Thursday September 30, 2010
Alas, it's raining!! It's what the farmers need - some good ol' H2O. Ironically, the rain fell on the evening that Farm Girl Farmer, Laura Meister, hosted a celebration of the harvest with other farmers and farm advocates at her farm under the tent. Chef, Brian Alberg, from the Red Lion Inn, served up a grilling extravaganza - goat, lamb burgers, his own smoked ham, veggies and a whole halibut. Oh my god - it was o-u-t-s-t-a-n-d-i-n-g!!!!!!!
Thank you farmers and Laura!!
And might I add that Chef, Michael Ballon's chocolate covered macaroons were the BEST I have ever tasted - I am buying his cookbook just for that recipe!!
Thursday September 23, 2010
Thank you Laura for your insights and newsletter!!
September 21, 2010
Hi all—
Happy autumnal equinox, more or less.
In the fields, it feels exactly like that kind of half-time—we got hit by a fairly substantial frost last night, it took out the watermelon vines, the basil, the second summer squash planting…the tips of the pepper plants, some but not all of the tomato plants…we’re in a bit of a late summer/early fall twilight zone. No matter how great of a run we’ve had with these vegetables, and no matter how appropriate the timing of our first frost, its always a bit shocking, and then melancholy, to be working among the fallen fruits. Mother nature, always the stern reconciler of time.
Now is the time of season when we all start to think about preserving the harvest, putting things up, pickling, canning, freezing, etc. Berkshire Grown runs a series of preservation workshops with local restaurants and caterers. The series is already in progress—
www.berkshiregrown.org for details on upcoming workshops.
Speaking of the changing landscape, we’ll be changing our distribution hours on Tuesdays starting the first week in October (2 distributions from now)—we’ll be wrapping things up at 6 pm instead of 7, because it will be dark by 7. We’ll remind you copiously between now and then. Saturday hours will remain the same.
If any of you have a build-up at home of the pint and quart containers that you’ve been using for the cherry tomatoes, bring them in--we will definitely re-use them
We’re still looking forward to lots of kinds of winter squash, turnips, broccoli raab and beets and carrots. If any of you have fun, easy recipes or preparation suggestions for these veggies, send them along!
Enjoy the harvest this week.
--Laura Meister, Farm Girl Farm Farmer
Thursday September 16, 2010
Melons and Farm to Table thoughts by Laura Meister. This is by far one of Laura' best newsletters in my humble opinion. Thank you Laura!!
September 14, 2010
Hi all—
I was a city girl. More accurately, I was a suburb girl, and in terms of understanding food, I’d say this is actually much more of a handicap. My food came from the grocery store by and large, although to give my parents some credit and not to paint the situation in completely black and white terms, we did have some great tomatoes in our backyard garden. Still and all, the aggregate effect of the location and time of my upbringing caused me to miss out on some spectacular eating experiences and even a couple years into growing food, I still didn’t know what good was.
During my second season at Farm Girl Farm, I brought an experienced farmer friend to my melon patch to show him the disappointing results. “See?” I sighed, “I blinked and I missed them. They are all too ripe now, they’re rotting.” My friend laughed and grabbed the nearest muskmelon, with a rotten spot and a dent in the skin where ants were beginning to enter. He deftly removed the bad spot with his knife, cut the melon open, held it first to his nose and began muttering to himself, “Extraordinary”—then devoured the entire fruit in what seemed like one long slurp-bite. “My god its been years since I’ve had a melon this good,” he said. “There’s just nothing like it. You can’t get melons like this anywhere. You’ve got a gold mine here.” Lesson learned. Each summer since then I’ve proudly delivered him one muskmelon, preferably with at least one opening in the skin, the late-summer prize for patience and connoisseurship.
What I still wasn’t entirely getting about the “farm to table” concept was the beauty of skipping the step where a vegetable or fruit spends a few days in between the field and one’s plate, whether that be the grocery store or the farmstand. Coming to the farm to get one’s veggies, literally right out of the field, means access to the melon that would never have made it to the store, the melon that is so ripe it is about to burst through its skin to spread its seeds and start the cycle all over again, the show-stopping tomato with a kaleidoscope of colors and one tear in the skin or small bruise—vegetables that are at their peak of taste but that wouldn’t survive the one-week or even three-day transportation and holding period involved in the retail process. This is the good life!
So fear not the melon bursting out of its skin or the 1-pound tomato with a dime-sized soft spot. It’s not everyday you get to experience such a fruit. And winter, and California vegetables, are nipping at our heels. So enjoy.
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| Laura's melon, my tomatoes from Laura's seedlings. |
For those of you interested in learning more about how to tell if a melon is ripe in your own garden or to see the process we go through to bring the melons to the CSA table, here is a good webpage:
--Laura Meister, Farm Girl Farm Farmer
Thursday September 09, 2010
It's truly harvest time and it seems the abundance and celerity of the harvest has picked up. It's a bountiful and melancholy time. The morning mist is postcard perfect with a nip in the air while the days are still warming up. Jacket weather is not far away.
Here's what Elizabeth Keen from Indian Line Farm has to say about the harvest:
Where is the corn and eggplant? That is certainly the question many have been asking. The eggplant remains a bit of a mystery to me. In years past I have noticed that eggplant seemed to enjoy abundant rain and was not deterred by overly cool temperatures as long as the plants got off to a good start. We always plant the eggplant the 3rd week of May and then keep the plants covered with floating row cover for at least 2 weeks. This keeps the plants as warm as possible during what can be still a chilly time of year. Late May this year was blistering hot and I saw no need to cover them and, in fact, thought I might lose plants because the cover in combination with the biodegradable black plastic can really be overly hot. However, it turned cold again in early June and the plants were getting eaten by flea beetles so I covered them for two weeks. When we took the cover off, the plants were noticeably bigger and by all accounts healthy. We waited and continued to keep the plants as moist as we could through our drip irrigation system. And we have continued to wait. After a small flush in July the eggplants have all but petered out. The plants seem fine, but there has been very little flower production. I have asked around and it seems more than just I have the same problem. My conclusion is that eggplant won't flower much above 90 degrees and they really like water. We can hope for better next year.
Thursday September 02, 2010
As Summer winds to a close at least we have tomatoes to look forward to and thanks to Laura and other farmers we have a great crop - so I am going to be a canning wonder-woman this weekend!! Here's what Laura has to say this week....
August 31, 2010
Hi all—
End of summer? Does NOT feel that way. Although I did wonder if my alarm was mistaken this morning when it seemed to be pretty dark at 6 am…but with 90 degree weather and sun, sun, sun, the cold fingers of winter don’t seem to have quite the grip around my throat that they sometimes do at this time of year.
Although, as the commercials say, “we’ve got plenty of summer left” in terms of tomatoes and watermelons, it is true that kids are returning to school, summer birds are starting to migrate home to The City…sure signs of fall. And for the summer share CSA members, this week does mark the end of our time together this year. Thank you, summer share people, for a great season!
Meanwhile we are doing our best to keep getting fall crops in the ground while we try to keep up with the tomato harvest, the perpetual late August/early September dilemma.. We have beets, radishes, carrots and broccoli raab sown, we have new kale and swiss chard seedlings in the ground, and several flats of bok choi and head lettuce awaiting transplant. We’ll also soon be harvesting baby bitter greens and arugula again, as soon as the leaves size up just a bit more. We’ll have some baby leeks for you—these babies got pretty engulfed in weeds so they’ve been taking their time growing up, but they are on the way.
I’m looking forward to harvesting pumpkins and winter squash—we haven’t grown much or any of these for the last several years because they are such space hogs. But our new field afforded the space we needed, and so far the plants and fruits look great, so here’s hoping! We did get these plants in somewhat later than ideal because the preparation of that new field took longer than we wanted it to, but if you take a walk out there or slow your car down on your way out of the farm, you can see some gorgeous acorn squash and pumpkins lurking beneath those enormous green leaves.
Some of you who’ve been with FGF for our entire six seasons will remember Marne Litfin, apprentice extraordinaire during our second season, 2005. She made a guest re-appearance in 2006, and has been traveling the world and learning about all things food and farming. This past summer she was on staff at my beloved Farm & Wilderness and upon hearing that we had a couple of helpers depart early this season, she wrote to say she had a few weeks between camp and her next gig in Germany, so here she is, reunited with the cherry tomatoes. We are SO GLAD.
Other than all that, I’m hoping for some rain which will further all of the above endeavors!
Enjoy the veggies this week.
Thursday August 26, 2010
Firstly a great big THANK YOU to Farm Girl Farm and Equinox Farm for the GORGEOUS tomatoes for the Berkshire Grown fundraiser!!!! They were as delicious as they were gorgeous!!
August 24, 2010
Hi all—
A few notes from the field on your veggie shares.
Regarding the watermelons: we grew 12 varieties of watermelon this season and had a little extra space to do it in. So clear some space on your counter because here they come! Right now the yellow ones are ripening, soon we’ll start we’ll start harvesting the pink ones. Somewhere in between are the orange ones (!). There were a few distributed today—the very round melons with a yellow-orange flesh. So delicious! We are spending lots of time in the watermelon patch thumping and analyzing the melons for ripeness—so the ones we select to bring to the table should be, in our professional opinions, ripe. But if we are wrong, and you get one that is less than at its peak, do not despair because this is only the beginning of the watermelon tidal wave.
On the cucumbers—we have a variety in the field called Super Zagross. It is an heirloom variety known for its non-bitter taste. The caveat is that this cucumber is ugly as sin. The skin is cracked and rather tough. But peel it and the smoothest, mildest cucumber is inside. This cuke is great for sandwiches, soups, you name it. So don’t be afraid . We have begun referring to these cukes as the “green uglies.”
We’re sorely missing the eggplant which is usually starting to ramp up its presence at this point in the season. Our eggplant plants are not so happy—too little water at just the wrong moment and alas, not many blossoms and not much fruit! Things are looking slightly better than last week, so maybe in a few more weeks we’ll have enough to bring to the table. It’s a funny contrast to last year, when the eggplant cavalierly stepped in and took the place of the tomatoes as nightshade superstar. Well, we’re always learning.
Events for your calendars:
The 7th Annual Stanton Brothers’ Pig Roast will take place at North Plain Farm in Great Barrington, starting at 4 pm (bar) and 5 pm (food). The roast will feature all local meat and veggies and is a great community event. Ticketes are $35 and kids under 16 pay their age. Call (413) 429-6598 or email northplainfarm@gmail.com for more details. It’s a totally locally grown event and I never miss it.
And don’t forget to keep Monday September 20th open for Berkshire Grown’s 12h Annual Beautiful Bountiful Berkshires Harvest Supper at Eastover Resort in Lenox (6:30 to 8:30 pm). We’ll be selling tickets at the pick-up table, ask us for details or call Berkshire Grown at 528-004 or see www.berkshiregrown.org for more details. This is always a stunning aesthetic event —sights, tastes, smells, etcetera—a ballroom-wide tasting menu from chefs who work with local producers.
Enjoy the veggies this week.
--Laura Meister, Farm Girl Farm Farmer
