stock, salt and pepper to taste and nutmeg or ginger and bring to a boil. Reduce to simmer; cover and cook until carrots are tender, about 20 minutes.
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Ladle carrot mixture into a processor, add the milk and blend until smooth. Return to the sauce pan and warm through again. If soup is to thick, add more milk. Adjust seasonings. Soup can be kept refrigerated for 3 days. When serving garnish with herbs.
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Your farmers, Vanessa and Alex
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Love the flowers. Honor the vegetables. Let the weeds go!
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- Cheri Huber and Ashwini Narayanan
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