CSA basket: Week of 6/27

We see a few cherry tomatoes ripening and green beans growing. Summer's here...

Expect the following in this week's basket:
Lettuce, arugula, collards, kale, kohlrabi, peas, fennel, scallions, turnips, basil, parsley, cilantro

CSA basket: Week of 6/20

Happy summer solstice.

The garden is loving these long, warm days. But it is also wishing for some rain. Wish with us! 

Also: Yoga on the farm begins this Friday! Relax and renew on the farm when you pick up your CSA basket with yoga instructor, Krystal Ford. Classes are from 5-6pm on Tuesdays and Fridays. Childcare available.

Pea break

Expect the following in this week's basket:

Sugar snap peas, shelling peas, lettuce, arugula, tatsoi cabbage or collards, chard, fennel, Thai basil, parsley, cilantro, radish or salad turnip

Fresh note: Eat your shelling peas as soon as you can! If you don't plan on eating them within 2 days, shell them and freeze them for optimal sweetness. Store your sugar snap peas in a closed plastic bag. Store your greens in a breathable plastic bag. And don't throw away those fennel fronds... make fennel frond pesto (recipe here).

CSA basket: Week of 6/13

We've got a good one; expect the following in this week's basket:
Lettuce, bok choy, tatsoi cabbage or collards, kale or chard, arugula, garlic scapes, radish, salad or baking turnips, cilantro, parsley

Enjoy those scapes... it's the only time in the season we'll get them. They are the flower stem of the garlic plant that we have to break off so the garlic bulb starts to grow underground. The scape is crunchy with a mild garlic flavor and can be eaten raw or cooked.

Coming next week... peas!

CSA basket: Week of 6/6

The greens are looking good this week. We like to make them in a veggie pasta, add them to omelets, saute them for a savory pie or empanada filling, or chop them up raw for a salad or taco toppings.

Spring taco w/ lots of greens

On another note... We are happy to collect your food scraps, yard waste, coffee grounds, egg shells, etc. so that we can make compost! For the past five years we have hosted a "compost collective" here on the farm. We supply you with a clean bucket; you take it home with you, filling it all week with anything organic (meaning, anything that will decompose; i.e., it doesn't have to be organic-with-a-big-"O"). When you pick-up your CSA basket, you can exchange your full (or half-full, or barely-full... best thing is to bring it weekly) bucket for a clean one. Learn a bit more here.

Expect the following in this week's basket:
Lettuce mix, lettuce, chard, collards, spinach, arugula or kale, radishes, scallions/green onions, chives, tatsoi cabbage (maybe)

Healthy collards

Healthy chard

2016 season begins! 1st pick-up on 5/31

The 2016 season begins with our first basket pick-ups on 5/31 and 6/3.

Well, to be honest... the season began for us back in February, when we started all of our onion, leek, shallot and parsley seeds inside of our house, in a sunny window. The mild winter allowed us to be working outdoors a few weeks earlier than we usually do, so we were able to do a lot of orchard work and beautification projects on the farm. Mid-March started the vegetable planting, with peas in the ground and kale, chard, spinach, lettuce transplanted.

Now, with our house cleared of soil, grow lights and seedlings; and with all of our 130 beds planted; and our greenhouse now just full of extra tomato, eggplant, pepper and cucumber starts, we are ready to begin our CSA distribution!

Remember, spring starts lean and green. But we'll soon boom into heavier and heartier baskets.

Storing greens so they maintain their freshness can sometimes be tricky... please take a look at this link with tips on storing vegetables.

You can expect the following in this week's share:
Lettuce, kale or chard, braising mix or arugula, chives, green onions/scallions, radishes.

A note: Those purple chive flowers are edible! Sprinkle them in your salads or soups.

Sign up now for our 2016 CSA season!

We are accepting memberships for our 2016 CSA season 

- only two (2) shares remain!

What are your CSA membership options?

(1) Household share: Whatever is seasonal and harvestable, we share with you. The weekly box feeds 2-3 vegetarian adults or a family of 3-4 with mixed diets; includes a variety of 5-15 items. Household share price: $650.

(2) Split share: You may split your share with a friend or neighbor. Or, if you’d like to split but don’t have anyone in mind yet to share with, we can do the pairing up for you. People split in 2 ways: (1) every-other-week pick-ups; or (2) dividing weekly pick-ups with each other. Split share price: $325.

You can also purchase pasture-raised meat and eggs at Longhaul Farm:

• Chicken: $6/lb – Reserve your chickens for $15/bird
• Pork: $375 for a quarter hog (cut list available upon request) – Reserve with a $50 down payment
• Eggs: $5/dozen – Available year-round

When and where and how often are pick-ups? Pick-ups are on the farm on either Tuesday or Friday afternoons (4-7pm), your choice. Our CSA season is typically from June to September.

Other happenings on the farm:

• Bread shares will be available again!
• We will be offering a Yoga share - details to come
• Take a look at our newest initiative - ecologicalcitizens.org

 

Contact us to become a member or learn more:

e: longhaulny@gmail.com

p: (845) 424-6277

a: 69 S. Mtn. Pass, Garrison, NY 10524

w: longhauling.blogspot.com

       i: @longhaulfarm

CSA basket: Week of 9/7

Another hot week here on the farm. We'll be taking a few weeks off after this week for CSA distribution. Fall vegetables are almost here!

Expect the following this week:
Sweet peppers, hot peppers, tomatillos, tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, onions, corn, sunflowers, eggplant, bok choy, arugula, kale or chard, parsley.

CSA basket: Week of 8/31

We've got 2 more weeks of regular CSA pick-ups and then will take a week or two off to let those fall brassicas, fall greens, winter squash, beets and turnips get ready for harvest. Expect the following this week:

Potatoes, carrots, chard, kale, arugula, tatsoi cabbage, parsley, eggplant, peppers, onions (red and white).

CSA basket: Week of 8/24

The last week of August, always a turning point on a farm. Planting is done, weeding continues, people are getting back-to-school and back-to-work, September and fall are just around the corner. We are still enjoying the summer bounty for our harvests, but we'll soon move onto fall crops. Sadly, a rabbit - who I see run from the garden every single time I go out there - has eaten all of our final lettuce and spinach planting starts. And it's nibbled the tops of our carrots and beets. We can't seem to catch the critter (might be because it has since multiplied into hundreds of critters). But we did quickly plant some more lettuce and spinach, so we hope they will mature in time.

Expect the following in this week's basket:
Corn, tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, carrots, shallots, scallions, arugula, lettuce, radicchio, parsley, kale or chard, and possibly melons.

CSA basket: Week of 8/17

Summer is still here. We are weeding, finishing up our last planting of the season and desperately watering our thirsty crops. Hope you're not sick of tomatoes and eggplants!

Expect the following in this week's basket:
Corn, tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, eggplant, sweet pepper, hot pepper, onions, lettuce, arugula, parsley, kale or chard, radicchio, cilantro.

CSA basket: Week of 8/10

Evan Rio and big sister Seneca

Thanks for accommodating us last week with the schedule change... with the arrival of Evan Rio, we had to push back the harvest.

This week we're back on track and the tomatoes will continue to make you happy. Consider taking some of the saucing tomatoes to make a sauce (they are considered saucing because they have less water content so get to that saucy consistency faster than the heirlooms).

Not sure what to do with eggplant? Try this recipe for burnt eggplant, fry the eggplant and put it in a pasta sauce or on top of pizza, slice it the long way and baste it with a miso paste glaze and throw it on the grill, or make a classic ratatouille.

Expect the following this week:
Tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, eggplant, peppers (hot and sweet), sweet corn, green beans, lettuce, arugula, chard, parsley, basil, scallions, shallots, onions.

CSA basket: Week of 7/27

Tomatoes abound! And to those of you who came to our April work-ation - remember all those potatoes you planted? We've harvested some "new" ones for you (new, meaning small).

Also, several people have asked me how to keep their greens from going limp in the fridge. Our greens are cut fresh in the morning so are full of water content, then we store them with the stems in water so the leaf continues to draw water up, keeping itself fresh and crisp. If the leafy green has more water content than your fridge (i.e., it is more "humid" than your fridge), then the leaf can wilt and go limp (and since the greens are so fresh, they likely do have more water content). Greens are best kept in water like you would keep cut flowers or in a breathable (e.g., open, or one with a few holes in it) plastic bag. Here's a link to an earlier post on storing vegetables that might be useful.

Expect the following in this week's basket:
Heirloom tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, new potatoes, eggplant, peppers, hot peppers, green beans, kohlrabi, scallions, parsley, basil, cilantro, lettuce, kale, radicchio.

CSA basket: Week of 7/20

We are doing a lot of tomato care this week, making sure the plants will stay strong and healthy through September. And with no rain last week and no rain in the forecast this week, we are having to do a lot of watering. But summer's bounty continues! And it seems like we are having great luck with tomatoes, eggplants and peppers - the other CSAs around here have not yet included them in their shares.

Expect the following in this week's basket:

Eggplant, peppers, tomatoes, lettuce, kale or chard, arugula, frisee, basil, parsley, scallions, squash, cucumbers, green beans, garlic.

CSA basket: Week of 7/13

Thanks very much to Davoren Farm for contributing summer squash and cucumbers to our CSA!

Expect the following in this week's basket:
Summer squash, cucumbers, tomatoes (a tiny taste), green beans, lettuce, arugula, basil, cilantro/dill, parsley, kale, collards, frisee, radicchio, scallions.

Here's a recipe for a greens salad that will be perfect for the frisee and radicchio: http://longhauling.blogspot.com/2014/07/recipe-w-bitter-greens.html.

CSA basket: Week of 7/6

This week we'll be processing our first batch of chickens. We've raised them in the forest on organic, non-GMO feed from a NYS farm, and because they are "Freedom Rangers" they are quite good at foraging the forest floor for more protein and nutrients. If you reserved birds earlier this season, you'll get priority, but we'll likely have a few extra for sale during Friday's CSA pick-up.

Thanks to Davoren Farm, we have 2 varieties of summer squash for you this week: Zephyr and Costata Romanesca. Both are sweet and crunchy and good when they are small or even fairly large.

Expect the following in your baskets this week:
Summer squash, green beans, carrots, salad turnips, chard, lettuce, basil, kohlrabi, cabbage, cilantro, parsley, scallions, baby onions.

CSA basket: Week of 6/29

Summer's here and baskets will be a bit more colorful!

And other cute news on the farm: we've got 3 8-week-old pigs. They are happily rooting around in the woods.

Expect the following in this week's basket:
Cabbage, green beans (just a taste), sugar snap peas or shelling peas, kohlrabi, bok choy or chard, hakurei turnips or radishes, kale, lettuce, arugula, basil, parsley, scallion, cilantro

CSA basket: Week of 6/22

We've tasted the first few ripe cherry tomatoes, a sign that they're growing well and will be abundant in a few weeks! Lots of greens this week, so keep enjoying those salads. We also have been making a very simple pasta sauce with them, see recipe here.

Expect the following this week:
Sugar snap peas, hakurei turnip, collards, kale, bok choy,arugula, lettuce, basil, parsley, cilantro.

Recipe w/ greens

Creamy greens pasta sauce
(adapted from here)

Ingredients: Greens (e.g.,  sorrel, collards, tatsoi, spinach, bok choy, kale, arugula), heavy cream, onions or leeks or garlic (or a combo), butter, s+p pasta

Preparing: Saute chopped garlic, onions and/or leeks in a few tablespoons of butter. Meanwhile, roughly chop greens of your choice. Add greens to pan and cook until slightly wilted (less cooking time for spinach, sorrel, arugula; more cooking time for tatsoi, bok choy, collards, kale). Add 1/2 cup to cup of cream and any herbs you want (e.g., tarragon, oregano). Let cream thicken for a minute or two. Salt and pepper to taste. Serve over pasta.

Eating: We like a squeeze of lemon juice on the pasta and some shaved Parmesan. Our favorite version of this is with sorrel, which has a lemony taste.

Dish history: We tried the original recipe (see here) because we had an abundance of spring sorrel and eggs. And then we used it for a supper served over homemade pig kidney tortellini. The strong lemony-creamy sauce paired well with the powerful kidneys.

CSA basket: Week of 6/15

Garlic scapes!

Somehow the varieties of peas we planted this year have resulted in sugar snaps ripening before the shelling. Expect a fun basket this week:

Sugar snap peas, garlic scapes*, lettuce, bok choy, kale, radishes, hakurei turnips, arugula.

* Scapes are the flowering stems of the garlic plant... they come only once a season, are mildly garlicky in taste and can be eaten raw or cooked.

CSA basket: Week of 6/8

A few days of sunshine and our shelling peas will be ready. And the garlic plants are scaping. June is here.

We are full of lettuce! You'll be getting quite a few heads this week. And likely last of the spinach
(spinach is a long-day plant that is starting to flower with so many hours of daylight).

Expect the following in your basket this week:
Lettuce, Tatsoi cabbage, arugula, kale, collards, spinach (we hope), radishes

~ ~ ~
Radishes are our favorite pickles! Use this recipe for quick pickles that just go right into your fridge: http://longhauling.blogspot.com/2011/08/recipes-with-radishes.html.