CSA Newsletter - Sept. 26, 2020 - Week 16

 

Billy King warming up for this season's Sweet Potato Bowl!

And Keegen makes the catch!

And then we tossed SWEET POTATOES into all of your boxes! Along with...

CARROTS

We had a grated carrot/watermelon radish salad this week - colorful!
We added a miso dressing - tasty!

BEETS

Boiled, baked, roasted or raw! Maybe Borscht weather is coming? 

KOHLRABI

Have you made "kohl" slaw? Martha Stewart has!

WINTER SQUASH - ACORN

Nutty, dry flesh

DAIKON & WATERMELON RADISHES

In stir-fry, salad or soup

Watermelon in color only!

ONIONS

Did you know that inside one in every 3.14 onions is an opinion?

GARLIC

Garlic will keep for months if dry and at room temp.

BEANS - ROMANO OR GREEN

But not yellow!

GREENS - CURLY KALE, TUSCAN KALE OR COLLARDS

STORAGE TIPS: 

Nothing new except the sweet potatoes can stay out of the fridge. If you don't get to them within the week, best to refrigerate them. 

RECIPE IDEAS:

Well you just might feel like eating sweet potatoes this week! We like to simply bake them, either whole or halved (if whole, poke several times with a fork first), and when done, enjoy with a little salt, and (optional) butter or plant-based butter substitute. The skins are very edible and fiber-licious! 

If you would like some basic info on roasting sweet potatoes, this post: How To Roast Sweet Potatoes is very helpful and includes some links to interesting-sounding sweet potato dishes.

We enjoyed a Roasted Root Veggie Medley this week, prepared by Donya Huber, who cooks most of our farm lunches. Donya roasted Butternut Squash, Sweet Potatoes, Potatoes, Rutabaga, Onion, and Garlic.  

She added rosemary, sage, summer savory (and/or thyme), salt, and cooking sherry, and baked it all at 425 for about an hour.  Optional to add butter when serving but we didn't and it really didn't need it. Very hearty, rich and fall-flavored!

Ready for the crew to dig in!

NOTES FROM THE FARM:

We survived last Friday night's sneaky little frost. We covered what we could and ran sprinklers all night on the bean patch and summer squash. It worked! The baby lettuces that we had just planted were on higher ground so they squeaked through. Lettuce is actually fairly frost-resistant, up to a point, but the young seedlings were a bit more vulnerable. Now we and the garden have been enjoying the 70 degree temps this week! And it has been a good week to finish digging the sweet potatoes.

Sweet potatoes are our last crop whose harvest has a beginning and end. When it's time to harvest, it's time to harvest the entire patch at once, as opposed to the bean patches that get picked over and over...and over...and over! So the crew took up the digging forks and went at it with gusto!

Ashleh and Cale in the trenches

Sweet potatoes need to be somewhat surgically removed so that the spuds don't get speared. And sweet potatoes tend to travel underground as they are forming so that's even more reason to be careful while digging.

Edwin and Keegen sifting for spuds

Sometimes they just aren't there

After the sweet potatoes were dug, Kenny King washed them all.

Nice to have warm temps for this watery task!

Now the sweet potatoes are drying before being packed into boxes. 

Can you tell that these are ladders with legs and screen cloth? #tofarmistoimprovise

Everyone loves sweet potatoes! We wish we had room for a whole field instead of a four-row patch (although our diggers are no doubt satisfied with our scale!). We hope you enjoy the samples we are able to add to your boxes and now you know a little more about how sweet potatoes go from dirt to dinner!

Donya loves sweet potatoes too!

HAVE A GREAT WEEK EVERYONE!

CSA Newsletter - Sept. 19, 2020 - Week 15

 

Winter Squash harvest almost complete - photo by Ashleh, who also helped pick them!

WHAT'S IN YOUR SHARE:

WINTER SQUASH! (see above :-) You'll be getting Butternut, the elongated, beige variety mostly in the upper right corner in the photo

BEETS:

Inimitable flavor - sweet and earthy

KOHLRABI

A versatile veggie - raw, stir-fried, or roasted

BEANS - are back! You'll find Romanos and green beans too!

Romano Beans are big, flat, meaty and delicious

ONION

What to say about this humble but essential vegetable?

GARLIC

Another essential!

EGGPLANT

Asian elongated variety - tender and easy to slice

KALE - CURLY

High in Vitamins A, C, and K - along with Folate and Alpha-linolenic acid

 

CILANTRO

I'm an acquired and then addictive taste! Salsa anyone?

TOMATOES

Harvest is slowing - enjoy them while you can!

STORAGE TIPS: Tomatoes, onions, garlic and winter squash: out of the fridge. Greens off beets if you won't get to the beets right away.  Then rinse, drain and store beet greens in plastic or veggie keeper bag in fridge. Same with everything else!

RECIPE IDEAS: In a completely scientific farm taste comparison (test sample of three), roasted beet flavor far surpassed the flavor of boiled beets. This analysis has been corroborated throughout the food blogs of the internet and this one from Tori Avey: Every Day Inspired by the Past for Roasted Beets seemed especially good. Most recipes call for wrapping the beets in aluminum foil, which works fine, but Ms. Avey is removing foil from her cooking and shows how you can achieve the same results with a Dutch oven or oven-proof pan with a cover. We applaud less use of aluminum foil in cooking as well as the appreciation of this delicious and nutritious vegetable! Ms. Avey includes a number of links to roasted beet recipes in this blog post as well - many many uses!

And here's another idea for roasting and using beets: Simple Roasted Beet Relish. And you can garnish with your cilantro!

Kohlrabi also benefits from roasting, although its mild flavor behaves very well in stir-fries as well as, sliced thinly, a raw vehicle for transporting hummus and other tasty dips! Peel first! And according to the link, it's easier to peel kohlrabi if first quartered or halved. The kohlrabis in your shares are from a new patch and very fresh; they still need peeling but the skins won't be very hard to handle.

Butternut Squash is traditionally halved, baked and then used for pie or soup. Another way to prepare it, which we often do on the farm, is to sauté onions and garlic and then add cubes of peeled butternut. But we only make this when we have cooked or roasted beets on hand, for the next step is to slice the cooked beets and add to the softened squash. (If the beets are uncooked they will take too long to soften.) A little apple cider or orange juice can be added to braise the mixture; salt and pepper to taste. A vibrant deep red, sweet and fall-flavored dish!

NOTES FROM THE FARM:

This week we started to dig sweet potatoes and there will be more on that next week when they appear in your share.

Ashleh hauls in a nice "catch"!

Sweet potatoes - washed and curing a bit before heading out in share boxes

We also planted 875 lettuce seedlings this week. Will they make it before freezing temps? Well, we really don't know. Gardening in general is part faith and part folly - the weather will decide which prevails. But if they make it, what a glorious colorful frilly celebration of salad!

They don't look like much now! Lettuce can take light frost so they have some time.

NOTES FROM PASADENA: Okay, what you really want to know is how did our adventurers do on their road trip to Hollywood? 

Camping on the way to Pasadena

The screening of Nomadland went very well, and here's a little clip from the event to give you the flavor of a drive-in premiere. Although Nomadland is based on a work of non-fiction, Ms. McDormand's character was created for the film. Many of the real life nomads were featured in the film and invited to the premiere. In the clip, you will see how van-dwellers applaud!

Nomadland was also awarded the top prize (the Golden Lion) at the Venice Film Festival the same weekend it aired in Pasadena. The incomparable skill of actor Ms. McDormand, the unique talent of rising star director Chloe Zhao, the creative and dedicated team shepherding this project along, and the Frog Holler veggies that cast and crew consumed 😉 all contributed to this project that we will surely be hearing more about as award season nears.

The beginning of the film on the drive-in screen

Freya the farm pup was able to attend the premiere since it was at a drive-in. She did get out of the car to schmooze a little and was a big hit. Maybe she'll be in the next film!

Freya at the "selfie wall" at the hotel

Freya will be at the market truck between 1-2 pm to hand out paw prints.

 Lol - actually she took the whole 5500 mile trip in stride and seems happy to be back at the farm.

Taking the ride in stride!

Thanks for your comments and interest in this project. Ms. McDormand has earned wide respect over the years through her choice of roles and impeccable execution thereof. For Nomadland she has also relied on an accomplished team to bring the project to fruition. Case in point: our own Emily Foley!

Edwin and Emily

Have a great week everyone!

CSA Newsletter - Sept. 12, 2020 - Week 14

 

Say, isn't that Frances McDormand? What's she doing in our CSA Newsletter?

Yes, that is the Oscar winner from the film, Fargo (1996 Academy Award for Best Actress). Ms. McDormand has garnered numerous awards over her illustrious career, including a second Oscar for  Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017 Academy Award for Best Actress), as well as a Golden Globe and a Screen Actors Guild Award for that same role.

So what is Frances McDormand doing in our newsletter? Well the above picture is a "still" from Ms McDormand's latest film, Nomadland, which premieres this Friday, Sept. 11, concurrently at the Venice, New York, Toronto and Telluride Film Festivals. The Telluride Film Festival (TFF), based in Telluride, Colorado, has cancelled its in-person "celebration of film" in favor of collaborating with the other film top festivals to highlight and support some of this unique season's most deserving films.

Thus, Nomadland, one of the more "buzz-creating" films in the festival screenings, is being shown by all four major film festivals, although TFF has opted to show Nomadland in a drive-in premiere at the Rose Bowl, Pasadena CA. So what's all the buzz about? Here is a brief synopsis: Following the economic collapse of a company town in rural Nevada, Fern (Frances McDormand), a woman in her sixties, packs her van and embarks on a journey through the American West, on the road exploring a life outside of conventional society as a modern-day nomad. Based on the book by Jessica Bruder.

And here is the "teaser/trailer": 

And the King brother, Edwin, with his partner Emily, are on the road right now, headed to that very premiere. If you shop regularly at our market stall, you have probably seen Edwin, the tall quiet young man filling the baskets with beans and zucchini. If you have picked up your share at our market stall, it has probably been cheerfully handed to you by Emily. Well Emily has a day job in the film industry, and was a co-producer on the film, Nomadland. She also has a small role in the film, playing the part of “Emily". Her responsibilities as co-producer included making sure paperwork was in order, location scouting, casting, housing, and coordinating many, many moving parts. 

On set with director Chloe Zhao, a cameraman, and Frances McDormand

The film turned out to be a "farmily" affair, as Angie Martin (former Frog Holler intern and long-time Holler Fest chef) and Nick Raterman (Holler Fest chef) catered the film and brought Frog Holler veggies across the country to feed hungry cast and crew. They cooked on the road, converting a rental van into a mobile kitchen.

Nick slinging some hash in the modern-day chuck wagon. 

And Edwin King flew out three times to help with scouting, casting, and driving long distances across state lines.

Edwin scouting locations

And Freya, the big white farmpup, gets to go along on this adventure!

Freya ready to sniff out her own locations in the wild wild west

Nomadland was filmed in the fall of 2018 and winter of 2019. At that time, the Covid-19 pandemic or the devastating California wildfires were not on the horizon. Yet, Nomadland's tale of human resilience in the face of loss, and the healing power of community, could make a vital statement as we look to a future unknown, but most certainly different from what we are accustomed to.

Release date is scheduled for December 4, 2020, although the platform is still TBA. We will most likely send out a short reminder so you will know where to look for it. And we look for Edwin and Emily - and Freya! - to be back at the farm and at our market stall next week after a big adventure.

About the Nomadland's director, Chloe Zhao, these TFF directors say:

“Chloe’s understanding and depiction of the layered beauty of the human experience achieves new heights in Nomadland,” said Telluride Film Festival executive director Julie Huntsinger in a statement. “[Telluride cofounder] Tom Luddy and I believe in her vision and are grateful to unite with our colleagues in Toronto, Venice, and New York to highlight this sensitive and stunning achievement.”

and from the director, Chloe Zhao:

“The American road fascinates me,” Zhao said in a statement. “It’s heartbreakingly beautiful and deeply complicated. I’ve traveled it for many years and always hoped to capture a glimpse of it. I’m thankful to be able to make Nomadland and excited for audiences to join Fern on her adventure.”

And we're glad that Frog Holler could contribute to this creative project. Have a great week and see you at the movies!

CSA Newsletter - September 5, 2020 - Week 12

Heirlooms gossiping. "Did you see those round red tomatoes? Bo-o-ring!"

AND IN YOUR SHARE:

HEIRLOOM TOMATOES!

Heirloom tomatoes have prime real estate at our market stall

RED TOMATOES

Boring Classic! 

SUMMER SQUASH/ZUCCHINI

Hoping our new patch will give us this taste of summer a bit longer

LETTUCE

Snitched a pic from our spring patch

ONION

Probably just one...

CARROTS

Good source of beta carotene, fiber, vitamin K1, potassium, and antioxidants .

BOK CHOY

New patch - young greens

EGGPLANT - NEW - either Asian or Italian variety

Asian elongated variety

Classic Italian variety

SWEET BANANA PEPPERS - NEW

Versatile sweet pepper with tender walls

ARUGULA 

Very tender thanks to the rain!

 

STORAGE TIPS - nothing new. Rinse drain, bag and refrigerate. Except tomatoes!

RECIPE TIPS

One member mentioned she has been braising Bok Choy. Sounds like an excellent plan, especially utilizing our onions, maybe even some eggplant and banana peppers. Braised Bok Choy recipes abound on the internet; these links are two that sounded especially tasty.

The farm kitchen continued canning this week, interrupted only by the lack of canning lids! Apparently everyone who planted gardens in the spring is now preserving their harvest. Amazon promised shipment by October 26 - not helpful. So our smart next door neighbor Sandy went right to the source and was able to order directly from the Ball Corporation, the last word in canning supplies for decades. They might cost a little more, but they are available now.

Ready to pack the jars

Amazon did have available some rather lurid green lids. Maybe on a jar of canned tomatoes for a holiday present?

Also available in blue!

NOTES FROM THE FARM:

Or rather the anagram of "notes" which is "stone". And that's what this section is about! In looking at the photo of the Bok Choy plant, the stones in our soil really show up. 

Deep deposits of rocks and stones are part of the geologic legacy of the Irish Hills, Michigan, where Frog Holler Farm is situated. This area is known for being a "glacial moraine", or, quoting from "The Glacial History and Development of Michigan",  by S. G. Bergquist: MORAINES are long lines of ridges and festoons of hills composed essentially of boulder-clay or till which was dumped from the ice front during relatively long intervals when the backward melting was equal to the forward advance. The rock debris which the ice had scooped off the land in its steady push out from the various centers was piled up along the more or less stationary glacier fronts. Moraines mark the borders of the ice lobes and are characterized by rugged topography and often high relief. 

In laymen's terms, the glaciers were spreading southward, then started retreating (backward melting) as the climate warmed. As the glaciers ground across the land, they scooped up rock debris and then deposited a large portion of it at the glacial fronts. (But doesn't a "festoon of hills" sound rather, well, poetic?)

The glaciers did spread a bit south of Michigan, but the glacial "edge" could have been several hundred miles.

We are grateful to live in the Irish Hills with its "festoons of hills", and dotted with numerous "kettle lakes". (Frequently, in the construction of the morainic areas, blocks of ice broken off from the ice front were temporarily buried under glacial debris. When these blocks finally melted they left depressions in the moraines which became filled with water to form so called “kettles”. Where basins of this type are abundantly scattered through the morainal areas as is the case in the famous Irish Hills south and east of Jackson, the topography is usually described as kettle morainic. - S. G. Bergquist)

It's fascinating to think about the depth of geologic history that lies beneath our feet, but oh those stones beneath our knees! Early American farmers found numerous ways to wrestle with the rocks and stones that were interrupting their tillage and blunting the edges of their tools. A "stone boat" was an early approach to hauling rocks out of the fields. Rocks are dense and heavy; hauling them takes muscle - either from man or beast.

Eric Sloane, famed Americana author and artist, offered this rendering of a stone boat.

Several years ago we enacted a modern version of stone-clearing with a stone boat. It was current, but not much different from Eric Sloane's depiction. We invited friends to join us for a "rock-picking party" and some actually showed up! It was a blustery day in March, but you can easily get warm hauling rocks. A friend had a team of draft horses AND his version of a stone boat. We put them to work!

And here's a better view of the horses demonstrating "horse power!"

There have been many rock-picking sessions over the years - and not always parties. Have we made a difference? Here is a recent photo of that hillside where we concentrate most of the stone clearing attempts.

Still see a few more rocks? Yes it can be disheartening to really try and clear the land of rocks. And across Frog Holler we continually discover piles or even long rows of stones that are obviously the results of clearing attempts. But the stones were here first and they'll be here last. As we kneel in the rows, sometimes we can take a kneeling pad, but most times we have to keep moving and the pad is a bother. So we just move the knee that met with stony resistance and keep weeding. 

The "glacial rubble" of our fields serves as a humbling reminder of the vast geologic drama that has played out before we showed up to plant beans. But plant we do, working with and around what the fields offer, and then sometimes moving them into a big pile!

No glass houses on Frog Holler!

Have a great week everyone - may you meet more stepping stones than stumbling blocks!