-carrots
-spinach
-turnips with greens
-assorted red peppers
-green bell peppers
-onions
-honey bear acorn squash
-butternut squash
Thursday, September 30, 2010
Friday, September 24, 2010
Porter Farm Happenings-September 18, 2010
Winter Squash
We did not want to say anything before and jinx it (like with our tomatoes), but it looks like we will have a good crop of winter squash this year! This is something we have not had in the past few years. Last year we lost our entire sweet dumpling crop to the deer and flooding.
This year our winter squash is planted at the Buchholtz farm in Elba. The Buchholtz’s are close family friends of ours, and Katie Buchholtz Karas and her husband Chris are members in our CSA! We grow winter squash there every 3-4 years depending on our rotation cycle. There is a lot of deer pressure at this farm, but the squash always seems to do really well.
This year we planted many varieties of winter squash, including red curry, butternut, spaghetti, honey bear acorn, delicata, sweet dumpling, and red kabocha. We have not grown spaghetti in a few years, and are happy to be able to give you some this week.
As we continue to harvest the winter squash we will try to put recipes in the newsletter that incorporate squash and other vegetables that are ready. If you are looking for additional ways to use the vegetables, Deb has found that the Whole Foods website has some great recipes. Also, if you have a recipe that you would like to share, please email it to us!
Farm News
This week we spent a lot of time harvesting vegetables. We are still a little short of help, so had to plan our week accordingly because we knew it was going to rain all day on Thursday.
All of our harvesting is done by hand, and harvesting green beans is a very time consuming job. It took ten hours for six people (sixty man hours) to pick all of the beans for this week. Again, we would like to thank our dedicated crew for all of their hard work this week!
Just a reminder…
Our annual Fall Festival will be held on Sunday, October 10. We ask that members who plan on attending please RSVP by September 30 so that we can plan accordingly. Remember, we will have a potluck lunch, so please bring a dish to pass. Please bring a notecard to place in front of the
Every year, one of our favorite crafts to do with the kids is to make scarecrows. If you would like to make a scarecrow this year, please bring clothes with you! We will have plenty of straw to stuff them and twine to tie it off!
Help us Recycle
If you have any extra plastic or paper grocery bags at your house, please consider bringing them out to the farm. We would be glad to use them!
What’s in this week’s bag??
• Spaghetti Squash
• Sweet Dumpling
• Red Carmen Peppers
• Green Bell Peppers
• Zucchini
• Yellow Squash
• Green Beans
• Green Kale
• Onions
Spaghetti Squash with Pine Nuts, Sage, and Romano
Ingredients
-1 spaghetti squash, halved lengthwise and seeded
-1/4 cup toasted pine nuts
-1/4 cup grated Pecorino Romano cheese
-2 tablespoons chopped fresh sage
-2 teaspoons butter, melted
-salt and pepper to taste
Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Place the squash, cut side down, in a large baking dish.
3. Bake the squash in the preheated oven for 50 minutes.
4. Scrape flesh of squash from the rind using a fork and place in a bowl. Add the pine nuts, cheese, sage, butter, salt, and pepper; toss to combine. Serve immediately.
Source: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Spaghetti-Squash-with-Pine-Nuts-Sage-and-Romano/Detail.aspx
We did not want to say anything before and jinx it (like with our tomatoes), but it looks like we will have a good crop of winter squash this year! This is something we have not had in the past few years. Last year we lost our entire sweet dumpling crop to the deer and flooding.
This year our winter squash is planted at the Buchholtz farm in Elba. The Buchholtz’s are close family friends of ours, and Katie Buchholtz Karas and her husband Chris are members in our CSA! We grow winter squash there every 3-4 years depending on our rotation cycle. There is a lot of deer pressure at this farm, but the squash always seems to do really well.
This year we planted many varieties of winter squash, including red curry, butternut, spaghetti, honey bear acorn, delicata, sweet dumpling, and red kabocha. We have not grown spaghetti in a few years, and are happy to be able to give you some this week.
As we continue to harvest the winter squash we will try to put recipes in the newsletter that incorporate squash and other vegetables that are ready. If you are looking for additional ways to use the vegetables, Deb has found that the Whole Foods website has some great recipes. Also, if you have a recipe that you would like to share, please email it to us!
Farm News
This week we spent a lot of time harvesting vegetables. We are still a little short of help, so had to plan our week accordingly because we knew it was going to rain all day on Thursday.
All of our harvesting is done by hand, and harvesting green beans is a very time consuming job. It took ten hours for six people (sixty man hours) to pick all of the beans for this week. Again, we would like to thank our dedicated crew for all of their hard work this week!
Just a reminder…
Our annual Fall Festival will be held on Sunday, October 10. We ask that members who plan on attending please RSVP by September 30 so that we can plan accordingly. Remember, we will have a potluck lunch, so please bring a dish to pass. Please bring a notecard to place in front of the
Every year, one of our favorite crafts to do with the kids is to make scarecrows. If you would like to make a scarecrow this year, please bring clothes with you! We will have plenty of straw to stuff them and twine to tie it off!
Help us Recycle
If you have any extra plastic or paper grocery bags at your house, please consider bringing them out to the farm. We would be glad to use them!
What’s in this week’s bag??
• Spaghetti Squash
• Sweet Dumpling
• Red Carmen Peppers
• Green Bell Peppers
• Zucchini
• Yellow Squash
• Green Beans
• Green Kale
• Onions
Spaghetti Squash with Pine Nuts, Sage, and Romano
Ingredients
-1 spaghetti squash, halved lengthwise and seeded
-1/4 cup toasted pine nuts
-1/4 cup grated Pecorino Romano cheese
-2 tablespoons chopped fresh sage
-2 teaspoons butter, melted
-salt and pepper to taste
Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Place the squash, cut side down, in a large baking dish.
3. Bake the squash in the preheated oven for 50 minutes.
4. Scrape flesh of squash from the rind using a fork and place in a bowl. Add the pine nuts, cheese, sage, butter, salt, and pepper; toss to combine. Serve immediately.
Source: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Spaghetti-Squash-with-Pine-Nuts-Sage-and-Romano/Detail.aspx
Thursday, September 23, 2010
In the Bag: September 25, 2010
-Zucchini and/or Yellow Squash
-Kohlrabi
-Onions
-Collard Greens
-Carmen Pepper
-Bell Peppers
-Delicata Squash
-Leeks
-Scarlet Kabocha Squash
-Kohlrabi
-Onions
-Collard Greens
-Carmen Pepper
-Bell Peppers
-Delicata Squash
-Leeks
-Scarlet Kabocha Squash
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
In the Bag: September 18, 2010
-Spaghetti Squash
-Sweet Dumpling Squash
-Red Carmen Peppers
-Green Bell Peppers
-Zucchini
-Yellow Squash
-Green Beans
-Green Kale
-Onions
-Sweet Dumpling Squash
-Red Carmen Peppers
-Green Bell Peppers
-Zucchini
-Yellow Squash
-Green Beans
-Green Kale
-Onions
Thursday, September 9, 2010
In the Bag: September 11, 2010
-Zucchini
-Yellow Squash
-Swiss Chard
-Red Carmen Peppers
-Poblano Pepper
-Green Bell Peppers
-Light Green Bell Pepper
-Red Cabbage
-Yellow Squash
-Swiss Chard
-Red Carmen Peppers
-Poblano Pepper
-Green Bell Peppers
-Light Green Bell Pepper
-Red Cabbage
Saturday, September 4, 2010
Red Savoy Cabbage
Some members have been wondering why they received two green savoy cabbages and no red. Please take a second to compare the two heads of cabbage. On one of them you will notice some purple on the outside leaves. This is the red savoy. The green savoy is all green with no purple on it.
Here is a link to Johnny's Selected Seeds, which is where we purchased the seed. It has a picture that shows the difference between the two varieties.
Please let us know what you think of the red savoy cabbage. This is the first time we have grown it.
http://www.johnnyseeds.com/c-330-savoy.aspx
Here is a link to Johnny's Selected Seeds, which is where we purchased the seed. It has a picture that shows the difference between the two varieties.
Please let us know what you think of the red savoy cabbage. This is the first time we have grown it.
http://www.johnnyseeds.com/c-330-savoy.aspx
Thursday, September 2, 2010
In the Bag: September 4, 2010
-Watermelon (last week of them)
-Tomato Berries (last week of them)
-Beets
-Onions
-Red Kale
-Red Savoy Cabbage
-Green Savoy Cabbage
-Bell Peppers
-Red Carmen Peppers
-Tomato Berries (last week of them)
-Beets
-Onions
-Red Kale
-Red Savoy Cabbage
-Green Savoy Cabbage
-Bell Peppers
-Red Carmen Peppers
Porter Farm Happenings-August 28, 2010
In last week’s newsletter, we mentioned that we had been short of help at the farm. On Tuesday, The Daily News, which is the daily newspaper for Genesee, Orleans, and Wyoming counties, also discussed a major farmworker shortage in this area.
Many farms in the surrounding area depend on something called the “H2A Program”, which allows United States farmers to employ temporary legal workers. These workers are provided housing and a guaranteed set rate of pay. Many of these workers are Jamaican citizens that travel each season to harvest cabbage and apples in Western New York. However, this year, the United States government is refusing to certify workers from Jamaica because the Jamaican government takes a percentage of the workers paychecks.
Jamaican workers are very important to local farmers as they depend on their labor for the harvest. If this issue is not resolved, many farmers may be left short and could potentially go bankrupt.
We are hoping that this issue is resolved quickly before the fall harvest season begins!
Tomato Update
Some of you may have noticed that some of your tomatoes are not holding up well. We have even noticed that our grape tomatoes, which are usually the hardiest, are not holding up as well as they have in the past. Many members have contacted us about purchasing extra tomatoes for canning or making sauce, and we want to let you know that we will not have any available. What good tomatoes we do have in the field will be picked for our members.
This season we planted well over 20,000 tomato plants, which is the most we have ever done. We are disappointed that for the second season in a row we will not have the yield we were hoping for. We are looking forward to next years planting and are formulating ideas on how we can change the way that we grow them. Hopefully we will have a better crop next year!
Farm News
It was a cool, wet week at the farm. Three inches of rain fell over the weekend and into Monday, leaving us with many puddles and weeds. We were not able to get any fieldwork done on Monday because of the rain, so we had to spend the remainder of the week weeding and harvesting the vegetables.
All of our vegetables are handpicked, which is very time consuming. Each week our crew does a great job of picking the best vegetables in the field for you to enjoy. This year has been especially difficult to harvest the vegetables because they must battle through the weeds to get to the crops. When you cannot spray weeds to control their growth, they can only be hand weeded or cultivated. Since the fields have been so wet, our tractors have not been able to get in the fields to cultivate, and our workers cannot keep up with the fast growth of the weeds. This year we have an especially great crew, and we would like to thank them for all of their hard work!
Onions
Some of our members may be wondering where the onions are this season. In order to store onions in our barn, we first must pull each onion in the field and let them dry on the ground. Once they are dry, we bring them all into the barn. If they are not dried completely, they cannot be hand cleaned to remove dirt and may grow sprouts.
We pulled some of our onions a few weeks ago, hoping that we would have onions available for you in late August. However, every time that we think we will be able to bring them into the barn, it rains and we have to begin the drying process again. Once we are able to bring our onions to the barn, you can expect them in your bags almost every week!
What’s in this week’s bag??
• Watermelon
• Assorted Grape Tomatoes
• Tomatoes
• Green Bell Peppers
• Cubanelle or Light Green Bell Pepper
• Leeks
• Swiss Chard or Leaf Lettuce
Baked Leeks
Ingredients
-2 tablespoons butter
-1/4 cup all-purpose flour
-1 ½ cups skim milk
-1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese
-1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
-salt and pepper to taste
-4 medium leeks, halved lengthwise
Directions
1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Grease a 9x12 inch baking pan.
2. Melt butter over low heat. Stir in flour until smooth. Gradually stir in milk and cheese until cheese is melted. Season with garlic powder, salt, and pepper. Remove from heat. Arrange the leeks in a single layer in the prepared pan and cover with the cheese sauce.
3. Bake for 30 minutes in the preheated oven, until leeks are tender and sauce is bubbly.
Source: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Baked-Leeks/Detail.aspx
Many farms in the surrounding area depend on something called the “H2A Program”, which allows United States farmers to employ temporary legal workers. These workers are provided housing and a guaranteed set rate of pay. Many of these workers are Jamaican citizens that travel each season to harvest cabbage and apples in Western New York. However, this year, the United States government is refusing to certify workers from Jamaica because the Jamaican government takes a percentage of the workers paychecks.
Jamaican workers are very important to local farmers as they depend on their labor for the harvest. If this issue is not resolved, many farmers may be left short and could potentially go bankrupt.
We are hoping that this issue is resolved quickly before the fall harvest season begins!
Tomato Update
Some of you may have noticed that some of your tomatoes are not holding up well. We have even noticed that our grape tomatoes, which are usually the hardiest, are not holding up as well as they have in the past. Many members have contacted us about purchasing extra tomatoes for canning or making sauce, and we want to let you know that we will not have any available. What good tomatoes we do have in the field will be picked for our members.
This season we planted well over 20,000 tomato plants, which is the most we have ever done. We are disappointed that for the second season in a row we will not have the yield we were hoping for. We are looking forward to next years planting and are formulating ideas on how we can change the way that we grow them. Hopefully we will have a better crop next year!
Farm News
It was a cool, wet week at the farm. Three inches of rain fell over the weekend and into Monday, leaving us with many puddles and weeds. We were not able to get any fieldwork done on Monday because of the rain, so we had to spend the remainder of the week weeding and harvesting the vegetables.
All of our vegetables are handpicked, which is very time consuming. Each week our crew does a great job of picking the best vegetables in the field for you to enjoy. This year has been especially difficult to harvest the vegetables because they must battle through the weeds to get to the crops. When you cannot spray weeds to control their growth, they can only be hand weeded or cultivated. Since the fields have been so wet, our tractors have not been able to get in the fields to cultivate, and our workers cannot keep up with the fast growth of the weeds. This year we have an especially great crew, and we would like to thank them for all of their hard work!
Onions
Some of our members may be wondering where the onions are this season. In order to store onions in our barn, we first must pull each onion in the field and let them dry on the ground. Once they are dry, we bring them all into the barn. If they are not dried completely, they cannot be hand cleaned to remove dirt and may grow sprouts.
We pulled some of our onions a few weeks ago, hoping that we would have onions available for you in late August. However, every time that we think we will be able to bring them into the barn, it rains and we have to begin the drying process again. Once we are able to bring our onions to the barn, you can expect them in your bags almost every week!
What’s in this week’s bag??
• Watermelon
• Assorted Grape Tomatoes
• Tomatoes
• Green Bell Peppers
• Cubanelle or Light Green Bell Pepper
• Leeks
• Swiss Chard or Leaf Lettuce
Baked Leeks
Ingredients
-2 tablespoons butter
-1/4 cup all-purpose flour
-1 ½ cups skim milk
-1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese
-1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
-salt and pepper to taste
-4 medium leeks, halved lengthwise
Directions
1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Grease a 9x12 inch baking pan.
2. Melt butter over low heat. Stir in flour until smooth. Gradually stir in milk and cheese until cheese is melted. Season with garlic powder, salt, and pepper. Remove from heat. Arrange the leeks in a single layer in the prepared pan and cover with the cheese sauce.
3. Bake for 30 minutes in the preheated oven, until leeks are tender and sauce is bubbly.
Source: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Baked-Leeks/Detail.aspx
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