Week 18 B

October 11, 2018

In this week’s box:

Butternut Squash            Buttercup Squash                   Spaghetti Squash              Garlic

Onions                            Brussel’s Sprouts                    Carrots                              Cabbage

Cilantro                           Dill                                            Kale                                  Peppers

Pop Corn

Hello Threshing Table Farm Members!

This is it- the final box! It’s always a bitter-sweet time for us. It’s sad to lose the weekly connection we have had with all of you these past months.. But we are looking forward to some rest and a change of pace. I’m looking forward to some reading of books, cleaning the house, spending time with family and friends and substitute teaching.  Mike is looking forward to hunting and family time as well. We definitely miss all the outside time, the fresh produce and the dirt on our hands. But since the weather is moving on and we can’t change it, we’ll just enjoy winter and look forward to spring.

I am happy to say that my week was much calmer than last. (But I must confess, I haven’t done anything further with the bees. Dragging my feet on that one!)  We have been working around and mostly through the rain. It’s very wet out there, but since we harvest things by hand, it was not fun, but doable. I am SO grateful for all of our employees, work-share people and volunteers who have come out in all kinds of weather.  We could not have done what we did each week without them!  We will miss them all as we all retreat to our winter lives. We have the most beautiful people as part of this farm! Members, employees, neighbors, and so many more who make up our community. Thank you for being a part of it!!!

We also say Good Bye to the pigs this week. 🙁   Their time here with us is over. We are sad to see them go, but grateful that they were such a big part of our farm this summer. They offered us many hours of entertainment and lots of help as we moved many scraps through them. We are also grateful for the gift of meat that they provide for us.

We are really excited to have purple carrots in the box this week! They are beautiful and worth the digging with forks in the mud. The popcorn and Brussel’s sprouts have also been end of the season treats. If you missed the note last week- save the popcorn for a few more weeks. It needs to dry out some more before it can be popped. Try popping it around Thanksgiving. If it still doesn’t pop. leave it in a dry place a bit longer and try around Christmas.

Carrots with Dill

2 lbs whole carrots
2 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp freshly chopped dill
salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
Place the carrots on a pan and drizzle with the olive oil. Toss with your hands to make sure they are evenly covered in oil. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.
Roast the carrots for 20 minutes, then remove from the oven and turn the carrots with tongs. Sprinkle with 1 tbsp freshly chopped dill and roast for an additional 20 minutes.
Remove from the oven, place carrots on a platter. Sprinkle with remaining 1 tbsp of fresh dill. Serve immediately.

Squash Cookies

2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
¾ tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
½ tsp nutmeg
1 1/2 cups sugar
2/3 cup oil or butter
2 T molasses
1 cup cooked mashed butternut squash
1 tsp vanilla
Optional: ½ cup oats, chopped walnuts, raisins, coconut shreds
Preheat oven to 350. Mix flour, sugar, baking soda, salt, and spices in a bowl. In a separate, larger bowl mix together, oil, molasses, squash and vanilla until well combined. Add dry to wet, folding to combine. Add optional ingredients after combined.
Drop by tablespoons onto cookie sheets. Bake for 16 minutes at 350. For best flavor, let them cool and set a bit.

We are grateful and humbled that we were able to be your farmers,

We’re already looking forward to next year!!

Jody, Mike, Claudia, Malcolm and Jonas Lenz

October 4, 2018 Week 17A

Hello Threshing Table Farm Members!

In this week’s box:

Cabbage              Kale                      Onions                 Garlic                            Carrots

Brussel’s Sprouts         potatoes                Celery Root and tops                    Parsley

Popcorn                      Butternut Squash                     Buttercup Squash               Spaghetti Squash

peppers

**This is the final delivery for “A” week, 1/2 share members. Thanks for being with us! Full share and “B” Week half share members, we’ll see you next week!!

Last week was a tough one for this farmer. I started off the week with a lot of back pain. I don’t usually struggle with back pain, but I was pretty miserable for a couple of days. Luckily, we have amazing farm members who could help me out!  I went to Marjan Schwartz for Cranio Sacral Massage,                         715- 977-0682   cs.marjan@gmail.com                                                                                                         and that helped a ton! That is such an amazing therapy that is so relaxing, you almost forget why you went to see her in the first place!  Then I saw Chris Rud at Somerset Chiropractic 715-247-3050    and he gave me an adjustment that helped get me pain free as well. After seeing the two of them, I was feeling a lot better. I was looking forward to moving forward with the rest of the season at full force. I’m very glad that my employees were able to pick up my slack and get everything done that needed to be.

Friday, I was feeling fine and went out to harvest lettuce. I noticed that bears had knocked over my beehive. So, I suited up in my bee jacket, hood and gloves, and went out to reset the hive. Those bees were NOT having it! They were acting as if I was the bear that tore their home apart. Two bees managed to get into my bee suit. I walked as calmly as I could, several hundred yards away from the hive. They started to sting me, so I was frantically trying to remove my bee suit. I didn’t realize that hundreds of their friends had followed me. By the time I got my bee suit off, I was covered in bees like some horror movie. I knew I was getting stung, but other than a bit of pain, it wasn’t the worst thing in the world. I am not allergic, so I wasn’t too worried. Things calmed down, I got my bee suit back on and finished setting up the hive.

Then, I walked back to the pack shed, got out of my gear and headed back out to the lettuce field. After harvesting 60 heads of lettuce and bringing them into the pack shed, I started to feel woozy. And my chest hurt. And I had a hard time seeing. So I took the 4-wheeler out to the spinach patch where my employee, Felicia was. She saw my distress and managed to get me to the house before I completely lost consciousness. I remembered on that long ride back to the house that we had an epi-pen because Mike is allergic to bees. I managed to tell her where it was and she found that- used it on me and in not too long, things got better. Thank Goodness!  It ends up that I had about 8 stings on my neck (and  more elsewhere) that likely caused the severe reaction.

Mike came home from work and took over my farm chores so that we could get the boxes packed that head out to Taher Food Service and once again, my employees saved the day. And me!  Farm member Pete, an EMT- and neighbor, stopped by to check in on me too. All’s well that ends well. But now I know… 2 bees in the suit are better than hundreds without the suit!  And in case you are wondering- no honey worth mentioning after all that. Sigh… Maybe next year.

We had a hard frost on Friday night. Luckily, we knew it was coming, so we were prepared. We saved the peppers, squash, and anything else that we could. The cabbages, Brussels’ Sprouts, Kale and more- are just fine through a frost.

Our rabbit is moved into the house for the winter. He’s not much for the cold, so he is enjoying life in the laundry room. The rest of the animals do just fine during the cold weather. A blanket for Chumley and water heaters are used when it gets REALLY cold, but we’ve got time before that is needed.

POPCORN!!

The popcorn is probably not dry enough for popping yet. Set it somewhere to finish drying, (anywhere in your house that is not humid would be fine.) I like to wait until around Thanksgiving to try and pop it. If it doesn’t pop well, wait until Christmas, and try again.  You can either remove the popcorn from the cob by twisting it, then pop as you would other popcorn, OR (my favorite) you can place the whole cob, (no leaves) in a paper bag. (Lunch sack size works great.) Place the bag in the microwave and put it on the popcorn setting. Listen carefully- when it’s done popping- take the bag out and there you are! Amazing microwave popcorn!!

Honey Glazed Carrots

1 T. butter

1 tsp. olive oil

8-10 carrots, sliced (no need to peel.)

Parsley, chopped, to taste

Salt to taste

1 T. honey

Heat skillet with oil over medium heat. Add carrots and cook, stirring frequently, for 3 minutes. Add butter and honey and continue to cook for 3 more minutes or until crisp-tender. Turn off heat and sprinkle on salt and parsley.

Braised Chicken with celeriac, carrots and onions

1/2 c. flour
1 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp pepper
3lb frying chicken, cut up
3 T. Lard or olive oil
3/4 c. hot water
1 celery root, peeled and diced
1 1/2 cup sliced carrots
3/4 c. finely chopped onions
3/4 c. chopped bell pepper

Combine flour, salt and pepper: coat chicken pieces. Brown chicken in hot oil in large skillet. Drain excess oil from pan. Add water and 1/2 tsp. more salt. Cover tightly and simmer about 1 hour. Add vegetables and cook 10 minutes longer or until vegetables are tender crisp. Serve over potatoes if desired.

Cabbage Sandwich Spread

1/4 c. chopped cabbage
3 T. chopped apple
3T. chopped carrot
3 T. chopped celery root
3 T. chopped bell pepper
1 T. chopped onion
1/4 c. mayonnaise

Mix together and spread on bread.

If this is your last week with us, we wish you a warm, happy and well-fed winter! We can’t thank you enough for being a part of our farm and community this past season! We appreciate what you do to make this work.

Your farmers-

Jody, Mike, Claudia, Malcolm and Jonas Lenz