END OF THE HARVEST FESTIVAL.
This Sunday, October 4th, from 2:30 PM until 5:00 PM. Join in the Nitty Gritty Dirt Farm Annual Farm Games – Good Food, Friendly Farmers and Cheerful Interns, Homemade Soups and Fresh Baked Breads – RSVP to nittygrittyfarm@aol.com and let us know that you are coming so we can plan for you.
From the Farmers….
I’m gonna say it – the F word …………….FROST! That word that veggie farmers either dread if there is a lot of great looking produce still in the fields, or look forward to if it has been a hard year. We would have like to have at least one more week before frost so that all those beautiful unripe tomatoes could have had time to ripen. As did many of you, we had a hard killing frost – the temperature registered at 28 degrees on the indoor/outdoor thermometer so we are guessing that it was at least a couple of degrees colder in the low spots of the fields. On Wednesday morning everything was covered with frost – the trees, the lawn, the windshields of our vehicles. Even the water buckets for all the livestock had a thin layer of ice over them and all the hoses were frozen until midday. But we were prepared – or at least as prepared as we could be.
On Monday after we squeezed up and loaded the second group of lambs to go the butcher and Gigi left with them, Cara, Gretchen and Robin harvested every single squash, pumpkin and gourd still in the field. It was a blustery, cold day of work. We carried two haywagon loads of tubs from the field into the hoop house for protection. Then on Tuesday morning, we harvested all the peppers and eggplant right down to the tiny ones. We will chop and freeze and use many of the peppers in tomato sauce. And then, Tuesday afternoon, we picked tomatoes – once again filling every bucket we own – 80 in all. With that done – and so many beautiful tomatoes left in the field – we pulled out the huge tarps and covered an area about 60 feet by 40 feet – about 1/3 the length of the field and over 4 rows. We covered the Paragons and Pink Beauty’s because they have the most green tomatoes left. We also covered a small area of Orange Blossoms just because we couldn’t bear to lose all of them. And then we put tarps and rugs and blankets over all the produce in the hoop houses and over the wheelbarrows of tomatoes (that Robin picked because she just couldn’t bear to leave them to the frost, and basil (that Cara said we must harvest for pesto).
Wednesday morning was slow – hard to get started in the cold. And Gretchen and Cara are still sleeping in unheated quarters (and while the house is unheated too it is a lot warmer) so soon they showed up to work in multiple layers of long underwear, gloves and hats. [We are a bit short-handed this week as Dale is not here. We were very sad to hear that Dale’s mom who had been ill with cancer died last Thursday and Dale traveled to the Chicago area to be with his family this week.] As we surveyed the extent of the frost damage, we decided to try to glean some of the frozen tomatoes to make tomato sauce – so we picked about 4 bushels and began chopping them and peppers and onions for sauce – as well as prepping the last of the spotty basil we saved from the frost for freezer pesto.
We are sad to see the season ending. It had been a great year in so many ways. This Sunday will be our END OF THE HARVEST FESTIVAL. Plan now to come to the farm – play in our Annual Farm Games – and enjoy a variety of homemade soups and fresh baked breads – and see the farm at the close of the season. RSVP to NGDF and let us know that you are coming so we can plan for you.
Oh by the way – what to do with all those tomatoes and peppers????? You can chop the peppers and freeze them in ziplock freezer bags if there are too many to use fresh. While they won’t maintain their texture after being frozen they are great to use in cooking or on pizza. I think that one could use up a good amount of tomatoes making tomato juice, hot sauce and Cara’s Bloody Mary’s. And make more fresh salsa!
Until next week …. WE HOPE WE’LL SEE YOU AT THE FARM FESTIVAL ON SUNDAY ……………
What’s in your SHARE this week:
Pumpkin – New England Sugar Pie, Baby Pam, Snackjack (all small orange edible and look about the same – Snackjack has naked seeds)
Pumpkin – Jack Be Little (tiny orange pumpkin edible), Baby Boo (tiny white pumpkin edible) Sweet Lightning (orange and green stripes on beige pumpkin shape edible)
Squash – Delicata (green and orange stripes on beige long), Buttercup (dark green )
Gourds – Small assorted mix, Koshare, Small spoon mix, Medium mix, Autumn Wings mix (not edible!)
Onions – Walla Walla or Candy (sweet yellow), Candy Apple Red
Sweet Peppers – Carmen (long green or red bull horn, Jimmy Nardello (approximately 1/2 x 6” green curled sweet), Lipstick or Apple (3” x 3” green or red thick wall with a pointed end), Islander (purple), Gypsy (yellow)
Hot Peppers – Conchos (approximately 1” x 3” jalapeno mildly hot), Serrano del Sol (approximately 1” x 3”very hot), Numex Joe Parker (approximately 1 ½ “ x 6” horn shaped – smaller than Carmen but very similar – mild), Chervena Chuska (2” x 5” mildly hot also looks like Numex and Carmen), Tiburon (very dark green almost black contorted looking Poblano)
Eggplant – Thai Green, Orient Express, Orient Charm, Galine, Dancer
Turnips – Just Right
Tomatoes – Paragon (large red), Pink Beauty (large pink), Orange Blossom (med orange), Taxi (yellow), Green Zebra (green striped), New Girl (small red)
Next week will be your last share for this season. You can expect: lots of potatoes, more squash, onions, kohlrabi, turnips, carrots, bok choi, maybe a few tomatoes
This week’s recipes:
Cara’s Bloody Mary’s
Serves 2
2 shots vodka
1 ½ cups homemade tomato juice (from NGDF tomatoes of course! – recipe follows)
Juice of 1/4 lemon
6 shakes of worchestershire sauce
6 shakes of homemade hot sauce (from NGDF peppers and tomatoes – recipe follows)
fresh ground black pepper
Shake all ingredients with ice in a shaker or 1 quart canning jar.
Serve with a homemade dill pickle (NGDF Wild Child dill pickles) or celery or olive
NGDF Tomato Juice
Cut up any assortment of tomatoes (cut up stem end, peels and all)
For every 4 cups of chopped tomatoes add one onion and one pepper (any kind)
You can add a bit of basil or parsley if you want.
Cook – start heating slowly to avoid burning) until all vegetables are soft.
Process through a food mill or Sauce Master Squeezo strainer.
Pour into jars and cool to use immediately or pour into jars and hot water bath can for 40 minutes.
Cara’s Red Hot Sauce (that isn’t so very hot)
2 quarts tomatoes chopped, peeled, cored
1 12 cups chopped hot red (or green) pepper
1 quart vinegar, divided
1 cup sugar
1 tablespoon salt
2 tablespoons mixed pickling spices
Combine tomatoes, peppers, and 2 cups vinegar in a large saucepot. Cook until tomatoes are soft. Press through a sieve or food mill. Add sugar and salt. Tie spices in a spice bag and add to tomato mixture. Cook about 30 minutes or until thick. Stir frequently to prevent burning on bottom of pan. Add remaining 2 cups of vinegar. Cook until as thick as desired – about 30 minutes more. Ladle into jars and hot water bath process for 15 minutes for ½ pints or pints. Yield – about 4 half pints.
