FARM NEWS 9.21.09

Hi Folks,

It's cover crop time! This and next week we'll be broadcasting rye, vetch, and clover over what was once tomato plants, garlic, cabbages, salad mix, and onions. These cover crops will grow through the fall, into early next summer. Some will get to grow even through next fall. We try to cover every last piece of ground with grasses and legumes for the purpose of soil building. Soil building means feeding and providing an environment for earthworms. What earthworms like is decaying straw, compost, leaves, and the like. What earthworms leave in the form of castings and tunnels is better tilth, better fertility. I've noticed more and more earthworms at the farm over the years and I'd like to think this is proof we're heading in the right direction!

Two pictures this week: Cows staring down the Daikon rows, Volunteers working in the early summer.

This week's harvest:
Salad mix/Arugula
Blonde Spinach/Chard
Onions
Garlic
Potatoes
Peppers
Hot Peppers
Leeks
Thyme
Winter Squash

Bon Appetite!
Your farmer,
Dan

EVENT: ROOFTOP FARM VISIT

Visit a Rooftop Farm in NYC!

Rooftop Farms is a 6,000 square foot organic vegetable farm in Greenpoint, Brooklyn that serves the needs of its local community and restaurants. Learn how an imaginative idea transformed a defunct bagel factory into a bounty of vegetables.

Bring your family and join Annie Novak and Ben Flanner, founding farmers, for a sunset visit on Saturday, October 3rd from 5:00-6:00pm (a suggested donation of $5/pp is requested to help support the farm). Read more about Rooftop Farms at their website.

Please RSVP to Sas at Sastewar@gmail.com to join us!

RECIPE: Spicy Parmesan Green Beans and Kale

From foodnetwork.com

Serves 6-8

Ingredients:

• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 onion, sliced
• 1/4 pound cremini mushrooms, trimmed and quartered (about 14 mushrooms)
• 1 1/2 pounds green beans, trimmed and slice into 1-inch pieces
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1/4 cup white wine
• 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
• 1 bunch kale (1/2 pound), rinsed, stemmed, and roughly chopped
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice (about 1/2 a lemon)
• 3 tablespoons finely grated Parmesan

Procedure:

Warm the olive oil in a large, heavy saute pan over medium-high heat. Add the onions and cook until translucent, about 4 minutes. Add the mushrooms, green beans, salt, and pepper and cook for 2 minutes. Add the wine and continue cooking until the green beans are almost tender, about 5 minutes. Add the red pepper flakes and the kale and continue cooking until the kale has wilted, about 4 to 5 minutes. Add the lemon juice and the Parmesan cheese. Toss to coat and serve immediately.

Contributed by Julie Baron

RECIPE: Edamame Salad

From recipetips.com
Serves 6

Ingredients:

		1 tablespoon olive oil
		1 tablespoon butter
		10 ounces edamame, shelled (approximately 1 1/2 cups)
		1/2 sweet onion, chopped
		1 red bell pepper, chopped
		15 1/4 ounces (1 can) corn drained, or 1 ear of fresh sweet corn cut off the cob
		1 stalk celery, diced
		1 leek, sliced thin
		1 clove garlic, chopped
		1 tablespoon fresh oregano, chopped
		1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper, or to taste
		1 tomato, diced
		salt and pepper to taste Procedure: Heat olive oil and butter over medium heat. When butter has melted, add edamame and stir to coat. Add the onion and sauté for five minutes. Add the bell pepper, corn, celery, leek and garlic. Sauté for another 5-10 minutes or until the vegetables are tender crips, not mushy. Stir in the oregano and cayenne pepper. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Remove from heat. Gently fold in tomatoes right before serving.

FARM NEWS 9.13.09

Whew! This past week was a tough one, what with Alissa out on vacation and Naf still out with a broken arm. Nothing makes you appreciate your crew like when they're gone! It was Cody and Dan, all harvest, all the time. We managed to have fun, I think, mostly because volunteers Ron, Kim, and Daryl keep coming by and rescuing us. My Dad helps out at the farmer's market, our neighbor Meg has been coming on harvest mornings to milk the cow- leaving us to just focus on bringing in the food. Naf even managed to come by with his broken wrist and hand weed some beets...

This week Alissa and Dan will be at the farm with Cody out on vacation. We're bound to have another week of challenge but here's hoping the fun continues.

Last week we managed to bring in all the onions from the field just ahead of the rain, and it looks like a record harvest! I've never seen such onion bounty...2009, the year of the Allium (garlic, leeks, onions.) The greenhouse is stuffed with onions. I think the onion is the most often eaten and versatile vegetable of all vegetables. And perhaps the hardest won as a grower. Nice to have a bumper crop to help fill the tomato void! I'm also considering calling 2009 the year of the sweet pepper, but it has a few weeks to prove itself yet.

Exciting news this week, another hundred chicks will be arriving in the mail, our goal being to revamp our layers for 2010. We'll start them on grass this fall and move them into the greenhouse for the winter. It just doesn't feel right around here without a sizeable layer flock (200 layers! 30 of which will be going to our neighbors at Camp Isabella.) Hopefully having access to more of our own layer manure will help us cut down on how much manure and protein we have to import from Fertrell and North Country Organics to grow our hungry veg crops. It would also be nice to have our own eggs for sale from the barn and at the farmers' market again.
Also, no more white leghorns. These gals crank out the eggs but tend to have low survival rates when it comes to predators and nasty weather. We're going with heavier, less efficient breeds with a greater sense of survival. I also have a hunch they eat more grass as they weren't bred to live in a box like the leghorns. This makes for healthier eggs- more grass and less corn. Our chosen varieties are the New Hampshire Red and Black Australorp. Hearty,tried and true. Basically heirloom chickens!

Pictured is Beatrice in the portable chicken hut with the New Hampshire Red chicks.
This week's harvest:
Beets
Celery
Leeks
Onions
Peppers
Winter Squash
Hot Peppers
Basil
Garlic
Edamame
Salad Mix/Arugula
Kale
Enjoy!
Your farmers,
Dan and Tracy, Bea and Baxter

RECIPE: Nectarine Golden Cake

• Active time:15 min
• Start to finish:1 1/2 hr

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• Rounded 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 stick unsalted butter, softened
• 3/4 cup plus 1/2 tablespoon sugar, divided
• 2 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1/8 teaspoon pure almond extract
• 2 nectarines, pitted and cut into 1/2-inch-thick wedges
• 1/2 teaspoon grated nutmeg

a 9-inch springform pan

Preheat oven to 350°F with rack in middle. Lightly butter springform pan.

· Whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt.

· Beat butter and 3/4 cup sugar with an electric mixer until pale and fluffy. Add eggs 1 at a time, beating well after each addition, then beat in extracts. At low speed, mix in flour mixture until just combined.

· Spread batter evenly in pan, then scatter nectarines over top. Stir together nutmeg and remaining 1/2 Tbsp sugar and sprinkle over top. Bake until cake is golden-brown and top is firm but tender when lightly touched (cake will rise over fruit), 45 to 50 minutes. Cool in pan 10 minutes. Remove side of pan and cool to warm.

RECIPE: Zucchini Fennel Slaw

Contributed by member Laura Grund

3 tablespoons mayonnaise
2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice, divided
3 tablespoons chopped chives
1 teaspoon grainy mustard
1/8 teaspoon cayenne
¼ cup zucchini, coarsely grated
1/2 small fennel bulb, trimmed and thinly sliced

Whisk together mayonnaise, 1 teaspoon lemon juice, chives, mustard, cayenne, and 1/4 teaspoon each of salt and pepper in a medium bowl. Add fennel and zucchini and lemon juice to mayonnaise mixture in medium bowl and toss to combine slaw.