Hello farm share friends,
What a beautiful day it is outside as I'm writing this. Sunny weather in late September/early October is the best. We are doing our best to wrap up the field work, bring in the crops, and clean up the fields before everything gets cold and soggy. I am very happy to be giving you tomatoes in an October farm share..last year our tomatoes went down very suddenly after some wet weather in the late Summer, and when we got those wet spells in August and early September I was worried. The good times can't last forever though, so enjoy those tomatoes while you can. Here's what else is in your share this week:
Potatoes- We finished digging up all the potatoes this week, but unfortunately we also learned that a lot of them have some kind of pest damage. We will do our best to give you the nicest ones we can, but we'll also give you some extra spuds, as you may have to trim off an end here and there. These are German Butterball potatoes, which is a great all purpose potato for frying, baking, mashing, boiling...you name it.
Acorn squash- This is the type of winter squash we ate most when I was a kid. It is easy to slice in half, scoop out the seed cavity, and bake. We would put butter, maple syrup, and sometimes some nutmeg or cardamom on it. The skin of these squash are thicker, so you won't want to eat that part, and the flesh is a bit stringy and flavorful.
Carrots- Not too many of our Summer carrots remaining before we will get into out storage carrots, which are a different variety meant to store in the ground into the winter. The cooler weather makes the carrots get sweeter!
Spinach- A great big bunch of green spinach, for salads or cooking. Have I already linked to Martha's spinach recipes? I don't think I have...
http://www.marthastewart.com/274254/spinach-recipes/@center/276955/seasonal-produce-recipe-guide#925566
Broccoli- Finally, broccoli is back! We didn't plant broccoli for August and September, as it sometimes doesn't do as well in the dry late Summer weather. But we have a really nice planting coming on now, so should get some tasty broccoli into your shares! Yummm.
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/roasted-broccoli-with-asiago-241614
Black Spanish Radish- This is a winter radish that is very different from the radishes you are probably familiar with. Here is a blog post that is a bit silly, and not initially very enthusiastic about black Spanish radishes in general, but ends up giving some great ideas on how to cook yours:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/cathy-erway/black-radish-recipes_b_2617652.html
Garlic- More delicious garlic coming your way.... to use with your other produce, or try some roasted garlic.
http://www.food.com/recipe/how-to-roast-garlic-303247
Have fun!
Farm Share for September 24th....
We have some drier weather in the forecast for this week, which should hopefully allow us to get some storage crops out of the field, like potatoes and winter squash. We have finished plowing up a new section for next year....it is about a third of an acre at the bottom of what is now the goat pasture...we're planning on planting our winter squash down there next Spring, which will give us more space in our existing fields for other crops we want to grow more of, like garlic, onions, and broccoli. The Fall crops are looking great out in the field, other than some pest damage to the carrots in a few places....but many of the Summer crops, like the tomatoes, appear to still be going strong in spite of the cool, damp weather. Other things, like corn, cucumbers, and summer squash, are winding down, and we're starting to clean up some of the fields and get them ready for the Winter off.
Here's what's in this week's share:
Cucumbers- As mentioned, the cucumbers are slowing down, although they are continuing to produce more than I would have expected in these cooler, shorter days. Hoping we will have enough to put one or two cukes in the farm shares for a last hurrah. Enjoy one final cucumber salad!
Lettuce- The Fall lettuce is really looking nice, and we should be able to get it into the shares quite a few times before the end of lettuce season...of course, lettuce is pretty sensitive to frost, so if we suddenly get a very cold night a little earlier than usual, the lettuce could be turned to mush in the blink of an eye. Usually it will be alright until late October, and we are putting woven row cover over it, both to protect it from deer (who we have almost completely fenced out, but not quite...) and cold temperatures.
Hakurei turnips- If you're new to the farm share, you may not have tried these yet. They are a Japanese salad turnip that is really delicious and super easy to use...I like them best raw, sliced up on a salad or just eaten whole out of my hand! They are good cooked, too, and here's a recipe that uses the greens as well:
http://www.food.com/recipe/sauteed-hakurei-turnips-and-braised-greens-459220
Beets- Lots of nice beets out in the field right now! I was agonizing all Summer about whether or not we had enough beets planted, and of course now we have plenty. Here's a kind of elaborate recipe that will use your beets, cucumber, and parsley if you feel up to it:
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/tuna-souvlaki-gyro-with-beet-tahini-and-parsley-salad-238189
or this one, if you're in the mood to do some pickling:
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/pickled-beet-and-cucumber-salads-5409
Parsley- Goes great with beets, carrots, cucumbers, peppers....easy to use, just chop it up and add it to a salad dressing, or sprinkle on top of the salad.
Tomato- We are getting so many tomatoes still, it's easy to put a lot in your share! Hope you're enjoying them and not feeling overwhelmed. Maybe a few less this week than last week. If you have extra, it is pretty easy to chop up tomatoes, cook them down for a bit on the stovetop, and then freeze them for the winter, and you'll be glad you did in a few months!
Sweet peppers, chilies- Easy to tell these apart; the sweet peppers are the bigger ones that were in your share last week, the chilies are much smaller, and either green or red. There should be two large sweet peppers, and two small hot peppers in each bag. In my experience, Pacific Northwesterners have mostly been terrified of hot chilies to the point of not wanting to even touch them...I've been surprised by the positive response and excitement about hot peppers this year! Maybe things are changing....
Kale- With cooler darker evenings, it is great to have some warm braising greens with dinner. Can't do a blog post without Martha! Again, click on the arrow to scroll through recipes:
http://www.marthastewart.com/286367/kale-recipes/@center/1009854/winter-produce
Here's what's in this week's share:
Cucumbers- As mentioned, the cucumbers are slowing down, although they are continuing to produce more than I would have expected in these cooler, shorter days. Hoping we will have enough to put one or two cukes in the farm shares for a last hurrah. Enjoy one final cucumber salad!
Lettuce- The Fall lettuce is really looking nice, and we should be able to get it into the shares quite a few times before the end of lettuce season...of course, lettuce is pretty sensitive to frost, so if we suddenly get a very cold night a little earlier than usual, the lettuce could be turned to mush in the blink of an eye. Usually it will be alright until late October, and we are putting woven row cover over it, both to protect it from deer (who we have almost completely fenced out, but not quite...) and cold temperatures.
Hakurei turnips- If you're new to the farm share, you may not have tried these yet. They are a Japanese salad turnip that is really delicious and super easy to use...I like them best raw, sliced up on a salad or just eaten whole out of my hand! They are good cooked, too, and here's a recipe that uses the greens as well:
http://www.food.com/recipe/sauteed-hakurei-turnips-and-braised-greens-459220
Beets- Lots of nice beets out in the field right now! I was agonizing all Summer about whether or not we had enough beets planted, and of course now we have plenty. Here's a kind of elaborate recipe that will use your beets, cucumber, and parsley if you feel up to it:
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/tuna-souvlaki-gyro-with-beet-tahini-and-parsley-salad-238189
or this one, if you're in the mood to do some pickling:
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/pickled-beet-and-cucumber-salads-5409
Parsley- Goes great with beets, carrots, cucumbers, peppers....easy to use, just chop it up and add it to a salad dressing, or sprinkle on top of the salad.
Tomato- We are getting so many tomatoes still, it's easy to put a lot in your share! Hope you're enjoying them and not feeling overwhelmed. Maybe a few less this week than last week. If you have extra, it is pretty easy to chop up tomatoes, cook them down for a bit on the stovetop, and then freeze them for the winter, and you'll be glad you did in a few months!
Sweet peppers, chilies- Easy to tell these apart; the sweet peppers are the bigger ones that were in your share last week, the chilies are much smaller, and either green or red. There should be two large sweet peppers, and two small hot peppers in each bag. In my experience, Pacific Northwesterners have mostly been terrified of hot chilies to the point of not wanting to even touch them...I've been surprised by the positive response and excitement about hot peppers this year! Maybe things are changing....
Kale- With cooler darker evenings, it is great to have some warm braising greens with dinner. Can't do a blog post without Martha! Again, click on the arrow to scroll through recipes:
http://www.marthastewart.com/286367/kale-recipes/@center/1009854/winter-produce
Hi farm share members,
Well, last week was a crazy week. It was the first week back at school, and I had to suddenly jump back into my job as a substitute school bus driver (more than I was expecting). A terrible car crash up in Coupeville meant that Bobbi was unable to do the deliveries to the North end, as the whole highway was completely closed down. And we had a bit of confusion on some of our wholesale orders for restaurants and stores. But we survived, managed to get the produce up to North Whidbey on Friday, and all the kids got to school and back.....so I guess it was a success! Hoping that this week goes a bit more smoothly though...
After the very nice return to Summer temperatures over the weekend, it looks we are back into some cool and damp weather in the coming week or two, and Fall is definitely in the air. Over the coming weeks, the Summer crops like tomatoes and peppers will hopefully continue, but they are already slowing down. Meanwhile, the winter squash, storage potatoes and onions, fall carrots, and broccoli are all waiting in the wings to take their spot. The transition begins this week, with the first winter squash in the share, and napa cabbages, the first crop to come out of our Fall cabbage patch.
Here we go!
Red kuri squash- This is a delicious "kabocha" type of Japanese squash. It has a sweet, strong flavor and an unusually dry, crumbly flesh. Maybe my favorite type of winter squash...but it is not a great keeper, so it is at its best from now until Thanksgiving, and then starts to go downhill. The skin is edible, or if you prefer to scoop out the flesh and compost the skin, that works too. They can be cooked a lot like an acorn squash; cut them in half (be careful and use a good knife!), scoop out the seed cavity, put some butter, salt, and spices, brown sugar or maple syrup if you prefer, and then bake them on a cookie sheet for about 40 minutes at 375 degrees. It's nice now that it's cooler out to have a warm oven in the kitchen and some hot food! Here's a recipe for red kuri soup:
http://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/red-kuri-squash-soup
Tomatoes- The cherry tomatoes have slowed down quite a bit, and we are getting some split ones from the rains...but the other tomatoes are still yielding a surprising amount and going strong!! There may be both slicer tomatoes and heirlooms in your share this week...the slicers are similar in size to a roma, but rounder and bright red. They are great all purpose tomatoes for cooking, pasta, sandwiches, and as a salad addition. The heirlooms come in all different sizes and colors; purple, green, pink, and red. They are from old fashioned plants that produce less fruit, but the fruit they do produce is super flavorful and sweet. The heirlooms can be used just like other tomatoes, but are especially good enjoyed alone, in slices or in a simple tomato salad that lets their flavor shine.
Lettuce- With tomatoes and lettuce in the share this week, it may be BLT time! The lettuce is looking really great right now and should be perfect for some crunchy salads or sandwiches.
Napa cabbage- Napa cabbage was in the farm share way back in the Spring, and one share member told us she loved it and wanted more, so we planted some for the Fall. It has come along very fast since being planted in early August, and is ready to enjoy! It is an Asian vegetable traditionally used in stir fries, in kimchee, and for a variety of other things. Martha's got some tasty looking recipes here:
http://www.marthastewart.com/1060104/napa-cabbage
Carrots- No big surprise here. Either carrots or beets should be a regular in the Fall shares, hopefully until the end of the Season. We planted lots and lots of carrots this year, and it has been great having plenty of carrots.
Onion- I believe this is the first time you're getting some of our Copra storage onions. We just harvested them all out of the field last week, and they are now mostly cured and ready to store for several months if necessary. Copras are a great all purpose yellow onion that grows really well west of the Cascades and usually stores pretty well. The can be used in most any recipe calling for onion, and they don't have too much bite, so they are good raw too.
Swiss chard- We have some beautiful chard right now that has been enjoying the weather lately. I love Swiss chard with eggs, like in a scramble, an omelette, a frittata, or a quiche. There are some other delicious ideas on, once again, the Martha Stewart page:
http://www.marthastewart.com/274967/swiss-chard-recipes/@center/276955/seasonal-produce-recipe-guide#_
I hope everyone knows that to view the recipes on these pages you sometimes have to click on the little black arrow/chevron next to the image of chard!
Dill- The dill is taller now, and beginning to flower a bit, which is no problem and actually seems to make the flavor a bit stronger. If you still have any of your sweet pepper left from last week, use it in this really simple recipe with carrot and dill:
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/sauteed-carrots-with-red-bell-pepper-and-dill-2024
Well, last week was a crazy week. It was the first week back at school, and I had to suddenly jump back into my job as a substitute school bus driver (more than I was expecting). A terrible car crash up in Coupeville meant that Bobbi was unable to do the deliveries to the North end, as the whole highway was completely closed down. And we had a bit of confusion on some of our wholesale orders for restaurants and stores. But we survived, managed to get the produce up to North Whidbey on Friday, and all the kids got to school and back.....so I guess it was a success! Hoping that this week goes a bit more smoothly though...
After the very nice return to Summer temperatures over the weekend, it looks we are back into some cool and damp weather in the coming week or two, and Fall is definitely in the air. Over the coming weeks, the Summer crops like tomatoes and peppers will hopefully continue, but they are already slowing down. Meanwhile, the winter squash, storage potatoes and onions, fall carrots, and broccoli are all waiting in the wings to take their spot. The transition begins this week, with the first winter squash in the share, and napa cabbages, the first crop to come out of our Fall cabbage patch.
Here we go!
Red kuri squash- This is a delicious "kabocha" type of Japanese squash. It has a sweet, strong flavor and an unusually dry, crumbly flesh. Maybe my favorite type of winter squash...but it is not a great keeper, so it is at its best from now until Thanksgiving, and then starts to go downhill. The skin is edible, or if you prefer to scoop out the flesh and compost the skin, that works too. They can be cooked a lot like an acorn squash; cut them in half (be careful and use a good knife!), scoop out the seed cavity, put some butter, salt, and spices, brown sugar or maple syrup if you prefer, and then bake them on a cookie sheet for about 40 minutes at 375 degrees. It's nice now that it's cooler out to have a warm oven in the kitchen and some hot food! Here's a recipe for red kuri soup:
http://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/red-kuri-squash-soup
Tomatoes- The cherry tomatoes have slowed down quite a bit, and we are getting some split ones from the rains...but the other tomatoes are still yielding a surprising amount and going strong!! There may be both slicer tomatoes and heirlooms in your share this week...the slicers are similar in size to a roma, but rounder and bright red. They are great all purpose tomatoes for cooking, pasta, sandwiches, and as a salad addition. The heirlooms come in all different sizes and colors; purple, green, pink, and red. They are from old fashioned plants that produce less fruit, but the fruit they do produce is super flavorful and sweet. The heirlooms can be used just like other tomatoes, but are especially good enjoyed alone, in slices or in a simple tomato salad that lets their flavor shine.
Lettuce- With tomatoes and lettuce in the share this week, it may be BLT time! The lettuce is looking really great right now and should be perfect for some crunchy salads or sandwiches.
Napa cabbage- Napa cabbage was in the farm share way back in the Spring, and one share member told us she loved it and wanted more, so we planted some for the Fall. It has come along very fast since being planted in early August, and is ready to enjoy! It is an Asian vegetable traditionally used in stir fries, in kimchee, and for a variety of other things. Martha's got some tasty looking recipes here:
http://www.marthastewart.com/1060104/napa-cabbage
Carrots- No big surprise here. Either carrots or beets should be a regular in the Fall shares, hopefully until the end of the Season. We planted lots and lots of carrots this year, and it has been great having plenty of carrots.
Onion- I believe this is the first time you're getting some of our Copra storage onions. We just harvested them all out of the field last week, and they are now mostly cured and ready to store for several months if necessary. Copras are a great all purpose yellow onion that grows really well west of the Cascades and usually stores pretty well. The can be used in most any recipe calling for onion, and they don't have too much bite, so they are good raw too.
Swiss chard- We have some beautiful chard right now that has been enjoying the weather lately. I love Swiss chard with eggs, like in a scramble, an omelette, a frittata, or a quiche. There are some other delicious ideas on, once again, the Martha Stewart page:
http://www.marthastewart.com/274967/swiss-chard-recipes/@center/276955/seasonal-produce-recipe-guide#_
I hope everyone knows that to view the recipes on these pages you sometimes have to click on the little black arrow/chevron next to the image of chard!
Dill- The dill is taller now, and beginning to flower a bit, which is no problem and actually seems to make the flavor a bit stronger. If you still have any of your sweet pepper left from last week, use it in this really simple recipe with carrot and dill:
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/sauteed-carrots-with-red-bell-pepper-and-dill-2024
Blog for September 10th Farm Share....
Hey Everyone,
As the field work begins to slow down this time of year, I have more time to think. Jack and I have been doing a lot of planning and scheming for next year already, which in some ways may mean we're getting ahead of ourselves a bit, but in other ways it's actually necessary: we are working up a bit of new ground that we've decided we'd like to use for our winter squash next year, and it's great timing right now to begin killing the grass for it to be ready to plant next Spring. We're also figuring out how much more garlic we'll need next year, because we'll have to plant it in just a little more than a month, so we need to be getting all our "seed" garlic organized and decide where it's going to go.
Here is what is in your share this week:
Spinach- Some of the crops are loving the cooler, wetter weather we've been having. The spinach is definitely in that camp. It has been growing like weeds over the last few weeks, and we should be able to put a nice big bunch in your share. The spinach is great at its current size...small and tender enough to make a nice spinach salad, but large and flavorful enough for braising/cooking if that's what you want to use it for.
Spuds- More potatoes in this week's share... the potatoes are one of the crops that the wet weather is less than ideal for. It doesn't actually hurt the spuds themselves. But right now is when we would be doing our big potato dig, where we dig all the potatoes from the field and put them in storage for the Fall. This project is a lot easier, and the potatoes store better, if it is dry. So we will probably be doing a smaller harvest, and waiting until we get a drier window for the big dig.
Celery- The celery is really continuing to grow well. Here is the Martha Stewart page of celery recipes, with some tasty looking appetizers, soup, and salads:
http://www.marthastewart.com/274670/celery-recipes/@center/276955/seasonal-produce-recipe-guide#342090
Cherry tomatoes- Keeping my fingers crossed that the tomatoes can keep going, and happy that the forecast looks a bit warmer and drier later this week!! More Martha- I just discovered this website this year and it is so great.
http://www.marthastewart.com/336506/cherry-tomato-salad
Completely unrelated to Martha Stewart, I just remembered a great German movie from a few years ago about cooking named "Mostly Martha". Bad title but a really sweet movie.
Carrots- They just keep coming! There is no end in sight to our carrots...we should keep having them all through the Fall. Our crop planning for the carrots has really been great this year, we've had plenty of carrots all season but never too many that we got way behind. This recipe looks good!!
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/caramelized-cumin-roasted-carrots-357271
Cucumber- The cukes keep coming, although I expect they can't keep coming for tooo much longer. I did a much better job this year with the cucumber plantings than with the Summer squash, which all kind of came on simultaneously. The cukes are still very nice right now, and I have actually been eating them more lately than I had been for the past month or so! Have to enjoy them while we still have them.
Corn- The big wind storm did blow down some of our corn stalks, but there are still a lot more that are doing great, and probably enjoying a good drink. The corn got so tall this season we kind of ran out off options as far as irrigating it, when putting the sprinkler on top of a T post no longer worked. I'm hoping it should be in the share at least once or twice more after this week.
Garlic- We did not grow nearly enough garlic this year, and as we have to reserve some to replant in a month or so, we have already decided to keep all that we have left for "seed" garlic. Fortunately, our very good friends at Deep Harvest farm right down the road from us are in the midst of a garlic glut. What's more, their garlic actually did better than ours this year, and the heads very large! So you will get a head of their garlic in your share this week, and hopefully a few more times before the end of the season.
Thanks for supporting our farm,
ETP
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