Stuffed Pumpkin

   I have been planning holiday meals this past week and have come across too many good things that I can't possibly justify cooking all of them. This one though caught my eye. I am so excited to share this one around my table this Christmas. I noted that there were just enough big pumpkins for everyone to try this recipe (if you got your box after I saw it Wednesday, that is). If not, you can scrape out a butternut or even a big sweet potato and scale down the recipe slightly!

   The recipe comes from Martha Stewart. It's her Pumpkin stuffed with everything nice. There is a video on her sight if you learn better visually.

 

 

Ingredients

• 1 (3-pound) pumpkin
• Coarse salt and freshly ground pepper
• 1/4 pound stale bread, thinly sliced and cut into 1/2-inch cubes
• 1/4 pound Gruyere, Emmenthal, or cheddar cheese (or a mix of all three), cut into 1/2-inch cubes
• 2 to 3 cloves garlic, split, germ removed, and coarsely chopped
• 4 slices bacon, cooked until crisp, drained, and chopped
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh chives or sliced scallions
• 1 tablespoon minced fresh thyme
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• Pinch of freshly grated nutmeg

Directions

1. Step 1

   Preheat oven to 350 degrees with a rack set in the center of the oven. Line a baking sheet with a nonstick baking mat or use a Dutch oven that is slightly larger in diameter than your pumpkin (in which case, you will need to serve your pumpkin from the Dutch oven, as it may stick, but it will keep its shape better this way).

2. Step 2

   Using a sharp, sturdy knife, cut off top of pumpkin, working around the top with the knife inserted at a 45-degree angle to cut off enough to make it easy to work inside the pumpkin; reserve top. Remove seeds and strings from cap and pumpkin. Season inside of pumpkin generously with salt and pepper. Place on prepared baking sheet or in Dutch oven; set aside.

3. Step 3

   In a large bowl, toss together bread, cheese, garlic, bacon, chives, and thyme until well combined. Pack into pumpkin; it should be well filled but not overstuffed. You may need to add some bread and cheese or some of the filling may not be necessary to use. In a small bowl, stir cream and nutmeg to combine. Pour over filling; filling should be moist but not swimming in cream -- you may need to use more or less accordingly.

4. Step 4

   Place top on pumpkin and transfer to oven; cook until filling is bubbling and pumpkin flesh is tender, about 1 hour and 30 minutes. Remove top and continue baking until liquid is slightly evaporated and top of filling is browned, 20 to 30 minutes more.

5. Step 5

   Carefully transfer pumpkin to a serving platter (or serve in Dutch oven, if using) and serve
   
   
   Let me know how it turns out!

Recipe of the Week: Basic Roasted Roots

   I got a pressure cooker in the mail the other day. For those of you that enjoy cooking, you may understand my excitement. I got into canning a few years back. I jammed, preserved...I even made a "jam jam"- an entire playlist of food related songs. I thought it was terribly clever, there was Strawberry Fields, Blueberry Hill, Raspberry Beret. But, you can't can everything. Some foods are low acid and aren't safe to just water bath can. Pressure cookers are pricey so I put it off and just stuffed my freezer creatively when I made broth

   The breaking point for me was the 10 pounds of spare garlic I took home after last week's garlic planting. The dinky ones aren't worth planting, but they are worth making garlic broth out of. Garlic broth is one of those low acid things that cannot be water-bath canned. I had so, so much of it. So, I learned how to pressure can garlic broth. This also happened on the same night I pickled some of that garlic and canned that too for Christmas presents. It was also the same night I made this amazing peppermint meringue cookies for my wife's office party. Word to the wise, even if you check the humidity outside to ensure your meringue will turn out, if you are water-bath canning indoors, it will fail. Sorry Tarra...

   We've been finishing mulching our strawberries these past few weeks. We're still experimenting with trying to reduce labor and weeds, plant them at the right time, and take care of them in a way that doesn't ruin our backs or knees. For now, we're laying drip first, transplanting, laying mulch and cutting slits. We'll see how this goes.

Go tiny berry plant!

Lord Byron Buttons loves when he gets to go out to the farm and help. He is such a skinny guy though, he needs a jacked to keep warm. He's not so good with strawberry help though, he does like to nibble the leaves when you're not watching.

   We also use plastic mulch to keep plants warm in addition to keeping them weed light. Robert is transplanting quite a few plants out now for a seed crop next year. It's pretty late to do so, and it's not ideal, though, I hope you've noticed by now little of farming is ideal. Here's what 30 beds of plastic mulch looks like:

Robert is using the mulch layer implement to cover a bed with the plastic mulch.

The end of the mulch needs to have the drip line pulled through the top and be tucked in.

Here is a tucked end. The drip line will be cut shorter and have an end put on.

Looks a bit like water to me.

Here is a gratuitous picture of my dog in his coat pretending to be a chicken.

   I wanted to share another recipe with you that might help take care of some of your surplus roots you might have lurking in your veggie drawer. Roasting is always a good idea to deal with a root that you can't stand raw. Roasting brings out roots' natural sweetness and turns them into pleasing cubes of golden tinted treats. Here is a basic recipe with some ideas for snazzing it up:

Basic Roasted Roots

10 C cubed roots

4 Tbs Olive oil

Sprinkle Salt

Preheat oven to 400. Place cubed roots in a dish and cook for 30 minutes until fork tender.

Boring, I know. But, there are endless ways to make this staple interesting!

-Use all beets and add slices of orange in between the roots. When cooked, add toasted nuts, soft goat cheese and chives

-Use Turnips, radishes, rutabaga or other sharp flavored roots and add rosemary to roast. When cooked, add maple syrup and a spritz of lemon juice and zest

-Mix it all up and add full heads of garlic and slices of lemon. When cooked smash it all up on good bread

-Roast winter squash or pumpkins and add garlic, sliced chilies and oregano

-Add mixed fresh herbs. When cooked drizzle with a balsamic reduction

-Serve roasted roots over a whole grain to make a complete meal

Have fun! Let me know if you have any great home-recipe secrets for roasted roots!

-

Recipe of the Week: Turnips with Bacon and Pickled Mustard Seed

    It's belated, I know. Things have been busy for me. The holidays are creeping up- and for me that means thoughtful, homemade gifts for everyone. My birthday was also last week. I am working on my first ever crop plan that is proving quite a task. I keep thinking, "Ok, I need a bunch of carrots for 15 boxes for...say..3 weeks? Will people be tired of carrots by week 3? No, 3 weeks is good. So, 15 bunches for 3 weeks is 45 bunches. So, how many feet is that? Well, there is about 10 carrots per foot and there are 4 rows of carrots...but how many in a bunch?" So, sufficed to say, things are slow going. There is so much I don't know that it is really slowing me down. Se la vie. 

 

    We planted our garlic this past week. Here is how it went:

At the 8 a.m. garlic "crack party". Only big cloves are worth planting, so they must be separated.

My view while cracking out garlic. The fire was warm and there was tea. Those are my favorite kinds of farm chores.

Sorted, counted and ready to be planted!

You can see we were painstakingly precise as we threw them...right? Lol, no worries- is food, will grow!

My lovely wife, Tarra poking in the garlics and braving the cold. 

 Things are still busy out here on the farm. With the CSA boxes and the Food Bank and School District crops, there isn't that lull in season you might expect. I mean, there is never a "break" but there is pretty busy come spring, super busy come summer, super mega busy come fall, and busy come winter. Well, all of that is totally relative to what you're growing too... my point is that there is still a lot of messing around with the crops while the tools need caring for, the cold frame needs organizing, cover crops planted, orchards tended to... I need more arms. 

   The roots are the things that seemed to do best in the freeze. I have been taking it easy on the greens since the frost, they just all look so sad! While they recover, you'll notice your boxes have a great variety of things grown underground. I would hate to think you're getting bored of something, so I wanted to share this recipe for turnips that my family LOVED this Thanksgiving. The recipe is from Bon Appetit magazine, my guilty reading pleasure. I added the turnip greens in on the action too. Remember that most roots that come to you with greens are EDIBLE!

Turnips with Bacon and Pickled Mustard Seeds

• ¼ cup sugar
• ¼ cup white balsamic vinegar or white wine vinegar
• ¼ cup yellow mustard seeds
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• ¼ pound thick-cut bacon, cut crosswise ¼” thick
• 1 tablespoon whole grain mustard
• 2 pounds baby turnips, trimmed, halved or quartered if large
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
•  

Bring sugar, vinegar, and ¼ cup water to a boil in a small saucepan. Remove from heat and stir in mustard seeds. Let stand at least 4 hours, or cover and chill up to 12 hours.

Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat; add bacon and cook, stirring occasionally, until brown and crisp, 8–10 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, transfer bacon to a small bowl and stir in pickled mustard seeds and whole grain mustard; set vinaigrette aside.

Meanwhile, cook turnips in a large pot of boiling salted water until tender, about 3 minutes. Drain and pat turnips dry.

Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add turnips and vinaigrette and cook, tossing, until warmed through, about 2 minutes; season with salt and pepper.

Jerusalem fartichokes...ahem, artichokes

What on earth is this knobby muddy thing in my box? What you have there, friend is, according to Wikipedia, knower of all things, "The Jerusalem artichoke (Helianthus tuberosus), also called sunroot, sunchoke, earth apple or topinambour" I'm especially fond of that last one.

It's a tuber of a tall, sunflower-looking plant. Come fall, the 10 foot plus flowered top dies back and the roots cure there skins preparing for the winter, much like potatoes. Unlike potatoes, they're not very starchy. They're made mostly of inulin which breaks down into fructose so it doesn't spike your blood sugar quite so much. This makes a good case for swapping this bad boy for potatoes in your cooking if you are concerned about such things.

Here they are hanging out with some sweet potatoes I dug today:

A tuber only a mother could love...

Dear wiki also informs me that in Germany, "over 90% of the Jerusalem artichoke crop is used to produce a spirit called Topinabure, "Topi" or "Rossler".By the end of the 19th-century Jerusalem artichokes were being used in Baden to make a spirit called "Jerusalem artichoke brandy,". So, it seems like you have the makings of booze as well as noms.

You may also have noticed a slight...misspelling...of sunchoke in my title. They've got a reputation, a bad one at that. Bon Appetit has a interesting article here about it. I've never had such trouble, but fartichoke is waay to funny not to use in a sentence. If you don't have time to read that, it recommends peeling them if you think you have a sensitive digestion. 

Don't be put off though, these funny looking tubers are a culinary treat. They have a unique texture and a light nutty, earthy, mushroomy, artichoke flavor that is sure to steal the show in anything they're cooked in. Here are some great ideas from VegParadise in this article.


STORAGE: Keep the tubers wrapped in plastic and refrigerate. They will keep up to two weeks, but it's always best eat them as fresh as possible for the best flavor and nutrition. Their sweetness is known to increase when refrigerated after harvesting. If you grow your own, refrigerate them for a day or two before consuming.
PREPARATION: Scrub the sunchokes clean with a vegetable brush. Since much of their nutrients are stored just under the skin, it's best not to peel them. Once cut, sunchokes discolor quickly, so it's best to cut them close to serving time, or cut and immerse them in water with lemon or vinegar to prevent oxidation. Cooking them with the skins on may cause a darkening of the skins because of their high iron content.
RAW:
Slice sunchokes and enjoy the crunch they add to your salad.
Slice and serve them along with crudites and dips.
Shred them into a slaw. Dice them into a chopped salad.
Slice, dice, or shred and marinate in a little extra virgin olive oil and lemon juice or rice vinegar
Coarsely chop sunchokes and add to the blender when preparing raw soups.
STIR FRY: Slice, dice, or shred and stir fry along with other fresh vegetables in a little extra virgin olive oil. They will become softened in about 4 to 6 minutes. For a tender crisp texture, stir fry about 2 to 4 minutes.
BAKED: Sunchokes can be baked whole or sliced. Toss them in a bowl with a little extra virgin olive oil and place on a baking sheet. Set the oven temperature at 375 and bake 30 to 45 minutes for whole, and 20 to 25 minutes for sliced, turning them half way through. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
STEAMED: Coarsely chop the Jerusalem artichokes and put them into a steamer basket. Cover and bring to a boil over high heat. Continue at high heat and steam for 5 to 8 minutes. Test for softness. Remove and season to taste or mash like potatoes.
BOILED: Sunchokes can be boiled whole or cut as desired. Bring a covered saucepan of water to a boil over high heat. Add sunchokes and boil for 10 to 15 minutes for whole, and 5 to 8 minutes for cut up. Season as desired or mash like potatoes.

 Ok, but if they're a treat, what can I do to really enjoy them? Glad you asked! Here are a few recipes I dug up:

This one's from Jamie Oliver.  It's a sauteé with bay leaves.

To serve 4, you will need 600g/1lb 6oz of Jerusalem artichokes. Peel them, then cut them into chunks. Place them in an oiled frying pan and fry on a medium heat until golden on both sides, then add a few bay leaves, 2 cloves of garlic, finely sliced, a splash of white wine vinegar, some salt and pepper, and place a lid on top. After about 20 to 25 minutes they will have softened up nicely and you can remove the lid and the bay leaves. Continue cooking for a couple of minutes to crisp the artichoke slices up one last time, then serve straight away. Personally, I think they go well with both meat and fish and are particularly good in a plate of antipasti, or in soups or warm salads. 

Here is a fancy soup from Simply Recipes

Ingredients

• 2 Tbsp unsalted butter
• 1 cup chopped onion
• 2 celery stalks, chopped
• 2 large garlic cloves, chopped
• 2 pounds jerusalem artichokes, peeled and cut into chunks
• 1 quart chicken stock (use vegetable stock for vegetarian option, and gluten-free stock if cooking gluten-free)
• Salt and black pepper to taste

Method

1 Heat the butter in a soup pot over medium-high heat and cook the onions and celery until soft, about 5 minutes. Do not brown them. Add the garlic and sauté for 1 minute. Sprinkle with salt.
2 Add the jerusalem artichokes and the chicken stock to the pot and bring to a simmer. Reduce the heat to low, and simmer, covered, until the jerusalem artichokes begin to break down, 45 minutes to an hour.
3 Using an immersion blender or upright blender, purée the soup. If using an upright blender, fill the blender bowl up only to a third of capacity at a time, if the soup is hot, and hold down the lid while blending. Alternately, you can push the soup through the finest grate on a food mill, or push it through a sturdy sieve. Add salt to taste.

Here's a nice salad from Epicurious. It pairs sunchokes with arugula and Parmesan.

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons orange juice
• 1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon red wine vinegar
• 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
• 5 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

• 1 pound Jerusalem artichokes, trimmed, peeled, thinly sliced
• 1 5-ounce bag arugula
• 2 ounces Parmesan cheese, shaved

Preparation

Whisk orange juice, vinegar, and mustard in small bowl to blend. Gradually whisk in oil. Season vinaigrette to taste with salt and pepper. (Can be made 1 day ahead. Cover and refrigerate.)

Combine Jerusalem artichokes, arugula, and Parmesan in large bowl. Drizzle with vinaigrette and toss to coat. Divide among 6 plates and serve.

 However you choose to enjoy them, have fun! This is that adventure part I was talking about when we first started. If you don't like it, keep them as stocking stuffers for family members you don't quite like either. If you do something particularly cool with them, let me know! Enjoy!

Recipe of the Week: Beet & Lentil Borscht (and the big chill)

The big freeze is coming! Four days of really, really cold nights are upon us. We've covered our sensitive crops, put hot water jugs out with the baby chicks, and put out some tarp chicken "forts" to keep our feathered friends warm. Here is a few pictures of life when it's cold.

Out lettuces are sensitive to frost so we put hoops and floating row cover over them to insulate them. I like to think of it like putting them to bed for the winter.

Some people think that when it's too cold or wet outside to do anything that farmers can take a break. No such luck. Much like teachers, there is no "off time" However, I did get to stay inside and drink some coffee and listen to music which I won't complain about. I organized our seed collection to help us as we start to plan for next years' harvest. 

 

 

Our tubers are also all ready which is super exciting. Here are some pictures from harvesting.

Here is how you find sweet potatoes in the ground. Using a pitchfork, you very carefully lift soil up around the base of the plant. It's pretty much an art to not stab and break every single potato.

Sweet potatoes, like many tubers, are just swollen root nodules. This eensy weensy potato is a great visual aid to imagine a root swelling to be as big as we know them.

I love digging for these guys. It's like finding buried treasure. You can see from this picture that not all sweet potatoes are those picturesque tubers you find in the store. There are some wild looking roots that form.

I found this 2 1/2 pound mammoth today! 

Potatoes are much like sweet potatoes in how they grow. Though, they are waay easier to dig up because they grow much closer to the plant.

Look at this beautiful red new potatoes!

All this cold work can really work up an appetite. There is nothing better to satisfy it than soup! Cozy, warm soup...eaten indoors...with heat...out of the wind...it's just about paradise! There's nothing like a little wind and cold to make one appreciate modern conveniences!

Winter is the perfect time for soup. Roots and greens make the base of some of the best soups I know of: potato leek, minestrone, butternut, Italian wedding...and with home made bread! YUM! I came across this recipe this week from My New Roots. I have gushed about this site before, but it will never be enough. I love EVERYTHING I have ever made from her site. This recipe I am going to share is no different. BORSCHT. No, not your grandma's thick beet slop with dairy. This is a hearty, flavorful soup buffed up with lentils and still identifiable veggies. You've got the beets and cabbage in your box, you're just a few ingredients away! It would be great to slip some of your potatoes or turnips in there when you add the lentils, or even some of your greens (beet and turnip) toward the end! Improvise!

Beet & Black Lentil Borscht
Serves 6-8
Ingredients:
knob ghee
3 leeks
4 cloves garlic
pinch salt
4 bay leaves
4 sprigs fresh thyme or 1 Tbsp. dried, plus more for garnish if desired
4 medium / 1 ½ lbs. beets
3 medium carrots
2 cups shredded cabbage of your choice
3 Tbsp. tomato paste
1 Tbsp. Dijon mustard
1 tsp. dried juniper berries (about 12)
1 tsp. caraway seeds
8-10 cups / 2+ liters vegetable broth
1 cup dried black lentils (Du Put lentils would also work)
2 tsp. apple cider vinegar
cracked black pepper to taste
olive oil for garnish
Directions:
1. If possible, soak lentils overnight or for up to 8 hours in pure water. Drain and rinse well.
2. Prepare all vegetables. Wash and slice the leeks into rounds. Mince garlic. Peel beets and grate using a food processor or julienne by hand (the beets break down too much when grated by hand). Slice unpeeled carrots into rounds. Shred cabbage.
3. In a large stockpot over medium heat, melt a knob of coconut oil or ghee. Add leeks and salt and cook until tender, about five minutes. Add garlic, cook 2 minutes until fragrant. Add bay leaves, thyme, juniper berries, caraway, tomato paste, and mustard, stirring to coat the leeks and garlic. Add remaining ingredients: beets, carrots, vegetable broth (start with 8 cups and add as needd), and lentils (reserve cabbage). Bring to a boil, reduce to simmer and cook until the lentils are tender, about 15-20 minutes. Add cabbage and vinegar, stir, and let cook for another 5 minutes.
4. Ladle soup into bowls, garnish with fresh thyme and plenty of cracked black pepper. Drizzle with olive oil and serve. Enjoy.

Getting down to business and the art of "manning up" on the farm

Things have been going amazingly for me lately. I just graduated from the California Farm Academy, finished my job at Food Bank Farmers as the Farm manager and have really moved into forming my own farm business. I am working on all the official paperwork of declaring a fictitious name, getting insurance and working out details of my joint ventures with the two farmers on the Pacific Star Gardens' property. I am finding myself happy to get up in the morning and go to work and really excited about the future. I absolutely love that I am never "late" to work and I can break when I want/need to. There is such a wonderful (albeit dangerous and terrifying) freedom to being self-employed. Nothing bad has happened yet, so we'll stay with wonderful...and cross our fingers.

I've been busy harvesting our fall plot for the Food Bank and School District we're working with. We've sent off turnips, cabbage, lettuce,  and radishes. The harvesting is on quite a large scale to do by hand with only a few people, it's a bit new to all of us so there's a lot of learning happening. I'll share some pictures below to give you a sense of what we've been up to.

This nice crate of Romaine is headed to the packing tables

A sea of lettuce in crates- about 30 minutes of work.

Wooly Bear! Supposed to be a sign of an early winter...

Sorry Mister Toad, but you'll have to hibernate elsewhere...

Rain or shine, the veggies need to get picked (those are my snazzy rain/mud boots)

These beautiful heads of cabbage are off to some hungry bellies!

Turnips at the washing station

All packed up for the Food Bank!

This whole process will probably be a learning curve for quite a while longer. And, I expected that. I think the thing I didn't expect, well, no, I expected it but maybe didn't think it through...is the physical challenges I would face. I mean, obviously farming is hard. I joke all the time we should make a P-90 FARM gym and have people pay for a workout. But, to be honest, physical labor is only about 1/2 of farming. Marketing is usually the hardest on people. Most everyone can work out and get stronger, but if you're not a people person and not good at selling yourself, you're kind of screwed as a farmer.

Considering this, I figured I would have a long time to get farm buff. I mean, I already have biceps that I never did before! That's great! I was always that archetype fat kid that was picked last in sports and couldn't run a mile without throwing up. So, being fit and keeping up is a badge of honor for me. I think what I didn't expect is that it would all happen so fast and I would be challenged so often. One of my latest challenges was pulling drip. Here are some pictures to help you imagine what that looks like:

We use this rake first to clear any crop residue left after mowing. We then set this so it scratches the top few inches up of the soil so we can pull up the buried drip tape.

Here is the tape coming up from the ground. You pull roughly 5ft. of it at a time: walking forward, lifting, walking, lifting. There are usually 3 lines of drip per 200 foot bed. We did maybe 40 beds that day, about 5 hours in all.

A sea of tape from just a few of the beds we pulled. 

 We bury the drip many times as we transplant. It is really helpful in the summer to have water at the root zone of the plants. This also keeps the top layer very dry and helps some with weeds, kind of a dust mulch. It needs to be pulled so we can till the soil and prepare it for a new crop. I am sure there are fancy machines to do this...but as a small farming operation, it doesn't make sense often to buy such specialized equipment, so doing it by hand is the most economic.

So, after 5 hours of  an intense upper body workout, my tiny girly arms hurt. Robert (the farmer who owns the land) said he and the volunteer would finish up and I could "take a break" and help Debbie (his wife). I was so relieved! I was keeping up for most of the time, and that felt great...but I could feel that I was just done and didn't want to re-hurt my back. So I go off to help Debbie. Lo and behold, she is picking up the crates of winter squash from the field and loading them onto the tractor...I guess lifting 70lb crates was using different muscles? I sucked it up, I had chosen this job after all and I wasn't about to be a wuss about it.

This seems to be a common theme recently for me: manning up. I was told when griping about working in the rain and cold and mud and 40mph wind that it would help me grow my "farm cajones". In a mad dash to move things under cover for the rain, we had to move a saw table that was easily 3-400lbs. I lifted it with Adam, the farmer's son, and looked alarmed at the weight. He yelled, "BE STRONG!", and heaved and moved it where it needed to go. I was asked another time to get something out of the bed of the truck. I couldn't open the back end, so I had to climb in on the tire. I am 5'3" and mostly torso, so the truck tire comes about to my hips. I hesitated to consider how to get in, decided on standing on the tire, and struggling to lift my weight with one leg. "You're failing bootcamp!" came a shout in my direction as I hefted myself into the truck. Ugh, I was. All of this was said to me in jest, mind you, no one was trying to hurt my feelings, just give me a hard time.

My soft, squishy intellectual identity that I formed in college was not going to get heavy things lifted, crops picked in the rain, and trucks jumped into. This is a new way of being that I am going to have to get used to living in: where my body is a tool to be honed, trained, and trusted.

 I wish there was another word for it, but it seems that in our vernacular, rising to the physical challenges that are presented to us is talked about in terms of masculinity. It is hard for me to hold this idea in my head as a feminist, but I am no linguist and am not armed to fight this battle so I will take the tiny victory of "manning-up" as a woman to be enough of a triumph.

My new identity is tricky for me to live in. I still dress up on the weekend (when I do get a weekend, sometimes it's just a day) paint my nails, do my hair and makeup, and even wear clean clothes and perfume. By no means am I a fashionista, but I really do enjoy dressing up every now and again. I have had to settle for looking, and smelling, like an Ork most days though. It is interesting to embody those two things: the lady and the Ork. Is it strange for other people to meet me as a lady and believe that I crawl in the mud, jump into trucks, and heave 100lbs tubs of produce? I can never tell as I think most people are too polite to call BS if they think it.

It's who I am though, the soft, squishy intellectual learning to man-up on the farm and loving every minute of it.

Recipe of the Week: Stir Fry

The fall weather is perfect for all things crispy and green. Asian greens are a great compliment to the many root vegetables that are growing also this time of year, and I try to get a good mix into your box. The many types of choi have been stars of your box recently. They're great braised just as normal greens, though the stalks will not wilt quite as much and they make great additions to soups like miso. They are the stars of stir-fry though. Below you'll find a great base sauce for stir-fry from the Moosewood Cookbook and some tips to making a great stir-fry.

Baby bok choi is waiting for your wok!

Basic Stir Fry Sauce

(From the Moosewood Cookbook)

¼ C Soy Sauce

1 ¼ C Water

1 Tbs Grated Ginger

2 Garlic Cloves, minced

1 tsp Sesame Oil

1 Tbs sugar

1 Tbs cider vinegar

2 Tbs Sherry or Rice Vinegar

3 Tbs cornstarch

Whisk all but cornstarch together. Pour over cornstarch and whisk. Add just as everything finishes cooking in your wok or pan and lower heat. Cook until thickened.

*Tips for Stir Fry success:

·      Chop veggies in uniform sizes

·      Cook tough veggies like: carrots, winter squash, turnips- first

·      Add tender veggies like mushrooms or greens last

Serve this delicious dish over rice or noodles. It stays great as leftovers for lunch the next day! 

A seasonal eating pun that is as funny as it is useful

Think eating in season is just for dinner. Nope- the dessert wants in too. But, what if you love pie. All the good pie happens in fall right? Well, don't fret, The Modern Farmer has you covered! Meet, the Seasonal Pie Chart:

Recipe of the Week: Autumn Shepherd's Pie

   As a farmer and veggie lover, I sometimes find my fridge uncomfortably stuffed with veggies and a need to make a big...something...anything...that will get me to eat them not just for dinner but keep me coming back for leftovers days later. Soup is the easy out most times, but I had a stroke of genius the other day (well, night- it was during a rather bad run of insomnia. I may have even dreamt of it) thinking about ways to trick myself into eating turnips-shepherd's pie! This recipe uses equal parts turnip to potato in the "mashed potato" topping, but this mashed potato mix would be great on its own as a side and would take really nicely to roasted garlic. The turnips don't bring their spicy, musty flavors to the potato party when they're boiled. Instead, they impart a woodsy sweetness to the mashed potatoes and if you use the scarlet turnips, they turn a lovely shade of rose! 

These Asian greens would be perfect for your pie!

  

  For the base of the pie, feel free to ad lib with what you like. I used turkey sausage, acorn squash, kale, turnip greens, and red mustard. I also topped the whole thing off with some sage cheddar and bread crumb. The whole thing was delicious and only got better as leftovers!

Autumn Shepherd’s Pie

 1 large onion-chopped

3 C diced squash

1 lb ground meat

1 Tbs fresh Herbs (thyme, rosemary, sage)

1 quart of greens

¼ C flour

1 C milk

3 C diced potatoes

3 C diced turnips

Brown onions, squash and meat until golden. Add herbs and greens until greens have wilted. Season with salt and pepper. Mix milk and flour in a separate bowl and add. Stir meat mixture until gravy is  thick. Pour this mix into a large baking dish. Boil turnips and potatoes together until fork-tender. Mash just as potatoes adding enough milk and butter to cream them. Use to cover meat mixture and bake at 350* to set.

Recipe of the week: Basic Vinaigrette

The days are getting short and the nights are getting cooler. We're all unpacking our blankets and airing out our sweaters and watching the skies for rain. It's my favorite weather; it's also lettuces favorite weather! They love the slightly cooler weather. If it's too warm, they'll get bitter or all together bolt (start making flowers and seeds). It's those chilly nights that make that wonderfully tender, crispy, sweet lettuce. Three's a lot to be had right now- you'll notice it filling out your box. Salad is always a great way to tuck away a lot of your CSA veggies.

But, you've got to keep it interesting! Salad dressing is a really great way to do just that! Here is a really great basic vinaigrette that easily manipulated to make an endless array of salad snazzer-uppers.

Basic Vinaigrette:

3 Tbs Oil

2 Tbs Vinegar

1 Tbs Honey

Salt and Pepper

This is your best friend this season. Feel free to adlib with everything! Use balsamic vinegar, walnut oil, maple syrup instead of honey!  Or:

Creamy Garlic:

1 recipe Basic Vinaigrette

2 Tbs plain yogurt

1 garlic clove

Italian Vinaigrette:

1 recipe Basic Vinaigrette

1 clove garlic

½ tsp Italian seasoning

pinch red pepper flake

Bacon Dressing: 

1 recipe Basic Vinaigrette

1 tablespoon crumbled bacon
1/2 tablespoon minced onion
1 pinch celery seed
1/4 teaspoon prepared mustard
1 -3 teaspoon brown sugar (instead of or in addition to honey)

 Making your own dressing is a cheap and fun way to keep your salad interesting. Though, you can go with my method- just put blue cheese on it.

Farm Box Subscription Details

Welcome Farm subscribers  to Tender Heart Farms! Hopefully you got this all in your email, but I will leave it here as another reference. I also want to put this here for anyone else interested in a veggie box.

I want to thank you first for your support. A farm box subscriptions just isn't a veggie box you pay for every week, it really is a support for the farmer. Being a new farmer, I really need it! I am excited to start on this adventure and look forward to all the things we'll learn together. Sometimes, the adventure will be a new veggie in your box that forces you to learn and try something new. Other times, the adventure will be me hitting the very steep 10 year learning curve everyone keeps telling me exists in farming, and figuring my way through.

I want to share the stories of these adventures with you because I think it's vital that we know where our food comes from, how it's grown, how it gets to us, and how to use it.  I think our food choices are enormously powerful and what we choose to eat affects not only our personal health, but the environment and our communities- be they local or global. I will share a story or two along these themes in your weekly or bi-weekly farm subscription newsletter that will be sent out the day your box is.

Here are the current details for a Farm Box subscription:

Cost: $20
Delivery Days:  Wednesday

Delivery Details: Sacramento will drop off on my porch, Davis MAY BE a home delivery, Elk Grove will be a drop off site, ick up at the farm is an option too!
My info:
Ashley Thomas (wife of Tarra Thomas)

New Farmer in Yolo County, recent California Farm Academy Graduate

tenderheartfarms@gmail.com
(916)318-2663
Produce Details: All produce is grown on Pacific Star Garden's farm (20872 County Road 99 Woodland, CA) or traded in kind for produce from Never More Farms in Arbuckle (not certified organic, but grown organically). All produce from PSG is CCOF Organic.
Payment Details: Cash or check made out to Ashley Thomas is perfect. You may pay weekly at this point or you may also pay ahead, whatever works!

Questions I anticipate:

You went to the Farm Academy?! I didn't know that was a thing!?

Yup! It was amazing. It is an absolute MUST if you're interested in becoming a farmer or know someone who is!
http://www.landbasedlearning.org/farm-academy.php

-How much are these boxes? 

 
$20. You will get at least that much worth in your box. Usually I am overly generous. We try to average the cost of organic veggies from a few markets to find the most fair price for you and us. 

-Do I have to get one every week?

No, every other week is fine! I know it can seem like a lot of veggies to some people, and it can take some time to adjust to eating so many veggies if you're not used to it. We absolutely offer bi-weekly subscriptions. Though, do keep in mind what I put in one box is the Recommended Daily Allowance (RDA) for ONE person for 5-7 days. (I know, I struggle too! Please always ask if you need help loving a veggie or fitting more in your diet!)

-Ooph, $20 is a lot for me right now, but I really want veggies, and I'd really like to support you. 

I totally understand. As a farmer, I make $3-5 an hour so I understand trying to budget what you know you should be eating with what you can afford.  We offer sliding scale boxes and can work out an arrangement to meet your needs. Please talk to me (via email or text is fine!). 

-I really like the idea of eating vegetables, but I am intimidated by cooking them. 

I completely understand that I fill your boxes with varieties, combinations, and amounts of things that can seem odd, if not foreign and intimidating. Please, ask if you ever have questions- they're never dumb! Big deal if you have no idea what to do with a radish, or you've never eaten a beet! I am also willing to help you learn a few cooking tricks if you need it! Just let me know, we'll work it out so you feel confident and happy about your commitment.

-Here is a link to my blog which is filling up with stories and recipes to help!
http://tenderheartfarms.blogspot.com/

-You'll also find a link on the left to my recipe index. All the recipes are categorized under the type of ingredient.
http://tenderheartfarms.blogspot.com/p/blog-page.html

-What do I do with this box?

Please return it! They're about $2 a piece, and are not included in the subscription price. We re-use each box!

We are currently pushing all our customers to purchase their own re-useable totes to save on plastic and to prevent the inevidable $400 we lose each year because people do forget to get the boxes back. I can also present your veggies to you in a much nicer way! The box should measure 24-28" in length, 14-18" in width, and 6-8" tall. These tupperware type containers can be found at Target, Walmart, Ace, OSH, Home Depot and the like. Please let me know if you have any trouble finding them- I can grab some and you can reimburse me. Also If this is a financial stretch, let me know too and we can work something out.

-You said you have eggs?!

Yup! Lots! We have chicken, turkey and duck eggs for sale at $7 a dozen. Our hens and ducks are about as free range as they come! They live on about 3 acres and are free to dust bathe, chase and eat bugs, nibble the grass, run and fly, and have lots of nesting and roosting sites to choose from. They are not modified in any way (most birds have their beaks clipped ...it's nasty business). Most farmed birds are not treated to kindly. "Free Range" doesn't mean what you think, and even "humane" means they can trim their beaks and pack them pretty tight inside barns...Here is a guide to help demystify the whole thing: 

http://www.humanesociety.org/issues/confinement_farm/facts/guide_egg_labels.html

It's all very confusing, I know. You're welcome to come visit our birds to see for yourself how they're treated. They are not "organic" though they live on organic land. We have to substitute their feed with corn that isn't certified. We can talk more about that if you'd like! 

-OMG, you don't eat duck and turkey eggs...do you?

YES! Duck eggs are amazing to cook with! Turkey eggs have rich yolks and make super-sized boiled and deviled eggs. 

-Do you sell meat birds?

Yes we do! We offer butchering classes too! I understand for many people, knowing where their food comes from is important, and being involved really deepens that understanding. We also have turkeys that are ready! Chickens are $4.50 a pound and Turkeys are $7.50 per pound.

Please let me know if you have other questions. I will update this page regularly as I notice a need to formally address a concern!