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)

Delicata squash

What can one do with a delicata squash?

Basic Baked (Winter) Squash
1 winter Squash, halved
2 pats of butter
2 teaspoons of honey or maple syrup
Salt & pepper

Preheat oven to 375 degrees
Scoop the seeds out of each half with a spoon
Add 1 pat of butter, 1 teaspoon of honey or maple syrup, and salt and pepper to the hollow scoop of each half. Place upright on a greased cookie sheet and roast for 20 to 30 minutes or until tender when flesh is poked with a fork.
Enjoy just like this as a delicious, quick and easy side dish that is great anytime of the year. Or, leave out the butter and honey/syrup and use the baked squash as a great base for soups, put chunks of cooked squash into baked goods to add great nutrients and a little natural sweetness and nice texture to a quick bread, yeast bread, or pancakes.

Hope this helps!

Third week of Sept.

happy sunflower from our friend's kara and ryan's garden

We will be hosting a pierogie-making event on Saturday September 19. If you plan to attend, bring a filling that is suitable to go inside of a perogie. We will make the tasty little pockets and you will take a bag or two home to freeze (or eat fresh). Details on the event were sent to your e-mail. Please make sure to let us know if you are coming as we need to shop for ingredients.

We are planning to host a concert here on our farm on Sunday October 4th. Singer/songriter/folk musician Dan Maloney (fellow CSA member) and banjoist Tim Newton will perform at 2:00.
Donations for performers will be accepted. Bring a chair and an instrument if you are so inclined to participate in a jam/folksing afterwards.

things you may see this week in your share:
tomatoes
peppers
eggplants
beans
cherry tomatoes
garlic
onions
delicata squash
cabbage
carrots
beets
chard
kale
tomatillos
patty pans/zucchini
potatoes
melons
raspberries
ginger
leeks
celeriac


a few yummy recipes!
Ginger greens tea:
cut ginger leaf stalk into about 1 inch pieces. add to a quart of water, simmer about 10 minutes. Serve with honey or brown sugar to taste.


red lentil dahl from journey's end farm camp cookbook:
1 cup dried red lentils
4 cups of water
pinch of salt
1 c diced carrots
1 celery stalk
3 T vegetable broth powder

1 t olive oil or ghee
1 T mustard seeds

1 t corriander
1 t tumeric
1 inch piece of fresh ginger root, grated
1 tsp cumin

2 T soy sauce

rinse lentils and add first group of ingredients to a stock pot.

in a skillet, heat the ghee and mustard seeds unil the seeds sputter and pop.

add third group of ingredients

add soy sauce and simmer over low for 15 minutes.
enjoy over rice or with chapatis!


thanks for checking in with us! have a splendid week!
liz and matthew

We've been falling down on our newsletter-writing responsibilities (as we are apt to do this time of year). But our niece Margot is visiting with us this eveing and she's asleep in the bedroom so its a good excuse to sit down and write.

The first piece of exciting news is that our experimental ginger crop is being harvested now and the yield is pretty decent - about what we expected. We planted it in the hoophouse, two beds, in late May after sprouting the "mother roots" for about a month and half. We will be evaluating the final yield and income earned from this crop and see if it something we want to add to our list of crops that we grow in the future. There certainly were many exclamaitions of excitement at the farmers' market on Tuesday and it sold very well. And we think it tastes pretty good too!

You may be happy to know that, based on demand from the CSA, we have also agreed to set aside our inherent greed and include raspberries and ginger in the CSA share. But be warned that these items are in short supply and you might need to get to market early as they usually sell out quickly. And we probably will not have raspberries at the Saturday market as they usually sell out the night before in Watkins Glen. And the ginger harvest will be a short one. We will have it this week and the next week and that will probably be it. This is fresh, immature ginger and should be eaten within a couple of weeks and should be stored in the refrigerator.

Right now we are trying to work some time into our schedule for post-CSA harvesting. Many beds are empty of vegetables but have weeds taking over or have vegetables that have already been picked over. These beds need to be mowed, the vegetation turned under and allowed to rot for 1-2 weeks. Then we will hope to plant either rye and vetch (a favorite winter cover crop), oats (another favorite fall cover crop that dies back over the winter) or some valuable crops for winter harvest such as carrots, leeks, greens, turnips or spinach. This is a part of farming into which we are still just getting our feet wet. We will be writing more about our efforts in preparing for a winter harvest in the coming weeks.


Cold Peanut Sauce
2/3 cup peanut butter
1/3 cup tahini (we often omit)
1/4 cup soy sauce or less
1/2 cup hot black tea (or hot water)
3 Tbs brown sugar
1 1/2 tsp chili powder or less
2 Tbs vinegar
4 cloves garlic
1 3/4" ginger root or less

Combine peanut butter, tahini, soy sauce, 1/2 of the hot tea, sugar and chili, vinegar, garlic and ginger. Blend until smooth. Add remaining tea to thin as needed.

Sound like a bizarre combination of ingredients? Maybe it is, but we love it as a topping on spaghetti. Had some for lunch and didn't want to stop eating it.