Wednesday, August 19, 2015

August 19 or 22

Small box:  2 1/2 pound Nicola Potato, .60 pound okra, 3 Delicata Squashes, 3 bulbs garlic, 2 pounds Sweet Peppers, 1 bunch parsley, 1 fennel bulb, 1 pint cherry tomatoes. 
Regular box:  5 pounds Nicola Potato, 1 pound okra, 5 delicata Squash, 5 bulbs garlic, 3 pounds Sweet Peppers, 1 bunch parsley, 2 fennel bulbs, 1 celeriac, 2 Italian Eggplant, 1 pint cherry tomatoes. 

Storage: delicata squash and garlic in dry and dark(no direct sun) place on counter or in a cabinet.  Peppers on counter if you're going to use them within 3 days.  Otherwise, in the refrigerator with everything else.  Parsley, fennel, and celeriac in a bag with the air squeezed out.

Sweet Pepper Sauce
Wash, de-seed, and coarsely chop all the sweet peppers.
Heat a cast iron skillet on medium high heat with 1 T lard or safflower oil.
When it is hot, add the peppers and
1 to 3 onions, peeled and coarsely chopped
2 to 5 garlic cloves, peeled
1 to 3 T oregano
Let all this sizzle and blacken a little, stirring once in awhile.
I let it cook about 30 minutes until the peppers are soft and their skins somewhat blackened.
Remove from heat and run through the food processor to the consistency you desire.
Return to the skillet and season with salt and black pepper or a little cayenne or some other hot pepper if you like.
We like this sauce with roasted eggplant, on pasta, on sandwiches, with beef roast.

I know some of you have voiced being tired of tomatoes. Some of you buy more tomatoes than we put in your box. The tomatoes are coming to a close so we're putting cherry tomatoes in this week for those of you who are still in love with them. If you're tired of them, give them to a friend or neighbor. A salad of cherry tomatoes, parsley, and hard boiled egg with a red wine vinegarette is yummy. 

The delicata squash is a sweet squash, enjoyed best roasted in the oven and eaten plain.  We don't put anything on it and our kids eat a whole squash each when we make it.  It is not a good keeper so eat them within a month.  The garlic is cured and will keep through December atleast if you keep it in a coo,l, dry, dark spot. 
The Nicola Potatoes are of a waxy texture and make a really great potato salad.  They are also good in soup or stew where you want the potato chunks to keep their shape.  The fennel is a nice change from celery in potato salad if you like the flavor...
View from bridge over Newfound Creek.  We grow crops on both sides of the creek and our cows sometimes live in distant pasture.


August is the most difficult month on the farm.  The days are still hot, we are tired, the days are shorter, the failures of the season are felt.
The huge amount of time and effort required to grow field tomatoes, eggplant, onions and peppers well left us and the crew little time for else in June and July and so now we feel that loss.  The beds and beds of carrots and beets and lettuce that were sown directly into the field during June and July failed to germinate well because the soil was hot and rain was sparse and so effort was not rewarded with carrots to dig now.
Subsequent seedings were buried too deep by pounding rain and did not germinate.
Now we have a good stand but they will be late Septembers' carrots.
It is a trick that asks for patience and prayer, at this hot cusp of fall, to get food growing now that prefers cooler weather...but things look good.  Kale is growing.  Arugula and Radishes are sprouting under row cover (to keep the bugs at bay) in the field.  Peas are 2 inches tall.
Tomatoes are dying.  Summer squash is gone.
Some winter squash is curing in the barn and ready to eat.  Lots is still in the field growing.  Weekly, more is ready to harvest.  We will pick a couple truckloads today.
Garlic looks good.  Onions onions onions.  Some varieties are a total loss due to disease.  Some varieties, mostly the red ones, look good.
It may feel like the CSA boxes haven't been full lately but the value of what is in them is greater that that of head lettuce and greens.  (Both in terms of effort put in and $ value in the marketplace.)
If you grow your own garden your successes are similar to our successes.  All of ours' success is tied to the weather.
All of our success with the CSA is tied to your ability to see it as a whole when it comes to you in parts.  Some weeks are thinner than others.  Some weeks are a feast.  You have to be willing to eat what we succeed in growing.  It is an adventure that we are involved in together.  Thank you for making the journey with us.

3 comments:

  1. We love you!! the veggies are miraculous! you guys are rock stars. so grateful each week.

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  2. We also love the food we get every week and never get tired of fresh seasonal anything. The season goes too fast! And it tastes even better knowing that it came from such a fantastic family and farm. Keep up the important work. We love you for it.

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  3. Thank you for sharing the story of your work. Please keep telling us about the farm. Farmers face tremendous challenges, and the rest of us need to understand more about it. We love the CSA. --Diana

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