Notes from Your Farm: Snap Pea Season

Hello from the Farm,   

Hours for Pick Up:
Thursday - 3:00pm till 7:00pm
Friday - 11:00am till 7:00pm
Saturday - 9:00am till 1:00pm 

The short and long awaited strawberry season is over for 2017.  Even with the warmer temperatures and long periods of rain we were fortunate to have bountiful and sweet strawberry patches!  There are a few little strawberries still out in the patches if you don't mind having a scavenger hunt.

Now on to the next pick your own option Snap Peas!

Snap Pea Season
Our snap pea season is starting this week (6/15) and will go until June 24. We have five rows of snap peas this year that are filled with heavy plants. Meaning it is a jungle of snap peas!  We do have mowed path ways for you to walk through but please watch your footing while harvesting.  You may move plants around to harvest under ones that are bent over but be careful not to break the plants.

We will be doing a season limit for snap peas, which means you can only harvest the given limit throughout the whole season. 

Season Limit
Half Shares - 2 pints
Full Shares - 4 pints

You may only harvest snap peas during pick up hours.  Below is a map that shows where the snap peas are located on the farm.  There will also be a red flag in the field that indicates the snap pea patch.  At the distribution area we will have green pint baskets for you to use while harvesting snap peas.
  
If you have any questions contact Taryn by phone: 717-871-3110 or email: thogeland@yourgoodwill.org 


Gumby Jr.
Who is that dancing out in the blueberry patch you may ask?  Everyone meet Gumby Jr.!  Jr. has an important role in scaring the birds away from our blueberries.  Yes the birds love blueberries just as much as you do. Birds even eat blueberries before they are ripe and sweet.  Gumby Jr. is keeping them safe until blueberry season starts.
 
Check out those moves!


What is a Garlic Scape?
It is long, curled around in a spiral, and has a STRONG garlic scent.  Yes garlic scapes are back again this week and we are going to make sure you love them before their season is over!  

Garlic scapes are part of the actual garlic plant it self, which creates the garlic bulb under ground.  We plant our garlic in the fall time around Halloween.  Garlic then over winters and is about a foot tall once the winter season is done.  Once June comes around our garlic plants are around four and a half feet tall and are producing their garlic scapes at the top of the plant.  A scape is the part that would have turned into a flower that produces seeds for other garlic plants to grow.  If you cut the scape before it goes to flower you get a garlic scape, which is good to eat!  

The purpose of cutting garlic scapes off the garlic plant is so the plant will put more energy and growth into the garlic bulb and not into the flower and seeds that the scape would produce.  

We also have a new version of the Garlic Scape Pesto Recipe that is vegan!  (added below)


Homefields - Recruiting 
Homefields is seeking volunteer board and committee members to help grow the mission and manage projects.  Opportunities to serve include ongoing roles, like board membership; or project oriented roles, like committee work or event staffing. Contact tracy@homefields.org 

Homefields sponsors an annual fundraising event called "Picnic in the Fields."  This years' event will be held on Sunday, September 24th at Homefields.  We need volunteers to help with set up, event staffing and break down.  Service opportunities range from 3 hours to all day (10 hours).  Drinks and food included.  It's a fun day and a great way to give back to the farm.  Contact: tracy@homefields.org 


2017 Season Sign Ups!!!
There is still room for you!  Just sign up by following this link: http://goodwillathomefieldsfarm.csasignup.com/members/types


Abendessen Bread
Dark Honey Wheat - My Favorite! - $5 a loaf


Harvest List
- Snap Peas - storage: keep in plastic bag in refrigerator 

Garlic Snap Pea Recipe

Ingredients: 2 cups snap peas, 2 tsp. vegetable oil, 1/8 tsp. salt, pinch black pepper, 2 cloves of garlic minced (just use your garlic scapes instead!)

Directions: cut off tips on snap peas, preheat oil on medium/high heat. Sautee peas with salt and pepper for 2 1/2 to 3 minutes tossing often until beans are cooked an crispy. Add minced garlic toss a bit and then pour out onto serving pan.  Don't cook too long because garlic can become bitter. No longer then 10 seconds.

Recipe can be found at: http://www.topsecretrecipes.com/PF-Changs-Garlic-Snap-Peas-Copycat-Recipe.html

- Lettuce - storage: if in a plastic bag make sure you poke holes throughout the bag and keep in the hydrator drawer of your refrigerator.  Or invest in a Produce Keeper that can be found on Amazon, they work very well.  

Lettuce Recipe: Strawberry Romaine Salad

Ingredients: 1 large bunch of lettuce, 1 onion, 1 quart of strawberries, 1/3 cup of sugar, 2 Tbsp. poppy seeds, 3/4 cup mayonnaise, 1/4 cup milk, and 2 Tbsp. balsamic vinegar

Directions: Tear 1 large bunch of lettuce into bite size pieces. Slice onion and strawberries, and add to lettuce.  Whisk together remaining ingredients. Just before serving, toss with dressing and serve. NOTE: all the dressing should be used because the salad wilts and absorbs the dressing quickly. 

- Kale - storage: same as lettuce

Kale Recipe: Baked Kale Chips

Ingredients: 1 large bunch of kale, 1 Tbsp. extra virgin olive oil, 1/4 tsp. sea salt, freshly ground pepper

Directions: preheat oven to 300 degrees F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper. Remove stems of kale. Place in bowl, drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle with salt and massage into leaves. Add pepper to taste and spread kale out in single layer on baking sheets. Place in oven and bake for 10-15 minutes or until kale is dry and crispy and barely browned on edges.

Recipe from: "Eat Clean Live Well" By: Terry Walters

- Radishes - storage: keep in refrigerator wrapped in plastic bag or damp towel. Keep greens separate and stored like lettuce.  

Radish Recipe: Pretty in Pink Radishes

Ingredients: 3 garlic cloves thinly sliced, 2 2inch sprigs of fresh dill, 6 peppercorns, pinch of red pepper flakes, radishes, 1 1/2 tsp. plus 1 tsp. of sea salt, 1 cup of water

Need: 1 pint size canning jar with lid, cheese cloth, rubber bands

Directions: put garlic, dill, peppercorns, and pepper flakes in canning jar. Slice radishes into 1/4inch rounds. Make jar 2/3 full. In separate bowl make Brine by combining salt and water and stirring until salt is dissolved. Pour brine in jar until radishes are covered. Leave space at top. Place weight in mouth of jar to hold radishes down so they're submerged. Cover with cheese cloth, secure with rubber bands. Check radishes daily. If brine evaporates and exposes radishes add more brine. Radishes will be lightly pickeled in 24hrs and will become more sour the longer they ferment. When taste is desired, cover and refrigerate to slow fermentation. Recommendation: refrigerate radishes after about 7-10 days of fermentation.

  Recipe from: "Eat Clean Live Well" By: Terry Walters

- Garlic Scapes - storage: keep in a plastic bag in refrigerator

Garlic Scape Pesto - Vegan Style 

Ingredients: 8 garlic scapes coarsely chopped, 1/2 cup firmly packed fresh cilantro, 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil, 1/2 cup pine nuts, 1 tsp. lemon zest, 2 Tbsp. lemon juice, 1/4 tsp. sea salt. 

Directions: place chopped scapes in food processor and pulse to mince. Add all other pesto ingredients and process until consistent and smooth. Serve or store in airtight container in refrigerator or freezer.

Additional Comment: freeze a batch of this pesto for the middle of winter!

Recipe from: "Eat Clean Live Well" By: Terry Walters

- Cilantro - storage: same as lettuce

How to use Cilantro

Is an essential ingredient in Mexican and Asian cooking. Use in salsa, Pad Thai, and peanut sauce. Can be put into salads, sandwiches, soups, and pestos to add some extra flavor.  Check out our garlic pesto recipe that has cilantro! (above)

- Most of the storage ideas were found in our Goodwill at Homefields Farm "A Mostly Vegetarian Cookbook".  Which can be found at our sign in desk at the distribution center.

Below are the products that you can buy from another location but pick up at our location once the season starts.  Take a look they are great products from local businesses!

North Star Orchard Fruit Share - Must be signed up by 7/1!

Would you like to pick up a CSA Fruit Share when you come to get your CSA vegetables? It’s time to sign up now with North Star Orchard for their weekly Fruit Share, which is available for pickup for 15 weeks starting in August.

CSA Members have been enjoying the Fruit Share for years, and we encourage you to take a look at what the share has to offer here.

(Link to http://northstarorchard.com/fruit-share )

This is not ordinary fruit, but unique and heritage varieties which are full of flavor: plums with pizazz, perfect peaches, amazing Asian pears, great (seedless) grapes, astounding apples, and a sprinkling of heritage pear varieties.
Sign up directly with North Star on their website (link again to https://northstarorchard.com/fruit-share ), or if you need to reach them directly, email Lisa@northstarorchard.com
And for a quick view of North Star Orchard itself, enjoy this 90-second bird's eye view (link to: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=izdj6VIWyao )

Hillacres Pride Cheese Share
Goodwill at Homefields farm will be a pickup location for Hillacres Pride Cheese share once again for the 2017 Season.  
The share will usually start with the first pick-up at your veggie share location and run every other week for 11 pickups, which usually encompasses June-Oct. A share contains 2 cheese items with each delivery.
They will range from cheddars and colbys to artisan cheeses, such as our Susquehanna and Cave Aged Arcadia; to fresh cheeses like ricotta and our signature flavored fresh cheeses.  It is always fun for us to select the share items and we hear it is a fun surprise for the customers. We offer a bit of information about the cheeses and are hoping to incorporate recipes this year as well.
11 bi-weekly deliveries $125.00
Signup by following this link:
http://hillacrespride.com/?q=content/csa-sign-form

Village Crest Farm Mushroom Share

Village Crest Farm is a fourth-generation family farm near Strasburg that grows a variety of gourmet mushrooms for fine restaurants and your table, using chemical-free practices.  We are pleased to announce that Goodwill at Homefields Farm will be a pick up site for the Village Crest Farm mushroom share during their regular vegetable share season.

 

Offerings: Choose either 12 or 24 weeks of delicious seasonal mushrooms. We grow a beautiful variety of oyster mushrooms including elm, golden, brown, blue, and pink oysters rotating from week to week depending on season and temperature. Other species such as lion's mane and chestnut mushrooms may make guest appearances during the season as we continue to develop new varieties.

 

June through November (24 week) share = 1 lb fresh gourmet mushrooms weekly - $360

OR 

June through August (12 week) share = 1 lb fresh gourmet mushrooms weekly - $180

 

To reserve your mushroom share, please contact:
Scott Breneman

villagecrestfarm@gmail.com

717-786-2801

 

 

Coffee Share

Do you enjoy whole bean coffee?  Do you purchase the coffee at a specialty coffee shop? Or maybe the local grocery store?  One has fresh coffee, the other an affordable price. Want to have both?  College Coffee Roasters has partnered with Homefields to create a coffee share.  College Coffee Roasters offers 6 Fair Trade Organic (FTO) coffees.  A different coffee will be available each week for 6 weeks, by the 1/2 lb.  

 

Cost of the share will be $36  

 

In order to start, we'll need to know if you are interested.  If you wish to purchase a share, please make the check payable to Homefields and have it sent to: Homefields Inc., 150 Letort Road, Millersville, PA 17551.  Also make note on the check that it is for the coffee share.

 

The funds generated by the share will help fund projects at the Farm.

 

If you have questions please contact Bruce at: 717-278-0839

 

 

Happy Harvest,

Your Farmers