As we get ready to host Outstanding in the Field again, we thought we would look back and remember what a wonderful day we had. Attendee Mo Hirsch from St. Louis did a wonderful job of documenting the event and here are a few photos. You can sign up for this years dinner on October 19 at 2pm here.

Setting up

Signing in

Mingling

Chef, artist and founder Jim Denevan, talking with Rebecca

Chef Jonathan Justus and the main course

Rebecca demonstrating the electric G

Eating dinner

One of the courses, served family style



The menu

Evening

A slight two months ago we were in the middle of as hot a Summer as has been had in these parts, and now the freeze has come and gone. No more tomatoes or peppers on the vine, but cabbages as big as a volleyballs are in the fields awaiting harvest. We are happy to move on to this new season, well stocked and anticipating a little rest.


Tomato plants after a hard frost

I have always been drawn to the Fall harvest. The thought of a warm house with pots of local fare on a hot stove is comforting. And right now I am excited about the green tomatoes. For while I am surrounded by them for a good portion of the year, it is now that they really seem like the thing to cook.

One recipe (that I have not tried) comes from member Heather Gibbons via her Facebook page. She says…I tried something new with green tomatoes and it’s crazy good. I roasted wedges with salt and olive oil, then blended them with 2-3 cloves of roasted garlic and a little more olive oil. It’s addictively tangy and earthy, salty and sweet. I’m just not sure what to call it. Not sure either but I would recommend it.

A favorite meal of mine is green tomato curry over rice. We put a version of it in our October 17, 2007 newsletter. The thing about this recipe, is that there are lots of options for what you can add, so you can make it with whatever you have on hand. Don’t have curry paste, use curry powder. Don’t have eggplant, skip it and add more peppers and leeks. Add some diced potatoes or radishes or kohlrabi.

I do suggest though, that you find yourself some coconut milk. It makes for a smooth and creamy curry and adds a nice flavor. Another suggestion for this dish is to cut the veggies all different ways to enhance its texture. Cut long slivers of the onions, mince the peppers, chop the green tomatoes into chunks.

1 medium onion or 1 large leek
2 to 3 green tomatoes
2 green peppers
3 cloves garlic, chopped fine
2 tbsp sesame oil
1 to 2  tbsp curry powder or green curry sauce
1 cup coconut milk

– Chop the onion/leek into slivers, the peppers into dice and the green tomatoes into chunks.
– Heat the sesame oil to a large skillet or pan. Add the curry sauce, onions and peppers.
    Sauté on high heat for 2 minutes.
– Add the green tomatoes and garlic, stir. Cook for 2 more minutes.
– Turn heat to medium, cover and cook for 10 minutes, stirring once.
– Add the coconut milk, stir, cover and cook for 10 minutes more, or until tomatoes are tender.

The shares continue to put on the pounds right now as the Fall harvest kicks in, and the coming frost calls for harvesting all of the fruit off the peppers, eggplant and tomatoes. And don’t forget the last of the sweet potatoes. It is the richest time of year, as harvesting takes center stage.

The green tomatoes may be in the shares for a couple weeks, so you should know at least one way to cook them. The web is filled with recipes for fried green tomtoes, and here is ours.

Recently the cabbage and sweet potatoes have been coming on, and it seemed that the two of them would make a nice combination. The recipe below is similar to a German potato salad, except it has no bacon. You can use any type of cabbage that you have on hand, including this week’s Chinese cabbage. 

Sweet Potato Cabbage Hash
2 to 2-1/2 lbs sweet potatoes red or orange), chopped
4 cups choppped cabbage
2 cloves garlic
2 medium onions
olive oil
salt and pepper
1/2 cup vinegar
2 tsp honey
parsley

Method

1. Bring a pot of water to boil and add the sweet potatoes, cabbage and a teaspoon of salt. Cover and simmer for 10 minutes. Drain. The liquid can be saved and used as a vegetable stock or warm drink.
2. Meanwhile saute the onions and garlic in olive oil in a large pan for about 10 minutes.
3. Add the sweet potatoes and onions and fry for approximately 15 minutes, until tender and brown.  You can add some ot the stock if the potatoes start sticking to the pan.
4. Mix the vinegar and honey and add to the pan. Stir.
5. Garnish with parsley

The Fall Equinox has officially passed, and Summer is over. This is our tenth September at the farm, and we have always loved this month. While we kid ourselves that our workload is slim, it is an easier time of year.

I’ve always loved this time of year too for the true cornucopia of food that is available. We are always psyched when we can dig some leeks and hand them out, and are looking forward to tomorrow morning when we start digging.

Leeks among the buckwheat

 The drought caused some mortality in this prized allium crop, but our constant watering has made for some respectable stalks. So try some Angel Hair Pasta with Leeks and Garlic Saute, or some White Sweet Potato Soup with Garlic,  or even some Mashed Potatoes With Leeks and Garlic. All wonderful recipes that show off the wonderful taste of leeks.

Kohlrabi harvest with Rebecca

The season is changing. The nights are down into the 40’s now and the days are shortening and cooling off. A wonderful time of year.

White Sweet Potatoes
In the fields our attention has turned to the last 5 weeks of the season, and the harvesting of some of our longer term crops. That means the sweet potatoes are being dug. This week’s offering, the O’Henry white sweet potatoes look as good as ever. While the drought reduced the yield this year, the quality is high.

As far as eating them, use any sweet potato recipe that you have. Or, as we said last year, “a good way to try these out is to mash them. It really brings out their sweetness and creaminess. Simply cut off any tough spots, cut into large chunks, and then boil or steam until tender. While still hot mash them before adding some salt, butter and milk/cream.”

Hakurei Turnips
The tender white turnips that you may remember from Spring are once again in the shares. They are a touch spicy right now, and can use a nice sour dressing to mellow them out. This Spring I tried out at pickling recipe from a book Rebecca got me for my birthday called The Preservation Kitchen.

Chef Paul Virant has filled the book with a wonderful array of unique and flavorful preserving recipes. The Lemon-Pickled Turnips caught my eye and I made a batch. They were wonderful. Below is the canning recipe. Modify the quantities as you see fit to make a nice little dressing for a salad, or let it stand overnight to get more of a pickling effect.

8 cups sliced hakurei turnips
4 tsp kosher salt
3 lemons, zested and juiced
3-1/4 cups water
1-1/2 cups champagne or white wine vinegar
1/2 cup plus 1 tsp sugar
4 teaspoons coriander seeds

Trim off the root end and tops of the turnips. Halve and slice the turnips about 1/4- inch thick. Mix the turnips in a large colander with the salt. Set aside to drain for 1 hour

Grate the lemon zest into a small pot. Halve the lemons and squeeze the juice over the zest. Pour in the water, vinegar and sugar. In a dry saute pan over medium heat, toast the coriander seeds until fragrant. Coarsley crush the coriander and add it to the pot.

Scald 5 pint jars in a large pot of simmering water fitted with a rack–you will use this pot to process the jars. Right before filling, put the jars on the counter. Pack the jars with the turnips, using about 8 ounces per jar. Meanwhile, soak the lids in a pan of hot water to soften the rubber seal.

Bring the brine to a boil. Transfer to a heat-proof pitcher and pour over th turnips, leaving a 1/2-inch space from the rim of the jar. Check the jars for air pockets, adding more brine if necessary to fill the gaps. Wipe the rims with a clean towel, seal with the lids, then screw on the bands until snug but not tight.

Place the jars in the pot with the rack and add enough water to cover the jars by about 1 inch. Bring the water to a boil and process the jars for 15 minutes (start the timer when the water reaches a boil). Turn off the heat and leave the jars in the water for a few minutes. Remove the jars form the water and let cool completely.

A member of our CSA family recently asked to have a chance to talk in the blog.
 

Once you have a cleaned bulb you can cut it however you want. You can start out cutting it in half, and then into half moons. From there it is easy to cut wedges, julienne strips or cubes.

Turns out that I leave the farm for two days to attend my nephew’s wedding, and next thing I know I miss the first major rain in probably a year. But it was fun to come back, walk the fields and see the cover crops germinating in nice rows, mushrooms popping up out of the ground all over, and a certain greeness take over the farm.

A welcome drink that is still soaking in, this moisture will help our plants add some robustness and plumpness, hopefully without bursting. So if you see a crack in something this week, you now know why.

This week’s recipe is a soup that combines many of the items you have gotten in your share over the last several weeks. This curried soup can be made with either squash or pumpkin. You can even add some carrots in for sweetness and body. This soup turned out especially good, both in it’s truly velvety texture and its savoriness.

Curried Butternut Squash Soup
Ingredients
1 medium butternut squash, cleaned and chopped
3 to 4  small onions, chopped
2 jalapeno, seeded and chopped
3 cloves garlic, chopped
2 tsp salt
2 tbsp curry powder
1 tbsp finely chopped sage leaves
13 oz can of coconut milk

Method
1. Cut the squash just “above the waste.” You can then peel them easily with a vegetable peeler. Next cut the squash from top to bottom, scoop out the seeds, and then chop the squash into one inch pieces.

The high tunnel work continues. You can view the latest progress by clicking on the video to the right. Thanks once again to all who helped. Today John and I framed in the second end wall. The view from the top was quite nice.

High tunnel beds ready for planting

We hosted a farm tour for Lincoln University and MU Extension, as well as the Mattie Rhodes Center on Saturday and had a good time. Marlin Bates, one of our local horticulturalists from MU Extension, gave a talk on GAP or Good Agricutural Practices. The students toured our packing room facility and we talked about the importance of safe hygiene.

Lincoln U./MU Extension tour

Dr. Jamie Pinero, an entomologist from Lincoln talked about pests, beneficials, trap cropping, and stink bug and cucumber beetle management. We will be working together with him next year and feel good that we will develop systems for reducing loss from these pests over time.

The target of these bugs is the cucurbit crop, which includes melons and pumpkins. That is why we don’t have enough pumpkins for everyone, or watermelon for everyone, but have just enough for them to be a choice. Some are larger than others so sorry if your portion size is small, we are working on it.

Melon Additives
Picking vine fruit like melons is a tricky process. You have to know the signs of ripeness, be they a thump or a sniff or a look. So we can not guarentee perfect ripeness in every melon. If your melon is just not up to ripeness, you can enhance the flavor a bit with some salt, sugar, honey, citrus, or whatever you like.

Rebecca uses a syrup of juice of half a lime, 1/2 tsp salt, and 1 tsp honey. I like a dash of salt.

Lastly, you have to see this picture of a sunflower that grew in our yard all by itself. No tilling, planting, hoeing, weeding, trellising, pruning or watering. We estimate this helianthus is 12 to 14 feet tall. Amazing.

Farm Flowers

It’s been a roller coaster of a summer. The cool spell we are about to leave did a good job of reviving the farm and farmers. The future sounds dry though, and the words drought and vegetable farm are ones that we don’t like to use in the same sentance. But in late-August 2012 that is the weather situation.

Despite it all we continue to plant vegetables and cover crops. The picture below is apprentice Dani Hurst seeding some buckwheat and tillage radish in the beds where the Spring broccoli was. It’s our second try in those beds, and we really need rain to get the seeds to germinate.

Planting cover crops

Fried Potatoes and Peppers
The recipe this week is a repeat from the past, from Week 16 of 2009. We love peppers, onions, potatoes and garlic all together. And while we don’t have beans just yet, you can get the idea with this recipe. You can modify it to whatever ingredients you have at hand. Also, the potatoes fry up better if they are first cut to size and parboil in water for about 15 minutes. Parsley and marjoram are perfect herbs for this mix.

Garlic
As Rebecca mentioned we hope to hand out our regular 2 heads of garlic per share every other week for the rest of the season. We have had to cull out several hundred head of soft-neck garlic due to poor curing, but luckily it seems the problem is concentrated only in that type of garlic. Other varieties have done fine, and we appear to have plenty of high quality seed garlic to plant next year’s crop (we need over 700 heads.) We hope that you enjoy this fresh, local garlic as much as we do.

Pond Field sunrise



What a crazy year. One week you’re blogging about how hot and dry it is, and the next week you are handing out winter squash and cool as a cucumber. The thing that amazes me is that not one single meteorologist saw this coming so quick. Shows how hard the weather is to predict. Must be the butterfly effect.

Well as I said, I am writing about winter squash. This year’s crop is a long story that will be shortened to say that we spent a lot of time and effort on it, and it performed beautifully for a long time, but bugs and heat finally got the best of it just as the fruits began to ripen.

In order to salvage this wonderful flush of fruit we picked it a little younger than we would have liked. So that means you should eat the winter squash within a week or so. You can store it in the fridge without a bag for a week to 10 days.

Our recipe suggestion follows below. In using whatever we had at hand we found butternut squash, onions, garlic, beets, hot peppers and sage. We figure it is possible that you have a few ingredients in the back of the fridge that will compliment this recipe and we hope you search them out. Otherwise you could wait til next week as we should have beet readily available.

You can clean the butternut squash by cutting off the top and bottom and then cutting it from top to bottom and scooping out the seeds. The skin is edible, but if you want you can peel it off with a vegetable peeler.

Roasted Fresh Butternut Squash

Ingredients
1/2 large butternut squash, peeled and cubed
3 medium onions, 3 medium carrots, and 3 medium beets cut into bite-sized chunks
6 to 8 sage leaves, chopped fine
4 cloves garlic, chopped
1/4 hot peppers, chopped
marinade:
1/4 cup extra virgin oil oil
1/8 cup balsamic vinegar
1-1/2 tsp salt
cracked pepper to taste

Method
 Preheat oven to 425 deg F.
Mix the marinade with the squash, onions, carrots, sage and beets and let set 15 minutes.
Place the vegetables in a roasting pan and roast for 30 minutes
Add garlic and hot peppers, stir and roast for 10 minutes more, or until desired tenderness.
Garnish with parsley, thyme or summer savory and a little sour cream or yogurt.