Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Week 12 CSA, Plus one


Hi there,

It's that time of year again. You know, the time where you turn around, and all of a sudden it's been a month since I've written anything, the nighttime temperature has dropped thirty-five degrees, everyone's busting out the wool, and recipes are being tinged by sage and thyme...

So we've closed the official season of the second year of GPF's CSA, and I hope that it has been a good experience for all. I will publish a survey, similar to last year's, and email it around. I welcome your comments, and love that you members have so many fantastic ideas. I look forward to hearing your support in the form of honest feedback that will continue to help Green Peak Farm develop a stronger CSA program. Thanks in advance.

And, as you know, I am a bit disappointed in my ability to be one of the last gardens in the area to have ripe tomatoes... Which is a great reminder to me as a grower about TIMING, and what an important role it plays in successful crops. I hope you've been enjoying the tomatoes, and soon there will (finally) ripe heirloom tomatoes that are worth waiting for. I've got some Aunt Ruby's German Green, one of the finer-tasting toms, in my opinion, that are big and beautiful. Soon!

I had the honor of presenting a short talk about food preservation and home-gardening season extension techniques this past Saturday at Live Green in Manchester. It was a lot of fun, and I'm always interested to hear other people's ideas about season extension, and "Best Practices" to get the most out of the garden. We (everybody) have been doing this for a long time, and it's amazing how much knowledge is out there, ready to be shared.

And on that note, here's a random trivia fact that I learned in a new-to-me book, Seed to Seed, published by the Seed Savers' Exchange... Did you know that the chenopod family (think beets, swiss chard, spinach) also stretches to encompass the lovely, South-American wunder-grain, Quinoa?

I've been hearing a lot of great recipe ideas floating around, too... and here are some to share: carmelized sage as a lovely, delicate garnish or accompaniment to a nice, stinky soft cheese; slicing, dousing in olive oil, and salt-and-peppering then roasting tomatoes for frozen storage (bonus by-product: delicious, super-fragrant olive oil infused with that distinct tangy bite of tomato.... toss with copious amounts of fresh basil and pasta, and done!); zucchini blended into pesto for a little extra body; oiled and roasted, thick onion tops for those that didn't quite bulb up fully; in-pumpkin residency for pumpkin soup (especially with the Rouges)... So many ideas!

And, with Jane's permission, here I shamelessly post her lovely recipe for using up hot peppers, appropriately...

"a ga ga gorgeous thing:

Char peppers over an open flame (gas stove) until they are blackened.
Scrape the skin off. Cut off the top, open up, and take most or all of the seeds out.
Do the same with a big sweet red bell pepper
Puree the above in your cuisinart with enough olive oil to make a thin paste. Add salt to taste.

O MY GAWD is this ever GOOD! Thinking of using it as a drizzle over the grilled steaks tonight. It's creamy, spicy, with lots of smokey flavor and yumminess. I'm sure it freezes will, as it's full of olive oil."

(Thanks, Jane!)

Shares will continue for at least another week, after six pm on Tuesdays, or plus some when it's convenient. More chickens and illicit frozen/canned goods are available for purchase... The password is "Autumn"! Enjoy, and thanks again!