LAST Big Red Farm Stand of 2014, Wednesday November 19, 1-4pm

Chilly morning mist over the Brassica field

Hello friends,

We have arrived at the last farm stand of 2014.  We will be closing at 4pm, so that we can get packed up while there is still some daylight.  However, we want to make sure folks get veggies if they want them, so if you'd like some stuff but can't get to Pop Hall before 4pm, please send us an email at bigredfarm@lawrenceville.org and we will be happy to pack your order for you and arrange a pickup.

What about next week, you ask?  Well, instead of the special-order system we used for Thanksgiving week last year, we're joining forces with Cherry Grove Organic Farm and other area farms for a special Thanksgiving Farmers Market taking place at the Presbyterian Church of Lawrenceville on Tuesday, November 25, and we very much hope you'll attend!  See below for details.

As the season draws to a close, we remember that the Big Red Farm is a community farm, and we couldn't be successful without the help and support of our community.  Thanks to everyone who read the newsletter; who bought, cooked and ate BRF produce; and who came out to an event at the farm.

There's no community farm without a community!

There are also a number of people who should be thanked individually for their crucial contributions to the success of the 2014 season, and here they are in no particular order:  Sue Anne and David Morrow, a.k.a. Nana and Grandad, spent many Wednesday afternoons with the farm toddler, freeing us up to sell veggies without chasing her all around campus.  David also, along with Bill Flemer and Dave Olsen, helped tirelessly with many technical projects around the farm, both mechanical and carpenterial.  Our summer interns Shubhankar, Geena and Libby, as well as summer volunteers Zach Connell and Deborah Olivier, helped us stay more or less on schedule with summer work; in particular, Deborah's daily early-morning weeding sessions this summer are the reason we had any beets and onions at all.  Local chefs Chris Voigtsberger (at Acacia) and Marilyn Besner (at Wildflour Cafe) incorporated BRF produce into their menus this season, helping us to expand the wholesale side of our business.  Lawrenceville Science Masters Reuwai Hanewald and Jennifer Mayr once again made the farm an important part of their classes, with students doing hands-on projects related to soil science and food production.  Finally, many thanks are due Gary Giberson and Roger Bonner, of Sustainable Fare, for featuring farm produce in the Lawrenceville School's dining halls, thus further integrating the Big Red Farm into the daily life of the school community.  Our heartfelt gratitude goes to each of these folks.  We couldn't do it without you!

THANKSGIVING FARMERS MARKET

This year, the Big Red Farm is donating end-of-season produce to a Thanksgiving Farmers Market and Bake Sale, organized by Lawrenceville Presbyterian Preschool and benefiting the Trenton Area Soup Kitchen.  The market will be held at the Presbyterian Church of Lawrenceville (adjacent to the school campus) on Tuesday, November 25, from 12:00 to 6:30pm, and will feature fall veggies from several local farms, as well as baked goods donated by area restaurants and LP Preschool parents.  There will also be musical guests and kids' activities, and all of the proceeds from the market will go to T.A.S.K. and the LP Preschool scholarship fund.  We plan to get our Thanksgiving dinner produce there, and we hope you will too.  Find complete details on the LP Preschool website.



ON THE FARM

As you've probably noticed, the nights (and some of the days) have gotten very cold lately.  At this point in the season, we are assuming we will have a frost most nights, and the only things left in the field are plants that can tolerate at least a light frost.  Cabbage and broccoli are mostly unfazed by cold temperatures, and our kale, celery, chard and lettuce made it through the first several frosts of the fall.  Unfortunately, now that we're having nighttime temperatures in the twenties, the kale, celery and chard are quite frozen, and we won't be seeing any more of them on the farm stand table.

Fall's last lettuces

Lettuce has a slightly more complicated relationship with frost.  Most lettuce varieties, especially those grown in the cool temperatures of spring and fall, can withstand even a moderate frost with minimal damage, provided that we don't harvest the heads while there is actually frost on the leaves.  With a good sunny day, we hope to harvest lots of delicious cold-weather lettuce for you.  You may notice a small amount of cold damage on a few leaves, but we hope that will be the extent of it.

Of course, the potatoes, garlic and winter squash already safely stored in the barn and hoophouse hasn't suffered from these chilly nights, and will be just as tasty as ever.  We still have lots of winter squash, and this week we'll have all varieties at the stand: Butternut, Acorn, Delicata, Sweet Dumpling, Autumn Crown, and a new one: Long-Neck pumpkin.

Long-Neck Pumpkin

Long-Neck Pumpkin, a parent species of the modern Butternut squash, is my personal choice for making Thanksgiving pumpkin pie.  Long-Neck pumpkins boast a huge amount of flesh with only a small seed cavity at the bottom, share the excellent flavor and texture characteristics of a Butternut.  This is also an heirloom squash variety, meaning that it will grow true to type from seed, so if you're a gardener (even a container gardener), be sure to save the seeds for next year!  This is the community farm version of the proverb about teaching a man to fish: Give someone a pumpkin pie, and you feed her for a day.  Give her a Long-Neck Pumpkin, and you provide her with the materials for pumpkin pie in perpetuity!  What could be better?

Butternut Squash Galette

RECIPE

In recognition of all the Butternuts in the barn, this week's recipe features this most versatile and popular of squashes.  The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook's savory squash galette makes a show-stopping vegetarian entree; hearty and impressive enough to take center stage at Thanksgiving dinner if you're not a turkey person, but also, with a little advance preparation, quite doable for a family weeknight dinner.  {Butternut Squash and Caramelized Onion Galette}

Bulky(er) yarns

AT THE FARM STAND

In addition to the ever-shortening list of produce, we do still have handspun yarn from the Big Red Farm sheep flock!  This week I will be bringing a few new skeins of heavier-gauge yarn, in addition to the finer yarn from earlier in the season.    

This week we hope to have the following available from 1pm to 4pm under the Pop Hall portico:

• Broccoli - $3.00 lb (limited quantity)
• Green Cabbage - $2.00 each
• Garlic - $1.00 bulb
• Lettuce - $2.00 head
• Potatoes - $3.50 quart large, $5.00 quart "fancy"
• Autumn Crown Pumpkins - $2.00 small, $3.50 big(ger)
• Long-Neck Pumpkins - $1.50 lb
• Winter Squash (Butternut, Delicata, Sweet Dumpling) -- $1.50 lb

HOW TO FIND US:

The farm stand is located under the front portico of Pop Hall, facing the Bowl.  Enter campus by the main gate on Route 206 (opposite the Lawrenceville Post Office and Craven Lane) and bear right into the circle. Bear right again at the fork in the road and continue straight until you see the Farm Stand signs.

Big Red Farm Stand, Wednesday November 12, 1-4pm

Same sheep, different sunset

Hello friends,

Can it really be possible that there are only two more farm stands before the end of the season?  Seems like just yesterday that we were anxiously awaiting the first sugar snap peas and spring lettuces, and now there's the possibility of snow showers on Thursday night!  The days are short, we have to wear our jackets and hats to the farm, and the sheep's fleeces are getting very woolly again...

Farm toddler passes the time of day
with Andy the sheep

Speaking of shorter days, we've decided to close the stand at 4:00pm for these last two weeks, rather than staying open until 5:00.  We find that it gets very cold and dark very quickly, and closing at 4:00 allows us to pack up while there's still daylight.  Thanks for your understanding, and we hope this doesn't inconvenience anyone unduly!

A few additions and subtractions to the farm stand table this week.  Beets are done, and this will be positively the last week for carrots.  We are giving red cabbage and Brussels sprouts a break this week, in hopes that we will be able to offer both next week.  However, we do have a small quantity of really beautiful spinach, as well as exciting new winter squash: say hello to the lovely Autumn Crown pumpkin!  See below for more on this tasty and photogenic cucurbit.


ON THE FARM

Off to harvest... something
photo by Kedzie Schuster

We said goodbye this week to our wonderful farm crew.  Ashley, Erin, Hannah-Marie, Jonas and Kedzie did a little bit of everything this fall; planting, weeding, harvesting, washing, spraying, mulching, baby-minding, sheep-wrangling, fetching, carrying, eating, laughing, crying (mostly from laughter -- also from eating hot peppers in the field, which we don't recommend).  Their cheerful attitudes and creative approach to farm work (you haven't lived until you've had a rotten pepper fight!) made it a pleasure to work with them, and we thank them from the bottom of our hearts for all their help.

Autumn Crown pumpkins

However, we still have a few more weeks until the end of the season, so we'll have to struggle along without them.  New this week are Autumn Crown pumpkins; attractive, delicious, and perfect for stuffing and baking as the centerpiece of your meal.  These are a small "Cinderella"-type pumpkin, with firm, orange flesh and thin buff skin like a butternut squash.  They are quite sweet, and the seed cavity is small, so you get lots of bang for your buck.  This is the first year we've grown this variety, and we would definitely grow it again!


RECIPE

Baked Stuffed Pumpkin leftovers

To my mind, the Autumn Crown pumpkins we have this week are too pretty to peel and hack up for soup or pie (though they will work fine for both).  I wanted to prepare them in such a way that we could enjoy looking at the whole pumpkin in all its November glory.  This recipe, from international celebrity chef Jamie Oliver (who, by the way, does a lot to promote eating organic vegetables!), fits the bill perfectly.  You scoop out the seeds and some flesh, then stuff the flesh back in with some rice, dried fruit, nuts, and spices.  Bake the whole thing and carve it ceremoniously at the table for an unforgettable entree.  {Baked Stuffed Pumpkin}

AT THE FARM STAND

This week we hope to have the following available from 1pm to 4pm under the Pop Hall portico:

Fall lettuces
photo by Kedzie Schuster

• Green Cabbage - $2.00 each
• Carrots special - $2.00 lb (limited quantity, last week for these)
• Celery - $2.50 each
• Rainbow Chard - $2.50 bunch
• Garlic - $1.00 bulb
• Kale - $2.50 bunch
• Lettuce - $2.00 head
• Potatoes - $3.50 quart large, $5.00 quart "fancy"
• Autumn Crown Pumpkins - $2.00 small, $3.50 big(ger)
• Spinach (limited quantity) - $3.00 bag
• Winter Squash (Butternut, Delicata, Sweet Dumpling) -- $1.50 lb

HOW TO FIND US:

The farm stand is located under the front portico of Pop Hall, facing the Bowl.  Enter campus by the main gate on Route 206 (opposite the Lawrenceville Post Office and Craven Lane) and bear right into the circle. Bear right again at the fork in the road and continue straight until you see the Farm Stand signs.

Big Red Farm Stand, Wednesday November 5, 1-5pm

Sunset over sheep pasture
photo by Kedzie Schuster

Hello friends,

Happy November!  The rain has moved ahead to Thursday this week (thank goodness), but we're liking our new location under the portico, so you can look for us there from now on.  We found some peppers, both sweet and hot, that managed to escape Monday morning's frost, so they'll be making an encore appearance this week, as will carrots.  Best of all, we picked our first Brussels sprouts this week, and they really start to taste good after a frost!

Through a happy coincidence, this week's farm stand falls on Guy Fawkes Day, and the Hill Weekend bonfire comes a couple of days later, so Lawrenceville can have its own Bonfire Night!  It's going to be chilly out, so you might like to try some traditional Bonfire Night recipes for warming up after the celebrations (see below).

Eddie the barn cat

ON THE FARM

Preparations for winter continue.  This week the farm crew pulled out all of the tomato stakes (about 350 total) and removed them from the field.  Later in the week, they will be mulching garlic with straw and planting cover crops.  In between, they harvested and cleaned veggies for the farm stand.  We're also laying in our winter supply of hay for the sheep, and cat food for the cat.

Sweet Dumpling winter squash

We're bringing a new winter squash to the stand this week: Sweet Dumpling is sort of a small, Acorn-shaped Delicata.  They really are sweet, and so pretty!  They are a great size for a single serving, and I recommend halving and roasting them without any sweetener; just a pat of butter in the cavity.  Try Sweet Dumplings in your favorite Acorn squash recipe.

The Gunpowder Plot conspirators

RECIPES: Remember, remember, the 5th of November edition

On November 5th, 1605, British authorities discovered, and foiled, a plot to blow up Parliament.  The plotters, a group of Catholic rebels who wanted to assassinate King James I and install a Catholic monarch on the throne, leased a cellar underneath the House of Lords, and Guy Fawkes, one of the conspirators, was given the task of guarding the gunpowder they stockpiled there.  Acting on an anonymous tip, officials conducted a search of Westminster Palace, and discovered Fawkes and the gunpowder.  Fawkes was arrested, interrogated, tortured, and eventually put to death.

Today, Guy Fawkes Night, also known as Bonfire Night, is celebrated throughout Britain with fireworks, bonfires, and the burning of figures ("Guys") who have somehow incurred the public's wrath (an effigy of the Pope was an early victim, around 1650).  Initially, Britons were encouraged by King James to celebrate his narrow escape from assassination by lighting bonfires.  Since the 15th century, however, the celebrations, and Guy Fawkes himself, have been used to represent all sorts of causes, and even leads, by a circuitous route, to the modern habit of referring to any male person as a "guy."

Potato parcel about to go into the oven

Fascinating as all this is, you might say, what does it have to do with cooking farm produce?  Well, I'm glad you asked.  In addition to fireworks, bonfires, and burning effigies, Bonfire Night is associated with hearty food and hot drinks, to keep folks warm as they stand around outside on a raw November night, watching fireworks.  Foods that can be roasted over or under a bonfire are particularly traditional -- sausages, marshmallows, potatoes baked in the coals -- as is a moist, gingerbread-like cake called Parkin.  Sounds just right for the blustery weather we've been having this week!

Bangers and Squash

For Lawrenceville Bonfire Night, we offer two (or, really, three) ideas for hot, filling food to keep the chill off, featuring, of course, Big Red Farm produce.  Our Russet baking potatoes are perfect for wrapping in foil and burying in glowing embers -- or, if you prefer, baking in your oven at home -- especially when stuffed with an array of savory fillings.  {Bonfire Night Baked Potatoes Two Ways}

And, replacing potatoes with winter squash in traditional Sausage & Mash makes for a delicious seasonal variation, and one of the most satisfying meals I've had in awhile.  {Sausage & Squash}

AT THE FARM STAND

This week we hope to have the following available from 1pm to 5pm under the Pop Hall portico:

• Beets - $2.00 lb
• Brussels Sprouts - $2.50 pint
• Green Cabbage - $2.00 each
• Red Cabbage - $2.00 each
• Carrots special - $2.00 lb (last week for these)
• Celery - $2.50 each
• Rainbow Chard - $2.50 bunch
• Garlic - $1.00 bulb
• Kale - $2.50 bunch
• Lettuce - $2.00 head
• Hot Peppers - 2 for $1.00 (last week for these)
• Sweet Peppers - $3.00 lb (last week for these)
• Potatoes - $3.50 quart large, $5.00 quart "fancy"
• Winter Squash (Butternut, Delicata, Sweet Dumpling) -- $1.50 lb

HOW TO FIND US:

The farm stand is located under the front portico of Pop Hall, facing the Bowl.  Enter campus by the main gate on Route 206 (opposite the Lawrenceville Post Office and Craven Lane) and bear right into the circle. Bear right again at the fork in the road and continue straight until you see the Farm Stand signs.

Big Red Farm Stand, Wednesday October 29, 1-5pm

The Big Red Farm sugar maple, about 200 years old.
Unfortunately, photos can't do it justice.

Hello friends,

As the farm's spectacular sugar maple tells us, it's the end of October.  The colors of the leaves are a good guide for the veggies we should be eating at this time of year; deep red beets, bright orange carrots, dusty-brown-skinned potatoes, dark leafy greens, and of course, lots and lots of golden winter squash.  Luckily, those are precisely the things coming out of the Big Red Farm!  Pick two or three, roast, braise, or puree, and you'll have a plate that looks like the October woods.

Once again a chance of rain is forecast for Wednesday (this is three in a row!).  We had such a good time under the Pop Hall portico last week that we're going to be there again tomorrow.  If you're coming to the Community Service Halloween Party in the Bowl, why not stop by the farm stand for some fresh produce?  And if you're coming over for fresh produce, you'll get the chance to see Lawrenceville students in action, providing Halloween cheer for local kids.

We are saying goodbye to a few more items this week: we're done with eggplant and flowers, and this will probably be the last week for onions, peppers, carrots, and broccoli (at least for awhile -- the broccoli plants may get a second wind, we'll see).  However, the fall lettuces are getting a little bigger (things grow s l o w l y in this cool weather), and this week we welcome green cabbage to the farm stand table!  Combine it with our red cabbage for some colorful slaw.  Also, we still have many pumpkins!  So if you're in need of last-minute Halloween decor, stop by Pop Hall tomorrow.


ON THE FARM

Garlic cloves ready to plant

This is garlic planting week on the Big Red Farm!  Garlic is planted in the fall (I've been told that by Columbus Day is the general rule, but... I think we'll be okay), hangs out in the ground all winter, insulated from freezing by a few inches of soil and some straw mulch, and then takes off in the spring.  Seeing those little green spears poking through the straw is always one of the earliest signs for us that the season is starting up; we look at them in the craziness of spring work and say, "Well, at least we'll have garlic this year, whatever else happens!"

The farm crew has been sorting and separating seed garlic from our total garlic harvest, and we'll be planting it later this week.  We grow two varieties of garlic on the Big Red Farm: German Extra Hardy (also known as German White), and a variety of Rocambole selected by a farmer friend's former boss.  The boss's name was Keith, so we call it Keith's Rocambole.  We think that German Extra Hardy is the easiest variety to grow in this region; it makes big, beautiful bulbs, usually with only four or five giant cloves (big cloves mean less peeling), even under relatively poor conditions.  Keith's Rocambole makes smaller bulbs with more cloves, each encased in a purplish covering; it's extremely fragrant and flavorful, and is particularly good roasted.

Members of Kirby House
planting garlic last fall

To prepare garlic for planting, the bulbs must be separated into cloves.  The cloves are planted individually, and each one will produce a bulb next summer.  We try to keep the biggest, most uniform bulbs for seed each year, thus selecting over time for the best possible product.  Last year we had only a small amount of German White seed garlic, so we kept most of this year's crop as seed for 2015's harvest -- what you've been seeing at the farm stand has been mostly Rocambole.

We are big fans of garlic as a crop.  It requires very little attention during its life cycle, and we harvest two crops off of each plant: the scape, or flower stalk, in June, and the bulb in July.  It's also easy to save seed for the following year, so, whether you're a commercial farmer or a home gardener, you can be sure that you're not bringing in any pests or diseases from elsewhere, and that you're selecting for plants that produce well on your land.


RECIPE

Since this looks like the last week for broccoli, I encourage you to try some roasted.  I didn't really get into broccoli until I started roasting it, and this is also the farm baby's preferred avenue to broccoli consumption.  It's very easy prep and is done fairly quickly; it's especially convenient if you're already roasting something else (winter squash, perhaps?) and can just chuck the broccoli into the same oven.  One final point about roasting broccoli: you'll never throw away the stems again!  {Oven-Roasted Broccoli}

AT THE FARM STAND

This week we hope to have the following available from 1pm to 5pm under the Pop Hall portico:

• Beets - $2.00 lb
• Broccoli - $3.00 lb (probably last week for this)
• Green Cabbage - $2.00 each
• Red Cabbage - $2.00 each
• Carrots special - $2.00 lb (last week for these)
• Celery - $2.50 each
• Rainbow Chard - $2.50 bunch
• Garlic - $1.00 bulb
• Kale - $2.50 bunch
• Lettuce (limited quantity) - $2.00 head
• Onions - $1.50 lb (last week for these)
• Sweet Peppers - $3.00 lb (last week for these)
• Assorted Hot Peppers - 2/$1.00 (last week for these)
• Potatoes - $3.50 quart large, $5.00 quart "fancy"
• Carving Pumpkins - $5.00 large, $3.00 small
• Spinach (limited quantity) - $2.50 bag
• Winter Squash (Acorn, Butternut, Delicata) -- $1.50 lb

HOW TO FIND US:

The farm stand is located front portico of Pop Hall, facing the Bowl.  Enter campus by the main gate on Route 206 (opposite the Lawrenceville Post Office and Craven Lane) and bear right into the circle. Bear right again at the fork in the road and continue straight until you see the Farm Stand signs.

Big Red Farm Stand, Wednesday October 22, 1-5pm

October sunset

Hello friends,

The forecast is calling for rain again tomorrow (I'm all for rain, as you know, but why does it have to only happen on Wednesdays?!), so we're going to relocate the farm stand just slightly: instead of being under the tent on the grass, we'll set up under the portico of Pop Hall, just across the street from our usual place.

We got our first frost a few days ago, so we'll have lots of peppers and a few eggplants this week but that will probably be the end of them, and we won't have flowers after this week either.  On the plus side, we harvested the rest of our pumpkins and winter squash!  Pick up some pumpkins for decoration and carving, and squash for roasting and soup-ing, and I guarantee you'll hardly miss the summer veggies.  Head lettuce will be making a welcome, if somewhat timid, reappearance; and if you missed our super-flavorful, chlorophyll-laden celery last week, be sure to get some this week.

Finally, a big thank-you to farm crew member Kedzie Schuster, who, due to a dead-iPhone-battery issue, took the beautiful photos in this week's newsletter!  We should add plein air photography to the list of skills that students can acquire by working on the farm...

Broccoli side shoots

ON THE FARM


Now that we've been picking broccoli for a few weeks, we've harvested almost all of the main heads off of our approximately 650 broccoli plants.  Does this mean that the broccoli harvest is over?  Not at all!  After you cut off the main head, each broccoli plant obligingly puts out several mini-heads, which grow on side-shoots off of the main stem.  These come in many shapes and sizes (we'll be selling them by weight instead of by each for simplicity's sake), but the constant is that you don't get the same wide, tough stem that comes with a regular head of broccoli.  The shoots have stems, but they're much thinner and more tender.

Jonas Frumkin,
broccoli harvester

Since we're continuing to harvest side shoots off of older plants, rather than having a younger planting of broccoli to move on to, the unfortunate truth is that the insect pests have had plenty of time to get really established in some of our plants.  Our biggest cool-weather brassica pests are cabbage worms, harlequin bugs, and aphids.  We spray for some bugs and individually pick off others (when time allows), and we do our best to remove all traces from the market produce, but since I pick out some bugs in my own kitchen I am sure it happens to you all too!  We apologize for the inconvenience, but we hope you'll take it as evidence that we're not using harmful chemicals on our plants, and that the bugs enjoy delicious fresh veggies just as much as the rest of us.

In other news, Sunday night brought the fall's first frost (October 20th, right on schedule!), which, though it was just a light one, truly signals the end of most of our warm-weather crops. On Sunday afternoon we hurried to harvest sweet peppers before the frost, so we've got lots of those, and we hope you'll load up on peppers and try one or more of the delicious stuffing ideas below.



RECIPES: the All About Peppers Edition!

Since we're making the case for late-season peppers this week (their continued availability is very uncertain!), I'll point you back to some pepper ideas from last season, as well as one new one.  Peppers are great for roasting and soup-ing too, and you can freeze roasted peppers for winter use {Roasted Peppers and Roasted Pepper Soup}.  Halved and hollowed out, they are also the perfect vehicle for stuffing with a wide variety of delicious fillings, of which cookbook author Nigel Slater seems to have an endless supply {A Handful of Stuffings for Baked Peppers}.  Don't forget the hot peppers, either; if you're in the mood for spice, you can stuff Jalapenos too {Grilled Stuffed Jalapenos}.

Our new featured pepper recipe is also from Nigel Slater, as it happens.  I've been wanting to try this particular filling for awhile, but I had to wait until it got cool enough for such an autumnal meal... celebrating the first frost seems like the perfect occasion!  {Peppers with Pork and Rosemary}

More winter squash

AT THE FARM STAND

This week we hope to have the following available from 1pm to 5pm under the Pop Hall portico:

• Beets - $2.00 lb
• Broccoli - $2.50 lb
• Red Cabbage - $2.00 each
• Carrots - $3.00 lb
• Celery - $2.50 each
• Rainbow Chard - $2.50 bunch
• Eggplant (last week for these) - $3.00 lb
• Flowers (last week for these) - $5.00 bouquet
• Garlic - $1.00 bulb
• Kale - $2.50 bunch
• Lettuce (limited quantity) - $2.50 head
• Onions - $1.50 lb
• Sweet Peppers - $3.00 lb
• Assorted Hot Peppers - 2/$1.00
• Potatoes - $2.50 lb large, $3.00 lb "fancy"
• Carving Pumpkins - $5.00 large, $3.00 small
• Winter Squash (Butternut, Delicata) -- $1.50 lb

HOW TO FIND US:

The farm stand is located right in front of Pop Hall, at the top of the stairs that lead down into the Bowl. Enter campus by the main gate on Route 206 (opposite the Lawrenceville Post Office and Craven Lane) and bear right into the circle. Bear right again at the fork in the road and continue straight until you see the Farm Stand signs.

Big Red Farm Stand, Wednesday October 15, 1-5pm

Pumpkin harvest

Hello friends,

PUMPKINS!  We've been talking about them, and here they are.  Different shapes and sizes of pumpkins.  Perfect for your front steps, mantelpiece, or wherever you put your pumpkins, these are primarily carving pumpkins, not eating pumpkins (we'll have some eating pumpkins next week).  Our farm crew harvested the entirety of our jack-o-lantern pumpkin patch on Tuesday, and we'll have them available as long as supplies last.  Come by the stand this afternoon and give a pumpkin a good home!

Fall spinach

Celery

We have a couple other new additions to the farm stand table this week: spinach and celery.  Our celery is greener and leafier than what you may be used to, and it's incredibly flavorful, making it an indispensable addition to stock or soup.


ON THE FARM

Though we still have about six weeks of our market season left, mid-October is the time when most of our work on the farm has as much to do with next year as this one.  Many of our fall crops are already harvested at this point; we still have some winter squash to bring in, but all of our beets, carrots, potatoes, onions, garlic, and pumpkins are safely gathered into the barn or the cooler.  Crops like peppers and eggplants should keep producing until we get a frost.  Lettuce, spinach and broccoli can handle a light frost, and after a harder frost the kale and Brussels sprouts will taste better than ever.  Yet another reason to love fall -- all this great food with so much less work!

Kubota tractor with disc

Since we're not seeding and planting anymore, and our harvesting time is reduced, AND (this is a big one) the weeds aren't really growing much in this cool weather, we have the chance to start putting fields to rest for the winter.  Most of the field space we used for growing veggies in 2014 won't be cropped again until 2016.  We'll be using cover crops to build fertility and prevent erosion in those areas during the 2015 season, so that they'll be raring to go the following spring.  In turn, the fields we'll be cropping in 2015 spent this season resting -- you know, reading movie magazines, catching up on their papier mache projects, generally taking it easy.  In preparation for shifting the veggie fields from cash crops to cover crops, the farm crew has been pulling out tomato stakes and string, as well as the occasional glove or hoe that disappeared in August.  Jake has the disk on the Kubota and is spending a fair amount of time driving back and forth, cutting up crop (and weed) residue and working it into the soil.  In the coming weeks, we'll be planting cover crops, and by the time we're done, you'll have learned more than you ever wanted to know about cover crops and crop rotation!

This is where the potatoes
used to be!

Finally, we got a lot of interested responses to last week's tomato stats, so we'll try to bring you some more farm numbers soon.  To tide you over, here are some farm newsletter numbers:

Number of times I've used the word "pumpkin" in this newsletter: 11
Number of newsletters that include the phrase "cover crop": 11
Number of recipes published that include tomatoes: 15
Number of times Jake has written the newsletter: 2 (? disputed)
Number of "followers" on our blog: 1


RECIPE

Braised red cabbage

We often go to other people's farms and marvel at the size of their vegetables.  With our relatively low fertility levels and lack of irrigation, we have been known to grow some pretty small produce at the Big Red Farm.  Most recently, we visited a farm where they were gowing cabbages, I kid you not, the size of the steering wheel in my car.  Putting aside for a moment that those folks are able to grow huge, healthy veggies without using either irrigation or chemical fertilizers, the fact of the matter is that not everyone wants a giant cabbage!  For those of you who prefer your cabbages more like the size of a baby's head, look no further than the Big Red Farm.  Our red cabbages are perfect for braising with some red wine and a local apple -- fall on a plate!  {Braised Red Cabbage}

AT THE FARM STAND

This week we hope to have the following available from 1pm to 5pm in front of Pop Hall:

• Beets - $2.00 lb
• Broccoli - $2.50 lb
• Red Cabbage - $2.00 each
• Carrots - $3.00 lb
• Celery - $2.50 each
• Rainbow Chard - $2.50 bunch
• Eggplant - $3.00 lb
• Flowers - $5.00 bouquet
• Garlic - $1.00 bulb
• Kale - $2.50 bunch
• Lettuce Mix - $2.50 bag
• Onions - $1.50 lb
• Sweet Peppers - $3.00 lb
• Assorted Hot Peppers - 2/$1.00
• Potatoes - $2.50 lb large, $3.00 lb "fancy"
• Pumpkins (12! I used it 12 times!) - $5.00 each
• Spinach (limited quantity) - $2.50 bag
• Winter Squash (Acorn, Butternut, Delicata) -- $1.50 lb

HOW TO FIND US:

The farm stand is located right in front of Pop Hall, at the top of the stairs that lead down into the Bowl. Enter campus by the main gate on Route 206 (opposite the Lawrenceville Post Office and Craven Lane) and bear right into the circle. Bear right again at the fork in the road and continue straight until you see the Farm Stand signs.

Big Red Farm Stand, Wednesday October 8, 1-5pm

Hello friends,

A mostly-orange pumpkin

The leaves are starting to change, the pumpkins are turning orange, and the groundhogs are getting bolder as the days get shorter and winter approaches.  Fortunately, we have Maggie the dog to cope with groundhogs, and the other bits of autumnal atmospherics are so enjoyable that we don't even mind coming to the end of the 2014 tomato season.  We'll have slicing tomatoes at the stand this week for their farewell appearance.

Many hands make light work at Village Farms
photo by Lisa Gillard Hanson

Speaking of a last hurrah for tomatoes, we couldn't believe the enormous participation in last week's big tomato harvest for Farmers Against Hunger!  Our neighboring farmer Walt of Village Farms very kindly donated about 3500 pounds of tomatoes, all picked in one short afternoon by over 100 Lawrenceville students and athletes, which will be distributed to soup kitchens and food pantries in the area.  We'd like to recognize the Girls JV soccer team, Girls Cross Country,  Freshman Field Hockey, Girls Volleyball, Freshman Girls Tennis, JV and Varsity Football, and the members of Senior Conditioning.  Well done, everyone!

Nora the sheep in a conteplative moment
photo by Vanessa Gieske

In addition to the end of tomatoes, this week marks the end of basil and okra as well.  Also, we are experiencing some quality issues with our onions, and have therefore lowered the price to $1.50 per lb.  This week we will have bagged lettuce mix instead of head lettuce (head lettuce will be back in a couple of weeks, we hope!), and there will be handspun yarn at the stand again this week, perfect for all those fall fiber projects!

ON THE FARM

Now that our tomatoes are basically done, it's kind of fun to go back over our harvest records and see how we did!  This being our second season of production, I have 2013's records, too, for comparison.  There are some differences: we planted more cherries and slicers, and fewer plums and heirlooms, as a percentage of total tomato plants, than last year; and we also found that we could grow more tomatoes than we could either pick or sell!  All good info for future planning.  In the meantime, here's a quick look at tomato production and consumption on the Big Red Farm.

	2013 season	2014 season
Harvest dates	7/9 - 9/18 (11 weeks)	7/23 - 10/8 (11 Weeks)
What did we grow?	17 varieties	20 varieties
How much did we plant?	700 bed-feet	1000 bed-feet
Cherry tomatoes harvested	225 pts	250 pts
Juliet tomatoes harvested	210 qts	250 qts
Slicing tomatoes harvested	425 lbs	675 lbs
Plum tomatoes harvested	405 lbs	300 lbs
Heirloom tomatoes harvested	350 lbs	300 lbs
Tomatoes served in L'ville dining halls	70 qts cherry & Juliet tomatoes	108 qts cherry & Juliet tomatoes
	118 lbs slicing tomatoes	325 lbs other tomatoes
Tomatoes served in local restaurants	29 qts cherry & Juliet tomatoes	20 qts cherry tomatoes
	205 lbs other tomatoes	150 lbs other tomatoes
Tomatoes canned by community members	over 100 lbs	150 lbs
Tomatoes donated to TASK	0 lbs	60 lbs
Sungolds consumed by farm baby	0 pts	at least 11 pts

Risotto. It's what's for dinner.

RECIPE

With protein and a pretty huge amount of greens included, this risotto can be a whole meal on its own.  Wondering how to get your kids to eat chard?  Click the link for the answer you've been looking for! {Tomato, Sausage, and Swiss Chard Risotto}

AT THE FARM STAND

This week we hope to have the following available from 1pm to 5pm in front of Pop Hall:

• Beets - $2.00 lb
• Broccoli - $2.50 lb
• Red Cabbage - $2.00 each
• Carrots - $3.00 lb
• Eggplant - $3.00 lb
• Flowers - $5.00 bouquet
• Garlic - $1.00 bulb
• Lettuce Mix - $2.50 bag
• Onions - $1.50 lb
• Sweet Peppers - $3.00 lb
• Assorted Hot Peppers - 2/$1.00
• Potatoes - $2.50 lb large, $3.00 lb "fancy"
• Rainbow Chard - $2.50 bunch
• Slicing Tomatoes (last week for these) - $2.50 lb
• Watermelons - $2.75 each
• Winter Squash (Acorn, Butternut, Delicata) -- $1.50 lb

HOW TO FIND US:

The farm stand is located right in front of Pop Hall, at the top of the stairs that lead down into the Bowl. Enter campus by the main gate on Route 206 (opposite the Lawrenceville Post Office and Craven Lane) and bear right into the circle. Bear right again at the fork in the road and continue straight until you see the Farm Stand signs.

Big Red Farm Stand, Wednesday October 1, 1-5pm

Hello friends,

Smallest farm crew member
chows down on watermelon

For those of you keeping score, that rain we were so excited about last week didn't amount to nearly enough; we only got about half an inch, which just barely settled the dust.  So, dust off, as it were, those rain dances again -- we still need them!

We are sorry to announce that tomato season seems to be drawing to a close (well, we're mostly sorry).  Heirloom and cherry tomatoes will be pretty much done after tomorrow, and the other varieties are starting to slow down.  This coming week will be the last week to order bulk tomatoes -- that is to say, you can order any time up to 9pm next Tuesday, 10/7, and next Wednesday, 10/8, will be the last opportunity to pick up your order -- but we anticipate having tomatoes at the farm stand for at least one more week after that.

Happily, fall crops are coming in right on schedule.  We have tons of broccoli, winter squash, and potatoes of various kinds (look for red-skinned and Russet this week), as well as newcomer red cabbage.  And, since we're still having beautiful, warm, sunny days, I can't recommend our yellow-fleshed watermelon highly enough!  We've been cracking one open for the farm crew most afternoons, and there's nothing so refreshing after two hours of picking tomatoes or digging potatoes...

Yarn drying, weighted with
various kitchen implements
to set the twist

And as if that weren't enough, it's October, and October means yarn!  This week we will have some handspun yarn from the fleeces of two of our sheep, Andy and Edgar.  Skeins are 100 yards, fairly fine weight, $10 each.  Come check out our woolliest farm product!

Late blight looks like rot,
but the "rotten" spot is
hard, not soft

ON THE FARM

Late blight, arguably the most serious of the many fungal diseases to which tomatoes are susceptible, is a perennial problem for chemical-free growers in the Northeast.  It seems to show up at some point every year.  There are preventative sprays that are approved for organic production, the most common being copper (which isn't exactly a totally benign substance), though folks are having good results spraying with compost tea as well; the idea is that the compost tea contains lots of beneficial bacteria and fungi which will fight off the diseases.  Lack of time and equipment has so far prevented us from experimenting with compost tea, but it certainly sounds like the way to go.

We have been noticing small amounts of late blight in our tomato rows for a couple of weeks now, but nothing compared to last year; this is probably due to what a dry season this has been, a not insignificant silver lining!  In 2013, if memory serves, we stopped picking tomatoes somewhere around the second week of September, because late blight had rendered the fruit unsellable.  This year, we are actually wondering whether disease or cold weather will finish off the tomato season first -- at this point, the field is wide open!

Who you gonna call?
Jonas and Kedzie.

The other sure sign of fall is that we put our last cash crops of the season into the field this week.  The farm crew planted the last few trays of lettuce and kale seedlings, which should carry us through to Thanksgiving.  The only things we'll be planting from here on out are cover crops and next year's garlic.

Fall is the big time for brassicas -- a huge plant family that includes cabbage, broccoli, kale, Brussels sprouts, mustard greens, arugula, turnips, bok choy, and much more -- and as you surely know if you've ever grown any of these veggies in your own garden, there are these little green caterpillars, the offspring of the pesky Cabbage Moth, that love nothing more than to reduce your nice brassicas to something resembling Swiss cheese.  One of the very few pesticides we use on the Big Red Farm is Bt (Baccilus thuringensis, a bacteria that is fatal to caterpillars but non-toxic to humans and other animals and birds), which we spray on the brassicas every ten days or so to combat these "cabbage worms."  This week, two members of our farm crew donned backpack sprayers and fought the good fight to keep your broccoli, kale and cabbages caterpillar-free.


RECIPES

I am going to take this moment to confess that I am not actually a huge broccoli fan.  Broccoli was one of a number of vegetables that I had to make a conscious effort to learn to like once I became a farmer, and the plain steamed version, with or without cheese sauce, still does nothing for me.  However, there are lots of other ways to prepare broccoli, as it turns out: roasted, slawed (if we can pass that as a word), and frittered, to name a few.  These broccoli parmesan fritters are... well, I think it's right there in the name.  They're really good, especially with a fried egg on top.  {Broccoli Parmesan Fritters}

Several people have asked me what to do with winter squash in recent weeks.  There's always the slice-it-in-half-scoop-out-the-seeds-and-roast-with-butter-and-maple-syrup approach, which is especially great with the smaller varieties, like Acorn and Delicata, since each half makes a nice single serving.  There's also this salad, which I've made dozens of times, and it is ABSOLUTELY AMAZING.  But in looking around for something new, I came across this recipe for Delicata Squash Sformato, sort of a souffle that doesn't souffle (no air or egg whites whipped in, just squashed baked with other tasty things).  Though the original recipe calls for Delicata squash, you can use any kind at all.  {Winter Squash Sformato}

AT THE FARM STAND

This week we hope to have the following available from 1pm to 5pm in front of Pop Hall:

• Basil (limited quantity) - $1.50 bunch
• Beets - $3.00 lb
• Broccoli - $2.50 lb
• Red Cabbage - $2.00 each
• Carrots - $2.50 bunch
• Eggplant - $3.00 lb
• Flowers - $5.00 bouquet
• Garlic - $1.00 bulb
• Kale - $2.50 bunch
• Lettuce - $2.50 head
• Mint - $1.50 bunch
• Okra (limited quantity) - $2.50 pt
• Onions - $2.00 lb
• Sweet Peppers - $3.00 lb
• Assorted Hot Peppers - 2/$1.00
• Potatoes - $3.50 qt
• Rainbow Chard - $2.50 bunch
• Cherry Tomatoes (limited quantity, last week for these) - $3.50 pt
• Heirloom Tomatoes (last week for these) - $3.50 lb
• 'Juliet' Mini-Plum Tomatoes (limited quantity, last week for these) - $4.00 qt
• Roma Tomatoes - $2.50 lb
• Slicing Tomatoes - $2.50 lb
• Watermelons - $2.75 each
• Winter Squash (Acorn, Butternut, Delicata) -- $1.50 lb

HOW TO FIND US:

The farm stand is located right in front of Pop Hall, at the top of the stairs that lead down into the Bowl. Enter campus by the main gate on Route 206 (opposite the Lawrenceville Post Office and Craven Lane) and bear right into the circle. Bear right again at the fork in the road and continue straight until you see the Farm Stand signs.