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What's happening on the farm right now?
A good amount a weeding is what's happening and it really feels like we are making head way. The carrots have emerged from their galinsoga blanket and the stand looks good. This bodes well for sweet juicy carrots at the fall and winter markets. Three beds of lettuce and an equal number of greens beds have been freed from a weedy embrace.
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Alex has mown down the summer cover crop and hazelnut harvest has begun. It looks like a good year for hazelnuts but don't look for them in the store or market too soon. It takes us a while to pick them up, get them shelled, sort through them again and then bag them. So maybe late October, November?
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We are harvesting a lot of beautiful dahlias. This has been our best year maybe ever and we have buckets of them. We got them in a little later than in past years and have them in some of our best ground. No sign of diseases yet and the cucumber beetles, grasshoppers and tarnish plant bugs are mostly staying away. Some of them are doing so well that I don't even recognize them. For example the dahlia below, Myrtle's Folly. It has always been sort of small and unproductive, a reward for someone who was looking closely but this year, not at all.
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Myrtle's Folly, you're a show stopper. Who knew?
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What's available in the store and at market this week?
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Sweet peppers in orange, red and yellow. The bunnies are leaving us a good amount so let's all roast and freeze some for the winter this week end. Head lettuce is back, red butter, red leaf, panisse, romaine and red and green gems. Lettuce mix. All the kales, green curly, red russian and black lacinato. Rainbow swiss chard. Red, yellow and sweet onions. Just two kinds of potatoes, yellow, good for roasting, frying and salads, and white, delicious for baking and mashing. Shishitos, jalapenos and poblanos. Basil and cilantro. Delicata, spaghetti and acorn winter squash. Italian eggplant. (I have been frying slices of these and having them in sandwiches for lunch. So good.) The tomatoes have slowed down a lot but we still have some heirlooms, red slicers, cherries and cocktails. Don't forget the flowers, mixed bouquets and dahlias on line. We have more varieties of straight bunches at market.
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Kale is back and looking gorgeous
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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 cooking observations and delicious recipe offerings appear here each week.
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John has been away for the last few weeks and kindly left me several recipes for his blog. However, none of them are for the sweet peppers that are really delicious and abundant right now. So I’m subbing in one of my favorites:
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¼ tsp ground black pepper
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2/3 cup almonds or cashew for a sweeter pesto
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- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
- Cut the peppers into quarters and put on baking sheet along with the whole head of garlic. Roast in the over for 30-35 minutes, until the peppers start to char around the edges and are well cooked.
- Put the almonds on a separate tray. Roast them in the over along with the peppers and garlic for 10-12 minutes, until they start to darken and smell lovely and toasted.
- Transfer the roasted peppers and almonds to a food processor. Squeeze the roasted garlic out of its skins into the food processor and add the rest of the ingredients except the olive oil. Blend until pretty smooth. At the end, slowly add in the olive oil so that it blends better and comes together easier.
- Use on pasta, as a sandwich spread or on crackers. It stores for 10 days in the fridge in an airtight container and freezes well for a taste of summer in mid-winter.
More from John next week.
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Yesterday's sunset. So much beauty. All that is needed is to sit and enjoy.
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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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