Monday, November 23, 2015

FALL CSA Newsletter ~ Week 4

Happy greens after last nights heavy frost!
So here we are at week 4, the last week of our Fall CSA and week 24 of our CSA season.  We really are not sure where the last 24 weeks of harvesting have gone and the farm is going to be rather quiet come next week!
This November we have been blessed with amazing weather. Even with the very heavy -8 frost we woke to this Monday morning! We are delighted to have been able to put so many more fresh greens into the Fall CSA box this year compared to last.



Renewal letters and registration forms for 2016 have now been sent out for next years main season CSA.  Bulk boxes will be available as of next week.  Please remember there is no weekly, bi weekly or monthly commitment to these, you can order them as needed.


A huge Thank You from Michael and I to all our CSA members for an amazing season and for allowing us to be the farmers who have nourished you and your families this year.

This weeks basket:
Potatoes - This soup is great as you can use any of your root vegetables! Putting down roots soup.
Patatas bravas
Cream of potato and turnip soup
Skordalia
Slow cooked oxtails with carrots and potatoes
Onions
Carrots
Garlic
Kalettes - Yes they are back by demand! I think we had better keep these on the growing list for next year! Remember you can freeze the kalette buds and leaves.  We have also found them great for teething puppies as they love the stalks!
Parsnips - Parsnip and carrot cake
Pac choy
Turnips - It will depend on how the weather goes this week! It will either be Hakurei (the white ones) or golden turnips.
Braising greens - One of our CSA members said steaming the braising greens made them very sweet and tender.
Leeks
Spinach
Asian greens - This will all depend on the weather and how they all hold in the hoop house to which varieties head out into the boxes.  All the Asian greens can be eaten raw, steamed, stir fried or added into a potato hash or a frittata.


Monday, November 16, 2015

FALL CSA Newsletter ~ Week 3

We have had high winds, rain and cold days but are feeling lucky that we are still able to harvest lots of fresh greens from the field. 
Last Tuesday morning we planted the last of the garlic so the official count is 6000 cloves.  We would never have achieved this if it had not been for the help of three of our CSA members who helped with this epic task we set ourselves at the end of last year. 
We are still digging out root crops from the field and we have a rather full root cellar at the moment!  Clearing of the field continues which is making for some very happy pigs and chickens.
Seed catalogs have started to arrive and planning is well under way for the 2016 season.  






While the weather continues to be in our favour you will notice a lot more greens again in this week's basket.
This week's vegetable basket:
Potatoes - Parsnip and potato cakes
Onions
Pac Choy - Steamed pac choy
Carrots - These carrots are still coming fresh out of the ground and most of them do not need peeling. Just give them a wash and eat away!
Parsnips - Parsnip puree
Hakurei Turnips - These are fresh and sweet, best eaten raw but you can cook them.
Leeks - Leek and sundried tomato frittata.
Braising Greens
Kale
Bekana - Can be eaten like lettuce, used for wraps or added to stir-fry
Radicchio or Escarole - Chargrilled radicchio
Spinach

Monday, November 9, 2015

FALL CSA Newsletter ~ Week 2

I think we can all say last week's Indian Summer was lovely. It was so nice to be able to put a t-shirt back on and take the beanie off for a few days!  We had a heavy frost last night but all the tender greens and sweet turnips are still looking really good under the floating row covers.
Field clearing and storing of root vegetables continues and the pigs are loving all the trimmings that they are getting.
Thank you to several of our CSA members who arrived at the farm with their pumpkins from Halloween.  The pigs loved the sweet treat.  If anyone else has pumpkins on their doorstep the pigs would be more than happy to take them off your hands! 








This weeks vegetable basket:
Onions
Sweet potatoes
Pac choy - Steamed Pac Choy
Pac Choy with chicken broth
Carrots - Carrots with garlic
Alpine Daikon radish
Hakurei Turnips
Kalettes - We love seeing everyone get so excited about the kalettes so they are back again this week!
Kohlrabi - Braised carrots and kohlrabi
Chinese cabbage - You can use your Chinese cabbage or pac choy for this recipe Chicken with chinese leaves
Braising greens - The braising green mix has a medley of kales, collards, choys and mustard greens.  You can eat these raw, sauteed or braised.
Escarole - If you head back to the Week 20 CSA Newsletter you will find more recipes for Escarole. Escarole and Bacon!

Tuesday, November 3, 2015

FAll CSA Newsletter ~ Week 1

Daikon Radish
Here we go with week 1 of the Fall CSA. For us it is week 21 of providing vegetables to our CSA member families! 
This is our second year of running a Fall CSA for the month of November. We do not provide as many weekly baskets as our main CSA as we are still seeing how far we can push the growing season to be able to provide fresh greens along with root crops for the boxes over the next four weeks.
After last weeks 2" of rain in 24 hours it left the field rather boggy and muddy! 
We continued with harvesting vegetables for storage.  Last week we harvested all the celeriac, swede and watermelon radish, we are just about to start on the carrots and parsnips.  
For more recipe ideas please remember to look through our past newsletters. 

This week vegetable basket:
Cauliflower or Broccoli
Sweet Potatoes
Onions
Pac Choy
Carrots
Daikon Radish - We love Daikon radish! If you have the time read this great link from the 'the kitchn' on why daikon radishes deserve more love!  Daikon can be added to Asian soups, roasted, pickled, made into kimchi or just eaten raw in a slaw or salad.
Roasted Daikon radish, carrots and sweet peppers
Daikon carrot salad.
Overnight daikon radish pickles.
Hakurei Turnips - Are amazing eaten raw or you can turn them into a nice curried soup or even roast them.
Sauteed Hakurei turnips with braised greens
Roasted Hakurei turnips
Honey glazed hakurei turnips with apples
Kalettes - After everyone going mad over the kalettes last week they are back on the menu for this week.  Please see last weeks newsletter on how to deal with the kalette trees you will be receiving this week!
Spinach - This weeks spinach is from the field and not the hoop houses.  Make sure you give it a good wash when you need to use it.
Kohlrabi
Radicchio - The frost has sweetened these so you can eat them raw, roasted and turned into a warm salad, or added to soups and stews. 
Lettuce

Tuesday, October 27, 2015

CSA Newsletter ~ Week 20

Here we are at week 20 and the final week of the main season CSA.  Garlic planting has commenced at the farm with the thanks to several of our CSA members that have been out to help crack bulbs and plant cloves.  As of Tuesday afternoon we have 4800 cloves planted and we are aiming for 6000!

A huge "Thank You" from us both to all our CSA member families for your support this year.  We hope you have enjoyed the bounty of the last 20 weeks as much as we have growing it for you and your families.  Don't forget to fill out your CSA survey.  It should only take about 5 minutes to answer the 10 questions and we do appreciate all your feed back on the CSA this year.  
Thank you for allowing us to be the farmers that have fed your families this year and we look forward to doing it again next year.  

 

This weeks vegetable basket:
Potatoes - Kale and anchovy spuds
Kale
Onions
Leeks - Remember just slice them and freeze them for winter stews and soups
Chicken and leek stew
Garlic
Carrots
Celeriac - Cumin roast celeriac and parsnips
Escarole - This is the first time we have grown this and we are rather excited to be cooking with it this week! According to the Kitchen we should be dropping the lettuce and using escarole instead.
Escarole and Bacon
Instead of using sausage you could make some nice Berkshire pork meatballs! Italian sausage and escarole stew.
Escarole and bean soup
Martha Stewart escarole recipes.
Cabbage - The 10 best cabbage recipes.
Herbs - We have thyme again this week.  If you would like to dry it, place in a brown paper bag, once the leaves are dry store them in an airtight jar. Please remember in your survey to add any other herbs you would like to see us grow at the farm next year.
Kalettes - Yes they are odd looking but they taste great! We pinched the tops out of them this year which has created this huge amount of leaves to eat on the top and tiny little bumps on the bottom to pick off and eat.  You can eat these like Brussel sprouts, they are great in a stir fry, roasted with other vegetables, saute with garlic, onions and a little bacon. 
Swede - Nigel Slater's swede recipes
Roasted swede with Parmesan
Swede and coconut daal

Tuesday, October 20, 2015

CSA Newsletter ~ Week 19

The first heavy frost hit the farm this weekend! All the tender vegetables were covered with floating row covers to keep them protected over the very cold nights and so far all is looking good under the covers.









This weeks basket:
Sweet potatoes - Just in case you are running out of ideas of what to do with your sweet potatoes here are 45 delicious and healthy sweet potato recipes
Garlic
Onions
Lettuce

Sweet Peppers - We promise this is the last week! We have had a bumper crop this year and just before the heavy frost we harvested the last of them for this season.
Parsnips - They are not huge but we do have parsnips fresh out the ground after the two heavy frosts this weekend.  At this stage you can just give them a good scrub and not bother to peel them.
Sage - It did get a little frost damage but not much, to dry your sage hang upside down in a paper bag in a cool dark room.  Once dry crunch the leaves into pieces and place in an air tight jar.
Watermelon Radish
Asian Greens




Tuesday, October 13, 2015

CSA Newsletter ~ Week 18


When the trees start to turn at the farm that is when we feel like Fall is finally here!
As ever the market garden has kept us both busy this week along with all our animals!
Three little pigs actually three very large pigs left for the abattoir along with 25 turkeys on Friday for Thanksgiving and the last batch of our pasture raised chickens left this morning.






This weeks baskets
Cauliflower - Cauliflower and chickpea curry
Sweet Peppers
Lettuce
Kale - Ribollita is a great soup. This is the recipe we use but I add home made tomato sauce, rather than plum tomatoes and we use fresh beans. For the greens you can add this weeks kale, or use up last weeks Chinese cabbage, whatever you choose to use it is great for dinner and even breakfast. Hugh's Ribollita.
Radish - This week we have Alpine Daikon radish, they are slightly smaller than the traditional daikon that we grow.
What to do with Daikon radish
Root Vegetable latkes
Ginger carrot daikon radish salad.
Tomatillos - We started to clean out our second hoop house and found some more ripe tomatillos.  To get the best of their flavour and sweetness roasting is the best way to use them unless you are making salsa.  At this time of year we even like to make soup or a stew with them.
Pork and Tomatillo Stew, Exchange the potatoes for sweet potatoes and you can use any cut of pork for this stew.
Tomatillo and sweet potato soup
Golden turnips - We grew these for the first time last year and everyone loved them! Seed orders went in this year and the seed company forgot to tell us they would not be having any seeds due to crop failure! Panic set in as we could not find them in North America! Thankfully my big sister came to the rescue and found the seeds. She sent them to us just in time for them to be seeded.
These turnips can be eaten raw, turned into a yummy curry soup or you could try one of the following:
Ginger glazed turnips
Roast turnips with Parmesan and thyme
Beets - Gill Meller's beetroot soup
Sweet potatoes - Warm vegetable curry
Curried Sweet potato soup 
Asian Greens - This week is green wave mustard greens.  These are great cooked or eaten raw.
Herbs - Parsley the easiest way to preserve parsley is to remove the stalks place in a freezer bag and freeze, then just add to soups and stews as needed.
Kohlrabi - They are small but prefect! We lost all our storage kohlrabi this year to rot due to so much rain after transplanting so we did a re-seed and under the covers this weekend we discovered some small but prefect kohlrabi to harvest. Do remember you can eat the leaves in stews, kohlrabi is great raw added to salads or a daikon radish dish or can be roasted with other root vegetables.
Help yourself to hot peppers - This will be the last week of hot peppers so take what you need! 

Monday, October 5, 2015

CSA Newsletter ~ Week 17

High winds, over 1and 1/2" of rain in two days, two very patchy frosts, Nigella the pig farrowed and we are just waiting for Ina, Fleur and Tilly moved in with Cosmo, a week of harvesting vegetables, clearing the field, prepping for garlic planting and getting the greenhouse and hoop house ready for winter greens, mixed in with a little bit of puppy training seems like a normal week at the farm!

 



This weeks vegetable basket:
Potatoes - Three winter potato recipes including pan haggerty!
Sweet Peppers
Swede/Rutabaga/Turnip - Everyone seems to have a different name for this! Sadly the swede's this year are not going to be as large as last! Due to the aphid attack it has caused the roots to be more long and skinny.  So you may find over the last weeks of the CSA you may end up with two!
Swede, leek and apple bake
Beans - We love making Ribollita.  Most recipes call for canned beans but we always use fresh.  For the greens you can use anything from napa cabbage, to kale or even your radish tops. 
Asian greens
Lettuce
Celeriac - This warty nobly ugly vegetable is amazing! Has a mild celery taste to it.
Celeriac Crisps 
Celeriac and potato mash 
Spiced celeriac soup 
spiced celeriac with lemon 
Watermelon radish -   We love these radishes at the farm. They have a nice bite to them and can be eaten raw or cooked.  As this article states which includes recipes 'if Cinderella were a vegetables she would have been a Watermelon radish'! don't forget to use the tops Radish top soup and slow roasted radish.




Cauliflower - cauliflower crust pizza
Chinese/Napa Cabbage 
Spinach or Arugula
Herbs - This week it will be thyme.  If you want to dry it just place in a brown paper bag for a few weeks.  Once the leaves are dry just run your fingers down the stem to remove all the leaves and store in a jar.

Tuesday, September 29, 2015

CSA Newsletter ~ Week 16

The sound of rain filling our cistern on Monday is always a lovely sound! As we sat with our coffee feeling a little sleep deprived after one of your farmers spent over 20 hours in a car driving to collect our newest edition to the farm, and the other farmer has been getting up at 2am the last two mornings to do pee breaks for an 8 week old puppy.  But finally after a very long wait for this little man, Louie is at the farm and everyone is getting used to the newest edition!!!
Apart from puppy news we are getting the field ready for winter and about to start breeding the goats for next years kids.









This weeks vegetable basket:
Potatoes - cheesy bubble and squeak cakes
Sweet peppers - sweet pepper, yoghurt and harissa soup
Cauliflower - curried Cauliflower Soup
Carrots - Harira
Turnips - We did these turnips in the spring.  They can be eaten raw cooked or even added to your curried cauliflower soup.
Beans
Asian Green - Golden Frill is this weeks green,  eaten raw in a salad or tossed into roasted or mashed potatoes towards the end of their cooking time.
Lettuce
Broccoli - Wok- fried sirloin with broccoli and leeks.
Garlic
Onions
Leeks - Welsh Cawl
Help your self to hot peppers.

Tuesday, September 22, 2015

CSA Newsletter ~ Week 15

Autumn officially arrives tomorrow and you can certainly feel it in the air! Toques have been back on the last few mornings and we are making sure the floating row covers are ready to protect our more sensitive crops as the nights get colder.








This weeks basket:
Onions
Sweet peppers
Sweet potatoes - Sweet Potato and Peanut Rosti You could swap the peanut butter out for any type of nut butter.
Cauliflower - We are hoping to have enough for everyone this week, if not it will be two broccoli as our second planting has caught up with our first! Which means we have lots of broccoli that needs harvesting! Spiced Cauliflower
Broccoli - Tandorri Broccoli or Broccoli Walnut Rarebit
Kale - Turksish Tahini Greens You could also add the Bekana to this as well.
Cabbage - This week it will be either Savoy, red or green cabbage. Brasied savoy Cabbage Warm red cabbage with walnuts and blue cheese. Hock and Cabbage
Beans - Summer beans with Basil
Asian Greens - This week it is looking like another round of Bekana.  You can stir fry this or use it as a warp or even eat raw in a salad. Chilli Soy Greens
Lettuce
Garlic
Herbs - This week it will be Thai Basil, great in curries or pesto.  If you want to save the basil for winter pick the leaves off, place in the food processor with a little oil and blitz.  Then freeze in an ice cube tray.
Beets - Beetroot cake
Hot Peppers -As ever help yourself.  We do not include this in your box as not everyone enjoys heat.

Tuesday, September 15, 2015

CSA Newsletter ~ Week 14

Another hot and humid week but thankfully the weekend brought some much needed rain.
Last week we had our own back to school science assignment to complete for Grade 2/3 students at Queen Elizabeth P.S  Belleville.  They are looking at different soils so we selected four samples from our farm.  Two from the field and then two samples of the different certified organic potting soils we use for starting and potting up our seedlings.



This weeks vegetable basket:
Onions - These are not our long term storage onions but they will store for a while in a cool, dark spot.
Broccoli - How about a slow baked broccoli frittata.
brocco leaves and sweet potatoes
 Brocco Leaves - I think these are one of our new favourite vegetables! We used them in dishes where we would normally put chard or kale, they went into stir fry's and quiches as well as a few vegetable smoothies.
Sweet potatoes - These where dug on Monday so they are not cured.  They will still last for a while in a brown paper bag in a cool dark spot.  Don't put them in the fridge! Sweet potatoes can be roasted, boiled or fried.  We like to make a meat crust quiche but I also like the sound of this cassoulet.

meat crust quiche.
Lettuce - We had hoped to do lettuce every week but last week Mr Skunk thought he would help us with our turf grub problem which was really nice but sadly he dug up 100+ transplants of lettuce and tossed them aside!! 
We are reseeding just to see if we can get a few more for the end of the season and the Fall boxes.
Sweet peppers - Stuffed peppers.





Cauliflower - This was a surprise to see these ready for picking on Monday, must have been the rain!! Cauliflower Stilton soup.
Beans
Tomatillos - You can make a Mexican Salsa Verde with your tomatillos this week. I like to roast mine rather than boiling them.
Eggplant - Last week for these. 
Melons - We never thought we would make four weeks of melons but they held on!
Micro greens - micro greens in your box are not something that will sit in the fridge for long.  They are great to garnish a salad or a sandwich but do make sure you use them within the first few days of receiving them.
Cherry Tomatoes - Summer is trying to hold it will be a pint of cherry tomatoes for everyone this week!
Hot Peppers - Help yourself as usual!

Monday, September 7, 2015

CSA Newsletter ~ Week 13

The heat has continued over the last week and we have had some amazing foggy mornings at the farm. 
The sprinklers have been running every night and we continued to labour on labour day by harvesting vegetables and unloading the second wagon of hay for the goats for winter.




This week vegetable basket:
Zatar bazaar
Carrots - If you did not try last weeks carrot salad we highly recommend it!
Beans - Roasted green beans with zaatar replace the sumac with cumin.
Broccoli - Toasted broccoli with sesame, garlic and soy sauce
Sweet Peppers 
Leeks - Kale and potato cakes just replace the kale with your broccoleaf!
Lettuce
Tomatoes - This might be the last week of tomatoes, we have had a good crop this year even with all the pests and disease. We are pleased with the amount we have been able to harvest for the CSA and we hope you have enjoyed them!
Pac choy - Ginger and garlic pac choy stir fry.
Eggplant - Lazy brinjal bhajis.

BroccLeaf - Our friends at McFadden Acres did this for their members and we thought it was a great idea! The plants have such amazing leaves on them it always seems such a shame they are left behind.
So this week we are introducing you all to BroccoLeaf! Will it be the next super food?  Who knows? The link does provide some great recipes along with this one that McFadden Acres shared with us!
Broccoli and Rice au Gratin 
1/4 cup butter, 1 small onion chopped, 2 garlic cloves finely chopped, 1/4 tsp thyme, 1 cup long-grain rice, 1 tbsp all-purpose flour, 1 1/2 cups chicken broth, 1 cup chopped broccoli(I added extra broccoli plus 2 big brocco leaves or kale chopped) 1 cup (250 mL) milk 2 tbsp (30 mL) grated Parmesan cheese 1 tsp (5 mL) grated lemon zest Crumb Topping: 1/2 cup dried bread crumbs, 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese, 2 tbsp melted butter, 2 tbsp chopped fresh parsley (optional) Preheat oven to 375 °F (190 °C). In a large skillet sauté onion and garlic in butter for 1 minute over medium heat. Add thyme, rice and flour, stirring for 1 minute. Pour in chicken broth, stir and bring to a boil; cook for 1 minute. Remove from heat. Stir in broccoli, milk and Canadian Parmesan cheese. Mix well and pour into a buttered 6-cup casserole dish. Cover and bake for 35 minutes or until tender. Meanwhile, to make crumb topping, toss together all ingredients; set aside. Remove casserole from oven. Stir in lemon peel and sprinkle with crumb topping. Broil for 1 to 2 minutes or until golden. Serve immediately.
Potatoes
Melon - It will either be a watermelon or cantaloupe.
Hot Peppers - Help yourself!

Monday, August 31, 2015

CSA Newsletter ~ Week 12

Turf grubs!
The heat is back on this week and we are feeling a little thankful for it as it is helping to ripen our melon crop at last!  Sprinklers are back on the market garden and we are in the middle of clearing out our seeding greenhouse to transplant a few winter greens into.  We will shortly start work on our tomato hoop houses as well.




This year among other things we have had a huge problem with turf grubs! Lucky for us the chickens find them a great protein treat!










This weeks basket:
Potatoes - potato flat breads
Sweet Peppers
Tomatoes - We are hoping to get you each a quart of field and a quart of cherry tomatoes again.
Eggplant - Eggplant stir fry and you can replace the spinach with your Asian greens!
Cucumbers - Cucumber and melon cooler!
Asian Greens - This week we have Bekana,  light green with a slight peppery taste.  Can be eaten raw or cooked.
Lettuce
Carrots - This salad will be on my list to make this week! Zatar bazaar!
Onions
Leeks - If you are not in the mood to eat leeks with this heat you can just slice them place in a Ziploc bag and freeze.  If you do want to cook them how about char-grilled leeks!
Melons - We are starting to pick our cantaloupe melons. If we do not have enough this week then you may find a watermelon in your baskets instead!  The cantaloupes are ripe so don't leave them too long before you eat them.
Zucchini or beans - The zucchini and currant bean patch are both slowing down.  We are going to start the week with zucchini and if we do not have enough for the whole week we will move into beans.  We will have beans again in a few weeks.
Hot peppers - we do not include these as part of your box so take what you need!

Monday, August 24, 2015

CSA Newsletter ~ Week 11

Weed free parsnip bed
We have had another mini heat wave along with more rain this last week.  Some things are loving the weather some things are not and we are dealing with a few things that we have not dealt with before due to the weather this year!
This newsletter is a note of caution for those of you who grow your own gardens!! More and more people are becoming more aware of wild parsnip.  We have had our own experience with this over eight years ago, Michael got burnt by this plant on his arms and legs so we have always been very cautions of it.  Now we are being more cautions of our parsnips for eating! A week Saturday I spent most of the day weeding our parsnips being very careful (but not careful enough) and within 24 hours I started to get blisters on my wrists. They had been caused by the parsnip sap (in conjunction with sunlight) when I had been placing my arms between the leaves to pull weeds! So for anyone who is weeding their own parsnips long sleeves and gloves are recommended!!

blisters caused by parsnip weeding!!














This week Vegetables:
Onions
Sweet peppers - Ina Garten's Spanish Tapas peppers
Tomatoes - 1 quart field and 1 quart cherry tomatoes. (Thank you to everyone who are returning their tubs please keep bringing them back!)
Eggplant - Roasted eggplant slices is a great base for any topping! Pre heat oven to 450. Slice the eggplant to about 1/4" then place on a cookie sheet lined with tin foil. Melt some coconut oil and brush onto the eggplant then roast in the oven till cooked. Crispy and golden if possible!!
Then top with what ever you like! Our favourite is sauteed onions, seasoned ground pork and then some cherry tomatoes to top it off!
Cucumbers - Cucumber soup
Celery - It is not the best celery we have grown but it is very juicy with all the rain we have had! If you are not a celery lover then just chop into chunks and place into a Ziploc bag in the freezer then you can just add it to winter soups and stews.
Lettuce
Beans - Roasted tomato nicoise salad
Beets - Beetroot gravadlax
Zucchini tacos, roasted pork hock, onions & tomatillo salsa.
Tomatillos - We are not going to have a bumper crop of these.  We know that most have forgotten the very late frost but that frost killed our first planting of tomatillos even though we covered them with two layers of fleece and kept the plants sheltered by the greenhouse.  We did a second seeding, the plants have grown but do not have a lot of fruit on them. 
If you are trying these for the first time they are a Mexican tomato and all you need to do is peel the paper husk from them.  They can be eaten raw or most like to roast them, saute them or make into salsa. Here is a link to 15 delicious ways to use tomatillos.
Watermelon - They are going to be watery for sure, but not sure how sweet they have become as when we compare the temperatures over the last few years we have not had as hot a summer as usual.
Zucchini - We hear the cheers as we say this might be the last week as the patch is really slowing down! Going to miss them if it is!

Help yourself to Hot Peppers.

Monday, August 17, 2015

CSA Newsletter ~ Week 10

From 60mm of rain overnight last Monday into scorching heat over the last few of days it has been another roller coaster weather week!
Thankfully the direct seeding we had done on Monday survived the downpours and has germinated really well.
What has been sad this year is the lack of pollinators at the farm whether it be our honey bees or wild ones. We have seen a huge decrease this year, more than any other year at the farm.  So we have some crops that are slow to produce or are just not producing at all! We are hoping to have watermelons next week but we are not going to have the bumper crop that we had last year.

Thank you to all our members who have been returning the tomato and potato tubs please keep them coming as it allows us to reuse them and fill them up with more vegetables for you!






This weeks vegetable line up is:
Lettuce
Onions
Zucchini - Made this over the weekend and it was amazing
Zucchini Hummus
1 zucchini chopped into chunks,
2 TBSP of tahini
1 clove of garlic
1/2 tsp of salt
Extra virgin olive oil
We like a bit of seasoning so I would recommend
1 tsp of cumin
1/2-1 tsp of cayenne or sweet paprika
Place all ingredients into the food processor apart from the oil.  Blitz! You may need to scrape the sides down.  Then slowly pour in the oil 'till you reach a consistancy you like.  We like it thicker over runny so it is maybe only 2 TBSP of olive oil for us.
Sweet peppers - Texas Eggs
Eggplant -
Tomatoes - This week you will receive one quart of field and one quart of cherry tomatoes.
Cucumbers
Beets
Sweet Beetroot and Carrot Salad
  • 225 g beetroot
  • 225 g carrots
  • For the dressing:
  • 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
  • 75 ml olive oil
  • Salt and pepper to taste

    Boil the beetroot in their skins until tender (you can also do this in a glass dish in the microwave). Cool, peel and then chop the beetroot. Peel the carrots and then grate them. Mix the two vegetables together in a dish and then pour the dressing over the top.

    Kale - Kale Caeser
    Carrots
    Beans
    - Beans and Beetroot salad
    Herbs
Hot Peppers - Help your self.

Monday, August 10, 2015

CSA Newsletter ~ Week 9

Fall transplants are flying into the field. We spent Friday transplanting around 1700ft of crops and direct seeded another 700ft! We are also still seeding in the greenhouse for Fall and winter harvest! 

Onion harvest has started at the farm! It has taken 6 months to get to this stage from seeding in flats to spending a few long days on hands and knees transplanting and then the battle of keeping the weeds down! But all the effort has been well worth it this year as it is looking like we are going to have some great onions, once they are cured! 

This weeks box of vegetable goodness!
Lettuce
Onions - This weeks onions are a Spanish variety called Valencia with a mild to sweet flavour.
Zucchini - This is on my try list just need to find something to replace the breadcrumbs Zucchini soft taco shells but they look amazing!
Potatoes - This week we have Onaway again. Do remember these potatoes are fresh out the ground so no need to peel
Eggplant - We made the following recipe over the weekend and it uses both potatoes and eggplant and it was just to die for. Roasted potatoes and aubergines/eggplant!
Sweet peppers - Fried eggs and grilled peppers
Tomatoes - Our field tomatoes are still slow to ripen this year so you will be getting lots of the yummy little tomatoes from the hoop houses.  You could even make a Cherry tomato tarte tatin with them.
Cucumbers - spiced-cucumber
Chard
Carrots
Cabbage - Add a little spice to your cabbage! Spiced Indian cabbage.
Herbs - Parsley

Hot peppers - We never include hot peppers as part of the share, as not everyone shares our enthusiasm for heat! The hot peppers are slowly starting to ripen and we will have a help your self basket at the stand and at pick up locations.  If you want milder peppers then please just ask us about the different varieties.


Tuesday, August 4, 2015

CSA Newsletter ~ Week 8

Cosmo the buck would like to say "Sorry" for the the slight odour that may be in the air! He has said it is not his fault as all the does have come into heat at the same time and what is a boy supposed to do but pee on himself and stand with his head against the fence post and watch!! 

Please remember to return all you boxes the following week that the tomatoes and potatoes come in.








This weeks basket:
Onions
Beets - Beetroot and carrot burgers.
Salad onions 
Tomatoes
Sweet Peppers - Sweet sour pepper tart with basil custard
Basil - Pan bagnat
Lettuce
Potatoes - Buttery herby potato cake
Cucumbers - This recipe will also use some of your salad onions cucumber dill salad
Garlic
Thyme - If you do not want to use it fresh them place into a brown paper bag and leave it to dry and then sore in an airtight jar.
Zucchini - Zucchini and basil soup
Eggplant/Aubergine - Spiced aubergine and tomato or aubergine potato Parmesan gratin

Tuesday, July 28, 2015

CSA Newsletter ~ Week 7

Garlic harvest is nearly done and we have been spending our evenings cleaning, bunching and hanging the garlic to cure which is going slightly faster this year as we have additional help.
Along with Alex's help over the last week, we have to say another BIG THANK YOU to our  CSA members who have been out to the farm on hands and knees and getting stuck in to all the hand weeding. 
Seeding and transplanting continues at the farm and with this hot weather we have been getting over the last few days and possibly for at least another week we are hoping it will help bring on the eggplant, field tomatoes, hot peppers and cucumbers as they are a little slow this year).  Our solar water pump is back up and running and is busy every evening watering in our direct seeding and transplants. 
Alex prepping beds for seeding.

This weeks basket feels like summer is here!
Lettuce
Garlic - For anyone who has not used fresh garlic before please remember it will have a high water content as it has not been cured.  You will also notice that the skins are slightly thicker.  When using fresh garlic you are actually better to add it at the end of cooking rather than at the start as it is more likely to burn.
Salad Onions - Apart from adding them to your salads you could also try these pancakes.
Zucchini - zucchini salad with mint garlic red chilli lemon.
Tomatoes
Thai Basil -  Thai basil has a more peppery and anise flavour to it. Why not try a Thai Basil Pesto
Kale - You can use any type of kale for this pilaf. kale pecan cranberry pilaf. or try this lemon maple kale salad dates almonds
Onions - This week we have some lovely fresh Gladstone onions, they are amazing to cook with.
Carrots - Moroccan carrot salad.
Beans - beans with crispy garlic
Sweet Peppers - You will either have purple, red or light yellow!
Cucumbers - If you get the white ones they are called silver slicer and they will need peeling.The green cucumbers you can leave the skin on.
Eggplant - We are hoping that we are going to have enough for everyone this week.  I have told a few members about a ratatouille recipe we cook and I have managed to find the recipe by Hugh Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall.  That is if you can bare to cook down your tomatoes!

Tuesday, July 21, 2015

CSA Newsletter ~ Week 6

Everyone had been wilting under the heat of the weekend but thankfully the vegetables got a good watering on Sunday evening with the huge storm we had along with the unplanned rain showers this morning just before we started picking!
Alex has rolled up his sleeves and is getting stuck into weeding and harvesting along with helping with animal chores.  He will shortly be helping us with our garlic harvesting and also with some of the Fall transplanting.  Michael and I are also getting used to having an extra set of hands to help with our work load.  
We also have to say a huge THANK YOU to two of our CSA members who put together a 'Canadian" Food Package for Alex which included Butter tarts, maple syrup, Canadian beer and lots of other food goodies. 



This weeks box:
Lettuce
Salad Onions
Fennel - 15 fabulous fennel recipes.
Red Cabbage - Do remember that cabbage will store in a cool dark place if you are not ready to use it this week.
Red cabbage braised with apple bacon and balsamic vinegar
Red cabbage slaw recipe
Beets - How about trying a beet bourguignon
Carrots - We are thinning carrots this weeks so everyone has baby carrots.  They are actually looking really good, so all being well they will be making more of a regular appearance in the vegetable boxes.  Please remember that with carrots this young all you need to do is wash the skins, no need to peel.
Peas - This year has been an amazing season for us for peas.  It is looking like this will be the last week for them.
Beans - Grilled courgette/zucchini tomato and bean salad
Zucchini -You can also grate your zucchini and place into freezer bags and freeze for winter cooking.
Chard -Love this idea of making meatless meatballs with your left over greens!
Basil
Tomatoes - The hoop house tomatoes are starting to ripen, so we are excited to have a small taster in the boxes this week.  Please remember to return your tomato tubs please.

Monday, July 13, 2015

CSA Newsletter ~ Week 5

Wagon seven of hay! Just second cut to go!
It has been all go at the farm over the last week and with the heat arriving, the heat loving crops are starting to take off! We could do with a little bit of rain only because our solar pump has not been happy and we are still waiting for a new pump to arrive! Fingers and toes crossed it arrives sooner rather than later!!







This Friday we will have another Brit joining us at the farm! So another accent for everyone to get used to!  Alex is an agriculture student from the UK and we thought it would be better for him to give you a blurb about himself, so here it is!

"I am a twenty year old agriculture student who is studying for a foundation degree in agriculture in Plumpton, East Sussex.  I have just finished my first year of a two year course and I am looking forward to going back in September.  I am not from a farming background however for the last five years I have worked on a small local farm after completing two years work experience there.  It was working at Hengest Farm that inspired me to pursue a career in agriculture and it has become a real passion of mine.  As well as studying and working I am also a keen member of the National Federation of Young Farmers and I have taken part in in a number of competitions with them such as stock judging and fence erecting.  I am looking forward to my trip to Canada as it will be an amazing opportunity to learn and gain experience in different aspects in farming".



This weeks basket:
Cabbage - 10 different ways to eat Cabbage
Salad onions - Replace your onions with your salad onions
Kale - Kale and chicken salad
Peas
Zucchini - Raw zucchini salad
Beets - One of our CSA members sent me this amazing recipe for beet pesto, kale and goat cheese pizza! We made it at the weekend and it was amazing.  As ever I did make a few modifications as I used what I had rather than buying in other ingredients.  For the pesto I used scapes instead of garlic, pecans instead of walnuts and I replaced the cheese with pumpkin seeds! We did not use mozzarella as we make our own cheese so I just topped the pizza off with cherve. 
You can also use any type of pizza crust for this. We made an almond meal one. The recipe for our Pizza base is - 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.
Lettuce
Kohlrabi
Fennelfennel cabbage slaw or another alternative is to top your pizza off with fennel.  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.
One of our CSA members sent in this recipe for Lemon Fennel Slaw and has given it a thumbs up!
Beans - Just a small amount this week! summer salad with beans, beets and goat cheese.
Chinese Cabbage or Radicchio

Tuesday, July 7, 2015

CSA Newsletter ~ Week 4

Linda weeding the chard bed
The heat has finally arrived which means that haying has started at the farm! 
Always a comforting feeling when you stack hay knowing that you have feed for the animals for the coming winter.  
A huge THANK YOU to Kevin who came out on Monday at 6.30am and helped unload three wagons of hay with us and another THANK YOU has to go out to our members who have been out to weed over the last few weeks it is greatly appreciated.











This weeks basket

Spring Turnips
Radicchio - Our radicchio is long and green we grow this one as it is not as bitter! Here are a few recipes from Martha Stewart!
Roasted Radicchio with White Beans, Figs and Walnuts
Being figs are out it might be a good match the sweetness of them with the bitter and the nice creaminess of the beans should work real nice.
Loosely adapted from Bon Appetit
Serves 4
1/2 pound white beans (such as cannellini or flageolet), soaked overnight in water
1 bay leaf
2 cloves garlic
2 tablespoon olive oil, plus more for finishing
2 heads radicchio, sliced into 2″-thick wedges
1/3 cup caramelized onions (here’ how)
1 teaspoon whole grain mustard
1/3 cup toasted walnuts, chopped
1/3 cup dried figs, sliced
1/2 cup parsley, chopped
Zest of 1 lemon
Drizzle balsamic vinegar
Kosher salt and fresh black pepper
Drain soaked beans and place in a large pot. Cover with fresh water, add bay leaf and garlic cloves. Bring to a boil over high heat, reduce heat to simmer. Cook on low, covered, for about 30 minutes until beans are tender. Remove bay leaf and garlic (you may smash the garlic with the back of a knife and stir into the beans). Season the pot with Kosher salt to taste. Keep warm. Beans can be cooked a few days ahead of time and stored in their cooking liquid.
Heat oven to 450. Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper. Drizzle olive oil over radichio gently toss to combine. Season with a big pinch of salt and pepper and spread out on baking sheet. Roast for about 20 minutes until tender and charred in some places. Set aside.
Drain beans, reserving cooking liquid. In a large skillet, combine beans, roasted radicchio, mustard and caramelized onions. Heat, stirring occasionally and adding spoonfuls of bean cooking liquid to bring everything together. Season with salt and pepper. Transfer to a serving platter or bowl and garnish with walnuts, dried figs, lemon zest and a drizzle of balsamic vinegar and olive oil.
Enjoy warm.
Scapes - These are the last scapes of the 2015 season. You will find at the end of the veg list a recipe for your scapes and parsley that one of our CSA members sent in.
Swiss chard - We cooked this last night and it was amazing! A 10 minute sauteed rainbow chard.  All I did was use my scapes instead of garlic cloves.
Beetroots - Beetroot and Zucchini salad
Kohlrabi
Lettuce
Spinach
Radish
Fennel - Is great eaten raw or cooked.  If you fancy trying it raw here is a great salad recipe which will also use some of your parsley. Fennel black olive orange salad
Parsley See recipe below.
Peas
Zucchini - They are at the baby stage at the moment. 

It is always a bonus when one of our CSA Members is a Chef! A huge thank you to Chef Chris for this recipe:
Aglio Olio
First wash, dry scapes and parsley………put in a food processor and add ¼ cup of olive oil.
Transfer the paste onto plastic wrap.















Roll into a sausage type package.

















Freeze and cut a chunk off to add to pasta before serving or in meatloaf, or in potato salad, or in burgers, or add to your steak marinade…. Etc. Tastes delicious! And you know what’s in it!

Sunday, June 28, 2015

CSA Newsletter ~ Week 3

Well what can we say about last Tuesday! The rain overnight on Monday filled the cistern and flooded our basement.  We got all the shares picked and then at 10.30am the heavens opened for about 30 minutes!
We had directed seeded 400ft of beans the day before, they are doing great and have already germinated.  We are however, a little concerned about the 500ft of carrot seed we planted. Time will tell if they washed away!




We have to store the ladybugs in our fridge!!
We also found we had a lot of aphids on our storage kohlrabi and our rutabaga/swede transplants. So after washing each individual transplant in water we put in a call to the Natural Insect control and purchased 2000 lady bugs. We released them under insect netting which is protecting the crops from the bad bugs in the hope the lady bugs will deal with any remaining aphids.




One of the best tips we can give for using your vegetables is to exchange ingredients for what is in your box.  i.e if you need onions use your salad onions if you need garlic use your scapes, if you are making slaw and need cabbage and carrots then use your napa cabbage and kohlrabi instead. 

This Weeks basket:
Napa/Chinese Cabbage - A few different recipes for your Chinese cabbage 
Radicchio - Our radicchio is not like the traditional red variety, it is large and green! It has a bitter taste to it but I have to say it is in my top ten vegetable list! The following recipes are a great way to cut the bitterness so that everyone in the family will enjoy it radicchio mushroom frittata. grilled baked radicchio
Lettuce
Turnips - Try roasting your turnips,
Radish - You could even roast your turnips and radishes together.
Scapes - We like to freeze some scapes for winter.  Chop your scapes into chunks place them in the food processor with some oil and blitz.  Then place into ice cube trays and freeze.  Then during the winter months these scape cubes can be added into soups, stews or spread over a pizza base.
Beets - Beets can be boiled, roasted on the BBQ Grilled beet burgers, another burger recipe beetroot burgers kale quinoa salad, Don't forget to use the tops as well beetroot braised beet tops
Peas - Hopefully we do not need to give any recipe suggestions for these! Will they make it home even??
Kale - Add it to a lasagna.
Parsley - If you do not want to use your parsley you can place it in a Ziploc bag and put it in the freezer and then just grab out what you need when you need it! Our you can try one of the 10 best parsley recipes.
Spinach 

Don't forget you can post your photos and recipes of your meals on our FB page or e-mail them to us.