Life on the Farm (Week 42)

While Rog is out slaving away with the last of the potato harvest, Razz is sleeping in late in Northern California.

Studly Rog caught on trail-cam (B-b-b-busted!)

Life on the Farm continues into the Fall Season. This is our first week of Market Boxes— the deal of the century! Ok, overstating. But the bounty of the summer does not have to stop for ya. We are offering weekly boxes for purchase—-the difference is you have to go shopping every week to secure your delivery. Just pop onto The Market and go to the CSA Subscription & Market Boxes section and select your box; then check out. We will handle the rest and you just need to remember to come-and-get-it on Wednesday. The likely produce to appear in your box are listed below.

The Market is now open for some fall offerings and the high tunnel hangers-on (pushing our season in the Great White North)— and NEW Market Boxes.

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

Lentil and Turnip Soup

2 Tablespoons olive oil
1 Yellow onion, diced
4 Cloves garlic, minced
3 Celery stalks, diced finely (or substitute 1 celeriac root, diced)
1 1/2 Cups tomatoes, chopped
1 1/2 Cups dried red lentils
1 Turnip, peeled and diced
1/2 Cup Fresh flat-leaf parsley, chopped
1 Teaspoon red-wine vinegar
Coarse salt and freshly-ground pepper

In a pot over medium heat, heat olive oil. Stir in onion, garlic, and celery. Cook for about 7 minutes, or until tender.

Turn up heat to high and stir in tomatoes. Cook for an additional 1 minute before stirring in lentils, turnip and 6 cups of water.

Bring soup to a boil. Reduce to a simmer and cook for 20-25 minutes, or until lentils are tender. Add parsley, vinegar, salt and pepper and stir.

From: http://www.wholeliving.com

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Roasted Root Vegetables with a Red Wine Sauce

Sauce:
4 cups red wine
2 Tbsp sugar
2 medium-sized carrots, peeled
1 tablespoon margarine
1 teaspoon lemon juice
Salt
White pepper

Root vegetables:
Your choice (4-6 cups diced vegetables)—
Carrots
Turnips
Parsnips
Rutabaga
Celeriac
Potatoes
Kohlrabi
Daikon radish

4 Oyster mushrooms, rough chopped
4 tablespoons olive oil
1 shallot, minced finely
1 sprig thyme
2 teaspoons margarine

For the sauce: reduce the red wine and sugar together over medium high heat until 1/3 cup remains. Strain the reduction and set aside. Steam or boil the carrots until very soft. Purée the carrots in a blender until very smooth and pass through a very fine strainer.

For the root vegetables: preheat oven to 350 degrees. Toss the vegetables in 2 tablespoons olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Place the vegetables on a cookie sheet roast, carefully turning roots every 10min. Continue cooking in the oven until desired doneness.

For the mushrooms: meanwhile, heat the remainder of the olive oil in a sauté pan until hot and quickly cook the mushrooms until they have just begun to brown. Season with salt and pepper and add the shallots, thyme and margarine and continue cooking for a minute more, tossing all the ingredients together. Remove the mushrooms from the pan and keep warm.

To assemble: heat up red wine reduction and add enough of the carrot puree to it to achieve the desired consistency (you can make it as thick or thin as you like). Finish the sauce by adding 1 Tbsp margarine, a few drops of lemon juice, salt and pepper. Toss the roasted vegetables together with the mushrooms and assemble them in an attractive manner on each plate. Drizzle some of the sauce around the vegetables and garnish the plate with fresh herbs. Serves 4 as a side dish.

Adapted from: The Castine Inn menu

Did You Know…

California has been the number one food and agricultural producer in the United States for more than 50 consecutive years. More than half the nation’s fruit, nuts, and vegetables come from here. (So they have the sun! We can still take on the Local Food concept and eat from home in The Great White North. Let’s whittle down this statistic, shall we?)

California’s leading export crop is almonds. (Thanks only to the bees from the Midwest.)

Nationally, products exclusively grown (99% or more) in California include almonds, artichokes, dates, figs, kiwifruit, olives, persimmons, pistachios, prunes, raisins, clovers, and walnuts. (We’ve grown artichokes just fine here at WLIG. Maybe next year we’ll have to give CA a run for its money and offer them on The Market.)

From 70 to 80% of all ripe olives are grown in California. (Ok, we’ll give olives to CA.)

California is the nation’s leading producer of strawberries, averaging 1.4 billion pounds of strawberries or 83% of the country’s total fresh and frozen strawberry production. Approximately 12% of the crop is exported to Canada, Mexico, United Kingdom, Hong Kong and Japan primarily. The value of the California strawberry crop is approximately $700 million with related employment of more than 48,000 people. (Tough crop, majorly labor intensive…but on the “To Do” list for FarmWLIG.)

California produces 25% of the nation’s onions and 43% of the nation’s green onions. (Well, this isn’t that impressive. Next year’s onion crop at FarmWLIG will be better!)

Gilroy, California, “Garlic Capitol of the World”, has hosted 2 million at the annual Gilroy Garlic Festival. (Minnesota has a wonderful garlic presence too; check out the 9th Annual Garlic Festival in Hutchison, MN in August next year. Mmmmm good!)

Fall Market Box Highlights

Anticipated this week for the Fall Market Boxes: (Buy yours online now!)

(First hard frost last night, so need to see how things fared, but…)

Baby head lettuce
Salad mix
Turnips
Parsnips
Cabbage
Boc choi
Broccoli
Potatoes
Beet Greens
Sweet pepper (variety)
Tomatoes
Red onion
Sage
Garlic chives

Start your meal planning now!

We hope to feed you soon!

Roger and Lara

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