Recipe w/ summer squash II

Squash ribbon salad

Ingredients: summer squash, parmesan cheese, olive oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper

Preparing: Use a vegetable peeler to make long ribbons with your squash: toss the peel if it's too tough for your liking and when you get to the seedy part in the middle compost that or save for another use. Toss your ribbons with fresh lemon juice, olive oil, salt and pepper.

Eating: If you use the freshest squash you've ever had, i.e., just picked that afternoon, you really can't beat the texture or flavor.

Dish history: We actually had a version of this dish at D.O.C. Wine Bar in Williamsburg, BK many, many, many years ago and have made it ever since.

Recipe w/ summer squash

Simple sauteed squash

Ingredients: summer squash, butter, basil, salt

Preparing: Cut any type of summer squash (e.g., zephyr yellow, costata romanesca, patty pan, standard zucchini) to about 1/8-1/4" slices (thicker=more sauteeing time). Melt butter in pan, saute for a few minutes to desired tenderness (the longer you saute, the more butter the squash absorbs, the more tender the squash; so also: don't skimp on the butter). Toss in ripped or chopped basil when heat is off and season with salt and pepper.

Eating: Hot off the pan. We had it with bbq chicken, but it is really so versatile.

Dish history: We have a lot of summer squash right now, and since we had squash fritters last night and squash ribbon salad the night before, we had to have this version tonight. So simple and summery.

Week 7 CSA basket

Baskets will begin to get hotter and heavier now. Roots are here. Fennel's beautiful. And those beans, they are prolific. But this is the point in the season where I am torn over whether to continue to give greens in the baskets or not... some people are sick of kale and others can't live without it.

Expect the following this week:
Green beans, beets, fennel, carrots, arugula, lettuce, basil, parsley, summer squash, kale or chard.

--> Use your fennel fronds and roast that fennel bulb if you're not already chopping it up for a crunchy slaw! And make those beets go a long way: shred them into a fresh salad (no need for peeling even).

Week 6 CSA basket

July is here, which means hundreds of new seed starts and turning over of beds. We still have abundant greens, but roots and fruits are coming along. You will get more sugar snap peas this week and possibly green beans. Carrots and beets are soon to follow. And we've eaten our first few ripe tomatoes!

Expect the following this week:
Arugula, lettuce, cilantro, dill, parsley, basil, sugar snap peas, kale or collards, cabbage, radishes, maaaaybe beans.

--> --> --> Think you're tired of greens? Try eating them this way. Yum.

Week 5 CSA basket

Busy times on the farm... for whatever reason the weeds are booming a week earlier than last year so we are catching up on that daunting task. The tomato plants have grown what seems like a foot in just a few days! So we are on to tomato pruning and trellising, too. And our potato plants are flowering, which means new potatoes will be in your baskets soon.

But the newest star this week is the sugar snap pea. Unlike last week's shelling peas, the sugar snap has a sweet, crispy, edible pod. Eat them as snacks or slice them thinly on the diagonal and dress with orange, orange juice, mint and some greens for a delicious salad.

Expect the following in your baskets this week:
Sugar snaps, hakurei turnips, radishes, chard, lettuce, lettuce mix, kohlrabi, collards, arugula, basil.

Recipe for salad dressing

Here's my becoming-famous salad dressing recipe:

1 spoonful dijon mustard
1 spoonful honey from a local farm
1 bruised garlic clove from a local farm
big pinch of kosher salt
2/3 cup white balsamic vinegar
1 1/3 cup good extra virgin olive oil

Put all ingredients in a pint-sized mason jar and shake well before pouring onto your greens.

Week 4 CSA basket

When you farm and you go away for a weekend you are always amazed at how fast everything grows. Especially the grass. And especially the weeds.

But these hot days have also given us shelling peas. And the greens are still going strong.

Expect the following in this week's basket:
Lettuce, lettuce mix, braising mix, kale, cilantro, dill, basil, arugula, hakurei turnips or radishes, cabbage, shelling peas.

---
When you receive your shelling peas you will appreciate every bag of frozen peas you ever buy from now on. They are a lot of work (to harvest! and) to shell, and even though the volume of green that you get might be but a cup, the flavor and crispness of the peas are so worth it! Eat them as soon as you can while all the sugars are still strong. If you must cook with them rather than eat them on the car ride home, showcase them in a dish, either as the star of a spring soup or salad, served on burrata, ricotta or other fresh cheese, or in a risotto, paired perfectly with mint or orange zest.

"You're the only farmer I know who..."

"... has their toenails painted."


I ask, "but do you know why I have my toenails painted?"

...

"To hide how dirty my feet really are."

Week 3 CSA basket

The spinach is bolting, the garlics are scaping and some more sunny days will bring us the shelling peas.

Garlic scapes

Spinach is a "long day" plant, which means it wants to flower once the days are long (12+ of daylight) - that's why you only get spinach in the spring and fall: by mid-June, all the plants want to "go to seed." And this late winter gave spinach a slower-than-usual start, so we are operating on the shortest window yet to grow spinach out in the fields. Lettuce is also a long day plant, but ours is still looking full and beautiful and you'll get plenty of it this week.

courtesy of C. Kaye Photography

Meanwhile, garlic has been in the ground since October of last year (because it requires the longest growing season of all of our crops). Around this time it sends up a "scape," which would eventually turn into a flower. If a garlic plant (or onion, or shallot plant) flowers, then the energy of the plant is spent making a healthy flower full of seeds, as opposed to being spent forming a nice, big bulb that we know and love. So we break the garlic scapes off and enjoy eating them for their mild garlic flavor and leave the garlic head to grow in the ground.

Finally, our peas are puffing out. I tasted some sweet shelling peas today, and if we get some sun, we'll have them next week for you. The sugar snap peas are also climbing high at nearly 5 feet now, starting to flower and grow their sweet, crisp pods.

Expect the following in your baskets this week:

Lettuce, kale, collards, bok choy, tatsoi cabbage, radishes, garlic scapes, arugula, spinach.

~~~
Chop up your garlic scapes into your salad! Chop it all up into your salad! This is the time to eat fresh, fresh, fresh after a looooong winter and spring gap of vegetables.

Week 2 CSA

The cold, slow spring is almost past. Even though some standard crops are not yet ready due to cooler-than-usual soil and air temperatures (e.g., radishes, turnips), we will have an abundance of greens for you! Expect the following in this week's basket:

Lots of lettuce, kale, chard, braising mix, bok choy or tatsoi cabbage, scallions, arugula, maaayybe radishes.

And here's my becoming-famous salad dressing recipe:

1 spoonful dijon mustard
1 spoonful honey from a local farm
1 bruised garlic clove from a local farm
big pinch of kosher salt
2/3 cup white balsamic vinegar
1 1/3 cup good extra virgin olive oil
Put all ingredients in a pint-sized mason jar and shake well before pouring onto your greens.

Putnam County is farming

Our tiny New York county is farming. Traditionally home to many horse boarding farms, the number of vegetable, fruit and grain growers is, well, growing. Thanks to efforts by local Glynwood Farm and the County agriculture office, we will soon know all about what's going on here. Take a look at this article posted last week in The Journal News by our friendly local reporter, Ned Rauch. And we'll be in touch with results from the "Keep Putnam Farming" farmer survey that is now being conducted.

Pigs!

Our pigs have arrived!

Two Old spots and one Old spotxTamworth cross. Colin from Hog Wild Farm delivered them in the back of his pick-up truck while he and his family were on their way to a wedding at nearby Glynwood Farm. They are tinier than we expected!... only having been weaned from their mama for 2 days. Right now they're a bit scared of us, but offering them whey and food scraps is allowing us to get close enough to give them a scratch behind the ears.

The dominant Old spotxTamworth cross gave us a scare last night in the middle of our 6-course fundraiser dinner for Hudson Valley Seed. As Jason was closing up the animals for the night, just as it was dark, he heard some small grunting near the chicken coop. Strange. The pig pen is not next to the chicken coop. So he moved the flashlight to just under the brush and found our little piglet strolling around, not in its hut, but outside of the electric fence and about 300 feet from home. Jason came down to our dinner and recruited 3 friends. The other guests heard the sounds of people running through the woods, breaking branches, falling, sometimes a pig squeal and saw flashlights bopping around in the woods. As I came out with the dessert course of hot rhubarb crumble topped with communaly-whipped cream we heard a final squeal and then some cheers. Hurrah! They got him... he was spooked and ran right into the arms of our friend, Dutch. Now that's a farm experience.

Eating leek greens

Most recipes and the French have always called for the "white and pale green parts" of the leeks only. But then what do you do with those leek greens? Please cook with them! You can chop them up and cook them as you would onions. They add green to your dishes. They are great with eggs, in risottos, on pizzas, in soups and many other meals that start off with the classic carrot, celery and onion sweat (in place of the onions). If you have a juicer, you can also juice the greens and use them as a base to a delicious salad dressing or marinade. Just another step to reducing food waste...

Enjoying flowers for more than their beauty

Yellow kale flowers

We can all agree that flowers are beautiful, but many of us don't know that they can also be delicious.

When a vegetable plant flowers, wanting to "go to seed," the tiny flowers are a delicious garnish to salads, soups, potatoes, eggs or anything else. Scallion and leek flowers taste oniony and add a teeny-tiny crunch. Arugula flowers are peppery. Kale an other brassica flowers are spicy and mistardy.

So don't throw them away or pass them by! Enjoy them on your next meal.

Making minds meet

On May 3rd we convened a group of friends on a Saturday to discuss daunting issues related to the sustainability of our ecology, our economy and our health.

We started from the premise that we all accepted the idea that the way the great majority of us currently live is unsustainable, and that continuing on the same course without deep change will leave a world behind for the next generation that is increasingly unhealthy, unhappy, unequal, and unable to sustain a growing human population. 

We have become impatient waiting for scientific or political consensus on the exact degree to which we are in trouble, and believe together we must begin the work of envisioning a more sustainable and joyful way of life at both the individual and societal levels.  

And so we turned to our friends to join in this work. 

With just one day planned for talks, we invited a small group of people across different disciplines to talk about where they and their worlds fit into these issues. With representatives from the fields of research, environment, public health, law, social justice, media and journalism, food and agriculture, landscape architecture, planning, design, art and culture, and politics, we sat together with family and engaged in serious dialogue for eight hours. Each talk was inspiring, imformative and eye-opening, some even revolutionary. (see the speakers and topics below.)

Now that we've met, exchanged ideas, gotten the ball rolling, we have to keep the momentum up. We can't let these ideas fizzle in the summer heat. So we'll start acting and reporting back on some of our progress.

~ ~ ~

Inaugural convening of "Meeting of Minds"

Saturday, May 3, 2014

Agenda:

Abrupt climate change or abrupt societal transformation? Which comes first?
Radley Horton, Research Scientist, Center for Climate Systems Research, Columbia University

Reversing the reversing trend in life expectancy: Corporate and cultural responsibilities in promoting the public’s health

Jocelyn Apicello, Farmer, Longhaul Farm | Educator, William Paterson University and Bard College Prison Initiative

The opportunities and limitations of ethical consumption

Dahni-El Giles, Attorney | Social entrepreneur

The reality of making a living in the sustainable food system

Pablo Elliott, Farmer, Marble House Project

Walking the mundane - towards a productive urban landscape

David Seiter, Principal, Future Green Studio

News organizations today and the shift towards sustainable communications

Ned Rauch, Environment Reporter, The Journal News

Art & social activism: From the farm to Sao Paolo

Cannon Hersey, Artist | Organizer

Undamming the mass movement: Exploring barriers to sustainability progress at the government, community, and individual levels

Jason Angell, Farmer, Longhaul Farm | Advocate

The chickens and the crows: A love story

I can't begin to explain the wonder I feel when I think about the relationship that is going on between our chickens and the crows.

Let me back up a bit... we live in hawk country. I mean HAWK country. Herds of them, flying overhead, sitting in our red pines, swooping right down into our backyard to pick-up a field mouse (you should see Seneca's impression of this). And worst of all: attacking our chickens. They just do it for sport... spot them, swoop down on them, pin them, and peck them enough to kill, but not enough to enjoy a meal. It's cruel, but nature.

And the strangest part about these hawks praying on our laying hens is the wild crows' reactions. When a hawk perches itself on a low branch, just above our chicken coop, ready to take any bird oblivious enough to be taken (i.e., any of them), a pack of crows starts cawing. Loudly. And they begin to dart at the hawk, not scaring it, just annoying it enough because the chickens scramble to the underbrush and the hawk has now to deal with 3 to 4 screaming crows in its face. We even see the crows chasing the hawk in thy sky, mid-flight, darting at it as it glides away. And now whenever I hear screaming crows, I throw Seneca on my back, slip on some boots and run outside to make sure our layers are ok.

I am not quite sure why those crows protect our chickens. But here's my theory: the crows love our compost piles, we love our chickens, so the crows protect our birds. And now we love the crows, too.

Brooding baby chicks

We've got week-old Freedom Rangers out on pasture, foraging in the grass and soaking up sunshine. These future broilers are already showing happy signs of life, fighting over food, playing and sometimes ruffling their feathers at one another. Jason has built a proper home for them where we can control the temperature with heat lamps, secure them from predators, and be sure they have enough space to grow. Seneca is enjoying bossing them all around, although she'll be surprised in just a few weeks when this flock of 30 becomes adult-sized.

2014 April Work-ation

Thanks to all who came out for our 2014 April Work-ation!



The power of many hands helped us prepare 33 beds for planting, dig a new bed for asparagus, haul 13 loads of horse manure, innoculate 40 logs with mushroom spores, build 2 raised flower beds, sink 3 berry fence posts and begin the daunting task of cleaning up our new West field. And thanks, too, to all who helped in the kitchen, with washing up, with picking up rocks and building compost piles.

Please send along photos you wouldn't mind having me post on our site.

Here's to a successful season...

Is Food too Cheap?

It’s not easy getting behind the idea of purposefully making food more expensive.  Industrialized food production, global transportation networks, and the concentration of food distribution into mammoth corporations have made food cheaper than ever in developed countries. 

This can only be a good thing, right?  Particularly for poor people, who have to make every dollar stretch as far as possible.  But with endless articles about the new American farmer movement and the need to build a “sustainable food system”, we have to wonder if food is too cheap to make being a small-scale organic farmer financially sustainable.

China and the Coming Urban Waste Crisis

China is currently undertaking an unprecedented effort to repopulate 250 million people from rural to urban areas, with the goal of creating a “more sustainable” economy driven by urban consumerism rather than large-scale state investments.  Beyond the scale and state-orchestrated nature of this urbanization program, the plan is not particularly surprising: the world’s wealthiest countries are all primarily urban with economies that are driven by domestic consumption.

For the first time in human history, the majority of us live in cities.  One hundred years ago, 2 out of 10 people lived in cities, as of 2010 just over 5 of 10 people live in cities, and it is projected that 7 out of 10 people will live in cities by 2050.  One could say both positive and negative things about this development, but regardless of what you think of urban life, it is undoubtedly here to stay for the near future.

The process of urbanization has largely been caused by the transition from agriculture-based economies to modern economies based on manufacturing, technology, and services.  As farms have become largely mechanized and consolidated into large-scale operations, farmers without work have moved to cities to find new jobs.  This process has repeated itself in developed countries throughout the world.

From an ecological point of view, the urbanization of society presents a real dilemma. Humans need a fair amount of basic resources to survive: adequate food, fresh water, and homes with basic heating and sanitation.  At a Western standard of living, these needs greatly multiply.  Urban areas consist of great concentrations of people living in small geographic spaces.  These concentrations of people cannot produce the resources they need to live from within the area where they live, so they must be brought in from outside of the city. All of these needs must be met with resources and once used all of these resources produce waste.