BGF News - September 17, 2019-Vol. XLII, No.16

BGF News - September 17, 2019-Vol. XLII, No.16

Harvesting lettuce bouquets

In this week’s box:

Baby lettuce bouquets

Beans: Carson (yellow) and/or Provider (green)

Buttercup Squash

Cherry Tomato Mix  

Garlic: Farmer's Folly
Habanero Peppers: Helios (orange habanero in the clamshell box)
Onions: Red Carpet

Sweet Peppers: Assorted

Summer Squash: 8 Ball (green,round), Golden Glory (bright yellow zucchini),  Patty

      Pan (scalloped white, green or yellow), Slik Pik (thin, yellow) or Zephyr (green & yellow)

Tomatoes: see descriptions in 7/30 newsletter post
Turnips: Hakurei

and perhaps one of the following: (please see **NOTE  after "A Little Detail..." below)     

Broccoli: Imperial or Belstar

Eggplant: Orient Express (dk purple) & or Orient Charm (lavender)
Okra: Bowling Red and/or Candle Fire

For those with the Egg option [Full shares]: one dozen free-range eggs (asst. colors)

For those with the Herb option: Sweet basil, ginger mint & sorrel

Featured Recipes:  ** indicates a BGF favorite 

Fresh Tomato Salsa
Roasted Tomato Salsa
Roasted Eggplant Salsa
Okra Salsa
Buttercup Squash Recipes

What’s up on the farm?

Precipitation in the past week: 0.2"

Welcome to our annual Salsa Box! Or Sauce Box if you prefer. Every year when the tomato harvest is at it's heaviest, we "stuff" as many of them into the boxes as possible to give folks the opportunity to stock up on some salsa or sauce. We  try to include recipes to appeal to lots of difference salsa tastes, but always include our favorite: Mezair (a fresh Kurdish salsa). As many of you may know, the "FarmHer-in-charge" isn't particularly fond of cilantro so we always substitute parsley/par-cel or mint and sometimes sorrel in our salsa recipes. If you have the same issue, we encourage you to try one of these alternatives. If you do like cilantro, well, that's ok too. Speaking of salsa ingredients, a heads up on the hot peppers. Our Wenk's Yellow Hot peppers are just poking along, but we are getting buried in beautiful habanero peppers right now, so that is what we are sending out. Be aware that they are fairly hot, so proceed slowly when adding them to salsa or other dishes. We've packed them in clamshell boxes so no one accidentally mistakes them for a sweet pepper and takes a bite unwittingly. 

Speaking of heat, this brief (we hope) return to summer isn't our favorite weather trend. Although we spent the whole summer working in warmer temperatures, our cooler August really killed all of our heat tolerance so we are a bit grumpy in the fields right now. The crops and animals definitely feel the same and everyone would like a nice rain. While the warm weather crops like peppers and eggplant are enjoying the return to midsummer, our mid season lettuces are bolting and the 2nd succession of beans just gave up the fight. The storm-damaged basil never recovered so we've cleared that and beans #2. We do still have basil in the high tunnels that might keep going a bit longer and beans #3 that we just started harvesting so those will continue to appear in the boxes for a while yet. This will likely be the final summer squash delivery as those plants are also just about spent. They've certainly given us a bounteous season and now we start to focus on winter squash. We harvested the buttercup squash yesterday and are really pleased with it. I roasted up a damaged one last night with a handful of onions, fennel and sausage and it was delicious! I hope you enjoy yours as much as I did!

Buttercup Squash

New toys for the FarmHers!

While we would really like a good rain shower, this past weekend we were hit with a "shower" of new-to-us equipment. Thanks to my parents who were able to attend a sale and and auction while I was at market, we have added a "new" tractor tiller, waterwheel transplanter, mulch layer, cultivator and bulk storage bins. These items may be big game changers for us in the future when it comes to weed control and crop production. 

Speaking of the future, we've started getting questions about the end of the season, so here's the current plan:

October 15-  Final CSA delivery

October 26- Final Farmer Market

November 5-  First VegEmail Sale

A little detail on your produce this week:

Beans: Fresh beans are an easy "store."  Just leave them in their plastic bag and keep them in the produce drawer.  Can last up to 2 weeks.

Buttercup Squash:

One of the most popular winter squash varieties, buttercup squash has a sweet and creamy orange flesh.  Containing more than 200% of the recommended daily amount of vitamin A, it is also high in vitamins C and B.  An added benefit is that buttercup squash is an excellent source of dietary fiber.
To prepare, wash the outside thoroughly.  Cut in half and remove the seeds and stringy pulp.  Place cut side down in a baking dish, add 1/2 cup of water and cover with aluminum foil.  Bake at 375 degrees for 30 minutes or until tender.  Buttercup squash can also be easily micro-waved.  Follow the above instructions, cover with wax paper, and micro-wave on High at 5-minute intervals until tender.  Serve with butter , salt and pepper or brown sugar.  Try a little parmesan cheese for variety.

Broccoli: Wrap broccoli loosely in a plastic bag and keep it in the vegetable bin of your refrigerator for up to a week. Immediately before cooking, soak broccoli, head down, in cold, salted water (1 teaspoon salt to a 8 cups of water) for 5 minutes. Any [organic] critters will float to the top where you can rescue them or allow them to suffer a salty death. (Note: If you soak broccoli in salt water before storing, it will become too rubbery and wilted to enjoy.) Slice the juicy, edible stems and use them wherever florets are called for. Peel particularly thick skin before using.

Hot Peppers: To maximize the shelf life of raw habanero peppers, store in a paper bag in the vegetable crisper of refrigerator. For long term storage, wash & dry peppers, then place whole in a ziplock bag & freeze. To use, just run individual peppers under hot water to thaw a bit, chop & use as desired. These are quite hot, be sure to wear gloves to handle and wash well before touching your eyes or any other sensitive skin...really! You can decrease the heat of all hot peppers by removing the seeds & membranes before using.

Peppers:  Place whole, unwashed peppers in a plastic bag, seal, and refrigerate for a week or more. Rinse peppers just before use. For sweet peppers, cut around the stem with a small knife and lift out the core. Slice down the side to open it up and then cut out the inner membranes. Store unused portions in a sealed bag or container in the refrigerator.

Summer Squash/Zucchini: Refrigerate unwashed zucchini and summer squash for up to a week and a half in a perforated plastic bag or in a sealed plastic container lined with a kitchen towel. These do not need to be peeled to use, just slice them up and go!

Tomatoes:

 always store whole tomatoes at room temperature, out of direct sunlight. A light "squeeze" is the best test for ripeness. Once cut, store in a sealed container in the refrigerator.  

A few other details: All of your GREENS will keep best if stored in a plastic bag, with the top folded over and placed in the produce drawer of your refrigerator.  

** NOTE: You will notice over the course of the season that some box contents listed above say "Perhaps one of the following..."  These are items that we can’t harvest in sufficient quantities for the whole CSA to receive at one time.  We do track who gets what and we will do our best to ensure that everyone eventually receives each item.  On some items this may take several weeks, so please be patient.

Is a weekly newsletter not enough for you and you want to read more about our daily adventures or see pictures of the farm?  Follow us on Facebook at Blue Gate Farm and/or share your recipes, experiences and questions with other BGF members at Blue Gate Farm Community.

That’s about it this week, if you have any questions or comments be sure to let us know. 

Best from the farm,

Jill & Sean (and Luci, Indigo & Sky)

BGF News - September 10, 2019-Vol. XLII, No.15

BGF News - September 10, 2019-Vol. XLII, No.15

Thelma Sanders Acorn Squash

In this week’s box:

Acorn Squash: Thelma Sanders

Asian Pears
Beans: Carson (yellow) and/or Provider (green)

Beets: Ace (red), Chioggia (red/white) and/or Golden

Cherry Tomato Mix

Eggplant:Orient Charm (lavender) and/or Orient Express (dark purple)

Leeks
Roselle

Sweet Peppers: Assorted

Summer Squash: 8 Ball (green,round), Golden Glory (bright yellow zucchini),  Patty

      Pan (scalloped white, green or yellow), Slik Pik (thin, yellow) or Zephyr (green & yellow)

Tomatoes: see descriptions in 7/30 newsletter post

and perhaps one of the following: (please see **NOTE  after "A Little Detail..." below)     

Broccoli: Imperial or Belstar

Okra: Bowling Red and/or Candle Fire

For those with the Egg option [Full and Half shares]: one dozen free-range eggs (asst. colors)

For those with the Herb option: Sweet basil, rosemary, par-cel

Leek harvest

Featured Recipes:  ** indicates a BGF favorite 

Roasted Acorn Squash and Leek Soup
Acorn  Squash with Leeks and Lemons
Beet-and Sorrel Tart (use roselle in place of the sorrel)

What’s up on the farm?

Precipitation in the past week: 0.4"

Well, it looks like we get at least one more week of summer temps. It's always remarkable to us this time of year, how quickly we lose our tolerance for warmer temperatures. All it takes is a few days of fall-time weather and we are suddenly back to thinking mid-80's is hot! The new fall crops certainly think that it is, some of our new head lettuce is bolting before it even reaches harvest size. Ah well, Fall will be here soon enough, in all it's glory. The signs are all around us, the trees are losing their intense green color, fading first before turning to their autumn wardrobe. The fall wildflowers are in full glory right now, a golden riot of color in the ditches, field edges and prairies and we are starting to see the first "frost flowers" or fall asters in shades of purple, lavender and white. My grandpa always said when you see the first frost flowers bloom, the first frost is 2 weeks away. So far we haven't found that to be very accurate, but they are always a harbinger of big weather changes to come in the not-to-distant future. Our first average frost date is October 10th, just a month from today.

Harvesting Delicata Squash

The gardens and fields definitely look like a change of season is in swing. We've cleared all the  tunnel cucumbers and melons and those beds have been prepped for the latest fall crops. We've seeded more cool weather greens and transplanted more fall lettuces. Yesterday we started the first big winter squash harvest, or as I like to call it, "Squash Your Boss" day, since the crew throws the harvested squashes at (to) me to load into the crates as we drive past. It's a fun way to make light of what can be a heavy harvest day. We harvested all the mature acorn and delicata squashes, with more to come later. It was the best crop we've had of either of those and we are extra pleased with them given the tough growing season. There are still lots of squash in the field and storage space is about to be an issue, but one we appreciate!

We are sending out an extra little (seriously, they are little!) treat today. We harvested the Asian pears yesterday and while we lost the majority of the fruits during the tornado, one tree held on to a relative abundance of little pears. They are tiny, but tasty and we wanted to share them with you. We hope you enjoy them.

A little detail on your produce this week:

Acorn Squash: Acorn squash can be stored at room temperature for up to one month.  It is so easy to bake.  After washing the outside, slice in half lengthwise,  scoop out the seeds and fiber, and place face down in a baking dish.  Add a little water to avoid drying out and to speed up the cooking process.  Bake at 350 degrees for 50-60 minutes, until easily pierced with a fork.

Asian Pears:

Asian pears are like an extra juicy apple, delicious eaten raw, out of hand or used in nearly any apple or pear recipe. Store in the fridge for up to 3 months or on the counter for a week.

Beans: Fresh beans are an easy "store."  Just leave them in their plastic bag and keep them in the produce drawer.  Can last up to 2 weeks.

Beets- Cut off greens, leaving an inch of stem. Refrigerate the unwashed greens in a closed plastic bag and use with your chard mix as beets and chard are closely related. Store the beet roots, unwashed, with the rootlets (or “tails”) attached, in a plastic bag in the crisper bin of your refrigerator. They will keep for several weeks, but their sweetness diminishes with time. Just before cooking, scrub beets well and remove any scraggly leaves and rootlets. If your recipe calls for raw beets, peel them with a knife or vegetable peeler, then grate or cut according to your needs baby/young beets usually don't need to be peeled.

Broccoli: Wrap broccoli loosely in a plastic bag and keep it in the vegetable bin of your refrigerator for up to a week. Immediately before cooking, soak broccoli, head down, in cold, salted water (1 teaspoon salt to a 8 cups of water) for 5 minutes. Any [organic] critters will float to the top where you can rescue them or allow them to suffer a salty death. (Note: If you soak broccoli in salt water before storing, it will become too rubbery and wilted to enjoy.) Slice the juicy, edible stems and use them wherever florets are called for. Peel particularly thick skin before using.

Leeks: Loosely wrap unwashed leeks in a plastic bag and store them in the vegetable bin of your refrigerator. They will keep for a couple of weeks. To use- Cut the leek about 1 inch above the white part, where the leaves begin changing from dark to light green. (Save the unused greens; they’ll give great flavor to your next vegetable stock.) Fan the leaves under running water to dislodge any dirt collected there, then pat thoroughly dry. You can julienne a leek by cutting it lengthwise, or slice it crosswise. If you want to clean a leek that you will be cooking whole, make a slit down one side to within an inch or two of the root end. Then spread the leaves under running lukewarm water to clean the leek. During cooking the leek will stay whole. When serving, arrange the leek with the cut side down.

Peppers:  Place whole, unwashed peppers in a plastic bag, seal, and refrigerate for a week or more. Rinse peppers just before use. For sweet peppers, cut around the stem with a small knife and lift out the core. Slice down the side to open it up and then cut out the inner membranes. Store unused portions in a sealed bag or container in the refrigerator.

Summer Squash/Zucchini: Refrigerate unwashed zucchini and summer squash for up to a week and a half in a perforated plastic bag or in a sealed plastic container lined with a kitchen towel. These do not need to be peeled to use, just slice them up and go!

Tomatoes:

 always store whole tomatoes at room temperature, out of direct sunlight. A light "squeeze" is the best test for ripeness. Once cut, store in a sealed container in the refrigerator.  

A few other details: All of your GREENS will keep best if stored in a plastic bag, with the top folded over and placed in the produce drawer of your refrigerator.  

** NOTE: You will notice over the course of the season that some box contents listed above say "Perhaps one of the following..."  These are items that we can’t harvest in sufficient quantities for the whole CSA to receive at one time.  We do track who gets what and we will do our best to ensure that everyone eventually receives each item.  On some items this may take several weeks, so please be patient.

Is a weekly newsletter not enough for you and you want to read more about our daily adventures or see pictures of the farm?  Follow us on Facebook at Blue Gate Farm and/or share your recipes, experiences and questions with other BGF members at Blue Gate Farm Community.

That’s about it this week, if you have any questions or comments be sure to let us know. 

Best from the farm,

Jill & Sean (and Luci, Indigo & Sky)

BGF News - September 3, 2019-Vol. XLII, No.14

BGF News - September 3, 2019-Vol. XLII, No.14

In this week’s box:

Basil: Genovese or Italian Large Leaf

Beans: Carson (yellow) and/or Provider (green)

Chard or Kale Mix

Cherry Tomato Mix

Cucumbers: Lemon (round, yellow), Marketmore (English-type) or Suyo Long (long, Asian)

Garlic: Farmers Folly Mix see detail below

Purslane

Spaghetti Squash

Sweet Peppers: Ace (green to red), Islander (purple to orange)

Summer Squash: 8 Ball (green,round), Golden Glory (bright yellow zucchini),  Patty

      Pan (scalloped white, green or yellow), Slik Pik (thin, yellow) or Zephyr (green & yellow)

Tomatoes: see descriptions in 7/30 newsletter post

and perhaps one of the following: (please see **NOTE  after "A Little Detail..." below)     

Broccoli: Imperial or Belstar

Cantaloupe: Minnesota Midget

For those with the Egg option [Full shares]: one dozen free-range eggs (asst. colors)

For those with the Herb option: Thai basil, dill, lemongrass

Featured Recipes:  ** indicates a BGF favorite 

Roasted Green Beans with Parmesan and Basil

Spaghetti Squash with Garlic and Burst Cherry Tomatoes
Tomato Cucumber Purslane Salad

What’s up on the farm?

Precipitation in the past week: 1.75"

While I always resist making predictions about the weather, this sure feels like the last gasp of summer this week. Honestly, we kind of hope that it is. Not that we exactly wish for summer to be over, but we have been putting a lot of fall crops in the ground recently and they really dislike summer temperatures. If we get too many days of too high temperatures, it can cause these crops to bolt, or go to seed prematurely. This ends their use as vegetable crops, so we prefer them to ease into a nice slow slide into fall weather, much like we've been enjoying recently! In the past week we've sown fall spinach and tatsoi as well as started flats of chard, kale and napa cabbage to be transplanted into the high tunnels. We also continued our fall field transplanting with more broccoli and kale, with many more crops scheduled to go in the ground this week. We had hoped to get them in late last week, but our surprise 1.75" rain on Thursday morning put a hold on that plan. To make space for these crops we've been clearing more spent warm-weather crops like cucumbers, summer squash and the first sowing of beans. We still have later plantings of these crops, but especially the cukes and summer squashes are just about done. This will likely be the final delivery of cucumbers and possibly basil, which was really stressed out by the storm a couple of weeks ago.

Speaking of the storm, our recovery continues. We are filled with gratitude for the many kind words, offers of help and hours of labor put in by the crew, friends and family. We spent much of the Labor Day weekend getting the roof rebuilt and recovered. While not quite done, we are now rain-tight and feeling much more secure. There is still much work to be done on the high tunnels, but the supplies are ordered and we hope to have a schedule for those repairs soon.

On a related note, many of you are familiar with our annual fall event, Farm Crawl. We are sad to announce that this year's Crawl has been cancelled due to several farms retiring and others suffering damage in the recent storm. It is unclear at this time whether the event will continue in future years. 

And finally, a little tale of the Farmer's Folly. I will spare you the lengthy bedtime version, but last fall when planting garlic in a new plot, the FarmHer had a record keeping irregularity. This wasn't realized until after we harvested the garlic this summer and found the record of the planting details...which weren't exactly how we remembered...or how we grouped our harvest. In short, we mixed some of our Northern White garlic in with our Music garlic and now have no way of separating them. Our Northern White variety is still true, and we will use that for sale and for seed stock. However the Music mix is now labeled Farmer's Folly since we aren't sure which it is. What does this mean for you? Really very little,  it is all delicious and wonderful for use in the kitchen, it is just no longer a clean seed line and we will have to start over with buying new seed for our Music variety.

A little detail on your produce this week:

Beans: Fresh beans are an easy "store."  Just leave them in their plastic bag and keep them in the produce drawer.  Can last up to 2 weeks.

Broccoli: Wrap broccoli loosely in a plastic bag and keep it in the vegetable bin of your refrigerator for up to a week. Immediately before cooking, soak broccoli, head down, in cold, salted water (1 teaspoon salt to a 8 cups of water) for 5 minutes. Any [organic] critters will float to the top where you can rescue them or allow them to suffer a salty death. (Note: If you soak broccoli in salt water before storing, it will become too rubbery and wilted to enjoy.) Slice the juicy, edible stems and use them wherever florets are called for. Peel particularly thick skin before using.

Cantaloupe:  If your cantaloupe seems a bit short of ripe, keep it at room temperature for a few days or until there is a sweet smell coming from the stem end. Once the melon ripens, store it in the refrigerator. It is best not to cut a cantaloupe until you are ready to eat it. If you need to return cut melon to the refrigerator, do not remove the seeds from the remaining sections as they keep the flesh from drying out. Use within 3-5 days.

 Cucumber: Store unwashed cucumbers in a sealed plastic bag in the vegetable crisper bin for about a week. Keep cucumbers tucked far away from tomatoes, apples, and citrus—these give off ethylene gas that accelerates cucumber deterioration. You can do a lot of fancy things to the skin of a cucumber, but when it is young, fresh (and unwaxed), it really only needs to be thoroughly washed. However, if the skin seems tough or bitter you can remove it; if the seeds are bulky, slice the cucumber lengthwise and scoop them out.

Peppers:  Place whole, unwashed peppers in a plastic bag, seal, and refrigerate for a week or more. Rinse peppers just before use. For sweet peppers, cut around the stem with a small knife and lift out the core. Slice down the side to open it up and then cut out the inner membranes. Store unused portions in a sealed bag or container in the refrigerator.

Spaghetti Squash: A true winter squash, store spaghetti squash like you would an acorn or butternut squash, at room temperature or a bit cooler (basement) with good air circulation. To prepare, bake in the oven or the quicker version is to microwave 5 mins/lb until fork goes through. Cut squash in half and scope out the seeds.  Scoop out seeds, then scoop out the flesh of the squash and flake off “spaghetti” into strands and use as a pasta replacement or as a vegetable side dish.

Summer Squash/Zucchini: Refrigerate unwashed zucchini and summer squash for up to a week and a half in a perforated plastic bag or in a sealed plastic container lined with a kitchen towel. These do not need to be peeled to use, just slice them up and go!

Tomatoes:

 always store whole tomatoes at room temperature, out of direct sunlight. A light "squeeze" is the best test for ripeness. Once cut, store in a sealed container in the refrigerator.  

A few other details: All of your GREENS will keep best if stored in a plastic bag, with the top folded over and placed in the produce drawer of your refrigerator.  

** NOTE: You will notice over the course of the season that some box contents listed above say "Perhaps one of the following..."  These are items that we can’t harvest in sufficient quantities for the whole CSA to receive at one time.  We do track who gets what and we will do our best to ensure that everyone eventually receives each item.  On some items this may take several weeks, so please be patient.

Is a weekly newsletter not enough for you and you want to read more about our daily adventures or see pictures of the farm?  Follow us on Facebook at Blue Gate Farm and/or share your recipes, experiences and questions with other BGF members at Blue Gate Farm Community.

That’s about it this week, if you have any questions or comments be sure to let us know. 

Best from the farm,

Jill & Sean (and Luci, Indigo & Sky)