This week from the CSA

Last week we were away so we had our neighbors take (and hopefully enjoy) our CSA share. This week we picked up the following: carrots, beets, chard, cilantro, basil, 2 small heads of Romain, 2 pickling cucumbers, 1 small (hot?) pepper, 5 cherry tomatoes, 1 regular tomato, 1 zucchini, 1 summer squash, 8 red potatoes, a large bag of green beans and a bunch of small plums (our fruit share). We ate the potatoes and green beans for dinner with some chicken from Balance Rock Farm. All of the cherry tomatoes are also gone because, well, I left them out on the counter and Sue ate them. This share is quite diverse (not just leaves, leaves, and more leaves) so I think it will shape into many very nice meals for the week to come.

Farmers Market Trip

Before dinner tonight I ran out to our town's Farmers Market to pick up a vegetable to go with dinner. The corn spoke to me (not in a "Field of Dreams" type of way, but I think you know what I mean). I pulled back the husks, removed the silk, buttered, salted, peppered, and then put back the husks. I then wrapped the corn in foil and I then grilled it for a half-an-hour with dry rubbed pork chops from Balance Rock Farm.
The other thing I picked up at the farmers market was a small collection of pickling cucumbers (7 of them to be exact). After dinner, I put them in a sterilized quart-sized mason jar with dill, garlic, salt, pepper, vinegar and cold water. They should last up to 6 weeks in the fridge like this, I'll give them a taste test later this week.

Vegetable Updates

In the garden we currently have some things old and some things new. Above are the first couple of butternut squash growing in the garden. I have never successfully grown these before so these little fruit are exciting. These plants were put in the garden 3 months ago (yes, they were put out too early), and I wasn't sure if they were going to yield anything. These plants have have had a rough year (too much rain, too many slugs) and are a lot smaller than I would have hoped. With two more months of growing we may actually get a small number of of these squash before the frost (not that I am counting my squash before they get picked, but at least there is reason for a little hope).

Up on the deck, the peppers and tomatoes are all doing fairly well. There are 4 peppers (2 Bella Hots, 1 yellow bell, 1 red bell) and 6 tomatoes (2 hanging Sweet 100s, 2 hanging Romas, 1 Early Girl, 1 Ramapo) on the deck and they are all currently fruiting. The sweet 100s are the only ones that have produced fruit to pick, but I should have some big tomatoes and some hot peppers in another week.
With all of the old plants finally starting to bear fruit, I have started growing my fall crops. Above is my second planting of peas just emerging from the soil and below are my plantings of beets, salad greens, little finger carrots, and nantes carrots. I hope to transfer these in a couple of weeks. I also have a second planting of bush beans (the first round was pathetic), a second round of potatoes (which in hindsight may have been a bad idea), and one more attempt to get pickling cucumbers. I am going to push to harvest as late as possible this year!

Local Food Field Trip: Meadowbrook Orchards

Today, I ended up taking the boys on an unplanned field trip to Meadowbrook Orchards in Sterling. We left the house heading to Berries & Bloom, but it turns out they are closed until Friday to allow for "Ripening" (according to their sign out front). Needing some fresh fruit and really not wanting to take the boys right back home, I pulled out my phone, went to the web-site http://www.pickyourown.org/mass.htm and looked for another possibility. Out of all of the possible places listed, I decided to try Meadowbrook Orchards.

The place is a pretty huge orchard with lots and lots of apple trees. They have several rows of blueberries and raspberries which were about a quarter-mile walk from the farm stand through the orchard. The farm stand also sells baked goods, jams, sandwiches, and lots of other food, I just did not spend much time in there with the boys... but the placed smelled very good. For picking, the blueberry price was not quite as good as B & B ($3.20/lb), but it was not an outrageous price and they also had raspberries for $4.50/lb and nectarines to pick for $.99/lb.

We picked 3 lbs of blueberries, 1/2 a pound of raspberries and 4 small nectarines (1/2 a pound) spending about $12. Not a bad trip if you also consider the hour of entertainment we got picking and wandering around the lovely orchard.

The one thing that I can definitely say is that the place is beautiful and we had a lovely day for picking. We will have to go back as a family in a few weeks once it is apple picking season!

Preserving Blueberries

I froze a quart of blueberries (one and a half pounds worth) that we picked yesterday. I filled a quart sized zip-lock bag with blueberries (to make sure I was freezing the right amount), then took them out, washed them and then spread them over wax paper on a cookie sheet:

I stored these in the freezer for a couple of hours and then poured them back into the zip-lock bag:

Now we will have some berries for oatmeal and yogurt in the middle of the winter!

Interestingly, when I brought the boys blueberry picking yesterday at Berries and Bloom, the owners asked me if I was the person who had posted something about their place on-line. Apparently, they got some business because of a visitor to this blog (based on a google search according to the visitor). I am definitely happy that I was able to drive them a little business and that I was able to help some random people find a nice place to get local food!

First Tomatoes!

Today, Sue picked the first 2 tomatoes of the season. I quickly took this picture before she ate them:

These are 4th of July variety, so we they are only 30 days behind schedule. There are a couple more that should be ready tomorrow.

In separate news, we ate a local meal of roasted chicken with thyme, potatoes and carrots. The chicken was from blood farm, the carrots were from our MHOF CSA share, the potatoes were from the garden, and the thyme was grown on the back deck. The butter, flour, salt and pepper used in the meal were not necessarily local, but everything else was. It was very delicious if I do say so myself.

The Past Week in the Garden

We had another very wet week in the garden, but I still managed to get a fair amount done in spite of the rain. The brussels sprouts and celeriac continue to plug along on track for a fall harvest. The warm weather plants fortunately got temperatures above 80 for most of the week so they were fairly happy even with all the rain. The 4 peppers that we have growing in pots on the deck produced a lot of flowers.

There are actually a few small peppers out on the deck today! The tomatoes also responded to the warmth and the 4th of July's began to turn red (right on schedule?).

We continue to struggle with BER on the zucchini, but there do appear to be some healthy fruit coming as well. The added compost may have reduced the stress level of the plants even though we had more heavy rains. I hope these stay healthy!

On Saturday, I pulled out the pea and potato plants. The peas had really slowed their production over the past 2 weeks and both sets of plants were being ravaged by slugs and other pests. I have made a second planting of each of the these in hopes of a fall harvest. Since this is my first attempt with potatoes, I'm not sure if this is a good or a bad harvest, but it is what it is. I got just over 1 pound of potatoes.