Week 16: Killing frosts, digging trenches and the end in sight

In their shares this week, members will receive the following vegetables:

Tomatoes (the last red ones), braising mix, arugula, russet potatoes, eggplant, dill, rutabaga, sweet peppers, hot peppers and leeks. The tomatoes include a large heirloom, a medium slicer and four paste tomatoes.

This newsletter includes a roundup of news from the farm as well as information and recipes. Feel free to jump to the bottom of the newsletter to find the section titled, “This week’s veggies and recipes.”

News from the farm

I’m not sure anyone checks their weather app as often as a farmer does.  Okay, maybe a sailor.  But we check ours every hour or so.  Spring and fall is when it’s pretty crucial to know what’s coming.  Storms can pop up in the summer, it’s true, but this time of year the temps can fluctuate so much that we need to be able to plan ahead.  Looking at the weather last week we were dismayed — and overjoyed — at the prospect of this week’s dip in nighttime temps.  

It’s a mixed blessing.  

On one hand, the frost will kill those plants that we’re getting sick of harvesting (tomatoes, for Heather-Marie; summer squash for John) and force us to move on to fall crops.  On the other hand, it also means that summer is done, and we felt a little cheated out of enjoying the season.  

Whether we want to admit it or not, the end is nigh.  Fall is coming.  Leaves are all fading on the squash and pumpkins, and we can finally confirm that they there is a bumper crop hiding under there.  Birds are migrating through.  Blue jays have been flying by in droves.  And the yellow-rumped warblers feel like they’re falling out of the sky.  

These few nights of cool temps have meant a bit of work for your farmers.  We spent the day on Sunday starting to harvest all of the veggies that don’t like to freeze, namely, peppers, eggplant and tomatoes.  We didn’t weigh the tomatoes but weighed the rest and the final tally was:

• Eggplant: 55 pounds
• Hungarian Hot Wax peppers: 11.6 lbs
• Jalapenos: 12.4 lbs
• Sweet peppers: 124 lbs 

Whoa.  Needless to say, you’ll be seeing some of these in this week’s share and maybe next week, too!  We’ve hardly put any food up ourselves, so we’ll be slowly stewing tomatoes, making spaghetti sauce and chopping peppers, all to go in the freezer.  

How did you spend your Saturday?  Oh, digging a trench.  Obviously.

For the past two years, a task that has been on the top of our “To-do” list has been putting in an irrigation system.  But there’s either not enough time, or funds, and so we’ve hobbled along with hoses and a row of sprinklers.  This year, though, with support from the Carlton Soil and Water Conservation District, we finally were able to invest in what should be a state-of-the-art irrigation system for our farm. 

Much thanks to Ed Johnson, who met with us on many occasions to walk through the design and the best way to run our irrigation pipe from the barn, out 430 feet, zigging and zagging between trees, over wires, sewage lines and so on, out to the field. 

Finally, on Saturday (after Friday’s 0.6 inches of rain), we rented a trenching machine to start the process.  The trenching tool was a beast and just a tiny bit intimidating.  John used it first in a straight section to get the hang of it. Then Heather-Marie took over.  The odd part is that you move backwards, standing at the back of the machine with a blade, similar to a chainsaw (the size of a refrigerator) digs into the ground in front of you, all while moving along on top of two tracks similar to what you’d see on an Army tank.

The trench, it turns out, was the easy part.  Raking and shoveling the soggy, clay-heavy soil back into the trench was a whole other arduous task.  This whole day, Heather-Marie’s parents helped out.  And what a backbreaking job!  There’s no way we could have done it without them.  

Your farmers are media celebrities

On Sunday night, we were pretty spent, so we plopped down in the sunroom to watch WDSE’s Great Gardening! show that had come out in early August to film a segment of the show at our farm. 

It was fun to see how much has changed in the field since the crew was out and an honor to be recognized for the hard work we’ve done with the help of so many friends, family and CSA members this season. 

We feel incredibly fortunate for the great season we’ve had. 

It’s hard to believe that after this week, there is just one regular season share left… and still so much more work to be done before the snow flies. 

This week’s veggies and recipes

Arugula, peppers

We look forward to arugula every season.  We only grow it in the fall so it feels like a real treat.  It has a wonderful peppery flavor that we think pairs really well with pizza!

Salami and Pepper Pizzas with Arugula

from Real Simple August 2012

We LOVE arugula on pizza!  

• 2 T olive oil
• 4 5-to-7 inch flat breads, naan bread, or pocket less pitas
• ½ cup marinara sauce
• 8 ounces fresh mozzarella, sliced
• 2 ounces sliced salami, cut into bit sized pieces (optional)
• 1 large bell pepper, thinly sliced 
• Kosher salt and black pepper
• 1 cup arugula

Heat oven to 450 degrees.  Brush 2 rimmed baking sheets with the oil and place 2 flat breads on each.  Dividing evenly, top with the marinara sauce, mozzarella, optional salami, and bell pepper.  Season with ¼ teaspoon each salt and pepper.

Bake the pizzas, rotating the sheets halfway through, until the cheese is melted and the flat breads are golden, 8 to 10 minutes.  Top with arugula.

Braising mix

Leeks, potatoes, dill, greens

Potato Leek Soup

from the cookbook “Enchanted Broccoli Forest”

A true sign of fall!  This recipe is great and easy to add other veggies to.  

• 3 medium sized potatoes
• 3 cups cleaned, chopped leeks
• 1 medium stalk celery, chopped
• 1 large carrot, chopped
• 4 cups water
• 1 ½ tsp salt
• 1 cup milk
• Freshly ground black pepper
• OPTIONAL: snippets of fresh herbs (dill), and/or cooked greens (arugula, braising mix, kale, spinach, etc)

Scrub the potatoes and cut them into 1-inch chunks.  Place them in a soup pot or Dutch oven with the leeks, celery, carrot, water, and salt.  Bring to a boil, cover, and cook until the potatoes are tender (about 20 minutes).  Remove from heat, and let it cool until it’s no longer too hot to puree.

Puree the soup in a blender or food processor (you’ll need to do this in batches).  Return the puree to the pot.  Stir in the milk.

Add black pepper to taste, and adjust salt, if necessary.  Serve hot or cold, possibly topped with a sprinkling of fresh herbs.

Rutabaga

We typically roast rutabaga in the oven with oil and salt and pepper but this cake is pretty great!  You can also cook and puree in soups.  

Rutabaga Honey Cake

Adapted from Marina Stein

This cake is so yummy and can be easily made into muffins instead.  It’s also a fun way to introduce people to rutabagas.  

• 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour*
• 2 tsp ground ginger
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp baking powder
• ½ tsp baking soda
• ½ tsp sea salt
• 3/4 cup milk
• ¼ cup melted butter
• 1/3 cup honey
• 1 cup grated raw rutabaga
• 1/2 cup finely chopped apple
• 1-2 Tbsp maple syrup

Preheat oven to 350º F and butter a 9”x9” cake pan.

Whisk together flour, spices, salt, baking powder, and baking soda in a medium bowl until light. Using a hand mixer, beat the honey and melted butter until smooth. Mix dry ingredients into wet on medium speed until just moistened, then add rutabaga and apple and gently fold in by hand until evenly combined. Batter will be thick. Spread mixture into prepared pan, smoothing surface with damp fingers or a silicon spatula.

Bake in pre-heated oven for 30 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean. Remove from oven, place pan on a wire cooling rack, and drizzle maple syrup evenly over the surface of the warm cake. Let cool for 20-30 minutes before slicing.

*If you want to make this gluten free, we used Bob’s Redmill 1-to-1 Baking Flour.  You may need to adjust baking times.