Caterpillar!

Here's a new concept (for us anyway) that we are trialing on our farm this winter and next spring: a temporary, moveable hoophouse. The kind folks at Cooperative Extension provided funds and materials for this cool "caterpillar tunnel" at our farm. The tunnel is covering fall-planted turnips, radishes and spinach. We'll monitor their progress, hopefully harvest them early spring (?) and see how the moving of the hoophouse goes next spring! And we'll also keep track on how it holdss up to the winter weather!

We got together Thursday to construct the hoophouse. Things went quite smoothly despite a little rain and cold and the structure was completed in the afternoon. In the first picture you can see we bent the pipes for the ribs of the hoophouse.

Thanks so much to Molly, Eric and Matt. We had a lot of fun putting it up.

Please stop by sometime to check it out!

last week of the CSA season

4th Week of October - LAST WEEK!!

Thank you all for putting your trust in us to deliver vegetables to you each week. We appreciate all of the support you give us. We get so much positive feedback from you each week and it really lifts our spirits knowing that what we do is valuable to you. Though, honestly, we would also appreciate any constructive criticisms you may have.

So, we will be asking you to complete our 2009 CSA survey this week. You can fill it out when you pick up your vegetables. We'll have an envelope to place them in so you can return them anonomously. Or take it with you and send it in to us. We'll also send a copy through e-mail. Your input is useful to us in planning for next year.

Last week we poured the concrete slab on which we will put our walk-in cooler. We think it turned out okay. The concrete is almost done curing so we can start to think about the installation.

The season-long cycle of farmers' markets is finally coming to an end. And none too soon. Our list of things that need to be repaired, cleaned, organized, built, cut or prepared for winter has been growing all season with many items being put off for the "slow seasons". And we will both be ready to break into that list with full force next week as we will be harvesting only one day per week (Friday).

Check into this blog periodically throughout the winter as we will update it infrequently. Or you could just become a "follower" of the blog and you'll be notified if and when we update it.

Thanks for your interest in the CSA and thanks for taking time to read the newsletter this season!

roasted fall veggies to warm the home and your belly!

cut and cube potatoes, parsnips, carrots, leeks, onions, garlic, celeriac, sweet potatoes, beets, winter squash, and what ever else you have lying around. Cut according to how fast it will cook, winter squash should be cut a little smaller than other things.

toss with olive oil and crushed garlic (1-2 cloves worth), rosemary, thyme, or your favorite herb can be tossed in, too.

bake spread out from each other a little on a tray at 350 degrees, for 40-60 minutes stirring every twenty- until tender. toss with fresh parsley, frozen (or fresh) pesto, or serve with ketchup and enjoy!

thanks for eating through this season with us and investing in local agriculture!

matthew and liz

3rd Week October

Scenes from a midwinter snowfall? No this was just last Friday morning. That's Liz harvesting some frosty leeks for the Friday and Saturday farmers' markets. But it didn't last long - the snow was gone by afternoon and the week is looking to be toasty in comparison.

Steven, our friend from Chicago, spent this past week with us. He loves to work - why else come to visit a farm, right? - and he helped us out a great deal in harvesting and preping for the cold weather. And at market as you can see here.

Also a picture of just-planted garlic cloves - thanks to those who came out for the garlic planting event! (just little rat tails sticking out of the soil)

We are finally acting on our longstanding plans to install a walk-in cooler in our "greenbarn". We hope to get the cement foundation poured for it this week while the weather will be warm. Its a will be a big space for us - 9'x12'! Practically big enough to live in. It was bought for practically nothing from a business that was closing. And its been waiting the past few years for us to install it. We'll keep you posted on the progress.

thanks for these recipes, laurie!

SUNCHOKE PECAN SANDWICH
(from http://www.vegparadise.com/highestperch26.html)
Raw sunchokes, sometimes called Jerusalem artichokes, are spotlighted as the featured ingredient in this unique sandwich. Crunchy pecans and a smooth creamy avocado sauce pair up in supporting roles. Serve the sandwich with a salad and fruit for a tasty light meal.
Sunchoke Pecan Sandwich is one of the delicious recipes in Zel Allen's cookbook The Nut Gourmet: Nourishing Nuts for Every Occasion published by Book Publishing Company in 2006.
Yield: 3 to 4 sandwiches
1 ripe avocado

1 1/2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice

1/4 teaspoon salt

Dash cayenne

1/4 to 1/2 cup (60 to 120 ml) organic canola oil
2 cups (480 ml) coarsely shredded sunchokes

1/2 cup (120 ml) raw or toasted pecans, coarsely chopped or coarsely ground

1/4 red bell pepper, finely diced

Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

6 to 8 slices whole grain bread

12 to 16 large basil leaves

3 ripe tomatoes, sliced

3 to 4 butter lettuce leaves

To make the avocado sauce, wash the avocado, cut it in half, scoop out the flesh, and place it in the blender. Add the lemon juice, salt, and cayenne and blend briefly. With the machine running, slowly add the canola oil, using just enough to create a thick, creamy sauce. Stop the machine occasionally to scrape down the sides of the blender jar and stir the mixture.
To make the sunchoke filling, combine the sunchokes, pecans, and red bell pepper in a medium bowl. Add enough of the avocado sauce to moisten and hold the mixture together. Season with salt and pepper if needed.
Spread a thin coating of the avocado sauce over one side of each of the bread slices. Spread the sunchoke mixture over half the bread slices and top with the basil leaves, tomato slices, and lettuce. Place the remaining bread slices over the filling and cut the sandwiches in half..

Parsnip And Carrot Slaw with Apricot Dressing
2 c Coarsely shredded parsnip

2 c Coarsely shredded carrot

1 c Coarsely shredded celery root

1/2 c Plain nonfat yogurt

2 tb Apricot preserves

1/8 ts Salt

1/8 ts Ground ginger

1/8 ts Pepper
Combine first 3 ingredients in a bowl; toss well. Combine yogurt and next 4 ingredients; stir well. Add to vegetable mixture; toss gently to coat. Yield; 4 servings (serving size: 1 cup).
Just Vegetable Recipes is located at www.justvegetablerecipes.com

thanks linda for this recipe!
Ginger Drink from Sundays at Moosewood

6 cups boiling water cup fresh lime or lemon juice
1 cup peeled fresh ginger root 1 cup orange juice
1 cup sugar 8 cups cool water
2 teaspoons whole cloves
4 cinnamon sticks
Pour the boiling water over the grated ginger root, sugar, cloves, and cinnamon in a large nonreactive bowl. Cover and set aside in a warm place for at least an hour.
Strain the liquid through a fine sieve or cloth. Add the juices and water. Set aside in a warm place for another hour or so. Gently strain the liquid again, taking care not to disturb the sediment at the bottom. Store in the refrigerator in a large nonreactive container.
Serve warm, chilled, or on ice, either as is or diluted with water or sparkling water. Add some honey or freshly squeezed lime or lemon juice.

We like it best hot with honey. We have made many different variations. We don’t use white sugar, but substitute with maple sugar. We often increase the cloves and/or cinnamon, and substitute more orange juice for some of the cool water. We usually increase the steeping times and aren’t too concerned about the sediment. Hope you like it!

make your own Hummus!:

1 can chick peas, or about two cups if you cook your own.

clove of garlic

1/4-1/2 cup olive oil

2-3 T lemon or lime juice

1-2 T soy sauce

1/4-1/2 t. corriander

1/4-1/2 t. cumin

1/4 t. pepper

blend in food processor until smooth. also great with roasted red peppers blended in.

two weeks to go, thanks for eating with us!

liz and matthew

second week of october

(rainbow over the farm)

Three weeks left folks, we're coming into the real fall crops now! We had our first killing frost last night officially making this the shortest frost free season that we have had since we started farming! Worry not, tomatoes, peppers, and beans were winding down on their own several weeks ago with the onset of cooler nights and shorter days. Now they are brown and dead and we get to really enjoy fall's true bounty!

leeks, onions, garlic, celeriac, potatoes, winter squash- warm foods that lead us to roasting and souping and stewing. Foods that warm the kitchen and then warm our bellies, too! we stuffed a pumpkin with wheat berries, carrots, black beans, and other good things and got to share it with our working shares and their familes at our thankyou dinner this weekend, thanks again guys for sharing a nice meal with us and for your essential help this season! remember we will be looking for a few more next year, so if you are interested, please do let us know!

we've been reviewing the season a lot recently and will be solicting your feedback as well in survey in a week or so (feel free to give imput before then as well). for returning members, how did you like the new pick up method with more choices? for elmira pickups, would you like more options? Are there crops you'd like to see us grow that we don't?

There are so many angles to consider about next year. We took part in a cornell cooperative extension project this summer tracking our marketing channels and comparing each one to see which are efficient and lucrative and which are less so. armed with this data, we are able to look at our week and make some decisions. selling at four farmer's markets each week with two people is a lot, we may make some changes for next year, so the survey will help us in our decision making processes.

don't forget about the garlic planting on saturday the 17th! starts at 2:30. bring work gloves and warm clothes.

things you'll see this week:

potatoes, leeks, onions, celeriac, garlic, winter squash

peppers (early in the week)

spinach

lettuce

parsley

parsnips!

brussels sprouts!

kale

chard

this great recipe sent in by john and donna, thanks!

Celeric remoulade-from Chez Panisse Vegetables by Alice Waters
1 med. Celery root
salt and pepper
juice of 1 lemon
3 Tbsp Dijon mustard
½ cup mayonnaise
2 Tbsp heavy cream
parsley
Peel the celery root and julienne it to about 1/8 inch. In a bowl, dissolve a pinch of salt in the lemon juice, grind in some pepper, and stir in the mustard, mayo, and cream. Toss in the celery root. Let stand at least 15 min before serving. Mound on plate and sprinkle with parsley leaves.
We used it as a dip on crackers and plum tomato slices.

zucchini season has ended on our farm, but we just got these two great recipes from lisa, so we'll put them on for posterity's sake and in case anyone is buying zucchini:

I make this pasta dish fresh from my garden when there is an abundant yield of tomatoes and zucchini. It is a fast, simple and satisfying dish – an easy end to a long summer day! I vary the amounts of onions, zucchini and tomatoes based on how many will be sharing the meal. I serve this as a main course, but often accompany it with a green salad and a nice loaf of bread. I vary the dish sometimes by adding a few leaves of fresh basil, or fresh spinach, or other vegetables, but my favorite version is with just zucchini and tomatoes.

Summer Harvest Pasta
2 ripe tomatoes
2 zucchini
2 onions
Olive Oil
Fresh Ground pepper
Salt
Toasted pine nuts
Grated Parmesian cheese (optional)
Pasta (bow-tie or Rombi
Toast the pine nuts by tossing them in a bit of olive oil and cooking until golden brown. Shake the pan a few times to make sure that they are browned on both sides. Set aside.
Cook the pasta while the vegetables are being prepared.
Prepare the vegetables. Chop the onions medium fine. Slice the zucchini into ¼ inch rounds and then quarter them.
Sauté the onions with olive oil in a pan until golden brown. A small amount of carmelized onions in the mix is perfect. Add ground pepper and salt. Add the zucchini and sauté until just tender. Note that they should not be overdone. They will not have released any liquid. Chop the tomatoes directly into the pan and cook until just sauced. The beauty of this dish is in the fact that the tomatoes are just cooked until they release their juices. Overcooking destroys the flavor.
Spoon over the pasta. Toss pine nuts on top. Sprinkle with fresly grated cheese – if desired. Bon Apetit!



Adapted from The Cake Bible by Rose Levy Beranbaum,
1.5 cups sifted cake flour (I just use regular, unsifted)
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp cinamon
1/2 tsp. powdered ginger
the recipe calls for 1/4 tsp ground cloves...I use approx. the same of cardamom instead
1/4 tsp salt
2/3 cup toasted and coarsely ground (or broken up by hand) walnuts
2 large eggs
3/4 cup (firmly packed) light brown sugar - I use dark
1/2 cup safflower oil (I use canola)
2 cups firmly packed grated zucchini (squeeze extra liquid out)
optional, 1/2 cup raisens
Preheat the oven to 350
Combine the dry ingredients in a bowl (flour, baking soda, spices)
Beat the eggs, sugar and oil for 2-3 minutes or utnil lighter in color
Add the dry ingredients and beat/mix until blended.
Add the zucchini, then the walnuts (and raisens)
Scrape batter into muffin tins 3/4 full
Bake for 20-25 minutes until toothpick in center comes out clean.
Cool on rack for 5 minutes. Then take out of muffin tins and enjoy!

that's it for now, have a splendid week!

liz and matthew

1st week October

Thank you Ryan, Kara and Chris for your help harvesting on Wednesday - what a big help! And it is always educational and fun to have fellow farmers visit and ask each other many questions. Kara and Ryan have a CSA and market farm operation in NE Pennsylvania at Journey’s End Farm Camp. You guys are awesome - keep up the good work!
And another thank you to all the performers at our little concert on Saturday - Dan Maloney, Tim Newton and Joe Chiccone and friends. The tiny crowd was treated to some excellent folk and roots music.

Isn't the light of a bright autumn afternoon the most spectacular of all the long year?

Items to pick from for this week’s share:
Winter squash
Pumpkins
Jerusalem Artichokes
Chard
Kale
Parsley
Onions
Garlic
Potatoes
Sweet Potatoes
Leeks
Peppers
Watermelons
Beans
Cabbage
Broccoli
Celeriac
Kohlrabi

Here’s another delicious idea for celeriac: cook and mash them with potatoes - with a little garlic mixed in if you like - mmmm, hearty.

We think Jerusalem artichokes are best enjoyed raw. We slice them into salads. If you figure out how to cook them successfully let us know how you did it!

Our annual garlic-planting CSA workday will be Saturday October 17th at 3 pm. This is our final CSA event of the season so come out and enjoy the lovely autumn weather.

Bring strong fingers and perhaps a pair of garden gloves. We'll supply the garlic!

last week of september

pumpkin season



fingerlings


tools of the trade

Hey all, the big news this week is getting ready for our concert on sunday (the 4th), hope you can make it! It will be 2-7 here at the farm. (here's the blurb from the poster...)

Muddy Fingers Fall Concert & Jam will
Feature:
¬Folk Singer-Songwriter Danny Maloney
¬Joe Cicconi & Friends
¬Tim Newton’s Claw-hammer Banjo
¬Open-mic for your talent, craft or art!
¬A Jam/ Sing along finale!

Bring a lawn chair, blanket, picnic dinner, and beverages to this free event, and enjoy original and traditional roots-folk music. Bring your own voice, instruments and songs - or whatever talent you wish to share for our open-mic!


Remember garlic planting will be october 17th and these two will be the last events of the season.

This week you will see:
pumpkins, we have one per share, i think.
winter squash
chard
kale
beets
broccoli
cabbage
sweet potatoes (not a great harvest, turns out mice really like sweet potatoes and got far more that we did)
garlic
onions
leeks
spinach
parsley
cilantro
beans
tomatoes
tomatillos
potatoes
celeriac
watermelons


have a great week! hope to see you on sunday!
liz and matthew

fourth week of september

sweet peppers

Hey all welcome to fall! This week we have turned the corner into the autumn. Worry not, the CSA goes well into the fall with the last week of pickup being the last week of october. I find as the days start to become noticeable shorter a lot of people start to ask when the CSA ends, getting tired of us already?

the one thing that is ending quite soon is our working share program. We have had five awesome working shares this season and they have been an immense help to us. On monday Danielle has heroically harvested what next year will be a two person job. On thursdays Ryan and Jane have helped us set up for the day and kept our boxes filled and produce piled for the first several hours. On Fridays Terri, Lydia, Reeder, Mark, Pat, Harold, and even a few times Linda. Have helped us pick our way through the field. Without their help the summer season would not have been half as fun and would have been at least twice as hard. Thanks guys.

speaking of working shares, we will be looking for at least three more next year so if you are interested please be in touch with us. Generally the trade is for 11 weeks of work (july-sept) four hours each week. We are looking for people who enjoy being outside, can handle the ups and downs of vegetable harvesting (that's literally getting up and back down), is reliable about showing up when they say, and enjoys spending time both harvesting with other people and yet will not wither way when left briefly (yet trained first) to harvest alone.

Last call on basil at market this week. We preserved a big batch of pesto this week and thought, too bad this will be the last of the year as the leaves are starting to get to be small. We wanted to give everyone the heads up, last chance to get basil as we will be mowing the bed in soon.

or a frost could take it. the last few years we have not had a frost until the middle or end of october, but we are nearing the time of year, where statistically 5 years in 10 there will be a freeze. (at least according to our soil survey book from 1974, 5 out of 10 years would have a freeze by sept 28). the other night a farmer friend was very close as some of her flowers were nipped by frost. Our location on the slope to the lake offers good air drainage and we are unlikely to actually freeze for several weeks, but again, its not impossible.

the perogie day was fun! thanks to julie, garet, evelyn, dorothy, sarah, margot, chris, david, mary, (and later joan, alan, and betty- hope you read the blog now~!) for coming out to make perogies with us.

kids reading books, instead of making perogies, i guess its the child labor laws...



farmer siblings making perogies with a blurry niece face

hey what is that hairy thing on the table this week? Well its celeriac, a super vegetable. It holds for months in the root cellar, when cooked, it has the texture of a potato, but a lovely celery taste. Can be used raw in salads or used lots of times in soups. there is a great article on the NPR website about it, included below is one of the 3 recipes from that article. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6551175


Boiled Celeriac with Butter and Herbs from NPR.org

3 large celery roots, peeled
Juice of 1/2 lemon, plus extra for acidulating water
4 tablespoons butter (1/2 stick)
1/2 cup chopped parsley, chives, tarragon, mint, lemon balm or basil (you can pick one or use two in a savory combination)
Salt and pepper, to taste

Fill large bowl with water and add lemon juice. Add celery roots as they are peeled.

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil.

Cut peeled celery roots into three or four thick slices, then cut each slice into three or four fat sticks, returning them to their bowl of acidulated water after each step.

Shape the sticks into "batons" by shaving off the square "corners" and pointing the ends (like sharpening a fat pencil) with a paring knife.

Place the batons in the boiling water. Add juice of half a lemon. Bring water back to a boil, then reduce heat and cook until batons are soft but not mushy, about 30 minutes. Drain thoroughly and return to the pot.

Add butter, herbs of choice, and salt and pepper to taste. Heat through before serving.


have a great week!
liz (and matthew)