This week, the final harvest week, your farmers are grateful for the sun when it chooses to shine as we prepare for garlic planting next week, changed the spades on the spader, worked on the blueberry mulching and prepared for gift box making. It's amazing how many vegetables can be grown into November and even beyond perhaps, weather depending.
Great job on the blueberries everyone!
Gleaning the Fields: as a farm shareholder, you are invited to glean the fields for your family's use from Monday Nov 18th until there is nothing usable remaining (probably around Christmas time). There will continue to be dill, cilantro, turnips, radishes, napa and bok choi and others afield after this final harvest.
Gleaning Hours:
Mon-Fri 4pm-dusk
Sat: dawn-dusk
Sun: Closed.
Please bring your own harvest supplies--bucket/bag, pruners, trowel etc.
Law Reh cuts the cilantro
As our
fourteenth season winds down we are grateful for the cooperation of the weather and the hard work of the farm crew that planted, tended, and harvested the thousands of pounds of crops. In early spring we planted an
additional one hundred blueberry plants to give abundant
blueberries in the years to come. We also re-established a rhubarb planting of
several hundred plants from seed as an experiment, one that looks like it
will go gangbusters next season already. Hold on to the rhubarb!
We started as a pick up site for Abendessen bread shares
and Hillacres Farm cheese shares in addition to the North Star Orchard
fruit share that began last year. We are pleased at how these shares compliment what we harvest and support other farms. There was a
great article in the Sunday paper's Good Life magazine about the farm that was
well written and captured the story of our farm. Many people
learned about the farm this way and were inspired by three organizations working together to make this place successful.
The potato
digger that we constructed over the winter hit the field and did
outstanding work: helping us to get in the 8,000lbs of potatoes that we dug this year. We are very thankful to Bob Mclure for the weeder that made the first field test last week with outstanding results. We expect to have highly improved weed control next
year--always a an extreme challenge on an organic farm, especially in a very
wet season where the weeds just have far too much encouragement! Goodwill funded the purchase of a rototiller that will prepare the soil better for
small-seeded crops such as carrots, cilantro, beets and lettuce so that we will
have increased germination, growth and harvests of these crops and others.
It was a
season in which the calendar and the weather seemed at odds with each other. We
had July weather in September and September weather in June, rain in July
instead of September. Despite the quirky conditions we are very happy
with the abundant and high quality harvests that continue to come in. The harvest highlights were the potatoes going gangbusters, the sweet potato mulch
experiment succeeding, great greens, autumn beans and a super pumpkin and butternut squash harvest in
addition to many other crops that did well.
The farm
staff and trainees, both seasoned ones and green foots alike, were reliable,
dependable and hard-working to bring in the fresh weekly harvests for the farm
members. Working together in the field and in all weather conditions
gives the farm a close family feel-- like a large extended family
as we work together to pull off this thing called CSA farming. We expect that next season will be even better as we continue to refine
our methods and learn new ways to work around the numerous challenges that pop
up daily when working with living systems. Thank you for being a part of the farm this season, for appreciating the food and work that we do, and for lauding our efforts.
Looking
forward to seeing you for the 2014 farm season in June!
EARLY BIRD SHARE SPECIAL:
There is an early bird special for 2014--save $20 off of your share if you sign up before Jan 15th. http://goodwillathomefieldsfarm.csasignup.com/members/types
PS: don’t
forget about that butternut squash that’s rolling around in your trunk J
Gift Boxes at the Farm:
The Gift boxes are back! Each
year as the fields get colder and colder, then frosty, then frozen, and your
farmers do too, we look forward to the aroma of freshly ground coffee and
chocolate as we make gift boxes for Christmas time using locally produced
goods.
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 the local specialty
Kauffman's 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
premium 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 ten-ounce jar of Kauffman's Apple Butter and one ten-ounce
Kitchen Kettle Village Pear Butter, (a delicious Lancaster County treat that
spreads easily on bread and crackers) and a bag of Snyder's of Hanover Peanut
Butter Pretzel Sandwiches. Price $26.95
Order deadline is Dec
6th Place orders by emailing
sbreneman@yourgoodwill.org or call us at 717-871-3110.
Please Pick up Gift
Boxes at the farm on Dec
16th and 17th between 9:00am –
4:00pm.
Thank you for supporting the
farmers and the CSA
program.
The harvest season fades to a close as the days grow short and brisk
Suggestions for the
Harvest
Oven Roasted Sweet Potato Chunks: My
wife roasted some sweet potatoes, chunked and coated with coconut oil and sea
salt, in a baking dish at 400 for 1-2 hours until soft and crispy-edged and they
went over like melt-in-your-mouth chocolate confections.
Napa
Cabbage: at its finest for kimchee making. See the recipe a few
newsletters back, or search it on our farm blog, or find your own recipe online.
Bok Choi: this Asian cabbage was made for stir fries
with soy sauce, peanut butter, or chicken or a combination of all three.
Butternut squash: your farmers find that the
butternuts and Long Island Cheese squash are tops when it comes to baking and
cooking winter squashes and pumpkins. Did you know that canned "pumpkin" at the
store is usually squash due to its superior flavor and texture?
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
Popcorn: our popcorn is very tasty--put oil in heavy
bottomed pan and heat up the oil. Put a test kernel in when you think the oil is
hot. When that one pops--pour in popcorn enough to cover the pan bottom and
shake. Put a lid over the pan--but not tightly, so that steam can escape. Shake
the pan as corn pops until popping slows. (it must be said that everyone seems
to have a different method that works for them--and only them, perhaps
;-)
All Winter Squash: these hard
squash will keep in cool and dry storage for months. Great for apple and squash
bake, curried or sweet soup.
Cilantro: great in a
sandwich, soups, salads, recipes from around the world Dill: great for pickling
or with potatoes.
"Dessert Turnips": Our pet name for
the sweet and mild white Hakurei salad turnips is dessert turnips. These are not
your ordinary firm and strong purple top turnips. They are best eaten raw like
carrot sticks with or without some kind of dip. Growing up, we had carrot,
celery and turnip sticks at holiday meals.
Arugula:
Yes, the arugula is back—cheers from all corners. This spicy green's nutty
flavor jazzes up a salad or sandwich really well! Kind of zingy for most
people--use as your palate prefers.
Ornamental/Flour
Corn: feel free to shell your corn from the cob sometime and bring the
kernels in to grind in the mill that we have here. Run it through once to grind
coarsely and then tighten it up and run through again for finer grind for
cornmeal for cornbread, cornmeal pancakes, muffins etc.
Potatoes: Yukon Gold potatoes are the farm favorite for
French-fry making, hands down. Potatoes are a wonderful source of nutrients,
versatile to cook with, and very satisfying to the eater--they even help you
sleep well at night. (Potatoes not Prozac book)
Chard: Remove the lower portion of the stalk as it is
usually tough. Sautee leaves in butter, olive or coconut oil, add salt, and red
pepper, top with Parmesan cheese.
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.
Senposai: very
kale or leaf cabbage like and can substitute for either.
Thank you: I don't think words can say quite enough thanks for all that people gave and did to make the farm and harvest work out this season. Thank you Elizabeth for a super job directing, scheduling and working with trainees, Law Reh for Swiss-watch like work in the field, harvest, and with equipment, Marci for excellent harvest day help in the distribution area, Bob for both potato digger and weeder innovations, Butch for the shade canopy on the transplanter and many repairs and fixits, Tom for tools and counsel, Flanagan welding for donated weldling time, Brandon, Lance and Rebecca for keeping the place in order! Thank you to Homefields for hosting the farm program on their farm, and Goodwill Keystone for operating the farm program.
See you soon and keep warm,
Scott for all of the farmers--Elizabeth, Law Reh, Marci, Brad, Scott, Patrick, Brian, Matt, John, Cameron, Del, Mike and Glenn
