Pesto (from Our Mothers’ Kitchen by Anita Stewart)

Makes 1 cup

3 garlic cloves
2 cups packed basil leaves
1/3 cup pine nuts or walnuts
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
3/4 cup olive oil

In a blender or food processor, process garlic, basil, pine nuts, salt and pepper until finely chopped. With machine still running, gradually pour in oil and puree till smooth. To serve, add 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese and toss with freshly cooked hot pasta.

Zucchini Chocolate Cake (given to us by Michelle Jory)

1/4 cup butter or margarine
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 3/4 cups of white sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups grated zucchini
2 1/2 cups unsifted flour
4 Tbsp cocoa
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 cloves
1/2 cup sour milk (add 2 tsp of vinegar to fresh milk)
1/4 cup chocolate chips

Combine butter, oil, sugar, eggs and vanilla in a large bowl, blending well.
Add zucchini. Combine flour with other dry ingredients. Add to mixture alternating with sour milk. Add chocolate chips. Bake in 9 x 13 inch pan at 325 F for 45 to 60 minutes.

Radicchio Pizza (from The Complete Encyclopedia of Vegetables and Vegetarian Cooking by Roz Denny and Christine Ingram)

14oz can chopped tomatoes
2 garlic cloves, crushed
pinch of dried basil
1 1/2 Tbsp olive oil, plus extra for dipping
2 onions, sliced
1 radicchio roughly chopped
1/4 cup Parmesan, grated
115g/4oz mozzarella cheese, sliced
10-12 black olives, pitted
basil leaves, to garnish
salt and pepper

Homemade or store bought pizza dough, rolled out into a 10 – 11 inch round.

Preheat the oven to 435 F and grease a baking sheet.

Puree the tomatoes and then pour into a saucepan. Stir in one of the crushed garlic cloves, together with the dried basil and seasoning, and simmer over a moderate heat until the mixture is thick and reduced by about half.

Heat the olive oil in a large frying pan and fry the onions and remaining garlic for 4 – 5 minutes until slightly softened. Add the radicchio and cook, stirring continuously for a few minutes, and then cover and simmer gently for about 5 -10 minutes. Stir in the Parmesan cheese and season with salt and pepper

Cover the dough base with the tomato mixture and then spoon the onion and radicchio mixture on top. Arrange the mozzarella slices on top and scatter over the black olives. Dip a few basil leaves in olive oil, arrange on top and then bake the pizza for 15 -20 minutes until the edges are golden brown.

The golden beets are nice in this recipe because they don’t bleed into the couscous and make it pink, but you get the beet flavour.

Golden Beets, Couscous and Spinach
Ingredients
Couscous:
1 teaspoon extra virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons thinly sliced peeled shallots (about 1 large)
8 ounces golden beets( approx. 2 medium beets), thinly sliced, peeled, and chopped (about 1 1/2 cups)
1 cup uncooked couscous
2 cups water
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup raw spinach leaves, trimmed

To prepare couscous, heat the olive oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add shallots and beets; sauté 5 minutes or until shallots are tender and just beginning to brown. Stir in couscous; cook 1 minute, stirring frequently. Add water and salt; cover and simmer 8 minutes or until couscous is tender. Remove from heat; stir in spinach. Toss gently until combined and spinach wilts. Keep warm.


Ken and the horses are opening up the trenches for the apprentices to lay the plastic mulch before planting peppers.

The plastic mulch increases the heat units so the peppers bear sweeter fruit.

Jessica Foote, Yehuda Nestel, Maciej Jamrozik, Anna McFaul
getting ready to transplant corn.
Maciej and Yehuda getting the signs cleaned up for the pick-up room

It is helpful to have this blog to easily share recipes and information about the CSA. I would like to thank CSA member, Neil Hubert, for setting it up for us all. I am still working on the “image” feature and hope to sort that our before too long so I can add pictures in for interest.

Please share your recipes that use the farm produce. You can email them to me at kmlaing@execulink.com or bring it to me on your pick-up day.

Just a reminder to bring your own containers for taking home your produce. If you have extra bags please bring them to share for those who forget to bring containers.

The annual flowers are just beginning. If you would like water for the ride home you can always get it in the wash area, behind the pick-up room. There are scissors for cutting in the pick-up room in the the large basket. Please cut flowers from the garden beyond the “cut flower sign” in the front yard of the house. The sunflowers are starting. We have learned that they do well when the stems are freshly cut and put into HOT water. It sounds strange, but it works.

The Kohlrabi and Fennel are in our “vegetable mix” boxes for this week.

Kohlrabi looks like the vegetable from outer space, a bit like a satellite. It can be peeled and eaten raw, chopped up in salad, grated with mayo for a coleslaw, or added to vegetables mixes for roasting, grilling or soups. It’s also good peeled, chopped and added with potato, carrot, onion and garlic around chicken pieces covered with Italian Dressing and roasted in the oven until the chicken and vegetables are cooked.

Fennel has the anise flavour of black liquorish. It is has the texture of celery stalk and can be added like celery to salads. It is also good cooked with roasted vegetables or added to soups.

Summer Turnips – Hakurei or Scarlet Queen



Turnips with Their Greens



Spring turnips, cut into 1- inch pieces

Turnip greens and stems washed and coarsely chopped

Salt and fresh ground pepper

Olive oil

Steam the turnips until they are tender-firm. Saute greens in olive oil for about 1 min, then cover for about 5 minutes, cooking until wilted and soft.Put the greens on a plate and pile the turnips on the greens. Season with butter, salt and pepper.

Ruby Turnips



1 T. butter

4 -5 turnips

1 t. sugar

1⁄2 t. red wine vinegar

2 T. fresh dill

Fresh ground black pepper , to taste

Melt the butter in a skillet over medium heat, add the turnips, tossing to coat with the butter. Cover the pan and cook for 4 minutes, shaking occasionally. Add the sugar and vinegar and toss over medium heat for 1 minute. Sprinkle with dill and season to taste with pepper. Serve immediately.

This is a recipe that comes from a Five Rose Cook Book that belonged to Ken’s mother, copyright 1956. By popular request it has become Maciej’s speciality on his “cooking night” he started with cream of asparagus moving on to cream of spinach as the season progressed.

This recipe makes 2 cups of soup. If you want more just double or triple it. The spinach is added as the pureed vegetable. Blending or putting in food processor works fine for the puree and of course any “all purpose flour” can be substituted for “Five Rose Enriched Flour”. From the Five Rose Cook Book:

Soups
CREAM SOUPS
Five Roses Cream Soups are nourishing, economical and easy to make. With breadstuffs, a fruit dessert and a beverage they form a satisfying meal.

The basis for Cream Soup is a thin White Sauce, (White Sauce No. 1).
1 tbsp. butter
1 tbsp. Five Roses Enriched Flour
1 cup milk, cream, vegetable water or stock
Season with salt, pepper, bay leaf, onion, celery seed or parsley. Yield – 1 cup sauce.

Melt butter, add flour and cook for 3 minutes after the mixture bubbles. Add liquid gradually, and cook over direct heat, while stirring constantly, until mixture is thick and smooth. Add seasonings.

To this sauce, from 1/2 to 1 cup puree of any of the following vegetables may be added, to make a nourishing and appetizing Cream Soup:
Asparagus, potato, tomato, pea, corn, carrot or dried pes, beans or lentils.
.Note: – Puree means any vegetable boiled or steamed and rubbed through a sieve or colander

We are having an Ecological Farmers of Ontario Tour here on Saturday, July 5. The following is a handout that Ken wrote for the tour. It gives information about various alternative energy projects on the farm as well as general information about crops rotation.

Orchard Hill Farm

Straw Bale Bunkhouse
· Just dormitory – no kitchen – no bathroom
· Inside dimensions 20’ x 24’ – 2 bedrooms downstairs -1 bedroom upstairs.
· Straw bales for roof insulation as well approx. 450 bales in total – will be plastered inside and out.
· Special vented slab floor to increase heat storage created by 8” concrete blocks laid on side to create north-south passage to allow circulation under floor as well. 4 vents on north and south edge up through 6” floor slab to facilitate circulation of air.
· 2 relatively large sliding doors in south wall to facilitate solar gain.

PV system 2- 65w PV panels – 330 watts total
· 2-6v batteries for storage
· 300 watt inverter
· Designed to use very little power – just lights & a few small appliances.
· Parts cost for PV system approx. $3500 excludes 120v AC wiring and breaker box.

Solar Water Heater
· 2 used panels approx. 40 years old.
· Since storage tank is our electrical water heater in basement of house need circulation pump to move hot water to storage tank.
· Strategy – since only hot water when sun is shining can use PV panel to drive pump (no battery in system).
· Need special low power pump to reduce size of pump & panel needed to drive it.
· Pump – SID 10 PV by Ivan Labs Inc. ($300) draws approx. 1 amp powered by 10 watt PV panel ($100).
· Even with electric back up turned off has been supplying all of our hot water for past month for 6-7 people.
· Non-glycol system – must be drained for winter.
· Our winter system uses water coil in stove thermo – siphoning to adjacent tank.

PV System for Horse Barn – Lights
· 12 v DC system throughout for simplicity
· 50 watt PV panel
· small charge controller
· 12v DC breakers also used as switches to reduce length of wiring runs.
· Requires use of #10 and # 12 wire to reduce voltage drop in long runs.
· Large wire sizes expensive and hard to work with because stiff and bulky.
· 1 – RV 12 v battery for storage.
· 25 watt – 12v DC incandescent bulbs used – cheap, but use a lot of power.
· Marginal amount of power and storage with present bulbs – could switch to LED bulbs when prices become more reasonable to reduce power consumption.

Orchard Hill Farm
34 acres Owned
46 acres Rented

OHF established in 1979 – was part of Martha’s family’s farm. Soils vary from clay loams up on top of the ridge to sandy loams at the base of the ridge. The farm is located 6 km from Lake Erie which moderates the local climate. Our CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) garden was started in 1997 by Martha and our daughter Ellen with 25 shares the first year. We have 160 shares this year. A share costs $500 or $465 for a working share, where members spend 5 hours helping with the harvest. CSA crops occupy about 5.5 acres. The remaining crop land is used for hay, pasture and grain crops to provide all the feed for 9 horses, 4 pigs and 40 laying hens.
The greenhouse is 15’ x 20’. It is used for growing transplants and is often augmented by a 4’ x 16’ hot bed. It is heated by a wood stove with a lot of concrete thermal mass to hold heat over night. It has worked well.
Weed control has many aspects. First the nutrients in the soil need to be balanced and appropriate for the crop. A proper rotation and cover crop strategy needs to be used to prevent weed problems. Most of our crops are planted in single 36” rows (with the exception of mesclun and head lettuces which are planted in 4 row beds) so as to allow the use of a team of horses for cultivation of the rows. The use of rolling shields allows the cultivation of crops before they emerge or shortly after without the danger of burying them. A CSA garden requires a very flexible and adaptable row cultivator as there are many different corps and different stages of the same crop. Old 1 row 2 horse cultivators were very flexible and adjustable. Wheel hoes, hand hoes and hand weeding are also used to prevent weeds from competing with the crop or adding to the weed seed bank in the soil.

CSA rotation
· 1 year cover crops – buckwheat/winter rye
· 1 year vegetables
· 2 years hay which is cut and left

Potato rotation
· 1 year sweet corn (compost before sweet corn)
· 1 year potatoes (want high fertility – but not recent)
· 1 year squash – heavily mulched for weed control and fertility.

Field Crop rotation
· 1 year winter wheat hard red – variety Harvard / red clover
· 1 year oats / alfalfa and grass
· 2 years hay
· 3 years pasture

Irrigation System
· Pond holds 500,000 U.S. gallons
· Small stream diverted into pond to fill it – summer flow very low.
· Moveable aluminum pipe with sprinklers or 4 ft. risers
· Takes 2 hours for set of sprinklers to apply 1” water.
· Vegetable crops need 1” water per week.
· Takes 40,000 U.S. gallons to apply 1” to an acre
· Pond size just big enough for present acreage.

We are having an Ecological Farmers of Ontario Tour here on Saturday, July 5. The following is a handout that Ken wrote for the tour. It gives information about various alternative energy projects on the farm as well as general information about crops rotation.

Orchard Hill Farm

Straw Bale Bunkhouse
· Just dormitory – no kitchen – no bathroom
· Inside dimensions 20’ x 24’ – 2 bedrooms downstairs -1 bedroom upstairs.
· Straw bales for roof insulation as well approx. 450 bales in total – will be plastered inside and out.
· Special vented slab floor to increase heat storage created by 8” concrete blocks laid on side to create north-south passage to allow circulation under floor as well. 4 vents on north and south edge up through 6” floor slab to facilitate circulation of air.
· 2 relatively large sliding doors in south wall to facilitate solar gain.

PV system 2- 65w PV panels – 330 watts total
· 2-6v batteries for storage
· 300 watt inverter
· Designed to use very little power – just lights & a few small appliances.
· Parts cost for PV system approx. $3500 excludes 120v AC wiring and breaker box.

Solar Water Heater
· 2 used panels approx. 40 years old.
· Since storage tank is our electrical water heater in basement of house need circulation pump to move hot water to storage tank.
· Strategy – since only hot water when sun is shining can use PV panel to drive pump (no battery in system).
· Need special low power pump to reduce size of pump & panel needed to drive it.
· Pump – SID 10 PV by Ivan Labs Inc. ($300) draws approx. 1 amp powered by 10 watt PV panel ($100).
· Even with electric back up turned off has been supplying all of our hot water for past month for 6-7 people.
· Non-glycol system – must be drained for winter.
· Our winter system uses water coil in stove thermo – siphoning to adjacent tank.

PV System for Horse Barn – Lights
· 12 v DC system throughout for simplicity
· 50 watt PV panel
· small charge controller
· 12v DC breakers also used as switches to reduce length of wiring runs.
· Requires use of #10 and # 12 wire to reduce voltage drop in long runs.
· Large wire sizes expensive and hard to work with because stiff and bulky.
· 1 – RV 12 v battery for storage.
· 25 watt – 12v DC incandescent bulbs used – cheap, but use a lot of power.
· Marginal amount of power and storage with present bulbs – could switch to LED bulbs when prices become more reasonable to reduce power consumption.

Orchard Hill Farm
34 acres Owned
46 acres Rented

OHF established in 1979 – was part of Martha’s family’s farm. Soils vary from clay loams up on top of the ridge to sandy loams at the base of the ridge. The farm is located 6 km from Lake Erie which moderates the local climate. Our CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) garden was started in 1997 by Martha and our daughter Ellen with 25 shares the first year. We have 160 shares this year. A share costs $500 or $465 for a working share, where members spend 5 hours helping with the harvest. CSA crops occupy about 5.5 acres. The remaining crop land is used for hay, pasture and grain crops to provide all the feed for 9 horses, 4 pigs and 40 laying hens.
The greenhouse is 15’ x 20’. It is used for growing transplants and is often augmented by a 4’ x 16’ hot bed. It is heated by a wood stove with a lot of concrete thermal mass to hold heat over night. It has worked well.
Weed control has many aspects. First the nutrients in the soil need to be balanced and appropriate for the crop. A proper rotation and cover crop strategy needs to be used to prevent weed problems. Most of our crops are planted in single 36” rows (with the exception of mesclun and head lettuces which are planted in 4 row beds) so as to allow the use of a team of horses for cultivation of the rows. The use of rolling shields allows the cultivation of crops before they emerge or shortly after without the danger of burying them. A CSA garden requires a very flexible and adaptable row cultivator as there are many different corps and different stages of the same crop. Old 1 row 2 horse cultivators were very flexible and adjustable. Wheel hoes, hand hoes and hand weeding are also used to prevent weeds from competing with the crop or adding to the weed seed bank in the soil.

CSA rotation
· 1 year cover crops – buckwheat/winter rye
· 1 year vegetables
· 2 years hay which is cut and left

Potato rotation
· 1 year sweet corn (compost before sweet corn)
· 1 year potatoes (want high fertility – but not recent)
· 1 year squash – heavily mulched for weed control and fertility.

Field Crop rotation
· 1 year winter wheat hard red – variety Harvard / red clover
· 1 year oats / alfalfa and grass
· 2 years hay
· 3 years pasture

Irrigation System
· Pond holds 500,000 U.S. gallons
· Small stream diverted into pond to fill it – summer flow very low.
· Moveable aluminum pipe with sprinklers or 4 ft. risers
· Takes 2 hours for set of sprinklers to apply 1” water.
· Vegetable crops need 1” water per week.
· Takes 40,000 U.S. gallons to apply 1” to an acre
· Pond size just big enough for present acreage.

ORCHARD HILL FARM COMMUNITY GARDEN
2008

Welcome to the twelfth CSA season at our farm! We have expanded the garden to 160 shares this season and are looking forward to a good harvest. We have three apprentices with us. Yehuda Nestel is back again in a Senior Apprentice position. Anna McFaul and Maciej Jamrozik are here for their first season. Jessica Foote is also joining us for the month of June.

Important info about the CSA

Children going to the barn must be accompanied by an adult.
Please stay clear of the rear end of the horses in the barn.

Pick-up times: 11:00 am – 7:00 pm (on your regular pick-up day)
If you are unable to come on your regular pick-up day, another person can pick-up your produce. Please let them know pick-ups don’t start until 11:00 am. You can also switch from your regular pick-up day to a Tuesday or Saturday for that week, however we need to know at least one day before the pick-up.

Working Shares
The sign up sheet is in the pick-up room. Please make an effort to come when you sign up. We are counting on your help. If you can’t make it please call as soon as possible `ahead of time. We enjoy getting to know our members while we work together. It is also a big help to have the extra hands, especially with the high labour crops.

Mesclun tips
When you take mesclun home, keep it in a container that is not too wet.
If storing mesclun in a plastic bag, add a paper towel to the bag and leave the bag open.
If storing in a plastic container, add a paper towel or keep mesclun in a cloth bag.

Recipes
If you have a recipe to share bring it along and we will post it. If you are unsure of what to do with some vegetables just Google: “CSA Recipes” There are lots and lots of websites with recipes that explain how to use the wide array of produce that you receive.

Fall Harvest Pot Luck Party
Mark your calendar now!
Sunday, September 28th
2:00-4:30 pm
End of season. Last pick-up days will be as follows:
Tuesday – October 7
Saturday – October 11

Orchard Hill Farm CSA
Spring, 2008

Dear Members Past and Present,

Another year has rolled around! We are anticipating spring and the seedlings for early transplants are coming up in the greenhouse. Some head lettuce and Pac Choy have already been transplanted to our hoop houses. Our apprentices are lined up for this growing year. Yehuda Nestel will be returning for his second season. Jessica Foote, a future farmer who expects to have her own CSA in 2009, will be joining us for the months of April and June. Anna McFaul, a farm girl from Prince Edward County and University of Guelph student, will be here for the full season. Maciej Jamrozik, a University of Toronto Forestry and Geology student will be here from May to the beginning of September. They will be a good team to work with and we hope you will enjoy getting to know them during the coming season.

The bunkhouse is up with the windows, doors and the solar electric panels in place. The frame came from the woodlot, the straw from the farm field and the clay for the plaster on the walls is dug out of our hillside. We enjoyed two work bees in the fall, when many of our CSA members came and helped with the frame raising and straw bale wall building. The building has taken on a wonderful energy from the natural beauty of the wooden timber frame and the fun that everyone had in its construction. Building the straw walls reminded me of a making forts in the barn when I was a kid. At the end of the day my cheeks hurt from smiling so much. I can hardly wait to get into the mud pie stage when we cover the straw with clay.

Michelle Jory, who apprenticed here for three years, is starting her own farm business this year. She is renting land from us and using our horses and equipment. You will be hearing from her about her Fall/Winter CSA.

After much consideration Ken and I have decided not to renew our organic certification when our current certification runs out, since all of our produce is now marketed locally to you, our CSA members. Organic certification is required where organic products are shipped long distances and the consumer needs assurance from a certification body that the producer is indeed abiding by the spirit and the letter of organic agricultural rules. We will continue to use organic practices and are happy to answer questions you may have and explain our methods to you. We feel we are going well beyond compliance with organic rules by using draft horses to address concerns about fossil fuel use in agriculture. We also hope to have the whole farm off the electrical grid by 2010 by using renewable energy sources, because of concerns about nuclear and coal electrical generation.

It is with a great sense satisfaction that we share the bounty of our local organically grown harvest with you our CSA members.
We hope to see you in the spring,

Martha Laing
519-775-2670
kmlaing@execulink.com