Hello from the blustery farm where we are putting together the final harvest.(see self-harvest note below)  This week your farmers have been working on mulching the strawberry plants for the winter with straw, mulching the blueberry beds with wood chip mulch, preparing the fields for garlic planting next week and relishing the outdoor wood fire going yesterday to warm up by.  Winter is coming to the farm. The final harvest is a time when we bring in everything that is harvestable--there will be some sweet potatoes, black radishes, dill, and parsnips appearing for this final hurrah amidst all of the usual things you've been receiving the past few week.  Enjoy!  

 Our Farm-made Gift Boxes are Coming




Farm Program Gift Boxes for Your Staff, Clients or Family:
As our growing season winds down, we will be making gift boxes again for Christmas time. Filled with local tasty treats like Wilbur Buds, College Coffee Roasters coffee, peanut butter pretzels, and apple butter from Kitchen Kettle, they are a great gift and a support to the farm program.
The small box is 17.95 and the large, which has the larger 8oz sack of coffee and also pear butter is 25.95. For more details see: http://www.yourgoodwill.org/farm/homefields_giftboxes.php
To order, send an email to sbreneman@yourgoodwill.org or call 871-3110
Order Deadline Dec 7th
Gift Box Pickup at Barn Dec 17, 18, 19th here at the barn


(a message snuck in by the farm crew...)
A great big thank you to Farmer Scott for a great 2012 season.   From field preparation to fundraising, thank you for all the work you do, bringing the growing season from concept into reality. You keep your office door open to us, you keep the coffee flowing for us, you come up with the best nicknames and you always know how to fix the things that need fixing.   You use your creative powers to invent new ways to make our work easier, lighter and more comfortable.  You take the time to teach us new things, you empower us to solve our own problems, and you drop what you're doing to help us when we need it.  Thank you for believing in us... you give us an opportunity to prove to ourselves just how much we can accomplish.  And you never let a day go by without making us laugh.  Your are our leader and our mentor, and it is our privilege to serve on your team.





Multiplying Gifts for Homefields  Nov 30th Extraordinary Give Day!
The Lancaster County Community Foundation will give a partial match to Homefields for donations given to Homefields online through http://www.extragive.org/ on November 30th only.  The more money given to Homefields that day, the greater the amount that the Foundation will give to Homefields. It's a great way for you to help purchase the new land, and grow the gift you give at the same time, as you consider year-end giving. Funds given are tax deductible.  Please mark your calendars and read more at the extra give website and talk to us as well. 

Self Harvest starts Next Week

Many of you tell us that a highlight of the farm season is coming out in November to glean the fields for crops that remain. Starting Monday Nov 12th, Mon through Saturday, 9am-dusk, you can come out to self harvest. We will have a map that shows you where the crops are located for picking.  Please bring a bucket or bag to put your items in and a knife or pruners. The self-harvest season runs until either the vegetables or the gleaners give way to the frozen ground.

Suggestions for the harvest
Parsnips: bake with maple syrup and butter in a baking tray in the oven.
Black Radishes:  Use peeled.  To make great salad: grate the peeled radish, chop or mince scallions, grate a carrot and add diced cucumber  or(or tomato)  Mix with sour cream.  If too zingy, add more cucumber or tomato.  Eat with crackers or bread. 

Napa Cabbage: great for stir fries, super nutritious, use wherever cabbage is called for. Awesome for kimchee making. See last week's directions for it.
Ornamental/Indian/Flour Corn: decorate with it and then grind it for cornmeal. Bring your shelled corn to run through the mill for cornmeal.
Scarlet Queen Turnip: amazing scarlet color outside, white inside. Eat raw as turnip sticks or cooked.

Kale: my favorite of the greens. It is said that if you could only eat one vegetable, kale would be the one that would do you the most good, as it is a nutrition powerhouse.
Arugula: a peppery salad green that is complimented well by fruit and goat cheese in a salad.
Mustard Greens: known for their pungent flavor, these greens can be added to a salad for a mustardy hot punch, or can be added to soups or stir frys. Flavor mellows when cooked.
Tatsoi: a mild green that is great raw in salad or cooked. We think of it as fall spinach.
Purple Mizuna: a unique mustard green from Japan that has mild flavor and is great in salad for color and flavor.
Senposai: has a sweet and tender cabbage-like flavor. Makes a great outer wrap for veggie wraps. Use raw or cooked.
Watermelon Radish: These are mild for a radish and have a striking pink interior. Greens edible.
"Dessert Turnips:" also known as White Lady, Hakurei, or Salad Turnips, this white, mild and sweet turnip is a great snack. Best eaten raw, but of course, you could cook them as well. Greens are edible.

Wrapping up the harvest Season

From all of us here at the farm, I'd like to say thank you for being a part of the farm this season and enjoying and appreciating the farm and the food. Thank you farm crew for the thousands of hours that went into growing and harvesting the food-- you pruned hundreds of berry canes and bushes, transplanted tens of thousands of transplants, harvested many tons of produce, mowed around the buildings each week, and took great care of many things small and large.Thank you Elizabeth for the fantastic job in coordinating all of the trainee jobs, field work, machinery work and accounting.  Thank you Law Reh for dedication and unphased dependability in the field work and being like a brother to the trainees.  Thank you Kim, for dedication, joy and skill in people meeting their food and experiencing the farm. Thank you Bob, Butch, and Tom for things created, invented, assisted, and repaired  !Thank you for a great team effort with this vast undertaking that is the farm season.

With much thanks,

Scott