Farm News September 19, 2023
Our Farmstand is in full swing:
Tuesday, Thursday, & Friday: 2 - 6:30 PM
Saturday: 8 am - 12:30 pm
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The weatherman is flashing all kinds of sunny day icons for this week, which a great reprieve from the daily deluge icons we got last week (and yesterday). Excessive amounts of rain made it hard to keep up with root harvests and has put us behind a bit in getting the last field plantings of the season in the ground. Instead, we either put on slickers and bunched greens standing in puddles, or when it got really rainy, we ducked into the greenhouses to clean out weeds and old crops, so we could prepare and amend the soil for fall plantings of lettuce and spinach.
Have you seen the flower patch lately? It’s a knockout. The beauty of all the different hues and shapes could bowl a person over. Even if you don’t bouquet, please spend a moment to take in the beauty there.
The flowers that Rebecca and Faye have grown in the field look truly amazing, especially when you consider something like 10 inches of rain have fallen on them in the last 5 weeks. It’s really satisfying to see folks strolling through the flowers, enjoying the patch. Dahlias are in peak production for the next few weeks but remember that the party ends at the first frost, which usually occurs by mid-October.
Matt spreads compost on beds in spanking-new Greenhouse 6. We’ve been waiting all season to put this house into production, and the moment has arrived. Hello, sweet winter spinach!
Fall is a great time to visit the farm, and we have added apples from two of our neighbor farms to the farmstand. They are on opposite spectrums of apple history in Connecticut. The Averill family has been growing apples in Washington since 1746, and their beautiful farm is a great place to do pick-your-own on a fall day. Hidden Gem orchard was started by Jim Wargo in 2017 and grows over 30 varieties of standard and heirloom apples, with farmstand hours on the weekend. Both are conventional growers and are labeled that way at our farmstand.
Sarah harvests Treviso radicchio, which looks particularly fetching in the fall light. I’ve recently learned how our liver thanks us when we partake of this bitter green.
On our farm, we planted 40 fruit trees as an experiment in 2008. Organic fruit is incredibly difficult to grow, and on top of that our trees don’t get the attention they need. But we keep trying because it’s fun to watch the trees grow and to try to find natural materials and methods to address the many diseases and insect pests that bedevil apples.
We hope you enjoy the farm and the harvest,
Paul, Rebecca, and the Fort Hill Farm Crew
Featured veg:
Brussels sprouts greens: We break the tops off our Brussels sprouts to encourage the sprouts to swell, and lucky for us, they taste something like Brussels’ sprout-meets-tender baby collard greens. Some folks have become fast devotees. These are great used in place of kale or collards. The possibilities are endless, but we often simply braise them with garlic to enjoy their unique Brussel-y flavor and satisfying meaty texture.
Kennebec potatoes: This one has a following for being a great all-purpose spud: great mashed, fried, roasted, baked (or see Gratin recipe below) .... Elliott swears by baking them to great success. Turn on the oven one of these cooler nights and enjoy!
Also available:
Head lettuce, arugula (storm-dependent), salad mix, pea shoots, red and French Breakfast radishes, curly and lacinato kale, rainbow chard, radicchio, scallions, leeks, celeriac, cilantro, parsley, dill, chives, rosemary, sage, thyme, fennel, escarole, Chinese cabbage, red cabbage (farmstand only), German Extra Hardy garlic, red and Chioggia beets, carrots; plum, beefsteak and heirloom tomatoes; Sungold, red and artisanal cherry tomatoes; jalapeño, poblano, and shishito peppers; Dark Red Norland, La Ratte gold and Magic Molly blue fingerlings, Satina, & Caribe potatoes, eggplant (limited) and sweet red Italian, orange snacking (both on sale this week), red and green bell peppers; sweet corn (last week for corn, availability may vary); fresh, young ginger!
Coming Soon:
early fall squash
Pick Your Own:
WAX AND GREEN BEANS:
Beans are done for the season.
SUNFLOWERS:
There are still a few available by the stem.
FLOWERS:
The dahlias are glowing!
PERENNIAL HERBS:
chives, oregano, sage, and thyme
Recipes
Suggested by Rebecca Batchie
For more recipes, check out the Fort Hill Farm Recipe Database
Potato and Poblano Gratin
Recipe by Marcela Valladolid from the Foodnetwork
Yield: 8 to 10 servings
Ingredients:
3 large poblano chiles, charred, stemmed, seeded, and cut into 2- inch wide by 1/2-inch-thick strips
1 cup frozen corn, thawed
1/2 cup half-and-half
1/2 cup Mexican crema, or creme fraiche
4 Yukon gold potatoes (about 1 pound), unpeeled and cut into 1/8-inch thick rounds
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
3 cup coarsely grated Monterey Jack cheese
Directions:
1 Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
2 Spray a glass 9 1/2-inch, deep dish pie dish with nonstick cooking spray. Set aside.
3 In a medium bowl, combine the poblano strips and corn.
4 In a small bowl, mix the half-and-half and crema.
5 Arrange 1/2 of the potato rounds, overlapping slightly, in the prepared pie dish. Sprinkle 1/2 of the poblano-corn mixture on top, season with the salt and pepper, and top with 1/3 of the cheese. Repeat the layers, ending with the cheese. Pour the cream mixture over the potatoes. Place the pie dish on a baking sheet. Cover the dish tightly with foil. Bake for 30 minutes. Remove the foil and continue baking until the potatoes are tender and the cheese is golden brown, about 30 minutes longer.
6 Let stand 10 minutes before serving.
7 Cook's Note: For easy peeling, enclose the charred poblanos tightly in a plastic bag.