Lentil Curry with Celeriac and Winter Squash

 

-Half, seed, and peel 1 winter squash–or other winter squash–with a sharp knife (the skin is actually not too hard to peel if your knife is good). Cut squash into 1/4 inch chunks. Similarly, carefully peel and chop 1 celery root into 1/4 chunks. Set aside.

-Heat a large pot over medium heat with 4 tablespoons of olive or coconut oil (I like coconut for this recipe) and toss squash and celery root in with:

1 large white onion, chopped3 cloves of garlic, minced2 medium carrots2 tablespoons of fresh, grated ginger1 teaspoon of salt

-Saute veggies for about 15-20 minutes until tender.

-Add 1 tablespoon of curry powder and 1/4 teaspoon (or more) of red chili flakes. Mix well and cook for 2 minutes.

-Add 1 cup of lentils (any type will do), 1 cup of water or chicken stock, and 1 cup of coconut milk. **Coconut milk can be omitted…just add stock or water instead.

-Cover and simmer mixture for 25-40 minutes until lentils are tender. Adding more stock or water if the mixture is getting to thick.

-Let cool slightly and serve with brown or wild rice. Garnish with a fresh herb like chive, cilantro or parsley! ENJOY!

Serves 4 to 5 large portions.

 

IMG_2701The end of another farm year feels real this week. We are rushing to gather up the last tender crops of summer so we can give them out to you over the next few weeks. Winter squash, eggplant, fennel, tomatoes are all coming in, ripe just in time to be brought out from under the cold nights that are getting colder. The last couple weeks of September are always a bit crazier than normal as we move in several directions, closing one season and getting ready for the next. With one eye focussed we harvest like mad all these tender crops, while with the other we are look ahead to the next summer. Adding compost to fields to enrich them, mowing high grass in the pastures to allow the young grass to emerge and sowing fertility enhancing crops to gather this year’s lost nutrients and protect the soil over the winter are all acts of devotion to the season to come. These late season sowings of what we call “cover crops” (meant to cover the ground for the winter) always seems the craziest task we undertake. The season is closing, we are overflowing with food and yet we work extra-hard to sow hundreds of pounds of seed over acres of ground all in the name of next year’s fertility. Most of these cover crops are a combination of traditional grain crops (rye, barley, oats and wheat) combined with a legume (peas, clover and vetch). The grain quickly covers the ground, shading out late season weeds and soaking up nutrients left behind after the vegetable crop. The grain crop also provides a protected environment for the slower growing legume to develop slowly in the understory. As the legume gets larger it gathers nitrogen and outgrows the early grain crop until both die over the winter or become late season sheep feed or wake up and grow stronger next spring.

 Sign Up for 2013 Now!

We’ll be sending out a sign-up email later today about signing up for your 2013 CSA share. If you are interested in joining us again next season we urge you to sign up now. Your commitment now allows us to plan, purchase and hire for next year.  We will start taking new members from the wait list on October 21st but would like to give you, our current members the opportunity to renew with us first.  Sign ups will be online with a new system that is easier to understand but still allows for the use of credit cards, electronic checks and payment plans. It is also possible to sign-up online and mail us a check the old fashioned way.

Lamb for the Freezer

There are still order forms for whole and half lamb for your freezer. these are our grass fed lambs, processed with your directions to the butcher. Pickup a order form at pick-up or email us for a digital copy…

What’s In Upic?

Cherry Toms

Green Beans -last week

Flowers

Herbs

What’s In  The Share This Week?

Broccoli

Tomatoes

Lettuce

Chickories

Chard

Beets
Eggplant
Peppers
Cabbage
Celeriac
Scallions

Harvest Frost

The crew starts cutting on harvest days at 6am, at least until the lack of light pushes the time forward, and this am was our first really cold morning. Standing at the farmhouse the thermometer read 36 before we all loaded into the trucks and headed down to the fields.  The usual routine is to divide the crew of 7 into groups by crop and jump in, today we had chard, lettuce mix and kale to work on right off. Five of us cut 125lbs of lettuce in less than 15 minutes  and with chilly hands we moved into the next crop.  Three folks broke off to head to another field to cut lettuce heads while the rest of us jumped into chard. Almost as soon as the lettuce crew drove off they came back -frost was blanketing all of the heads they planned to cut. This happens alot in October and we have to postpone the morning cut to let the crops thaw. Lettuce, chard, kale and most of our greens generally handle light frosts very well. The sun comes up, they thaw and are good as new. The tough part for us is that we can’t touch them until they are completely frost free. Any movement at all and those frozen cells in the plant break and in a short time turn to green mush. Waiting for frost is expected a month from now, but I can’t remember a mid-September morning in the last ten years that has had a frost.IMG_4553

The crew diverted from lettuce heads to other crops in the first field where we had started with the lettuce mix and cut for another 20 minutes or so until we started to notice the chard and kale in our hands was looking different. It was beginning to freeze up right in front of us. We call this a harvest frost. When the temperature is just above freezing as the sun comes up the air above the field is warmed and pushes a mass of concentrated cold air below it down upon us and the greens -freezing them right before our eyes. Needless to say we all stopped cutting, loaded up the trucks and headed back up to wash what we had cut, have some breakfast and wait while the morning warmed up.

 Last week for Freezer Pork….

Our own pigs, raised with care on pasture. Know your food. If you have been thinking about a whole of a half for your freezer this is the last week. Talk to us at pick-up for more info….

What’s In Upic?

Cherry Toms

Green Beans

Flowers

Herbs

What’s In  The Share This Week?

Red Onions

Tomatoes

Lettuce

Chickories

Chard

Carrots/Beets
Eggplant
Rose Gold Potatoes

Fall

Hopefully all of you are settling in to your post-summer routines, enjoying the crisp sleeping weather and good meals. September is my favorite eating month. It’s the crossover time between the heat loving crops of summer and the hearty satisfying roots of fall. Meals that include potatoes and tomatoes, hot peppers and cabbage -the options are endless.

Most of our days are filled with harvest as we try to keep up with what’s coming in. Potatoes, squash and Sweet potatoes are the big crops yet to be finished amongst are the smaller ones you see each week. All of our days begin at 6am and on Tuesdays and Fridays we have a bigger crew as some of our able hourly help jumps in to cut greens, wash roots and help with the sorting and cleaning of onions, melons, etc. Here a shot our our crew this am…IMG_4545

San Marzano Roma Toms

This is the first picking of these roma tomatoes, a new addition to the share this year. Famous for their concentrated flavor and low moisture a few of these sliced into a pan with onion and olive oil is a pasta sauce in itself.

Potato Thanks

Thanks to all of you who came out to lend a hand with the potato harvest last Saturday am. We picked up about 4000 row feet of Rosegolds and Adirondack Reds which you will start seeing in your share next week after we grade and wash them.

Fennel

Another round of this under appreciated mediterranean mainstay. If you missed enjoying this one last time try some of the recipes on the website. Especially the Tunisian stew with Greens and Chickpeas…

IMG_4551Monster Carrots

Carrots this week are mega big. Last week they weren’t consistent enough in size to harvest but the rain caused a growth explosion! We had a hard time getting these monsters out of the ground!

Last Round of Watermelon This Week…IMG_4552

This peace watermelon is a great variety and yes, it is supposed to be yellow in the inside.

Breeding Time Again for Sheep

If you are on the farm you may notice our various flocks here and there, some of them sporting bright swashes of red and green. Two of our ewe groups have rams in with them and the color comes from a pigment paste we apply to the rams chest. He then marks the ewe when they come together and we now know that our ram is doing his job, and by the number of marked ewes, how well…IMG_4549

What’s In Upic?

Cherry Toms

Green Beans

Flowers

Herbs

What’s In  The Share This Week?

Roma Tomatoes

Watermelon

Tomatoes

Fennel

Lettuce

Asian Greens

Chard

Carrots
Broccoli
Ancho Peppers
Gold Potatoes

Tunisian Fennel, Greens, Chickpea Stew

Adapted fron  the New York Times

1/2 pound (1 1/8 cups) chickpeas, soaked in 1 quart water for four to six hours or overnight (or 1 can chickpeas rinsed and drained)

1 bunch Swiss chard or Kale , stemmed, leaves washed and coarsely chopped

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

1 medium onion, chopped

1 leek, white part only, cleaned and sliced

2 medium or 1 large fennel bulb, cored and chopped

2 large garlic cloves, minced

1 teaspoon coriander seeds, ground

1 teaspoon caraway seeds, ground

2 teaspoons cumin seeds, ground

1 tablespoon harissa (more to taste; substitute 1/2 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper if harissa is unavailable), plus additional for serving. Try using a flavorful mildly spice pepper, minced, like and ancho or even jalapeño here as well.

1 tablespoon tomato paste dissolved in 1/2 cup water

Salt to taste

1 1/3 cups couscous (optional)

1. Drain the chickpeas and transfer to a large pot. Add 1 1/2 quarts water. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat and simmer one hour while you prepare the remaining ingredients.

2. Tear the chard leaves off the stems. Wash the stems and dice. Wash the leaves thoroughly and chop coarsely. Set aside. Chop the fennel fronds, and set aside.

3. Heat the oil over medium heat in a heavy casserole, Dutch oven or in any heavy pan with a lid. Add the onion, leek, fennel and a generous pinch of salt, and cook, stirring, until tender, five to eight minutes. Add the chard stems, and stir together for a couple of minutes until they begin to soften. Add the garlic and ground spices, and stir together for 30 seconds to a minute until the garlic is fragrant. Add the harissa or cayenne and the dissolved tomato paste, and stir together for another minute or two. Add the chickpeas with their cooking liquid, plus another cup of water if you think there should be more liquid in the pot. Stir together, and bring back to a simmer. Add salt, cover and simmer 30 minutes to an hour until the chickpeas are thoroughly tender and the broth fragrant. If using canned chickpeas simmer at the lowest heat just to bring the flavors together.

4. Stir in the chard greens and chopped fennel fronds. Simmer 10 to 15 minutes, until the greens are very tender and fragrant. Remove from the heat. Taste and adjust seasonings, adding salt, garlic or harissa/pepper as desired.

5. Reconstitute and steam the couscous. Serve in wide bowls, top with the stew and serve.

Wet with a Vengeance…

One of the driest Augusts we have had gets to keep it’s record and September now has a leg up in rainfall totals with this massive storm we had this weekend. Over three inches in rain have fallen as of Tuesday am and our fields, know for their sandy (i.e. beach like)  ability to drain have had standing water in most areas at some point. Big rains like this tend to bring big changes to the fields as the high humidity and warm temps work together and kickstart growth bursts as as well as outbreaks of disease this time of year. This system is warm and wet but the weather pushing the clouds out looks dry and cool, which will help slow down the disease pressure a bit.

Potato Harvest Party 2.0

After out first Labor Day rainout in 10 years we are rescheduling the dig for this weekend from 9-11. Please come join us for any or all of the fun during these two hours. Look for the crew in the fields along Pleasant Hill Road towards Brunswick.

Potatoes….

While we had to postpone the Labor Day potato party until this next Saturday we were able , thanks to a great group of Bowdoin entering freshmen, get one variety dug last week. These Kueka Gold potatoes are great and can be used for just about anything. We made our first batch of mashed this weekend as the storm lashed outside -nothing better. Try the Recipe for scalloped Kuekas with leeks and cipollini onions here.

Cipollini Onions

These specialty onions have become one of our favorites and they7 are the first to come out of the greenhouse after curing this year. Italian for “little onion” these are sweet and tender and are especially good when roasted, sautéed or even better carmelized.

 More Melons….

Those cantaloupes are still coming. Fewer this week! hopefully you found fruit salad or smoothie to absorb the ones from last week. If you arew melonned out try cubing them and freezing them in a ziplock for a cool smoothie on a hot day…

What’s In Upic?

Cherry Toms

Green Beans

Flowers

Herbs

What’s In  The Share This Week?

Leeks

Tomatoes

Lettuce

Baby Bok Choi

Chard

Cantaloupe
Cucumbers
Cipolinni Onions
Cabbage
Broccoli
Peppers
Gold Potatoes

Scalloped Keuka Gold Potatoes

TOTAL TIME  1 hour 35 minutes

INGREDIENTS

3 tablespoons butter, more for greasing pie plate

4 cloves garlic, minced

1 medium leek, white and light green parts only, minced

4 small cipollini onions, minced

1 tablespoons minced Rosemary

3 cups heavy cream

2 pounds (about 6 medium) Keuka Gold potatoes (unpeeled), sliced 1/8-inch thick

Salt

ground white pepper

PREPARATION

 

1.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter a 9-inch deep-dish glass pie plate.

2.

In a wide saucepan, combine 3 tablespoons butter, garlic, leek and onions. Place over medium-low heat and sauté until mixture is light golden, about 15 minutes. Add 2 tablespoons tarragon, the cream and potatoes, and mix well. Simmer gently until potatoes are barely tender, about 15 minutes. Season with salt and white pepper to taste.

3.

Using a slotted spoon, transfer potatoes to pie plate, spreading them evenly and pressing lightly to compact them. Drizzle with 2 to 3 tablespoons of cream from pan. Cover with foil and bake for 40 minutes. Remove foil and continue to bake until top is light golden brown, about 10 more minutes. Remove from heat and allow to rest for 15 minutes. Garnish with a sprinkling of chopped tarragon, and serve.