Bell peppers -  the mini-apple pepper red variety and standard green [...]]]>

Don’t worry – you still have tomatoes but enjoy them while you can heading into September things can change really fast now!  Your share includes cherry tomatoes and a variety of tomatoes called Celebrity.  They store well and are good for slicing and preserving.

Bell peppers -  the mini-apple pepper red variety and standard green peppers  If you need a break from peppers, be sure to freeze a few whole for making stuffed peppers this winter.

Just a little bit more purple – we have included both more Black Beauty (the standard eggplant) and a few more smaller Fairytale eggplants.

A mix of green and purple beans – The green beans are the Kentucky Blue beans and the purple are the same as a few weeks ago.  We picked both varieties when small and tender this week.

Swiss chard – Many of you commented on how much you liked the swiss chard earlier this summer and now here’s more!  Again, don’t let it go to waste so if you can’t make it this week, blanch it and freeze it.  It will be a while before you get fresh swiss chard again.

Cabbage – Another head of cabbage is in each box.  These cabbage heads are slightly smaller but are the perfect size to make some cole slaw or our marinated slaw recipe for picnics this Labor Day weekend.

And finally, a new addition to your share are these hairy little beans called edamame.  Have you had edamame before?  It’s a Japanese delicacy - really just a special variety of soy bean!  It’s something available at sushi, or hibachi resaturants and it is great and easy to make!  Definitely don’t let this go to waste as these fresh ones are much more tender and sweeter than the frozen ones that make their way to restaurants. Check out our featured recipe this week to learn the best ways to prepare your edamame – all you need is 5 minutes boiling water and some salt!

What can you do with your share this week?
-Be sure to prepare your edamame as soon as possible using our featured recipe.

-Go back and check out the recipes from previous weeks for your eggplant, tomatoes, beans, swiss chard and cabbage  – find what you haven’t made yet – or check out our Facebook page for inspired cooking by a bunch of our fans!

Just can’t eat anymore veggies…  well then, read below about preserving by canning or freezing:

The past two weeks on the farm have included a lot of canning and freezing – to let nothing go to waste and to avoid having to buy non-local food later in the year.  You’d be surprised how easy it is to preserve your food and how nice it is to pull out fresh vegetables to enjoy when it is cold and snowy outside.  And freezing, for example, locks in the nutrients until you enjoy your vegetables.  There are many green bell peppers now that you can freeze whole or in pieces so there’s no need to have peppers shipped in from Mexico over the next several months!  And think of how great your chili or soups will be with fresh, preserved vegetables – and you know exactly where they came from!

During the past week, we have frozen green beans, corn, baked eggplant, whole peppers, roasted red peppers, pesto, whole tomatoes and tomato sauce.  We’ve also canned salsa, stewed tomatoes, green beans, pasta sauce (San Marzano!), and pickles (and even pickled peppers)!

Here is a great website to get started. http://pickyourown.org/allaboutcanning.htm You will see separate info listed for canning and also freezing with specifics for each type of food – with pictures!  We use the information on this site as our guide for a lot of our own canning and freezing and it’s always worked out well.

Got some questions – hit us up in the comments section on this page or on Facebook if you’d like some advice or thoughts on the best ways we’ve found to freeze (individually quick frozen vs. immediately bagged) or can (pressure canning vs. hot water method), or if you have questions about getting into canning your food in genreal!  We can also recommend the products we use including the vacuum sealer and the pressure canner.

Actually – here’s EXACTLY what we use:

Presto Pressure Canner and the FoodSaver vacuum sealer – we have had both for years and they work AWESOME!

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Tomatoes, tomatoes, tomatoes!  This week you will find a sea of red goodness including a container of cherry tomatoes; a container of large tomatoes as in other weeks, and also a heaping pile of [...]]]>

We “share” what’s in each weeks “share”…  and this week expect your fair share (worst phrase ever) of awesome mid-summer veg!

Tomatoes, tomatoes, tomatoes!  This week you will find a sea of red goodness including a container of cherry tomatoes; a container of large tomatoes as in other weeks, and also a heaping pile of sauce tomatoes. There are two types of sauce tomatoes in this weeks share Roma and San Marzano.  These sauce tomatoes have few seeds, lots of flesh without water and are great for making marinara or salsa!  The San Marzano are the king of the sauce tomato prized for their flavor and characteristic.  But don’t take my word for it… a picture is worth 1000 words in this case (courtesy of the purveyors of food you are supposed to feel good about).

In the green bean category these are a different variety from last week. These are Masai green beans – thin, tender and a flavorful variety.

More awesome zucchini and yellow squash.  Getting creative with your summer squash yet?  Check out our feature recipe for zucchini marinara using your tomatoes and zucchini or a CSA member’s ideas on our Facebook page.

Several assorted peppers.  We are starting to harvest the various colors of peppers.  If you dig around in the super full box you will have some green peppers, some red peppers (a variety known as apple peppers because of their size), and some kaleidoscope peppers (creamy-colored).

Purple baby aliens? Maybe.  Or just eggplant – we finally started harvesting eggplant!  You will find several varieties in your box- larger, “standard” eggplants called Black Beauty and smaller eggplants known as Fairytale Eggplants.  They are more mild than a typical large eggplant so even those who think they don’t like eggplants should give them a try!  Eggplants are really a misunderstood vegetable and if you haven’t liked them before you should really give fresh ones a try!

Finally there’s a cucumber and some basil in here too.

What can you do with this week’s share?

Try our featured recipe for Zucchini Marinara

Make shish-kabobs on skewers or just grill  mixed veggies with the zucchini, yellow squash, eggplant, peppers and cherry tomatoes.

Make stuffed peppers using your peppers and sauce tomatoes.  You can stuff peppers with cheese, orzo, couscous or meat.  Find a recipe online!

Our favorite way to enjoy these green beans is to blanch them in boiling water for 2 minutes and then add a pat of butter.  Simple and delicious.  They are also great cut up in salads.

Use your fairytale eggplant in an asian dish.  Many of the asian stir fry recipes call for this type of eggplant.

This midsummer share focuses on the FRESH tomato.  There are a few different cherry tomatoes varieties of the mixed together.  We showed you how to identify the different standard [...]]]>

As the summer marches on the gardens are producing with what seems like more vigor every day.  So far this has been a terrific season of delicious bounty!

This midsummer share focuses on the FRESH tomato.  There are a few different cherry tomatoes varieties of the mixed together.  We showed you how to identify the different standard sized tomatoes in last weeks post – (Big Boy and New Girl). There’s also a yellow tomato in here (Taxi).  Finally, there’s also an heirloom to share.  Now – don’t think you have a roten tomato and throw this one away – it’s called Black Krim – and it’s supposed to look this way.  This fellow is ripe and ready to go.  The reason you don’t seem them in the stores is because they don’t keep well.  You should enjoy yours ASAP!

Green beans are starting now and you have a bunch of Burpee Special Green Beans.  Great taste with a little sweetness.

Zucchini and Yellow Squash – the same varieties that have been around for a few weeks now.

In the cucumber aisle there’s the standard green burpless cucumber we have given before and another variety known as a lemon cucumber.  It gets its name from it’s shape, size and color not from a lemon taste.  Give it a go!

Romaine lettuce is the green leafy treat of the week.  Enjoy because the heat of the summer has all but ended the green leafy for a time.

The dried thing – that’s the bottom half of those awesome garlic scapes from earlier this season – the garlic clove (f you examine the stalk you can find the cut).  This is a stiff neck garlic which means the stalk is really hard.  You will see a soft neck in a week or so.  This particular variety is “George”.  We call it that because it’s from some bulbs my dad gave us a few years back…  we then didn’t cut the scapes and planted some of the pollinated cloves…  so what you have here is a true local cultivar of a stiff neck garlic!

There’s a spring of fresh oregano in there too!

So what to do with all this goodness?

Check out this weeks recipes – but if they don’t do it for you here’s a bunch of other ideas.

If you haven’t already, be sure to make zucchini bread.  We follow a standard zucchini bread recipe (Betty Crocker cookbook) but often put the batter in muffin tins to make zucchini bread muffins.  We also add fresh blueberries and walnuts to our zucchini muffins.  Both the muffins and whole loaves freeze very well so consider making some to freeze for later this fall or winter!

-Sliced Cucumbers in Vinegar – many recipes out there – like this one http://www.cooks.com/rec/view/0,1710,148163-244204,00.html Andy loves these!

-Green beans -so many options.  Try a new recipe and share it with us.  Or blanch them and freeze them.

-Fresh beans, and the lemon cucumber slices are great for dipping in your favorite homemade or storebought dip.  There’s no other time of year that you can enjoy such fresh veggie snacking!  Something as simple as mayo with ketchup or balsamic vinegar or wassabi paste…  all EXCELLENT!

Summer's Bounty!

A head of a fresh cabbage – this variety is called Early Green.  Nice compact heads full of taste.  If you don’t want to use it all at once – they store really well if you cut them in half and store the unused half wrapped in plastic in your crisper [...]]]>

In this week’s share:

Summer's Bounty!

A head of a fresh cabbage – this variety is called Early Green.  Nice compact heads full of taste.  If you don’t want to use it all at once – they store really well if you cut them in half and store the unused half wrapped in plastic in your crisper drawer.
Onions – so, this summer the risk/reward of the CSA has mostly been all reward…  well – for some reason the onions we planted this year have pretty much just stared at us.  no matter how much we talk nicely to them (or threaten removal) they have just kinda sat there.  So – not huge…  but tasty!  These are a classic Spanish yellow.
Green Bell Peppers – this is are the variety Ace.  A very classic green pepper – there’s a few of them in here… don’t confuse them with the other green pepper!

Kale – a leafy veggie that some people think is too tough to use (nonsense!).  The reality is kale can be used in recipes like other greens such as spinach or swiss chard.  You can saute it with garlic and olive oil (say “EVOO” with a nasal sound to it) as a side dish or add to pasta with our veggies and meat .  It is truly a vitamin-rich green so give it a try.  It also stores well so you can keep it in your crisper drawer for quite a while.  One of our favorite recipes for kale is a salad recipe we found HERE.  Instead of currants consider adding fresh local berries that are now in season like blueberries and raspberries!
Lettuce – this is a bibb lettuce – Buttercrunch to be true to the variety.  Very good for the classic summer BLT or a salad!
Cucumber – fresh and burpless.  Really.  Did you know that some people really do get the burps from cukes because of an enzyme in the skin?  This cultivar was bred to NOT have the enzyme in the skin.  If you are worried – you can still peel it – but you don’t have to!
Yellow Squash – this lone summer squash is all that has been producing in the field following the really high heat over the last week or so.  The fact is most plants need a certain range of temperatures to produce flowers, be pollinated and set fruits.  The other summer squash plants have not been reproducing too well with these higher temps…  the good news is – they are back at it now that things have cooled off!
Tomatoes – cherry tomatoes and regular (New Girl, Big Boy and Taxi)  The cherry tomatoes are the variety BHN or Super Sweet 100 – we think you can tell them apart – find the really sweet ones – those are the Super Sweet!  As for the bigger tomatoes – how do you tell them apart?  Well – contrary to what you have learned about telling boys and girls apart…  the New Girl hybrids have a small “point” on the bottom of the fruit and the Big Boy hybrid has a perfectly smooth and round bottom.  You might even notice the colors are a little different if you have two of them next to each other.  The Big Boy is new in the share this week because they take a little longer to mature (boy and gil jokes go here).  Taxi – that’s the yellow one.  A little less acidic of a tomato.
Cilantro – this is the smelly, leafy stuff.  (If you are like Andy, who wrote this post, you have the genetics that makes this the most foul green on the planet so don’t feel bad if there’s something in this share you want to throw away – learn why some folks just can’t stand the stuff here)
Hot Peppers – Ancho’s are the short and squat, dark green guys with a gradual taper to the end.  They are mild and hot – a certain south of the border flair added to your food. The Anaheim pepper is the longer skinny one – they are usually a little more mild than the Ancho pepper but have less complexity in their taste.

So what can you do this week with all these veggies?
-Our featured recipe this week: Marinated Fresh Cabbage Slaw.  Even if you think you aren’t a fan of cabbage – try this!  A sweet and sour mixture that is great to bring to summer picnics too!

-Use your freshly picked lettuce and tomatoes to make BLT’s! Yum! (get some local grass fed bacon and real mayo to really make this a summer treat!)

-Obviously, you have the makings of great salads with lettuce, tomatoes, cucumber, onion, peppers.  Go crazy and add some farm fresh free range hard boiled eggs too!

-Kale can be used in recipes like other greens such as spinach or swiss chard.  You can saute it with garlic and oil as a side dish or add to pasta with our veggies and meat .  It is truly avitamin-rich green so give it a try.  It also stores well so you can keep it in your crisper drawer for quite a while.  One of our favorite recipes for kale is a salad recipe we found on epicurious.com.  Check out the link to that simple recipe HERE.  Instead of currants consider adding fresh local berries that are now in season like blueberries and raspberries!

-And finally – consider using your tomatoes, hot peppers and cilantro to make a batch of salsa!  Nothing compares to freshly made salsa.  Find your favorite recipe online or in your cookbooks and tell us how it turns out on Facebook.

What’s in the box this week?

Let’s start with the obvious in the upper left corner of the picture.  That would be a field grown – fresh – just picked ripe red tomato!  The variety is New Girl and it’s the earliest tomato we grew this year.  Now don’t think this is it [...]]]>

What’s in the box this week?

Let’s start with the obvious in the upper left corner of the picture.  That would be a field grown – fresh – just picked ripe red tomato!  The variety is New Girl and it’s the earliest tomato we grew this year.  Now don’t think this is it – with over 60 plants in the ground this is the proverbial tip of the iceberg in both quantity and taste.  That said – savor an enjoy!

On to the summer squash (very much the tip of the iceberg).  We have three different varieties in this box – 4 different in the ground.  The all yellow one is called Yellow Dixie.  The Yellow one with the green tip is Zephyr. And the green variety with ridges is an heirloom called Costa Romanesco.  Each one has a slightly different taste.  So far we have been VERY impressed with the Costa Romanesco’s flavor and texture.

Nestled in the box you will find another hottish Hungarian Wax Pepper (long and yellowish) but there’s also a couple fresh picked green bell peppers in there as well.  Much like the fresh tomato – you can’t match the flavor here with something that travels across the country!

There are some of the last radishes for a while – the heat has basically ended that run.  Enjoy them – but don’t worry – they will be back before you know it as days are getting shorter!

Then there’s the lettuce.  Three varieties this week with different tastes and textures.  A red leaf, a fancy green leaf and romaine (the big flat leaves).  For a special treat – make yourself some homemade green goddess dressing using some of the parsley plant you got in the first share, mix the greens together and live the good life!

So what’s in the share box this week?

Here’s a little guy (or gal) who’s taking up residence on the farm year round…  Well -- sorta.

Today’s delivery was small -- only 25 birds.  Of those 12 are a heritage breed [...]]]>

Great title huh?  And especially true since the weather is unusually warm and the coop/brooder is 96-98 (it’s OK -- at this age they like 95 degrees!)

Here’s a little guy (or gal) who’s taking up residence on the farm year round…  Well -- sorta.

Today’s delivery was small -- only 25 birds.  Of those 12 are a heritage breed of Red Broiler.  That means -- they are “like” the meat birds that will be arriving Friday -- but are slower to grow, live much longer, can reproduce on their own and supposedly taste even better!  We are trying just a few this year -- thinking that down the road we could even breed our own meat flock -- now THAT’S local food!

The rest of the chickens are all brown and white egg laying hens selected for cold tolerance, excellent self foraging abilities, long and consistent laying and…  personalities.  As a matter of fact -- one breed in particular has already proven to be a handful (and not in size).

Friday 150-ish Cornish Rock Broilers arrive…  so these 25 are enjoying the space and relative quiet now…

We know there’s a lot of readership here on the site – and that’s exciting… BUT – as the days grow longer and there’s more and more to do with veggies and chickens it becomes more and more difficult to keep timely updates on the site here.

SO – I [...]]]>

This week’s only post…  here that is…

We know there’s a lot of readership here on the site – and that’s exciting… BUT – as the days grow longer and there’s more and more to do with veggies and chickens it becomes more and more difficult to keep timely updates on the site here.

SO – I just wanted to let you know there are lots of ways to stay up to date with happenings (what’s growing on).  We will continue to update the site with larger thoughts to consider, news related topics and recipes, but the day to day happenings and discoveries, at least for the growing season, will be moving almost exclusively to Facebook and twitter.  The good news is – even if you don’t “use” those social platforms you can still see all our updates…  so there’s no excuse to not click on over!

Facebook

twitter

The links are big and in the upper right of all the pages – AND our twitter feed is always up to date on the left side of all pages!  There really is NO EXCUSE to not know if the zucchini is coming (and when it starts – it does NOT stop!) or how the chickens are doing (including the new egg laying chickens that make their debut on the farm May 26th!)

It’s the easy way for us to share the sights (some sounds) and simple short thoughts as we are in the field and pasture.  So if you can’t make it out – you can still visit all the time.  This is our effort to always have an open door as to what goes on here all the time!

It’s pretty easy for you to know what’s growin on here at our little farm!

As I have said a lot of times before – the single biggest challenge to providing food for yourself and others is dealing with the variability Mother Nature throws your way.  So it seems fitting that on Mother’s Day we reflect on Mother Natures latest mid-May equation : High Winds + SNOW [...]]]>

Wind swept deck chairs + snow

As I have said a lot of times before – the single biggest challenge to providing food for yourself and others is dealing with the variability Mother Nature throws your way.  So it seems fitting that on Mother’s Day we reflect on Mother Natures latest mid-May equation : High Winds + SNOW = BLIZZARD?! (well – for May, sure)

Now – it’s a fact here in Upstate NY we are not frost safe until the end of the month of May – so don’t think I don’t get that.  And I was talking with a farmer just yesterday who keeps better records than me and he rattled off the last frost day for the last 3 years and all of them were mid-teen’s of May.  I get that we aren’t there yet…  that’s why none of the tender vegetation is in the ground.

Well – yesterday brought a series of events that certainly set us up for some challenges this year.  Starting with the 60+ MPG gusts we had – the hoop house was rendered, shall we say, useless…  The good news on that front is we had proactively moved the plants awaiting the green light for garden planting out of the hoops to the barn or lean-to mainly because we had never experienced winds of that magnitude with the low tunnel.

I did use the high winds throughout the day as an opportunity to keep “fixing” the tunnel to see if there was in fact a way to keep it together – mainly for future reference and the plan of winter gardening we also have (great book – get it).  Well – I was and I wasn’t successful.  Basically – I determined some good techniques for holding things down, proved another equation : that M1V1 does in fact = M2V2, and after the 10th repair learned that if Mother (expletive) Nature wants something…  she gets it…  and she really didn’t want that tunnel up yesterday and last night.

For the CSA – we shall see how well the ground planted crops that were under the hoop fair with a layer of snow on them this morning.  They are all hardy – but not fans of snow on their leaves.  This could mean smaller shares in the beginning of the deliveries.

Merry Chri, err, Mother's Day?!

The next calamity offered up by the mid May snows pertains the the cold frame.  We left several flats of small onions and herb seedlings in the cold frame as well as ALL the peppers.  The forecast didn’t have a freeze warning last night – only high winds…  which brings me to my own instinctual dilemma last night.  With the winds still slamming at at 45MPH at bed time – there was really no way to keep the insulation sheets on top of the cold frame – but I was afraid of how low the temps already were.  I also knew it was plant-a-scide to try and get the peppers from the cold frame to the barn in those whipping winds…  some would be lost for sure…  So – I just made sure the cold frame was as secured as it could be, had the straw bales around it, and fell asleep full of wonder.

This morning – there was a less than inspiring 1/4″ of snow on top of the cold frame.

So amongst the chores of firing up the propane heater in the barn and getting the hoop back over the beets, carrots, radishes, lettuce, spinach, chards and other guys that were now covered in snow – I scraped the snow off the cold frame and got the insulation on…  at least until a little later this morning – then we will let the sun do it’s thing.

For the CSA – hopefully the peppers are ok.  Hopefully they remained above freezing in there and this is more of a “few days stunting” and NOT a “no pepper” moment.  I’m 80% sure they will be fine…  I told them this morning – challenges like this build pepper character…  it was only their silence in reply that makes me nervous.

So, as the storm passes and we have now 2 nights ahead with frost / freeze warnings – the barn looks like a dark green house.  Today we will be scrambling to find some lighting options out there.  And for the next few days we will shuttle the plants OUT in the morning and back in at night because the temps being forecast are not in the “safe” range for our low tunnel row cover.

So with that – Happy Mother’s Day…  I’m just not happy with Mother Nature today.

Last weekends weather held off from some much needed rains – and allowed the opportunity for [...]]]>

“Cultivators of the earth are the most valuable citizens. They are the most vigorous, the most independent, the most virtuous, and they are tied to their country and wedded to it’s liberty and interests by the most lasting bands.” -Thomas Jefferson

Last weekends weather held off from some much needed rains – and allowed the opportunity for us to have Brian, Christa and Jaia out on the farm to help plant some of what will become this years harvest. Being members in the CSA this year they are taking advantage of REALLY getting to know your farmer and know your food by rolling up their sleeves and getting a little dirty.  In a short 3 hour visit we managed to get a couple hundred leeks and onion seedlings planted as well as their first “tour” of the farm, a hay ride (that’s NOT optional – Jaia had a blast) and picked some fresh spring produce (rhubarb and asparagus).  Overall it was a terrific experience – some chores got done and ideas were shared.

After our visitors left I got to thinking about the “C” in Community Supported Agriculture.  There have been lots of people who have thought about visiting (and we have have others come out to say hi) – but part of the excitement about being in a CSA for many people is getting their fingers dirty in the soil (not dirt – right Christa)…  So, in addition to the standing open invitation we wanted to offer a special date where CSA members are extra welcomed (if there is such a thing).  A “planting party” if you will!

If you are interested in helping kick off the growing season with us – you are invited to help plant all sorts of goodies on May 29th (the first official “frost free” date for us here) starting at 9am – weather permitting.  Feel free to bring anyone who you think would like to be part of growing their own food!  If you are looking for the tour – plan on getting out earlier.  You are welcome to bring yourself snacks and even a lunch.  Stay as long or as short as you want.

It’s just a chance to participate in the CSA – if you want to.

Keep your eyes on the site and a few days before I’ll let you know for sure if there will be planting activities based on soil and weather conditions.