End of the 2009 Season!

Well folks this week is it for this year! Hard to believe that it has come around so fast. I guess it’s a sign of growing older…We are grateful to all of our CSA members for your support especially to those of you who did a working share and helped with the harvest.

Thanks also to those of you who took the time to fill out our CSA survey for this season. The response was overwhelmingly positive. Your comments will help us plan for next season. We expect to be planting more of our tomatoes in the hoop houses to try and guard against future blight! Our winners of the flat of raspberries are Tuesday: Andrew Martins and Saturday: Derek and Dayna Cartier.

Just a note about pop corn. We have had fun with our mini blue popcorn this year for the cuteness factor, but it is also good to pop. Both of our popcorn varieties should the husked to air dry until the end of November. Then you can remove some kennels and try popping them. If the popcorn is dry enough it should pop and you can remove the rest and put them in an airtight jar for future use. If it doesn’t pop wait a while longer and try again.

I thought I would add in some celeriac recipes for the the end of the season. It is a very tasty vegetable that many of us are unfamiliar with and it looks so ugly that we are reluctant to use it. However, it is worth the trouble for the taste.

Celeriac, Carrot and Parsnip Crumble
Serves 4
Ingredients:
· 300g carrots chopped into chunks
· 500g peeled and cubed mixed parsnips and celeriac
1 onion, peeled and chopped
2 tbsp olive oil
· 40g plain flour
· 40g butter
· 400 ml milk
· 1 tbsp chopped parsley
· 1 tbsp heavy cream
· 1 tbsp horseradish
· 50g grated mature cheddar
· 50g whole meal breadcrumbs
· Sea salt and black pepper
· Some grated nutmeg

1. Heat the oven to 350Deg F. Heat a frying pan; add the olive oil and sauté carrots, parsnip, celeriac and onion for 4-5 minutes, until starting to soften. Season with sea salt, black pepper and some grated nutmeg.
2. Place in an ovenproof dish.
3. To make the sauce, melt the butter in a saucepan, add the flour and mix together and cook the mixture for 1 minute. Do not brown. Remove from the heat, pour in the milk and whisk the mixture until smooth. Place back on the heat and slowly bring to the boil, whisking constantly until just boiling. Simmer for 1 minute and remove from the heat.
4. Add the horseradish, thick cream, season well and pour over the vegetable mixtures.
5. Mix together the cheese and breadcrumbs and sprinkle over the vegetables. Bake in the oven for 30-40 minutes so the vegetables are cooked and the topping is golden brown.

Celeriac Soup
Serves 2-3
· 1 celeriac
· 1 medium onion
· 1 pint vegetable stock
· 2 tablespoons good quality olive oil
· Handful of fresh herbs (e.g. parsley, thyme leaves, sage, chives)
· 1 dried bay leaf
· Salt & pepper to taste
· 50ml double cream (optional)

Method
1. Peel the celeriac and chop into cubes. Peel the onion and slice finely.
2. Heat the olive oil in a pan and add the celeriac and onion. Stir to coat with oil. Sauté gently for 10 minutes.
3. Add the stock and bay leaf. Simmer over a low heat for about 30 minutes, until the celeriac is soft (this depends on the size of your cubes!).
4. Remove the bay leaf and discard.
5. Add the fresh herbs and then liquidize, until smooth.
6. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
7. Stir in the cream, if using.

Celeriac and Potato Mash

We had a lovely afternoon for the pot luck despite the rain on Saturday! Martin Cardona has grown a year older and we have another picture of him on the pumpkins! Wonderful food, lots of visiting, horse drawn rides and a chance to mark 30 years of farming for Ken and Martha at Orchard Hill Farm.

Just a reminder the last pick-up days are Tuesday, October 6 and Saturday, October 10.

Dianne MacVicar has given us a couple of good recipes. We had the tasty Leek and Potato Soup on Saturday night.

Leek & Potato Soup from EatingWell: January /February 1994

6 servings, about 1 cup each

Ingredients
1 1/2 teaspoons canola oil
3 leeks, trimmed, cleaned and thinly sliced (3 cups)
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 1/2 teaspoons chopped fresh thyme, or 1/2 teaspoon dried
6 cups reduced-sodium chicken broth
1 1/4 pounds potatoes (about 3 medium), peeled and cut into small chunks
1/2 cup reduced-fat sour cream
Salt & freshly ground pepper, to taste

Preparation

1. Heat oil in a large heavy saucepan or stockpot over low heat. Add leeks and cook, stirring, until softened, about 10 minutes. Add garlic and thyme; cook for 2 minutes more. Pour in broth, increase heat to medium and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low and simmer, uncovered, for 10 minutes.

2. Pour the soup through a strainer set over a large bowl. Puree the leeks in a food processor or blender until smooth, Adding some of the broth if necessary. Return the puree and broth to the saucepan. Add potatoes and simmer, covered, until potatoes are soft, 10 -15 minutes. Remove from the heat and mash the potatoes thoroughly with a potato masher.

3. Stir in sour cream, salt and pepper. Return to low heat and heat until hot, but not boiling. Serve hot or chilled.

Quick Shredded Beets

Peel and coarsely shred 6-8 medium-sized beets. Add 1/4 cup water, 2 tablespoons vinegar and 1 teaspoon sugar. Cover and cook 10 minutes or until tender – stirring twice during cooking. Add butter and season with salt and pepper. (sugar optional)

We are looking forward to the Harvest Pot Luck on Sunday, 2-4 pm and are hoping for good weather.
The past couple of weeks have been quite busy here at Orchard Hill Farm. We held a Draft Horse Workshop last Thursday – Saturday and six people came to the farm for an introduction to driving horses. With the meals and the Saturday pick-up it was a lot to juggle. We really appreciated the help from our working shares with the CSA harvest. Devin and Jonathan also managed to get a major part of the final lime wash on the exterior of the bunkhouse during the workshop time! Saturday night we ended up having a somewhat unexpected gathering of past and present apprentices as well as a few friends. What a lovely group of young people who are committed to the honorable vocation of growing food for others. It is very affirming for us to have been able to share our experience and knowledge with them and see them continue on the path. We show a picture of the group as they gathered before supper represented are young CSA farmers from three different farms as well as our current apprentices.

For those of you who are wondering we do have a bumper squash crop and expect to be bringing up the squash and pumpkins from the field next week. We have decided to have the raspberries be pick-your-own on pick-up days for the rest of the season. This week we are giving the last cabbage of the season. We also have some winter radish that are either green or pink inside. They can be grated up into salad or coleslaw. If you still have the celeriac from last week grate it up with the radish and make it into a coleslaw.

Mixed Greens Saute from Simply in Season

8 sun-dried tomatoes
1/2 cup boiling water
Combine and let stand 30 minutes. Drain

2 cups onion ( vertically sliced)
1 red sweet pepper ( cut in stripes)
2 cloves garlic ( minced)
In large fry pan saute in 1 tablespoon oil. Add the tomatoes.

5 cups mixed dark greens
1 cup chicken or vegetable broth
Stir in and bring to a boil. Simmer until greens are tender, 15 minutes. Garnish with 1/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese ( optoinal).

See the Curried Butternut Squash recipe in the index. You can use other squash as well. We have a lot of squash and pumpkins this year so get ready with your favorite recipes. Squash also keeps well at room temperature.

There will be pick-your-own raspberries on pick-up days. We have been picking a box for everyone after that we open it up for pick-your-own.

The annual Harvest CSA Pot Luck will be on Sunday, September 27 from 2-4 pm. Please bring food to share, your own plates, cups, cutlery and lawn chairs. We expect to have horse drawn rides through the woods. There are many great cooks among our members and it is always a fun, delicious afternoon as we celebrate our food community together. Ken and I started farming in 1979 and it seems appropriate to have a cake to mark the 30 years of Orchard Hill Farm’s existence! Maybe we will even get out some farming pictures of us without gray hair.

As many of you may have noticed we have the final lime/sand coat on the bunkhouse! What a relief to have reached this point. Go and have a look if you are curious.

Ken and Anna are plowing tomorrow at the Elgin County Plowing Match with our Suffolk horses, Zeus and Gena. We wish them well. If any of you have the time and are interested you can stop by the plowing match and see them.

Our last Tuesday pick up is October 6 and last Saturday pick up is October 10.

Remember to sign up for next year early to retain your spot in the 2010 garden!

I just thought I would send along a picture of Caesar sleeping with his teddy bear during “Saturday night at the movies”.

We are ready to put the final lime/sand coat on the bunkhouse. We have been working away on it all summer between the rains. You are welcome to have a look on your pick-up day.

Applications for the 2010 CSA garden are available in the pick-up room. We will be accepting applications from current members until September 19 after that we will open it up to new members. We are not expanding our CSA and we do have a long waiting list of people who are interested in joining the garden so don’t delay in getting your application in to reserve your spot.

The fall is upon us and we have the first squash and rutabaga of the season in the share this week. We have recipes from last year in the index at the side for you to check out. We are also always happy to add your recipes to the blog if you email them to us.

Eggplant Charmoula

Charmoula is a Moroccan spice blend that can be used for eggplant, but it is also commonly used for fish, other meats and vegetables. Other spices not mentioned in this recipe that can be used in Charmoula are black pepper, chilli peppers and saffron.

2 medium eggplants, about 1 1⁄2 lbs.
Coarse salt
1 clove garlic, peeled and minced
1 tsp. sweet paprika
Pinch hot paprika
3⁄4 tsp. ground cumin
3 tbsp. finely chopped fresh cilantro
3 tbsp. finely chopped fresh parsley
3 tbsp. fresh lemon juice
1⁄2 cup extra-virgin olive oil

1. Slice eggplant into 3⁄4″ rounds and sprinkle lightly on both sides with salt. Place in a colander, cover with a cloth, and weigh down the slices with a heavy pot or cans for 30 minutes, until the eggplant exudes its bitter juices.

2. Preheat the oven to 350°. To make charmoula, whisk together garlic, paprikas, cumin, half of the cilantro and parsley, lemon juice, 2 tbsp. of the olive oil, and salt to taste in a small bowl; set aside.

3. Pat eggplant slices dry with paper towels and lightly brush each slice with olive oil. Spread them in a single layer on a baking sheet and bake until tender and golden, about 25–30 minutes. This will prevent eggplant from absorbing too much oil during frying. Remove eggplant from oven and set aside to cool completely.

4. Heat remaining olive oil in a medium skillet over high heat. Add slices one by one to hot oil and fry until crisp and brown on both sides, about 1 minute per side. Drain on paper towels and transfer eggplant slices to a shallow dish.

5. Whisk charmoula once more and drizzle over eggplant. Sprinkle remaining cilantro and parsley on top. Let stand 1 hour, then serve at room temperature.

Baba Ganoush

This is a Middle Eastern eggplant dish that can be used as a dip or spread.

• 1 1/2 lbs eggplant
• 3 tbsp lemon juice
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 tsp Minced fresh garlic
• 3 tbsp Sesame tahini or yogurt or sour cream
• 1/4 cup Chopped parsley
• 1/2 cup Toasted pine nuts (optional)
• 2 tbsp olive oil

Directions

1 Preheat oven to 400 °F.

2 Prick eggplant all over with a fork.

3 Bake whole until tender (about 30 minutes).

4 Remove from oven, halve and scoop out the flesh.

5 Blend in a food processor with the lemon juice until smooth.

6 Mash the salt and garlic together and combine with the eggplant, along with the tahini or yogurt or sour cream.

7 Cool and stir in the parsley and pine nuts (optional).

Here at Orchard Hill Ken has been thinking about what to do with the excess grain we grow as part of our crop rotation on the farm. In the winter, when he has time and energy, Ken dreams up all sorts of plans. Like feeding laying hens…we all know how successful that has been- due to predators. He also thought about selling flour and found a hard wheat he could plant in the fall. Hard wheat is what we us for bread flour, because it has a higher gluten content. Gluten holds the bubbles in the flour when the bread rises. In this part of Canada the winter wheat which is commonly grown is a soft wheat with a low gluten content that is used for cake and pastry flour.

Some of you may have noticed our flour mill in the pick-up room. We are planning to sell flour from our farm. We have a picture of our new combine at work harvesting our wheat this year. It will be freshly ground whole wheat and can be used in bread, muffins, pancakes and cookies.

We just thought we would show a picture of the tomatoes! Within one week the tomato plants went from being lush beautiful plants to brown foliage. Many of the tomatoes have brown spots on them as well. We are shocked to see this at this time of year. It is not unusual to have some Late Blight later in the season as the name suggests. However, by then we have already harvested many tomatoes. To have this occur the end of July is something that we have never experienced in our over 30 years of gardening. Apparently, early Late Blight is a widespread problem all over the Northeast this year.

The good news is that the peppers and eggplant (from the same plant family) are fine and producing well. We hope to still be able to harvest some tomatoes, but the yield will be considerably reduced.

The melons have started and we will continue have sweet corn as the successive plantings mature. Look in the index for recipes for Corn Cobs. The cobs make flavorful soup stock and there is a recipe for Corn Cob Syrup too. In the same entry there is a Creamed Chard recipe we usually have Swiss Chard in an “Extra Bin”.

The unseasonably cool nights in the last half of July and moist conditions have been hard on the garlic, tomatoes, cantaloupe and cucumbers. We hope that warmer weather helps stop the spread of Late Blight and Downy Mildew! Good news is that the sweet corn is coming along and we expect to have some for the August 1st pick-up. The gladiolas are slow to start, but I do see some flowers coming. We have pick-your-own sunflowers in the garden to the north of the house. A tip is to re-cut the stem when you get home and put them into warm/hot water.

Ken had to hook up his team of wooden horses to pull out one of our really big zucchini this year as the pictures shows! We have lots of Zucchini and Summer Squash, both can be used in the following recipe Jolianne has made this on her cooking night and it has been a big hit here at Orchard Hill Farm

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Italian Zucchini Pie

From Simply in Season by Mary Beth Lind and Cathleen Hockman-Wert

Yields 2 pies

¼ cup warm water

1-tablespoon active dry yeast

Mix until yeast dissolves. Set aside.

¼ cup milk

1-tablespoon olive oil

1 egg (beaten)

Combine in a mixing bowl or food processor. Add dissolved yeast and stir.

¼ cup whole-wheat flour

¼ cup Parmesan cheese (freshly grated)

1-teaspoon salt

1 –2 teaspoons fresh basil (chopped)

Blend in.

2 cups bread flour

Add ½ cup at a time to make a smooth but slightly sticky dough. Place in a greased bowl, turn to grease both sides, cover with a damp cloth, and place in a warm place while preparing the zucchini filling.

¼ cup butter

9 cups zucchini (thinly sliced)

1-2 cups onion (chopped)

Melt butter in a large frying pan over medium heat. Add zucchini and onions and sauté until soft, about 10 minutes. Remove from heat.

1 clove garlic (minced)

1 tablespoon each fresh basil and oregano (chopped; or ½ teaspoon dried)

1-teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon pepper

Stir in.

5 large eggs (beaten)

4 cups mozzarella cheese (shredded)

Combine in a separate bowl, then stir into zucchini mixture.

Divide dough in half. Place each half on a lightly floured surface and roll into a circle 12 inches in diameter. Place each into a lightly greased 10-inch pie dish.

4 teaspoons prepared mustard

¼ cup Parmesan cheese (grated; optional)

Spread the pie crests with mustard. Divide the zucchini mixture between the two crests. Sprinkle Parmesan cheese on top, if using. Bake in preheated oven at 375F until center is set 18-20 minutes. If crust begins to brown before center is done, cover edges with aluminum foil. Let stand 10 minutes before serving.

Our apprentices are busy putting the final coat of sand/clay plaster on the interior straw bale walls in the bunkhouse. CSA members are welcome to go and have a look when they come to the farm.

Another week has rolled around. The garden is producing well. The zucchini and summer squash have kicked into gear. Any new recipes are always welcome. Remember to look at the side index of our blog to see past postings with recipes. Cucumbers will be the next new addition to the pick-ups.

Some of you may be wondering about the saga of the laying hens…as you may have noticed the layers have moved up to the north end of the farm again. After Ken spent the better part of a week building a special hawk proof movable hoop house we found that the laying hens didn’t like it and they essentially quit laying eggs. So…we moved them back to their old hen house and put up an electric poultry fence around it. In order to give them more free range we took down the fence, as we have done in past years, as soon as we did that we lost a hen a day to the hawk. So…we put them back into the fence that was good for about a week, but then the hawk decided that the fence wasn’t a deterrent after all and we lost two hens in one day. I guess the hawk was making up for lost time. Now we have moved them up near the house hoping that the proximity to the activity in the yard and maybe Caesar, our dog, will keep the hawk away. However, Caesar seems more interested in mice when he isn’t flaked out sleeping in the pick-up room.

The portable hawk proof hoop house is now housing a meat chicken pilot project. Anna, our senior apprentice decided that she would like to try and raise some meat birds this year for our own use. Since the day old chicks arrived Anna has been their mother hen and has done a fine job of nurturing them along. After spending their first three weeks in the workshop with a heat lamp they moved out to the hoop house. All was well for over a week until the chicks piled up next to the edge, pushed out the aviary netting, touched the electric fence that was put around the outside to keep the raccoons away at night and three died of electric shock in one night! So…we now have a secondary fence inside to keep the chicks from pushing into the electric fence.

The next time you buy free-range chicken and or eggs you can wonder how the farmer kept away all the other creatures that love chicken and still managed to have free-range chicken!

Erin and Liam Harder are pictured with Ken as the meat chicks are on their way from the workshop to the hoop house.