Salamander Springs Farm/Permaculture Organics

Dear CSAers: 

Next week is the last delivery of the season!   We would love your feedback on the season--what you have liked or not, what you would like more or less...what you have learned...  Feel free to share with us at the market or by email.

We finished the popcorn harvest and started the cornmeal corn with a harvest & shucking party at Salamander Springs Farm last Saturday.  Thank you to all who participated!  We were blessed with visits from friends from FL and Philadelphia Adina Lehrmann, Mark Stanley and Aaron Birke, as well as 2012 farm apprentices Bethany Cook, who has been ever helpful here while continuing to farm in Berea at Lazy 8 Stock Farm, and Brian Wong arrived from Nashville to surprise us!   And our mid-summer WWOOFer David Veltzer stopped for a visit on his way back to NJ from the west coast - you'll get to say hello to him at today’s market! 

“Sowing Winter Wheat & Cover Crops”  - a note from Mirra

    This week we sowed a cover crop of winter wheat, crimson clover, and a mix of mustard, daikon radish and turnip seeds.  Susana and I cast these seeds over the bean field. Since the black bean and pinto harvest, the field has been filled up with cowpea and buckwheat cover crop (except where the chickens are currently situated, pecking and scratching).  There is a real technique to sowing the seed.  It requires a rhythm and a confidence.  Pay attention with each step, so that the field receives even coverage. The work is healing for mind, body, and soul.
    We shook the wheat & other seeds down through the living cowpea & buckwheat plants as we walked through the field, seeking out mature yellowing seed pods for next year’s cowpea crop!
    Buckwheat and cowpeas tag-teamed the field this past season in the effort to constantly feed and protect the vitality of the soil. We sowed them to bring coverage after the chickens scratched out each section of the field. The “ Iron & Clay” cowpeas are really good at thriving in hot summer temperatures, breaking into harder soils and fixing nitrogen from the air to help the soils thrive. Buckwheat is eager to germinate and so it makes way for the cowpea seed. The duo have been awesome helpers.
    Well, it has been another full day here at Salamander Springs Farm, full of the learning that I came here hungry for... Thanks for reading!
-mirra e.

THIS WEEK IN YOUR BOX!

Broccoli!  Our the fall crop is starting to come in so every one gets at least a small head!

Garlic - It is fall planting time for 2014 garlic, and we found we had saved enough for seed to share some extra heads!

Sweet Potatoes - mix of heirlooms Bradshaw Red & O’Henry White:  bigger ones + a bag of tender shoots.  We hope you enjoy the sweet flavor and tenderness of these old time heirloom varieties, whether baked with butter & salt, chopped for stir-fries, soups or especially our easy favorite yummy oven-roasted “Home Fries” recipe, below!   Keep freshly harvested sweet potatoes WARM (about 85-90 degrees) for about a week after harvest to cure their skin for longer storage.  A sunny window (in a paper bag or in a basket covered with a cloth) or the top of a refrigerator is often warmer than the rest of the room.  After that they will keep best at room temperature in your kitchen.  Never refrigerate sweet potatoes--these sub-tropical beauties hate cold!

FIGS!  our 2 fig trees did not produce as early or as heavily as they have in hotter, drier years, but we have been enjoying them the past few weeks and want you to enjoy some fresh local figs, too!

Salad Mix - tender crisp romaine & red sails lettuce with Mizuna & flowers - savor the tender crispness of cool fall weather with those homemade salad dressing recipes we posted back in May!

Austrian Crescent Fingerling Potatoes OR Autumn Roots bunch - last-of-the-season for these tender & creamy little fingers!  OR those of you witrh a potato intolerance will enjoy a hearty mix other autumn roots- Carrots, Daikons & Beets!

Flavor-packed Stir Fry Mix - We put it all together this week:  Kale, Chard, Sweet Potato greens, Daikon, Mustard & Mizuna!

Zucchini - until it frosts, these beautiful Italian Costata Romanesco zucchini keep feeding us some tasty fruits!

Yellow Storage Onions – store up to 6 months because they have more sulfur than the sweet onions you received earlier in the season.  Sulfur can make you cry, but it is good for you!

Sweet Peppers – you can freeze sweet peppers to use this winter so we’ll give you a wide selection this week of our sweet & flavorful Italian varieties of peppers, like the Jimmy Nardello's Roasting, Carmen, Corno di Toro, Bell peppers as well as Paprika Peppers! These are the small red beauties we dry to grind into delicious paprika; a few of you have chosen these in the past.  This weeks’ Sweet Potato Home Fries recipe is a great reason to try them if you haven’t before!

Hot Peppers - Take a selection to warm up with on these chilly fall evenings, and put some flavor in your bean pot or Whippoorwill Peas.   We have Límon, Thai, Habanero, Jalapeno, and Cayenne.  If you are not into hot peppers but want some spice & flavor, we have Sweet Banana & Paprika peppers (see above) or can give you an extra sweet pepper!

Parsley & Basil enjoy nutrient-rich greens & herbs in many dishes.

Clementine Bakery's Bread & goodies  to cheer you!

RECIPE OF THE WEEK: 

Sweet Potato Oven-Roasted Home-Fries!

Forget deep fat fryers - make these healthier, yummier home fries in your oven.  You can use any good organic oil, but the sweet nutty flavor of coconut oil is an excellent choice for your health too!

Preheat oven to 400.  Coat cookie sheets with oil (as many as you need to spread your fries in a single layer)
Wash & slice the sweet potatoes into 1/4” wedges or “fries” (remove any bad spots but do not peel).  The tender young sweet potato “shoots” work really well for this. Place in a bowl and cover with hot (almost boiling) water.  Let sit for 15 minutes.

FOR EACH CUP of sweet potato “fries” you cut up:   mix 1 T melted coconut oil with 1 t salt and 1 T or more diced (or thinly sliced) fresh Salamander Springs Farm paprika pepper, or 1/4 t dried paprika

Drain the potatoes spread on a towel; pat dry.  
Place in bowl and toss with half of the seasoned oil mix.  
Arrange in a single layer on the oiled baking sheets (without pieces touching).
Bake for 15 minutes, flip fries over and bakes another 10 minutes.
Remove from oven and increase temperature to 450 degrees.  Toss with the rest of the seasoned oil and place on the cookie sheets for another 10 minutes,   Flip over and bake 5-10 minutes more of you want.

For “Loaded Home Fries”:  add cheese like pepper jack, crispy bacon (from local pastured pigs!) and caramelized onions on top and put back in oven for 5 minutes.  Sprinkle with chives.  Serve with your homemade ketchup (from the recipe we posted last month...)