This was the week where we all realized that winter will happen. The nights have been cool, and the mornings sometimes downright chilly. We had just enough summer heat to adapt to it, and now 50 degrees brings the brrrrs. Bonfires were had, and the canning of dilly beans and the baking of chicken and chocolate beet cake were done in the inside kitchen, in order to trap some heat for the nights.
I turned 40 on Thursday, and it was not only chilly but it rained all day long, dashing plans for a day of waterfall frolicking. It would have been a bummer, except we were pretty excited for the rain – it had been awhile, and the field really needed it. So we rejoiced, indoorstyle.
When the sun returned to the land, we started testing out the new solar dehydrator, and found it quite serviceable, turning batches of kale leaves into crispy kale chips within hours.
We’re also using it to infuse jars of sunflower oil with pinion pine resin (which we’d collected in New Mexico two winters ago … once done, this will be used to make a rejuvenative salve for dry skin).
We also got some foraging in – as a birthday present, Kristin let me skip the farmer’s market and go mushroom hunting with Sean & Alexis, the Brooklynites.
We came away with a good haul, and enjoyed a delicious mushroom dinner the next night.
the spiky ball mushrooms, once considered edible, are now deemed toxic, alas. I never did find out what the brown ones were so we didnt eat them either. But the chantrelles and chicken of the woods sure were fine!
And then we all went out picking wild chokecherries for preserves, and some prickly ash berries for a toothache tincture.
Box 9
Kristin gets harvest help from her mom and Widget
Sweet Corn – eat it soon for maximum sweetness! I enjoy it fresh and raw, but it’s also good grilled & buttered.
Heirloom Tomatoes – everything is either ripe or close to it – even the green, orange, and yellow ones. If it is slightly giving to a gentle squeeze, it’s good to go. Let us know if you have a favorite!
Potatoes(Purple or Yukon)
Tomatillos & Jalepenos – salsa time!
Slicing Cucumbers
Zucchini
Beets
Eggplant
Beans(Purple, Green, & Yellow)
WWOOFer woofers Baxter & Kingsbury share a stickone of you lucky members has received this fine specimen of a Tomato With a Nose
This week, we finished building the solar dehydrator.
Once we move it into place, it will use the sun to generate a current of hot air up and through the drying racks, providing us with a new way to preserve the herbs and vegetables that we grow. Next week, we’ll experiment with using it!
Speaking of dehydration, it’s dry AF. We haven’t had a meaningful rainfall in weeks now, and have had to start running the irrigation nightly to keep the plants happy. Somehow, the cucumbers and zucchini are still finding enough water to produce prolifically, perhaps from a parallel dimension.
Pandora Sphinx Moth caterpillar
With summer’s abundance came the abundance problems, which in turn led to the full-onset of canning season, as the excesses of the field are alchemically transformed and preserved as dilly beans, pickled beets, and cabbage pepper relish.
Inside Box 8
Tomatoes! – a random assortment of what’s ripe or almost ripe! If you find a type you really really like let us know.
Basil –(Italian & Purple) – pesto? A caprese salad with the tomatoes?
Eggplants – Bright Pink or Purple Italian, or perhaps Thai
Zucchini
Jalapeño Peppers – the heat of the high tunnel makes for some nice peppers! Keep them whole to keep them spicy, or you can even make them mild, by seeding and deveining them.
Three Bean Medley – combine colors as appropriate to please your uncle who loves either the Vikings or the Packers.
Kale(either dino, curly blue, scarlet, or red Russian variety)
Assorted Slicer Cucumbers – the weird yellowish white one is a Poona Kheera, it is supposed to look like that, and it should be quite tasty.
an Ugly Rutabaga – some kind of jerky bugs are chewing up the outside of all the rutabaga roots, rendering them rather hideous to behold, but mostly unharmed (we cut open several and found even the worst of them to be damaged only on the outer surface).Once you chop it up and cook it with the potatoes that you had the foresight or luck to preserve from last week’s box, no one will ever even know.
Views of Week 8
Kristin thought this looked like one of those cheap puzzlesanother red caterpillar we’ve never seen before!
you’ve heard of broccoli raab; here’s Broccoli Rob.
In other news, we finally started construction on a solar dehydrator, with which we hope to dry and thus preserve all manner of produce. We’re hoping the one we’re building will be well-suited for our climate of relatively weak sun and high humidity.
Marty & Rob building the dehydrator’s solar collector
We also were joined this week by a couple of new folks – Baxter the Woof and his humans, Lexi and Sean. With the crew we have at hand, I think we’ll be able to cover our garden needs while also getting started on the concrete block business of building our root cellar, although we’ll wait until the dehydrator is finished to begin.
WWOOFers Rob, Lexi, & Sean
Box #7
a Tomato or few. The first of 2017! All are either ripe or close to it, including some green ones – we have a few varieties this year that stay green even when ripe.
Early Jersey Wakefield Cabbage – the last of the cabbage for awhile! This will keep for up to two weeks in your crisper drawer if you’re just not ready now. A great cabbage for slaw or kraut!
Vita Verde Cauliflower or Gypsy Broccoli – yes that cauliflower is supposed to be green!
Bag o’ Beans – Purple, green, yellow wax
Jar o’ Flowers – We grew bachelor buttons, and zinnias for the first time this year; the sunflowers just keep coming back everywhere on their own, and we let them grow anywhere they’re not too in the way. Also featuring wild prairie sage, anise hyssop, black-eyed susans, bee balm, and flea bane. Artfully arranged by WWOOFer Sarah!
Zucchinis – Just a few smaller ones, but let us know if you like lots, because we have a whole lot of it on hand right now!
Cucumbers – Picklers or slicers! Slicers are longer and smoother, picklers are bumpier and shorter. Only the picklers pickle but they all sandwich and salad just delightfully.
Onions – We encourage you to also use the green onion tops!
Potatoes (Norland Red or Yukon) – the tater plants aren’t done yet, but we harvested some surface spuds for the boxes, leaving the rest of the plants intact.
This week, we appreciated the delicious silver linings of the recent logging going on around our farm . While we loved the scrubby oak forest, and miss it … it’s damn hard not to enjoy a generous bribe of fresh wild fruit!
As we’d hoped/predicted in May, the severely-logged area adjacent to our land has erupted into edibility.
The fruit bushes which had been patiently plotting and biding their time down in the shadows of the tree canopy are seizing their moment in the sun, as we discovered late last week on a walk through the woods – when we realized we couldn’t even walk between the ripening raspberry bushes without squishing the abundant clusters of ripe blueberries growing beneath and around them.
Plus it’s sort of a return to it’s long-ago form – as our local historian explains, “The Indians called the Sterling Barrens “Mashkode” which we translate as “flower covered prairie.” It was mostly open when the first white settlers came with low brush including blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, cranberries, and all sorts of wild cherries, hazelnuts, and butternuts. It was still mostly open at the turn of the century, until fire control and tree planting started in the 20s and 30s.”
So I’m glad I refrained from wailing, ranting, and gnashing my teeth too much. Because I need those teeth for eating all these delicious berries.
In field news, the peas are fading, as the beans are rising up and threatening world domination.
The high tunnel tomatoes are flush with green globes that refuse to rush into reddening, there is just one brave pioneer eggplant in the field, seemingly unconcerned about the rising tides of zucchini and squash plants that seem poised to bury us all in their foliage.
Box #6
We hadn’t had a rainy harvest in awhile, so this was a refreshing morning! Plenty of rain, but the ominous thunder merely provided a soundtrack for a smooth harvest.
Red Cabbage – don’t be intimidated by the beautiful beast! Here are a couple of recipes recommended by your fellow CSA members:Melissa’s Recommendation: Deb’s Cabbage Slaw Recipe:
Dressing:
½ cup mayonnaise or olive oil (if allergic to eggs)
2 Tbsp. apple cider vinegar
1 Tbsp. honey
1 tsp. prepared mustard
1 garlic clove, minced
¾ Tbsp. poppy seeds
Juice of half a large lemon
Salt and pepper to taste
Whisk together dressing ingredients.
Slaw Ingredients:
2 small carrots thinly sliced
½ cup golden raisins
2 green onions thinly sliced (optional)
½ c. chopped pecans or peanuts
¾ of small to medium head of purple cabbage (approximately 3 pounds), thinly sliced
Directions:
Combine salad ingredients with dressing.
Cover and refrigerate for at least 1 hour.
a Bag o’ Beans(Green, Yellow and Purple varieties)
Broccoli in your bag o’ beans, because alliteration
Zucchini / Summer Squash
Garlic
Carrots
Beets (many varieties … Detroit Dark red, Chioggia, baby beets, golden … or secret mystery beets)
My favorite moment from this week was the Sunday evening that the whole crew spent on the screen porch,watching as the massive thunderstorm system rolled past and toward us.
The first of the cells were dozens of miles to our south, yet still visible as the constant silent barrage of high-atmosphere lightning snapped streaks across the roiling clouds.
And we weren’t the only ones watching.
The lightning bugs – which had been present but not all that common up on our hill, were out in unprecedented numbers, all around us – and not just casually blinking while leisurely flying around, either – they were darting and dashing, their lights flashing stroboscopically through the shadows of the oaks and pines.
It was an incredible display (sadly not capturable on my phone), and it seemed clear that the fireflies were flashing in response to the electrical storm going in the skies around the farm. Maybe this was really why they’re called lightning bugs!
Other than the storm, it’s been a pretty standard work week on the farm – plenty of weeding and mulching in the field, and pruning and trellising tomatoes in the high tunnel. Oh and we set the field on fire a little bit … Kristin was flame weeding while WWOOFer Marty ran the extinguishers, keeping the hay mulch from catching … until a miscalculation left him afield with an empty extinguisher just as the a new section of drier mulch caught fire in earnest.
I heard the screaming from all the way up on the hill, and came running with a big bowl of water, joining Sarah, Rob, and Marty in putting out the several patches of flaming hay that had erupted during the confusion.
Once the flames were vanquished, we took stock of the damages : a melted section of irrigation hose, and several beet plants with one side singed. Not too bad, well worth it in exchange for the refreshing burst of adrenaline and that old lesson renewed … fire is a tricky monster, even when it’s being your friend.
What else? The first ripening has begun among the tomatoes – just cherry tomatoes for now, but so it begins … there are lots of green ones throughout the rows, ripe with promise, if not redness. The peppers are peppering, the okra is downright okratic.
It’s good to be growing.
Box #5
During the course of today’s harvest, Neighbor Marcia went to check on the three baby chickens … and discovered that a fourth had just hatched!
Happy literal birthday, little chicken.
Garlic – fresh dug & uncured, which means great flavor and a lack of the papery skin you’re probably used to. Treat like regular garlic!
Baby Carrots – cut off your tops!
We leave them there because they’re beautiful, let you know they were harvested today, and they’re edible! Great for vegetable broth (perhaps with your green onion tops?) But if you are saving your carrots for a future day, give them crew cuts before they hit the fridge, or the carrots will get all rubberylike.
Zucchini – the first of several, gods willing. Kristin recommends that you chop them up and sautee them with garlic and onions, and after removing it from the heat, throw in some basil!
Kohlrabi – The aliens are getting larger and more menacing … but are still tender even at this size, as the Grand Duke variety is bred to get big without becoming woody.
Spring Onions – The green onions have now graduated to the next phase of onion plumpness!
Sugar Snap or Snow Peas – If they’re flat, hey’re snow peas and ideal for stir frying – if plump, they’re sugar snaps and best raw … in my opinion. Really, you can do both with either!
Purple & Italian Basil – DO NOT REFRIGERATE!
It will turn black and you will be sad. Put the stem in some water, or leave it in the plastic bag on the kitchen counter if you’ll be using it within a few days.
Deconstructed Napa Cabbage – it’s been a lousy year for Napa cabbage – we planted extra this year, and to our dismay it all started to flower instead of growing complete heads. It must have been the weather this year, as several of our grower friends from all around the area have had the same thing happen.
Instead of sending them to the chicken compost pile, we decided to embark upon a laborious salvage mission – pulling apart each head, removing bad leaves and the flowering centers.
It was a ridiculous amount of work and not very pleasant (our volunteer helpers almost revolted, but we stemmed the rebellion with a box of donuts). Napa has great crunch, and is very versatile – can be used fresh and raw, or stir fried, or fermented into delicious kimchi!
