March 2012 - Morning Song Farm

Quick Rosemary/ Green OliveBread

By | Uncategorized | No Comments

Ingredients:
1 Tablespoon of White Sugar
1 Cup warm water
1 .25 ounce package active dry yeast
1 teaspoon salt
2 Tablespoons softened butter
2 Tablespoons of finely chopped rosemary
Teaspoon total of mixed seasonings (pepper, oregano, dried garlic, parsley, etc.)
3 cups bread flour
1 teaspoon California Olive Oil (as always—I recommend Temecula Olive Oil’s amazing freshly pressed oils)
1 egg
dozen or so large green olives, cut lengthwise

Directions: Dissolve the sugar in warm water in a medium bowl, and mix in the yeast. When yeast is bubbly, mix in salt, butter, 1 tablespoon rosemary, and your customed teaspoon of mixed seasoning. Mix in 2 cups flour. Gradually add remaining flour to form a workable dough, and knead 10 to 12 minutes.

Coat the inside of a large bowl with olive oil. Place dough in bowl, cover, and allow to rise 1 hour in a warm location.

Punch down dough, and divide in half. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Lightly grease paper. Shape dough into 2 round loaves, and place on the baking sheet. Sprinkle with remaining rosemary. Cover, and allow to rise 1 hour, or until doubled in size.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).

Brush loaves with egg. Press halved olives into loaf. Bake 15 to 20 minutes in the preheated oven, or until golden brown.

Adapted from Allrecipes.com

Harvest Ticket March 27-28 Page One

By | Uncategorized | No Comments

Wow. Just had an impossible time this week getting this post up. First photos taken wouldn’t upload no matter which file pathway I chose, then the scanner chose this week to just not scan. No reason. Just a message that it was “connecting” like sometime… whenever. Maybe next Christmas. Then I couldn’t get on to this blogsite. No reason. Just didn’t let me on. ugggr! Anyway, it’s weeks like these that sometimes I just throw my hands up and don’t post; but since there’s some unusual things in the boxes, I felt I couldn’t just skip it.
OK, I’ve vented. On to the harvest: Fennel this week: you’ll notice the ferny bunch of herb in your box has a candy-licorce aroma. You can take kitchen shears and cut tiny pieces into your raw salads. Or try throwing them on the barbeque with other veggies to infuse the sweet taste into your meal that way.
You’ll note tiny little carrots, these are our thinnings; photo to the left is the harvest yesterday. Same with our radishes, we’re thinning our radish rows this week, and bunching the little babies.
I didn’t post our lettuce heads this week; we harvested but then couldn’t fit them in most boxes. The beets took up more room than I had envisioned when I figured out the harvest tickets over the weekend. A few boxes got lettuce heads, but most didn’t, just no room!
We’re coming up on the end of our tangelos and Sungold mandarin harvests. And we’re finally cutting baby greens again. We have a small test plot of snap peas (these kind of peas are cool—you can eat the whole pod like a snap bean, or “pop” open the larger ones for the peas inside. Normal garden peas are too woody by the time the peas can be popped, but snap peas aren’t.) We put a few snaps in each portion of baby lettuce mix.
If you haven’t enjoyed sprouts in the past, we encourage you to try our new custom mixes: this week, clover, garlic and cress. Light, spicy, and flavorful; unlike more common sprout mixes–these add flavor and a little “punch” to your sandwiches, salads and garnishes.

Harvest Ticket March 20/21 Page One

By | Uncategorized | One Comment

Strawberries from my friend Sandra over at Be-Wise Ranch this week! Sandra bought lots of our kumquats this week and I’m thrilled to have her
CCOF Certified Organic strawberries.

We had hoped to have radishes in all boxes this week, but the cold, despite the added protection of plastic hoops, has resulted in our radishes sitting in the cold soil, sulking. Normally by March, Morning Song Farm has, as my friend Joe from Jr’s Farm joked, “cornered the market on radishes.” Ok, they’re one of the easier root veggies to grow.

Lots more Cheno (lamb’s quarters) coming along nicely, we can’t wait to have bunches back in our boxes. And we’re eyeing those mulberries!

Students from the Jewish Farm School flew in last week and helped on the farm. Together we worked on blackberry pruning, weed eradication, fencing the newest row crop area from our ever-present squirrel population, and working on restoring the fire damaged west avocado grove. Whew! Unbelievable amount of work accomplished!

I think we’ll have leafy fennel in the boxes next week which is an herb that has the scent of licorce. I love to throw it on the barbeque with chicken or asparagus.

Book Now!