Farm News

What a great week this has been. The beautiful weather has us moving with a little more energy these days, as there is nothing like low humidity and pleasant temperatures to pick up a farm crews’ morale. On Wednesday we took in most of the winter squash, which always marks a turning point in the farm season for me. We have distributed or harvested most of the crops that make a New England CSA farmer sweat: garlic, melons, onions, winter squash, tomatoes and the like. The crops growing out in the fields now are root and leaf crops that appreciate or tolerate cool weather, things like cauliflower, carrots, beets, broccoli, cabbage, Brussels sprouts, turnips, potatoes, and leeks. Pretty soon the farm is going to be a big refrigerator, and these crops store just as well outside as they do in the cooler. Of course there is the question of when we will get our first frost, which generally causes a night or two of running around in the dark trying to cover or pick out crops that are going to get wiped out by the cold. But hopefully that is still three or four weeks off. Some of the best weather that New England has to offer comes in this time of year, and it was nice to think of that while I was sitting on a bucket in the patch picking plum tomatoes, basking in the September sunshine.

We hope to see everyone at the CSA pot luck on Sunday. Keep your fingers crossed that we don’t see too much tropical moisture that afternoon!

Hope you enjoy the harvest,

Paul (For Tara, Michael, and Bob)

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SECOND ANNUAL FORT HILL FARM HARVEST POT LUCK

When: Sunday, September 19 from 2:30 PM until dusk.

Where : Fort Hill Farm, New Milford CT. From Rt. 7 North, take the first left after ‘Big Y’ (at the junction of Rt. 202 and Rt. 7), which is Fort Hill Rd. Look for the ‘Marandola Oil’ sign. From Rt. 7 South, take a right onto Fort Hill Rd., look for the ‘Marandola Oil’ sign. The farm is the third driveway on the right, #18 Fort Hill Rd.

Who’s invited: all CSA members and their families

What to bring: a side dish, desert, or appetizer, your beverage of choice; and chairs

What we’ll provide: beef and veggie burgers and buns

What’s going on: hay rides around the farm, pick your own pumpkins (one for each share), misc. fun, and a chance to see where all your veggies have been coming from.

See you Sunday, rain or shine!

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In the box this week:

‘San Marzano’ Plum tomatoes Bell or Italia sweet red peppers

Broccoli ‘Candy’ Onions

Red Potatoes Basil

Romaine Lettuce Celery

Garlic Hot pepper

What do I do with it?

Plum Tomatoes: These are the famous San Marzano plum tomatoes and they make a real good tomato sauce. You can also slice them up for salads or sandwiches if you desire. See the sauce recipe below, Tara used a similar recipe last week and made some amazing tomato sauce.

Celery: this is a flavorful but somewhat tough variety of celery that is great for soup, stock, or stuffing but not really for smearing peanut butter on .

Coming soon: Its hard to say week to week from here to the end of the season, but maybe we’ll have winter squash, peppers, lettuce, potatoes, garlic, and leeks. Some nice cauliflower coming in for the next 2 weeks or so, and then cabbage after that. Count on some greens too, either Swiss Chard or kale, and some collards later in the month. Tomatoes are hit and miss at this point but we may be able to come up with a few out of the greenhouse.

Recipes:

Spaghetti Sauce, by Farmer Paul

15 to 20 plum tomatoes 1 tablespoon parsley

1 medium onion, chopped ¼ cup chopped fresh basil

1 red sweet pepper, chopped ¼ teaspoon dried oregano

2 –4 cloves garlic, minced salt and pepper to taste

1 hot pepper, chopped (optional) 1/3 cup olive oil

½ cup water

Wash tomatoes and rub off any old leaves. Cut off tops and cores and any ‘bad spots’ (remember these are mid September tomatoes). Boil a big pot of water, pop the tomatoes in for 2 or 3 minutes, remove them and immediately cool in cold water. Remove skins. Put tomatoes through a food processor to chop. Pour oil into a pot and heat, sauté garlic, onion, and peppers until tender. Add processed tomatoes and the rest of the ingredients. Bring to a boil, then simmer until reduced to a nice thick sauce.