Maple Heights Farm

·Combine all the ingredients (except the beef) in a non-reactive pot and bring to a boil. Let it cook for a few minutes, then turn off the heat and let it cool to room temperature, then refrigerate it to chill it completely.

·Place beef in a large pot. Add the chilled brine along with all the spices.

·Refrigerate the beef for at least 5 to 10 days, turning it over daily to make sure it brines evenly. A smaller piece of brisket will be done in 5 days; a thick piece might require up to 8 days.

*(to de-chlorinate, just let your water sit for a while.  Chlorine will leave naturally)

I have probably read more than 60 books this year and about 20 of them have been about vegetable gardening (another 5 to 10 about preserving and cooking).I get all my books from the library and occasionally purchase those that I like best.My only purchases this year have been Animal, Vegetable, Miracle!, The Omnivore’s Dilemma, The Vegetable Gardener’s Bible, and an out of print The New Victory Garden by Bob Thomson.The New Victory Garden is a book that I will use for years to come.I have been using it since March and really wish I had purchased it earlier.I have been keeping notes in the book throughout the year and I have and highlighted and bookmarked many of the pages.This book has sort of become my gardening notebook.It is based on the Victory Garden in the Boston area and the timetables are more relevant for the north than for warmer areas.My biggest recommendation about this book is that you read it before January.In January it will have you starting from seed, celery, leeks, onions and a few tomatoes.The fall cleanup chapters will be incredibly helpful to me as the weather turns colder and I will try to follow those chapters step by step to give myself the biggest boost next spring.

Although my vegetable gardens (one at our home and one at our farm) are not perfect, they are very productive.As of now, we are picking fennel, cabbage, cucumbers, broccoli, cauliflower, beans, beets, carrots, tomatoes, peppers, watermelon, asian melon, corn, okra, herbs, onions, shallots, scallions, asparagus peas (or winged peas)…My garden at home is looking good, gets enough manure tea, gets weeded and generally is an enjoyable place to spend an hour here and there.Our garden at the farm is in a beautiful setting overlooking West Fitchburg, and terraced on three levels, but it grows weeds just as well as it grows vegetables.And since it is not in our back yard, it doesn’t get weeded like it needs to!Still it is very productive – we even ate our first asian melon yesterday and plan to slice into our first sugar baby watermelon today at lunchtime!

With this abundance of fresh produce, preparing school lunches will be fun next week.I help Sydney (grade 4) make her lunch every day. Meghan (grade 8) has the option of paying for her school lunch out of her allowance (read below for how allowances work in the Hertel household) or bringing it for free from home.Max (grade 12) has the option of bringing it from home or purchasing it from school.So, what will we do for lunch next week?Some combination of the following from our farm and/or farmers’ market

• Hard boiled eggs or egg salad
• cucumbers, carrots, peppers, cherry tomatoes (6 varieties make a pretty interesting bowlfulo), broccoli, cauliflower, melon slices
• various cheese from the farmers' market
• foccacia with warm pizza sauce (stored in a thermos) for dipping (see my website for the recipe at http://www.mapleheightsfarm.com/recipe_pizza.html)
• celery stuffed with goat cheese OR peanut butter and raisins
• homemade yogurt with fruit jams that we canned this summer

How allowances work in our house:

Starting in 6^th grade and when we think each child is responsible, they get an allowance of $80 per month paid on a monthly basis.Note that our children are 4 years apart and they only get the allowance for 4 years so we are only paying allowance to one child at a time.Our children are expected to help around the house and farm.This is not tied at all to the allowance.The allowance is designed only to help them learn how to manage money.This is how it works:

This allowance covers pocket money, sneakers, pets (goats for Meghan, a dog for Max), all expenses related to pets, all unnecessary clothing and backpacks and school supplies, all unnecessary electronics, and school lunches – if they choose to purchase them.We feel that this amount actually works out to less than what we would be paying for random $10 for the movies, ice cream…  Unnecessary is quite subjective, but if we decide that if a backpack is perfectly good then we are not willing to replace it.  Max's $50 LL Bean backpack purchased 6 years ago probably needs to be replaced this year but has been perfectly fine up until now.  Meghan's $15 "book bags" usually don't hold up very well and need to be replaced every year.

We encourage them to avoid “eating their money”.We want them to put it towards something tangible except as an occasional treat.We try to help them see that $10 at the concession stand isn’t as meaningful the next day as saving up toward a bigger purchase.This includes school lunches as they could easily pay $55 per month or pack their lunch from home for free.When they are budgeting for a month at a time this is a pretty clear picture for them.

Every dime of this allowance must be accounted for in a bound composition book.If their figures are off at the end of the month they get an adjustment in their allowance.If they are off by $4 they only get $76 the following month.

Our local eating this week has again consisted of whatever we have in our garden (carrots, broccoli, cauliflower, summer squash, cucumbers, beans, beets, scallions, asparagus pea, cabbage, and kohlrabi) and often whole meals are planned around the vegetables.

·Burgers with homemade hamburger rolls (look at Mother Earth News for another good recipe), Smith’s Country Cheddar, beets, carrots and cucumber salad (condiments and pickles not local). 

·Bacon, egg and cheese crostini on English Muffin bread served with raw broccoli and dip.  Alright, they really are sandwiches, but doesn’t “crostini” sound so much more legitimate for a quick evening meal? 

·We had a head of cabbage from the garden and needed to build a meal around it.  One quarter of it went into coleslaw so we decided fish and chips were in order.  Andy performed a bit of magic in our kitchen and turned out the most delicious crusty fried fish with French fries cut from potatoes that I had just dug from the garden.  Meanwhile he made a fish chowder for the next night.  About a month ago we had lobster sandwiches so we froze the broth, shells and all.  That makes quite a nice base for any kind of chowder.  We also freeze broth from steamers when we have them.  You may as well get two delicious meals out of your shellfish!

This past week was a busy week preparing for Mass Local Food delivery day and the farmers’ market.  All this while we have 500 bales of hay that need to get into the barn before the rain!  We did it, thanks to Andy’s ability to work endlessly and thanks to the help of six very strong Westminster teenagers that have a work ethic that would make your head spin!

We are planting more vegetables now for fall.  We have planted several hundred more carrots and beets along with starting a seed bed for Kale, Kohlrabi, spinach, broccoli and assorted winter vegetables – which are up after only 4 days!  I have moved my leeks out of my spring seedbed and replanted them around the strawberry rows and anywhere else I could find room (including along the walkway to my front door).  I use the seedbed to sprinkle whatever vegetable seeds I am planting.  I do not get picky about rows or anything – my goal is just to get some seedlings.  As they come up, I will thin them and move them to empty areas of my garden.  Currently the empty areas are getting filled with carrot, turnip, beats, and other vegetables that are not so easily transplanted.  As more areas empty out (corn and cabbage get picked, beans no longer produce…) we will fill in with the items from our seedbeds.

This week we have canned some blueberry lime jam.  It tastes yummy!  I hoping some of our jams don’t set because they will be much nicer to stir into yogurt that way!