Friday January 30th, 2015

Amazing, gorgeous, beautiful day!  So lucky to have this job!  Spent much of the morning in the high tunnel picking greens for customers.  4 kinds of Kale, Tatsoi, Mixed Greens (mustards, kales, arugula, among others), Lettuces left here today with happy, smiling, "soon to be tasting the goodness" folks.  We also have radishes and turnips with greens ready.  This is the time of year to get these greens at their peak.  "Cole" crops love the cooler temps and are never sweeter or more tender than they are now. We pick at "baby" size for as long as possible....they do grow, after all and will eventually get to mature size...so they can be used in salads as wells a braising mixes, etc.

Call ahead Mon-Thursday and order up your goodies and they will be picked and waiting here for you on Friday.  Someone is here at the office 10-3 WED - FRI this time of year, so come on out to the farm!

Tatsoi

Ragged Jack Kale (a/k/a Red Russian)

Bau Sin

Kale, Yeah!

Farm Store is located in the office building at this time of year

New and Improved Blog for 2014

As it says in the description of this blog, it is an updating of the blog kept for our CSA members. There is so much good stuff to share, I decided to make it accessible to everyone.  Right now, a lot of the posts are from last year so some things may not seem relevant now.  As we progress, that will change.  The recipes are listed on the left side bar by the title of the recipe. Some of the recipes are in "collections" meaning that there are more than one recipe on a single entry.

There are loads of links to other good foodie stuff, too. There are links within the posts and the tabs at the top of the page and even a Fun Foodie Info list that will take you to other informative stuff.  I post lots of pictures, too.

Remember, you are what you eat, so eat happy!
~Suzanne

The Crew, Prepping for CSA (2014)

Beautiful Mixed Beets being washed and bunched

Closer view of those beets

Veggies bagged to be packed into share boxes

Fall Fennel bundles

Tomatillos and salad tomatoes

Bunched turnips

Bins of veggies waiting to be packed

Gorgeous peppers (those bins hold about 60 lbs of peppers)

Bunched carrots

More beets

Winter Squash

Shunkyo and Zlata Radishes

Green topped daikons

Dawn, washing veggies

Shunkyo is a beautiful sweet spicy radish

Zlata is a yellow radish.

Getting ready to pack

Bins full of veggies for CSA

The Crew

The last thing you see as  you leave the farm....

You say tomato, I say tomato, tomato, tomato....

Here are some pictures of come of the tomatoes we grew in 2014.  

Dragon Tongue Beans

Dragon Tongue beans, AKA Dragon Langerie, maintain their designation as a fresh picking bean simply through the Germanic translation of bean: a legume picked when young. Bean also refers to the entire fruit: the pod and the seed. Dragon Tongue beans are a Dutch wax type bush bean. They are a member of the Fabaceae family along with peas and pulses. They should not be confused as a shelling bean variety, such as fava beans and lima beans, as these varieties are beans whose pods cannot be eaten. 

The Dragon Tongue bean is a dual purpose bean, qualifying as a fresh pod bean as well as a dried legume. When harvested fresh, the entire bean, shell and "seeds" are edible. The bean has a warm cream color with vivid violet variegations throughout its stringless pod. Its shape is broad and the bean measures to an average of six inches in length. The pods are crisp and succulent and bear four to six plump bone white seeds with pink to purple stripes that turn tan with age. The fresh seeds are firm, slightly starchy, nutty and sweet. The entire bean can be eaten raw or cooked. When cooked, the bean looses its variegated colors. 
The tender pod of this bean is entirely edible. No shelling required. 

Best raw, Dragon Tongue beans are also excellent steamed, but the color fades during cooking. Perfect for pickling with spices, adds its naturally good flavor to bean salads and stir-fries. Serve simply as a delicious side dish. Its unique color makes this bean an attractive edible garnish and an interesting conversation piece when served to curious guests. To store, wrap in plastic; refrigerate. Use beans within one week for optimum flavor and texture. 

Dragon Tongue beans are an open pollinated heirloom variety originally cultivated in the 18th Century in the Netherlands. The original cultivar has never been manipulated and thus maintains its heirloom status a plant whose original seed has been passed down for generations. It has been naturalized in a wide varieties of climates throughout the Americas, having the ability to adapt to extreme heat and humidity. Dragon Tongue beans are a great bean variety for home gardeners, known for their productive high yields and incredible flavor versus other fresh bean varieties. Dragon Tongue beans are available mid summer into fall.

PICKLED DRAGON TONGUES
Ingredients:
2 lbs or so of beans
4 cups of white vinegar
1/2 cup canning salt
4 cups of water
In this recipe, there is no pre-cooking (also called raw packing), just clean and trim green beans and put them in the canning jar with a couple of cloves of garlic. Heat up water, vinegar and salt. Pour solution in each jar.  

Shake things up by trying different flavorings and veggie combinations. Try adding pepper flakes or whole hot peppers to the beans,bay leaves, fennel seeds, dry mustard, caraway seeds, mustard seeds, etc.