August 30th, 2018

Week 12

In this week’s Box:

Tomatoes                   Potatoes                          Eggplant                               Beets

Summer Squash             Sweet Corn                            Onions

Garlic                         Beans                             Kale                                      Basil

Oregano

 

Dear Members,

Sunday morning I woke to the sound that every farmer dreads. Hail. Mike was already up and outside, moving vehicles inside and closing up what doors he could. Hail lasted for about 20 minutes. It felt like hours, and we could only imagine what havoc it was wreaking on our plants. In the midst of it, Chumley, our horse broke out of his pen and ran for it. He is more afraid of loud noises in his old age and the hail coming down on to his metal shed must have been more than he could take. The pigs happily shoved each other trying to eat the hail. For them, it was like manna from heaven.  It was nice to see someone enjoying this weather.

After the weather cleared, we took a drive around the fields to look at the immediate damage. Then, we took a longer drive around the neighborhood trying to track down Chumley. Thankfully, he wandered back home about the time we circled back. He was no worse for the wear. We cannot say the same for our plants.  The things I’m saddest about are the tomatoes. We were so excited about the absolutely thriving jungle that was our tomato patch. Now, it’s just tomatoes hanging on dead branches. The good news: The leaves took the hardest hit. The tomatoes are a bit bruised, but not terrible. So we do have a fair amount to give this week. You may see more bruised, cracked spots from the hail. Use them sooner rather than later and cut off the bad spots if they are mushy. The blossoms were all wiped out. So whatever green tomatoes we have on the plants right now are all we are going to get. We’ll pick them as they ripen and hopefully we have some for the next few weeks.

The greens also took a big hit. Our arugula was going to go in the box this week, along with beet and Asian greens. They were all beaten down badly. Our Swiss chard was just starting to come back from the mid-summer mowing we give it. It too was badly damaged. It may bounce back in a few weeks, but we won’t know for a bit. Same for the broccoli. The almost mature broccoli did fine, but the young “Teenager” plants are really beaten down.  Time will tell.

When the neighbors were done checking their soybeans and corn, they stopped in to see how we fared. The question came up about crop insurance. Mike explained that there is no govt. crop insurance program for our type of farm. But better than an insurance program, we have you, our members. By purchasing your share up front, agreeing to take on the risks and rewards of our farm season, we know we won’t be out money from the hail damaged crops. It still is a loss we feel terribly, but your support helps us to weather those risks much more successfully. THANK YOU.  We couldn’t do this without each and every one of you.

GREAT NEWS!

The heat and rain has been great for some of our crops. We have awesome sweet corn this week!! We are really excited about that!  Due to the earlier drought, the ears didn’t really size up, but they are tasty. We also have the FINAL crop of green beans. They are a bit weather beaten, but they’re here!

Phil’s Fall Raspberries are  here!!

AND… He has time to pick them! Let me know if you would like to order some, and I’ll send them with your share. $4 a pint. I would need to know how many pints you would like by noon on Wednesday.(Today!) Or we can send them the following week.  Please make checks out to Star Prairie Berries and mail them to us at Threshing Table Farm, 2249 150th St. Star Prairie, WI 54026

PACK SHED PARTY!!

We are only a little over a week away from the pack shed party! Please stop by and stay if you can! Great food, awesome band, a bonfire and dancing! The kids have a blast playing around the farm and it’s a great community get together!

Bring a dish to pass, a chair, beverages and we’ll pass the hat to pay the band. It’s a great time, please join us!!  It’s one of our favorite events on the farm. It is important for us to celebrate this beautiful farm and the people who support it. (And to take a break from all the work!)

TAHER Farm Dinner!

The fall dinner put on here at the farm by extremely talented chefs is next weekend!

6pm on Saturday, September 8th. Sorry for the late notice- but the final plans came together recently. $65 per seat. It will be delicious! It will be beautiful and a lot of fun! Tickets are VERY limited!! Please let us know ASAP if you would like some. Send us an e-mail and it will be first come, first serve.

A little family news…

Claudia is busy this week at the MN State Fair showing dairy cattle with our neighbors, Crisdhome farm. She is having a blast! And since she gets out of school for 4 days, that’s an extra bonus. Malcolm started school last week as well and so far, so good. Jonas is getting anxious to start next week.

Doodle the cat is quite sick. It sounds like Pneumonia. Luckily, Dr. Bohl, our neighbor, knows how to help sick cats! A good round of antibiotics and Doodle should be back up to greeting everyone with a meow and a few cat antics. As sick and friendly as he is, he sure put up a HUGE fight about getting a shot!

A few notes about your veggies:

Garlic- Small but valuable!! We are thrilled with the garlic crop this year. They cured nicely. These bulbs will last for months. We’ll be sending them for several weeks (or more!) until we run out. Leave in a dark, dry place to store.

Eggplant: Also survived the hail, so you might see some damage. Store in the crisper drawer.

The rest you’ve seen before, and are surely experts on by now!

 

Kale Beet Salad

1 bunch kale, washed, dried, ribs removed, roughly chopped
1 pound beets, washed, dried and peeled
1/2 tsp dried rosemary
2 cloves minced garlic
salt and pepper
olive oil
1/4 medium onion, thinly sliced
1-2 tbsp slivered almonds, toasted

Lemon-Honey Vinaigrette
1/4 cup olive oil
1 1/2 lemon, juice of
1/4 cup honey
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp dried rosemary
Salt and pepper

Instructions
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
Prepare ingredients as indicated above.
Toss kale with salt, pepper and a little olive oil. Place on a lightly oiled baking sheet. Roast in oven for a brief five minutes. Remove from heat and set aside.
Take peeled beets and cut them into 1 1/2 wedges. Place on a lightly oiled baking sheet. Sprinkle with rosemary, garlic, salt and pepper. Toss with a little olive oil making sure beets are well-coated with the olive oil and spices.
Place the beets on the middle rack of the 400 degrees F-heated oven. Roast for 45 minutes, tossing/turning beets twice.
While beets are roasting, make the lemon-honey vinaigrette. Simply mix vinaigrette ingredients in a small bowl, whisk to combine. Set aside.
When beets are tender to your liking, remove from oven and let them cool slightly.
In a medium salad bowl, combine kale, beets and sliced red onions. Dress your salad with the lemon-honey vinaigrette, and toss together. Garnish with the toasted slivered almonds.

 

Tomato Eggplant bake

1 eggplant, sliced into 1/2 inch rounds
1 tomato, sliced
1/4 cup grated fat-free Parmesan cheese
Directions
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C).
Spray a cookie sheet with non-stick oil spray. Arrange eggplant rounds on the cookie sheet and sprinkle Parmesan over the eggplant. Layer one slice of tomato on top of each eggplant round. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese.
Bake for 10 to 15 minutes.