Farm News, October 26, 2021
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Please note our Fall Farmstand Hours:
Tuesday & Thursday: 2 - 6 PM (closing a half hour earlier)
Saturday: 9 am - 12:30 pm (opening 1 hour later)
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We’ve been expecting that chilly, plant killing, triangulation of conditions for some time now: temps below 40F, low wind, clear night skies, the conditions that will cause frost to form on vegetation. We saw a forecast with those conditions over the weekend and spent a good chunk of Saturday setting up pipes to provide frost irrigation, laying out frost covers for ginger, lettuce and escarole, picking the last of the pepper and eggplant, and tightening up the greenhouse.
Ginger and lettuce abound in the high tunnel. We have been able to go without insulating row cover until just recently.
And Sunday morning we got…..no frost. On the one hand, it’s great to have the dahlias available into November, and to call the pepper crop done on our own terms instead of having Mother Nature bring down the icy hammer. On the other hand, it’s freaky to go this late in the season without a frost in this part of Connecticut. Based on the 10-day forecast I have seen, it’s possible we will go well into November before we see one. I have no memory of an October without a hard frost. Knowing that makes it a bit harder to enjoy the mild weather we have had this month. Still, it’s a welcome break from last October, which was unusually cold. It underscores what makes climate change so difficult for farmers: it’s become very difficult to guess what the weather will be like as we plan our week, month, or season.
The crew gets down and hand weeds the fall spinach - a rather large task…
Have I mentioned we have been weeding the spinach?
We’ve begun to push our garlic planting further and further into the fall. When I started farming, ideal garlic planting time was mid-October, and ideally you wanted to have it done by Halloween. Most years we now start in late October and aim to finish planting by mid-November to make sure the shoots don’t poke their heads above ground until the spring. Last week we started prepping the patch, turning in a nice cover crop of oats and peas, and adding compost to the beds. We are busy popping over 700 lbs. of garlic bulbs into single cloves, and now it’s time to get them in the ground with a nice blanket of mulch for the winter.
Great farmers think alike! Perhaps many hours spent together are causing us to dress similarly.
Rebecca pulled off an amazing crop of ginger this year that is still going strong in all the warm weather. We’ll likely have fresh ginger through most of November, and we’ll still have plenty to freeze for next season. We’ve got a bumper crop of potatoes, mostly in storage in the barn, with a few rows left to dig in the field. And we’ve got some wonderful fall spinach in the field. The crew dug deep and weeded out the chickweed that was coming up, and with some luck we’ll have spinach from the field and the greenhouse through Christmas.
We hope you enjoy the farm and the harvest,
Paul and Rebecca for the Fort Hill Farm Crew
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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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Featured veg:
Murasaki Japanese Sweet Potatoes: These are simply delectable. Their burgundy skin belies white flesh underneath, which turns golden when cooked. The flesh is both dry and creamy - that is, dry in a good sense; it stands up to roasting and crisps up better than the orange sweet potatoes we know and (also) love. And the sweetness …. yum! Try them out in the recipe below.
Salad Turnips (or Hakurei turnips): Like radishes, salad turnips are another unsung hero of the Brassica family, containing all the goodness of its more celebrated kin, such as kale or Brussels sprouts. They look like white radishes, but have a mild, sweet flavor and a special crunch of its own. They are great sliced on salads or used for dipping in humus, etc. Luca likes slices in his lunchbox. You can also chop the roots and greens and roast or steam them (see last week’s recipe with radishes or the recipe below). Enjoy the greens while they last, we will have them topless when the temps really drop.
Also available:
Salad mix, arugula, head lettuce, pea shoots, French Breakfast and red radishes, salad turnips, red and green 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, escarole, limited assorted sweet peppers, limited mixed Italian and Asian eggplant, hot peppers, leeks, celeriac, baby bok choy, collards, parsnips, Brussels sprouts, butternut and Kogi Nut squash, sweet potatoes, fresh young ginger, fresh turmeric, limited apples from our certified organic, no-spray orchard
Coming Soon:
Gilfeather Turnips
Pick Your Own:
Flowers: * SALE! BOUQUETS are STILL HALF PRICE ! please get a flower ring from the barn for bouquet size.
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
Kale & Sweet Potato Fritters
From the MinimalistBaker
Ingredients
2 cups peeled, grated sweet potato (~1 medium sweet potato)
1 ½ Tbsp avocado oil (plus more for cooking fritters)
1 cup diced red onion (~1/2 large onion)
2 cups shredded kale (cut very small or shredded in a food processor)
1/2 tsp sea salt, to taste
1 ¼ tsp garam masala (we like Frontier brand)
1/4 cup white rice flour (or sub brown rice flour or all purpose)
Instructions
Shred sweet potato using either the coarse side of a box grater or the grater attachment of a food processor.
Heat a large rimmed skillet (we prefer cast iron) over medium heat. Once hot, add oil, onion, grated sweet potato, and kale. Sauté for 4-5 minutes, stirring frequently, or until the onion and sweet potato are tender and fragrant. Set aside.
To a large mixing bowl add sautéed vegetables, salt, and garam masala and stir. Then add rice flour and stir until combined. You should have a slightly tacky but moldable mixture. Add more rice flour as needed if too wet to handle.
Form into thin (roughly 1/4-inch-thick) patties the size of the palm of your hand (we used ~1/4 cup of sweet potato mixture per patty). In the meantime, wipe down and heat the large rimmed skillet you used to sauté your vegetables, or another one (we prefer cast iron or non-stick).
Once hot, add a little avocado oil to lightly coat the bottom of the pan (we used ~1/2 Tbsp // use more for a crispier effect). Add enough fritters to comfortably fit without crowding. Pan fry until golden brown — ~3-4 minutes on each side.
Optional: For even crispier fritters, continue baking in a 400 degree F (204 C) oven for 10-15 minutes.
Shaved Turnip Salad With Arugula and Prosciutto
By Melissa Clark
Ingredients
4 teaspoons red wine vinegar
1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
2 teaspoons honey
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
Pepper
4 small turnips, about 5 ounces, peeled
8 cups arugula, wild if possible
4 ounces thinly sliced prosciutto, torn into bite-size pieces
Steps:
In a small bowl, whisk the vinegar and salt until the salt dissolves. Whisk in the honey, oil and pepper.
Using a mandoline or sharp knife, slice the turnips into paper-thin rounds. In a large bowl, combine turnips, arugula and prosciutto. Toss with the dressing. Taste and adjust seasonings if necessary. Yields 4 servings.Roast for 5 minutes more.