Week 18

Hi everyone,
 We've been enjoying some rain this week! It is really looking like fall out there. So pretty. We're working on cleaning up the fields, but we've still got lots of stuff coming in.
Slicer tomatoes - The last tomatoes of the year for the farm share! We'll have them in the farm stand for the next few days and weeks, until they run out, but we've harvested everything that we've got.
Head lettuce -Gorgeous romaine heads with a big blanched middle. These heads are at a great stage for Caesar salad. Yum!
Hakurei turnips - I found a nice simple recipe for glazed hakurei turnips.

Ingredients

• 1 bunch baby hakurei turnips, trimmed, greens reserved
• 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
• 1 tablespoons sugar
• Kosher salt

Preparation

Place turnips in a large skillet; add water to cover turnips halfway. Add butter, sugar, and a large pinch of salt; bring to a boil. Cook, stirring occasionally, until liquid is syrupy and turnips are tender, about 15 minutes. (if turnips are tender before liquid has reduced, use a slotted spoon to transfer turnips to a plate and reduce liquid until syrupy. Return turnips to pan and stir to coat well.) DO AHEAD: Can be made 4 hours ahead. Let stand at room temperature. Rewarm before continuing.
Add turnip greens to skillet and cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until just wilted, 2-3 minutes. Season with salt.

Melon - The melons are still coming in and we're happy to be giving you another one this week. We hope that you are enjoying them, we love having melons! Melon for breakfast, melon for lunch, melon before dinner, melon after dinner. This week we mostly have the yellow-skinned white-fleshed Amy melons.
Carrots - Another serving of sweet delicious carrots! Great addition to soups and stews. .
Scarlet runner beans - We gave you the beans when they were immature bean pods. Now the beans have fully developed. Cook them like you would a dry bean. The normal procedure is to first rinse the beans, then soak them for 12-24 hours in water. After that they can be boiled for 60-120 minutes with onion, garlic and herbs. Beans take patience, so make sure you plan ahead. But they are worth it!
Broccoli - Broccoli is back in time for the fall. There are so many ways to use it to compliment fall dishes, I'm not even going to make a stab at a recommendation.

Week 17...more vegetables.

Well, the bad news was the farm tour weekend was MUCH slower than expected.  We spent a lot of time beautifying the fields, harvesting, doing clean up and getting ready for the hordes of people we were told would be streaming onto the farm during farm tour.  And, they never showed up!  So then we spent quite a bit of time sitting around and speculating as to where all the  people were instead of on farm tour.  Maybe the football game or django fest?  Anyways, the good news is, we accomplished a lot of clean up projects that we had been procrastinating on for months, we now get to look out at the fields and they look better than they ever have, we have lots of food left to give you in your share this week, and we are ahead of the to-do list for October...so Bobbie and I are taking a few days off mid week to go kayaking!  Here's the list of veggies for this week:
Sunflowers-  the sunflowers are blooming even sooner than we expected, and they are looking fabulous!  A nice mix of different colors.  We figured we'd give out a bouquet to all of you to decorate your kitchen table.
Acorn squash-  With the arrival of Fall we have our first winter squash in the share, which really should be called Fall squash because most of them are best this time of year...especially the acorn squash, which doesn't store for too long and is great soon after it's picked...Here's how we always ate acorn squash when I was growing up:  Cut the squash in half and scoop out the seeds.  then cut it into quarters and poke some holes in the orange flesh with a fork or small knife.  Put a pat of butter and a teaspoon of maple syrup into the seed cavity, sprinkle a tiny bit of salt and maybe some cinnamon or nutmeg if you like, and bake in the oven at 375 for about 40 minutes.  Yum!
Cherry tomatoes-  Well,  I have been postponing saying anything in a "see no evil"  kind of way, but the signs of blight are appearing in the tomato field...with some rain in the forecast I'm worried our tomato season may be over before too long.  Usually when the blight sets in we still have a few weeks of good harvesting, so they should go at least until mid October I hope.  We'll see.  But enjoy them while you can!
Salad mix-  The salad mix is very beautiful right now.  You may recognize the purple amaranth that was bunched in your share a few weeks ago making an appearance...a new bed of younger, smaller leaves adds beautiful color to the mix. 
Carrots-  We picked a lot of carrots in preparation for the farm tour and ended up with lots of bags left of carrots...so hopefully you all can put them to good use!  With some cooler rainy weather in the forecast it may be time to start making some soups and stews, which the carrots would be great for.
Fennel-  Well,  fennel is a vegetable that people either love or hate.  I hope a good amount of you are in the former category.  If you are not a big fennel lover, as I've said before, try cooking it for a long time to where the flavor gets really sweet and mild.  Here's a recipe that I haven't tried yet but sounds super good, and you can use your carrots:  http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Fennel-and-Carrot-Confit-351873
Onions-  Finally, we bagged a lot of mesh bags with onions that we didn't end up using at the farm tour, so we are passing on a generous bag of onions to you!  Great for that stew or soup that I mentioned earlier....might go well with the carrots, squash, or fennel in a few recipes.  They should store well for many weeks if you keep them cool and dry.  If you are backed up with lots of onions, try caramelizing some...you will be amazed how much they cook down, and caramelized onions are good on almost anything.  Here's how: http://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/how_to_caramelize_onions/
Thank you, as always, for helping us keep the farm afloat.
Blake

The farm share for week 16

Oak leaf lettuce

Hello everyone! How about this hot dry September weather? The harvests are still coming in strong and the veggies are growing. The share this week should be pretty familiar--we haven't moved into the fall items yet, though they are just around the corner.

Melons - We've got a few different melons this week. Some of you will have the same galias as last week, the yellow melons with green flesh. We'll have some of our yellow-fleshed mini watermelons which are ripe to eat. We're also harvesting our white-fleshed casaba melons. These have a smooth yellow skin without netting and they don't have as strong an aroma as the galia melons.
Lettuce - This week we've got gorgeous green oak leaf lettuce. Mild in flavor with delicate leaves. 

Tomatoes - We've got our larger tomatoes this week, they are finally coming on in force.
Corn - Sadly we are coming to the end of our corn. It has been a great year for corn, we are really happy with out yields. And it is so good! Sad to see it go.
Radishes - The radishes are at their best this week, soft and succulent and very flavorful. I always try to keep some on hand to add to a sandwich or salad or use for slaws or as a garnish.
Beets - We've got mixed bunches this week. For those of you who are dedicated beet fans, you need not worry, there will be more coming!
Red Tonda Onions - Our red onions have sized up and they will store well in your cupboard now that they have dried down. These have the classic strong red onion flavor that makes you cry when you cut into them. 
Parsley - Gotta get creative with the parsley. I've tried some good dips and pestos that use it. I just found a recipe for a parsley beet salad that also uses red onion. Perfect for this week's share!

yield
Makes 6 (first course) servings

active time
30 min

total time
1 hr

Italian parsley isn't usually valued as a salad green. But when it’s tempered by earthy, juicy raw beets and a citrus vinaigrette, the mineral-tinged flat leaves will be the talk of the table.

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup fresh orange juice
• 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
• 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil plus more for drizzling
• 2 1/4 pounds assorted beets with greens (such as Chioggia, white, golden, and red; 1 1/2 pounds if already trimmed)
• 1/4 small red onion
• 1 1/4 cups Italian (flat-leaf) parsley leaves (from 1 bunch), torn if desired

• Equipment: an adjustable-blade slicer

• Accompaniment: fresh ricotta or farmer cheese, or grated ricotta salata

Preparation

Whisk together juices, oil, and 1/2 teaspoon each of salt and pepper in a large bowl.
Trim beets, leaving 1 inch of stems attached, then peel.
Using stems as a handle, slice beets paper-thin (less than 1/8 inch thick) with slicer (wear protective gloves to avoid staining hands), then cut slices into very thin matchsticks.
Thinly slice onion with slicer.
Toss beets, onion, and parsley with dressing and season with salt. Let stand, tossing occasionally, 30 minutes to soften beets and allow flavors to develop.
Toss again and season with salt and pepper before serving drizzled with additional oil.

Week 15

Things are quieting down in this post-labor day time and we are enjoying the chance to get caught up on projects around the farm. Today we sowed some cover crop for the winter and harvested our onions to dry out for storage. We've got a couple of new items in the share this week as well as some standards.

Melon: we've been waiting all year for these to ripen and we've finally got enough to give to y'all. The melons for this week are a variety that comes from Israel called galia melons. They have green flesh and a delicate delicious refreshing flavor. They are ripe to eat when their skin is all yellow--and they ripen fast so eat them soon! Blake's tip: wrap pieces in prosciutto. 

Note: we ran out of galias on Thursday so a few of you got our yellow-fleshed watermelon. They are ripe and ready to eat. Enjoy!

Pea vines: these have become a very popular item in the foodie world of late. They have the flavor of peas and don't really need much if any cooking to prepare. We eat them raw in salads or with pasta, which they can be tossed with while it is still warmed to lightly wilt the pea vines. They are a good garnish for lots of dishes. 

Arugula: very small and tender the arugula this week will make for an exquisite salad.

Swiss chard: this is from our fall planting of Swiss chard so the plants are still young and making tender leaves. 

Candy yellow onions: just a classic yellow  onion, we pulled all of ours out of the field this week to cure. 

Cherry tomatoes: we've got heaps of these right now. I don't like tomatoes (gasp!) so I have nothing more to say about them. Enjoy. 

Zucchini: this may be your last week getting zucchini so fire up the grill or put them in that pasta or risotto with the pea vines or basil

Basil: the basil is holding up well, still green and fresh. Apparently it tastes good with tomato and mozzarella. I wouldn't know. If you haven't made a pesto yet now is your chance! 

Farm Share Week 14

Hi everybody,
It was a perfect September first morning today.  The air was kind of cool and crisp and smelled like Fall.  This is my favorite time of year.  Labor day is a day of just that when you're farming.  This is not an easy time of year to take a Monday off...I'm guessing there might be quite a few Monday pickup folks out of town today, in which case, don't worry!  Your share will be waiting for you until you can swing by to get it tonight or tomorrow.  If you are going to be later than 5 pm tomorrow, let us know.
With so much food on right now it was hard to decide what to put in the share!  Here's what we ended up with:
Tomatoes and lettuce-  For a BLT share!  Bobbie and I have had BLTs twice in the last few days.  Enjoy!  IF you still have some basil from last week it makes a great BLT addition.
Garlic-  These heads are not as big as the ones from a few weeks ago, but should be a great flavor.  This is a mystery variety, as we lost the tag for it at the Farmer's Market this weekend!  I thought you guys wouldn't mind....
Sweet Corn-  This is the best crop of sweet corn I've ever grown.  Nice big ears with great pollination, tip fill and flavor.  At the farmer's market this weekend I was literally running back and forth from the farm, trying to harvest corn as fast as we were selling it!  I couldn't believe it.
Strawberries-  The berries are still going strong, and the quality is very high right now.  We survived a challenging period there a few weeks ago after the heavy rains when we lost a lot of berries, but the light rain this weekend doesn't seem to have bothered them much.  I'm surprised that I am enjoying eating them right now as much as I have all year.
Hakurei Turnips-  This is the year of the hakurei turnip!  Many of you told us how much you enjoy eating these guys, as well as many of our market customers.  If you aren't familiar with them yet, they are very easy to use...just slice and eat raw, grate on a salad, or they can by cooked very lightly by steaming or sauteeing briefly.  Great in miso soup too.  Don't forget, the greens are tasty lightly steamed or stir fried too.
Amaranth bunch-  Well, I just threw these in for fun.  They are an edible but unusual green- related to quinoa and some varieties are grown for their seeds or ornamental flowers.  Many common and edible garden weeds are also in the amaranth family, like lamb's quarters and pigweed.  Such a beautiful color this time of year!  And apparently a "super food" according to the internet, as in super nutritious.  They can be eaten raw, chopped in a salad, or lightly cooked.  If you don't feel like culinary experiments, just put them in a vase and enjoy the color on your kitchen table!  Recipe for Chinese style amaranth: http://www.seasonalchef.com/recipe0507c.htm
Dill bunch-  These dill bunches are beautiful and smell great.  The greens and flowers go great with carrots, cucumbers, radishes and potatoes.  If you've never tried quick pickles, it is probably a lot easier than you think!  Hakurei turnips, radish, the scarlet runner beans from last week, cucumber, onion, zucchini, tomato, corn, carrots or beets are all candidates.  No cooking necessary, just let the vegetables soak in a brine with dill and other spices for a few hours in the fridge.  Check it out!  If this recipe I chose doesn't appeal to you, there are many more on the web if you just search "quick pickle vegetables"   http://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/spicy-dill-quick-pickles
Cucumbers and carrot bunches-  Not going to waste too much ink on these ones.  The cukes and carrots continue, hope you're continuing to enjoy them and see the above notes on dill if you're looking for new ways to try them out.