tired field hand during a harvest

Lettuce                        Onions                       Garlic

Carrots            Beets                            Summer Squash

Green and Wax Beans                Cucumber              Tomatoes       

Parsley                        Sorrel             Dill     Basil   

All will come again into its strength:
the fields undivided, the waters undammed,
the trees towering and the walls built low.
And in the valleys, people as strong and varied as the land.                                  ~Rilke

Yes, we finally got some rain.  It started early Tuesday and made a drizzly wonderful grey inch and a little more.  We’re hopeful that there’s more to come.  The garden and the gardeners alike breathe a great sigh of relief.  I hardly have anything to say in the newsletter except that we’re so happy that it rained.  With luck, the summer will proceed in this sticky humid, reasonable fashion, and we’ll be able to salvage the plants that suffered, and stop pumping so much water!  Please join us in being grateful for the bit of mud present on today’s basket.

All the tomatoes are getting colorful now, and the eggplant are small, but needing to be thinned for better growth.  We will pick all the sun burnt peppers from the plants and let them get another start.  Cantaloupes are green and swelling to size quite rapidly.  The beets are small, they can’t grow without their leaves, which have been defoliated by the blister beetles, which are present in what would seem a horrifying quantity.  However, upon researching the bugs, we discovered that their larvae feed on grasshopper larvae.  Grasshoppers are a formidable late summer pest, so we’re trying to tolerate the blister beetles in the hopes that they take a toll on the grasshopper population in the near future.  There’s always more to learn about life in its many amazing, sometimes lovely and sometimes disgusting forms. 

The kids and I took a great long weekend to Florida.  It was an unthinkable sort of trip, leaving just when the tomatoes are beginning to ripen, but an old friend’s wedding….  it was so wonderful to go.  We’re grateful to Paul for staying home and fending off groundhogs and grasshoppers, keeping the water flowing, and the tomatoes and beans picked, and the chickens and kitty fed while we were gone.  We couldn’t have pulled it off without the whole family’s involvement (Thank you Family!).  Momo came along to kid-wrangle (no small task), and we all enjoyed the gentle clear water of the Gulf of Mexico, three consecutive beach sunsets, and a beautiful wedding.  We got home after a grueling day on the road, fell into deep sleep, and woke to thunder and rain.  The next afternoon, an old friend from college brought her two growing children for an overnight visit while they passed through the state.  The kids helped harvest the tomatoes and onions and had a great time testing the electric fence and chasing chickens.  It’s been a diverse week with plenty of work, and plenty of fun.  Summer is FULL.

We grew more onions this year than ever before.  Use them up.  The ones we’re giving now may not store so well.  You can either try to cure them in a warm, dry, but not sunny place, then store them with your garlic (but not with potatoes!) for the long run, OR you can keep them in a plastic bag in the fridge, and eat them within a week or two.

Onion Poppy Seed Drop Biscuits

Oil or butter for greasing the baking sheets             2 large eggs

½ cup canola (or other) oil                                        2 large onions grated, liquid reserved

3 cups unbleached all purpose flour                         ½ cup poppy seeds (or sesame)

2 Tbsp water                                                              2 tsp baking powder

1 ½ tsp salt                                                                 1 tsp sugar

1) Preheat oven to 400F.  Lightly coat 2 baking sheets with oil or butter.

2) Beat the eggs in a large bowl.  Stir in the oil and the grated onions with their liquid.  Sift in the flour, then add the poppy seeds, water, baking powder, salt and sugar.  Stir the ingredients just until they are moistened but not completely smooth.  Do not overmix the batter or it will become stretchy and your biscuits will be tough. 

3) Drop the mixture by the tablespoonful onto the prepared baking sheets.  Bake until golden brown, 10 to 15 minutes.  Serve warm.

Grated Raw Beet Salad with Fresh Dill and Mustard Vinaigrette

3-4 cups Beets (I would use carrots too!), peeled, coarsely grated                 ½ cup olive oil

3 Tbsp white wine vinegar                                        1 Tbsp finely chopped shallot

1 tsp prepared Dijon mustard                                               1 small clove garlic minced or pressed

Salt & freshly ground pepper to taste                                   1-2 Tbsp finely chopped fresh dill

1) Put the grated beets in a large salad bowl.

2) Combine the olive oil, vinegar, shallot, mustard, and garlic in a large jar.  With the lid tightly screwed on, shake the jar vigorously until the oil and vinegar are thickened.

3) Pour the dressing over the beets and toss until well coated.  Season with salt and pepper to taste.  Transfer beet mixture to the refrigerator to marinate for at least 1 hour (or overnight).

4) Add the fresh dill, toss again, and serve chilled.

The squash are threatening to overrun the garden.  If we miss a day picking them, and even if we don’t, they grow into monsters.  I use the yellow squash just like I would a zucchini in this sweet bread:

3 cups all-purpose flour                     1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking soda                     1 teaspoon baking powder

3 teaspoons ground cinnamon          3 eggs

1 cup vegetable oil                             2 1/4 cups white sugar (or a substitute)

3 teaspoons vanilla extract                2 cups grated zucchini (at least)

1 cup chopped walnuts                     raisins if you like them (soak them before adding)

1. Grease and flour two 8 x 4 inch pans. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C).

2. Sift flour, salt, baking powder, soda, and cinnamon together in a bowl.

3. Beat eggs, oil, vanilla, and sugar together in a large bowl. Add sifted ingredients to the creamed mixture, and beat well. Stir in zucchini and nuts until well combined. Pour batter into prepared pans.

4. Bake for 40 to 60 minutes, or until tester inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in pan on rack for 20 minutes. Remove bread from pan, and completely cool.

Next week, there will be more carrots, beans and cucumbers, hopefully more eggplant, possibly tomatillos or some small peppers. 

Eat well, be well, and thanks for your support!                               Paul, Coree, Lulah and Levon

week 6

Lettuce                        Onions                       Fresh Garlic

Carrots            Chioggia Beets            Summer Squash

Parsley                        Sorrel   Cilantro or Dill     Basil        Tulsi

“A good community insures itself by trust, by good faith and good will, by mutual help.  A good community, in other words, is a good local economy.” ~ Wendell Berry (The Work of Local Culture)

Summer is off to a roaring start, folks.  Let us tell you about our week!  The good news is that Paul fixed the tractor PTO, which means we were finally able to mow the perimeter of the top garden and will be able to use the rototiller again when the soil is moist enough to till.  He's so handy – I think we would hire him out if we didn't keep him working full time here on the farm.  The not so good news is that Paul had a collision on our little one lane dirt road and our farm truck is wrecked beyond use.  The best part is that no one was injured.  We loved our twenty year old Ranger pick up.  We bought it in Seattle, on our way home from living on Maui.  It has been with us through some changes and served us well.  Now, if any of you see a full sized pick up truck, 4 wheel drive, extended cab for sale at a reasonable price – PLEASE let us know.

As for the drought, oh my.  We're fortunate to have created a way to irrigate our lower gardens.   The situation of our gardens is like this: there are lower gardens, where the lettuce and greens, summer squash, and most root crops are grown.  These are on our property, down in the hollow by our house.  Our property is not connected to city or county water.  We pump water from the spring fed stream on our perimeter into a holding tank on the hill above our home.  It gravity feeds down into our house where we filter it twice for home use and drinking water.  When we're not irrigating, we pump water up to the tank every two weeks or so.  Last year, we created a special line off the tank to feed drip lines in the field.  Almost ever row in the garden now has a line of drip tape at its base.  Lately, we're pumping the tank full twice and sometimes three times every day.  And so, the lower gardens are holding on.  We're wracking our brains to figure out a way to bring just a little irrigation to the upper gardens, which are not on our property but up the hill, quite a little hike, on our neighbor's place.  There's no well up there, no city water, and no electrical hook up.  The road is steep and narrow.   It's quiet and very beautiful, but not at all convenient. The tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, sweet potatoes, melons and winter squashes are up there.  Tomatoes are doing OK so far, and will likely begin ripening next week.  Tomato season may be fast and furious this year if the heat doesn't break.  The peppers and eggplant didn't have time to set their roots deep enough to be very happy with the current weather conditions.  The melons are doing surprisingly well, and we're amazed that the field corn is holding up as well as it is.  A nice long rain is definitely in order around here.  Just wanted to let you know how it goes around here in this long hot dry spell.

Our neighbors at Long Hungry Creek Farm grew an over abundance of these beautiful Chioggia beets.  They are exceptionally sweet and festive in coloration.  Carrots have struggled a little in the temperature extremes, but we're grateful to be pulling them through.  The white potatoes have been a little sad in the heat, but we're happy to share some new potatoes, harvested just yesterday, for your Fourth of July potato salad.

Recipes this week are courtesy of Deceptively Delicious (Simple Secrets to Get Your Kids Eating Good Food), by Jessica Seinfeld.  If your family is rejecting vegetables, this might be a good book for you.  These creative recipes use vegetables, grated, mashed or pureed, in many surprising forms.  To puree your veggies, just steam (don't boil!) them until soft, then grind them in a blender or food processor for a minute or two, until they are really smooth, and proceed from there.  Purees freeze easily too.  Have fun!

Tortilla “Cigars” These pack well for picnics and lunches – enjoy hot or cold!

1 cup sauteed or roasted chicken or turkey, cubes (optional)

½ cup shredded Cheddar or American Cheese

½ cup yellow squash puree                           ½ cup carrot puree

4 oz cream cheese                                          ¼ tsp garlic powder (or tsp minced fresh!)

¼ tsp salt                                                        6 large whole wheat tortillas

1) Preheat oven to 350F.  Line baking sheets with parchment paper or foil.

2) In a large bowl, stir together chicken, cheese, squash and carrot purees, cream cheese, garlic and salt.

3) Cut the tortillas in half.  Place one half on the work surface with the straight edge facing you.  Spread about 2 Tbsp. Of filling along the edge from one side to the other.  Starting at the edge, roll the tortilla into a cigar shape, completely enclosing the filling.  Place seam side down on the baking sheet. Stuff and roll the rest of the tortillas the same way.

4) Bake until the tortillas begin to brown, 4 to 5 minutes.  Let cool slightly before serving.

“Buttered” Noodles Very clever idea – she uses a trans-fat-free soft tub margarine spread, but I prefer to use a little real butter, or combo with olive oil, instead.

8 oz. Spaghetti, angel hair, or other pasta               ½ cup yellow squash puree

¼ cup milk                                                                  2 Tbsp butter or alternative spread

2 Tbsp grated Parmesan                                            ¼ tsp salt

1) Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil.  Add pasta and cook according to package instructions until al dente.

2) Drain, return the pasta to the warm pot, and stir in the squash puree (make sure it is very creamy), milk, butter, Parmesan, and salt.

(You might try sprinkling some finely chopped parsley or other green herbs on here too!)

We're getting a little nutty around here waiting for tomatoes and cucumbers to come around.  In the meantime, use your extra veggie pieces to make some really good stock.  Use those carrot and beet tops and onion and garlic skins in simmering water (add meat bones if you want) for a long time.  Pull out the veggies and use that good liquid to make soup, beans, rice, or anything good.  Freeze it in quart or pint freezer bags for later.  If you like mint tea, try tulsi – it's the long purplish flower tops with the strong fragrance.  We're headed for iced tea days this weekend, so make the most of that.   Also, I use the pretty UFO shaped patty pans just like zucchini – shredded in a thick sweet quick bread with lots of raisins.  If I get a spare moment, I'll post my favorite recipe on the blog.  Please share your favorite recipes with me!  We love to hear from you.

Have a very happy, safe Fourth of July celebration.  Drink water and stay in the shade as much as possible on these hot days.  If you see any rain, please push it our way! 

Vegetably yours ~                                                                            Paul, Coree, Lulah and Levon

week 5

 Attention - If you haven't already - please pick up a CSA Membership Information sheet - or ask us to email you one.  It's summer vacation time, so please make arrangements for your basket if  you are going away! Thanks a million...

Lettuce                        Green Beans              Fresh Garlic

Chard             little Beets                   Summer Squash

Parsley                        Sorrel Cilantro          Dill     Basil    

Elegant solutions will be predicated upon the uniqueness

of place. ~ John Todd

The summer solstice was yesterday - as hard as it is to believe, we are now beginning our earthly journey tilting away from the sun.  The days are hot hot hot and we're making the most of the mornings and evenings to finish the mulching and continue irrigating.  We've had some mighty good help from good friends lately.  That's a lot to be grateful for!  The gardens look amazingly beautiful for as dry as it has been.  The corn and beans keep growing.  Some plants are moving a little slower in the drought.  They are spending their energy reaching deeper to find the moisture they need.  One of the beauties of our low hollow location is that there is water for them to find under the ground!

A good thing about all the sun is that it will be bringing the tomatoes on a little earlier.  The larger fruits are looking less green, showing just the faintest blush. The eggplants and peppers are blooming profusely now and setting small fruit.  Watermelon and cantaloupe vines are stretching their tendrils long.  I'm sweating it out for the first cucumbers to fill out.  The first planting got lost in the heat and shuffle, so we're a little behind on those cooling fruits.  Summer squashes are fully on a roll now.  Send us your best squash casserole recipes.  Here we go!

These sweet little Beets were getting just right for salad.   We enjoy them curled onto the salad with a potato peeler.  The slices are thin enough to crunch right into the salad, adding a great color element and great rooty sweetness.  Feta cheese and toasted sunflower seeds are nice compliments as well.

All recipes this week are from the Mennonite Central Committee's excellent cookbook:

Simply In Season.

Stacked Vegetable Quesadillas

1/2 sweet onion, thinly sliced                       saute in 1 Tbsp oil until translucent

1 clove garlic (or more) minced                    4 oz. mushrooms, sliced

2 carrots, julienned                                        1 summer squash, julienned

1 green or red sweet pepper, thinly sliced

Add and cook 5 minutes more just until vegetables are tender.  Salt and pepper to taste.

12 corn tortillas                                              1 1/2 cups pepper jack cheese, shredded

Assemble 4 stacks simultaneously on a baking sheet.  Start with a tortilla, top with a large spoonful of vegetables, some grated cheese, and then another tortilla.  Repeat layers, ending with a third tortilla. Place stacks in preheated over at 400F for 10-15 minutes, until cheese is melted and stacks are hot.  Cut into  quarters and serve warm with salsa, sour cream, avocado and/or chopped fresh cilantro.

Thai Green Beans

5 cup green beans                  Steam 5-8 minutes until bright green and lightly crunchy.

1/2 onion, chopped               2 Tbsp ginger root, peeled and minced

3 cloves garlic, minced

In a frypan or wok saute in 2 tsp sesame oil over medium heat until onion is tender, 5 minutes.

Add to taste: 3 Tbsp soy sauce                       2 Tbsp Thai sweet chili sauce

Add and cook 5 minutes:            1 cup firm tofu (cubed or crumbled, optional)

Add steamed beans and stir to coat with sauce.  Simmer over medium - low heat for 5 minutes.  Serve over rice.  Garnish with toasted cashews, sesame seeds, or slivered almonds.

I love these kinds of recipes!  perfect for summer birthdays...

Secret Chocolate Cake

2 cups beets, cooked, peeled, chopped         1/2 cup applesauce

puree until smooth, set aside.

1 1/2 cups sugar                                            1/2 cup oil

1/2 cup plain yogurt                                     3 eggs

combine a large mixing bowl.  beat with electric mixer 2 minutes.

1/2 cup baking cocoa, sifted                         1 1/2 tsp vanilla

add along with pureed beets; beat another 90 seconds.

2 1/2 cups flour, white, wheat or mixed     1 1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt                                                     1 tsp cinnamon

Gradually sift into the batter, mixing it in with a spoon but stirring only until blended.

1/2 cup chocolate chips and/or chopped nuts

Stir in.  Pour into a greased 9x13 pan.  Bake at 350F until knife tests clean, 40-50 minutes.  To bake in a bundt pan, pour half of batter into the greased pan, sprinkle chips or nuts evenly on top, then add remaining batter.

Variation: substitute 2-3 cups shredded raw summer squash for the cooked beets.  Use ground cinnamon and add 1/2 tsp allspice.

Paul is in the midst of fixing the tractor PTO.  Another truckload of hay is in order to mulch the melons.  Corn needs thinning.  Cucumbers need a trellis.  Lulah needs to spend most of the day up to her neck in the cool creekwater while Levon tries his hand at rock skipping and the various possibilities therein for good sound effects.  We're busy folks here, so I'll not tarry.

You be well and enjoy the harvest.

Paul, Coree, Lulah and Levon

May 24, 2012 week 1

Lettuce Swiss Chard Garlic Scapes Sweet Potatoes Borage Parsley Baby Beet Greens Sorrel Day Lilies Oregano Lemon Balm Mint
Ah, back in the veggie swing of things! Thank you for joining us for this new season. Even though the winter never seemed to arrive and spring was a continuously curious mix, signs are good for the growing season. It is always a happy sort of wonder, to see how life just wants to grow, and what a great effort all living things put forth to live rightly. The early warmth tempted us, but we’ve been grateful to have held off and waited to start the garden at a ‘usual’ time. Blackberry winter was still a hard freeze down in this hollow. The cold snaps are over now and rampant growth has begun. The feeling of the soil between our fingers improves and the color grows a little deeper, year by year. Clover’s twining stems branch and cover the ground while its roots fix nitrogen in the depths. Dandelion’s strong tap root reaches where we cannot and draws moisture and nutrients upward. A stand of peas that didn’t germinate too well exceeds our expectations by growing and setting some fruit, even in the unseasonable heat. Early tomatoes are sporting tiny green globes. Broccoli looks promising. Garlic scapes! The scapes are earlier than usual. The garlic has had a little more time to grow with this early spring. The lower section of stem might be a little woody. Cut the tender pieces and use them like garlic – throw the tougher pieces into a stock pot. Use them in avant garde flower arrangements and post photos on our Facebook page. Love that garlic. Beet seeds are actual fruit with a number of seed. So, when you plant a beet seed, it comes up as several beet plants. This means that beets always need some thinning. These tender greens are the beet thinnings. They cook just like Chard – tender, light cooking and easy treatment with butter and balsamic vinegar will do. The notable differences between beets and chard are that beets will turn whatever they touch pink, and beet greens are great in a salad. These sweet potatoes were harvested last fall. It’s fun for us to keep them around and give them just once more in the spring. They are drier now, but no less sweet than they were. They still bake well, but I would recommend using them in a bread or pie, or maybe in combination with some other roasting venture. Or, with lots of butter! Our borage patch went to seed last year and this is the first time we have had an abundance of it. Not a common vegetable, but a highly underrated herb and well deserving of seasonal culinary effort. It is known as the herb of courage (do you have the courage to eat borage?). Celtic warriors drank wine with borage to give them courage before going into battle. I know, the prickles can be a turn off (very sensitive people may have a slight contact dermatitis from contact with them). But believe it or not, you can substitute borage for spinach. It cooks quickly, the prickles disappear, and there’s this mild, cucumbery-nutty flavor. It’s different, and also GOOD. We were putting leaves in salad, which was nice for the cucumber scent and taste, but it’s a good idea to dress the salad a little heavier and let the borage wilt. Now we’re cooking with it and finding it to be a fine spring green. Thirty seconds in boiling water and you can use it any way you want (soup, ravioli, lasagna). Looking around on-line, I found a few excellent pages, and a couple of recipes that deserved attention. For some accurate information on borage as a medicinal herb, see Peter Holmes, 1998. Herb Salad with Walnut Vinaigrette This salad, made as directed, is a real doozy – no lettuce listed in these ingredients. This is a strong salad. If you have hesitations, I recommend using some lettuce in place of the herbs that we haven’t supplied in this week’s basket. Play with it! 1 bunch parsley 1/2 cup basil leaves 1/2 cup young borage leaves 12-14 sorrel leaves, torn bite-sized pieces 1/2 cup mint leaves 1 bunch watercress 1/4 cup chopped walnuts 4 tablespoons sherry vinegar 1 teaspoon mustard 1 teaspoon salt 1 minced garlic clove 1/2 cup walnut oil (olive oil will be OK) 1) Wash and dry the leaves. Anything too large for a fork should be torn to size. 2) Buzz into a paste the walnuts, vinegar, mustard, garlic and salt in a food processor. With the motor running, drizzle in the walnut oil and buzz to combine. 3) Toss and eat. Then there’s Chimichurri - an Argentinean sauce typically used with red meat, but it is also excellent with fish and seafood. The traditional recipe always has parsley, garlic and oregano, but it can be mixed up depending on what herbs are around – borage and mint and are excellent substitutes with seafood. This recipe makes about 2 cups. 1/2 cup water 1 t. salt 4-6 garlic cloves (scapes!) 1 cup parsley or borage or watercress leaves 1/2 cup oregano leaves (or 2 tablespoons dried) 1/4 cup red wine vinegar 2 teaspoons hot pepper flakes 1/2 cup olive oil 1) Heat the water and dissolve the salt in it. When it is cool enough to stick your finger in, proceed with the chimichurri. 2) Put everything except the olive oil into a food processor and buzz to combine -- you can puree it or leave it chunky. Your choice. 3) With the motor running, drizzle in the olive oil and buzz for 30 seconds to a minute. Allow it to marinate for a few hours before serving. Chimichurri should hold up for a week or two in the fridge.

Please remember – if you want high quality honey from Monet’s Apiary, let us know ASAP. Prices are: $15/quart, $8/pint, $5/angel (like a honey bear). Have a safe and good Memorial Day Weekend! See you next week.

Paul, Coree, Lulah and Levon Red Springs Family Farm

I love spring anywhere, but if I could choose I would always greet it in a garden. ~Ruth Stout

week 13

August 18, 2011 week 13

Tomatoes Cucumbers Sweet Peppers Corn Cantaloupe Summer Squash Garlic

Beets White Potatoes Green Onion

Herb Bag: Basils Parsley Sorrel

It's been an exciting week out here. We've been participating in a farm group called CRAFT (referring to the craft of farming), and last Monday was our turn to host a farm tour. Our farm friends and their interns turned out in what seemed astounding numbers to us. They came from as far away as Louisville, and enjoyed a garden tour and then demonstration and discussion about a few of the more unique things we do. Paul showed the crowd our grafted tomatoes, solar battery charger, and how to save tomato seeds. A brave few went exploring in the cold creek, and we all enjoyed a lovely pot luck dinner, topped off with home-milked, hand cranked ice cream from our friends at Hill and Hollow Farm. Branden got some quality time with other interns (i.e. young folks); Coree got to chat it up with the farm wives; Paul enjoyed some serious farmer-guy time, and Lulah played with rough and rowdy farm kids until the day was done. It was a good exhausting day.

The cold snap has been great. Though it's still way too dry, the cooler temperatures protect the plants (and the gardeners) from completely frying in the field. The more temperature-sensitive plants have bloomed again and stand ready to set more fruit (tomatoes, eggplants). The watermelons had been taking the heat pretty hard, which is unusual for them. They seems to be making more fruits again now too. We hope to have Crimson Sweets in the van next week. The cool weather has slowed production on some of the mid summer crops like okra and squash, but we're confident that they will catch up soon.

The corn has seen some tough predation. We put an electric fence around the field from the time it tassled, but the raccoons and squirrels have broken through a few times. There is a conspicuous lack of nuts on the ground in the woods this year, and so the hungry animal population is exerting great pressure on a lot of crops. We're feeling fortunate to have been spared as much as we have. Corn ear worms are the organic certifiers of our corn crop. If they disturb you too greatly, we recommend taking a heavy knife and just chopping off the silk end of the corn before you shuck it. We also recommend that whatever happens, you cook this corn TONIGHT. Corn is best as fresh as possible, and we work hard to keep it fresh for you. Make the most of it and enjoy. Hopefully, there will be another flush of it in a few more weeks.

How about these peppers? This is a lot more than a peck of perfect peppers, and this is a good time to freeze some sweet peppers for the winter months. Chop them to whatever size and shape you enjoy cooking with, pop them into baggies and on into the freezer. They're a real treat for homemade pizzas, pastas, and stir frys when this season of plenty has passed. Keep in mind as well – a ripe red sweet pepper has THREE TIMES as much Vitamin C as an orange, and loads of beta carotene as well. As much as these plants love the sunshine, its no wonder!

Sweet Pepper and Lentil Soup

inspired by a recipe in Not Your Mother's Slow Cooker Cookbook

2 Tablespoons olive oil 1 onion, or 2 leeks, chopped

3-5 cloves of garlic, chopped 1 teaspoon freshly purchased paprika or smoked paprika

1-3 sweet peppers, depending on their size, seeded and finely chopped

1 cup brown or black lentils, rinsed 5 cups broth or water

1 tsp salt P to taste 1-2 Tablespoons champagne or sherry or rice vinegar

Cook the onion in 1 Tablespoon oil over medium heat in a skillet until the onion/leeks begin to soften. Stir in paprika and allow it to cook for about a minute more.

Add the chopped sweet pepper and cook for another 2-3 minutes, until everything begins to soften. Scrape all this into a slow cooker. Add the lentils and broth (or water) and stir to combine. Cover and cook on low until the lentils are completely soft, 7-9 hours.

Season the soup with S & P (more salt if you used water, less if you used purchased broth), and last Tablespoon olive oil. Stir in 1 Tablespoon of one of the vinegars, adding more if needed. Serve hot.

Fettuccini with Sweet Peppers & Pinenuts

1 lb package uncooked fettuccini pasta 1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil

4 large cloves garlic, coarsely chopped 3 large sweet peppers, cored, seeded and julienned

1/2 cup pine nuts 1/2 cup fresh parsley or basil leaves, chopped

1/2 cup Kalamata olives, pitted, halved 1/4 cup capers, drained

1 tablespoon coarse salt or coarse sea salt black pepper to taste

Cook pasta according to package directions: drain and return to pan to keep warm. In a large, heavy skillet heat the olive oil. Add garlic and bell peppers (yellow, red & orange), and cook for 10 minutes, stirring continuously. Add pine nuts and cook approximately 4 minutes or until they turn golden brown. Gradually stir in basil or parsley. Add olives and capers and heat. Add salt and pepper to taste.

In a serving bowl, toss the sauce mixture with prepared pasta.

Pickled Beets (tangy and sweet refrigerator pickles)

4 cups cooked sliced or diced beets 5 cups water 1 tsp. salt

marinade: ½ cup lemon juice 1 cup vinegar ¼ cup honey

½ Tbs. Dill ¼ tsp mustard powder

Soak and chill the cooked beets in water and salt for several hours, then drain off the water. Prepare the marinade, mix with beets, and store overnight in the refrigerator. Serve next day.

Sweet Steamed Beets

4 cups raw beets 2 Tbsp melted butter

2 Tbsp lemon juice 1 Tbsp coriander powder

Slice or cube beets. Steam until tender (+/- 20 minutes), drain. Melt butter. Put beets in a serving dish and drizzle with butter and lemon juice. Sprinkle with coriander. Toss to coat evenly, and serve.

We hope you enjoy the harvest.

Your gardeners,

Paul, Coree, Lulah, Levon, and Branden

“Then only is our life a whole when work and contemplation

dwell in us side by side, and we are perfectly in both of them at once.” - Ruysbroeck

weeks 5, 6, 7

It's so easy to get behind! It's so nice to get caught up.

July 7, 2011 week 7

Lettuce Carrots Beets
Bell Pepper Patty Pan Garlic
FIRST Tomato Wax Beans
herb bag: Sorrel Basil Cutting Celery

It’s our seventh week of the main season deliveries, and it happens to fall on the seventh day of the seventh month of the year. That feels lucky!

We hope you all had a fun Independence Day. We enjoyed time with family and friends, and Lulah enjoyed the fireworks just as much as Levon DIDN’T enjoy them. The raw blueberry pie was incredible. If you want to learn to make one, ask us for the recipe, or scan through the blog. I’m fairly sure it’s posted in there somewhere.

New item in your herb bag this week is Cutting Celery. This little green herb has all flavor of a celery stick in a small sprig of green. Not so handy for dipping peanut butter, but great in soup stocks, potato salads, and green salads. Our parsley took a hit in the last big rain, so it could be awhile before we have larger quantities of those greens to share. Cutting celery is abundant now.

Tomatoes are on the verge. The gardens on the hill have never looked better. Paul and Branden have worked hard to get the squash, corn, melons, tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, potatoes and onions laid out and tucked into mulch. There are loads of fuzzy young cantaloupes, miniature watermelons, and thousands of green tomatoes. This week is a particularly precious time, because even though everything is green and lush and beautiful, it's still small enough to maneuver around the gardens. Soon, the tomato vines will close in and picking tomatoes will be like a trip into the primeval tomato jungle. Walking through the squashes and melons will be a tip toe dance around intertwining vines and blooms, and the sweet potatoes will be a solid carpet of beautiful ropy vines and leaves. Everything is growing strong and it won’t be long before we’ll be in full harvest up there. Corn will be late this year, but here come the peppers…

Peppers have a funny way of setting a great big fruit early in the season, right smack dab in the middle of the plant. That first pepper can grow quite large and actually lodge itself in the plant’s branches, making it difficult to harvest. These peppers you’re receiving today are those first big peppers. We picked them out to make room for the others to grow larger. There’ll be more soon.

This is the end of carrots for awhile. We're sad to see them go. It's been a lovely harvest. We'll have more later in the season. Beets are here, and we know they're not everyone's favorite vegetable, so we'd like to give you some information about why and how to love them. Unique pigment antioxidants present in beets have been found to offer protection against coronary artery disease and stroke, lower cholesterol levels in the body and have anti-aging effects. Beets are a great source of B vitamins, have more iron than spinach (step back Pop-eye!), and are also an excellent source of calcium, phosphorous, magnesium, copper, and natural sodium. A quick online search, also yielded this, um, interesting tidbit:

“Dandruff: Mix a little vinegar to a small cup of beets juice. Massage it into the scalp with your fingertips and leave on for about an hour, then rinse. Do this daily till dandruff clears up. Warning: you will smell awful during this hour! “

Nutritional information is motivational, but recipes are probably more useful:

Beet Roesti with Rosemary (from Mark Bittman)
Makes 4 servings Time: 20 minutes
An almost unbelievably sweet and wonderful side dish. The sugar in the beets caramelizes, and the flavors of the rosemary, beets, and butter meld beautifully.
· 1 to 1 1/2 pounds beets · 1 teaspoon coarsely chopped fresh rosemary
· 1 teaspoon salt · 1/4 cup flour
· 2 tablespoons butter
1. Trim the beets and peel them as you would potatoes; grate them in a food processor or by hand. Begin preheating a medium to large non-stick or well-seasoned skillet over medium heat.
2. Toss the grated beets in a bowl with the rosemary and salt, then add about half the flour; toss well, add the rest of the flour, then toss again.
3. Place the butter in the skillet and heat until it begins to turn nut-brown. Scrape the beet mixture into the skillet, shape it into a nice circle, and press it down with a spatula. Turn the heat to medium-high and cook, shaking the pan occasionally, until the bottom of the beet cake is nicely crisp, 6 to 8 minutes. Slide the cake out onto a plate, top with another plate, invert the two plates, and slide the cake back into the pan. Continue to cook, adjusting the heat if necessary, until the second side is browned. Cut into wedges and serve immediately.

Roasted Beets, Italian style
Trim off the tops must 1/4 inch or so above the root. Rinse. Wrap all the beets together in a double-thickness of aluminum foil, crimping the edges together to seal tightly. Roast in a 400ºF oven until tender, 1-2 hours. Remove from the oven. When cool enough to handle, peel the beets (the skin will pull away) and slice into thin rounds or half rounds. Just before serving, dress with good-quality red wine vinegar, olive oil and salt and pepper. Serve warm or room temperature. Especially nice after lamb dishes.
Roasted Beets can also be used in fancier salads. Try combining them with orange sections and watercress or lamb's lettuce -- or with walnuts and goat cheese – or with sliced red onions and fresh herbs – in a sherry vinegar dressing.

Quick and Easy Beans
Cook beans in a 4-quart pot of boiling salted water until just tender, 6 to 8 minutes. Drain in a colander, then immediately toss in a large bowl with either:

1 Tbsp. honey, ¾ tsp. Grated lemon zest, and ¼ tsp. salt
OR
3 Tbsp. Extra virgin olive oil, juice of one lemon, 2 minced cloves of garlic, and salt and pepper.

This week, we hope to pull onions and dig potatoes. Cucumbers will be fattening up, and the tomatoes will pink up. Summer crops are upon us.

Have a great week, and please remember to send us your blueberry orders.
Thank you for your good eating.

Paul, Coree, Lulah, Levon and Branden

“The old agriculture of the 19th and 20th century is dying, and consumers can hasten that death, and they should. They are, after all, the walking wounded, offended by the chemical amateur. The consumer cannot hide in an organic garden or sleep in a subway or ignorance. Consumers will get lean agriculture when they demand it, casting their demands in knowledgeable terms and nailing those terms to the market door.” ~ Charles Walters, A Voice Eco- Agriculture, 1975


June 30, 2011 week 6

Lettuce Lacinato Kale Carrots Beets
Red Onion Garlic Chard Wax Beans
herb bag: Sorrel Basil Green Onions

Is it my imagination or was June SO fast? We are happy to see the sun shine again these days. By our estimations, we've had at least 7 ½ inches of rain in the past ten days. Monday night's finale thunderstorm was a light show to put most firework displays to shame. There was no sleeping through it, and Branden was tempted to bail out of his tent house. The gardens are still too wet to cultivate and we can't mulch or plant until after we cultivate. The to-do list has gotten pretty darn long! We'll hit the ground running on Friday morning.

Food ripens and grows, no matter what the weather. The first picking of green, (actually, yellow) beans was a little thin. We're aiming for more next week. Summer squashes have not enjoyed the rain, but persist in blooming, as do the cucumbers. There are spiny baby cucumbers all over the vines. Lulah has eaten about three not-quite-ripe tomatoes in the garden now. Soon, so soon, those best loved garden fruits will be rolling in. This week's sunshine will bring big growth.

In the meantime – here's to beets and carrots. Make your holiday weekend colorful by using these bright veggies. We like to grate beets on a salad. (You might have noticed already, but we'll put almost anything on a salad. We hope you will try too.) They turn whatever they come into contact with a delightful bright pink (it's especially delightful if you have a young daughter :)). They are great baked in foil, just like a white potato, and if you're doing some grilling this weekend – check out these tips for Grilled Beets, a great addition to a grilled veggie platter:
Heat the grill to medium-hot – you should be able to hold your hand about an inch over the cooking grate for about 2 seconds.
Peel and slice beets.
Brush beets with olive or vegetable oil. Sprinkle lightly with salt.
Place beets on grill. If using a gas grill, cover. Cook 8 to 10 minutes, turn, and cook until beets are tender and grill-marked, another 8 to 10 minutes.
Serve beets hot, warm, or at room temperature. Drizzle with additional olive oil for serving, if you like. This is also a great time to use any nut oils - toasted walnut oil or hazelnut oil in particular - since they are delicious on grilled beets.

Reminder - any oil you use can be easily infused with garlic and/or basil or any other herb you choose, simply by crushing the herb or spice and mixing it with the oil. The longer it soaks in the oil the better, and if you're infusing for more than a few hours, please move the container to the fridge.

Another good thing to do with beets:
Beet Raita
3 cups raw beets, grated 1 bay leaf 1 Tbsp sunflower oil
½ tsp mustard seeds 1 tsp sea salt 1 Tbsp honey or maple syrup
2 cups yogurt
Steam beets over 1 inch of water in a saucepan for 2 to 3 minutes. Heat oil in a small skillet; add mustard seeds and crumled bay leaf. When mustard seeds pop, take skillet off heat. Combine all ingredients in a mixing bowl. Chill if desired. Enjoy as a garnish with bread, soup rice or vegetables.

These pretty little kale tops are the end of the brassica family in the garden until Fall. Some will mourn their loss and others rejoice. Here at home we do a little of both. Leaving a good space between the Spring and Fall cabbage family plantings helps reduce the caterpillar population, and leaves us with better garden rotation options.

Here's a nice soup, from Laurel's Kitchen, to use your kale. You could probably use chard in this as well. I probably would not use them both together.

Potato Kale Soup
1 onion 1 tbsp oil/fat
1 clove garlic 2 large potatoes
1 large bunch kale 5 cups hot water or stock
1/2 tsp salt or to taste black pepper

Sautee onion in fat until slightly golden. Add potatoes and 2 cups water. Simmer, covered, until potaotes start to soften at the edges. Meantime wash kale(soak in a sink or bowl of water. Remove stems...chop fine and steam. (don't cook with the potatoes...the flavor will be too strong.)
When the potatoes are well done, puree half of them with remaining water and salt an pepper (consider using miso instead of salt here). Combine all and heat gently (do not boil). Correcting consistency by adding hot water or milk. Makes about 6 cups.

In coming weeks, we hope to grub some white potatoes, pick more beans, and ripe tomatoes, and bring some cucumbers to town.

We hope you have a wonderful Fourth of July weekend, and look forward to seeing you next week!

Your Gardeners
at Red Springs Family Farm

PS – There are still shares available – pass the word along to your friends. Also, basket up for grabs next week – if someone wants a sample.


June 23, 2011 week 5

Lettuce Chinese Cabbage Carrots Broccoli Red Onion Fresh Garlic
herb bag: Sorrel Basil Shiso
Green Coriander Anise Hyssop Echinacea flowers

Amazing how fast we can oscillate between praying for rain and begging for it to stop! Oh well. All seeds planted are sprouting well now. So are the millions of weeds we will be pulling and hoeing when the garden soil dries enough to walk upon again. We prefer to not even walk in the garden when the soil is this wet. Good garden soil teems with microscopic life, and when the soil is wet, that life is all the more fragile. Our heavy steps have a heavy price.

These lovely red onions came from Lulah's hands to your kitchen. We were up on the hill making the most of a few sunny hours on Tuesday. The garlic harvest needed to happen before the next rain, which seemed emenent. Lulah looked at the onion bed and noticed that the red onions' tops were laying down. We confirmed her suspicion that they were ready to come out of the ground, and she harvested all the bent onions, laid them in piles, and carried them to the tractor all by herself. Purple is one of her favorite colors, which made the job a real joy for her.

These red salad onions are not cured. They should be stored in a plastic bag in your refrigerator and eaten within a week or two. Here's a basic Greek Salad to use a red onion in:

1 large head Lettuce 1/2 half red onion, sliced
1 English Cucumber, sliced 1 cup Kalamata olives
1 cup Greek Feta, crumbled

Dressing: 1/2 cup olive oil
3 tbsp red wine vinegar 1 tbsp fresh lemon juice
1 tsp dried oregano 1/2 tsp salt
freshly ground pepper

1. Place lettuce in a large bowl.
2. Mix dressing ingredients in a bottle and give it a good shake.
3. Toss lettuce with about 1/2 the dressing.
4. Place remaining salad ingredients on top of lettuce, and drizzle with some more dressing.
(Recommendation from the farm kitchen – use thinly sliced tender broccoli stalks and small florets instead of cucumbers, which won't be ready for another couple weeks.)

It's such splendid work to grow garlic. In the midst of the garlic harvest, I remembered that Paul went up to plant the garlic 8 months ago, last October, when I was just getting the feeling of going into labor with Levon. Tuesday, Levon fell asleep in the stroller, giving his Momma a rare and wonderful opportunity to work unencumbered in the garden. The garlic is beautiful. Fresh garlic is something you can't ordinarily buy in a grocery store. The clove skins are not dry - the bulb is on the whole juicier than most garlic. Enjoy. You'll be getting a bulb each week, but this new fresh garlic is special.

Shiso, or Perilla, is a new one in your herb bag this week. Looking on wikipedia, I find this:
“ Perilla is traditionally used in Chinese medicine and has been shown to stimulate interferon activity and thus, the body's immune system. It is used to ease the symptoms of the common cold. It is fried in oil with garlic or ginger in the wok, and eaten as a dish with meals. “

We like to slice it thin on salads. Shiso grows as a weed in our garden, a very beautiful and tasty weed. You may have seen it used as a garnish in Japanese restaraunts. We can get a chuckle by asking the sushi chef what s/he pays for that garnish. What kind of farm income could we generate by selling our weeds?!

This will be the last of the broccoli until Fall. The cold snap did the broccoli good. We think you'll find this week's selection slightly superior to last week. We experimented with an open pollinated variety this spring, and we have been pleased. Broccoli, in general, has been highly hybridized to perform under particular conditions in a very specific time frame. The hybrid broccolis sometimes don't go all the way to flower! They turn yellow but dont' bloom, which seems strange, at least. The open pollinated variety behaves more like a natural broccoli, seems to keep more tender stalks, and we hope you find the flavor agreeable as well.

Chinese Cabbages are not our usual spring garden fare. They enjoy one great advantage over their western relatives (broccoli, head cabbages, kale, etc.) in that the cabbage lopers aren't attracted to them. Unfortunately, the flea beetles do enjoy them, and the recent soggy conditions have made life all the better for those bugs. The damage is primarily aesthetic. These cabbages are tender enough to cut fine in salads. If you want to stir fry them, they need only a short time in a hot pan.

Carrots are beginning to be damaged by the excessive rain. The root bottoms suffer in our low hollow – high water table. We'll hope that things dry out this week and give them a chance to recover. Here's our favorite carrot salad recipe:

12 medium carrots, grated 1 cup fresh pineapple, drained and chopped
½ cup raisins ½ cup roasted pecans
1 Tbsp parsley (optional) ¾ cup basic dressing (below)
Mix well and chill.

Basic Dressing:
1 tsp Dijon type mustard 2 Tbsp. Plus a bit wine vinegar
½ cup extra virgin olive oil 1 Tbsp flax oil

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

COMING SOON – new potatoes, beets, green beans. We don't know when the first tomatoes will ripen but we sure look forward to that day!

FARM BUSINESS – if you are paying on the quarterly payment plan, this is your last week paid for. Please bring a check next week, if you didn't already this week. Thank you!

Thank you for your good eating. Happy Summer!

VIII When I rise up, let me rise up joyful, like a bird.
When I fall, let me fall without regret, like a leaf.
~ Wendell Berry, Prayers and Saying of the Mad Farmer