Week 13: Hi folks 🙂 Happy September! Monday folks! Remember pick up today even though it’s Labor day we still have pickupJ
Those gusts today are quite strong! Keeping us on our toes. We are thankful for our diehard volunteers Diantha and Nancy for picking beans and weeding carrots this morning in this wind. There will be gorgeous beans and heirloom tomatoes in your shares this week along with other great veggies. There will be no lettuce mix or mesculin this week but there will be chardJ The fall squash, cucumber and zucchini plants are looking great and hopefully we should have them for you next week. Things are growing slower with the temps cooler and the days getting shorter. In peak July – We would walk down a row and squash would already be ready to be picked again :/ Potatoes are plumping up. We might be losing the cherry tomatoes soon but the heirloom and sauce tomatoes are going strong. Kale is getting green again and growing. My favorite flower – the New England Aster – purple aster blooming alongside the the bright goldenrod. I love it so. No matter how hot or cold, those purple asters show up every September for me – a gift in the hoophouse, under the pines, in the sheep pasture – a little gift of beauty and kindness. They make me smile everytime I see them. They are a flower of strength and endurance to me and this little farm. I need to start dying some more wool with all these amazing September colors in the fields….some 10 pm dyeing in my future – I’m starting to feel the draw towards working with wool again with these cooler temps and as I pick green beans – I think of the color combos and weights of our wool I want to dye. Dyeing wool is a process and you need to be in the mood – or all hell breaks loose and nothing goes right. I feel a little bit of that draw right now…and need to balance with picking and preserving this year’s harvests. So many wonderful things in store for September and OctoberJ
After talking it over with our family and amazing crew, we will be having NO CSA pickup or delivery the week of September 21. Week 15 will be the week of September 28. The 18th and final pickup will be on October 19. If you need veggies that week, please let us know and we will stash a bag for you in the farmstand or you can pick some veggies up from us at the saturday Grand Isle Farmers Market. We don’t want anyone to go hungry. The reason being is that this little farm family is going camping that week. Every year for the last 11 years we have gone camping to Hermit Island in Phippsburg, Maine right on the ocean during the middle of October. This year the campground is closing early on September 27. !! So, with all the things cancelled for our girls and family this year and the uncertainty of what this winter will bring, and working and sacrificing our collective butts off- we are going camping thanks to the amazing Norma and Zoe who will run the farm. We wanted to make the farm more manageable for the two of them and any volunteers – and this was a way to do it. If anyone would like to volunteer the week we are gone please be in touch and we can schedule you in. I don’t need to be a martyr for our farm. We need to be able to go away with our family and explore and sleep in and play in the ocean. This is important for our family unit. We don’t want to look back and be remorseful of missing vacations because of the farm. There are many sacrifices we make for our chosen farming/homestead/simple lifestyle. We all do what we do for our families. We are only here for a short time and I don’t want our kids to look back and say we never got to do anything fun as a whole family. The farm tied us down. No. Not on my watch. We will make time every year for our little family to do something special and just be with the four of us exploring and laughing together. And hopefully this will be one of the highlights of their pandemic memory- that we still got to go camping and swim in the ocean. We will try to bring you all back a shell 😉
Hope you have a wonderful week. Thanks for listening
We are still looking for volunteers on Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday mornings from 9-12, Monday and thursday nights 4-630. also the farmers market on Saturday in Grand Isle is looking for volunteers for help with parking and welcoming.
Ok, well we better go. See you all soon. Thanks for reading.
Thanks for being part of our farm. We look forward to farming with you this season.
Peace, your farmers, Christine, Adam, Sadie, Delia, Norma, and Zoe!
What’s in the share this week:
This list is what is in a full share this week. Things may change between Monday and Thursday and Individual and Salad share will get differing amounts and may not get everything on the list., cherry tomatoes, heirloom tomatoes, cilantro, dill, peppers or tomatilloes, onions, winter squash (we are trying out the smaller size this year), rainbow chard, green beans, garlicJ
RAW Jersey Milk for Sale: 1/2 gal jars available of Sandy and Skye’s Milk – cream is so creamy and they love all this spring grass. $5 a jar and if you don’t have a half gal jar to swap $3 deposit. Available at on farm pickup on Mondays and Thursdays.
Coffee and Veggies!
If you would like to order coffee starting next week to pick up with your share – on farm or delivery Thursday – we have partnered with Perky Planet in Burlington. Our crew has been drinking it the last few weeks and oh my word! It is so yummy. Christine Vaughan and her family are CSA members and deliver fresh, still warm coffee to us when they pick up their share on Mondays J So here are the details: Perky Planet is a Vermont owned Coffee roaster with a mission of employing individuals with disabilities. We proudly deliver mountain grown, 100% arabica bean coffee, sustainably sourced and fresh small-batch roasted to extract delicious coffee in every cup. On any given week, you might receive:
Ethiopian- Yirgacheffe Natural Processed, hints of Dark Chocolate, Caramel, Berry, Roasted Almond, Rose
Brazil – Salmo Plus Natural Processed, hints of Milk Chocolate, Peanut Butter, Raisin, Graham Cracker
Colombia USDA Organic hints of Caramel, Cherry, Herb-like, Orange
Guatemala Culbuco, hints of Chocolate, Almond, Apple, Orange
Coffee can be ordered whole bean or ground (drip grind), available at $12/per pound. Please contact Christine at
cvaughn@gisu.org.
RECIPES:
Chickpea (Garbanzo Bean) and Tomato Salad
adapted from Simply Recipes
2 15-ounce cans of garbanzo beans , drained & rinsed
4 tomatoes (about 2 lbs.), cored and chopped
4 large hard-boiled eggs, peeled and chopped
2 cups of sweet onions or 1 bunch green onions, chopped
1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
6 Tbsp of white wine vinegar or sherry vinegar
1 teaspoon salt
Freshly ground pepper
Chopped parsley for garnish
Method
1 Combine the garbanzo beans, tomatoes, eggs, and onion in a large bowl.
2 Separately mix the dressing ingredients in a jar or a small bowl – olive oil, vinegar, salt, and pepper. Pour over salad ingredients. Sprinkle on chopped parsley. Serve immediately. Serves 6-8.
Cream of Tomato Soup, Indian style
adapted from Madhur Jaffrey’s “World of the East Vegetarian Cooking” (with adaptations)
Serves 4 – 6
1 1/2 lbs. red-ripe tomatoes, chopped
1 tbsp. sliced lemon grass (I usually leave out)
1 tbsp. dried or fresh curry leaves
1-inch sliced fresh ginger
4 tbsp. unsalted butter or ghee
1/2 C heavy cream or milk
2 tbsp. white flour
2 1/2 C milk
1/2 tsp. ground roasted cumin seeds
pepper to taste
1/8 tsp. cayenne pepper
2 tsp. lime or lemon juice
1 tbsp. minced fresh cilantro
Combine the tomatoes, lemongrass, curry leaves, ginger, 1/2 tsp. salt and 1/2 cup water and bring to a boil. Cover, lower heat and simmer gently for 15 minutes. Put the tomatoes through a sieve (you should have about 2 cups of thick tomato juice). Bring this juice to a simmer and keep on a low heat. Melt the butter in a heavy saucepan. Add flour. Stir and cook the flour on low heat for 2 to 3 minutes. Do not let it brown. Pour in the hot tomato juice, stirring all the time. Add cream and 3/4 tsp. salt. Simmer and add rest of ingredients except cilantro. Serve garnished with cilantro. May serve cold. This recipe is very tolerant of changes in quantities or omission of flavoring ingredients.
FRESH TOMATO SAUCE adapted from Deborah Madison’s Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone
3 pounds ripe tomatoes, quartered
3 Tablespoons chopped basil
Salt and pepper
2 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil or butter
Put the tomatoes in a heavy pan with the basil. Cover and cook over medium-high heat. The tomatoes should yield their juices right away, but keep an eye on the pot to make sure the pan isn’t dry. You don’t want the tomatoes to scorch. When the tomatoes have broken down after about 10 minutes, pass them through a food mill. If you want the final sauce to be thicker, return it to the pot and cook over low heat, stirring frequently, until it’s as thick as you want it. Season with salt and pepper to taste and stir in the oil.
Deborah M.’s notes about freezing tomato sauce: Making sauce to freeze for the winter isn’t a big production–or a time consuming one. When tomatoes are in season, I make the Fresh Tomato Sauce using 4 to 5 pounds tomatoes or whatever is convenient. When it’s cool, I ladle it into plastic freezer bags in 1- or 2- cup portions and lay the bags on the freezer floor until they harden. This makes slim packages that are easy to store upright, taking little space. When you warm the sauce, you can season it with crushed garlic or an herb that goes with the dish you’re making.