Tuesday, July 15, 2014

CSA Newsletter - Week 5

This past week has been filled with lots of rain, rather cold overnight temperatures, birth and stardom! 
The farm has received rather a large amount of rain this past week which is always good apart from Tuesday when it was raining so hard we could not see the other side of the road.  Sadly this rain storm washed out a whole bed of carrots that we had recently seeded.  Don't fear carrots are on the way, the bed we seeded at the start of the season is doing great and the carrots are getting nice and fat and very sweet.  We are just waiting for the field to dry enough to get in our last  few seedings of carrots in.  The field is loving this rain but we do need some warmer overnight temperatures for all the heat loving crops to start ripening.

Our new problem at the farm are rodents in various guises! The chipmunks have taken to digging out our seedings in the greenhouse and replacing them with their own seeds, but our biggest problem as ever are voles! They have been having a rather good munch on our beets again this year.  To protect our sweet potatoes this year I think we are going to run some traps to try and stop them from munching on the tubers.




Last Tuesday our lovely sow Nigella gave birth to a very healthy litter of piglets outside.  We did have a few hours of worrying as when the rain started she was still nursing the little ones, but being the awesome mum she is she rounded up her babies and moved them into the dry and warmth of the barn.


We also have a star at the farm.  In winter we do take on additional work away from the farm.  Last year Michael actually spent a couple of days as an extra on the set of Camp X which was aired last night of the History channel.  He went from being an extra to having a small role in one of the scenes.  I have attached the trailer and Michael is at the end! 
We do ask that you keep autograph requests to   a minimum as before he continues his acting career he does have a farm to run! 





This weeks basket:
Lettuce
Kale
Chard - Why not try chard in a meat crust quiche.
Mix 1lb of ground pork with salt, pepper, chopped garlic and for a little bit of a kick 1/2tsp of cayenne. Take a quiche pan and push the ground pork into the bottom of the pan and up the sides.  Bake the crust for 20 minutes on 375F.  While crust is baking chop the chard and stalks and sautee with olive oil and garlic.  Let the chard mixture rest for 5 minutes and mix in 4 eggs.  Pour chard mixture into the crust and bake for another 25 minutes until the topping is firm.  Serve either hot or cold.
Beets
Fennel - We have been asked again for our fennel pizza recipe so here we go!
Pizza base - 2 cups of almond meal, 2 eggs, 3 tbsp of olive oil, 1/2tsp baking soda 1/2 tsp of sea salt.  Mix the base together.  Wet your hands and then press the base out on a pizza plate.  Bake the base in a 350F oven for 20 minutes or until golden.  Thinly slice the fennel and cook in a little olive oil until soft. You can also add onion and garlic if you wish.  For the sauce we use scape pesto but you can also use tomato or basil pesto.  Spread sauce over base, then fennel season with salt and pepper add your cheese and bake in the oven for another 20 minutes or until cheese has melted.
Zucchini - Yes they are gigantic! All the rain we have had lately seems to have tripled their size.
Thai Basil - 
Peas - You may end up with a mixture of shelling and snap peas.  We are coming to the end of the snap and have just started picking the podding.  The podding peas tend to rattle in their shells.  We are hoping fingers crossed to get one more week out of the pea patch if the shelling peas continue to swell within their pods!
Beans - The first of the beans have been picked and are stunning.  Please make sure if the beans are wet let them dry out on the side before putting them in the fridge, other wise they will end up will little rust spots on them as they don't like to be left in water.
We love beans sauteed with garlic and then add some nice crispy bacon, salt and pepper!
Salad onions - can be eaten raw or used as a replacement for your cooking onions
Arugula

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