Friday, October 15, 2010
Figs!!!
Hello All! About a month ago in our fruit share we had black misson figs from Maywood Farms in Corning, CA. I was so excited! I love figs! I made fig jam, fig cake, figs with maple whipped cream, figs and blue cheese with arugula, baked figs with pork, dried figs, and on and on. I couldn't get enough of them. The most tasty fig dish I made though was Fig and Grape Salad with Pancetta Crostini from Alice Waters Fruit Cookbook. The recipe can be found on HVF website in the September 9th Fruit Newsletter. It was not only delicious, but a very sexy salad. If you are at the store and they happen to have figs, grapes, and pancetta; get them and make this salad. You will be very happy! Happy Cooking Katie
Friday, October 8, 2010
Sweet Potato Harvest
This is the second part of the sweet potato harvest. Before we can get in and actually dig and pick up the potatoes (which is what you'll see here), the vines need to be cut and the plastic mulch removed. It's a big job! We'll see if Kelly (our bookkeeper & in house videographer) can send us that footage as well.
In a nutshell: The tractor pulls the harvester which loosens the potatoes from the ground, with a little human help. They go up the belt, which helps shake off some of the dirt. At the top of the belt, the guys are sorting the potatoes from the biggest clumps of dirt and putting them into wooden crates. When the crates are full, they go onto a pallet on a wagon. Once we get a full wagon, we drive back to the farm and unload the pallets into the nursery greenhouse (see the previous post). They need to "cure" for a couple days to make them sweet. Then they'll be washed, trimmed and sorted by size and quality. Then into your CSA box, then dinner or pie!
In a nutshell: The tractor pulls the harvester which loosens the potatoes from the ground, with a little human help. They go up the belt, which helps shake off some of the dirt. At the top of the belt, the guys are sorting the potatoes from the biggest clumps of dirt and putting them into wooden crates. When the crates are full, they go onto a pallet on a wagon. Once we get a full wagon, we drive back to the farm and unload the pallets into the nursery greenhouse (see the previous post). They need to "cure" for a couple days to make them sweet. Then they'll be washed, trimmed and sorted by size and quality. Then into your CSA box, then dinner or pie!
Thursday, October 7, 2010
Sweet Potato
The sweet potato harvest is about half way through. Here's what we had in the nursery greenhouse this morning. We keep it nice and warm for 4-5 days to "cure" the potatoes and sweeten them up. Then they will soon go in CSA boxes & then your belly. Kelly the bookkeeper is out in the field with her video camera - maybe she can post some raw footage of the harvest! 
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