Down on the Farm

Site update

With the indispensible help of Mark, we are doing a tiny bit of site tweaking. First, the software platform we are using has been updated, which won't make much of a difference to you, but it makes it a lot easier for us. Thanks Mark!

Second, we have attempted to add a categories function. That means you should be able to hit a category link on the left, and any entries that we have marked as belonging in that category will be retrieved. We have just barely started to mark entries into particular categories, so the categories function is still very much a work in progress, but hopefully we should make some progress in the next few days.

As a result of some of these changes over the next couple of days, if you notice any glitches on your end, it would be great for us to know.

Photo op

Kat picking beans the other day, in between the rain showers. Eat your heart out Patagonia!

Wavy is 2!!!!!!!

Our little baby turned 2 last week! We threw her a party last Sunday, and when we had planned for it, Wavy said she wanted a fire engine cake, some balloons, and for Tommy, Maggie, Molly, Ethan, Emma, Aleda, Quinn, Emmaline, Elliot, Mama, and Papa to be there. Maryellen made the cake (I helped frost it), Aleda brought the balloons, and everyone else showed up, plus the older Cobb boys, and Craig, Mark, Lori, and Corny. We all played t-ball (sort of), played in the sandbox, drove (toy) tractors everywhere, and ran around like a bunch of kids jacked up on sugar. I have to say, Maryellen and I had a ball, I think Wavy had a lot of fun too, and everyone else seemed to enjoy themselves. I only wish we had taken more pictures!

Hello!

Sorry about the lack of posts lately. It isn't that we haven't been trying, it has just been crazy around here lately. Today is a good example. We came back down from the field with a truck and tractor bucket full of winter squash. We all thought it looked so nice that Kat said, "Let's take a picture for the blog." So Laura gets the camera set up on auto-shoot, she hits the button, the little light starts flashing, she runs over to climb on the tractor, and in all the shifting and picture posing commotion, the bucket lever gets tripped, and the front bucket of squash gets dumped just as the picture snaps.

Well, we all had a good laugh, so it worked out Ok.

But we will keep trying, and sooner or later we will get some more posts up, including some photos from Wavo's recent birthday party. Our little girl is two already! Oh well, more on that later.

CSA Week Fifteen

News from the field:

We are pulling up pea trellises, planting cover crops to hold the soil over the winter, and making mental notes of jobs that come in the off season, like straightening out the work bench, fixing various pieces of machinery, and cleaning out the storage part of the barn.

Enjoy fall!

In the Basket:

Carrots, onion, garlic, hot pepper - I sampled some yummy spicy, carrot peanut soup the other day at the Hanover food coop. The recipe’s in the basket this week along with these ingredients.

Kale - Another recipe this week (on the back of the spicy carrot peanut soup recipe) - kale and soba noodles.

Mesclun - Our mesclun mix varies a little with the season, although the basic components stay the same: lettuce including oak leaf and romaine, arugula, baby kale, and two kinds of mustard greens.

Winter squash - This is the last week for Saturday pickup September CSAers. Thank you!! So this is our last chance to get some squash to those folks. We’re giving you lots figuring it will keep well for a few weeks. (Full season CSAers will likely get another installment in a few weeks.)

Tomatoes - Everyone seems to enjoy these so we’ll keep them (or sun golds) coming at least until frost.

Yellow beans - Another boon of the late frost. We gave you a big two pound bag of green beans last week, and we don’t want to over-bean you, so this week it’s just a small, half pound, bag.

CSA Week Fourteen

News from the field:

We dodged a bullet last weekend. The forecast had called for a good chance at our first frost, and we got down to 35 degrees at our place, which is cold, but not quite frosty. With the first frost, we would probably lose a number of field crops, such as peppers, sungolds, and maybe the lettuce. But the frost makes some things taste better, like the carrots, turnips, and kale. So there is a bit of a silver lining to the arrival of fall as well.

In the Basket:

Green beans - Beans seem to be gone from most people’s gardens, and its been a while since we included them in the basket, so we thought you’d enjoy them again. I love steamed till bright green and still crunchy, with butter, but they are fantastic tossed with olive oil and thrown on the grill (cover till just tender).

Beets - The greens on these are good and good for you. If you’re not going to eat the greens right away, cut them off the beets when you get home and store in a separate bag so they keep better. You probably know beets are easier to peel and cut after their cooked. Leave roots and ½ inch of tops on, steam till fork tender, plunge into cold water, slip skins off, slice and reheat with butter.

Lettuce and spinach and red onions - Add pecans for a yummy salad!

Leeks - Jill – who has the stand next to us at Wednesday - recommended braising leeks. I tried it and it was great. Trim the leeks leaving about 1 inch of green (you can use the tops for stock or soup). Slice lengthwise and (and then into pieces 3-4 inches long --depending on the size of your pan) and wash carefully between each layer. Melt some butter in a pan, cook leeks in butter 2-3 minutes, add chicken broth to amply cover, put cover on your pan and simmer till tender.

Salad turnips - These may be a new delicacy for September CSAers, for full season folks its an old friend from early in the season. These are a Japanese variety of turnip that we grow to eat raw, like a radish. We like to cut them up and put in our salad or eat as crudites, but other folks have been amazingly creative – pickling, steaming, and more. The greens are good too, gently steamed or sauteed with sesame oil and a little tamari or your favorite seasonings.

Tomatoes - Red slicers this week. Yay for no frost!!

Picking apples

It's been a great year for apples. Even the wild old trees in our overgrown pasture are putting out lots and lots of good apples. We spent part of Sunday afternoon picking and enjoying them.

Tomato jungle

Waverly loves to go into the greenhouse to pick and eat sun golds straight off the vine. She is really good at it too -- she only picks the ones that are perfectly ripe. Here she is in her Papa's rain hat.

CSA Week Thirteen

News from the field:

Welcome to our September CSAers!! We’re glad to have you with us!!

They’re predicting hot weather for Wednesday’s market, and it hopefully will stick around till Saturday, so we figured you would enjoy another juicy sweet watermelon.

We usually begin our two weekly harvests at 6 a.m. sharp, to get things in before the heat of the day. The last few mornings it has still been in the 40s at that hour! It is hard to believe that the leaves will have turned in two to three weeks, and in six or seven short weeks, the ground may be frozen solid. That’s another reason we include a lot of sweet summer veggies again this week while we still have them: watermelon, lots of sun golds and sweet peppers.

In the Basket:

Arugula - Most people feel strongly about arugula. Some love it, some hate it. Ours we harvest tender and baby, so those who love it, really love it. You can’t get arugula this good anywhere else around here. For those who don’t care for it, this is a good time to remind you that you are always welcome to trade in things in your basket for anything else of similar value on the stand.

Cauliflower - Something new we are growing on the farm for the first time this year. I like cauliflower raw with dip.

Carrots - When I was in school, I ate so many carrots one time while studying for an exam, that I turned orange. A few months later, when I woke up with carrots in my bed one time (an unfinished midnight snack), I decided to make a conscious effort to cut back. But they’re still one of my all time favorite foods!

Sweet Peppers - Great raw in salads and divine roasted and peeled.

Onions - Keep in the refrigerator, and you won’t cry when you slice them.

Sun Golds - CSAer Tracy gave me a great recipe for these. Slice the sun golds in half, lay them on a plate, salt and pepper them, put slices of fresh mozzarella on top, sprinkle some basil on top of that, drizzle with olive oil, and then just before serving, sprinkle some balsamic vinegar on top. I made for a party and it went fast!!

Watermelon - Especially fun to eat outside!

Bee E.R.

A bear smashed the bee hive to pieces. She (or he, but I'm trying to convince myself it was a pregnant mom just trying to get enough calories to make it through the winter) came in Monday night and ate all the brood and all the honey. Luckily, Peter and the crew found the disaster Tuesday. I say luckily because even after they'd cleaned it up, and even after I'd been warned, to see the devastation still was heartbreaking for me. The bees had been doing so well, no evidence of mites, tons of honey, and, as bees go, a pretty happy and gentle hive.

Also, finding the devastation quickly allowed us to save at least a few of the bees. Many thanks to our friend and neighbor Libby who came and did some bee emergency rescue Tuesday afternoon. She ventured in among some VERY perturbed bees to put a box back together for them to try to regather in.

Then Libby and I went up this morning to give the bees some sugar syrup, so they'd have something to eat for now at least, and then to try to close down the entrance to make it easier for the bees to defend their hives from robbing yellow jackets and bumblebees.

This hive, with no brood, no honey, and few bees, will not be able to get through the winter. So one evening this weekend, Libby is going to come take the hive and combine it with hers. If the queen is still alive, we'll have to kill the queen (only one queen per hive), but we'll cross that bridge when we get to it.

It's a bummer, but it's hard to fault any creature for taking the food it needs to survive the long, cold winter ahead.

CSA Week Twelve

News from the field:

Watermelon this week! Enjoy!!

All this rain is actually not so great for us right now. As the season starts to wind down, many different crops start to show disease problems, mostly on their leaves. This is because they have put out their fruit and their system doesn’t need the green, growing leaves anymore. The rain and wetness often accelerates these disease problems. It is not a huge deal, but it may rob us a week or two of the field sun golds, unless it starts to dry out in a hurry.

We are also starting to clear out the greenhouse and the hoophouses so we can keep mesclun growing in there after frost. Other fall tasks are already underway, such as drying onions, trimming more garlic, curing winter squash, and cleaning up the fields.

Speaking of changing seasons, the process of putting together the basket for us has also now shifted. In the first part of the season, we think, what do we have new this week to tickle the palate of our CSAers. Now, the balance shifts, at least a bit. We start to think more and more, what do we have this week that we will not have in the weeks ahead so should put in the baskets now. Watermelon, obviously, but also even a staple like cucumbers won’t be around for all that much longer.

In the Basket:

Baby carrots - Very munchable and sweet. We’ll have carrots much of the fall, but not always as baby.

Cucumbers - It’s hard not to take these for granted after so many good and crunchy weeks, but they’re getting ready to be done, so we’re including these now.

Garlic - Informal surveys revealed that most CSAers had used up their supply, so here’s a bit to restock.

Mesclun - Mesclun’s great in a salad, and for a weeknight meal I love to toss it with hot pasta, garlic, tamari and olive oil. I sometimes add baked tofu for a complete meal, and I bet chicken would work just as well.

Sun golds, slicing tomatoes, and watermelon - The goodness of late summer is still here to enjoy!!