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
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