Fall farm pictures

Here are some recent pictures from the farm.  Most of these were taken by my friend from college, Josh Williams.  He currently resides in Budapest, Hungary and was home for a visit.

Friends whom I met in college at Wittenberg.  They came to visit me in Zanesville from all over the world.  Caela traveled from Philadelphia;  Lindsay from Alberta, Canada; and Josh from Budapest.  I feel so lucky to have such wonderful life-long friends.

Caela at Zanesville Farmers' Market.

 

Pepper display.

Lindsay filling quarts of heirloom tomatoes at Farmers' Market.

Picture of my garden.  Newly planted fall greens and radishes in the foreground  Rolling hills of southeast Ohio in the background.  This photo captures the essence of "home" for me. 

"The prettiest compost pile ever," as Josh kept calling it.

 

Caela and I holding Rouge Vif D'etampes pumpkins!

Awesome heirloom pumpkin called Galeaux d'Eysines.  It was the best one I grew and I'm not selling it.  I am keeping it for myself!  (Unless, you offer me a high enough price.)

Taking a picture of the photographer with my phone while holding Sophie, my cousin Kari's little girl.  She did NOT want to get dirty!  I hope her mother continues to send her back to Ohio every summer.  I'm going to try to make a farmer of her yet!

Friends, Caela and Jim, in the pumpkin patch.

Picking pumpkins with the kiddos.

 

"Strawberry Fields" Gomphrena

Beautiful flowers.  These are called Gomphrena or Globe Amaranth.

HOT peppers!  So colorful!

Picking Patty Pan Squash

 

Winter squash!

Really, these things are just way too pretty.  See previous post about photographing produce.

 

Spider on some of my produce, imagine that!  See my previous post for spider discussion.

Lovely heirloom eggplant.  Question: Is the plural of eggplant, eggplant or eggplants??

Eggplant just waiting to be cut for market.

Josh in the eggplant patch.

Picking eggplant.  This angle makes me look like a giant!

Fall is a good season to shop at farmers market

            Fall has officially arrived—according to both the calendar and the weather.  Brisk mornings and cool but sunny afternoons have made this week so pleasant.  Shoppers and vendors will need to remember to wear layers to market on Saturday to adjust as the morning progresses from a chilly start to warm by mid-day.  Also, please remember that Farmers’ Market continues until the end of October, so there are still several weeks left.  Many customers think it is almost over, but that is not true.  There is a lot of good produce still left to purchase over the next month.

            One of my favorite fall decorations are the beautiful orange berries of the bittersweet vine.  Yesterday, I made my annual hunt for this sometimes elusive plant.  I was in luck, as my usual spots were even more productive than in the past, so I was able to cut a lot of vines.  Unfortunately, bittersweet seems to thrive in the same conditions as poison ivy, so I was taking great risk in its gathering.  I did take precaution, however, by donning boots, overalls, and gloves.  As soon as I got back to the house, I immediately put my clothes in the washing machine and took a bath with Fels-Naptha soap.  Fortunately, I am not nearly as allergic to poison ivy as my mother, sister, and aunts, who all seem to end up covered in this pesky rash at least once a year.  I guess by this time next week, I’ll know whether or not I have been spared.

            Another sure sign of fall, are the great numbers of dew covered spider webs glistening in the morning sun.  As a self-professed hater of spiders, I have suddenly realized how much of my fear I have been able to overcome in the last few years.  Produce farming means daily interaction with spiders so I have had to learn to deal with them.  Don’t get me wrong, a really large spider will stop me in my tracks; but now I am able to calmly sidestep around it and go on about my picking.  Small spiders don’t even faze me these days. 

Over the last couple of weeks I have had guests visiting from outside of the United States.  They just couldn’t get over the abundance of spiders in Ohio.  One friend, had to point out that every time we rode in my vehicle she saw at least two spiders crawling around.  I had mostly stopped noticing them, except when I pulled down my visor and one fell down in front of my line of vision.  That is pretty startling and can be very dangerous.  I know a girl who had that very same thing happen to her and caused her to have a bad car accident.

            To deal with spiders in the house, my mother swears by her grandmother’s remedy, which is to place hedge apples around in the corners.  Hedge apples are what we call the fruit of the Osage Orange tree.  Place them in a small dish so they won’t leave marks on your floor.  Whether or not this actually works or is just an old wives’ tale is debatable, but it is tradition in our household.  I’ll let you be the judge if you try this method in your own home.

            Fall, of course, means it is time to start cooking winter squash.  Spaghetti squash is a variety that has grown increasingly popular in the last few years.  Here is a nice recipe from my go-to fall cookbook, “Pumpkins and Squash” by Kathleen Desmond Stang.

Spaghetti Squash with Mushroom Sauce

·         ½  med. spaghetti squash, cut in half lengthwise (I used the whole squash—seems silly to only use half and there was plenty of sauce for the whole thing.)

·         2 Tbsp. butter

·         1 Tbsp. olive oil

·         ¼ cup finely chopped shallots (I used onion)

·         2 large Portobello mushrooms, stems removed and cut into ½ in. thick slices and each slice halved

·         4 large cremini or white button mushrooms, cut into ¼ in. thick slices

·         1/3 cup dry white wine

·         2 Tbsp. minced fresh flat leaf parsley

·         1/ tsp. fresh thyme

·         ¼ cup heavy cream

·         Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Cook the spaghetti squash by placing the squash, cut side down, on a baking dish.  Bake in 350 degree oven for 50-70, or until strands can be easily scraped from shell with a fork.  Heat the butter and oil in a large skillet over medium heat.  Add the shallot (onion) and sauté for about 5 min.  Add the mushrooms and sauté about 5 min. more, or until soft.  Stir in the wine and cook until the liquid is reduced to about 3 tablespoons.  Stir in the parsley and thyme.  Add the cream and heat until warmed through.  Season with salt and pepper to taste.  Spoon the mushroom sauce over the hot spaghetti squash.  Serve warm.

Color Abounds at Farmers Market

            Farmers Market has a little something to offer everyone.  Not only is Farmers Market a great place to shop for your favorite fruits, vegetables, meats, crafts, baked goods, and other items, if you are into photography, as many people are these days, it is a great place to bring your camera and capture the colors of autumn.    

The cornucopia of goods available right now covers just about every hue imaginable. . . red apples, red bell peppers, red hot cayenne peppers, orange pumpkins, blue/gray pumpkins, white pumpkins, white onions, green bell peppers, green podded lima beans, dark purple concord grapes, red-purple cabbage, eggplant so dark purple it is almost black, yellow apples, yellow squash, pink zinnias, Indian corn with kernels of every shade, and the list could go on and on. . .

Maybe you aren’t too interested in taking photographs.  I know that I’m usually too busy to take many pictures at market unless I am taking one with my phone to post to Facebook to remind people to come out and shop.  But you don’t need to be looking through the lens of a camera to enjoy the sights at Farmers’ Market.  Take home some of these colorful items to brighten up your own home.  Make an autumn display on your porch or simply put assorted apple varieties in a glass bowl on your dining room table.  The beauty of the produce will speak for itself—so pretty that it almost seems like artwork. 

However, don’t forget that the produce is perishable and leave your tomatoes to rot in a bowl the counter as sometimes happens to us all.  Cook what you have in a timely fashion and come back to market next week and replenish your supply.  In addition to being a good year for apples, there seems to be an abundance of plums.  Here is a tasty plum dessert from “Farmhouse Cooking,” by Kathy Blake.

Purple Plum Tart

Shell:   1 ½ cups flour

            ¼ cup sugar

            ½ tsp. salt

            ¾ cup shortening

            1 egg yolk

            ½ tsp. white vinegar

            3 Tbsp. milk

Filling: ½ lb. Cream Cheese, softened

            3 Tbsp. sugar

            2 Tbsp. orange or apple juice

            1 tsp. vanilla

Fruit Topping: ½ cup red currant jelly

                        2 Tbsp. orange or apple juice

                        1 Tbsp. butter or margarine

                        12-15 ripe purple plums, pitted and cut into thin wedges

Prepare shell first: Lightly grease a 10-inch tart pan with removable bottom; set aside.  In a bowl, stir together flour, sugar, and salt; with two knives or a pastry blender, cut shortening into flour mixture until it resembles coarse meal.  In a small bowl, stir together egg yolk, vinegar, and milk.  Quickly and lightly stir milk mixture into flour mixture just until it holds together. Cover and refrigerate for 1 hour.  Heat oven to 375 degrees.  Gently knead dough seven or eight times, then roll out on a lightly floured board.  Set aside to cool completely.  While shell is cooling, make the filling.  Beat together cream cheese, sugar, orange or apple juice, and vanilla using an electric mixer.  Spread into cooled crust and chill 30 minutes.  To make the fruit topping, in a small saucepan melt jelly with orange or apple juice and butter; set aside to cool.  Arrange plum wedges on top of cream cheese filling in overlapping concentric circles.  Gently brush with cooled glaze; refrigerate 2 hours before serving. 

Farmers’ Market—Fun For all Ages

Last Saturday there were a large number of children in attendance at Farmers’ Market.  Their parents or grandparents brought them along to participate in the Farm City Day events.  This year’s theme was horses, so most of the children carried with them a hobby horse they had made at the craft booth out of yard sticks and socks.  Their smiles indicate how much they enjoyed everything Farm City Day had to offer and has us looking forward to next year’s theme.

            Keep bringing the kiddos back to market over the next few weeks and they will have fun picking out autumn decorations.  Carving pumpkins will soon become abundant and what child doesn’t love to pick their very own for the front stoop.  They are always delighted to see the colorful and oddly shaped little gourds and enjoy choosing a variety. 

            I don’t know who I am kidding, I enjoy these things just as much as the children.  I plant so many different varieties of pumpkins, winter squash and gourds that I forget what is out in the field.  Therefore, it is like a treasure hunt when I go out in the pumpkin patch and start harvesting.  I always think shucking ears of Indian corn is like opening presents, because you never know what beautiful color combination you are going to unveil after peeling back the husk.  Obviously, fall is my favorite season, in no small part because it makes me feel like a kid at heart.

            This is definitely the year to get out your various apple recipes and get busy cooking.  With such a good apple crop this season, there will be lots of varieties to try.  Apple sauce, apple pie, apple crisp. . . if you want to get a little more creative than usual here is an interesting recipe from Gooseberry Patch’s “Celebrate Autumn” cookbook.

Sausage-Stuffed Apples

·         4 large apples suitable for baking (I used Cortland)

·         1 t. lemon juice

·         5 little sausage links, browned, drained, & crumbled (bulk sausage would work fine too)

·         1 c. cooked brown rice

·         1 T. onion, diced

·         1 t. celery, diced

·         3 oz. sharp cheddar cheese, cubed

·         1 T. walnuts, chopped

·         1 T. raisins

·         2 egg whites, lightly beaten

·         ¼ t. allspice

·         Salt and pepper to taste

Core apples, leaving the bottoms intact. Hollow out the center of each apple, leaving the sides thick enough to hold together when cooked (I did this with a spoon.) Peel each apple halfway down and rub with lemon juice.  Set aside.  Mix all remaining ingredients together and stuff apples firmly with mixture.  Back in 375 degree oven for 15 min or until golden brown.

             

September is a Great Month to Visit Farmers Market

September has arrived and along with it, cooler temperatures.  August was so cool in general that last week’s heat and humidity was really hard to take.  Now it is really starting to feel like fall.  This means that fall crops will now become available at market.  Apples will be plentiful with many varieties from which to choose.  Fall items like pumpkins, gourds, and Indian corn will be available so that people can begin to decorate.  Winter squashes such as butternut, acorn, and spaghetti squash can be purchased and cooked into warm, hearty dishes as temperatures continue to drop.

            This is not to say, however, that the main season crops are completely finished.  Sweet corn is still readily available.  Peaches are still being harvested.  Sweet red and yellow bell peppers abound.  Tomatoes are hanging in there.

            I was not at market last week, however, I heard reports that parking was a bit tricky and some vendors were misplaced due to the set up of the Rib Fest.  Those people who decided against coming to market because of this will be happy to know that things are back normal this week so we hope to see everyone there.

            For those who are curious, the wedding I attended was absolutely wonderful.  The flowers held up beautifully during transport, and despite the fact that I am no professional florist, they looked gorgeous.  When the flowers themselves are so lovely it is pretty hard to arrange them in a fashion that won’t look nice.  There was an arbor made by the bride’s father out of tree limbs and grape vines that we decorated with all of the leftover flowers, which may have been the highlight of the wedding decorations. 

            Every year right around Labor Day I get a phone call from Dorothy Montgomery.  Her many roles in the community include former commissioner, 4-H Leader, teacher, and now newspaper correspondent, not to mention all around good person.  She requests thirty red peppers and seventy five red tomatoes so that she can make her yearly batch of her mother’s tomato sauce.  I have made this chili-type sauce from her recipe and can vouch that it is delicious.  It is called Fronie’s Sauce because Fronie was her mother’s first name.   The numbers in parenthesis reflect the size batch that Dorothy makes.  She tells me that she takes the seeds out of the tomatoes and it is her husband John’s job to do the grinding.

Fronie’s Sauce

15 Ripe Tomatoes (75), Pare and remove seed pods. Do not scald tomatoes as it makes them watery.

2 cups sugar “or more” (10 or 12)

1 cup vinegar (5)

3 onions (15)

6 Red mangos (30) Grind Onions and peppers first, sprinkle with salt, and drain.

1 Tablespoon Salt

½ teaspoon each cloves and cinnamon

Cook all ingredients until thick.  Process in pint jars.