We are watching the snow pile up and the turkey's are hiding in their shelters wondering what this weird white stuff is! We have not had snow in November in the 10 years we've been raising turkeys. We are hoping it clears up by Saturday when we harvest them!Delivery Changes for next week: All deliveries will be made Tuesday the 20th same time and places.Pick up Changes for next week: NO Thursday pick up, instead Tuesday from 2-6 along with our turkey pick up OPEN HOUSE. We will have pies, cranberry relish and apple butter for sale then as well. Saturday will be normal pick up times. If you need to pick up Tuesday and you are normally scheduled for Saturday please let us know (milk will not be ready early, but veggies can be.)We hope you enjoyed the Kohlrabi last week, we added our tops and peeled, chopped bulbs to some great soup. Along with some barley and the other roots from the csa bags we were able to keep the same soup going for several meals. My favorite other meal was this rabbit stew (with bok choi instead of celery). It was so great! I will be making it again soon.We love pumpkin pie, but we had to try sweet potato pie with the amazingly large one that the little farmer boy harvested. It made 4 pies! It was so great, and didn't require scooping seeds and dealing with peels. This site has tons of great sweet potato recipes including the pie. However the farmer says we still need pumpkin pie, too, so that is my snowy day task! We have sent pie pumpkins out this week so you have plenty of time to prepare the pumpkin before Thanksgiving! I like to make my puree and freeze it for quick pie making.This week we are also sending mushrooms (from another local farm), onions, kale, sweet potatoes, rosemary.....get your thanksgiving recipes ready! Next week there should be cabbage, arugula, beets, carrots, butternut squash and salad greens. We hope you all have a lovely Thanksgiving and please know that you are one of the blessings we will be counting! Thanks for supporting our family farm!Blessings,The Bakers
November recipes!
We started off November with the "littles" in the house having their first cold in about 9 months. It's joyfully not making it's way through everyone. We are helping the youngsters to feel better by giving them this month's herbal Cold Care Syrup. It is made with hibiscus, astragalus, red clover and calendula (honey and water as well). We give them 1/2 - 1 tsp each hour and it's full of great immune boosting properties as well as being perfect for runny noses! Adults would take 1-2 tsp every hour. There is also a great herbal tea in this month's herbal share called 'Relax Tea", it's made with holy basil, rose petals, and spearmint. It's great for rainy afternoons and evenings! I love it with some raw honey and raw cream from our Jersey cows. Remember to hydrate with tons of water or herbal tea when you are sick. Especially Garlic Lemonade!This is one way of doing it, but we usually make it like tea and use real lemons. We simmer for awhile on stove and then add the honey.We have been healing the little ones and keeping the rest of the family healthy by eating lots of soups made with our bone broth. New to making broth, don't worry it's super easy! Try this recipe. If I want chicken broth, I just do the same thing, but use a whole frozen chicken or a few carcasses left over from roasted chicken. Broth and bones are available in the cabin. Having broth in the freezer is a great way to cook up a quick meal by chopping some of your veggie shares and adding rice and ground beef. My favorite way to cook is with no recipe, but good wholesome ingredients.My favorite chili ingredient is, guess what??? Chocolate! Don't believe me? Try this recipe and see what your family thinks. I just use some canned Rotel from this summer and I skip the corn, but it's a good guide for how much chocolate to use! Super Yum! We also love making chicken chili, or white chili, with our whole chickens, this is a great recipe. Oh and I don't use chocolate in the white chili!Mustard greens this time of year are so potent and lovely! We like to saute and add to quiche with some of our sausage. I have skipped a crust for so long I forget it usually has one! We just mix everything together and pour into a greased pyrex and bake at 350 for almost an hour. (You must pre cook the sausage and I prefer to pre cook the greens as well.) The Bok Choi is wonderful in a stir fry, but I have also been adding it to soups for extra vitamins and minerals.I'm super into cooking these days, but there is always fun farm news as well.....The children have been taking care of a goat with a neck injury. It's nice to have sweet helpers and sweet animals. We think a goat got her head stuck in the fence and one of her friends may have butted her! The vet helped determine what her treatment plan is and some physical therapy is part of it! Her name is Dotted Nugget and she is a very sweet patient. Hopefully she will heal soon, as her neck is very sore! The turkeys are growing nicely and looking tasty! The pet rabbits have had some babies that will be ready for new homes in time for Christmas! Everything else is going smoothly and we are preparing the farm for winter!Enjoy your shares!Blessings,The Bakers
It's raining, It's pouring.......
As our two year old says "It's raining, it's pouring the mail man is snoring!" We can't correct it for now because it's just too cute! Well the greens in the garden are happy, but we have never had such a rainy season before! Thank you all for coming out to the farm week after week to pick up in the rain! It's a blessing to us to see you each week and have your support! We are also thankful that so many vegetables thrive despite the abnormal growing conditions. I guess that is why it's helpful to grow varieties that are good under organic production. We spend a lot of time in the winter deciding what to grow based on what sounds, looks and tastes amazing, but what will also actually grow here!Soon we'll starting seeing mustard greens and asian greens again, so get ready! The sweet potatoes are also starting to come in. We don't usually harvest them until the last week of October. However last year they were a bit too big and the total harvest was over 1,200 pounds! So we started digging some this week to keep and eye on them. The small, new ones are great to cut and roast as is, no peeling needed! They will get sweeter and bigger as the season goes on. They don't like to be cold at all so keep them on the counter, not in the fridge.We are still making plans for our fall festival, but are looking forward to seeing everyone the 20th of October 10-5pm. We will be making apple butter and doing farm tours!Have a great week and be safe, there is bound to be flooding out there!Blessings,The Bakers
What kind of poppers do we have this week?
Special invitation to to our "Friends and Farm-ily" and anyone who is interested in seeing the farm! We will be having a fun farm open house and Apple Butter Festival October 20th from 10-5pm. Come meet the baby calves, bunnies and our mini horse who finally has a name.....Juniper! More details for the farm day coming soon, but mark your calendars and plan to come enjoy some time on the farm! It marks the final pick up for Summer 2018 Season. November 1st is the start of Winter CSA, details for that coming soon as well.Well if jalapenos poppers are your style, I promise Passion Poppers will be! They are a kiwi berry grown in the US. We love getting them from a farm in PA every year (hope to have our own growing eventually). We are sharing them with you this week in the CSA. As the box states you let them ripen on the counter until they begin to look a little wrinkly and then pop them in your mouth! They are delicious and you won't want to share! We hope you love them as much as we do!I have some awesome recipes to share this week. We were beginning to think we had used every possible way to enjoy eggplant, but since it's been so abundant this year we had to find one more way. A "farm-ily" member mentioned eggplant moussaka so we had to try it! You won't be disappointed. And it freezes well for a last minute meal later on.We are still enjoying peppers and sad to see the tomatoes go so early this year. But the different weather patterns make some things thrive and others struggle. So it was no bumper tomato year, but there was plenty of other veggies to be thankful for. My new favorite pepper recipe is this casserole! You can add any sauteed veggie to it as well as peppers. We serve it over rice for a nice vegetarian dinner (or add ground beef or sausage). When even the 4 year old devours it, I know it's a winner! He loves vegetables, but only raw....not a huge fan of cooked ones yet.It's time for winter squash!!! Best way to eat acorn squash. Spaghetti squash is my second favorite and here is a great way to prepare it. I love it served like pasta with pesto on it. Butternut will be here soon!Enjoy!The Bakers
Fall is around the corner
We are awaiting the cooler weather and so is the garden! The summer crops are still pumping, like eggplant, peppers, tomatoes and green beans. We are having a slow okra season, but hope for a bumper crop soon. Some of you are cheering and some are groaning, I hear you! I love okra any way I use it but I find first time okra fans like this post might help. I love it just plain roasted with butter and garlic and salt, you know me....I don't usually use a recipe, but here is one if you need some guidelines (but skip the bad oil and double the butter).The Squash is back after two successions were mysteriously killed buy some weather issue or bug we couldn't determine. Potatoes, garlic , onions are abundant and sweet potatoes will be harvested in the next month. Which brings me to the mystery green this week.....did anyone know what it was?Sweet potato greens are a wonderful treat and full of vitamins and minerals! Here are some fun ideas for using it.Farm baby updates, we have two precious calves doing great on their nurse cow mama Elise. She had suffered an abscess on her leg and wasn't able to do the long walk back and forth to the pasture we rotate. As we needed her nearby for treatment and nursing back to health we decided a more gentle way to handle her full bag of milk was to let two calves nurse her. She has taken to them splendidly and is healing nicely. She will begin to put weight back on now that she is healing. Next farm baby expected is a baby Baker, due date December 31st!For canning and freezing ideas look here and here. We love to make double when we cook and freeze for a busy day.Don't forget meat pick up from 2-4 this Thursday in the cabin or during regular pick up hours at your dropsite!Keep your eyes open for a special invitation to a fall farm visit we are planning!Blessings,The Bakers
Jalapeno Fun!
If summer isn't tasty enough I just discovered the joy of jalapeno's! Sure I have made poppers before and being a little bit afraid of spicy things I mostly like watching the kids enjoying them, and tentatively eat some. One customer told me he eats raw jalapeno poppers, I am for sure not that brave. However it would be so good for you! For some reason yesterday I decided to add some to our scalloped potatoes thinking that the long baking time would moderate the heat. Boy was I right and the flavor was unbeatable! I just used this recipe and added sliced jalapenos and cooked pork bbq to make it a whole meal. We loved it! Try it out, we don't pack hot peppers in delivery shares, but they are always available at the csa pick up and in the cabin store. The keep a really long time, too!If you haven't tried the fennel yet, this is a great way to enjoy it! And if you don't have goats or bunnies to serve the tops too try some of these great ideas! We love this seldom seen vegetable!We had the first of the three calves born on Monday night! Look at facebook or instagram soon for pictures of her. The littlest farm boy has claimed her as his and named her Blossom. She will be on display near the cabin soon, but right now she is up in the newborn stall in the barn getting lots of little farmer snuggles. She did take a walk with them yesterday and came to the kitchen to visit me! What a silly surprise. We also had a neighbor's donkey get loose and come visit our donkey, he too came up the back porch steps for a visit! Life on the farm!!!OH, and this weekend we are going to try grilling a whole chicken. I plan to rub our bacon rub under the skin and cut the chicken in half along the backbone and splay it open (spatchcock style). We have a charcoal grill so I'll get the coals going and then spread them out to either side and cook it over indirect heat for about an hour. I'll let you know how it goes!Enjoy your week and your lovingly raised goodies from the Bakers!
Week 15, Summer is flying by
Wow, we are enjoying the heatwave after all the rain this summer. Feeling blessed as there are parts of our country where they are experiencing drought, but sometimes it's fun to farm without being in a downpour! We have some great things coming out of the garden right now!Eggplant, Peppers, Shallots, Onions, Basil, Cucumbers, Carrots, Tomatoes, Potatoes, Melons, Green Beans, and Garlic. Squash took a break and will return soon (we lost two sucessions to unknown causes and are waitig for the next to catch up. Lettuce is struggling a bit in the heat, but should be back strong soon. Okra is almost ready, yay!If anyone would like to order bulk cucumbers, peppers, onions or tomatoes for canning please let us know. We will have them soon. My favorite summertime recipe for canning is Rotel. It's somewhat like salsa and somewhat like tomato sauce. A good friend introduced me to a recipe for it years ago and I hear it can be bought in grocery stores, but don't go to those often so I wouldn't know! We use it as salsa in the winter when we miss tomatoes and also in chili or soups. This is my go to recipe, I use honey instead of sugar and have great results and I usually don't use hot peppers, but add more bell peppers.Another favorite right now, as the cherry tomatoes start coming in, is roasted cherry tomatoes with garlic and basil. It's so good on anything! Tonight we had it over quinoa for a simple supper. I just slice mine, toss with olive oil, mix in basil leaves and sliced garlic and roast for about half hour at 350 or until we want to eat! If you need more precise details try this recipe and add the basil.Shallots are the dark pink skinned 'onion' looking items! Here is a fun site with great recipes for shallots, though we tend to just use them like onions, you can be more creative! It wouldn't be summer if I didn't mention my favorite dish.......Ratatouille! My version is to either saute or roast any combo of Eggplant, Peppers, Onions, Shallots, Squash, Garlic or Tomatoes and serve along side meat or with ground beef. I love to make this in huge batches and freeze it for a quick meal or even a winter craving for summer veggies. For a detailed recipe try this!Farm update: We have three cows due to calf in the next three weeks so be on the lookout for some cute babies! We had 6 piglets born last week and they are doing great! Sadly Mama pig doesn't like visitors so we won't be showing them off. We have one kitten left looking for a great home, let us know if you are interested.Enjoy!The Bakers
Week 12 summer CSA
What lovely weather today is! It's been so hot and muggy we appreciate a cool morning and so do the animals and vegetables! We hope you are all having a wonderful summer and maybe enjoying some travel. We will be going to a short family farming conference the last weekend in July. We are looking forward to staying with friends and enjoying some time in fellowship and learning good things to help us grow and live better. There will be come herbal classes by my favorite herbalist, Rachel Weaver, and we can't wait to attend. She has several books that I find so helpful in keeping our family healthy. The first one I ever got is called "Be Your Own Doctor" and it's packed full of great info.We have been really enjoying our hams lately and I have posted before our favorite recipe, but I will recap here....I make a brine of 3/4 c sea salt and 1 cup maple syrup, and about a gallon of water and mix it up in a stock pot. I then place a ham in it in the fridge. If I put it in frozen I let it brine for 5 days, if it's thawed I do 3 days. Then I take it out of the brine and bake in the oven at 325 until it reached 160 degrees. You can make a glaze, but I never do. It is so amazing my family never leaves a scrap. We try and do a few at a time so we can also slice it thin for sandwiches the next day. The best part is the brine is reusable (assuming you keep it in the fridge). We like to put a chicken in it next and do the same thing. I have used the brine up to 4 times before dumping it.Now for the exciting news! The tomatoes are coming in! I'd say finally, but really we are only at the brink of tomato season, but it never comes soon enough for me! Then when it comes, whew it comes! We will have canning tomatoes for extra purchase in the next few weeks. Just let us know if you'd like some (cabin pick up only). We have some kohlrabi still, lots of summer squash, first potato harvest is happening, the onions and garlic are all in and stored in the walk in cooler. That is a huge project and we are always thankful to see it finished. Cucumbers are going strong and peppers. The kale and lettuces are slowing down in the hot weather, but still some to be enjoyed. If you are running out of ideas for all the squash we are blessed with then try this au gratin recipe, it looks great! I for one, can saute it in butter with onions and never tire of it!That's it from the farm, hope you are enjoying it all!Blessings,The Bakers