CSA week #17

 We kicked this greenhouse's ars... I mean seriously, that was quick!

Mr. and Mrs. Fixit here

As the season winds down, projects begin which is what has definitely been the case this year. We received the greenhouse on Monday and got everything constructed and all the poles up before the weekend was over. Now we just need to put some lumber on it to help hold the plastic on that still needs stretched. We are fortunate to have some friends that are good with construction :)

We have had our first fire in our wood burning stove and have come to a realization that despite this Indian Summer we are currently experiencing, it is almost time to need firewood up at the house. We haven't begun to split more wood, but luckily in the past couple of years, we have built up our supply. We have been getting the other greenhouses ready for cold weather too. We have to make sure we have it airtight for when it's really cold and needs to retain as much heat as possible.

We are doing the same thing with our house right now replacing a few really old windows and a new storm door. Before we moved in, the house had not been insulated and the windows were pretty much ancient. All of them being made of wood has led them to just rot with contact with moisture, making it impossible to open them in the summer and impossible to close them in the winter time.

After these windows are replaced though, we have just the sliding glass door to replace which will be another year's project. Moving into an old house means lots of upkeep, but for us it also means learning how to fix things as new things break. You know, my parents always made me go to Home Depot with them while we were going out to dinner or something like that, and I hated it, now I can't imagine my life without going to a hardware store. Oh the joys of being all growed up...

What's included this week?

1. Braising mix- greens for cooking. I have been using the greens recipe and adding some brown sugar... sweet and savory!
2. Lettuce mix- Same idea as a spring mix, only a fall mix
3. Turnips because they were so yummy last week
4. Lg pumpkin from Anderson Orchards in Pickerington. For decoration or carving.
5. Butternut Squash
6. Bell peppers

Recipe of the Week

Squash Pot Stickers

1 lb. Butternut squash peeled and seeded, flesh cut into 1/2-inch pieces

1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons soy sauce

3 tablespoons packed brown sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 scallions, thinly sliced

1 teaspoon grated peeled fresh ginger

1/4 teaspoon sesame seeds

20 wonton wrappers, thawed if frozen

1/4 cup canola oil

Put squash, 2 tablespoons soy sauce, sugar, and salt in a med saucepan. Cover with water; bring to a boil over med-high heat. Cook until squash is very soft, about 12 mins; drain. Transfer to a med bowl; mash with a fork until smooth. Stir in scallions and ginger. Stir together sesame seeds, 1/4 cup water, and remaining 1/2 cup soy sauce in a bowl; set sauce aside. Place 1 scant tablespoon filling in the center of each wrapper; brush edges with water. Bring up corners to make a triangle; press to seal. Place on a baking sheet; freeze until firm, 10 to 15 minutes. Heat 2 tablespoons oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat until hot but not smoking. Add 10 potstickers, and cook, shaking pan frequently, until bottoms are golden brown. Turn pot stickers over; very carefully pour in 1/2 cup water, and cover. Steam until most liquid is evaporated, 2 to 3 minutes. Transfer to a serving dish; cover with foil to keep warm. Repeat with remaining oil and pot stickers. Serve with dipping sauce.

Thank you for your support, Gretel and Steve

CSA week #15

Wild berries either blackberries or black raspberries.  Whatever they are, they grow all over our place and are everbearing so we love it!  And, back to lettuce season again.  Look at that nice fall mix.

Duck processing

After much deliberation, we decided to process the remaining male ducks we had left. We weren’t sure if we were going to keep one and mate it with the female so we could have little ducklings, but we found out that you need to have 6 females for one drake due to their sex drive. We had four males to one female, poor girl!

So last Sunday, we took them over to a friends house who is a chef so he could help us break them down into pieces and let us borrow his vaccuum sealer. We decided to keep the female because she was laying eggs and we enjoyed having her around. Then, Thursday we had plans to make a nice dinner for ourselves and relax, but we had just a few more things to do outside before we were done. So, we put the dogs out while we got ourselves ready to go outside.

Then we caught our husky with the duck in his mouth?!?! We saved poor Mrs. Duck for a reason, and it just seems ironic that we kept her purposefully, and then our dog was a cold blooded killer. I mean, she was wondering around looking for her pack, so maybe she went into his reach on purpose. Maybe they made a deal, like a suicide pact sort of thing. It was a very somber day here, but she did not die in vain. Instead of making our nice dinner and relaxing, we decided to process the meat that night which led to a quick sandwich for dinner at about 11:30 pm. What a change in our daily plans… RIP Mrs. Duck, you will be missed!

What’s included this week?

1. Butternut squash- can be stored through the winter should you not want to eat them now
2. Radishes
3. Lettuce mix
4. Peppers- hot and sweet
5. Carrots
6. Apples

Recipe of the Week

Butternut Squash Lasagna- it’s like pumpkin ravioli except much easier!

1 T olive oil

2-3 butternut squash, peeled, seeded, and cut into 1 inch cubes***

Salt and pepper

½ cup water

¼ cup butter

1/3 cup all purpose flour

4 cups whole milk

pinch of nutmeg

12 no-boil lasagna noodles (one pkg)

2 ½ cups shredded mozzarella cheese

1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Heat oil in a heavy, large skillet over medium heat. Add the cubed squash and toss to coat. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Pour the water into skillet, cover and simmer over med heat until squash is tender, about 20 mins. Transfer squash into a mixing bowl and mash, add water if necessary. Season squash with more salt and pepper.

Melt the butter in a med saucepan over med heat. Add flour and whisk for 1 minute. Gradually whisk in the milk. Bring to a low boil over med high heat. Reduce the heat to med and simmer until sauce thickens slightly, whisking often, about 5 minutes. (If you let it thicken too long, it will be too thick. Just add a little bit more liquid and take off heat.) Add the nutmeg. Season the sauce with salt and pepper to taste.

Preheat the over to 375 degrees F. Lightly butter a 13”x9”baking dish. Spread ¾ cup of the sauce over the prepared baking dish. Cover the bottom of pan with one layer lasagna noodles. Spread half of the squash puree over the noodles. Sprinkle with ½ cup mozzarella cheese. Drizzle with ½ cup sauce over the cheese. Repeat layering once more, finishing with a layer of noodles covered only by white sauce.

Tightly cover the baking dish with foil and bake for 40 minutes. Remove cover, sprinkle the remaining mozzarella and Parmesan cheeses over the lasagna and continue baking until the sauce bubbles and the top is golden, about 15 minutes longer. Let the lasagna stand for 15 minutes before serving. Enjoy! This recipe feeds about 8 people, but can freeze for another dinner later should you have a smaller family.

Thank you for your support,

Gretel and Steve

CSA week #16

 Making kraut, shelling beans, and the season for squashes and sweet potatoes... winter here we come!

What do I do with all this food?

Instead of focusing on the newsletter this week, I want to make sure that everyone is getting full use out of the produce that comes with the fall season. Some of it takes more processing in order to utilize all parts of the product, but it is totally worth it.

What’s included this week?

1. Radishes- if you feel like you have been getting too many radishes for you to eat, have no fear… just remove the green tops and store separately. Leaving them on will draw moisture and nutrients from the radish bulb. The radishes can be stored in the refrigerator, in plastic for about 1-2 weeks. If you like the tang of radishes, you can include the greens in the greens recipe provided.
2. Lettuce mix
3. Turnips- remove the greens and store the same as you did with radishes. Then, use the bulbous part in the roasted veggie recipe and the greens in the other… yum! Turnips can also be cooked like mashed potatoes to give your potatoes a little more flavor.
4. Bok Choy- a Chinese cabbage, great in sautés or soups
5. Wild berries- great on top of pancakes, ice cream, cereal
6. Sage- good paired with meat or with root vegetables for a great savory flavor
7. Full share- Arugula

Recipes of the Week

Roasted Root Veggies

3-4 carrots, peeled

1 large sweet potato, peeled

3-4 turnips, quartered

2-3 potatoes

3 T good olive oil

½ salt and ¼ tsp pepper

Sage, chopped

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Cut all the veggies into similarly sized pieces so they cook evenly. Place all the cut veggies in a single layer on a baking sheet. Drizzle with olive oil and toss well so all pieces are lightly coated. Add salt, pepper, and herbs to taste. Roast for 25-35 minutes until all the veggies are tender, turning once. Garnish with fresh herbs (or for the full share people, sprinkle the baby arugula on top for a nutty flavor).

This recipe is a great one to have in your arsenal. You can use different herbs based on what you have around, sage and thyme also go well with roasted veggies ( but so do rosemary and parsley, so don’t discriminate). You can also use parsnips, celery, beets, or slices of different squashes. Just experiment!

Turnip Greens

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 shallot, chopped

1 clove garlic, chopped

1 teaspoon red pepper flakes

1 ½ pounds turnip greens, washed, stemmed, and chopped***

Freshly ground black pepper

2 tablespoons Dijon mustard

1 cup chicken stock

½ cup chopped pecans, toasted

Heat olive oil in Dutch oven over medium heat. Add shallot, garlic and red pepper flakes and sauté until tender and fragrant. Add the washed and cleaned turnip greens. Mix together. Cook until they have wilted down, about 3 minutes. Add pepper to taste. In a small bowl, whisk the Dijon mustard with the chicken stock. Add to the wilted greens and cook until the liquid has all but evaporated. Add the toasted pecans and serve immediately.

My husband likes them sweet too, so add just a little bit of brown sugar sometimes, but try it this way first.

*** To stem the greens, fold them in half along the stem, then rip the stem away from the leaf starting at the bottom. You can eat the stem too, but they take longer to cook, so chop them up well and put them in first before the leaves.

Thank you for your support,

Gretel and Steve

It's an open house y'all!

Come check me out selling soap at Sue Renner's Open House.  See date and time below.  

Shoot me an email if you are interested in attending and I can give you more details...

I would love to see you there!

Find homemade gifts and sweet treats for you or your loved ones during the holiday season.

CSA week #14

Our chestnut tree has been producing for us, some yummy chestnuts even raw... a little early for chestnuts roasting over an open fire though.








Fall has fallen
The transition into fall is always bittersweet for us. It is nice that we are not going to have to deal with sweltering weather, but is also a gentle reminder that the season is nearing an end. The farmer’s markets go through about the third week in October, which is typically when the first frost date is. Pretty crazy to think about huh?
With markers such as football season, and returning to school, we begin to reflect on the things that we have accomplished in the summer and thinking about what we are going to do through the winter. Our goal is to continue farming through the winter and making soap, and seeing how much the farm can support us without having to get other jobs.
Since I am going to school, it would be nice to be able to just do the farm for now and focus on school without having to work too. Last spring, I was taking classes full time, working full time, and trying to run a business which quickly became too much on my plate. Every year we have tested the waters a little bit more to see how much the business can sustain itself.
After the first year of farming, I quit my full time job as a social worker so we could farm full time in the summer. Slowly, Steve has worked little to none at the coffeeshop, with it first still being a couple days a week, then not through the summer, then last year barely any through the winter, and maybe this year not at all. And as for me, substituting is always an option, but my plan is to not start subbing until I need to.
Between the spinach and greens we will be growing in the winter, and all the soap making, maybe we won’t have to have outside jobs. It is crazy to think how much we have built the business up and kind of scary when your success lies totally on your own shoulders. But, I would much rather that then be working to make someone else’s business successful I suppose. But hopefully between our hard work and some good networking, we will continue to grow.




What’s included this week?
1. Pie pumpkin- great for pies or soup, see instructions below
2. Radishes
3. Lettuce mix
4. Sausage
5. Peppers- hot and sweet




Recipe of the Week
Cooking Fresh Pumpkin
A medium size pumpkin (4 lbs) yields around 1 ½ cups of pureed pumpkin (perfect for filling a pie). Preheat oven to 400 F. Cut your pumpkin in half and scoop out the seeds. Place ½” water in a 13”x 9” baking dish and add the pumpkin, cut-side down. Cover with foil and bake for 30 minutes, until done. Allow to cool. Scoop out the flesh from the skin; place the flesh in a food processor, and puree. If your puree seems loose and wet, pour it into a fine sieve or a colander lined with cheesecloth placed over a bowl to drain off some of the liquid. Then, you can either follow the recipe below which was given to me by a CSA member, or follow your favorite pumpkin pie recipe.




ZESTY PUMPKIN SOUP
¼ C. butter
2 cups chopped onion
1 clove garlic, crushed
1 t. curry powder
½ t. salt
¼ t. ground coriander
1/8 t. crushed red pepper
3 cups chicken broth
1 ¾ cups pumpkin



1 cup half and half
Sour cream – chives (optional)

Melt butter, sauté onion and garlic until soft. Add curry, salt, coriander and red pepper; cook 1 min. Add broth; boil gently, uncovered for 15 to 20 mins. Stir in pumpkin and half and half; cook another 5 mins. Pour mixture into blender, cover and blend until creamy. Garnish with sour cream and chives if desired. Makes: 6 cups

I personally enjoy the mixture of sweet and savory when it comes to the nutty flavors of fall, so I also added some chili powder and brown sugar, giving the soup another layer of flavor too.



Thank you for your support,
Gretel and Steve

CSA week #12... sorry I skipped it!

Homemade pizza made from scratch with all farmer's market ingredients. Too much junk on there to be able to pick it up without it falling apart, so it required fork and knife to eat, but was super delicious!




Farm happenings
The busier we have gotten, the more reliant we have become on our wonderful help. We have two friends helping us out this year for which we are very grateful. There is no way we would be able to do all of this ourselves, that’s for sure.
Along with good people, we have also invested some money in working with better tools too. You would be amazed at the difference between trying to hand weed everything versus being able to use the walk- behind wheel hoe and all the other different garden hoes that we have been using this year.
We also just found out that we were approved for a grant through the Natural Resources Conservation Service for working on season extension with flowers. We are hoping to get the greenhouse up for use this fall, but that seems to be sneaking up on us quick. With the greenhouse ordered, we are now beginning to plan when we can get some extra help out here. There are anywhere from 25-30 hoops and each one is about 7 pieces that you have to put together, drilling metal to metal.
At this point, between raising our own greenhouses and helping others, we have constructed quite a few. It helps to know the method for the madness, but that doesn’t make it any less laborious. So we thought about buying pizza and beer for all of our friends, and seeing how many people we can recruit.
The first year that we decided to put up greenhouses, it took us all winter. It is not so much fun being out in the cold trying to drill through metal. We have to get the ground posts in before the ground freezes, but we were able to do it. Rain or shine, or snow I guess when you do it in the winter. Hopefully this year we can get enough recruits that we won’t have to be bundled up doing it in the snow. I mean at least you are enjoying being outside in the winter time, but I would much rather be throwing snowballs instead!


What’s included this week?

1. Apple Cider from Paige’s Produce… man it’s good!
2. Butternut squash because we are approaching fall quickly J
3. Tomatoes- probably the end, as summer crops are ending soon
4. Potatoes
5. Onions
6. Yams- great like a baked potato with brown sugar and butter inside, or slice real thin and make chips by either frying or baking until crispy… yum!

Recipe of the Week

Tasty Butternut Squash Soup
(I know it’s just barely fall, but this is such a comfort food for me sometimes I just can hardly wait.)
1 (2 to 3 pound) butternut squash, peeled and seeded
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 medium onion, chopped
6 cups chicken stock
Nutmeg
Salt and ground black pepper

Cut squash into 1-inch chunks. In large pot melt butter. Add onion and cook until translucent, about 8 minutes. Add squash and stock. Bring to a simmer and cook until squash is tender, about 15 to 20 minutes. Remove squash chunks with slotted spoon and place in a blender and puree. Return blended squash to pot. Stir and season with nutmeg, salt, and pepper. Serve.

Thank you for your support,
Gretel and Steve

We made another blog!

http://chickpeasplease.blogspot.com/2010/09/good-work-in-progress-sunny-meadows.html

Check it out!