Life on the Farm (Week 40)

We have a new (old) addition to the farm. A 1955 Allis-Chalmers WD45 now proudly resides at Farm WLIG. Our neighbor, Merle, offered Rog a work on it-to-buy program, and they got it up and running. More work to do this winter, but she has already planted our winter wheat for us! We hope to use this 4-wheeled tractor where our trusty 2-wheeled tractor dare not go— planting and harvesting compost crops, pulling tree stumps, turning the compost piles, etc. It will ramp us up quite a bit next season!

Pumpkins are turning and just about ready. I’ll open them on the market this week; there are only a few, mostly jumbo/large. We’ll pick the best ones for everyone. Pie pumpkins are sweetening up too. They’ll be on next week; we’ll be bringing them all in before the frost that is coming soon.

The dill landscape this morning; a harbinger of chilly nights to come.

The Market is open for the tail-end of summertime orders— and a few fall things too.

Ordering will be open from Sunday morning until Monday 8pm. Get your orders in now so harvesting can begin specific to your requests.

Deliveries will be made Wednesday per usual to your chosen Dropsite Location .

Recipes for your consideration

A hearty meal for a cool Fall night, plus you get your iron and vitamins! Serve with a nice, crusty fresh loaf of bread.

Tuscan Kale with White Beans and Garlic

1 cup dry cannellini or great Northern beans
6 cups water
1 onion, halved
2 sprigs fresh thyme or 1 TBSP dried
2 bay leaves
1 ½ lb kale, stems removed, leaves chopped (~16 cups)
3 Tbsp olive oil
4 large garlic cloves, very thinly sliced
1/2 cayenne pepper, minced (or ¼ tsp dried red pepper flakes)

Soak beans in water (to cover) overnight. Drain.

In large pot or Dutch oven, combine beans, water, onion, thyme and bay leaves. Cover and bring to boil. Reduce to simmer, partially covered, and cook until beans are tender, approximately 1 ½ hours.

Remove and discard onion, thyme sprigs and bay leaves.

Return to boil and add kale and salt/pepper to taste. Reduce to simmer, stirring down the kale every few minutes until kale is tender, approximately 10 min.

Meanwhile, sauté garlic and pepper in oil on low heat until tender. Pour over beans/kale, stir and serve.

From: Serving up the Harvest by Andrea Chesman

Now’s the time to save the summer for some good winter eats! The taste of tomatoes and basil will bring the summer back while you are sitting at a warm dinner table in December with a nice loaf of garlic bread and this no-work soup.

Tomato Basil Soup
3 Tbsp olive oil
3 cups thinly sliced onions
2 cloves garlic, minced
3 lbs paste tomatoes, chopped
2 quarts vegetable stock/broth
1 Tbsp lime juice
Pinch of brown sugar
¾ cup chopped fresh basil leaves

In heavy saucepan, cook onions in oil covered on low heat for 15min or until soft. Add garlic and cook 2-3 minutes more.

Add tomatoes, stock, lime juice and sugar. Bring to boil, reduce heat to simmer covered for 15min.

Add basil.

Transfer soup to blender and puree.

Cool to room temperature. Ladle into freezer containers (in the sizes you are likely to serve) and freeze.

To serve, thaw in refrigerator overnight. Heat and serve.

Adapted from: Preserving the Harvest by Carol Costenbader

Make your own ketchup! It’s easy and so much better than the high-fructose corn syrup-laden stuff in the plastic bottles.

Easy Tomato Ketchup

1 medium onion, chopped
1 cup sugar or maple syrup
1 cup distilled white vinegar
4 tsp salt
2 Tbsp dry mustard
1 ½ inches cinnamon stick
1 ½ tsp whole cloves
1 tsp celery seed
¼ tsp dry cayenne pepper (or ½ fresh cayenne pepper, minced)

Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Fill a large bowl with cold water. Drop the tomatoes in the boiling water for 60 seconds, or until the skin splits. Using a slotted spoon, scoop out and transfer to cold water. Slip off the skins. Remove the stem/core and quarter the tomatoes. Allow some of the seeds/juice to run off.

Blend the tomatoes and onion in a food processor or blender.

Simmer mixture until reduced by half. You can also do this in a slow cooker over the day, or in the oven on 375F. On the stove top, watch carefully and stir to avoid burining.

Add sugar/syrup, vinegar, salt and spices tied up in a little square of cheese cloth. Continuing simmering until sauce “rounds up” on a spoon with no separation of liquids. Again, you can do this in a slow cooker too.

Remove and discard spice bag.

If canning this, process in ½ pint or pint jars in water-bath canner for 15min. Or you can freeze part of it or just put in refrigerator and eat it up.

Did You Know…

The average first frost here at Farm WLIG is Sept 29; the average frost free is May 7. That gives us about 160 days of frost-free growing days each year, and we consider our microclimate to be approximately Zone 4b. This year? Well, we are hoping for a bit more from nature and the high tunnel. We’ll see.
(Ok, I just did the math on that…less than 6months of frost free life up here in the Great White North! What are we thinking?!?!?!?!?)

Most folks in town are in a slightly higher zone, Zone 5, due to the heat island effect. You lucky dogs!

How can you predict the first frost? Here are a few tips:

How warm was it during the day? If the temperature reached 75 degrees F, the chance of the mercury falling below 32 degrees at nighttime is slim.

Is it windy? A still night allows cold air to pool near the ground; a light breeze stirs things up; a heavy, cold wind sweeps away warm air near the ground.

Is it cloudy? If the Sun sets through a layer of thickening clouds, the clouds will slow radiational cooling and help stave off a frost.

What is the dew point? As a rule of thumb, don’t worry about a frost if the dew point (the temperature at which water vapor condenses) is above 45 degrees on the evening weather report.

How is your garden sited? Gardens on slopes or high ground often survive when the coldest air puddles down in the valleys and hollows.

How far are your plants from the ground? Those plants that are close to the ground have a better chance of being protected by the warmth of the earth.

From: The Old Farmer’s Almanac

Produce Subscription Highlights

Anticipated this week for the CSA produce subscription boxes:

Lettuce
Tomatoes
Winter radish
Kale
Cabbage (maybe)
Boc Choi
Carrots
Onion
Sweet pepper (variety)
Jalapeno pepper (hot)
Melons
Basil
Chives
Sage

Start your meal planning now!

We’d like to offer a Fall Share this year, but we are hesitant to ask for ya’ll to dive in with us this first year when we are still figuring things out. To make it a safer bet for you, we have decided to offer weekly Fall boxes purchased thru The Market each week. It will still be “farmer’s choice” for filling them, but we will be offering them at a savings over buying individual items thru The Market. And they will be delivered to you as before— fresh, local and healthy!

The produce will be cool-weather crops— lots of roots and tubers, some brassicas, some leafy salad greens. And tomatoes and peppers as long as they last in the high tunnel!

We hope to feed you soon!

Roger and Lara

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