FARM NOTES: Wednesday, August 8, 2018.
CONTACT INFORMATION:
Coordinator: Mike Rabinowitz Contact Us Before 5:00 pm. House Phone: 895-2884. Leave Message
Pick-UP Places and Time: 6 – 6:30 Mun Science Building Parking Lot
or Organic Farm: 5:30 – 7:30; other days by appointment.
Cell Phone on Pick-Up days: 709 749-2884. ( 6 – 6:30 only) .
More Who’s Who on the Farm! If you are a new Veggie member or haven’t read the previous issues of Farm News and Farm Notes that are posted, you may want to skim through the previous issues to get caught up. For example, Rachel, our Apprentice this season is writing a free lance journal type of article and also managing Face Book. I am The Little Red Hen who helped Mike register the farm as a partnership almost 40 years ago and have helped around the edges, with everything from soup to nuts and in-between. For the first twenty years, the farm notes were printed in-house and slipped into the Veggie bags; now I will continue to write Farm Notes occasionally and hope Rachel picks up the slack with her columns.
Steamed Baby Beets. Last week, before we had enough beets for the CSA, Mike brought in one baby beet for the house, which he steamed for me; greens and beet together in the small steamer. It was wonderful. Maybe this is the week for the CSA. If you remember the house got the first of the yellow zucchini which came from the greenhouse. Last night we got our first broccoli, enough to add a few stalks to the stir fry. You may also remember the Zucchini Dill Vichyssoise we had with with first dribs and drabs of yellow zucchini. (Also in farm recipes.) Living on the Organic Farm this time of year is a delicious adventure.
Garlic Scapes or shallot scapes. These, too, shall pass, like so many other “fruits” of the season but the best is yet to come. Tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers will be ready in their own time. Meanwhile, we try to maximize using what we have at any particular time. I have found one of our original sources for suggestions around living off the land by the season. The book is: Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A year of Food Life by Barbara Kingsolver. Several of the recipes in farm recipe file/ see header on our Website, are from her book, which is a story of leaving Arizona with her husband and two children and moving back to a small abandoned farm in Virginia. The goal was to grow real food, with the labour and learning this requires. Her recipes are seasonal, taking into account, what is available. This is how we approach the recipe suggestions for the CSA. For example, under greens in the farm recipe files, you will find Kingsolver’s recipe, Eggs In A Nest, using Swiss chard. Use any kind of greens.
Veggie Frittata (This is a second selection from the book, which we will add to farm recipe file this season. I use a black iron skillet my Dad gave me as a wedding present over fifty years ago.)
Start with Olive Oil for pan
Next: 8 eggs. 1/2 cup milk. Beat eggs and milk together, then pour into oiled, oven-proof skillet over medium heat.
Chopped kale, broccoli, spinach, etc. depending on the season. Chip in garlic scapes or a touch of hot pepper, fresh or dried, if desired. Feta or other cheeses optional. Try different ways and combinations until you find your own style.
Salt and pepper to taste. (Feta or other cheese optional)
Promptly add vegetables and stir evenly into egg mixture. Cook on low without stirring until eggs are mostly set, then transfer to oven and broil 2-4 minutes, until lightly golden on top. Cool to set before serving. Serve with sliced tomatoes, relish or chutney.
CSA members welcome! This is a quick meal for your vegetarian friends who show up at the door at the last minute, which frequently happens at the Organic Farm. If Mike is in the house, he will no doubt invite you in for “coffee.” Mike’s favourite ways to have conversations about anything with anyone is over a meal, which is why I try to have a pot of soup on the stove, coffee in the pot and squares or cookies tucked on the kitchen counter. And yes, CSA members are welcome in the kitchen. Step onto back porch and knock on kitchen door. Avoid front entrance to house because more than likely you will bump into Marc’s neat stacks of recyclables, waiting patiently for the Tuesday line-up.
Play dough Pie Crust.. The zucchini Flan recipe in farm recipe file calls for a shortcrust pastry. In case you haven’t heard this term before it is a simple recipe made of flour, shortening, salt and water. Here is my story about learning to make play dough pie crust.
When I was growing up, my mom took a dish of some kind, often a pie to community happenings, weddings, funerals, fairs and her community clubs. We could make pie crust like pastry machines. When Mike and I were first married, we lived in Seattle and had our own apple trees. It was nothing to make 25 or 30 apple pies for the freezer. I am still making apple and pecan pies for friends and family but have come to the conclusion that buying a frozen crust works just fine. They sell them it at the local convenience store. Why put into the effort for a pie that will disappear the same day and no one seems to care about the actual crust. Mike’s first cousin, Mona lives in Berkeley. When we went to visit his nephew, wife and new baby. I took along the ingredients for a pecan pie, expecting to buy a frozen crust. Mona was surprised when I asked her to buy a crust; she said she would make the crust and she did, explaining it was like making play dough. She knows as a former director of a child and family service, I have not only made cooked and uncooked play dough but have also taught parents how to make play dough. So, yes, she made her point. I made the pie crust for the next pecan pie we served on the visit. Mona’s pie crust makes a double crust for a rhubarb pie. If you are making a single crust for the zucchini Flan from the farm recipe file, you can half it or make the full recipe and save half for next single crust.
2 cups sifted flour
1 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup Shortening (Crisco, butter or margarine)
½ cup cold water.
Combine salt with flour; crumble flour with shortening into small pellets. Open an indentation in the middle of flour, gradually add water and mash/stir with a fork, pulling in flour into a play dough ball. The crust will be more or less tender, depending on dampness and texture. Continue and begin to press crust into pie plate, started with flatten ball in the middle and pulling it toward the sides, pressing as you go, adjusting and pulling dough up the sides to form crust. You may have to brush your hands with flour or oil to keep the dough from sticking. Carry on. If this is your first time making play dough pie crust, it will take a few times to get the hang on it, but whatever you plan to put into the crust will turn out just fine. So, you might as well get your hands floured! Making play dough. If you are a parent or grandparent of young children, you may want to slip into the play dough club. The recipe requires oil, flour, salt, cream of tarter, and cake colouring for more and better play dough than the commercial stuff in those little expensive cans. (Store in cottage cheese containers!)
Tennessee Pecans. My brother’s wife, Sherry, picks up pecans from our yards in Tennessee, has them cracked at a local factory, picks them out with the nut picker, which is a tedious job she does while watching TV. She freezes them in zip lock bags and sends six-eight bags for Christmas every year. This is a family tradition from my mother, who saved pecans for “Sis” and sent them back each time I visited. They are put in the freezer as soon as they are ready and are meant to be kept in the freezer, no matter how inconvenient. One year, when I spent the night with my brother to catch the plane from Nashville, the pecans were put in his freezer and inadvertently got left in Tennessee. Good for him and bad for me, as he had lots of pecans that year and I had none. This past year (2017), the pecans arrived in Tucson just in time for Christmas. What more can I say? Family traditions are precious; the older I get, the more precious! And, pecans are always special and treated like gold. Sherry goes out for weeks at a time in mid-November when pecans begin to fall, collecting pecans and does all the prep including packing them. My brother takes them to the Post Office and sends them Express just like my mother would do if she were still living!!.
Garlic Scapes and shallot scapes. This may be the last week. By now, you know you can add garlic scapes to almost any dish, like sweet and sour soups and Frittatas. If the ends are too stalky, trim and peel outside skin like stripping celery fibres, chipping in the tender part with scissors or cut at the point it starts to get tough and discard.
Damaged Radishes. Mike says there are no radishes in CSA bags this week; we are seeding and hope to have them again. When we do have radishes, same advice. Trim out the damaged section, no matter how large or tiny and use the rest. Please, please, do not put the whole radish in the compost because of the part with insect damage. Last week, we cleaned our blemished radishes and added them to potato salad; also to a cole slaw.
WHAT’S HAPPENING ON THE FARM?
Another Chapter in the Challenges of Organic Farming! Swarming aphids! Aphids are tiny, tiny insects that lay eggs on the underside of leaves, marking the plants. Aphids are harmless to human health but they certainly disturb our sense of well being if we see them on leaves we intend to eat. In this way, they are a risk to farm crops and the economic outcomes for the farm. This spring, the situation is desperate, not only in the greenhouses but outside plants. There are several strategies and techniques – the most common one is to (1) embed other plants that attract spiders and other insects that kill and eat aphids. (2) import lady bugs that arrive as eggs, hatch and love to picnic on aphids but eventually fly away for a vacation in the country side; (3) shower the affected plants with an organic folio leaf spray which Louis does regularly and (4) remove affected leaves and destroy and eventually remove plants if necessary. Been there/ done that, but we are loosing the battle against aphids. A few weeks ago, Mike contacted the Federal Entomologist, Peggy Dixon. She and Jane White, the provincial organic specialist, came to the farm for a consultation. We learned that aphids are reaching epidemic proportions in the province this year affecting both indoor and outdoor crops; that the most used predators are a tiny insects called Midges. In order for a farmer to bring aphid eating midges into the province, he/she must register with the Department of Agriculture and follow rules, including installing a particular kind of screen with small weave (from Ontario) on the greenhouse window and doors. Fast forward three weeks or a month to get this in place. We have just released the midges a few days ago. Stay tuned!
What’s Happening Off The Farm?
Things went well at the folk festival. This week, Toby will be restocking the Gift Shop at the Newfoundland and Labrador Craft Council at their new location on Duckworth Street. If you have not been to their new location in the Old Evening Telegram building, stop in and visit. It is a beautiful new space; fully accessible, with a customer entrance on side door, across from The Ship.
Pretty interesting things happening at the St. John’s Farmers Market. Open now on Wednesday afternoons from 2 to 8 p.m. as well as Saturdays! I hear the Food Vendors are among the most popular items. See SJFM Website for how you can become a volunteer and/or a member of the SJFM Cooperative.
Please send in your feedback and recipes for sharing.
The Little Red Hen of the Organic Farm
August 8, 2018
