|
Sent: October 26, 2009
Not all carrots are orange!
Deb, our Harvest Manager, provided Mrs. Lawlor of Morning Glory Public School in Pefferlaw with some “mystery vegetables” for her Grade 2/3 science class. They promptly wrote illustrated cards to tell us how amazed they were with Black Carrots and Candy-Cane Beets. The following day they were even more amazed at how good they tasted after being cooked. It was great to know they didn’t find them yucky weird.
The Grade 2/3 students enjoyed sampling the “mystery food” from Cookstown Greens.
The main harvest is in full swing
With all the cold/wet weather we have run out of inside chores to do. So we must don raincoats and gloves and get to it. There have been several good frosts to sweeten and harden the roots for extended storage. As you have seen in previous Availability listings, all our potatoes, beets, carrots, turnips, and winter radishes are ready. Note that our “best guess” for the month we expect to run out helps you plan menus. Be sure to use this feature when planning menus.
New this week:
Steady frosty nights nicely sweetened our Parsnips, so we have pulled them out to store in our root cellar. It was also time to pull out the Long White Leeks. These are actually the best tasting tender summer leeks so they do not store well. But we have learned to “transplant” them into the root cellar dirt floor to “grow” for extended life. Now that the leafy tops have frozen and transferred all their goodness into the roots, we pulled out our Dahlia Roots. These deliciously aromatic roots can be served raw or cooked. As with a water chestnuts they remain crunchy despite long cooking.
A new approach to farming
Margaret Webb wrote a fascinating series of articles for the Toronto Star. Please click to read the final story. From there you can link to the rest of the series.
Sent: October 19, 2009
Implications of early Frosts
The beautifully warm and sunny September was just what was needed to help mature crops after the record cool and cloudy summer. However, October’s steady diet of frosty mornings is again playing havoc with our schedules. The frosts have actually been great for hardening and sweetening our special winter roots such as Salsify, Celeriac, Parsley Roots, and Parsnips. (However, we have not yet had time in our schedule to harvest them. Later next week we should have some availabe.) On the other hand steady cold nights have nearly stopped the growth of new salad greens – even though they are covered to keep them warmer. Even more troublesome is that the repetitive frosts are damaging the salad green leaves we do have. So we may not have enough Baby Salad Greens for more than our currently expected orders. The greenhouse salad greens will not be ready for another two weeks.
Frosty Parsley Root leaves make sweeter roots.
Frosty lettuce leaves are stunning, but some leaves may be damaged.
Purple Garnishing leaves
There seems to be a constant search for purple garnishing leaves. Now that the hot weather is finished, our stunning deep purple and deliciously tart Purple Oxalis Leaves are once again growing vigorously. Try some. Baby Fennel Bulbs quite like the frosts so are still rapidly growing. Now is the time to enjoy still-tender and delicately-flavoured Full-size Fennel Bulbs.
Sent: October 13, 2009
A market gardener’s lament
A question market gardeners often have is, “Why is it that when we have plenty of something, no one wants it; and why is it that when we are short, everyone wants it?” Last year we had plenty of Gold Nugget Squash; but this year we had a very short crop. True to form, demand this year has been so high, we have already run out. Sorry for any inconvenience! The reason for the short supply is that upon seeding our bedding plants in May, we realized our seed suddenly had very poor germination. Since no seed supplier continues to sell this exemplary variety, a quick order was not possible. Therefore we had to grow our own supply for next year.
Titan Leeks, Burbank Huckleberries, and Fordhook Mustard are some of the seeds we grow to share with the world.
Seed varieties Cookstown Greens is helping to save from extinction
Since we are not really in the business of producing seed, we prefer to purchase as much of our seed as we can. However, any preferred varieties not available from seedsmen, we must grow our selves. To help get these varieties back into production we gladly give samples to anyone who would like to take on the responsibility of maintaining these varieties.
Gold Nugget Squash was a very successful introduction by the University of North Dakota in 1935. But it is no longer available. So we must produce our own seed until someone else assumes the task. Another variety we have chosen to preserve is Non-Bitter Huckleberry developed over 100 years ago by the genius of Luther Burbank. Some of his varieties we still enjoy today are Russet (Idaho) Potato, Elberta Peach, and Santa Rosa Plum. Europeans have long considered pale green leaved Titan Leeks as the very best tasting summer leek. We agree. But the E.U. has ceased approving this variety for sale because they have defined leeks must have dark green leaves. How silly! Fordhook Fancy Mustard was developed by Burpee Seed Company in the early years of the last century to provide the “fanciest” mustard greens. They succeeded! But the seeds are no longer available except from Cookstown Greens.
With the new interest in superior local foods and the convenience of internet marketing, we expect all of these to once again become readily available. Thank you for helping to save these wonderful varieties from extinction.
Many ways to participate in World Food Week
There are several fascinating discussions about repairing our damaged food systems coming up next week. Make time to attend one or more of these events. Please click foodshare and harthouse for more details.
Sent: October 5, 2009
Specialty Squash are ready for your tables
An excellent harvest of chestnutty French Pottimorron Squash (perfect in hearty fall meals), deliciously potato-like Japanese Shishigatani Squash (for a unique “mashed potato”), sweet and fragrant Melonette Squash (perfect for desserts), huge yet creamy French Galeux Squash (perfect for purees), tart and dry Australian Baby Blue Hubbard (complements sugary garnishes), and uniformly small Gold Nugget Squash (perfect for “soup bowls”). Now is the time to start thinking about incorporating these special squash into your menus. Please let us know about your own inspirations.
Dave’s impression of last week’s Curing the Squash Harvest
Newly Available this week
You have been asking for them; now they are ready. Baby Amber Turnips and Red Valentine Radishes will remain available through the winter. (Next week we should be able to round out our turnip and radish list with carrot-like Japanese Turnips and Green Flesh Radishes). We haven’t grown them for a few years, but my experience of deliciously sweet Cipollini Onions served in nearly every meal at last October’s Slow Food Terra Madre conference in Turin was an inspiration to grow them again. Their flattened shape makes them perfect for roasting. This year’s wet summer made them larger than I would prefer, so you may choose to peel off a layer (or two) for use in other dishes. We experimented with red, white and yellow skin varieties, so please let us know which colour you prefer.
Winter Prices return after Thanksgiving
The propane truck has again started its bi-weekly multi-thousand dollar deliveries. Therefore we soon need to return our Baby Salad Greens and Simply Cookstown to their usual $25.00 per bag. We also need to return the Rainbow of Chards, Rainbow of Kales, and Mixed Chicories to their usual price of $9.00 per pound. Due to slowed down growth along with an increase in orders, we have removed Spinach Salad, Fordhook Mustard, Mixed Arugulas, Bloomsdale Spinach, Purple Mizuna, Hot Mizuna, Asian Greens and Mixed Lettuces from the general Availability List. But we will continue to have enough for these items to continue filling standing orders – hopefully right through the winter.
USDA and Agribusiness again challenging small growers
Food safety continues to plague industrial scale mono-culture farms. The most recent case is another Spinach recall, this time by Ippolito International on September 18, 2009. Despite these continued problems, multi-national produce companies are once again attempting to deflect agribusiness’ Food Safety issues onto the backs of small farmers. Fresh Plaza is a fascinating web site for up-to-date information on “Global Fresh Produce and Banana News”. Please read their take on the proposed National Leafy Greens Marketing Agreement by clicking freshplaza.com.
Start Celebrating Fall
Cooler weather brings on the finest flavours and textures in leafy greens. This is best exemplified by our famous Baby Salad Greens. Until the heavy frosts arrive, we will have steady supplies of salad quality Mixed Arugulas, Hot Mizuna, Purple Mizuna and Mixed Asian Greens. Equally prime, but more suited for cooking are our popular Fordhook Mustard, Mixed Spinaches (Bloomsdale and Bordeaux), creamy rich and visually appealing Rainbow of Chards, and fine sweet Mixed Kales. Get them on your menus now because after heavy frosts come (usually sometime in November), they are finished.
In addition to leafy greens, we now have the best tasting and most tender Baby Fennel Bulbs, luscious Baby Summer Leeks, delightfully useful Garlic Scapes, succulent Tulip Chives, refreshing, and spicy green Radish Pods. Another fall treat are pineapply sweet Husk Cherries, wild blueberry-like Huckleberries, deep burgundy Elderberries.
Tomatoes are finished, Now try some Heirloom Squash
For the past two years we have been trialing a number of heirloom squash. These have withstood the test of time. First they need to taste great which comes from the variety’s own genetics and respond well to our healthy soil. Then they need to grow quickly enough and be reasonably resistant to pests in our northern climate. Finally they need to be reasonably productive and have a reasonably long shelf-life in our climate controlled squash storage room. There are some amazing choices available from Seed Saver organizations. We have selected some of our favourites to bring to you:
· Gold Nuggets (½- 1 lb) are charming orange orbs with pleasantly flavoured dry flesh making them perfect for filling with a soup or stuffing; or as a single wedge in a fall presentation.
· Pottimorron (3-5 lb) are the famous French tear-drop squash meaning “chestnut pumpkin”. They definitely exhibit a wonderful rich and sweet chestnut flavour and aroma.
· Baby Hubbard (2-3 lb) with a baby blue skin has all the famous resonant flavour of its behemoth big brother, but in a more convenient size.
· Galeux d’Eysines (15-20 lb) has a distinctively warty pink skin. Inside is a semi-moist pale orange flesh with a mild but wonderfully lingering enchanting flavour.
· Shishigatani (4-6 lb) is a unique treasure from Japan. The dark green skin looks as though it has a tight belt. Inside is a nearly white flakey flesh reminiscent of the finest baked potato.
· Melonette (2-3 lb) has beautiful smooth yellow skin and gorgeous yellow flesh. Cooked, its flavour is pleasantly creamy, sweet and moist – reminiscent of a summer melon. This is the one for custardy pies.
· Sucrene du Berry (2-3 lb) is a green and tan pear shaped squash with moist, somewhat stringy flesh and a tantalizing flavour with agreeable tropical fruit notes.
· Cinderella (15-20 lb) is the story-book pumpkin which best serves as a delightful long-lasting table decoration.
Winter Roots are Ready
We have not yet figured out what made our root vegetables so delicious this year. Was it all the rain, the frequent thunder storms, all the warm days and cool nights? Nevertheless they are all terrific. Through the years we have experienced that better tasting roots also store longer. So we expect to keep you well supplied for many months. All our Potatoes, Beets, Carrots, Turnips, Radishes, Jerusalem Artichokes and Hard-Neck Garlic are now available. A few more specialties will be ready when the weather turns colder.
There’s still a bit of Summer!
The joys of summer are still with us. Celebrate with our Rainbow of Tomatoes. If a few scars don’t bother you, please save yourself a few dollars by asking for 2nds. If your jewels of summer are going into soups or sauces, please ask for single colour boxes of the best tasting 3rds! We are experimenting with some outdoor Large Heirloom varieties. Please ask what is available. For something smaller, our Rainbow of Cherry Tomatoes have the same colours and same memorable heirloom flavours.
The Rainbow of Baby Bell Peppers were a little late starting, but now they are at their beautiful and bountiful best. Baby Leeks and Baby Fennel Bulbs are still great. Traditional local fall Puffball Mushrooms are back. These giants of the mushroom world make really wonderful “vegetarian steaks”.
Fall greens are a comforting, attractive, easily prepared, and absolutely delicious side to your main courses. Rainbow of Chards are the most stunning. Frilly Russian Kales are sweet and tender and when quickly blanched look stunning on your plates. Try the Italian Black Kale (Cavalo Nero) to experience what is considered the very best kale. And heirloom Bloomsdale Spinach is still the best spinach variety ever developed.
Garnishing Leaves Add Elegant Notes
Mixed Garnishing Leaves are a wonderful toy-box for the artist in every chef. You can go step further with our Edible Flowers. Fava Bean Leaves have a lovely buttery flavour – a perfect addition to many presentations. Shiso Leaves make an Oriental basil substitute; and large leaved ones can serve as a most exotic wrapping. Lemon Thyme has all the fine flavour of English Thyme but with added lemon peel notes. Purple Sage is a smart herb to use.
French Mint Tips are an unusually refreshing cross of peppermint and spearmint. Chocolate Mint Tips combine a fine mint flavour with (alas) only the aroma of chocolate. Lemon Balm is a fine alternative to mint. Lavender Leaves look very interesting and of course smell great. Lemon Verbena has the most amazing lemon peel aroma. Large Lemon Verbena is miraculous for infusing into sauces and ices.
Our Winter Root Cellar is Filling Quickly
Warm sunny days and chilly calm nights this past summer greatly delayed our summer fruits. But as is the way on the farm, these conditions were perfect for our winter root crops. Roots we had planned to harvest in November are now getting too large and need to be pulled and quickly moved into our refrigerated root cellars.
Beets were our first roots ready to harvest. Golden Beets have a mellow flavour – even confirmed by “beet haters”. Candy Cane Beets look beautiful and taste great pickled in a marinade. White Beets make great “stainless” Borscht, Pickles, and Salads. Red Cylinder Beets can be cut length-wise for mysterious red strips; or quickly cut cross-wise into even slices. Red, Purple, Black, Yellow, White, and Orange Nantes Carrots are already at their luscious best (raw or cooked).
They may be a Spring crop in Europe, but turnips work best as a fall crop in North America. White, Red, and Amber Turnips are all much more accepted than folk-wisdom would suggest. Our new Japanese Turnips are the totally delicious heirloom Hinona Kabu. Closely related to turnips, are our selection of winter radishes. Red Valentine, Green Flesh, Black Icicle and Red Icicle Radishes are all lovely accompaniments in colourful winter salads, stunning garnishes, quick pickles, or amazing grilled vegetables.
Potatoes are usually our first root to be harvested. But the warm days have prevented them from hardening off. But we are digging up a few to satisfy your cravings. Firm yet creamy flavoured Fingerling Potatoes, ready-to-absorb rich sauces Ratte Potatoes, beautifully scrumptious red/yellow Roseval, stunning and luscious Black Fingerling Potatoes, and brilliant All Blue Potatoes.
Not really a root, but nevertheless a winter storage crop, are winter squash. Our popular small Golden Nugget Squash are perfect for a single serving container. Somewhat larger Japanese Kubocha Squash have a drier richer flavour perfect for baking, and stews.
Fall is Starting!
Leafy Greens are at Their Peak!
Fall is the peak season for Leafy Greens. They lose their summer bitterness and take on cool weather sweetness. (The sugars are a defense from frosty nights.) (Speaking of frosty nights, keep in mind that Last-Minute orders cannot be picked on frosty mornings because the leaves need a few hours of thawing to heal. So please get your orders in early!)
Leafy Greens to consider are of course our most popular Rainbow of Swiss Chards. For the cool months also think of our Rainbow of Sweet Kales. For more traditional menus, heirloom Bloomsdale Spinach is still the richest and creamiest variety – and of course grown in Ontario. For the most heartwarming flavour we have Wild Rapini which looks so appealingly rustic just tossed on a plate. For more intense flavour Wild Dandelion is getting to be even sweeter than it is in the Spring. Shanghai Bok Choy just looks so gorgeous sliced open on a plate. For red leaves there is Red Treviso Chicory, the unique grandparent of the ubiquitous Radicchio. For large green leaves perfect for a wrapping there is beautiful Romaine-like Sugarloaf Chicory.
Any of the above can be served raw. But the following are best raw in salads or as garnishes. Baby Arugulas and Baby Cresses both have sharp nutty bites. Green Hot Mizuna and Purple Mizuna are spicy new forms of this classic mild Mustard Leaf. For a less deeply cut but frilly leaved heirloom there is Fordhook Mustard. For an attractive nutty-bitterness there are slender long leaves of Puntarella Chicory. To tame these leaves consider licoricy Chervil Leaves and tender, buttery Fava Bean Leaves. To brighten anything there are aromatic Mint Tips and tart, tender Sorrel Leaves.
Then of course there is the granddaddy of all salads – the amazing Cookstown Greens’ Baby Salad Greens. It contains many of the above salad greens in hand-selected bite sizes. To add colour there is an Edible Flower Mix and Edible Flower Petals. For more textures there are all manor of our soil-grown Seedlings.
There is Still a Bit of Summer Remaining
Our famous greenhouse grown Rainbow of Heirloom Tomatoes and Rainbow of Cherry Tomatoes are still coming (albeit in smaller quantities) for a few more weeks! Now is the time to consider working our heirloom Sun-Dried and Smoke-Dried Tomatoes into your winter menus.
Other summer treats with many many serving possibilities are refreshing Baby Fennel Bulbs, sweet Baby Summer Leeks, and tender curly Garlic Scapes. Most of our beans have been hit with early frosts. But the jumbo Chinese Green Soy Beans and delicate fresh easy-to-shell Flageolet Beans are still doing well.
For your dessert tables we still have sweet (and non-bitter) blue-berry-like Huckleberries and our cultivated deep purple Elderberries. Consider preserving these in hot simple syrup for serving through the winter with game presentations.
Many Roots are Ready
Even though most of the potatoes throughout the Nottawasaga Valley are long-dead, ours are so healthy they just keep on growing. Still too tender for machine-harvesting, you can now enjoy luscious hand-dug “new” Fingerling, Ratte, Roseval, Black Finger and All Blue Potatoes. Now coming out of our fields are sweet and tender Golden, Candy-Cane, Red Cylinder, and White Beets. Not yet quite up to November richness and sweetness, our Red, Purple, Black, Yellow, White and Orange Nantes Carrots are now growing to just the size you need. Cool nights have brought on White, Red and Amber Turnips as well as the Red Valentine, Green Flesh, Black Icicle, and Red Icicle Radishes the earliest ever.
To answer your many requests, Jerusalem Artichokes will be starting again the end of October. We’ll have to grow more for next summer.
|
