Week 19 9-21-2011

Week 19

It’s hard to believe that there are only two more weeks of CSA boxes! September just flew by! Wednesday September 28^th will be the last week. After that, you can find us with more fresh fall vegetables at the season’s last Morganton Farmers’ Market on Saturday October 1^st. From then on, we’ll have vegetables, chicken, eggs, and pork at Farmer Fridays at the Catawba Valley Brewing Company on Friday afternoons from 4-6:00 pm. We will continue to have vegetables like lettuce, Swiss chard, lettuce mix, kale, and radishes as the cooler weather continues.

Short Days

As the days shorten we can practically see the plants’ growth slow. Lettuce, arugula, and radishes that would have practically exploded form the ground in May are now slowly growing. A whole week after germination and the seedlings still only have their first set of leaves. Shorter days mean we can start work later and end a little earlier. But there is still plenty to do harvesting, cleaning up, and seeding cover crops. That means we have to run around faster while we do work to make sure we get it all done. The changing of the seasons does make us think of cooler days with a resting farm. Until then you can still find us out in the field.

Sweet Potato Harvest

Today we harvested sweet potatoes. We thought we were just looking for the colorful roots of sweet potatoes. But the harvest turned into an insect and spider safari. Sweet potatoes form a dense canopy of vines providing a great habitat for all kinds of critters. One of the more exciting finds of the day was a small salamander hiding in the debris on the soil surface. A gross find was a whole section of garden bed filled with large white grubs. We collected them as we dug through the soil and fed them to the layer hens-they loved them! We also found more of our arch-nemeses the squash bugs. They had headed into the cover of the sweet potatoes to begin bedding down for winter. In the cooler weather they are slow movers and we could easily squish them! Another exciting find in the jungle were hoards of young wolf spiders. Wolf spiders are the large brown spiders that move very quickly along the ground. They are great generalist predators to have in the garden. The whole surface of the soil had hundreds of little spiders (their bodies were only the size of a pencil led with legs extending out to the diameter of a dime.

Some of the insects we found were pests, but many of them like the spiders are beneficial creatures. Amphibians like toads and salamanders that we find in the garden also play helpful roles eating insects. This entire micro-ecosystem would not be possible with the extensive use of poisons for weeds or insects. Organic practices allow beneficial insects and animals to thrive because there is a diverse base of prey species. When they live in a good balance together problems are kept to a minimum while the whole farm ecosystem thrives.

In your box:

Sweet Potatoes: Not just for sweet potato casserole! These tasty jewels are great baked, boiled, or incorporated with black beans and perhaps chorizo sausage for a tasty main dish. See several amazing recipes at end of newsletter. This week we will be distributing a variety called Ginseng. Like many fruits and vegetables the grand variety of sweet potatoes has been reduced to only a few commercially available. As usual these varieties are selected for transport and storage ability, not necessarily flavor.

Sweet Potato Jungle with harvested potatoes in background

Another note on the sweet potatoes: we are mostly used to cured sweet potatoes. This means they have been dried out a little bit to increase storage capability. It is a widespread practice necessary to store the sweet potatoes through the winter. The curing slightly changes the texture and flavor of the sweet potatoes. These will cook a little differently than usual partly because they are fresh out of the ground.

Red sweet peppers: Small but packed with ripe flavor. I like to think of all of those antioxidants in the ripe red peppers.

Swiss Chard: Lightly steam or sauté and serve with the yummy Brazilian stew recipe below.

Lettuce: A early nibble of head lettuce. Think back 6 weeks ago…That’s when we planted these babies- as early as we could with the oppressing heat.

Arugula: perhaps only enough for large shares? We are going to harvest and see how much there is. I just can’t get enough of arugula and a sweet white vinegar.

Radish: Tiny baby radishes

Garlic: The last of the garlic. We hope you enjoyed your exploration of the other garlics of the world beyond the supermarket.

Sweet Italian Basil: Don’t forget to freeze some whole leaves of basil. Pull the frozen leaves out and crumble into winter’s soups.

Baby Lettuce

Recipes

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Thyme-Roasted-Sweet-Potatoes-233085

Thyme-Roasted Sweet Potatoes Epicurious | November 2005

by Kathryn Matthews

This slightly spicy, moist side dish is both deeply satisfying and nutritious. Sweet potatoes are rich in complex carbohydrates and fiber, giving them a low glycemic index (this means that they slow the body's absorption of sugar and help regulate blood-sugar levels). A bonus for weight watchers: All those complex carbs will make you feel fuller longer than white potatoes do. Yield: Makes 6 to 8 servings 4 medium sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into 1 1/2-inch-thick rounds 3 tablespoons olive oil 4 large garlic cloves, minced 1/3 cup fresh thyme leaves, plus 6 thyme sprigs for garnish 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes Preheat oven to 450°F. In large mixing bowl, combine all ingredients and toss. Arrange potato slices in single layer on heavyweight rimmed baking sheet or in 13x9-inch baking dish. Place on top rack of oven and roast until tender and slightly browned, about 40 minutes. Serve warm or at room temperature, garnished with thyme sprigs.

Read More http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/printerfriendly/Thyme-Roasted-Sweet-Potatoes-233085#ixzz1YXEB87Eb

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/30/dining/301mrex.html

New York Times

Roasted Sweet Potato Salad With Black Beans and Chili Dressing

Time: 45 minutes

4 medium sweet potatoes (about 1 1/2 pounds), peeled and cut into 1-inch chunks

1 large onion, preferably red, chopped

1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

1 to 2 tablespoons minced fresh hot chili, like jalapeño

1 clove garlic, peeled

Juice of 2 limes

2 cups cooked black beans, drained (canned are fine)

1 red or yellow bell pepper, seeded and finely diced

1 cup chopped fresh cilantro.

1. Heat oven to 400 degrees. Put sweet potatoes and onions on a large baking sheet, drizzle with 2 tablespoons oil, toss to coat and spread out in a single layer. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Roast, turning occasionally, until potatoes begin to brown on corners and are just tender inside, 30 to 40 minutes. Remove from oven; keep on pan until ready to mix with dressing.

2. Put chilies in a blender or mini food processor along with garlic, lime juice, remaining olive oil and a sprinkle of salt and pepper. Process until blended.

3. Put warm vegetables in a large bowl with beans and bell pepper; toss with dressing and cilantro. Taste and adjust seasoning if necessary. Serve warm or at room temperature, or refrigerate for up to a day.

Yield: 4 servings.

· Copyright 2011 The New York Times Company

http://www.vegetariantimes.com/recipes/7126

Brazilian Black Bean Stew

Vegetarian Times Issue: February 1, 2000 p.34 — Member Rating:

Here's a quick vegetarian version of the Brazilian national dish known as feijoada. This stew entices the eye with the colorful contrast of black beans and sweet potatoes and pleases the palate with nourishing ingredients.

Ingredient List

6 servings

• 1 Tbs. vegetable oil
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 2 medium cloves garlic, minced
• 2 medium sweet potatoes (1 to 1 1/4 lbs.), peeled and diced
• 1 large red bell pepper, diced
• 14.5-oz. can diced tomatoes
• 1 small hot green chili pepper, or more to taste, minced
• 2 (16-oz.) cans black beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 ripe mango, pitted, peeled and diced
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
• 1/4 tsp. salt

Directions

Meal plan:

1. Steam some Swiss chard while the stew is simmering and serve with warmed flour tortillas.
In large pot, heat oil over medium heat. Add onion and cook, stirring often, until softened, about 5 minutes. Stir in garlic and cook, stirring, until onion is golden, about 3 minutes.

2. Stir in sweet potatoes, bell pepper, tomatoes (with liquid), chili and 1 1/2 cups water. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low, cover and simmer until potatoes are tender but still firm, 10 to 15 minutes.

3. Stir in beans and simmer gently, uncovered, until heated through, about 5 minutes. Stir in mango and cook until heated through, about 1 minute. Stir in cilantro and salt. Serve hot.

Nutritional Information

Per serving: Calories: 326, Protein: 16g, Total fat: 4g, Saturated fat: g, Carbs: 61g, Cholesterol: mg, Sodium: 211mg, Fiber: 17g, Sugars: g

Copyright © 2008 Cruz Bay Publishing, Inc. | an Active Interest Media Company.

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/brazilian-black-bean-stew/detail.aspx

Brazilian Black Bean Stew

Rated: Submitted By: CRVGRL Photo By: cebledsoe Prep Time: 15 Minutes Cook Time: 30 Minutes Ready In: 45 Minutes Servings: 6

"Sweet potatoes, mango, black beans, and cilantro are featured in this flavorful stew from South America."

INGREDIENTS:

1 tablespoon canola oil 1/4 pound chorizo sausage, chopped 1/3 pound cooked ham, chopped 1 medium onion, chopped 2 cloves garlic, minced 2 (1 pound) sweet potatoes, peeled and diced 1 large red bell pepper, diced 2 (14.5 ounce) cans diced tomatoes with

juice 1 small hot green chile pepper, diced 1 1/2 cups water 2 (16 ounce) cans black beans, rinsed and drained 1 mango - peeled, seeded and diced 1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro 1/4 teaspoon salt

DIRECTIONS:

1.	Heat the oil in a large pot over medium heat, and cook the chorizo and ham 2 to 3 minutes. Place the onion in the pot, and cook until tender. Stir in garlic, and cook until tender, then mix in the sweet potatoes, bell pepper, tomatoes with juice, chile pepper, and water. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer 15 minutes, until sweet potatoes are tender.
2.	Stir the beans into the pot, and cook uncovered until heated through. Mix in the mango and cilantro, and season with salt.

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED © 2011 Allrecipes.com

Printed from Allrecipes.com 9/20/2011

Week 18 9-14-2011

*A note for on farm pick up: some of your produce will be in your box in the fridge, other portions will be on the table in front of the fridge with signs indicating how much of an item you receive that day. Please always remember to check both your box and the table.*

*Remember you can always see old newsletter and their recipes as well as photos of the farm at our csa blog http://bluebirdfarmcsa.blogspot.com For general farm news you can see our regular blog BluebirdFarmNC.blogspot.com*

Week 18 box

Green Beans-probably a last taste for the season

Edamame-another week of delicious snacks

Radishes

Swiss Chard

Sweet Peppers

Arugula-we had an interesting twist on the regular goat cheese and roasted nut arugula salad this week. We added roasted vegetables to the mix. We roasted small chunks of potatoes, onions, and beets coated in olive oil and spices at 350 for about 45 minutes or until tender. We then warm (not hot) roasted veggies over a bed of arugula and topped with goat cheese, nuts, and balsamic vinegar-a meal in a salad!

Basil- eat all you can of this delicious taste of summer-it won’t last much longer!

In the last two weeks look forward to:

Sweet Potatoes

Baby head lettuce

Red Russian Kale

CSA Farm Day and Farm Open House!

We would like to invite you all out to a CSA farm day this Friday September 16^th 4-7 pm at Bluebird Farm. It is a chance for you to come out and see where all the delicious food comes from. We will be leading several tours of the garden and animals through the afternoon. There will also be a great kid’s area for digging!

If you can’t make it this Friday, come out next Friday September 23^rd 4-7 pm for a farm open house.

It is also time to start thinking about ordering a family pork pack or half hog. We have several sizes available. The pork packs are a great way to buy in bulk for the winter season when we won’t be at farms markets. For complete information on our family pork packs and half hog pricing see the pork page on our website www.bluebirdfarmnc.com (You will be able to find us at Catawba Valley Brewery at least until Thanksgiving, you can also always call and arrange to come to the farm in the winter to pick up food).

Special on farm pricing on all of our pork will be available both days.

Cleaning Edamame

One of the defining activities of the last week was preparing the Edamame for bundling and distribution. Edemame is very easy to grow. It sprouts right up and turns into a bean filled jungle in no time at all. It is also easy to harvest, we simply snip the base of the plants’ stalks and carry them into the barn. Preparing the stalks is another story- hours of snipping leaves, cutting to rough lengths and taming unruly stalks into bundles. Of course, the rest of the farm doesn’t slow down, so we end up enjoying late night and early morning radio programs we prefer not to listen to on a regular basis while we work on the edamame. At least with this farm job we could enjoy a beer and work at the same time!

The insect assassins clean up summer garden beds

One of the reasons our summer squash and cucumber harvest met an early demise this fall was an over abundance of squash bugs and cucumber beetles. After killing off the late summer crops both of these insects will over winter in brush and debris around a garden ready to emerge again in the spring with their voracious appetites. Before they got a chance to go hide (at least we hope we caught them early enough) we went through the demolished squash patch turning over brush and shaking dead plants until they fell off. Then we ruthlessly hunted them down as the scurried for cover. We hope we got most of them! After taking care of the insect problem we put down our weapons of destruction and prepared the beds for late fall greens, hoeing out weeds and raking them smooth. The former jungle of summer now lays neatly tamed ready for sowing and transplants.

Your Farmers William and Marie

Week 16 box

Tomatoes-The tomato harvest is winding down. But in the meantime we are still enjoying their fruits

Cherry Tomatoes- for a time it looked like they would never stop, but they too are slowing with the late summer season

Sweet Peppers- We grilled peppers and onions with our boneless ham pieces on kebabs last night-delicious! Marie has been carefully selecting peppers to leave on the plants and ripen to a red pepper. Hopefully after about 10-14 days, we may get some red peppers. Ripening peppers is very tricky when there is heavy fungus pressure from the weather.

Squash-large shares only-the final planting of squash suffered from a severe squash bug and cucumber beetle infestation. They have not produced well.

Cucumbers- Cool, crisp and delicious as a snack, in a salad, or in a sandwich. The cucumbers too are slowing down in the garden.

Bush Green Beans-The green beans love this weather and are flowering and producing profuse quantities of tender bush beans. We used green beans in a gumbo with our spicy andouille sausage, tomatoes, and peppers.

Garlic

Basil- Try a basil marinade on your next vegetable or meat dish. Puree 1 bunch of basil leaves, 1 teaspoons dried thyme, olive oil, salt, and garlic in a food processor. Mix over large pieces of raw vegetables to make great veggie kabobs. The basil marinade is also great on chicken and fish.

Farm news

Despite our best efforts to slow time it is now Thursday morning instead of Tuesday evening when we are supposed to send out the newsletter. Oops! But everyone remembered to come out and get their boxes-enjoy!

Weighing chickens (and pigs) and training pigs.

Our meat chickens are very sensitive to the weather. In hot weather they spend most of the afternoon resting in the shade instead of exploring the pasture and eating. So they grow much more slowly in the heat than mild weather. With the cooler weather and more afternoon shade our current chickens have been growing a little faster. But we are not sure if they will be large enough at 9 weeks of age (next week) or if they need to grow 10 weeks (September 14^th) like the summer chickens. One way we can try to tell is to weigh them at age 8 weeks. So we head out tot the pasture with a scale and box. We set those up on a flat spot then catch a chicken! They aren’t too excited about getting scooped up. They are freedom chickens!

An even funnier sight was me (William) trying to weigh our piglets. We were trying to see how much they had grown since we purchased them. They don’t fit in a box on our small scale. So I brought a bathroom scale to the pasture. I weighed myself, then I had to grab the little squealing, thrashing piglets and weigh again. The scale is the kind you have to tap with your toe then wait for it to zero out. So I am holding a 50ish pound thrashing piglet while I try to reach out with the toe of my boot to tap the scale. Then once it zeros I have to try to balance on the scale and somehow look around the piglet at the numbers. Most of the time I moved too much and the scale read error. So I had to try the whole this over again.

A more fun piglet job is training them to an electric fence. Once they grow large enough we set up a double electric line and have supervised training sessions. At first the little piglets don’t really understand what the fence is. When they get shocked they run all the way back to their old, un-electrified fence. Once they figure it out though they are so excited to munch their way through our patch of millet and cowpeas cover crop.

Some business

Thank you for all the returned boxes and egg cartons. We can also reuse the cherry tomato pints as long as they are clean and uncracked.

CSA Open House, Friday September 16^th 4-7 pm

Come out to the farm and tour the garden and pastures! Talk to the farmers (and the animals.) Let your kids dig and get dirty in a special kid area of the garden and enjoy petting layer hens and feeding pigs.

We’ll also have a special deal on pork, Pork Family Packs, and ½ hogs available at the CSA Open House (and the following week at the Farm Day.)

We encourage everyone to visit the farm and see your community farm! This is an opportunity for a full tour of the gardens and pasture with your farmers. See how we raise animals on pasture and organic vegetables at Bluebird Farm and hear about our sustainable farm management .

Farm Day, Friday September 23^rd 4-7pm

Farm Day is open to CSA members and the public. If you missed the CSA Open House, you can come on out to Bluebird Farm on September 23rd. Come out to the farm and tour the garden and pastures! Talk to the farmers (and the animals.) Let your kids dig and get dirty in a special kid area of the garden and enjoy petting layer hens and feeding pigs.

We’ll also have a special deal on pork, Pork Family Packs, and ½ hogs available at the Farm Day.

We encourage everyone to visit the farm and see your community farm! This is an opportunity for a full tour of the gardens and pasture with your farmers. See how we raise animals on pasture and organic vegetables at Bluebird Farm and hear about our sustainable farm management .

Week 15: week of the legumes

Week 15 Box

Tomatoes

Cherry Tomatoes

Green Beans- I love them lightly cooked with lemon juice, garlic, and parmesan.

Edamame soybeans- Fresh edamame is a special, nutritious treat. You may have had the edamame appetizer at a Japenese restaurant. The frozen pods are always tasty, but you can’t beat the delicious fresh ones! At home you can recreate the edamame appetizer. The beans are boiled or steamed whole in the pod and sprinkled with soy sauce. 8-10 minutes of boiling or steaming makes lightly cooked beans. Edamame, like all legumes, is high in protein, B vitamins , and potassium.

Sweet Peppers- Mostly green peppers- ripening has been slow and lots of rot when the fruit tries to ripen. Green peppers are better than no peppers!

Cucumbers- See recipe below.

Squash

Basil

Week of the Legumes

This week was a week of legumes. Beans and peas are part of a larger family of plants called legumes that form special relationships with soil bacteria to make atmospheric nitrogen available to the plant. The second succession of fresh green beans that we have been watching with such anticipation still looks wonderful. The plants are large and full of blossoms. But when we went to pick them there were hardly any beans ready. However, the first planting that we had given up on started pumping out more beans. I guess they just needed a little rest through the really hot weeks in early August. We are very glad we didn’t mow them down after the first picking.

The second legume we harvested this week is edamame. It is a soybean for fresh eating. They make a delicious and nutritious snack full of protein. The edamame patch turned into a huge jungle of tangled bean bushes and weeds. We had to put on our bushwhacker outfits to venture in. We are very glad that the beans ripened now because we had started having our first deer problems in months. As Petunia the ferocious guard dog has aged she doesn’t patrol as often as she used to. She does a great job guarding the layer hens, but prefers to nap next to them instead of touring the edges of her territory. The deer noticed the lack of dogs and took the opportunity to sample our beans. Fortunately, they only ate the top leaves off. We harvested them before they found the rest.

Edamame Jungle

Cool weather

As the night time temperatures stay in the low sixties our summer crops slow down dramatically. Tomatoes ripen far more slowly, beans grow at half the speed, and the peppers seem to never size up. It’s as if the summer garden is in slow motion. Meanwhile, our cooler weather crops are enjoying the change. The chard planted last week is looking great as it stretches its colorful leaves to the sky. We look forward to harvesting it in September.

Sprouting Radishes

Fresh Cucumbers in Dill Marinade

From The Fruit & Vegetable Stand by Barry Ballister, 2001.

Marie’s comments in italics.

½ teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

2 tablespoons chopped fresh dill (or 1 tablespoon crumble dried dill)

3 cloves garlic, chopped

¾ cup white wine vinegar

Juice of 1 lemon

3 green unwaxed green cucumbers (Cucumbers from the store are often waxed. Pesticides and fungicides may also be on the peel of store cucumbers)

4 radishes (don’t worry about them if they aren’t in season)

In deep bowl combine salt, pepper, dill, and garlic with vinegar and lemon juice. Slice unpeeled cumbers and radishes. Mix with marinade. Refrigerate for 2 to 3 hours. Serves 4.

Baaaa!

Week 14

Week 14

In your box this week:

Cherry Tomatoes

Tomatoes: See recipe below

Sweet Italian Basil: Try freezing the leaves in freezer bags and pulling out the frozen, crumbly leaves for soups and meals in the winter time.

Cucumbers

Sweet Peppers: We are in a gap between big pepper harvests. More peppers to come!

Look forward to:

Parsley: We may put this in your box tomorrow; we have to check the parsley patch!

Another round of green beans-they are loaded with flowers, but no fruit yet

Cooler weather!

Preparing for fall gardens

All week we have been getting ready for the fall garden. Out in the big field at Silver Creek Farm I mowed the cover crop (see last week’s newsletter). After letting it fry down for a few days I hilled up beds and tilled the tops smooth. Now we will wait a few more days before added our organic fertilizer and making a final shallow pass with the tiller. This will leave a smooth, mostly weed free, and fertile bed ready for our transplants.

At Bluebird Farm we added some composted horse manure to our beds and worked that into the top few inches. Then we raked them smooth and put out the irrigation tape. Just last night we were transplanting kale and Swiss chard. Unfortunately, didn’t finish until this morning because it is already getting dark so much earlier! Planting small baby plants is pretty difficult when there is not any moonlight.

Today we woke up to a downright chilly morning. Our thermometer even suggested it was below 60, maybe 59.5! The cool morning, and working at Bluebird Farm where it is shady until about 10 am, fooled us into not putting sunscreen on. We realized at about 4 pm when we were both turning an uncomfortable shade of pink-oops!

While we were busy burning our selves we were planting a variety of fall crops. We wanted to plant them about a week or two ago, but with the weather still so hot and dry decided it would have been a wasted effort. Most fall crops really prefer it quite cool, and all seeds need to stay moist. It is almost impossible to germinate lettuce when it is 90 and hasn’t rained for two weeks! But, now they are in the ground: lettuce mix, arugula, beets, and radishes. We hope for cooperative weather and a tasty fall crop. We hope to get some good harvests from the fall crops before the end of the CSA in end of September. Much of the fall crops will produce then and keep producing in October and November.

Mediterranean Salsa

Fresh flavor! This is a great salsa, salad or pita stuffing.

1 medium cucumber, diced

2 large tomatoes, diced

1 medium onion, finely diced

1 jalapeno pepper, finely diced, remove as much of the spicy ribs and seeds as needed

1 bell pepper, diced

1 bunch parsley, finely diced

2/3 cup fresh basil leaves, chopped

2 cloves garlic, pressed

Freshly ground black pepper

2 tablespoons olive oil

½ cup pitted kalamata olives

Juice from 1-2 fresh lemons

Combine all ingredients and toss well. Let marinate at room temperature for at least 15 minutes.

Week 13 8/10/2011

Week 13 box

Tomatoes

Cherry Tomatoes: See idea in the garlic section

Cucumbers

Sweet Peppers: We are harvesting all of the peppers at the green stage - they are not ripening into a nice red color right now.

Basil: See idea in the garlic section.

Garlic: The other day I enjoyed a homemade bread brushed with olive oil and minced garlic and topped with halved cherry tomatoes, basil, and mozzarella. Then I broiled it until the cheese was bubbly.

Do you have too much garlic right now? Don’t worry- it keeps a long time!

***Crop note*** We have some baby squash plants growing to replace the older squash and zucchini plants that stopped producing fruits. We hope to have zucchini and squash in the next few weeks. We also have some baby green bean plants in the field, but as you may have noticed, the plants don’t produce well in dry, hot weather.

Remember to wash your vegetables! We use organically approved sprays, but that doesn’t mean that they make good condiments.

Family Visit

This week William’s family was visiting for the first part of the week. We all enjoyed the clear breezy weather, but wished for a little rain to break the dry spell. It has been great to have the extra hands around. They jumped right into helping in the garden, harvesting, mowing, and trellising tomatoes. They even helped with butchering (although some of them preferred to help at a distance by preparing lunch)!

Baby vegetable delivery

This week our babies arrived. Jeff Mast of Banner Greenhouses (the large greenhouses you see around mile marker 90 on I-40) brought about 15 trays of swiss chard and 15 trays of various types of kale. Banner Greenhouses uses Integrative Pest Management to grow their plants without synthetic fungicides or pesticides. We look forward to planting the babies and to growing yummy fall greens. I could almost taste them when I walked out into the cool, dry air this morning.

We also have baby vegetables sprouting in our greenhouse. Lettuce has poked its tiny head above the soil, ready to grow, grow, grow. It is almost a challenge to make sure it doesn’t grow too fast for its own good and become stringy. Still hiding under the soil are some cilantro and dill to spice up our food this fall.

Tomato Blight

Our tomato crop is suffering from tomato early blight. This is the same disease that caused the Irish potato famine by destroying the potato crop there. . A blight spore most likely landed on our plants way back in June during one of the frequent rainstorms. The blight is extremely common in tomatoes in the southeast because of our hot and humid weather. In fact, it is almost always of question of when and how bad, not if, your tomatoes will get the fungus. It shows up as blackened leaves starting at the bottom of the plant and working upward. Black lesions also appear on the stem and fruit. There are very limited options in both conventional and organic systems to slow blight. It is not curable, but we can slow its spread with an organically approved copper fungicide spray. We alternate with an organic bacterial spray. We apply it roughly every week and hope to prolong our yummy tomato harvest for several weeks.

Enjoy the change in the weather, and hope for rain!

Your farmers,

Marie and William

Week 12

Cucumbers- Check out the Tabbouli recipe below. Also don’t forget to try Cucumber Yogurt Salad- see recipe below.

Sweet peppers and sweet bell peppers- Remember, there is a heart shaped pepper called “Lipstick.” It is a sweet and mild pepper. I won’t sneak anything spicy with your peppers!

If you start to get too many peppers you can chop them or slice them and stick them in a bag in your freezer.

Cherry tomatoes- Sweetest little things! Try cutting them in half and putting them on crackers with goat cheese or mozzarella. We like to make all sorts of combinations for a snack like a cracker with…hummus and cucumber, or a cherry tomatoes half and goat cheese, or with a cherry tomato half and chopped basil.

Tomatoes- These babies seem to be doing well right now, and we’ve gotten several good harvest from them since last week. Yay! We are hoping for lots of heavy harvests.

Parsley- Check out the tabbouli recipe below. Parsley is rich in Vitamin K and antioxidents. Check out The World’s Healthiest Foods. http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=100

Basil

Look forward to:

A return of squash and zucchini (a little break from them is kind of nice though)

Just around the corner-fall greens! We will be transplanting kale and chard soon. In the greenhouse we will be starting head lettuce to have ready in September. And finally, we hope the weather will cooperate and make it a little easier to try a fall lettuce mix (you may remember we didn’t have any last year, it was just too hot and dry)

Tabbouli

From Secrets of Healthy Middle Eastern Cuisine, Abourezk

Marie’s comments in italics

Go ahead and switch the recipe up a bit! I recommend adding sweet peppers and cucumbers with feta cheese and basil.

Ingredients

½ cup bulgur wheat (I’ve used cous cous before too)

½ cup water

4 cups finely chopped ripe tomatoes

½ cup fresh lemon juice

2 tbs olive oil

2 large bunches parsley, about 5 cups finely chopped (1 large bunch is plenty! Chop parsley very fine- almost to a fluff)

1 cup chopped onions

1 tbl dried mint flakes

1. Rinse the bulgur, drain and then add ½ cup of the water and let stand for 15 minutes. Place the bulgur in a large mixing bowl, then add the tomatoes and lemon juice. Chop the parsley (very fine-almost to a fluff). Place on top of the bulgur and tomato mixture. Add the onion, mint flakes, and the oil and mix thoroughly.

2. Tabbouli can be prepared a couple hours ahead of time if you wish. Simply leave out the oil and lemon juice dressing until you’re ready to serve. Adding the dressing too soon makes the parsley wilt and creates too much liquid in the bottom of the salad bowl.

3. In the Arab world, tabbouli is scooped up and eaten with lettuce leaves, rather than with silverware. Putting each serving of tabbouli inside a lettuce or a cabbage leaf rather than displaying them in a flat dish is a very tempting presentation. Or, for an elegant looking and tasting hors d’oeuvre, cut cherry tomatoes in half, remove the center, and fill them with tabbouli.

Cucumber yogurt salad

Wash cucumbers well. Finely slice, dice, or grate cucumber. Mix with plain yogurt (greek style yogurts are particularly good for this recipe). Add as much yogurt as you prefer. This salad can range from being almost purely cucumbers with a yogurt dressing to a bowl of yogurt with some cucumbers in it. Salt to taste. For flavor try adding dill, crushed garlic, diced spring onion, parsley, or another of your favorite herbs.

Farm News

This week we have finally been catching up to ourselves and cleaning up some of the spring crops. The least fun part of that job is cleaning up the old irrigation line. It is a thin plastic tube that we laid out on the nicely tilled ground back in March. Since then dirt has been thrown over the tubing and the weeds have gone crazy. Now we get to not only find the irrigation line in all that mess, but pull it out, without losing the many 6 inch long sod staples we used to hold it in place before the weeds took over. Then we get to do it 36 more times-once for each line! With that out of the way the job gets considerably easier. I hop on the tractor and prepare the ground for a cover crop, plant the seed, and use the tractor to till the seed in.

Before the tractor work could begin though we also had to play a fun game we called “find the black widow spider!” In the spring (and fall) we use a thin cloth covering to help protect our plants from the frost. We hold the row cover down with sandbags. This spring, when we were done using them we just piled them at the heads of the bed. Today we had to move them out of the way of the tractor paths. It turns out that the moist, cool, full of good hiding spaces habitat formed by a pile of sandbags is ideal for black widow spiders. We found 10, most with egg sacks, in only 3 piles! We had previously noticed that we were finding more than usual around our house and farm already. It must be a good year for them. So if you are going our back to move and old lumber pile or clean up the junk heap, be careful!

In addition to planting one cover crop we are busy incorporating another. A cover crop of millet and cowpeas we planted in the spring had reached head high-ready to mow. Some of the crop I had to mow because we needed to chop in down quickly for the imminent planting of fall crops. However, in another section, we are letting the sheep do the mowing. When we first put them into the paddock they were a little nervous because the crop was taller than the grass they were used to. Consequently, they couldn’t see very far. They kept poking their heads up as high as they could reach to try to get a better view. Every time another sheep or Clyde the guard dog would unexpectedly burst through the tall plants they would spook and jump away. Interestingly, they all turned their noses up at the crop for the first few hours. They wanted their regular grass and were having no part of the millet and cowpea mix. The sheep just weren’t sure they believed us when we told them that a book had told us that they would like the cover crop. Fortunately, instead of breaking out of the fence they eventually sampled the available food and decided it was acceptable.

Cherry tomatoes with their friends the marigolds

Marie in the cucumber patch