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Pre-sprouting the ranunculus
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What's happening on the farm right now?
For the first time in maybe ever, we have a full crew going into November and December. Sam and Sophia, above, are here every day and Scott and Michael are here two days a week. And we are getting stuff done. The ranunculus and anemones are in their trays for pre-sprouting and then planting after Thanksgiving. The dahlias are all dug and snug in their crates in the root cellar (photo below). The area all around the greenhouse is cleaned up and pots and trays put away for the winter. The strawberries are all weeded. All the beds in the high tunnels are weeded. All the old drip lines are picked up (sometimes this doesn't happen until March!) and the onions are mostly all topped.
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We even had time to take advantage of everyone being here to do some evaluating of the season passed. I made up a short survey for people to fill our before our meeting. Alex made chocolate cookies and one beautiful afternoon last week and we sat down for a couple hours and talked about how we are doing. It was a really productive two hours, with lots of thumbs up for what we are currently doing and lots of great ideas for new things to try.
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We will be at the North Asheville Tailgate Market on Saturdays until December 17th, with a break on the Saturday after Thanksgiving, November 26. Place your pre-orders on Wednesday and Thursday for pick up at market on Saturday.
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After Thanksgiving, NATM market hours will be 10am until 1pm.
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For those of you with CSA market shares, your balance is updated through November 5. Your balance will roll over to next year if you don't use all your credit by December 17. The CSA discount, however, is for one season only.
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Charlie inspecting crates and crates of dahlia tubers
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A short summary of the survey responses
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What's available in the store and at market this week?
We've got some beautiful spinach! It taste good too. We also have lots of kale, green and red curly, and black lacinato. The collards are looking great. For lettuce we have the ever popluar red butter, huge heads of panisse, red and green little gems and red leaf lettuce. Our lettuce mix make making a salad easy, just open the bag over a bowl and it's done. One bag is good for four to six servings if you are doing the salad for Thanksgiving dinner. We have yellow onions, carrots, red round radishes and purple daikon radishes. We have some Japanese salad turnips as well for the first time this week. For winter squash, we have butternut, the last of the testsukabuto and angel spaghetti. We have cilantro and parsley. Cauliflower.
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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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“I am the moment writing a lengthy indictment against our century. When my brain begins to reel from my literary labors, I make an occasional cheese dip.” John Kennedy Toole, A confederacy of Dunces.
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From the Green on Greens cookbook, here is a recipe that honors the way kale was prepared by most folks before new cooking ideas appeared back in the 70’s and 80’s.
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FARM STYLE BRAISED KALE – serves 4
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2 strips bacon or turkey bacon
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1 small onion, finely chopped
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1 pound kale, stemmed, roughly chopped
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Sauté the meat in a large skillet until crisp. Crumble and set aside.
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Add butter to the drippings in the skillet.
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Add onions and cook until golden, about 5 minutes
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Meanwhile rinse the kale in cold water
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Add the wet kale to the skillet and cook covered until tender, 15 or 20 minutes.
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Add salt and pepper to taste, the allspice, and the vinegar.
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Sprinkle with the crumbled meat and garnish with lemon slices.
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FRENCH ONION SOUP – SOUPE A L’OIGNON AU FROMAGE
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Here is a recipe for onion soup that is not as complex as the traditional way the soup is usually made. I’d guess it takes half the time or even less to make. This is from the first Gourmet Cookbook which came out in 1950. As written, this serves 6 to 8, so you might want to cut the recipe down by half. This is something to do with your onions.
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4 large onions, about a pound, thinly sliced into rings
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One and a half quarts of beef broth or consommé, water or a mix of the two.
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Toasted French bread and grated Gruyere cheese for topping.
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Put butter in a large sand sauce pan, heat, and add the onions and gently cook until they are golden brown.
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Sprinkle the flour in and stir. When it is blended, gradually pour in the stock ,stirring constantly, until the soup begins to boil.
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Lower the heat, cover the pan, and simmer gently for 20 minutes or so.
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Cut the toasted bread into rounds with cheese on and surrounding the bread.
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Serve with more cheese on the side.
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You may also put the bread and cheese on the soup and run it in your broiler until the cheese in brown
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Sunrise over the lettuce patch
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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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