Farm News, September 28, 2021

BRING YOUR MASK! Due to the everchanging pandemic conditions, we are requiring masks for all individuals, regardless of vaccination status, while visiting in the barn. Masks are not required outside the barn. Thank you!

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Last week we turned the calendar to fall, but someone forgot to tell Mother Nature.  The decidedly summer-like weather seemed warm for October, and it felt a little off to be making compost and digging sweet potatoes in shorts and sandals.  The sweet potatoes look good this year, although the crop yield was a little lower than in the past, and like many mysteries surrounding vegetable farming, we’re not quite sure why.  We’ve got some bins warming up in the greenhouse and should have them available soon.

Connor’s smile belies the hard work it takes to get these gems out of the ground - it is arguably the most physically difficult harvest of the year.

We did pick up an excellent crop of butternut squash a few weeks back and they are now sweet enough to bake!  We grow the heirloom variety, Waltham, which we have found over the years to have the best flavor, and we’ve had them store for months.  In other harvest news, we broke out the brussels sprouts tops last.  They are a tasty green and a seasonal treat we will only have for a few more weeks.  Plucking the top off the Brussels sprouts stalk helps the “sprouts” (which are really buds) size up for the stalk harvest, which should start in late-October.

Faye has done a lot of broccoli harvesting this season and is becoming an expert at what can be a tricky crop to gauge.

Otherwise, we are still pretty busy cutting salad mix, bunching greens, digging carrots and potatoes, and starting to think about fall maintenance and clean up.  We’ve filled the cold frame with kale plants and filled the high tunnel with lettuce plants.  The tomatoes are still putting on an amazing early-fall show, but very soon we will need clean out the greenhouses to plant spinach and lettuce for when the cold weather really sets in.   For now, we’ve seen some seasonable, comfortable October weather in the forecast and are looking forward to sweatshirt weather.

We hope you enjoy the farm and the harvest,

Paul and Rebecca for the Fort Hill Farm Crew  

Lauren is perhaps the most excited person to have ever met a celeriac bulb.

Featured this week:

Butternut squash: A New England classic and hands down the favorite winter squash of many. We have a beautiful crop this year. Like all winter squash, prepare by cutting in half, scooping out the seeds, oiling the cut edges, and putting face down in a baking pan with a quarter inch of water in it. Bake at 375F until a fork slides in easily, let cool a bit, and enjoy. Serve with butter. Or peel and cube, toss in olive oil, and roast in the oven with other fall roots. Don't forget to roast the seeds too! It should store for many weeks in a dry place between 55F and 65F.

Brussels sprouts tops:  in 2011, after we lost of lot of crops when 2 storms dumped a lot of rain, we got the tip from farmers friends that Brussels Greens were a nice crop in their own right.  Ever since, we, and a growing number of customers impatiently await the moment that we take the tops off.  It also bodes well that sprouts will be growing to size in the next 3 – 4 weeks. These are great used like kale or collards, and have that unique Brussels flavor to boot.  We like to braise them with sautéed garlic, and then we often add toasted sesame oil, tamari, ginger, and some beans to make a hearty meal. Alternatively, bacon and leeks would be perfect accompaniment for these greens too.

Also available:

Salad mix, arugula, head lettuce, pea shoots, radishes, limited salad turnips, Red cabbage, Chinese cabbage, savoy cabbage, red, Chioggia, and gold beets, curly and lacinato kale, rainbow chard, parsley, chives, oregano, sage, thyme, rosemary, radicchio, Dark Red Norland, Satina Gold, Blue Gold, Magic Molly, Kennebec and Fingerling potatoes, German Extra Hardy garlic, Heirloom, beefsteak, and plum tomatoes (still on sale!), Sungold and red cherry tomatoes, escarole, fennel, assorted sweet peppers, mixed Italian and Asian eggplant, hot peppers, leeks, celeriac, collards, Brussels sp. Greens, fresh young ginger, Carnival squash, limited apples from our certified organic, no-spray orchard

Coming Soon:

Sweet potatoes

Pick Your Own:

Flowers: * please get a flower ring from the barn for bouquet size.

Don’t miss the Dahlias, which come into their own this time of year! There are still some nice flowers out there, despite the deluges of rain.

Perennial Herbs: * please get an herb ring from the barn for bunch size.

Chives, Oregano, Thyme, and Sage for all of those fall recipes

PYO Hours: 1:30 - 7PM. (PYO begins 30 minutes before and goes 30 minutes beyond barn hours.)

Recipes

Suggested by Rebecca Batchie

For more recipes, check out the Fort Hill Farm Recipe Database

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Squash With Chile Yogurt & Cilantro Sauce

By Yotam Ottolenghi

Ingredients

1 large butternut squash (3 pounds or 1.4 kilograms)

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

6 tablespoons (90 milliliters) olive oil

1 3/4 ounces (50 grams) cilantro, leaves and stems, plus extra leaves for garnish

1 small clove garlic, crushed

scant 2 1/2 tablespoons (20 grams) pumpkin seeds

1 cup (200 grams) Greek yogurt

1 1/2 teaspoons Sriracha or another savory chile sauce

Salt and black pepper

Directions

Heat the oven to 425º F.

Wash the squash skin well, cut the squash in half lengthwise, remove and discard the seeds, and then cut into wedges 3/4 inch wide and about 2 3/4 inches long, leaving the skin on. Place in a large bowl with the cinnamon, 2 tablespoons of the olive oil, 3/4 teaspoon salt, and a good grind of pepper. Mix well so that the squash is evenly coated. Place the squash, skin side down if possible, on 2 baking sheets and roast for 35 to 40 minutes, until soft and starting to color on top. (If they topple over and don't stay skin side down, don't worry.) Remove from the oven and set aside to cool.

To make the herb paste, place the cilantro, garlic, the remaining 4 tablespoons oil, and a generous pinch of salt in the bowl of a small food processor, blitz to form a fine paste, and set aside. (If you don’t have a small food processor, a mortar and pestle will work, or consider doubling the amounts to make in a large food processor and save any extra sauce for other uses.)

Turn down the oven temperature to 350º F. Lay the pumpkin seeds on a baking sheet and roast in the oven for 6 to 8 minutes. The outer skin will pop open and the seeds will become light and crispy. Remove from the oven and allow to cool.

When you are ready to serve, swirl together the yogurt and Sriracha sauce. (Yogurt’s thickness will vary so feel free to adjust the consistency to your liking with a splash of olive oil or water.) Lay the squash wedges on a platter and dollop or drizzle the spicy yogurt sauce and then the herb paste over the top (you can also swirl the yogurt sauce and herb paste together, if you like). Scatter the pumpkin seeds on top, followed by the extra cilantro leaves, and serve

Sautéed Brussels Sprout Leaves with Onions & Garlic

From theGardeningCook

Ingredients

8-9 cups of Brussels sprout leaves, rinsed thoroughly

1 medium yellow onion, finely diced

2 cloves of garlic, finely minced

3 slices of bacon

1 1/2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

1/2 cup of vegetable stock

Pinch of red pepper flakes

Lemon zest

Juice of 1/2 lemon

A splash of red wine vinegar (to taste)

Salt and pepper to taste.

Instructions

Heat the oven to 350 degrees F, and cook the bacon for 15 minutes on a rack. Cool and dice.

Add the olive oil to a pan and sauté the diced onion until slightly translucent.

Once the onions start to turn translucent, add the garlic and continue to cook until the onions are soft and the garlic is slightly browned.

Add the vegetable stock to the pan and bring it to a simmer 

Add the Brussels sprouts leaves to the pan and cover the pan with a lid, allowing the leaves to be steamed.

Once the leaves have slightly wilted down, add the pinch of red pepper flakes and the lemon zest.

Continue to sauté the ingredients together, stirring occasionally until they reach the texture/consistency you desire (I prefer mine to be soft, with just a slight bit of crunch. I cook mine on low heat about 30 minutes.

Remove from heat and stir in a small splash of red wine vinegar and lemon juice.

Season with salt and pepper. Stir in the diced bacon. Serve hot.