FARM NOTES: Wednesday, August 29, 2018

FARM NOTES: Wednesday, August 29, 2018

CONTACT INFORMATION:

Coordinator: Mike Rabinowitz Contact Us Before 5:00 pm. House Phone: 895-2884. Leave Message

Pick-UP Places and Time: 6 – 6:30 Mun Science Building Parking Lot

or Organic Farm: 5:30 – 7:30; other days by appointment.

Cell Phone on Pick-Up days: 709 749-2884. ( 6 – 6:30 only) .

I am The Little Red Hen who helped Mike register the farm as a partnership almost 40 years ago and have helped around the edges, with everything from soup to nuts and in-between. For the first twenty years, the farm notes were printed in-house and slipped into the Veggie bags. The notes this week reflects the conversations with Marc and Rachel, the resident farmers who enjoy scouring the farm for every bit of vegetation that can be used as an ingredient for something to eat – soups, salads, stir fries and from scratch, make it up as you go – original creations. Every evening, there is a large tray or dishpan of house vegetables with all kinds of vegetables, one or two beets, a pile of tiny fennel that seem to small and twisted to be used; obviously discards for CSA bags, partially wilted green onions, a small wilted head of romaine; bone lonely parsnip reject, a few zucchini nubbins, which is the short, compact zucchini that form when the flower is not pollinated, etc.

Today, I am using the nubbins to make a spread to simulate the onion caramelized humus from Costco, which we keep on the table for snacks with taco chips or crackers most days. Last week, there were several bags of fresh beans that wound up in the house from the farmers market, probably by mistake. I gathered them up for frig/ no questions asked. Used 2 bags for supper and 2 other bags to make Aunt Esther’s recipe for bean-walnut pate. See Farm Recipes under Bean Recipes. Instead of walnuts, I used cashews and about l/4 cup Tahinni. Most people felt the consistency and taste was better than the COSTCO counterpart.

Tail Gate Sales and Special Orders!

Tail Gate Sales and Swap Box: Often we have items that are not plentiful enough for our CSA bag. Often our members ask for extra and/or additional produce, herbs, etc. by e-mail and Mike brings them to drop-off. If we have the produce you need/want, i.e. basil, garlic, we will provide it to CSA folks, ahead of taking it to Farmers Market.  Mike has requests such as these over the course of the week! 
#1: Do you have any seed garlic for sale yet for planting this Fall? 
#2: If cherry tomatoes are still available we would like two pints this coming Wednesday ( 29th August). If two are more than you can manage, one would be appreciated. 
#3: Hope we can pick up two more packages of micro-greens this week. They are delicious! Our kids eat them right out of the bag like popcorn, in fact, we all do!  

Fennel. . The Organic Farm was already growing fennel because it is very popular with our restaurant chefs. When I grew up in Tennessee, there was no fennel. We had wild asparagus and polk salad, a form of collards growing in the fence rows; our wild ferns, were simply that – wild ferns. I had no interest in cooking with fennel myself until about ten years ago, after we went to Italy for the International Slow Food Gathering that takes place every two years in Turin, Italy. This is when we realized that fennel should/could be included in our CSA bags, issued the fennel challenge and learned some members use fennel on a regular basis. See recipes on farm Website. One of the recipes from the Canadian Living magazine is a salad with fennel, feta, thinly sliced apples, cashews, and green grapes, sprinkled with orange or mango juice. Perfect for a warm summer evening! See Organic Farm Website/ Recipes/ fennel. And, please send your fennel recipes to add to our files!

Terra Madre Foundation is an international gathering of around 500 small farmers, producers and Chefs that takes place every two years in Turin, Italy. The Founder used the term, slow food to “fight” the over whelming trend toward fast food and the destructive force this is having on our lands and small farmers. Mike and I and about 30 other small farmers from North America were housed in a small town, Vigone, which was over 1000 years old; the village had original very narrow, cobblestone streets. It was made up of barns and houses connected; animals and chicken walked through archways from the barns to the house; we saw cows being milked as we passed by on the bus/ to and from the gathering each day. Every house had large extensive vegetable gardens with wrought iron fences; every garden had a huge patch of green, airy fennel. We were served slow, cooked meals, prepared fresh every evening by a restaurant operated by a mother/ grandmother and her extended family, one of the family as head Chef, uncle or brother and others as servers, pastry chef, salads, etc. The evening buffet offered fennel in several different dishes, sausage and fennel, fish, chicken and plain, and baked. No wonder we became fascinated with fennel and issued a challenge to our CSA Members. I am now summoned by the ugly, damaged, skinny, fennel piled on Marc’s (please use me tray) on the back porch. As it turned out, the salad was delicious; not a speck left!

More garlic pieces/ drying in baskets on dining room table. Marc is still bringing in garlic pieces and damaged cloves to clean; we are prancing around the baskets showing off our spoils. We have offered some to staff and soon, I will start freezing some for winter.

Garlic Necklaces. True Story. One year we did give away garlic, for Christmas stockings and in the case of a close friend and neighbour, I made her a necklace, by braiding together garlic cloves with red yarn. For her husband, I used a gorgeous winter squash and made it a Santa beard and a red stocking hat. No garlic necklace for him. Sometime in the spring, we heard that our friend was expecting their fourth child, even though they decided not to have more children. They had three the ages of our children. When they made the announcement, her husband teased me, saying it was the garlic necklace! All is well, that ends well!. All four children are grown, have families and the youngest, a musician is a wonderful woman in her thirties, married to a musician in Paris and has a daughter of her own.

Kohlrabi. If Kohlrabi is a new vegetable to you, take time to read about and enjoy your Kohlrabi although Mike says it is small. I can’t remember when we started this ridiculous looking space ship vegetable on the Organic Farm. I peel away the outer skin, into area with soft, fresh texture, cutting it into stick type shapes, like carrot sticks and serve with home made dip/ green onion or spinach, in one of our daughter, Toby’s, hand sculptured clay bowls. It never lasts long served as an appetizer before dinner or a snack for people who drop into the farm over the week-end, like the friends from Ontario who brought their nephew and his girl friend on Sunday. They want to be organic farmers elsewhere in Canada and were able to follow Mike around while he picked tomatoes in Greenhouse #1.

When we were selling vegetables on Saturdays at Churchill Square, over 30 years ago, a well-known business man who immigrated from Germany, sought us out to reserve Kohlrabi for his mother who was living with him in St. John’s. We had a phone call from him most week-ends and sometimes his mother came with him for a chat. She explained she boils/stews Kohlrabi like turnip. Kohlrabi is one of our favourite vegetables and over time, it has become more popular with our CSA folks. Apparently, it is primarily consumed in some European countries, although it has also become a vegetable staple in northern India. It is in the cabbage family and the harder outside shell typically does not soften when cooked. However, kohlrabi can be eaten raw or cooked and has been a staple of German cuisine for hundreds of years. You can use the kohlrabi root as well as the leaves as they both have significant amounts of nutrients. We also use the roots/stems in salads in a way similar to carrots or broccoli, the leaves can be typically interchanged for kale or spinach.

Kohlrabi Nutrition Facts (Source: Google)

Kohlrabi is so highly valued in countries and cuisines around the world not only for its diversity in cooking applications, but also because it is full of nutrients and minerals like copper, potassium, manganese, iron, and calcium, as well as vitamins, such as vitamin C, B-complex vitamins, vitamin A, and vitamin K. [3] Along with that, kohlrabi is also high in dietary fiber and antioxidant compounds, such as phytochemicals and various carotenes.