Farm Blog
We have identified a downtown Raleigh site for CSA pick-ups. It is at the new Bickett Market operated by Jason Stegall of Southport Seafood Company and is located near 5-points at 219 Bickett Blvd., Raleigh, NC 27608. Boxes will be available from 3pm on Tuesday until 5 pm on Wednesday. We are very grateful to Jason for permitting this long time period. Boxes will not be will not be available outside of this time period. To read about this CSA or sign-up, please see our Chatham County and Raleigh NC CSA page.
We have prepared a list of the produce that we will be providing in our CSAs for 2010--or what we hope to provide. Check it out with this link: Produce for CSAs. We are excited about some of the new vegetables and new varieties planned for 2010. We have added celery and sweet onions to our plan. Some of you who are in the Chatham CSAs has received sweet onions in the past; however, we are adding the to our farm so that we can provide them to those who pick up at the Durham Farmers' Market.
We will continue to provide herbs in our CSAs featuring basil, cilantro, dill, lovage, oregano, parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme. We are going to try stevia which is can be used to sweeten drinks without adding calories.
And we are thinking of stocking the lower field with bass to really pump up the variety in our rotations. Of course this is not true, but it does indicate that we are tired of the rain and cheer each sunny day. Luckily much of the work is greenhouse work at this time, and we are thrilled at the beets, lettuce, chard, and spinach plants that are emerging.
Please check out the details of our CSA pages to learn more about our CSAs and the yummy products coming from Harland's Creek Farm and the great meat, cheese, eggs, and fruit coming from our collaborators.
Roasted greens make an excellent addition to the Thanksgiving meal and are also welcome on a cold evening. Refrigerate leftovers and heat and serve with fried eggs and sause.
Roasted Greens
Coarsely chop dry greens using Pak Choy, Tatsoi, and other greens if desired. Sprinkle with chopped garlic and slivered almonds. Drizzle olive oil over mixture. Cover and roast in a hot oven—350 ○F until greens are done. Remove cover and toast garlic and almonds. Sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste.
8 oz of greens should serve 3 people.
Roasted Greens with Eggs and Sausage
1 serving
Melt 0.5 tablespoon of butter in a small cast iron skillet. Place the greens in a semi-circle on one side of slillet and cooked sausage in a semi-circle on the other side of the skillet. Break a fresh egg in the middle. Cover and cook over low heat until the egg is done to your liking. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and serve.
Increase by using a larger skillet and one egg for each serving.
Harland's Creek Farm www.harlands-creek-farm.com
Harland's Creek Farm will be featuring recipes for greens at market on Saturday October 31, 2009. Below is a picture of Collards with Pasta and Sesame. We will be handing out this recipe as well as one for Collard Slaw. Also, come by an get our recipe for Chard Pie, a savory, cheesy recipe that will be perfect for up coming cool days.
One strategy for using greens is to wash and blanch them in boiling water for 2 minutes. Cool them quickly in ice water. Squeeze some of the water out of the greens and then chop. At this point they can then be frozen in a plastic freezer bag or stored in your refrigerator for later use. I liked having them processed to this point this morning when I want a quick breakfast of greens and eggs.
You can use dark brown sugar instead of the molasses.
Collards with Pasta and Sesame
2 main course servings
8 oz collards
0.5 cup water
1 teaspoon molasses
1 teaspoon olive oil
2 teaspoons sesame oil
1-3 cloves garlic minced
1 Tablespoon toasted sesame seeds
4 oz whole wheat spaghetti pasta
0.25 teaspoon pepper or hot pepper flakes (optional)
Salt to taste
Wash greens and cut into ribbons 1 inch wide. Add greens, water molasses, and oils to a skillet or wok. Bring to boil, cover and cook until greens are tender but not mushy, about 5 minutes. Meanwhile, boil the pasta and toast the sesame seeds by putting them in a small pan over high heat and shaking until they start to brown. Remove lid from greens and cook liquid down. Mix in pasta. Stir in raw garlic, pepper, and salt to taste.
Adapted from Schneider, Elizabeth (2001) Vegetables from Amaranth to Zucchini. New York: William
Villa Villa Cola Productions celebrates the release of the new surf film
Join filmmaker Andria Lessler for two hometown screenings of
Dear & Yonder
on
Tuesday, October 13th at Johnny's of Carrboro
and
Wednesday, October 14th at the Pittsboro General Store
The October 13th screening at Johnny’s of Carrboro will be preceded by a benefit dinner at 6:00 pm with local foods from Harland's Creek Farm, Chicken Bridge Bakery and Chapel Hill Creamery.
Cost of the dinner is $15, and all proceeds will go toward the outstanding production costs of the film. Reservations are required for the dinner and limited to 150 people. Please register at our events page. Dear & Yonder will be screened outdoors at 7:30 pm. following the dinner. The screening is free, but donations will be greatly appreciated. Johnny’s will be open for drinks and snacks throughout the event.
The October 14th screening at the General Store Cafe will begin at 7 pm with an introduction and discussion by Chatham County native Andria Lessler. The movie shows at 7:30. The screening is free, but donations will be greatly appreciated. The General Store will be open for regular dinner and drink service.
We will have the first of the Edamame at the Durham Farmers' Market this week. Edamame is a great healthy snack and children love it. Simply boil for 3 to 5 minutes, drain, salt, and cool. To eat as a snack, put the shell use your teeth to pop the beans out of the shell. Or you can shell it and use it in a recipe.
We will have tomatillos as well. Below is a recipe for Salsa Verde.
Of course we will have tomatoes, basil, eggplant, potatoes, and other products.
Best regards,
Judy
Salsa Verde--2 cups
1 lb Tomatillos
1 cup chopped onion or leek
4 cloves garlic
1 ½ teaspoons salt
½ cup oil
1 cup water
½ cup cilantro
1 or 2 hot peppers (optional)
In a blender or food processor, puree the tomatillos with the other ingredients, reserving 2 Tablespoons of oil. Heat oil in a heavy pan. Add tomatillo mixture and cook for 10 minutes.
Adapted from Barrett J (1992) Tomatillos, AMS Publications, Georgetown Texas.
Harland's Creek Farm harvested its first set of pasture raised poultry this week. Our chickens are:
- grown on pasture that they can munch, scratch in, and explore;
- fed an all grain diet and vegetables from the farm;
- antibiotic and hormone free, and;
- are processed locally in Siler City NC at a USDA inspected meat processing plant
We are selling fresh whole chickent on June 13 2009 at the Durham Farmers Market. It is $4.00/lb.
A whole chicken is your best buy. When it is fresh, you can easily cut it into breasts, legs, thighs, and so on. Backs, backs, wing tips, and so on can be separated and used to make broth. Different parts can be frozen for later use. Of course, roasting a whole chicken is a fabulous way to eat it. Here are two links that show you how to cut up a chicken:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yd8ZRMAHZyU&feature=related
http://www.cookingforengineers.com/article/97/Cutting-Up-Chicken
The chicks are put on pasture at an early age. Below are some pictures.
Chicks on Pasture at Two Weeks Old
Grandchildren Helping Move Chicks
The US weather service issues a freeze warning for 4 am to 8 am on Wednesday April 8 2009.
We were concerned becasue it is usually 4 to 5 degrees colder at the farm than the forecast low temperature. Also, in 2007, there was a severe freeze on April 5 that killed leaves on trees, all of the flowers on our holly bushes, and all of our transplanted corn. Thus, the freeze warning was a call to action, and we spent a good portion of Tuesday preparing protections for it. Below are some pictures of our efforts. They were sucessful AND the cold was not too severe. We dropped to 28 degrees for a few hours right at dawn and warmed up quickly after that.
We loaded the corn transplants on a large trailer and backed it into the barn.
The barn has a huge door to allow for large equipment to be brought in. We covered the door with a large tarp and weighted it down to keep it clossed.
Next we focused on beds of tender transplants and flowers.
Lilies that volunteered from 2008 were covered.
Beets, tender lettuces, and pac choy were covered in Plots 1 and Plot 2.
Covered blueberries in Plot 3 looked like little ghosts floating in the field.
Some plants are cold tolerant Here is a frost covered red cabbage. It survived just fine.
At HCF we either plant by direct seeding or transplanting. Until 2008 when we built our own greenhouse, we direct seeded most of our produce and flowers. We now use a lot of transplants. This allows us to get some plants in the field earlier and gives us more control over the early stages of their development.
Plants are first seeded in the greenhouse and spend several weeks there. When they are large enough, they are moved outdoors to a cold frame or other location to "harden-off." This means that they are getting used to the harsher weather of the outdoors. We find, however, that many plants do better in this harsher climate because they are actually adapted for outdoor growth rather than indoor growth.
Some of the plants are both direct seeded and transplanted. This year we hope to have transplanted corn as well as direct seeded corn. This will be our third try for a good crop of transplanted corn. In 2007 we put our corn out around April 1, and on April 5 there was a hard freeze that killed the majority of it. Last year, 2008, we had corn tasseled out when we were hit by a major hail strom on May 20. Most of it was killed. Here is a picture of the corn just after it had germinated in the greenhouse.
This corn is now outside waiting to be transplanted as soon as we have a 10 day forecast that includes April 15 with no indication of frost.
The next picture is of chard, kohlrabi, and cabbages waiting the the cold frame and getting hardened up. Some of these went to the field last week and the week before. Future blogs will show pictures of the early vegetables in the beds.
More to follow.