Woot. Winter Squash is In

This is my first full week back at home after being on the road for two weeks. Besides missing the iFarmer and my precious Future Farmkids, I think I missed my kitchen most.

That fact hit home today when we picked up our CSA share. It really is like getting a giant wrapped present every time.

To my delight, this box was filled to the brim with unexpected goodies. Turns out a King's Hill Farm neighbor lost his entire crop of potatoes. His (and his 800 CSA members') misfortune turned into our great fortune. In trade for KHF potatoes, we got greens that have long since been harvested and consumed by my fellow KHF CSA members: beautiful Napa cabbage, broccoli and lettuce.

Next best part this week was a load of delicious pears. They're tiny, but Future Fruit Farms promises that these Luscious pears will be some of the best we've ever tasted. Can't wait until they are fruit bowl ripened.

My final delight this week came in the form of a striped winter squash. I've never seen this variety before. Turns out that it's an heirloom variety - delicata squash - that was popular in the United States through the 1920s. It fell out of favor because its delicate edible skin wasn't ideal for transport and long-term storage.

How many times have we sacrificed taste and variety for the sake of industrialized efficiency? God bless the seed savers.

I'm already planning our weekend of VFG Test Kitchen activity.

Photo from lumierefl's photostream on Flickr.

A Visit to Westport's Popular Community Garden

Still no NYC urban ag experiences on my work trip out east, but I did get a chance to visit one of Westport's community gardens just north of NYC in Connecticut.

The pix are of the organic garden, which is tended to by families who reserve plots within the fenced area.

Gardeners pledge not to use pesticides on their spots.

My cousin tells me that this garden was so successful that the city has opened another garden near Westport's high school.

More photos inside this Long Lots garden here at the Westport Community Gardens site.

More Pix From The Farm

Finally, I got around to uploading some pix from our visit to The Farm a couple weeks ago.

This was my first time (and a first for the kids) digging up potatoes. The spuds are excellent.

We all had a lot of fun. For some reason, I left my camera in the house the next day when the kids, Hoosier Outsider and I went back out to pick green beans. That was a Farm highlight for the kids, who develops a "twist and pull" system to pick the beans.



Can't wait until our next visit.

Overflowing With Goodies From The Farm

We're still adjusting to being back from our visit to The Farm. Visits are always an adventure and this was no exception.

I'll be posting on our visit soon, including the well water pump follies. [Two days, eight people, no water. How is it that we still had so much fun?]

Meanwhile, I'm trying to figure out what to do with the relatively small amount of produce, etc. we loaded into the back of our van:

Red and gold potatoes
Garlic
New Mexico chilies (medium)
Hungarian wax peppers (hot)
Watermelon (probably for the after-game snack at Saturday's soccer game)
Apples
Blueberries (flash frozen since I missed the season)
Strawberries (flash frozen extras from the end of the season)
Peaches (plus cooked peach mash)
Raspberries (kids helped pick)
Pole beans (probably for stir fry)
Green beans (already cooked with a ham hock)
Gourds (will likely prompt an early fall display)
Mums (already on the front porch)

Plus, we still have a ton of veggies from the King's Hill Farm CSA. Looks like this week will be just as much about food storage as cooking/eating.

I still haven't had a chance to upload my photos from our trip. The pix above are from the 4-H Champ, who got a Farm delivery on our way back to Chicagoland.

'Fancy Tomatoes' and Plenty More

The kids and I picked up our bi-weekly King's Hill Farm box today and I was delighted to see that I had a second bonus box to cart away.

This more slender one was filled with a colorful mix of heirlooms, or as Future Farmgirl calls them, "fancy tomatoes."

Fancy indeed. And delicious. I chopped a couple right up, mixed them with the last of my torpedo onion, and a fresh red bell pepper. I sprinkled the mix with sea salt, drizzled some olive oil and splashed a bit of garlic infused balsamic vinegar on top. I let that sit for a few minutes, then served up a bowl with goat cheese. That hit the spot.

I can't wait to dig into the rest of our CSA box this week. I already tossed some whole jalepenos in the freezer. No way I'll be able to use up all 8 or so that made it into this week's box.

We'll see if I can find a good way to use those purple potatoes too. Those beauties are too colorful to peel.

Looks like I'll have to try my hand at eggplant and maybe come up with a celeriac soup. I've still not had much luck cooking eggplant, so I'm a little intimidated.

But I was delighted to see the beets, complete with greens. That is definitely on tomorrow's menu.

Homework: Week 1

There's a new homework plan for my Future Farmboy and Girl.

On Monday we get one big pack of homework sheets. And all the work is due on Friday. I'm thinking this will be better than last year when we got homework randomly through the week.

This way, if we don't procrastinate (and that's a big IF), we should be more on top of things.

Then came time to sit down and get to work. Let's just say the reaction from our little students was not what I expected.

My normally all business son wanted no part of homework, while my normally flittering, zero-attention-span daughter, got right down to it.

She loved homework so much, she finished the whole week in one sitting. Then today, she asked for more. We had to make something up for her to do.

He, on the other hand, went through a series of punishments (no Wii) and spent time in his room, until we accomplished our daily goal.

If anyone can share a recipe, here's what I'd like to do: bottle my daughter's enthusiasm, keep it for the day she turns on me; and have enough extra to spike my son's milk.

Any ideas?

This Week in Travel and Food

We're headed to The Farm this weekend after spending last weekend in Indy and Columbus. We just can't get enough of the Hoosier state.

Still it's been way too long since our last Farm visit, so I expect we'll see some changes (and maybe some potatoes).

One of the Real Farmgirls let slip that I should expect to see a new chicken pen. In the old barn lot maybe? No pix yet from any of the three photogs, so I'll have to wait and see for my own self.

Meanwhile, we pick up our King's Hill Farm box of goodies tomorrow. Good thing too, because I need some fresh veggies.

I cooked up the last of my tomatoes into a sauce tonight for use sometime this week.

For supper tonight, I used up our new potatoes in an au gratin I sort of cobbled together from leftovers.

I better remember what I did though because it was my best yet. I used this Cooks.com recipe as a base for proportions and to make the white sauce. But I used Muenster cheese instead of cheddar. And the ham was leftover thick slices that I chopped up and liberally layered.

The kicker was that I served the casserole with leftover pineapple chunks. Great combo of creamy, sweet and salty.

Thanks to the iFarmer's Twin for hosting us last weekend and for sending me on my way with so many leftovers.