Newsletter – September 15, 2014

This week you are getting Yukon Gold potatoes, carrots, yellow onions, cabbage or broccoli, cucumbers, lemon cucumbers, squash, eggplant, green and orange bell peppers, tomatoes, and muskmelon or honeydew. Those who get a monthly delivery of honey will get some this week. First Fruits is bringing a half box of Summer Lady peaches and a half box of Gala apples.

Winter Share: The deadline for sign-up is in two weeks! If you cannot find your original copy, please ask your DC, they should have additional sign-up forms.

About Your Farmer: A member recently said they thought this was a great year for produce. My simple reply was you actually have a great farmer. I know it is hard to imagine what it takes to get this job done. Especially since we do not have any control of the most important aspect of farming: the weather. This was a difficult year to grow anything because it was too wet and too cold. Because you have a fantastic farmer with a lot of expertise, Jerry made this year look easy with good quality produce. In actuality, we had tractors stuck in mud and fields we couldn’t get into because of too much water. The tomatoes and peppers are a testament to the cold weather. They are having a hard time ripening. Corn seed rotted in the field and had to be replanted over and over just to get the few pickings we received. Watermelon rotted before they had ripened or were too waterlogged to have any flavor and tended to over-ripen overnight! (Sorry if you got one of those.)

Jerry sits down every winter for a couple of months planning the next year. Is there something new we can try, where are we planting, how many times can we plant it, how soon can we plant, and how far into the fall can we harvest? This all makes a difference in your season: what you get, when you get it, and how much you get. After all that planning, the weather can change everything. It can kill a crop, make it abundant, slow it down, or speed it up. Being the caretaker of a farm takes longevity, experience, and patience.

We have been more or less in a drought since 1998. Our weather has changed for the warmer. This past summer reminded Jerry and I what it was like when we were kids. Tomatoes didn’t ripen until mid to late August, watermelon was picked in September, nothing was picked in June—it was way too cold for anything to be harvested by then and our first frost was around September 25th. Guess what folks: we had a light frost last Saturday morning (the 12th)! Some crops were hurt, but as of Sunday morning, nothing has died. The light freeze will really slow things down now because the plant is stressed. I think we are all in for a surprise this winter if we keep going on with this moisture track!!!

Our 80th Anniversary in 2016: Yes, you read that right! We will be turning 80 years old in 2016. We really want to celebrate in style that year. So we want everyone to put on their thinking caps and let us know of things you may have done at other places that may be appropriate for our farm festival. I want to have a t-shirt design contest. How about issuing a new cookbook for our 80th Anniversary? We need your recipes!!! Everyone has a favorite recipe…even if it came from somewhere else! We just need to give credit where credit is deserved! So please send your favorite to Michele Morris: michele@cookingwithmichele.com. If you would like to help edit or work on the cookbook project, please let Michele know. I also want to include artwork from members of vegetables. But the highlight would be to have your farm scene on the front cover! If you are interested in creating an art page, submit that to Michele too! Everyone will have a chance to vote on the winning cover next season! Email me your ideas on how to celebrate!!

2015 Share Renewals: Because Jacquie doesn’t check this blog for comments, please contact her directly about renewals.

Have a wonderful week,

Kyle, Jerry and Jacquie

July 23rd Recipes from Jacquie

Memebers!  I’m so sorry!  This week’s newsletter included some great recipes from Jacquie that I forgot to post yesterday.  Here they are now!  -Anisa

Celery Au Gratin

3 cups chopped celery
¾ cup dried bread crumbs
1 egg
1 ½ Tbsp butter
1 to 1 ½ cups grated sharp cheese
1 ½ cups milk mixed with 1 ½ Tbsp flour
Salt & pepper to taste

Beat egg, milk and seasonings together. Melt ½ tsp butter in glass baking dish and cover completely. Boil celery 5 minutes, then layer in bottom of dish. Sprinkle on some bread crumbs and cheese. Continue with layers, reserve enough crumbs and cheese to top casserole.
Pour egg and milk mixture over all and top with remaining crumbs and cheese. Dot with remaining butter and bake at 350 degree oven for 40 minutes or until celery is tender.
This recipe comes from a cookbook I received in 1984 (when I got married) from a friend of my grandmothers who was in an Extension Club.

A member, Katherine Standifer gave me this recipe, yum!
Cabbage Pocket Pie

1 lb ground beef*
½ large head of cabbage, shredded
4 large carrots, grated
1 large onion, chopped
Shredded cheese
1 cup biscuit mix
2 cups milk
4 eggs

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Brown burger over medium heat. Drain then add cabbage, carrots and onion. Sauté until cabbage is tender. Season liberally with salt and pepper. Pour into 9X13 pan that has been greased/oiled. Sprinkle a little cheese over top of mixture. Combine biscuit mix, eggs and milk. Mix well then pour over ground beef mixture.** Bake 40 minutes or until knife inserted in center (of dough) comes out clean. Let stand 5 minutes before serving.

*Vegetarian Version: Omit ground beef and substitute summer squash, eggplant (& celery?). Cook as directed.
This reminds me of Shepard’s Pie. I think it would be great with lamb too!
**The biscuit topping could be replaced with garlic mashed potatoes.

Green Bean Fries
Wash and trim stems from beans. Place in a plastic bag, add olive oil and season with onion salt and garlic salt. Shake and mix until all beans are covered. Place on a large cookie sheet mostly in a single layer. Preheat oven to 500 degrees. Cook until slightly browned (around 10 minutes) toss the beans over half way through. Serve immediately!

Rosy Home Style Fries

4 to 5 med potatoes, cubed and boiled until tender
2 med beets, cooked and cubed
1 Tbsp oil
1 med onion, finely chopped
1 large pepper, chopped (optional)
½ cup fresh chopped parsley or 2 to 3 Tbsp dried
¼ tsp salt
1/8 tsp black pepper

Saute’ onions 5 min. Add potatoes and beets, saute’ 10 minutes or until potatoes start to brown. Toss in everything else and cook 1 to 2 minutes more. Serve warm.

Watermelon Split
2 Bananas
¾ cup melted semi -sweet chocolate chips
18 “scoops” watermelon, deseeded
raspberry jam, strawberry jam, blueberry jam
whipped cream
chopped nuts
maraschino cherries

Peel bananas, cut in half then cut lengthwise. Dip in chocolate and place on wax paper until hardened. May need to refrigerate or freeze to speed up process! Add bananas and watermelon “scoops” to a bowl. Cover each 1/3 watermelon with each kind of jam. Top with whipped cream, nuts and cherries. Serves four.

What I Made This Week: Grill “Roasted” Beets and Potatoes

Whew!  It’s been SO hot… too hot to cook in the kitchen for us.  That leaves us the grill.

This week, we figured out that we could “roast” potatoes and beets on the grill.  First we scrubbed everything and then cut both the beets and potatoes into about 1 inch pieces.

Toss the veggies with olive oil, salt or garlic salt, and pepper, and place them into aluminum foil to make two packets.  Wrap the beets and the potatoes separately unless you want the beets to turn the potatoes red.

Put the packets on the grill over medium to medium-high heat.  They will take about 20 to 25 minutes to cook through.  While you’re at it, go ahead and slice your squash and grill it too.

The potatoes are creamy this way and the beets are delicious!

What did you make this week?

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Anisa has been a member with the Monroe’s since 2008 as both a working member and a non-working member. She and her family enjoy a full share.  Read more from Anisa at The Lazy Homesteader.

What I Made This Week: Turnip, Pea & Kohlrabi Stir-Fry

Today’s post is from member Anisa Schell, author of the LazyHomesteader.com Anisa has been a member with the Monroe’s since 2008 as both a working member and a non-working member. She and her family enjoy a full share.
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The summer farm season has started!  I know a lot of members don’t always know what to do with the many great vegetables that we get each week from the Monroe’s, so I thought I’d start a semi-regular series of posts talking about what our family made with the farm share each week.

Last week’s share came as a surprise.  My husband was out of town for the week, and I was planning on leaving on Thursday to join him; we pick up our share on Tuesdays, so this left me a day and a half to get through a full size share with two kiddos and myself.  The go-to answer to use up lots of veggies at once… stir-fry!

Member Preserve Recipes!

Canning and pickling season is here!  While I was at the Monroe’s picking cucumbers, I asked some fellow members about sharing recipes…  Pat Stark came to the rescue!

Claraice’s Bread & Butter Pickles
Claraice Sheffield, Manilla, Iowa (1935)
25-30 small to medium pickling cucumbers
8 large white onions
2 large sweet peppers (red or green)
1/2 Cup pickling salt
5 Cups cider vinegar
4 Cups sugar
2 Tbsp. mustard seed
1/2 tsp. ground cloves
1/2 tsp. turmeric

makes about 8 pints
Wash cukes and slice as thin as humanly possible. Chop (or grind) onions and peppers; combine with sliced cucumbers and salt. Let stand 3 hours. Drain.
Mix vinegar, sugar and spices in large kettle, bring to a boil. Add the drained cucumbers, peppers and onions. Heat thoroughly but DO NOT BOIL.
Seal in sterilized jars.

And… another of Pat’s family favorites…

“Oklahoma Chili Sauce”
Aneth Fulton, Alva, Oklahoma (1915)
24 large tomatoes
6 onions, chopped
2 green peppers
1 red pepper
1 bunch celery
1 quart white vinegar
1-1/2 Cups sugar
1 Tbsp of each: salt, ginger, cinnamon, ground cloves, dry mustard

makes 4 quarts
1) Peel and chop tomatoes.
2) Process peppers and celery.
3) Place all ingredients in large kettle.
4) Simmer for 3 hours.
5) Seal in sterilized jars. [Dept. of Ag. recommends boiling water bath.]

Pat’s notes: There is no chili in this recipe so it’s really a tomato relish. Grandma Fulton dunked the tomatoes in boiling water to split the skins for easy peeling. When cool, she cored and crushed the tomatoes by hand and processed the peppers and onions in her food grinder. While I still peel and crush the tomatoes by hand, I use a food processor for the peppers and onions and simmer everything overnight in a crock pot. The aroma will drive you crazy!
When to serve? It’s ready immediately. Great for breakfast or dinner. Grandpa would spoon a generous portion next to potatoes and eggs in the morning and Grandma always placed an open jar on the table to serve with beef or poultry.

Dill Pickles!

With the pickling cucumbers coming on soon (are you on the picking list??), I thought I’d share my favorite dill pickle recipe.  It’s not a recipe I came up with – it’s from Allrecipes.com, but it’s delicious! We made pickles from this recipe last year.  You have to let them sit for 8 weeks before you get to eat them, but they are worth the wait!

Zucchini Mushroom Frittata

So glad to see a few zucchini recipes popping up on the blog.  It is the bane and the delight of summer – squash coming out of your ears!  Here’s a recipe that I put together this week:

Zucchini Mushroom Frittata

6 large eggs
1/2 cup ricotta cheese
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
salt and pepper to taste
1-2 tsp each dried basil and thyme (or 1 T each fresh)

Asparagus is Here!

Well – this week we got the call – Asparagus is up! 

If you are like our family, then you are excited for the sweet, crisp, crunchy goodness that are the first shoots of the spring crop!  It’s so delicious fresh, grilled, steamed, sautéed, roasted… you name it! 

We are headed up to pick ours next week.  If you want to pick too,