Winter Festival at the Brookside Market this Saturday

 

Season’s Greetings, Fair Sharers!

Tom and I hope that this message finds you well.  The farm crew is staying healthy while preparing for this Saturday’s Holiday Market. 

We hope to see many of you there!  It will be a festive and safe spot to stock up for you winter meals and holiday celebrations.  The work that each producer puts into this event is substantial -somehow bringing a bounty of fresh produce, free range and natural meats, plus an array of preserved and artisanal products including vegan spreads, sprouts, coffee, vegetable juices, artisan crafts, soaps and skin care products. For all the details on vendors: https://www.brooksidefarmersmarket.com

We will be bringing a limited supply of spinach, sprouting broccoli and eggs, along with our ferments and ferment juice. We are sorry that there will be no bulk list this week, as our current on-line ordering system is about to be replaced with a yet to be determined new one for 2021. You can pre-order ferments in jars and bulk however, through our Square store at fairsharefarm.square.site. With health and wellness in the forefront of everyone’s mind, consider giving the gift of a healthy microbiome this holiday season! 

Whatever your holiday celebrations are this strange and socially-distanced year, we wish you joy and wellness.  Here’s hoping for a better and brighter 2021. 

See you Saturday!

Rebecca and Tom

In the Share: Week 16

In the Share: 

CELERY: A new crop for us! Our farmer friend Liz grows some spectacular celery and we decided to try to follow her lead. Celery’s long growing season means we start it in the green house in the summer, and plant it in the high tunnel in September so we can harvest it in November. It is doing great so far!  We are cutting the outside stalks from the plant so that it will continue to grow. Eat it while it’s fresh for a crunchy treat. Let us know what you think. 

SPINACH: Big, dark green leaves! 

LETTUCE: Butterhead and red leaf varieties. 

SALAD TURNIPS: While you can cook these turnips, these babies are great just raw and naked. 

WATERMELON RADISHES: A beautiful storage radish with a pink interior. They will store for a couple months or more in a crisper, so you can save it for when you want an especially colorful dish. 

SPROUTING BROCCOLI: Chop and cook with some spinach, garlic and oil, and you have a delicious and savory dish. 

GARLIC: We dug these heads in July, cured them in the barn, and have been storing them in the cooler to keep their freshness. Enjoy. 

PEA SHOOTS: Straight out of the cover crops, these shoots are sweet and fresh. The leaves are tender, while the stems are a bit tougher and are best chopped. Enjoy the same meal that we feed our soil! Can you spy the pea shoots?

Farm report: 

The last week of the CSA season is here! We hope you all enjoyed your shares this season. The farm thrived in the midst of a pandemic, thanks to the support from you!! THANK YOU!! 

In a year like no other, the farm pivoted from a participatory CSA model to one that relied on a small crew of trained staff to deliver on our promise to feed the community. Since March, we have been big on social distancing and safety protocols to the point where perhaps some CSA members thought we were being overly cautious. But in the end we got through the entire season with no exposure to the virus on the farm. PHEW!! 

Of course, the virus remains a threat and we are determined to stay vigilant through the coming winter. What is in store for next season is yet to be determined. As usual for us winter is a time for reflection and tinkering with things, so no doubt you will be hearing from us in the not-too-distant future with more thoughts from us and a survey for the membership. 

After a week off for Thanksgiving, the farm crew will return to a full cooler of cabbages and radishes to be chopped and fermented. The fermentation kitchen allows us to provide work for our crew year round, which is critical to keep trained staff. Live culture ferments feed our guts with healthy microbes and provide winter salads in a jar during the dark side of the calendar. We encourage you to ask for Fair Share Farm Ferments wherever you shop. 

The last two weeks gave us great weather to wrap up the field work. On Election Day, the crew planted the first 20 chestnut trees on the farm. Our theme, "A New Hope".   

The trees are all enclosed in tubes made from recycled milk jugs to protect them from deer. The tree planting was the latest step in the project that we began last fall, using permaculture principles to manage water on the farm. In the Spring we built berms that allow water to slowly move through the farm instead of rushing down our sloping fields. The next step is to create an alley-cropping system where trees are planted along the berms for perennial food crops and eventually shade for grazing livestock. Chickens, for instance, descend from forest dwelling birds and prefer the shade. Here’s the latest drone shot showing the berms and you can see the tree tubes on the left.

We are still working on the final layout and how many trees we will plant. We will keep you posted, of course.  Until then, we wish you a safe and healthy Thanksgiving.  We are very thankful for the land that sustains us and the community that supports us! THANK YOU!!

In the Share: Week 15

 In the Share: 

GREENS CHOICE: CHARD, BOK CHOI, TAT SOI OR KALE* CHOICE: An asterisk on the kale because what we are calling kale is actually the luscious leaves of the sprouting broccoli plants seen above growing luxuriantly in the high tunnel. For all the kale lovers out there, these leaves are just as delicious… perhaps even more tender and sweet. 

 LEEK/BULB FENNEL: We harvested all the remaining fennel and leeks from the field before the snow and will distribute what we have to the shares this week. They are a great combination to flavor any dish. Add them to a soup or stew or roast. 

BUTTERHEAD LETTUCE: Straight out of the high tunnel, these heads are full, tender and buttery. We like to mix some yogurt, mayo, olive oil, vinegar and grated cheese to dress these beauties. Blue cheese is a favorite in our home. 

RED LEAF LETTUCE: Also out of the high tunnel, the red leaf is at its peak. 

SWEET POTATOES: This year’s crop was among our least productive ever, but we do have a mix of orange and white ones for the shares this week only. The skinny ones are perfect for this spiced sweet potato recipe from our 2012 blog https://fairsharenews.blogspot.com/2012/11/what-to-do-with-your-share-week-27.html 

RADISHES: Crisp and clean, these red radishes are sweet and juicy. Slice them thin to add to a sandwich, or grate onto a salad. 

ENDIVE: A versatile green for a fresh salad, or to add to any cooked dish. 

LAST OF THE SUMMER FRUITS: We have some tomatoes, tomatillos, jalapenos and other harvest items that need a home and will be distributing them in the shares this week. Enjoy this final taste of summer. 

Farm report: 

A rollercoaster of weather it has been these past two weeks. We hit 85 degrees last Thursday before dipping into the upper 20s yesterday morning with snow falling. 

 

Thanks to the hard work of our awesome crew, we were prepared and were able to enjoy the snowy morning and doing a bit of "farming the desk". The high tunnel crops were warm and cozy with their rebuilt side wall, the last of the field crops tucked a full cooler, a big load of well-rotted hay delivered for mulching, and our first fire of the season in our woodstove. 

The field work for 2020 is far from complete.  Stakes, row cover and irrigation tape need to come in for the winter.  The garlic will be planted on Friday and hopefully mulched soon after.  Plus, just in time for election day we will be planting 20 chestnut trees.  

The high tunnel will continue to provide for the last week's shares and intermittently throughout the winter.  We should have a nice share of leafy greens and hopefully some salad turnips and celery for the final week. 

In the Share: Week 14

In the Share: 

LEEKS: Last night we sautéed leeks with garlic and fennel, added canned smoked clams, and served it over lentils which turned out to be a really quick, nutritious and delicious meal. 

BULB FENNEL: Along with using it in the recipe above, it is great chopped into a fresh salad. 

BUTTERHEAD LETTUCE: Lots of fixings for a great fall salad. I can’t get enough butterhead lettuce. 

RED LEAF LETTUCE: These heads are sizing up as the days shorten and cool down a bit. 

GARLIC: A head of storage garlic. Keep it in your crisper between uses as garlic wants to sprout this time of year.

SPROUTING BROCCOLI: This has become such a staple in our kitchen from now through to Spring. 

SPINACH: We had our first harvest this week as we thinned the plants to six inches apart. 

KALE/CHARD/BOK CHOI CHOICE: Many greens are at their peak right now. Tonight a fried rice stir fry with bok choi makes a hearty meal out of our veggies and eggs. 

Farm report: 

We are making the most of the dry, warm weather to wrap up the end of the outdoor season. A freeze is in the forecast for Friday morning and the harvest is in earnest. We have filled the walkin cooler to the brim with Napa cabbage, daikon radishes, green cabbages and bok choy. The last of the outdoor CSA lettuces, fennel and bok choy are coming in and going out in this week’s shares. After this week, the bulk of the harvest will be coming from the high tunnel. 

Sprouting broccoli, spinach, Swiss Chard, lettuce, bok choi, tat soi, celery, turnips, onions and radishes are thriving inside. At the moment, inside is not so different than outside as we have a pretty big remodel going on. 

Nine years ago when we built the high tunnel we used the standard Douglas fir boards for the bottom and top of the side walls. Sadly, with continual exposure to weather and constant humidity, it did not take very long for the wood to rot. When we looked at replacing the boards, we decided to spend more to get steel boards that have a longer lifespan. While we are happy with our decision, the work of attaching the steel to the structure has required some brute strength to drill countless holes through the steel. Luckily the crew has some muscle and after a bit of trial and error, we should be wrapping up the project tomorrow with time to spare before the freeze.

The plants inside will appreciate cooler weather.  They have quickly grown to a hefty size and need to slow down if we hope to hold them until the last week of the CSA in November.  We don't begrudge the end of summer, but look forward to the crisp days to come as life retracts towards our winter rest. From here onward we must soak up the sun while we can and enjoy the beauty of the natural world around us.

In the Share: Week 13

In the Share: 

NAPA CABBAGE: The heart of a good kimchi, these are the ones in our ferments. You can make your own with ingredients from the share. A nice mix is to have your kimchi be about 75% napa, and 25% root vegetables and spices. Check out the blog from October 2008 for a recipe https://fairsharenews.blogspot.com/2008/10/what-to-do-with-your-share-week-22.html 

ONIONS: Beautiful red onions. These onions store well and are multi-purpose. 

BOK CHOI: Fresh from the field, it will complement the napa in a kimchi. We used it in a nice stir-fry tonight. 

 GREEN PEPPERS: The last of the season. Good addition to the potato salad recipe below. 

POTATOES: German potato salad always goes good this time of year. Check out our September 2009 blog for a recipe. https://fairsharenews.blogspot.com/2009/09/what-to-do-with-your-share-week-18.html 

SPROUTING BROCCOLI: This recipe http://www.fairsharefarm.com/archive/info/Newsletter/2006/v3%20I18%20September%2013.pdf from our September 2006 newsletter for a curry might also help you use up any eggplant or peppers you have on hand. 

PURPLE DAIKON RADISH: A great addition to a kimchi recipe. It is also wonderful and colorful when grated into a salad. 

HERB: We will be harvesting the last of several herbs before the frost hits this week. Selection will vary. 

Farm report: 

Fall is officially here! The sun now begins its retreat to the darkness of winter. 

 

 Fall brings frost and one may come as early as Friday morning. Amongst the many preparations for frost , we continue to care for the last of the monarch nursery. Several have made the transition in the last few days including both of the chrysalis that attached to our dining room chairs. 

The fields that were in crops this year are now blanketed in their winter cover crops. Rye, vetch, peas and oats are growing despite a lack of rain for most of September. We have missed most of the big downpours and are very dry at the moment. Luckily we continue to irrigate and the fall crops are doing well. 

In the Share: Week 12

 

In the Share: 

LETTUCE: We’ve been looking forward to the return of the lettuce harvest. This week’s varieties are crisp and crunchy. 

KALE: Such a versatile vegetable.  This week we have been enjoying kale as a green addition to vegetable stew of potatoes and carrots. 

SPROUTING BROCCOLI: The crop is looking great, so expect broccoli in the shares for the rest of the CSA season. 

SWEET PEPPERS: We grilled out this past weekend and were reminded of how great these are off of the grill. 

EGGPLANT OR OKRA: The okra is waning with the recent cool down. Eggplant is also great on the grill. Marinate an hour or more with salt, vinegar and oil. Cook until charred and soft.  

CARROTS: Out of cold storage from the July harvest, they are sweet and were great on our fresh lettuce salad tonight. 

GARLIC: Chop it and add to some roasted eggplant or peppers. 

DAIKON RADISH: The CSA is getting the more petite variety we grow, not the foot long ones we use in the fermenting kitchen.  To temper the heat of fresh daikon chop it up, add salt and let it set a bit.  We like to cut the daikon into matchstick shape for raw snacking or as part of a stir fry. 

Farm Report: 

Today there was haze in the sky from the cataclysmic wildfires in the west, almost 2,000 miles away. I guess some of us needed a reminder of how interconnected we all are on this small planet. No wall can keep out the impact of global climate change. The longer we delay and deny in the face of overwhelming evidence, the more we will all suffer. 

Farmers have a front row seat to the changing climate as we work long hours in the open air. Extreme weather is an occupational hazard.  When we see photos of farm workers harvesting under orange skies we feel that the debate should be over, it is time to get to work fixing the problem. 

One way we combat climate change on the farm is by growing cover crops that increase the carbon stored in our soil’s organic matter. Pictured above is the beautiful crop of sorghum Sudan grass and Crotelaria that we incorporated into the soil this week. As it breaks down it will feed the garlic crop that we will plant in a month’s time. 

Our monarch nursery continues. Right now we have five caterpillars still growing, with twice that having transformed into chrysallis. It is amazing to watch the transformation which we have had the good fortune to catch twice. It is over in just a few minutes.

One managed to escape the nursery and set up shop under one of our chairs!  I guess when the time comes, the chair will have to move to the porch for awhile.

By next writing, we should have had several emerging as butterflies.  Fingers crossed!

In the Share: Week 11

 

In the Share: 

TROPEA ONIONS: The venerated onion from the ancestral home of Farmer Tom's family.  The Calabrese know how to grow some onions! We use the small ones when a recipe calls for a shallot. These are sweet, not storage onions, so use them up soon! 

TOMATOES: Enjoy these fruits of summer, as their harvest is slowing down. We have been topping our cooked dishes with a healthy garnish of fresh tomatoes. 

SWEET PEPPERS: There will be lots of ripe sweet peppers in your share this week. The Italian bulls horn type we grow are especially great in a fajita. http://www.fairsharefarm.com/archive/info/Newsletter/2005/v2%20I21w%20Oct%205.pdf 

KALE: Greens are back! Chop some thinly into a chiffonade https://themom100.com/2019/02/how-to-chiffonade-basil/ and toss it with some cooked potatoes, which is a great way to get your greens. 

POTATOES: A mix of Kennebec (white flesh) and German Butterball (golden). Cooking with a mix of the two adds a depth of flavor and beautiful color. 

CUCUMBER: A few more of these before they end as summer winds down. 

 ZUCCHINI/ZEPHYR SQUASH: Last week for these.  Our meal for tonight was fried rice with onions, garlic and squash zoodles, a filling dish for hungry farmers.

GARLIC CHIVE FLOWERS: Pull the white flowers and buds off of the top of the stalk and finish off your plating with a crunch. The green buds are full of fresh garlic flavor and are peaking right now. 

Farm report: 

What a nice break from the humid heat of the last few weeks! My favorite month, September, arrived in fine form with some rain and clouds for the thousands of little plants growing for fall. Last week we planted these overwintering onions next to the napa cabbage. 

We’ve always overwintered garlic, but overwintering onions is a more recent addition. Variety selection is key. If they survive the winter, they will size up early before the ones we start in the greenhouse in January have a chance. In the next month we will give them a blanket of hay mulch, but for now they are off to a good start. 

September is the month for monarchs as they fly through our fields of habitat on their way south to Mexico. The family farm has alot of milkweed of many different species:  butterfly, tall green, spider, common and even one rare purple milkweed.  The butterflies are everywhere right now flying by, mating, laying eggs on all the milkweed that they can find, and hatching caterpillars. 

If we pull a milkweed plant out of the field while weeding, honeyvine milkweed is pretty common here, we inspect it for monarch eggs. If it has an egg, we place it in our makeshift caterpillar nursery.  So far the baby monarchs are doing what all babies do best: eat, sleep and poop. But these babies also shed their skin four times, before creating a chrysalis and emerging a butterfly. Pretty cool. 

Our other nursery on the farm is going well. After the first week indoors, the new flock of laying hens  got their first chance to walk on the grass and peck for bugs.

Seems like everywhere we look there is new life, just in time for the end of summer, time to grow big and strong before winter arrives.  The saying goes that "the farmer has to be an optimist, or he wouldn't still be a farmer."  Yep, and same for the farmhers by the way!  Who knows what insanity 2021 has in store for us all, but here on the farm we are nose-down raising next year's egg-layers, planting next year's onions and helping next year's butterflies along besides.  Here's to a better tomorrow for all of the Earth's creatures!