June 25th, 2009

Rare Earth Farm

www.rareearthfarm.com

What’s in the box today?

What an incredible time of the year. The long days at this time of the year are perfect for getting a lot done. 4:30am starts our day and now with visible daylight until 9:30pm we  can pack a lot of projects into one day. Last Sunday night  which was the summer solstice, Steve was out at 9:30pm plowing one of our fields with still plenty of light to see your path.

The long days of summer offer us a variety of conditions at every time of the day. This gives us a way to pick and choose our tasks according to the time of day.  Most of the harvesting will be done early in the day. The afternoons and evenings are dedicated to cultivating, seeding, and transplanting. There’s a time and place for everything.

Last week we emailed our first newsletter to everyone. This being our first time with e-mail newsletters we’re finding out there’s more difficulty to it then we originally planned on. If you didn’t get our newsletter in your email inbox it may have been labeled as junk, rejected by your personal spam filter settings, or by the limitations on receiving certain emails set forth by your service provider.  Until we can resolve these issues simply go to our website and read the newsletter from there. Newsletters are published on Wednesday night. Here’s the direct link to our newsletter for this week:

http://rareearthfarm.com/Newsletters_files/june2509.htm

Strawberries are starting to ripen. Hope we can get at least three weeks for deliveries. It will all now depend on how hot it gets and how much rain we receive. Strawberries don’t hold up well with heat. If we get too many days of temperatures in the 90’s it automatically reduces the harvest time. Just have to wait and see.  Important! Plastic clamshell containers that you received strawberries in, and latter our cherry tomatoes, need to be washed before they’re returned. If you don’t care to do that for us just send them to your recycling center. Also, no clamshells from other sources should  be left at your pick-up location.  We hope to have strawberries for the next 2 weeks. Have a nice week!                                 

                                                                 Steve & Debra Jo

 

Snap peas in bloom are a wonderful sight after taking care of them for such a long time. These peas were planted on April 13th.  Snap peas should start showing up in your boxes next week.

Radish

 

Most of us don’t think of radishes as being too special- some of us probably can’t even stand the taste of them. But did you know that the Ancient Greeks held this root vegetable in such high regard that they crafted radishes out of gold for ornamentation? As our society attempts to learn to eat seasonally and healthfully we must embrace what ancient civilizations seemed to know inherently. So maybe radishes aren’t your favorite vegetable but don’t give up on them because they are a member of the cancer-preventing cruciferous family. If their bite is simply too strong for your taste buds to handle then try cooking or sautéing radishes. This (along with peeling) will reduce the sharp flavor.

Red Radish Salad with Sprouts

From:  Roots-the Underground Cookbook by Barbara Grunes and Anne Elise Hunt

 

2 heads lettuce, washed

1 bunch radishes, trimmed and thinly sliced

1 large tomato, sliced

¼ cup Greek or large ripe olives

11/2 cups plain nonfat yogurt

3 tablespoons red wine vinegar

¼ teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon freshly ground white pepper

¼ cup chopped fresh parsley

1 cup (or to taste) sprouts

 

Put drained lettuce leaves decoratively on four salad plates.  Arrange radishes and tomato slices on lettuce. Sprinkle with olives. Combine yogurt, vinegar, salt, pepper, and parsley in a small bowl. Spoon a dollop of dressing over radishes and tomatoes. Sprinkle with sprouts. Serve chilled.

4 servings

Sautéed Radish

This is a simple way to prepare radishes and with the cooking removes the heat usually found in a fresh radish.

1. Slice radishes thin

2. Heat olive oil, or any other cooking oil to frying temperature.

Drop radishes into oil and sauté until the radish takes a golden brown appearance. During the sauté add any of your favorite spices and add garlic to taste. Combine with other cooked vegetables or just eat by themselves topped with fresh ground parmesan cheese.

Driving a tractor may appear simple-especially when you watch an old pro like Farmer Steve zoom around the farm like he’s in a Mini Cooper. For the novice, this necessary piece of farm equipment can be a bit intimidating. Generally, I lead my life with the attitude that I’ll try anything at least once. And so it was last season that I made my first attempt at maneuvering one of our two antique 1950s Allis Chalmers series “G” cultivating tractors through the weed infested beet field. I took out more beets than weeds. Oops!

There is an art to driving the G. The operator must be able to: a) judge how deep to place the tools into the soil, b) decide whether or not to use a shield to protect young seedlings, and c) most importantly, drive in a straight line at a quick enough pace to tear out the weeds but not too fast that the topsoil waves cover the row of crop. May sound fairly elementary but just try it once and you may reconsider.

Cultivating is a very important part of organic agriculture. Without the use of chemical herbicides it is pertinent that weeds be removed both mechanically and by hand. Mechanical cultivation is step one. After a field has been passed over with the G the heavy clay soil on our farm is looser and easier to work by hand with a hoe. Another advantage is there are fewer weeds to pull by hand or hoe because the G has pulled and buried a fair number of them.

After my unsuccessful cultivation of the beets I refused to drive the G for the rest of last season. This season I had a change of heart. How could I call myself a farmer if I wasn’t willing to learn how to master one of the most important aspects of sustainable agriculture? So I dug out my brave tractor driving face and told Steve that I was going to try again. And wouldn’t you know- I am catching on rather quickly. There is still plenty to learn and practice but now I actually ask to do as much cultivating as possible. I still love the close connection to the land that hand weeding provides but have also learned to appreciate mechanical cultivation.

One more benefit is that the farmer can scout the state of many fields/crops in a relatively short period of time. Because we can only cultivate one row at a time and you must look down as you ride over the row of plants you literally get to see every single plant in the field you are cultivating. A farmer must constantly monitor his/her crops- are there any insect or disease problems that need to be tended to? Which fields should take priority on the hand-weeding list? How far off is the crop from harvest? Was germination good or should we seed more right away? ……… A CSA farmer’s work is never done and his/her mind never truly rests during the season BUT the stomach never wants for lack of good food. A fair trade off if you ask Steve and I as we are both very proud of the food we are able to raise on our 20 acres of land.  And so on that note I will end in order to get a few more hours of cultivating crops for the CSA boxes in before the sun goes down.

Debra Jo

 Rosemary

My herb garden would not be complete without at least one rosemary plant.  Not only do I love it for it’s intense fragrance and flavor but also for it’s stoic appearance.  Use this herb to flavor meats, fish, vegetable dishes, and even deserts.  It can be used fresh as well as dried.  Potato salad will never be the same after you’ve tried it with rosemary.

 

FYI:  These rosemary plants were started from seed here at the farm on March 16^th. “Rosie” is a slow grower but her fragrance and taste make her worth the wait!

 

Growing Tips

-Provide a larger (8-10in) pot with fresh soil and good drainage.

-Rosemary does not like to be over-watered or to be sitting in water, but should be kept from drying out in the heat of the summer.

-Does well in full sun

-Do not leave outside for the winter

-Rosemary should be brought indoors as temps drop to 30 degrees F.  Put it in a sunny window where it will receive 6-8 hours of sunlight.

-Your plant may not be as happy indoors as out but it should stay alive until the following spring when it can move back outside. 

-Re-pot the rosemary yearly.  At least give it fresh soil even if the pot is still of adequate size.

  Confetti Salad

                                                                 -from Cook with Tofu by Christina Clarke

11/2 cups shredded red cabbage                                    

1 cup fresh lettuce, torn or cut

1 cup fresh spinach, coarsely chopped

1 small red onion, thinly sliced

¼ cup chopped black olives

¼ cup walnut pieces

1 cup Basic Tofu Cheese

 

Basic Tofu Cheese:

1 lb. Tofu, drained

2 Tbsp. Oil (olive or sesame preferred)

1 Tbsp. + 1 tsp. Lemon juice or vinegar

¾ tsp. Worcestershire sauce

¼ rounded tsp. Salt

pinch garlic powder (optional)

Mash the tofu; then add the remaining ingredients and mix well. Chill for an hour or so to allow flavors to blend.

Confetti Salad Instructions:

             Place all ingredients in a mixing bowl. Toss lightly. Serve with your              favorite vinaigrette dressing. Serves 4

Spring Garlic

Last week we passed out garlic chives to get you garlic lovers salivating. Well this week we are one step closer to the real thing with the harvest of our “spring garlic”.

Spring garlic is first year garlic planted from seed rather that a mature clove. It is smaller in size and harvested before it has a chance to form separate cloves. The flavor and potency is very much the same as mature garlic. Overall our garlic looks better than last year so we plan on sharing a decent amount with everyone once it’s ready to harvest. For now we can satisfy our garlic craving with the equally wonderful spring garlic.

 

Crazy Fact about Cucumbers

The inner temperature of a cucumber can be up to 20 degrees cooler than the outside air– until it is harvested from the plant. This is where the phrase “cool as a cucumber” was coined. Information provided by Judy Mayer, Outpost Natural Foods Nutritionist.

Quinoa Veggie Salad

                                                                              -by Debra Jo Becker

1 cup red quinoa

1 cup white quinoa

12-15 pole beans, Sliced thinly and to 1 inch in length

1-2 cucumbers, sliced

1 cup shredded carrot

¼ cup sun dried tomato powder (can substitute real tomato slices)

1 small to medium onion, diced

1/2 tbsp garlic powder or 3 cloves fresh garlic

salt and pepper to taste

1 bottle of Newman’s Own Three Cheese Balsamic Salad Dressing- you will use about ½ the bottle

 

Prepare quinoa as directed on package. Allow  to cool for about 10 min.

Mix vegetables in large bowl with tomato powder, garlic powder, salt and pepper.

Transfer quinoa to large bowl with veggies.

Pour about half the bottle of dressing over quinoa/veggies and mix well.

Add more dressing or herbs if desired- this is up to your own personal taste.

This salad is wonderful served warm or chilled. Makes about 8 servings

 

* Sliced Radishes would be an excellent addition to this recipe