Some of you may have seen Ken working on getting our “new” old potato digger back into working order last week. One CSA member asked him, “Are you ever going to get that rust bucket working?” The answer is YES! We have pictures to prove it.  (If you double click on the photos they will enlarge.) One of my stipulations for growing the CSA was to have a potato digger and now we do! Those working shares who have helped us dig potatoes with a fork or paw around in the soil after the horse drawn potato plow went through can attest to the amount of work it is.  So, I am delighted with our “rust bucket” that works! We have a big potato crop this season and it will be well used. It is still a heavy pull for two horses, but we hope to split up the harvest between two or three digging days.

The squash and pumpkin crop is also coming in. Check out the recipe section for some squash and pumpkin recipes. Keep in mind that any pumpkin recipe can also be made with squash. Go to the search box and type in squash or pumpkin for some of the older blog recipe entries from past years.  The following is a recipe from a past entry:

Leek and Potato Soup by Jill Wilcox
Ingredients
1 lb. leeks (about 3 medium)
3 tbsp butter
1 cooking onion, chopped
1 rib celery, finely sliced
2 medium potatoes, peeled and diced
3c water, chicken or veg. stock
2c milk or cream
chopped chives for garnish
To make the soup
1. trim the coarse green portion of the leeks. Cut leeks in half lengthwise, leaving the bulb end intact and clean well under running water. Shake off excess moisture and slice the leeks thinly, discarding the root end when you get to it.
2. In a stock pot, melt the butter over medium-high heat. Cook the leeks, onion and celery about 5 minutes until soft.
3. Add the potatoes and water. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to a simmer and cook about 25 minutes or until the potatoes are soft.
4. Add the milk (or cream) and return to a bare simmer. Season with salt and white pepper to taste. (You can puree the soup with an immersion blender at this stage if you wish or pass it through a food mill.)

Ken has been wanting to take a picture with “all our workers” for sometime and last Friday when Michelle was here he got her to take the picture. Chester didn’t make it in because he isn’t working in the field yet… This fall when his testosterone levels drop (and hopefully we have all our mares bred) we can introduce him into the herd and he can start working along side the other heavy horses.

Here’s the line up from left to right: Sassy (our new mare traded for Whinnie); Ken; Gwen (sweet Gwen who gets along with everyone); Martha; Buttons (young Mare / granddaughter of “Goldie” one of our all time favorite horses); Verena (agriculture student from France); Gena and Jasmin (our two- 13 year old – hard working well trained mares); Nora (full season apprentice from Maryland); Sam (young gelding in training); Andy (aspiring future farmer from New Zealand); Ziggy (young gelding in training); Jesse (full season apprentice from Sarnia).

On the general farm front things are in good shape. Our second cut hay is all baled without rain! Ken has almost finished his green manure fertility transfer onto future garden plots and fields that need a boost. Nora and Jesse have prepared their fields to be planted to fall grain in a couple of weeks.

The harvest for the CSA continues to roll in with what appears to be a bumper crop of tomatoes. Ken is trying to get our new used potato digger up and running before we dig the majority of our potato crop. The sweet potatoes are still small, but Andy dug a few to test and they were yummy. We hope that they size up in the next month! Raspberries are coming along well.

Tomatoes have finally begun to roll in! The hoop house tomatoes have done really well and now the heirloom and paste tomatoes that we planted outside are ripening as well. It’s a great change from last year! We have also begun the fall raspberry harvest. Summer squash and melons have come to an end, but the winter squash and pumpkin crop looks very promising.

Gradually the garden is coming out of production and we are seeding it down to an oat cover crop to keep the weeds down and cover the ground to protect it from erosion.

We managed to get two small fields of good second cut hay into the barn this week before the rain today. Ken has also been working with Siggy and Sam and they are doing well discing in a three horse hitch. Chester has managed to breed all five our our mares and we are hoping that they catch and we have a lot of Suffolk foals in another year. Mable is growing and continues to be a big hit with our CSA members.

Our August three day Draft Horse Workshop has just been successfully completed. We had another great group of individuals come to the farm for three days to learn about driving draft horses. Nora assisted Ken with teaching the workshop while the rest of us cooked meals and got the Saturday pick-up ready. We were very grateful to the working shares who came out and pitched in to help us get the pick-up ready. We also managed to get our oat straw into the barn. We have never had a year when it has been so difficult to get straw dry!

The garden is exploding with produce and our hoop house tomatoes are coming into full swing just as our out door tomatoes are beginning. It is a big improvement over the near corp failure in our tomatoes last season. It just reminds us how every year is different. Fall raspberries are about to begin. We hope to be able to start picking next week.

Tomato and Fresh Basil Soup from Vegetarian Cooking, by Linda Farser

Serves 4-6

1 tablespoon olive oil
2 tablespoons butter
1 medium onion, finely chopped
2 pounds ripe tomatoes, roughly chopped
1 garlic clove, roughly chopped
about 3 cups vegetable stock
1/2 cup dry white wine
2 tablespoons sun-dried tomato paste
2 tablespoons shredded fresh basil
2/3 cup heavy cream
salt and pepper
whole basil leaves, to garnish

Heat the oil and butter in a large saucepan until foaming. Add the onion and cook gently for about 5 minutes, stirring, until the onion is softened but not brown.

Stir in the chopped tomatoes and garlic, then add the stock, white wine and sun-dried tomato paste, with salt and pepper to taste. Bring to a boil, then lower the heat, half-cover the pan and simmer gently for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally to keep the tomatoes from sticking to the bottom of the pan.

Add the cream and heat through, stirring. Do not allow the soup to approach the boiling point. Check the consistency and add more stock if necessary, then season with salt and pepper. Pour into heated bowls and garnish with basil. Serve at once.

Tomato Horn-worm has been in evidence in our field tomatoes. We found one and brought it to the pick-up room on Tuesday to the amazement of most. They pupate and then become sphinx moths in their adult lives, but eat an incredible amount in the caterpillar stage.

We have finished off July with record pick-ups including sweet corn, tomatoes, melons, eggplant, cucumbers and beans. All the moisture and warm weather are making for a wonderful growing season. However, Ken has found it challenging to harvest our grain between the rain. He has managed to get both varieties of wheat off and the straw into the barn. The rye was too tough when he tried to harvest it so we are hoping for better weather next week. Our Red Fife Wheat didn’t yield very well, but I am still interested to see what the bread will taste like.

Anne Fong has shared a recipe for Cheddar Zucchini Fritters (you can use any summer squash) that her family has enjoyed. It was forwarded to her, she thinks originally from “Chatelaine Magazine”.

Cheddar-zucchini Fritters

2 small zucchini
1/4 cup cornstarch
1 1/2 cups grated cheddar, preferably old
2 green onions, thinly sliced
1 egg white

Sauce

1 lemon
1/4 cup mayonnaise
1 tsp Dijon mustard, grainy

Preheat oven to 400F (200C). Do not peel zucchini. Coarsely grate. Spread over paper towels. Cover and press to remove excess water. Turn into large bowl. Sprinkle with corn starch. Toss to mix. Add cheese and onion. Stir to mix. Whisk egg white, then stir into zucchini mixture, along with generous pinch of salt & pepper. Line a baking sheet with parchment. Scoop about 1/4 cup mixture onto baking sheet, then gently press down. Repeat.

Bake in centre of oven until fritters start to firm and are golden at the bottom, about 15 mins. Turn fritters carefully. Continue to bake until set and deep golden on both sides, about 8 mins more. Let stand a couple of minutes to firm up before serving.

Squeeze 1 tbsp lemon into a bowl. Stir in mayonnaise and mustard. Serve fritters with dollop of sauce.

We had a fair-well party for Elaiza the night before she flew back to Germany. Elaiza came as part of her Walforf school grade nine curriculum to work on our farm for three months. She was a great help in growing the produce for the CSA and worked well with the horses. An exceptional young women who fit in well. She and Jessica are good friends and shared a room in the bunkhouse. Jessica is an organic agriculture student from Quebec who has been here since the end of May and will be leaving the end of this month. She brought with her a keen interest in organic agriculture and a desire to learn as much as she can while she is here to apply to her future farming career. We have certainly been blessed with a group of wonderful young people again this season to help us run the farm for yet another year.

Our CSA working shares helped us harvest a beautiful crop of garlic last Tuesday and Thursday. It is now hanging to dry. Everything continues to grow well in the garden. Heat and moisture are welcome and we are expecting a bumper corp of potatoes and tomatoes. The melons, cucumber and squash are growing well too. We hope the Downy Mildew won’t kill the plants before they can produce a good crop. Ken was able to combine our early Harvard wheat last week between the rains. We now need some dry weather so we can bale up the straw.

Another week as flown by! I took some time this morning to take some CSA garden shots.

The Summer squash has started and yesterday we harvested our first summer cabbage. It’s very mild and good in cabbage salad! Most of you know how to use summer squash, but we do have some past recipes on the blog from previous years. I haven’t transferred them all to the new recipe section of this website, but if you type in a vegetable name in our “Search this site” box the old entries will come up. We have some summer squash, beet and lots of other vegetable recipes. We are always happy to post new recipe ideas. Please email your favorites and I will post them! Many people have asked what to do with kohlrabi and fennel and ideas other than chopping them up in salad or adding them to stir fry are welcome!

The new Suffolk stallion, Chester, is settling in. He has been driven single, but we are waiting to introduce him to the herd until after the mares have been bred. So far none of our mares have been interested… Our first cut hay is all baled and we hope to get in all mowed away tomorrow morning. So our horses won’t go hungry this winter.

The egg production has been gradually increasing with the new fence. We still aren’t able to keep up with the demand from our CSA members. However, we do still have lots of sausage and freshly ground whole wheat flour available for sale.

We have had a very good strawberry season this year and many CSA members have taken advantage of our Pick-your-own strawberry option. Three full weeks of berries is about as good as it gets with regular season strawberries.

We are happy to have CSA members signing up to help with the harvest and the washing of produce for our pick-ups. The gardens are in good shape. It is always a relief to have the majority of the crops seeded, transplanted and mulched. We have taken off the row cover from the squash, corn, melons and early plantings and the pathways in the garden that we seeded down are growing. The garden looks its best in early July when the majority of the crops are still growing well. We got a bit of rain yesterday, but plan to start irrigating later this week and hope to finish our second cut hay. (That is if the weather forecast is correct…)

Chester, the stallion we bought a half share in, arrived yesterday. Ken is doing a bit of work with him in the round pen before he tries hooking him up to the stone boat. Jazz our new mare is adjusting to being here, however we don’t trust her in the barn with children. WE ASK THAT PARENTS KEEP THEIR CHILDREN OUT OF THE BARN. We would rather be safe than sorry. The horses we raise here become accustom to people from the time they are foals, however new horses are not so trustworthy.

We are as pleased as our CSA members to have beets, carrots, strawberries and sugar snap peas for the CSA pick-ups! The warm weather and rain have brought things along well.

Zeus, our 5 year old gelding, has gone to join Whinnie on a CSA farm in eastern Ontario. We sold Whinnie last fall. Jazz, a four year old mare, has joined the herd to replace Zeus and Ken is hoping she will fit in well. Chester, the stallion, will be arriving the first of July. Ken continues to build new fences around our pastures in anticipation of Chester’s arrival.

We have another round of sweet corn to transplant this week and we hope to finish the mulching of the peppers, tomatoes, cucumbers and melons. The cultivating and weeding of the garden went well last week. There is a bumper Strawberry crop this year. The patch will be open for CSA members to pick their own on Tuesdays and Saturdays during the CSA pick-up times from 11:00 am-7:00 pm. Bring your own containers.

We have had fun introducing Mabelita (Mabel when she’s big) to other animals on the farm.

We are busy on the farm transplanting. There are always a lot of plants to go in after the danger of frost has past and hopefully after the last week of over 30 degree weather we are there now! The sweet corn transplants went in yesterday and the squash and sweet potatoes Monday. We are gearing up to do the melons, cucumbers, peppers, eggplant, outside tomatoes, and then the second planting of brassicas (broccoli, cabbage, brussels sprouts and cauliflower). We are also hoping to take off our first hay of the season today.The hot weather is good for that.

Because we are expecting Chester our Suffolk Stallion to arrive in the near future we are having to sell our gledings. We run our horses together in a herd and stallions and gledings don’t always mix well when there are mares in heat around. Zeus has been traded for a young Suffolk mare from the farm where our Whinnie went last fall. Zeus and Whinnie were born the same year and are good friends. We look forward to working with Jazz, who should be arriving this weekend. She was an orphan foal and has been giving her “mom” who raised her some challenges. Hopefully, her new surroundings will help her to adjust to being a work horse.

I have had a couple of recipes forwarded to me by CSA members and will be posting them in the recipe section as well as below.

From Dianne (& Mac) MacVicar

BROTHY CHINESE NOODLES WITH TURKEY

Makes: 6 servings about 1 ½ cups each
Active Time: 30 minutes Total: 30 minutes

2 T toasted sesame oil OR hot sesame oil, divided
1 lb lean ground turkey
1 bunch scallions, sliced, divided
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 T minced fresh ginger
4 C reduced-sodium chicken broth
¾ C water
3C thinly sliced bok choy OR pak choy OR spinach
8 ounces dried Chinese noodles
1C sliced mushrooms
3 T reduced-sodium soy sauce
1 T rice vinegar
1 small cucumber sliced into matchsticks for garnish

1. Heat 1T oil in a large saucepan over medium heat.
Add ground turkey, all but 2 T of the scallions, garlic and
ginger and cook, stirring and breaking up the turkey,
until no longer pink, about 5 minutes. Transfer to a
plate.

2. Add broth, water, bok choy OR pak choy OR
spinach, noodles, mushrooms, soy sauce, vinegar
and the remaining 1T oil to the pan. Bring to a boil
over medium-high. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the
noodles are tender, 3 to 5 minutes. Return the
turkey mixture to the pan and stir to combine.
Serve garnished with the reserved 2 T scallions and
Cucumber (if using).

CSA member Rob Wilkin sent the following email after bringing us some bread made with 60% Orchard Hill Flour. It was very tasty and had a very nice texture.
Here is a link to a version of the bread recipe I use.

http://www.crumblycookie.net/2009/09/11/100-whole-wheat-sandwich-bread/

The site makes a reference to Peter Reinhart’s Whole Grain Breads. This book is an excellent resource for serious bakers of whole grain breads.

http://www.amazon.com/Peter-Reinharts-Whole-Grain-Breads/dp/1580087590

Peter’s blog:

http://peterreinhart.typepad.com/

3 notes regarding the recipe.

1. It calls for instant yeast–I substitute an equal amount of Fleischmann’s Active Dry Yeast.
2. I use hard white wheat in the Biga.
3. I use butter milk in the soaker which gives a slightly acidic flavour note.

Finally the recipe may seem a bit complicated. However the biggest difference is the creation of 2 doughs–the Biga and the Soaker–which are allowed to ferment for at least 12 hours. I usually prepare these the day before. The next day, after combining the 2 doughs together the process is very familiar to any bread maker.