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Hello Everyone! It was a good week of weather here on the farm; just a small amount of precipitation and perfect temperatures. It is getting a bit chilly at night as autumn begins to move in. One major benefit of the cool nights is that it prompts one of our most pernicious pests, the flea beetle, to move underground in preparation for their long winter sleep. We can now grow arugula and other mustard greens without having them riddled with tiny holes! (more…)
Radishes are the root of a plant closely related to mustard (hence their bite). They come in a variety of sizes, shapes and colors and are generally used as a garnish or salad ingredient because of their mild-to-peppery flavor. When cooked, they have a delicate flavor similar to that of white salad turnips. They can be cooked whole or thinly sliced, steamed with a bit of water (or vegetable stock) and butter. I’ve even seen a recipe for glazed whole radishes with a bit of brown sugar and butter. (more…)
Hi Folks, I hope you all had a pleasant holiday weekend. Here on the farm of course, we celebrate Labor Day by laboring. Our labors were complicated a bit this morning’s rain. We were expecting more rain in the afternoon, which never materialized, so we harvested a number of crops wet and had to dry them as best we could with fans in the barn. (more…)
Hello Everyone! So, the heat wave broke and now we have a little taste of fall. The nights have been a bit chilly up here in the mountains of NW New Jersey! The daytime temps will be creeping back up into the 80’s, but the nights will be dipping into the low 60’s. It seems that we might get a brief break from the frequent rain in the coming weeks, although this Wednesday looks to be a little wet. Somewhat drier conditions will be welcomed, as we have lots of potatoes to harvest, and the digger doesn’t work well when the ground is saturated. It may also give us a chance to do some work on the farm roads, which are deeply rutted in most of the low spots around the fields. (more…)
Hi Folks! So, it continues to rain regularly here on the farm. We received almost 2½ inches over the past week, a bit more than the inch per week that is ideal. I’m not complaining though — it’s been good for the thousands of transplants we’ve been setting out, as well as helpful for germinating the direct seeded crops. It’s come mostly in the evening and overnight which means it hasn’t interfered with our work. In case you hadn’t noticed we’re in the throes of another heat wave, which might be worth complaining about if it would do any good. Besides, I’m still working on my string of consecutive weeks without complaining about the weather! Although the Guinness folks haven’t returned my call yet. (more…)
Hi Everyone! So, the weather continues to be excellent for both plants and humans! If this keeps up, it will be a Circle Brook Farm update record for consecutive weeks without complaining about the weather! Maybe I should call the Guinness Book of World records folks – I understand they’ll certify just about anything if there’s enough money in it. There are strong storms forecast for tomorrow, so we’ll have to wait and see how that goes. In the meantime, we have lots of nice produce heading your way! (more…)
Don’t be scared by these unique looking heirloom beans – they are really very delicious. Dragon’s Tongue beans have vivid purple streaks that fade when the beans are cooked. Here’s a simple preparation from the It Ain’t Meat, Babe food blog. (more…)
Sometimes you want a tomato and balsamic vinegar salad, and sometimes you want a mojito. Don’t compromise! With this recipe from starchefs.com, you can have your salad and drink it too. (more…)
Here is another classic Italian dish that makes great use of our summer eggplant shares.
Hi Everyone! So, we begin as usual, with the weather report. We had two light rains over the weekend totaling about a half an inch. This was greatly appreciated as we are in the process of transplanting the fall brassica crops as well as direct-seeding other crops for harvest during the second half of the season. Generally, we have been receiving plenty of sunshine and warm, yet not scorching, temperatures. All in all, I would say the weather has been copacetic and is predicted to remain so for the next couple of weeks. We did have a large planting of fall carrots and a planting of dill and cilantro fail to germinate after the heavy rain 2 weeks back. I am in the process of replanting but had to order more seed, since I used up all of my favorite varieties. (more…)