Down on the Farm

Broccoli and Pasta

The turnip souffle recipe was such a hit at market that we decided to write up one of our favorite recipes. Here it is.

Broccoli and Pasta

Ingredients:
2-3 heads broccoli
8 oz pasta - we like whole wheat very thin spaghetti
½ cup (1 stick) butter
2-3 garlic cloves
Parmesan cheese

Put water on to boil.
Mash garlic with mortar and pestle (or chop) and mush in butter.
Trim broccoli into large bite size florets.
When water comes to a boil, salt, and add pasta.
Cook until 1-2 minutes away from done.
Add broccoli and cook about a minute longer. Ideally, broccoli will be bright green but not mushy.
Drain pasta and broccoli. Add garlic butter and toss well to coat.
Serve topped with grated black pepper and grated Parmesan cheese.

This is one of our favorite weeknight supper foods. It’s easy, yummy and nourishing. The one stick of butter is not a typo. Peter even adds more butter to his at the table. Can you ever have too much butter? If you’re not a butter person, I bet you could warm the garlic in olive oil and salt.

Weather update

Uh-oh.

The beginning of the end

Every week around here we are putting crops into the ground. We do these succession plantings so that we always have yummy veggies available every week as the season unfolds.

And we here at Old Shaw Farm get our veggies into the ground two different ways. Some crops are seeded directly into the field, like peas, beans, beets and salad mix. And for a variety of reasons, some other crops are first seeded in greenhouse trays and raised as seedlings for a few weeks, and then transplanted out into the field. These are crops like head lettuce, salad turnips, and broccoli.

Each week around here settles into a semi-stable pattern of tasks. For example, Tuesday and Friday nights we harvest, new beds usually get prepared for planting on Sundays or Mondays, salad mix gets planted on Fridays, etc.

The way things have worked out, for the last few months, seeding trays is something that Susannah and I usually do on Wednesday afternoons. As you can see here, we have a little seedling room set up above the woodshed where we fill trays and then drop tiny seeds into the appropriate hole, usually one at a time.

It is not bad work -- perhaps a little tedious. But at least it doesn't rain on you, you can put the radio on, and if you do it with someone else, the time usually passes pretty quickly.

But this past Wednesday was kind of a momentous day. We seeded our last tray of the 2004 season!! You see, the first frost will be here in a month or so, and after that point, it really doesn't make any sense to be transplanting out fragile lettuces, etc. So this was the last bunch. We still have a lot of work to do this fall, but this is the beginning of the end. Here are Susannah and I with the last tray of Merlot lettuce, waving goodbye to the 2004 season!!!!

Farm party

We were thinking about throwing a farm party sometime this fall or winter (which may or may not happen) but I don't think we will ever be able to top these shinanigans.

Pickling

I have been friends with Cornelia since we were at Happy Hill (no joke!) nursery school together when we were 4. I am so glad that she is now living a short hour away from us!! She's been helping out on the farm lately. Sadly, soon she'll go back to school (she's a teacher). We made pickles from Aunt Maureen's recipe (yum!) and froze green peppers on Monday. Thanks Corn!!

Speechless

I got a call from my friend Eric in Minnesota telling me about this. I just don't even know what to say. The past few mornings up here it has been about 38-42 degrees out. It is supposed to warm up a little, but this could have been us. A very bizzare "summer".

Sleeping in the hoophouse

The sound of the rain on the hoop house made it a great place for Waverly to catch a nap. The rain also made it a good day to clean the melons out of the hoophouse and prepare the beds for a late fall crop -- broccoli probaby. Susannah, Cornelia and I worked in the hoophouse, while Peter did the market.

Spaceman

My folks sent a link to article in the Boston Globe about Spaceman Bill Lee's love of the NEK.

"For me, there is no better place in America than the Northeast Kingdom," he wrote in one essay. "I started out in Craftsbury in 1988, thinking it was a halfway house between a bar in Boston and a bar in Montreal. Now when I'm away, I can't wait to get to my own little rehabilitation center on the hill. What a view . . . All I know is that when I get through New Hampshire's Franconia Notch and see those highlands to the north, I breathe a lot easier."

Couldn't agree more.

Kid tested, mother approved

Waverly loves sun gold cherry tomatoes as much as her parents do.

The kid likes swimming

This summer has been abnormally cold and wet, even by VT standards -- it has felt like spring all summer. In some ways, it is hard to believe Labor Day is right around the corner. We are so far behind on so many farm tasks right now, but sometimes it is more important to go jump in the lake, and enjoy what we have left of summer.

Blair Witch Beet

Waverly and I skipped Friday's harvest and Saturday's market to go play with my high school girlfriends (plus boyfriends, husbands, babies, brothers). It was wicked fun. Anyway, when we showed up at the wash area last night we found this stuck to the side of the barn.

The best part was Tommi's reaction. She said, very matter of factly, it's the Blair Witch Beet.

Show's you how tough those grass roots are. Yes, that's a grass root growing through the beet!

Eat locally

My brilliant baby sister sent a link to a Boston Globe article about growing interest in eating locally. Excellent.

"This is about culture, a diversified rural landscape, and access to fresh distinctive foods that are best produced locally," says Burrington. "We still have a New England where a lot of people -- city kids, suburban families, sixth-generation farmers -- have some involvement in growing or harvesting food, where the landscape features fields and orchards as well as forests, and where you can eat corn, berries, apples picked the same day. If we can still say that in another 20 years, the local food movement will have succeeded."

And on that theme, my wonderful boss gave me a t-shirt from the Good News Cafe, a restauraunt in Connecticut that emphasizes local, organic produce. The slogan on the back is "To your health, eat well, save the farm." Right on!

Peacham Turnip Souffle

I haven't tried this yet, but it sounds awesome. I'm hoping to print out copies of this to hand out at the market on Wednesday. A customer from Peacham gave it to me. Thank you!!

Peacham Turnip Souffle

Minimalist version:
Steam 4 white salad turnips until tender
Preheat oven to 400.
Coarsely puree turnips.
Add one beaten egg and fold in a stiffly whisked egg white.
Put in a buttered ramekin or mini souffle dish.
Dust with turbinado sugar (or other sugar).
Set in oven, reduce heat to 375, and bake 20-25 minutes.

Fancy version:
Steam 6 white salad turnips until tender.
Preheat oven to 400.
Finely puree turnips.
Add 2 tablespoons mashed potato, 3 tablespoons beaten egg yolk, a dab of wasabi horseradish, and 2 tablespoons heavy cream. Fold in two stiffly beaten egg whites.
Put in a buttered mini souffle mold.
Dust with demerara sugar.
Set in oven, reduce heat to 375, and bake 20-25 minutes.

Rest for patriots

Up here all the non-farmers take August 16th off as an offical state holiday.

The most interesting factoid about Bennington Battle Day? The folks on Vermont Public Radio said this morning that the battle actually happened over the line in New York. Go figure. Still, we'll take the day off because, as a general principle, there should be more days off in August.

First CSA participant!!

We got our first signup for the CSA today!!! Woohoo!! And two other folks who've expressed strong interest.

I've always thought that I do not have the risk tolerance or equanimity it would take to run a small farm business. However, I have really gotten excited about the CSA idea. Maybe too excited. See what I mean about lack of equanimity!

I can see that it is going to take some figuring to find a way to operate the CSA that will work for us and for participants. Like, should we give participants farm tours or will it turn them off to see the weeds and "work in progress" parts of the farm? I rather think folks who want to be in a CSA will like seeing the farm, warts and all, but it's an interesting question. Anyway, I'm not ready to quit my day job yet, but I am enjoying day three of this new farm enterprise!

String beans

String beans are in. This row won't be ready for a couple weeks though.

September Trial CSA

Waverly and I put up flyers yesterday advertising our September CSA. We are thinking about doing a full season CSA next summer, and my friend and co-worker Steph wisely suggested that we try it out this fall. To see how it works out before we take on doing one for a whole season. Thanks Steph!! (For more information about what a CSA is, why it is important, and how to find one near you, check out this link.)

We had been thinking of doing a CSA, then, last week, the strangest thing happened. Peter and I were at the farmer's market in Danville talking about whether we should do it or not, what we should charge, etc., and this person walks up and out of the blue asks, had we ever thought about doing a CSA. That clinched it for me!!

Anyway, this is the text of the flyer. It is on a half page (landscape) gold (yellow-orange -- not metallic) paper. I even got the logo to print green. It looks great. Hopefully we'll get some interest!

September Trial CSA
Get quality organic veggies this fall while checking out a creative way to buy local! Sign up for the Old Shaw Farm trial CSA!!

Good eating to you!!

Hello!

Sorry so few posts lately. We have been busy doing our regular farm stuff, plus starting to think about next year -- plowing new fields, thinking about starting a CSA (more on that in a later post), etc.

Here are Tommi and I washing veggies in the rain last week. We call this photo, "Living the Dream." You can add whatever amount of sarcasm seems appropriate.

A walk on a Sunday afternoon

Walking through the old pastures. Won't be open for much longer!

Cherry tomato do si do

Tomatoes growing up twine in the new and as yet uncovered hoop house.