So, we'll see you in early October, re-stocked and re-vitalized!
A note to our loyal market regulars: We'll be absent from our usual spot this Saturday and next. We're in between late-summer and early-winter successions on a number of crops - especially broccoli, cauliflower, and salad greens - so we don't have as much to offer as we'd prefer. There are also a number of big projects that we'd really like to complete while we've got a slightly larger crew – namely, bringing in, cleaning, and storing several tons of winter squash and root vegetables for the Stick Season CSA and the winter farmer's market. (Plus, Sonora and Caitlin have been sick this past week, and we could all use just a little bit of downtime – a whole day or two off would be most welcome.)
So, we'll see you in early October, re-stocked and re-vitalized!
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Fall is certainly in the air! This is the time of year when people tend to ask whether we're "slowing down" for the season, and the answer is a definitive "no." Our crew is hard at work bringing in the heavy harvest - in the next few weeks, thousands of pounds of winter squash, potatoes, onions, carrots, and beets will be transferred from the fields to the coolers in our barn to be stored for the fall and winter, and even into the spring. (We were still eating last fall's onions in July, this year.) The tomatoes are being pruned hard, so that they will put all their energy into ripening the fruits that are left, and half the eggplants have been pulled out of the greenhouse to make room for winter greens. We're just starting to harvest Brussels sprouts, and the other fall brassicas - broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage - are looking pretty good. Beets, spinach, radishes, and salad mix are being planted for the Stick Season CSA and the winter farmers' market, and we're also already prepping for next year.
We put in a quarter-acre of strawberries this month (yipee!), which will need to be mulched for the winter soon. We'll be planting the garlic next month, then mulching that as well. Cover crops are being mowed and others planted, beds are being cleared and amended, plans are being made for what to do differently next year. Nope, not slowing down yet! November isn't winter, but December certainly isn't fall - what to call a CSA share that spans those final, sometimes bleak months of the year? The Stick Season share! Join us for two months of tasty veggies and brighten up your dull gray days. More details below or see our CSA page to sign up now!
We're happy to announce that sign-up for our late fall CSA is now open! The fall CSA starts the first week of November and will run through the week before Christmas, for a total of seven weeks of yummy fall and winter veggies for $200. We'll have both storage crops - potatoes, beets, carrots, onions, garlic, a variety of winter squash, parsnips, etc. - and fresh vegetables like Brussels sprouts, spinach, broccoli, braising greens, and more! We're accepting both on-farm and delivery shares, with drop-off locations in Middlebury and Rutland. The share is a medium-to-large size, which we recommend for 2-4 people. However, since many of the vegetables at that time of year are storage crops, the share is also appropriate for individuals or couples who have some storage capacity and would like to have extra for the later months. (Or, of course, for those who eat an above-average amount of veggies.) Check out the CSA page for more info and to sign up -- and as always, get in touch with any questions! Every so often, we like to do a price-check. Now, there are a whole lot of reasons why a person might be willing to pay more for organically-grown, local produce than the standard supermarket fare. The quality is better, for one -- we often see stuff at the grocery store that we would be embarrassed to sell. But, regardless, it's good to know where we stand relative to the mainstream. We went to the Hannaford in Rutland last weekend and noted the prices of everything that was in our CSA share that week, with the price we charged at market. (Where our prices were calculated differently - by the pound versus each - we used an average size to equate them.) Of course, prices fluctuate both at the store and at the market over the course of a season, so this is just a snapshot. So, though prices on some items are higher (green beans, notably, largely because we pick by hand versus using a giant machine), some are lower. We are charging less for tomatoes, for instance, and I'd stake my kid on the fact that our tomatoes taste better. And the total comes out pretty darn even. EXCEPT - and this is the key to CSA, really - the weekly value of a small share is $18, and the weekly value of a large share is $25. So CSA members are paying $25 for nearly $40 worth of food this week. Now, early shares were smaller, but the average so far has been $18.50 for small shares and $27 for the large shares, and the bulk of the harvest is still ahead of us, including our extra-large Thanksgiving and final shares. In all, a good deal! (You can see a broader analysis of grocery store vs. farmers' market pricing that NOFA-VT did a few years ago here. Their results found that organic produce was almost always cheaper at the farmers' market and that many conventional products were similar, or fluctuated.) It's August. We're halfway through summer CSA and in the busiest time at the farmers' market. Everything is busting at the seams – the crops, the weeds, the cooler, the van when we load up on Saturday. It can be a bit overwhelming! We're trying to make sure to take some breaks, get enough rest, and remember that there are a lot of months between us and the end of the winter market in December. At the same time, it's satisfying to be pulling in so much bounty – hundreds of ears of corn, hundreds of pounds of melons. The garlic are drying down in the barn, and we've got strawberry plants due to arrive in early September, so we're prepping beds for that. So far the disease and pest pressure hasn't been too bad (knock on wood!), and weeds are are biggest battle. We went from about 4.5 acres last year to about 6 this year; I'll write soon about some of the changes and investments we've made this year to streamline and improve our practices as we grow.
We love pickles. In the fall we try to put up (or barter for) a few dozen jars of dilly beans and cucumber pickles, but during the summer itself, we don't can. We ferment. Fermenting vegetables, like sauerkraut and traditional brined pickles, is one of the oldest preservation methods. When you put vegetables in a salt brine, only a few of the many naturally-occurring organisms can survive - and they happen to be ones that improve the flavor and nutritional value of the vegetables, while extending their storage ability. They're mostly lactobateria, the same class of microbes that turn milk into yogurt. (Lactobacteria also help preserve salami, while other fermentation processes are responsible for sourdough bread, soy sauce, cheese, chocolate, coffee, alcoholic beverages, and more.) The real key, for us, is that fermented vegetables are quick and easy. All you need is a non-reactive container (mason jars work great), salt, water, and whatever you plan to pickle. No boiling, no vinegar fumes, no chance of botulism. You want to get the salt ratio right - that's what prevents unfriendly bacteria from moving in - but beyond that, it's pretty impossible to mess up. (And if you do mess up, there's very little doubt, and little that could compel you to eat the stinky, slimy mess you've made.) We currently have sauerkraut, cucumbers, kohlrabi, cauliflower, beets, and a big jar of mixed vegetables in some stage of fermentation. (The picture above is the mix - cauliflower, carrots, onions, fennel stalks, garlic, and green beans with thyme.) We make a new jar every day or two, because we finish a jar every day or two. It's a great way to use up some veggies and add a healthful and tasty zing to your meals and snacks. (Find our Basic Brined Pickle recipe here!) We're excited to be hosting a NOFA-VT pizza social on the farm in about a month. Mark your calendars for September 4, from 5:30–7:30. We'll be doing a field tour, telling a little about our history, and enjoying some delicious, wood-fired pizza with toppings from the farm. This is a great opportunity for CSA delivery folks and market customers to come see where their veggies come from - everyone is welcome!
You can RSVP through NOFA-VT here (plus check out their other workshops and summer socials). They're requesting a $5 donation to cover the costs of the oven, and we'll also have a donation box available to help support our Farm Share fund. We hope to see you there! There may be arguments over what diet is best for human health, but everyone agrees that vegetables are a key part. Something we often hear from new CSA members is that they didn’t realize how much they weren’t eating vegetables until faced with a steady supply each week. (Our large share typically contains 6-8 veggies, which is pretty much one a day - with Federal guidelines suggesting 5 servings daily and many parties recommending more, it can be a wake-up call to realize how challenging it is to get even one or two servings!)
In our household, perhaps unsurprisingly, we tend to eat a lot of vegetables. One way, of course, is to just eat them straight - smashed potatoes, roasted broccoli or cauliflower, salads of all kinds. But I’ve also trained myself to pause throughout the meal preparation process and ask, "How can I get more veggies in this?" Herbs and garlic scapes in scrambled eggs or sauteed greens alongside eggs over-easy. Kale smoothies are a real thing (though I like spinach better) - frozen in popsicle molds, they’re a no-fail way to get some veggies in kids. Lettuce and herbs tucked into sandwiches and wraps, broccoli in mac ’n’ cheese, carrots grated into hamburgers, spinach chopped into pasta sauce. It is the rare soup not improved by a few handfuls of torn greens added at the end. We make a lot of one-pot sautes (like our recent beet greens and sausage recipe), and those are an endlessly flexible way to incorporate lots of vegetables into a main dish. Few recipes are so delicately balanced that you couldn't add another vegetable of some sort at some point. Finding some vegetable snacks you like is a help, as well. It all adds up! (Check out our summer saute master recipe!) Kohlrabi is currently my favorite vegetable. It's in the cabbage family - in fact, along with broccoli, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, and kale, it is the same species as cabbage! It's been bred for a big fat round stem, which is the part most-used, though the leaves are edible, too. The outer skin gets peeled off, and the interior is crisp, juicy, and both sweet and a bit peppery. The flavor is similar to mild radishes, salad turnips, or the stem of a broccoli. Definitely a cabbage relative. (Sonora calls it a cabbage-apple.) I've been hassling Jeremy for years to grow this plant, and this is the first year that he gave in. (He thought he didn't like it.) Turns out that it grows well, and - though many people don't know it - we've been sampling it at the market, and most folks are pretty excited once they find out how yummy it is. We like it best raw - sliced into salads, alone or mixed with cabbage in a slaw, or just dipped in hummus or ranch dressing. However, we've heard good things about it cooked in fritters, roasted, grilled, and even boiled and mashed like a potato. In the fall we might add it to a dish of roasted veggies. If you have a favorite turnip or rutabaga recipe, it would probably sub pretty well. I'm planning to pickle some in the coming weeks. If you've got a favorite kohlrabi recipe, let us know! |
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