Sweet Land Farm Blog

Distribution today

2012-01-18T07:54:00.001-05:00

Hello Winter members,

The next CSA distribution is tomorrow Wednesday, January 18th from 2-6 pm! Remember, you can also request a boxed share that we pack and you pick up from 8-5 the Thursday-Saturday following the main Wednesday distribution. This is $6 extra. The boxes are in the cooler and the extra payment can be put in the purple pitcher on the desk. You can also email for more precise directions.

We are sticking with our new system. Instead of taking one bag from each side of the barn, you take 2 bags total from where ever you want. So, to say it another way, you can now fill two bags with whatever you want, from where ever you want!

Onion note: We have found a few onions that have brown layers in the middle. This is caused from Botrytis that developed during the rainy fall. The onions aren't soft and you can't tell until you open them. Typically this time of year the onions that aren't cured are bad and the good onions are excellent. There is no doubt, but the onions in question look and feel perfect. If you find one like this you can get more the following week to compensate. The one we found we just got rid of the bad wrappers and used the rest. Sorry about that. We don't have the X-ray capabilities to test each one.

Everything else is great. We've been juicing carrots and eating massaged kale salads and fresh komatsuna and spinach from the greenhouse. Yum!! We've also rediscovered how delicious the scarlet turnips are raw. They are super sweet!

Vegetable Line Up:

orange carrots, mixed colored carrots, red beets, golden and chioggia beets, onions, garlic, potatoes, cabbage, kale, collards, napa cabbage, daikon, watermelon and spanish radishes, scarlet queen turnips, gold ball turnips, purple top turnips, rutabagas, celeriac, fennel, kohlrabi, spinach, komatsuna, parsnips, and winter squash.

Okay,
See you tomorrow!
Paul

New Improved Winter Share

2012-01-03T09:11:00.001-05:00

Hello New Year Eaters!!

The next CSA distribution is this Wednesday, January 4th from 2-6 pm. Remember, you can also request a boxed share that we pack and you pick up from 8-5 the Thursday-Saturday following the main Wednesday distribution. This is $6 extra.

We are going to try something new this week. Instead of taking one bag from each side of the barn, we are going to try letting you take 2 bags total from where ever you want. So, to say it another way, you can now fill two bags with whatever you want, from where ever you want. We'll see how it goes! We'd love feedback about how you like the new system. Does any one out there register what a leap of management this is for us? It is!

Instead of taking one bag from each side of the barn, you can now take a total of two bags from where ever you want! Basically this means even more choices for members. We've thought long and hard about this and feel like we can pull this off to better accommodate your individual preferences. After all, we want to provide what you want to eat!

Vegetable Line Up:
orange carrots, mixed colored carrots, red beets, golden and chioggia beets, onions, garlic, potatoes, cabbage, kale, collards, napa cabbage, daikon, watermelon and spanish radishes, scarlet queen turnips, gold ball turnips, purple top turnips, rutabagas, celeriac, fennel, kohlrabi, spinach, komatsuna, parsnips, winter squash, celery - this is really pushing the season for celery, so it doesn't look that good but it is delicious.

Vegetables that are gone until next season:
leeks. Good Bye fair leek.
You'll have to wait until next year to take a Leek at the farm.....

Okay,
See you tomorrow!

Second Week in Brooklyn

2011-12-17T11:01:00.001-05:00

Hellllooooo Brooklyn!

Greetings! I hope that your first pick up and subsequent eating went well. We have been eating up a storm here at the farm. I try to post our dinners to facebook if they are made from our food - like us on facebook and maybe you can get some menu planning ideas. On the other hand, maybe you are way better at cooking than Paul and I. If so, post what you ate on our facebook page and inspire a bunch of fellow CSA eaters.

We are so happy to have a CSA down in Brooklyn. Thank you so much for joining our CSA and entering a winter season of eating locally with us. We really do feel that growing for, and eating from a CSA are revolutionary acts. I like to imagine what NYS would look like if EVERYONE in the state ate from local farmers. How many new farms would there have to be? How many new farmers would get a very viable chance to own and run a farm? How would the carbon foot print change? How many new small businesses would get to spring up because of the changing local economic landscape due to all of the new farms? Not to mention the increase in general health of the population if everyone ate a lot more vegetables. And, I may be wrong in this, but my gut tells me that eating what is seasonal to your home is the healthiest thing to do. I think that our bodies need this local food to be healthy. So, way to go! Vive la revolution!

We have about a bazillion more shares to sell in Brooklyn, so, if you liked what you got last time, tell a friend!! We will be packing several extra boxes and sending them down with the rest of the shares so that people can join on short notice.

We are on the Edible Brooklyn blog page! Go to this link: http://www.ediblebrooklyn.com/topics/farms-foodshed/miss-your-csa-theres-a-winter-version-for-pick-up-straight-from-the-finger-lakes/ for all the pomp and circumstance.

Paul is not coming down this for this distribution - Josh Hamlet will be there to guide you through all of your box picking up needs.

Veggies this week:
leeks, acorn squash, onions, potatoes, carrots, garlic, rutabaga, celery, gold ball turnip, fennel, chard, spinach, loose kale.

From Edible Brooklyn...

2011-12-15T16:47:00.000-05:00

Miss Your CSA? There’s a Winter Version for Pick Up Straight from the Finger Lakes
Comment | December 15, 2011 | By Jessie Cacciola

Sweet Land, indeed: The Finger Lakes farm will deliver four more winter CSA shares to the city, and also doles them out from their lovely farm stand near Trumansburg.
Next door to the Piggery, up in the Finger Lakes, there’s a vegetable farm called Sweet Land that’s been running a CSA through the winter for five years. Shareholders come by their enclosed barn farm-stand in Trumansburg to warm up and pick up carrots, garlic, turnips, squash, potatoes, onions and winter greens every other week. This year, they’re coming to Brooklyn too, at a new locavore-leaning restaurant called Cornerstone at 271 Adelphi, Fort Greene.

There are five pickups left from now till February. (We missed the first, but thankfully they’ve offered a sweet pro-rated discount for late-comers.) Those pickups run from 4 to 8 p.m. on December 19 (that’s next Monday), January 2 and 16, and February 13 and 27. At $200, you’ll receive a bi-weekly share of a half bushel box of produce (or double, if you’d like two shares, for $400). And that means guaranteed stew fixings and roasting sides while others are out pushing carts in the drifts.

Read more about the clever, crop-rotating farmers of Sweet Land at Edible Finger Lakes, where they’re looking back at past winners of the Edible Local Hero Awards, which you can vote for locally till Friday. (They were last year’s hero farmers up there.) Then, fill out this form here to save yourself a piece of the next drop-off on Monday.

From Edible Finger Lakes...

2011-12-15T16:44:00.001-05:00

Local Hero Farm, 2010: Sweet Land Farm
Written by Jessie Cacciola
Print E-mail
Every year, we hold our own version of the Oscars: the Local Hero Awards. This year, since we have this great blog space now, we're looking back at all our past winners, every day till the voting booth closes this Friday, December 16th.

Each December, readers vote for their local hero chefs, farmers, non-profits and artisans, and the following March, the winners are awarded with a feature in the magazine. This week, we're looking back at the winners of 2010, when Sweet Land was our hero farm. (Their winter CSA, by the way, which runs now till February, still has a few shares left. Head over here to nab one, prorated at a sweet late-comer discount. They've also extended pick-up to Brooklyn this year, if you know of any downstate friends looking for a bi-weekly supply of squash, winter greens and garlic.)

The following appeared as a Notable in our spring 2011 issue.

Farm: Sweet Land Farm

By Jessie Cacciola

Whether for its rich, glacial highland soil or the delicious abundance in yields, the Sweet Land Farm moniker works. Founded in 2003 by Paul Martin and Evangeline Sarat, the members-only operation in Trumansburg owes its genesis to a 1999 conference on community-supported agriculture where the couple met. "We just got caught up in the bug of farming," says Martin, who, like Sarat, dropped out of college to pursue a hands-on education on small farms in Lancaster County Pennsylvania, and in Cortland, New York.

Since buying what was previously a dairy, they've developed a seven-year rotation to insure that from season to season, none of their 70 crops is sown repeatedly in the same location. They also put a premium on enhancing soil fertility. "We sow a cover crop after every vegetable, to put back what we took from the soil," says Martin, "and an extra cover crop to give back to the land."

With a hoop house and a root cellar in the mix—plus U-pick herbs, strawberries, flowers and more—Sweet Land offers both summer and winter memberships. "Our mission is to run a farm business that helps our family, community and environment to thrive in health, spirit and economy," says Martin. "We like families to come out and enjoy it."

Winter CSA starts December 7th (and 5th for Brooklyn)

2011-11-28T11:58:00.001-05:00

Hello all,
I'm sitting in a quiet house - no kids, no husband - looking out at the front field. It looks good to me. It would probably look good to anyone, all covered in a blanket of short green on this foggy morning, but to a farmer it also looks like my husband did a darn good job of getting in the fall cover crops. They were planted at the right time, at the right seeding rate, and they all came up beautifully. I see ensured fertility for next year's CSA vegetables. I see healthy microbe populations eating up freshly incorporated rye, oat, pea, and vetch crops doing their job as 'decomposers' and returning organic matter and nutrients. Then those trusty little blooms of microbe populations die when all the cover crop food is eaten up, and their little bodies give our CSA crops even more goodness. There's a lot going on down there in the dirt that is easy for us to take for granted, or worse yet, over look and inadvertent sabotage because we don't have enough knowledge about soil. Dirt. We need it around. That's what we're doing as organic farmers, trying to keep it, and keep it good.

And to move on. Winter CSA!!! Don't sit on the fence! Don't mourn farm food all winter! Don't wander aimlessly picking up food that you have no connection to in the Wegman's aisles! Join the Winter CSA! We would if we weren't running it. Remember - in the winter CSA there are 2 One Bag Sides. So, you get to fill TWO Sweet Land Farm bags at each distribution. Distributions are every other week. The full details are on the website - www.sweetlandfarm.org. The first distribution is Wednesday December 7th.

Thanks to everyone who responded to our year end survey! We really appreciate the feed back.

I hope that everyone had a fantastic Thanksgiving,
Evangeline

Thanksgiving

2011-11-22T09:26:00.000-05:00

Hello!
Wow this morning feels strange. For the past 24 weeks Tuesdays (and Fridays) have been a rigidly structured morning of harvesting, washing, and setting up the distribution shed. Not today! Harvesting and preparing for 2 distributions a week is quite a driving force on the farm. There's no way around the task, so the distributions dictate when we do everything else. Not so anymore. Today I'm spending some time in the office, and then I'll be mulching the strawberries until either it starts to rain too much, or it's time to get the kids. We had our neighbor bale a field of our rye straw this past spring. I'm using the rye straw bales on the strawberries. By doing this we're hoping that we don't introduce too much grass seed into the patch. In the past we've always used hay, which tends to have a lot of weed seeds in it. The straw by comparison is fairly clean. And, to make an obvious point, they are strawberries, not hayberries.

Winter CSA - begins December 7th and we have PLENTY OF SHARES AVAILABLE. Join today for some fun times.

Ok! The summer CSA is now officially over! Time to tell us what you think. Here are some questions I have:

1. What are your top 4 favorite vegetables (the ones you can always use and never get tired of)?
2. Do you feel that there is too little, too much, or just the right amount of produce available?
3. Let us know about anything you want to tell us. Love letters appreciated.
4. Comments about our website
5. Comments about our share size.
6. Comments about the value of our share.
7. Comments about the distribution shed.
8. Comments on our crops.

Thanks!

Ok, I hope that everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving. We love this holiday because we are thankful for what the farm has provided to us, and eating a big meal of farm food in thanks is deeply satisfying. And, a big THANK YOU for a wonderful season. We hope to see you around.
Happy Thanksgiving!
Evangeline

Farm Week

2011-11-08T08:25:00.001-05:00

Hello Happy Eaters!
Happy Growers here. What a stretch of fabulous weather! Our crew has been hustling and are doing a top notch job of getting in all of the winter CSA crops. The cooler is getting FULL. Every time Paul puts another pallet bin in there I swear he must know a shrinking charm. Last weekend I went in the cooler to get a share for a friend who just had a baby and felt like a mountaineer, tunneling through canyons and scaling up and over pallet cliffs to collect potatoes, carrots, and beets from all corners.

Next week is the LAST summer CSA distribution. To say it another way, the Tuesday the 15th and Friday the 18th are the last two summer distributions. The first winter distribution is Wednesday December 7th. If you feel that you cannot possibly survive a winter without Sweet Land food, join the winter CSA. We'll keep you going.

Here is an announcement from the farm across the street from us:

Cayuga Sunrise Farm, across the road from Sweet Land, is an organic forage and grain farm but also raises a few meat animals and has some available for anyone interested.

I have 2 pigs and 1 steer scheduled to butcher tomorrow (Nov. 8th) that are not spoken for so if anyone is interested I am taking orders for whole or 1/2’s. It will be at least a couple weeks before they would be ready for pick-up.

The beef is raised on pasture with some supplemental non-organic grain. The pork is not pastured but raised on non-organic grain and hay (and some apples this time of year). None of the animals have ever had any antibiotics, hormones or the like – they are raised naturally but not actually organic.

Pork will be $1.30/# hanging weight plus processing fees listed on attached cutting instruction sheet.
Beef is $2.00/# hanging weight plus processing.

Please call Rod at 227-0836 if interested to discuss how you want meat cut. First come, first served!

And here is an announcement from High Point:

High Point Farms has a few Meat CSA shares availabe for their Winter Meat CSA. Shares include Grass-fed Beef, Pasture Pork and Free Range Chicken. Pick up is ONCE a month in Ithaca, or at their farm in Trumansburg. During Sweet Lands Winter CSA season you can also pick up there. More info and to sign up:
http://www.highpointfarms.net/upstate-csa.html

Veggies:
carrots, beets, leeks, garlic, napa cabbage, kohlrabi, daikon, fennel, kale, collards (kale and collards are super sweet and delicious now from the frosts), butternut, celeriac, celery, tatsoi, pac choi, mustard, radicchio, hakurei, gold ball turnip

U-pick: kale!

Alright, See you around,
Evangeline

October 18th

2011-10-18T07:39:00.000-04:00

Greetings!

I hope that everyone is doing well this week. The farm is moving along smoothly - lots of cover crops are in the ground, and the fall and winter crops are looking fantastic with all this rain and that heat from 2 weekends ago. The summer CSA runs until November 18th, and then the winter CSA starts the 7th of December. We have all the information about the winter CSA now up on the website - but I'll copy it here: (see below for list of veggies and a Harvest Dinner at West Haven Farm with Just a Taste).

The distribution barn set-up for this winter csa will be similar to the summer csa.
There will be a "1 bag side" and an "itemized side". This means that members, as in the summer, can
fill one grocery bag with anything they want from the "1 bag side". Most of the produce listed below
will be on the 1 bag side. We will itemize some items, for example, greens, and garlic. So, to make
the obvious point, there will be A LOT of flexibility in contents of the winter share. No more turnips
for you if you don't like them. Lots of carrots, potatoes and onions for you if that's all you want.
A little of everything? You got it. We hope that continuing with the 1 bag side will keep everyone
as happy as possible!

* Distributions will be held in the farm shed (heated by our wood stove). We'll have a good kid fence
around the stove. The drive and parking lots will always be plowed for distribution.

* Distributions are every other week and each supplies 2 weeks worth of food.

* We are creating more pick-up options. Distribution (in the cozy wood stove heated barn) is
from 2-6 pm on the main distribution days. (see dates below) Can't make it? We'll box a share for
you and you can pick it up from 9-5, Thurs, Fri, & Sat following the main day. This costs extra
due to the extra work involved.

* There are 7 distributions and a share pays for 6, so choose the 6 dates that work best for you.
We hope this accommodates your winter travel plans and a snow date. You may certainly come
to all 7 distributions, it will just cost more.

* The distribution dates for the winter CSA are: December 7th, December 21st, January 4th,
January 18th, February 8th, February 22nd, and March 7th.

* A regular winter share (6 distributions, on the main days) costs $300.

* A boxed winter share, 6 distributions, costs $345.

* A regular winter share, 7 distributions, costs $350.

* A boxed winter share, 7 distributions, costs $400.

Here's what will most likely be in the share:
potatoes, carrots, onions, garlic, kale, cabbage, Chinese cabbage, leeks, beets, celeriac,
turnips, radishes, rutabagas, winter squash, celery, and greens (spinach and
braising greens) from the 3 passive solar greenhouses.

We spend most
of October and November pulling in food from the fields and storing it in the cooler for the
winter CSA. We do our best to estimate how many members will join for the winter, but
hard facts make it much easier to decide how much to harvest and store. To make it easier
for you to join early the winter deposit is only $50. Join soon and lessen the guesswork.
Payments can be mailed or dropped off in the shed. Please include your email on your check
when you join, even if I already have it. Now I may as well wax poetic for a moment about
all of the wonders of eating locally in the winter in Central NY.
Marvellous! Far out! Revolutionary!
This week's veggies:
broccoli, cabbage, leeks, spinach, arugula, head lettuce, broccoli raab, mustard, pac choi, hakurei, carrots, beets, hot peppers, delicata, potatoes, chard, kale, collards

U-Pick:
chard, kale, raspberries, tomatillos, hot pepper, flowers, dill, cilantro

2011-12 Winter CSA on sale now!

2011-10-04T07:45:00.001-04:00

Hello All!

WINTER CSA
The winter CSA is officially on sale now. Please consider joining us in this annual venture into the world of eating locally and well all winter right here in Central NY! Paul and I truly love the winter CSA - the crops that we are able to provide in the winter are crops that grow great in this climate. We are supposed to eat carrots, onions, potatoes, cabbage, kale and beets here in the cold months! Paul and I are still a little bit amazed that winter CSAs are real, and are tickled pink that we actually have one. We have not set the day of the week that we will distribute on yet, we will do that as soon as we can. Here's what we do know:
There are 7 distributions, and a share pays for 6, so there is a built- in miss.
The distributions are every other week, with a 3 week break in January.
We will start the week of Thanksgiving.
There is enough food per distribution to last the average shareholder for 2 weeks.
The share will be set up the same as last year's winter CSA. Members can select a bag worth of produce from each side of the distribution shed. (2 bags total per distribution). The set up is basically like the One Bag Side except there are two sides, and you can fill two bags, one from each side. I hope that makes sense.
The distributions will be in the barn with the cozy addition of a wood stove.
The winter share price this year is $300. If you have already signed up you are grandfathered into the $275 price.
potatoes, carrots, onions, leeks, beets, cabbage, parsnips, radishes, kale, greens, turnips, celeriac, winter squash, and rutabagas.
We will send out the official distribution dates as soon as we can.
$50 down payment
Sign up early and sign up often! We love the winter CSA and think that you will too.

This week's veggies:
leeks, carrots, potatoes, beets, cabbage, head lettuce, spinach, kale, chard, broccoli, watermelon radishes, hakurei, kohlrabi, Chinese cabbage, tomatoes, arugula (got swamped out with the hurricane rains so this is the last week of arugula), broccoli raab

u-pick:
RASPBERRIES- remember, we plant fall-bearing raspberries, so they are supposed to be awesome right now, and they are!
green beans
flowers
kale
chard
basil
cilantro
dill

Potatoes and Cover Crops

2011-09-27T08:51:00.001-04:00

Greetings from a almost fully cover cropped farm! Paul turned on them tractor lights last night and got 'er done. (So sorry for the digression). We busted out the potatoes from 8-noon with the crew, and then I stayed on with the crew after lunch digging potatoes while Paul hopped on the tractor and disced, seeded, re-disced, and then cultipacked about 1/2 of the farm. Yahoo! It is such a load off of our minds to know that those fall cover crops (aka green manures) are in the ground and poised to take off. Put to bed. Jobs done, kind of the feeling you have once the kids are in bed, they had a good meal, and the dishes are washed. And half of the potatoes are now out of the ground. Go crew!

This week our very own Anna Root put together another week of recipes on....
Bento Mom
Check out this great blog, and check out our recipe page on the farm website for many cooking ideas. Thanks Anna!!! You're a rocking Bento Mom!

Veggies:
Hakurei!!! Wowza these are the best hakureis we have ever ever ever pulled out of the field. You simply must to try them.
carrots
beets
no onions this week
garlic this week!
cabbage
summer squash is almost done
broccoli! Still coming on strong. Eat it up.
spinach
arugula
chard
kale
head lettuce

u-pick:
tomatillos - still some out there
dill and cilantro - TONS and its fantastic
raspberries - PLENTIFUL AND DELICIOUS!!!!! AROUND TIL FROST. DON'T FORGET ABOUT THEM.
flowers
chard and kale

Raspberries are awesome and unlimited!

2011-09-20T07:51:00.001-04:00

Hello!

Greetings from the farm! I didn't write the weekly email yesterday because we were pulling in all those potatoes! The yield actually looks good, much to our complete surprise. Potatoes like lots of water right when they are flowering, and ours got zero during that time - that was that long stretch of really hot dry weather during July and early August. So, we didn't have high hopes. But lo and behold - I came out after Paul had been digging for awhile and the ground was full of them. We got in about a quarter of them before dark last night - about 3000 pounds! We'll start giving them out in a couple of weeks.
Please note at the bottom of this email there is an invite to the 2011 Farmer's Ball!

Veggie Forecast:
carrots, beets, onions, cabbage, BROCCOLI - EAT IT UP, cauliflower, zucchini, peppers, hot peppers, pac choi, head lettuce, spinach, tomatoes - these are on their way out - its getting cold, kale, chard, escarole,

U-Pick -
unlimited:
tomatillos, green beans - new patch, RASPBERRIES - THESE ARE AWESOME, dill/cilantro - new patch, edemame, basil - looking fantastic, pesto time, hot peppers (2 locations), flowers
To mention it another way -raspberries are now unlimited.

2011 Farmer's Ball:

Sat. Sept 24th, at the IFM, 5:30 p.m. on. Potluck - show off your cookin'!
Live auction is back - 7 p.m. - w. the focus on produce, CSA shares and livestock, but we won't turn away awesome stuff -
Evil City Stringband - 8 p.m.
Tiohero Boat Tours will be boating folks up and down the inlet from 2-10 p.m., with the final run dropping farmers ball revelers at Castaways for the Rhiner Fest Speakeasy.

A not too wet farm

2011-09-13T07:45:00.001-04:00

Hello!

Greetings from a wet but doing fine farm. We are so grateful that our farm was basically unaffected by the hurricanes, and our hearts reach out to fellow farmers everywhere, some of whom are having a very hard time. Our ground is pretty wet, we haven't been able to dig carrots for distribution, some raspberries were rotted by the heavy rain, and planting fall cover crops looks like it will be a little delayed, but besides that we're fine.

Just a heads up - share payment is due in full by Columbus Day. I will be sending out balances to every one who has one in the next 2 weeks or so.

Flannery's Notes:
This week Dinner's from the Farm has a twist. In celebration of back to school and the first hints of fall, comes a week of lunches! Bento Mom, Anna Root has crafted 5 days of simple, kid-friendly lunches using ingredients from the farm. Check it out under the "Recipe" tab on the farm website and be inspired. Thanks, Anna!

Veggie Forecast:
Cauliflower - wowza! these guys are pumping it out in the field. Eat some!
Broccoli - ditto above! Expect broccoli for a good while longer
Squash - we are onto our last generation - we grow 3 all told. This generation will last another couple weeks.
Onions - We just pulled in 177 black crates of these so they'll be around for the long haul. 177 crates gets us through the rest of the summer CSA and the winter CSA.
garlic - we give this out every other week til the end of the summer (and then every winter distribution)
beets - also around for the long haul (next June)
carrots - ditto above
head lettuce - about 6 more weeks of this crop
spinach - probably around til the end of the summer CSA (and through the winter CSA too)
celery - these are deelish! I basically don't make a soup or roasted meat with out a head of celery
hot peppers - around til frost
pac choi - the bread and butter of many a person
tomatoes - just a couple more weeks!!
peppers - on and off for a couple more weeks.
cabbage - a steadfast friend til the end
collards - same

U-Pick:
green beans - this patch is still looking good and the next patch will be stellar
flowers - still nice!
cherry tomatoes - these are almost through. There are some fruits, but not many.
paste (sauce) tomatoes - Done. I know that they weren't great, but it looks like they all got picked! Back to San Marzanos next year.
Tomatillos - still some on there
Basil - mountains of it! make some pesto to freeze for the long dark cold of winter.
hot peppers - still plenty of the red cherry bombs out past the 2nd patch of tomatillos
raspberries - We are keeping these at 4 quarts for a bit to let everyone catch up on their picking. Members did a good job of cleaning them up this weekend. There are still plenty out there, and LOTS coming on. Raspberries keep going strong until a hard frost gets them.
kale - oh loveliest of reliable healthful food
chard - around til after a couple of frosts
endive and escarole - ditto above

Alright all,
Happy Eating,
Evangeline

Berry limit is now 2 quarts

2011-09-07T17:08:00.000-04:00

Hello,
Blub blub blub (that's me talking to you from under water). The berry season limit is now 2 quarts. I expect that all of you are going to come rushing over to the farm in this dusky down pour to pick. (Not really). At any rate, they are there and the season limit is now 2 quarts. Come and get them! Wear your boots!
Evangeline

Berry limit is now 1/2 quart

2011-09-06T09:39:00.000-04:00

Hi All,
We just went out to the berry patch and decided that the berries are now open. The Season Limit on the berries is now 1/2 quart. The blackberries and raspberries are combined in this season limit. That is 1/2 quart total of blackberries and raspberries, NOT 1/2 quart of each. The berries are not as good as usual. We think that the super dry weather earlier this summer got them. Hopefully they will shape up as the season progresses. Nonetheless, have fun out there. Please see your member handbook for a full definition of "Season Limit". The handbook is under one of the top tabs on the farm website.

On another note, one of our employees has a funeral to attend this Friday, and another employee is on their September vacation, so we are down 2 hands this Friday harvest and could really use some help! Maybe this is that chance that you've been waiting for to get to see a farm harvest up close and personal. Harvesting is fun, try it out! Shoot me an email if you'd like to help out. Kids are completely welcome.

See you around,
Evangeline

First week of September

2011-09-06T07:39:00.001-04:00

Hello All!

Here's the veggie list, and below is a message from the Good life Farm, just up the road. They have organic turkeys for sale that are rotated over pasture, and fed ALL ORGANIC FEED. This is somewhat unusual.

At the bottom of the email is information about an upcoming Harvest Dinner at Autumn's Harvest to benefit Healthy Food For All.

This week's veggies:

tomatoes - try an heirloom if you haven't. You will be richly rewarded. They aren't bred for looks so guess what they are bred for.

peppers - these beauties are still rolling out of the greenhouses. I saute them in oil til they are caramelized. Sometime I mix in squash.

cabbage - fresh and crisp

carrots - these did great this summer!

beets - I boil a couple of these and keep them in the fridge - sliced and ready to go on anything.

basil - we make pesto every other week or so. No problem getting the kids to eat that!

hot peppers

head lettuce - looking good with all the rain

squash - I slice these in thin rounds, pile them in a pan of hot olive oil or butter or both and then ply them with salt and pepper, and then saute them until they are super caramelized. Don't stop cooking them too soon, because the more done they are, the better. We literally eat this almost every day.

cukes - they're gone folks! That's what eating seasonally is all about. We won't eat cukes again until next June.

celery - this celery makes a soup. So good!

spinach

bok choi - saute this up and eat as a side

kale

chard

escarole or endive

U-pick:

all unlimited -

tomatillo, basil - its BACK, cilantro/dill, kale, chard, flowers, beans - new patch, edemame, hot peppers, cherry tomatoes, paste (sauce) tomatoes

We are still holding off on the raspberries. They are funny this year. We will let you know about them asap.

This year, get your pasture-raised, organic grain-fed Thanksgiving Turkey at the Good Life Farm

Curious about what makes our birds special? Good Life turkeys get organic grain and rotate daily through rich and diverse forage of alfalfa, mixed grass among asparagus and orchard trees. They love the shade and variety in the pasture! Our management means that our turkeys are able to make maximum use of forage through constant access to fresh grazing, and the asparagus and fruit trees benefit from their manure, insect-eating and general weeding activity. This integrated system exemplifies Good Life management.

Come see for yourself at our Visit Your Turkey Day - Sunday, Oct. 9, 1-4p.

Reserve your Thanksgiving bird today!

Price is $4.25/lb.

On-Farm Pick-Up in Interlaken,

5 mi. from Trumansburg

Group delivery in Ithaca and Geneva- details to follow

Contact Melissa Madden, Good Life Farmer

(607) 351 3313

melissa@thegoodlifefarm.org

www.thegoodlifefarm.org

Join us for an exquisite meal that supports the efforts of local farms to share the bountiful harvest of healthy food in our region with all!

Our next fine dining benefit gala will be Saturday, September 17th at Autumn's Harvest Farm with Simply Red Bistro and Hosmer Winery.

The event will start at 5:00pm with a wine and hors d’oeuvres reception in the fields with live music and an optional farm tour followed by a five-course menu inspired by the season paired with award winning wine.

Anyone who...

Savors extraordinary food with flare celebrates one of our regions most accomplished chefs, Samantha Buyskes (formerly Izzo)

Loves locally and humanely produced meat knows farm-owners Sarah and Timothy Hawes

Appreciates fine wine is grateful for winemaker Aaron Roisen

If that team doesn't already blow you away we are pleased to announce our special guest, Leslie Muhlhahn, from Just Desserts to ensure everyone raves about their harvest dinner experience for years!

Tickets start at $75 (all-inclusive) and can be purchased online at www.healthyfoodforall.org or by calling 607-342-8845. Seating is limited so don't delay! For more info
please visit www.healthyfoodforall.org or contact harvestdinners@gmail.com.

Proceeds go to Healthy Food for All, a partnership of family-owned farms and Cornell Cooperative Extension Tompkins County to make fresh seasonal produce accessible to households with limited income.

Staying a night, or week? Please consider extending your glorious experience of the Finger Lakes at the Gothic Eves Bed and Breakfast. For more info and B&B reservations please go to http://www.gothiceves.com or call 607-387-6033. Sponsored by the Tompkins County Tourism Program.

****************************************************************************

For Information on Healthy Food For All:
Contact: Elizabeth V. Karabinakis, Cornell Cooperative Extension
Email: evk4@cornell.edu
Phone: 607-272-2292
Website: www.HealthyFoodForAll.org

For Harvest Dinners on the Farm Reservations or Ticket Sales:
Contact: Samantha Castillo-Davis, Harvest Dinner Reservations Volunteer
Email: harvestdinners@gmail.com
Phone: 607-342-8845
Online purchase: www.HealthyFoodForAll.org

Volunteer Opportunities:
H ealthyFoodForAll.Ithaca@gmail.com or 607-272-2292

Week of August 29th

2011-08-29T16:00:00.001-04:00

Hellooooo out there!

The farm is pumping out the produce right now - whooo-eeee! That hurricane rain did us well and everything looks happy.

Here is a note from our lovely, all volunteer Farm Events Coordinator..... Flannery!

Stop by and say hello to Anna Root at this Tuesday's distribution. She will be sharing her bento lunch

boxes and will be available to talk about using veggies in various creative ways.

There sure are a lot of tomatoes in the field and blackberries and raspberries will be coming soon!

If anyone out there wants to share their expertise and offer a canning or jamming workshop,

I'd love to help make it happen.

A new menu is up with a Moosewood theme. Hip hip hooray for the CSA!

http://sweetlandfarmrecipes.wordpress.com/

And this from the farmer across the street:

Hi,

We will have sweet corn for sale again this week $5/dozen.

This is our last planting and is the variety “Delectable” which has big

ears and is the best tasting in my opinion.

Thanks, Rod

This week's veggies:

celery, summer squash, cukes, beets, carrots, head lettuce, cabbage, peppers, collards, kale, chard, escarole/endive, pac choi, hot peppers, tomatoes

u-pick:

dill and cilantro - greens

green dill seed - just pick the heads and use the green seeds in slaws, bread, and soup

hot peppers - two locations, check out the farm map

tomatillos - two locations as well - check map. Should be picked when the fruits are busting out of the husk. See u-pick board for illustration

basil - it's back! It should be cut low to encourage lots of regrowth. See u-pick board for illustration

edemame - these are a new patch - see farm map

green beans - the old patch is done, and the next patch is about a week away.

cherry tomatoes - bazillions!

paste tomatoes - we tried a new variety this year. We like last year's kind better so will go back to them next year.

kale, chard, flowers

We are holding off on the raspberries for one more week. There are not enough ready out there to open them up. We've never seen them this slow to ripen and think that it must be due to the super dry weather this summer.

August 15th

2011-08-15T16:45:00.001-04:00

Hey out there!

And there goes another week at the farm. August seems to fly by. The crops are all looking good. We're pulling in all of the summer cabbage and beets this week. Those beets are getting big! There are still nice and tender though. Something about our soil, the beets can get really big and stay nice. I'm not sure what it is.

This is the time that Bag Creep sometimes starts to catch up with us. Bag Creep happens when every week alittle bit more goes into the bag from the One Bag Side, and pretty soon the bag has grown a big ole mushroom of veggies out of the top of it. We're setting up an example of a nicely filled bag in the shed this week so that you can check your bag from the One Bag Side against it. Check it out!

Veggies:

cabbage, beets, spinach, lettuce, carrots, garlic (for real this week), onions, celery, hot peppers, chard, kale, endive or escarole

U-Pick:

beans - green, yellow and Roma. These Romas are delicious and big. Try them - they are tender even when big and fat. cherry tomatoes, hot peppers, dill - lots of it by the beans, edemame - pick the whole plant if you want, pick 20 plants if you want!, flowers - everywhere and awesome if I do say so myself, chard, kale

August 8th

2011-08-08T16:54:00.001-04:00

Hellllooooo!

Its raining as I write this on Sunday afternoon. Happy farmers and happy family. I like how the rain dictates our week. Now that it's rained a solid 1/2 inch we know that we can't cultivate (tractor speak for weed) tomorrow, or probably the next day either if the weather radar plays out like it's predicting. That narrowing of options is comforting. Cultivation usually scores high up there on the list of priority, so to have it knocked right off by circumstance is a bit of a gift. Don't have to jockey around that priority any more. Rain (when it's been dry for awhile) usually frees us up to do some long lingering task that has just never made it to the top of the list while the soil is dry. So. Tomorrow harvest (that happens rain or shine), and then that long nagging list of things that need special circumstances to make the cut. Move the chicken house and set up new pasture. Palletize the heavy bags of soil that hold down remay in the field, and then get them out of there so that the fields are clear for field work. Drag some drip tape to a new field. Sucker the tunnel tomatoes. Clean up the shop. Basically house keeping kinds of tasks that make everything nicer once they're done. Ahhhhh.

Veggie Forecast:

tomatoes, cabbage, carrots, beets, cukes, summer squash, lettuce, kale, chard, onions, garlic

u-pick: EDEMAME, chard, kale, flowers, hot peppers, maybe cherry tomatoes if they ripen up

Cayuga Sunrise Farm (from across the road and behind Sweet Land Farm) will be selling organic sweet corn at the distribution this week and as more ripens. All the cropland that we farm is organic production of grains and forages along with some sweet corn and pumpkins this year. We are growing a yellow sweet corn called Golden Beauty and a Bi-color variety called Delectable. The deer ate our earliest planting but now our mid-planting is ready with much more to come from our late planting. We will be selling our organic sweet corn for $5/dozen. We will be glad to take orders for larger quantities.

Alright, See you around,

Evangeline

August 2nd

2011-08-02T07:01:00.001-04:00

Hello out there!

Well the summer fruits are rolling in. It is a nice time of year for eating, that's for sure. There is a Healthy Food For all Harvest Dinner this weekend at Early Morning Farm. If you can, you should go to it, it will be wonderful. The menu is below. Speaking of menus, below is a planned week of meals using CSA produce put together by a fellow shareholder. What a resource for busy people. http://www.sweetlandfarm.org/. Thanks to everyone volunteering to help out Sweet Land!!

Here's what Flannery, our all-volunteer fabulous CSA Event Co-ordinator has to say:

"This week's menu comes to you from Jamie Warbuton. It is vegan and extremely creative with lots of desserts. Thanks, Jamie!

At the suggestion of one of a fellow CSA shareholder, we are going to try doing five meals instead of seven. We thought this might better reflect the reality of leftovers and dinners out. Your suggestions and feedback are always welcome and greatly appreciated. Anyone up for making a menu next week?"

Veggie Forecast:

carrots, beets, daikon, onions, summer squash, cukes, cabbage, head lettuce, chard, kale, tomatoes

u-pick: unlimited

flowers, chard, kale, hot peppers, cherry tomatoes

Join us for an exquisite meal that supports the efforts of local farms to share the bountiful harvest of healthy food in our region with all!

Sunday, August 7th a fine dining benefit gala hosted at Early Morning Farm with Executive Chef Gregory Rhoad of Aurora Inn paired with wines from Bet the Farm Winery.

The event will start at 5:00pm with a wine and hors d’oeuvres reception in the fields with live music and an optional farm tour followed by a feast under the tent by the pond.

Enjoy chilled watermelon gazpacho shooters, heirloom tomatoes fresh off the vine, rosemary and garlic roasted pork loin and much more to please your palate and support a great cause. Every bite will feature food harvested from the adjacent fields and neighboring producers and will be paired with wine to bring out the succulent flavors of summer.

Tickets start at $75 (all-inclusive) and can be purchased online at www.healthyfoodforall.org or by calling 607-342-8845. Seating is limited so don't delay! For more info please visit www.healthyfoodforall.org or contact harvestdinners@gmail.com.

***********************************************************************

For Information on Healthy Food For All:
Contact: Elizabeth V. Karabinakis, Cornell Cooperative Extension
Email: evk4@cornell.edu
Phone: 607-272-2292
Website: www.HealthyFoodForAll.org

For Harvest Dinners on the Farm Reservations or Ticket Sales:
Contact: Samantha Castillo-Davis, Harvest Dinner Reservations Volunteer
Email: harvestdinners@gmail.com
Phone: 607-342-8845
Online purchase: www.HealthyFoodForAll.org

Volunteer Opportunities:
H ealthyFoodForAll.Ithaca@gmail.com or 603-986-5091

July 25th

2011-07-25T16:42:00.001-04:00

Hello!

Here are some announcements, and then veggie forecast and u-pick lists are at the bottom of the email.

Notes from our fabulous, completely volunteer CSA Events Co-ordinator and fellow shareholder........ Flannery!!

Dinners from the Farm are back! Check out an amazing new menu from Rebecca Elliott and a post about zucchini fritters. http://sweetlandfarmrecipes.wordpress.com/

Calling all cooks! Would you like to create a week of meals? Menu planners are needed. It's easy and fun. Email me: fhysjulien@mac.com

Dates for another jam workshop and kid event coming soon.

Harvest Dinner at Early Morning Farm August 7th.

Announcing Healthy Food For All's fine dining benefit gala on Sunday, August 7th hosted at Early Morning Farm with Executive Chef Gregory Rhoad of Aurora Inn paired with wines from Bet the Farm Winery.

The event will start at 5:00pm with a wine and hors d’oeuvres reception in the fields with live music and an optional farm tour followed by a feast under the tent by the pond.

Tickets start at $75 (all-inclusive) and can be purchased online at www.healthyfoodforall.org or by calling 607-342-8845. Seating is limited so don't delay!

This is the third in a series of six harvest dinners on area farms to benefit the Healthy Food For All program, a partnership of family-owned farms and Cornell Cooperative Extension Tompkins County to make fresh seasonal produce accessible to households with limited income.

For the full schedule of 2011 harvest dinners with menus and more, please visit www.healthyfoodforall.org or contact harvestdinners@gmail.com

“Harvest dinners not only celebrate the actual products being produced in our area, but also the synergies and relations developing between producers and users. The dinners are also a way to network and find new sources, market local businesses, strengthen our economic relations and support local charities. But most of all it allows us to meet and spend time with the people in our area that make up our community, and we all get to highlight the strengths of our labors.”

- Executive Chef C. Gregory Rhoad, Aurora Inn

Veggie Forecast:

tomatoes, hot peppers, Euro and field cukes, summer squash, summer onions, carrots, beets, head lettuce, escarole, kale, chard, collards,

U-pick:

unlimited: all flowers EXCEPT the lillies, hot peppers, chard, kale, basil, green beans

An inch of rain!

2011-07-19T07:27:00.001-04:00

Hello everybody,

Yes! It is raining this morning. Who knows how much we'll actually get, but we're cautiously hopeful. Just getting the leaves wet seems like a good thing at this point. We have been irrigating like mad this past month. If we aren't harvesting we're irrigating. The ground has been too dry to do any field work. The pond that we dug the first year that we moved here holds 1.2 million gallons of water. We started irrigating about a month ago and it is about half gone, so we've pumped out about 600,000 gallons. We've got about another month of irrigation in there. The pond irrigates the north half of the farm, the south half is irrigated off of a well. The well can run about 16 200 foot lines at a time while maintaining about 8psi. That well runs 24/7 these days, and every 12 hours or so we switch the lines. It takes about 2 weeks to get around the whole field. Holding a dripping irrigation line in a hot dusty field really brings home how precious water is to growing food. Over all we're doing ok though. I farmed alone in Homer in 1999 and that year it was so dry that the leaves on the trees started to wither and turn brown in August. That was dry!! All the tree leaves out there still look fine. I also didn't have any irrigation on that farm. Talk about a stressed young farmer. I was only 21. Yes it's dry this year, but we have 3 sources of irrigation, and a full crew. Overall I feel blessed to have a job that completely binds me to the weather. It is grounding and humbling to have that much reality imposed on you every day.

I wrote that yesterday morning. We didn't get any more rain yesterday, but a BIG storm woke Paul and I last night. An inch!! Hallelujah! We are doing good today.

Veggies:

tomatoes!!, basil, spinach, salad mix, head lettuce, European cucumbers, field cucumbers, summer squash, daikon, hakurei, kale, collards, chard, escarole, endive

U-Pick: unlimited

all flowers on the farm EXCEPT the lillies.

basil

chard

kale

Alright,

See you at the farm!

Evangeline

July 11th

2011-07-11T08:07:00.001-04:00

Heeelllllooooo Farmivores,

Dry! Dry! Remember all of those emails about it being wet? Now we're dry. It is a bit silly, I know. We've been irrigating like mad and our pond is about 5 feet lower than it was last week this time. Bye Bye water. Luckily our soils have a great water holding capacity, so once we irrigate a field it stays nice and wet for awhile. The surface looks dry, but dig down a ways and there is moisture. And, give the plants alittle water in this kind of heat, and they grow super quick.

The Ithaca Crop Mob (http://www.facebook.com/ithacacropmob) will be here at the farm next Saturday. Check out the link and come on out if you want. We're buying pizza for everyone for lunch. The official message about the Mob is at the bottom of this email. The Mob is fun because with so many people working, we get at ton done in a short amount of time. Lots of visual satisfaction.

Veggie Forecast:

Green onions, scapes, head lettuce, European Cucumbers (long, seedless, and thin skinned - store in plastic), summer squash, parsnips, celeriac, beet greens, daikon, hakurei turnips, kale, chard, escarole, endive. The komatsuna, arugula, pac choi, and mustard are done until the fall.

U-pick - unlimited:

chard, kale, basil, all flowers on the farm EXCEPT the lillies

CROP MOB

Summer is here! And our midsummer crop mob is right around the corner. Come crop mob with us!

WHERE: Sweet Land Farm, 9732 State Route 96, Trumansburg, NY 14886
WHEN: July 16th, 10 a.m.- 2 p.m., followed by lunch
WHAT: Midsummer maintenance! Possibly on the menu: weeding, thinning, harvesting, mulching, lots of possibilities!
WHO: Mobbers of all ages
WHY: Crop mobbing is awesome!
FARMERS: Evangeline Sarat and Paul Martin

What to bring:
Please wear closed toed shoes, weather appropriate clothing, hat, and sunscreen.
Please bring full water bottles for yourselves.
Wear gloves if you have them.
Bring a place setting (plate, bowl, cup, fork, spoon, napkin) for the meal.
Kids are welcome, supervised by their parents.
Please leave your pets at home.

How to sign up:
If you know for sure you'd like to come, please RSVP to ithacacropmob@gmail.com. Is this your first time crop mobbing? We would love to have you!
Please include in your RSVP email any dietary restrictions or special circumstances we should know about.

CARPOOLING!
Get to know your fellow crop mobbers and save fuel- request or offer a ride. If you are able to offer a ride OR if you need a ride, please let us know in your RSVP email and we'll try to connect you with others.

Directions from Ithaca:
Going north from Ithaca, take Route 96 through the village of Trumansburg. Once the speed limit turns from 45 to 55mph, the farm is on the left-hand (west) side of the road.

About the farm:
Sweet Land Farm is an organic CSA-only vegetable and small fruit farm in Trumansburg, NY. They have a beautiful young operation and a beautiful young family. Sweet Land's harvest dinner to benefit Healthy Food for All will be the next day, and we may be doing some harvesting or beautification to help them prepare for it.

You can read more about Sweet Land Farm here: http://www.sweetlandfarm.org/

See you on the 16th!

Kate, Sam and Rachel

Farm Walk this week!

2011-06-27T08:18:00.001-04:00

Hello all!

Well that strawberry patch got a work out this weekend! Thanks to everyone who came out and picked - that patch looks clean. There are some green and pink berries that will continue to ripen over the next week or so.

We are hosting a FARM WALK here this Wednesday at 6pm. Meet us in front of the distribution barn at 6 if you are interested. We'll walk around the farm and talk about how we grow things, and a little about how we run the CSA. We love questions too. Although we've given lots of farm tours to different education and farm groups, we've never hosted a farm walk for the CSA and are very excited to do so. Come find out what going on here!

Veggie Forecast:

head lettuce, kale, chard, salad mix, escarole, spinach, celeriac, parsnips, garlic scapes, komatsuna, mustard, pac choi, hakurei turnips, and beet greens

u-pick:

unlimited: strawberries, sugar snap peas, bachelor buttons, CHARD

Many of you probably know this, but I thought I'd tell you a bit about why and how we have roots in the share at this time of year. All of the roots that we've been giving out so far were picked last November and stored all winter in the big walk in cooler in the distribution shed . We've gone to a lot of effort to create top notch storage conditions for that winter produce. Of course most of the stored food goes to the winter CSA, but we reserve about 10 pallet bins for the beginning of the summer CSA. Naturally the planning goes further than this - the year before we plan how much produce to reserve for the next summer's CSA and make sure we grow it and pick it at the right time. We like having the roots for the first 4 or so weeks of the summer CSA because it really tides members over all those greens! Before we had the walk in cooler there was no way that we could have had the luxury of storing all that food for so long (7-8 months!).

As the summer CSA progresses the over-wintered roots get distributed and then we all have to wait for the spring planted root crops to mature. We'll start having this year's beets around the middle of July (we are already giving out beet greens, a byproduct of thinning the beet patch), and carrots will follow beets by 3 weeks or so. We won't dig potatoes until late August, and rutabagas, parsnips, and celeriac won't come on the scene again until late fall.

As of today we still have parsnips and celeriac, all the other roots we started out with are in your fridges and tummys.

OK, See you around the farm,

Evangeline

Peas and Strawberries increased

2011-06-22T21:08:00.001-04:00

Hello all!

The sugar snap peas are now UNLIMITED. Pick 'em folks! They will last a good bit longer.

The strawberry season limit is now 4 quarts. We will hold it at 4 quarts through Friday, and then Saturday morning (not before!) it will go to unlimited. After it goes unlimited we do not guarantee anything about the patch.

Thanks and happy picking!

Evangeline

Pea limit increased

2011-06-20T09:49:00.001-04:00

Hello all!

We are increasing the sugar snap pea seasonal limit to 7 quarts. This means that to date you may have picked a TOTAL of 7 quarts (not 7 quarts in addition whatever you already have picked). They are really good right now. The fat ones are the sweetest - pick the pod, pull of the string, and eat the whole thing. Repeat.

We are keeping the season limit of strawberries to 3 quarts. By this morning's estimate was that there are 530 pickable quarts in the patch. Each quart could be picked in a 6 foot bed. There are more berries coming, but it looks like the season will end quickly this year. So, if you haven't picked your 3 quarts yet you should do so soon. The first twenty feet of the patch always gets worked over quickly. The backs of the new patch and the older patch have a lot more fruit hanging. Enjoy! The berries are nice. It looks like we have a temperate forecast ahead and good picking conditions.

News from Flannery -Events Coordinator Extraordinaire:

We have some great events happening this week at the Farm. We hope to see lots of kids on Friday for the Seeds extravaganza and there is still plenty of room in the strawberry jam workshop. (Just think of all the memories and summery warmth a little jar of homemade jam will evoke in February!)

I also wanted to draw members attention to the events happening at Cornell Cooperative Extension Tompkins County this summer. What a great resource!

http://ccetompkins.org/

Events:

Strawberry Jam Workshop -Hosted by Krys Cail - Tuesday Evening, June 21st, 8:15 to 9:30, Distribution shed

Learn the basics of making jam. This workshop will include a demonstration, recipes and the opportunity to ask lots of questions.

If you plan to attend, please RSVP to Flannery at fhysjulien@mac.com

Kids Event: Seeds! - Hosted by Emily Ouckama and friends - Friday, June 24th, 3:30 to 5:30, at the Farm

Come learn where our food begins through crafts, books and games.

Farm Walk: - Hosted by Paul and Evangeline - Wednesday, June 29th, 6-7pm, at the Farm

Tour the farm, ask questions and see how it all happens.

Recipe Blog:

Seven new recipes come to you this week from Reilly Coch. Also check out Ashley Miller's post on Radish Sandwichs, Version 2.

http://sweetlandfarmrecipes.wordpress.com

This week's veggie forecast:

rutabagas, beets, celeriac, parsnips, head lettuce, salad mix, spinach, arugula, radishes, hakurei turnips, komatsuna, red and green mustard, kale, chard, collards, escarole, broccoli raab, garlic scapes

U-pick:

seasonal limit: peas 7 quarts

strawberries 3 quarts

unlimited: bachelor buttons

Okay! Thanks and see you at the farm,

Evangeline and Paul

Strawberries and Peas

2011-06-17T06:57:00.001-04:00

Hello Everyone,

We are opening up the strawberries for u-pick. Please read the following, copied and pasted from our member handbook:

"U-pick

U-pick crops are available throughout most of the season. Most of the u-pick crops are unlimited, meaning that you can pick as much of them and as frequently as you wish. Some u-pick crops are limited. We send out weekly emails stating which u-pick crops are available and what the limits are, if any. The crops are also listed on the u-pick board in the distribution shed, along with a map of the farm indicating where the crops are. In the field the crops are marked with signs. We do not provide containers for the u-pick crops – so if the strawberry limit is 2 quarts, please bring a container to measure with from home. U-pick crops may be picked any day, and any time during daylight hours. We do have to turn on the electric fences at dusk, so please respect our chores (and bedtime!) and finish picking before dusk.

Cumulative Season Limit (for berries)

The limited u-pick crops are quantified using the concept of a cumulative season limit. For example, the first time that strawberries are opened for u-pick we will post the season limit, lets say a quart. You may pick this quart any time you wish. Then, in a week, or in a couple of days, depending on how the crop looks, we will establish a new season limit, say 2 quarts. At this point you may pick a total of 2 quarts to-date for the season. And etc. By the end of the strawberry season the limit may be up to 8 quarts. This means that you could pick all 8 quarts at the end of the season; however, it is best to pick each time the limit increases because this helps us assess the crop more accurately, and also ensures that you get your limit.

We manage the u-pick crops for a little waste. This is necessary because we need to ensure that there is always enough for every member to pick. If we tried to account for every berry we would surely run out, and some members would have nothing to pick. The amount in the patch can change very quickly – it may look like there are bazillions of berries that are going to go unpicked – but by the next morning the patch is well picked. It is hard, as a member, to asses the patch using just the snapshot of time that you are picking and get an accurate assessment of what is going on. Take heart that we carefully assess the fruit patches daily."

Strawberry season limit: 3 quarts

There are TWO strawberry patches
These are organic strawberries
Consider picking tomorrow if your usual pick up day is Tuesday - the parking lots could get pretty full today.

Sugar Snap Pea season limit: 3 quarts

Pick only in the 6 beds closest to the bachelor buttons, the peas past this are not ready yet.

Thanks!

Evangeline

Second Week

2011-06-13T12:22:00.000-04:00

Hi Folks,

We have a bazillion things to tell you about in this email today (well, 4 things), so please, gather all of your reading fortitude. Here is the outline, skip to whatever interests you!

1. Veggie Forecast

2. Up coming events @ Sweet Land

3. Hemlock Grove ORGANIC apple CSA here @ Sweet Land - sign up now.

4. Pastured Poultry at the Good Life Farm.

1. VEGGIE FORECAST:

Potatoes, carrots, beets, celeriac, parsnips, arugula, radishes, spinach, head lettuce, salad mix, broccoli raab, turnip greens, kale, chard, collards

U-Pick: bachelor buttons (2 locations)

Opening Tuesday: sugar snap peas - season limit 1 quart. Read about the season limit in the member handbook. We do not supply containers. Pick the fat ones at the bottom of the plant. The fatter the better!! Don't pick the little ones at the top, they still need to fill out.

http://sweetlandfarmrecipes.wordpress.com has a FANTASTIC menu planning page tailored to CSA veggies.

2. UP COMING EVENTS AT SWEET LAND:

It was nice to have the opportunity to talk with many of you at last week's Tuesday and Friday distributions. What an incredible first week of food and flowers! I heard some great ideas for events and would love to hear more. If you have questions or would like to get involved, please contact me at fhysjulien@mac.com.

___________________________

Events:

Please mark your calendars for three upcoming events:

Strawberry Jam Workshop -Hosted by Krys Cail - Tuesday Evening, June 21st, 8:15 to 9:30, Distribution shed

Learn the basics of making jam. This workshop will include a demonstration, recipes and the opportunity to ask lots of questions!
If you plan to attend, please RSVP to Flannery at fhysjulien@mac.com

Kids Event: Seeds! - Hosted by Emily and Anthony Ouckama - Friday, June 24th, 3:30 to 5:30, at the Farm

Come learn where our food begins through crafts, books and games.

Farm Walk: - Hosted by Paul and Evangeline - Wednesday, June 29th, 6-7pm, at the Farm

Tour the farm, ask questions and see how it all happens

________________________________

Recipe Blog:

Seven new recipes come to you this week from Sarah Koski. Also check out Anna Root's post on parsnip sushi. Delicious!

http://sweetlandfarmrecipes.wordpress.com

3. ORGANIC APPLE CSA HERE AT SWEET LAND

Hemlock Grove Farm Organic Apple CSA

This fall apple growers Brian Caldwell, Melissa Smith and Amy Garbincus will be offering

their certified organic apples through a biweekly CSA share to be picked up at Sweet Land

Farm.

CSA members will receive 70 pounds of delicious certified organic apples and five half

gallons of our premium apple cider annually, spread over seven distributions. Every two

weeks, each CSA member will pick up a 10-pound bag (1 peck) of certified organic apples.

Each biweekly distribution will include at least two freshly picked varieties of apples, with

the variety selection changing as the season progresses. There will be six Friday share

pickups between September 2 and November 11th, and then a pre-Thanksgiving pickup

Friday, November 18th for a total of seven distributions.

Pick-up: Apple shares will be available for pick-up on Fridays from 1 to 8 p.m. at Sweet Land

Farm, which is located north of the village of Trumansburg on state route 96.

Some of the flavorful varieties we will be offering throughout the season:

Sept 2 Paulared, Redfree

Sept 16 Akane, Honeycrisp

Sept 30 Liberty, Empire, cider

Oct 14 Jonagold, Melrose, cider

Oct 28 Golden, Idared, cider

Nov 11 Melrose, Baldwin, cider

Nov 22 (Tuesday before Thanksgiving) Spies,

Idared (good baking apples!) cider

Pricing: $120 for 70 pounds of apples and 5

half gallons of freshly pressed apple cider.

Signing up: Please contact Amy Garbincus at la.vida.dulce34@gmail.com or call 607-339-

1853 to reserve your apple share!

Checks in the amount of $120 can be made out to Hemlock Grove Farm and mailed to Amy

Garbincus at 23 Nelson Rd., Ithaca, NY 14850. Please include your email address and phone

number.

Bushel Availability: For folks who like to make applesauce, or just plain eat a lot of apples,

we will also have apples available for sale by the bushel. Our premium select, perfect apples

are $60 per bushel and our utility grade apples, which have minor blemishes but are still

great eating quality, are $40 per bushel. These will be available upon request later in the

apple season. Last year our apples went fast, so early reservations are encouraged to

secure your order! Please inquire if you are interested.

Contact: Amy Garbincus @ la.vida.dulce34@gmail.com or 607-339-1853

4. PASTURED POULTRY AT THE GOOD LIFE FARM

We are pleased to announce that the Good Life Farm continues to explore pastured poultry as part of our intricate farm systems. This year we have three rounds of grass- and greens-loving birds for sale.

2011 Pastured Poultry at the Good Life:

Late June- mid July- 2 small batches of Rainbow/Freedom Ranger broiler chickens

Thanksgiving Turkeys are available for pre-order starting now

To Order: Call Melissa at (607) 351 3313 or email melissa@thegoodlifefarm.org.

· Chickens will be available fresh on June 26^th and July 17^th. They will be available frozen starting June 27^th until they run out! ($3.99/lb)

· Pre-order your Thanksgiving Turkey now! We ran out last year and had a long wait list. We will ask for deposit in late September. This year we will process at two different dates to ensure a range of sizes between 13 and 24 lb. ($3.99/lb)

Some info on pastured poultry at the Good Life Farm…

We raise poultry to complement our other plant and animal systems. Our poultry graze pasture full of grass, clover, alfalfa and various vegetable plots. Both chickens and turkeys are part of the clean-up system on our farm- egg layers follow our draft horses throughout their pasture rotation; the broilers are currently taking down last winter’s greens and cover crops in our high tunnel rotations; and the turkeys do double duty as weeders and insectivores in our asparagus beds/orchard come September. Our birds move every 2 days to fresh forage and feast on organic grain from local grain farms. We continue to explore breeds to best provide the ecosystem services of clean-up, insect eating, weeding and fertilizing that poultry do so well. We invite you to visit your birds at the farm, and will have another “meet your turkey day” in September.

Questions? Contact Melissa- (607) 351 3313 or melissa@thegoodlifefarm.org.

The first week of our 5th season!

2011-06-06T15:41:00.001-04:00

Hellllooooooo Happy Eaters!

Feeder here. Alright! Is everyone ready for the first week of the CSA? We are! Paul spent all yesterday mowing, mulching, and generally tidying up around the farm in preparation for tomorrow's distribution. In an hour or so Paul and I will walk around the farm and asses harvest. The employees are finishing up washing the 2 pallets of over wintered leeks that we picked in April. They held up great and taste fantastic. When the winter goop peels off of them and reveals a startlingly creamy white shank my mind goes to butter and white wine and Swiss cheese. So Good. The barrel washer will be running all day, washing all those over- wintered roots. They also held up great and are a welcome addition to greens.

Nuts and Bolts:

Vegetable Forecast (this is a forecast, and we all know how those can change):

potatoes, beets, carrots, turnips, rutabagas, celeriac, leeks, arugula, pac choi, spinach, komatsuna, radishes, broccoli raab, turnip greens, kale, basil, oregano, mint

u-pick:

bachelor buttons and lupine - unlimited

We have a mind blowingly awesome addition to our recipes page. Events coordinator Flannery has put together a page on the recipe page of the farm website (http://www.sweetlandfarm.org) that literally tells you what to pick up at the CSA distribution, what to buy at the farmers market, what to buy at the store, and then gives you a week of menus with links to the recipes. The page is fantastic - you should take a look before you come to distribution this week. I am inspired.

Here is what Flannery has to say:
"June is shaping up to be an exciting month for events at Sweet Land Farm! Updates to the recipe blog, a farm walk, a kids event about seeds, a strawberry jam making workshop. Stay turned for more details and come visit our events table at this week's Tuesday and Friday distributions. email: fhysjulien@mac.com to get involved!"

Lots of people have said that they would like some opportunities to help out on the farm, so here are a couple:

1. We are hosting a weeding party this Saturday from 9-noon. Dress for the weather, bring snacks and water, and bring a bag lunch if you want to stick around after we're done and we can all eat lunch in the shade and chat. Children welcome.

2. There is an open invitation to help us with harvest on distribution days. We start at 7 and harvest until around 10, and then wash until about 11:30. You can just show up and come an look for us, or give us a heads up via email the day before.

Distribution is Tuesday and Friday 1-8pm, with make-up days on Wednesday and Saturday 8-noon. We do not stock on the make-up days, but there is usually a decent selection. You can switch between distribution days and there is no need to let us know which day you are coming. Please read your member handbook - on the website and hard copies available at distribution - for all details and answers to many questions.

Harvest Dinner:

Tickets are now available for the first Harvest Dinner of the 2011 season on Sunday, June 19th hosted at Remembrance Farm with Chef-Owner Scott Signori of Stonecat Café and the Damiani family of Damiani Wine Cellars.

Come join us for a special Midsummer's Eve celebration starting at 5:00pm with a wine and hors d’oeuvres reception with live music from Evil City String Band and an optional farm tour.

At 6:00pm guests will dine on a delectable menu featuring food harvested from the adjacent fields and neighboring producers. Damiani wines will be perfectly paired with each bite while guests overlook the sun setting beyond the fields. Then we will light up the evening with a bonfire and decadent desserts.

In honor of Father's Day a box of handmade truffles will be given as a gift to all father's joining us for this special occasion!

Tickets start at $75 (all-inclusive) and can be purchased online at www.healthyfoodforall.org or by calling 607-342-8845. Seating is limited so don't delay!

This is the first in a series of six harvest dinners on the farm to benefit the Healthy Food For All program, a partnership of family-owned farms and Cornell Cooperative Extension Tompkins County to make fresh produce accessible to households with limited income.

For the full schedule of 2011 harvest dinners with menus and more, please visit www.healthyfoodforall.org or contact harvestdinners@gmail.com

CSA Starting, pleas respond!

2011-05-30T09:06:00.001-04:00

Hello CSA Folks!

Well it's that time, the summer CSA will start Tuesday June 7th, or Friday June 10th depending on your pick-up day. Please email me back and let me know that you have received this email announcing the start dates. If you don't I will call you. We still have plenty of CSA shares for sale.

Please read the member handbook for all general questions about pick up times, switching days, etc before the first pick up day. The member handbook can be found on the farm website (link below) under the tab "handbook" at the top of the page.

We can't wait to see all of you! Things are actually growing out there and looking good. Next Monday I'll send out a list of everything that we will be harvesting for the first week. Paul built a sandbox this weekend near the distribution barn. We anticipate it getting plenty of kid use. We also bought a........ port-o-potty for the farm! Hurray!

One of your fellow CSA members, Flannery, has been planning a bunch of Sweet Land events. She and a couple of other members will be have a table set up for the first couple of distributions to talk about getting more involved with events at Sweet Land. Stop by if your are interested!

Wide Awake Bakery has plenty of shares left - they distribute their bread share here at the farm. Follow the link to sign up-

http://wideawakebakery.com/. This bread is amazing and it made from grain grown in Ithaca , then ground right here in Trumansburg. Talk about local.

High Point Farms, right up the road from us, has delicious pasture-raised meat CSA shares for sale as well. http://www.highpointfarms.net/. What a great place to be a locavore!

Ok, I'll email next week with the veggie forecast,

See you soon,

Evangeline

CSA Start Dates Set

2011-05-19T12:35:00.001-04:00

Helllllooooo out there!

This is Evangeline, calling in from the farm. Paul and I have officially set the summer CSA start dates. The CSA will start on Tuesday, June 7th, or Friday June 10th, depending on the day you choose to pick up. The past four years we have started the first week of June, but with the wet weather this spring we need to hold off until the second week. The CSA will run for one week later in the fall - the week of November 15th instead of the week of November 8th.

We still have plenty of shares left in the CSA.

Thanks, and see you around,

Evangeline

CSA start date info

2011-04-25T08:20:00.000-04:00

Hello all,

We have had a bunch of people asking when the summer CSA starts. We usually wait and announce the date once the crops are ready. Every year this has been right around the beginning of June. We will send out an announcement with the official start date once we set it. In the mean time, happy spring!

Evangeline
PS - we still have plenty of CSA shares available.

Wetness at the Farm

2011-04-21T08:54:00.001-04:00

Hello all,

Here we are, WET. What does wet mean to a farm? Mainly it means that we can't drive the tractors in the fields. Driving tractors in wet fields creates compaction, and if you add field work to that driving, you can damage the tilth of the soil. Soil likes to by crumbly and aggregated, when a tractor drives over it wet, and then passes an implement through it, the soil smears into hard chunks and shiny flat surfaces. Hard chunks and shiny flat surfaces hardly germinate seeds well. So, we must be patient and not go too crazy with plow fever because we would pay for the negative effects of working the soil wet for the whole season, and probably beyond.

Usually by this time in April we have seeded 2 generations of peas, and the first big wave of radishes, arugula, broccoli raab, salad mix,boc choi, hakurei turnips, and spinach. We've gotten the spinach in, and 1 generation of peas (whew!), but nothing else. On Saturday morning Paul popped out of bed around 6am and dashed out of the house muttering about getting beds made before it rained. I fed the kids and got the fire going, and then joined him in the field. He had managed to rough in about 30 beds and I jumped on the tractor to finesse them while Paul started seeding the ones that I finished. All in all we managed to get 3 beds of spinach, and 2 beds of parsnips in before the rain made the seeders too muddy to work. We were happy to get what we got done. But, we are still pretty well behind where we usually are this time of year. So, we'll see what happens. It's bound to stop raining sometime, and those early crops grow fast once they're in the ground and there is a littlesun.

On a positive note, the cooler is full of lots of wintered-over crops that we'll give out in the first couple of weeks of the CSA. (In addition to freshly grown produce, never fear!) The tunnel prep is also going great - usually we're struggling to get the tunnels all worked up for early tomatoes, peppers, basil, and cucumbers because the dry fields are drawing us away. Not so this year. Those tunnels are ready. Another job that often gets shunted into the farming cracks is "spotting up" flowers and vegetables in the greenhouse. Spotting up is a fairly time consuming, nit picky job that is hard to prioritize when the fields are dry. This year our spotting up is completely up to date and lovely to behold. The equipment has also gotten lots of extra attention this spring.

So, the long and short of this is that because we are all caught up on the jobs that can be done when the soil is wet, we are primed to pump out all the field work once the fields dry out. As of right now we don't think that the crops will mature much later, we'll just have to do about 3 weeks of field work in one week. That's ok. After all of this rain we'll be happy to do it.

On another wonderful note, Flannery Hysjulien, a fellow CSA member has been working on putting some events together at the farm. Here is what she has to say: " We are in the process of planning some exciting events on the farm this summer. If you are interested in helping with workshops for children, presentations on cooking/food preservation, or weekly meal plans, please contact Flannery Hysjulien, fhysjulien@me.com or (607) 379-3745." I can attest that she is a very good person to work with, and if you have any interest in helping with the items that she has outlined above, don't hesitate to contact her. Paul and I would absolutely love to see some member- driven events here at the farm this year.

Ok, thanks all and see you pretty soon!

Evangeline and Paul

Spinach! Kale! Leeks!

2011-04-08T08:19:00.001-04:00

Hello all!

Does this weather have everyone in a spring craze? The farm is starting to vibrate - we can feel that growth energy building, get ready for some green times. Come on out to the farm tomorrow - 1-3pm. It looks like the weather will be wonderful. We have spinach, kale, and bodacious gorgeous leeks, plus carrots, onions, beets, celeriac, parsnips, eggs, maple syrup, AND The Piggery will be here, signing up shares and there are rumors of treats.

This is open to the public - bring a friend!
All right, we hope to see you tomorrow,

Evangeline

ANOTHER Food Sale!!

2011-04-01T15:00:00.001-04:00

Howdy Folks,

Yes, we're still in the food business. We've got plenty of delicious roots, onions, and eggs, and probably some spinach from the greenhouses. Come on out Saturday the 9th from 1-3 pm. You can also buy a CSA share if you haven't done so yet (and get a fab new Sweet Land Farm bag!). The Piggery will be here signing up members for their CSA shares and will possibly have some goodies, too. We may also have maple syrup from our neighbors (a hit at the last sale). Eat those carrots! This sale is open to the public - bring a friend.

The farm's starting to hum. Onions are up in the greenhouse - bushy and encouraging. The lettuce, pac choi, escarole, endive, cabbage, parsley, celeriac, peppers, tomatoes, chard, and kale have all also poked their first little leaves up above the soil surface. Honestly, the spring is on its way. We wouldn't have planted all those seeds if it wasn't.

See you at the farm,

Evangeline

Great Food Sale @ SLF!

2011-03-18T07:48:00.001-04:00

Hello all,

We have plenty of food in our cooler still! And we heard a bunch of people saying that they wish that that they could keep eating Sweet Land Food, so, Saturday March 26th, come on out to the farm from 1-3 pm and buy some food. Everything except the garlic will be $1/pound. The garlic is $.75/bulb. There will be onions, carrots, parsnips, beets, celeriac, daikon, and radishes. We will also have eggs for sale. Wide Awake Bakery will be there signing up bread shares, and possibly selling bread (our fingers are crossed!!) Our neighbors are generating gallons of maple syrup as we speak and they may be there also.

If you missed the Great Greens Give-Away you can come out and get your bag of produce and sign up for the CSA. There may or may not be greens.

We hope to see you here!

Evangeline

Piggery and Wide Awake Bakery at Sweet Land!!

2011-03-08T07:53:00.001-05:00

Hello All,

This just in - the Piggery (http://www.thepiggery.net/) and Wide Awake Bakery (http://wideawakebakery.com/mc/) will be signing up members for their CSAs at the Greens Give-Away! Both the Piggery and Wide Awake Bakery will be distributing here at Sweet Land this season. HURRAY! Vegetables, bread, and charcuterie all in one spot. Come on out this Sunday and get your share of a bunch of harvests!

Join us for our 3rd Annual "Great Greens and Roots Give-away" and Summer CSA sign up on Sunday, March 13th from 1-3pm

Thanks,

Evangeline

3rd Annual Great Greens and Roots Give-Away!

2011-03-05T07:05:00.001-05:00

Hello All, Farm Speaking,

Join us for our 3rd Annual "Great Greens and Roots Give-away" and Summer CSA sign up on Sunday, March 13th from 1-3pm. We'll have the greenhouses open to all of you to frolic around in and pick delicious greens, newly rejuvenated by the returning sun. Put a down payment down on a summer share and then go pick a bag of greens into your brand new Sweet Land Farm reusable chico bag! Or fill it with roots and onions, or a combination of all if you wish. We'll also have eggs and bulk vegetables for sale. This event is open to anyone who wants a share, or just wants to get to see the farm in the spring, bring a friend! This is a one-time event and will happen rain or shine.

Come see a muddy spring farm! Sign up for a share! Eat some awesome farm food! Get your very own Sweet Land Farm Chico Bag!!

We are looking for about 2-3 people to come and help us with this event - let us know if you are interested. Thanks!

We are also now on facebook! I recently put up a farm Facebook page and plan on updating it regularly. Go there today - I put up a bunch of photos from the farm - including some very early ones that show what it looked like here when we first bought the farm.http://www.facebook.com/pages/Trumansburg-NY/Sweet-Land-Farm-CSA/131453550228988 is the link, or you can just search Sweet Land Farm CSA.

Okay, See you soon,

Evangeline

Last Winter CSA Distribution this Wednesday

2011-02-28T07:51:00.000-05:00

Hello all,

There is one more winter CSA distribution for those of you who missed one of the other pick-ups, and for those of you who paid for 7 distributions. It is not too late to sign up for this distribution if you have made all of the other days and just want one more go at it. Let me know soon! Distribution is Wednesday, March 2nd from 2-6pm. Boxed shares from 9am-5pm, Thursday-Saturday in the cooler in the distribution shed. And for all of you.....

You made it! One more winter of eating locally and all that that entails. Good Job! Some of your I'm sure are ecstatic to get to go back to Wegmans, and some or you are sad that it had to end just when it was getting really good. Maybe you feel a mix of both. Such is life. We're in the mixed feelings crowd. We're happy to get a little break in prepping for distributions, but sad to not see all of you around for awhile. If you want to keep up with the goings on around the farm I recently put up a farm Facebook page, and plan on updating it regularly. Go there today - I put up a bunch of photos from the farm - including some very early ones that show what it looked like here when we first bought the farm. http://www.facebook.com/pages/Trumansburg-NY/Sweet-Land-Farm-CSA/131453550228988 is the link, or you can just search Sweet Land Farm CSA.

At the end of last year's winter CSA we asked members to comment on which winter green they preferred - spinach or komatsuna. Spinach was the overwhelming winner - about 75% of you preferred it. So, this past fall we planted the winter greenhouses to 75% spinach and 25% komatsuna. The komatsuna grew so much better than the spinach this winter that next year we are going to weigh in heavy on the spinach in the early part of the winter CSA and provide komatsuna in the later part of the winter. This seems like the best way to balance the CSA tastes with the way that these greens grow. The spinach holds fine in the cold, but the komatsuna not only holds, it GROWS in the winter. It's hard to knock a green like that. By following this plan we hope to provide overall more greens to the winter CSA in the future.

As we part winter CSA ways, we would love to hear any feedback you have about this winter's CSA. Specifically it helps us if you not only tell us what you didn't like, but how you would like us to do things differently if you didn't like something. We are particularly interested in hearing from you if you are not going to join the winter CSA again. We are also interested in your thoughts on the "One Bag Side" - this was quite different than the way we distributed in years past. Love letters welcome.

Join us for our 3rd Annual "Great Greens and Roots Give-away" and Summer CSA sign up on Sunday, March 13th from 1-3pm. We'll have the greenhouses open to all of you to frolic around in and pick delicious greens, newly rejuvenated by the returning sun. Put a down payment on a summer share and then go pick a bag of greens into your brand new Sweet Land Farm reusable chico bag! Or fill it with roots and onions, or a combination of all if you wish. We'll also have eggs for sale. This event is open to anyone who wants a share, or just want to get to see the farm in the spring, bring a friend!

Come see a muddy spring farm! Sign up for a share! Eat some awesome farm food! Get your very own Sweet Land Farm Chico Bag!! Visit us on Facebook!

Alright all, see you around, and THANKS for a great winter!!

Evangeline and Paul

Distribution this Wednesday

2011-02-15T07:31:00.000-05:00

Hello
Greetings from the farm! It's that time again, come on out to the farm
this Wednesday from 2-6pm and get some more food.

Please remember, the regular winter csa price of $275 covers 6
distributions, and this Wednesday is the 6th distribution. There is
one more distribution on march 2nd. That one will be the 7th
distribution. So, if you paid $275 you paid for 6 distributions.
Please make sure that you only come to as many distributions as you
paid for. If you would like to pay for all 7 distributions you are
certainly welcome to do so. Please let us know as soon as possible if
you would like to come to the 7th distribution. If you have only come
to 4 distributions so far you should come to the next 2 distributions.

We will have our payment records in the shed at distribution on
Wednesday, so, if you would like to know your balance we can look it
up for you.

Payment for the winter csa is due in full by the 7th distribution,
march 3rd. Thanks!

We are now accepting summer csa memberships. In an effort to make
sure that returning members get a share, and as a thank you for
continuous support we are hosting an exclusive sign up until march
2nd. $50 ensures a share, but we really appreciate payment in full,
or some derivative there of.

Veggies:
Onions, potatoes, carrots, beets, garlic, cabbage, winter squash,
greenhouse greens, hakurei turnips, gold ball turnips, watermelon
radishes, daikon radishes, Spanish radishes, rutabagas, celeriac, and
parsnips.

Summer 2011 CSA shares on sale for Returning Members

2011-02-02T12:30:00.000-05:00

Hello one and all,

CSA shares for 2011 (the farm's fifth season) are now available! Oh boy! Really, this snow will turn to mud and daffodils and spring fever will madden us in a couple of months. We are hosting an exclusive sign-up for all returning members until March 2nd. After March 2nd we will open CSA shares up to the general public. We anticipate selling all of the shares this year and want to make sure that you get first dibs at the 2011 share. Sweet Land is a CSA ONLY FARM - this means that EVERYTHING that we grow is for you, our CSA members. And, logically, our entire farm budget and income also comes from CSA members. You guys are the reason that this farm exists - no pressure. So, we really value your membership and hope that you value the farm and your share. The 2011 summer CSA costs $510 and will run for 24 weeks. A minimum down payment of $50 dollars will secure your share, but we very very much appreciate early payment up to the full amount of $510. We have already purchased about half of our seeds ($6000 of $11,000) and about half of our supplies ($12,000 of $24,000) for the season - no small price tag. Early payments help us keep from getting too deep in debt this time of year. The share can also be paid in 4 installment of $127.50. You can mail in your membership, or bring it to a winter distribution - see website for distribution dates. THANKS for you support!!

Shares this year will work pretty much the same as last year - except... this year you'll receive your very own Sweet Land Farm reusable "Chico" bag. This bag is just the right size for the "One Bag Side". So, the "One Bag Side" will be easily served with your new Sweet Land Farm bag and the other side will remain free choice. We have plans to put up a nice size sandbox for the kiddies and build a few benches. Remember flowers, green growth everywhere and juicy summer food? I've posted a couple of pictures of the farm from last summer on the farm blog (http://www.sweetlandfarm.org/) with the aim of reminding everyone and creating a little farm drool. We can't wait to start growing again. We are in good shape fieldwise this year. Our designated 'spring fields' are either chiseled plowed or have a cover crop ready to warm up and dry out when the sun gets higher in the sky. And many of last years production fields (veggie fields) are sown to a thick cover of rye and vetch, all primed for tremendously fast spring grown of a delicious cover crop. Its coming soon.

Sometime in mid-March we will host the 3rd Annual Great Greens Give-away. If you sign up for a summer share before the event you can pick a BAG of amazing greens from our greenhouses. So, what we are saying is, sign-up now and get a chico SLF bag and fill it full of delicious greens in March. (Doesn't it seem like we really would like you to sign up soon?) You can also sign up for the summer share the day of the Great Greens Give-Away.

OK, Thanks to all of you and we hope to see you around,

Evangeline and Paul

PS - the farm website DOES NOT reflect the 2011 information because we are opening up shares exclusively to returning members until March 2nd.

Feb. 2nd Winter CSA Distribution is a Go

2011-02-01T12:45:00.000-05:00

Hello snowy friends and neighbors,

We are going to host tomorrow's CSA distribution no matter what the weather. The forecast looks like heavy snow Wednesday morning and tapering off after 12 noon. I don't think the groundhog is going to see his shadow!! Paul is doing an obsessively good job of plowing the driveway and parking lots, so, if you can make it to the farm road, we've got you covered. The road base is not icy. At this moment you can see the gravel through the snow on the drive and parking lot. If you can't make it let us know ASAP and we'll box a share for you. Boxed shares can be picked up from 9am-5pm Thursday-Saturday in the distribution shed in the big cooler. Just slide the door open and take a box, then slide the cooler door shut carefully. Boxed shares are an extra $6. You can put the money in the purple pitcher on the desk or include it in your payment.

We will have a bin of eggs just inside the cooler door for you to purchase - buy as many as you want, we have lots.

Stay safe,

Evangeline

2011-01-31T12:04:00.001-05:00

Kids and Flowers

2011-01-31T11:41:00.001-05:00

Zinnia field, and us farmers hanging out with the fall broccoli

2011-01-31T11:25:00.001-05:00

Yup, beets and carrots.

2011-01-31T08:30:00.001-05:00

Winter CSA distribution this Wednesday the 2nd

2011-01-31T08:29:00.000-05:00

Hello all,

Yes! It's that time again, CSA distribution is this week. Come on out this Wednesday 2-6pm for some winter food. We'll have - carrots, potatoes, beets, kohlrabi, rutabagas, daikon, radishes, turnips, celeriac, parsnips, garlic, onions, winter squash, spinach, komatsuna, kale, Napa cabbage, and red and green cabbage. I hit on a new one for us the other day - tuna salad made with finely chopped daikon and hakurei turnips. What a nice sneaky way to get my kids to eat big ole pile of diakon! They loved it. They (my kids) have also been eating sliced raw carrots and kohlrabi by the plate full, aided down with plenty of peanut butter. I try to have a plate of carrots and kohlrabi generally available - if its around they tend to eat it. Last night we you-tubed sausage and gravy and then made Autumn's Harvest breakfast sausage and gravy over biscuits with a side of buttery "steam-fried" kale, and, you guessed it, raw carrots. Mmmm mmmmm. Pretty good after an afternoon of sledding in that delicious sunshine.

There is a chance of some snow on Wednesday, so, if you would like us to box a share for you that you can pick up Thursday- Saturday 9-5, please let us know by Tuesday morning. Wednesday distribution will proceed as scheduled even if it is snowing.

There are 2 more distributions after this Wednesday - 2/16 and 3/2. Please remember, a normal winter share pays for 6 distributions, and we distribute 7 times, so there is a 1 "missed" distribution built right in. You may, of course, pay for all 7 distributions and come to all 7 distributions if you wish.

Next Winter CSA Distribution date is January 19th

2011-01-11T08:11:00.001-05:00

Hello all,

Just a reminder to everyone - there is no winter CSA distribution this week. The next winter CSA distribution will be Wednesday, January 19th. A full list of the winter distribution dates is on the farm website under the following link: - winter csa info.

Thanks all and see you soon,

Evangeline

Third Winter CSA Distribution

2010-12-27T13:37:00.002-05:00

Hello all,

Well no doubt it's winter. I hope the holidays are going along smoothly for everyone. The next CSA distribution is this Wednesday the 29th from 2-6 pm. If you'd like your share boxed please let us know (unless we already know). We will have our own eggs and stew hens for sale. Free free to buy as many eggs as you can use - we have plenty. Eggs store for weeks in the fridge with no problem.

High Point Farms will not be vending at our Pick up this week. There farm store WILL be OPEN 2-6pm for those of you looking for something fabulous for your New Years celebration. High Point is 1 mile North of our farm right on Rt. 96. They will be back January 19th for your convenience.

Here is the list:

potatoes, onions, beets, carrots, turnips, parsnips, radishes, celeriac, garlic, kale, spinach, winter squash, rutabagas, hakurei, diakon, napa cabbage, and savoy cabbage. We weren't able to dig leeks this week because of the COLD!!

Okay, See you soon,

Evangeline

The 2010 -2011 Winter CSA is Beginning!

2010-11-29T08:26:00.003-05:00

Hello all,

Greetings and here we go! Yes, the winter CSA is starting this Wednesday, December 1st. We still have PLENTY of winter shares available – tell your friends, family, and, depending on you persuasion, your enemies. We think that the winter share is going to extra great this year with all of the new flexibility that we’ve worked into it. If you liked the One Bag Side this year at the farm you’ll probably like the winter CSA. It will be set up much the same way. I am going to start with the nuts and bolts of the winter CSA so they don't get lost in the shuffle. Please read them....

NUTS AND BOLTS

* Distribution is at the farm.

* Distributions are every other Wednesday, and supply 2 weeks worth of food.

* Main distribution days are: 12/1, 12/15, 12/29, 1/19, 2/2, 2/16 & 3/2

* Distribution is from 2-6 pm on the main distribution days.

* If you have purchased a pre-boxed share you may pick up you share from 9-5, Thurs, Fri, & Sat following the main day.

* There are 7 distributions and a share pays for 6, so choose the 6 dates that work best for you. No need to tell us which distribution you are going to miss. We hope this accommodates your winter travel plans and a snow date. You may certainly come to all 7 distributions, it just costs more.

FUN STUFF:

*We will always have eggs available for purchase at distribution. You can buy as many as you could possibly use – we have lots. Eggs store easily for 2 weeks, so buy a 2 week supply. The chickens are happy in their light filled greenhouse out on one of the oat and pea pastures. We leave the door of the chicken greenhouse open all the time, so they go in and out all winter. The greenhouse is cozy with lots of loose hay covering the floor and mounded up the sidewalls. We need egg cartons – bring them on over, we’ll take all you’ve got.

*We will have soup chickens for sale at this Wednesday’s distribution. They are $8/bird. Use these only in soup bird recipes. They are not tender roasters, but they do make fantastic soup, coq-au-vin, and chicken fricassee. These birds were layer chickens from last year.

* In addition to the winter squash in the CSA share, we will also have winter squash for sale at a $1/pound.

High Point Farms will be at the main distribution days with a variety of grass-fed meat for sale.

VEGGIES:

For the first distribution we will have the shed divided into 2 One-Bag-Sides. So, you will be able to fill 2 grocery bags - one from either side of the shed. To standardize the bag size we will supply the grocery bags. There will also be several itemized things.

Here’s the list: potatoes, carrots, onions, leeks, winter squash, celery, head lettuce, radicchio, endive, Chinese cabbage, cabbage, turnips, rutabagas, celeriac, beets, diakon, kale, spinach, collards, parsnips, kohlrabi, parsley, garlic

Member Recipes:

Baked Butternut Squash–and–Cheese Polenta

Recipe by Anna Thomas

Rate & Review

Anna Thomas's 1970s book, The Vegetarian Epicure, is iconic; updated in the '90s and rechristened The New Vegetarian Epicure, it focuses on recipes for entertaining. One of her latest dishes is this crusty baked polenta, swirled with mashedbutternut squash and smoked Gouda cheese.

See our wine pairings below

Buzz up!

Baked Butternut Squash–and–Cheese Polenta

ACTIVE: 45 MIN
TOTAL TIME: 2 HRS 15 MIN PLUS 3 HR CHILLING
SERVINGS: 8

MAKE-AHEAD
VEGETARIAN

INGREDIENTS

One 2-pound butternut squash—peeled, seeded and sliced 1 inch thick
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for the pan
1/3 cup pine nuts
1 large onion, finely chopped
1/2 teaspoon dried sage, crumbled
Salt and freshly ground pepper
6 cups water
2 cups coarse polenta
Unsalted butter
4 ounces smoked Gouda, shredded (1 cup)
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese

DIRECTIONS

Preheat the oven to 375°. Arrange the squash on a large oiled baking sheet and roast for 30 minutes, until tender. Transfer the squash to a bowl and mash coarsely. (You should have about 1 1/2 cups.) Spread the pine nuts on a pie plate and toast in the oven for 4 minutes, until golden. Coarsely chop the nuts.
Meanwhile, in a skillet, heat the 2 tablespoons of olive oil. Add the onion and sage and season with salt and pepper. Cover and cook over moderate heat, stirring, until golden, 25 minutes; add a few tablespoons of water if the onion looks dry.
In a saucepan, bring the 6 cups of water to a boil. Whisk in the polenta and 1 teaspoon of salt. Cook over very low heat, stirring frequently, until tender, about 35 minutes. Stir in 1 tablespoon of butter along with the mashed squash, pine nuts, onion, Gouda and half of the grated Parmigiano cheese. Pour the hot polenta into a buttered large cast-iron skillet. Flatten the top of the polenta slightly without spreading it to the edges; refrigerate until firm, about 3 hours.
Rub the surface of the polenta with softened butter and sprinkle with the remaining grated Parmigiano cheese. Bake in a 375° oven for 1 hour, until the top and side are lightly browned and crisp. Let stand for 20 minutes before cutting it into wedges.

SERVE WITH

Sautéed mushrooms, braised greens or tomato sauce.

--
Evangeline Sarat and Paul Martin
Sweet Land Farm CSA
www.sweetlandfarm.org
607.387.3702
"Growing good food for a better home on earth."

OK, See you at the farm!

Evangeline

Farm in November

2010-11-08T11:09:00.002-05:00

Hi All,
Greetings from a farm that is surely in the month of November. Busy busy squirrels this month, gathering and storing all of those winter CSA crops - carrots, beets, cabbage, kohlrabi, celeriac, parsnips, radishes, turnips, rutabagas. Onions, potatoes, garlic, and winter squash are already stored away for those cold snowy months. We'll leave the leeks, endive, radicchio, and celery out in the field until the last minute - they can take the cold with a little protection from row cover- and the cooler is stuffed too full to accommodate anything else until the summer CSA storage needs are over. Once the summer CSA is over we make a mad harvest rush to pull in everything that we've left out in the field. It only gets colder and every vegetable has a degree of frost that kills it. Most of the hardiest vegetables will die with a 20 degree frost. Exceptions are curly green kale, leeks, and spinach. They can take it down to around 5 degrees. Not too shoddy.
The summer CSA Tuesday distribution will go until November 23rd. The Friday distribution will go until November 19th. The last Friday distribution will be a DOUBLE SHARE. That means that Friday members will get 2 bags from the bag side, and enough free choice items to last 2 weeks. We love ending the summer CSA with Thanksgiving. We feel truly grateful every Thanksgiving for the food that the farm has provided, and for all of the people that have supported the farm through another year. What better way to celebrate Thanksgiving than with farm food. It makes me feel so complete.
The winter CSA will begin on December 1st. (Not even a week break this year). We still have plenty of room and encourage everyone to join! See the farm website for all winter CSA details.
Veggies:
kale, collards (chard is frozen), endive, parsley, cilantro (see great recipe below), arugula, broccoli raab, pac choi, hakurei, scarlet turnips, broccoli is almost done, Chinese cabbage, winter squash, celeriac, beets, carrots, fennel, celery, head lettuce, spinach is done until the winter CSA.
u-pick: berries are pretty well done, as is chard, kale is superb, cilantro is still kicking, and dill is still around.

High Point Farms now has shares available in their Harvest MEAT CSA. CSA stands for community supported agriculture. By purchasing a share you are helping to support local sustainable farming as well as feed your family healthy local meats!
Shares include grass-fed beef, pasture raised pork and free range chicken. Shares can be picked up once a month in Ithaca, Rochester, Corning or at the Farm.
All Meats are raised without the use of added hormones or antibiotics.
For more information and to reserve your SHARE got to www.highpointfarms.net.
Distribution starts in December, reserve your share today!

MEMBER RECIPES:
We can all use more recipes that are flexible and use up lots of odds and ends. Okonamiyaki is particularly tasty and uses up LOTS of stuff. It is a Japanese savory pancake filled with vegetables and/or meat and topped with mayo and a special sauce.

For about 6 pancakes, shred up about 4 cups of vegetables, as much or as little variety as is in your fridge: cabbage, onion, green onion, kale, turnips, celeriac, carrot, golden beets, chard, herbs, broccoli, etc. Add a teaspoon of salt and use your clean hands to squeeze the veggies and reduce their volume. Now make about 2-3 cups of pancake batter, leaving out the sugar and adding salt or soy sauce to taste. Mix the batter into the veggies. (If you like more batter, add another egg and some water.) Fry. Toppings include mayo and a special tangy sauce. (There is an organic/vegan Wizard worchestershire sauce that makes a good substitute for the Japanese sauce.) You can also top with bonito flakes or cheese. Here is a link to get you started. (We make ours with less batter than in these photos):

http://www.japan-guide.com/r/e100.html

Here is the recipe for the cilantro-heavy Chermoula Sauce I was raving about at the farm yesterday. It is excellent on a baked dumpling squash.

Chermoula
This recipe is from Martha Rose Shulman's series Recipes for Health in The New York Times.
Chermoula is a pungent Moroccan herb sauce traditionally served as both a marinade and sauce with fish. I think it's great with all sorts of other dishes, such as roasted cauliflower, roasted winter squash or chicken. Sometimes I stir a little into a couscous, too.
Yield: Makes 1 cup, approximately.
2 cups cilantro leaves (2 large bunches)
1 1/2 cups parsley leaves (1 large bunch)
3 to 4 garlic cloves (to taste), halved, green shoots removed
1/2 to 3/4 teaspoon salt (to taste)
2 teaspoons cumin seeds, lightly toasted and ground
1 teaspoon sweet paprika
1/2 teaspoon coriander seeds, lightly toasted and ground
1/8 teaspoon cayenne (more to taste)
1/3 to 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil, to taste
1/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
1. Coarsely chop the cilantro and parsley. A scissors is a good tool for this; point it tip down in the measuring cup and cut the leaves. Then place them in a food processor and chop very fine, or chop on a cutting board. You should have 1 cup finely chopped herbs.
2. Place the garlic and salt in a mortar and puree. Add a small handful of the chopped herbs, and gently but firmly grind until the herbs begin to dissolve. Add another handful. When all of the herbs have been mashed, work in the spices, 1/3 cup olive oil and lemon juice. Taste and adjust seasoning. Add more olive oil or salt if desired. Serve with grilled fish and/or vegetables, or with chicken.
Advance preparation: This is best when fresh, but you can pour a film of olive oil over the top and keep it for a few days in a jar in the refrigerator.
Rhiannon Crain

Here's a link to our Kale "chips" on our lunch website for you to check out.

http://www.lunchtaker.com/lunch_item_view.php?id=644

the ravishing rutabaga - or - it's not a turnip, people: four recipes for using a misunderstood root vegetable

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 28, 2010 | BY KIM @ AFFAIRS OF LIVING | 6 COMMENTS

Beautiful rutabaga, ready for eating. Image from "The Kitchn"

A couple weekends ago, I did a cooking demo at the Minneapolis Farmers Market called "The Ravishing Rutabaga - or - It's Not a Turnip, People". The goal was to share recipes that celebrate a vegetable that I love deeply, but I feel is often misunderstood and underused! It was a gorgeous day for the demo, becoming warm and sunny as the morning went on, and it was very well attended by fellow bloggers, cooks, friends, and passing shoppers interested in learning more about our earthbound vegetal friend.

I wish I could give cooking demos everyday. I shared three recipes with the crowd - a crunchy raw rutabaga salad, mashed rutabaga and sweet potato, and a rutabaga cake. It was awesome! So, I wanted to share the recipes with you too, plus another bonus recipe that I love. I only have photos of the rutabaga salad, so use your imagination!

The rutabaga is a delicious, nutritious, and versatile vegetable that is perfect for fall and winter cuisine. Wonderful raw or cooked, it is high in vitamins, is a good source of complex carbohydrates, and contains naturally anti-microbial and anti-oxidant properties. Don’t know what to do with it? No worries! Here's a bunch of information, flavor combinations and four easy recipes featuring rutabaga that will surely make you a fan.

As a side note, I might be a bit absent the next few weeks. I'm having a flare-up of Lyme symptoms, my internet access at home is gone, and I'm moving to a new place in a few weeks. I'm busy and not feeling well. So, I'll be posting round up and kick-offs for the next SOS Kitchen Challenge, but might not be post much else the next few weeks until I get settled in in my new place and am hopefully feeling a little more sprightly.

In the meantime, just so you don't miss me too much (har, har), how about buying a copy of A Year to Eat Freely: 2011 Allergy-Friendly Recipe Calendar, the recipe collection I have for sale, and trying out some of those new recipes? ;)

Okay, on to the rutabaga...

HISTORY AND CHARACTERISTICS

Rutabaga, also called Swedish turnips or Swedes, are a members of genus Brassica, like turnips, cabbage, cauliflower, kale, collards, broccoli, and other crucifers. The rutabaga, believed to be a hybrid of the turnip and some form of cabbage, has a much more recent origin than the turnip. Some authorities say rutabagas are native to Russia and Siberia, others that the new species was first found in Europe some time in the late Middle Ages and probably originated in Scandinavia. It is said there was no record of the rutabaga until 1620 when the Swiss botanist, Casper Bauhin, described it. The word "rutabaga" comes from the Swedish "rotabagge." The rutabaga became a popular vegetable throughout Europe among peasantry and royalty alike. In fact, they were grown in the English royal gardens in 1664. Eventually, the rutabaga found its way to the New World, where it was known as "turnip-rooted cabbage."

The rutabaga is often confused with the turnip, but there are many differences. Rutabaga have a sweeter flavor, grow to be larger in size, and often have a more elongated shape than turnips. The leaf has no hair and is fleshier than the turnip. Also, the rutabaga has a longer ripening period. The rutabaga has dense flesh that is starchier than the turnip, and is most often a golden yellow color. Like turnips, rutabaga grows best in colder climates and is principally cultivated in the northern latitudes.

When selecting rutabaga, choose ones that are firm, weighty, and fairly smooth, with few leaf scars around the crown and with very few fibrous roots at the base. Soft or shriveled rutabagas are undesirable, because they will be tough when cooked. Because rutabagas store so well, up to one month in the refrigerator and up to four months in commercial cold storage, they are available year round. Planted in May and June, they're harvested in late summer and early fall when their flavor is at its peak. Ideally, it's best to shop for fresh rutabagas at farmer's markets in early autumn. In Minnesota, rutabaga is in season in September, October, and November, as well as early spring if wintered over.

The rutabaga has a strange assortment of activities and traditions as well. Rutabagas are commonly carved into decorative lanterns called jack-o'-lanterns for the Halloween season throughout Britain and Ireland. The International Rutabaga Curling Championship takes place annually at the Ithaca, New York Farmers' Market on the last day of the market season. Rutabaga Festivals are held annually in Askov, Minnesota, Cumberland Wisconsin, and Keene, New York.

Image from "How Stuff Works"

NUTRITIONAL PROFILE

Rutabagas are high in fiber, complex carbohydrates, vitamin C, potassium, and manganese. In fact, 1 cup of cubed rutabaga contains 4 grams of fiber and over 50% of the daily recommended intake of vitamin C. They also contain smaller amounts of many fatty acids, vitamins, and minerals. Like all Brassicas, they containdithiolthiones and sulfur, which have antioxidant, antibiotic and antiviral characteristics. Because of this, rutabaga help boosts the immune system, may help prevent cancer, spina bifida, and heart disease, and arean excellent choice if dealing with recurring viral or bacterial infections. Rutabagas are sometimes recommended for cases of constipation. However, because of their mustard oil content, they may cause gas, especially if eaten raw.

CULINARY PREPARATIONS

Rutabagas can be eaten raw or cooked, and can be prepared in a multitude of ways. They should always be peeled before consuming. The greens can also be eaten. Prepare them like turnip greens or other dark leafy greens like kale or collards. Most rutabaga that are sold in conventional grocery stores are waxed to increase the shelf-life; find unwaxed varieties at farmers markets, natural grocers, co-ops, and from the garden. I prefer unwaxed.

Throughout Scandinavia, rutabaga are used in a variety of ways. They are often roasted to be served with meat dishes, in soups, in traditional Christmas casseroles, uncooked and thinly julienned as a side dish or in a salad, baked, or boiled. It is common to boil them with potatoes or carrots, mash them, and serve them with cream and butter throughout Northern Europe and the UK, sometimes with onion added. In Scotland, rutabaga are traditionally served with the national dish of haggis as the main course of a Burns supper. In Canada rutabagas are used as filler in foods such as mincemeat and Christmas cake, or as a side dish with Sunday dinner in Atlantic Canada. In the US rutabagas are mostly eaten in stews or casseroles, served mashed with carrots, or baked in a pasty or vegetable pie.

COMPLIMENTARY FLAVOR COMBINATIONS

The sweet flavor of rutabaga combines well with a variety of seasonings, meats, fruits, and vegetables. Here are some of the best flavor combinations to use with rutabaga, much of which was adapted from my favorite kitchen reference book The Flavor Bible:

Rutabaga + apple + maple syrup
Rutabaga + any root vegetables (potato, carrot, sweet potato, turnip, parsnip) + onion
Rutabaga + winter squash + cinnamon
Rutabaga + parsnip + honey
Rutabaga + broccoli + garlic
Rutabaga + cauliflower + curry powder
Rutabaga + kale + onions + browned butter
Rutabaga + pear + ginger
Rutabaga + fennel + leeks
Rutabaga + roasted meats
Rutabaga + thyme + cardamom
Rutabaga + butter/cream + nutmeg
Rutabaga + horseradish
Rutabaga + orange + thyme

I brought the Rutabaga Apple Salad to a work Halloween potluck and people loved it!

RUTABAGA APPLE SALAD

6-8 servings

Colorful, sweet, and crunchy, this salad is a delicious accompaniment to any meal, and is awesome for potlucks and parties because it makes a ton. I've made it a million times over the last couple of months, sometimes omitting the currants, swapping out pumpkin seeds for sesame seeds, and omitting the maple and using some English Toffee Stevia ilquid instead. Everyone who tries it loves it! Susan Powers from the blog Rawmazing (and a fellow farmers market demo presenter) came to the demo, loved the salad, and posted her version of this salad here - check it out!

This recipe is linked to the October SOS Kitchen Challenge, sponsored by Ricki from Diet, Dessert, and Dogs and me, which features sesame as this month's featured ingredient. This month's challenge is being sponsored by iHerb. They are offered 1 pound bags of sesame seeds to the first 10 readers who submitted recipes and set up an account with them, and at the end of the month we will draw a name for a $50 iHerb shopping spree. Pretty awesome, right? Head over to this month's kick-off post to read all the rules and details, then submit a recipe to the Linky. You have until October 31 to submit a to be eligible for the $50 shopping spree!!!

1 medium rutabaga, peeled coarsely grated
2 large apples, cored and diced
2 celery stalks, thinly sliced
2 carrots, peeled grated
optional: 1/2 cup finely shredded purple cabbage
½ cup raisins, sultanas, currants, or dried cranberries
¼ cup sesame seeds, lightly toasted
freshly cracked pepper
1 tsp fresh thyme leaves (or ¼ tsp dry)

Dressing

1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
1/3 cup sesame tahini
¼ cup water
2 Tbsp maple syrup (or 10-15 drops English Toffee flavored stevia liquid + 1-2 Tbsp water)
pinch nutmeg
½ tsp sea salt

Lightly toast sesame seeds in a dry sauté pan over medium heat until golden and fragrant, about 3-5 minutes. Set aside and let cool.

Grate rutabaga with a large-holed grater or a food processor. Toss with chopped apples and 2 Tbsp of lemon juice, to prevent browning, in a large bowl. Add grated carrot, sliced celery, and raisins/currants, and stir to mix.

In a medium bowl, whisk together tahini, maple syrup, and lemon juice, then add water and continue to whisk until smooth. Add sea salt and nutmeg and whisk again.

Drizzle dressing over salad, and stir to combine, then add sesame seeds. Serve at room temperature or chilled. Keeps well for 2-3 days in the fridge.

RUTABAGA AND SWEET POTATO MASH WITH VANILLA

6-8 servings

This mash is decadent and delicious, scented with vanilla bean seeds and garam masala, and garnished with bacon. Garam masala is a fragrant Indian spice mixture. Although there are many regional variations, the most common ingredients are cinnamon, cardamom, nutmeg, cloves, coriander, and black pepper. Look for vanilla beans and garam masala in the spice section of well-stocked grocers or specialty spice shops.

2 large rutabagas
4 large sweet potatoes
seeds from 1 vanilla bean
1/8 tsp garam masala
2-3 Tbsp butter, ghee, or coconut oil
sea salt, to taste
optional: smoked salt for serving
optional: 1-2 Tbsp maple syrup

Peel rutabaga and sweet potato, and cut into 1 ½” cubes. Boil cubes in lightly salted water for 20-25 minutes, until fork tender. Drain, reserving 1 cup of the cooking water.

Slice vanilla bean lengthwise, and scrape out seeds with a small knife. Place cooked potato and rutabaga cubes in a food processor and process until smooth, or, place in a large bowl and mash with a potato masher. Add small amounts of reserved cooking water if mashed vegetable mixture is too thick. Then add vanilla bean seeds, nutmeg, and butter, and process/mash until fully incorporated. Add salt to taste. If you desire an extra bit of sweetness, drizzle with maple syrup.

RUTABAGA-PARSNIP HASH

4 servings

1 large rutabaga
4 medium parsnips
1 large onion
2 Tbsp olive oil
optional: 2 tsp fresh thyme leaves
4 slices nitrate-free pork or turkey bacon
sea salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste

Dice bacon. Heat a medium sauté pan over medium heat, then add bacon and cook until crisp.
Remove from heat and place crumbles on paper towel to drain. Drain off some of the bacon fat,
leaving 1-2 Tbsp in the pan. If using turkey bacon, which has little grease, add 2 Tbsp butter to pan.
In a food processor, grate the rutabaga chunks and parsnips. Heat pan again over medium heat,
adding olive oil to the bacon fat and heating until a piece of rutabaga sizzles. Then add the grated
rutabaga and parsnips to the hot pan and stir to coat. Sprinkle with a generous pinch of salt. Sauté for
several minutes until it gets a nice golden brown color. You may need to add a little more olive oil
while it’s cooking if the pan gets too dry. Taste for salt and add more if needed, add a little pepper if
desired. Serve hot, sprinkle with bacon crumbles.

GLUTEN-FREE RUTABAGA HONEY CAKE

Adapted from Marina Stein

This sweet and spicy cake is cane sugar-free, gluten-free and egg-free, and can easily be made dairy- free as well. Xanthan and guar gums help bind gluten-free flours, which easily crumble when baked, and can be found in the specialty baking section of well-stocked grocery stores and natural food stores. If you tolerate gluten, see note below recipe on how to make with wheat or spelt flour. This cake is surprisingly delicious, and everyone at the demo really, really liked it.

1 cup brown rice flour (superfine brown rice flour is best)
1/2 cup arrowroot starch or tapioca starch
½ tsp xanthan gum or guar gum
2 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
½ tsp sea salt
1 Tbsp finely ground flax seed
3/4 cup milk or non-dairy milk
¼ cup melted butter/ghee (or light-tasting oil if dairy intolerant/allergic)
1/3 cup honey
1 cup grated raw rutabaga
1/2 cup finely chopped dried apple
1-2 Tbsp maple syrup

Preheat oven to 350º F and butter a 9”x9” cake pan. In a medium bowl, whisk together ground flax seed with milk/non-dairy milk, and let sit for 10 minutes to absorb moisture and thicken.

While flax-milk mixture sits, whisk together flour, xanthan gum, spices, salt, baking powder, and baking soda in a medium bowl until light. Using a hand mixer, beat flax mixture until light, then add honey and melted butter, and beat until smooth. Mix dry ingredients into wet on medium speed until just moistened, then add rutabaga and apple and gently fold in by hand until evenly combined. Batter will be thick. Spread mixture into prepared pan, smoothing surface with damp fingers or a silicon spatula.

Bake in pre-heated oven for 30 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean. Remove from oven, place pan on a wire cooling rack, and drizzle maple syrup evenly over the surface of the warm cake. Let cool 20-30 minutes before slicing.

NOTE: if you tolerate gluten and prefer to bake with wheat or spelt flour, omit xanthan gum and substitute brown rice flour and starch with 1 ½ cups unbleached all-purpose flour or spelt flour.

2010-10-25T13:12:00.002-04:00

Hello all!

I hope that everyone is enjoying this rainy Indian Summer Monday. Last week Paul and the crew worked really hard one day and got in quite a bit of rye and vetch planting. It calms me so much to look at the farm and see those newly planted patches of soil. Next spring they will grow up, without any help from us, in to a dense thatch of green. It's just nice to know that it is all taken care of and healthy.

We still have plenty of Winter CSA shares available. Get yours soon!

We also have plenty of REALLY GOOD EGGS right now.

Vegetables:

kale, collard, chard, parsley, broccoli raab, arugula, garlic, winter squash, beets, carrots, broccoli, hot peppers, turnips, Chinese cabbage, fennel, celery, head lettuce

u-pick: CALENDULA - making a come back, kale, chard, tomatillos, hot peppers, cilantro, dill, raspberries

below: Thanksgiving turkey info and a member recipe

Hello farm friends,

Thinking about Thanksgiving yet? While still a month away, the farmers at the Good Life and Shelterbelt farms have been preparing since August, raising up rotationally pastured, organic grain-fed turkeys to delight your families this November! Even with the power of two farms producing twice as many birds as one farm alone the birds are going fast, but we still have a few left... get 'em while they last. Here's how:

Send Melissa an email at melissa@thegoodlifefarm.org to reserve your T'day bird. Please share your size preference and we'll do all that we can to ensure you get the size closest to what you requested, but we cannot make guarantees about size. Birds are $3.99/lb.

Because we are co-marketing and co-processing, we have two pick-up sites- one in Caroline at east side of Ithaca towards Shelterbelt and one in Interlaken at the Good Life. Farm pickups will be on Sunday, Nov. 21, in the afternoon. More on that after you order.

We've been holding "Visit Your Turkey" days this October for those who ordered early. If you are interested in knowing more about each farm, please do check out our websites: www.thegoodlifefarm.org and www.shelterbeltfarm.com.

Please feel free to contact me with any other questions... more info on my website- www.thegoodlifefarm.org or call me (607) 351 3313.

Looking forward to Thanksgiving,

Melissa and Erica

The Good Life Farm and Shelterbelt Farm

RECIPE:

This is a yummy/fast/easy recipe for using up lots of veggies in the fridge, plus it's super flexible. The recipe is vegan, but it would be easy to cook add chicken broth or sausages if you prefer. You could probably even make it in a rice cooker:

http://www.watchdoit.com/how-to-videos/Quinoa-Kitchari-Recipe-60514

Light frosts at the Farm

2010-10-18T08:37:00.001-04:00

We've had a couple of people ask how much longer the summer CSA goes. The last Friday is the Friday before the week of Thanksgiving. It will be a double share. The last Tuesday is the Tuesday of Thanksgiving week. It will be a normal share. The "summer" CSA goes for 26 weeks - that's half a year.

The winter CSA will start Wednesday, December 1st. The farm website has many details about the winter CSA. Read all about it. The winter share is going to be EXTREMELY FLEXIBLE this year. Go ahead and give it a whirl.

We have enough potatoes for three more weeks of distribution, and, I believe that there are 6 more weeks of the summer CSA. So, we are holding the potatoes for the last three weeks of distribution. That's because once mid-November hits there isn't as much free-flowing bounty coming out of the fields. Broccoli now, potatoes later.

Veggies: broccoli (very bootilicious right now), spinach, arugula, pac choi, head lettuce, beets, carrots, delicata squash (amazingly yummy. We bake it whole then cut it in half, scoop out the seeds, add butter and salt, voila, a delicious and nutritious side to any meal. We even eat them for breakfast), hot peppers - these won't last forever - a hard frost will get them soon, Chinese cabbage ("regular" cabbage is coming in November - it still needs to size up), chard (won't last forever, a hard frost will get it, too), collards, kale, escarole, broccoli raab, parsley.

u-pick: believe it or not the raspberries are ultra delicious right now. The cold has concentrated their sweetness. Cilantro - booming! Go pick some before a hard frost finished it off, likewise for the hot peppers. There are still some tomatillos out there - we're going to mow that field soon to put in a cover crop, so get them now. The beans are done, as are the edemame. The chickens have been enjoying the old edemame patch. The dill is still pretty good. A hard frost will get it. The flowers are winding down, we will be mowing them soon. Kale and collards are still pulling strong. They taste great with some frosts under their belts.

Here is an interesting recipe from a member. Remember, we have u-pick mint between the greenhouses.

This is the recipe that I am using the mint and spinach in.

It originated on the Affairs of Living website. Check it out for recipes for food-allergy people.

Shamrock Shake
1 avocado (peeled)
1 cup spinach
1 cup nondairy milk
2 TBSP fresh mint leaves
1 1/2 cup ice
1/2 to 3/4 tsp peppermint extract
20-25 drops stevia (or honey or agave to taste)
Blend all together in blender til smooth and creamy. Enjoy.

OK, See you around the farm,

Evangeline

Broccoli is our shining star this week.

2010-10-05T12:47:00.000-04:00

Hello All,

I'm writing this while the crew is out picking broccoli, cauliflowers, and hot peppers. It's wet out there, and they've already spent the morning picking everything for today's distribution. Go crew. Broccoli! We are in a broccoli boom this week. Take some, look up some recipes to get inspired, and eat your vegetables! Mom was right. They're good for you and will help with what ails you. I somewhat compulsively eat greens this time of year. I believe that a solid helping of greens everyday will keep me from getting sick. We had a delicious broccoli, bacon, apple cold salad the other day at a potluck. It was worth repeating.

A few people have asked how long the Summer CSA lasts. The Summer CSA goes 'til the Friday before the week of Thanksgiving, and the Tuesday of Thanksgiving week. I believe that makes roughly 8 more weeks.

Payment for the Summer CSA is due in full by next Monday the 11th. I am working on emailing everyone their balance if they have one.

Veggies:

collards, kale, chard, parsley, broccoli raab, hot peppers, tomatoes (almost over, one more week tops), BROCCOLI!!!, beets, carrots, napa cabbage, fennel, celery, DELICATA winter squash (I bake all varieties of winter squash whole to avoid the annoying and somewhat dangerous task of cutting up hard raw squash. They bake just fine like that, and don't dry out b/c their juices are contained. Cut them once they're cooked - easy-peasy), hakurei turnips, arugula, salad mix, and spinach.

U-pick:

all the same, but please note, the cilantro fantastic right now.

Member recipes:

Winter Squash Crostini

[adapted from a recipe in "Italian Easy: Recipes from the London River Cafe" by Gray and Rogers (2004)]

1 1/2 pounds firm winter squash (best results with butternut, pumpkin, delicata, or combination of these)

peeled and cut into 1-inch chunks

4 oz. pancetta

cut into matchstick-size pieces

3 garlic cloves

peel; chop 2, reserve 1

2 red onions

peeled and chopped

1 fennel bulb

chopped

2 oz. Italian parsley

chopped

2 small dried chiles or fresh hot chile pepper to taste (go easy so it doesn't overwhelm other flavors)

chopped

1 T. fennel seeds

ground (mortar and pestle or coffee grinder work well)

1 pound plum tomatoes (or other tomato that cooks well)

chopped

1 loaf sourdough bread

extra-virgin olive oil

In a thick-bottomed pan, heat 2 T. olive oil and gently fry the pancetta for 5 minutes, then add the onion, fennel, garlic, chile, parsley, and fennel seeds. Cook for another 5 minutes. Add squash and tomatoes. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Cover and simmer until vegetables are soft (about 20 minutes).

(Option: flavors integrate with time so if you like, make ahead, turn off heat, and let sit for an hour or so. Then reheat just before serving.)

Cut bread into 1-inch slices. Toast until crisp-crunchy or as desired. Rub both sides with the remaining garlic clove. Place slices in bowls. Spoon the vegetables over. Drizzle with olive oil if desired.

Collards

2010-09-27T08:55:00.000-04:00

Hello all,

Here is the veggie forecast:

carrots, beets, onions, garlic, potatoes, pac choi, arugula, broccoli raab, broccoli, tomatoes, cabbage, celery, fennel, escarole, kale, chard, collard.

Let me say a few things about collards: They are Delicious! Our family goes through waves of eating only one kind of green for several weeks at a time and right now we are on a collard kick. If you like kale you should definitely try collards. They are almost exactly the same. Try them in any kale recipe that you like. I think you'll be happy. The reason I think that the collards are so great is because I get to see them in the field. They are in the way back field and they are so bodacious that it is impossible to walk or drive by them without marvelling at their huge green beauty. You know how some plants catch your eye and say "Hi"? (Yes, plants do that to us all the time.) Well, those collards are singing the Hallelujah chorus every time I walk by. Radiant sun beams streaming down from the heavens. It can only be a good thing to eat plants like that.

U-pick:

The same as last week except the edemames are pretty well dried up. You can still eat them but they are more like a dry bean now (dry soy bean). We do not mind if you cut the whole plant so that you can pick the pods at you leisure at home. We will be mowing the patch in the next couple of weeks.

Would you love to attend a Harvest Dinner? They are several more coming up this fall. This weekend there is a dinner at Autumns Harvest Farm in Romulus. Seats are still availablee. For menus, reservations and more info please visit www.HealthyFoodForAll.org or contact HarvestDinners@gmail.com / 607-342-8845.

Autumn’s Harvest Farm with Red Newt Cellars & Bistro --- October 3, 2010
WINE & HORS D’OEUVRES
Curried chicken liver pate, country pate, apple chutney, assorted local cheeses and handmade breads
~ Red Newt Cellars 2007 Sawmill Creek Gewurztraiminer, Red Newt Cellars 2007 Merlot, Red Newt Cellars 2007 Circle Riesling ~

DINNER
Roasted Parsnip and Shitake Mushroom Bisque
topped with a garlic crouton
~ Red Newt Cellars 2008 Pinot Noir ~

Organic field green salad
with caramelized chevre, toasted walnuts and roasted beet vinaigrette, topped with fried leeks
~ Red Newt Cellars 2008 Curry Creek Pinot Gris ~

Pork Loin stuffed with apples and pork sausage with an apple Riesling sauce
served with gratin of potatoes with fennel and apples and roasted carrots with leeks and garlic
~ Red Newt Cellars 2006 Reserve Riesling ~

Pear and Almond Cheesecake with Pear Coulis
Gimme! Coffee
--

Winter CSA 2010-11

2010-09-20T08:13:00.000-04:00

Hello all,

I can't believe that I'm writing to you announcing the winter CSA! Summer flew by, and this cool snap is only accelerating the flight. We are making some significant changes to the winter CSA this year, so please, read on even if you think you know what it's all about. The veggie list for this week's CSA is at the bottom of the page. Also, please remember, payment for the summer share is due in full by Columbus Day, October 12th.

Winter CSA 2010-11:

This winter the share will be set up almost just like the summer csa is set up in the shed. There will be a "1 bag side" and an "itemized side". This means that members, as in the summer, can fill one grocery bag with anything they want from the "1 bag side". Most of the produce listed below will be on the 1 bag side. We will itemize some items, for example, greens, and garlic. So, to make the obvious point, there will be A LOT of flexibility in contents of the winter share. No more turnips for you if you don't like them. Lots of carrots, potatoes and onions for you if that's all you want. A little of everything? You got it. We hope that continuing with the 1 bag side will keep everyone as happy as possible!
Distributions will be at the farm. We are moving a wood stove into the shed after the last summer pick up, so it will be heated during winter distributions. We'll have a good kid fence around the stove. The drive and parking lots will always be plowed for distribution.
Distributions are every other week, and supply 2 weeks worth of food.
We are creating more pick-up options. Distribution (in the cozy wood stove heated barn) is from 2-6 pm on the main distribution days. (see dates below) Can't make it? We'll box a share for you and you can pick it up from 9-5, Thurs, Fri, & Sat following the main day. This costs extra due to the extra work involved.
There are 7 distributions and a share pays for 6, so choose the 6 dates that work best for you. We hope this accommodates your winter travel plans and a snow date. You may certainly come to all 7 distributions, it will just cost more.
Main distribution days are: 12/1, 12/15, 12/29, 1/19, 2/2, 2/16 & 3/2
A regular winter share (6 distributions, on the main days) costs $275. This price has stayed the same for 3 years now.
A boxed winter share, 6 distributions, costs $310.
A regular winter share, 7 distributions, costs $320
A boxed winter share, 7 distributions, costs $361.66

Here's what will most likely be in the share:

potatoes, carrots, onions, garlic, kale, cabbage, Chinese cabbage, leeks, beets, celeriac, turnips, radishes, rutabagas, winter squash, celery, and greens (spinach and braising greens) from the 3 passive solar greenhouses.

If you are going to join the winter CSA we'd really like to know soon. We spend most of October and November pulling in food from the fields and storing it in the cooler for the winter CSA. We do our best to estimate how many members will join for the winter, but hard facts make it much easier to decide how much to harvest and store. To make it easier for you to join early the winter deposit is only $40.Join soon and lessen the guesswork. Payments can be mailed or dropped off in the shed. Please include your email on your check when you join, even if I already have it.

Now I may as well wax poetic for a moment about all of the wonders of eating locally in the winter in Central NY. Marvellous! Far out! Revolutionary!

Thanks all, and see you around,

Evangeline

Veggie Forecast:

arugula, broccoli raab, pac choi - around for a while

potatoes, carrots, onions, beets, cabbage, celery, fennel - around for a while

tomatoes, sweet peppers - almost gone

hot peppers - around for a while

chard - til frost

kale, collards, escarole, parsley - around for a while

U-pick:

paste and cherry tomatoes, basil, kale, chard, hot pepper, tomatillo, flowers, edemame, beans, and berries

Is it fall?

2010-09-14T12:03:00.000-04:00

Hello all,
Here is the veggie forecast (remember, this is a forecast only, and I'm no weather-woman). Don't miss out on a bunch of recipes that CSA members have sent in listed below. Send me one, I'll put it in the weekly update. Also below, if you are interested, there is information about the remaining Harvest Dinners (yes there are quite a few of them).

hot peppers - around til frost
sweet peppers - ditto
beets, carrots, potatoes, onions - around til spring
tomatoes - not around much longer, it's just cold out there folks, and tomatoes don't like that! They are a tropical plant, originally from the rain forest. 40 degree nights aren't tropical. They just stop ripening when it gets cold, drastically reducing the amount you get in your share.
head lettuce, salad mix
CAULIFLOWER!! - It's the hot item right now. This is the best crop of cauliflower we've ever had. Make some cheesy cauliflower soup.
collard (kale's southern cousin, no kidding, eat it with bacon, the new health food)
kale
escarole - let some bitter in your life besides coffee and chocolate, your liver will thank you.
basil - this will last until the first frost, and then it's all over
celery - try this in soup or stew. I use it in all of our soups.
cabbage - here til spring
note - the summer squash is finished. We had a good run of it, and our employees aren't so sad to see it go.

U-Pick: All Unlimited
paste tomatoes - pick these with any tiny amount of color and they'll ripen inside in the container you picked them in in a week or so. This is how I picked pastes for our family - I harvested about 3 of those yellow tomato lugs one day and them let them sit in the shed for a week or so. Now they are all dark red and ready for sauce. The tomatoes probably won't ripen on the vine this fall - too cold. There are TONS of paste tomatoes out there. Go get them!!
cherry tomatoes, tomatillos, flowers, mint
chard and kale - steam these and freeze for greens all winter. The chard will die with frost, so if you want to put some up, now is the time. The kale will last until the end of the CSA, go frost hardy winter kale!!
basil - very unfrost-hardy, so make pesto and be rewarded all winter long.
hot peppers - Paul and I made a gallon of lacto-fermented hot sauce this weekend. That'll keep us hot this winter!!
Berries - there are still plenty of unripe berries on the plants (and some ripe ones), so they will continue to ripen til the frost. Keep checking them.
Green beans - This is the last patch of the season.

CSA member recipes:
Here's the recipe I was telling you about:
http://www.vegetariantimes.com/recipes/9945?section=
tomatoes field paste
Recipe:
This recipe does not need exact measures. If I have left over filling, I use it for pizza topping, huevos rancheros, or toss it with fresh pasta.
6- 8 small, thin Italian eggplants
2 large onions, quartered and sliced
3-4 cloves of garlic, sliced.
3-5 Roma tomatoes, diced
Parsley, chopped - divided
salt and ground pepper to taste.
½ cup olive oil
Wash eggplants, dry and remove stems. Peel in strips. In medium hot oil, fry them whole, turning occasionally, until slightly golden and softened but NOT fully cooked. Remove to a plate and set aside.
To the oil remaining in pan add onions, saute until translucent and golden. Add tomatoes, garlic, seasonings and cook another 3 minutes. Add chopped parsley. Cool a little to handle.
With a spoon and a fork, part each eggplant lengthwise in the middle to open a slit. Do not go all the way down to the bottom. Into these "boats" spoon as much filling as possible, pushing gently and pulling the sides over on the filling. Repeat until all are done.
Place stuffed eggplant "boats" in an oven-proof casserole and bake uncovered for 30-40 minutes at 350 degrees. Do not add any liquid as the liquids exude during baking. Cool. Before serving, sprinkle with more finely chopped parsley. Store in the refrigerator for upto a week.
There is a more step by step pictorial version of this recipe in a recent post here if you are interested.

Pasta With Let-My-Eggplant-Go-Free! Puree

Serves 4 as a main course, 6 as a starter, or, like 1 if you're as into it as me

INGREDIENTS

Eggplant pasta

1 pound eggplant, cut into ½ inch slices (Bigger is ok)
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
3 cloves garlic, lightly smashed (I mean just flatten them, don't take out your aggression on them)
2 springs thyme or oregano, chopped, or a sprinkling of the dried stuff
1 cup liquid -- stock? water? Whatever. I had some water leftover from cooking lentils, so I used that.
2 tablespoons dried tomatoes, minced -- sun-dried? oven-dried? Your call. (See below)
6 leaves basil, cut fine
Salt and pepper, to taste
1 pound long pasta -- spaghetti, linguini, whatever floats your boat

Oven-dried tomatoes

tomatoes
olive oil
salt and pepper

DIRECTIONS

Eggplant Pasta

Lightly salt the slices of eggplant, stack them back together and let them hang out for about 20 minutes. This will season them and water will drip out, allegedly removing the bitterness, if it's there. They also say to choose eggplants that are dense and heavy for their size to make sure they're not bitter. But you know how I got mine to not be bitter? I ask the person that sells them to me, which, for me, means that I have to buy my eggplants from farmers' markets. Maybe you don't have quite the same amount of emotional work to do in readjusting your eggplant relationship. I'm glad for you.
Meanwhile, put the olive oil in a wide, heavy saucepan, add the garlic cloves, and set over low heat. You're just trying to get them friendly with one another, so don't worry if it just sits there and looks like nothing's happening.
Dry off the eggplant, cut it into chunks. When you start hearing the garlic sizzle a little and can smell it, drop in your eggplant and stir to coat it all with oil. Turn the heat up to medium high, add thyme or oregano and stir. When the eggplant is turning translucent and softening, add the liquid, let it come to a boil, and turn it back down to medium-low. Let it bubble for a bit and cover it, leaving a crack for steam to escape. Stir once in a while so that the bottom doesn't stick.
Meanwhile, bring water to boil, salt it, and cook your pasta.
Check on your eggplant. Is the liquid mostly absorbed or reduced? It should after about 20 minutes or so. Does it look good and mashable? Great. Mash it up with a spoon, and adjust the seasoning to taste. Isn't it great? Silky smooth and garlicky and eggplanty and humming with oil? And totally stress-free! Amazing.
Drain your perfect al dente pasta and toss with the eggplant puree. Stir in your minced tomatoes and basil and gild the lily with some more oil. Celebrate your new friendship.

Oven-dried tomatoes

OK, I'm going to keep this short, because it's the easiest thing in the world. Preheat your oven to 200 degrees. Slice your tomatoes about a 1/4-inch thick. Lay them out, on one layer, on a tray, salt them lightly and drizzle with a tiny bit of olive oil.
Pop them into the oven and check on them after 2 hours, then every 15 minutes after that. You want them to be dried out, almost like fruit leather, but they're going to taste great -- they'll spark up anything with a punch of tartness, sweetness, and some real umami. It'll make so-so tomatoes great, and good tomatoes amazing. They'll last like this, wrapped up in the fridge, for weeks

This Epicurious.com recipe: Salt-and-Pepper Edamame (Soybeans in the Pod)

has been sent to you by a friend.

You can view the complete recipe online at: http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/102723?mbid=ipapp

Salt-and-Pepper Edamame (Soybeans in the Pod)
1/2 cup coarse salt
2 tablespoons Sichuan peppercorns
2 tablespoons pink peppercorns
4 (1-pound) bags frozen edamame (soybeans in the pod)

Toast salt in a dry, small, heavy skillet over moderate heat, stirring, until salt turns light tan, about 7 minutes. Transfer salt to a bowl. Toast Sichuan peppercorns in skillet over moderate heat, stirring, until fragrant, about 2 minutes. Transfer toasted peppercorns to a sheet of wax paper to cool. Using paper as a funnel, pour toasted peppercorns into an electric coffee/spice grinder or a mortar. Add pink peppercorns and pulse or pound with a pestle until finely ground. Pour through a coarse sieve into bowl of salt and stir together.
Cook edamame in 4 batches in salted boiling water until tender, about 4 minutes, and immediately transfer with a slotted spoon to a bowl of ice and cold water to stop cooking. Return water to a boil between batches. Drain in a colander and pat dry.
Toss edamame with some peppered salt to taste and serve with remainder on the side.

Cooks' notes:
• Peppered salt may be made 1 week ahead and kept in an airtight container at cool room temperature.
• Edamame may be cooked 1 day ahead and chilled, covered. Bring to room temperature before tossing with peppered salt.
Gourmet
December 1999

Want to see how other cooks rated and reviewed this recipe? Go to http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/102723?mbid=ipapp

Berries are now UNLIMITED 'til frost

2010-09-09T16:15:00.000-04:00

Hi all,

Yes, you lucky ducks, the berries are now unlimited. There's good pickin' in them thar plants.

Have Fun!

Evangeline

A sniff of fall

2010-09-06T08:13:00.000-04:00

Hello all,

Greetings! Feeling a little fall-ish out there these past few days. Nice temperature to work in. Last week in the mid 90 degree days we dug, crated, and carried into the basement about 10,000 pounds of potatoes. That ought to fill all of your bellies for awhile. We got about 12,000 pounds last year with the same size planting, so the yield was down a bit. There was more rain last year so that is probably where the difference came from. All in all we are very chuffed up to have 10,000 pounds of potatoes hunkered down in our basement. Talk about food security. You'll start seeing potatoes on the one bag side this week.

Payment in full is due for the summer CSA by Columbus Day, or October 12th. Please email me if you don't know your balance and I'll let you know. Please allow we a week or so for me to respond before you get to wondering about me.

On the list:

tomatoes, peppers, celery, spinach, head lettuce, potatoes, kale, chard, collards, endive, parsley, basil, hot pepper, onions, summer squash (this is almost over, 1 or 2 more weeks and it's through), cabbage, beets, carrots

u-pick:

berries: 4 quart season limit

unlimited: beans, edemame, cherry tomatoes, paste tomatoes, chard, kale, basil, flowers, hot peppers, tomatillos, mint

Okay!, See you at the farm,

Evangeline

Berries and Scissors

2010-09-01T11:00:00.001-04:00

Hello all,

The berry season limit is now 4 quarts. Please be sure that you understand the definition of "season limit". The berries include both raspberries and blackberries - mix and match for 4 quarts total, not 4 quarts of each. Thanks! Happy picking!

Scissor update: We will no longer be providing scissors for u-pick. We are going through about 12 pairs a month and no longer feel comfortable supplying them. Mostly we are concerned with the number of scissors lost n the fields - not good for feet or tractor tires! 12 pairs lost a month adds up to a lot of blades laying around out there. You are, of course, still allowed to bring your own scissors.

See you around,

Evangeline

Paste Tomatoes and Berries

2010-08-21T07:41:00.000-04:00

Hello all,

The paste tomatoes are now open and unlimited. They are right next to the cherry tomatoes.

The berry season limit is now 2 quarts. Please be sure that you understand the concept of season limit, as described in the member handbook, available online and in the shed. The blackberries and raspberries are mix and match.

Happy Picking,

Evangeline

Berries are now open, see below.....

2010-08-16T08:46:00.000-04:00

Hello all,

Greetings! We seem to have lots of announcements this week so I'll keep it short. The farm is rolling along, not too much drama. It is definitely harvest time. Everywhere we look there is something to bring in. I hope that everyone is enjoying the variety that August brings. We feel pretty happy about the onions that we've been giving out - they have lasted longer than we thought they would. That makes us happy because it's our assessment that, as a whole, CSA members really like onions. So, we figure that if we can supply onions at most of the distributions then, logically, members will be happier. The onions we've been giving out were grown from sets.

Sets are little baby onions that were grown last year, and harvested very small. They store over the winter and then when planted this year in the early spring are primed to race toward bulbing in ways that onions planted from seed this spring are not. So, we planted lots of onions sets to cover the CSA's summer onion eating needs, and then planted about twice that amount to onions from seed. The onions from seed take longer to mature, but they also are able to store through the winter. Onions from sets cannot store through the winter because, as you may remember from above, they already did that as sets. Let me know how the onions are treating you. Paul and I have been enjoying them two-fold, once by eating them, but more by knowing that we have them to give to you! Knowing that those stacks and stacks of onion crates are in the cooler is a load off our minds.

Nuts and bolts: Buy a Harvest Dinner ticket today! Visit http://healthyfoodforall.org/ for details and to purchase. The dinner here at Sweet Land this year will be entirely vegetarian.

Below is an announcement from our friends Melissa and Garrett from the Good Life Farm. We've reserved our turkey.

Thanksgiving Turkeys for SALE!

The Good Life Farm in Interlaken is raising pastured, organic-grain-fed turkeys for Thanksgiving. In September or early October, the Good Life Farm will have a "visit your Turkey day" so folks can see for themselves the life of a GLF turkey.

Price is $4/lb. We're asking for your size preference in one of the following categories:10-13#, 14-17#, 18-21#. We'll do all that we can to ensure you get the size closest to what you requested, but we cannot make guarantees about size. We will ask for a deposit in late September to ensure your order. We have 75 turkeys to sell and are down about 20 already.

For other questions... more info on the Good Life Farm website- www.thegoodlifefarm.org or call Melissa Madden (607) 351 3313, email Melissa at melissa@thegoodlifefarm.org.

Veggie List:

spinach, salad mix, head lettuce, cabbage, kale, chard, parsley, beets, carrots, celery, tomatoes, onions, zucchini, squash, cukes, hot peppers, basil

U-Pick:

The U-pick berries are now open. The starting season limit is ONE PINT. The raspberries and blackberries are treated as one item, so mix and match them for a total of ONE PINT. To clarify, this does not mean one pint of each - it means one pint total. Never fear - the season limit will be increasing as the berry season progresses. Please see your member handbook for definition of the season limit. There is a "Handbook" tab on the farm website for your viewing pleasure. Member handbooks are also always available in the distribution shed in the blue metal tub. Please remember - what ever you (and your children) eat in the patch is included in the limit.

Unlimited: chard, kale, new bean patch, flowers, basil, tomatillos

Recipes sent by CSA members:

I've been loving the recipes you've been sharing, and wanted to share some
with you!
I put this recipe on my blog for YUMMY oven dried sungold's I picked last
week:
http://nelkindesigns.blogspot.com/2010/08/oven-dried-sungolds.html
We also made these last week with the zucchini, a great (excuse the pun) use
for zucchini!
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Turkish-Zucchini-Pancakes-1208

Not exactly a recipe, but a fun thing to do, inspired by your Kale Chips recipe:

Next time you make a casserole that's topped with cheese (lasagna, mac n cheese, etc.), shred up a bunch of DRY kale or chard, mix it with oil and slat, and put it all over the top. The greens will get all crispy. It looks cool and tastes yummy. I got the fam to eat a whole bag of chard (half in the casserole, half on top) without having to cook a side dish!

Thanks all, and enjoy the berries,

Evangeline

Cherry tomatoes

2010-08-10T07:08:00.000-04:00

Hellllllooooo from the farm!

Tickets for all of the Healthy Food For All Harvest Dinners are now for sale. If you want to come to the one here at Sweet Land - dinner by Hazelnut Kitchen and wine by Atwater and Billsboro, act now. The dinner here sells out really really fast. This year the hazelnut is doing an all vegetarian dinner - I've heard the menu and I can't wait for that night! Tickets can be purchased online at http://healthyfoodforall.org/ All proceeds from the dinners go to the Healthy Food For All Program. The program is through the CCE and subsidizes CSA shares for people that meet WIC or food stamp income guidelines. There are about 5 farms that participate.

Food:

onions (these, by the way, have been extra early b/c we grew half of our crop from sets this year. we like it and will continue to do early onions this way.)

cukes (this may be near the end of the cuke crop -eat them now. We have another generation in the field, as we always do, but each year the second generation has succumbed to mildew and been a big wilty loss. We'll see this year....)

zucchini and summer squash - we are on the second and third generation of squash of a total of three generations.

cabbage - summer cabbage is rolling in! 6 pallet bins of it in the cooler!

carrots - likewise, 6 pallet bins of carrots in the cooler, too.

beets - do I need to write it? are you getting the picture that our cooler is busting at the seams? A good feeling.

spinach

salad mix

head lettuce - will is still amaze me how fast this stuff grows in the summer versus the spring after 20 years of farming?

fennel - not the best crop of fennel we've ever grown. Tasty but I wouldn't eat them raw. We didn't irrigate them so they are pretty small. We'll see what the fall crop looks like.

basil

chard

kale

tomatoes - try an heirloom, the crazy looking lumpy ones if you haven't before. They weren't grown for their looks, so that ugliness should tip you off that something else must be extra good about them.

U-pick:

unlimited: flowers, kale, chard, basil (PICK IT NOW, LOTS OF IT, NOW IS THE TIME FOR FREEZING PESTO!!!), dill heads, cherry tomatoes - oh yes, go nuts in there.

limited: tomatillos, hot peppers

Recipes:

You guys delivered this weeks on the recipes - way to go team! keep them coming and I'll put them in the weekly email. Here they are, your fellow CSA member recipes:

Here's one in case it hasn't yet crossed your counter.

Kale Chips.

http://smittenkitchen.com/2010/03/baked-kale-chips/

Our friend told us that her mother used to make mock apple pies out of (drum roll, please)--zucchini! Just slice the zucchini a bit thicker than you would the apples, and add a bit extra sweetener. Seems like you might want extra thickener also. I now have plenty of zucchini to try it with!

I was wondering if you're familiar with Martha Rose Shulman's Recipes for Health in the New York Times. There are some nice ones there. Here's a link to recent ones:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/04/health/nutrition/04recipehealth.html?ref=nutrition

http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/health/series/recipes_for_health/index.html?scp=1&sq=martha%20rose%20shulman&st=cse

This is the home site for the series.

I was just reading the farm updates and saw the tempting zucchini brownie recipe, and thought you'd like this fantastic cucumber salad recipe: http://smittenkitchen.com/2008/01/viennese-cucumber-salad/ The smitten kitchen blog is one of my favorites - delicious recipes and great writing.

Tomatillos, Hot Peppers, and Cherry Tomatoes

2010-08-03T13:00:00.000-04:00

Hello,

Here's the new contestants:

cherry tomatoes: 1 quart season limit. These will probably increase to unlimited soon, but they are just starting so we are limiting the amount you can pick right now. Even with the 1 quart limit they will probably run out after a couple of days, but they will regenerate very soon. If this makes you worried that you won't get your cherry tomatoes, please read the definition of "season limit" in the member handbook (available on our website and in the shed).

tomatillos: unlimited. They are ready to pick when the fruits are bursting out of their hulls, not before.

hot peppers: 3 quart season limit

Happy picking!

Evangeline

This week at the farm

2010-08-02T13:23:00.001-04:00

Hello Eaters,

How's it going? Well I hope. The crop mob here at the farm this past Saturday was, contrary to how it must sound, very enjoyable. A mob of about 20 people showed up on Saturday morning and we all spent the morning yakking about farming and food while weeding the strawberries, leeks, celeriac, and thinning some fall beets. It's fun to have a mob because those arduous tasks flew by with all the conversation and many hands. Katie Church, a most selfless lady, made a somewhat unbelievably diverse spread for our shared lunch. We chatted some more, and then the mobbers went on their way. If you are interested in being in the crop mob visit http://groups.google.com/group/ithaca-crop-mob?pli=1 for details. The group mobs about once a month, with mini-mobs sprinkled here and there.

On a reminiscent note, it was in this week's email last year that we announced that late blight had reached the farm and that we were going to rip out all of our tomato and potato crops. Whew, I'm glad I'm not writing that email today. There has been some cases of late blight found around the country, but so far we're fine. I hope that it is not fool-hardiness that makes me say that I think we're going to be ok this year. We'll see.

Here's the veggies:

chard, kale, summer squash, zucchini, field and Euro-cukes, beets, carrots, cabbage, fennel, peppers, tomatoes, onions, escarole, endive

We are in a salad mix and head lettuce hiatus. The salad mix was shredded by the hail a couple of weeks ago and we are in-between head lettuce generations. Incidentally, the chard that we've been giving out these past few weeks was also shredded by the same hail storm, resulting in some pretty rough looking leaves. The chard will grow through it and be nice again soon.

u-pick: all unlimited:

flowers, chard, kale, dill, basil, and beans. This bean generation is waning. There will probably be another little wave of beans on the plants in a week or so. There are 2 more generations coming down the line, so fear not all of you dilly bean fiends.

Here is a recipe sent along by a member: (Please feel inspired and send me some more and I'll post them)

I wanted to share this delicious zucchini brownie recipe- it's from Simply in Season, and can be found online here: http://thelocalcook.com/2010/07/25/zucchini-brownies/. Delicious and chocolaty! And an entire giant zucchini disappeared into them!

See you at the farm,

Evangeline

Crop Mob at Sweet Land

2010-07-27T11:38:00.000-04:00

Hello all,

Another week at the farm. How quickly they go by in July and August. We had a very satisfying amount of rain last week, about 2.5 inches. The rain came with a price. There was a little hail damage. One week of salad mix was shredded and the summer squash, winter squash, chard, kale and onion leaves were bruised up a bit. The squashes themselves will be fine, but that generation of salad mix is toast. A couple of tables of plug trays were blown over in the high winds, destroying about 36 flats of baby plants. We replanted those right away, so the only thing lost was labor. All in all these minor damages were a fair price to pay for the rain - it was so needed. The ground is still nice and wet – too wet to get in with a tractor. We like it like that because there are always plenty of things to do once you can get the tractor in the field, and usually those things take precedence over everything else, so right now we all get a breather and are able to do all those low priority things that get shoved aside once the ground dries out. Such as plan out the fall cover crops.

This morning Paul and I drove around in the farm truck with our laptop, notepads, pens and calculators, and assessed the fields in terms of cover cropping. The types of cover crops we plant in each field are directly related to the cash crops that we are going to plant in those fields next spring. So, in order to plan out the fall cover cropping regime we have to first plan out where all of the cash crops are going to be planted next year (by cash crops I mean the ones that you all are going to eat). This doesn’t mean that we have to plan out each individual planting of lettuce, beans, arugula, etc for the whole year – we do that painstaking task in January. Instead we divided next year’s cash crops into those that need to be in the ground by May 15th, and those that will be planted after May 15th. This is easy to do – we just look at our field maps from this year and count the number of beds that were planted as of May 15th. We plant almost exactly 50% of our annual cash crops by May 15th each year.

What’s so magic about the May 15th date? Well, early in the spring the ground is wet. Every spring there is a mad flurry of work to get beds worked up and plantable in a timely fashion. We have to plant the right kinds of cover crops the preceding fall such that we can get 50% of the cash crops in the ground by May 15th. To us this means oats and peas planted in August, and then chisel plowed under around Thanksgiving. By spring the fall chiseled oat and pea debris will be somewhat more decomposed than oats and peas that are not fall chiseled. This jump in decomposition allows us the benefit of a fall cover crop with out the disadvantage of a solid mat of slimy oats and peas facing us in the spring when we are desperately trying to work up ground for that first planting of spring spinach, peas, and transplanted onions. A slimy, solid mat of oats and peas is just what you get if you let the fall planted oats and peas winter kill naturally without plowing them in. Certainly, we do let some of our oats and peas go the slimy solid mat route, but only in those fields where we plan on planting after May 15th . Despite how it sounds, there are lots of good things about slimy solid mats of dead oats and peas covering the fields. Maybe I’ll talk about those advantages some other time. Right now it seems to do so would veer me off course.

So, this fall we are planting oats and peas (oats for organic matter, peas for nitrogen) that we will chisel in around Thanksgiving for the pre may 15th cash crops, and rye and vetch for the post may 15th cover crops. At the risk of being confusing, we also plant rye and vetch in all of the fields that will be in fallow next year – about a third of the total farm. The fields slated for the post may 15th cash crops are planted to rye and vetch because rye and vetch do not winter kill, but instead hang out throughout the winter and then really take off in the spring. They grow lush and rank by May, and then they are mowed and tilled into the soil in preparation for the late season cash crops. There’s a tiny primer in cover cropping and field planning.

Crop Mob! Come to the Sweet Land Crop Mob this Saturday from 9-1. Google "Ithaca Crop Mob" for details and to RSVP. Thanks!

Here’s the line up for the week:

Carrots, beets, onions, cabbage, head lettuce, celery, cukes, summer squash, chard, kale

U-pick: all unlimited

Chard, kale, beans, flowers, cilantro, dill, basil (open again)

Thanks all,

Evangeline

unlimited U-pick beans and basil

2010-07-24T14:02:00.000-04:00

Hello all,

The beans are now unlimited. Pick away! The basil is open again and is unlimited.

thanks!

(see member handbook for ALL picking details)

Evangeline

CROP MOB

2010-07-24T09:25:00.001-04:00

Hello all,

We're having a CROP MOB here at Sweet Land next Saturday the 31st from 9-1.

http://groups.google.com/group/ithaca-crop-mob?pli=1

or, google "Ithaca Crop Mob" if the link doesn't work.

The above link will bring you to the Ithaca Crop Mob site were you can read all about mobbing and sign up to mob here at Sweet Land. We are only a little scared of a mob here at the farm. We'll have a salad-y lunch for the mobbers when the mobbin's done.

See you around the farm,

Evangeline

Bean season limit increased

2010-07-20T12:29:00.001-04:00

Hello all,

The bean season limit is now 5 quarts. The new patch has green beans, yellow beans, flat or roma beans, and dragon beans (tongue of fire).

Thanks,

Evangeline

Irrigation

2010-07-19T14:33:00.000-04:00

Hello Hot Dry People,

Greetings from a seriously hot dry farm. It's dry, it's the driest we've seen it here - of course that's only been 4 seasons. We'll get to sound so much more impressive once we've been here for 30 seasons. We have farmed else where in dryer conditions, that was in '99. We are really glad about irrigation - see my harangue at the bottom of the email if you think you can stand it. It's kind of dry (pun should not have been intended).

If you have not already, and you are in need of more awesome recipes than you could ever hope to cook through, all painstakingly arranged by crop, YOU SHOULD CHECK OUT MARTHA STEWART'S RECIPE PAGE!!! http://www.marthastewart.com/food. She has it going on in the eat your local, seasonal, food department in true Martha style. I typed "cucumber" in her recipe page search engine right before writing this email and 392 recipes showed up. Even me, who usually haughtily shuns the idea of using a recipe to cook our food, promptly took out a frozen High Point steak to thaw so that I could make her delicious sounding (and looking - yes, there are PICTURES) Asian cucumber and grilled steak salad for dinner.

Here's the veggie forecast:

kale, chard, escarole/endive, salad mix, cabbage, beets, spring onions, hot pepper, basil, and....... CUCUMBERS. ZUCCHINIS. CROOK NECK SQUASH. PATTY PAN SQUASH. This is the time of year to pull out all the stops and eat the above items in bold. This is their big moment in the sun. Try to go beyond zucchini bread. Give Martha a whirl. I'm sure she won't let you down.

u-pick: beans(2 quarts some are getting big. This first generation is Provider and that is part of the trait. There are three more generations of beans coming), kale, chard, flowers (pick those edgy dark red sunflowers near where the peas where), cilantro, dill

This is where you might want to stop reading unless you are interested by the ins and outs of irrigation. If you are stopping,

Thanks and see you around,

Evangeline

Here's a rudimentary run down of how we drip irrigate at the farm. First a water source is needed. The first year we were here ('07) we had a million gallon pond dug, and a second well drilled in a spot that a dowser recommended. All for the sake of irrigation (we get to swim in the pond, but certainly would not have dug one just for that! The pond isn't really something that you'd want to swim in at this point. It's getting low).

Once water sources are established, the water needs to be moved to the crops. There are 2 irrigation pumps set up on the edge of the pond that pump water out of the pond, through a filter, and into a flexible, fireman type hose called blue layflat, so named because the hose lays flat when empty, allowing a mower blade to mow right over it with out causing harm. The blue layflat runs all the way from the pumps out to the uphill side of each field. From there the layflat is equipped with quick connects that attach to a type of piping that is made of rigid black plastic. We call these pipes "headers". Headers run the whole width of each field - in our case each field has about 72 beds that are each 200 feet long. Individual lines of drip tape are attached to the header via shut off valves. The number of lines of drip tape laid on each bed is determined by the crops being grown. I could get into how we determine all that, but that would take up more writing! The drip tape is basically a long plastic tube with little slits every foot where water drips out (hence the name).

All of this infrastructure has to be set up before we can irrigate. It's a lot of unrolling big reels of plastic tubes. We reuse headers from year to year, so there's plenty of standing by the pallets of rolled up headers from the year before, trying to figure out which header best fits this year's crops. It may sound easy but it's not. The beds don't line up perfectly with the beds of the years before, so there is an art to it.

Once everything's set up it's time to turn on the pump (first put gas in and make sure the pump works, fix it if it doesn't) Then, wait a bit while the system pressurizes (drip works best between 12 and 15 psi). The system has less pressure the further the water gets from the pump, so we have to bike back and forth a few times between the pressure gauge on the header of the field being irrigated and the pump by the pond to fine tune the system. Now, hopefully, the drips are dripping out and the crops are getting a drink. Dum dee dum. La la la. Ahhhhh! what's that giant geyser off in the distance?! Jump of the irrigation bike (my old bike with 2 panniers filled with drip tools and parts) and fix the leaks. The older the drip system and the more times the materials are reused, the more the leaks.

As you've probably guessed, the name of the game here at the farm lately is irrigation. Why do we irrigate? Irrigation results in better yields - faster growing, bigger crops. It helps ensure that seeds planted in bone dry soil germinate. We need crops to germinate roughly around the time that we plant them because we seed them on a fairly strict schedule that co-insides with the harvest schedule. That is, if the crops don't germinate in a timely fashion, we don't harvest them in a timely fashion. Bigger crops mean less total land needed to grow an adequate amount of food for the CSA. Faster growing means that there is more time for cover crops and bare fallowing. More reliable crops means that we don't spend time preparing a field for planting, planting, and then have to till it in because the stand didn't justify the time and resources it takes to grow and harvest a crop.

Despite all these benefits of irrigation, we do have long-term farm dreams of dry farming (farming with out irrigation). Why is that a farm dream? There are a bunch of reasons. One important one is that irrigation takes money. Another one is that irrigation takes a lot of stuff, and all of that stuff, besides the water, consists of plastic and gas. The plastic parts don't last forever - we buy about $5000 worth of irrigation parts a year, and those aren't things that count as equity, they're things that have to be purchased every year because they wear out. So, dollar signs and non-renewable resources (plastic and gas). Irrigating takes time - time that could easily be spent on other tasks. Pulling drip lines off a bed (actually more like 30 beds) to get a cultivating tractor through takes time, putting the drip back on all those beds takes time. Picture adequately described. We'd love to get rid of all those plastic harnesses!

How to do it? (Dry farm that is.) Well, there are many factors as you're probably ascertained! Probably the biggest factor is soil health. The more organic matter (OM) in a soil, the more water it can hold. OM is measured as a percent of the soil. I think that every % of OM holds one inch of rain. Most of the vegetable crops we grow would like about an inch of rain per week. Our OM is 3-4%, depending on the field. That's pretty good. Some of that OM we've created with an intensive cover cropping routine, some is left over from the years and years that this farm was a dairy. I'd say that most is native. So, say it rained one day and 3 inches (HA) came down. If the soil was dry to start with, it would be able to hold all of that rainwater with out any leaching, run-off, or erosion. That moisture can stick around and nourish microbial life and crops. In a soil with very little OM, moisture would leach away and leave the soil dry again in a relatively short amount of time. It's a self perpetuating cycle because the more moisture a soil can hold, the bigger and lusher the plants grow, and when those plants die their big lush bodies break down and contribute to, among other things, OM. Soils with low OM grow smaller plants, and thus build up OM more slowly. There are also many moisture conserving tillage techniques that dry farmers use. I really must limit myself and not describe all of them right now. My apologies. We actually use many of them even though we irrigate because they are just good farming practices.

Hopefully at some point the farm will reach a place where the soil is in such good health and Paul and I know our fields so well that we can totally maximize every drop of water out there and pull off dry farming. Or, possibly, the cost of irrigating with be prohibitive, or both. We'll see, for the time being we're fully on the irrigation band wagon.

See you at the farm,

Evangeline

Sweet Land Farm Blog

Distribution today

New Improved Winter Share

Second Week in Brooklyn

From Edible Brooklyn...

From Edible Finger Lakes...

Winter CSA starts December 7th (and 5th for Brooklyn)

Thanksgiving

Farm Week

October 18th

2011-12 Winter CSA on sale now!

Potatoes and Cover Crops

Raspberries are awesome and unlimited!

A not too wet farm

Berry limit is now 2 quarts

Berry limit is now 1/2 quart

First week of September

Week of August 29th

August 15th

August 8th

August 2nd

July 25th

An inch of rain!

July 11th

Farm Walk this week!

Peas and Strawberries increased

Pea limit increased

Strawberries and Peas

"U-pick

Second Week

The first week of our 5th season!

CSA Starting, pleas respond!

CSA Start Dates Set

CSA start date info

Wetness at the Farm

Spinach! Kale! Leeks!

ANOTHER Food Sale!!

Great Food Sale @ SLF!

Piggery and Wide Awake Bakery at Sweet Land!!

3rd Annual Great Greens and Roots Give-Away!

Last Winter CSA Distribution this Wednesday

Distribution this Wednesday

Summer 2011 CSA shares on sale for Returning Members

Feb. 2nd Winter CSA Distribution is a Go

Kids and Flowers

Zinnia field, and us farmers hanging out with the fall broccoli

Yup, beets and carrots.

Winter CSA distribution this Wednesday the 2nd

Next Winter CSA Distribution date is January 19th

Third Winter CSA Distribution

The 2010 -2011 Winter CSA is Beginning!

Baked Butternut Squash–and–Cheese Polenta

INGREDIENTS

DIRECTIONS

SERVE WITH

Farm in November

Chermoula

Here's a link to our Kale "chips" on our lunch website for you to check out.http://www.lunchtaker.com/lunch_item_view.php?id=644

the ravishing rutabaga - or - it's not a turnip, people: four recipes for using a misunderstood root vegetable

HISTORY AND CHARACTERISTICS

NUTRITIONAL PROFILE

CULINARY PREPARATIONS

COMPLIMENTARY FLAVOR COMBINATIONS

RUTABAGA APPLE SALAD

RUTABAGA AND SWEET POTATO MASH WITH VANILLA

RUTABAGA-PARSNIP HASH

GLUTEN-FREE RUTABAGA HONEY CAKE

Light frosts at the Farm

Broccoli is our shining star this week.

Collards

Winter CSA 2010-11

Is it fall?

INGREDIENTS

Eggplant pasta

Oven-dried tomatoes

DIRECTIONS

Eggplant Pasta

Oven-dried tomatoes

Berries are now UNLIMITED 'til frost

A sniff of fall

Here's a link to our Kale "chips" on our lunch website for you to check out.

http://www.lunchtaker.com/lunch_item_view.php?id=644