VEGGIE COOP FARM NOTES: WEEK 12: September 9, 2009: Larger Bag
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Parking Slip: Larger Bag

Basil - 25 g. 2.00
Cucumbers - either medium or large English and Outdoor 3.25
Fava Beans - 500g. 5.00
Leeks (2) Large or a large and 2 small. 2.50
Micro-Mix 8.00
Onions - three (small, medium and large) 2.50
Radishes - l l/2 bunches 2.00 (See radish top soup recipe)
Salad Mix. 250 g. 7.00
Snow or Sugar Snap Peas - 100g. 2.00
Summer Squash. This is still a maybe as of 2 p.m.
Tomatoes - either pint Latah or 400g. Greenhouse 3.10
Total: 37.35
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For information, questions or comments, we are only an e-mail or phone call away. Contact; Mike Rabinowitz, Co-Owner and Coordinator, Veggie Coop. House Phone: 895-2884. If you are running late for the pick up, call Mike on the Farm Cell at 689-7693.

SPECIAL ORDERS:
We have lots of things to sell and share, but often not enough quantity for veggie coop bags! Did I see artichokes and broccoli being exchanged as a special order at last week’s pick-up? Edible peas? Garlic? And, yellow beans and maybe fava in the swap box. I also heard Mike promise the last pint of gooseberries to the mother of a six month old. She says, he gobbles them down like candy.

IT’S IN THE BAG!
Squash or not squash. Fava Beans and More of the Same. I realize no one is complaining about more of the same, but we as Farm Notes go to “Press” because I have a doctor’s appointment this afternoon. If we do have enough squash after Mike and Diane get it weighed, he will add the squash and totals to a revised list, which will be posted later tonight.

FAVA BEANS: FOOD OF EMPHASIS!!
There is wonderful information on the Internet about how to prepare FAVA Beans. In fact, there is a 3 minute video. It starts off by saying not to worry about black spots; that means the beans are ripe. Whew! That’s a relief because the stems around where the beans attach to the plants also start to turn black about this time of year. If you prepare them according to the recipe, shelling out the beans, inside the beans, the 500g. you have in the bag won’t go very far. Probably you will add them to a cold salad, along with other veggies. The Chef refers to FAVAS as being similar to the Russian dolls that fit inside each other. Other references on the Internet indicate that shelling and only using the inside beans seems to be the traditional way of cooking in many countries around the world. However, Alice one of the women who worked on the farm a few years ago and also, Joe Scanlon, our Greenhouse manager who is now in his fourth year of work here, uses the whole beans, unshelled, in a slow cooker, with various sauces, much like preparing a meat dish. Trying to slow cook fava beans is on my agenda for the week-end. What are your experiences with Fava Beans? This will be our food of emphasis for the next few weeks.

OPEN HOUSE AT FARM: Saturday, September 12 and 13th. 1 - 5 p.m.
We are participating in a project called: DOORS OPEN, sponsored by the Heritage Committee, St. Philips-Portugal Cove. Everyone is welcome. You may remember that our farm was part of an Agriculture Crown Land Grant awarded to the father of the late Peter Churchill around 1860. I am developing a FACT SHEET re: Farm History. It will be posted on Website under Fact Sheets and Articles by the week-end. For more information re: other DOORS OPEN sites, see: www.pcsp.ca

THE LETTUCE SHED! !
Louis and Diane over see the picking and packing; helpers and WOOFER volunteers are taught the procedures and methods, developed by them. Washing, rinsing and drying takes place in the lettuce shed, a large open air construction with food safety tables which have open wire gauge tables for air flow. This was designed by Mike and Louis and so far seems to work well. The tables were purchased from Paul Bowers in Ontario, the same company that makes the greenhouses. Mike found the food safety gauge tops on line; that material came in by truck in 4 by 8 rolls. The tables were put together on the farm by Kenny Ash in the summer of 2007. Even though we sometimes suffer set backs from cold and wet weather, we feel the natural air-flow, it much healthier than a closed in, wash the walls down, milk barn type construction, which was suggested by the government food safety consultants. I am reminded of this because today the weather is very pleasant and the processing of the lettuce mix and other veggies is going great buns. The weather is perfect, a little cool but not cold, a little wind but not windy and the area is protected somewhat with slated sides and a high roof. On one end, not over the tables, the garlic being harvested and dried for seeds, hangs in long, large bunches. This, too, is a sight of abundance.

BORROWING NATURE’S WATER!
There are three deep rinsing tubs in each of the two back corners, situated in a way that when they are emptied at the end of the day, the water flows downward over the hill, into a wide, wet bog then on into a ditch, which eventually meets the creek below the farm and moves at its own pace toward the ocean. In this way, we are only borrowing the rinse water and returning it almost as pristine as we found it, with a little dirt and perhaps a few insects, more or less. Today, Wednesday, the salad mix has already been picked, rinsed and is drying on one table. Micro-greens are resting comfortably on the end of another table, while three WOOFERS, led by Denziel, one of our new, experienced and capable workers wash and bunch onions and radishes. Just for you - our Wednesday folks!.

YES, JACK WAS AROUND NIPPING AT OUR HEELS!!
The frost on Saturday night scared the squash, beans and outdoor tomatoes. We do have some of each, but not as much as we hoped. “That’s it, boy’s. You pays your money and take your chances.” When I talked to Louis around nine last Sunday morning, we knew there had been frost, but didn’t know how bad, until later in the day. . On mornings like this we go about business as usual, opening the greenhouses, watering and getting things ready for the farm store, but keeping our eyes on the plants, until the sun has warmed the plants and the wilting begins.. Based on the morning news on the way to the golf course, Mike also thought it was going to be a wipe out! When he got home mid-afternoon, he was also relieved. However, this reminded us of one Labour Day week-end, probably twenty years ago. Alberta, a woman we knew from Mike’s Graduate program at the Institute of Child Development and Behaviour in Iowa City was visiting us. She was in the early stages of Alzheimer’ and having difficultly following the high energy discussion around the impending frost. We were out scurrying around, picking some things and covering others. When we came indoors, the floor was filled with pumpkins she had plucked from the vines in the front yard, while we were covering the pumpkins in the field. Mike just shook his head, for as Toby would say, “ She didn’t do it on purpose.” Often, with a light frost, the winter squash will go on to mature well into mid-October . This week, we are at a wait and see point in our fall farming endeavors!!

PESTO GALORE!
Louis came into the kitchen with Andrew, a new WOOFER and several huge bags of basil and said, “Do you have any pine nuts?” This is basil that needs to be harvested to make a place for the new fall crops which will be developed in large grow bags. Things like this happen spontaneously at the farm all the time. After Helen and I went through it, to discard longer stems and any leaves with spots, Corissa , the young woman who arrived with her partner, Andrew to WOOF on Sunday, set about making pesto. Of course, it is expensive to make because of the Parmesan Cheese and pine nuts, but we made mountains. We saved some for the house and filled over a dozen clam shells. They are in the chill room, waiting for labels so we can take them to Tail Gate Sales and the Farmers Market.

FEED-BACK FROM LOYAL READERS.
One member wrote that they read Farm Notes to each other. Others send in recipes with personal notes. One reader, Louis who grew up in Louisiana found my story about my dad felt everyone should own and know how to shoot a gun, a familiar experience. Louis is 25 years younger than me, or thereabouts, so his experience was with his grandfather rather than his father. Thanks/ Louis.

THE FRONT PAGE OF WEBSITE HAD BEEN REVISED. MORE COMING! STAY TUNED!

Melba Rabinowitz, September 7, 2009