Erehwon Farm CSA Newsletter Week 14 of 19  September 12, 2005 Farm Report Another dry, hot period at the farm and we are trying to keep everything alive until the end of the season.  We are getting limited quantities of strawberries, raspberries, and melons – just enough to add a little to the jumbo orders.  We plan to plant more fruit this fall and hope to have some for everyone next season.  Labor has been our constraint for the moment so over the next couple of weeks we will open up a row or two of potatoes for U-Pick if you’d like to get some.  Our volunteers continued to help this week.  Robin Migalla helped liberate our blueberries from the weeds,  Barb Hicks picked an amazing amount of cherry tomatoes, weeds, and herbs, and Sarah Swindle came on Saturday to clear the spent bean plants. We are beginning to work on a plan for next year and one thing to decide is what we should plant that we did not have this year.  So far, our list starts with sweet corn, head lettuce.  If you have any requests for what we should grow, please let me know and we’ll plant some.  We are going to ask for two more acres so we can expand some. From Your Garden This Week Standard shares should include: (subject to change of course)   Lettuce Sweet Peppers Tomatoes: Various kinds.   Potatoes Winter squash Jumbo shares may also include raspberries, strawberries or a melon, kohlrabi Extras:  Pick  3 or 5 for jumbo subscribers plus one herb. Beets Broccoli (if not, will sub spinach) Spinach Spicy salad mix Salsa pack (tomatillos, cilantro, and hot peppers) Eggplant Sweet Peppers Hot peppers Bag of red/brown/orange mini sweet peppers Carrots Red Cabbage Mini Cabbage (2) Kale Chard Summer Squash Gourd – Various shapes and sizes Other items you can ask for this week:  A bag of cooking apples (I’ll try and pick this afternoon if anyone wants some. Also, when we cleared a bean row, I saved the dried bean pods.   If you would like a bag of them, just ask.  They are very small white beans and will take a bit of work to shell them – maybe a job for while watching TV. Herb List Dill(,We have dill heads for pickling. An extra consists of 10 heads and additional heads can be purchased at the rate of 5 for $1.) Regular dill. Basil—regular, lemon, lime, Thai, dark opal (purple with a wonderfully strong flavor)(pesto sized bag available if you ask) Chives, Cilantro, Lemon Balm, Marjoram, Mint—spearmint, Oregano, Parsley—flat leaf or curled,  Rosemary, Sage, Thyme, Winter Savory Pages from Grandma Beth’s Cookbook Pages from Grandma Beth’s Cookbook Okay—potatoes. Tim planted tons, and he has only harvested about 20% of them, so I‘m guessing you will be getting lots these last few weeks. If you haven’t figured it out already, newly dug potatoes are great for boiling and mashing with the skins. (My mom always made us eat the skins of potatoes no matter how they were cooked because she said that all the nutrients were in the skins. I think I remember reading somewhere that this is true. Oh, the agony of having to admit that your mother was right about something!) Serve them with herbed butter. Use chives, basil, thyme, savory, mint, rosemary, or garlic. Or combinations of these. Tim’s Roasted Potatoes Tim cuts the potatoes into smaller pieces, leaving the skins on. He places them in a roasting pan and coats them with olive oil. He adds salt and pepper and maybe other spices.   Sometimes he adds chopped garlic or herbs like chives or dill. Them he roasts them at 375 degrees for a little over an hour. Sometimes he leaves them in a little longer and they get really crispy (which I like, as do other members of my family). Another way to get them crisp is to turn up the temperature to 425 degrees for the last 10 or 15 minutes of the cooking time. (This recipe even works with the potatoes you buy in the grocery store.) Grilled Veggies We had this the other night for dinner and it was yummy. Cut a variety of veggies into pieces. We used summer squash and whole mini bell peppers with stems removed. It would be easy to add onions, strips of large sweet bell peppers, eggplant, or other veggies with similar cooking times. Tomatoes do not usually work well on the grill, although if you were doing a stir-fry, you could add those. Coat generously with olive oil. Grill for 10-15 minutes, or until desired sate of tenderness is reached. We have a specially made pan that has smaller holes in the bottom for grill veggies, but you could improvise one from foil or string the pieces on kebob skewers for grilling. We forgot to bring home herbs that day, so we didn’t add any and it was good just that way. Herbs would have made it even better. Announcements Farm Pickup Times Wednesday Pickup:  Starting Wednesday, September 28, we would like to change the hours to 4-6:30 because it will be getting dark earlier.  If you cannot get to the farm by 6:30, call Beth’s cellphone ( 630-346-1503 )and she will bag you order and leave it in a cooler on the table for you (you can drive right in, get your bag, and continue around the circular drive. Friday Pickup: Since some of our extras, such as herbs, are unsold items from the Friday Farmers’ Market in St. Charles, and Beth gets back to the farm about 2 p.m., if you could come after 2:15, it would help us have time to get everything onto the tables. Farm Day: September 25 An invitation is finally out!  If you have any free time on Saturday, September 24, we could use your help setting up or cleaning up on Monday, the 26th.  If you could bring materials for smores or have access to face-painting supplies, we’d like to hear from you. Beth is offering a discount to subscribers on perennials: 6” pots $4 (6/$20) and 4” pots $2 (6/$10) including herb plants to grow indoors durng the cold months.  Check our web site http: //erehwonfarm.com/I-PlantSale.html for a partial list of perennials.  Delivery subscribers can order by email and we will deliver. Cooking Demo On Friday, September 16th, subscriber/volunteer/energy builder Robin Migalla will show you how to cook kale properly at the Farmers’ Market in St. Charles.  She will cook from 9-10 am or so and can be found at the northeast corner of 4th Avenue and Main (route 64) in St. Charles.   The market is located next to Baker Memorial Church. Leaves:  Remember that this fall we want all your leaves, and your neighbors’ too!  We’ll put them into our compost pile and if we have enough we’ll spread them in the pathways so we won’ t get any mud on our feet if it ever rains again.  If you come after the season, you may be able to harvest something, too. We Get Mail Hi! I've been wondering about these red & white beets, as I'd never seen anything like them. Today I was reading a cookbook and ran across a reference to chioggia beets. I checked out the web, of course, and found this -- You may need to scroll down a bit, but there's even a picture. An heirloom beet! As is common in the computer field, so it is, I guess in the farmer's field -- "That's not a problem, that's a feature!" joe Yep, chioggia’s the name  -- another “feature” from Erehwon.  tf i apologize for not getting out there to get the veggies and flowers. i got stuck downtown and didn't get home until after 8. i hope this did not mess you up. jeff goodwin Jeff, not a problem.  At the end of the day anything we don’t give out to subscribers goes into the van for the Thursday market so nothing goes to waste.  In the future if you know you are going to be late, you can call Beth at 630-346-1503 and she will bag your order and leave it in a cooler and with your flowers on the table.  tf Hi Tim, I was just reading your notes from folks and discovered that you have white beets. I love white beets! Do you have any more and if you do I would really like to have some. They are sooooooo good. I haven't had them since my uncle grew them to sell at the Reading Terminal Market in Philadelphia, PA. I do not need any squash this week as I still have several from previous weeks. I would like somemore eggplant, carrots, chard and bag of re/brown/orange mini sweet peppers. Oh and a cuke if you have any. If not that's okay. I am interested in the herb plants and will look on your site and hopefully let you know tomorrow. Thanks, Susan Voigt White beets, hmmm…I don’t think we planted any white beets but I did see something that looked like a white one in the load I picked last Friday.  It is possible that it was a big radish or something that got mixed in with the beet seeds.  I’m stumped.  tf Hi Tim, The other day I found a little worm on my lettuce, and it made me smile. You see, this is LIFE! And finding living things among my vegies just confirms that they support life At the grocery store where things are so neat and pretty, there's not a living thing to be found. Makes me wonder. Another thing I realized was how much I love getting my veggies minus those stinkin' little stickers with the numbers on them. Okay, enough dribble. This week for extras, I'll take two pounds of sauce tomatoes (they're AMAZING baked at 375? for an hour or so then sprinkled with some garlic powder and oregano). Sweet peppers Kale Chard Carrots See my previous email about the website and cooking. Cheers, Robin Robin, I like your attitude! Others may not be quite so forgiving of our oversights when picking our produce. As I understand it, you won’t have to be looking at and peeling off those little stickers much longer.  The industry has developed a tiny laser that will etch all that information right on the skin of the veggie or fruit.  Not to worry – at Erehwon you won’t get the stickers but you will have to learn to recognize the different vegetables! tf Hi Tim-I can lead the sing-along-I love to sing! Is that Saturday or Sunday? Anyway, here are my picks for the week: eggplant and carrots and any herbs you can spare. I dried the last bunch of herbs you gave me and will be saving them for this winter's soups. Also, this next weekend I will be volunteering for Elgin's housewalk, but the next Sunday after that I should be free to work on the farm. Thank you for the plants and how much do I owe you? I can leave it in the cooler in an envelope on Tuesday. Betty S. We love it that you love to sing!  We’ll be sitting around the fire and belting out those favorites with class! (I’ve mentioned before how our subscribers are a select group of intelligent, accomplished, talented, witty, caring people {and their children are all above average!}).  And they can all sing in perfect harmony!) I'd like carrots and a salsa packet please. Also, could we have the "zucchini shaped" summer squash? We love this grilled and haven't come up with anything as good for the ufo shaped squash. Thanks. “ufo” squash. Hmmm…I think that is a patty pan and you should be able to cook like a zuc.   Any subscribers with some advice here? One problem this year was that for some reason the plants that produced zucs that looked like zucs almost all died from the attack of the cucumber beetles. Vegetables that look like vegetables – what will subscribers ask for next?  tf Beth and Tim, I am so sorry I forgot to attach the zucchini bread recipe. It is from the Food Network. One of the reviewers also tried it with yellow squash and it worked. Walnuts or pecans would be a good addition. Brown Sugar-Zucchini Bread                  Recipe Summary Yield: Makes 1 large loaf, serving 8 User Rating:         2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour 1/2 cup packed light or dark brown sugar 6 tablespoons granulated sugar 1 1/4 teaspoons ground cinnamon 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger 1 teaspoon baking soda 1/2 teaspoon baking powder 1 teaspoon salt 1 cup old-fashioned rolled oats 3 large eggs 3/4 cup vegetable oil 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract 2 cups grated zucchini (about 2 medium zucchini) Turbinado sugar or other crystallized brown sugar, optional Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour a 9 x 5-inch loaf pan. Stir the flour, brown sugar, granulated sugar, cinnamon, ginger, baking soda, baking powder, and salt together in a large mixing bowl. When combined, mix in the oats. Make a well in the center of the ingredients. Whisk the eggs, oil, and vanilla together in a small bowl and pour the mixture into the well. Combine lightly, then stir in the zucchini. Do not over mix. Scrape the batter into the prepared pan, mounding it up in the center. Sprinkle with the turbinado sugar if you wish. Bake for 60 or 65 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a rack covered with a clean dish towel to prevent indentations. Let the bread cool at least 10 minutes longer before slicing. The bread can be served warm or at room temperature. It keeps well and makes good toast, too. Variation: Brown-Sugar Carrot Bread Replace the zucchini with 2 cups grated carrot. Because the carrots are a little starchier, reduce the oats to 3/4 cup. Thanks, Georgine, sounds delicious! tf We'll take the salsa pack, bag of small vari-colored peppers, and our pesto-sized basil. If we're entitled to one more thing (I thought it was 3 plus herb, but I really can't keep that straight and maybe the heat has changed the numbers), you can add dill. My neighbors, the Davisons, will be back by Tuesday, but may not answer your e-mail re extras. I made the most delicious salsa ever with last week's tomatillos, cilantro, and many colored peppers as well as a variety of tomatoes including heirloom. A touch of lemon juice, olive oil, and cumin flavored the veggies nicely. We can't wait to try another batch with this week's goodies! Kudos to the farmers... Jane Halteman Glad you liked the salsa!  It’s really good with fresh ingredients and can be made so many ways.  tf Hello Beth and Tim, Hope you had a good, relaxing weekend (is that possible?). For extras this week may we have the salsa kit – my husband’s favorite. He even took it to work. May we also have parsley, an eggplant, 1 or 2 sweet peppers, carrots, kale, chard and cucumbers. Oh and if we can have 4 summer squash that would be great and a big zucchini (if you have it). I have attached a zucchini bread recipe – it is a good one especially if you add walnut or flaxseed. Just let me know how much money to leave in the cooler. Also, about the shade perennials, is it possible to come to the farm (hopefully I can find my way there this time) and see what you have? I noticed you had some shade plants listed on the website, but I was not sure of you had anything else. Mike and I were talking that maybe we better do the big share next year, with all the extras (and jumbos get melons). What are we going to do this winter without Erehwon produce? Have a good week! Thank you!!! Thanks for your kind words.  We are working to extend our season next year by a week or two.   At the front end we hope to grow more in hoophouses in the spring.  In the fall we have some ideas about how to harvest later.  For instance, this year near the end of October we’ll pull up most of the kale plants and give you some in pots.  You should be able to harvest the leaves over the next month or two.  Also, If I can get my behind in gear, we’ll dry some cherry tomatoes that you can keep in your freezer and use during the winter.