We are deep in winter, light is at a premium and the days have yet to lengthen. Seeds planted in December are trying to germinate, but it is slow. The hoop houses that lost plastic in September remain uncovered. The crops in them are now ruined. I have begun seeding again for spring but due to the cold and lack of light they will also be slow to germinate. I guess we will spend the rest of winter enjoying Brussels Sprouts and the like. Mustard, bok choi, lettuce is stunted and lost for now.
This is Week #4 of the winter shares. It is great to have Juvencio back to himself. There is so much to do on the farm including getting those two hoop houses we lost in September back in working order.
Our hogs and steer go off to the butcher this week. We have sold out of pork but beef we have 2 halves remaining. If you love steak, short ribs, stew meat and brisket contact Juvencio today! The cutting instructions are easy to follow and the Meating Place is happy to help guide you. If you want soup bones with meat, ask them to make you Osso Bucco bones.
We have soap for sale from our friend Teresa Gibson. She also has some rosemary oil and shea butter available. My sister Diane Jacobs https://dianejacobs.net/work/ has two framed prints available for purchase for that special someone. My ceramics are heading off to our member Jo Whitsel’s coffee shop https://maplewoodcoffeeandtea.com/. If you missed out, do not worry I am working on a new series. I can still make special orders, just reach out soon if you want it in time for the holidays, or give the gift of homemade ceramics later in the season.
We will harvest once more in December (12/20) and then not harvest again until January. Here are some delicious recipes (we made this salad last night, really easy and delish, don’t forget to soak those bitter greens in ice water)
2 pounds butternut squash, about ½ a large squash, peeled, seeded, cubed
4 cups chicken or vegetable stock
1 14 ounce can whole tomatoes or 2 cups peeled, chopped fresh tomatoes
12 whole curry leaves (optional)
½ teaspoon ground allspice
¼ teaspoon ground mace (I skipped this)
pinch freshly grated nutmeg
2 teaspoons curry powder
salt
freshly ground pepper
¼ cup chopped fresh parsley
melt the butter in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add the scallions; sauté until soft and wilted, about 3 minutes. Stir in the parsley, jalapeno, and garlic,; cook, stirring occasionally, for 5 minutes.
Add the squash and toss to coat it with the scallion mixture. Add the stock, tomatoes, curry leaves, all spice, mace and nutmeg. Bring to a boil; reduce the heat and simmer, covered until the squash is very tender, about 45 minutes. Let cool slightly.
Transfer the soup in batches to a blender or food processor; puree.
Transfer the soup back to the pot. Stir in the curry powder and add salt, pepper to taste. Return the soup to a simmer to heat through. Garnish with the parsley just before serving.
BUTTERNUT SQUASH SOUP WITH STAR ANISE AND GINGER SHRIMP
24 large shrimp in shell (about 1 lb), peeled, leaving tail and first segment of shell intact, and deveined
1 tablespoon finely grated peeled fresh ginger
2/3 cup chopped shallot
1 garlic clove, thinly sliced
3 whole star anise
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 3/4 lb butternut squash, peeled, seeded, and cut into 1/2-inch pieces (5 cups)
4 cups chicken stock or broth
2 cups water
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
Garnish: fresh cilantro sprigs
Toss shrimp with ginger in a bowl and marinate, chilled, 30 minutes (do not marinate any longer or enzymes from ginger will begin to cook shrimp).
Make soup while shrimp marinate:
Cook shallot, garlic, and anise in butter in a 3-quart heavy saucepan over moderate heat, stirring, until shallot is softened, about 5 minutes. Add squash, stock, and water and simmer, uncovered, until squash is very tender, about 20 minutes. Remove star anise.
Purée soup in 2 batches in a blender (use caution when blending hot liquids) until very smooth, about 1 minute per batch, then transfer to cleaned pan and keep warm, covered.
Sprinkle marinated shrimp with salt. Heat oil in a 12-inch nonstick skillet over moderately high heat until hot but not smoking, then sauté shrimp in 2 batches, stirring, until just cooked through, about 3 minutes per batch, transferring to paper towels.
Bring soup to a simmer and season with salt and pepper. Divide among 8 shallow soup bowls and mound 3 shrimp in each bowl.
Cooks’ note:
. Soup (without shrimp) can be made 3 days ahead and chilled, covered. If making soup ahead, begin marinating shrimp about 40 minutes before serving.
Gourmet
December 2002
DELICATA SQUASH WITH ROSEMARY, SAGE, AND CIDER GLAZE
This is my favorite way to cook winter squash. You peel, and slice it, then cook it in a skillet with cider and
winter herbs. When most of the liquid boils away, the cider forms a tart-sweet glaze around the now-tender squash.
Delicata is a wonderfully firm-textured squash that’s not too sweet and almost like a potato. Other varieties like
acorn, turban, or kabocha will make good substitutes, but they may not hold their shape quite as well through the
braising.
2 medium delicata squash (about 2 pounds) or other firm
winter squash
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/4 cup very coarsely chopped fresh sage
1 tablespoon coarsely chopped fresh rosemary
1 1/2 cups fresh unfiltered apple cider or juice
1 cup water
2 teaspoons sherry vinegar
1 teaspoon salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1. Squash. If using delicata squash, peel it with a vegetable peeler, cut it lengthwise in half, and scrape out the seeds with a spoon. Cut each piece lengthwise in half again, then crosswise into 1/2-inch -thick slices. Other types of squash should be peeled with a chef’s knife, seeded, cut into 1-inch wedges, then sliced 1/2-inch thick.
2. Herb Butter. Melt the butter in a large (12-inch) skillet over low heat. Add the sage and rosemary and cook,
stirring, until the butter just begins to turn golden brown, 3 to 5 minutes. Do not brown the herbs. Cooking the herbs in butter mellows their flavor and improves their texture.
3. Cooking the squash. Add the squash to the skillet, then the apple cider, water, vinegar, and salt. Cook, stirring occasionally, over medium heat at an even boil until the cider has boiled down to a glaze and the squash is tender,
20 to 30 minutes. Taste and season with pepper, and additional salt if needed.
Makes 6 servings.
Roasted Winter Roots with Whole Garlic Heads
From The San Francisco Chronicle Cookbook\
All vegetables may be cooked in the oven at the same time. The heads
of garlic, roasted alongside the vegetables, become a self-contained
spread that is delicious on country-style bread. Be sure to allow one
garlic head for each person.
4 carrots, about ½ pound total
2 parsnips, about ½ pound total
2 turnips, about 1 pound total
1 rutabaga, about 1 pound
2 yellow onions, about ¾ pound total
3 russet potatoes, about 1 ¾ pounds total
4 heads of garlic, about ½ pound total
1/3 C olive oil
1 ½ tsps salt
1Tbles freshly ground pepper
4 fresh thyme sprigs, or 1 tsp dried
4 fresh rosemary sprigs, or 1 tsp dried
4 fresh sage sprigs, or 1 tsp dried
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Peel the carrots, parsnips, turnips and rutabaga. Cut the
carrots into 2 inch lengths. Halve the parsnips crosswise, separating
the tapering root end from the thick upper portion. Cut the upper
portion lengthwise into 2 pieces. Quarter the turnips and rutabaga.
Peel the onions but do not cut off the root ends. Quarter the onions
lengthwise.
Scrub the potatoes and cut them lengthwise into quarters, then
in half. Cut off the upper quarter of the garlic heads, leaving the
heads intact, skin and all.
Combine half of the olive oil, the salt, pepper, thyme,
rosemary and sage in a large bowl. Add all of the vegetables,
including the garlic. Stir them until they are well coated with the
seasoned oil.
Arrange the vegetables in a single layer on 2 baking sheets.
Roast for 30 minutes. Stir the vegetables and baste with some of the
remaining olive oil. Continue roasting, stirring once or twice and
basting with olive oil, for 30 to 45 minutes longer, or until all the
vegetables are tender and are easily pierced with a fork. Remove from
This is week #3 of the winter share. We are aiming for veggies to make a great roasted tray for your family. Many of the root crops will not keep that much longer so we are giving them to you now to enjoy. Winter squash also has a shelf life that can be unpredictable so we are happy to give it to you now.
We are also giving our butter lettuce before the extreme moisture has a chance to ruin it. Winter vegetable growing is a dance, a thin line between aging with grace and spoiling. I always want to have enough veg and sometimes that desire to save for future weeks gets me in trouble. This year I will give what we have, when we have it and hope there is enough for later in the season😬.
Next week is the Thanksgiving harvest. It is an add on so if you want to get it and have not yet let us know, send an email and leave a check or Venmo for $40. We will have radicchio, salad mix, celery, leeks, pie pumpkins, Brussels sprouts and more.
I am working hard to get all my pottery glazed and on display for you next week and in the weeks to follow . If you have a special order before the winter holiday now is the time to make it. I will be at the Beaverton farmers market next Saturday for the last market of the season. I will have holiday wreaths, dried flower wreaths and the last of my bird feeders. I will have the barn set up with all that remains from that sale on Friday 11/27 for socially distanced shopping. I will have bagged treats and more so please do stop by. 11-3. If you want to stop by at a different time just text me.
Finally able to breath! Thank you for voting, writing, fighting to get the nightmare of Trump closer to concluding. We have so much work to do but with renewed energy and most of all HOPE for the future of our country and our planet. Lots of healing has to go on, but for now, one more day to CELEBRATE.
Congratulations to our new Vice President Elect: Kamala Harris!! And the 46th president of the United States Joe Biden. ONWARD and Upward.
Congratulations to our very own (CSA member for many years! Local Pediatrician, Gun Control advocate and activist) Representative elect Lisa Reynolds!! She will be such a strong voice in our own state government. Also to Dean Moberg for Tualitin Valley Soil and Water.
Please find ways to love radicchio, last week I linked to favorite recipes and hope you will try them – you are getting some of my favorites this week!
As winter vegetable subscribers you know the joys of radicchio. I have been singing the praises of chicory for years and this year I really may have lost my mind. I just love anything chicory. Last night we made a huge bowl of the escarole mix we are giving you this week. It had “Natasha” escarole, “Variagata di Luisa” radicchio and some “Indigo” red radicchio. I ate the remaining leaves late into the night. My two favorite recipes for dressing this type of salad are:
We are adding another odd ball, old world veggie to our winter line up – Rutabaga! No clue how to use it – me either. I just sliced it real thin and ate it raw. I enjoyed the crunch, deep turnip flavor, but now we all have to dig in and find a way to use this veggie that just keeps on growing in the winter. Here is what I am suggesting:
Lastly, I am sure you have, but if for some reason your ballot is still sitting on your kitchen table, please sit down right now and fill it out and go drop it in a ballot box. Stay strong, keep up the resistance. Hopefully when I write next week we will be in a better place as a nation, moving on from the buffoon in the white house.
Here is the proposed schedule for the winter harvest pick up. It is due to change, due to extreme weather and the need for the farmers to escape (hopefully we can plan around this proposed schedule, but).
November 1,8,15 (Thanksgiving share is an add on November 22)
December 6,20
January 10, 24
February 7, 21
March 7, 21,28
You can add mushrooms on those weeks and more often if you wish (meaning come to the farm for pick up even though there are no vegetables that week) You need to contact and pay Chris and Emilia at Cloud Cap Mushrooms and they will set it up for you! Here is the link: https://cloudcapmushroom.co/la-finquita-del-buho
Here we are at the last harvest of 29 weeks. We had to harvest yesterday based on the very cold predicted temperatures for today. We harvested broccoli, cauliflower, fennel on Thursday. On Wednesday I harvested every pepper I could put my hands on as even a kiss of frost can damage them.We are sad to have the first frost happen in the month of October but this has happened before and we need to be prepared. We are giving you some of our most beautiful radicchio in the hopes that you will learn to love this amazing vegetable. Do let us know what you think as we plan for next year, I personally can’t get enough of it. You can roast it, you can put it on pizza, you can turn it into a delicious salad, you can use a Caesar dressing on it, find a way to enjoy this delicious Italian delicacy or else. Please remember the ice bath and the dressing make all the difference.
We are encouraged by the record number of early voters in our state and we are hopeful that in the battleground states around the nation that they too are animated to get out the vote early. I personally feel like I need to turn off the news for the next 10 days and not pay attention to social media. I have mostly tuned it out as it leads to indigestion and nothing productive. I know there are many of you who have been avid letter writers with one group writing over 11,000 postcards and good job doctors for camp closure.
For those of you in Washington County if you have not submitted your ballot yet for the Tualatin Valley Water Commission the only contested race includes one of our former natural resources advisors Dean Moeberg. He is a man with intimate knowledge of our county and how to protect and preserve the farmland as well as create wildlife habitat and he would be excellent for this job. In the Portland area Laura Masterson is also on the ballot she is a 25 year veteran CSA farmer who also has intimate knowledge of farming systems and food allocation and is an excellent representative on soil and land conservation. Lisa Reynolds, a member of our CSA for many years is making her first bid for state representative. She has been an activist against gun violence and gun regulation. She is a pediatrician, she understands family dynamics, she understands trauma and she understands the importance of education and healthcare for all. She has participated in leadership cohorts and is prepared to lead the state government in a well educated well-rounded fashion.
We hope that you will join us again in the 2021 season as we strive to provide fresh organically raised vegetables and fruit for your family. We hope that 2021 brings a dramatic change in all aspects of our lives. We promise to continue to work hard to do our part in making local and regional life better for all. we encourage you to place your deposit to hold your spot for 2021. There are still spots for the Thanksgiving harvest which will come to you on November 22. A survey will be emailed to you in the next week or so as we attempt to gather information about what you liked and what could be improved in our CSA. We recognize that many of the events that make our farm unique including gatherings, the canning party, the opening potluck and the harvest festival as well as picnicking on our farm have all been suspended for this year due to the pandemic. We are hopeful that next year will bring us back to some sense of normalcy and that we will find ways to carry on many of these traditions no matter what. For me, as a family physician and leader at my clinic it has been a very difficult juggling act to ensure safety in my workplace and safety on my farm. I could not envision a safe way to have all the lovely families come to the farm and still maintain safety. Next season will bring new thoughts and images of how to do things.
Many of you have signed up for winter harvest. We promise not to overwhelm you. We will start next weekend as we have to harvest the veggies when we have them. For now, we will slow down a bit. Fix the damaged hoop houses (still no plastic!) get our ornamental gardens reworked and maybe do a bit of ceramics (I miss it so). Thank you for trusting us to grow food for your families. Please stay safe, stay vigilant and stay in touch.
Recipes for this week, thanks again Sue Kass!
Green Tomato Salad (NY Times)
4-6 servings
3 large green tomatoes, cored, quartered, and thinly sliced
2 Tbs kosher salt
1 persian cucumber, thinly sliced
1/2 medium white onion, thinly sliced
large handful each of chopped parsley, chopped mint
1-2 green chiles, seeded and thinly sliced or chopped
Juice of 1 lime
1/4 c EVOO
salt, pepper
Toss tomatoes with the salt and leave to drain for 20-30 minutes
In a shallow bowl, combine all ingredients
Green Tomato Salsa
6 green tomatoes peeled, cored, seeded and chopped
1 tart green apple, peeled, cored and coarsely chopped
1 medium onion, peeled and minced
2 Tbs sugar
1 small jalapeno, seeded and minced
2 Tbs grated ginger
1 c fresh cilantro, minced
salt and pepper.
Place tomatoes in cast iron skillet, add remaining ingredients except coriander. Cook over medium heat about 30-40 minutes until a thick paste. Cool and refrigerate up to 4 days—add cilantro just prior to serving.
Green Tomato Soup with Bacon
4 Tbs butter
1 medium onion, thinly sliced
1 tsp whole coriander seeds
2 cloves garlic chopped
3 lbs green tomatoes, cored and chopped (about 8 cups)
2 c. vegetable or chicken stock
1 1/4 tsp kosher salt
pepper to taste
4 oz sliced bacon
1/3 c creme fraiche
2 Tbs fresh dill, chopped
1 Tb honey
Melt butter in a large pot over medium heat, add onions and cook until translucent.
Crush the coriander, then add it with the garlic to onions; saute 3 minutes more.
Stir in tomatoes and stock, bring to a boil and then simmer until tomatoes have fallen apart, about 30 min
Fry bacon until crisp and set aside.
Using blender or immersion blender, puree soup until smooth
Return to heat, stir in creme farce, dill and honey. Garnish with crumbled bacon and tosted bread croutons.
Vegan Green Tomato Soup
2 large green tomatoes, diced (or about 3 cups)
1 tsp vegetable oil
1 tsp black mustard seeds
1 spring (15-20) curry leaves or 1/4 c fresh cilantro
2 green chiles, seeded
1/4 tsp turmeric
1 heaping tsp ground coriander
1 1/2 c coconut milk
Salt to taste
Heat the oil in a frying pan—add mustard seed, and when they stat to pop add curry leaves and green chiles. Saute for a few minutes and then add the chiles.
Saute for a few more minutes and add the tomatoes, coriander and turmeric and stir well. Add a few Tbs water and cook, covered, for about 5 minutes or until tomatoes are soft. Add 1/2 the coconut milk and bring to a boil and simmer for a few minutes more. Add remaining coconut milk and salt, stir well, and heat until warm but not boiling.
We can smell it, we can taste it, we feel the end of the season is near. After this week we have one final week of the 2020 regular season. As far as farming goes we feel like in general the year was successful. Crops that we planted and anticipated for the most part provided. We offered a wide variety of vegetables to our subscribers with a bounty. We had our fair share of successes from early lettuce and greens in the spring to an abundance of sugar snap peas and green beans, tomatoes, peppers and the like. We wish there would have been more cucumbers and more zucchini but maybe the quantity was sufficient and not overwhelming. Our greenhouse tomatoes were plentiful and have kept on producing and so far so good no frost to knock them out. The fall has had enough rain so that crops like broccoli and cauliflower and radicchio could and thrive and not rot.
We hope we have introduced you to vegetables you might not have chosen in the grocery store. Plenty of daikon, radicchio and fennel, Italian and Japanese delicacies that celebrate and cherish vegetables. We hope that at least one of them has become something you look forward to. It is almost November. We can feel the hope in the air that we can turn this country around and move to regain the soul of America. Lately in the morning as I run on the treadmill I have been watching Immigration Nation and I long for a country that welcomes immigrants, that provides asylum for those fleeing repressive governments and dangerous situations. There is so much work to be done but right now we have to make sure that November is the month that we get this orange haired buffoon and incredibly dangerous man out of office. Then we can mover forward in this country to reform and move towards saving our planet. Our work is not done in November it has just begun but it will be with new hope that we can enact policy that repairs inequity and heals the hatred that has been unleashed in the past four years.
We hope for the success of our long time CSA member Lisa Reynolds in her bid for state representative. We look forward to remaining engaged in loca,l state and national politics in a productive fashion that is not about fighting against but moving forward to a better nation and a better world. To those of you who marched yesterday thank you, thank you for your contribution to a better voice and for remaining engaged.
Please remain vigilant about the coronavirus, cases are on the rise and in part this is due to peoples exhaustion and fatigue around restrictions. I see this in my work every day. We cannot let down our guard Please continue to be leaders in your families. We need to think about Thanksgiving and Christmas and Halloween in different ways and be creative but not gather in large groups indoors or even small family groups indoors.
On the best personal note, our eldest son Jacob arrives today and after seven months of quarantine living in Homer Alaska he comes here to join us for the next weeks to months and we can’t wait. I was thinking this morning I’ve got all those families that are separated for years due to the Trump administration‘s immigration policies and my heart aches. We must reverse this trend. We must enlist an army of lawyers and advocate to get families reunited. I hope 2021 is the year that people can reunite.
Shoot out to my sister Diane – Happy Birthday!! Happy Birthday Max (my nephew and Diane’s son!) Today is that special day, we will celebrate tonight with a special distanced family dinner of Carne Adovada, Puntarella salad and Corn pudding! Cake is a surprise
Please vote. Consider Voting for Lisa Reynolds https://www.lisafororegon.com/ if you can (HD 36), she is a powerhouse. She has worked for years to enact strong gun regulations to protect children and has been active on the streets this summer in support of Black Lives and so much more. Vote for Dean Moberg https://www.deanmoberg.com/ for Tualitin Valley Water Commission. He is an advocate for small farmers and for conservation of our environment. We have known him for years as he helped us make our little piece of land better for crops and for wildlife.
Off to harvest – Please make a delicious recipe of radicchio – it is a delicacy you will enjoy if you give it a ice water bath!
We accept the rain now that she is back. There are good aspects to rain, like a boost to fall crops, germination of the cover crop we raced to get in, clearing the hazy air, but it puts an end or near end to some of our summer favorites. We will have tomatoes this week, a few cherry tomatoes which will not have a long shelf life; they need to be eaten quickly and enjoyed for their memory of what summer can offer. We hurried to get in the cover crop trial seeded after the harvest on Sunday. I ran out yesterday after work before harvesting flowers and spread more Crimson Clover in what used to be my flower garden. We are attempting to fill every space possible between fall and winter crops and summer planted crops adding clover and vetch
to bring life back to our soil and add nitrogen.
Juvencio managed to get greenhouse #4 Although without a plastic cover ,ready to plant. I hope to get a break in the rain after the harvest to put in a last bit of spinach, more escarole and a few flowers in for the winter. We will harvest some of the first spinach in a long time this week and hope to have it until the end of the season. We hope the lettuce will takeoff and be available for the last 2 to 3 weeks of the regular season. With as many vermin as we have attacking established cabbages and our kale covered in a combination of aphids and white fly we are cautiously optimistic that we can battle them and beat them back. I know you are accustomed to hearing me wax about farming and the trials and tribulations but man, is it a bummer to have a crop beautifully ready and to watch it be destroyed by ground squirrels, gophers or moles.
We have a lot of people stepping up to the 2021 season, there is still room for Thanksgiving additions and we are hopeful that crops will continue to produce. We will open to new subscribers soon and after January 1, 2021 we can not hold your spot. My farmer friends report over 100 people on their wait list (go figure, not our experience, but just goes to show there is a lot of desire to have fresh local veggies delivered to the front door.).
Sign up early and leave us your deposit as we prep for next season.
Ana, Chris and Nick have offered to press some cider today. I put out an email late last week asking for mason jars. I got about 6, I have about 20 to donate. If you want cider, bring your jar and they will try and fill it for you. If it does not get done today and you leave it labeled we can store it in the cooler until later in the week or next weekend.
Sausage and Radicchio Soup
Serves 4-6
We love Italian Wedding Soup, but who has the time? This riff on it originally comes from Martha Stewart, but we’ve made it chock full of chicory. It comes together quickly for a satisfying first course, or even makes a great busy weeknight meal.
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 pound bulk Italian sausage
3 stalks celery (could use the fennel instead), sliced
1 onion, diced
½ cup dried lentils
2 quarts chicken broth
1 head radicchio such as Castelfranco or Variegata di Lusia (we grow both varieties) torn into pieces
Salt and pepper to taste
Hunk of Parmigiano-Reggiano for grating
2 teaspoons balsamic vinegar
In a large pot,m heat the olive oil over medium-high heat. Add the sausage and cook, stirring often to break apart, until golden brown on the edges. Add the celery and onion and cook until soft. Add the lentils and broth and bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer, cover and cook until the lentils and vegetables are tender, about 25 minutes.
Add the radicchio and season with salt and pepper. Cover and keep simmering until the radicchio wilts, about 5-10 minutes.
Black Radish Chips
Spicy Black Radishes Chips are baked up into a crispy, delicious chip. If you can’t find black radishes, you could use daikon or any other large radish. Cooking times may vary with other types of radishes.
Ingredients
2 pounds black radishes
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
Get Ingredients Powered by Chicory
Instructions
Preheat oven to 400.
Using a mandolin, slice the radishes 1/4 to 1/8 inch thick. Place in a large mixing bowl and toss with the oil, salt and pepper.
Arrange the radishes on a single layer on a baking sheet covered with aluminum foil coated with cooking spray. Bake at 400 10 to 15 minutes, turn once, until lightly browned and slightly crisp. Remove to a wire rack to cool completely. Serve with your favorite dip.
The nice weather afforded us the ability to get some weeding done on our overwintering crops. There is still tons left to do but it feels good to get a bit started. The hoop houses remain at a standstill. The wood is purchased, the plastic is here now it is just time to do the work of reframing, placing channels and getting the last bits of plastic off. As we head into the second week of October we may have to wait till our son Jacob comes from Alaska to stay with us for the winter to get the plastic up. There is always the push and pull of so many things to get done between weeding and transplanting and cover cropping the maintenance of the green houses takes a backseat. With nice weather the pressure is lessened and we spend time doing what Has to get done on any given day.
We had a great helping crew on Sunday (September 27th) which made our harvest go so much better. We finished by 11 o’clock giving us time to get the extras together for pick up sites and flower bouquets made. We will see who shows up today.
Many of you took advantage of my advice to sign up early for Thanksgiving and the 2021 season. There is still space left for those of you who are sitting on the fence. We will open to new subscribers come January 1 so make your intentions known. Leave your deposit for 2021 so that you are there is space in the upcoming season. Some of my favorite crops for early spring have decided that they have been stressed sufficiently to bloom now. This includes one of the most beautiful varieties of purple sprouting broccoli. We will give it this week as opposed to April 2021. I feel like I planted the seeds at the normal time which is the end of June and transplanted them in end of July and they have no business producing purple sprouting broccoli at this time of year, but 2020 never ceases to surprise us.
This week has been a roller coaster of events from the nomination of an ultra right wing judge to the Supreme Court, to the revelation of trump’s tax evasion, to the debates that seemed like two school boys battling it out led by Trump who interrupted Biden over 130 times to the culmination of Trump himself coming down with the coronavirus. But rest assured he is working from his hospital suites at the military base in Virginia. They make it sound like a small vacation when in fact he’s received two experimental drugs to try and stave off severe illness. With the election four weeks away one wonders if things can get worse but I know and so do you, 2020 is a year to be a erased from memory.
There was a great piece on The Daily (NPR program, podcast available) about how voting varies from state to state.In some states one can register on election day, but in Oregon voter registration ends soon. October 13th is the final day to register, so if you have any ability to register voters please do so the easiest way is to do it online. If people do not have a state issued ID they can easily download the voter registration form, fill it out and mail it in and you can do that as well. I have a stack of the printed registration forms sitting on my desk at work.
This is the last month of the regular season. The last harvest will be 27 October. Please keep your eyes out for the survey that I will send out in the next few weeks to give us a sense of what worked well for you, what you liked best and how we can improve for next year. I certainly hope that we will be able to resume some of the events that make our farm special in 2021, unfortunately we have no control over how this pandemic will play out. We can continue to be vigilant ourselves and vote the right people into office. There should be no confusion that this pandemic was preventable, that action could’ve been taken to quell the spread of this deadly disease and instead the seriousness of the pandemic was downplayed and mocked by our very highest leader. We are all paying the price for this stupidity. Let’s make a difference now and get him out of office.
I highly recommend getting the cookbook: Six Seasons by Joshua McFadden. It is a book written with a farm share in mind. Every recipe we have tried is delicious and seasonal and generally easy enough to make for a Sunday dinner or weeknight treat. He has three great recipes for radishes including roasted radishes with brown butter, chile and honey and grilled radishes with dates apples and radish tops. He has several for kohlrabi, fennel and rutabaga. As I was trying to include them here I read the copyright information and decided not to. Here is a link to a similar recipe https://www.thekitchn.com/recipe-brown-butter-radishes-242276 time to get excited that I planted so many radishes!
Here are some other recipe for eggplant and peppers: (Thanks Sharon)
Rumainian Eggplant and Pepper Salad
1 large eggplant
2 green peppers
2 red peppers
2 medium onions, chopped fine
1 garlic clove, crushed
¼ cup oil (I recommend EVOO)
2 T white vinegar
2 teaspoons salt
1 T sugar
Preheat oven to 450., peet the eggplant and the peppers.
Prick eggplant with a fork and back with the peppers on a cookie sheet in the oven until charred (about 20 minutes). Alternately, they can be rotated over a gas grill until charred on the outside. When cool.
Chop the eggplant and peppers with onions and garlic. Add the oil, vinegar,salt, and sugar. Adjust seasoning and let marinate at least 1 day. Serve alone or as a dip with crackers. This will last about a week covered in the refrigerator.
It has been the first normal week in a long time. Seeding/ weeding/ harvesting has gone on. We had the help of one subscriber removing channels from our greenhouse that is in disrepair. Wayne’s help made a huge difference to have that work started, motivating us to buy the wood we will need to replace the rotten pieces. Greenhouse number one still has plenty of work and hopefully will get a Headstart once the rain lets up. Juvencio turned over greenhouse #2 retrieving it back from the weeds and the goats and chickens that spent the summer enjoying the heat. I got four of the seven beds planted yesterday. We have a bed of lettuce, one spinach and cilantro one with kale chard and collard and the last with escarole and radicchio. Later on today I hope to get green onions, overwintering onions, bok choy Transplanted. We look forward to having some of these crops for the very end of October and for the Thanksgiving share.
We are overfilled for the winter subscription and thus I am out there planting everything that I possibly can. It is amazing to see how many flats of vegetable starts it takes to fill an empty green. I still have spinach and radicchio to get into the ground and more overwintering onions.I hope to be able to seed things like radishes, arugula and mustard greens in the next few weeks. Some of that will have to wait until we get plastic on the two hoop houses destroyed by the wind storm.. Each greenhouse seems to have one, two or three beds that can be turned over and utilized for winter. The pepper tunnel, our newest greenhouse which is over 125 feet long is chock-full of peppers but there may be space in the coming month for either cover crop or very early spring crops will have to wait-and-see.
If you love radicchio consider signing up for Sagra del Radicchio, a whole festival dedicated to the love of and eating of this bitter vegetable. This year it is free and on line: I will find and send he link in the future, not popping up right now.
The Supreme Court, the far right rallies, POTUS 45’s outrageous claim that he will have to wait and see if he will turn over power. It is exhausting and infuriating and yet we must go on. Call your senator and tell him to hold strong and block the hearings: here is the link:
Chop all vegetables (approx. ¼ inch). Peel tomatoes, if desired. Saute leeks in butter and olive oil until translucent. Add zucchini, sweet pepper and garlic and saute five minutes longer. Add tomatoes, cover and cook for twenty minutes. Taste and add salt and pepper. Serve over any pasta or firm white fish. This recipe can be expanded with carrots, celery, beans or just about any other vegetable you like.
