farmererin

Surveys!

2009-10-28T07:22:00.000-07:00

Surveys are now up on the website (www.mudcreekfarm.com) for 2009 CSA members. Tell us what you liked and didn't like about the CSA this year-- knowing your favorite vegetables will help us grow more of them next year! Thanks,
Farmer Erin

Home stretch!

2009-10-22T17:31:00.000-07:00

Well, there's one more week of distribution. It's cold & rainy, and I'm tired. But what a great feast we're having! The hearty root vegetables have made their debut, with the celeriac, parsnips, rutabagas... the steady carrots... the potatoes are back again... yum. I'm going home to roast some up myself. If you haven't figured it out yet, you can throw just about any vegetable in the oven with olive oil & salt and it will taste delicious.

But just in case you aren't too familiar with the delicate flavors of the celery root (celeriac)... here's an easy recipe for you. Celery root will store in the crisper drawer of your refrigerator for about 3 months. Try it with apples, onions, & spices, blended in a soup. Or in chunks in a stew. Or grated raw in a salad. Or...

Celery root gratin

2 celery roots
4 large potatoes
1 C cream
1tsp dijon mustard
1/2 C grated swiss style cheese

Peel and slice both the potatoes and celery root into 1/2 inch slices.
Layer in a baking dish seasoning with salt and pepper after each layer
Mix cream and dijon mustard and pour over layered roots.
Sprinkle with the cheese.
Cover and bake at 350F until tender about 30-45 min
Uncover and brown the cheese.

CELERIAC & SHRIMP SALAD

2 lbs shrimp (rock shrimp if you can find it)
2-4 medium size celery root, grated (after grating place in lemon water to prevent browning)
1 bunch green onions
1 1/2 - 2 C fresh citrus (orange)
1/2 C chopped cilantro
fresh lemon juice
coriander
salt, pepper
olive oil, (not much- a Tbs. or so)

You can use the celery root raw or blanch for a few minutes. Drain well.

Garlic planted!

2009-10-22T17:13:00.000-07:00

The garlic went in! We had amazing weather for it, sunny & warm. Folks showed up just before 2pm, and we got everything set up for distribution. Then, magically, the bicycles arrived. A crew of about 8 biked out from Rochester, as a practice round for their big trip planned in 2011, when they will bike across the country, stopping at CSA farms along the way & making a documentary. Pretty cool, eh?

Well anyway, they were really pros at planting garlic. Especially Liz Henderson (who literally wrote the book about CSA farming). How great to have her help and experience. We got just about 4 whole rows planted, which works out to be about 4,000 bulbs of garlic planned to come out of the ground next July.

I marked the beds with the row marker... then we pushed in the cloves of garlic... then I drove the tractor down the row & covered up the cloves with a little more soil. This is my first experience with growing garlic, so we'll see how it goes.

After planting all that garlic (in less than an hour with so much help!), we took a cider & donuts break. Then we had the real potluck, and folks showed up with more food. What a celebration! Next time we'll get a string band...

Blessings of Fall

2009-10-09T14:01:00.000-07:00

Well, as much as I have been secretly wishing for an indian summer, it looks like winter may be pushing its way in (Rochester is used to bossy winters, I guess). But the harvest is still quite bountiful. This week we gave out broom corn as an autumnal decoration bonus!
Swiss chard is pretty decorative itself.Many of the crops on the menu these days are long-term storage pantry items, not needing refrigeration. Onions, potatoes, squash... and most of the other food hardly needs the fridge when the temperature drops into the 50s anyway. Mmm... root crops are just what our bodies need to warm us up as the evenings get darker & chillier.
A young CSA member enjoys some of his last time on the tractor...
Shares were heavy this week, inculding 2 heads of broccoli, cabbage, carrots, beets, swiss chard, squash, potatoes, onions, beans, celeriac, pumpkins, peppers, & eggplants.
Make some beet soup! Add apples to it!
Some hardworking work-traders bringing in the last ? of the green bean harvest:
Most of the farm gets covered up with blankets these days due to frost. We just started to break into the fall cabbages-- fennel & rutabagas to come!
Still lots of food in the ground...
Some happy broom corn customers:
Only 3 more weeks of distribution!
I could eat pumpkin pie for 3 meals a day. If only pumpkins grew in pie form...
Luke & I have been busy making hot sauce to sell at the farmers market. We have 7 different kinds! These will be for sale to CSA members soon (once we order those cute little bottles)... stay tuned. They will definitely keep you warm over the winter, and can be liberally applied to almost anything for a spicy "Mud Creek Farm" infusion of flavor!
Extra produce is still being sold to Natural Oasis restaurant twice a week, where the up-and-coming chef, Nick, creates AMAZING delicious concoctions with it! Make sure you have dinner there before he has to start buying from someone else for the winter-- everything on the menu is $4 (including delicious desserts) and everything is vegan (aka: good for you!)

PS:
What angry dairy farmers do... (the best farmer photo ever!)

Garlic Planting Postponed...

2009-10-03T18:55:00.001-07:00

Well, we finally got the rain I've been asking for all September... but 3 inches is enough-- it can stop now! The ground is way too saturated to plant garlic tomorrow. So, the Planting Party & Potluck will be postponed until Oct. 18th, which will be a much drier day hopefully! Cross your fingers for sunshine.

Using up those eggplants...

2009-09-28T07:29:00.000-07:00

Here's a good one to use up the eggplants. It's meant to be an appetizer/dip but I think it might be yummy on pasta too...

Herbed Eggplant Dip
Makes about 2 1/3 cups

1 medium onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1/3 cup olive oil
a 1 pound eggplant, cut into dice (about 1/4 to 1/2 inch)
1 teaspoon salt
2 plum tomatoes, seeded and diced
3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1/4 cup fresh basil leaves, washed well, spun dry and minced
2 tablespoons minced fresh parsley leaves

Accompaniment: Garlic flavored toasts or Pita Chips

Preparation:
In a large heavy skillet cook onion and garlic in oil over moderate heat, stirring until softened. Add eggplant and salt and cook, stirring until eggplant begins to brown, about 10 minutes. Cover skillet and cook eggplant, stirring occasionally, 5 minutes or until tender. Remove skillet from heat and cool eggplant. Stir in remaining ingredients and salt an pepper to taste. Put all into bowl of food processor and pulse a few times until coarsely chopped and blended.

If you are going to put over pasta you might want to not put into processor and just toss together over pasta? I haven't tried that yet but the flavor is really good. It would probably be great to add artichoke hearts and some red peppers or roasted red peppers.

Autumn harvest...

2009-09-28T06:00:00.000-07:00

Well, I think that fall is officially here when we pull the winter squash in from the field. With the help of a few devoted farmhands, we hauled them all into the greenhouse to cure for a week or so.
Summer crops are on their way out-- less peppers & eggplants (finally!), and more greens, radishes, turnips, and root crops. Lettuce continues to come in by the bushel!
We finally got rain! A whole inch overnight, and more on the way... the 5 acres of cover crops I just planted are soaking it up. Check out the new fields for next year-- they'll be turning green soon with oats, peas, triticale, and vetch. An inch of rain sure makes for muddy harvesting though.
As I was leaving the farm Sunday evening, it started pouring again, but the setting sun still was shining beneath the raincloud. Everyone had just left distribution with their bags of produce, handfuls of flowers, kids, dogs, and aunts. I stood in front of the fields by myself, witnessing this magical light that was falling over the farm. What an incredible place this is. A rainbow arched over the sky as I drove back down the gravel road home.
Dad really did some hauling of that squash.I can't wait to eat these delicata...
Mmmm... squash is the perfect filling food for these cold nights.
Oh! And the first fall broccoli was delicious! Cabbages are soon to come...
And let's not forget the glorious Swiss Chard.
Food, glorious food.

Frost and Winter Squash

2009-09-21T05:06:00.001-07:00

We got a frost on Saturday night. The temperature was supposed to dip down to a chilly 38 degrees... and I made the decision to not worry about the farm freezing-- I just couldn't believe that it would actually frost this early, and besides, I was really really tired.

I went out to harvest 8am Sunday morning, and saw the icy white crystals on my sweatshirt & workgloves I had left outside the shed. I ran out to the field, it was sparkling in the rising sunlight. I knew the broccoli & cabbage would be fine, but how were the peppers & eggplants? Turns out they survived... but the winter squash took a hit.

The poor pumpkins, butternuts, delicatas, sweet dumplings, red kuris, buttercups, & blue hubbards were lying on the ground exposed, with the leaves of the squash almost completely dead from powdery mildew. The frost settled down on top of the fruits, and left its mark as it thawed. A few hours later the damage could be determined-- all the remaining foliage had turned black & wilted, and about 5-10 % of the squash looked affected by the frost. Not too bad.

We harvested all the squash then-- put it up in the greenhouse to cure for a week or so.

It turns out that lightly frost-damaged squash could possibly cure alright & be saved. But I didn't know that & gave some out at distribution "for immediate consumption"... thinking that the spots caused by the freeze would turn mushy & rot soon. I was saving this food from the compost!

Uncured squash, straight from the field, is for the most part tasteless & bland. Most types of squash need to go through a curing process at around 80 degrees for a week or two-- Butternut especially needs about a month in storage afterwords for the sweetness we're used to.

So... when cooking with uncured winter squash: use lots of spices & flavoring!

- Crock-pot it with lots of other strongly flavored vegetables or meats.

- Roast it in the oven with tons of brown sugar

- Cut it up really small and stir-fry it with hot peppers & garlic

Good luck-- and if the frost-spot isn't very pronounced, you could always keep it in your warmest room for a week or two (checking to see that it's staying together alright!)... and cure it yourself.

Check out the greenhouse to see tables filled with color! (Pictures coming soon)

Recipe

2009-09-14T14:02:00.001-07:00

Pickled Carrot Sticks

1 pound carrots, cut into 3 1/2 inch sticks
1 1/4 cup water
1 cup cider vinegar
1/4 cup sugar
2 garlic cloves, lightly crushed
1 1/2 tablespoons dill seeds
1 1/2 tablespoons salt

Blanch carrots in a 4-quart saucepan of salted boiling water for 1 minute. Drain in colander and plunge in ice water to stop cooking. Transfer to heat-proof bowl. Combine water, vinegar, sugar, garlic, dill seeds and salt in same saucepan and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 2 minutes Pour mixture over carrots. Cool carrots, uncovered, then refrigerate, covered, for at least 1 day to allow flavors to develop. Carrots keep in airtight container in refrigerator for up to a month.

Harvest moon...

2009-09-12T15:37:00.000-07:00

Things going on at the farm:

Bounty continues! The distribution shed is filled as ever, with summer crops and the beginning of fall things like spicy greens, radishes, and salad turnips.
The theme of the summer is eggplants & peppers. Especially hot peppers!
Swiss chard is huge as ever-- these greens can be cooked just like spinach in any recipe, and the stems are edible too, if you cook them a bit longer.
Amaranth Harvest! You may have noticed the tall flower stalks next to the corn-- magenta & orange & burgundy-- Amaranth is a grain that was a staple food for the Aztecs & is still eaten in Mexico. It's supposed to be a "superfood" with more protein & other nutrients than wheat, corn, rice, etc. We harvest it by hand, lay it out in the greenhouse to dry, then we'll take the tiny seeds out, winnow the chaff, and either grind it into flour or try to pop it like popcorn. Quite a little experiment. Luke thinks I'm crazy. I just like eating flowers.
Weeding the fennel today we found a monarch butterfly caterpiller. We hope it stays there and makes a chrysalis! Praying mantises are also everywhere on the farm right now.

I expected this year to be full of "learning experiences"... and mostly my experiments have been pretty successful. Some challenges I've had lately:

Sweet Corn: I had never grown it before. The first few weeks of harvesting were awesome, we got lots of tender delicious ears. So I kept picking... I must apologize for last week's corn! It was horrible! I guess no one ever told me that sweet corn turns its sugars into starch very quickly. The grilled corn on the cob I had last week tasted like livestock feed. Next year, if I decide to do corn again, I'll plant more successions so that we can harvest just a few times off one planting, then move to the next one, to keep things fresh & sweet!

Melons: How to tell if a watermelon is ripe? Last time I picked melons, almost none of them tasted sweet. I think that this fall weather is confusing such a summer-y crop. I apologize for any unripe melon experiences. But the ones that are ripe are pretty good, right? Next year I promise to plant more watermelons & less canteloupes.

Mexican Bean Beetle, Cucumber Downy Mildew, some weird Squash Virus: These creatures have reduced the amount of summer squash, beans, & cucumbers we've been getting lately. I will research more about these things to prevent them from decimating our crops next year.

Powdery Mildew on the Winter Squash: This fungus blows in on the wind, and sticks around, helped by moist weather & cool nights. It is killing our winter squash very quickly-- but we might have a few mature ones out there. Right now it's a race between the squash vines and the mildew. We need some cheerleaders.

No Rain! Can you believe I'd say that this summer? Well, the crops are doing fine, with the help of the drip irrigation. But I have to plant 6 acres of cover crops for the winter, and the window in which I can do this is quickly disappearing... and you can't really irrigate 6 acres of rye or oats. So let's hope we get a big rain soon, so I can get this seed in the ground and green up those plowed & tilled fields!

Looking forward to next year...

2009-09-04T18:07:00.000-07:00

Just as the season's beginning to wind down, and I started thinking that my work load was easing up a bit-- it's time to start preparing for next year! I have surprised myself with how much food can be produced on 2.5 acres by one person-- and the waiting list for next season grows. I will be doubling the CSA membership. Thus, we'll need more land to farm! After talking with the landowner, Bob, about it, I decided to open up the fields near the railroad track, and down by the creek. That field below is pretty huge, 3 acres-- 600' long!
After we spent 2 days bush-hogging, measuring, and staking out the fields, I taught Luke how to plow. The soil is lush with life: earthworms, field mice, snakes, beetles, toads-- I bear the responsibility for taking care of this ground. I feel a bit guilty for clearing the goldenrod that the honeybees were feeding on, and disturbing the whole universe for thousands of little creatures.
But so it goes with farming. Wrestling food for human consumption from the rich black soil is a constant battle. Although it offers up generous eggplants, shiny peppers, and sweet corn, seemingly benevolently, it really wants to become a forest. And so I plow under the sprouts of trees & perennial wildflowers, in the ancient agreement that humans have with the land-- I take, and so I also must give.
I hope to spend the rest of my life learning how to give back to the land in exchange for all that it gives me every day.

Can you hear the grass growing?

2009-09-04T17:18:00.000-07:00

Some of you may have noticed the very tall corn growing near the flower garden-- it's broom corn, actually a sorghum. It was (and still is) used to make brooms. I like to grow it for it's ornamental use, in holiday wreaths and autumn decorations. Also I just like to grow it because its so darn tall.
I planted a lot more of a different kind of grass last week: Winter Rye. I scatter these seeds, mixed with Hairy Vetch, on empty ground as a cover crop. Cover crops prevent erosion during the winter. The Vetch is a legume that will add nitrogen to the soil (enabling us to use less fertilizer), and the rye will add a lot of organic matter. I will plow these in in the spring. The front field by the greenhouse will become the pick-your-own garden for next year!
I use this heavy thing to pack the seeds into the ground & cover them up a bit. It's called a Cultipacker. I pulled it out of the hedgerow-- it's another one of Bob's old farm pieces, rusty but still functional.
This is the seed before I mix it into the hand broadcast spreader:
And Voila! We have tiny sprouts! I timed the planting right before we got a few days of rain (the remnants of a hurricane off the coast)... and they had just enough water to start their life. Hopefully we'll get some more substantial rain in the next week to speed these little ones on their way.
We will be planting more rye soon on the new fields, and oats too. After I till in a few rows of crops, I will plant more rye & vetch to cover the soil for the winter.

Diggin' taters

2009-08-28T04:30:00.000-07:00

I took a walk in the field across the street that I'm thinking about incorporating into the farm next year... a rain cloud came by and dumped on me, while the sun was still shining. The result? A very good sign.
All these photos were taken with my phone; hence the black things in the corners- my weatherproof carrier got in the way.
A most exciting thing: my friends Eli & Doug helped me pull the old potato-digger out of the woods! It's a rusty thing probably 100 years old- meant to be horse-drawn, but we were going to try to hook it to the tractor. We greased & oiled it up-- there are a lot of working gears & levers, all functioning off the rotation of the big rusty metal wheels. I didn't have high hopes. I thought it would just fall apart before we even got to the field. We creeped at lowest speed out to the potatoes. The sun made the oil gleam on the moving conveyor belts. We all stared at the gears in wonder-- it felt like some kind of revolution.
(We had been digging potatoes by hand with a digging fork.)

Lo and behold, it worked. The plow point pushed into the hill of potatoes (we could lower or raise it) and up came everything, the potatoes, the dirt, the rocks. The 2 sets of conveyor belts shook off the dirt as the potatoes rolled off the edge gently onto the soil.

Oh yeah, and there is a seat on it (so you can drive the horses I guess)!
We did a whole 200' row of them.
Doug adjusting the depth of the plow point.

Now we just had to go along & pick them up! No digging like before-- it took a lot less time & muscle.
Okay, turn your head sideways. Here's the old tater digger, hooked up to the new Kubota. It was a beautiful multi-generational cooperation.

Farming with Soul

2009-08-24T07:18:00.000-07:00

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/23/opinion/23kristof.html?_r=1&em

Fall on its way...

2009-08-23T16:49:00.001-07:00

This morning there was a chill wind in the air, and I noticed the big cottonwood tree at the edge of the field is starting to turn yellow. It feels like we barely began summer-- sweet corn & melons just beginning. But sure enough, I smelled fall in the air all day.

It's my favorite season. It's what I got nostalgic for on the west coast: the trees, the blue October skies, the pumpkins & apples. I can't wait. Things are feeling different on the farm too, not much more planting (2 more beds maybe), and just harvest, harvest, harvest. Green peppers are turning red. Fall greens are up-- radishes, salad turnips, arugula, mizuna, tat soi, the same as the spring.

On a different note, I read an alarming article in the NY Times which I occasionally check out online. It concerns our drinking water, herbicides, & cancer. Atrazine is a commonly used weed killer (used primarily for corn growing & golf courses)-- in fact, I saw some in my neighbor's barn. The article reports on various studies done, and debates whether or not levels of this chemical in our drinking water are "safe" or not. The European Union has banned the use of Atrazine as a precaution.

I think it's pretty incredible that Americans could accept any level of potentially harmful chemical in their drinking water, especially one which could cause birth defects or cancer. Is this the sacrifice we make in order to eat lots of processed junk food made from corn products and enjoy a weed-free golf course? I am not ready to make that sacrifice. Unfortunately I feel pretty powerless, and I think that policymakers in the EPA have much more control over these issues, even as personal an issue to me as the water I gulp down every day. I guess I will try to find out chemical levels in our water here in Rochester, and maybe invest in a good filtration system. If you have some time, check out this article.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/23/us/23water.html

A way to use up your eggplants!

2009-08-21T10:38:00.000-07:00

Baba Ganoush

Ingredients

9 1/2 lb Eggplants
2 c Fresh lemon juice
2 c Tahini
12 md Garlic cloves; minced, or
1 c Fresh parsley; finely
1 tb Salt

to serve

Leaf lettuce
12 Pita bread rounds; lightly
3 lb Feta cheese; crumbled (3

Instructions

1. Pierce the skins of the eggplants several times and place them on a baking sheet. Bake at 400F for 40 minutes to 1 hour, or until the outsides crinkle and the insides become very soft.

2. When the eggplants are cool enough to handle, scoop out the insides.

3. Using a food processor puree the pulp with the lemon juice, tahini, garlic, parsley, and salt until smooth. Cool to room temperature.

4. Line a warmed pita pocket with leaf lettuce, spoon in the baby and serve as is, or, if desired, top with a sprinkling of feta cheese.

Meal Planning: *preparation Time: 15 minutes; Baking Time: 40 minutes. Serve with soup or salad. *Smoky eggplant flavor and creamy texture of tahini with lemon also makes a good dip with crudites. Prepare as a side dish for a Middle Eastern Combo Plate with Hummus (79) or White Bean Dip (87) and Carrot Salad (p321) *For a nondairy alternative, top with chopped fresh tomatoes, chopped black olives, and alfalfa sprouts. Per 6-oz serving with pita: 247 cals, 11.3 g fat, 496 mg sodium. Recipe From: Moosewood Restaurant Cooks for a Crowd: Recipes with a Vegetarian Emphasis for 24 or More, by The Moosewood Collective

August photos

2009-08-21T09:53:00.000-07:00

Okay, this one's not from August:
It's hard to believe that just about 4 months ago the farm looked like this-- bare soil just plowed up, skeleton trees, no green anywhere. Here we are in April planting the first onions in the ground. And here is last week, in the lush pick-your-own flower garden:
And here we have our mature onions, cured in the greenhouse, now going into storage for distribution from now until November. They are huge and beautiful, many of them weighing over 1 pound each!
The farm is just swimming in green right now.The sweet corn is tall & majestic, and the fall plantings of greens, broccoli, turnips, radishes, and cabbages are filling out the rest of the empty fields.
The winter squash is a huge jungle, hiding it's fruits below in the shape of pumpkins, butternuts, delicatas, and hubbards!
The bees have been relishing the flowers.
This is definitely the year of the cabbage.
It seems like all I do these days is pick, pick, pick. 4 days a week from 8am-8pm just about. Leaving a few other days to get everything else done!
The melons are in! Yummy cantelopes and a few watermelons too.
My cousins came out from New Jersey & helped with the harvest too!
It's nice to do the washing part when it's really hot out-- you get to stand in the shade, and the water is very cool.
Sometimes everyone just wants to get their hands in the tub!
We've had a few deer break-ins (hoof prints in the soil) but not too much munching lately. The raccoons have found the sweet corn I think. But at least my neighbor Jack planted a few acres of soybeans nearby that distracts the herd of deer from our veggies! You might not see them in the photo, but there are about 12 deer grazing in his field:
Here's Luke in the Kale Forest:
Hot peppers, oh yeah, we have them. Hungarian hot wax is mild in comparison to the long green cayenne chiles. Beware!
Sweet peppers are starting to turn colors, finally, with the heat. Did you know green peppers are just young red peppers that haven't changed color yet?
Here's the planting of the fall broccoli & cauliflower:
And the sunflower harvest. What a joy it is picking them, even if they are huge, heavy, awkward, & spiny.
This work is great. I love being a farmer.

Eulogy for our Tomatoes

2009-08-16T18:02:00.000-07:00

Sweat dripping from my face, I walked down the tomato rows pulling stakes, cutting twine, and yanking up irrigation line. It was like the land of the living dead. Half-rotted fruit squished underneath my sneakers, brown and green vines fell tangled on the ground. This is the first week that it's finally felt like summer, the storm clouds staying away for more than a few days, and the temperature climbing up towards 90-- and all the tomatoes turned red at once. Unfortunately, though, when you reach to pick one of these luscious fruits of summer, you realize that on the other side it's completely rotted, or has a brown spot-- the mark of Late Blight.

I tried not to get too emotional over it all, as I prepared the beds for tilling in tomorrow. Good riddance, I said to myself. Tomatoes? What tomatoes? I didn't plant tomatoes. Who needs 'em anyway? So much work...

As the summer heat beat down on my straw hat & longsleeve shirt, I recalled all the events that led up to these poor tomato plants. The seed (expensive, heirloom varieties) was planted in the greenhouse in March, April, & May, on heatmats that kept the soil at a comfortable 80 degrees for germination. Then, tiny seedling by tiny seedling, we transplanted them into larger trays of soil, and they grew happily in the greenhouse, requiring only water every day or two, and the occasional dose of seaweed/fish emulsion. When they were ready for the field, we brought them out & put them in our nicely marked beds, pre-fertilized & composted. The first batch didn't make it-- it was too cold & windy, and they started looking sick. I pulled them out, re-tilled, and started over. The second batch went in healthy, and we covered them up on cold nights with row cover.

Then came the straw mulch. It prevents weeds, and also controls soil-borne fungal diseases (apparently not late blight though). We got old Bob's dump truck started, and drove a few miles down the road to Jack's barn to load up wheat straw bales. We trade Jack vegetables in return for straw, and tractor expertise. Then, in crews, we dispersed the bales of straw 3" thick over all the 5' beds of tomatoes. Almost 10,000 square feet. The baling wire was carefully saved for future inventive uses. The straw had wheat seeds left in it, that sprouted, and had to be pulled like weeds.

As the tomatoes grew, green & rambunctious, they needed support. After making calls to all the farmers I knew, I decided to go with electrical conduit for staking them up. It would last forever, and be easy to handle in the field. Two separate trips with a minivan were made to Maynard's Electric in Henrietta. Then I sawed the 10' "sticks" in half, loaded up the harvest cart & brought them out to the field. Each one was pounded in several times with the post-pounder. I've always thought that working with tomatoes just has to coincide with sun and sweat. The kind of times when you need to wear sunglasses, but you sweat so much underneath the sunglasses that you keep having to take them off in order to see properly.

Then the tomatoes were tied up with twine (expensive, biodegradable natural twine), the "Florida Weave" way-- wearing a backpack loaded with a huge spool of the stuff, wielding a stick through which the twine fed onto the row of tomatoes: under the plants, around the conduit, under the plants, around the conduit... down the whole 200' row, and back up the other side. It's kind of satisfying. And back-breaking. And then we tie off the twine at the end, and wait. Until the plants grow another 8 inches or so, & you do it again. I only got 2 layers of twine up the first plantings, when the blight hit.

Warnings came through friends & family, who'd read about it in the newspaper. Panicky emails started circulating the northeast organic farming network. I called my mentor, Dave, in the Hudson Valley, who'd never sprayed a thing in his life. "What are you doing to prevent this late blight thing?" I asked him. "Ignoring it." was his response. It's all hype: everyone's getting all worried for nothing-- after stressing about it for a few days, I let it drop a bit.

Then the spots showed up. The Cornell Cooperative Extension agent said, yes, that is definitely Late Blight. So I ripped out the first row of tomatoes. Into plastic bags, into the trash. It felt very wrong. But we were controlling it-- I sprayed a beneficial fungus & bacteria onto the remaining healthy plants to ward off the invading fungus. It continued to spread.

Dave called me then, intending to warn me that his tomatoes got the blight, and I better spray something to prevent it. I had to tell him the disappointing news. He had gone out and bought a $600 blower-sprayer to cover more ground efficiently and was spraying copper, until he realized that would only prevent blight; and he had blight already.

We tried to slow down the inevitable death. We sprayed potassium bicarbonate several times, which dried out the leaves so that fungus can't spread as quickly. But it just kept raining. Overcast, stormy days-- there just wasn't enough UV rays from the sun to help sterilize the spores. I gave up.

Does this story have a happy ending? Maybe a few folks learned they love fried green tomatoes. Maybe we all realize a little more how the weird climate changes are really affecting our food supply. Maybe we learn to be creative with other vegetables & adapt our taste buds to the changes. Maybe it's just a hard lesson.

So, next year, will I do the same thing again with tomatoes? Go through the same actions, hoping for more sun & heat, less storms, and the absence of Phytophthera infestins? Probably. But maybe I won't bother staking them up. And maybe I'll also plant more carrots.

Crop report

2009-08-11T05:16:00.000-07:00

Well, it seems like everyone's been enjoying the summer bounty ...

...and the pick-your-own flower garden is overflowing with blossoms!It's time to say goodbye to spring cabbage (sadly, I know!)... but we've just planted the fall cabbage, so we'll have lots more in a few months!

Chinese, or Napa, Cabbage was a big hit this spring. A BIG hit-- with heads weighing over 6 pounds! I won't be growing any this fall, but there will be more treats, like purple & orange cauliflower, and brussel sprouts.

You could say we've had some "steady beets" all summer... you can look forward to more of the same through the fall.

Summer squash seems to be slowing down a bit-- the cloudy moist weather has produced an environment favorable to Powdery Mildew, a fungal disease that appears in white splotches on the leaves. The winter squash (pumpkins, butternut, delicata) have some of this on their leaves too-- I will be spraying some Potassium Bicarbonate (organic approved) on them to keep it in check. What a crazy summer!

The carrots have been huge & beautiful-- we have a lot more on their way too. Maybe we should have a carrot cake contest next.

The onions have all been harvested from the field! A little early-- the wet weather forced us to pull them a little prematurely, but they are still huge & beautiful. We gave out the last of the "fresh onions" and now we will be giving out "cured onions"...

If you've peeked into the greenhouse lately, you may see all these onions curing on the tables there, with fans to dry them out, and burlap to keep them from getting sunburned. After a few weeks, the tops turn brown & crispy, and the papery husk has formed around the onion to give it that storage quality we know so well. I will be storing the onions until November, giving them out a few every week with shares.

The cucumbers have started rolling in-- hope you found a good pickle recipe! If you want to learn how to make lactofermented pickles (the way they used to, with a salt brine & no vinegar), ask me sometime. Grab some flowering heads of dill while you're out in the flower garden.

And the eggplants. One of my favorite vegetables. I think they taste best roasted on the grill or in the oven, with plenty of olive oil & salt.

Speaking of olive oil & salt, add a little cornmeal to the recipe, and you've got the perfect fried green tomatoes. Who says that late blight has to keep us from enjoying tomatoes? We just have to be a bit creative this year...

Other crops:

Beans are in-between plantings right now. We picked about 8 times from the same bed and now it's ready to retire (be tilled in)-- the new bed is just starting to produce beans. We'll have plenty more beans soon on their way. (Pickled dilly-bean recipe anyone?)

Sunflowers! Yes!

Potatoes: at this point they are no longer "new potatoes" since they have been "cured" in the ground for the past 2 weeks. They now theoretically have a longer storage life, although with blight being all around, I suggest cooking the potatoes in a week or so.

Melons-- watermelons & canteloupes-- looking huge. In the next week or so I'll be cracking the first one open for a taste!

Sweet corn-- I grew sweet corn. The ears are almost ready. It was an experiment, since I've never grown it before. We'll see how it goes!

Peppers, bountiful. If it ever gets hot, they might think about turning red. Until then, I give out green peppers. Hot peppers up the wazoo! Hungarian hot wax, jalepeno, Czech black.

Fall crops to look forward to: parsnips, celery root, rutabagas, turnips, radishes, arugula, tat soi, chard, kale.

A great summary of the regional tomato situation:

2009-08-10T18:28:00.001-07:00

"You Say Tomato..." (NY Times Article)

Recipes for Green Things

2009-08-02T04:26:00.000-07:00

Fried Green Tomatoes

Ingredients:
* 4 to 6 green tomatoes
* salt and pepper
* cornmeal
* bacon grease or vegetable oil

Preparation: Slice the tomatoes into 1/4 - 1/2-inch slices. Salt and pepper them to taste. Dip in meal and fry in hot grease or oil about 3 minutes or until golden on bottom. Gently turn and fry the other side. Serve as a side dish - delicious with breakfast!

Tomatillo Salsa (Salsa Verde)

Ingredients

1 1/2 lb tomatillos
1/2 cup chopped white onion
1/2 cup cilantro leaves
1 Tbsp fresh lime juice
1/4 teaspoon sugar
2 hot peppers, chopped
Salt to taste

Method

1 Remove papery husks from tomatillos and rinse well.

2a Roasting method Cut in half and place cut side down on a foil-lined baking sheet. Place under a broiler for about 5-7 minutes to lightly blacken the skin.

2b Boiling method Place tomatillos in a saucepan, cover with water. Bring to a boil and simmer for 5 minutes. Remove tomatillos with a slotted spoon.

2 Place tomatillos, lime juice, onions, cilantro, chili peppers, sugar in a food processor (or blender) and pulse until all ingredients are finely chopped and mixed. Season to taste with salt. Cool in refrigerator.

Serve with chips or as a salsa accompaniment to Mexican dishes.

Makes 3 cups.

NY Times article about Late Blight

2009-07-31T07:19:00.000-07:00

Featuring my mentor Farmer Dave Hambleton, from Sisters Hill Farm in the Hudson Valley:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/29/dining/29toma.html?_r=2

Did you know you can pickle summer squash?
I like taking those tiny yellow squash, or cutting up the medium-sized ones, and fermenting them in salt water for a probiotic pickle that I will enjoy in the winter when summer squash is not around anymore. A good way to use up the excess in your fridge!

Recipe:
Layer squash, slices of onions or crushed garlic cloves, hot peppers, & sprigs of dill in a jar, leaving an inch or two at the top of the jar. (Gently press down to fit more.) Then mix up salt-water in another jar or bowl, about 1 Tablespoon to a quart (or to taste-- it should taste like seawater!) It's important to use salt without iodine, like sea salt. Mix up until salt is dissolved. Pour into jar with squash.
Now you have to make sure that nothing's floating on the surface & that all squash is covered with water-- I do this by putting a smaller jar that just fits into the larger jar (or if you're using a 5-gallon bucket: a plate). Fill the jar with water to create a weight that will push the squash down under the water. (or if you're using a plate, fill a large jar with water & set it on the plate) I place this whole assembly into a large bowl or tray just in case there's leakage. Drape a clean towel on top of everything. Let sit in a warm room for a week or two. It should start bubbling and smelling sour like pickles.
You can continue fermenting it until you feel that it's sour enough for your taste. Then transfer it into jars with lids, and refrigerate it. Keep the jar lids somewhat loose, since it will slowly continue to ferment. Enjoy now or in 6 months from now!

PS. same recipe applies for pickling cucumbers.

Recipes for survival

2009-07-27T10:54:00.000-07:00

As the sky darkens with thunderclouds and the familiar rumble ensues, the field prepares for another drenching shower. I am reminded once again of how unpredictable the pursuit of growing food really is. As neighbor farmer Jack said to me the other day, "A dry year will make you nervous, a wet year will kill you." Farmers have always struggled with the uncontrollable factor of the weather.

I am also aware, looking up at the swiftly moving clouds, that the climate is changing faster than anyone who's ever farmed before has experienced. Global warming doesn't mean that Rochester will get warmer. It might mean more storms, stronger & unpredictable. We will need innovative farming tactics to be able to adapt with the changing weather. As I look into the future of vegetable production (& vegetable eating), I imagine certain practices will be more & more useful to us.

Number one on my list is diversified food plantings. As human beings we can eat a lot of different things-- think about how different the traditional Mexican diet is compared to an Asian diet. (I would like to also hint that Asian diets hardly ever contain tomatoes or potatoes!) As Americans, we like to mix up cuisines often-- this is a good survival skill. This year, for example, we are experiencing a cool, wet summer: perfect for crops like cabbage, lettuce, & beets to thrive in. I even planted artichokes as an experiment-- they are thriving in this Meditteranean-like climate. Maybe next year I will try a whole bed of artichokes! But maybe next year will be hot & dry... guess I won't give up on tomatoes for good.

Learning to cook tasty meals with these different foods (or the abundance of one food) can be challenging. Adapting to a vastly-changing diet requires us to be creative & adventurous in our preparations. Another skill needed is food preservation. Canning. Pickling. Fermenting. Drying. Freezing. I am still opening up jars of homemade heirloom tomato ketchup I made last September with the abundant harvest. If we preserve the surplus of one year, it can help tide us over through meager years. This is a lesson learned long ago, that I feel needs to be resurrected in the face of the approaching uncertainty.

Other practices in agriculture are still in experimental stages, and I will be traveling a little this winter to try to discover more sustainable methods for the future of farming. I think that a movement towards more permanent, perennial plantings of crops is inevitable. Our reliance on big fuel-guzzling machinery can't last forever, and repetitive tilling is not only damaging to the soil, but releases more carbon into the atmosphere. Looking to the future I see more people involved in efficient hand labor on farms, composting playing a key role, and attention paid to creating habitat for beneficial insects & creatures to control pests.

Farming practices such as using genetically modified seeds, harsher chemical sprays, extensive plastic mulch, row cover, irrigation, & high tunnels will probably all increase, although I doubt the long-term sustainability of these choices. While they help us get a larger yield from our crops this year, future generations pay for the consequences of these practices. Farmers have thousands of decisions to make about how they grow their food. I am striving toward a truly responsible practice-- one that may leave a positive impact on the land, instead of just taking from it. Any ideas, comments, or suggestions are welcome.

Recipes:

Crunchy Kale Chips

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Rinse leaves of curly kale, and pat dry with a clean dish towel.
Chop into bite-size pieces.
Mix in a large bowl with enough olive oil to lightly cover the surfaces of all the kale.
Sprinkle in salt to taste. (Or try hot pepper, curry powder, garlic powder, etc.)
Spread on a baking sheet.
Bake for about 10-15 minutes, then stir, and bake for another 10 minutes or so, until crispy!
Kale chips burn easily. Make sure you constantly check them. You don't want soggy, half-crunchy chips-- the ideal texture will snap-crackle-pop in your mouth.
Store in airtight container, as kale chips will quickly re-hydrate in humid weather.
Enjoy.

Roasted Fennel
Cut fennel bulb into 1/4" slices. Mix with plenty olive oil & salt.
Spread on a baking pan & bake for about 30-40 minutes on 350 degrees, or until tender.

Cabbage recipes from the winners of the Great Cabbage Cook-Off Contest:
Thanks for participating!

Sour Cream Cabbage- From Karen Lauder
Melt 3 T butter in skillet & brown 3 cloves crushed garlic. Soften 8 cups finely shredded cabbage in 1/4 cup boiling water (cook on low). Combine 1/2 cup sour cream, 1 T lemon juice, 1 T sugar, 1 egg, 1 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp celery seed-- beat together & stir into cabbage, & heat through.

Cabbage Rolls- From Mary Kay Parrone

Filling- Mix together:
1 1/2 lb ground beef
1 egg
3/4 cup breadcrumbs
1 large chopped onion
1 large green pepper
2 T Worcestershire sauce
1/4 cup ketchup
1 1/2 cups cooked rice (brown)

Sauce- mix together:
1 can tomato sauce
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 tablespoons cider vinegar
salt & pepper to taste
2 t onion flakes

Take one head of cabbage, blanch to soften, and remove leaves. Roll about 1/2 cup meat mixture in cabbage leaf, place in 9 x 13 pan. Pour sauce over rolls, dot with butter if desired and bake 1 1/2- 2 hours at 350 until tender.

My friend suggested that you use the large outer leaves to cover the rolls before you put the sauce on-- she said this keeps the rolls from burning and the leaves can be discarded. I bake them covered for half the time (foil) and uncovered the rest of the time.

Apple Coleslaw

Ingredients:
Salad
6 cups chopped cabbage
2 unpeeled red apple, cored & chopped (I used Braeburn)
2 unpeeled granny smith apple, cored & chopped
2 carrots, grated
1 cup finely chopped red bell pepper
4 green onions, finely chopped

Dressing
2/3 cup mayonnaise
2/3 cup brown sugar
2 T lemon juice, or to taste

Directions:
In a large bowl, combie cabbage, red apple, green apple, carrot, red bell pepper, and green onions. In a small bowl, mix together mayonnaise, brown sugar, and lemon juice. Pour dressing over salad.

Serves 8-10

Did you know that you can eat beet greens? Beets & Swiss Chard are actually the same exact plant-- each bred for different uses: beets for the root, chard for the leaves. Thus, anything you can do with swiss chard you can do with beet greens! You can even chop up the stems finely & add to whatever you're cooking.

You say potato...

2009-07-22T20:01:00.000-07:00

The sun tried its hardest to make us believe it really is summer for the past week, but today turned again-- cool & rainy. We just got 1 1/2 inches of rain last night. Which is great for most of the vegetables in the field-- they had been getting a bit thirsty so I had started irrigating again. But the tomatoes aren't happy at all. In fact I think I heard them groaning as the storm clouds approached. Moist, overcast days are exactly what tomato plants fear most-- because it leaves them very vulnerable to fungal infections. Like Phytophthera infestins (Late Blight).

The Cornell Cooperative Extension expert was out at the farm last week. My tomato plants have Late Blight & Early Blight... and the potatoes have Late Blight too. Early Blight is something that most tomatoes get and deal with-- it kills them slowly, yellowing the lower leaves first-- and you can still harvest a bit. But Late Blight apparently moves quicker. A farmer who had it on his tomatoes a few years ago said that his plants just melted, and he lost the whole crop.

The expert suggested I spray Potassium Bicarbonate, which is organic & basically like baking soda-- it dries out the leaves so that the spores of the blight cannot spread as quickly. So I bought a backpack sprayer & tried it. It takes a long time to spray 1200 feet of tomatoes, and another long time to spray 1200 feet of potatoes. And there's not even a guarantee that it will work.

So what does all this mean for CSA members of Mud Creek Farm? Well, we'll start with potatoes. You will get plenty of early "new potatoes" but maybe not as many storage potatoes.

"New Potatoes"
Immature potatoes harvested during the spring or summer are called new potatoes. New potatoes are not a separate variety of potato, but younger versions of other varieties. We are harvesting most of our potatoes early because it is uncertain when the Late Blight will take the plants down! And because they're so delicious...

The skin of new potatoes is generally thinner and flakier than the skin found on older potatoes. For this reason, new potatoes are rarely if ever peeled before cooking. Restaurants and cafeterias use special machines with rotating abrasive wheels to remove some of the peels from new potatoes, but home cooks may just want to wash the new potatoes thoroughly and keep them unpeeled.

New potatoes can be stored at room temperature, but because they have not been cured, they won't last as long as regular potatoes -- several days instead of several weeks. When refrigerated, the starch will begin to convert to sugar, so if they're chilled for very long they'll taste sweet. Make sure you always store potatoes out of direct sunlight, because they will turn green, become bitter & inedible.

Because new potatoes are very small in size, they are well-suited to boiling and roasting. Boiled new potatoes retain their shape and texture, and can be seasoned to match the overall tone of the meal.

Steam new potatoes in a tightly closed pot until they are tender enough to be pierced with a knife, about 12 minutes. While the potatoes are cooking, beat together 2 tablespoons softened (not melted) butter and some chopped onions or scallions and herbs (parsley and savory are particularly good). When the potatoes are cooked but before they cool, toss them in the herb butter and stir to coat well. Serve hot.

Okay. Now the tomato report. A few of them are starting to ripen, very very, very slowly. The brown spots of the blight are jumping from leaf to leaf, and will soon be on the stems. Some of the flowers are turning brown & falling off. If we get a few tomatoes harvested, they probably won't keep more than a few days before they also start turning brown. Is this stuff pretty depressing?
I think so-- tomatoes are pretty great. A tomato-less summer seems dismal. When I start getting sad about it, I think about all the other crops we're growing here that are completely healthy and in fact incredibly bounteous!

Watermelons & canteloupes are as big as softballs right now, cucumbers are loaded with flowers & inch-long fruit, eggplants are growing quickly & look very healthy, peppers are coming in very soon-- green sweet peppers & hot peppers (red comes later), beans both green and purple, summer squash kicking out tons of zucchinis, yellows, and UFO-shaped patty pans, beets rolling in from all corners of the field, bunches of carrots popping out really soon, and sweet corn? Yes! I planted sweet corn. Kind of an experiment-- we'll see how it goes. The stalks look healthy and I saw a tassell yesterday. And did I mention the onions? Oh boy, we have some onions. Big onions. Hopefully all these sweet summer offerings will more than fill the void that the tomatoes have left.

Being part of a CSA farm means that you get to swing along with the ups and downs of a growing season which is entirely dependent on the local weather-- sometimes one crop will suffer and another will benefit. That is why I am growing 45+ kinds of vegetables-- kind of a buffer against things like the Irish Potato famine. I hope that you all have been exploring the creative joys of cooking these myriad veggies! Thanks,
-Farmer Erin

July crop report

2009-07-15T19:17:00.000-07:00

Summer greens abound! The Red Russian Kale shows its glory in the early evening sunlight, while colorful Swiss Chard stalks glow nearby. This field radiates health.

Pick-your-own edible flowers are starting! My favorite is Borage, a small blue star-shaped flower that tastes like cucumber. There are also spicy nasturtiums & bright calendula.
And the peppers are not far off... I found a green pepper 5" long already!
These fields of broccoli were tilled in, along with the sugar snap peas, radishes, turnips, and spring greens. We are now approaching summer crops! (Are you ready for green beans?)
And the onions are sizing up really fast, because of all this rain we've been getting. They are delicious, too.