December 2012 - Morning Song Farm

Well we have gotten a lot of comments and suggestions, and hopefully this will work for most of our subscribers; there’s a consensus that we certainly can’t deliver on Christmas Day or New Year’s Day. So we’re shifting gears for the two weeks and delivering on the Monday before— on both weeks. So that’s Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve for all boxes, both weeks. Normally Luey, our wonderfully calm driver, delivers half our boxes on Tuesday and half on Wednesday. For these two weeks only, Luey will do half the boxes, and one or two of us will do the other half. This is only a one day shift for Tuesday subscribers. But it’s a two day shift for Wednesday’s. Please let us know if anyone has a problem with picking up on these two Mondays, being Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve, then back to normal the following week.

This seems to be the least disruptive of our subscribers schedules and also allows Luey and crew here a couple days off to enjoy their families and celebrate the holidays.

I just knew there was something missing off the Harvest Ticket yesterday, yup it’s the Cara Cara oranges. This is really the first harvest worth mentioning of our Caras. Originally found as a natural mutation in an orange grove in Valencia, Venezula in 1976, Cara Caras didn’t find themselves in US kitchens until the late 1980’s. Even then, there has always been somewhat of a mysteque about the Cara because their flavor is so unusual. Some have said the juice, although certainly “orange like,” also evokes cherry, rose petal, strawberry or blackberry hints as well. The flesh is certainly much redder than a navel, from whence this sport sprung. We have so few trees to harvest of this special variety, that we are sending them out straight from the tree, unsorted. Large, small, costmetically challenged….whatever; we want everyone to get a chance of tasting a few before the short windowed harvest is over!

Instructor Virginia– coaxes Gracie The Goat with Crunchie Granola Treats

Come on out to Morning Song Farm for the third of a series of cheese making classes.  Newcomers, don’t worry! We will help you every step of the way, and you’ll be amazed how easy it is to make your own cheeses from now on! December’s The Gift of Cheese class will be held December 15th. ( Mozzarella balls in EVVO, Brie in croute, chevre rolled in herbs and spices. Packaging and decorations provided.) Get a chance to meet the farm’s beautiful Nigerian dairy goats, pet the babies.  Bring a crunchy granola bar or two and you’ll be everyone’s best friend, especially Carl The Herd Leader who eats anything but really gets excited if it’s crunchy.

We’ve teamed up with veteran cheese maker Virginia Masters who has been exploring and teaching all things cheesy for 10 years.  She’s enthusiastic about imparting her cheese making knowledge to anyone, young and old alike. Cheese making is somewhat of a lost art and Virginia insists it’s surprisingly easy to learn considering how expensive some cheeses can be. She provides all the materials for cheese making including recipes; and every student gets to take recipes and finished cheeses home with them at the end of the class.

The December class is designed around the theme of The Gift of Cheese. Participants will make Mozzarella balls in olive oil with herbs, garlic and sun dried tomatoes. Decorative glass jars with holiday fabric tops will be provided so that everyone leaves with gifts; as well as the knowledge of how to repeat at home. We’ll also make Chevre and decorate with fresh herbs and spices. And Virginia will demonstrate how to make Brie wrapped in puff pastry and bake for a holiday or New Year’s party. Everyone gets to take home their brie which will be ripe by New Year’s!

So come enjoy the crisp winter weather at beautiful Morning Song Farm and experience how gratifying it is to make your own cheeses. We will also have a mini farmer’s market with cheese making kits and farm related gifts available for purchase.

Class fee: $65
CSA members, just RSVP to us here: CSA@morningsongfarm.com and we’ll charge your account.
Or you can go to our meetup page and make reservations here: http://www.meetup.com/Morning-Song-Farm-Cheese-Making/.

Cress

We’re excited about the Cress field that is coming along nicely; we think we’ll have our spicy cress bunches in our boxes next week. The rosemary looks like we can take cutting again next week, so we’ll have sprigs in all boxes as well. We’re harvesting macadamia nuts every day now, although the harvest is impacted from the miserable, squirrel population, we still have some nuts to share. We got ahead of ourselves last week, and tried to crack out nuts that really needed a little longer to dry out in the nut room; causing significant waste. We’ll have nuts for all as soon as we’re sure the nuts are dry enough to crack out easily.

We’re thinking the Hass avocado season is upon us shortly, probably starting in two weeks. Yeah!  And this week is the first harvest of our easy to peel Satsuma Mandarins. They’ve developed a nice tang and are quite sweet.

Soon we’ll have enough Navel oranges to put in boxes each week, right now there’s really only enough for the few “add-on” CSA member orders that we fill each week.