Week 16: Oh Fall. Coming in with a shout instead of a whisper

Dawn breaks over the farm-Welcome Autumn

Well today's weather makes no mistake about the time of year. Autumn is upon us and a cool damp one appears to be the mode for the season. Personally I was hoping for more of the crisper type days of deep blue skies and golden light rather than these murky dark and chill days that make me shiver despite the layers and wish for hot tea all day. Still, hopefully we will get some of those bright perfect days yet before winter snuggles in (we still have A LOT to do out there in the fields before the end of the season and I would much rather not do it under gray skies and with a perpetual runny nose).
We also witnessed the loss of the small plantings we had done of winter squash-we had planned to buy in butternut and acorn from our sister farms that have more space, but we were growing the specialty delicata, carnival and spagettis, but the rains of the last couple weeks turned them into a black rotty mess. We will be getting all of this season's squash from Appleton, Aprilla Farm and Powisset as a result. Don't worry- they are all using similar practices (organic) on their farms!
This makes the field across the street even more valuable to us. After the deluge that left 8 inches of standing water in our lower fields for days, the field across the street was found to be moist and soft, but not wet. This is magical for us. All our current fields are like bathtubs on the farm proper and it takes them weeks to dry after such a dowsing.
The last of the summer fruits are done done done. It is definitely a little early this year and we are sad to see them go. It's back to the greens and roots of spring. We have some new greens for you all though, as all this wet is making the new plantings of chard and kale already succumbing to disease. Instead we have gorgeous, mild and juicy Asian greens coming in to make up for the lack.
Tokyo Bekana is one of my favorites- it is usually a favorite of the flea beetle as well, and so we don't try and grow it during the spring months- saving it instead for fall. It has glorious chartreuse green wavy leaves, thick stems, and a mild flavor similar to Napa with no bitterness. You can cook it as you would any cabbage (beyond boiling, that's awful), or thinly shred it and pair it with grated apples, sliced fennel, dried cranberries and toasted almonds (I also throw in an avocado because I put them in every salad and I love them madly). Toss with a bright avocado oil and lemon dressing with a little garlic and a pinch of sugar and salt and you will be mesmerized. The green goddess tahini dressing we have in the store would also be astounding.

WINTER CSA SHARE SIGN-UP is happening right now and we are already half way to our goal, so on-line (and pay in the store) or sign up and pay at the store. This is a bushel of gorgeous farm veggies ready for eating, preserving or storing for the winter. Included will be tips on storage and some of our favorite winter recipes. Let the farm continue to nourish you through this winter until spring rolls around again and sign up today.
sign up soon either

Events:
Sunday October 7th! Our Harvest Fest is fast approaching and we are so excited!!!! It is going to be such a fun event with lots to see, do and TASTE. So bring your appetites and come on down to the farm for a day full of fun.


What's in Your Share this Week (maybe):
Sunshine Winter Squash (thanks Appleton)
Potatoes (thanks for these as well Appleton)
Leeks
Tokyo Bekana
Arugula
Onions
Power/Mixed/Spicy/Mustard Greens
Fennel


PYO:
Parsley (I've been trying to keep up with the weeds, but they are killing me this year!) Sorry for the untidyness!
Chili pepps
Flowers (winding down after all the rain)


Recipe of the Week:
The first week of Autumn requires that you make soup. And nothing makes a richer and more delicious creamy squash soup than Sunshine. The fact that we have onions, leeks and fennel to make this even more amazing is just the icing on the cake for this fall favorite.
Roasted Fennel and Winter Squash Soup

Author: Lindsey Johnson

Recipe type: soup

Cuisine: American

Prep time:  10 mins

Cook time:  1 hour

Total time:  1 hour 10 mins

Serves: 6

 

A rich, creamy, flavorful soup made with roasted fennel and butternut squash.

Ingredients

• 1 Tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
• 1 medium ONION, sliced or diced
• 1 LEEK, sliced
• 1 large FENNEL bulb, core and tough stalks removed, thinly sliced
• 4 cups SUNSHINE squash
• 4 cups stock (chicken or vegetable)
• salt and pepper, to taste
• ½ cup heavy cream or creme fraiche, optional
• optional garnishes: fresh fennel fronds and fennel pollen

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Drizzle a little olive oil in a 9 by 13-inch glass baking dish. Add the onion, fennel and butternut squash. Drizzle with a little more oil and toss to coat. Season well with salt and pepper.
2. Roast for 30-45 minutes until the fennel and butternut squash are tender. Remove from oven and place in a pot and cover with the stock or broth. Bring to a simmer and cook for about 10 minutes. Puree soup using an immersion or traditional blender. If desired, add cream or creme fraiche, taste and add more salt and/or pepper, if needed. Ladle into bowls. Garnish with the fennel fronds and fennel pollen, if desired.

Farmers Market Saturdays at Fay School!!!!

Week 15: So long summer

New trail beginning in the Beals Field!

So summer is on its way out, even with the bright and humid days here and there in the next month or so, I can feel it. The fall greens are bursting out of the ground under their protective row covers, and we are turning over tired old beds that have done their best to grow food for us. We are giving them some fertility and spreading cover crop seeds to blanket them with protective roots for the winter months.
With a hot, sticky summer behind us, I can't wait for cooler weather to finally put an end to the ugly tomatoes and summer fruits that are really done, but I can't bear to not try for the last few perfect fruits that are hiding somewhere in that 3000 row feet of rotting mess. We grew more tomatoes this year than any other year, but they also are done two weeks earlier than other years and I only managed to put away 1 batch of summer salsa to eat in January. I will mourn the sweetness of real tomatoes from now until next July.
I finally feel like turning the oven on isn't tantamount to sacrilege and have been roasting chickens (which then become pot pie, and then stock and then soups and stews) and casseroles again. I think more about eating hot foods and planning crock pot meals rather than just barely making it to dinner before falling exhausted into bed every night. I enjoy my hot tea and coffee rather than wishing it were iced. And I have enough energy to stay up and watch (almost) a whole movie on the weekend. So it must be almost fall. It is very hard to believe that we only have 5 more weeks of CSA after this one. We are almost ready for Winter CSA signups to happen, so keep a close watch on your email, we should sending out the signup link this week! Remember that we always sell out and to get your sign-up in early! Two share pick-ups this season of delicious fall and winter produce (greens, storage crops, herbs and more). 

It's a fruit share week: PEARS & NECTARINES!!!

What's in Your Share (maybe):

Peppers
Eggplant (might be slim, but the plants are producing again)

Bose Corp helping weed the strawberries

Onions
Carrots
Potatoes (thanks Appleton!)
Arugula
Spicy Salad Greens
Baby Bok Choi
Chinese Cabbage (Napa/Asian cabbage)
Kale/Chard

Pick Your Own:
Hot peppers
Okra (starting to be done out there)
Flowers
Parsley

Events:

Chestnut Hill Farm trail race  (part of the Barn to Run race series) is happening on Saturday!!!! Sign up at SunMultisports for the 3, 4 and 5 mile farm trail run.

The Fay School Farmer's Market is also opening this weekend from 10a-1p. Come and check it out- lots of great vendors this year.

Our Fall Festival is less than a month away mark your calendars for Sunday October 7th!!! Pumpking carving, face painting, hayrides, hay maze/obstacle course, 30 vendors and more!

Recipe of the Week:

OMG! I just found the coolest new food blog site!!!!! yeah, i'm in love folks. This is a great site- it's full of great recipes (there are both meat lovers and vegetarian recipes) and a whole e-book of recipes called Kids in the Kitchen. We all know that getting kids into the kitchen is the key to getting them to try cool new foods and its a personal goal of mine to help make that happen as much as possible. You may not know that while I have two stellar eaters who eat an astounding variety of foods, my youngest is the pickiest thing on this planet and would live on baked mac & cheese and PB & J sammies (provided the jam is smooth and is not peach or blueberry or cherry or marmalade or have chunks or seeds) and chocolate. A lot of the recipes are great for dinner and then tells you how to make a kid friendly school lunch for the next day. I urge you to check it out! Yummy Lunch Club
Also, in particular, check out the FARM to FOOD section!!!! These recipes are fresh and delicious sounding and I can't wait to try them out! Honey Thyme Chicken kabobs with peaches and Haloumi cheese!!!!!!WHAT???!!!

Bulgogi-style Korean beef leftovers make a great lunch, OK even breakfast if you ask my daughter who regularly heats up dinner leftovers for breakfast. If you want to re-purpose leftovers into something new, check out the chop suey idea here. Heads up: braising brings out the terrific beef flavour but takes some time so this recipe works best on weekends.

Bulgogi-style Braised Beef with Skillet Baby Bok Choy

 

Save Print

Prep time

20 mins

Cook time

2 hours

Total time

2 hours 20 mins

 

Kids Cook! Get your kids involved in the kitchen by having them help out with this recipe. Here’s what they can do!* Have them help measure ingredients, cut veggies using a kid-friendly knife, and stir cornstarch mixture. 

Dietitian's Tip: Even kids as young as 1- 3 years of age are getting too much sodium. Eating less processed and restaurant food is a first good place to start cutting back. Tweaking recipes helps too. By swapping ½ cup (125 mL) regular soy sauce with ¼ (60 mL) cup sodium-reduced soy sauce, I've cut 5350 mg sodium from this recipe below. Every tablespoon of sodium-reduced soy sauce has 600 mg of sodium.

Source: Adapted from: Make Once, Eat Twice, 2016 Calendar. Canada Beef

Recipe type: Dinner

Serves: 4-6

Ingredients

• 3 lb (1.5 kg) Beef Simmering Short Ribs, Simmering Steak such as Blade, Cross Rib or Brisket, or Stewing Beef Cubes or Shank, trimmed of visible fat
• salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
• 3 tbsp (45 mL) sesame oil, divided
• 1 whole head of garlic, separated into cloves and peeled
• ¼ cup (60 mL) sodium-reduced soy sauce
• ¼ cup (60 mL) packed brown sugar
• 3 tbsp (45 mL) minced fresh gingerroot
• ½ cup (125 mL) coarsely chopped green onions
• 2 tbsp (30 mL) rice vinegar or cider vinegar
• 2¼ cups (560 mL) water
• 1 tbsp (15 mL) cornstarch mixed with 1 tbsp cold water
• 5 baby Bok Choy, halved lengthwise
• Toasted sesame seeds and/or broken cashews (optional)
• Steamed brown rice

Instructions

1. Season beef all over with salt and freshly ground pepper. Heat 2 tbsp (30 mL) oil over medium-high heat in Dutch oven or large heavy pot; add beef and brown all over.
2. Combine garlic, soy sauce, brown sugar, gingerroot, onion, vinegar and water in 4 (1L) cup bowl.
3. Pour over beef; bring to a boil. Cover and transfer to 325°F (160°C) oven; cook for 1-1/2 to 2 hours, until meat is fork-tender.
4. To serve: remove beef to platter; keep warm.
5. Stir in remaining cornstarch mixture into remaining cooking sauce; heat over high heat for 2 to 3 minutes, until bubbling and thickened slightly; spoon over beef.
6. Portion beef and bok choy onto plates, along with steamed brown rice or noodles if desired.

Notes

Skillet Baby Bok Choy

Heat remaining 1 tbsp (15 mL) sesame oil in large skillet over medium-high heat; add bok choy and sauté for 2 to 3 minutes, flipping occasionally.

Add HALF of the cooking sauce and stir in HALF of the cornstarch mixture. Cover and cook until simmering and sauce thickens slightly, about 3 minutes, stirring occasionally. Garnish with sesame seeds or cashews.

Skip the nuts if you are planning to send leftovers to school for lunches!


Please Note
*All “Kid’s Cook!” ideas herein are meant as a guide only. You know what your child can safely manage. Make sure they know and understand your rules for working in the kitchen safely and always supervise kids in the kitchen.

Lunch from Leftovers

Chop Suey Made From Leftover Bulgogi-style Braised Beef with Skillet Baby Bok Choy

 

Save Print

Kids Cook! Get your kids involved in the kitchen by having them help out with this recipe. Here’s what they can do!* Have them help cut the green onion with a kid-friendly knife or kitchen shears, and help assemble the meal. 

Dietitian's Tip: Because this recipe is not overly saucy, do not heat it and put it in a thermos. Liquid is required to hold heat (think soupy); otherwise, it won't stay hot enough and that's a food safety hazard! My husband food poisoned my daughter once by sending fried rice in a thermos...and it's always mom they want when they are sick! Am I right?! So save yourself, and your child, the grief. Either this gets heated in a microwave at school or it goes cold which would be completely fine as well.

Source: Make Once, Eat Twice, 2016 Calendar. Canada Beef

Serves: 1

Ingredients

• leftover Bulgogi-style Braised Beef
• left over Skillet Baby Bok Choy
• splash of sodium-reduced soy sauce (optional)
• splash of sesame oil
• splash of hoisin sauce
• sliced green onion
• handful of bean sprouts

Instructions

1. Remove beef from bones and coarsely chop.
2. Combine with any leftover chopped bok choy, rice and sauce.
3. Drizzle with splash of soy sauce, sesame oil and hoisin sauce.
4. Pack along with some sliced green onion and handful of bean sprouts.
5. Microwave warm and combine with the green onion and bean sprouts.

Notes

Will keep 3-4 days in refrigerator.

Please Note
*All “Kid’s Cook!” ideas herein are meant as a guide only. You know what your child can safely manage. Make sure they know and understand your rules for working in the kitchen safely and always supervise kids in the kitchen.

Week 13/14: Fall greens are in and summer fruits are headed out

The first of the fall greens are starting to come in, but the unseasonable humidity of the last couple weeks of summer has also wrecked fungal havoc in our summer fruits such as the squashes, tomatoes, cucumbers and eggplant. As you must have noticed in the pick your own cherry tomatoes, the fungal disease has killed the plants off in an almost staggering speed. This is caused by the high levels of humidity keeping dew and moisture on the plants for much longer and the dampness spreads the disease. We mow to keep down weeds between the beds, space plants wider in the beds, trellis and try to stay out of the fields when the plants are wet whenever we can, but we can only do so much to ward off the inevitable. And so, our tomato season will be shorter than usual this year. It is never a favorite thing...I usually like to give out tomatoes right up until frost, but the plants just don't have it in them this year. We will put in one last planting of cucumbers in hopes of a couple more harvests before frost, but it is always a little dicey at this time of year.
Our fall greens and brassicas are doing really well out in the field! After a dismal droughty beginning of the summer killing off our early cabbage and broccoli, we are so excited to see gorgeous plants starting to size up in the field. New chard and kale plantings are doing great and we anticipate the return of radishes and salad turnips, along with fall carrots and other roots. Winter squashes are also coming, but will need to be harvested and cured before they are worth eating.

Farmers at Outstanding dinner!

Jesse and I were invited to attend the Outstanding in the Field farm dinner at Powisset Farm last
weekend and I have to tell you all...it was amazing. This touring group is renowned for its US and worldwide dinner tours of farms. I had to dust off one of my cocktail dresses and find some shoes that were younger than a decade to wear. Our dinner was over the top incredible- appetizers and wines while we mingled with guests from everywhere, farm tours and then the wander out to a long table set in the middle of one of Powisset's gorgeous back pastures. We ate course after course of gorgeous food- the sauces from the first melding perfectly with the sauce from the next- in our case, a green goddess dressing on a green salad to a roasted romanesco seafood and veggie dish to end perfectly complimenting the paella for the last course. The wines were all lovely, mostly light and crisp, even the red blend was soft and light. Dessert was a heavenly concoction of cream, berries and biscuit crowned with a white chocolate crisp. It was a master's dinner. All beautiful and totally decadent, ending with a glorious gloaming walk from the field. We are hoping to host one of these dinners next summer here at Chestnut.....(oh my, yes PLEASE!)

What's in Your Share this week (maybe):

Kale/Chard
Arugula
Spicy Salad/Mixed Greens
Potatoes (thanks Appleton!!!!)
Napa Cabbage
Onions- Ailsa Craig (these won't last all winter- eat them soonish)
Peppers, sweet
Tomatoes, sauce mostly
Leeks

Pick Your Own:
Cherry tomatoes (winding down :( but there are still some out there the orange varieties are particularly tasty)
Okra
Chilies (there are a few ripening sweet habaneros- these are a mild chili that looks like a habanero and has all the flavor, but won't make you cry).
Parsley
Sage/oregano/thyme

Events:

Chestnut Hill Farm Fall Trail Race (part of the Barn to Run racing series) is happening here on September 22nd! Register at SunMultisports website.

In a month our FALL FESTIVAL is happening!!!! Come to the farm on Sunday October 7th for a full, fun day of craft, activities, food, music, hayrides, vendors and more. We are also still looking for more vendors so if you know anyone who would like to show off their wares, food or craft- send them our way.

We are planning a CSA/farm supporter/volunteer dinner potluck on October 13th starting at 6p. Come join us for a celebration of a season of delicious local food and community. Our grills will be hot and we will be grilling some delicious local meats and veggies. Bring a dish to share and also BYOB and BYOM (some of our farm crew will be playing and we invite you to join them!)

Recipe of the Week:

EAT YOUR GREENS!
So those crazy mixed up greens that you are ignoring on the CSA bench- they sometimes say 'spicy salad, braising greens or mustards'- those are incredible. They are the anti-oxidant, cyano-rich, nutrient dense power house greens that are the cure for what ails you. Anything you do with kale, arugula or chard, you can sub these greens in and they will be awesome. They do have more kick than kale, similar to arugula, so if that bothers you, simply cook them and that bite eases off. Mix these into your smoothies, make pestos or puree, wilt them and stick them in the freezer to add to soups, pizza and tomato sauces in the winter time to keep the nutrients rich in your diet until next spring. The mix includes: Red Giant, Green Wave & Mizuna mustards, Hon Tsai Thai, Tat soi, Red Russian kale, Arugula, and a sprinkle of other fun greens that we love.