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November Descriptions

Celebrating Fall

Fall Favourites

 

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, creamy rich and visually appealing Rainbow of Chards, and fine sweet colourful Mixed Kales and creamy rich Bloomsdale Spinach.  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, and succulent Tulip Chives.  

 

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.  For us they need to taste great.  This comes from the variety’s own genetics and their response 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.

·                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.

 

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 thunderstorms, all the warm days and cool nights?  Nevertheless our chefs report exceptional flavour and Brix measurements confirm this.  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, Dahlia Roots, White Salsify, and Hard-Neck Garlic are now available.  New vegetables you should try are carrot-shaped Japanese Turnips with cherry red shoulders and tender white legs.  Another great new item is Redluscious Potatoes with dark red flesh and absolutely luscious flavour.  A few more specialties will be ready when the weather turns colder.

   Garnishing Leaves are now available in many single varieties.  Take a look at the list to see what strikes your fancy. 

 

Fall is Really Here


 

 

Fall Vegetables at their Best


 

 


 

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.  And heirloom Bloomsdale Spinach is still the best spinach variety ever developed.  Cool days and nights sweeten our aromatic Wild Dandelion.

   After a ten-year hiatus, we have finally found quality seed for Purple Brussels Sprouts.  So we are now reintroducing this amazing fall garnishing vegetable.  A drawback to freshly peeled garlic is small hard-to-peel cloves.  Hard‑neck Garlic provides large easy-to-peel cloves and our bred-in-Ontario Music variety tastes just great.

   Squash is another sign of fall.  We continue providing our old standby Nugget Winter Squash.  Its uniform small size makes it great as a container for fall soups.  We have a good supply this year, so we can select just the right uniform size for memorable banquet soups.  We have brought back creamy rich Chestnut Squash.  Kikzuna Squash is a fine Japanese selection with a delightful hint of “green-tea”.  Golden Acorn Squash is a cousin to ordinary Pepper Squash, but oh-so smooth and moist.


 

 

Our Flowers are Resting


 

 


 

Short cloudy days of November and December always discourage our Edible Flower Mix and Edible Flowers Petals from blooming.  So we will be short of flowers until sunny January days give the signal to resume “spring” blooming. 


 

 

Our Winter Root Cellar is Full


 

 


 

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.  So start using them now.  Our full selection is ready.

   Waxy and luscious Fingerling Potatoes are deservedly our most popular.  Starchy Ratte Potatoes are ready to absorb rich sauces and drippings.  Ask for large ones to prepare classic mashed potatoes.  Stunning and luscious Black Fingerling Potatoes maintain their colour and texture.  Maybe consider them as a garnish.  Blue Potatoes are pale blue when freshly cooked; then turn a stunning royal blue after a few hours in the fridge.

   Red, Purple, Black, Yellow, White, and Orange Nantes Carrots are at their luscious best (raw or cooked).  For colourful preparations consider presenting them as a local alternative for imported peppers.

   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.

   White, Red, and Amber Turnips are all much more accepted than folk-wisdom would suggest.  Just take care to avoid overcooking them.  Our new Japanese Turnips are the totally delicious carrot-shaped heirloom Hinona Kabu.  Closely related to turnips, is 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.

   In celebration of the season, get to know even more root vegetables.  Parsley Roots grew quite large this year.  So they are a most convenient flavouring for your soups and sauces.  White Salsify is likewise conveniently large.  Introduce your customers to its lovely delicate oyster-like flavour.  Dahlia Root has a bright aromatic tang you can enjoy raw or cooked.  Fuseau Artichokes are French Jerusalem Artichokes with very easy to peel skin (with no knobs).  Request small ones for roasting whole; or large ones for chipping and pureeing.

 

Please visit our new Website!
 
    It has been a long-time coming.  But now you can begin exploring our extensive site.  See our Now Available complete with colour photos of our many vegetables.  Then read colourful descriptions in Your Best Buys.  You can review our Ordering Procedure to learn why we need to be a little different.  See luscious colour pictures of each of our varieties in Product Illustrations.  Take a look at our staff as you learn About Us.  Read How We Do What We Do to learn some of what we go through to steadily bring you premium produce.  For a virtual tour click View Our Farm.  A special feature is Maps and Directions to draw you directions from where you are to our farm.  A feature many of you have been asking for is Future Availability consisting of an Annual Timetable and past monthly Now Available listings.  These will be a helpful aid in preparing new menus.  Then there are many past Updates (our periodic newsletters).  Please read or reread them.  If you have any comments, we will appreciate hearing from you!
 
It was a Great Summer
 
 
   We have been very busy over the past few weeks bringing in the winter root crop.  The cool winter-like airflows of October made for chilly working conditions, but it helped harden off our roots to perfection.  Everything should be in good supply well into the Spring!  So you can feel comfortable planning winter menus with steady availability through the winter.  The only real failure this year was our Winter Nugget Squash.  In a few weeks we begin planning and planting for next summer.  Please let us know of any new crops you would like us to be growing.
 
Leafy Greens at their Peak, but not for long
 
 
   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 red leaves there is Red Treviso Chicory which is beautiful either raw or cooked.  For large green leaves perfect for wrapping there is beautiful Romaine-like Sugarloaf Chicory. To great addition to any of these greens are Garlic Scapes.
   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 and sweet attractive Red-Stem Dandelion -  Though not specific to fall, our greenhouse grown licoricy Chervil Leaves, buttery Fava Bean Leaves, aromatic Mint Tips, and tart Sorrel Leaves are all appealing green additions.
   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.
 
 

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Cookstown Greens, 6321 Line 9 RR#3, Thornton, Ontario  L0L 2N0  Canada   •   Tel: (705) 458-9077   •   Fax: (705) 458-1707

•   Web: cookstowngreens.com   •   Email: info@cookstowngreens.com