5. October 2011 by admin.

A beautiful final harvest for the CSA! Despite the tricky weather this year, we have offered a lovely array of choices for CSA members each week for 20 weeks. Thank you to our CSA members for their support of our farm. We hope the food has fed your bodies and the farm has fed your spirit, as it does ours.

sweet potatoes
small russet potatoes (in the herb garden, find parsley and chives, wonderful companions to potatoes!)
garlic
onions
green peppers
jalapeno peppers
eggplant
basil oh endless pesto basil
sweet potato greens (use em like spinach!)
tomatoes from the hoophouse?

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25. September 2011 by admin.

Just sharing some of the love about sweet potato greens. I’m so proud of these CSA members, both first year members at House in the Woods, and they believed me that you can actually eat sweet potato greens!  OK, seriously, you actually CAN cook and eat sweet potato greens. They are popular in parts of Africa, and probably other regions of the world as well. A well-traveled CSA member gave me this insight a few years ago, and we’ve been loving this bi-product crop ever since. They cook down like any other dark leafy green and they are delicate and delicious like spinach. I’ll try to post some pictures soon (but I always say that).

Ilene,

I just wanted to pass along our love of the sweet potato leaves.  It is the new favorite green around our house.  The kids love it (well, they have eaten it in everything with no problem).  We have used it everywhere that you would use spinach or chard.  In soups, lasagna, sauteed with garlic, onions, and roasted red peppers, and in a Thai green curry with shrimp, coconut milk, sweet potato leaves (and other ingredients).  Just delicious, really milder than spinach.  Love them!!

Today I am going to try them with eggplant lasagna.  We just slice up the delicious House in the Woods eggplant and use that as the “lasagna” and put the lasagna filling in between the layers of eggplant.  Filling will be cooked sweet pot greens, garlic (and lots of it), onion, roasted red peps, and all kinds of cheeses.  Usually we put spinach in here but I am going to give the sweet potato greens a try.

Thanks for the introduction to sweet potato leaves!

—Sarah and family

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Homemade pizza dough, sweet potato greens, cheese, and marinated, grilled, sirloin steak. Delicious CSA meal! Thank you!!!!  –Elissa and family

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21. August 2011 by admin.

Time for A GARDEN RAMBLE…

July is the new August. It was hot and dry, oh my! We had peak tomatoes in July, in an August kind of way. And, as it is looking with these pleasant days and cooler nights, August is the new September.

Some members, especially first years, might appreciate a review and forecast of the season in veggies. Not a complete list but some hightlights:

Spring season, late May through June
–we enjoyed leafy greens and spring root crops: kale, chard, lettuces, arugula, scallions, kohlrabi, turnips, beets, cabbage, bok choy, fennel, garlic scapes
What a bountiful and beautiful spring crop. Did I take enough pictures? The lush greens and delicate bokchoy are a memory, but summer tomatoes surpass it all, so its ok.

Summer season, July-August
–with the heat of summer come the season’s summer fare: tomatoes (extra early this year, thanks to our new hoophouse), zucchini, green peppers, garlic, three choices of eggplant this year, basil the sweet plus a new addition of thai basil this year, jalapenos, leeks, cucumbers briefly, flowers endlessly pretty. U-Pick Sungold cherry tomatoes for a whole row of sweetness, another new gift for this season that we’ll have to repeat–Candy Lane!
I love tomato season, do you? Tomatoes are continuing to ripen, enjoy them while they last! Stink bugs are taking their toll on tomatoes a bit, but actually not as bad as last year at this point. So that’s good. You might see some mottled spots on some tomatoes and peppers, that’s stink bug damage. We’re doing what we can with organic methods to keep them down. In summer, its too hot for lettuce to grow, so we start making the seasonal salad my family calls “Israeli Salad”– chopped tomatoes, cucumbers, green peppers and parsley. I’ve really enjoyed eggplant in the Baba Ganouj recipe that I posted on the blog. Eggplant is likely to fade out soon, as the nights get cooler. We hope you have enjoyed the watermelons, thank you to those who supported the boys in their watermelon sales. Noah cut and hauled all those watermelons from the field, with helpers, but he was out there for every hauling expedition. He and I are both learning so much about growing watermelons this year. Such a summer treat.

Early Autumn season, September-October
–We are collecting some of the goodies that we will share with you the final 7 weeks: onions, potatoes, butternut squash, pie pumpkins, more garlic. We’ll finish off the season with our yummy sweet potatoes. We’ll sneak in some fall greens and others as we can.
Can’t believe how early the winter squash have ripened. Halloween in August!  The potatoes are delicious, although smaller than usual due to the hot and dry summer conditions. We grow an heirloom variety called Kennebec with a delicate skin, and this year we have the ever-so-popular russet potatoes as well. We’re ready to share them with you for this week! September is a transition month in the garden–summer crops fade out but its still early for cool weather fall crops. Growing cool weather crops like greens and lettuce in the fall challenges us, because we need them to germinate in trays when its super hot and buggy. We’ve had some success and we’re hoping to bring you some, like lettuce, beets, and bokchoy. We’ll dig sweet potatoes in mid-September and give those out the last few weeks. We are having a Common Market Crop Mob out to dig sweet potatoes on Saturday September 17. CSA members can join in with this event, and we’ll set another date or two as well, for CSA members to help with the sweets. Its treasure-hunting made easy, with our potato digger on the tractor. We’ve been really pleased with our sweet potatoes in the past, we know you’ll love them. Also, sweet potato greens are a special treat from the sweet potato vines, they are great sauteed or wilted like spinach! Can’t wait for you to try them. A welcome return of a dark green veggie after the summer crops.

Hope you have enjoyed this walk through the seasons. Do you have any questions about what we’ve harvested or what is yet to come? Feel free to ask!

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11. August 2011 by ilene.

 Harvest #12–August 12, 2011

(this is a bit approximate, we’ll see tomorrow!)

Choose 8, you can double an item to count as two:

Garlic

Tomatoes — a mix of reds, heirlooms and pastes

jalapeno peppers

Green peppers

Eggplant — the eggplant stopped flowering when the temps were closer to 100. We’re seeing new growth again.

Sweet or Thai basil (I made pesto with Thai basil and I LOVE it. Its a richer taste, almost spicey in a very good way). Bigger bags this week, great for those making pesto. Freeze pesto in ice cube trays for a taste of summer this winter.

scallions

Sungold cherry tomatoes

In addition to 8 of these items, U-Pick crops are included in your share:

Cherry Tomatoes (”Candy Lane”)–pick your own garden sweets…bring a small basket to fill!

Zinnia u-pick flowers–looking beautiful, take home a bouquet (bring a jar for a little water?)

The herb garden

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28. July 2011 by admin.

Harvest #10–July 29, 2011

(this is a bit approximate, we’ll see tomorrow!)

Garlic

Heirloom tomatoes (2-3 pounds per box. Double up on this item if you want more, its a steal for heirloom tomatoes! CSA member special; $5/pound in the store)

Cucumbers

Leeks

jalapeno peppers (limited)

Green peppers

Specialty Italian eggplant called Beatrice (its pink!)–I made wonderful creamy babaganouj with this.

Japanese eggplant

Sweet or Thai basil (I made pesto with Thai basil and I LOVE it. Its a richer taste, almost spicey in a very good way). Bigger bags this week, great for those making pesto.

cabbage

zucchini

In addition to 8 of these items, U-Pick crops are included in your share:

Cherry Tomatoes (”Candy Lane”)–its a peak week! bring a small basket to fill!

Zinnia u-pick flowers–looking beautiful, take home a bouquet (bring a jar for a little water?)

The herb garden

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21. July 2011 by admin.

Harvest #9–July 22, 2011

Garlic

Heirloom tomatoes (2-3 pounds per box. Double up on this item if you want more, its a steal for heirloom tomatoes! CSA member special; $5/pound in the store)

Leeks

jalapeno peppers

Green peppers

Specialty Italian eggplant called Beatrice (its pink!)–I made wonderful creamy babaganouj with this.

Japanese eggplant

Sweet or Thai basil (I made pesto with Thai basil and I LOVE it. Its a richer taste, almost spicey in a very good way). Bigger bags this week, great for those making pesto.

cabbage

chard (oh sweet healthy endlessly available chard)

zucchini

Beets (very limited supply)

In addition to 8 of these items, U-Pick crops are included in your share:

Cherry Tomatoes (”Candy Lane”)

Zinnia u-pick flowers

The herb garden

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7. July 2011 by admin.

Harvest #7, July 8, 2011

OK, we have a lot of different items all ready for harvest for this
week. We’ll just lay em out for you and let you choose. Its like a
farmer’s market here at House in the Woods and you get to choose from
all the beautiful options. If you want more than 8 items, extra items
are available for $3.50, so you can’t lose.
Select 8 from the following items for this Friday:

Fresh garlic (We’ll offer the seconds/splits for a few weeks, use it
soon, or put peeled cloves in a jar with olive oil in the frig; the
beauties are curing, for later CSA weeks and for sale by the pound next
month)

Beets! We MUST pull the beets!

Heirloom tomatoes (we don’t know what kind of quantities we have yet, but they are coming. We’ll see!)

fennel, try it sliced thin on the grill. The last week of fennel.

jalapeno peppers

Green peppers

Italian eggplant including specialty Italian called Beatrice (its pink!)

Japanese eggplant

Sweet or Thai basil (I made pesto with Thai basil and I LOVE it. Its a richer taste, almost spicey in a very good way)

scallions (almost gone)

lettuce (a new smaller batch of lettuce, red and romaine)

garlic scapes (if there is still interest in scapes, we still have some…)

cabbage

chard (oh sweet healthy endlessly available chard)

zucchini

bok choy maybe

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7. July 2011 by admin.

Harvest #7, July 8, 2011

OK, we have a lot of different items all ready for harvest for this week. We’ll just lay em out for you and let you choose. Its like a farmer’s market here at House in the Woods and you get to choose from all the beautiful options. If you want more than 8 items, extra items are available for $3.50, so you can’t lose.
Select 8 from the following items for this Friday:

Fresh garlic (We’ll offer the seconds/splits for a few weeks, use it soon, or put peeled cloves in a jar with olive oil in the frig; the beauties are curing, for later CSA weeks and for sale by the pound next month)

Beets! We MUST pull the beets!

Heirloom tomatoes (we don’t know what kind of quantities we have yet, but they are coming. We’ll see!)

fennel, try it sliced thin on the grill. The last week of fennel.

jalapeno peppers

Green peppers

Italian eggplant including specialty Italian called Beatrice (its pink!)

Japanese eggplant

Sweet or Thai basil (I made pesto with Thai basil and I LOVE it. Its a richer taste, almost spicey in a very good way)

scallions (almost gone)

lettuce (a new smaller batch of lettuce, red and romaine)

garlic scapes (if there is still interest in scapes, we still have some…)

cabbage

chard (oh sweet healthy endlessly available chard)

zucchini

bok choy maybe

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3. July 2011 by admin.

Honey, what do you want from the farm this week?

Cellular meets CSA…

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2. July 2011 by admin.

First tomato of the season, a Cherokee Purple. CSA members each received a precious ONE tomato, a first taste of what’s to come very soon. Not bad for the first day of July! (Note to non-gardeners: this is early for tomatoes…). Yes, I’ll admit it with full disclosure for fairness in the competitive world of the “first ripe tomato race”: these were grown in our hoophouse, a little head start to the season.

Here a happy little one gobbles hers up like an apple. I love that.

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