Growingwildfarm

We here at the farm are enjoying the lovely warm weather this September has brought with it. There is no denying that some mornings and evenings have been cooler, but that feels refreshing even when we know it sends a different signal to the vegetables than the warmer nights of July and August do. As much as we really want our pastures to green up, especially before the goat buck comes to visit our ladies next month, we would be thrilled with a warm, warm, warm September and October.

We love seeing such lush growth going on in the fields for our winter crops, so different than when we plant them out in the spring and they go at it much slower while they wait for temperatures to warm. We can’t help but remember the stark contrast between main season harvesting and winter harvesting, how things we normally harvest from again and again and they just keep growing and growing are doing nothing of the sort come mid- December. Everything just sits until the next big change in the fields is flowering brassicas and the start of rapini harvesting begins in early spring. We are feeling some trepidation, but an equal amount of confidence.

One thing we know for sure is that just like the summer crops in the ground in spring, these plantings are just as mouth watering for the flavors they provide, for the shift in cooking methods and meals on the table. Cold weather broccoli and cauliflower, hearty cabbages, sweet frost kissed roots and cooking greens, special winter salads of crops that just are not feasible to grow in the summer but everyone loves—spinach and arugula—as well as more unusual greens such as chicory and endive! And this year, potatoes for the winter instead of the summer, hooray! Winter squash and leeks and garlic and onions….mmmm! I am really enjoying the last month of summer meals and these lusciuos summer vegetables, but we have a lot of tasty food to look forward to and the wonderful compression of the colder months, where our wide open soul expansion can be wrapped up for the year by the warm hug of hearth and home. The recipes this week are pure summer, and seeing as how that is almost gone (well, true summer is really gone), I thought I should include them as they make perfect use of the last of summer’s fruits. Gazpacho on one of these last warm days, ratatouille a sure sign of September for us, and before the last of the cucumbers are gone, Tzatziki. Well, these are just suggestions, anyways. Whatever you make with this weeks vegetables, savor it and let the flavors of summer shine on your table as brightly as they can before the shift becomes complete, and we are fully into the fall.

Salad Mix—A lovely mix of lettuces representing the wide genetic diversity of lettuce seed being grown just south of us at Wild Garden Seed. Frank Moron is an expert, and his lettuce seed is the best!
Mild Asian Mustard Greens Mix—This is another mix from Wild Garden Seed, a mix of Frank’s entire collection of greens belonging to the Brassica Rapa plant family. These mild flavored mustard greens are a staple in Asian cooking, but we tend to use them when they are young and fresh like this for fresh eating. Try them in any of your warm salad recipes, or simply alongside roast chicken with a little balsamic vinegar and olive oil. Our children eat them so fast of the plate when we serve them as a salad. They are tasty in stir-fries with your favorite stir-fry sauce or a tasty peanut sauce with rice or noodles, and they are excellent braised with lots of garlic and served alongside lamb.
Carrots—More fresh and tasty carrots, Danvers variety, so thick at their crown tapering to a point. This planting is all getting pulled because they have started to get some root damage from our carrot nemesis, the rust fly larvae.
Green (and Purple) Beans—We are so glad our green beans are having another flush of good growth after a summer heat wave brought them all to fruition at once and left them looking past their prime for a little while this summer. After picking them clean and watering them well, they are producing great again and look beautiful. This is one of the hardest flavors of summer for me to say goodbye to, so thank goodness!
Tomatoes—More Cascade red tomatoes and your choice of 2 heirlooms. This week: Brandywine, Jubilee, and Black Krim.
Bell Peppers
Eggplant—We have giant banana slugs who are causing us a lot of grief with our eggplant. Many are tossed because the slugs have eaten through them, some just show mild skin damage. Still we wanted to get eggplant out at least one time this year to all memebers, and these are really tasty, long Oriental varieties for the most part, a few of the standard globe variety are in the mix as well. Simply peel away all skin or just the scarred parts and enjoy.
Banana Peppers—These are members of the chili family, mildly hot and starting to develop a nice sweetness as well.
Cucumbers—These are slowing way down!! Summertime is fading….
Summer Squash—These are almost done as well, and succumbing to the end of their season most gracefully. And still, I feel inclined to give you all one more way to use these ubiquitious summer vegetables. Because we have restrained ourselves from harvesting all of our potatoes as new potatoes this year, I have come to use summer squash in many of the ways I would normally use potatoes. Aside from the soup and breakfast hashes I have already mentioned, we also enjoyed making squash au gratin style recently, and even had mashed squash with butter as a side with goat chops this week, it was lovely!

Beholden as we are to the weather here, rainy days can either be a blessing or a curse, or if it all comes around, a blessing in disguise. The farmer is in busy squirrel mode, really putting in 110% in the fields these days, feeling the end of summer rolling in like a dark cloud. Usually, there is a sense of anticipation for the coming change, the quieting down.  This year things have been far more balanced for us, no one has felt too busy to stand it anymore; and so this year, the farmer has the wish to just keep things going as they are. The worry about what winter will bring to the farm is far more concerning to him than the long work days, already growing shorter. Will the plantings in the ground now sustain us…all of us, through the “off” season?

As much as these thing weigh on my shoulders too, the brisk morning air is a welcome feeling. The image of rainy days, warm fires, and the more concentrated schedule of the fall and winter pull me in like a sweet dream. There is this year, a sense that we have made enough headway to keep the ball rolling, that there won’t be the inevitable set back of dividing our attentions in the fall and winter between side work and farm work, that we can keep all of our energy focused here, both the farmer on the farm and the mama on the home. It is a good feeling, and although it is rightly counterbalanced by the worry and planning and busyness, we are right where we want to be this year. After last winter’s wild weather, after late tomatoes and small carrots and onions pulled too soon, we know that only time will tell how things will unfold. Telling the future on the farm is a risky proposition, the vision we hold for the coming seasons only able to include the input from our end of the business arrangement we hold with the elements, unpredictable as they are.

This weekend, the rain brought everyone inside for more time than we are used to, but  with questions being put to us about what we will be doing this fall and winter, it was a good time to come together to finally decide these things. Ever since our children were born, we have chosen to live very simply, to try to just be with them while they are little and recognize that with patience, the things that we want to do for the world can be given more of our attention when they have grown. We are the epitome of the old adage, “slow and steady”. It has been hard, many times both for our pocketbooks and our pride to take things slow, but our reflections this weekend convinced us that all of this is right for us. For our family, this is working, and so, we will continue to go the course, knowing that our plans for this place are being realized one small step at a time.

Lettuce Heads—More heads, some Rogue D’ Hiver, our red romaine head lettuce, as well as heads from our salad mix thinnings, a mix from Wild Garden Seed with many unique and beautiful varieties.
Asian Greens Mix—This is a mix of Asian Greens resown from our fall planting last year, sprung up in a fall carrot bed and showing great vigor and strength, with no late summer pest damage! This Asian greens mix contains greens with a little stronger flavor than either kale or chard, a bit spicy and mustardy. We enjoy them with a strong flavored dressing, such as the Ginger-Miso dressing from the recipe section below, as a fresh salad, but they are also great cooked up with a lot of garlic until nice and tender with nothing more than a splash of soy sauce and a splash of vinegar (apple cider or rice wine) and tossed with soba noodles or asian rice noodles. If you make a lot stir-
fries, just add these towards the end of your cooking time.    We also included a couple of spring roll recipes below, they are great to use this way!
Carrots—Danvers, a broad shouldered pointy bottom carrot with great flavor and although most of our carrots in the summer are eaten fresh, this variety does cut up nicely for cooking with.
Cucumbers—The cucumbers have slowed down just a little which will be nice for those of you getting tired of them and is nice for us just because they are growing just right now, not bursting at their seems. So many big, bulky ones have been fed to the pigs, but it is nice to be able to pick through the patch faster and have most of what we pick be perfect. And since we have Asian greens this week, we included a recipe with a new twist on fresh pickle making with Asian flavors, a great condiment for any Asian inspired dishes you make.
Summer Squash—These plants will be done soon as well, and have definitely slowed down for the year, so that is probably good news for most folks as well! I am not sure if there is another garden vegetable that inspires so much fiddling, trying to come up with new ways to be used or ways to make it exciting instead of “zucchini again”! This week I was inordinately excited when I decided to grate some zucchini and white Lebanese squash lengthwise so they were like long thin noodles. This made for a beautiful and elegant presentation for salad and slaw type dishes. I also have come to love to use the patty pan and crookneck squash in many dishes where I would use chopped potatoes. They stay nice and firm while soft inside just like a potato in soups and for breakfast.
Bell Peppers—One each of our King of the North peppers, just starting to change colors meaning they will be a bit sweeter this week, and our Purple Beauty Sweet Bells. Sautéed or eaten fresh, these are delicious!
Green (and purple) Beans—These are a summer treat that is harder to let go in my opinion, than many other summer crops. Enjoy these, green beans canned, frozen or fresh from another climate just don’t compare for me—although dilly beans are pretty yummy for the winter!
Tomatoes—A pound of our smaller, red Cascade tomatoes as well as one each of three heirloom varieties: Brandywine, Jubilee, and Black Krim.