Anyone up for dancing?

Just received this from my friend that instructs my dance class. It's an all adult class, so it's tons of fun, and you get exercise at the same time... Who says you can't teach an old dog new tricks?

Hello!

I hope you all enjoyed your summer break! I can't wait to catch up with you all! I am emailing some new dancers as well so I am putting all kinds of information in this email!

I will start off my introducing myself. My name is Katie Irwin-Henry. I began Irish Step dancing when I was five years old. I competed for fifteen years. I went to the world championships held in Ireland seven times, placed fifth in the mid-west championships and eleventh in the nation. After competition I went to the show Lord of the Dance and danced all over the world professionally. I moved to Chicago when I was twenty one to dance professionally with Trinity Dance Company. In January 2010 I completed my certification to teach Irish step dance(T.C.R.G.). I have been teaching with Regan Academy for over a year now.

My class is a fun and vibrant way to workout and meet new people. It is a breeze to get the basics needed for Irish dance in the first class then have a new "jig" by the end of class! I am very excited for the new dance year! Last year we only danced in soft shoes. This year my goal is to have everyone dancing a hornpipe! Which is hard shoe only!! I still have some kinks to work out on class details but wanted everyone to be in the loop. My goal is to start classes the second week of October. Classes will still run the same amount which is $40 per month paid on the first of every month. We have class once a week for an hour. Please do not hesitate to contact me with further questions.

Slainte!

Katie Henry

mailto:Henrykatiehenry2009@hotmail.com

http://www.reganacademy.com/

CSA week #11

Press Release
As our business has continued to build on our reputation, we have had some very fortunate encounters. Having a business, we have learned that you are always on in public, even if just going out to dinner. Last year we were given the opportunity to be in Columbus Monthly and the editor liked the picture so much, we even made the cover!
After it came out on newsstands, we went out to dinner to celebrate at Black Creek Bistro, the owner (Kent Peters) recognized us from the cover, and that began our relationship with them. We sold them greens all winter and have continued to sell produce to them since. We were approached by Kent about a month ago to be involved in a tour that was being held for some food writers here in Columbus. He wanted to show them our urban farm too since they would be spending a few days here.
So, a couple weeks ago, we held a tour at our farm for these food writers. They were brought in by an organization called Experience Columbus to give a little more exposure to the scene around town. After the tour, we got to eat at Black Creek Bistro with the group and get to know some of the writers a little better. Kent also purchased a bar of soap for every writer that was at dinner.
It was a great experience and have just been contacted by Country Living magazine as they are going to place my soap in the gift edition of their magazine for the holidays. How exciting! We now are being shown on Ohio magazine’s website too: http://ohiomagazine.com/Main/WishYouWereHere/8.aspx
And to think, it all began with just going out to dinner wanting to support a local business. Now Black Creek has been carrying my soap at the restaurant, I am in the process of building up the shopping cart on my website, and Village Flower Basket in Granville is going to carry my soap too! I may not be substitute teaching until after the holiday soap escapades have ended. Until then, I will just have to be making more soap then I ever could have imagined!

What’s included this week?
1. Apples- Galas that have not been sprayed, good for snacking
2. Peppers
3. Tomatoes
4. Okra
5. Squash
6. Sweet Corn

Recipe of the Week
Bubba’s Shrimp Gumbo (don’t be intimidated by the long list of ingredients, it’s worth trying)
1 cup butter (2 sticks), plus 1 tablespoon
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 chopped yellow onion
1/4 cup chopped celery
1/4 cup chopped green bell pepper
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 cup sliced fresh okra
3 cups shrimp stock
2 cups bottled clam juice
(can use any stock for above two ingredients if it’s already in the pantry)
1 cup chopped tomatoes w/ juice
3 bay leaves
1 tablespoon dried parsley flakes
1 tablespoon Cajun seasoning
1 teaspoon dried thyme leaves
1 teaspoon dried basil leaves
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1 1/2 cups cooked smoked sausage, sliced diagonally
2 lbs shrimp, cleaned and deveined
Serving suggestion: Over cooked white rice.
In a large heavy saucepan, over low heat, melt 1 cup of the butter. Add the flour, and cook on low heat until the roux is dark brown; about 30 to 45 minutes, stirring constantly. *Cook's Note: Brown does not mean burnt; if you burn the roux you have to throw it out and start over again.
Add the onions, celery, peppers and garlic and saute until translucent.
Mix in the okra and the remaining ingredients, including the remaining 1 tablespoon of butter, and simmer over medium-low heat until thick, about 1 hour. Before serving, remove the bay leaves. Transfer to a serving bowl and serve over white rice, if desired.

Thank you for your support,
Gretel and Steve

Press Release

Check out our new write-up.
http://ohiomagazine.com/Main/WishYouWereHere/8.aspx

CSA week #10

Our biggest wedding yet!!

Composting
Although not many households compost, it really cuts down on your output of waste. Instead of having a trash can full of food scraps, you can turn those foods scraps into black gold as the gardener’s call it. As the food breaks down, the food becomes less distinguishable and eventually is a black loose dirt that is spreadable on your garden.
Now you can not compost meat or dairy, but any veggie scraps, or even grass clippings you have can go in. These are considered the “green” part of the composting cycle. Then, you have the “browns” which need to be added to give the pile some body, so you don’t just have one big sloppy mess. This would be fallen leaves, cardboard, paper, or anything that is a little bit more woody (like for us, some of our flower stems count). If you are really good you will have a ratio of about 3 brown: 1 green, but no one’s perfect and neither is composting.
Basically, everything from inside that gets composted goes into a separate trash can with a lid. We eat a lot of veggies and drink a lot of coffee, so it adds up quickly and then is taken outside to the pile. We compost all of our napkins and paper towels (unless they were used to clean up grease or for soap making) and every once in a while I throw a cardboard box in there to make up for the browns I need. We let the pile accumulate until winter when it gets covered with a tarp and we move onto the next year’s pile. In the spring, we will turn the old pile to get it working again and then should be ready to use by fall.
So it takes a while, but it is worth it. You can also get a compost tumbler that hurries the process and contains the compost, although it doesn’t stink like you think it would. Another option is worm composting where you buy some worms that can digest all of these scraps and turn them into worm castings, which are also just as valuable for the garden.
On a more massive scale, Smith Farm Market drops off all of their unsold produce which they dump on our property. We turn it with the front end loader, still cover it in the winter time, and then use the tractor to move piles of it for hand spreading. This stuff is much better than fertilizer because you are increasing soil life and the healthiness of your plants. For more information check out Rodale’s Encyclopedia of Composting or check online. Or if you have any questions, feel free to ask. We are all about trying to get more people to compost and it makes sense even if you just have a flower bed and no garden!

What’s included this week?
1. Cherry Tomatoes
2. Focaccia bread from Lucky Cat Farm- great sandwich bread or to dip in eggs overeasy!
3. Eggs from Roshon Farms- same as last time, we just don’t have enough chickens to get everyone eggs. They are all natural chickens just like ours!
4. Bell peppers
5. Potatoes
6. Garlic

Recipe of the Week
Potatoes Au Gratin
4 potatoes, sliced into 1/4 inch slices
1 onion, sliced into rings
salt and pepper to taste
3 tablespoons butter
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups milk
1 1/2 cups shredded Cheddar cheese
2 cloves garlic, smashed

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Butter a 1 quart casserole dish. Layer 1/2 of the potatoes into bottom of the prepared casserole dish. Top with the onion slices, and add the remaining potatoes. Season with salt and pepper to taste. In a medium-size saucepan, melt butter over medium heat. Add smashed garlic, then mix in the flour and salt, and stir constantly with a whisk for one minute. Stir in milk. Cook until mixture has thickened. Stir in cheese all at once, and continue stirring until melted, about 30 to 60 seconds. Pour cheese over the potatoes, and cover the dish with aluminum foil. Bake 1 1/2 hours in the preheated oven.

Thank you for your support,
Gretel and Steve

CSA week #9

Our first processing session ever- duck breasts for dinner... yum!

Fall planting

It seems like summer may be coming to an end, but we are actually only half way through the CSA as this marks week number 9 of 18. We are now in the process of planting all of our fall crops, which seems crazy since it is so hot out there still. To think about planting cool weather crops means we are nearing fall, although for us it can’t come soon enough. With many days this summer being around 90 degrees, this summer has been a struggle for us. We wilt just as fast as the flowers do out there in the heat.
This fall we are focusing on planting things that will store well through the winter or will withstand some cold weather. That is why you plant them now, because they have to be large enough and developed enough before the frost hits. The first or second week in October is when the frost typically comes, making our transition from summer to winter crops. None of the flowers we grow will survive the frost, so that’s when we officially make the switch to selling just produce which will continue until the first flower blooms again in spring.
This year we’ve got sweet potatoes planted, pie pumpkins, butternut squash and lots of carrots for us to store in the root cellar. We don’t officially have one, but we are going to dig any area to bury some produce as deep enough in the ground stays around 55 degrees even during the winter. Also, once the flowers are gone, our cooler is used for storage of crops. If you think you will need to store some of the product that you get in the fall, look up how to build your own root cellar or the conditions necessary for storage. There is lots of information out there about the proper storing conditions for each root crop. Preserving without canning or freezing is made possible with the help of a root cellar.


What’s included this week?
1. Tomatoes
2. Zucchini
3. Apples- these are from a friend’s farm who does not spray, so they may not look perfect, but they taste good. And, if you don’t want to eat them raw, just cook them up and then you can forget about the blemishes on the outside.
4. Sweet Corn
5. Potatoes
6. Sausage from our pigs- great for breakfast!

Recipe of the Week
Apple Crumb Pie
Filling:
6-8 apples, peeled and thickly sliced
½ cup sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
Topping:
¾ cup all purpose flour
½ cup sugar
1/3 cup butter

Toss the apples, sugar, and cinnamon until the apples are well coated. Mix the topping ingredients in the bowl of a food processor. Spoon in the apple filling and sprinkle with the crumb topping. Bake in a 400 degree oven for 40-50 minutes until the topping has browned.
This is an alternative to pie with two crusts, but there are plenty of recipes out there for regular apple pie, so I thought I would give you something different to try instead. This one also seemed much easier for the beginning baker.


Thank you for your support,
Gretel and Steve

CSA week #8

A lovely Caprese Salad- tomatoes, mozzarella, and basil- what can beat that summer treat?

The entrance to our permaculture garden...

Farm Update
Being in the swing of wedding season, it has been kind of crazy here lately. We had two weddings last weekend and actually provided flowers for three weddings this weekend. This is on top of doing the orders for the florists, prepping for Whole Foods, and also going to two markets a week.
Luckily this year, we have had some help. I look back and wonder how we did all this on our own before. We have a floral designer that has been helping with the weddings, and have had a couple employees here at the farm. And, even with help it has still been pretty hectic around here.
Whole Foods would take 1,000 stems of sunflowers from us a week if we could keep up with them. We have been selling them so much that it is hard for us to even keep with having enough for the farmer’s markets. Summer is also the time for both of our birthdays and our wedding anniversary, so we try to squeeze some fun things in there too.
Last night we actually went to a class in Yellow Springs to learn more about Permaculture. This is a theory where perennials are used to build ecosystems that mimic how things would naturally grow in a forest. Meaning, making sure everything included in your garden is serving some purpose. I ordered the books for Steve for Christmas and we were able to go see the author speak about his theory (which is much easier to grasp the concept rather than reading an entire textbook about it).
Dave Jacke spoke about using native plants or reintroducing ones that have been crowded out by monocultures in our current agriculture system. So, to put it in English: we are too focused on having large fields of corn and soybeans that are sprayed with lots of chemicals, deplete the soil, and don’t create habitats for beneficial insects or other animals. In the permaculture theory, you focus more on creating a whole system by planting fruit or nut trees for the canopy above, while having blueberry bushes or rhubarb plants below. This allows you to better utilize your space because you are gardening vertically which is how nature does it, rather than horizontally in rows as most farmers do.
I’m sure it’s really confusing reading it for the first time, as I still didn’t understand everything that he talked about last night, but there is a lot of information out there should you be interested. His name is Dave Jacke and his book is called “Edible Forest Gardening”. You can also look up Bill Mollison, another author who wrote about permaculture. They even talked about turning a small yard into something that will feed your family rather than just a lawn. Very interesting, so check it out!

What’s included this week?
1. Green Beans
2. Tomatoes
3. Basil
4. Squash
5. Okra- slice then coat with egg, dip in flour, and fry. Do not stir it around while it is cooking, let the mixture cook on one side and then flip it all at once. The more you toss it around, the more of the coating will come off of the okra. This can also be used in any stews or stir fry to help thicken.

Recipe of the Week
Simple Spaghetti Sauce
Quart of tomatoes
Handful of basil
1 onion, diced
1 green pepper, diced
2 cloves garlic, smashed and diced
Splash of lemon juice
Salt and pepper to taste
Cut any large tomatoes into quarters and put in large sauce pan. The tomatoes will take the longest to cook into sauce. All of the juices will come out of the tomatoes and then you will see the juice start to cook off and evaporate. That is when you add any other ingredients to your sauce. Make sure to stir the mixture often as any sticking to the bottom of the pan will burn during this process. How long you let the tomatoes cook down is really your personal preference. I leave some juices in there for a thinner sauce because I like to toss my cooked pasta into the sauce and absorb some of those juices. This can be used for any Italian dish too, not just spaghetti!

Thank you for your support,
Gretel and Steve

CSA week #7

Canning and Freezing
As I touched on in the last farm update, I do a lot of canning and preserving food. It takes a lot of hard work and is definitely a hot, sweaty process, but it is worth it in the middle of winter when you are eating things that you know came from your garden. Yes, buying canned goods is easier, but you can’t buy this taste in the store!
With the help of Craigslist this year too, I have built up a nice collection of canning jars with ones ranging from half pints to half gallons. And, I’m not done collecting yet, so if you see any at garage sales, think of me! I have also added a couple crocks to my collection in hopes to make some good fermented sauerkraut, then maybe eventually more fermented vegetables.
There are lots of good books out there with recipes, but jam or pickles I think are a good start. Just don’t use the sugar free pectin mix that is sometimes sold because the recipes do not set up into spreadable jam. You need the sugar in the recipe to help hold everything together no matter how fresh your fruit is. They try to convince you that the fruit has enough natural sugar in it, or that you can add artificial sweeteners, but neither have I found to be actually true.
I have included the recipe for bread and butter pickles, which is a good recipe to start with. There are enough acids and sugars involved, that you don’t even have to put them into a hot water bath. You will, however, need sterilized jars which can be done by placing jars into a 200 degree oven for an hour. This I usually just do before you start cooking the pickles, then they can just sit in there until you are ready for them.
If you are reusing jars, remember that you can’t reuse the lids. You can buy new lids at the store for like $2.00 a package. When you are getting ready to use them, heat some water either by boiling some on the stove, or microwaving until almost too hot to the touch. Then place the lids in the hot water and let them sit while packing the jars. You just need to heat up that rubber ring around the edge of the lid to ensure better sealing.
And, if you don’t have jars to use, even new at the grocery store, they are worth the investment. They are good to reuse for leftovers, or even as drinking glasses. I know my house is small enough I love anything that has a double use.

What’s included this week?
1. Cucumbers
2. Green peppers
3. Onions
4. Sweet Corn- if you feel like you are getting more than you can eat, just scald in boiling water for 4 ½ minutes then place in an ice bath. Then you can scrape the kernels off the cob and put in the freezer for the winter. It is very easy and totally worth it.
5. Potatoes

Recipe of the Week
Bread and Butter Pickles
(a multigenerational recipe)
2 quarts sliced cucumbers
1-2 large green peppers
3 large onions
¼ cup coarse salt
Slice the veggies thinly by hand or use a mandolin if available. Put all veggies in a large pan and mix well. Add 2 trays of ice and let stand for 3 hours. Drain. I usually start the next step before the 3 hours is up, then you can drain and get the cukes ready while the mixture below is coming to a boil. Just before you start the next step, put your jars either in the oven or in a hot water bath.
2 ½ cups sugar
1 ½ cups vinegar
1 teaspoon celery seed
1 Tablespoon mustard seed
1 teaspoon turmeric
Mix and bring to a boil, then add drained cucumbers and bring to a 2nd boil. You will see the transformation from cukes to pickles as the mixture turns green. While you are waiting for the second boil, prepare the lids as described before. Pack the finished pickles into the jars and make sure they are covered with the juice. You will want to leave 1 inch of space at the top, so don’t overpack. Put lid and ring on them and you are done! You will hear a pop when they seal as they cool down. Unlike dill pickles, you can eat these immediately or store them on the shelf. This recipe yields 4 pints or 2 quarts so can be doubled once you are comfortable with it and want to can more. One batch doesn’t last long in my house. And you can gift it too!

Thank you for your support,
Gretel and Steve