Cream together:
1/4 c. shortening of choice
1/2 cup oil
1 3/4 c. sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 c. buttermilk or sour milk (or yogurt or sour cream with 1 tsp vinegar added)
Add all at once:
2 1/2 c. flour
1/4 c/ cocoa powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp cloves
Mix in:
2 c. grated zucchini (or any summer squash)
1/2 c. chocolate chips
Bake in a greased and floured bundt pan or 9 x 13″ greased pan at 325 degrees F. for 45 minutes.
Gwen had her Suffolk Punch foal ready to greet us on Tuesday morning! A beautiful stud colt with a white diamond on his forehead. Ryan will be leaving our farm this week and was hoping the foal would be born before he departed. Ryan is off to start medical school and has enjoyed being part of our farm team getting in on the ground level of good health which begins with healthy food produced in a sustainable manor. We wish him well and although we will miss him we are sure that he will be an excellent doctor.
The heat and dry weather have been a challenge and we are irrigating the main garden for the second time this week. It is interesting how things balance out. Ken says that the average rain fall over the year remains fairly constant so that when we have a very wet spring we are likely to have a dry spell in the summer to balance it out…We hope it doesn’t last too long, but are glad that we have the ability to irrigate the garden.
We have new Tamworth pigs to help jump start the composting of the horse manure. They also enjoy the extra produce on CSA pick up days.
Ken and Andy took a bit of a holiday and went to Horse Progress Days in Pennsylvania at the beginning of the month. The Mules caught their eye. Many of the Amish use mules further south because they do better in the heat. However Ken isn’t ready to switch to mule power yet! Gena’s Suffolk foal has been named “Eli” and he continues to grow well.
It always seems like the garden is really producing when we have our first zucchini and broccoli and they have started. We have said good-bye to the peas and strawberries and the string beans are about to begin.
Our working shares continue to give us a boost with the garden harvest and washing of vegetables. It’s a great way to get to know new members and renew our connection with old members. Children benefit from being part of the work that goes into the produce they take home each week and it helps them realize where the food they eat really originates! We believe it adds to the richness of their CSA experience.
We have lots of Swiss Chard that we will be putting in our CSA “Extras” each week. In the winter I visited our daughter, Ellen, in Portland, Oregon. She was graduating from a Chef’s Studio course taught by Robert Reynolds. Robert gave me a book he wrote inspired by recipes of his French friend and mentor, Josephine Araldo. From a Breton Garden by Josephine Araldo and Robert Reynolds has lots of recipes for vegetables that Josephine’s grandmother used and we grow. I thought that it would be good to share some of the recipes with the CSA and I am finally getting around to it! (We must be caught up in the garden!) They use both parts of the chard like it is two different vegetables. My mother did the same thing when I was growing up.
CREAMED SWISS CHARD WITH CHEESE
Swiss Chard and cream is a combination that allows for limitless possibilities; the cream could be replaced by walnuts, quatre epies, or whole grains of mustard. The vegetable can always accompany a roast duck and sauteed potatoes, and a wine such as Cahors or Madiran.
INGREDIENTS
2 bunches Swiss Chard
1 to 2 tablespoons butter
1 medium onion
1/2 cup bechamel (white sauce made with 1 tablespoon of butter and 1 tablespoon flour cooked together over low heat for 3 to 4 minutes and then 1/2 cup milk added and stirred until it is thick, cook over very low heat for several minutes).
1/3 cup grated cheese
1 egg
1/3 cup cream
Salt, freshly ground pepper, and nutmeg
METHOD
Prepare the chard by removing the center stalks. Reserve for another use. Blanch the green in boiling salted water until limp. The cooking time depends on the tenderness of the greens. If they are young plants, cook only a minute or two; if they are older and more fibrous, they may require more time to blanch. When they are done, remove to a colander and flush them under cold water to stop their cooking. Remove to a cutting board and chop coursely. In a dry skillet, dry saute until the leaves render their water, set aside.
In the same skillet, melt 1 to 2 tablespoons butter and saute the onion for a minute or two. Add the chard, which should be well drained. Stir in the bechamel and cheese; toss well to coat with the sauce. Season with salt, pepper, and nutmeg to taste.
Combine the egg and cream and stir into the chard mixture. Once the egg is added, do not cook. It can be warmed, but if subjected to too much heat, the eggs will hard cook. Adjust the seasonings and serve hot.
Note: The recipe calls for both bechamel and an egg and cream liaison. One or the other can be used alone, or both can be replaced by heavy cream reduced until it coats a spoon.
An alternative to cream or bechamel is a flavorful oil, such as extra virgin olive oil, walnut oil,hazelnut oil, or colza oil.
SWISS CHARD GRATIN
This gratin goes well with a roast of pork accompanied by sauteed apples and a white wine from Savoie, an Apremont or a Crepy.
INGREDIENTS Serves 4 to 6
1 or 2 bunches Swiss chard with ribs
1 cup white sauce ( see recipe below)
1/4 cup grated Gruyere cheese
4 tablespoons melted butter
Salt and freshly ground pepper
METHOD
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Remove the Swiss chard stems from the greens and save the greens for another use. Remove the tough outer fiber of the stalks by slipping a knife under the cut end of the stalk and peeling it away. Cut the stalks into 1/2 -inch pieces on the diagonal. Blanch the stalks in boiling salted water until done, about 4 to 6 minutes. Darin in a non-aluminum colander and flush in cold water. The vegetable water from cooking can be saved and used for a flovorful stack.
In a bowl, season the chard stalks with salt and pepper, and then mix with the white sauce; set in an oven-proof casserole. Sprinkle the surface with cheese. Dribble the melted butter over the top and brown the gratin in a preheated oven. The gratin can also be place under the broiler provided the mixture has been warmed before being put into the gratin dish.
WHITE SAUCE
INGREDIENTS
3 tablespoons butter
3 tablespoons flour
1 cup hot milk
1/2 cup heavy cream
Salt and freshly ground pepper
METHOD
Melt the butter in a small saucepan. Whisk in the flour and allow to cook for 3 to 4 minutes. Slowly whisk in the hot milk and then the heavy cream. Season with salt and pepper. Allow the sauce to simmer (over a very low heat) 20 minutes; reserve and keep warm.
Gena had a beautiful Suffolk Punch stud colt on Monday morning. We are all enjoying having a foal around again after a break of a few years. He seems healthy and strong. In the picture he is less than a day old and already “up and at ’em”!
We have had a bumper crop of strawberries. The CSA members have enjoyed picking extra berries on pick-up days. We dug our first carrots today and hope to have broccoli soon. It is nice to have the garden growing well and savor the flavours of the season as they change.
Last week we did manage to get the footings poured for the new greenhouse thanks to the efforts of the apprentices and our son, Grayden, and his friend, Race, who came for the week to jump start the project. Now even if we don’t have time to work on it again until fall the frost sensitive work is done!
The warm weather and rain are helping to get the garden growing. We are waiting for the sugar snap peas and are hoping to have some for our Saturday pick-ups. After our cold spring it seems that the garden if finally ready to take off. Our radishes are bigger this week, more like what we have been used to in other years.
All of our early transplants are planted. The second run of brassicas (cabbage, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower and broccoli) were the last of our major transplants to be planted. It was a happy day for us when we were able to tuck them in. Now everything just needs to grow and we can concentrate on weeding!
Our apprentices are off to a CFAFT Day today where they will visit another CSA farm. It will include a farm tour, a workshop on “Marketing”, pot luck lunch and a work project. It is also a nice opportunity to socialize with apprentices from other CRAFT farms.
We are into our second week of our CSA pick-ups. It is always a big push to get set up for the season. Now we are changing the rhythm of our work week to include harvest and pick-ups twice a week. Working Shares are signing up to come out and help with the harvest and we are getting to know new members and renewing our ties with others. It has been a challenging spring with the cold and wet weather. We continue to plant and transplant between rains and are now waiting for the ground to dry out yet again, before we can plant the peppers, melons, eggplant and tomatoes transplants in the main garden.
Last week the resident stallion, Chester, died due to some sort of internal problem that the vet couldn’t cure or clearly identify. We are sad and reminded again how fragile life can be. We shared ownership of Chester with another Suffolk breeder and who just had a filly foal sired by Chester. Two of our mares are due to foal in June and July so Chester will live on through his offspring.
Rhubarb is a main stay of our early CSA pick-ups. Go to pommeroyale.com (Ellen’s blog) from “Links We Like” in the side bar for a recipe for Rhubarb Compote with Wee Almond Cakes to accompany it. I guess almonds go with rhubarb because CSA member Bonnie Wietzel has also sent her husband’s gluten free Rhubarb/ Almond recipe:
Jason’s Delicious Dessert – Organic Rhubarb Honey Almond Crunch
Dessert base ingredients:
5 cups Chopped organic rhubarb
1/3 cup Liquid honey
1 tbsp Bob’s Red Mill (Gluten Free) Almond Meal
1 tsp Organic cinnamon
1/2 tsp Ground ginger
Topping ingredients:
1 1/2 cup Sliced raw almond, crumbled by hand
1/4 cup Coco Natura Organic coconut sweetener
1/4 cup Liquid honey
1/4 cup Unsalted butter, melted
1 tsp Cinnamon
1/4 cup Nature’s Cargo fine Himalayan salt
In a mixing bowl, stir together rhubarb, honey, almond meal, cinnamon and ginger until well mixed. Spoon into greased 8 cup baking dish.
Add topping:
In same mixing bowl that you just emptied out, stir together all topping ingredients. Then sprinkle topping ingredients over the rhubarb mixture.
Bake in 375 degree fahrenheit oven for 40 to 45 minutes or until the rhubarb is tender and your topping is brown.
Should serve 4 to 6 people.
Enjoy!
We are looking forward to our first CSA pick-up tomorrow. Just when we thought the weather was warming up we have gotten another cold wet series of days that has brought the asparagus growing to a halt! We are taking a leap of faith and starting regardless of the weather. Speaking of asparagus, our daughter, Ellen, has posted an Asparagus/ Bean Salad recipe on her pommeroyale.com blog (see “Links We Like”).
Last Wednesday we hosted a CRAFT DAY at our farm for the network of apprentice farms that we are part of. (See CRAFT ontario on the “Links We Like” for more info.) About 70 people participated for the day. Ken led a workshop on Soils and our apprentices were the “stage crew” holding up different puppet soil components to demonstrate their interactions in the soil. We enjoyed a great pot luck lunch, farm tour and a work bee where we mulched our half acer squash and pumpkin field in 20 minutes! Many hands really do make light work!
We have been very busy planting between the rains. Our 2012 strawberry plants are in and the potatoes for this year as well. We also have a 20 year old team of Belgian mares leased for the summer. We are really missing Jasmin, our Suffolk mare we lost to colic in December. Our apprentices need to have well trained horses to drive. We also purchased a Belgian mare, Princess. Suffolks are a rare breed of horse and it is not always easy to find replacements. It goes to show what a great horse Jasmin was that we need three horses to replace her!
Lots of transplanting has also been going on onions, leeks, shallots, broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, pac choi, kohlrabi, fennel, celery, celeriac, head lettuce and radicchio have all been transplanted outside. The west side of the garden, that was previously too wet to even plow, has been plowed and our greenhouse of tomato transplants have also gone in. So….we have been very busy. Today we worked in the greenhouse and are getting the pick-up room ready for our big start tomorrow.
We have been challenged this season to choose our start date. I can’t remember a spring when it has been so cool that we haven’t enjoyed our first asparagus by this time in the season. We did manage to squeak in a second seeding of early vegetables yesterday and uncovered our first planting. Lisa introduced us to a method of gathering up the row cover like a big crocheted braid. It will hopefully make the relaying easier. I was delighted to see a good germination of peas, spinach, carrots, beets, radish and mesclun. The row cover really makes a difference. Ken was even able to cultivate with the draft horses and his riding single row cultivator. It rained again last night so it is good to have the second batch of early seeding done! We are later than usual with our strawberry and potato planting, but hopefully we will be able plant strawberries tomorrow and potatoes the beginning of next week.
OUR CSA START DATES:
TUESDAY – MAY 17
SATURDAY – MAY 21
We have had an unusual amount of rainy weather! However, there are always rainy day jobs that seem to keep us busy. The fire wood for next year is all cut and split thanks to our apprentices for all their hard work. Yes, we did use a mechanical wood splitter and chain saws, but it is still a lot of work. Hopefully, next year we will not need so much wood to keep our green house going. The new green house will have a large thermal mass of rocks under it to store heat. This season has really given us an appreciation for thermal mass to store heat. We have burned a lot of wood to keep the hoop house converted to a greenhouse warm. The good news is that the plants are doing well.
Our hoop houses crops are also growing despite the wet cool weather our dilemma is that the outside gardens aren’t growing as fast as usual. I am thinking that the start of our CSA season may be delayed a week due to the cool, wet weather. We did get some early seeding done and covered it with row cover, but the last time I looked the plants still weren’t up. Time will tell.
We have been mixing potting soil for all the greenhouse plants that we start indoors. The melons have been seeded, but next week we will do another round of brassicas and we will seed our pumpkins, squash and early corn for transplants – that takes a lot of potting soil. We mix it up like a big cake – passing everything through a sieve to get the lumps out.
Another rainy day job is getting the electric fence ready for the draft horses to go out on pasture. They are looking forward to the fresh grass. Every year the apprentices learn the art of fixing electric fence. In the winter the wind blows it around and the deer break it as they roam across the ridge.