Late August Field & Farm Update

By Richard and Andrea

Can you believe we’re at the end of August already?!  We’re quickly approaching that transition point in the season where summer and fall vegetables overlap, the days are busy, the harvests are bountiful and the meals you get to prepare with all these vegetables are colorful and delicious!  The week’s have been flying by for us and there’s no shortage of tasks to keep us on our toes.  First it was garlic harvest, then a push to get the onions out of the field.  Last weekend we harvested about half of our potato crop and this week we’ve stayed busy harvesting thousands (literally) of watermelons!  The next big harvests coming up will be winter squash followed by sweet potatoes and that will bring us up to fall root crop harvest and our final big harvest push before we close out the season.  Ok, now that we’ve laid it all out, lets back up and talk through some of the details.

Farmer Richard inspecting a
pheromone trap in the sweet corn field.

While fall will officially be here before we know it, we still have a lot of summer to enjoy!  We hope you’ve been enjoying this year’s sweet corn, which has turned out better than we had anticipated.  Some of the sweet corn blew over in the storms we had back in July, but thankfully the crops have come through despite that and the corn has been very good!  After this week we’ll have one crop remaining to harvest.  This is the time of the year when we have to watch out for corn earworm, a pest that starts as a moth which lays its eggs on the silks of the corn.  When the egg hatches a little worm makes its way down the silks and into the ear.  It’s a harmless, but annoying little creature.  We’ve been monitoring its activity, first through reports from University extension who reported sightings in Coon Valley, which is not far from us.  Those reports coincided with the first moths we caught in our pheromone traps.  We’ve been using an organically approved spray to treat this pest and try to prevent the worms from being a problem.  So far it looks like our tactics have been effective, but you may still find a worm or two in this late season corn.  If you do, just trim the tip off the ear as the remainder of the corn is still wholesome and delicious!

Mini Sweet Pepper Field

As we move into the latter part of summer we are also reaping the benefits of sweet peppers, tomatoes, and watermelons!  This has been one of the most productive watermelon crops we’ve ever had!  Between watermelons, melons, tomatoes and corn, it’s been a challenge to get everything in the boxes!  We are just starting to pick tomatoes from our second planting, so there will hopefully be several more bountiful weeks of tomatoes.  The sweet peppers are just starting to change colors, so look forward to a variety of orange Ukraine, Orange and Red Italian Frying peppers and of course, mini sweet peppers!  If you’re finding the quantity of food you’re receiving is quite a lot for your household during this peak part of the season, consider how you can tuck away some of these vegetables through simple preservation methods so you can enjoy them throughout the winter and they don’t go to waste!  If you have extra tomatoes, chop them up and cook them down, then either freeze the coarse “sauce” or puree it.  If you don’t have time for the cooking part, just freeze your tomatoes.  If you have freezer space, all you have to do is wash them and cut out the core.  Put the whole tomatoes in a freezer bag and put them in the freezer.  When you take them out you can cook them down into a soup or sauce.  Peppers are also easy to freeze as you can freeze them raw.  I (Andrea) will include some of these preservation tips from week to week in the newsletter, so look to this resource for some guidance.

Looking ahead to some of our fall crops, we are happy to report that the sweet potatoes and winter squash crops both look very good at this point!  Richard dug some sweet potatoes just to see what was happening underground and they look great!  The butternut squash are so thick you can barely walk in between the rows in the field.  We’ll likely start harvesting them within the next few weeks, which means we need to get the rest of the onions and shallots trimmed, cleaned and into the cooler!

An established cover crop is
important to prevent erosion over the winter!

Last week we put out the last of our transplants with our fall lettuce crop and a crop of escarole and radicchio that we hope to harvest in November.  We’ve completed all of our main season plantings including our fall storage turnips and radishes.  We still have several weeks of plantings to complete for the crops we plant weekly including radishes, cilantro, bok choi and our fall spinach and salad mix.  Aside from this small lineup, we’re turning our attention to planting cover crops!  This past week we received over 7,000# of cover crop seed and we plan to plant it all!  Cover crops are an essential part of our system and we rely upon them to hold our soil in place over the winter as well as for the nutrients and organic matter they build in our soils.  Of course there’s also the benefit they offer to the planet as they sequester carbon.  It’s an investment in time and money, but one we feel more than pays for itself in returns!

Steam rolls off the compost pile
as it is turned with the compost turner

As we “put our fields to bed for the winter,” we’ll also be spreading minerals and compost to put fertility back into the soils for next year.  Silvestre has made some nice windrows of compost and it’s heating very nicely!  After the last turn it heated to 160°F overnight!  In order to be compliant with the NOP (National Organic Program), it needs to be maintained at 140°F for a minimum of 15 days and we will turn it to stir it up and incorporate more oxygen a minimum of 5 times during that period.  This process not only turns the raw materials into actual compost, but the time it’s held at these temperatures also kills weed seeds and any pathogens.  By the time it’s finished it will look like “black gold!”

Benchmark for the water level is in place
(lower left) & the permit is posted!

We usually start our conversations by somehow talking about the weather, so we’d better circle back and cover that topic!  Despite receiving rain over the past few weeks, we’re still pretty dry!   Our irrigation crew continues to work hard to keep up with the moisture losses we see simply based on evaporation and transpiration.  Now that the plants we’re watering are more mature, they lose more moisture every day as they “breathe,” but we also see greater moisture loss when it’s windy and hot.  On the topic of irrigation, we’re happy to report that we did receive our irrigation permit that was pending for one of the properties we lease.  We shared about this application process and our irrigation practices in an article we published last month.  We are grateful for the support of the DNR in issuing this permit, but also for the positive feedback we received from some of the community members who initially had expressed concern about this application.  We will continue to do the best we can to manage our irrigation practices responsibly.  Last week Richard and Luis put in the benchmark for the new permit, posted the permit and we’re hoping to start irrigating soon.

Cows grazing on green pastures

In the pastures, we’re happy to report both the cows and pigs are content, thriving and doing well.  The cows continue to enjoy their pasture grass and we have a good supply of hay put up for their winter feed.  The pigs have also been eating well and are starting to enjoy hickory nuts falling in their pasture.  Hopefully they’ll have a few acorns to snack on this fall too!  While we are sold out of pork for this fall’s deliveries, we do still have beef available.  If you are interested in stocking up for the winter, you might want to consider purchasing a custom half beef.  It’s our most economical offering and you get to choose how you want it processed!  Just email Andrea, our meat lady, if you are interested.

Well, there are many other crops and farm activities we haven’t even touched on, including the gorgeous purple and yellow cauliflower that we’re harvesting this week!  We still have a lot of work ahead of us to finish out the second half of our CSA season.  Pretty soon we’ll also start laying the groundwork for next year’s CSA program and start pre-booking seeds and supplies for next year.  The cycle keeps going and we continue to be grateful for your support of our farm.  Enjoy the final weeks of summer and we’ll meet you back here later this fall for another update!

September 13, 2018 - This Week's Box Contents, Featuring Mini-Sweet Peppers

Cooking With This Week's Box:

Potatoes: Sheet Pan Roasted Chicken with Potatoes & Sweet Peppers (See below)

Leeks: Apple, Leek & Cheddar Quiche; Spaghetti Squash & Leek Skillet Gratin

Carrots: Veggie Pizza; Edamame & Veggie Rice Bowl; Thai Sesame, Red Cabbage & Carrot Salad

Sweet Yellow Onions: Caramelized Poblano Chile & Onion Dip

Porcelain Garlic: Spaghetti Squash & Leek Skillet Gratin; Roasted Poblano & Tomatillo Salsa Verde

Variety of Tomatoes: Fried Green Tomatoes

Golden Grape Tomatoes: Veggie Pizza; Edamame & Veggie Rice Bowl

Orange Italian Frying & Red Bell Peppers: Spaghetti Squash & Leek Skillet Gratin; Veggie Pizza;  Edamame & Veggie Rice Bowl

Poblano Peppers: Caramelized Poblano Chile & Onion Dip; Roasted Poblano & Tomatillo Salsa Verde

Broccoli: Veggie Pizza

Cauliflower OR Red Cabbage: Veggie Pizza; Thai Sesame, Red Cabbage & Carrot Salad

Edamame: Edamame & Veggie Rice Bowl

Tomatillos: Roasted Poblano & Tomatillo Salsa Verde

Mini-Sweet Peppers: Veggie Pizza; Sheet Pan Roasted Chicken with Potatoes & Sweet Peppers (See below); Edamame & Veggie Rice Bowl

Spaghetti Squash: Spaghetti Squash & Leek Skillet Gratin

Korean Peppers: HVF Korean Chile-Garlic Sauce; Salt-Cured Chiles

Here we are in mid-September and while the trees are still mostly green, you can see they’ll be transitioning to their fall colors soon.  Yesterday we finished winter squash harvest and our greenhouse is filled with bins of colorful squash!  We hope you’ll consider joining us for our Fall Harvest Party coming up on September 23.  Come and see the farm and enjoy delicious food, great conversation with other CSA members and tour the fields! 

Lets kick off this week’s cooking extravaganza with a focus on this week’s featured vegetable, the beautiful mini-sweet peppers.  These little gems are delicious just on their own, but they are also really great when roasted.  This week I suggest using most of your mini-sweet peppers to make Sheet Pan Roasted Chicken with Potatoes & Sweet Peppers (See below).  This is a simple recipe featuring herb-roasted potatoes, mini-sweet peppers and sweet onions, but very tasty and filling. 

Spaghetti Squash & Leek Skillet Gratin

I’m excited that we have both spaghetti squash and leeks in this week’s box so we can use them to make Spaghetti Squash & Leek Skillet Gratin.  I have shared this recipe with anyone who tells me they don’t care for spaghetti squash and everyone who’s tried it has had to admit it’s a pretty good way to prepare this unique squash!  This dish is easy to put together and includes sweet peppers as well as spaghetti squash, leeks and garlic.  Leftovers are pretty good the next day too.  You might want to save one leek to make this recipe for Apple, Leek & Cheddar Quiche which we featured several years  ago in a newsletter.  I had forgotten about this until one of our members reminded us about this recipe in our Facebook Group last week.  This will make a great weekend brunch item with some leftovers for breakfast on Monday morning.

While the tomatoes in this week’s box aren’t technically green tomatoes, most of them were a bit on the under-ripe side when they were picked.  We know tomato season won’t last forever, so I’m going to pull the trigger on making our annual dinner of Fried Green Tomatoes.  This recipe also includes a simple sauce to serve alongside.

When I was a kid, one of the church ladies’ go-to recipes for snacks at church events was a cold Veggie Pizza.  This is a great way to incorporate a lot of vegetables into one preparation.  This could serve as a light dinner or lunch, but might also be a good thing to send in school lunches for the kids or just have it in the refrigerator for an after-school snack.  The recipe calls for using canned crescent rolls for the crust.  You could also use puff pastry as the base or make your own crust.  You can top this with any fresh vegetable you like, but I’d suggest using carrots, broccoli, cauliflower and sweet peppers from this week’s box.  You could also use edamame for a pop of green color. 

Caramelized Poblano Chile & Onion Dip

This will likely be the last week we’ll be able to deliver tomatillos.  Several years ago when Chef Chelsea worked at the farm, she introduced me to the beautiful combination of roasted poblanos and tomatillos.  So this week I think I’ll just keep things simple and make Roasted Poblano & Tomatillo Salsa Verde.  This will likely become our Sunday afternoon snack eaten with chips, but you could also use this salsa as a sauce over grilled chicken or pork chops or include it in a breakfast burrito.  The other poblano pepper recipe I have to mention every year is Caramelized Poblano Chile & Onion Dip.  I like to make this at least once every year and I use it in a variety of ways.  First of all, it’s really good as a dip with mini-sweet peppers, but it’s also good on quesadillas, on top of roasted potatoes, or use it as a base for something similar to the veggie pizza mentioned above.  This week’s sweet onions are one of the best varieties to use for this recipe.

We’re nearing the end of edamame for the season.  I’ve enjoyed having these sweet, tender beans over the past few weeks. If you’re looking for a simple vegetable snack for the kids, this is a good one.  Otherwise, this week I’m going to follow this simple suggestion for Edamame & Veggie Rice Bowl.  You could eat this warm or at room temperature.  Basically you pile brown rice in a bowl and top it off with roasted vegetables (such as carrots, broccoli, sweet peppers or grape tomatoes).  Serve it with chunks of avocado and dress it with a citrus lime vinaigrette.  This is a nice light, nourishing alternative to some of the more rich dishes I’ve recommended throughout the week.
  

Here’s another suggestion for something a bit on the light side.  If you get the red cabbage in your box this week, pair it with carrots to make this Thai Sesame, Red Cabbage & Carrot Salad.  It’s a basic salad consisting of cabbage, carrots, fresh herbs and a light vinaigrette.  You could turn this into a meal by adding some shredded chicken or salmon.

Lastly, if you didn’t have a chance to try the Korean Peppers last week, I’d encourage you to do so this week.  We’ve sent them as a choice item, so pick up a small handful and use them to make the HVF Korean Chile-Garlic Sauce or Salt-Cured Chiles we featured on the blog last week. You can also read more about this chile and how to use it in the same blog post.

Alright friends, we’ve cooked our way to the bottom of yet another CSA box.  I haven’t cooked any of our Kabocha squash yet, but I am thinking they’ll likely land in next week’s boxes, so start transitioning your thoughts to more fall cooking.  Have a great week!—Chef Andrea

Featured Vegetable: Mini-Sweet Peppers

These sweet little gems have become something many of our members look forward to every year, and what’s not to like about them!  They are cute, colorful, sweet and easy to eat.  They travel well, require very little if any preparation, store well on the countertop during the season and are easy to preserve.  They are delicious raw, roasted, sautéed and are excellent for dipping or stuffing.  If I had to choose just one pepper to grow, this would be the chosen one.

 

For those of you who have been members with our farm for several years, you likely remember the story about how this vegetable came to be part of our repertoire.  It’s a relatively new addition to our crop plan and we’re grateful to one of our longtime CSA members who introduced us to them.  Upon his suggestion, Richard picked up a pack of these peppers at the co-op and saved the seeds from them.  Please note, each pepper only has a few seeds inside, so the amount of seed we had to start with was pretty slim.  He planted out the seeds that year, selected more peppers to save seeds from and thus began the process of developing our own line of seed.  At the time he first saw these peppers, they were not very wide-spread in the stores as they are now and seed was not commercially available in this country.  Times have changed and mini-sweet peppers, or snacking peppers as they are also called, are much more mainstream.  Seed is now commercially available in this country.  Several years ago we purchased some seed to try.  We grew it side by side with the seed we had saved and when we looked at the plants in the field, they were pretty similar.  We almost had ourselves convinced that we should just purchase seed and stop spending time painstakingly picking 4-5 seeds out of peppers at the end of every summer so we have seed for the next year.  But then we tasted them.  One bite of the purchased variety stopped us in our tracks.  It was an acceptable sweet pepper, but it did not have the level of sweetness or the depth of flavor we experienced with the variety we’ve been developing.  Deal breaker.  We haven’t purchased seed since then and will continue to refine the seed we save every year as it seems to be doing pretty well in our growing environment.

So what do you do with this little pepper?  Well the easiest thing to do is to just eat it as a snack.  I usually don’t even cut them or trim away the top.  I just use the stem as a handle and eat around the seeds.  One of Richard’s favorite ways to eat this pepper is stuffed with cream cheese or other soft cheese.  You can eat peppers stuffed in this way raw or pop them under the broiler for a bit to warm them up.  This pepper is also great roasted, such as in this week’s recipe.  Lastly, you can use this pepper as you would any other sweet pepper.

I mentioned above that it can also be preserved.  This is actually one of the easiest things to put away for winter.  All you have to do is wash them, let them air dry a bit and then put them in a freezer bag and freeze.  That’s it.  When you’re ready to use them, take out the portion you need and leave it on the counter at room temperature for just a few minutes so it softens enough for you to cut them.  I use these throughout the winter as a topping on pizza, added to soups and stews, or chopped and added to rice and pasta dishes.

We hope you enjoy this sweet little gem as much as we do!

Sheet Pan Roasted Chicken with Potatoes & Mini-Sweet Peppers

Yield 4-5 servings

(Pre-cooked)

4 cups diced potatoes (about 1 ½ pounds)

2 cups mini-sweet peppers, stem removed & quartered (about ½ pound)

1 medium sweet onion, diced

1 tsp dried thyme

1 tsp dried parsley

½ tsp dried rosemary

½ tsp fennel seeds

1 tsp salt, divided

Freshly ground black pepper, as needed

3 Tbsp sunflower or vegetable oil, divided

6 pieces chicken thighs, legs, wings or a combination, skin-on

1. Preheat the oven to 375°F.  Combine potatoes, mini-sweet peppers, and onions in a medium mixing bowl.  Add dried herbs, freshly ground black pepper and about ½ tsp salt.  Drizzle with 2 Tbsp oil.  Toss the vegetables to thoroughly mix the vegetables with the herbs and coat everything with oil.  Spread the vegetables evenly on a sheet pan and set aside.
2. Put the pieces of chicken in the same bowl you mixed the vegetables in.  Drizzle with 1 Tbsp oil and sprinkle with about ½ tsp salt as well as freshly ground pepper.  Mix well with your hands and make sure all sides of the chicken are thoroughly coated with oil and seasonings. 
3. Put the pieces of chicken on top of the vegetables, skin side up.
4. Put the chicken and vegetables in the oven and roast for 30 minutes.  If necessary stir the vegetables a bit so they brown more evenly.  Return to the oven for an additional 10 minutes or until the vegetables are golden brown and tender and the chicken is golden, crispy and cooked through. 
5. Remove from the oven and serve hot.

By Chef Andrea, Harmony Valley Farm

Vegetable Feature: Mini-Sweet Peppers

by Sarah Janes Ugoretz
A few weeks ago at our farmer’s market stand, Chef Patrick DePula of Salvatore’s Tomato Pies was perusing our pepper selection. He paused in front of the mini sweets and, picking one up, asked, “What are these?” “Try one,” we said. He did. We waited for his reaction, which came in the form of a question: “Can I have another one?”

We feel exactly the same way about these oh-so-scrumptious little peppers. Despite their size, they are one of the most flavorful sweet peppers we’ve ever tasted! One of the most common questions we get from newcomers is: “How hot are they?” While the variety we grow did originate in Mexico, where small peppers typically equate to high heat, you won’t find a trace of hotness here. Just crispy, crunchy sweetness.

Mini Sweet Peppers have an interesting history at Harmony Valley Farm.  About 12 years ago, a long-time CSA member tipped Richard off to this little snack pepper.  He told Richard how he’d picked up a package of tiny peppers from his local co-op. They had been grown organically in Mexico, and he’d never before seen anything like them. Richard was sufficiently intrigued, so he stopped at the co-op and picked up a package of those little peppers. He ate every last mini sweet, while carefully saving the seeds from each one.  And so began HVF’s adventure with mini sweet peppers.
Over the past 10-12 years, Richard and the crew have continued to save seeds from peppers growing on plants that exhibit ideal characteristics. From a modest beginning of saving and planting under 20 seeds from that original package of mini sweets, we have now worked our way up to saving an average of 8,000 seeds per year!

When we first started growing them, mini sweet pepper seed stock was not widely available—you couldn’t find them in any seed catalogs and you’d be hard pressed to locate any producers growing them for market—not just in Wisconsin but across the country! It was only a matter of time before mini sweet seeds became commercially available. Seed catalogs began advertising a variety called “Yummy.” Thinking about all of the time and energy that HVF puts into selecting and saving seeds from year to year, Richard decided to try out this new variety. As the peppers matured, we taste-tested them side-by-side with our mini-sweet variety.  It was very clear from the first few bites that the “Yummy” peppers were a far cry from our variety. And so, when you bite into your next HVF mini sweet pepper, you’re biting into a fruit that embodies over a decade’s worth of painstaking seed selection—not to mention a fruit that reflects HVF’s unwillingness to exchange high quality for ease and convenience.

When it comes to eating these little peppers, the easiest thing to do is just pop them in your mouth—they’re perfectly snack-sized and contain only a small amount of seeds. If you want to take it up a notch, slice them lengthwise and stuff them with soft cheese. Either toss them onto the grill or into the oven for that nice “melty” effect. You can also freeze these little guys whole & raw—no blanching required.  Just put them in a freezer bag and stash them away until the winter. Your only concern should be making sure you freeze enough…

End of Summer Vegetable Ragout with Fettuccine

by Chef Andrea Yoder

Yield: 4-5 Servings
2 tsp olive oil
8 oz ground beef or pork (optional)
2 medium onions, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
4 cups diced fresh tomatoes (skin, seeds and all)
1 cup diced carrots
⅓ cup white wine
1 Tbsp balsamic vinegar, plus more to taste
1 ½-2 cups diced zucchini
8 oz mini-sweet peppers (approximately 10-12 peppers),diced
Salt & Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
8-12 oz fettuccine noodles, cooked according to package instructions
½ cup fresh herbs, coarsely chopped (parsley, oregano, basil, or other as available)
Parmesan cheese, for garnishing

1. Heat a medium sized sauce pan over medium-high heat.  Add the oil and ground beef or pork (if you choose to include meat).  Cook the meat until lightly browned, then add the onions and garlic.  If you are not including meat, simply heat the oil and add the onions and garlic to the pan.  Saute the mixture until the onions are fragrant and starting to soften.
2. Add the diced tomatoes and carrots.  Cover and simmer for 5-6 minutes, or until the mixture becomes juicy.  Remove the lid from the pan and add the white wine and 1 Tbsp of balsamic vinegar.  Simmer for about 10 minutes.
3. Next, add the zucchini & mini sweet peppers.  Season the mixture with salt and black pepper.  Simmer for an additional 6-8 minutes or until all the vegetables are tender and the sauce has thickened to the consistency you prefer (it should be thick, yet juicy enough to coat the fettuccine).
4. Remove the pan from the heat.  Adjust the seasoning to taste by adding salt, pepper and an additional 2-4 tsp balsamic vinegar.  Gently stir in the fresh herbs.  
5. Serve the fettuccine topped with the ragout and garnished with Parmesan cheese.

First Final Four Round!

Our final four has been set, and I can tell you that I have my first loss in my personal bracket picks.  I thought those pesky beets would win out over the Rutabaga, however we move on to the Final Four!

In the first round of the Final Four we have the Spring favorite, Ramps, taking on the Summer favorite Mini Sweet Peppers.  We watched as the ramps creamed the Overwintered Spinach and snapped the Sugar Snap Peas! Will these springtime favorites be able to dice up the Mini Sweet Peppers? To help the Ramps spring into the final round, 'LIKE' our Facebook post today.

The Mini Sweet Peppers have already shown their bite by stringing up the Green Beans and crushing the Sungold Tomatoes into defeat.  Now these colorful beauties are looking to out-shine the wild Ramps. Will they be able to shimmy their way to the final round? To help the Mini Sweet's sweeten the final round, 'SHARE' our Facebook post today.

Second Match-up Complete, Third Match Competitors

In a much closer match in the Spring division, the Sugar Snap Peas edged out the Kohlrabi to move on to a match later against the overpowering Ramps.  I am just looking forward to eating all of these soon! Here is how we are currently standing in the bracket.

Remember Capt Jack picked all the vegetables and he is eagerly awaiting the results. You can see he is contemplating his bracket picks below.  Can you guess which vegetable he wants to win?

Now for the next round of contestants - both hailing from the Summer division of the Vegetable Bracket. Our first vegetable is the mouth-watering, sweet and adorable Mini Sweet Peppers. These little peppers are not only cute and colorful, but are terribly sweet when eaten raw or cooked.  What is my favorite way to eat them you ask (when they make it into my house)? I would have to say raw with a little garlic and herbed Brebis cheese stuffed in them. Yum!! This vegetable is a true team player, you just can't eat one!! We plant ½ acre of these little sweethearts and with all the colors, the rows look like little Christmas trees when they are loaded with ripe peppers.

The second vegetable contestant is not quite as flashy as the mini-sweet pepper, but equally beautiful and plentiful in its own way.  As the green beans come to the playing field, they recruited their yellow bean counterpart to join them on center-stage to add a little color to the competition against the mini-sweets.  Who doesn't love a fresh green or yellow bean?!  Green & yellow beans are usually considered to be more of the “old favorite” vegetable that has stood the test of time and comes back as a customer favorite year after year. One planting is never enough, so we plan to plant as many as 6 different crops each year!  If the weather cooperates, that means everyone will eat beans until they are coming out your ears!  Quickly sautéed with garlic, roasted until golden brown, or simply tossed with a light vinaigrette…..the crisp, fresh, mild flavor of green & yellow beans will always find their place on the summer dinner plate.

 So the real questions is.....  Who will the winner be!