Fall has definitely arrived here in the foothills with the first rain storm last week. Three days of a deluge, and now beautiful, crisp, sunny days and fire-time nights. All the oaks are turning yellow, the days short and sweet. Halloween approaches next week and close on its heels, Thanksgiving, the epitome of fall harvest and abundance. It’s a time for gratitude (of course, any time really is) to the earth, the sun, the soil, everything that conspires to bring us this incredible nourishment. It’s such a mystery and such a simple thing, yet think about the miracle of planting a seed and the seed unfolding into a spreading pumpkin plant. It’s pretty amazing. This time of year, my pantry is full of canned and dried foods, potatoes and winter squash precariously stacked in the corner of my bathroom, and the freezer jammed to the point of things falling out when I open it. I feel so safe, so securely provisioned for the winter. A full pantry and a full woodshed at the onset of November are the definition of wealth in my opinion.
And now, sitting on my couch, watching the afternoon sun through the window grace the ridge across the valley, I want to express my gratitude to all our wonderful CSA members. Thank you for supporting us this season with your money and time. Thank you for investing in small, local farms and trying things you may have never tried before. Thank you so much for coming with your bags and boxes every week and oohing and aahing over the veggies. Maisie and I couldn’t have done it without you!
Enjoy the last harvest and get some cozy time this winter!
Love,
Willow
Anticipated Harvest:
lettuce
boc choi
kale/collards/chard
cilantro/parsley/dill
pumpkins!
parsnips
carrots
garlic
Pumpkin Doughnut Holes:
My friend Stephanie Rosenbaum is a great chef and cookbook author and recently sent me this recipe, which I plan on trying as soon as possible. I recommend you do to! For Pumpkin Doughnut Holes click here.
Parsnips: I like to roast my parsnips in a simple fashion. Just cut them into small chunks coat with olive oil and salt and roast in the oven until soft and slightly crispy around the edges. They are also great in chicken soup.
Wow oh geez oh my, its really coming down! Julius and I are tucky tucked into the trailer, warm tea in hand and freshly baked pumpkin muffins on the counter. Today I have been dreaming about Baja. Today I have been anticipating tomorrow’s wet harvest. Today marks almost a week until our season is over and the wide-open expanse of winter awaits! Which means only one more CSA pick up after this one. Take note dear members, and be sure to come collect tomorrow, as we’ll have butternut squash that you will not want to miss! Rain or shine we’ll be there!
Anticipated Harvest: Butternut Squash, Garlic, Cilantro or Dill or Parsley, Bok Choi, Chard or Collards or Kale, Green Tomatoes (and maybe even some red ones), Tomatillos, Carrots, Broccoli or Cabbage! I may be forgetting something, but I’m not about to go out there in my skivvies and check!
Fried Green Tomatoes!
This recipe was given to us by our Living Lands Intern, Katie. Another intern, Lauryn, ate these the other day, and said, “It might just have been the best thing I have ever eaten.” Enough said.
Green Tomatoes, A few cups of corn flour, corn meal, and garbanzo flour mixed (can use white flour too, but this mixture makes for good crispiness), 4-6 eggs, Dash of milk or buttermilk, Cayenne, salt, pepper, and Canola Oil
Cut large green tomatoes into 1/2 inch slices Sprinkle lightly with salt and let sit for 10 minutes (this sweats some moisture and bitterness out) For the breading process pull out three bowls, in the first, put a few cups of chickpea flour. In the second, put 4-6 eggs and a dash of milk or buttermilk (whisk together well). In the third, mix chickpea flour, cornmeal, corn flour, and salt and pepper (can add a dash of cayenne as well), mix together well. Place each tomato slice in the first bowl, turn the tomato so it has a nice layer of flour attached to it, shake it off and then move it to the second bowl. Coat it with the egg mixture and allow the excess to drip back into the bowl. Place in the third bowl and pat the flour mixture onto the tomato slice, making sure to get the sides of the tomato as well. Gently shake off the excess flour, and place the tomato on parchment paper until you are ready to fry. Repeat this process for each tomato slice until they are all breaded. For the frying process, heat up a 1/2 inch layer of canola oil (or other high heat option) in a cast iron pan, until it has the consistency of water. Place as many tomato slices into the pan as will fit in one layer and allow to fry, flipping once, until both sides are a healthy golden brown. Place in a low oven on parchment paper until all of them are fried and ready to eat. If oil starts to brown, pour out and replace with fresh oil. Top with Meg’s cashew sauce and enjoy!
Meg’s Cashew Sauce:
2 cups roasted, unsalted cashews
2-4 red jalapenos (cored and seeded), diced
1 bunch cilantro (leaves only)
2:1 honey to vinegar (add until you are satisfied with the flavor)
Blend the cilantro and jalapenos in a small food processor, add some of the nuts (~1/2 cup) on top of the veggies and continue to process until the mixture is well blended and somewhat pasty. Remove the mixture from the processor and put in a bowl. Add the rest of the nuts to the processor and blend until chunky. Pour the chopped nuts on top of the veggie blend and mix together. Add honey and vinegar in a 2:1 ratio until the sauce has a sticky consistency and you are happy with the level of sweet and sourness. Enjoy!
This is the opposite of what it looks like today.
Squish squash squadoodle, the squash have arrived! Big round orange pie ones. Tan heavy buttery ones. Small striped sweet thin-skinned ones. Squat rich dark-fleshed heavenly ones…
Look at this picture from this same date last year. Totally raining. And look at all those unprepared and inappropriately dressed farmers! Turns out that tossing squash during the first rain is just as much fun as jumping in puddles!
I am excited to give you squash during these next few weeks. Sometimes people get intimidated when they go to cook a squash. I tell them not to worry so much, you can’t get any easier than preparing a squash. And for starters we are giving you the delicate delicata squash to try. Just cut it lengthwise in half, scoop out the seeds, drizzle with olive oil and sea salt, put the two sides face down on a baking dish in the oven and put some water in the bottom of the pan too, and bake at 350 until the squash is soft and maybe even a little browned on the bottom. Wahla! Flip over, put on a plate, fill with sauteed onions, kale, and quinoa, or just eat plain.
This Week’s Harvest:
Lettuce, Kale/Collards/Chard, Tomatoes (the last of ‘em), Peppers, Eggplant, Tomatillos, Sweet Turnips/Bok Choi, Parsley/Basil, Rainbow Sparkly Potato (we named ‘em), Purple Mist Garlic (also named ‘em), and DELICATA SQUASH! Enjoy!
So now you want to be a part of our blog, do you?
Let these photos entice you into signing up to get our weekly newsletter (and avoid the reduntancy of emailing you to check your blog) and inspire you to eat the following from our fields:
September 25th
Greens – Chard, Kale, Collards
Tomatoes, Eggplant, Peppers. Tomatillos Hurrah!
Beets
Garlic and Onions
Cucumbers, maybe Basil
Potatoes??
Sorry for the vagaries in the harvest list, willow and I have both been gone and it is much too dark to go poke around in the field. But expect abundance, per usual. Abundant sexiness I mean…
Love, Maisie
Some beautiful sungolds you will receive this week.
The farm is a quiet place lately. The last successions of lettuce and root crops are in the ground, and now instead of planting we are focusing on harvesting and starting the annual process of putting the farm to bed. The winter squash are peeking out bright orange and green behind their browning vines, the corn stalks are drying, rustling gracefully in the autumn breeze, and the finches are plucking out the seeds from the last sunflower heads. There is more spaciousness to the work, not the frantic pace of “getting everything into the ground in time” of the spring, but a slow steady rhythm of abundance.
The fall tasks tend toward stocking up for the winter; preserving everything possible in order to savor some summer sweetness in January. On Sunday Chris and I made four gallons of the Sicilian spread caponata. I had never tried caponata, but Chris promised it was well worth all the effort of dicing, and so we began. We got up early and cut up tomatoes, peppers, eggplant and onions into tiny pieces, fried them in olive oil and threw all those glistening jewel-colored bits into a big pot. The pot simmered on the stove, filling the house with savory, mouth-watering smells. We listened to loud music as we chopped and rambled on about whatever popped into our heads. It was a good four hours to get everything into the pot but felt like the right way to spend time, in the tradition of slow food and Italian grandmothers. By the late afternoon the caponata had cooked down into a thick, chunky sauce and we took it still warm to the river to enjoy on crusty baguette with good friends. It was such a satisfying process and a timely reminder of what life had been and could be, focused on feeding and sheltering yourself and your loved ones with tangible effort, rather than having a job in order to buy those things.
This is why I love fall, and why I love farming. The abundance that comes at the end of the season, and the lifestyle that includes preparing and eating food with family and friends. When I encourage people to buy local and organic foods, besides all the myriad health and ecological reasons, the incredible flavor and pleasure of eating is probably the most compelling to me. The slow food movement recognizes and celebrates this and I encourage y’all to look into it more here if you haven’t heard about it. I hope you are able to spend some slow, pleasurable time enjoying this week’s share, and I’ll see you on the flip side.
love, Willow
Anticipated harvest:
lettuce
kale/collards/chard
boc choi/tatsoi
tomatoes
eggplant
peppers
corn
carrots
summer squash
cucumbers
parsley
Here’s the caponata recipe we used, courtesy of Susan Shehab (Chris’s mom)
2 large eggplants, diced
1 cup olive oil
4 bell peppers, diced
1 large onion, diced
6 ripe tomatoes, peeled, seeded and chopped
1/2 cup green or black olives, pitted and sliced
3 hearts of celery, chopped
1/4 cup capers (the celery & capers are important)
1/2 cup wine vinegar
1/2 cup water
1 teaspoon sugar
Salt and pepper
Brown the eggplants in half of the oil. Remove.
Add more oil if necessary & when hot – add
Peppers – cook ’til wilted & remove.
Now, sauté onions ’til wilted then add
Tomatoes & simmer ’til they are reduced to sauce.
Add olives, celery, capers; simmer a few minutes
Then add wine vinegar, water, sugar, cooked peppers
& eggplants. Season with s/p and cook over low heat
’til vegetables are well cooked and sauce thick (30 minutes).
If you are canning: process in hot water bath as follows:
1/2 pints for 20 minutes boil
pints for 40 minutes boil
Serve at room temp on small pieces of good bread
With a sprinkling of grated cheese. Enjoy! Love, Mom
And in case you haven’t already had an eggplant parmesan (a favorite way of mine to eat eggplant and tomatoes) here’s a nice twist on this traditional dish.
Eggplant Parmesan (adapted from Joy of Cooking)
The eggplant is normally baked in a single layer with sauce and cheese, but in a pinch you can feed more people in one pan if you do it lasagna-style in layers. Serve over angel hair pasta.
Sauce Ingredients:
5-7 large tomatoes, finely diced
1/2 cup fresh basil, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic
1Tbs olive oil
1 tsp salt
Casserole Ingredients:
4 medium eggplants (about 4 pounds), cut in 1/2 in. thick slices
2 eggs, beaten
Olive oil, for frying
2 cups shredded Parmesan cheese (about 8 oz)
2 cups shredded mozzarella (use fresh, water-packed mozzarella if you can)
1. Preparing the Sauce:
Dice the tomatoes and put them in a colander in the sink. Let them sit for about 20 minutes, so that all the extra liquid drains out. In the meantime, chop your basil and garlic. You’ll have some extra time to use up here, so start slicing your eggplants up. When the tomatoes are drained, mix them in a bowl with the basil, salt, garlic, and olive oil and let it all marinate.
2. Frying the Eggplant:
Heat about a tablespoon of olive oil in a frying pan. (Or, if you’re coordinated, I recommend doing two pans simultaneously, to save time.) When the oil is hot, lower the temperature to medium. Briefly dip each slice of eggplant in the egg and shake off the excess, then toss it in the pan. Cook for 2-3 minutes on each side, until it is soft. Put the cooked slices on a platter off to the side.
3. Assembling the Casserole:
Preheat your oven to 350°. Spread about 1/3 of the sauce in the bottom of a large baking dish. Lay slices of eggplant on top, with edges touching. Sprinkle about half the Parmesan and mozzarella cheeses over the top, then add another layer of sauce and another layer of eggplant. Spread the remainder of the sauce over the top, then finish off with the rest of the cheese. Bake for about 20 minutes, until the cheese is melted and the casserole is heated through.
Last Week’s Share Box!
I don’t know friends, I’m at a loss this week of what to say. The farm has been beautiful. The trellising is practically falling down from the weight of so many tomatoes. The zinnias bloom with bright colors like skittles, the statice with its delicate hues of blue, and the frosted explosion grass with explosions of frost. We’re not big weeders, Willow and I, and so quite a few puddles of purslane dapple the landscape as well. The eggplant are loaded (is it redundant to say eggplant plant?). The grass in the pasture has dried a golden amber. And I am mostly happy, content with the everyday stuff of living, missing the one I love, loving the life i lead.
No theme this week for the newsletter. No poignant stories or farm gossip really either (with Willow on vacation I mostly just talk to myself). I just feel fine, and that is an alright feeling to have. Today, with the help of some friends, I finally finished the deer hide I started tanning last fall. My trailer fills with the smell of woodsmoke and the finished hide lays over my chair. There is something completely engrossing about working a hide, and today I found myself deeply engaged in the present moment to a degree I don’t always experience, even on the farm. There is a way in which working with natural materials, on nature’s clock, slows down everything before and blurs the importance of an after, leaving only the responsibilities of the moment – feeding the fire, watching the hide, and sitting on upside down milk crates with friends, idly discussing the changes of fall.
So fine. Life is a beautiful thing these days. It is picking eggplant plants and sewing deer hides. It is loving someone so big and watching that love challenge me to open up even further. It is feeling grateful for my community at large, and for the love that jumps oceans and state lines to connect me to those that don’t live here. It’s also honey dripping and manzanita berry picking, closing in the chickens and falling asleep to the crickets, today’s tranquility and yesterdays agitation. Yep. That’s it. Time for bedtime. Make ratatouille and be happy.
Love,
Maisie
Anticipated Harvest:
Basil
Lettuce
Summer Squash
Onions
Greens – Kale/Collards/Chard
Bok Choi/Tatsoi
Cucumbers
Beets?
Corn
Tomatoes!
Eggplant
Peppers
Recipe: Ratatouille!
In case you have forgotten this simple pleasure, the variations are endless and the ingredients abundant this time of year. Here’s one idea, which you can cook in a cast iron on the stove top, stirring occasionally, of you can bake in the oven too. Shredding cheese on top ain’t bad either.
1 medium eggplant
2 small zucchini
1 medium pepper
1 medium onion
2 medium tomatoes
1/4 cup olive oil
1 1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1 garlic clove crushed
Thank you for being in out flower share!
I’m struck in this moment by the peach tree in my yard. It’s just a wee thing, 12 feet tall and growing next to the chicken coop. I never planted this tree, neither did the land owners here. Instead it came in with some compost, a gnarled little pit tossed into the pile on a summer day, left to it’s own devices. When I moved here, almost four years ago, it was a spindly bit of root stock, sad sickle leaves covering it’s few branches, looking a little misplaced in the yard, next to the shed that the land owner’s kids had painted with flowers and clouds. In fact, that year, sometime mid-summer, it was mistakenly weed-wacked along with the rampant blackberry, and I never expected to see it again.
Every year since I’ve almost peripherally taken note of the thing. Someone over for lunch will comment on it. “Oh, you have a little peach tree right there,” they’ll say, and I’ll nod, but almost not quite believe it, because, really, how does something as tender as a peach just grow on its own? I mean, it died once, so why would I place my attention on something so destined to fail, so fragile it takes whole orchard set-ups and specific varieties just to survive the strange weather and frosts of the foothills?
Looking at it now, I realize that I have been captured by that little sweet thing without even knowing it. It has four peaches on it, ripening in the heat, fuzzy like little kitten paws and the color of rainbow sorbet – orange and pink and green. In fact, I almost feel like crying, I am so struck by the beauty of this tree that has grown up all on its own.
What if I could regard my own growth like this perfect little peach tree? How relaxing, to consider my evolution to be as beautiful as this one right in front of me. I’ve been growing up a lot this year, learning to love and learning to be my most authentic self and learning to take risks and be true. It’s been hard, but how different it is even in this moment to consider that my process has been just as natural, just as painful, just as wind-tossed, and just as fruitful as that of the peach.
Ok, so now I am crying a little bit. And I’m feeling a lot of love for not only this peach, but my yard, the wind today, the overhead sprinklers drizzling the lettuce sprouts, the river that awaits my afternoon visit, my sweet lover flying across the world to hike great mountains, all the great mountains that watch over us, and the ripe peach, from another little peach tree, that sits on my table and smells like heaven. And of course the peach pit beneath, which will make it’s way into my compost, and sprout, and be pulled inextricably, in it’s own sweet time, to become something beautiful.
Love,
Maisie
Anticipated Harvest:
Tomatoes!
Summer Squash – we are going to give you a lot, be prepared.
Eggplant
Peppers?
Beets/Carrots
Basil
Tatsoi
Turnips/Radishes/Cabbage
Greens – Kale/Chard/Collards
Garlic
Recipe
I know I don’t always give out complicated recipes, but more and more I realize that I hardly ever try complicated things in the summer. I just make a salad, and put everything delicious in it. So, with that being said, I want to encourage you all to use your grills and ovens this week, especially with the summer squash and eggplants. Because all you need is a little brush of olive oil and sea salt, and shazam, you’ve got gourmet. I have been appreciating eggplant, sliced 1/4 in thick, grilled both sides, and just plain like that. Same thing with the tomatoes even, roast them before you make a sauce or salsa and the caramelized flavor of acid and sweet come right out. Have fun!
That’s it. I give up. I give up knowing, trying, striving, avoiding. Instead I will accidentally mow over the hose in my yard and then try to unearth its remains from four years of grass. Step on a bee, open the freezer and drop a glass jar of last-years pesto on the floor, jam my hand starting the rototiller, leave the whole cart of flowers out in the sun, and come home to find my box of draining honey comb infested with ants.
Sounds good to me. Because considering the tranquility and ease of my life – sleeping in a quiet meadow, picking soft leaves of salad mix in the morning, drinking fresh carrot juice for lunch, a dip in the river in the evening – a daily debacle is just like a healthy dose of castor oil from mom. Builds character, keeps us on our toes, makes us resilient, cleans out the system, and most importantly, allows us to let go. Well, I don’t know if castor oil allows us to let go per se, but certainly the unexpected messiness of living does the trick for me. One moment I am happily picking spinach, chatting with willow and miranda, and the next minute I’ve got the van loaded with veggies to go to town and my tire is flat.
So I surrender. To my experience in the moment whether I judge it to be a “good” one or “bad” one. I don’t expect to escape the inanities and awkwardness of living, and in fact I welcome them as a wake up call to appreciate all the beauty and balance that exists. Consider then the inherent blessing the next time you drop your plate, jam your finger, or lose your keys. It ain’t so bad when you take into account that you have a plate full of food to eat, all your fingers to wiggle, and a way to get yourself around town to visit the ones you love. I know I will be trying to channel such grace when I pick the tomatoes this week, crawling through rows we yet again spaced too close together, and yet continually grateful for the abundant harvest these plants provide. Happy eating and appreciating this week!
SUCH a great way to use up that huge summer squash that got away from you (or us in this case). Just shred the zucchini up and along with chopped onions and some olive oil, fill a cast iron pan with the stuff. Put in Garlic and Salt to taste. Cook on low heat for up to an hour (!), stirring occasionally. What you want to get is that caramelized flavor from the squash and onions browning but not burning. Serve up warm or store in the fridge and serve cold with thinly sliced bread, rice crackers, or whatever. SO GOOD.
Quite possibly the bee who stung me…
Woah I am feeling happy. Happy like a fox. Happy like a vine, spilling down the river canyon, twisting around trunks and branches and reaching towards the sun. Happy like a human being, just fresh from walking the fields at dusk, with bare feet and a handful of sweet peas.
Yes. I just saw my first tomato, orange and almost red on the vine. This is the real deal. This is summertime. We are doing it. The fields are mostly weeded in preparation for the farm tour and festival tomorrow, the summer squash sprouted actual squash sometime in the last twelve hours, and the first sunflowers are opening their faces towards where the sun rises. Oh my gosh, do you have any idea what this is like in the life of a farmer?! Glorious. Ecstatic. Delicious. This is the moment we work for all spring. And when it happens there’s no fan-fare, no bells and whistles, radio announcements or speeches. Just the barely audible sound of tomatillos pushing their purple bottoms out of papery husks. Only the slight rustle of the cucumber as it carefully latches onto its trellising for the first time, wrapping its little tendril arms around the netting. So quiet, but so dang sweet. All these little plantaroonies shaking off the dew and fluffing their leaf-feathers and saying, “Yo world! Yo farmer chics! We’re ready to go! Pick us, eat us, prune us, and for the love of sweet potatoes, turn on the water!”
Come tomorrow and walk our fields. Come feel the first tiny breaths of summer. Come and let the anticipation and wonder of what’s to come next light up all the little fireworks in your mind. I am feeling so happy that not only am I here today, doing this work, seeing this miracle, but i am also getting to pick all this food to be eaten by you. What a gift, to participate in something as soul-stirring as to witness this place. Thank you for being a part, and doing your part by eating all this up. Have a great rest of your weekend, and if we don’t see you tomorrow, see you on Tuesday.
Love,
Maisie
Click here to find out more about the farm tour and festival tomorrow!
Anticipated Harvest:
Beets! – Willow’s out of town, so naturally I am just going to give beets out this week. Just Kidding, also…
Carrots!
Cabbage or Broccoli
Tatsoi or Bok Choi
Basil
Chard/Collards/Kale
Parsley
Summer Squash – we’ll see how much we get. might be a slow start, but then BAM, by next week we’ll all be swimming in it.
Scallions
Seaweed – Not harvested on the farm. Surprising, I know. But I traded some plant starts for way too much wakame, and so, behold, Seaweed for the CSA.
Recipe:
I’m not sure if I printed this before, but it sounds SO GOOD. You don’t have to separately wrap beets in foil, sounds a little like over-kill to me. But if it’s too complicated anyway for your taste, just roast dem beets and use them all weeks long in anything. The below is from epicurious.
1 oz mâche (also called lamb’s lettuce), trimmed (4 cups)
Preheat oven to 425°F.
Separately wrap red and golden beets tightly in double layers of foil and roast in middle of oven until tender, 1 to 1 1/2 hours. Unwrap beets.
While beets are cooling slightly, whisk together shallot, lemon juice, salt, and pepper in a small bowl, then add oil in a stream, whisking.
When beets are cool enough to handle, slip off and discard skins. Separately cut red and golden beets into 1/4-inch dice and put in separate bowls. Add 2 1/2 tablespoons dressing to each bowl and toss to coat.
Place cookie cutter in center of 1 of 8 salad plates. Put one eighth of red beets in cutter and pack down with your fingertips. Crumble 2 teaspoons goat cheese on top, then one eighth of golden beets, packing them down. Gently lift cutter up and away from stack. Make 7 more servings in same manner. Drizzle each plate with 1 teaspoon dressing and scatter with some pistachios.
Toss mâche with just enough remaining dressing to coat and gently mound on top of beets. Serve immediately.
Cooks’ notes: Beets can be roasted and diced 1 day ahead and chilled, covered. Bring to room temperature before using.
