Hey All:

The field of food is shrinking quickly – all of the carrots, leeks, Brussels sprouts, and lettuce are either gone or bagged and ready to head for your table. Still some Kale, Chard, Green Onions, and Spinach under straw and row covers.

Work is now commencing on weatherizing the barn for next spring’s nursery. Last year, the barn was full of insulating bales of hay, but with less hay, the nursery is a little less protected. As Bulb Onions and Leeks start in late January or early February, some extra insulation is needed. I will be collecting bags of leaves from the woods to create my own “insulation bats” to line the exterior of the nursery. This should keep the warmth – generated by a small space heater, heat mats, and the grow lights - in the nursery. The real test will be if the power goes out…

New customers are welcome! If you are considering some fresh, certified organic local food, feel free to give me a call.

In the meantime, I’ll be getting a little more work done in the barn. I hope that I will have some extra time to write a few more posts and maybe finish that “curious food” essay that has been on the back burner since August. It is entitled “maintaining my cool”. I guess at this point I should re-write it with a more seasonal bent – how to keep myself and the produce warm in the shoulder season.

See you on Friday!!!


PS – The Farmgate store has ONE LAST DELIVERY for the season. Thanks for your support. If you liked what I had to offer, please consider the advantages of having a supply of fresh food from June to the end of October next year. No seasonal price changes, consistent supply, interesting variety of crops, and an opportunity to experience the exceptional flavours of real food from a real farm!


Bob

The recipe below is from Deborah Madison’s Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone. Save time by replacing the basil and garlic with a few spoonfuls of pesto.



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Serves 2 generously
Salt and pepper
1 lb zucchini, coarsely grated
1 egg, beaten
½ bunch of green onions, thinly sliced
½ c dried bread crumbs
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
¼ c chopped parsley
1 ½ tsp chopped marjoram or basil
½ tsp chopped mint
Olive oil as needed

Lightly salt the zucchini and set it aside in a colander to drain for 30 minutes. Meanwhile, mix the remaining ingredients together except the oil and the pepper. When the 30 minutes are up, quickly rinse the squash, squeeze out the excess water, then stir it into the batter. Taste for salt and season with pepper.

Film a frying pan with olive oil. When hot, drop the batter – ¼ c makes a fritter about 3 ½ inches across – and cook over medium heat until golden on the bottom. Turn and cook on the second side. Serve hot.


Deborah Madison suggests eating zucchini fritters with yogurt sauce, flavoured mayonnaise or salsa.


How we made it: we replaced the bread crumbs with ground almonds and used pesto instead of basil, mint and garlic. We also added an extra egg for a thinner texture.

QUICK 'MASSAGED' KALE SALAD

Hands-on time: 10 minutes
Time to table: 10 minutes
Amounts given are for one serving - adjust as needed


PER SERVING:
A handful of fresh kale
1 teaspoon olive oil - use good olive oil
Salt - use good salt (sea salt)
Pepper - I used lemon pepper
Splash of vinegar - good vinegar, if you can


Possible Additions:
Goat cheese or blue cheese crumbles
1/2 a blood orange, skin sliced off, halved vertically then sliced
cross-wise into half moons, the texture/taste contrast is quite
wonderful, a plain orange would offer the same benefit
1/2 a hard-boiled egg, sliced
Toasted nuts


Wash the kale well, remove the heavy stems and discard. Rub the leaves with the olive oil; the idea is to massage it into the leaves, breaking down and softening the leaves, making it easier to eat. Take some time here; it takes two or three minutes to work it in.


Then stack two, three, or more layers of leaves and roll like a cigar. With a sharp knife, cut cross-wise into ribbons. Season well with the vinegar, salt and pepper. Arrange the leaves on a plate, then top with other salad items (I am happy to stop at the goat cheese).


SWISS CHARD TUNA SALAD (the best tuna salad ever!)
About 3 large Swiss chard leaves, to yield about 1 cup chopped & tightly packed leaves
About 1 rib from a Swiss chard leaf
Fresh cilantro or Italian parsley, about 1/4 cup chopped & loosely packed
5 small green onions, about 1/2 cup chopped, white & green parts
1/4 cup chopped kalamata olives
2 tins light tuna


DRESSING
1/2 cup mayonnaise (I blend 1/4 cup mayo & 1/4 cup plain yogurt)
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard 1 teaspoon Balsamic vinegar
Salt & pepper to taste


Wash the chard leaves and cilantro well, shake (or run through a salad spinner or dry on paper towels). Chop the greens; the best way to cut the chard is to remove the main rib and little "branches” from the chard leaves. Save one rib and chop very small for the salad, discard the others. Cut the leaves into narrow strips, the easiest way is to stack the leaves, then roll into 'cigars', and cut cross-wise.


Whisk together the dressing ingredients. Add the olives, tuna and green onion. Gently fold in the greens. Season with salt and pepper.


Serve on a bed of greens or great in a sandwich.

Update as of Oct 31:

Thanks to those of you who have made the early commitment for next year's harvest, and have taken advantage of the 15% discount.  This will allow me to pre-order much of the seed at a discount. 

The 2013 production plan is slowly coming into focus, a lot of tweaking will continue for the next month or three.

I have a rough draft of what the season menue will look like, and a peak at the basket contents for full and half shares.

Most of our customer base appears to be concentrating in two areas of the city - Glebe/Old Ottawa South; and Kanata/Stittsville.

I'm looking forward to next year's planting, harvesting, and eating.  In the meantime, I remain focused on getting as much field preparation finished for next year.

Looking forward to seeing everyone on the next full harvest day, November 9th!

Bob

Update as of Oct 13th - The Garlic is in the ground for next year!!!  We planted several varieties.  Last year, the Prussian White and Fish Lake did well, so we reserved some for seed.  I was surprised by the performance of the Korean Purple and French Rocambole (Eastern Ontario is better suited to Porcelain varieties than Rocamboles), so we reserved some of those as well, and supplemented them with additional seed cloves from our Garlic seed source.

New varieties are being tried this year as well.  These include Gourmet Red, German Red, and Ukrainian.  Persian Star is another new one for this year, looks stunning and has a mild, oily flavour! 


Hey Folks:

How quickly things change. Two weeks ago, the beds were full of produce, the flowers were in full bloom, the paths were mowed...now the fruit plants are dying back, beds are emptying out, and hoses are being drained, coiled, and hauled in for storage.

Two frosts later, there is still plenty of activity out in the field, in the barn, and out in the community.

New flyers are going out as I prospect new customers for next year. If you are interested, do not delay! I will offer a 15% discount for the first two customers to sign (or re-sign) for next year. Full payment required by Nov 1st. This allows me to pre-order next year’s seed at a discount – a saving that I am passing on to you.

Extra produce still available through our farm gate store. New prices and items available. An opportunity to sample what we have to offer for next year.  I will consider some bulk purchases on a case by case basis, if you are interested in larger quantities than advertised in our store.  We have a variety of Potato and a variety of Carrot that are good for long term storage.

Word of mouth is one of the most powerful tools a small business can have for getting the word out, so please go forth and communicate.

The field is rapidly expanding. The wet weather of the past couple of weeks has softened the ground considerably, and new beds are being built. This entails aerating the soil, removing many rocks, and raking dead grass and pulled up roots from the surface.

In the meantime, old residues are pulled out and sent to build new compost windrows.

A few crops still coming in, such as the last of the Kidney beans and potatoes.

Most exciting are the late fall, cold tolerant crops.

During my internship at Elmtree Farm, I noticed that most of the farms that we visited had some area of specialization, in addition to the standard market garden fare. As I sketched out various brainstorms in my cabin at Elmtree, I wondered what my farm’s area of specialization might be. If there were Oak trees and a pond, I might grow Shitake mushrooms. If there was a poorly drained, wet area, I might try Raspberries. If the farm came with a green house, I might try micro greens…I concluded at the time that it was impossible to know. The farm site would play the major role in determining the farm’s area of specialization.

As I started building the Whitsend site last year, I returned to this question. The field was a flat square of uniform sandy loam soil. A blank slate. No obvious suggestions.

I had located and retained the farm late in the season, and did not start my first deliveries until July. This limited my growing season, and so I began to develop some plans for season extension to get me through the first season. As the season progressed into fall, I realized that my farm had indeed chosen my area of specialization – season extension.

I did some additional research over the past winter, and learned about season extension techniques past and present that allowed farmers and gardeners to produce food well into the winter (even in our Ottawa climate).

I tried a bit of very early growing this year (early peas and greens in mid May), and learned several valuable lessons for next year.

As this summer progressed, crops for late fall were planted and the dates recorded. Timing is so important and very site specific! Too early, and the crops would be harvest ready before late fall; too late, and they would not be mature before being covered in snow or frozen into the ground.

One of the variables I had to take into account included the “solar climate”. At a certain point in the year (early September seems to be the cut-off point at Whitsend’s line of latitude), the leaf growth starts to slow down due to the shorter days. With that in mind, I now know that leaf plants such as Lettuce have to be nearing full size by early September. After they have reached this stage, it is simply a matter of moderating their microclimate until their scheduled weekly harvest.

Many crops are still in the ground, protected by row covers, poly tunnels, and straw. Still plenty to eat over the next 5 weeks…Spinach, Lettuce, Potatoes, Chard, Kale, Green Onions, Carrots, Leeks, Parsley, Brussels Sprouts, Beets…

See you Friday

Bob

P.S. – please pass on the word about the farm gate store! Still plenty of food to eat for those who have not yet arrived at Whitsend…