Boulder Belt Eco-Farm

We are firmly into autumn. The trees are turning, the summer birds have either left or are now leaving (though, for some reason, the red winged black birds are back after leaving in September). We have had our first frost warning which came to nothing but did cause us to work 12 hours this past Saturday (see http://boulderbelt.blogspot.com/2009/10/frost-warning.html for my take on that). I do not know why I still believe the weather people when they predict anything. They get things wrong far more often than they get things right. Still it is always a good idea this time of year to get one's market garden buttoned up for the cold weather and now we are ready so when the next frost warning comes we are ready.

This means we have really shifted away from summer fare. You will continue to see peppers in your share, hopefully, through the end of this month and into the first couple of pick-ups for the winter share. You may even see some ripening tomatoes in your shares through mid November. Like the peppers we had to pull a lot of green tomatoes off the plants so they would not freeze and get ruined. We found out years ago that tomatoes ripened off the vine do not suffer in the flavor realm. Good flavor is caused by good soils rich in clay and loam. Florida, Arizona and California, where most of the tasteless red orbs come from all have sandy soils, not good for great tomato flavor. That said, because these maters matured in September/October they will not have the flavor of a mater that matured in July/August but they will have far better flavor than grocery store maters. And you will not see tomatoes this week.

One thing you will see are melons. We had watermelon plants set a second round of fruit back in August. We have never had this happen before so we let the fruits stay on and mature to see what we would get. And what we now have are small melons with decent flavor. They need 14 hours of  daylight and heat to get great flavor. In the fall they get under 12 hours and down right chilly conditions. So we get small melons. Not all of you will see water melons (I believe we have a total of 9 and there are 11 members), some of you will get charantais melons/cantaloupes that did the same thing-set fruit a second time. Cantaloupes will do this second setting thing much more commonly than watermelon. And cantaloupes are more forgiving of low light and colder conditions. Thus the loupes are pretty darned good tasting, even if they are small. And if you are doing the winter share expect to see melons the first couple of pick-ups as we are growing them in a hoop house and they have set fruit which gets bigger daily. So barring an attack from the local mice and vole population (which, unfortunately, is likely, even with traps all over the place) we should have a late crop of melons in early November.

The fall crops are doing decently. The fall planted broccoli is beginning to make heads. The fall planted cabbage got attacked by green caterpillars and most of the heads are not forming well at all so we may not get a fall crop at all. The fall rutabagas are looking fabulous. The 'bagas, because they will store for months, would have traditionally been a very important crop to our ancestors. These would have been one of the few veggies available come Feb. (along with leeks and a few other things). The fall carrots are also very nice-sweet, on the large side and pretty much free of maggot damage (which we get a lot of in the summer crop). We have a lot of spring mix planted. The mix I am currently cutting is not growing well. But we had a nice rain the end of last week that seemed to help it a lot. But because it is not growing well you won't see it this week but should next week and on into winter. Strangely the arugula bed that is just a few feet from the spring mix is doing well (and the spring mix beds do have arugula in them that is only so so). I dunno if we have a soil problem that is very localized (we have noticed this phenomena on our farm-little areas of either  great soil or horrible soil that snake through the top and bottom areas). We have several other later plantings that are coming along well so far. but they will not be ready to cut for several more weeks at the earliest.

The parsnips are looking great. We dug a few last Friday to see how they are and they are nicer than last year ( they were spectacular last year). I expect that parsnips will start showing up in your shares in the next couple of weeks and will be a staple of the winter shares. If you have never had a parsnip you are missing out. They look like a white carrot (they are a relative) and are quite sweet. Not many people grow them because they take about 7 months to grow and must be planted in late winter or very early spring because the seeds need cold soils to germinate. We plant them in March for October/November harvests.

We can use any and all clean plastic or paper shopping bags you no longer need. In a week we can go through several hundred. pick up is after 4pm-if you come earlier you may have to wait. of course that is a wonderful excuse to wander around the farm. Remember access to the farm is one of the unique perks of being a Boulder belt FSI member. We may not be having an October potluck/farm tour but you can still walk about the farm. And there really is no better time of year to do so. It is pretty much drop dead gorgeous out here right now. You really should take advantage before the weather gets nasty and the prettiness goes away.

Recipe
Oven fries

A pound or so of taters, julienned
salt
olive oil

You will need a roasting pan with a lid or cover with aluminum foil. take the julianned taters and cover them lightly with oil (do not use too much) and than salt lightly. put into a preheated 350F oven and cook for about 15 minutes. Take out and stir (some will stick, that is all right) and put back into over this time with cover off. Stir again in another 10 minutes and cook another 5 to 10 minutes after that until the fries are nice and crispy. If you like your fries less crispy than cook for less time

What's in this Week's Share

Radishes-a nice bunch of mixed D'Avignon (long red and white) and Easter Egg (round purple, white and red/pink)
Winter squash-either one largish squash or a couple of small ones. This will be either butternut, delicata or Acorn (or some of each)
Chard-This past weekend we got had a message left on our answering machine from a long time very dedicated customer raving about the beauty of our chard. She went on for at least 2 minutes about how wonderful the chard is. I have no idea if she got past the beauty of the chard in order to cook and eat it. For those of you who may be new to chard, we grow a mix called Bright Lights which has 5 to 7 different colors and can be quite spectacular looking. this is easy to cook-wash, chop and steam in about 1 to 2 inches of water. the left over water will turn purple and is tasty and full of nutrients.
Arugula-this is usually used as a salad green though Italians love to put this on pizza (it is not cooked with the 'za, but rather, put on right before eating). We grow some of the best Arugula in the USA according to people who would know so enjoy.
Cilantro or parsley-I plan on putting a nice bunch of Cilantro in every share but frankly I do not know if  I have enough. If I don't you will get parsley. If you have a preference (I know some hate cilantro) let me know before 11 today/Thursday so you can get your choice
Peppers-a couple of ripe peppers and perhaps a green or purple one as well
Garlic-2 corms of garlic
Carrots-you will get a 1 pound bag of either orange carrots or our rainbow mix of red/purple, yellow and orange carrots
Celery-we grow celery, it is not like grocery store celery in that it is smaller and stronger. Very good for cooking, not so great, IMO, for raw munching
Shallots-shallots for fancy cooking (okay for ANY cooking)
Melon-as mentioned either a watermelon or cantaloupe-our choice
Potatoes-I do not know what kind of taters you will get this week but they will be new potatoes. FYI new potatoes has nothing to do with size. What most people think of as new potatoes are actually "B" potatoes meaning they are small in size. A true new potato is one that is freshly dug. It can be any size and any color/variety. You find such taters have brighter flavor and are crisp as they are full of moisture. The "new" taters you find at the store have been cured which changes everything and that means they are certainly not "new". You may have noticed this over the months we have put taters in shares as I don't believe you guys have gotten potatoes that had been allowed to cure for more than a couple of days (taters need about a month to cure properly). So really, all your potatoes have been new.


Lucy Goodman
Boulder Belt Eco-Farm
Eaton, OH
http://boulderbelt.blogspot.com

The first and last newsletter of the month. Weird, but true because the month of October starts mid week. To all of you who have done this all season, congrats, you have made it almost all the way. In my experience as a CSA farmer this is somewhat rare. In past years we have had up to 50% of our full season members drop out by now. This would start by a few missed share usually in July and by mid September the member(s) would pretty much quit coming to farm (or when we did drop points, the drop point) to get their food. Sometimes they would would let me know what was going on but most of the time they did not. This meant we were making shares that would not be used by the intended people. Very frustrating. I am so happy this has not been the case at all this season. On that note I need to hear from the following people ASAP about next month; Kristan/Earlham, Heather Kardeen and Bea, -Are you in or out for October? Let me know no later than this evening (Tuesday).                       

Life of the farm just keeps going and going. We put up the first of several hoop houses yesterday. It will start out life protecting tomatoes and green beans but by December it will be too cold for those crops and they will be cleared out and something will go in probably in late winter as it is about impossible to get a crop started in an unheated hoop house in December, unless it is warmish and sunny during December. Than we can start spinach or spring mix for March/April harvests. Those maters in that hoophouse should be ready to harvest the end of October and definitely by November, same with the green beans.

The summer season is pretty much over for us-we still have peppers and eggplant in the ground and producing but the melons and tomatoes are pretty much over (except for the maters in the hoop house which have yet to produce anything. Oh, and the tomato volunteers that are covered with green and just now ripening fruits but may not make it through a 36 degree night). I suspect the basil will be gone after a night in the mid 30's (the prediction for Wednesday night/Thursday morning). But cold weather is fine with us as we have shifted to crops that can take the cold and still produce well (as a matter of fact most of the leafy greens prefer cold nights). And if it gets a bit too nippy we have frost protection for the more tender crops still in the ground. the mid 30's will be hard of the peppers which are too numerous to put hoop houses over and too large for row cover so I believe the plan there will be to harvest as many peppers as possible and hope for the best. in past years the peppers have been able to deal with some near freezing temps without too much damage and it may not get nearly as cold as they predict. I note that this morning it is is the low 50's and it is supposed to be in the low 40's so they were off by about 10 degrees (in our favor).

Yesterday evening we spent time digging taters. We got in Pontiac Reds (the potatoes you guys have been getting most weeks for a couple of months, now), Russian banana, a yellow fingerling spud, great for roasting or salads. not great for mashed taters. And German Butterball. The Butterballs are a wonderfully round yellow spud that is a nice all purpose potato. It also is a potato we have grown for only 2 years now and have discovered that if you do not get these spuds out in a timely manner they decide to put out roots and leaves and make more taters. This would be wonderful if we had another 3 months of frost free weather ahead of us but now that is is firmly autumn and winter is on it's way these taters don't stand of chance of producing a crop (actually they do as Eugene has collected all the sprouting butterballs and will plant them in a hoop house where they just might be able to over winter). At any rate, this has never happened to us with any other variety of potato we have grown (and we have grown around 10 to 15 different varieties over the past 15 years) and I guess in the future we will have to remember to get these tubers out of the ground ASAP after they are ready. You see with potatoes, most can be left in the ground for weeks after the plants die back. As long as the ground does not freeze or get water logged (flooded) the taters should be alright (grubs are another factor-they will eat any and all taters they can get too). but we find the butterballs if left in the ground for more than a couple of weeks after the plants die back will try to make babies. All potatoes will eventually do this but most need to be left in the ground for several months or over winter to go into the reproduction mode. Actually the second reproduction mode as the plants make seed balls during the summer that will also turn into potato plants if planted. It is through the seed balls we get new varieties of potatoes. Yukon Gold was developed this way. Some day Boulder Belt may come up with a new variety of spud that is commercially viable as we do plant the seed balls to see what we get. So far we have gotten nothing new or unique. But we keep trying because we find plant breeding fascinating.

We still have a few openings (5/five) for the winter share. Let me know ASAP if you want to keep getting local food through January. Cost is $300, payable by Halloween for food every other week. I wanna give you members first crack at this offer before allowing non members to sign up. Thanks to those of you who have already let me know, yes or no, about the Winter Share Program

We can always use you clean, not full of rips and holes, plastic and paper shopping bags-got a big wad of them taking up space in your home and you don't want to landfill them? We will happily take them off your hands. Other things we are looking far are pint and quart canning jars (no lids needed). If you have any that are just taking up space bring 'em to the farm. If you can and need the jars keep them-oh and on that note if you do can and ever need widemouth lids (no rings) we can supply you with 'em for free as we have about 1500 new unused lids we got from a friend (and there is more where those came from). Anyhoo, if want some let me know and I will toss some in your share. And the final thing we are looking for are dogs and cats-we have lost one old dog and have another close to death and we really need a minimum of 3 dogs to keep the crops safe from deer, groundhogs and other critters. We also need a good mouser or two. If you know of any medium to large breed (mutts are best but preferably no Chow or Pitbull mixes) puppies up to 6 months old that need a good home let us know. Same with kittens.

                                           
Dressing/Stuffing
1 loaf of bread cubed and allowed to go stale over night. If you did not give yourself enough time pop the cubed bread (put it on a baking sheet) into a 350F oven for 10 minutes to dry out. It will take more than 10 minutes to dry the bread but it should be stirred every 10 minutes until it gets to where you want it.
1 quart chicken or vegetable stock or water
1 medium yellow onion chopped
3 (or more) ribs of celery chopped
2 to 3 apples chopped
1 or 2 pears chopped
1 cup of nuts, chopped (walnuts are best but any will do)
1/2 cup of raisins
2 cloves of garlic minced (more or less-to taste)
1/2 pound mushrooms sliced
1 tsp fresh sage (can use dried)
1 tsp fresh rosemary (can use dried)
1/4 cup fresh Italian/flat leaf parsley
1/2 cup melted butter or olive oil
Salt to taste
Pepper to taste

In a large frying pan melt 1/2 the butter (or oil) and saute the onion, mushrooms, garlic and celery until tender. In a large mixing bowl put together the bread, cooked veggies, herbs, salt and pepper, fruit,  melted butter/oil and liquid and mix together. At this point you can either stuff your holiday bird or pork chops or put the dressing into a greased baking dish, cover and bake for about 45 minutes and than serve

What's in the Share this Week
Blue Lake Green Beans-these will be on the big side but will still be tender and delicious
Butterball potatoes-expect about a pound of these plus Russian banana fingerlings (the not round taters).                                                                                               should be good mashed or boiled. I really have not used a lot of these as we are just now doing a real harvest and last year was the year to build up seed stock so I did not get a chance to cook any. not to mention it was a really bad year for them last year so... The Fingerlings are another one that we have grown for only a couple of years but these i know about because we have grown another type of fingerling, French Fingerling, for over 10 years and all fingerling taters have a waxy flesh that is perfect for roasting and boiling for salads.
Spring mix-This is the crop that got me into market farming. I was looking for a decent salad mix after using a local organic mix at a restaurant where I cooked for several years. I could not find a commercial salad mix that was at all decent (not even the organic mixes) so I decided to develop my own spring mix 15 years ago and I gotta say you will find none better. if it were not for spring mix I would not have become the locavore farmer I am today. Enjoy.
Kale-a nice 3/4 pound bag of White Russian Kale (there seems to be a Russian Theme developing with this share)
Radishes-A small bunch of D'avignon (long red and white) and Easter Egg (round red, white or purple) radishes. perfect for your salad
Red Onion-a couple of medium red onions. These are a beautiful all purpose onion.
Sage-herb of the week is sage. This is great for poultry dishes as well as pork. It is a strong herb so use it sparingly and unlike many much more delicate fresh herbs it can be used at the beginning of cooking and hold up. It is also good in herbed bread and biscuits.
Peppers-Last week I warned you all that there will be a future pepper explosion. that time has come. Expect a minimum of 4 huge ripe peppers in your share this week. Perhaps more. Remember these are super easy to freeze and would be great for stuffing.
Eggplant-I expect this to be the last week for eggplant. Aubergines do not like cold weather at all and will either die outright when temps get into the 30's or at the very least pout and refuse to produce more fruit.
Pears-2 to 3 pounds of Kieffer pears, yum yum.
Garlic-I dunno what kind will be in your share, one of the 3 kinds we grow, but it will be good as always.
Winter Squash-You will get 1 to 2 winter squashes in you share. I am not sure what kind at this point but it will either be Butternut (beige) Acorn (dark green), Delicata (oblong, ivory white with green or orange stripes) Sunshine (round and orange) or Cushaw (large, white with green stripes. All of them cook the same way-cut in half                                                         lengthwise, remove the seeds (which are wonderful roasted) and bake on a baking sheet in a 350 oven for 20 to 45 minutes depending on the squash and its size. Squash is done when it is no longer hard to the touch.


Lucy Goodman
Boulder Belt Eco-Farm
Eaton, OH
http://www.boulderbeltfarm.com


 

It's the first day of fall-we have made it through spring and summer and for us farmers it is all down hill from here. Most of the fall planting is done. Next we start cleaning up the market garden so it can be put to bed for winter. This means ripping out old spent plants and making several compost piles with their corpses, taking up the landscape cloth we use for mulch and storing it for the winter than putting in cover crops of annual rye or oats to feed the soil. Cover crops are often problematic for us as they go in late (we still have a lot of crops that won't be ready to take out until after frost) and more often than not we do not get adequate rainfall in the fall (which seems to be happening this year) to get the seeds to germinate and grow a bit before they go into winter dormancy.

The other big job we have is erecting hoop houses over the beds that have our winter crops. We will put up at least 3 this fall and we may have to build a 4th from scratch so we can get everything covered that needs it. In the past we have made do with less but have found that crops protected with just row cover rarely make it past December no matter how hardy they are. Leeks are an exception to this-they will make it through winter but they look bad and are hard to harvest when the ground is frozen. Leeks in a hoop house do much, much better over winter.

This past week we started harvesting dried beans and peas. These will mainly go for seed purposes, though we think the Blanton's peas (more like a black eyed pea than a garden or English pea) will make great soup and we do have a lot of these. Now all we have to do is thresh them and clean them up so they can be used. years ago we grew dried beans as an actual crop but found that they took up an awful lot of space for low yields and we could buy certified organic beans for less than what it cost to raise them so we pretty much quit growing them. You really need to grow acres and acres of them to make it worth the time and effort involved. But growing so many means there is no way they can be harvested and threshed by hand so that means we would have to invest about $50K in a combine (and that would be a used combine, a new one cost $1/2 million) and buy more acreage. So we have decided not to do that as it would bankrupt us.

The Winter Share program will start Nov 11th. I need to know if you are in or out ASAP. Just a simple yes or no will suffice. I have heard from several members already so you guys do not need to respond again.

Pick-up is after 4pm. As there are tomatoes on the list there will be two bags this week. One on the table by the fridge and the other in the fridge with your name on both.

Recipe

Roasted Peppers

You will need a grill (wood is best but propane or charcoal will do the job) a paper grocery bag (do NOT use plastic for this) and as many whole peppers as you can find. get the grill going and when it is hot with some flame put the peppers on. Cook them over the flame turning occasionally until the fruit is blackened and the skin is flaking off, about 10-to 15 minutes. remove from heat and put into the paper bag ASAP. Let the hot and charred peppers sit in the bag for about 15 minutes than take them out of the bag and remove the blackened skin from the peppers. I find it is best to do this over a sink as you will need to rinse them off. Also remove the seeds at this time. now you can either use these smoky tasting peppers right away in your favorite dish or on their own as a side dish/appetizer. or you can cut them into strips, put them on a cooking sheet and freeze them for later use. When the peppers are fully frozen put them into a plastic freezer bag and back into the freezer. These are great in salsa and chili, among other things.

What's In the Share this Week

Mistui Rose radish-AKA water melon radish because it is green on the outside and red inside. These are best used for cooking but can also be eaten raw, though I find them a bit on the fibrous side. I have not had the greens but they are quite edible and i am sure like most greens this is where most of the nutrition is. I would treat them like chard or spinach if you cook them. You get a bunch of three
Tomatoes-likely the last week for these. A few pounds of mix maters, many of which may not be in the best shape. late tomatoes are full of cracks, dings and late blight. Just cut around anything that looks bad.
Dill-an herb we should have had months ago but are just now able to harvest. Dill is a versatile herb that goes well with most veggie, cheese and fish dishes.
Parsley-a nice bunch of Italian Flat leaf parsley
Raspberries-a 1/2 pint box of raspberries this week. they just get better and better.
Red Turnips-a bunch of red salad turnips. these are meant to be eaten raw in salad, like radishes. That's right I am sending you radishes that need cooking and turnips that are best raw, confusing, huh?. The greens are also excellent (I like these and dislike all other kinds of turnip greens).
Potatoes-a couple of pounds of mixed taters. I do not know what we have harvested but there should be red, white and some different fingerlings.
Sweet Peppers-Some purple peppers and at least one red or orange ripe pepper. there would be more ripe ones but once a year Miami University (my Alma Mater) does a local foods dinner for the students and they ordered red peppers and pears for us so I have to make sure I can fill their order. seeing as how we have over 150 peppers plants full of ripening peppers this should not be an issue. But the peppers are ripening sloooowly and unevenly so it has become a small issue. In the coming weeks I will likely overload you guys to some extent with ripe peppers. These are super easy to freeze. Just cut them open, take out the seeds and cut off the white ribs and than cut the peppers into the shapes you want (I dice them) and put into a freezer bag (be sure to get out all the air) and into the freezer for winter/spring use. I suggest you do this with them when you get an overload.
Beets-The beets are back for fall. You will get a bunch of red beets with greens. Like the other root crops with greens this week, these too are edible and tasty and where all the nutrients are.
Green Beans-You will get a pound of either the Haricot verts (long and skinny) or Blue Lake (not so long or skinny) depending on what is producing today and Thursday. It looked like on Saturday that there would be a lot of Haricot verts Tuesday and lots of Blue Lake by Thursday. Of course we were also expecting a couple of inches of rain and not the drizzle we got most of Sunday that resulted in about 1/2" of rainfall. At any rate these beans will be far better looking than the beans you guys have been getting as we have switched from picking old beds to brand new beds.
Copra Onions-These are the best yellow cooking onions ever and that is why we grow them (I am a bit of an onion fanatic). If you want to use them raw just know that they will burn your guts. These do not need to be refrigerated
Garlic-a couple of corms of garlic. I believe you will get Chesnok Red (AKA Shivlisi) this week. This is our strongest garlic and originates in Georgia (Russian GA, not US GA)



Lucy Goodman
Boulder Belt Eco-Farm
Eaton, OH
http://boulderbelt.blogspot.com