Farm News November 1, 2022
Please note our Fall Farmstand Hours:
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We are closed on Fridays in November!
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Tuesday & Thursday: 2 - 5:30 PM (closing an hour earlier)
Saturday: 9 am - 12:30 pm (opening 1 hour later)
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Flipping the page to November is bittersweet. The thin foliage demonstrates that we are definitely on the other side of autumn, and the shortening days mean scooting inside earlier in the evening and waking up in the dark. Of course, the daylength will get turned upside down next week when we do strange things to clocks. October was a bit of a roller coaster, with warm days interspersed with some very cold nights. We were able to keep the dahlias alive through most of the month, but our field dropped to 23F on Saturday night, which is just too cold for frost irrigation to keep up with. We know that’s tough news for flower lovers, as this year’s patch was especially beautiful. We will be digging the tubers soon and you can check out your favorite ones on our dahlia tuber store this winter.
We will miss this gang of farmers as they depart this week or in the few weeks ahead. A big thank you goes out to Rebecca S., Kim, Mimi, and Julia for their contributions to the farm!
We’ve got a warm start to November, with the 10-day forecast showing very mild to seasonable temperatures. Which is a good thing because still have parsnips, potatoes, and carrots to collect and put up, along with some wonderful fall lettuce, and too many other greens to mention.
Brendan machetes Brussels sprout stalks while Guarding Mountain watches beyond.
It's been a great carrot year! Last year, we lost our most of our fall carrot crop in some very wet weather. This year we had great growing conditions and fine-tuned our fertility program. We were trialing a new seeder, and back in early July when we planted the fall carrots, we were a bit nervous about how well the planting would go. So Rebecca seeded down an extra tenth of an acre just to be sure. They all did great, so now we have tons (literally) of large, sweet carrots waiting for us to pull them up.
My, my, my! The first couple of weeks were iffy, but now these Brussels are looking mighty good! It’s not an easy crop to grow organically, so we’re quite pleased.
Because the carrots can wait a bit, we are looking to finish up the garlic planting we started last week. This is prime garlic planting time, with the window for planting closing around Thanksgiving. Garlic seems to be with us through the whole season, and because we are planting it during the less stressful part of the season, it’s a very pleasant process. On Saturday we got just over half of the 20,000 cloves we will plant in the ground. Then we will mulch the plot, tucking them in the ground for winter and waiting for them to pop through in April to announce that spring has arrived.
We hope you enjoy the farm and the harvest,
Paul, Rebecca, and the Fort Hill Farm Crew
It’s nice to sit down for a bit in November and get the garlic planted.
Featured veg:
Sugar Pie Pumpkins: Very popular in both form and function, these are great for pumpkin breads and pies, or see recipe below. Prepare pumpkin puree by cutting pumpkin in half, scoop out seeds, bake at 375F in a greased pan cut side down in about ½ inch of water until a fork slides in easily. Puree or mash the flesh, this will freeze well for future use. Use as soon as possible.
Salad Mix: A favorite crop when in a pinch for salad time, we have or “old school” type of salad mix this fall in addition to our usual mix. Our salad mix requires a bit of care on your part, as it does not come ready to eat. To prepare, wash the greens and then spin dry in a salad spinner, and either store them in the spinner or move to a clean, dry, covered bowl in the fridge. Do not store salad or spinach for more than three days in the vented greens bag. Spun salad mix will store up to 6 days.
Also available:
Head lettuce (back on sale!), arugula, salad mix, pea shoots, carrots, parsnips, red and French Breakfast radishes, salad turnips, curly and lacinato kale, rainbow chard, collards, escarole, radicchio, cilantro, parsley, oregano, sage, thyme, red, Chioggia, and gold beets, green and red cabbage, garlic, jalapeño, Kennebec, Dark Red Norland, Satina Gold, Magic Molly blue fingerling, & gold fingerling potatoes, classic sweet potatoes and Murasaki Japanese sweet potatoes, Butternut & Koginut squash, Carnival and Starry Night winter squash (at farmstand), speckled swan gourds, leeks, Brussels sprouts on stalk, fresh ginger and turmeric!
Pick Your Own:
~Perennial Herbs:
chives, oregano, sage, and thyme
~Flowers:
Are done after a long and beautiful season. We hope you enjoyed them!
Recipes
Suggested by Rebecca Batchie
For more recipes, check out the Fort Hill Farm Recipe Database
The Best Baked Pumpkin
Pumpkins are so versatile, the things you can do with them are endless! Their flavour goes well with chilli, nutmeg and sage. If you’ve never cooked one before, you’re in for a real treat.
By Jamie Oliver
Ingredients
· 1 pumpkin, about 1kg (2.2 lbs)
· 2 cloves garlic, peeled
· olive oil
· 1 red onion, peeled and finely chopped
· 1 small handful black olives, stoned and chopped
· 2 sprigs of fresh rosemary, leaves finely chopped
· 1 dried chilli
· sea salt
· freshly ground black pepper
· ½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
· ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
· 50 g (1.75 oz) basmati rice, washed and drained
· 75 g (2.65 oz) dried cranberries
· 50 g (1.75 oz) shelled pistachio nuts
· 1 tangerine, zest of
· 200 ml (6.75 oz) organic vegetable stock
Method
1. Preheat the oven to 230ºC/450ºF/gas 8. Cut the lid off the pumpkin and reserve it. Scoop out the seeds with a spoon and keep them to one side. Make the hollow where the seeds were a little bigger by scooping out some more pumpkin flesh. Finely chop this pumpkin flesh and one of the garlic cloves. Heat a frying pan over a medium heat. Pour in a splash of olive oil, then add the chopped pumpkin, chopped garlic, onion, olives, and half the rosemary. Cook gently for 10 minutes or so until the pumpkin has softened.
2. Meanwhile, place the whole garlic clove and the remaining rosemary in a pestle and mortar. Crumble in the dried chilli, add a good pinch of salt, pepper, nutmeg and cinnamon and bash until you have a paste. Add a little olive oil to loosen up the mixture and then rub the inside of the pumpkin with it.
3. Season the cooked pumpkin mixture and stir in the rice, cranberries, pistachios and tangerine zest with a pinch each of nutmeg and cinnamon. Mix thoroughly then add the vegetable stock, bring to the boil and simmer for 3 minutes (no longer or the rice will end up overcooked later).
4. Tear off a sheet of tin foil that’s large enough to wrap the pumpkin in a double layer and lay on top of a baking tray. Place the pumpkin on top and spoon the rice mixture into it, then place its lid back on. Rub the skin with a little olive oil, wrap it up in the foil and bake in the oven for about an hour. The pumpkin is ready when you can easily push a knife into it. Bring it to the table and open it up in front of everyone. Cut it into thick wedges and tuck in, leaving the skin. Serve with seasonal greens.