February 19, 2015

CSA Summer Share 2015-Week #7 (11 February/13-14 February)

February 19, 2015/ Robin

CSA SUMMER SHARE WEEK #7 We had our first big tomato harvest with the field tomatoes really coming on! There are big bags in everyone's box. There may be caterpillars in the corn. This is un-sprayed corn and the caterpillars like it as much as we do. They are usually only in the top of the ear. You can simply cut that off and enjoy the rest.We have had several members let us know how the box is working for them and send through recipes that they have enjoyed. We really appreciate the feedback (as we start planning for next season in April) and the tested recipes are a great addition to our newsletter! Please email or talk to us on the farm. We really do want to know what you are enjoying and what you find more challenging to work with.

NOTES ON WHAT'S GROWING With Autumn, comes weather perfect for fungal diseases. Our first plantings of zucchini and cucumbers have started succumbing to powdery mildew. Some seasons you can keep these away but the cold, damp summer we have had has been perfect for spreading these diseases.

We have also seen an increase in pest bugs in the tomatoes and cucumbers. We are doing what we can to try and curb the population...including hand collecting to make biodynamic insect peppers.

We are back harvesting beans! There are more plantings coming on too so this is not the last of them! The sweet corn is also continuing.

The brassicas are looking great in the field with the kale set to be planted this week. We have also introduced a wasp which lays its eggs into the eggs of the white cabbage moth. The wasps nymph then eats the baby caterpillar emerging from its egg cell. Predator bugs that are working with us! Once out in the world, the wasps feed off of nectar, highlighting again the value of having lots of flowers in the vegetable garden. We keep trying to provide an ecosystem for all of these creatures to breed and be happy! Farm Pick Up times are Friday 2-5pm and Saturday 8-11am. Pick up is available at other times by appointment only. There may be more boxes of cucumbers available for preserving. If you are interested, please email us at petercarlyon@gmail.com. We will be finishing with the first planting soon and the second planting is smaller. If you are thinking about preserving, now is the time.

NOTES ON STORING THE HARVEST Please check out our Vegetable & Fruit page on the website to find tips on maximizing the life of your veggies. We envisage that many of the vegetables you are receiving this week will last for two weeks with careful attention to storing upon arrival. Although we do wash all the greens after harvest, we are washing to take the heat out of the plants and wash away some surface dirt, not to prepare them for consumption. We also spray a seaweed/herb brew about every ten days. While this will not harm you, it does have a taste. We do suggest washing your produce prior to eating.

Tomatoes

Zucchini

Extras Capsicum Cherry Tomatoes Chilies – 'Pimiento de Padrons'. Eggplant Lettuce Onions Potatoes Squash

RECIPE SUGGESTIONS S zechwan Green Beans - Our kids LOVE these! Herby, Peanutty, Noodley Salad - A River Cottage recipe Pimiento de Padrons- With a big harvest this week, many of you recieved these lovely peppers that make a great tapas style dish.LEMON BASIL DRESSING This is great on a salad, or served over freshly steamed beans. Add garlic and it makes a wonderful marinade for zucchini, chicken or fish. Ingredients 2 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon white balsamic vinegar or sherry vinegar ½ cup flax seed oil, grape seed oil or extra virgin olive oil 1-2 teaspoons Dijon-type mustard 1 shallot finely diced 1 tsp of one or a combination of fresh lemon basil ¼ tsp salt Method 1. Add all ingredients EXCEPT oil to the vinegar and gently whisk. 2. Continue whisking while adding the oil in a stream.

You can search our recipes by looking for the key ingredients on our website recipe page.

Please note - Photo is a randomly selected full share box.

February 12, 2015

Zucchini Fritters - Gluten Free

February 12, 2015/ Robin

We made these for crew lunch and served them with a pickled onion and tomato relish. Delicious!!

Ingredients 1 medium size Zucchini 2 eggs mixed herbs Almonds Sesame Seeds Brown Rice Flour Method 1. Grate a medium sized zucchini, put in sieve and squeeze out juice. 2. Grind almonds into fine meal in a food processor. 3. Add lots of chopped herbs and continue to grind. 4. Add sesame seeds and 2 eggs and blend. 5. Hand combine vegetables and add enough flour to make patties. 6. Form into patties and shallow fry. They firm up as cooking.

February 12, 2015

CSA Summer Share 2015- Week #6 (11 February/13-14 February)

February 12, 2015/ Robin

CSA SUMMER SHARE WEEK #6 We are half way through our CSA season!! We have had several members let us know how the box is working for them and send through recipes that they have enjoyed. We really appreciate the feedback (as we start planning for next season in April) and the tested recipes are a great addition to our newsletter! Please email or talk to us on the farm. We really do want to know what you are enjoying and what you find more challenging to work with.

NOTES ON WHAT'S GROWING

The heat is back which is great news for the second melon planting, watermelons, red capsicums, eggplants, sweet corn and beans! I feel like this next bean planting has taken ages and I am really missing these wonderful warm season vegetable. Peter thought they would be ready today but had a test pick and they still are not. If we try and pick them too young, we damage the plant. So we will see what Friday brings. We do have three more bean plantings after this one...with the last one being seeded this week!The first melon planting is finished now. We have tried something different with the second which is looking good so far - we used weed mat to try and keep the weeds down. The melon plants do not like to have their roots disturbed so pulling weeds is not a great option. We weeded the first crop three times and it was still overrun with large weeds which shaded the plants and fruit. This did not help seeing it was a cool wet season so far. The second planting is virtually weed free and full of forming fruit.We are picking from our second corn planting now and planting our third zucchini planting. The first zucchini planting is slowly sucumbing to powdery mildew. It did fantastic though seeing it was badly hit by frost in November!

Farm Pick Up times are Friday 2-5pm and Saturday 8-11am. Pick up is available at other times by appointment only.

There may be more boxes of cucumbers available for preserving. If you are interested, please email us at petercarlyon@gmail.com. We will be finishing with the first planting soon and the second planting is smaller. If you are thinking about preserving, now is the time.

WHAT’S IN THE BOX The following are the items harvested this week. Items and quantities in your box may vary depending on your harvest day and the total harvest of each crop. The boxes are completely governed by what is ripe and ready for harvest and how much of it there is. We endeavor to divide the harvest fairly. 1/4 share: 5-7 items 1/2 share: 8-10 items Full Share: 10-12 itemsBasil – Big bunches of Italian Green basil, perfect for pesto. You can make pesto without the cheese and freeze it for use throughout the winter. You can add the cheese once it has thawed. Carrots – Bunches of heirloom orange carrots 'Little Fingers'. We have cleaned out a planting and will be starting on a new planting on Friday. Some of the bunches for Wednesday did contain "Ugly" carrots. These carrots are still very tasty and nutrient dense! Celery – 'Tall Utah'. There is a great recipe for celery soup (link below) tried by one of our CSA members. Chilies – 'Hungarian Hot Wax' . On the Scoville scale (the measurement of how hot a chili is) these rate at 3500-10,000 (The Thai Hot Chillies rate at 30,000). Corn – Sweet Corn...best eaten on the day you receive your box. Cucumbers – We are growing three varieties of cucumbers in this first planting. Two have dark green skin and small warts (some with little bristly hairs). These are "classic" cucumbers with cool flesh and slightly bitter skin. The third variety is one we are trialling. It has a lighter green colour and the skin is very smooth. This does not have the bitterness of the other two. All three have the wonderfully cooling flesh we all love in this summer vegetable. Lettuce – 'Freckles' or 'Summer Harvest'. Onions – These are 'Cream Gold'. They are a wonderful onion with a full flavour and store well. Potatoes – 'Exton'. With freshly dug potatoes, the skin is very tender. We find a light wash is all they need before cooking.

Tomatoes – We are harvesting the following varieties - all heirloom. 'Rouge de Marmande', 'Marglobe', 'Druzba', 'Oxheart', 'Jaune Negib' (a yellow tomato), 'Grosse Lisee' and 'Black Russian' (which is black). Tomatoes are best left out of direct sunlight and out of the refrigeration.

Zucchini – 'Black Beauty' and 'Costa Romanesco'.

Extras Capsicum – Purple and green capsicums. The purple taste like the green and turn green when cooked. The red, yellow and orange sweet capsicums come later in the season. Cherry Tomatoes – We are growing four different cherry tomatoes this year - 'Black Cherry', 'Sungold', 'Little Yellow Bee' and 'Tommy Toe'. Chilies – 'Pimiento de Padrons'. These are wonderful fried. We rotate the 'Padrons' through the boxes and the harvest has just started. We give you a good size bag to make heating the oil worthwhile. There is a recipe for them here. Eggplant – We have just started harvesting the first of the eggplant. These are 'Long, Thin Purple' great in stir fries and barbecued. The plumper eggplants are forming on the plants and we may start harvesting them next week. Melons – We are harvesting 'Eden's Gem' and 'Early Hanover' both a honey dew and 'Hearts of Gold' and 'Hale's Best' cantaloupes. Radishes – 'Cherry Belle' Squash – 'Golden Crookneck' and/or 'Bennings Green Tint'(also known as Patty Pans - We like them baked. Here is the recipe.)

RECIPE SUGGESTIONS Cream of Celery Soup Cold Cucumber Soup Roasted Cherry Tomatoes with Quinoa and Feta

Zucchini Fritters - Gluten Free

You can search our recipes by looking for the key ingredients on our website recipe page.

Please note - Photo is a randomly selected full share box.

February 05, 2015

CSA Summer Share 2015 - Week #5 (4 February/6-7 February)

February 05, 2015/ Robin

CSA SUMMER SHARE WEEK #5 Peter spotted a five foot Tiger snake near the pumpkins yesterday. The good news is that this is a great signal that the pumpkins are ripening...the mice head into the patch to check them out as they start to ripen...looking for ones which may be split or sunburned to feed on...and where there are mice, there are snakes! The bad news is, we have to head in there too to harvest them! We are always mindful of the ecosystem we are nurturing and the fauna it attracts. We also harvest pumpkins wearing gumboots and making lots of noise!

NOTES ON WHAT'S GROWING The next planting of beans is still not ready for harvest due to the cooler weather. It is filled with beans, they are just tiny! We have started harvesting our nectarines. Although the trees are not as laden as last year, the fruit is amazing. We have included a few in each box as a present.

Farming is a guessing game...the predictions we read in November were stating that this would be a hot season. So we planned our greens plantings based on that information. This is actually great weather for growing Spinach and lettuce...and I am sure broccoli would love it too. But as most summer weather hurts these crops, and we hate to have broccoli completely filled with the green caterpillars very prevalent during summer, we do not have excess greens and no summer broccoli planted. There is more Spinach coming along with rocket and 'Perpetual gator' in the coming weeks.

The Autumn crops continue to be planted and seeded. With the cold we have been having and the days shortening, it almost feels like Autumn...we sure hope that we get some heat though in February. The field tomatoes are filled with green fruit and although we are harvesting from them, we are not seeing the flush that we normally get at this time. Luckily the polytunnel tomatoes are still very healthy and producing!

More Sweet Corn! We harvest this right before the truck leaves to ensure you receive really fresh corn. EAT IT TONIGHT as it will be the best now!

Farm Pick Up times are Friday 2-5pm and Saturday 8-11am. Pick up is available at other times by appointment only.

There may be more boxes of cucumbers available for preserving. If you are interested, please email us at petercarlyon@gmail.com.

Tomatoes

Zucchini

Extras Capsicum Celery Cherry Tomatoes Chilies Eggplant Melons Nectarines Squash

RECIPE SUGGESTIONS Zucchini Cake Ministrone Soup Corn and Zucchini Fritters Beetroot and Cream Cheese Dip Zucchini Brownies

You can search our recipes by looking for the key ingredients on our website recipe page.

Please note - Photo is a randomly selected full share box.

February 04, 2015

CSA Summer Share 2015 - Week #4 (28 January/30-31 January)

February 04, 2015/ Robin

CSA SUMMER SHARE WEEK #4 We loaded the van this morning with jumpers on! While we would not complain about the rain we have had this summer, last night felt like Autumn was coming...and we only just started harvesting corn! The cooler weather has slowed the zucchini and the tomatoes a bit. They are still producing but they do produce quicker when it is warmer.

Speaking of Autumn, the Autumn crop seeding continues as does the planting of crops for Autumn harvest. The next broccoli crop is in the ground now and the leeks are growing strong! We are approaching the time when the whole farm is filled with crops. The farm looks like a patchwork with Summer, Autumn, Winter and next seasons Spring crops all planted. That happens about mid April. And it is just a small window of time before crops are tilled in and the winter cover crops planted. The fields are always changing.

NOTES ON WHAT'S GROWING

We have started harvesting the first crop of melons. We are a bit worried about them. Although we harvest when the plant slips the fruit from the vine, some of the melons we have tried are a bit over ripe and others are not as intensely flavoured as we like. The flavouring is due to all the rain we have had and also the cooler weather. Melon flavour intensifies with the heat of summer and a bit of water stress. We have started putting them in the boxes as we cannot tell what they will be like without trying every one. We hope you receive a good one and apologise in advance if it is not quite right. The second melon crop is looking much healthier than the first and hopefully they will have some hotter days to ripen.

We have also started harvesting the Sweet Corn! We harvest this right before the truck leaves to ensure you receive really fresh corn. EAT IT TONIGHT as it will be the best now!

The next bean planting may be ready for Friday harvest but was not ready for Tuesday harvest.

Farm Pick Up times are Friday 2-5pm and Saturday 8-11am. Pick up is available at other times by appointment only.

There are boxes of cucumbers available for preserving. If you are interested, please email us at petercarlyon@gmail.com.

Basil Bunches– Large bunches for making pesto. Capsicum Carrots Chilies Corn Cucumbers Garlic Lettuce Potatoes Rocket Silver beet Tomatoes Zucchini

Extras Cherry Tomatoes Chilies – 'Pimiento de Padrons'. Melons Onions Squash

RECIPE SUGGESTIONS Simply Perfect Steamed Corn Spanish Truita - Potato Omelette Spinach and Chicken Curry Black Rice, Rocket, Grilled Zucchini, Fresh Tomatoes and Caper Salad - I took this recipe and substituted ingredients to make a great tasting and pretty salad.

You can search our recipes by looking for the key ingredients on our website recipe page.

Please note - Photo is a randomly selected full share box.

January 24, 2015

CSA Summer Share 2014 - Week #3 (21 January/23-24 January)

January 24, 2015/ Peter Carlyon

CSA SUMMER SHARE WEEK #3 Our Mid Summer Cover crop of Buckwheat was sown in many areas of the farm this week. When turned in, the buckwheat adds organic matter and makes soil nutrients, particularly phosphorus and calcium, more accessible to the Autumn crops that will be planted soon. Buckwheat’s shallow white blossoms attract beneficial insects that attack or parasitize aphids, mites, and other pests. These beneficials include hover flies (Syrphidae), predatory wasps, minute pirate bugs, insidious flower bugs, tachinid flies, and lady beetles. Flowering can start as early as three weeks after planting – so it is a very quick crop.

The melon plantings are starting to ripen and we hope that with the warm weather this week the sweet corn will be ready to get into the boxes next week. The Capsicum, Eggplant and Chilli plantings are all looking very healthy and while they are just starting to fruit they will be rotated through the boxes until there is enough for all.

NOTES ON WHAT'S GROWING

Photos this week...