All posts by QueSehraFarm

Week 17 Newsletter

We’re almost to the end of the season now, and it feels like it. It’s been so cloudy that we’ve been running on generator power a lot, and the wind has barely stopped to catch its breath for three or four  days.

004

It’s been all week, really – after we delivered boxes, we spent Wednesday afternoon harvesting apples down in Lakeville (thanks Lizzy and yer folks!) – then we drove north through the crazy flooding lightning party that welcomed a week of indisputable autumnal air, bringing with it the reassessment of wardrobes. The mice invasion reached a fever pitch, with multiple invaders introduced to their mortality nightly. The well water graduated from chilly to painful for the heroes that wash your produce, and the window directly over our bed was closed in a hardfought concession to the reality of the coming coldness.

002

In other news, I fell out of an apple tree and then the ladder fell on my head.

005

Week 17 Box:

It was a race against the forecasted rain today, so we harvested as much as we could as soon as it was light enough to see, and packed the boxes up under a canopy as the drops came down –  a week that began and ended with cold rains!

058

  • Celery – couldn’t fit inside the box, so you get it on the side … which worked out since they barely closed as it was. This stuff was hard to grow in the sand barrens, being a marshland plant – so it may be a little tougher than what you’re used to. But it’s good! I like the more concentrated celery flavor. The tops and leaves are good for making broth, and the stalks are good for soup (try Cream of Celery perhaps) or stuffing or pot pies or termites-on-a-stick.

003

  • Apples – enjoy a few pounds of delicious Haralson Apples, courtesy of CSA Alumni Lizzy and the Abbey Road Orchard! The apples in your box cost me my life in several alternate realities, so please enjoy them lots.

048

  • Carrots – Believe it or not, the ones in your box are the little ones – the true monsters are being sold to a cafeteria this week. The sandy soil, regular rain, careful weeding, and good spacing really let these guys get incredibly large this season, which is awesome – none of them had started to flower, so they aren’t woody … just jumbo-sized.

045

  • Napa Cabbage – I have found that I quite like cabbage.

057

  • Tomatoes – From little cherries to hulking heirlooms, a nice selection of the high tunnel tomatoes.
  • Potatoes – Depending on how you have moved through the pages of the Choose Your Own Adventure Book of your life, you are now blessed with either Yukon Gold, Russet, or Red potatoes this week, or perhaps even a mix of the three.
  • Hot & Sweet Peppers – hot peppers are bagged in with your radishes, the sweet mild peppers are running loose in the box. Mix them up if you enjoy playing Pepper Roulette!
  • Eggplant – Italian and Asian varietiesLast eggplant of the season … unless you come to the pizza party on the 9th. Which we assume you are.
  • Broccoli – Not baby brocolli – full heads; the second planting has cometh!
  • French Breakfast Radishes & Baby Crimson Giant – tender little radishes.
  • Savory herb – Great with soup, and potatoes, and potato soup!

007 006 018 059 028 041

pile of produce for our friends at We Cater to You
pile of produce for our friends at We Cater to You

056 014 044

 

Week 16 CSA Newsletter

The windows and screen doors on the Farm remain open throughout the nights, which means it’s still some kind of summer, or at least not into true autumn yet.

preparing a hot bath for a cool night
preparing a hot bath for a cool night

The very first hints of change are showing in the tree canopy that borders our field now and the hens are laying less eggs, as the Sun’s arc overhead grows shorter and more oblique.

081

Another clear sign of the season is where Kristin has been spending her hours – less and less in the Field, as she transforms into a mad scientist, surrounded by steaming and bubbling vessels, working the magical alchemy of food preservation.

 

070

 

This happens every year around this time, but this cycle is more intense than others. Normally, we can food primarily for ourselves – this helps sustain us throughout our winter travels, and into the early spring, as we work to get things started in a field where nothing is yet producing. This year, we’re canning a greater variety and a greater amount, as we gear up to try selling some of our canned goods for the first time.

 

a variety of a previous year's canned bounty
a variety of a previous year’s canned bounty

 

We’ll bring the first batch to our farm stand this Saturday, as part of the annual “River Road Ramble,” which loops right through our neighborhood – check out the event details and map here, if you’re interested in checking it out and saying hello!

we had to add defenses to keep Ace out of the tadpole pond
we had to add defenses to keep Ace out of the tadpole pond

 

Week 16 Box:

011

  • Salad mix – Red & green lettuce, green and red mizuna, red mustard greens, arugula, pea tips
  • Winter squash – Each box has one of the most-ready of our winter squash arsenal – a Pie Pumpkin, Butternut, Buttercup, Hubbard, or Red Kuri squash. Future boxes will contain more sweet & mature specimens great for eating straight – this week’s squash, while certainly delicious on its own, could also be used well in a squash soup or a pie!
  • Onions
  • Beets – if you don’t love beets, you’re doing it wrong. Try again.
  • Cucumbers – the field cukes are mostly nuked, but in the high tunnel the late season plants are looking pretty pleased with themselves.
  • Sweet Peppers
the glory of watermelon radish
the power and glory of watermelon radish
  • Radishes – Watermelon, Black Spanish Round, and/or Daikon
  • Bok choi – This is the nicest Bok Choi we’ve ever managed to grow! Crunchy stalks and tasty mild leaves, delicious even raw – or perhaps separate the stems from the leaves, stir fry the stems and then at the end, after turning off the heat, quickly toss and wilt the leaves a bit. “The ‘butteryest’ green there is,” says Kristin.
  • Sage – Good with meatloaf, squash soup, or on its own, fried or used as a garnish.
  • Tomato – As warned, the tomatoes have slowed with the season’s shift. Enjoy some of the final salutations from these beautiful creatures as their thoughts turn from production to reincarnation.

028

Ace enjoyed sunflower removal
Ace enjoyed sunflower removal
Autumn Asparagus! I thought this was only a Spring Thing ... huh
Autumn Asparagus! I thought this was only a Spring Thing … huh
Chefs came to visit and see where the food they've been using came from
Chefs came to visit and see where the food they’ve been using came from

052 024 015 010

the most massive sunflower I've ever seen!
the most massive sunflower I’ve ever seen, with Graaace for scale

002

Week 15 CSA Newsletter

Tonight the low on the farm is predicted to get down to 39 degrees. I guess this season-changing thing is really happening. Other than the basil (which we harvested a ton of today), this chill shouldn’t harm much, but is sure feels like a shot across the bow. Less direct reminders have been coming from all sides this week, as cooler temps and shorter daylight hours have slowed down growth and production, and the well water is numbing rather than refreshing when we’re washing veggies off.

img_5468

It’s getting into that time of season when we start harvesting things to salvage them from the cold, deciding what to let the cold finish off and what to cover at nights to keep alive just a little bit longer.

harvesting hops for beer brewing
harvesting hops for beer brewing

We tore the field tomato plants all down this week – although many still had fruits in various stages of ripeness, the plants were mostly bare of leaves, and this seemed to make for increasingly bland flavor. (Fortunately, the high tunnel tomatoes are faring better and still producing, although even there blight is popping up and starting to spread.)

harvesting hops for beer brewing
harvesting hops for beer brewing

Even as the days darken and the temperatures dip, the Farm will continue to produce – we have planted plenty of cold-hardy plants to carry us through these last few weeks of the season and beyond … for now, there’s all this:

Box 15:

088

  • Celeriac – We cut off the greens so it would fit into your boxes. All of it is edible, although often the stems are used for flavoring soup broth, since they’re sorta chewy. Slicing them up finely avoids that problem though, if you’d like to include them in a dish. The bulbs are often used in soups and stews, as well as salads. It can be eaten fresh or cooked, Google around and find a recipe that sounds interesting!

086

  • Watermelon Radish – This is our first year growing these interesting radishes; we ate one last night, sliced up and raw. Findings: the thick skin is extremely spicy, while the pink interior is totally mild – it would make a nice salad topping, or sliced up and dipped in hummus or dressing, with or without the skin as your tastebuds prefer.
  • Leeks
  • Tomatoes

084

  • Salad Mix – red & green lettuce, green and red mizuna, red mustard greens, arugula, pea tips, baby bok choi

082

  • Spaghetti Squash
  • Sweet Pepper mix
  • Eggplant (Asian and Italian)
  • Zucchini
  • Cucumber
  • Basil (both Thai & Italian)

089

Texan Trish helping harvest ground cherries
Texan Trish helping harvest ground cherries

 

chickens enjoy rejected ground cherries
chickens enjoy rejected ground cherries

030 img_5454

072

the 14th Weekly CSA Newsletter

The harvest alarm went off this morning between blasts of ground-shaking thunder, as bathtubs of water dumped down everywhere illuminated by nearly constant lighting.

160

Clearly, WWOOFer David’s final day with us was going to be a memorable one.

161

Fortunately, we’d known this was a possibility, and spent much of Monday doing as much as we could in advance; this let us sleep in until past 7 until the worst of the storm had passed, and then finish up what still needed doing in our raincoats.

162

This was the most recent storm in the recent trend, as summer rages against the dying of the light. The trees have noticed too, and the color changes have started to show among their most eager. And speaking of trees, it’s time to start thinking about turning more standing-dead oaks into piles of curing firewood.

potatoes & onions roasting on an open fire
potatoes & onions roasting on an open fire

For now, at least, it’s still the tail end of summer, when rain storms can be weathered in a swimsuit, and sunny afternoons still end with trips for ice cream and dips in the river.

018

 

BOX 14

174

  • Salad Mix – Red & Green lettuce, red & green mizuna, arugula, wasabi lettuce, & pea tips – big leaves for chopped salads!
  • Potatoes
    – one of 3 varieties:
    Sarah & Marty harvesting potatoesSarah & Marty harvesting potatoesRusset have crackly-looking spotted skins – Idaho potato style. Make great gnocchi, baked potatoes, light-textured mashed potatoes. Won’t hold its shape if you try to cube it, slice it, make fries, etc.
    Yukon Gold – light, smooth, pale skin. Better for potato salads, home fries, and other preparations that require the potato to hold its form.
    Pontiac Red – similar to the Yukons, but with red skins.
  • Tomatoes
    109
    A variety of heirloom and cherry varieties. This could very well be the last week we’ll have many good tomatoes for the boxes – the field plants are looking mostly ready to be pulled out and disposed of this week, and the high tunnel plants aren’t producing like they once were. So cherish them!
  • Carrots –
    orange yellow and purple varieties! Big ones tend to be better to cook with, and small ones may be best enjoyed eaten raw.
pepper snake turned carrot snake
carrot snake

 

  • a small zucchini –
    sautee it with some other stuff I reckon
  • Tomatillos bagged with Hot Peppers –
    Time to make salsa perhaps, or a green chili? Kristin made a delicious tomatillo soup this week with ours – try it out perhaps? Husk and halve your tomatillos, broil them in a baking pan until they begin to blacken. Puree them with lime juice and garlic cloves. While the broiler is broilering, sautee some onions and peppers in a sauce pan, then add 2-4 cups of broth and shredded chicken /or beans /or hominy etc. Add the tomatillo puree and season to taste with salt and pepper.
pepper snake
pepper snake
  • Sweet Peppers –
    loose in the box – Note that there is a red pepper in there loose that looks much like the red cayennes bagged with the tomatillos – don’t be fooled.

    Not spicy. But not to be confused with the Cayenne peppers
    Not spicy. But not to be confused with the Cayenne peppers

    The bagged ones are hot, the loose ones (Italian Frying) are not!

  • Onions
  • Rutabaga –

    too big for the boxes - two 13 pounders
    too big for the boxes – two 13 pounders

    Neighbor Marcie mashed hers – you could try that, perhaps blended with some potatoes. They have a sweet flavor when cooked – and to mash them, you’d want to cook it thouroughly (chunk it and boil it, with or without potatoes).

    Kristin recently has been cubing ours up small and tossing them with coconut oil in a dutch oven, cook them covered over medium heat until tender. Then season with salt & pepper, smoked paprika, or curry.

    019

  • Eggplant
    either 1 Italian or 2 Thai eggplants. See previous newsletters for idears if Google isn’t helping.
  • Cucumbers
    little picklers and larger slicers … the late season second planting is producing wonderfully!
the Little Greenhouse is overgrown with volunteer sunflowers, kale, and chard
the Little Greenhouse is overgrown with volunteer sunflowers, kale, and chard

image

hopper on the hops
hopper on the hops
tomato tasting at Zara's
tomato tasting at Zara’s

012

sunflower stalk ... or trunk
sunflower stalk … or trunk

014

Potato Man loves you
Potato Man loves you

Week 13 CSA Gnusletter

Storms herald the battlelines between summer air and the advancing autumnal armies. Nights are cooler – we added a blanket, but refused to close the windows. The sun is coming out later and dipping out earlier, leaving us in the dark for the opening of our early Farmer’s Market harvest, and clipping out formerly productive field time from days’ ends. The mosquitoes are subdued by cold spells and renewed by rainy ones. One recent sundown, we grumbled at a flock of geese that seemed suspiciously southbound.

Free Craigslist oven turned electric smoker converted to run from a rocket stove instead - our smoker
Free Craigslist oven turned electric smoker converted to run from a rocket stove instead – our smoker

It’s hard not to start these with weather talk. Maybe there’s no reason to fight it – after all, it’s at the center of growing for you. (Although I have no such excuse for the alliteration.)

smoked tomatoes for salsa
smoked tomatoes for salsa
eggplants in the smoker
eggplants in the smoker

After the success of Okra Fest last week, we had to follow it up with Eggplant Fest – where we celebrated the featured vegetable with varied dishes, up to and including dessert. The eggplant incarnations were uniformly tasty: spicy grilled to parmesan crusted baked, smoky baba ganoush, tomato/eggplant relish, and a chai-spiced eggplant pudding. (There were going to be eggplant chips but they took a wrong turn and were abandoned.)

881

This is how we party now.

The pudding was perhaps surprisingly delicious – especially as it had to compensate for its gray coloration … next time we may brighten it up with some garden huckleberry.

I know I promised / threatened to bombard you with eggplants this week, but we decided to send out just a couple, since we couldn’t fit everything in the boxes already (which is why your watermelons and leeks are ala carte).

399

355

(Plus, we ate a ton of them.)

BOX(+) 13

405

  • Leeks – Our first ever harvest of these! Giant onion-grass stalks. If you want to be able to separate the layers, chop off the root end and separate them. Try Googling up a recipe for leek soups, pastas, confit, galettes, pesto … and crispy fried leek greens.

401

  • Watermelon – Yours may be red or might be yellow, but it should be sweet and delicious regardless. I’ve noticed that the seeds can be downright tasty and crunchy when they’re small.

350

  • The Return of Salad Mix Green & Red Lettuce, Arugula, Pea Tips, Mizuna, Baby Kale That’s the biggest arugula I’ve ever seen – yet still tender and mild. The lettuce is also tender but large-leafed – great for a chopped salad.

406

flawed tomatoes on their way to getting sauced
beautiful flawed tomatoes on their way to getting sauced
  • Tomatoes – The plants in the field look like Charlie Brown’s Christmas tree for the most part, but there are still fruits ripening…

  • Ground Cherries – A team of three people spent the better part of a day first harvesting and then sorting out the bad from the good ones, so that your bag could consist of the tastiest possible fruit!
  • Sweet Peppers
  • Eggplants (Italian & Asian)
emo eggplant and his posse
emo eggplant and his posse
  • Kohlrabi – Don’t miss this one – it’s an unusual and worthwhile treat. Lots of ways to eat them but raw is simplest and great, just sliced up and maybe salted or peppered.
  • Peppermint and/or Chocolate Mint – You can make tea if you want to, but wouldn’t you rather make a mojito?
  • a couple of Cucumbers
  • a Zucchini – the storm has passed, and these are on the wane.
  • Chicken of the Woods (Large Shares only)  – Kristin found this growing on a tree  next to our driveway during harvest – there was not enough to split up between everyone unfortunately! Wash, slice up, and sautee it with butter. Don’t wash it down with booze. Nope.

 892 887

Steffan brought this edible puffball over to share - it turned out to be all of our most positive experience with eating puffballs
Steffan brought this edible puffball over to share – it turned out to be all of our most positive experience with eating puffballs
assembling the frankensmoker
assembling the frankensmoker


853 854 862 864

885382 383 387 357 358 379