Farm News

The farm had a brush with our first frost this morning. We just missed getting hit but we were ready for it anyways. We had cleaned out the last of the eggplant and peppers, covered the greens, and set up irrigation over the last of the lettuce. Around midnight I turned on the pump and let the water fly for the rest of the night. This has the effect of warming the crops, and if the water does end up freezing it actually can protect the crop down to about 30F. The funny thing about the first frost is that is can be very hit or miss. Not two miles down the road the grass was all white, but we were spared. I think a little fog rolling in from the Housatonic river gave us a reprieve.

With or without the frost, the summer crops of tomatoes, eggplant, and peppers have given up the ghost for 2004. Lettuce has also become a rare commodity. For two years now I have had really poor fall growth with lettuce, and a few weeks ago a doe and her two fawns found they could get through the deer fence and have a nice salad of several hundred smallish heads of lettuce for breakfast. So now we will turn our attention to the fall vegetables, hearty greens like kale and collards, cabbage, and lots of roots like sweet potatoes, beets, carrots, turnips, and potatoes. Bring on the soups! Many of these crops store really well so you can put them up for weeks if you can’t get to them right away.

Hope you enjoy the harvest,

Paul (For Tara and Michael)

PLEASE NOTE THE LAST CSA DELIVERY (Week 20) will be Thursday, October 21.

In the box this week:

Lettuce Sweet potatoes

Leeks Carrots

Broccoli ‘Carola’ potatoes

Garlic Kale

Eggplant Peppers

What do I do with it?

Broccoli: Cold weather brings on the best broc of the season.

Sweet potatoes: I didn’t grow them last year in order to simplify the crop plan a bit for my first year at Fort Hill. I’m happy we were able to get them into the line up this year. They are great skinned, cubed, tossed in olive oil and oven roasted with peppers, potatoes, garlic cloves, onions, cubed eggplant, or beets. Or you can bake them whole, just remember to prick them with a fork and put a piece of foil under them as they bake as it can get messy. Store sweet potatoes at room temperature.

Carola potatoes: Similar to Yukon golds but I think they taste even better. Try them roasted or in the potato-leek soup recipe below.

Kale: gets sweeter and more tender this time of year, if you are still not a fan give it another try. Or use it in my Mom’s bean soup recipe below.

For the rest of the season: red and green cabbage, beets, carrots, potatoes, leeks or onions, kale, collards, winter squash, sweet potatoes, broccoli, or cooking greens.

Recipes:

Potato Leek Soup, from “Asparagus to Zucchini”

½ teaspoon salt ¼ cup chopped fresh parsley, optional

1 pound potatoes, peeled and cubed 1 tablespoon butter

1 pound leeks, cleaned, trimmed and thinly sliced

Bring 8 cups water to a boil in a stock pot. Add salt, potatoes and leeks; cover and reduce heat. Cook until potatoes are soft, about 30 minutes. Set aside to cool slightly. Transfer to a food processor or blender and puree. Do not over blend or potatoes will become sticky. Return to pot, stir in parsley and butter, and reheat. Six servings.

Harvest Bean Soup, by Ginny Bucciaglia

1 bag of dried 12 bean assortment, soaked and drained according to pkg. directions

1 onion, peeled and chopped

4 cloves of garlic peeled and chopped

14 ounces of canned tomatoes, pureed

6 stalks of celery, chopped

4 potatoes peeled and cut into chunks

1 bunch of kale rough chopped, and boiled separately for 5 minutes, drain and discard water

4 carrots, peeled and chopped

1/2 cup olive oil

To 6 cups of water, add all the ingredients, with the

exception of the kale. Bring to a boil, season with

1/2 tsp thyme and 1 tsp. basil, 1/2 tsp pepper and 1

tsp salt. Reduce heat, partially cover and simmer 1

hour or until vegetables are cooked. Add the cooked

kale and an additional two peeled garlic cloves

chopped. Continue cooking until kale is tender. Adjust

seasonings, as desired. Serve with crusty bread,

grated cheese, cracked pepper.