Wow! The final week of the Main Season program is upon us! It's a biweekly pickup week. Just a reminder to Extended Season members:
Your pickups will continue for 6 weeks beyond this week.
If you currently receive a delivery, we switch back to pickups to close the season (Deliveries occurred through the Main Season portion of the program only.)
We would like to thank you all so much for your participation this season, your commitment to your farmer, your enthusiasm for seasonal eating, and your engagement in our activities and events. The subscription program is personally my favorite aspect of running Laurel Glen Farm, and our community is what makes it so enjoyable. Truly, this program sustains us financially as well, which is why we are especially grateful that there are people out there who want to participate! We hope to see you all in some capacity in the future.
Our program is about 53% full now! We're really grateful for the turnout on Sunday's Enrollment Day, and all through last week. We never know what to expect, but we appreciate your super early commitment. We had a lot of fun with the 8 Days of Giveaways, too. Grill skewers, a Veggetti, reusable food bags, condiment and salad dressing bottles, pan scrapers, and taco holders were among the prizes raffled off to members.
This week was a productive one. We took the Reemay off of the tomatoes, knowing that it could be goodbye for good. We also picked up husk cherries one last time and crated up the remainder of the onions. We began to pull tomato stakes up, rolled up drip irrigation, and seeded more cover crop.
We also dug up a couple of rows of potatoes and intend to use those up over the next month or so. We are most likely going to double our potato crop next season - the demand was so high for potatoes this year!
The rest of the potatoes can stay in the ground, where they'll keep better. A deep freeze of around 20 degrees would not be good for them, but barring a disaster, that definitely should not happen.
First, Randy uncovers them with the machine, and then we pick them up by hand.
Funny story from this week. My mind has been so set on Early Enrollment, as well as finishing our program strong, and looking ahead to Thanksgiving happenings, end of season sales, and ordering store product one last time. In short, I've been preoccupied.
Randy had been constantly asking me to look at the spring bulb catalog so that we could order daffodils and tulips for next year's potted plant sale. It got to the point where I was actually annoyed at him! I couldn't understand why he was trying to get ahead and figured he was just being his normal enthusiastic self about looking at different cultivars and dreaming up things to plant. It was nice that he wanted my input, but couldn't he see how busy I was?
Then, one day this past week it hit me when another farmer was planting tulip bulbs - we plant spring bulbs in early December! Uh oh! On Monday night, I ended up looking through the catalog picking out bulbs, crossing my fingers that we'd be able to get the bulbs we wanted, and giving Randy the apology I owed him. I asked him when we normally order our bulbs and he said he thought early October. Turns out, we ordered in August last year!
The next day we called the company and found out that some of the items we wanted were out of stock. We picked out substitutions in the same color family on the fly, and some of the varieties we actually bought the last of.
What I learned that day is, of course, that the early bird gets the worm. But also that Randy was too nice about not being more adamant that I look at flower bulbs the first time he asked. I won't make that mistake again.
Anyway, check out the varieties of bulbs we're growing for our April potted plant sale. We had intended to grow all new varieties and change things up so that our customers could change up what they plant, too. We've never grown a red or purple tulip, so we were glad to add that to our offerings. We've also never grown any of those daffodils or hyactinths or lilies. We're really excited about next spring now.
Since I should know better than to wait until the last minute, I put up a little voting display in the store. Feel free to cast your vote to let us know what kinds of hanging baskets to grow for next Mother's Day. We'll order those in December.
If you haven't already, you can pick up a pumpkin to carve for Halloween. We've also got sugar pumpkins for decorating or roasting and pureeing.
Thank you again, everyone! We hope you have a wonderful week (and off-season!)
In Your Share (Listed approximately from shortest shelf life to longest)
Large:
1 bunch of broccoli rabe
1 head of romaine
1 head of cauliflower
1 bunch of scallions
1 head of Napa cabbage
2 bulbs of celeriac
1 bunch of parsley
1 onion
Small:
1 bunch of broccoli rabe
1 head of romaine
1 head of Napa cabbage
1 bulb of celeriac
1 bunch of parsley
1 onion
Caring For Your Share (All of this information, plus long-term storage info, can also be found in our Vegetable Library of Resources)
Store Napa cabbage in a plastic bag in the fridge (use two, one on each end, if needed due to size). Wash when ready to use.
Store dry onions in a cool, dark, dry place, such as a pantry, cabinet, or cellar. Ensure that they have plenty of airflow; you can store them in a mesh bag. Keep them away from potatoes.
Store your cauliflower in a plastic bag in the fridge and enjoy within a few days.
Remove the celeriac tops and store the greens and root in plastic bags in the crisper drawer in the fridge. Wash when ready to use, and peel the bulb.
Store parsley stems in a glass of water in the fridge, like a bouquet. Cover the leaves with a plastic bag. Or, put the parsley in a damp paper towel in a plastic bag in the fridge.
Store romaine in a plastic bag in the crisper drawer of the fridge (you can use two bags, one on each end, if needed due to size). Wash and spin out; use within the week.
Store scallions roots-down in a glass of water in the fridge, like a bouquet. Cover the greens with a plastic bag. Or, store in a plastic bag in the fridge and use within the week.
Store broccoli rabe in a plastic bag in the crisper drawer of your fridge. Or, trim the ends and store it in a glass of water, like a bouquet. Wash when ready to use (within the week).
The LGF Cooking Club
30 Minutes or Less:
Large Share Additional Ingredients:
Biweekly Catch-Up (A copy of last week's updates)
Hi everyone!
2023 Subscription Program Enrollment began this morning! Don't forget to use the code EARLYBIRD at checkout to receive a 5% discount off of your subscription. (Remember that this can't be applied retroactively.)
If you selected "Offline Payment" because you would like to pay in full or a 50% deposit by cash or check, we can accept it in the store this week. Our store crew member will ask for your email address to send you an electronic receipt for record of your payment. Remember that at least 50% of your subscription payment must be paid within 14 days, or your membership will be forfeited. If you'd like us to send you an invoice to pay the 50% deposit by credit card, please send an email to Victoria at laurelglenfarm@gmail.com to ask. Thank you!
We've got two more weeks to go - this week and next. This is the final week for biweekly delivery members, and we thank you so much! Biweekly delivery members, no need to return your bags this week.
Our final week of the Main Season program is a biweekly pickup.
Check out this porcelain doll face that Randy found in the field at Booth Hill. We are always finding little trinkets, like dishware, bottle caps, and toy fragments, that remind us that this land has a history. The land that we farm on Booth Hill Rd. belonged to a family friend. We wonder who the doll might have belonged to and how it got there. What do you think, is it kind of sad to think of, or cool, or is it creepy?
Randy put the face up on a shelf in the barn, which I happened to stumble upon when I was putting away crates on Saturday - alone, might I add. Thanks for the surprise, Randy!
One of the tasks that Felicia and Carly worked on in the late afternoon on Friday was reducing the honeyberry plant rows. Unfortunately Randy found that he couldn't navigate the tractor around the field as well as he needed to and that meant cutting out two plants from each row.
The honeyberry plants are incredibly stunted from this year's drought, since it led to irrigation issues at Booth Hill. Randy watered them enough to keep them alive, but we think this will set them back at least a year.
It's such a beautiful time of year on the farm, and we can't help but stop and admire the views when we're out in the field.
Gosh, those carrots gave us the hardest time last week! On Tuesday, we dug and bunched them with greens on, and they kept snapping off in the soil. It was a tedious task that took far too long. For the remaining pickup days we decided to dig them up and bag them, which was so much better for our productivity (and to avoid breakage!)
Check out the size of this carrot!
This week, large share members are receiving cauliflower! Cauliflower is an incredibly fussy crop to grow because it's not heat-tolerant at all, so we only grow it in the fall. If you don't watch it carefully, it'll either begin to flower, or worse, if there's a rain storm it'll get moldy. We harvested it in the nick of time. There still isn't enough for everyone, but since we're on storm watch, you're all receiving a medley of summer and fall items. Members, just an FYI, you won't find cauliflower in the Library of Resources because we've never had a successful crop! I'll have to add it in this winter.
We're harvesting eggplant for shares one last time as well as harvesting most of our peppers. Instead of waiting for them to turn colors, which they never will in time, we might as well enjoy them now before a frost. We hope that this will give you the opportunity to try them in a way that's sensible for seasonal fall eating, such as the chili with green pepper and eggplant stew that's in the recipes below.
This week, we'll also have a basket of hot peppers out on the swap table if you're interested in grabbing a couple for free. Since we know that they're not loved by everyone, we figured that we'd give you the option to take a couple as a bonus.
Mums are BOGO free this week! Regularly $8 each. For a summer lover, even I have to admit that this photo is stunning. We've got a couple of mum pots left in each color.
On the agenda for this week: seeding cover crops, checking antifreeze in all of the tractors, and continuing some field cleanup by rolling up drip tape.