We offer several varieties of apples during the late summer and fall. At our home farm, we have planted orchards of Jonagolds, Rubinettes, Waltanas and Hudson’s Golden Gems.
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What I want to know is, who was the first person to eat an artichoke, and why? Ponder the artichoke and you too may wonder this same thing. The artichoke is a member of the thistle family (a sub-group of the sunflowers), and is aptly named.
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It’s been a busy couple weeks on the farm. About 80 CSA farmers and other people involved with CSAs from around the country in town for the EcoFarm conference came by last week for a tour of our farm. It was great to meet all these folks who are doing some version of what we’re doing and to swap stories about pests, weather, packing boxes, and all things CSA-related. Steve also attended some meetings about organic strawberry growing.
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Basil is an aromatic herb belonging to the mint family. Basil originates from India but certain varieties are used commonly in Southeast Asian cuisines. It has a strong, pungent, if sweet, smell. This versatile herb is commonly used fresh in Italian and other Mediterranean dishes, added at the very end as to not lose too much flavor.
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Beans and peas are one of those marvelous crops that not only taste delicious, they actually give back nutrients into the soil. Peas can take nitrogen out of the air and “fix” it into the soil. Nutritious for you, nutritious for the earth. We offer several kinds of beans throughout the season.
Click for cranberry shelling bean recipes
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This is a variation on the classic Red Flannel Hash of New England. There are many versions of this dish, some starting with raw vegetables, some use already cooked vegetables (left over from the corned beef dinner of the night before), some with eggs, all usually with corned beef. This version uses some cooked veg, some raw, and does not call for any meat, although there is an option for that. Also, this version calls for a smaller dice than most recipes, but this yields more crunchy surface while allowing the vegetables to cook all the way through without burning the surface. If you wish to use eggs, you can either cook them separately or add them to the mix and bake the lot until the eggs are done.
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We grow several varieties of beets. Red Ace beets are the earthy deep red kind. Chioggia beets are a beautiful candy-striped beet, an heirloom variety from the Italian town of Chioggia, near Venice. Golden beets are sweet (and won’t turn everything you are cooking red).
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A simple salad of fresh and bracing flavors. Just right to cut through heavier cold weather fare. The light orange dressing adds sweetness that complements the flavors. A mandolin is best for making this salad, especially the Japanese Ben-Riner type with the fine comb for the carrots.
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We have four varieties of blueberries in our blueberry patch, Southmoon, O’Neal, Misty, and Jewel–which are supposed to ripen sequentially so that we could stagger our harvest over a longer season than if we just had one variety.
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Braising mix is a variety of baby cooking greens. One of our favorite mixes includes mizuna mustard greens, tatsoi, red russian kale, and green kale. The tender baby greens can be sauteed quickly for a delicious side dish.
Celery Root, The Ugly Duckling
If I had a dollar for every time I heard someone pick up a celery root and say something like, “What is this, it’s so ugly!” I think I’d be quite well off. It’s funny, because in France the word “céléri” refers to the celery root (a.k.a. “céléri-rave”), whereas it is always “céléri branche” for the stalks Americans know and crunch for everything from dips to diets. Celery root is also known as celeriac, and is one of three forms of celery; root, branch (or stalk), and leaf, but they are all variants of the same plant.
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We grow several varieties of chard. You might see Ruby Red, Golden, White or a Rainbow of colors. Chard is a member of the beet family, but unlike beets, it is the leaves and stalks that are eaten. Chard’s leaves are always green, but the stalks can be a variety of colors ranging from red to yellow to white. High in Vitamins C, K, A and Iron, chard is one of the most nutrient-rich vegetables around.
Cilantro, or coriander leaves, is an annual herb and member of the carrot family. It is widely used in Mexican, Caribbean and Asian cooking. Cilantro has antioxidant and antibacterial properties and is said to aid digestion, anxiety and Type 2 diabetes.
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Collard greens are a part of the brassica family, along with cabbage and broccoli, but lacks a central “head”, so it is the oval-shaped leaves that are eaten. Collards are a good source of vitamin C and soluble fiber, and have nutrients with anti-cancer properties.
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I can remember back to a time that I just didn’t get the appeal of fennel. This course, stringy, strongly scented vegetable didn’t seem worth the trouble to cook. But now I can honestly say that it is among my very favorite vegetables. I fully realize that there are many of our CSA members who still don’t “get” fennel, and if you are among these, you simply must try Jeanne’s recipe for roast fennel and onions.
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Last week we started work on a new greenhouse for our transplant “starts.” About half of the crops we grow we plant out into the field from starts that have spent their first 6-8 weeks in the temperate conditions inside our greenhouse (properly called a cold frame, because it is unheated). There are many advantages to using this technique. Because organic growers do not use the pre and post emergence herbicides that most conventional growers use when direct seeding, competition from weeds can be severe.
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Green garlic is young garlic which is harvested before the cloves have begun to mature. It resembles a scallion, with a deep green stalk and a pale white bulb, but has a garlicky taste.
Great for cold weather. This makes a fair amount, but is great as leftovers for lunch the next day, or even breakfast with a fried egg on top. If you like the idea of smoky, but not the ham hock, you can skip it and use some Pimenton de la Vera (Smoked Spanish paprika) to add the smokiness.
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This is an all-in-one dish with eggs, vegetables, and grains. It works without the grains, too, but if you make them the night before or have leftovers, it is even easier. Carrots add a sweetness that counters the sometimes almost tannic mineral quality of chard. The eggs are baked “whole”, not mixed in as a batter like a quiche, so the yolks act as a sauce and make for a pretty dish.
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