News
News from the farm
Hope you’re all enjoying this week’s farm share! To keep you occupied as the rain pours down, here’s the latest update from Benjamin at the farm:
At Hearty Roots we’ve had a great crop of winter squash this season. We grow several different varieties, so here’s some info to get you more familiar with them:
Delicata Squash are smaller, yellow and orange oblong squash that are tender, with skins thin enough to eat. Of course, you can eat the skin of any winter squash, but these will require a little less chomping than the rest. These squash don’t store as well as the rest
Sweet Dumpling Squash are also on the smaller side, but round with white, green and orange coloring on the skin.
Acorn Squash are the first squash that are ready each season, and are dark green with an acorn shape. As they ripen, they develop an orange spot where they rest on the ground. These are nice personal size squashes, good for cutting in two and roasting or stuffing. They’re plenty tasty, but they usually don’t win awards for smoothness or sweetness when tasted side-by-side with some of the other squashes.
Buttercup Squash are round and green with a signature “bump” on the bottom. Their orange flesh is rich and smooth.
Red Kuri Squash are quite similar to buttercup, except they have orange skin and a pear shape.
Butternut Squash are the tan, classic northeastern winter squash. They have excellent flavor, texture and sweetness, but they require a little longer to ripen than the others, and they like to go through a “curing” process after harvest to develop their final sweetness. These are the best storage squash of all, and will keep all winter long at room temperature.
Pie Pumpkins are great for making into puree for the classic dessert, or using in a stew or soup. They’re also pretty good for decorating. The variety we grow is called “baby bear”.
All of these squash are best stored at room temperature– technically 50 – 60 degrees in a relatively dry spot (better a spare bedroom than a damp cellar).
Upcoming events
Greetings fellow members! This is Rana, your faithful Volunteer and Events Coordinator, taking over the blog for a moment! Sometimes I think they chose the wrong person for this position because my planning skills are so weak, but then I remember how much joy I get from bringing people together and I think maybe I still have something to offer. I really want to emphasize the Community aspect of Community Supported Agriculture. Sure, we all do this to get access to really great food, to eat locally, and to support our bright shining farmers. But if we take an extra minute to talk to the person next to us at pick up, or say hi to another member that we recognize at the library, than we have the start of a beautiful thing: community. We are a group of kind people who are trying to do the best for ourselves, our families and our world. We may not look the same, but there is one thing that unites us and that is being part of this CSA. So let’s take that small connection and build on it. Maybe we will find we might have a little more in common!
In May, we visited the farm to help our farmers plant onions and potatoes. In June we met with fellow members at a cooking class to learn some new ways to get the most from our share. In July, we braved the hot house temps to sit in the fields with the farmer, weeding the eggplants and sharing stories to pass the time. In August, we met at the park with our families to share food and play. Now it is September, and it’s time to celebrate a wonderful season, the bountiful harvest and get together with our community.
This month we are offering two options to celebrate, one right here in Bay Ridge and the other in our sister community, Red Hook/Tivoli. On Thursday September 23, starting at 6pm we will meet at Longbow Pub and Pantry. I have never been there, other than to hash out details of this event with the lovely couple who run the place, but I became an instant fan! It is warm and comfortable. The bartender has a great accent, and there is usually futbol or rugby playing above the bar. It gave me a sense that I was on a mini vacation where everyone spoke the same language. They have a special on Tuesday and Wednesday that they have graciously extended to our group for that night – with every plate of fish and chips purchased, you get a free beer! They also have a mommy and baby happy hour that same day earlier in the afternoon, if any of you are interested. Check out their website for a better idea of what to expect. You can check out their Facebook page too here to see their schedule of events. The place is on 3rd ave. between 73rd and 75th. Come meet me and other members for a low key evening out! I for one am really looking forward to it.
Our other event is the Hearty Roots Farm Harvest Party on Saturday September 25 from 2pm to 6pm. Their beautiful farm is located at 223 Pitcher Lane in Red Hook, N.Y, 12571. I have taken my family for the last two harvest parties at the farm and have really enjoyed them. They offer a tour of the fields, and usually have some kind of entertainment. In the past they have had pumpkin picking, a rotten tomato toss, volleyball, soccer, musicians, and even a tumbling act called the Agrobats. They usually press fresh apple cider and get a keg of local beer. Everyone brings a potluck dish to share so it is a great way to get ideas for doing something new. They ask you to bring your own plates, cups and utensils to cut down on waste and cost. I have run into old friends there and made new ones. The fact that I make the trip year after year, with my three kids is a testament to how much I think it is worth it. Get out of the city! Solidify your connection to the farm and farmers! See where your produce comes from! Get some fresh air, and check out the color of the changing leaves. See you all there!
News from the farm – part 11
Don’t know what to do with your excess fruit or veggies. KayCee at Hearty Roots has got a few ideas, so take a look at her update from the farm, below:
For those of you who have been avidly reading the news from the farm for a few years, you will recognize a familiar theme in my writing: food preservation. Tis really the season for putting up veggies for the winter. The late summer bounty always leaves me wanting more time to can, pickle, and freeze. This year I am struggling even more since I have a six month old baby to take care of and I squeeze in processing sessions after he has gone to bed for the night. The added excitement of this year is making and freezing baby food for Sparrow so that he can eat local peaches, pears, and apricots, and Hearty Roots veggies for his first year of his life.
There are a variety of ways to store food for the winter, the easiest one is almost always freezing. Blanching and freezing greens like kale and collards is quick and easy. Did you know that you can freeze cherry tomatoes and other small tomatoes whole? Just throw them in a plastic bag or other container and get them out when you are ready to make sauce. Herbs can be chopped and put in ice cube trays and easily added to soups and sauces. Imagine all that green in the darkness of winter. Peppers are another great item to freeze. You can slice them and freeze them raw or roasted.
When freezing you want to think about the quantity you will use and the form you want to use the vegetable in. For example, I used to love to make zuchinni bread and I would grate and freeze it with 2 cups per bag so that I could just throw it into my favorite recipe.
Lactofermentation can covert your cabbage into sauerkraut and actually makes the cabbage more nutritious.
Fermenting foods is a very old way of preserving food and has been used all over the world. Fermenting requires very little special equipment and is easy to do. With sauerkraut it is as easy as adding salt and some water to chopped cabbage (as well as optional herbs and spices). The best resource for the benefits of fermented foods as well as how to is http://www.wildfermentation.com/, a website maintained by Sandor Katz, a self described fermentation fetishist.
Pickling is the art of preserving food in acid. The acid is usually vinegar. I love to pickle jalapenos, beets, green beans, and of course, cucumbers. Pickling is easy to do and you can do a quick pickle to store in the fridge or do a water bath boil so that the produce can be stored in jars on your shelf until ready to use. You want to make sure to follow a recipe that has been approved by the USDA and follow it exactly. There are a variety of books about canning as well as websites that take you through the canning process step by step and provide excellent recipes. Here are some fun and helpful blogs about canning: http://www.foodinjars.com and http://preservenation.blogspot.com/ (there are so many more).
My favorite things to can are salsas, chutneys and relishes. I am proud to say that this year I won a white ribbon at the Dutchess County Fair for my peach chutney! It was the first time I entered and now I am hooked.
Be warned, once you start preserving, it is hard to stop. You see potential in every fruit, veggie and herb. Preserving saves you money and enables you to eat locally for more of the year. Go ahead and give it a try!
KayCee
News from the farm – part 9
Here’s the latest news and recipes from Hearty Roots:
Featured vegetable: Arrowhead Cabbage
This week you’ll have seen some unusual pointy-shaped green cabbage in your share. This type of cabbage used to be more common and is renowned for its tenderness and good flavor. It makes and exceptionally good summer slaw. Unlike many of the round cabbages that we grow, this arrowhead cabbage does not store well for long periods of time (although it’s fine for a few weeks, just not a few months), so enjoy it soon.
Sweet and Sour Cole Slaw
1 arrowhead cabbage, shredded fine or chopped (6 cups)
1 large carrot , peeled and grated
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 teaspoons kosher salt or 1 teaspoon table salt
1/4 teaspoon celery seed
6 tablespoons vegetable oil
1/4 cup rice vinegar
Ground black pepper
1. Toss cabbage and carrots with sugar, salt, and celery seeds in colander set over medium bowl. Let stand until cabbage wilts, at least 1 hour and up to 4 hours.
2. Pour draining liquid from bowl; rinse bowl and dry. Dump wilted cabbage and carrots from colander into bowl.
3. Add oil and vinegar; toss to coat. Season with pepper to taste. Cover and refrigerate until ready to serve. (Can be refrigerated 5 days.)
News from the Field
Hey everyone! This is Bennett Haynes, another member of the Hearty Roots crew, I’m here for the rest of the season and am enjoying the new fall-like weather!
Things at Hearty Roots are going very well. It seems that we are “ahead” of the weeds for right now, and the soils have been relatively nice and moist from some rain and lots of cool, moist mornings. We’ve improved many of our harvesting systems – we are now piling squash, cucumbers and tomatoes in the pathways before picking them up with harvest totes, this helps to take care of the sensitive produce and manage the quantities we harvest more efficiently. We also gained a new friend at the farm, Anne Margaret, who will be working with us for the month of September, focusing on key skills like harvesting squash and the art of the hoe. “Anne Marg” as some call her, has added a new energy to the team and we are getting things done!
We also have very few seedlings around the hoop-house these days – the rest of our crops will be directly seeded for the remainder of the season. Fall crops like turnips, carrots, radishes and spinach don’t like to be transplanted by hand, so our fun with the waterwheel transplanter is mostly over for this season. And just as Zoe and I were getting the hang of it…
That’s all I’ve got for you. Have a great week and enjoy the last of August!
Bennett
UPDATE – this morning’s pickup
Huge apologies – we’ve just had word from Benjamin that he’s having more problems getting to Brooklyn. As a result, the pickup is delayed further to 11am. Sorry for the inconvenience caused.
News from the farm – part 8
As you’ll have seen from the weekly farm share email, we’re expecting potatoes in the share tomorrow…but only if everything goes well with the harvest today! For more information on what they’re up to at Hearty Roots right now, have a look at the update from Benjamin below:
We are hoping to include potatoes in this week’s share. It all depends on the potato digger working properly, and equipment is never as reliable as we’d like it to be!
We plant our potatoes early in the spring and then hill soil up around the plants as they grow, using hilling discs on the tractor. This makes the plants produce more potatoes, since more of the plant is underground, and prevents any potatoes near the surface from “greening” that comes from sun exposure.
There are two main pests that bother our potato plants: Colorado Potato Beetles and Leafhoppers. Colorado Potato Beetles have a predictable reproduction cycle, and it requires careful attention to keep them from getting out of control in the potato patch. Once we see adult beetles in the patch, we scout every day or two for juvenile beetle larvae. Once these ugly orange critters get to a certain stage, it’s time to treat the potato patch with Entrust, an organic biologically-based spray that is toxic to beetle larvae but non-toxic to humans. The beetle larvae are fat and lazy, sitting on the potato leaves and munching away. I’ve never actually seen one try to fly, crawl, run, or scurry – they just sit and munch – so they don’t put up much of a fight as we approach with the sprayer. Before we had a sprayer, when we were farming just a couple of acres, we would just pick the beetles off by hand and squish them – and our faces would end up red from beetle juice! I don’t miss those days.
Leafhoppers are the other major potato pest we contend with. They are tiny green bugs, quick to hop from plant to plant, just about the opposite behavior of the Colorado Potato Beetles. This year the dry weather meant more leafhoppers than usual. These bugs feed on the underside of the potato leaves and suck the fluids from the leaf, causing the leaves to develop a black “burn” around the edges. We tried spraying a purified horticultural oil on the plants to prevent the leafhoppers from feeding (it works on the eggplants) but that didn’t do much good. We could have sprayed another substance to try to knock back these bugs: a biological pesticide called Pyrethrin, derived form chyrsanthemum seeds. However, that’s a spray that we prefer not to use since it kills the beneficial insects, like ladybugs, as well as the pest insects. So the potatoes weren’t as lush as they might have been, and we’ll see when we dig them up tomorrow whether the yields have suffered from that or not.
We dig up the potatoes with a tractor-mounted digger that we bought last year in cooperation with two other farms. On each one of our farms, we all realized that we needed a mechanical potato digger to avoid the back-straining work of digging them by hand; but we also knew that we’d only need the machine a few days per year. So it seemed a great candidate for a piece of shared equipment! We each chipped in equally and we run around to one another’s farms to pick it up when we need it. It’s a pretty simple device, a thick metal blade that cuts beneath the potatoes under the soil, and then lifts them onto a metal conveyor belt that shakes off the soil and drops the potatoes onto the surface of the ground, where we collect them by hand into boxes.
Here’s hoping that all goes smoothly with potato harvest today!
Brooklyn represented at the Farm!
Hello everyone, Dylan is out of town this week so I am making a humble attempt at a blog entry in his absence.
As you may have noticed, it’s been a little hot this summer! But that didn’t stop Bay Ridge from showing up at Hearty Roots on July 17th to lend some helping hands . . .
With the wacky weather, everything has been growing ahead of schedule at the farm. Garlic on July 17th (as originally scheduled)?? Garlic was soooo July 7th man, get with the progam. Luckily when it comes to farming, pick any day between March and November, and there are a plethora of daily tasks to be done.
So despite the 90 degree weather, cooler, hats, sunscreen and kids were loaded into the minivan and up the Taconic Parkway we went.
One of the great things about visiting the farm is there is space. Lots of open space everywhere. Space to camp if you want. Need somewhere to eat a picnic lunch? Pull up a patch of grass somewhere and get comfortable. Or grab a free picnic table at Gigi’s Market (a great little market featuring local food, by the way).
After lunch was finished, sunscreen applied, water secured, we started down the long and winding road (waved to the goats) to the fields where the magic happens. In the horizon we saw some familiar faces from Bay Ridge - “Brooklyn’s in tha house!”. Rana (our CSA event coordinator) and her kids had arrived earlier, and were already lending helping hands to Farmer Benjamin. The next hour or 2 were spent by all of us helping Ben in the eggplant rows, getting a tour from Ben of all the fields and where everything is growing, tasting veggies straight off the plant/vine/stalk (the raw corn tasted like candy!). Ben’s patience was impressive as he endured constant questions and demands of his attention from the kids. “Look, Ladybugs!” “What is this beetle?!” “Is this a pigweed??” “Look more Lady Bugs” “Is this a weed?!” and on and on and on.
One of the highlights of the visit was visiting the Pick Your Own garden, available to CSA members to pick and take home flowers, herbs, and veggies (tomatoes, tomatillos, peppers & more). The Pick Your Own garden alone is worth the trip. With no bags, we filled my hat with frying peppers, orange cherry tomatoes, jalapenos, tomatillos and more! In the background I heard our 3 yr-old Soonhee trying to comfort Rana’s son, Sufi (same age), that his mom was nearby in the garden picking flowers.
By the end of the day, everyone was fully satisfied, covered in dirt, and ready to relax in the car. We stopped back in Gigi’s to rehydrate and wash up, and interrupted Rana and her kids feasting on chocolate cake (I was jealous) to say ‘See you back in BK’! Then we loaded back in the minivan with our new passenger, lending a ride to a East Williamsburg CSA member, and started back down the Taconic.
We hope more CSA members can make it up to the farm in September for the Harvest Party. It’s a trip worth making, Ben and his crew are wonderful hosts, and they appreciate seeing CSA members visit and show our support. It’s a bit of an elightenment to make the connection between the produce that waits for us at 4th Ave Presbyterian, and where it originates. Until then, see you at the next site distribution, and enjoy these photos from the Farm visit.
News from the farm – part 7
This week it’s the turn of Maria at Hearty Roots to update everyone on what’s going on at the farm, and to give us some advice on how to use the summer squash that we’ve been seeing in our weekly share:
The weather, although much more bearable than the week of the heat-wave, is still very hot and dry. I sometimes feel like we are farming in the desert. The heat has made the sky hazy for the past three weeks, and all of us at Hearty Roots miss our usual view of the Catskill Mountains. While squash is thriving, other crops are suffering, specifically lettuce. Lettuce prefers the cooler weather of spring and fall. The dry hot weather has left many of our greens stressed and unhappy. We are working hard to keep up with irrigation, weeds, and continuing to transplant seedlings for second and third successions of crops.
Two weeks ago we had to harvest our garlic without having “a party”. It took us two full days of work in the field and many more days of hanging the garlic up in the barn for storage. I would like to send out a thank you to the CSA members that were able to show up and help us, it was great to have your company out in the fields. All of the garlic is now out of the ground and hung up in the barn at the Bulkeley farm. I was unable to attend the farm party that happened this weekend in place of the garlic harvest party, but thank you to all who attended and gave your time to Hearty Roots on a Saturday afternoon!
Featured vegetable: Squash
I know that you have been receiving squash in your shares for a while now, but I thought take some time to praise our summer squash. While some of our other favorite vegetables are struggling to stay alive in this hot dry weather our squash is thriving, and we at Hearty Roots spend a lot of time harvesting this rapid growing crop!
Summer squash are a subset of squashes that are harvested when immature (while the rind is still tender and edible). The name “summer squash” refers to the short storage life of these squashes, unlike that of winter squashes. They are harvested when small and tender for best quality. Squash grow rapidly; especially in hot weather and are usually ready to pick within 4 to 8 days after flowering. For us to keep up with our plants we pick them every 2 to 3 days.
Although summer squash has both male and female flowers, only the female flowers produce fruits. The female blossoms are delicious when dipped in a batter and fried. Summer squash can be grilled, steamed, boiled, sauteed, fried or used in stir fry recipes. They mix well with onions, tomatoes and okra in vegetable medleys. Summer squash can be used interchangeably in most recipes. Tiny baby squash can be used as appetizers, or left whole and sauteed with other vegetables.
I think summer squash are a great addition to sandwiches, so here is a recipe I hope you enjoy:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees
Slice summer squash into thin circles and place in a bowl.
Toss with olive oil, thyme, basil, oregano, salt and pepper until coated.
Lay out on a baking sheet and put in oven for 10-20 minutes depending on the thickness of your slices.
Take out when squash becomes soft and slightly transparent.
Let cool and store in fridge.
I add these flavorful slices of squash to all kinds of sandwiches, pasta dishes, and soups.
Once cooked they also freeze well! I hope I have restored your love for this hot weather loving vegetable!
News from the farm – part 6
Apologies for the lack of an email detailing the farm share last week – as we’ve mentioned before, the farm really don’t know what’s going to be in the share until the moment they harvest it. Usually they have a pretty good idea of what will be in each share ahead of time, but this week they still weren’t sure of what would be in each of the CSA shares they provide, since there are a lot of different things growing on the farm right now. Hopefully we’ll have more advance news next week!
Anyway, news from Benjamin and the Hearty Roots team below:
Featured vegetable: Onions
This week you’ve seen the first of the onions. The variety that “bulbs up” first is called Sierra Blanca, and it’s a white, sweet onion that’s good for fresh eating, but that won’t store long-term like yellow onions. You may have heard of Walla Walla onions from the northwest; these are very similar. They are juicy and have high sugar content, and less of the pungent, tear-jerking aroma and flavor that is associated with most onions. Some people eat these white onions like apples! We are giving them to you with the tops still attached, which you can use like scallions.
We also have some red onions and storage onions growing. This year we have had some trouble with onion thrips, very very tiny insects that live in down in the “growing point” of the onions, where the new leaves emerge. The thrips feed on the small growing leaves, causing white streaks on the onions green tops and making it harder for the onions to hydrate themselves. This means that the onions need more water, which as you know, was in short supply over the month. Some of our onions weren’t too happy about that, but now they seem to be recovering pretty well. We noticed that the onions that we planted on plastic mulch have been healthier than those planted on bare ground; perhaps because the mulch holds moisture in the soil better.
News from the fields
We were very relieved to get nearly an inch and a half of rain on Saturday morning! That’s about as much rain as we had in all of the previous 7 weeks combined. The plants had a big jump in growth as all of the soil was suddenly saturated for the first time in a while. The weeds, of course, had a jump too, so we are busy trying to take care of those.
The somewhat milder temperatures have also been a relief, getting through last week’s heat wave feels like an accomplishment. Seedlings that we plant are much happier as well, no longer wilting right after they go into the ground. This week we are transplanting fall cabbage, lettuce, fennel, and melons, as well as seeding fall beets, carrots and greens.
Spend Saturday at the farm!
As you may have read, Hearty Roots had to pull forward their garlic harvest this year because of the incredible weather that brought it to readiness a little earlier than anticipated. Those of you who picked up your share this weekend will, of course, have benefited from this – and I’m sure there’s plenty of garlic still to come this year!
Despite the change to the schedule, the Hearty Roots folk do still want to invite everybody along to the farm on July 17th as planned. There are plenty of other farm tasks that can be undertaken by those coming to visit, and they’ll also be offering tours of the farm at 11am and 4pm. It’s a perfect opportunity to spend a day outdoors, getting to see exactly where your food comes from.
It’s also a great opportunity to visit the farm’s pick-your-own garden. In the small garden, the farm plant herbs, flowers, and a few veggies that are too labor intensive to be picked for the CSA, but that CSA members and locals might like to pick for themselves. Peas and basil are currently ready for picking, and who knows what else you might find!
Snacks and beverages will be provided, but feel free to bring a picnic lunch and make a real day of it. Benjamin and co would love you to come for as much or as little time as you like, either to do some work in the field or just to take a farm tour or enjoy the day.
If you’re planning to go and you have space in your car that could be filled by another CSA member (or if you’d love to go but have no transport) please contact Rana at email hidden; JavaScript is required, and we’ll try to put people together.
Everybody who has been to the farm before has had a great day, so why not get involved this year. The event runs this Saturday (July 17th) from 10am – 5pm!
Hearty Roots Community Farm
223 Pitcher Lane, Red Hook, NY
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