Greetings from Dancing Hen Farm! Welcome to CSA Week 18. Week 18 is not an egg week. After this week, there are 4 more weeks of
CSA. The countdown has begun!
So, is everyone ready for the cool down this weekend? We are scrambling to get tender crops
harvested and covered. We are expecting
lows in the 20’s here on farm. That indicates we could get a freeze and not just
a frost. A freeze means many of our
summer crops will be done. Any tomatoes
or peppers left on the vine will freeze.
Greens, however, should be fine.
In fact many of the greens, such as kale, improve in flavor with
freezing temperatures.
What does all this mean for the next four weeks of CSA? You will see a sharp decline in the
availability of some crops, such as tomatoes.
I am thinking basil, even with row cover, will be done for the
season. We should be fairly good with
peppers for a few weeks, as some are under protection in our greenhouse. Boxes will be filled more and more with
greens and storage crops, such as winter squash and potatoes. In the next week or so, we should see some
new greens making an appearance. We have
a nice seeding of arugula, as well as plantings of turnip greens and Asian
greens. Watch for the cooking greens to
become available as a nice fall stir fry mix.
The other day one of my sisters and I were reminiscing about
fall and our childhood and the subject of monkey apples came up. Monkey apples or hedge apples are the brain
looking fruit of the Osage orange tree. Legend tells us these fruits are good for
insect repellant in the home. We never
tried this growing up, as we were too busy squashing them. On our drive to church each week, there was a
large hedge apple tree and our family played a driving game of trying to hit
the monkey apples with the car tires.
My Mother was a master at squashing these brain looking fruits. My sister and I were never as good at lining
up the tires just right to make a monkey apple pancake on the road. We grew up in southern Pennsylvania and it
was not uncommon to come across fallen hedge apples along the roads in the
fall. Here in the northern part of the
state, we don’t see these fruits, perhaps they are not hardy enough for our
agricultural zone? For us this means
our driving game now involves black walnuts, rather than monkey apples. Walnuts, being smaller, are even harder to
hit, but there seem to more of them on the road under the trees, so the odds
are better. Walnuts, of course, don’t squash
as nicely as monkey apples! If you
decide to take up this fruit squashing game, please stay on your own side of
the road!
In the kitchen, last night, Farmer Don made our traditional
chicken bag and tag feast. On chicken
day, CSA member Jason volunteers to help us bag and weigh each chicken and
traditionally we feast that day, as well.
Yesterday was chicken day, so last night Farmer Don roasted several
chickens and made a nice side dish of greens and winter vegetables. The chickens were rubbed with salt, pepper
and poultry seasoning (a nice herb mix from our neighbor’s at the Farm at
Stonybrook) and then roasted low and slow in the oven. I love how roasting a chicken makes the house
smell! For the side dish, he first cooked
the winter vegetables (red potatoes, sweet potatoes and winter squash) in a bit
of butter and water. When these veggies
were soft he added the greens and allowed them to cook. He finished the dish with a bit of salt,
pepper, garlic and red pepper flakes.
Don likes to add red pepper and garlic to food late in the cooking
process. He says red pepper added too
soon will become bitter and he likes the added kick of garlic which has not
been mellowed by longer cooking times.
Speaking of cooking.
We have an ample supply of peppers right now. Stuffed peppers might be just the item for a
dinner next week. For the most part, I
stuff peppers with a very traditional rice, ground beef and tomato sauce
mixture. Here is a recipe from a CSA
farm in New Jersey which is very close to my version. I usually do not add cheese. http://stonyhillcsa.blogspot.com/2014/07/stuffed-peppers.html My life, before Farmer Don, included being a
vegetarian. I still crave simple
meatless meals made with garden fresh vegetables and whole grains. Vegetarian stuffed peppers are easy
enough. I generally use brown rice, some
type of bean and some type of green as the base. The combinations of beans, grains, greens and
spices are endless. Here is a meatless
recipe utilizing black beans and quinoa.
http://www.vegetariantimes.com/recipe/quinoa-stuffed-peppers-2/ Remember you can use chard in place of
spinach in any recipe.
Last Saturday was the last Back Mountain market for this
season. Thanks to everyone who supports
us in the Back Mountain. This market has
become one of our favorites! We are
hoping to continue to attend the Mountain Top market for the next two weeks, possibly
longer, depending on the weather. The
Mountain Top market is a newer market and is on Sundays in the Crestwood High
School parking lot. We will also be
starting up our winter buying club in the next couple of weeks. Watch your emails for details on when buying
club deliveries will begin.
Thanks again for each of you support of our farm. And in the words of Farmer Don: “be safe, be
well and enjoy those veggies”.
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