late season garden + questions for readers

Saturday, October 11, 2008

1) Green Tomatoes. The garden in winding down, not because of the weather (obviously—it’s a gorgeous 75+ today) but because from the end of August my garden has been in near total darkness. New house = learning curve. At any rate, after July’s $75 tomato, the one productive plant is busting out with them, all green, not much of a shot at redness. Does anyone out there have a tried and true use for them besides frying? I was thinking about using them like tomatillos for salsa, but after that, I draw a blank.

2) Rose Affliction. See these near perfectly round holes on my rose? I’ve looked under the leaves and on the stems, and I don’t see any creatures. But it must be some kind of precisely munching creature. This didn’t start until the end of the summer. Ideas?

3) Happy Shady Flowers. If your garden goes dark, literally, at this time of year, I can recommend these pretty purple monkshood. I got them at Greensgrow a few weeks ago, and they have been thriving. (They do get a couple hours of sun early in the morning, but after that, all shadow.) (The littel red flower in the background is a salvia that rarely blooms and is in the reshuffling plan I have in mind for November.)

Landisdale Farm CSA, week 18

This week’s share from Landisdale Farm contained:

12 small turnips
7 small pears
2 giant heads of lettuce
1 bag of spinach
Not quite a dozen sweet potatoes
2 small heads of broccoli
3 medium onions

I’m more than a little dismayed to see the return of the lettuce.  My guess is that we are doomed to have lettuce hogging up our share until the end of the CSA season.

Speaking of the end of the season, my husband and I have been discussing our options for which CSA to go with next year.  Craig doesn’t like a Saturday pickup, and I would rather not schlep a zillion pounds of produce on my back on the train ride home for a mid-week pick up at Reading Terminal like I did last year.  I’d love to find a CSA pick up at Headhouse Square market on Sundays (or some other CSA Sunday pickup).  I’ve heard that Old Earth Farm normally has a CSA pick up at Headhouse, but their CSA program was canceled for 2008.  Has anyone heard if they plan to be back in 2009, or of any other CSA pickups on Sundays that are either in Philadelphia or Delaware County?

CSA Report: Red Earth Farm

Friday, October 10, 2008

I know that we’re well into October and the weather has been on the chilly side. But I’ve still been in denial about it being fall. This CSA share is proof that it’s summer no more.

Two heads of broccoli, head of cauliflower, bunch of leeks, bag of green beans, butternut squash, acorn squash, and a half bushel of apples we picked yesterday at Linvilla Orchard. I’ll probably hang on to the squashes for a while since they store well, but stay tuned for apple recipes to come.

We were pleasantly surprised to find a row of producing raspberry bushes amongst the apples yesterday. After stuffing his face with raspberries the toddler had no interest whatsoever in picking apples. It took some work and we suffered through some whining but we still managed to pick several varieties in a short time period- most for cooking but a bunch for eating. I may can some apple sauce or apple butter but most likely I’ll use the apples for fresh baked goods. And for the record, apple picking with a baby strapped to your chest is infinitely easier than strawberry picking with a baby strapped to your chest.

CSA Report:  Blooming Glen Farm

Thursday, October 09, 2008

(Click photo to read notes at flick’r regarding names/quantities of share.)

New in the share this week:  a couple pounds of fun blue potatoes, cabbage, acorn squash and turnips!  Thankfully, we’re still getting greens (arugula and collards) as well as scrumptious peppers.

Locally made pasta!

Wednesday, October 08, 2008

I have a deep love of DiBruno Bros. shop in Center City - they always have at least some locally made cheese, and sometimes even have locally grown produce.  Today I found out that they will now be making pasta to order in the center island.

What makes all this talk about fresh pasta so interesting is the fact that Di Bruno Bros. will be making its own fresh pasta right before your very eyes in the store’s Center Island. As part of a growing partnership with fellow Italian Market staple Talluto’s, we have obtained an antique pasta making machine that will be on display every Friday thru Sunday beginning on October 10th. We will provide customers with a healthy variety of traditional cuts as well as a range of flavors including whole wheat and spinach.

Fresh pasta isn’t just better tasting, it’s naturally high in fiber, low in sugar and gives off a slow, steady release of energy. Because it develops less gluten, the pasta is lighter, making it quicker to cook and easier to digest.

Woo!

Garlic breath

Tuesday, October 07, 2008

This Summer and Autumn are really flying by, leaving me behind the eight ball a little when it comes to Fall gardening.  I only just ordered my garlic for Autumn planting today.  My options were limited, but I’m happy with what I’ll be planting.

Elephant Garlic.  I’ve been hearing about elephant garlic for years.  How gigantic the heads get.  How much milder the flavor is than regular garlic.  Well, I’m finally going to find out.  Interestingly, elephant garlic is more closely related to leeks than garlic.  This garlic will mature in mid- to late- Summer.  And here’s something useful to note: elephant garlic does send up a scape, but I’ll have to pick them quickly - they get woody very quickly.

Oregon Blue Garlic. I’m finally going to try some softneck garlic!  It won’t produce any scapes at all, but does have a sort of purple-y clove skin.  I have no idea what to expect.

Western Rose Garlic.  This is supposed to be a very long-keeping garlic, perfect for braiding.  It’s another softneck variety.

I will also be planting a few cloves from the garlic harvested this Summer, just so I have a supply of garlic scapes.

A Perfect Breakfast

Monday, October 06, 2008

Breakfast has always been the most important meal at our house, and my wife habitually cooks an impressive meal every weekend: fruit-filled or fruit-topped pancakes, basil omelettes, a smoky hash, improvised muffins.  For whatever reason - perhaps it was the breakfast issue of Saveur - this breakfast surpassed her already-high standards.  Either way, this breakfast was superb: arepas, made with grilled Jersey Corn from the previous night’s dinner and local corn meal from the Fair Food Farmstand; poached eggs and bacon from Meadow Run Farm; and a broiled-tomato salsa from some of the season’s last grape tomatoes. 

I am of the mind that a perfect meal contains a few outstanding (and, therefore, locally-sourced) ingredients used in a way that maximizes their flavor but perfectly compliments each other.  By that or any other standard, this meal was perfect. 

radish greens

Sunday, October 05, 2008

I found some local radish greens at my food co-op on Wednesday, and I was really curious about them.  I figured that spicy greens would go well with a vaguely-Thai curry, so I tried a variation on a yellow curry last night.  Perhaps the greens were milder than I’d anticipated, or maybe the sauce overwhelmed their spice, but they just tasted pleasantly of Green Leafy Vegetable.  If I see them again, they could be a nice addition to my usual chard/kale rotation.  (Also local: tofu, hot pepper, sweet pepper, zucchini, garlic, milk.)

Landisdale Farm CSA, week 17

While I was competing at yesterday’s Philadelphia Dragon Boat Festival (my team took the women’s club championship - we’re the fastest chicks on the river!), my husband picked up our Landisdale Farm CSA share yesterday at Clark Park.  Here is what we received this week:

• 2 bunches of kale
• 2 small broccoli heads
• 5 white sweet potatoes
• 5 apples
• 8 baby turnips
• 5 tomatoes
• 2 Kuri winter squash

I am not the biggest fan there ever was when it comes to kale.  There was kale in our share two weeks ago, too, and I haven’t used that yet (and no, it hasn’t gone bad - kale seems to last forever).  There are very few ways that I really like kale, but I’ll be trying to use it.

One way I do like kale is in soup.  My plan is to pick a few soup recipes, make up giant batches of it, and either freeze or can it.

White bean, kale, and sausage soup
Lentil Kale soup
Carrot and kale soup
North African Chickpea and Kale soup
Roasted Pumpkin and Kale soup
Cream of Kale soup
Chestnut Kale soup
Potato Kale soup with Seitan
Island Kale and Sweet Potato soup
Sweet Potato, Corn, and Kale Chowder
Yellow Split Pea Soup with Sweet Potatoes and Kale
Sweet Potato Kale soup

Now, dairy doesn’t freeze or can well...which does leave out a few of the recipes above.  But you can definitely can meat, and any of these soup recipes that are mostly vegetarian would can or freeze perfectly.  There’s something to be said for coming home from a busy day at work on a super cold, blustery Winter day and being able to have a warm bowl of hearty soup without toiling in the kitchen!

On a related note, I thought it would be interesting to compare what was in my Landisdale Farm share this week to what was in my Lancaster Farm Fresh share last year at this time.  Fascinating!

Apple heaven

While not a website about supporting local farmers and eating seasonally, A Food Coma is a new blog devoted to New Jersey.  And hey, we gotta support Jersey, right?

A Food Coma is a group blog devoted to restaurant reviews, recipes...there’s even a podcast!  Their lead story is pretty timely - a recipe for apple pie.  We are awash in locally grown apples right now.  Linvilla currently has nearly 25 varieties available for picking.  The Fair Food Farmstand in Reading Terminal has dozens of varieties from various area farms. 

Other local orchards for apple picking:

Weaver’s Orchard, Berks County
Shadybrook Farm, Bucks County
Styer Orchard, Bucks County
Highland Orchards, Chester County
Johnson Farm, Jersey
Terhune Orchards, Jersey

Tomatoes!

Saturday, October 04, 2008

This may be the last week for a lot of us to get our mitts on fresh local tomatoes, and I for one plan to do just that!  Over the past couple months, I’ve supplemented my own garden and Blooming Glen Farm CSA tomatoes with those from several places around town. 

Anyone who’s canned large quantities of produce knows that it’s so much better with a buddy.  My canning partner this year has been my mom, and together we estimate that we’ve processed about 175 pounds of tomatoes since mid-August.  Early in the season, we canned a bushel of mixed tomatoes from Hideaway Gardens in Harleysville.  Farmers Matt and Lauren Harrington (Lauren is a former contributor to Farm to Philly) hand-picked a lovely selection for us, which you can see above.  For several weeks over the summer, Blooming Glen Farm offered CSA members a great deal 20-pound boxes of San Marzano plum tomatoes, so I snatched up two of those for some amazing salsa.  And just last week, Ray’s Greenhouse had huge baskets of tomatoes for sale at the Indian Valley Farmers Market; we bought about 55 pounds of them and turned them into 14 quarts of sauce.

It seems unlikely, but all of this doesn’t seem to be enough, and I find myself wanting more!  That’s not wrong, is it?

CSA Report:  Blooming Glen Farm

Thursday, October 02, 2008

(Click photo to read notes at flick’r regarding names/quantities of share.)

Holy technicolor share, Batman!  Here’s a closeup of the Swiss chard and flowers:

Absolutely stunning!  Does anyone happen to know what kind of flowers those are? 

Hendricks Farms cleared in raw milk scare

Wednesday, October 01, 2008

For the last month or so, Hendricks Farms and Dairy has been in the middle of a health scare - on September 11, the farm’s license to sell raw milk was suspended after at least 10 people in Bucks and Montgomery counties and two from New York were infected with campylobacter.  The bacteria allegedly came from raw milk purchased at Hendricks Farms.  Happily, Pennsylvania reinstated their license on September 19 after state ag lab tests came back negative for the bacteria.

Trent Hendricks, owner of the farm, tests their products and equipment every week, and treats his cows very, very well.  The farm sells 600 gallons of raw milk each week, not to mention all their fantastic cheese made from the milk. 

The state jumped the gun in placing the blame on Hendricks Farm, and this could very well be part of the larger war against raw milk sales.  Several states around the country prohibit the sales of raw milk for human consumption, and Pennsylvania clearly has concerns about its safety.  This only illustrates how important it is to know and trust the person from which you’re purchasing raw milk - raw milk purchased from a reputable source is as safe as purchasing milk from the supermarket (more so, considering the lack of chemicals and added nutrients).

Farmers Need Websites, Too!

Monday, September 29, 2008

What could be more idyllic? A local farmer, working his/her land. Bringing the bounty to market. Blogging about this year’s tomato pests. Updating the farm website to include eCommerce. Wah? Insert sound of a record scratching. But what might sound funny at first is actually really important to seizing the momentum of the locavore movement and continuing it’s ideals: namely, of the connection between farmer and his/her customer. Unfortunately farming, especially Pennsylvania farming (with it’s high Amish population), is reluctant or simply not equipped to jump on board. And the few that do have, well, I’m sorry to say, they have bad sites. I have yet to see a well-designed, well-constructed and effective website for a farm.
A website is such an important medium for farmers, not just to promote their farm, but to promote their farming idealology. As much as we would like to believe that we can converse — farmer and customer — the sad fact is that’s nearly impossible (have you been to Headhouse? I’ve seen rock concerts that were less crowded.) But with a website, farmer’s have a FAQ area. They have an About Us area. They now have the chance to say what they don’t get the opportunity to say at market. Plus, they can get responses, via email, from their customers. And despite the perceived high learning curve of websites, you don’t need to know squat about HTML or code. All you need is a bit of easy jargon and a clear set of goals for your site. And with proper help, you’ll be off and running in no time.
So you’re convinced: “I NEED a website!” you say. Where do you start? Before you go running off to your friendly local web professional (for your information, a professional would be a graphic designer or web designer) you need a plan. Yes, it is definitely the job of these professionals to help you, but they aren’t mind readers. You need a goal: what do you want to accomplish from the site? And are you willing to invest the time needed to develop it? If you just want a basic, nuts-and-bolts informative site (basically, an interactive Yellow Pages listing), there’s not much you need. Throw in an About Us page, a Contact Page and a Products page and rush off to the professionals. You’re ready. But I don’t want you to stop there. The web is such a rich media device that it deserves to be developed. You care about your farm, you care about your products. Tell people that. Here’s your chance. If you’re not a writer, hire someone. Put a request on Craigslist (a design/web professional can help you here, just realize that there will be a mark-up). And even if you can write, get a proofreader. It’s the difrenc btwn amatre and professiona (that’s on purpose, BTW).
Once you have a goal (i.e., “more customers”, or to “better inform my customer’s”, etc.) and you have your content, then get moving. A designer/web professional will walk you through the steps. They can help you get a domain name (such as “www.farmtophilly.com” or “www.myfarmname.com") and a hosting service (hosting service is the company that provides the server space for your site to rest on, so it’s available to the world). Besides “domain name” and “hosting service”, really, all the other jargon you need to know (and you might not even need to know these) are: eCommerce, database, shopping cart and payment gateway. These 3 terms describe increased website functionality. In all likelihood, you will probably not even need them. At it’s simplest, eCommerce is a blanket term that means an online marketplace as well as the connection between the shopping cart and the payment gateway. The rest of the terms are how eCommerce functions. So, if you decide that you need an eCommerce site, then first you need is a database. A database is simply the individual products that you offer. Unlike a typical HTML site, where if you want to add something (or subtract) you need to go in and change the entire page, a database is able to be updated on the fly. Once you have your products, a shopping cart is what allows your customers to place your items in their “cart”, to purchase at the end of their web visit. Once they’re ready with their purchases, they use eCommerce technology, coupled with a gateway payment provider, to take the customer’s credit card information and process it. Voila. This is probably far more information that the typical farm website would need, but I just wanted to take the mystery out of these words and terms.
The jargon is one thing, but what about the content? As I described earlier, every single farm site that I’ve been to is just awful. I’m sorry. I really am. I know that there is an aversion to “marketing” — it’s an ugly word that conjures up images of sleazy ad men and disreputable business’s using all forms of trickery to snag innocent customers. But that’s (technically) not the case. Marketing is really just communicating to your customer. You think you have the best salad greens and you want to shout that from the rooftops? That’s marketing. You don’t use pesticide and you want your customers to know how and why? That’s marketing. Your cows only eat grass and you want people to know why that’s better than corn fed? Yep. Marketing. Tell people what makes you special! Your website is the best opportunity to explain everything and tout why. Don’t blow this chance. Keep a pen and notebook handy at all times. Jot down ideas about why you’re special (or anything else that you want people to know about you). Then, at the end of one month, collect them and organize. I’ll guarantee that if you write down ideas when they occur, at the end of a month, you’ll have to throw copy out!
The point is this: whether you want to blame or congratulate Michael Pollan, the locavore movement is increasingly bridging the gap between urban and rural populations. To remain vital, farms need to utilize 21st century tools. Big box markets are using all of their powerful marketing tools to tout their “local” cred. We need to get in front of this shift and affirm the importance of our local cred and why it trumps theirs. Your customers crave information — they are tech-savvy people who think nothing of spending an hour “researching” (by visiting websites) which cheese is more local. By using the tools that are available to all you can help your customers make the right decision.

CSA report: Landisdale Farm, weeks 15 and 16

Saturday, September 27, 2008

No photo from last weekend’s share - Naomi picked it up for me as I was competing at the Mercer Lake Dragon Boat Festival (thanks again, Naomi).  But there were about half a dozen tomatoes, two bell peppers, a butternut squash, pears, cabbage, and - I think - spinach.  Honestly, I haven’t even so much as looked at most of it: I got hit with the plague that’s going around and have been down for the count for a few days.

Still a little woozy, Mr. Fish picked up the share this morning.

Here’s what’s in it:

Two watermelons
Two bundles of lacinato kale
A few handfuls of green beans
Two cabbages
Two bags of spinach
Eight pears
Five garilc
Two small eggplants

As you might be able to tell from the photo, the pears are in a rapidly decaying state.  Luckily, I’m feeling well enough to try to deal with the pears.  That also leaves the watermelon, though.  I now have four watermelons because I never did anything with last ones I got.  It’s going to be a busy weekend.