Notes from Your Farm Aug 26

Hello from the farm!

Cool nights and shorter days--the fall season approaches. This week: we spotted a pumpkin with some orange on it! mowed down the melon and early crop fields that were finished, had a flat tire on the mower that we run behind the tractor, had the inverter fail on the seeder, found a huge black snake, the second of the season, but only the second snake we've seen here in ten years, did hoeing in the cabbage family field, planted the last of the season's seeds to go in the ground for fall harvest and we will dig the last of the carrots tomorrow. That's some of what goes on here in the space of a few days, but not nearly all of it. Tomatoes are doing great! Here is a recipe for tomato salad:


Marinated Tomato Salad Recipe

Ingredients

• 5 medium tomatoes, sliced
• 1/4 pound fresh mushrooms, sliced
• 3/4 cup vegetable oil
• 1/4 cup red wine vinegar
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 tablespoon minced fresh parsley
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

Directions

1. In a large shallow dish, layer the tomatoes and mushrooms. In a bowl, whisk the oil, vinegar, garlic, parsley and salt. Pour over vegetables. Cover and refrigerate for at least 4 hours, turning occasionally. Serve with a slotted spoon.

from: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Marinated-Tomato-Salad/Detail.aspx




Lots of Peppers!

The Midway Point:
Although it is almost September, we are only at the half way point for the harvest season. Our season typically ends the second week of November, so a lot of good eating to do yet between now and Thanksgiving. The Farm Fall Potluck will be Saturday October 9th in the evening, with more details as the date draws closer. Have a good week and enjoy!

Scott

Scott Breneman

Farm Manager

Goodwilll at Homefields Farm

PO Box 38

150 Letort Rd

Millersville, PA 17551

http://www.yourgoodwill.org/farm

P: 717-871-3110

Check out our Farm Blog: www.goodwillathomefieldsfarm.blogspot.com

www.yourgoodwill.org

Our mission is to support persons with disabilities and other barriers to independence in achieving their fullest potential as workers and as members of the broader community

Notes from Your Farm August 19

Hello from the farm,

This week we dug the last of the potatoes, and said good-bye to the summer squash. Cucumbers are also fading away, but the peppers, eggplants and tomatoes are building up steam. We will have a lot of tomatoes for this harvest--probably over 1,000lbs of them.

These last few weeks of August are a bit of a lull as the fall crops anticipate maturing in September and October, so your bag or basket will probably bit a bit lighter until the fall crops start kicking in.


The Crop Lifter

We were really pleased yesterday with a trial run of a crop lifter or undercutter. Digging root crops and potatoes has been more and more of a challenge each year. We planted 4,800 feet of carrots this year, which along with rows and rows of potatoes and garlic, translates to quite a lot of digging!
Thanks to help from Butch Bixler and Jim Determan, we were able to make our own fairly easily using mostly what was already around. The "four man shovel" glides underneath the crop and loosens it, and then we still have the satisfaction of pulling the crop from the ground. (minus the shoveling)
Expect a lot more carrots next year :-) Thank you Butch and Jim!





The Pick Your Own Field

The pick your own field continues to have some great things in it: don't miss the "sunshine in a fruit" Sungold cherry tomatoes, the zinnias, celosia, and tasty little ground cherries, a fruity-tasting cherry tomato-like fruit in a paper husk and also the hot peppers that are just starting to ripen.


Roasted Eggplant Dip Recipe--Baba Ghanoush
If you tasted the eggplant dip that Kim made last week, you know this is good--serve with veggies and crackers.

Enough small eggplants to equal one pound
2 cloves peeled garlic
salt and olive oil to coat
roast at 350 degrees for 25 minutes
cool, transfer to food processor

Add:
1/2c. toasted pine nuts
1/4c. lemon juice
1/3c. sesame tahini
salt and pepper to taste
Process until well mixed

from: How to Cook Everything by Mark Bittman


Food as Art

Sometimes we stop to marvel at the beauty of the harvest. Kim put this together, and you can see the result:





Hope you are enjoying the harvest and the final weeks of August. Fall crops ahead. Our final harvest of the season isn't until the second week of November, so enjoy the tomatoes in their glory as autumn and cool season crops approach.

Scott

Scott Breneman

Farm Manager

Goodwilll at Homefields Farm

PO Box 38

150 Letort Rd

Millersville, PA 17551

http://www.yourgoodwill.org/farm

P: 717-871-3110

Check out our Farm Blog: www.goodwillathomefieldsfarm.blogspot.com

www.yourgoodwill.org

Our mission is to support persons with disabilities and other barriers to independence in achieving their fullest potential as workers and as members of the broader community

Notes from Your Farm August 12

Hello from the farm,

The much-needed rain falling today is wonderful--this will help the fall crops along immensely. Although we are able to irrigate some, we don't have enough water or a system big enough to water the whole farm. This week, or maybe next week, will be the largest tomato harvest of the season, after which the plants will gradually slow down as fall draws near. We had a great potato harvest and farm crew effort yesterday resulting in over four hundred pounds of beautiful potatoes.

The peppers are doing well, the tasty Carmen variety, a long bull's horn type, is back this season, while a new type is called Round of Hungary and is shaped like a lobed, flat tomato. Watermelons, cantaloupes, and Galia melons all did very well this year with all of the heat and sunshine, making up for a lackluster performance in last year's wet cloudy weather.

Blue Potatoes--higher in antioxidants than other colors of potatoes, but use just the same in the kitchen
They have a rich nutty flavor.

Rosemary Roasted Blue Potatoes (seasoning adapted from Kalyn’s recipe, noted above; blue potatoes inspired by Lucy of Nourish Me)

Ingredients

1 pound small blue potatoes, unpeeled but washed whole, any sprouts or bruises removed
¼ cup olive oil
2 tablespoons dried rosemary leaves, slightly crushed
1 tablespoon sea salt, slightly crushed

Method

Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees F. Cover bottom of natural finish skillet with heat-resistant handle (cast iron works best) with the oil. Cut potatoes into quarters, add to skillet and toss to coat with oil. Position skillet on middle rack of oven. Roast potatoes for 20 minutes. Turn off oven heat. Stir potatoes and keep them in oven another 10 minutes. Stir potatoes one last time, then transfer to a serving bowl, tossing the rosemary and salt mixture over them. Serves 4 --

from-- http://thewellseasonedcook.blogspot.com/2007/10/fit-for-party-roasted-blue-potatoes.html



To the Farm, from Burma

We're glad to have Law Reh on staff this season at the farm. He grew up and farmed in Burma, and is a calm, skilled, and hard-working presence on the farm. He teaches us Kareni and Burmese words for things and we teach English words and share a lot of chuckles over the intricacies of language. The signs on the vegetables today are in appreciation of Law Reh.

Thank You

Special thanks to Law Reh this week for working with ease, skill and intuition.
Thank you Elizabeth, for great work supervising and instructing the
crew of trainees, Kim Stoltzfus for a great job here at the barn with the harvest
and shareholders, and each one of the trainees for hard work and a great attitude
during the heat and humidity of the past weeks.

Enjoy!

Scott

Scott Breneman

Farm Manager

Goodwilll at Homefields Farm

PO Box 38

150 Letort Rd

Millersville, PA 17551

http://www.yourgoodwill.org/farm

P: 717-871-3110

Check out our Farm Blog: www.goodwillathomefieldsfarm.blogspot.com

www.yourgoodwill.org

Our mission is to support persons with disabilities and other barriers to independence in achieving their fullest potential as workers and as members of the broader community.

Notes from Your Farm August 5

Hello from the farm,

This week we are thinking more about fall--not because of the the cool weather, but because of the shift in the harvest and focusing on planting and caring for things that will ripen in September, October and November. At the end of last week, I planted beans, carrots, cilantro and cucumbers for a fall harvest. The cucumbers and beans are something of a calculated risk, to see if they are able to bear before the frosts hit in early October, but the cilantro and carrots should come through.

Weeds are an ever-present challenge to us, especially with crops that germinate slowly or do not provide a canopy. So what's an organic farmer to do? Well, with 214 weeds seeds per pound of soil typical, and an acre of soil has 4 million pounds of soil, so 856 million weed seeds are handled by a number of methods. Yesterday's method was flaming--using a propane torch backpack, you pass the flame quickly over the soil heating the weed seedlings beforeyour intended crop (carrots) sprouts. Flaming is clean-burning, environmentally friendly and eliminates the tedium of differentiating tiny carrot sprouts from all the weed seedlings that outpace them.

The butternuts, acorn squash and pumpkins look outstanding, and we may see some of them this month yet, or maybe it will be September. Other fall crops to anticipate are: broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, radish, salad turnips and many more.



The Taste of Summer Captured in a Simple Salad:

Made last evening, this is my version of a salad that I was served by Mikhail and Anna Zotov, Russian friends who were learning English in Virginia.
Dice and combine in a bowl:
An onion
A few tomatoes
One or two cucumbers
Two cloves of garlic
add black pepper and salt if desired
Add a healthy shot of olive oil, stir and let sit for a while before eating, or refrigerate for later





Would You Eat This?

We've been having a fungi fascination here at the farm of late, and if you've ever grown corn, you probably responded to the presence of the stuff below with disgust and revulsion, and chucked it out away from the corn. Well "corn smut" it turns out is an edible mushroom. Called Huitlacoche in Mexico, it is considered a valuable delicacy. So knowing that, we just had to try it when we found some on the Indian corn in the pick your own field. How was it? Cooked in a skillet with hot oil and butter, it tasted pretty decent, but not as good as other mushrooms I've cooked in the same manner, but everyone's taste buds vary.





For the Calendar:
Homefields Golf Tournament Friday September 17th at Crossgates see www.homefields.org
Fall Farm Potluck October 9th

Enjoy,

Scott

Notes from Your Farm

Hello from the farm,

We came through a pretty substantial storm on Sunday with little damage, and the fields are well-saturated with the 2 1/2 inches of rain. The "hot crops" are getting into full swing and you'll see the trio of them in increasing numbers over the next few weeks: peppers, eggplants and tomatoes. Last year, when late blight was making the rounds all over the Northeast, our plants were damaged. So far, things look pretty good in the tomato field. We have 1200 tomato plants out there, which could result in a theoretical yield of about 36,000 lbs--hopefully they don't do do that well, or we'll be up to our ears in tomato sauce. Melons are doing well this year and there are all kinds--cantaloupes, Galia melons, red, orange, yellow, and pink-fleshed watermelons. Nothings says summer like melon juice dribbling down your chin. We're happy to have some beautiful beets from our neighbor, Promised Land farm--we gave her some of our prolific cucumber harvest a few weeks ago and she is sharing some of her abundant beets with us.

Trainees at the Farm
The trainees are doing an outstanding job this season. Each day between 4-6 trainees arrive at the farm from all over the county. They might be coming from an apartment, group home, parent's house, or boarding house and using all manner of transport to get here: walking, bicycle, bus, staff or driving.
One trainee in particular spends almost two hours morning and evening using the bus to come here from the western end of the county. Of the six people who live in the two group homes here at Homefields, one elects to work on the farm.


Helping Homefields
On Saturday August 14th our benevolent landlord and host, Homefields will be having a grounds clean up work session from 8-11am. Anyone who is willing to come and help do basic yard work.

Representatives from the Homefields Board of Directors will also be selling $5.00 raffle tickets for a new Harley-Davidson motorcycle. Proceeds from the raffle go to upkeep of the entire property.

Attention Golfers: Please consider supporting Homefields by participating in our annual Golf Outing to be held on Friday September 2010 at Crossgates. Information cards will be by the weekly share pick up sign in sheet or you can go to the www.homefields.org.

Suggestions for the Harvest

Melons: best chilled. Pepper on cantaloupes can be tasty.
Eggplant: Slice and throw on the grill. Brush on a little oil and soy sauce. Or see eggplant parmesan recipe below
Sweet Onions: super for carmelizing, for any onion task, very sweet--keep refrigerated.
Carrots: carrots sticks, pennies or grated for salad, roasted, boiled with butter and brown sugar or maple syrup, curried, carrot soup...the colors will fade when cooked.

Cabbage: the simplest ways to use this are cut into wedges and serve with a bit of salt, or shred and add to salad.

Potatoes: bakes, boiled, mashed, roasted...

Beets: grate and add to salad, roast, pickle,

Summer Squash: add raw to salads, steam lightly, or stir-fry. Don't overcook.

Cucumbers: add to your lettuce and greens for salad. Dice and add to yogurt with onions and garlic scapes.

Chard or Swiss Chard: sautee, oil, garlic, parmesan etc...use like spinach

--The trick to Eggplant Parmesan is to drain the eggplant slices of excess moisture first, before cooking. We found this recipe recently in the New York Times and adapted it to our taste (olive oil only - no canola oil, and no hard boiled egg slices as the original recipe called for).

Eggplant Parmesan Recipe

INGREDIENTS

• 2 lbs (about 2 large) eggplants
• Kosher salt
• 1 28-oz can whole peeled tomatoes
• 1 clove garlic, peeled and minced
• Olive oil
• Freshly ground black pepper
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup fine dry breadcrumbs
• 4 large eggs, beaten
• 1 1/2 lbs of fresh mozzarella cheese, sliced into 1/4 inch rounds
• 1 cup grated high quality Parmesan cheese
• 1 packed cup fresh basil leaves

METHOD

1 Cut eggplants lengthwise into 1/4 inch slices. Arrange one layer in the bottom of a large colander and sprinkle evenly with salt. Repeat with remaining eggplant, salting, until all eggplant is in the colander. Weigh down the slices with a couple of plates and let drain for 2 hours. The purpose of this step is to have the eggplant release some of its moisture before cooking.

2 While the eggplant is draining, prepare tomato sauce. Combine tomatoes, garlic and 1/3 cup olive oil in a food processor. Season with salt and pepper to tasted and set aside.

3 When eggplant has drained, press down on it to remove excess water, wipe off the excess salt, and lay the slices out on paper towels to remove all the moisture. In a wide, shallow bowl, combine flour and breadcrumbs. Mix well. Pour beaten eggs into another wide shallow bowl. Place a large, deep skillet over medium heat, and pour in a a half inch of olive oil. When oil is shimmering, dredge the eggplant slices first in the flour mixture, then in the beaten egg. Working in batches, slide coated eggplant into hot oil and fry until golden brown on both sides, turning once. Drain on paper towels.

4 Preheat the oven to 350°F. In the bottom of a 10x15 inch glass baking dish, spread 1 cup of tomato sauce. Top with one third of the eggplant slices. Top eggplant with half of the mozzarella slices. Sprinkle with one third of the Parmesan and half of the basil leaves.

5 Make a second layer of eggplant slices, topped by 1 cup of sauce, remaining mozzarella, half the remaining Parmesan, and all of the remaining basil. Add remaining eggplant, and top with the remaining tomato sauce and Parmesan.

6 Bake until cheese has melted and the top is slightly brown, about 30 minutes. Allow to rest at room temperature for about 10 minutes before serving.

Serves 8.
--from http://simplyrecipes.com/recipes/eggplant_parmesan/

Enjoy and thank you!

Scott

Scott Breneman

Farm Manager

Goodwilll at Homefields Farm

PO Box 38
150 Letort Rd
Millersville, PA 17551

http://www.yourgoodwill.org/farm

P: 717-871-3110

Notes from Your Farm July 22

Hello from the farm!

Between storms this week, we were able to get the fall brassicas planted. Fall crops are planted in mid-summer, when you are not thinking about fall, but if you wait until fall to plant them, they wouldn't mature in time. Using the water wheel transplanter, which makes a divot and fills it with water, we planted about five thousand green and red cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, and even some Brussels sprouts.

The hot July weather brings with it some of our favorite summer vegetables: the farm crew picked over 170lbs of snap beans. Beans don't weigh very much, that's pretty amazing--plenty of beans for 175 shares. In addition to the usual green and yellow beans, we also did a test planting of pink and purple bean varieties. See the raw bean salad recipe if you want them to retain their color. We continue to dig potatoes, and yesterday while mowing between the beds of tomatoes and peppers I was delighted to see touches of red on some of the tomatoes as well as some color on some of the peppers. And....the melons and watermelons are starting to ripen also, so you will probably see some of these starting this week or next.

Raw Green Bean Salad
Ant Egg Soup, Natacha Du Pont De Bie

Pink and purple beans turn green when cooked, so here is a recipe for using them raw:

• 1 large clove garlic, peeled
• 1 birds-eye chili or red chile powder
• 1 heaped teaspoon rough salt
• 1 level dessert spoon brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons unsalted peanuts
• 1 pound raw green beans or long beans, topped and tailed, cut into 1-inch pieces
• 1 tablespoon fish sauce (omit if desired)
• 3 flavorful medium tomatoes, quartered, or 8 cherry tomatoes, halved
• juice of one lime (or more, to taste)

Pound the garlic, chilies, salt and sugar in a pestle and mortar until they are a rough paste. Add the peanuts and pound to break them up (not too fine). Add the bean pieces and fish sauce and pound them until they are bruised so the flavors infuse. Add the tomatoes and pound a few more times. Squeeze on the lime and serve immediately.
--from http://faretoremember.blogspot.com/2010/04/seeing-green-lao-raw-green-bean-salad.html

Suggestions for the Harvest

Sweet Onions: super for carmelizing, for any onion task, very sweet--keep refrigerated.
Carrots: carrots sticks, pennies or grated for salad, roasted, boiled with butter and brown sugar or maple syrup, curried, carrot soup...the colors will fade when cooked.

Cabbage: the simplest ways to use this are cut into wedges and serve with a bit of salt, or shred and add to salad.

Potatoes: bakes, boiled, mashed, roasted...

Beets: grate and add to salad, roast, pickle,

Summer Squash: add raw to salads, steam lightly, or stir-fry. Don't overcook.

Cucumbers: add to your lettuce and greens for salad. Dice and add to yogurt with onions and garlic scapes.

Chard or Swiss Chard: sautee, oil, garlic, parmesan etc...use like spinach

Thank You
Thank you Law Reh, Elizabeth, and trainees for a job well done!

Scott

Scott Breneman

Farm Manager

Goodwilll at Homefields Farm

PO Box 38
150 Letort Rd
Millersville, PA 17551

http://www.yourgoodwill.org/farm

P: 717-871-3110

Hello from the farm,

The scorching heat of last week dissipated and the rains came down. Yesterday's two-plus inches turned the arid adobe-like fields into brown oatmeal. The beans in particular had looked pretty dry, but today all of the crops appear rejuvenated. There is nothing like rainfall--plants respond to it much better than to irrigation.

This week we are harvesting more Red Norland and Yukon Gold potatoes, and I rigged up a dehilling setup on the tractor that is helping to make the harvest go more smoothly. The garlic is looking great, and the ground is soft enough that we can pull carrots up out of the ground without a shovel--a perk of the abundant rain. Fox 43 did a story on the rain here yesterday which aired last evening at 11pm.

Carrots are Orange...aren't they?

Each year we refine the selection of crops that we grow based on your feedback and how we observed each crop performing in the field--disease resistance, insect susceptibility, vigor, and yield. This week we are pretty tickled to see the first carrots harvested: some are red with an orange center, and the other variety is purple throughout. Despite names that sound like they came out of the Russian heavy metal and space program, Purple Haze, Deep Purple, Atomic Red, and Dragon are mostly developed by plant breeders here in the U.S.

Carrots are thought to be of Afghan origin. Suprisingly the first carrots described in literature in the 12th century were red and yellow, not orange. Orange carrots were developed by the Dutch in the 1600s and that is orange is the color that we think carrots should be. The various colors of carrot each have their own flavor and in the case of the reddish carrots, lots of healthy lycopene. Other than orange, carrots may be red, yellow, pinkish, or white.

Suggestions for the Harvest:

Carrots: carrots sticks, pennies or grated for salad, roasted, boiled with butter and brown sugar or maple syrup, curried, carrot soup...the colors will fade when cooked.

Cabbage: the simplest ways to use this are cut into wedges and serve with a bit of salt, or shred and add to salad.

Potatoes: bakes, boiled, mashed, roasted, see the roasted rosemary potato recipe below.

Beets: grate and add to salad, roast, pickle,

Summer Squash: add raw to salads, steam lightly, or stir-fry. Don't overcook.

Cucumbers: add to your lettuce and greens for salad. Dice and add to yogurt with onions and garlic scapes.

Chard or Swiss Chard: sautee, oil, garlic, parmesan etc...use like spinach

Kale: this nutritional powerhouse is great stir-fried with olive oil and garlic (scapes)

Garlic Scapes: the soft neck of the garlic--wonderful garlic flavor, cooked or raw. Discard any firm portion unless you enjoy the crunchiness.

Carrot Bread

Ingredients List:

4 medium eggs.

2 ½ cups of flour.

2 cups of carrots, shredded finely.

1 ½ cups of sugar.

1 ¼ cups of corn oil.

2 teaspoons of cinnamon.

2 teaspoons of baking powder.

1 ½ teaspoons of baking soda.

¼ teaspoon of salt.

Directions:

Preheat your oven to 350°F (175°F).

Cream the corn oil and sugar.

Add each of the four eggs one at a time, beating thoroughly after each is added.

Blend in the flour, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

Fold in the shredded carrot.

Bake in a greased loaf pan for about 90 minutes.

Allow to cool on a wire rack.

--from www.carrotrecipes.net ---a treasure trove of all sorts of carrot recipes.


Thank You
Thank you this week to Elizabeth Swope, Assistant Farm Manager, Law Reh, farm staff, and each of the trainees for a tremendous harvesting job during all of the heat last week and for the great season so far. Nice work guys!

Hope you are enjoying the seasonal eating and the farm experience each week.

Scott