Maplewood Organics

Tuesday, October 5th - Potato and Sweet Potato harvest.

If anyone has time to come this Tuesday, October 5th, we'd love to have you come that afternoon. Sorry for all the changes, but so much in farming depends on the weather. We're going to attempt to use the mechanical potato digger, so the job should go more quickly. We still need folks to help dig the sweet potatoes however and to walk behind the potato digger to pick up all the potatoes. Please let us know if you'll be joining us!

Rescheduled

With all the rain coming, it looks like it'll be too wet to get into the potato field. If anyone has time to come next Tuesday, October 5th, we'd love to have you come that afternoon. Sorry for all the changes, but so much in farming depends on the weather. We're going to attempt to use the mechanical potato digger, so the job should go more quickly. We still need folks to help dig the sweet potatoes however and to walk behind the potato digger to pick up all the potatoes. Please let us know if you'll be joining us!

Sunday, September 26th - Potato and Sweet Potato harvest.

This is our usual harvest day also. We're looking for some extra folks to come out to help dig the rest of our potatoes and get the sweet potatoes out of the ground. Sweet potatoes are a new crop for us which we are excited to offer a bit of to each of you this year. Depending on what the harvest is like, we may plant more next year. Please give a call or send an email if you're willing and able to come help. We'll also be rooting some strawberry runners on this day.

Friday, October 8th - Garlic Planting - 1pm-5pm

This is the best root day this fall to plant our garlic. Lots of hands will make it go quickly. We'd LOVE your help. We'll make our rows, plant the cloves and mulch the whole area with loose hay. Please call or send an email if you would like to help us on this day.

Garden Progress and Farm News

Maggie and I started spreading compost in the garden behind the house this weekend. We'll finish that up early this week. We have a few more rows to till up and prepare for our garlic planting coming up.

I pulled a couple hands full of parsnips yesterday and found some good-sized roots! We'll offer these the last two weeks of our summer CSA and for our fall/winter members.

I'm pleased with our new plantings - our last round of beans, summer squash, zucchini, lettuce, Swiss chard, beets, and carrots. What a difference the proper row spacing (for our rototiller) makes!!! It makes me feel really excited for next year already!

We do have some melons ripening...not a great yield. We are picking what's ready each week now and offering them as extra choices. If you have already taken one as an extra choice, consider leaving them so that someone else who hasn't had one can get one. Next year they will be more abundant. The area behind the house is designated for melons and garlic next year.

We are interviewing another potential intern. We hope she comes to spend at least part of the winter with us. She has some farm experience already and seems like she'd be a great addition to our team! Wish us luck.

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Recipes of the Week

Sky Blue Potatoes

24 new red potatoes, halved lengthwise

2 teaspoons extra-virgin olive oil

1 1/2 cups sour cream

1 cup crumbled blue cheese

1/2 cup crumbled cooked bacon, plus more for garnish

1/3 cup chopped flat-leaf parsley, plus more for garnish

1/4 red onion, finely chopped

1.Preheat the oven to 400°. In a medium bowl, toss the potatoes with the olive oil. Place cut side down on a baking sheet and bake until the skins are crisp, 20 to 25 minutes; let cool.

2.Scoop out the center of each potato half and place in a medium bowl. Stir in the sour cream, blue cheese, bacon, parsley and onion. Fill each potato skin with the sour cream mixture and top with more crumbled bacon and parsley.

Chicken with Skillet Tomato Sauce

2 to 2-1/2 pounds meaty chicken pieces (breasts, thighs, and drumsticks))

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon pepper

1/4 cup slivered almonds

2 tablespoons olive oil

6 ounces packaged dried rigatoni

1/2 cup sliced onion

3 cloves garlic, minced

4 medium tomatoes, seeded and cut up (1-1/2 pounds)

1/4 cup tomato paste

1 tablespoon red wine vinegar

1/2 teaspoon sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon crushed red pepper

1/4 cup coarsely chopped, pimiento-stuffed green olives

1. Skin chicken, if desired. Sprinkle with the first 1/4 teaspoon salt and pepper; set aside. Place almonds in a 12-inch skillet. Cook over medium heat for 5 to 7 minutes or until almonds are lightly toasted, stirring often; remove from pan and set aside.

2. In the same 12-inch skillet heat olive oil. Add chicken to the skillet, placing meaty pieces toward the center. Cook, uncovered, over medium heat for 15 minutes or until lightly browned, turning to brown evenly. Reduce heat. Cook, covered, for 30 to 35 minutes or until chicken is tender and no longer pink.

3. Meanwhile, cook pasta according to package directions; drain and keep warm. Remove chicken from skillet; drain off all but 2 tablespoons drippings. Cover chicken and keep warm while preparing sauce.

4. For sauce, cook onion and garlic in the reserved drippings until tender; transfer to a blender container or food processor bowl*. Add the tomatoes, tomato paste, vinegar, sugar, remaining 1/4 teaspoon salt, and red pepper. Cover and blend or process until nearly smooth. Return mixture to skillet. Stir in olives. Bring to boiling; reduce heat. Boil gently, uncovered, about 10 minutes or until desired consistency.

5. Divide pasta among 4 bowls or plates. Top with a piece of chicken. Spoon sauce over chicken and pasta. Sprinkle with toasted almonds. Garnish with marjoram sprigs, if desired. Makes 4 servings.

This Saturday is our annual member picnic! Please check your email for an Evite to let us know if you’re coming! We hope you’ll be able to find the time to come out to the farm for some fun!

We have a wide variety of extra choices for you this week including cabbage. This is the first year that we haven't had a great cabbage year. We'll be taking a break from making sauerkraut until next year. And lettuce returns to your shares! We may not have it every week that's left but will do our best to offer it two or three times. It takes longer to recover and grow back when the temperatures are so cool at night.

Save the Dates

Saturday, September 18th, 5:00-8:00pm

Annual CSA Member Picnic

Come enjoy good company, tour the farm by foot and hay rides, and eat delicious Maplewood and member food! Please bring a dish to share. You may also bring a friend who might be interested in joining our CSA next year. Maplewood Organics will provide burgers and fixings, place settings, and non-alcoholic beverages. We'll have dinner around 6:00. Keep an eye out for an Evite for this event.

Sunday, September 19th, 1:00pm-4:00pm

NOFA Weed Dating Event

This is NOFA's play on the highly successful singles phenomenon called 'Speed Dating.' In Speed Dating, each participant spends a pre-determined amount of time with one potential mate, then moves on to the next. In Weed Dating, it’s much the same—except, instead of sipping on Cosmos while chatting with your partner, you’ll be weeding a bed of vegetables or doing other similar, light labor. This is a great opportunity to meet other farm and food enthusiasts, farmers, and NOFA-VT staff. We hope to not only ignite the flames of human companionship, but tighten the relationships between farmers and consumers as well.

Singles will receive a farm tour and refreshments, in addition to cultivating new connections. Farm experience is not required, but please come prepared for an hour’s work. Not looking for love? Friend-seekers are welcome as well.

Garden Progress and Farm News

Maggie has been working hard hand-weeding our new plantings. They look pretty good! We should have enough lettuce to offer for the next couple weeks at least! We had our first taste tonight in tacos. I'm thrilled to be able to offer fresh lettuce to you again soon after a large portion of our lettuce crop bolted or turned bitter in the heat of this July.

We're waiting for our next crop of carrots to get a little bigger. Our new planting of summer squash and zucchini have small squash on them already! The plants look so much healthier than our first batch. I'm hopeful.

We were really lucky to have help Monday from our former intern, Hannah, and a visiting intern from Blue Heron Farm in Grand Isle, Eric. We were able to do some extra harvesting to get a head start on Wednesday's work - great for Sita and I. Last Wednesday and Thursday were challenging days. We did take Sunday mostly off this week for a pontoon boat ride on the Lake.

Recipes of the Week

Here are 5 ideas for using fresh pumpkin.

For the best flavor, slice and seed fresh pumpkin and roast in a medium oven for 30-40 minutes until tender. When cool enough to handle, remove skin and mash or blend the flesh. Alternatively, peel and seed raw pumpkin, cut into chunks, place in a large pan with the minimum of water and simmer until tender. Drain thoroughly and mash, blend or process to a puree.

Pumpkin soup Pumpkin makes wonderful soup. Cook cubes of fresh pumpkin in vegetable stock, adding other vegetables such as onion, leek, potato, carrot or turnip if you wish. When the vegetables are tender, puree in a blender or food processor. For extra savor, add spices like cinnamon or nutmeg. Ground or grated fresh ginger also work well.

Pumpkin cakes Add up to 175ml (1 cup) pureed pumpkin to teabread recipes, for moistness. Always use spice with pumpkin, because its natural flavor is very mild. Traditional choice is a mix of cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, cloves and allspice.

Pumpkin pies Thanksgiving wouldn't be complete without a pumpkin pie. The simplest way to make one is to use bake a pastry case or pie crust (or buy a good quality ready-made one). For enough filling for two 9-inch (20cm) pie crusts, mix 450 ml (2 ½ cups) pumpkin puree, fresh or canned, with 5 fl oz low-fat evaporated milk, three beaten eggs and 1 ½ tsp cinnamon, ¾ tsp ginger, ¼ tsp each nutmeg and allspice (but check before adding spices, as some canned pumpkin comes ready-spiced). Bake for 15 mins at 425F/220C/gas 7, lower the temperature to 350F/180C/gas 4 for another 40 minutes.

Pumpkin pancakes Great for breakfast, these are whizzed up in minutes. Substitute 90ml (1/2 cup) pumpkin puree for the same quantity of milk in your favorite pancake recipe and cook in a hot pan, pouring just enough batter to make small pancakes.

Pumpkin in savory dishes Try cubed pumpkin, browned with onion and garlic, then simmered in a tomato sauce with a dash of chili. Great with pasta or rice. Or use pumpkin in risotto. Finely chop and soften 4 shallots or one onion in a little olive oil. Stir in 250g ( 1 ½ cups) risotto rice, 500g (3 cups) grated fresh pumpkin (use a food processor to do the grating), then gradually add 850ml (5 cups) hot vegetable stock, making sure each addition has been absorbed into the rice before you add the next. When rice and pumpkin are tender, stir through a generous grating of Parmesan cheese, and leave to stand, covered for 10 minutes to allow the rice to swell.

Green Pepper and Tomato Salad Recipe courtesy Rachael Ray

•1 green bell pepper, seeded and cut into 1 1/2-inch dice

•3 vine-ripe tomatoes, seeded and diced

•1 small onion, chopped

•1 large clove garlic, finely chopped

•1/2 cup flat-leaf parsley leaves, coarsely chopped

•1/2 lemon, juiced (1 tablespoon)

•1 tablespoon red wine vinegar

•3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

•Coarse salt and black pepper

•1 teaspoon ground cumin, 1/2 a palm full

Combine peppers, tomatoes, onions, garlic, parsley in a bowl with your fingertips. Squeeze the juice of the lemon with the lemon half sitting upright. This will help prevent the seeds from falling into the bowl. The lemon juice will spill down over the sides of the lemon and the seeds will remain with the fruit. Squeeze the juice evenly over the salad. If the lemon is under-ripe, microwave it for 10 seconds before you cut into it. Next, sprinkle a tablespoon of vinegar over the salad -- just eyeball it. Drizzle the extra-virgin olive oil over the salad, add the salt, pepper and cumin. Toss again. Taste to adjust seasonings and serve.

Annual CSA Member Picnic

Come enjoy good company, tour the farm by foot and hay rides, and eat delicious Maplewood and member food! Please bring a dish to share. You may also bring a friend who might be interested in joining our CSA next year. Maplewood Organics will provide burgers and fixings, place settings, and non-alcoholic beverages. We'll have dinner around 6:00. Keep an eye out for an Evite for this event.

Sunday, September 19th, 1:00pm-4:00pm

NOFA Weed Dating Event

This is NOFA's play on the highly successful singles phenomenon called 'Speed Dating.' In Speed Dating, each participant spends a pre-determined amount of time with one potential mate, then moves on to the next. In Weed Dating, it’s much the same—except, instead of sipping on Cosmos while chatting with your partner, you’ll be weeding a bed of vegetables or doing other similar, light labor. This is a great opportunity to meet other farm and food enthusiasts, farmers, and NOFA-VT staff. We hope to not only ignite the flames of human companionship, but tighten the relationships between farmers and consumers as well.

Singles will receive a farm tour and refreshments, in addition to cultivating new connections. Farm experience is not required, but please come prepared for an hour’s work. Not looking for love? Friend-seekers are welcome as well.

Garden Progress and Farm News

Friday, Sita took all of the garlic out of the greenhouse and trimmed it up for storage. We'll be planting most of what's left but will save some for our winter share members. Maddy and I picked most of the onions on Friday also and put them in the greenhouse to dry. We'll pick what's left in the garden to distribute directly to you over the next couple weeks. Our squash field looks really good. The big weeds are down and the squash is beginning to ripen. Maddy and I harvested more delicata squash and most of the spaghetti squash on Saturday. The pie pumpkins are getting nice and orange. We also have butternut, buttercup, acorn, and sugar dumpling squash. We also grew a small amount of an heirloom pumpkin called Musque de Provence also know as Fairytale and a Japanese squash called Red Kuri!

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Recipes of the Week

Carrot Apple Curry Soup

• 1 1/2 tsp. olive oil

• 6 carrots, peeled and chopped

• 1 small onion, chopped

• 1 1/2 oz. white wine vinegar

• 4 cups vegetable stock

• 3 apples (any kind), peeled and chopped

• 1 Tablespoon powder ginger

• 1 1/2 tsp. curry powder

• salt and pepper to taste

In a large soup pot, heat the olive oil over medium high heat. Add carrots and onion and cook until the start to brown. Once they have softened a bit, add the vinegar to deglaze the pan, and add the vegetable stock. Simmer the carrots and onions for 10 minutes. Add the apples. Add more vegetable stock if needed. You want the apples, onion, and carrots to be slightly submerged. Add the ginger and curry powder, and simmer for 45 minutes or until the vegetables and apples are very soft. Blend with an immersion blender; adjust seasoning with salt and pepper.

Italian-Style Spaghetti Squash

2 lb. spaghetti squash, halved lengthwise and seeded

2 Tbs. olive oil

1 medium-sized red onion, thinly sliced

4 medium-sized tomatoes, diced

1/4 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp. coarsely ground black pepper

1/2 cup reduced-fat grated Parmesan cheese for garnish, optional

1 small lemon, sliced

Directions

Preheat oven to 350F.

Place squash halves, cut side down, in baking dish. Add 1/4 cup water, and cover dish with foil. Bake for about 30 minutes, or until tender. Remove from oven, and cool slightly.

Meanwhile, heat 1 tablespoon oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add onion, and cook for 3 minutes, or until onion is translucent. Add tomatoes, salt and pepper. Reduce heat to low, and cook, uncovered, for about 10 minutes.

Using a fork, scrape squash strands into a bowl. Toss with remaining 1 tablespoon of oil. Mound squash in the centers of four pasta bowls. Spoon vegetable mixture around or over squash strands, dividing vegetables equally among bowls. Drizzle with more oil, if desired, and garnish with Parmesan cheese. Add lemon slices, and serve.

Roasted Paste Tomatoes

Roma tomatoes
Parmesan cheese
Salt
fresh spices (dill, coriander, etc)
butter

Select firm, red, ripe Roma tomatoes. Cut in half lengthwise and place on a baking pan cut side up. Drizzle butter on each half. Sprinkle lightly with salt. Sprinkle finely chopped fresh herbs or dried on each half. Then, simply sprinkle a generous amount of Parmesan cheese on the prepared tomatoes. Place underneath a preheated broiler for 3 to 4 minutes and remove when the Parmesan cheese has melted. Serve as either an appetizer or hors doeuvre, or as a tasty side garnish on a main plate entree. Very delicious and a nice touch. Enjoy!