4th Week of August

Notes from your Farm:

This week we got a nice break from the precipitation, and I was able to do some of the planting for the fall crops. The arugula, which many of you have been asking about is germinated and up already--there are few things better than seeing a new crop of sprouts emerging from the surface of the soil. With the wet weather abating, we should have a plentiful bell pepper harvest this week and in the weeks to come. Thanks for sharing the rewards and risks of growing plants with us, we appreciate your encouragement and enthusiasm for what we do and the food that we grow.

Dogs are welcome at the farm: to respect other shareholders, please observe the following if bringing your pet to the farm:
--dog should be under your control at all times--either in your vehicle or on a controlled leash--please no pets in the food pickup area or herb beds for best sanitation practices. (the monkey on your back is fine :-)

Like Green and Yellow Beans? Unlimited Pick-Your-Own again this week!

Cookbooks:

We have some excellent cookbooks here for sale that are a great match for seasonal and local eating.

• Simply in Season Cookbook: has recipes in order for Spring, Summer, Fall, and Winter crops.
• Farmer John Cookbook: from the quirky Farmer John of the "Real dirt on Farmer John" movie fame. His Angelic Organics CSA is one of the best known in the country.
• Simply in Season Children's cookbook: Fun, easy, and quick to prepare recipes to do with children.

Pick-Your-Own Field Highlights:

• Black-eyed Susan flowers: these are beautiful.
• Ground Cherries: check out these tasty little paper-husked treat that have a hint of pineapple. Pick when paper turns golden brown or fruit is on the ground.
• Sungold cherry tomatoes: yes, they have the late blight too--but there are some tomatoes there.
• HOT Peppers: range from mild to wild the farther back the row you go. Some varieties are maturing to red, but green is ok to pick too as you wish.
• Heirloom tomatoes: various types located in the first row.
• Pole beans: including Red Noodle and Roma types, down at the low end of the PYO field
• Cut flowers: zinnias, snapdragons, celosia
• Basil: is ready: pinch off the tips just above where they branch--not sure, ask Bradley
• Tromboncino Squash Tower: Check out this rapidly growing vine and the bamboo tower that Bradley made for it.
• Summer Savory: this herb located beyond the grapes in the PYO field. Very strong by itself, it is excellent with tomatoes
• Edible flowers: Nasturtiums, and Calendula and Borage are edible and are located also toward the end of the PYO field.

VOLUNTEERS FOR HOMEFIELDS WANTED:

Homefields, our nonprofit host and landlord, is looking for a few volunteers to help out with the United Way "Day of Sharing" at Homefields. This is an event that allows Millersville University students to become involved in a community service project. We are looking for volunteers to either select plants to beautify the Homefields residential property and/ or volunteers to help direct the MU students on the morning of Sat, Sept 12 as they do various jobs around the Homefields property. Please contact Joyce Smedley at jwsmed@verizon.net if you are interested in volunteering or would like more information.

Homefields is also beginning monthly meetings called "Sharing Homefields" to expand the mission, property and resources of Homefields. Please see the flyer on the distribution table for more information.

About some of the Characters:

• Asian and Italian type eggplants: the slender Japanese type eggplants are usually sweeter and milder than the classic Italian types. Their color is fabulous too.
  Coating slices with oil and soy sauce and grilling them is quick and delicious. See an excellent and simple recipe below!
• Bell Peppers: these are the most nutritious when raw, and the Apple variety has incredible flavor according to farm staff (who are never wrong).
• Beans: we are having a banner year--please pick as many great and yellow beans as you have freezer space for if desired.
• Tomatoes: doing better than expected! There is a tomato soup recipe below
• Carrots: roasted, raw, boiled, or steamed, you can't go wrong.
• Mars: these red onions can be used now or kept for storage.

Bradley's Eggplant Unrecipe

So simple and so delicious, maybe we will call it a recipe:
Slice slender eggplants lengthwise, coat with soy sauce and sprinkle with a little bit of brown sugar. Place in toaster oven or broil until caramelized on top and the eggplant is nice and soft.
--from Bradley Hagens, Farm Staff

Fresh Tomato Soup

1/4 c olive oil
2 large onions, diced
1 T finely grated orange zest
18 ripe roma tomatoes, quartered (I used regular tomatoes and fewer number)
heavy or light cream
salt and pepper to taste
fresh basil leaves

1. using heavy saucepan set over medium heat, sauté onions in olive oil, stirring occasionally until tender and translucent, about 10 to 12 minutes
2. stir in orange zest and tomatoes and continue to cook over medium heat stirring occasionally to prevent scorching, about 20 minutes or until the tomatoes have broken down and rendered much of their liquid
3. puree soup in batches using either food processor or blender. then strain mixture through a food mill or medium mesh sieve placed over a clean saucepan, discard remaining peel and seeds [I skipped this step; my blender pureed to a fine consistency and there was no problem]
4. reheat soup mixture gently over medium-low heat, season with salt and pepper. add heavy or light cream to taste (anywhere from ½ c to 1 ½ c or until you achieve the consistency and flavor you desire)
5. just before serving (about one to two minutes before) add fresh basil, torn into small pieces, to the soup, with a pinch on top of each bowl for garnish

serves 4 to 6

--shared by shareholder Tracy Broderick

3rd Week of August

Notes from Your Farm

Rain and sun, rain and sun and lots of work to be done. We are keeping warm this week and thrilled with a fabulous bean harvest. The tomatoes plants have done much better than seems possible under the heavy yoke of late blight. Farm morale is high even with the high heat and humidity. Thank you farm crew: Elizabeth, Bradley and all the trainees.

So what's in store for the fall harvest? Look for cool weather-sweetened collards and kale, broccoli, cabbage and cauliflower, radishes, bok choi, napa cabbage, daikon, dill, cilantro, carrots, and even parsnips and rutabagas for the adventure of it. We would've been planting these crops early if the temperatures had been lower, but the extreme heat is unkind to both germination and growth of cool-weather crops, so we are waiting for a cooler window of opportunity.

BEANANZA! Unlimited "Pick Your Own" this week! The beans are loaded!

Cookbooks:

We have some excellent cookbooks here for sale that are a great match for seasonal and local eating.

• Simply in Season Cookbook: has recipes in order for Spring, Summer, Fall, and Winter crops.
• Farmer John Cookbook: from the quirky Farmer John of the "Real dirt on Farmer John" movie fame. His Angelic Organics CSA is one of the best known in the country.
• Simply in Season Children's Cookbook: Fun, easy, and quick to prepare recipes to do with children.

Pick Your Own Field Highlights:

• Ground Cherries: check out these tasty little paper-husked treat that have a hint of pineapple. Pick when paper turns golden brown or fruit is on the ground.
• Pole beans: including Red Noodle and Roma types, down at the low end of the PYO fieldCut flowers: zinnias, snapdragons, celosia .
• Basil: is ready: pinch off the tips just above where they branch--not sure, ask Bradley.
• Tromboncino Squash Tower: Check out this rapidly growing vine and the bamboo tower that Bradley made for it.
• Summer Savory: this herb located beyond the grapes in the PYO field. Very strong by itself, it is excellent with tomatoes.
• Edible flowers: Nasturtiums, and Calendula and Borage are edible and are located also toward the end of the PYO field.
• Sungold cherry tomatoes: yes, they have the late blight too--but there are some tomatoes there.
• Heirloom tomatoes: various types located in the first row.

VOLUNTEERS FOR HOMEFIELDS WANTED:

Homefields, our nonprofit host and landlord, is looking for a few volunteers to help out with the United Way "Day of Sharing" at Homefields. This is an event that allows Millersville University students to become involved in a community service project. We are looking for volunteers to either select plants to beautify the Homefields residential property and/ or volunteers to help direct the MU students on the morning of Sat, Sept 12 as they do various jobs around the Homefields property. Please contact Joyce Smedley at jwsmed@verizon.net if you are interested in volunteering or would like more information.

Homefields is also beginning monthly meetings called "Sharing Homefields" to expand the mission, property and resources of Homefields. Please see the flyer on the distribution table for more information.

About Some of the Characters:

• Asian and Italian type eggplants: the slender Japanese type eggplants are usually sweeter and milder than the classic Italian types. Their color is fabulous too.
  Coating slices with oil and soy sauce and grilling them is quick and delicious.
• Carrots: munch on them like a marauding rabbit or see Maple carrot recipe below
• Mars: these red onions can be used now or kept for storage
• Zucchini: see recipe below.

Lucy's Zucchini Burgers

Advance prep: Grate some zucchini. Grate some onion. Combine in a bowl with bread crumbs, a little cooked rice, one beaten egg, and whatever spices you like. Form into patties, place on a paper towel on a plate and put into fridge: either overnight, or at least an hour or two. (This will release some of the moisture.)

Final prep: Coat with flour. Lightly sauté in frying pan in olive oil and butter. Serve on any bread you like. Really good with goat cheese and tomato, tziki, or mustard.

--shared by Elizabeth Swope, Asst. Farm Manager

Passiflora

These are hardy passionflowers, which grow inside the greenhouse, but somtimes sneak out under the edge into the yard, and are hardy here in Pennsylvania. They do fruit occasionally, but the fruit is not as good as that of their tropical cousins. They flowers have the same beauty however.

2nd Week of August

Notes from your Farm

The daylight is stealthily shortening as we breeze through August. We are at the midpoint in the season as we march along towards mid November's final harvest week. We received a lot of rain this week--about an inch Tuesday night, another inch yesterday afternoon, another inch or two during the night--all heavy downpours. One inch of rain falling on an acre is 27,154 gallons, so our five acres of vegetables received 543,000 gallons of water in the last two days. We are happy to be harvesting some green bell peppers this week, with a few reds mixed in.

It's always a help to read other CSA blogs to see what challenges they have during the growing season: Roxbury Farm, one of the largest CSA farms in the country, had crops under seven feet of water last week and submerged tractors and other equipment. Their blog is at http://www.roxburyfarm.blogspot.com/ if you'd like to see what they have to say and see what that much water looks like.

Cookbooks

We have some excellent cookbooks here for sale that are a great match for seasonal and local eating.

Simply in Season Cookbook: has recipes in order for Spring, Summer, Fall, and Winter crops.
Farmer John Cookbook: from the quirky Farmer John of the "Real dirt on Farmer John" movie fame. His Angelic Organics CSA is one of the best known in the country.
Simply in Season Children's cookbook: Fun, easy, and quick to prepare recipes to do with children.

Pick Your Own Field Highlights

• Pole beans: including Red Noodle and Roma types, down at the low end of the PYO field.
• Cut flowers: zinnias, snapdragons, celosia.
• Basil: is ready: pinch off the tips just above where they branch--not sure, ask Bradley.
• Tromboncino Squash Tower: Check out this rapidly growing vine and the bamboo tower that Bradley made for it.
• Summer Savory: this herb located beyond the grapes in the PYO field. Very strong by itself, it is excellent with tomatoes.
• Edible flowers: Nasturtiums, and Calendula and Borage are edible and are located also toward the end of the PYO field.
• Sungold cherry tomatoes: yes, they have the late blight too--but there are some tomatoes there--harvest sparingly.
• Heirloom tomatoes: various types located in the first row.

About Some of the Characters

• Asian and Italian type eggplants: the slender Japanese type eggplants are usually sweeter and milder than the classic Italian types. Their color is fabulous too. Coating slices with oil and soy sauce and grilling them is quick and delicious.
• Carrots: munch on them like a marauding rabbit or see Maple carrot recipe below.
• Mars: these red onions can be used now or kept for storage.
• Leeks: generally--use the white part and discard the tough green stem. Leeks often have soil in the layers, so it is good to halve them and rinse the separated layers.
• Potatoes: baked, boiled, roasted, they are excellent.

Maple Carrots Recipe

1 ½ lb of carrots, peeled and cut into half-inch thick rounds.
½ cup of water.
3 tablespoons of butter.
2 tablespoons of maple syrup.
1 tablespoon of brown sugar.
Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste.

1) In a large skillet, bring all ingredients to boil.
2) Reduce heat to medium, then cover and simmer for 8 minutes.
3) Uncover and cook until the juices are reduced to glaze (4-5 minutes).
4) Season with salt and freshly ground black pepper.

Yields 5-6 servings.

--from http://www.carrotrecipes.net/

Questions or Feedback?

If you have any questions or feedback, please email me at sbreneman@yourgoodwill.org.

Thanks,
Scott

Fresh Carrots

Freshly dug carrots are fantastic--so different from what we find in the store, they could have their own name.

1st Week of August

Notes from the Farm

Well sometimes things turn out better than expected--in this case the tomatoes have not all died and we are getting some for the harvest, it looks like we will get about 440 lbs this week, which translates to 2lbs and 4lbs per half and full shares respectively. This week we've been spading up all the finished crops and planting sorghum sudangrass in thistle-filled areas to choke out the thistle by the start of next season. The onions are doing phenomenally well this year, and we continue to harvest them and place them in the greenhouse to cure and dry down their necks. The sweet peppers (aka bell peppers) look great, are not susceptible to late blight, and will be harvestable in a week or two. It was great to see everyone at the potluck Sat. evening; thanks for your presence and great food. We'll have the fall potluck on Saturday September 26th.

Pick Your Own Field Highlights

• Tromboncino Squash Tower: Check out this rapidly growing vine and the bamboo tower that Bradley made for it.
• Summer Savory: this herb located beyond the grapes in the PYO field. Very strong by itself, it is excellent with tomatoes
• Edible flowers: Nasturtiums, and Calendula and Borage are edible and are located also toward the end of the PYO field.
• Basil: is ready: pinch off the tips just above where they branch--not sure? Ask Bradley.
• Sungold Cherry Tomatoes: yes, they have the late blight too--but there are some tomatoes there--harvest sparingly.
• Heirloom Tomatoes: various types located in the first row.
• Pole Beans: there are few bean towers at the bottom of the PYO field, several different varieties.

Thai Basil Eggplant Recipe

Ingredients
1 tablespoon peanut oil
2-3 garlic cloves, minced
2 Japanese eggplants (or 1 big purple, peeled and cut into pieces)
2 tablespoons fish sauce
1 tablespoon sugar
1 bunch basil, preferably Thai basil, washed and stems removed
2 Thai chiles, minced (optional)

Directions
1) Peel eggplant if desired (I don't). Cut into irregular shapes but same sizes. That makes them easier to turn and keeps them from sticking to the pan.
2) Heat wok over med-high heat. Add oil, peppers and garlic. Cook until garlic becomes lightly browned, 1-2 minutes.
3) Add eggplant and stir. Add 1/2 cup water cover and simmer 5 minutes, until eggplant has soaked up most of the water and becomes translucent. You may need to add more water as it cooks.
4) Add fish sauce and sugar. Stir gently. Turn off the heat and add the basil stir gently.
5) Serve immediately.
6) Really good with jasmine rice!
--from recipezaar.com

About some of the Characters

• Asian and Italian-type Eggplants: the slender Japanese type eggplants are usually sweeter and milder than the classic Italian types. Their color is fabulous too. Coating slices with oil and soy sauce and grilling them is quick and delicious. Also the recipe above for Thai Basil eggplant.
• Carrots: munch on them like a marauding rabbit ;-) The whole farm crew loves to nibble on them, a whole different crittter from what's in the store.
• Mars: these red onions can be used now or kept for storage.
• Leeks: generally, use the white part and discard the tough green stem. Leeks often have soil in the layers, so it is good to halve them and rinse the separated layers. The recipe above calls for using the green part also, just be sure to cut perpendicularly so you don't have long tough strands to deal with.
• Potatoes: baked, boiled, roasted, they are excellent.