Season Extension Week 3

 

Produce this cold season extension week from our farm:  winter density romaine lettuce, red leaf lettuce, daikon radishes, acorn squash, kale, collard greens, and yellow onions

Winter seemed to arrive this week, with strong winds, below freezing temperatures and darkness setting in near 4:30 pm.  On the farm, we still do have vegetables standing in the field.  Kale, collard greens, leeks, mustard greens, and some hardy lettuces under row covers are able to withstand the subfreezing temperatures.  As long as the soil does not stay frozen for an extended period of time these vegetables can freeze and thaw and be even sweeter for it.  The coyotes seem to know winter is about here, as they are howling earlier and even closer to the house.  The chickens are always put in their barns at night, where they are safe,  and the cows watch over their calves.  The geese act as an early warning siren for the turkeys and this is usually enough to keep the coyotes away form the turkeys, who are both still outside – day and night.  It can be a chilling sound to hear the coyote calls on a cold, dark night, but they do play an important role – keeping a much needed balance among  the various other wild animals such as deer, rabbits, and groundhogs, which, when the balance shifts, ,can cause much damage in the vegetable fields.  We feel very blessed to be so connected with nature here on the farm and we are so glad that you are a part of it!

 

 

 

                          French Onion Soup

1/4 cup butter

3 lbs onions, sliced

6 cloves garlic, sliced

1/2 cup dry white wine

3 cups chicken broth

3 cups beef broth

1 tsp Dijon mustard

4 sourdough bread slices, toasted

1 cup grated Swiss cheese

1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Melt butter in heavy large saucepan over medium heat.  Add onions and  garlic and saute’ until very tender and brown, about 45 min.  Add wine and simmer until reduced to glaze, about 3 min.  Stir in chicken broth, beef broth, and mustard.  Simmer 20 min.  Season with salt and pepper.  Preheat broiler.  Ladle soup into broiler proof bowls and top each with a slice of toast and grated cheeses.  Broil until cheeses melt and bubble.  (Bon Appetit, May 1991)

 

 

More news from the farm…..

We have been taking and analyzing soil samples from all fields on the farm as well as some of the hay fields.  This will help determine what the different fields need as far as manure applications this late fall, lime, etc. I still have 5 more fields to get samples from (trying to beat the ground freezing up!)  This morning, in fact, there was a good sized sheet of ice on all of the livestock waters.  Good thing we had pulled up all of the irrigation!  I had stock piled about 30  5 gallon buckets of water back by the pigs, but the ice on top of these buckets was too thick to even break with the edge of a shovel.  Looks like it’ll be hiking water back to the pigs for a while.

We received our shipment of organic seed garlic late.  It arrived  November 1st.  We hustled and got it  all  planted safe under the soil.  I ordered 4 different heirloom varieties, with the hopes of trialing each and harvesting our own seed garlic from now on.  It will be fun to see what you all think about each of  the different varieties.

Back at our farm!  This chair traveled around the capital district all summer. My son spotted it at the mall.   It was a thoughtful gift from a friend.  I painted it up with Eight Mile Creek Farm info and it went on tour acting as a fundraiser for the town of Guilderland.  Ginger seems happy its back home now.