admine9519, Author at Morning Song Farm - Page 7 of 44
This week’s harvest is a bit fruit-heavy with less leafy greens. Despite Spring and Summer’s being known as fruit season, really for us here in Southern Cal, Fall is probably as important. We’re beginning to collect macadamia nuts as nut fall has arrived in earnest. We harvested the first decent dragon fruit yield ever this year, but still not enough to put in boxes. We do think we will be including them next year, this time, unless Operations hogs them all like they did this year. :/
The variety we grow is from Guatemala, and I think the best of all that we’ve trialed…at least for Southern California. Grown as a trellised cactus, the fruit is spineless and has a rich, floral taste that is hard to describe. I like them best when thoroughly chilled. The flowers are spectacular and open for a single day.
We’re in the midst of our pineapple guava harvest. For the first few weeks I labeled the bags because so few have seen the fruit in the store. Now I’m saving the effort, and just relying on this blog for identification purposes. Even if you don’t enjoy the fruit (although they are among my favorites) the scent as they ripen in your kitchen is enough reason not to give them away.
Limes are back at last, which to me are a kitchen staple. I use the juice in my salads, add to smoothies and juice mixtures, and have several recipes for sauces.
We’re planning a Farm Day shortly, and will announce here.
Click here to view our harvest tickets
We have persimmons for everyone this week, although the harvest would be twice as bountiful if Couscous the Bad Llama hadn’t discovered a taste for persimmons this year. He ate just about half the crop. We’ll put a low fence around the trees for next year so it won’t happen again. I don’t know why he chose this year to discover the fruit, he’s had access for many years.
Come on out to Morning Song Farm for our beginning cheese making class. We’ll focus October’s class on a few of the fun and easy cheeses that will easily turn you into a cheese maker! Impress your friends with cheesey offerings and try out a fun and different hobby that brings dividends of appreciation. You may find that you’ll discover a passion for cheese as we have here at Morning Song Farm. It’s easier than you’d ever think! Follow along with handouts and easy to follow recipes so that your success is insured when you repeat the steps at home. We’ll talk about which milk to use, cultures, and why certified organic milk isn’t always your best choice. We’ll make three different cheeses; Garlic Ricotta, Herbed Queso Fresca, Fromage Blanc, Paneer, Feta and Neufchatel cream cheese are among those we choose to make and sample during the class. Class starts at 9:00. Arrive 15 minutes early if you’d like, to sample herbed cheeses as well as our just churned butter and freshly milled-macadamia muffins. Warm up with hot coffee or herbal tea or enjoy freshly squeezed orange juice while meeting your fellow cheese loving adventurers! Get a chance to meet the farm’s beautiful Nigerian dairy goats, and pet our friendly herd. 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.
Tuition: $65
Come on out to Morning Song Farm for our beginning cheese making class. We’ll focus October’s class on a few of the fun and easy cheeses that will easily turn you into a cheese maker! Impress your friends with cheesey offerings and try out a fun and different hobby that brings dividends of appreciation. You may find that you’ll discover a passion for cheese as we have here at Morning Song Farm. It’s easier than you’d ever think! Follow along with handouts and easy to follow recipes so that your success is insured when you repeat the steps at home. We’ll talk about which milk to use, cultures, and why certified organic milk isn’t always your best choice. We’ll make three different cheeses; Garlic Ricotta, Herbed Queso Fresca, Fromage Blanc, Paneer, Feta and Neufchatel cream cheese are among those we choose to make and sample during the class. Class starts at 9:00. Arrive 15 minutes early if you’d like, to sample herbed cheeses as well as our just churned butter and freshly milled-macadamia muffins. Warm up with hot coffee or herbal tea or enjoy freshly squeezed orange juice while meeting your fellow cheese loving adventurers! Get a chance to meet the farm’s beautiful Nigerian dairy goats, and pet our friendly herd. 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.
Tuition: Even if you are a much appreciated farm member, payment and reservations for our cheese classes need to be made here so that we can use the Meetup software to keep an accurate headcount. Please, no impromptu arrivals. The class size is limited for a reason, so we need to have firm reservations. Our barn is now heated, but do come with a sweater just in case. The pathway to the barn is rough and unpaved, so stash the stilettos or dress shoes; and opt for sneakers or boots for your cheese making day.
What it takes to run an organic farm
Morning Song Farm, which is known for its rare fruits and vegetables, is a labor of organic love for San Diego County woman
With farmers markets, the farmer never knows how much to harvest; rain or a sporting event can change sales figures substantially. We gave or threw away a lot of food. With a CSA, you only harvest for the exact number of boxes you are preparing for your subscribers. We started the CSA with a single friend of mine who had admired the beautiful produce on my kitchen counter.
Donna Buono
Subscription farm
We’re now providing a link so that everyone can read our harvest ticket regardless of platform used. Please let us know if you encounter difficulties. I’m excited to use Dropbox, because when the need to revise a Harvest Ticket comes up, now it’s feasible! The old way with going from Word to PDF to Gif and then downloading half a dozen gifs and then fighting the Blogger software to get them to download sequentially was so cumbersome, an omission on the ticket had to just be ignored. Now we can revise easily!
Click here to view this week’s harvest ticket!
The flavor fresh steamed cauliflower is so mild that you’re able to pretty much control the flavor of your hummus with the spices you add. Have fun and make a spicy version by adding cayenne, or up the flavor ante with some extra garlic. Now, I did try it raw as well, and it was tasty, but not as creamy.
Drizzle your finished dip with some olive oil and a pretty sprinkle of sweet paprika.
Here’s what you need:
- I used a half head of cauliflower, steamed
- 2 Tablespoons tahini
- 2 Tablespoon olive oil
- 2 clove garlic
- juice from 1 lime
- dash of sea salt and black pepper
- pinch of cumin, paprika, garlic powder, turmeric, and onion powder
- Throw all of the ingredients into a food processor and blend until smooth.
- Taste and add more seasoning as you see fit.
- Serve with sliced veggies, olives and homemade almond flour crackers.
This is surprisingly easy to make, and brings out the complex flavors of the cauliflower. Even my kids enjoy cauliflower served this way:
Ingredients:
- Half a medium sized cauliflower…no need to pare off the commonly seen little bit of brown on this vegetable…image below…that’s not mold, it’s oxidation and is rarely avoided when grown in the hotter months.
- 3 cloves of garlic
- half a cup of Queso Fresca cheese, crumbled into large chunks
- quarter cup of shredded parmesan cheese
- half cup of bread crumbs
- dash of olive oil
- one pound of hamburger
- diced green onions or chives
- sprinkle of Grizzly Joe’s Natural Chipolte seasoning (www.grizzlyjoes.com)
Process:
- Brown your hamburger, drain and set aside.
- Dice up cauliflower
- Combine cauliflower and hamburger, then mix in crush garlic and Queso Fresca.
- Top with bread crumbs, parmesan cheese a dash of olive oil, green onions/chives and Chipolte seasoning
- Bake at 375 until the cauliflower is tender but not mushy
- Serve at once