Down on the Farm

Carrots

Maryellen picking carrots

Maryellen and Cornelia picked about 500 pounds of carrots this morning. We had to get them out of the ground before the ground froze solid. So the carrots now sit in the cooler, unwashed. We can then wash and sort them as we need them over the next few weeks. These carrots are really yummy because frosty weather sweetens them up.

We are also trying an experiment with putting hay mulch on some of the remaining carrots. That should keep the ground around those carrots from freezing for another couple of weeks, so that we can go make one more haul around mid-November -- just in time for the Mad River Valley Thanksgiving weekend market that we signed up for on Nov. 18th.

One of 16 or so tubs of carrots

P.S. Happy Halloween!!!

Delicata and Bleu Cheese Quiche

Ingredients:
One friend to give the extra quiche to (this recipe makes two)
2 9 inch pie crusts
2 ½ cups delicata squash peeled, seeded, cut into small (½ inch) cubes, and steamed
8 oz bleu cheese
1½ cups half and half
½ cup milk
7 eggs
1 medium onion
1 tablespoon butter
salt and pepper

Roll out the pie crust and fit into the pans. Put the crusts in the fridge. Heat the oven to 400.

Finely chop the onion and saute in the butter until soft. Crumble the blue cheese into a bowl. Crumble it into very small pieces. You can use some of the half and half and the back of a wooden spoon to mush it if that's easier. Beat the eggs and mix the eggs, cheese, milk, half and half and onion all up. Add salt and pepper.

Spread the pieces of delicata squash on the bottom of the pie pans. Pour the egg mixture on top. Bake 40-45 minutes until pastry and pie are golden brown. Let rest for 10 minutes before serving so that it sets.

Our friend and CSAer Deirdre told me about this recipe. The combination of delicata and bleu cheese is excellent!! The feedback I got was that I should've maybe broken up the bleu cheese and squash into smaller pieces and maybe a bit more squash, so I made those adjustments in the recipe above.

One last note, steamed delicata squash with butter is yummy on its own. I made it for dinner one night and just saved out enough to be able to make this a few nights later.

Henry is eleven months old!

Henry is changing so fast.

Three things about him of note these days: (1) He loves to be picked up and carried now, more than ever. He loves being in the backpack so much that I even let him eat back there sometimes (you can see the banana smeared on my shirt in the photo above). (2) He love rice cakes. It seems like an odd thing to love, but I think it must be a treat for him to have something so big and crunchy that he is allowed to eat all by himself. (3) He is no longer easily distractable. The day is long gone where I could just pick him up from whatever he was doing I didn't like (i.e. playing with the nightlight in Wavy's room) and put him somewhere new and he would forget about what he had been doing. Now he just turns around and heads right back to whatever he was doing. Which may be why he likes the backpack so much these days -- less conflict.

Thanks to my sister Jess for the photo above!!

Mega corporate blowout expansion

Sometimes people ask us how the farm is doing. What they mean is, "You guys are in your 3rd or 4th season, and I was wondering, is your farm business where you would like it to be yet?" And over the course of this season, I have found myself giving this answer -- "The farm is great. Each of these last three seasons we have made huge leaps. But we still a couple more huge leaps to go until we get to the scale where we want to be." And the scale that we want to be at is to be big enough to be economically sustainable for our family, but not so big that we are sitting in an office all day checking our GPS and wondering how crew #5 is doing in field #7.

So this off season, we continue to expand.

New hoophouses going in. One frame is up (on left), one frame is all laid out ready to go up (on right).

Up in the field we are building two new hoophouses. These will be unheated greenhouse frames with one layer of plastic. What these structures will do is help us extend our season on both ends by about a month. We can grow both early and late stuff in these houses. Since these structures are up in the field, the trick will be venting them properly and irrigation. I have an idea for a gutter system to collect rainwater, send it into a tank in the hoophouse, and then use a solar livestock water pump to move the water into a low pressure drip irrigation system. It is one of those ideas that should totally work in theory, but will probably need to get hammered out a bit over a couple of seasons. As for venting, we are getting some of these solar powered greenhouse vent arms that will open vents at each end of the top ridge when it get too hot. We are hoping that the solar arms, plus roll up sides, will be enough. Boy, it is hard to believe that this is where we started a little over three years ago. We don't even use that little house anymore, lol!

New field plowed for 2007

We have also plowed down another 2 acre strip to bring into production next year. While that may seem like a lot for the scale we are on, we will also be trying to rotate out some older strips next year. The idea has been to do four years of veggie production on a strip, and then two years off in intensive cover cropping. Our first year, we had a 1/2 acre strip to work with, and next year we will be taking that out of production. So next year, we should have about 4.5 acres to work with altogether. Note: I wish I had gotten a cover crop down on this new strip for winter, but alas, we only finished discing it out the week before last week, and the ground will be frozen by next week. Oh well. It doesn't always all work out perfectly.

Farm photos

Sorry we haven't posted in a couple of days. But there is still a lot of work to do around here.

Collards for dinner

Cornelia picking the last of the broccoli

I don't know what we would have done if Cornelia hadn't been able to stick around late into the fall this year. Thank you Cornelia! Lesson for next year -- make sure entire crew doesn't disappear on Labor Day.

We finally got the tomatoes cleared out of greenhouse #2

Big time

Holy Guacamole!

Welcome Times Argus and Rutland Herald readers!

UPDATE: So we went out and got a hard copy of the Times Argus paper (we are too far north for our local general store to have the Rutland Herald). The Times Argus article is D1 (the local/regional section), above the fold with the picture of us from the About Us page. There is also a teaser at the top of A1 that reads, "Farmers bring the Good Life to cyberspace D1". Pretty wild stuff. We knew this article was coming, but didn't know it would get prominent treatment on a Sunday. The clock is running on our 15 minutes of fame!

Dreamin' of a white Halloween

Last night. Sometimes these posts don't need a lot of commentary.

Your tasty thoughts

As this season winds down we are already thinking about next year. And we could use your help generating ideas for what to grow in 2007.

What we are trying to do here is all about organic, local, freshness, and taste, taste, taste. All those things go together in our minds. Our organic practices, which include compost, cover crops and rotations, result in building soil health, which leads to better taste. For example, spinach grown in a well balanced, rotated, fertile field tastes much better than spinach grown in the same field year after year with processed fertilizer. And most of our veggies get to market within 24 hours of harvesting, which means less loss of nutrients, and more taste.

Since we are so local to our markets, we also don't have to worry about shipping, and we are also able to pick the best varieties for taste, not for shelf life, or anything else.

So what we are looking for are great tasting things to grow. What we have tried to do over the past few years is develop some interesting crops for taste: salad turnips and new potatoes in the spring; sungolds, charentais melons, and brandywine tomatoes in the summer; delicata squash and fall frosted carrots in autumn.

But we need some new taste-based ideas for next year. So far we have gotten a bunch of great suggestions from CSAers, customers, friends, and neighbors. Those suggestions include northern hardy kiwis, an italian variety of summer squash, black Egyptian beets, long English cucumbers for the greenhouse, berries of every sort, and basil, basil, basil.

If you have any ideas, unique varieties, or favorite garden tastes, we would love to hear about them, either in the comments below or by email. Not evey suggestion is going to be something that would make sense on our scale, but consider this an open invitation to make suggestions over the course of this winter. After all, part of the fun of growing stuff is poring over seed catalogs in front of the woodstove, and imagining, "This year, the xyz will be perfect . . ."

Thanks!

Farm hangover

Most of our marketing season is over -- our farmer's markets and CSA ended last week. We are still selling some stuff through our farmstand and to the coop in St. Johnsbury, but for the most part the grow-weed-harvest-wash-sell part of our season is over.

After the go, go, go routine of the veggie high season, it now feels a little like that Sunday morning in high school when my parents inexplicably left my older brother and I home alone for the weekend. Parts of the field are a mess, the washroom is a mess, the tool shop needs to get organized, greenhouse #1 needs to get cleaned out, etc., etc.

Don't get me wrong, it has been a great year. But now the party is over for a few months, and someone needs to go around and pick up the empties.

Good eats

Hi Maryellen and Peter,

Thanks for a fun CSA season. Eileen and I just finished a fantastic lunch that made your veggies shine!

We lined the bottoms of a couple of bamboo steamers with your collards, then we put in 1/4 inch slices of carrot (about 1 carrot per steamer) around one side, smallish cauliflower florets on the other side, and about 1/2 cup of yesterday's rice, a small bunch of dandelion greens, and some raw shrimp in the middle. While they steamed away for 10ish minutes, we made some soy dipping sauce (garlic, sesame oil, soy sauce, vinegar, cooking wine, suger, and a little chili pepper) and some teriyaki lemon dipping sauce (soy sauce, sugar, sake, garlic, lemon zest and juice). And when all was said and done, everything was amazing! The carrots, especially, were complemented nicely by the sauces.

If you read Fine Cooking magazine, the idea came from issue 6, Dec./Jan. 1994/1995. The whole meal took 15 minutes to make (and about as long to eat =)).

If you're interested in the sauces, we can send you the ingredient ratios. Thanks again for such great food!

-Aaron

Thanks to Aaron and Eileen for letting us post their recipe and thanks to all the CSAers for an awesome season.

It's Tuesday night, the night we usually make the final decisions on what to put in the week's baskets, write the flyer and recipes etc. While it was nice to just snuggle in bed with the kids and fold laundry tonight, I am missing the hustle bustle of Tuesday nights already. It's all good, I suppose.

CSA Week Eighteen

News from the field:

This is it! The End! Fini! And just in time, in a way – it was seriously cold at the farm at the end of last week. Mid-20s. It gets hard to keep the veggies growing in that kind of weather.

But if the weather wasn’t holding us back, we would want to keep going. We had a blast this season, and we sincerely appreciate everyone who was a part of the CSA. It is a model that helps keep local agriculture viable, and it gets you the freshest, yummiest food you can get. We appreciate your support!

So enjoy the last basket! Only 3 months until we start the tomato seedlings for next years greenhouse crops!

In the Basket:

Tomatoes. The last remnants of summer, thanks to those greenhouses.

Green things: Spinach, broccoli and romaine. The spinach is good, and e coli free! We know we keep throwing romaine at you, but it is the one lettuce that can take this kind of cold weather. We figure it is better than no lettuce.

White things: Cauliflower and salad turnips. We are actually going to make a stir fry tonight with the stuff from today’s harvest – broccoli, cauliflower, salad turnips, onions, and carrots, plus some tofu and teriyaki sauce. Wow. I am getting hungry just thinking about it.

Onions. If you haven’t used all your onions from a few weeks ago, don’t worry – these onions should store well in any cool dry place.

Carrots. A another big bag, and another recipe idea on the back.

Moroccan Carrot Slaw

2 tablespoons olive oil
1-2 small cloves garlic
3 tablespoons lemon juice
15 leafy sprigs cilantro, stems removed
½ teaspoon ground cumin
4-5 large carrots, scrubbed
1/4 cup currants

Chop garlic fine in food processor bowl. Add oil, lemon juice, cilantro (I like to save out a sprig for garnish), cumin, blend. Pour dressing into a large bowl.

Shred the carrots finely, Toss carrots and currants in the dressing until all mixed. Serve and enjoy.

This is one of our family all time favorites. It’s really great for pot lucks. Last year, I got specifically asked to bring it again to Town Meeting. You can substitute parsley for the cilantro or raisins for the currants, but we like it the regular way best.

Time, and the weather, march on

Cornelia showing Waverly how to plant garlic

This week is our last week of CSA. And this Saturday will probably be our last farmer's market. It has been getting cold (some 20s at night), and our field inventory is starting to run down. We will still have carrots and broccoli and onions and maybe some spinach for a few more weeks, but we will mostly sell those to the coop, or through our stand, or to the school in Peacham.

But it is moving from early fall to mid-late fall. A lot of the leaves are already down, the bow hunters are out in the trees, and it is getting dark early. Time to wrap things up a bit. But only three more months until we start tomato seedlings for the greenhouses again!

Brrrr.

Vermont kid

So as we blab on and on about the season winding down, our 3 year old daughter is already jones-ing for winter. She and I are going to learn how to snowboard this winter, and now she keeps asking, "When is it going to snow?", like that would be a good thing.

Wavy and I like to get on You Tube sometimes and check out various videos. Here is her favorite video these days.

all girl snowboarding

Market

Some photos from the second to last Danville market.

CSA Week Seventeen

News from the field:

Slowing down. When we were up harvesting this morning, you could tell the end was in sight. Some weeks, the basket basically fills itself. This week, we had to think a little about what we had left to put in the basket. Over the course of an 18-week CSA season, the first couple of baskets, and the last couple of baskets, are always a little tricky to put together because the weather may not always cooperate. And on this autumnal end, there just aren’t too many veggies that you can absolutely count on in October in Vermont. But this week’s basket looks pretty good.

Enjoy!

In the Basket:

Tomatoes. The last remnants of summer, thanks to those greenhouses.

Green things: Dandelion greens, broccoli, and romaine. All love the cool weather. Dandelion greens are a tender, sharp, cooking green. You can treat them like spinach, though they have a more zesty flavor. My favorite way of eating dandelion greens is raw with a hot dressing on them – the recipe is on the blog at July 19, 2006.

Onions and garlic. Because you can always use onions and garlic. And if you haven’t used all your onions from a few weeks ago, don’t worry – these onions should store well in any cool dry place.

Radishes. Crunch for your salad.

Carrots. A big bag, and a recipe idea on the back.

Colonial Carrot Pie

1¼ pound carrots (there are 2 ½ pounds in the basket this week)
¾ cup white sugar
1 cup milk
¾ teaspoon cinnamon
½ teaspoon ground ginger
¼ teaspoon fresh ground nutmeg
⅛ teaspoon ground cloves
3 eggs
1 unbaked 9 inch pie shell.

Slice the carrots and steam till very tender.

Heat the oven to 425º.

Puree the carrots in a blender or food processor until very smooth. Add some of the milk now if you need to for the carrots to be smooth. Add everything else and blend until smooth and evenly mixed (you might have to do two batches). Put into the pie shell and bake for 15 minutes, then turn down the oven to 350º and bake for another 45 minutes or until set. Cool before slicing.

This recipe reminds me of Zoë’s excellent carrot souffle (on the blog at October 5, 2005). It is also not unlike pumpkin pie.

I made this with a whole wheat crust from Laurel’s Kitchen. Cornelia says the pie is too delicate for the whole wheat crust, that it really needs a white flour crust. Peter said it was good but too cinnamony, so I wrote in reduced it to ¾ teaspoon.

Slowing down

We still have two weeks of markets and CSA, but it is already starting to feel like the off season. There is always an infinite amount of work we should be doing, but the super urgent has to be done immediately or we won't have food for the CSAers tasks have pretty much dropped off.

We spent some time getting started on stacking wood, which was actually pretty fun. Waverly got to ride on the tractor, and Henry got up for a bit too.

On Saturday, Peter went to market, and I stayed home with the kids. He left me not one but two notes to remind me to open the greenhouses. Who me, distractable?

It was foggy when we opened them and you could see the fog rolling into the greenhouses. I tried to capture it in this photo, but didn't, but you can see how lush and green the greenhouses still are.

Spinach coming along nicely in the greenhouse space vacated by the peppers. Something nice and tender for one of the two final CSA baskets, hopefully.

An experiments with late fall beets in the greenhouse. Beets in November? There may not be enough sunshine left in the season for these to really grow well, we'll have to see.