|
|
What's happening on the farm right now?
Happy Fall Equinox! After Thursday, the night time hours will begin to be longer than our daylight hours as we round another corner of the year. Reflecting that transition, we are now taking out more beds than we are planting.
|
|
In fact, we have only two more outside beds to fill up and Sam is out right now sowing a final round of daikon radishes, turnips and arugula into one of them. Our last outside round of lettuce and lettuce mix has been planted and the cat tunnels are hooped and bedded up and ready to receive their planting of lettuce mix, lettuce and spinach. All the empty fields got sown to a cover crop mixture of winter wheat, hairy vetch, crimson clover and Austrian winter peas on Monday.
|
|
Perfect cat tunnel beds waiting on their lettuces
|
|
|
|
What's available in the store and at market this week?
|
Sweet juicy carrots and beets are back in the online store and at market. Head lettuce is still not quite there but we do have lettuce mix. Tomatoes are slowly coming in but we will be starting to take out those vines next week, so they won't be around much longer. This is the last week for sweet onions, but we have plenty of red and yellow onions for you. Another winter squash joins our line up: jester, a cross between acorn and delicata. It is very sweet (especially when roasted whole) and has a thick sturdy skin making it good for stuffing. Lots of sweet peppers, shishitos, jalapenos and poblanos. The eggplant is coming in abundance again, Italian, Japanese and fairytale. Yellow and white potatoes. Green and red curly kale and collards. Swiss chard should be back next week. Dahlias! and mixed bouquets.
|
|
|
|
|
Sam and Sophia weeding the lettuce mix in the cool morning
|
|
|
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.
|
“Though their life was modest, they believed in eating well.” James Joyce, Dubliners
|
In America we throw away 40% of our food. At the Tremont Institute the young campers weigh what is to be tossed after each meal. Maybe a neat home project for you to consider.
|
BROWNING EGGPLANT – Eggplant recipes often call for eggplant to be sautéed. But it can soak up a lot of the oil. Here, we slice or cube it and put in an over set at 350F and cook it for 20 to 30 minutes according to how shriveled looking you like it. It can be sautéed with out picking up all the oil.
|
BAKED TOMATOES – From “The Taste of Country Cooking” by Edna Lewis. This classic is about the food of her childhood in a Virginia community founded by formerly enslaved people. In North Carolina, this is often called tomato pudding. Black pepper is the secret to this one. Serves 4 to 6
|
|
1 ½ slices trimmed stale bread, cut in 12 pieces
|
|
3 cups of stewed tomatoes, somewhat drained
|
Freshly ground black pepper, enough to give it some bite
|
Cook in a quart casserole
|
Heat oven to 375F. Butter the casserole and line the sides with 8 pieces of the bread. Add tomatoes, sprinkle on the sugar, and dot with the remaining butter. Sprinkle or grind the pepper over the tomatoes and place the last four pieces of bread on top, dotting each piece with the last of the butter.
|
|
Bake for about 35 minutes and let cool a bit before serving.
|
|
|
I knew that the cabbage moth caterpillars got parasitised by a little wasp but the true gruesomeness of this was brought home to me when I discovered this on a caulifower leaf. Whoa!
|
|
|
|
To balance the sacred sacrifice above, some sacred geometry below.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Your farmers, Vanessa and Alex
|
Love the flowers. Honor the vegetables. Let the weeds go!
|
- Cheri Huber and Ashwini Narayanan
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
