week #14

Red Springs Family Farm
August 26, 2010 week 14

Tomatoes Lettuce Peppers
Garlic Potatoes Okra
Eggplant Basil Pears
Melons, first come first serve Hot peppers, by choice

What a week! We’re grateful to have gotten off as easy as we did in that last flood. We’re still assessing garden damage. The summer squash and cukes took a hard hit, and the second half of the parsley row seems to have drowned. The ground still isn’t really dry enough to continue planting, but we’ve been clearing the ground of what is old, getting ready for the new greens of Fall. Considerable time was spent this week picking up winter squashes. The barn loft is stacked with baskets of acorns and butternuts now. We had never seen nor heard of butternuts splitting their skins from too much rain, as tomatoes and melons do, but this year it happened. It’s just not ordinary to get 11 inches of rain in August! There were still plenty of beautiful brown nutty squashes intact in the field. They will cure and sweeten up for a couple weeks before we begin to send them.

It’s been an amazingly busy week. We got the call from our neighbor on Thursday that the pears were ready to be picked, so we got up the hill as soon as we could on Friday and picked these beautiful pears. If they hit the ground, they bruise and don’t keep well. If they are picked straight from the tree, these Maxines and Magness (please don’t ask us which is which!) pears ripen into such succulent good fruits! Stock up on them while they last (we don’t have enough refrigeration to keep them for long) for $1 per lb.

Saturday some friends from Nashville came out to work and enjoy the weekend. Monday, Lulah had company that kept her mercifully occupied so Coree could get work done, and Tuesday our regular helpers were busy with picking up winter squash. Just after they left, a friend from eastern TN stopped by for an unexpected visit and helped Paul load the heavy squash baskets into the barn. Wednesday brings the arrival of Wilson, our trusty harvest helper, who sees us through the intensity of picking, counting, and packing your veggies each week. Whew!

Please take note: those of you on a quarterly payment plan – NEXT week is your last week paid for. Please bring the check for your last quarter either to the September 2nd or 9th pick up. 

Recipes this week are for some of the prolific plants we’re glad to be growing this year:

Simple Chicken Groundnut (Peanut) Soup or Stew (off the line)
3-4 lbs. of chicken pieces 2 onions (enough for 2 cups, chopped)
3-6 cups of water 1 ½ teaspoons salt (or to taste)
½ to 1 cup of creamy natural peanut butter (no sugar) a couple of Tbs tomato paste
1 8-oz can tomato sauce (or substitute fresh tomatoes) okra
ground red pepper to taste), or fresh hot chili pepper
(NOTE: a few garlic cloves, peeled and chopped or pressed, and a teaspoon or 2 of fresh grated ginger, a sprinkling of salt or seasoned salt and ground red pepper are nice options too)

(continued on back)
1) Remove skin and fat from chicken and put pieces into a heavy pot with a cup of the water. Peel and chop one of the onions and add them to the pot along with any additional seasonings (like a little salt, garlic, ginger, red pepper, etc.) and steam the chicken in a covered pot for a few minutes while you prepare the other ingredients.
2) Add the tomato sauce and paste, the rest of the chopped onion, the red pepper, and the remaining water (start with 4 cups for the soup). Bring to a boil and reduce the heat to simmer.
3) In a medium saucepan, ladle about 2 cups of the soup broth into the pan, and mix it with the peanut butter. Heat the broth and peanut butter mixture on medium heat, stirring constantly, until the oil separates from the nuts and rises to the surface. This may take 15 or 20 minutes. NOTE: you can simply stir the peanut butter/broth mixture directly into the soup, cooking it separately somehow flavors the peanut sauce more, like browning would. Keep stirring or the peanut butter will scorch, and add a little more soup broth to it if necessary.
4) Ladle some of the soup into the sauce, stir it, and stir the mixture into the soup, taking care not to splatter yourself.
5) Add the okra, if cooking in the soup. Allow the soup to simmer for about 20-30 minutes, until the flavors blend and the chicken and okra are cooked. Add more water if you prefer a thinner soup. Check the seasonings and add more salt, red pepper, etc., to taste.

When this is prepared as a stew (thicker) it can be served over rice like a curry. Also, when serving this as a stew and for large numbers of people, I often debone the cooked chicken. There are several short-cut options, especially if you wish to use this as a first course/starter: use prepared chicken broth, add all the other ingredients but omit the chicken pieces, and simply add the peanut butter after mixing it with the hot broth. Use cooked okra or fresh chopped scallions as a garnish and instead of bread or rolls, serve the soup with mini-rice balls. If made a day ahead and reheated it seems to taste even better.

Bell Peppers Lemonly Dressed and Cumin-esque
This versatile recipe will add just the right amount of color to any dish in need of some visual pizzazz. What’s more, the lemony cumin in the peppers will pizzazzify the flavors on your plate. Angelic Organics Kitchen (adapted from Recipes from a Kitchen Garden). Serves 4

1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon virgin olive oil, divided 2 red or purple bell peppers, thinly sliced
2 green or yellow bell peppers, thinly sliced 1/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
2 tablespoons minced parsley 1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon honey (optional) 1 clove garlic, minced (about 1/2 teaspoon)
1/4 cup finely chopped scallions or red onion 1/2 teaspoon salt
freshly ground black pepper

1. Heat 1 tablespoon of the oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the peppers; sauté, stirring until slightly soft, about 3 minutes. Let cool.
2. Combine the remaining oil, lemon juice, parsley, cumin, honey, and garlic in a large jar. With the lid tightly screwed on, shake the jar vigorously until the oil and vinegar have combined and thickened.
3. Toss the peppers and scallions or red onion with the vinaigrette in a large bowl; add the salt and season with pepper to taste. Cover; refrigerate for 1 hour.

Thanks for eating with us. Have a wonderful weekend.
Paul, Coree, and Lulah

“Burn down the cities and leave our farms, and your cities will spring up again as if by magic; but destroy our farms and the grass will grow in the streets of every city in the country.” ~William Jennings Bryan

Week 13

Red Springs Family Farm
August 19, 2010 week 13

Tomatoes Lettuce Peppers
Garlic Potatoes Okra
Cucumber Summer Squash
Sweet Corn Green Beans
Herb bag: Basil Parsley

Well, we asked for rain and we received rain. Saturday night we were on our way home from an outing and witnessed the rapid approach of the large black storm cloud. Rain poured, the creek rose. We hunkered down until Sunday morning, then ventured up the hill to find all the corn laying down on the electric fence and a lot of tomato cages knocked over. Fortunately, the corn is far enough along that laying down doesn’t affect the crop too adversely. We just have to pick it off the ground instead of off the stalk. The ground dried up enough by Tuesday that we were working hard to clear another round of summer garden for Fall planting when the next rain began. We’ve seen at least nine inches of water fall from the sky since then – it’s hard to get an accurate count. The gardens are a mass of mud. We’re grateful, as I type, to hear the road grader come through. There would have been no getting out of our hollow (on wheels) yesterday at all. With luck, the harvest is only slightly abbreviated. Considering conditions here and around, we’re extremely fortunate.

A summary of this year so far paints a picture of great extremes. First, we had the coldest winter in twenty, some say thirty, years. Then the largest flood in at least that long, followed by the hottest stretch of summer for about fifty years, and now another flood. All things considered, the difficulty we’re having growing green beans seems fairly trivial. The grasshoppers ate a lot of small broccoli plants before the rain, and now much of the Fall garden is in standing water. We’ll see what happens. It is certainly not within our control. Thanks for eating with us. The direct support of the local community is what keeps small diverse farms going through strange and difficult times.

There will be enough beans in your bag today for this good recipe from Barbara Kingsolver’s very fun family memoir, Animal Vegetable Miracle:

FRIJOLE-MOLE
½ lb. trimmed green beans Steam until tender
1 coarsely chopped onion 1 tbs. olive oil
Sautee onions over medium heat until they become slightly transparent.
3 hard boiled eggs 2 cups fresh basil leaves
1 tbs. lemon juice (optional)
Combine beans, cooked onions, eggs, basil and lemon juice in food processor and blend into a coarse puree.
Mayonnaise or yogurt Salt and pepper
Remove puree to a bowl and combine with enough mayonnaise or yogurt to hold mixture together. Add salt and pepper to taste. This spread is fantastic served on crusty bread, crackers, or rice cakes.

There’s not quite a full pound of okra for everyone this week, but enough to modify into this wonderful curry:

Okra Curry (from the Washington Post recipe archive)
3 tablespoons vegetable oil 2 medium onions, cut into 1/2-inch dice
4 green (cayenne) chili peppers, chopped 1/4 teaspoon ground turmeric
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin 1/2 tablespoon garam masala*
1/4 teaspoon salt, or to taste 1 lb. okra, cut to 1-inch pieces, ends trimmed
1 large tomato, seeded and diced 2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 tablespoon finely chopped cilantro, for garnish (optional)

In a large skillet over medium-high heat, heat the oil until it thins out across the pan, then reduce the heat to medium. Add the onions, chili peppers, turmeric, cumin, garam masala and salt. Cook the onions until they are soft, about 6 to 8 minutes. Add the okra and cook, stirring occasionally, for 10 to 15 minutes. Add the tomato and lemon juice and combine well, simmering for an additional 3 to 5 minutes. Sprinkle with chopped cilantro, if desired. Serve warm. May cover and refrigerate for up to 2 days.

*Note: Garam masala is a mixture of dry-roasted spices, usually including black pepper, cinnamon, cloves, mace, nutmeg, coriander, cumin, cardamom, fennel and dried chilies. We make our own just the way we like it, then store it in the fridge – yummmmm.

A quick note about corn: the ear worms are unusually pernicious this year. If they gross you out too badly, you can save yourself a little trouble by whacking off the top of the ear before you even shuck it. This is it for the corn! Enjoy!

Next week we will have pears. Depending on harvest we will give you a few then offer them for sale. They are organically grown and extremely delicious – not hard grocery store Bartlett pears – soft, succulent Magness pears. We’d like $1 per lb for them. We might be able to go down on the price if you order by the half bushel or peck. They freeze well, make wonderful pear butter, and even store fairly well if kept refrigerated.

We send our empathy and support to all the folks suffering under rough weather conditions, here and around the world. Special thoughts especially go to Brinna and Hidden Springs Orchard (our excellent blueberry source) for a quick recovery from way too much rain.

We wish you all a wonderful weekend.

Paul, Coree, and Lulah Entwistle


“The farmer has to be an optimist or he wouldn't still be a farmer.” ~ Will Rogers

"There seem to be but three ways for a nation to acquire wealth. The first is by war, as the Romans did, in plundering their conquered neighbors. This is robbery. The second by commerce, which is generally cheating. The third by agriculture, the only honest way, wherein man receives a real increase of the seed thrown into the ground, in a kind of continual miracle, wrought by the hand of God in his favor, as a reward for his innocent life and his virtuous industry." ~ Benjamin Franklin

week 12

Red Springs Family Farm
August 12, 2010 week 12

Tomatoes Lettuce Peppers
Garlic Potatoes Okra
Summer Squash
Cucumber or Eggplant Melons by choice
Herb bag: Basil Parsley Tulsi Thyme

Ah, another scorching week in August. This side of Macon County did not receive the torrential downpour we saw in Cookeville last Thursday, so we’re ready for another RAIN. Lulah is an excellent rain-dancer, when she’s focused. Anyone else with talents in that direction is welcome to send their foot-stomping this way.

The sweet corn is slightly shy of its peak. Next week will be the corn extravaganza! The upper garden is carrying on as well as it can. Eggplants are swelling, but have indicated a need for rain. Peppers and melons seem oblivious to everyone else’s suffering in the heat. They just keep rolling. Halona and Amish cantaloupes are in a blooming frenzy, and preparing to ripen another round of succulent fruit. The watermelons are struggling with pressure from the butternuts, the morning glories, and the raccoons, but they keep blooming too, so with luck we will have at least a trickle of melons coming. Though it seems early, acorn squashes are almost ready for harvest. Amazing how just when summer seems completely overwhelming, we are reminded of the reality of Autumn’s eminence.

We’ve laid drip tape in the lower garden to help the greens along. Often just laying out the drip tape helps summon a rain. The greens are out there, waiting for a drenching. Okra and summer squashes are thriving, and their beautiful flowers attract a beautiful diversity of insect life. This is just about the worst cucumber year we can remember. We’re grateful that they are still coming. Green beans are trying, but seem to be having some trouble with making fruit in the heat. We can’t win them all.

September’s cheese selection is Cheddar (either mild or aged) for $9/lb ($5 for ½ lb) and Asiago for $10/lb ($5 for ½ lb). The Asiago is not quite as hard a grating cheese as Parmesan, but still great for pesto-making. Please tell us what you want by next week (August 19). We will bring the cheese to the market September 2nd. If you are interested in a larger quantity of cheese, we can order 2 or 5 lb blocks of these varieties at a slight discount. Inquire if you’re interested.

To continue the food preservation notes from last week:
Says Lynne Rosetto Kasper of ‘The Splendid Table’: “Right now is the time to freeze fresh herbs for winter while they are cheap and prime. Just wash them well, drain well, strip leaves into heavy-duty plastic bags, press out all the air and seal. Rosemary and thyme can be frozen right on their branches. To use, don't defrost, just break off what you need.”

And some handy-to-know potato equivalents:
1 lb potatoes yields: 2 cups French fries, 3 cups sliced, 2 cups mashed or 2 ½ cups diced.

Potatoes were one of Coree’s most tolerable early pregnancy foods, so the next recipe, with a few modifications, is dear to her senses.

Cheesy Potato Spoon Bread (from Vegetarian Times)
4 cups mashed potatoes 1 cup all purpose flour 2 Tbsp butter or substitute
½ tsp onion powder Salt to taste ½ tsp ground pepper
4 large eggs, beaten ¼ cup minced fresh parsley (optional)
6 oz Pepper Jack cheese (Chipotle Colby?) 10 oz softened cream cheese
1. Preheat oven to 425. Butter a 2 qt. Soufflé dish or casserole.
2. If using cold mashed potatoes, heat them, stirring frequently to prevent scorching.
3. Meanwhile, bring 1 cup water to a boil. Put flour, butter, onion powder, salt, pepper and cayenne in mixing bowl, and pour boiling water over mixture. Using electric mixer on low, beat for 1 minute, and add very hot mashed potatoes. Beat again well. Add eggs, and beat again, until thoroughly combined. Set aside to cool slightly.
4. Mix parsley, shredded cheese and cream cheese in mixing bowl. Scoop 4 cups of potato mixture into prepared casserole. Make well in center, and spoon in the parsley cheese mixture. Top with remaining potato mixture. Place casserole on a baking sheet.
5. Bake for 50 minutes. Let cool 15 minutes before serving. Garnish with sprigs of parsley.

The yellow crookneck summer squash have arrived. Those fruits seem to ripen by the hour. Refrigerate unwashed summer squash for up to a week and a half in a perforated plastic bag or in a sealed plastic container lined with a kitchen towel. Before using, rinse the fruit under cool running water to remove any dirt or prickles; then slice off the stem and blossom ends. Slice into rounds, quarters, or chunks according to the specifications of your recipe.

Here’s a nice one that satisfies that southern-fried urge we sometimes get. You could probably combine okra into this recipe with good results.

Summer Squash with Crispy Cornmeal Coating (from Farmer John’s Cookbook)
1 cup cornmeal salt, freshly ground pepper, and other herbs to taste
2 medium summer squash, halved crosswise, then sliced lengthwise into ¼ inch thick strips
1 cup all purpose flour 1 egg beaten Olive oil, or virgin coconut oil

1. Mix the cornmeal with salt and pepper to taste in a shallow bowl (mix in any other herbs and spices you might like at this time as well – garlic and paprika sound good).
2. Working with one piece of squash at a time, coat it lightly in flour and shake off any excess. Next, dip the floured squash in the beaten egg, letting the excess drip off, then dip it in the cornmeal and coat well. Set the coated squash aside. Repeat the process with the remaining squash slices.
3. Lin e a plate with a paper towel. Pour enough oil into a large skillet to thoroughly cover the bottom and heat over medium high heat. Transfer as many of the coated slices to the skillet as will easily fit and cook until they are brown, about 5 minutes. Flip the slices and cook until brown, about 5 minutes more. Transfer the cooked slices to the paper towel lined plate to drain and cool.
4. Scrape off any leftover burning pieces of cornmeal form the skillet, add more oil if necessary and repeat the cooking process with the next batch of squash.
5. Season with additional salt to taste and serve slightly warm or at room temperature.

As always, we thank you for your support this year and hope you enjoy this week’s harvest.
With best regards for your good health,
Paul, Coree, and Lulah Entwistle

O thou who passest through our valleys in Thy strength, curb thy fierce steeds, allay the heat That flames from their large nostrils! Thou, O Summer, Oft pitchest here thy golden tent, and oft Beneath our oaks hast slept, while we beheld With joy thy ruddy limbs and flourishing hair. ~William Blake

catching up on Newsletters!

July 29, 2010 week 10

Tomatoes Lettuce Peppers
Garlic Beets Carrots
Cantaloupe Crimson Sweet Watermelon
Summer Squash Okra by request
Herb bag: Basil & Parsley

We’re at the mid-point of the season. It’s always a sticky time of year. There’s watermelon and cantaloupe juice to stick to your face, and salty sweat to stick to your skin and clothes. If you’re having trouble beating the heat – come for a visit and swim in the creek! It’s really hot out here too, but the creek is shaded and cool (and fun for kids).

The next planting of cucumbers are trying to fend off a case of powdery mildew, and we’re trying to help them. They’re blooming, as are the next summer squashes and zucchinis. All three of our cantaloupe varieties will be represented this week. The tiny ones with the bulge on the bottom are Golden Jennys. They are very small, but in years past their flavor has made up for their size. The really large ones are Amish, and the mid-sized ones are Halonas. Bigger watermelons have ripened now, too. These are Crimson Sweets, a great traditional sweet watermelon. As much as we love the little Petite Yellows, these pink Sweets are a welcome change. How far can you spit a watermelon seed?

We got SOAKED picking the tomatoes, peppers, watermelons, and cantaloupes on Wednesday. The rain started as a nice Hawaiian style light rain, then gradually increased pressure to a full on pour. It was a funny feeling, and everyone agreed that we were actually more comfortable soaking wet with rain than we had been soaking wet with sweat earlier in the morning.

Beets and carrots are back! This year isn’t our best for beets, and this particular bed seemed to grow weeds faster than we could pull them, but they still made some bulbs, so we’ll just be glad about that! This little refrigerator pickle recipe is versatile and forgiving and a great way to pick away at your beets if you’re not up for baking them or using them up all in one dish.

Pickled Beets (from the Kripalu Cookbook)
4 cups cooked beets, sliced 5 cups water 1 tsp salt

Marinade:
½ cup lemon juice 1 cup vinegar ¼ cup honey
½ Tbsp dill ¼ tsp mustard powder

Cook the beets, and remove them from the heat. Soak and chill the beets in water and salt for several hours and then drain off the water. Prepare all the ingredients needed for the marinade, mix them together well and pour marinade on top of the beets. Allow this mixture of marinate overnight and serve the next day. This has a tangy sweet taste, perking up your lunch of dinner vegetables.



“A native of Afghanistan and a relative of celery, parsnips, caraway, cilantro, cumin and dill, the carrot is a most useful, versatile, nutritious and popular vegetable, revered not only as an accompaniment to other dishes but as a base ingredient for sups, stock and stews. In hotel in the town of Vichy, France, carrots are eaten daily as part of a cure for overloaded digestion; and many cultures have valued them as an aphrodisiac. Research has shown that three raw carrots eaten daily lower blood cholesterol; and that a single carrot per day cuts the risk of lung cancer among smokers in half. Carrots are rich sources of carotenoids, B vitamins, phosphorus, calcium and all important iodine.” (from Nourishing Traditions, by Sally Fallon)

Here’s an excellent carrot salad from that same book:
Carrot Salad
12 medium carrots, grated 1 cup fresh pineapple
½ cup raisins ½ cup pecans
1 Tbsp finely chopped parsley ¾ cup basic dressing
Mix all ingredients and chill well.

Basic Dressing
1 tsp Dijon type mustard, smooth or grainy 2 Tbsp plus a splash raw wine vinegar
½ cup extra virgin olive oil 1 Tbsp flax oil

Dip a fork into the jar of mustard and transfer about 1 tsp to a small bowl. Add vinegar and mix around. Add olive oil in a thin stream stirring all the while with the form, until oil is well mixed. Add flax oil and use immediately.

The next round of corn is tassling now, and the melons are spreading into their adjoining rows. As usual, the butternuts dominate their space, as well as their neighbors’, but it bodes well for the Autumn harvest. Eggplants are blooming again, too. There will be more green beans soon. Gardens are at full tilt, and so are we!

Basil is beginning to grow faster than we can pick it on a weekly basis. If you would like to put up pesto for the winter, you may start ordering extras ($5/lb).

Here’s a nice basic pesto recipe:
Pesto
2 cups packed fresh basil leaves, washed and dried
2-4 cloves of garlic, peeled ½ tsp sea salt
¼ cup pine nuts ¼ cup good quality grated Parmesan cheese
¼-1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil

Please basil leaves in food processor. Pulse until well chopped. Add garlic, salt, pine nuts and cheese and blend well. Pour olive oil into the processor in a thin stream until pesto forms a thick paste. Pesto will keep several days, well sealed in refrigerator; or it may be frozen.

Thank you for your good eating!

Paul, Coree, and Lulah Entwistle

“The true Southern watermelon is a boon apart, and not to be mentioned with commoner things. It is chief of this world’s luxuries, king by the grace of God over all fruits of the earth. When one has tasted it, he knows what the angels eat. It was not a Southern watermelon that Eve took; we know it because she repented.” ~ Mark Twain

August 5, 2010 week 11

Tomatoes Lettuce Peppers
Garlic Carrots Potatoes
Summer Squash/Okra Tomatillos
Cantaloupe or Watermelon
Herb bag: Basil & Parsley

I’d like to be more chipper about the heat, but honestly, it’s not easy. Things are holding up amazingly well in the garden, but anything that can be stressed by heat is definitely stressed now. The tomato harvest is lighter than usual and the squashes are stalling. The lettuce still wants to bolt, but that’s to be expected. For all that, we can also fairly speak of what plants LOVE the heat. Peppers are un-phased. Eggplants aren’t producing gobs, but don’t wilt in the midday sun and persist to bloom. Okra just keeps going and the sweet potato vines look wonderful. Tomatoes are getting a little bit blighty now, but tomatillos just get more vines, more fruits as the summer heat progresses.

We’re a little nervous as we begin transplanting thousands of tender young greens into the soil. These are the plants that will thrive in the cool weather, but if we wait until cool weather to plant them, then we’ll not get any until late October. It’s a conundrum that we face each year, tho this year is really putting us to the test. We plant with faith that the weather will break, and that there will be at least enough.

Next week we anticipate the possibilities of… green beans, sweet corn, and maybe new cucumbers, too. Remember to order basil by the pound if you’re ready to make pesto.

We’re not sure what to think of zucchini anymore. Five summers ago we had a great time with zucchini. Ever since then, we’ve had no luck at all. The early yellow crooknecks and patty pans do fine, but zukes all get mildew, blight, and bugs before they can set fruit. We’re still working on it – we have no explanation. We just share what we’ve got and thank you for eating with us.

These potatoes are courtesy of our neighbors at Long Hungry Creek Farm, who have room to grow an acre of tubers without interrupting their rotation. They’re great potatoes, completely organic, grown just a couple miles from here.

We have received some comments lately about too much food. As usual, we can’t honestly apologize for this problem, but we do want to help however we can. First, please don’t take what you can’t eat. Pass extras to neighbors and friends, or, (our favorite option) PUT IT BY. This is the phrase used to describe the ancient science and art of food storage.

Dry or freeze your parsley and basil for use in winter. Either can be chopped and mixed with olive oil in an ice cube tray or small freezer zip lock bag. Drying takes a little more time, but a paper bag in a fairly un-humid house (not like ours) will do the trick.

Tomatoes are fine frozen. We recommend slipping the skins first. To do this, dip the tomatoes in boiling water until the skin bursts, then quickly pull them from that water bath and dip them into cold water (a large slotted spoon works well for this). The skins should ‘slip’ right off. You can pop them right into zip locks from here and use them any time before next tomato season.

Store your potatoes in the dark, not the fridge, not the oven, just a dark dry place where they won’t be tempted to make sprouts and turn green on the skins. If some small places on the skins turn green, just slice off the green before you cook them.

Peppers don’t need to be blanched before freezing. Just wash the, chop them to your favorite size, pop ‘em in a bag and store them in the freezer.

Here’s another way to prepare peppers for storage, and general eating:
Roasted Sweet Peppers
1. Turn a gas burner on high (an electric stove will work too, but a gas flame produces better results) and place the peppers directly on the flame. Use any number of available burners to accommodate the peppers, or if the peppers are small you can place two on one burner.
2. Using tongs, turn the peppers as their skins blacken; you want to end up with a pepper that is completely black (the amount of time this takes depends on the size of the pepper, how hot the flam is, and how often you turn the peppers). Once they’re blackened, place the peppers in a paper bag and seal the bag tightly. Let them sit for about 10 minutes.
3. Remove the peppers from the bag, cut them in half, remove the stem and seeds, and flatten each half on your cutting board. Use a knife or your finger to scrape away the skin. The peppers are now ready for use.
4. To store your roasted peppers, place them in a container, cover with olive oil and seal tightly. Store peppers in the refrigerator for about a week, longer if they are completely covered in oil.

Peppers prepared this way are great on sandwiches, pizza, pasta, or in omelets, mixed in mayonnaise, or hummus. You can also freeze roasted peppers for a taste of roasty summer in the cold of winter.

Oh, and couple irresistible ideas if you’re tired of cantaloupes:
Cantaloupe and Cardamom
1 medium cantaloupe, cut into 1 inch cubes ¼ tsp ground cardamom
1-2 Tbsp freshly squeezed lime juice fresh ground black pepper
¼ cup chopped cilantro Toss all ingredients in a large bowl and refrigerate 1 hour.

Ginger Melon Sorbet
1 medium cantaloupe cut into 1 inch cubes ½ cup sugar
1 ½ Tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice 2 Tbsp freshly grated ginger
1. Combine all ingredients in a food processor or blender and puree until just smooth.
2. Transfer the mixture to an ice cream maker and free according to directions. If you have no ice cream maker, pour the mixture into a tray or zip top bag and freeze it on a flat surface. Remove from freezer, thaw, then put it through the blender again. Repeat this process at least once more, or until the mixture is very smooth and blended with no separation.
3. Serve garnished with mint leaves.

Stay cool and enjoy the ride…
Thank you for your support.

The Entwistles

“All flesh is grass, and all its strength like the flower of the field.” Isaiah 40:6

newsletter week 9

Red Springs Family Farm
July 22, 2010 week 9

Tomatoes Lettuce Pepper
Garlic Summer Squash Sweet Corn
Eggplant Green Beans
Okra or Cucumber Cantaloupe/Watermelon
Herb bag: Basil & Parsley

Welcome to the mid-season abundance ~ full heat, unseasonably regular rainfall, rampant growth, and big production. Enjoy!

Okra plants grew a foot taller over the past few days. Watermelons and tomatoes began to split as the recent downpours saturated the soil. Sad as that is, there’s still plenty to eat, and canning season has begun. Eggplants are just beginning. They won’t be a regular, weekly item for quite awhile, but these nice plump black globes were weighing down the eggplant branches.

We didn’t think there would be enough green beans to send this week, but we were proven wrong this morning. You have all the ingredients for a small batch of ratatouille this week.

It’s been a busy-bee week on land. Sunday night’s thunder and lightning storm shook the house and kept us awake. We felt fortunate the next day when we learned that Tompkinsville, (not too far from here) got a whopping FOUR INCHES of rain. We got just over a half inch, which was perfectly sufficient considering how fast and hard it fell. We took a day easy for Coree’s birthday, and enjoyed a meal at a new restaurant outside of Nashville, the Farm House. It is a thrill for us to pay someone else to cook and do dishes, and we were particularly satisfied because the restaurant uses primarily locally sourced and sustainably farmed meats and vegetables. Support local business – the quality is well worth the price.

The next round of corn isn’t quite tassling yet – this round sure came in nice.

Grilled Corn on the Cob
To prepare corn for grilling, peel back the husks but do not tear them off. Tear out he discard the corn silk, and then pull the husks back over the cobs. Some cooks moisten the husks with water before grilling which helps keep them from burning, especially over a very hot fire.) Put the cobs on the hot grill over medium-low fire for 7 to 8 minutes, turning every few minutes. Before serving, check one to make sure it is done. Serve with sweet butter and salt. Or serve with lime wedges and a mixture of salt and cayenne to sprinkle on the corn.

We’re short on time today. Harvest is a time consuming process these days!

Best regards, Paul, Coree, and Lulah Entwistle

“The soil is the great connector of lives, the source and destination of all. It is the healer and restorer and resurrector, by which disease passes into health, age into youth, death into life. Without proper care for it we can have no community, because without proper care for it we can have no life.”
~ Wendell Berry, from his essay The Use of Energy

Red Springs Family Farm
July 15, 2010 week 8

Tomatoes Lettuce Green Pepper
Garlic Summer Squash Melons
Green Beans Sweet Corn
Herb bag: Basil & Parsley

We are SO grateful for that rain. It was a good pleasant soaker, some a little fast, but not so fast that the ground couldn’t hold it. The cloud cover gave us a much needed break from the heat and the plants have all responded immediately. We are very glad, very grateful. Now, back to pulling weeds!

We took the rainy day opportunity to start the Fall garden. On trays in our living room and out in the shade shack in the yard are now many thousands of soil blocks with broccoli, Chinese cabbages, kales, collards, and kohlrabis sprouting within them. They are germinating well and we will be dedicating time in the next dry spell to preparing space for them in the soil.

Meanwhile, the gardens are exploding. As usual, there are booms and busts. There won’t be any more knowing what will come in the baskets for the next few weeks. We’ll just be taking up the harvest as it comes, and bringing you the best we’ve got. Peppers and tomatoes are thriving. Melons have ripened faster than usual in the heat, and threaten to explode after the rain. Some of the smaller eggplants that we thought were goners seem to be sending new growth up. We’ll hope for an extended harvest from those. Bean beetles are hard at work on the green beans, so we’re hard at work on the bean beetles.

Sweet corn news flash: Paul went to check the sweet corn Saturday morning and found three unripened ears stripped and chewed in the patch. Because of the rain, the empty rows around the corn had to be hand-weeded before we could put up electric fence. So, he spent a good part of the day doing that. Sunday he went to put the fence up and found a carnage of 60 ears chewed on the ground. Don’t fret, there’s still more, but it was loss. We’re sending you the first pick this week. We can’t even pretend to supply those of you who are corn enthusiasts with ALL your corn needs for the season, but we do hope to provide you with an exceptional corn experience while it lasts. This week’s pick is small – there will be more next week.

The sugars in corn very rapidly deteriorate into starches. We try to bring you corn at its very freshest, and hope you will enjoy it almost immediately (like, tonight!). If you can’t get around to eating your corn right away, it might be a good idea to cook it right away and store it so those sugars are preserved at their peak. Really fresh corn required very little heat to make it tender – just a few minutes (four) at a boil, or a few more than that if you steam it. We like it raw, too, and you could just cut some of the corn into a salsa or stir fry with the peppers, tomatoes, or green beans.

These little pint sized watermelons are called Petite Yellow. YES, they’re supposed to be yellow inside. The cantaloupes are mostly a variety called Halona, which we picked up after some of our friends grew them last year with beautiful success. There are more of these to come as well.

For those of you enjoying this luscious blueberry harvest, we thought this recipe might suite you on a hot day…

Blueberry Granita
2 ½ cups fresh blueberries ½ cup sugar ¾ cup water
1 tsp grated lemon rind 1 Tbsp lemon juice

Combine blueberries and sugar in a food processor and blend until smooth. Strain through the sieve, stirring with a spoon to extract the pulp and juice. Discard seeds. Add water and lemon rind and juice to blueberry puree. Pour mixture into a shallow dish or pie plate. Place in freezer and freeze 8 hours or overnight. Scrape with a fork until mixture is like shaved ice. Serves 4.

As for these tomatoes – aren’t they grand? We’re so glad to be able to give so many so early in the season. So far the vines are holding well and the rain has certainly helped them along. Alice Waters shares pleasant and useful comment and recipes on tomatoes in her book on vegetables:

“The first ripe, locally grown tomatoes still come as a shock. They stimulate all the senses at once, and place us firmly in summer. And they are a reminder of how far agriculture has drifted away from seasonality. When tomatoes are available in the supermarket year round, we lose that keen anticipatory yearning for the juiciness of summer. Instead, we accept a pale approximation of a tomato, a tomato completely severed from our daily reality, grown by farmers thousands of miles away.
Never store tomatoes in the refrigerator; cold temperatures kill their flavor. Keep them at room temperature. Perfectly ripe ones may keep only a day or two, but less ripe ones should keep for a few days to a week. If you find yourself with too many ripe tomatoes at once, make them into a quick sauce.”

Tomato and Basil Bruschetta
Slice large ripe tomatoes into thick slices and season well with salt and pepper. Fry thick slices of crusty country bread in a heavy skillet in 1/8 inch of olive oil until they are golden brown on both sides (or grill it). As the bread fries, you will need to add more oil to keep the pan from going dry. Remove the bread slices form the pan and drain them briefly on a towel. Rub the bread slices generously with garlic. Top each slice of bread with a thick tomato slice and a basil leaf, and season with salt and pepper. Drizzle a little extra-virgin olive oil over the tomatoes and serve.

Pasta with Tomato Confit
Allow about 2 tomatoes per serving. Make a bed of basil leaves in the bottom of an ovenproof dish that will hold the tomatoes snugly in one layer. Peel and core the tomatoes and place them core side down on the basil. Lightly salt and pepper. Pour in enough extra virgin olive oil to come halfway up the sides of the tomatoes. Bake for 1 ½ hours in a preheated 350 degree oven, until the tomatoes are soft and lightly caramelized and have infused the oil with their perfume. Season to taste and serve spooned over cooked and drained fresh noodles.

Remember, we need your cheese order no later than next week. Colby-Chipotle and Farm Jack both for $8/lb ($4 for ½ lb). Cheese will come to delivery August 5. Kenny’s Cheese only comes once a month!

Have a great weekend! Paul, Coree and Lulah Entwistle

“A good end cannot sanctify evil Means; nor must we ever do evil, that good may come of it.”
~William Penn~

And week 7

Red Springs Family Farm
July 7, 2010 week 7

Tomatoes Lettuces Cucumbers
Garlic Fennel Summer Squash
Onion Carrots & Beets
Herb bag: Basil Parsley Dill

Oh dear, it’s hot! I guess it IS July and all, but we’re ready for a “cold snap” and some beautiful rain. Who knew how much we would come to appreciate rain again after such a wet spring, but there’s no substitute for balanced weather. Drip tape is laid down in many rows now, and there’s nothing in the garden that wouldn’t benefit from a good soaker now.

So, the lettuce is suffering in the heat and dry. These beautiful red heads are, by most standards, pretty bitter. We recommend dressing them with a sweet or fruity dressing (blueberry vinaigrette anyone?), and if that doesn’t work, just use those beautiful leaves as a garnish for the very yummy tomatoes. Next week’s lettuce is looking better, and after that we’re relying on the graces of the weather.

Yes! Tomatoes! And there will be more, so many more! The very firm small, round ones are Early Girls, which didn’t turn out to be quite so early, since we planted them down in the bottom, but it was worth a try, and they’re lovely, right on time. The first time we tried an Early Girl, we thought “oh no, it’s so hard it won’t taste good”, but we were wrong. Their flavor is very good, and they don’t bruise as easily as our favorite Paul Robesons. The Robesons are worth the trouble to keep bruise-free. We’ll try to keep you informed about other tomato varieties as the season progresses. There are so many kinds, and they are great fun to eat!

Your carrots and beets may look a little smaller this week. They are. We’re thinning a new bed, hoping for the rain to swell the ones left behind into nice juicy roots. You’ll likely find a few unusual beets in your bag. Those are Chioggia beets, striped on the inside. It’s an old heirloom variety from Italy. We grew a few to see how they performed and have been impressed. Let us know what you think!

It’s my guess that any Italian immigrants who settled Tennessee and tried to grow their heirloom seeds soon figured out that fennel is finicky in the humidity. They probably resorted to great tomatoes, basil, garlic, zucchini, and maybe some Chioggia beets pretty quick. Fennel grows wild by the side of the road in places like northern California. Not here. So, here’s the last of it for this season. I think it would be yummy to slice the fennel, carrots and beets, throw in some whole peeled garlic cloves and toss it all with plenty of olive oil, salt and pepper. Roast that combo in the oven until the beets are tender, then squeeze some fresh lemon juice over it. Yum.

Our summer squashes and cucumbers are asking for a rain, too. The cucumbers may go on vacation next week. The Patty pan squashes in their pretty sunburst and pale greens will keep trickling in. We don’t like to be overwhelmed with summer squashes, and hope you are finding just the right things to do with yours. Here’s one classic recipe for you:


SQUASH CASSEROLE from COOKS.COM

2 cups summer squash, sliced 1 cup carrot, grated
1 cup onion, diced 1 cup sour cream
2 cups seasoned croutons 2 tablespoons butter

In a 2-quart casserole dish, layer 1/2 of the croutons on bottom. Mix vegetables together with the sour cream and spread on top of the croutons.
Add the rest of the croutons then top with the butter. Bake at 350 F for 1 hour.
Serving Size: 4

Another way to embrace your beets:
Baked Beet Root with Yogurt Walnut Dressing
3/4 cup walnuts 5 medium beets, thoroughly washed
1 tablespoon butter 2 cups plain yogurt
1 minced hot green chile peppers 2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
3 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro 1 red chili pepper, minced
salt to taste

1~Spread walnuts in a single layer on a baking sheet. Roast at 300 degrees F for 15 to 20 minutes. Chop coarsely.
2~Butter aluminum foil. Pierce beets with a fork, and wrap with foil. Bake at 375 degrees F for 1 hour, or until tender (it won’t take so long with these small beets). Cool.
3~In a medium bowl, beat yogurt until smooth. Mix in green chile pepper, coriander, and walnuts. Season to taste with salt. Chill for 30 minutes.
4~Peel beets, and quarter without cutting all the way through. Place in a serving dish, and spread open. Spoon dressing over beets, and garnish with cilantro, and minced red chile peppers.

Celebrating the start of tomato season…

Roasted Tomato Basil Pesto

2 pre-roasted tomatoes, or 1 large fresh tomato 2-3 cloves of garlic, peeled, halved
3 Tbsp pine nuts 2 Tbsp Extra virgin olive oil
1 cup fresh whole basil leaves ½ cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
2 Tbsp butter, softened Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

1) Combine the tomatoes, garlic, pine nuts and oil in a blender and process until just combined. Add a handful of basil and process again briefly; continue adding the basil in small amounts until all is combined.
2) Stir in the Parmesan cheese and butter and season with salt and pepper to taste.

Next week we’ll have green beans again, and bell peppers too! Watermelons are looking promising, as is the okra. Join us in praying, hoping, dancing and singing for a good long gently soaking rain this weekend.

Be well,
Paul, Coree, and Lulah Entwistle

“You talk of the mines of Australia,
They’ve wealth in red gold, without doubt;
But, ah! There is gold in the farm, boys –
If only you’ll shovel it out”