Lancaster County Gift Boxes for your customers, clients, teachers, and family

Hello from the farm, 

 

 Farm elves in the office                  

 The garlic is happily planted, the irrigation is put away, the farmers are happy to be indoors this dreary day.  

It is gift box time here in the barn, as we listen to Christmas music and smell the aroma of freshly-roasted coffee, something no one complains about :-)

These boxes are great gifts for family, customers, clients and friends.  

The small gift box includes a packet of College Coffee Roaster’s custom blend, “Goodwill at Homefields Farm” coffee, an eight-ounce bag of tasty Wilbur Buds, one eight-ounce jar of Kitchen Kettle Apple Butter and a bag of Snyder's of Hanover Peanut Butter Pretzel Sandwiches.Price: $18.95

 

The large gift box features more Lancaster County flavors. It includes a 1/2 pound bag of “Goodwill at Homefields Farm” blend coffee from College Coffee Roasters, an eight-ounce bag of yummy Wilbur Chocolate Buds, one 8 ounce jar of Kitchen Kettle Apple Butter and one 8 ounce Bauman's Pear Butter, (a delicious Lancaster County treat that spreads easily on bread and crackers) and an 8oz bag of Snyder's of Hanover Peanut Butter Pretzel Sandwiches. Price $24.95

Order deadline is Dec 5^th Place orders by emailing sbreneman@yourgoodwill.org or call us at 717-871-3110. Please Pick up Gift Boxes at the farm on Dec 16^th and 17^th between 8:30-4pm.

Thank you for supporting the farmers and the CSA program.

Your farmers

Snowy Thanksgiving

Hello from your snow-gazing farmers, 

As the growing season comes to a close, we are grateful for the encouragement and help that arrived this year in both material and non-material ways.  For the our CSA members who make our training program and food growing possible, for Homefields, who hosts our farming on their land, for arborists and landscapers who bring us wood chips for mulching the berry patch, and leaves to compost to enrich our soils, for friends who donate time and materials for projects including mechanical, plumbing, construction and maintenance.  

The Extraordinary Give Day was fruitful for Homefields, the non-profit which owns the land and structures that we farm with.  Over $8,000 in gifts were given to Homefields that day, a nice boost towards paying for the new acreage that Homefields purchased for our sake.  

 

The snowy view from the distribution area 

We're so glad we got the rest of the garlic planted yesterday!  The snowy farmscape is beautiful and serene 

Wishing you and yours a Happy Thanksgiving from the farm!  

peanut harvest, looking back at the season

Hello from the frosty farm on this final harvest week.  This week we are planting garlic for next season. Garlic is the only vegetable that we plant in the fall.  We break each bulb into the six or so cloves and plant each clove base-down in the soil. Over the winter the little guy puts down roots and then begins to grow flat leaves in the spring and bulks up in time for a July garlic bulb harvest.  

A neighbor planted much of the farm with our cover crops for us in preparation for the winter, and we are harvesting some of the surprises that we mentioned would be found in this final week.

Due to the cold, the farm crew is not spending as much time in the water rinsing vegetables, so you may want to give some of your produce a little more rinsing than usual.  

We got out our shovels and headed for the doubtful looking experimental peanut plot and this is what we found....peanuts!

 Surprise!  Elliott holds up a peanut plant

Looking Back at the Season:

"No two seasons the same" we like to say here on the farm. This year started off with the polar blast and the coolness never seemed to really leave, giving us very comfortable weather to farm in.  This is the first year that Tabasco peppers didn't ripen for us because they didn't get enough heat.  The landmark willow tree was removed because of its decline, our tractor suffered a broken frame but was deftly put back together thanks to "Doc Flanagan" of Flanagan Welding, strawberries did really well even though they ripened much later than usual thanks to the coolth :-).

Gumby was an awesome blueberry patch protector until some college students swiped him much to our chagrin--they apparently didn't realize what we had him for, a generous friend donated every little boy's storybook tractor, the 1939 Ford 9N, harvests of our standard crops went really well including those awesome red Carmen sweet peppers, watermelons, cantaloupes, tomatoes, Sungolds, Dragon carrots, cucumbers, sweet potatoes, squashes, pumpkins and more.  It was really neat to see the pawpaw and jujube trees come into bearing age, and the Asian pears turned in an excellent year as well.  

For farm staff it a finely-honed team of veterans including Elizabeth, Law Reh and Kim each experts "out standing in their field). Elizabeth fielded the group of trainees, field and harvest operations and shareholder accounting, Law Reh was lead worker and specialized in tomato tying, harvesting and equipment operations, Kim shined with harvest details in the distribution area. Thanks to each of you for making it all function!  

The trainees, about fourteen different ones this season, did greenhouse seeding, transplanting, landscaping and mulching, hoeing and hand weeding in the vegetables, harvesting veggies and washing them, boxing them, and displaying them for you on the harvest shelves. Thank you Brad, Scott C, Elliot, Cameron, John, Brian B, Brian M, Del, Christina, Matt, Patrick and others who came out to pitch in here and there.

Thank you to helping hands coming out the woodwork, Butch for countless plumbing, electrical and mechanical repairs, Tom for farm infrastructure and counsel, Bob for repairs and improvements including the powered weeder and the boot rack, Flanagan Welding for donated time and materials and you as a farm member for making the farm program possible. 

Gleaning the Fields begins the Week of November 24th. You'll receive an email with more details about how to proceed.

Here come the daikon.  Daikon, which is Japanese for "the best one" or the "biggest one," is hugely popular is Japan and is used to make pickles, salads and kimchi to name a few things.  In the West, in addition to its food uses, we also use it as a cover crop.  Its rapid growth chokes out little weeds and its taproot goes down as far as 7 feet, loosening the soil in "bio-bulldozer" fashion and bringing up minerals from the deep subsoil. It's a winner all around.  Enjoy. We like it best for kimchi here at the farm. 

A Farm-style gift for staff, employees, clients, and anyone who enjoys Lancaster County goodies;

 

We are getting ready to make and sell gift boxes for Christmas. Local yummy contents include apple butter, Peanut Butter pretzels, College Coffee Roasters coffee and Wilbur Buds.

Small Box 18.95
Large Box 24.95 (adds a half-pound coffee bag and pear butter)

To order:  email us with your order by December 5th or give us a call.  Check or cash at pickup is preferred, but we can process credit cards if you prefer. Pickup is Dec 16 and 17 8:30-4:00 unless other arrangements have been made. 

 

 Going Great Greens 

 

 

Surveys and the end of the harvest season

Please take a few minutes to fill out a farm survey.  We will have them available on the sign in table during these final weeks.  Your feedback will help us to grow and improve the farm for next year.

  

Greater Gifts for Homefields: want to see your dollars do double duty?  By giving to Homefields on the ExtraGive day Friday November 21st, your gift will be amplified by matching funds and prizes from the Lancaster County Community Foundation.  Thanks for thinking of Homefields.  See www.extragive.org|
Proceeds benefit Homefields Inc. for the new land.

Suggestions for the harvest:

Peanuts: this is a new one for us and we have a few dozen plants, so it will be a choice among other items. If you choose to get a peanut plant, you should allow it to dry in warm open air somewhere indoors.  When the shells feel dry and brittle, test one peanut to see if the skins are dry.  If so, try a peanut. You'll probably want to roast them in the oven for best flavor.

Celeriac:  This is a cousin of celery, you can see that the leaves look like celery leaves.  Use the leaves in lieu of celery and use the root too--IF it is big enough to use.  They didn't seem to develop much of a root.

Daikon: mentioned above with the picture.  Use as you would a regular radish, or for kimchi, stew and soup, salad, or try a pickling recipe.  

Napa Cabbage: use like lettuce, or make kimchi, my favorite use for it.  (It turns a fridge-full of napa into a quart container of kimchi :-)  See recipe below

Parsnip: what did you think of the parsnips?  Great roasted with beef or in a root crop bake, as in roasted sweet potato, potato, parsnip and onion in the oven with olive or coconut oil until carmelized.
Funky Black Radishes: these iconic winter-loving radishes make a great salad.  See the recipe at the top of the page if you missed it. 
Napa Cabbage:  great for making Kimchee and Asian coleslaw.
Long Island Cheese squash: along with butternut squash this is one of the best tasting and best keeping winter squash and has been our favorite here at the farm for many seasons. 
Bok Choi: this Asian cabbage shines in a Japanese or Chinese stir fry, great with soy sauce, sesame oil, peanuts, garlic, garlic, ginger.  Well-suited to peanut butter sauce and/or chicken dishes.
Popcorn: homemade popcorn from our fields is just the thing for cool fall evenings.  Everyone seems to have a slightly different technique for popping popcorn but here is what works for me:
-shell the popcorn by rubbing two ears together. 
-winnow the chaff out by pouring from one pan to another in the breeze outside. (optional, the chaff doesn't seem to hurt anything)
--store in sealed container in the freezer until ready to use. 
-heat oil in a pan to cover the bottom generously
-throw in a test kernel or two
-when they pop, pour enough popcorn in to cover the bottom of the pan plus a little more, stir well to coat with oil, put lid over top of pan, allowing steam to escape, and keep shaking on high heat until popping slows considerably. Remove from heat, salt and eat! 
Pumpkin: Do you have a pumpkin lurking?   Yes, they edible, especially the tasty seeds when roasted in the oven with some oil or butter.  The pumpkin is not nearly as tasty as butternut squash, which is what is really contained in a can of so-called "pumpkin" from the store. They can also make great soup--either sweet spiced soup or curried. 
Butternut Squash: one of the very best winter squash for flavor and long keeping! Roast in the oven in halves, you can also roast the seeds as per pumpkin seeds.

Hakurei turnips: aka salad turnips.  The tasty turnips from Japan are sweet, mild, and best eaten raw.  Yum. You'll soon be a surprised turnip enthusiast!
Scarlet Queen Turnip: stunning color, can be eaten fresh or cooked, as in potato and turnips mashed. 

Indian corn/ornamental corn: this makes incredibly good and fresh cornmeal for use in cornbread, cornmeal pancakes, waffles and more!  Allow to dry a few weeks, then shell it, bring kernels to the farm and grind in our grinder. Store cornmeal in freezer if not using immediately.  
Winter squash:  firm winter squash are great for baking, "pumpkin" pie, faux spaghetti noodles in the case of spaghetti squash or halved and baked in the oven with butter and maple syrup and/or brown sugar.  The acorn and delicata squash we are harvesting now are not types intended for long storage. Use within a week or two for best results.  (The Long Island Cheese squash and butternuts that will be harvested later on are the best keepers, which is why they are at the tail end of things). 

Kimchi Recipe

This Korean spicy "sauerkraut of a sort" is outstanding. It is enjoyed in Korea and Japan. When buying it, I like to get it from the Viet My Asian grocery across from McCaskey High School--the brand they carry is Kimchee Pride from NYC and the favorite of the kimchee I've purchased.  This recipe resembles Kimchee Pride type kimchee

1 large head Chinese (celery or Nappa) cabbage
Salt--non iodized, esp. sea salt preferred.
4 green onions (including tops)
1 clove garlic, minced
1/4 cup paprika to taste --or Korean chili powder if you want to go to the Asian store for the real deal. ( Paprika does pretty well I think)
1 tsp fresh ginger, grated

1. Cut cabbage into pieces, 1-inch long and 1-inch wide.
2. Sprinkle 2 Tbs salt on cabbage, mix well, let sit 15 minutes.
3. Cut green onions in 1-1/2 inch lengths, then cut lengthwise in thin slices. Wash salted cabbage three times with cold water. Add the onions,garlic, chili, ginger, 1 Tbs salt and enough water to cover. Mix well. Cover with a cloth and let stand for a few days.
4. Taste mixture every day. When it is acidic enough, cover and refrigerate up to 2 weeks.



Scott 

Parsnips, Black Radishes, Gift Box time approaches

 Hello from the farm, 

Your farmers are pleased as parsnips about the parsnip harvest this week. These sweet roots are close kin to carrots and are wonderful in a roasted veggie dinner or roasted with a beef roast.  They were shoveled from the ground with great care. Enjoy!  A few years ago we made turnip and parsnip sauerkraut and found it to be quite good. 

We are also harvesting black radishes. Black Radish Russian-style First peel the black skin off. In a bowl, grate the radishes, chop or mince green scallion, grate a carrot and dice fresh cucumber...mix together with sour cream.  If you want more of a spicy tang, use less carrot and cucumber.  If it's too spicy then use more carrot and cucumber. Use as a salad or eat on crackers. --adapted from chowhound.chow.com 

Despite the predictions for a doozy of a cold snowy winter, this fall has been pretty mild: witness the sunflower's persistence and the landscape banana plants not being zinged yet.  

Next week we'll unveil the rest of our bag of tricks as we bring in the remaining crops whose maturity coincides with the very end of the season.  We're not telling...

We got to try some of the Estonian pickled pumpkin recipe this week. Delicious!  Thank you shareholders Rein and Virginia for sharing it with us. 

 

We are getting ready to make and sell gift boxes for Christmas.  Local yummy contents include apple butter, PB pretzels, College Coffee Roasters coffee and Wilbur Buds.
Small Box 18.95
Large Box 24.95 (adds a half-pound coffee bag and pear butter)  

Surveys and the end of the harvest season

Please take a few minutes to fill out a farm survey.  We will have them available on the sign in table during these final weeks.  Your feedback will help us to grow and improve the farm for next year. Our final harvest is scheduled for November 13, 14 and 15.

 Suggestions for the harvest:

Parsnip: we're pulling out all the stops now as winter approaches. Looks a good parsnip harvest!  Great roasted with beef or in a root crop bake, as in roasted sweet potato, potato, parsnip and onion in the oven 
Funky Black Radishes: these iconic winter-loving radishes make a great salad.  See the recipe at the top of the page if you missed it. 
Napa Cabbage:  great for making Kimchee and Asian coleslaw.
Long Island Cheese squash: along with butternut squash this is one of the best tasting and best keeping winter squash and has been our favorite here at the farm for many seasons. 
Bok Choi: this Asian cabbage shines in a Japanese or Chinese stir fry, great with soy sauce, sesame oil, peanuts, garlic, garlic, ginger.  Well-suited to peanut butter sauce and/or chicken dishes.
Popcorn: homemade popcorn from our fields is just the thing for cool fall evenings.  Everyone seems to have a slightly different technique for popping popcorn but here is what works for me:
-shell the popcorn by rubbing two ears together. 
-winnow the chaff out by pouring from one pan to another in the breeze outside. (optional, the chaff doesn't seem to hurt anything)
--store in sealed container in the freezer until ready to use. 
-heat oil in a pan to cover the bottom generously
-throw in a test kernel or two
-when they pop, pour enough popcorn in to cover the bottom of the pan plus a little more, stir well to coat with oil, put lid over top of pan, allowing steam to escape, and keep shaking on high heat until popping slows considerably. Remove from heat, salt and eat! 
Pumpkin: Do you have a pumpkin lurking?   Yes, they edible, especially the tasty seeds when roasted in the oven with some oil or butter.  The pumpkin is not nearly as tasty as butternut squash, which is what is really contained in a can of so-called "pumpkin" from the store. They can also make great soup--either sweet spiced soup or curried. 
Butternut Squash: one of the very best winter squash for flavor and long keeping! Roast in the oven in halves, you can also roast the seeds as per pumpkin seeds.

Hakurei turnips: aka salad turnips.  The tasty turnips from Japan are sweet, mild, and best eaten raw.  Yum. You'll soon be a surprised turnip enthusiast!
Scarlet Queen Turnip: stunning color, can be eaten fresh or cooked, as in potato and turnips mashed. 

Indian corn/ornamental corn: this makes incredibly good and fresh cornmeal for use in cornbread, cornmeal pancakes, waffles and more!  Allow to dry a few weeks, then shell it, bring kernels to the farm and grind in our grinder. Store cornmeal in freezer if not using immediately.  
Winter squash:  firm winter squash are great for baking, "pumpkin" pie, faux spaghetti noodles in the case of spaghetti squash or halved and baked in the oven with butter and maple syrup and/or brown sugar.  The acorn and delicata squash we are harvesting now are not types intended for long storage. Use within a week or two for best results.  (The Long Island Cheese squash and butternuts that will be harvested later on are the best keepers, which is why they are at the tail end of things). 

Goodbyes:
Tomatoes, eggplants and peppers are just about finished. We still are getting some peppers and tomatoes--pretty wild for almost November!  
 Thank you to Elizabeth, Law Reh, Butch, and  all of the farmers who worked together to make a great harvest last week. 

Summer crops march into Fall, November Sunflowers

 Hello from the farm!

This week we are grateful for warmish days, sunshine, and plenty of crops in the fields to harvest.  The soil dried out over the weekend and we were able to prepare more of our fields for cover cropping.  After the wildness of summer growing, it feels good to put beds to rest and get things looking a little tidier.

Wednesday morning our farm crew was out digging root crops.  We heard a rustle in the tree line and I asked "What was that?"  I thought it might be the beginnings of a rain shower. Cameron replied, "That is the sound of fall."  I looked up and what I saw was a leaf shower. It hadn't made it on the weatherman's forecast, but there it was.  We watched  the yellow leaves blow off the trees, catch on the breeze, and meander their way down to the fields.  You may just find one of those magical leaves going home with you this week, as they have a habit of showing up in the most unusual places.

Surveys and the end of the harvest season

Please take a few minutes to fill out a farm survey.  We will have them available on the sign in table during these final weeks.  Your feedback will help us to grow and improve the farm for next year.  Our final harvest is scheduled for November 13, 14 and 15.

Thank you to our leader, Farmer Scott!

It is a little quiet around here this week without our Farm Manager Scott Breneman.  Our favorite farmer is taking a few days away this week, much deserved after a very busy harvest season.  Scott is known for his love of trying new things.  Not every experiment can be a success, but this year he took a gamble planting a late crop of beans and sunflowers. His gamble paid off, and we have been able to enjoy these "summer" crops well into October.  

Scott admires one of the pawpaw trees that he started many years ago from seed. Scott has a love of unusual trees, both native and tropical.  He has grown tropical loquat trees here, and established a lovely grove of pawpaws.  The jujubes are one of his contributions, too.  I think of Scott as the Johnny Appleseed of pawpaws, as he saves pawpaw seeds and spreads them wherever he goes.

Scott checking out a mushroom in the treeline.   If he doesn't know the name of a mushroom right off the bat, he is sure to find out! Through close observation of skin color, texture, stem, gills and spore prints, Scott is able to identify most mushrooms.  

Thank you Scott for your warm and generous presence here at the farm.   You are always ready to share your knowledge, listen to our ideas and brighten our days with yummy farm treats.  We appreciate all of your hard work leading us through another growing season.

 

Congratulations to our bread baker Stephanie Breneman and her husband Duane on the arrival of baby girl Addison Grace!  

 

 

 Suggestions for the harvest:

Napa Cabbage:  great for making Kimchee and Asian coleslaw.
Spaghetti squash:  Courtesy of Promise Land Farm. Thanks to friend and neighbor Amy Yocum of Promised Land Farm down the road, we were able to trade some of our abundant crops for some of hers to your benefit. A good neighbor indeed.  Bake spaghetti squash and enjoy with your favorite sauce.
Long Island Cheese squash: along with butternut squash this is one of the best tasting and best keeping winter squash and has been our favorite here at the farm for many seasons.
Bok Choi: this Asian cabbage shines in a Japanese or Chinese stir fry, great with soy sauce, sesame oil, peanuts, garlic, garlic, ginger.  Well-suited to peanut butter sauce and/or chicken dishes.
Popcorn: homemade popcorn from our fields is just the thing for cool fall evenings.  Everyone seems to have a slightly different technique for popping popcorn but here is what works for me:
-shell the popcorn by rubbing two ears together.
-winnow the chaff out by pouring from one pan to another in the breeze outside. (optional, the chaff doesn't seem to hurt anything)
--store in sealed container in the freezer until ready to use.
-heat oil in a pan to cover the bottom generously
-throw in a test kernel or two
-when they pop, pour enough popcorn in to cover the bottom of the pan plus a little more, stir well to coat with oil, put lid over top of pan, allowing steam to escape, and keep shaking on high heat until popping slows considerably. Remove from heat, salt and eat!
Pumpkin: Do you have a pumpkin lurking?   Yes, they edible, especially the tasty seeds when roasted in the oven with some oil or butter or see the recipe above.  The pumpkin is not nearly as tasty as butternut squash, which is what is really contained in a can of so-called "pumpkin" from the store. They can also make great soup--either sweet spiced soup or curried. 
Butternut Squash: one of the very best winter squash for flavor and long keeping! Roast in the oven in halves, you can also roast the seeds as per pumpkin seeds.

Hakurei turnips: aka salad turnips.  The tasty turnips from Japan are sweet, mild, and best eaten raw.  Yum. You'll soon be a surprised turnip enthusiast!
Scarlet Queen Turnip: stunning color, can be eaten fresh or cooked, as in potato and turnips mashed.

Indian corn/ornamental corn: this makes incredibly good and fresh cornmeal for use in cornbread, cornmeal pancakes, waffles and more!  Allow to dry a few weeks, then shell it, bring kernels to the farm and grind in our grinder. Store cornmeal in freezer if not using immediately.
Winter squash:  firm winter squash are great for baking, "pumpkin" pie, faux spaghetti noodles in the case of spaghetti squash or halved and baked in the oven with butter and maple syrup and/or brown sugar.  The acorn and delicata squash we are harvesting now are not types intended for long storage. Use within a week or two for best results.  (The Long Island Cheese squash and butternuts that will be harvested later on are the best keepers, which is why they are at the tail end of things).

Goodbyes:
Tomatoes, eggplants and peppers are just about finished. We still are getting some peppers and tomatoes--pretty wild for almost November!
 Thank you to all of the farmers who worked to bring this harvest together.
We hope you enjoy this harvest.  Wishing you lots of treats and not too many tricks!


--Your Farmers

Estonian pickled pumpkin, Long Island Cheese squash

hello from the farm,

Are farmers a bunch of malcontents?  Too hot, too cold, too dry, too wet, we can always find something that wants to stand in our way :-)  This week we are finding the saturated chocolate pudding soil a deterrent to getting the winter cover crops planted that anchor and enrich the soil. These winter cover crops keep winter weeds from getting a foothold.  Did you know that there are 214 weed seeds per pound of typical soil?  (there are 2 million pounds of tillable soil on an acre).  That is why weed control is such an important and challenging task in organic farming systems!

 

The times are changing, autumn is here to stay

Frost and Farming

Well we mostly dodged the frost early this week.  The weather service was predicting widespread frost, and we did receive some, but it only damaged some of the summer crops lightly.  Doesn't frost and freezing mean the season is over?  No, the fall crops are very tolerant of frost and some freezing down to the low 20s. 

 

 The experimental fall sunflowers didn't mind the frost 

Estonian Pickled Pumpkin

So you've decorated with your pumpkin for a while, or you want to utilize your organic pumpkin for eating, but aren't quite sure what to do with it.  Here is an answer, thanks to a farm shareholder who makes this recipe. 

PICKLED PUMPKIN
- An Estonian Recipe

2-2 ½ pounds fresh pumpkin
1 ½ cups white vinegar
2 cups sugar
1 stick cinnamon
5 whole cloves
Peel pumpkin, scoop out seeds
Cut pumpkin into about ¾ inch cubes
Blend sugar and vinegar and boil for 7 minutes
Pour marinade over pumpkin cubes and let marinate overnight (12 hours)
** The key for this recipe is to marinate the pumpkin overnight at room temperature; otherwise it will turn mushy when boiled.
On the following day, strain the pumpkin and keep the liquid marinade
Add the cloves and cinnamon stick to the marinade
Boil marinade for 7 minutes
Take out cloves and cinnamon stick
Add pumpkin to marinade
Simmer until all the pumpkin cubes become translucent, but not mushy – about 45 minutes
**As the pumpkin cubes become translucent they will change color, become darker, and shrink slightly. Let all the cubes transform completely.
Cool
Transfer pumpkin and marinade into covered container jar.
Can be stored in refrigerator for months.

The summer garb is gone--your farmers are decked out in keep warm clothing

Popcorn Notice: 

We tried popping some popcorn and found that it is not dry enough yet. You may need to let it dry for a week or two before popping it.  If the cob bends when you shell it, it is still moist. The kernels should not yield to finger nail pressure either.  

So when is the last harvest?  November 13, 14 and 15 is our expected final harvest. 

Sweet Potatoes!

As you may have inferred from last week's report, we are pretty enthused about this season's sweet potato harvest. Besides being a nutrient-dense superfood, they are super sweet and delicious! Last evening my family enjoyed them oven-roasted with coconut oil, sea salt and some freshly-ground black pepper.  They are like eating candy, but without the "junk food effect."  

An stash of Long Island Cheese squash

 

Free Veggie Share for Life!  

 The new land that Homefields purchased to keep it from being developed and to guarantee that we would have land for future growing came with the house and barn as well.  That house and barn with 2 acres are not needed for our farming operation and are well suited for someone who wants to raise a family, animals, garden, homestead, or simply have space and a perpetual view of their favorite CSA farm :-).  To thank any shareholder who would become our good neighbor by purchasing the property we are offering a free half share with purchase.  

--must be a 2014 shareholder in good standing
--free half share continues for as long as purchaser owns and resides on the property. The farm share cannot be transferred. 

The meadow view which overlooks our misty farm fields. 

The property listing is here: http://www.zillow.com/homedetails/128-Letort-Rd-Millersville-PA-17551/118334168_zpid/

Serving Suggestions for the harvest this week:

Spaghetti squash:  Courtesy of Promise Land Farm. Thanks to friend and neighbor Amy Yocum of Promised Land Farm down the road, we were able to trade some of our abundant crops for some of hers to your benefit. A good neighbor indeed.  Bake spaghetti squash and enjoy with your favorite sauce. 

Long Island Cheese squash: along with butternut squash this is one of the best tasting and best keeping winter squash and has been our favorite here at the farm for many seasons. 

Bok Choi: this Asian cabbage shines in a Japanese or Chinese stir fry, great with soy sauce, sesame oil, peanuts, garlic, garlic, ginger. 

Scarlet Turnips: these can be used fresh or cooked

Hakurei Turnips: these mild salad turnips are best eaten raw. 

Popcorn: homemade popcorn from our fields is just the thing for cool fall evenings.  Everyone seems to have a slightly different technique for popping popcorn but here is what works for me:

-shell the popcorn by rubbing two ears together.
-winnow the chaff out by pouring from one pan to another in the breeze outside. (optional, the chaff doesn't seem to hurt anything)
--store in sealed container in the freezer until ready to use.
-heat oil in a pan to cover the bottom generously
-throw in a test kernel or two
-when they pop, pour enough popcorn in to cover the bottom of the pan plus a little more, stir well to coat with oil, put lid over top of pan, allowing steam to escape, and keep shaking on high heat until popping slows considerably. Remove from heat, salt and eat! 

 Pumpkin:  yes, they are somewhat edible, especially the tasty seeds when roasted in the oven with some oil or butter!  The pumpkin is not nearly as tasty as butternut squash, which is what is really contained in a can of so-called "pumpkin" from the store. They can also make great soup--either sweet spiced soup or curried. 

Butternut Squash: one of the very best winter squash for flavor and long keeping! Roast in the oven in halves, you can also roast the seeds as per pumpkin seeds.

Hakurei turnips: aka salad turnips.  The tasty turnips from Japan are sweet, mild, and best eaten raw.  Yum. You'll soon be a surprised turnip enthusiast!

Indian corn/ornamental corn: this makes incredibly good and fresh cornmeal for use in cornbread, cornmeal pancakes, waffles and more!  Allow to dry a few weeks, then shell it, bring kernels to the farm and grind in our grinder. Store cornmeal in freezer if not using immediately.  

Winter squash:  firm winter squash are great for baking, "pumpkin" pie, faux spaghetti noodles in the case of spaghetti squash or halved and baked in the oven with butter and maple syrup and/or brown sugar.  The acorn and delicata squash we are harvesting now are not types intended for long storage. Use within a week or two for best results.  (The Long Island Cheese squash and butternuts that will be harvested later on are the best keepers, which is why they are at the tail end of things). 

Goodbyes:

Tomatoes, eggplants and peppers are just about finished. We still are getting some peppers and tomatoes--pretty wild for almost November!  

Your farmers

Sweet potato harvest, Late season surprises, October beans

hello from the farm,

this newsletter is nicely formatted on the web at: goodwillathomefieldsfarm.blogspot.com

 See what happens when your farmers wish for rain?  We were glad for all of the rain yesterday. We can safely say that the soil has ample moisture now!  We began our sweet potato harvest on Tuesday and we already have more sweet potatoes from one of the four beds than we typically get from the entire four beds.  The farm is all decked out in autumn color this week and looks brilliant. The fall crops are doing very well and we are more than satisfied as we bring the loads of fall crops in.   

So when is the last harvest?  November 13, 14 and 15 is our expected final harvest.

Joyous about Jujubes?  Did you like them?    Your feedback is appreciated, just jot us an email line.

The aces up our sleeves:

Aside from the amazing October purple beans, we have some interesting cards to play in these remaining harvests before mid-November.  Some of the surprises we plan to unveil from the field are: bok choi, napa cabbage, parsnips, carrots that emerged belatedly, and possibly broccoli and cabbage too from the replanting that we did after flea beetles annihilated the first planting.  We're crossing our fingers that they will mature before the hard freezes occur. 

Sweet Potatoes!

Along with carrots, sweet potatoes are usually one of the trickiest crops for us to have success with.  Deer absolutely love to eat sweet potato vines, which stunts the plant significantly. Weeds also take a toll during the long season that sweet potatoes are in the ground. Fortunately we had a secret weapon this year--my parents showed up one day wanting to lend a hand and did a number on the redroot and lambsquarter that was running amok, coming up through the vines. The voles, who think it clever to hide in among the vines while secretly feasting on the tubers, didn't hang out there this year, and lastly we grew the vines on ridges as per the recommendation of trainee farmer Del, who is an old hand when it comes to sweet potato growing.  All these factors came together to produce a great harvest. 

A sweet potato harvest pictorial:

 

Mature sweet potato vines that are aging away with frost-aided decline showing.

 

First we mowed off the sprawling vines, then we pulled the vines away to the side

Then the digger/shaker came through and sifted the potatoes mostly to the surface

Law Reh and Elizabeth revel in the memorable harvest

Law Reh secures the load and then takes them to the greenhouse to cure in warm and humid air for ten days

Free Veggie Share for Life!  

 The new land that Homefields purchased to keep it from being developed and to guarantee that we would have land for future growing came with the house and barn as well.  That house and barn with 2 acres are not needed for our farming operation and are well suited for someone who wants to raise a family, animals, garden, homestead, or simply have space and a perpetual view of their favorite CSA farm :-).  To thank any shareholder who would become our good neighbor by purchasing the property we are offering a free half share with purchase.  

--must be a 2014 shareholder in good standing
--free half share continues for as long as purchaser owns and resides on the property. The farm share cannot be transferred. 

The meadow view which overlooks our misty farm fields. 

The property listing is here: http://www.zillow.com/homedetails/128-Letort-Rd-Millersville-PA-17551/118334168_zpid/

 Monthly Farm Tour: 

Want to get a behind the scenes look at the workings of the farm? There is a monthly farm tour on the 1st Tuesday of the month at 9am.  If you are planning to attend, please email sbreneman@yourgoodwill.org.  Tour lasts approximately 30 minutes. No Dec/Jan/Feb tours when the farm is bleak and cold. 

Serving Suggestions for the harvest this week:

Popcorn: homemade popcorn from our fields is just the thing for cool fall evenings.  Everyone seems to have a slightly different technique for popping popcorn but here is what works for me:

-shell the popcorn by rubbing two ears together.
-winnow the chaff out by pouring from one pan to another in the breeze outside. (optional, the chaff doesn't seem to hurt anything)
--store in sealed container in the freezer until ready to use.
-heat oil in a pan to cover the bottom generously
-throw in a test kernel or two
-when they pop, pour enough popcorn in to cover the bottom of the pan plus a little more, stir well to coat with oil, put lid over top of pan, allowing steam to escape, and keep shaking on high heat until popping slows considerably. Remove from heat, salt and eat! 

Pumpkin:  yes, they are somewhat edible, especially the tasty seeds when roasted in the oven with some oil or butter!  The pumpkin is not nearly as tasty as butternut squash, which is what is really contained in a can of so-called "pumpkin" from the store. 

Pawpaw: keep in refrigerator until ready to use, then ripen on the counter if needed--fruit should be soft with light speckling (this doesn't take more than a day)  To eat, cut in half, and spoon out the fruit, don't eat the skin or seeds.   Plant the seeds outdoors or bring to the farm and scatter in the fencerow perimeter trees.

Butternut Squash: one of the very best winter squash for flavor and long keeping! Roast in the oven in halves, you can also roast the seeds as per pumpkin seeds.

Hakurei turnips: aka salad turnips.  The tasty turnips from Japan are sweet, mild, and best eaten raw.  Yum. You'll soon be a surprised turnip enthusiast!

Indian corn/ornamental corn: this makes incredibly good and fresh cornmeal for use in cornbread, cornmeal pancakes, waffles and more!  Allow to dry a few weeks, then shell it, bring kernels to the farm and grind in our grinder. Store cornmeal in freezer if not using immediately.  

Winter squash:  firm winter squash are great for baking, "pumpkin" pie, faux spaghetti noodles in the case of spaghetti squash or halved and baked in the oven with butter and maple syrup and/or brown sugar.  The acorn and delicata squash we are harvesting now are not types intended for long storage. Use within a week or two for best results.  (The Long Island Cheese squash and butternuts that will be harvested later on are the best keepers, which is why they are at the tail end of things). 

Goodbyes:

Tomatoes, eggplants and peppers are just about finished. We might find a few.  

Your farmers

Free Veggies for Life, when does the season end? Dry Fall

Hello from the farm,

It's unusually dry in the fields this fall. We can usually count on decent rainfall in September and it didn't really live up to its promise this year.  The pumpkin harvest continues this week as well as butternut squash, both of which are healthy and happy, pointing to the vitality of our fertile fields.

So when is the last harvest?  November 13, 14 and 15 is our expected final harvest.

Pawpaw comments?  How do you like the pawpaws?  Send us an email with your comments if you'd like.  

 Your farmers on the pumpkin prowl

Pumpkins make us smile and how!  

Vini. Vidi. Vicci.  We came, we saw, we took the pumpkins to the barn. 

Harvest Hours: 

Just a reminder about our harvest and pickup hours.  Your farmers love the farm and being at the farm, but also have family and other off-farm commitments to attend to after hours, so please keep our hours in mind when coming for your share. 

Th 3-7pm 
Fri 11-7pm 
Sat 9-1 

 

Free Veggie Share for Life!  

The new land that Homefields purchased to keep it from being developed and to guarantee that we would have land for future growing came with the house and barn as well.  That house and barn with 2 acres are not needed for our farming operation and are well suited for someone who wants to raise a family, animals, garden, homestead, or simply have space and a perpetual view of their favorite CSA farm :-).  To thank any shareholder who would become our good neighbor by purchasing the property we are offering a free half share with purchase.  

--must be a 2014 shareholder in good standing
--free half share continues for as long as purchaser owns and resides on the property. The farm share cannot be transferred. 

The meadow view which overlooks our misty farm fields. 

The property listing is here: http://www.zillow.com/homedetails/128-Letort-Rd-Millersville-PA-17551/118334168_zpid/

 Monthly Farm Tour: 

Want to get a behind the scenes look at the workings of the farm? There is a monthly farm tour on the 1st Tuesday of the month at 9am.  If you are planning to attend, please email sbreneman@yourgoodwill.org.  Tour lasts approximately 30 minutes. 
No tours during Dec/Jan/Feb during the cold and bleak period.

Serving Suggestions for the harvest this week:

Pumpkin:  yes, they are somewhat edible, especially the tasty seeds when roasted in the oven with some oil or butter!  The pumpkin is not nearly as tasty as butternut squash, which is what is really contained in a can of so-called "pumpkin" from the store. 

Pawpaw: keep in refrigerator until ready to use, then ripen on the counter if needed--fruit should be soft with light speckling (this doesn't take more than a day)  To eat, cut in half, and spoon out the fruit, don't eat the skin or seeds.   Plant the seeds outdoors or bring to the farm and scatter in the fencerow perimeter trees.

Butternut Squash: one of the very best winter squash for flavor and long keeping! Roast in the oven in halves, you can also roast the seeds as per pumpkin seeds.

Hakurei turnips: aka salad turnips.  The tasty turnips from Japan are sweet, mild, and best eaten raw.  Yum. You'll soon be a surprised turnip enthusiast!

Indian corn/ornamental corn: this makes incredibly good and fresh cornmeal for use in cornbread, cornmeal pancakes, waffles and more!  Allow to dry a few weeks, then shell it, bring kernels to the farm and grind in our grinder. Store cornmeal in freezer if not using immediately.  

Winter squash:  firm winter squash are great for baking, "pumpkin" pie, faux spaghetti noodles in the case of spaghetti squash or halved and baked in the oven with butter and maple syrup and/or brown sugar.  The acorn and delicata squash we are harvesting now are not types intended for long storage. Use within a week or two for best results.  (The Long Island Cheese squash and butternuts that will be harvested later on are the best keepers, which is why they are at the tail end of things). 

Sweet Peppers:  fading fading fading away. Enjoy them while they last. 

Tomatoes: The tomatoes are protesting October and are withholding their fruit and dwindling away. 

Eggplants:  these are tapering off with the shorter days.

Goodbyes: 

Red River Onions: a good storage onion and desirable for just about any purpose.  

Edamame:  also known as green soybeans, these tasty little beans are an appetizer, snack or post-meal treat in Japan that have become highly appreciated here as well. 

How to prepare: pull beans from the stalk, which you can do here if you like, put pods into boiling salted water.  Boil for about seven minutes, drain and then sprinkle salt over the pods to serve.  It's great fun for adults and children alike to pop the beans from the pod into your mouth by squeezing.

Potatoes:  we're taking a week off from potato harvest. Look for the latest arrival in our potato ensemble, the Fingerling Red French Potato.  This petite heirloom has a delicate rose colored skin, with a creamy yellow flesh inside.  Cooking brings out it's nutty and buttery flavor.  There are so many ways to enjoy potatoes!  One suggestion: boil until just soft, and then toss them in a pan with sauteed onion, peppers and garlic and season with rosemary.

Scallions: These mild-mannered onion family folks give an easy onion flavor to salads, sandwiches, stir fries and more.  Or you could do the old classic buttered bread and sliced scallion treat: my grandparents talked a lot about enjoying them in spring.  We found a few more. 

Watermelons and cantaloupe: it was nice melon run, but sooner or later, we knew they'd be done.  We hope you enjoyed them as much as we did.  

Cucumbers:  these are finished for this season, we're sad to see them go. 

Carrots: carrots are really good roasted in the oven with some coconut, olive or peanut oil. Of course they are also good as carrot sticks or in salads. We will miss the fresh taste of farm carrots, it's just not the same getting them from the store. 

Summer Squash:  add raw to salads, steam lightly, or stir-fry. Don't overcook unless you like soft consistency. 

Kohlrabi: sort of a mini-broccoli little crunchy dude, these are tasty raw and taste kind of like mild sweet broccoli. Usually eaten raw.  Some people peel away the outer layer.  May return in autumn. 

Greens: these succumbed to the heat, with the exception of chard which continue to grow through the summer heat. We like to fry these in a skillet with butter or coconut oil until crisp, add some onions and saute them as well--a superb topping for rice, fried eggs or stand alone too.

Broccoli: Broccoli is dicey as a spring crop and the heat has made it flower and diminished its quality--look for a new crop in fall. 
Garlic scapes: we hope you enjoyed the delightful flavor of these. 
Lettuce heads: these have run their course and are stretching skyward--a precursor to bolting--flowering to make seed. 
Lettuce mix--the leaves have given it their all and are now finished.  

Green garlic: this is garlic harvested before the base swells and becomes a bulb. It has a milder flavor than bulb garlic and can be used anywhere garlic is called for. Keep refrigerated as you would green onions/scallions. 

Cilantro: this herb has run its life cycle and is "bolting" or going to seed.  

We hope you are enjoying the great taste and health that comes from the fresh fall veggies and fruits!

Your farmers