The major focus of my fall has been the anticipation of the birth of our granddaughter, Frances June Berg, born November 21, 2015. Her parents, Aaron Berg and Ellen Laing and big sister Della, have been here at the farm with us this fall. We are all very thankful for the arrival into our world of Frances.

The horses have been having a much deserved rest, for the most part. Their biggest job these days is grinding grain for Seth, as he continues to bake bread for market and Fall CSAs. Michelle Jory of Fairmeadow Farm has been having a fall pick-up here every other Wednesday and will continue through December.

Our cover crops have been taking off during the mild fall. The rows where the garlic was planted in October have filled in. The cover crops for the hoop house plots for 2016 have also grown well. The no-till fall planted spelt has come up as a good stand. We have been enjoying eating the fall greens that remain in the CSA garden and have also started harvesting salad from the winter hoop house. It always amazes me that seeds planted in early October can grow and be harvested throughout the winter in an unheated hoop house. I have had a bit of an adjustment not having a fall CSA and suffered some alarm at the extra produce in the Garden that I could have harvested. About 20 bushels of extra squash were donated to our local food bank. I also took some squash to a low income housing and harvested beets for sale. I am feeling ready to let go of the Garden now…

Yesterday, Ken mowed off the asparagus ferns and we expect to mulch the strawberries later this week. We will also gather up the plastic on our tomato hoop house so the the snow doesn’t over load the hoops. All in all, we are feeling ready for winter. Between preparing for a record number of farm related workshops  Ken has been working hard on the farm. He spent a week on a bull dozer reshaping the head lands and water runs beside our hill side lane ways to try and direct the water runs during heavy rains to prevent erosion. The head lands were then seeded down with the good help of Jim Conrad.

 

Ken is continuing to pursue organic no-till planting.  Conventional no-till planting uses herbicides to control weeds and or kill the cover crop. As the understanding of the value of cover crops and no-till has increased organic farmers have developed the roller-crimper to terminate  growing cover crops. They crush the stems of the plants and leave the organic matter on the surface of the soil, allowing the life in the soil to explode as millions of micro organisms work to break down the organic matter.  The field that our Suffolk horses, Suzie and Sonny, are roller-crimping what will be our squash field next season. The no-till planter was used to plant another cover crop of rye and Austrian peas into the crimped buckwheat. Next spring when the rye begins to shed pollen we will crimp the field again and transplant the small squash plants directly into the rye/pea mulch. Hopefully, the peas will help to fill in the gaps and allow for good ground cover for the squash vines to grow over. We may put down a strip of green mulch right around the plants to add some extra mulch and heat as the green matter breaks down it heats up.The added heat under the row cover gives them a jump start.We cover the squash with row cover to protect them from being eaten by cucumber beetle.  We’ll see how it goes next year.

As we move into September on the farm the CSA pick-ups start to include more of the fall crops. Today we plan to harvest our first leeks and more squash and red and yellow peppers. The out door tomatoes are beautiful with all the range of colour. When we manage to hold off the late blight the heritage tomatoes have flavour that is unsurpassed. The potatoes are being dug. This year we have grown some purple and red fleshed potatoes that are a fun addition to our array of potato options.

The brochures for next season are ready. Orchard Hill Farm application 2016

 

Borscht (Mennonite Cabbage Soup)

From CSA member John Neufeld

This is something I grew up with and is an example of true Mennonite comfort food. The Ukrainians made Borsch, and the Mennonites of the Ukraine modified the recipe substituting cabbage as the main ingredient rather than beets.  This thick, hearty soup with a sweet, slightly spicy tomato broth is often served at large gatherings (because it makes so much), in fall and winter as a main course.  Every Oma has her own twist to this recipe and claims it`s never as good as the last time they made it (typical Mennonite modesty).  It is often served with zwiebach (traditional homemade buns) but goes great with any homemade bread (hint, hint)!

Ingredients:

• 1 kg beef soup bone, with lots of meat ( pork works well too)
• 8 cups or 2 litres of water
• 2-4 carrots, sliced thinly
• 4 medium potatoes, cubed
• 1 large (or 2 medium) onions, chopped
• 1 medium head of cabbage, chopped finely
• 284ml can of tomato soup
• 500ml can of tomatoes, diced (optional)
• red chillies (my mom often added Heinz chilli sauce)
• fresh dill
• salt and pepper to taste

 

1. Cover soup bones with water and simmer for several hours until meat is tender.
2. Remove the bone and shred the meat.
3. Add more water to measure a total of 8-10 cups of stock.
4. Add vegetables and seasonings.
5. Cook until vegetables are tender.
6. Add tomato soup, diced tomatoes (and a little chilli sauce or even ketchup for sweetness) along with shredded meat.
7. Bring to boil and then let simmer (it gets better the longer it simmers).
8. Serve with sour cream and fresh baked bread.
9. Enjoy!

The season is marching on and we are ready to start harvesting our fall bearing raspberries. Each year seems to bring something new for us to deal with. Last year we saw the arrival of Spotted Wing Drosophila in our raspberries. It is a tiny fruit fly originating in Southeast Asia. It arrived on the west coast about 6-7 years ago and gradually made its way across the continent. It lays an egg in the fruit before it is ripe and ruins the infected fruit. We pruned the raspberries to open up the canes to allow for more air movement. Apparently the spotted wing drosophila prefers a dark damp environment. It also opens it up for the natural predators to see the spotted wing drosophila. It is frustrating for us and challenging! We will have to wait and see if all our pruning efforts make a difference.

Last year we also had swede midge in our brassicas for the first time. It is a tiny fly that lays its eggs in the growing point of broccoli, cabbage, rutabaga turnip and ruins the crops. It also comes from Asia and was first found in Ontario in 2000. As organic farmers the only control is to cover everything with row cover to physically exclude them. We have invested in large sheets of row cover this year and have succeeded in producing some beautiful broccoli, cabbage and cauliflower. It is a lot of extra expense and labour to cover and uncover the crops for cultivation and harvest, but it is satisfying to win the battle with a new insect and to be able to continue to produce organically grown brassicas for our CSA customers.

Sometimes our interns express an interest in a particular aspect of farming farming and we try to provide an opportunity for them to explore their interest. This year Charlotte came back for a second season and really wanted to milk a cow. We purchased Utah and Charlotte has been milking her twice a day all summer. She has been making butter, yogurt and fresh cheese on a regular basis. The laying hens and our composting pig, Joe Pickle, have been enjoying extra milk and whey.

Jeanne has been looking after the flowers and has spent many hours seeding, planting, weeding and mulching in the side garden for the cut-your-own flowers for the CSA. She would like to have a flower CSA in Quebec in the future. One of the flowers she wanted to try growing was Cockscomb Celosia. We purchased the seed and she grew the transplants in the greenhouse and planted it out. It is fun to see the exotic looking flower in the garden.

From CSA member Cheryl Losch:
Canadian Living gets the nod for this one, but we like that it contains just about everything in our current Orchard Hill share.
Plus we like the flexibility – I’m not an olive lover, so don’t use them; and any available greens work just fine.
Tear off a chunk of your favourite La Houlette de vie Bakery bread and you’ve got a great summer meal.

Potato Salad Nicoise Dinner
Portion size 4
14 mini new potatoes, quartered (about 1 lb/500 g)
2 cups (500 mL) green beans, trimmed
3 tbsp (45 mL) extra-virgin olive oil
3 tbsp (45 mL) lemon juice
1 tsp (5 mL) Dijon mustard
1/2 tsp (2 mL) dried basil
1/2 tsp (2 mL) salt
1/4 tsp (1 mL) pepper
2 cups (500 mL) baby spinach leaves
1 cup (250 mL) grape tomatoes, halved
1/4 cup (60 mL) oil-cured black olives, halved and pitted
half sweet red pepper, diced
4 hard-cooked eggs, sliced
Preparation
In large pot of boiling salted water, cover and cook potatoes until almost tender, about 10 minutes. Add green beans; boil until tender-crisp, about 4 minutes. Drain.

Meanwhile, in large bowl, whisk together olive oil, lemon juice, mustard, basil, salt and pepper. Add potato mixture, spinach, grape tomatoes, black olives and red pepper;
toss to coat. Top with eggs.

We managed to do our garlic harvest in record time today. Two hours from start to finish! Approximately 3800 garlic bulbs pulled and hung up to cure. Using our new root lifter made the whole process easier than ever!

The sweet corn has been cultivated using a single row cultivator pulled by a horse being ridden. It is one of the few times we ride our draft horses. The aisles are then seeded down to a cover crop and cultivated again. The cover crop will grow up and keep the weeds from growing. After the corn is finished we will mow off the corn and the clover will grow on to fix nitrogen. The next big job for the sweet corn is to put up an electric fence around it to keep the racoons from eating it. They wait until it is ripe and then call in all their friends for a big party! It’s crazy how much damage they can do in one night. Ken thinks that if we lined up all the coons in the neighbourhood nose to tail they would stretch all around the block! We often see their little hand prints on the farm lane in the morning after they have been out carousing at night.

Ken’s no till drill is working. Aden used it to plant a second crop of buckwheat into the cut off buckwheat cover crop. In next year’s CSA garden area Ken also rolled a cover crop of peas, oats and barley and planted a mixed cover crop of soybeans, millet, sun hemp and sunflower seeds into the mulch. Later this season we will divide the field up into different areas depending on what is being planted there next year and plant different cover crops. We are trying to do this without ploughing or discing in between crops with the new no till drill. Leaving the mulch that is created to add organic matter to the soil bed. Time will tell.

We have had some beautiful cauliflower coming off our early planting and there is more on the way. Here is a recipe from CSA member Sarah Van Pelt:

Cauliflower Shepherd’s Pie
Low Carb, Gluten Free
(recipe tweaked from www.mamaeatsclean.com)
Prep Time: 45 minutes • Cook Time: 45 minutes
Serves 4-6

Topping:
1 large head of cauliflower
3 Tbsp butter
1/4 tsp fine sea salt
1/2 Tbsp dried or fresh parsley
Sprinkle of pepper
Sprinkle of garlic powder

1 c mozzaralla or cheddar cheese
2 Tbsp parmesan cheese
Paprika

Base:
1lb lean ground beef
1 onion, chopped
2 cloves of garlic, minced
2 carrots, chopped
2 Tbsp olive oil
2 stalks of celery, chopped
2 c mushrooms, sliced
1 Tbsp Worcestershire
1/2 c vegetable or beef broth
1/2 tsp soy sauce (if GF, make sure it is the kind with no gluten in it)
1/4 c bbq sauce (if GF, make sure it is the kind with no gluten in it)
1/2 Tbsp parsley
1 c frozen peas
1 c frozen corn

Instructions:
1. Cut cauliflower into florets, wash, cover with water in a pot, bring to boil, and
reduce to a gentle boil until mostly soft. Drain and let sit for 5 min. Blend it
with butter and spices until it has the consistency of mashed potatoes.
2. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
3. Brown the ground beef, onions, garlic and carrots.
4. Add celery and mushrooms to the meat and vegetables.
5. Add oil, salt, Worchestershire, broth, soy sauce, bbq sauce and parsley to the
meat and vegetables. Simmer until everything is cooked and some of the
liquid has cooked off (so it isn’t runny).
6. Add peas and corn to the meat and vegetables for another 5 minutes or so.
7. Spread the meat mixture into a 9×13 casserole dish. Top with mashed
cauliflower. Sprinkle with cheese and paprika. Bake for about 45 minutes.

The Wood Fired Oven is finished enough for the first bread to be baked! The actual oven is finished, but the face of the oven still has to be completed. Making bread has become the priority for oven builder and baker, Seth Wiggin. He has been working over time to get his prep area ready to start producing bread for his LA HOULETTE de vie BAKERY. Bread will be on sale today at the St. Thomas Farmer’s Market and at our Farm for CSA Customers. Seth is setting up a Bread CSA to Start the beginning of July. More details on that front to follow.

Having the first beautiful loaves come out of the oven was amazingly rewarding, uplifting and exciting. It is hard to find the words to describe the feeling!

On the farm front, the CSA pick-ups are finishing out the second week today. We have all of our tender outdoor transplants in the field and our first hay of the year is in the barn! We have been busy too! There is lots of beautiful spinach in the CSA pick-ups and we had Spanakopita for supper last night with some of our fresh jersey cheese from Utah’s milk! She has settled into the routine here and has responded to Charlotte’s gentle handling. Last night I milked her and she walked with me to and from her pasture to the milking stall with ease.

SPANAKOPITA

1 Full bowl of Orchard Hill Farm spinach from pick-up room (washed well, drained and squeezed dry)
¼ cup olive oil
1 large onion, diced
6 green onions, diced (including 4 inches of green)
¼ cup fresh dill, chopped
1/8 tsp. freshly grated nutmeg
salt and pepper to taste
¼ lb. feta cheese, crumbled
2 eggs, lightly beaten
¼ lb. ricotta or cottage cheese
2 tablespoons butter, melted
1 tablespoons olive oil
10 sheets phyllo dough

Heat the olive oil in a deep sauté pan or large pot. Sauté the onions and green onions until tender. Add the spinach and dill and cook for 5 to 10 minutes until the spinach is wilted and heated through. Add the nutmeg and season with salt and pepper.

Remove from heat and set the spinach aside to cool.

In a large mixing bowl, combine the feta, eggs and ricotta (cottage) cheese. Add the cooled spinach mixture and mix until combined.
Combine the melted butter with the olive oil in a bowl. Using a pastry brush, lightly grease a 9 x 12 rectangular pan.

Unwrap the phyllo and carefully remove the phyllo roll from the plastic sleeve. Most packages come in a 12 x 18 inch sheets when opened fully. Using scissors or sharp knife, cut the sheets in half to make two stacks of 9 x12 inch sheets. To prevent drying return the unneeded sheets to the plastic sleeve for future use.
Prepare the Pie:
Layer 10 sheets of phyllo on the bottom of the pan making sure to brush each sheet with the butter/olive oil mixture.

Before baking score the top layer of phyllo to enable easier cutting of pieces later. Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for approximately 20 to 25 minutes of cooking time until the top turns a deep golden brown.