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Uncategorized Archives - Page 26 of 43 - Morning Song Farm
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So, we’re finally cracking out our macadamia nuts this week. The harvest, considering HALF the farm is planted to macs, is disappointing, as I’ve mentioned before due to squirrels running amok on our organic farm. There is NO organic solutions, and this year our CCOF inspector point blank suggested we give up, as others have. We’re accepting defeat and will start chain sawing the West grove this week. We’ll maintain the East grove, in the hopes that someday a solution will arrive, or until we need the land for something more productive. We plan on planting olive trees in the West grove.
This week is pretty much the last of our persimmons, you’ll find only one each in the large shares. I’m trying to dry the ones left on the trees that are overripe. You’ll begin to see an avocado or two in boxes most weeks now for a while.
The greenhouse is rapidly filling up with our heirloom tomato starts. I can’t believe it’s that time of year again!
We moved our sprouting production to our greenhouse, thinking that would solve the problem of how slow they’re sprouting in this cold time of year. Didn’t work. Although the greenhouse is quite warm in the day, without a heating system, it eventually goes down to the same temperature as the outside, which absolutely stops sprout production. Stop start, stop start, the sprouts were beautiful this week, but with all that stopping and starting, they took twice as long to grow. So we’re moving the sprouting production AGAIN, this time to a heated little house that is being insulated. That should do the trick! Assuming success, we will have our amazing sprouts back in boxes on a weekly basis shortly.
We harvested three different spicy leafy greens this week: cress, arugula, and mizuna. All three can be eaten raw in salads, or lightly sauteed.
This is such a simple recipe, and the results are amazing. Even if you disdain fresh kumquats, this concoction is worth a try.
Ingredients:
1 pound of kumquats or so, cut in half and seeds flicked out.
1 cup water
2 cups sugar
1 teaspoon of a mixture of cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves
In saucepan, bring water and sugar to a boil. Boil for 3 or 4 minutes, which will thicken the sugar mixture to a syrup. Add fruit and spices. Lower heat and simmer for 10 minutes. Use slotted spoon to remove kumquats from the mixture. Continue to cook the syrup to about half what you started with, then pour over fruit, jar and refrigerate.
Adapted from simplyrecipes.com
2 cups chopped and cleaned, thinly sliced kumquats (seeds removed)
1/2 cup chopped red onion
1/4 cup chopped green onion
1/4 cup chopped cilantro
3 Tbsp. olive oil
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
Dash of Tabasco
Pinch of salt to taste
Combine all ingredients. Refrigerate for at least one hour before serving.
One bunch of carrots, peeled and grated
4 green onions, chopped
3 tablespoons minced cilantro
16 kumquats, quartered lengthwise and seeds removed
3 tablespoons white wine vinegar
1 tablespoon grated lime peel
2 teaspoons dijon mustard
1/2 teaspoon sweet paprika
1/2 cup olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste
8 large lettuce leaves
Directions:
Mix carrots, green onions, cilantro and kumquats in bowl.
Combine vinegar, lime peel, mustard and paprika, and then wisk in oil.
Season vinegar mixture with salt and pepper to taste.
Pour mixture over carrot/kumquats. Toss to coat evenly, and chill for at least two hours.
Spoon salad into lettuce leaves and serve.
This is a little heavy, I think it’s best sliced thick and toasted.
1 cup of kumquat puree: Halve fruit, and flick out the seeds. I use a Cuisinart or my Vitamix to puree.
3/4 cup of honey
2 Tbs. oil
2 eggs
1 Tbs vanilla
1 1/4 cup of whole wheat flour (I buy the whole grain and Vitamix the flour as needed. Like coffee, flour is best when freshly ground.)
1 cup of rolled oats
1/4 cup flaxseed meal. (I buy the whole seed and Vitamix. It’s super easy!
1 Tbs. baking powder
Pinch of salt
2 Tbs. cinnamon
1 1/2 cups of chopped nuts and dried fruit like raisons, persimmons, etc.)
Directions:
Put all dry ingredients into a mixer, mix thoroughly. And then add wet ingredients. Combine well, add fruit and nuts. Use a greased loaf pan and bake at 350 for 45-55 minutes. Don’t over cook.
Greetings!
I didn’t post last week’s harvest ticket. It seems that computer issues are the bane of my existence, and every now and then I’m dead in the water with an issue that I can’t figure out in a timely manner. I’ve had a virus for months that repeated trips to the tech guy in nearby Temecula hasn’t solved. I’ve given up and actually BOUGHT A NEW COMPUTER, rather than continue to suffer.
Anyway, now that I’ve vented, on to farm issues. This week we’re finally beginning our kumquat harvest. Yeah! As I’ve said before, we usually start harvesting in time for Thanksgiving’s cranberry/kumquat recipes but not this year, by a mile. So the fruit is beautiful, and I think sweeter than past years’. Although popping a few in your mouth as a snack isn’t a terrible notion, to truly experience what a kumquat can be, requires heating. Like quince, the rich, complex flavor of the kumquat isn’t realized until it’s been cooked. So give it a chance! See separate recipes below.
We’re finishing up our persimmons, I don’t think we’ll have any next week. They’re ripening on the tree now, and the ones you receive will need to be consumed promptly. They’re best like this, but have poor shelf life. I’d love to hear if anyone tried drying them. Please share your experience if you did!
Our amazing sprouts are still taking two weeks to sprout, though moved to the greenhouse. So this week’s boxes have none, next week’s will. We’re working on making a greenhouse inside the greenhouse in hopes of creating a micro climate that will allow us to produce sprouts on a weekly basis while we wait for Spring to arrive.
We probably have enough macadamias to begin cracking out next week; or at least I think so. And we’ll begin our Hass avocado harvest next week, too. Don’t get your guac recipes out, though; because in the very first part of the California avo season, it takes a minimum of 10 days off the tree before the fruit is ripened. Most Hass in the grocery stores (and ahem…in the farmers’ markets for that matter) is from South of the border.
Click on image to enlarge for easier reading. See Page Two below.
So we’re just starting the very earliest part of our avocado harvest. Actually we always start with our pollinators, which did their pollination job this year, but didn’t fruit much. Anyway, there are Fuerte’s and a few very early to appear Hass in the Large shares this week. Actually, the real Hass harvest doesn’t start for a couple more weeks, usually.
Oddly, the macadamia harvest is weeks later than usual. We’re only NOW raking up any quantity worth getting excited about. Normally, by October we are raking away. So, too the kumquats are much later. I have always enjoyed combining kumquats with cranberries for Thanksgiving, indicating that we actually HAVE kumquats in November, which isn’t the case by a milestone this year. I’m guessing late February. So the climate at least on this farm, is changing in a huge way.
You’ll notice the sprouts are back again this week. They take almost 2 weeks to sprout in this cold weather, as opposed to 4 or 5 days. We hired an electrician to bring electricity to our tiny greenhouse, and we’re going to try moving the sprouting operation inside there, in the hopes that the greenhouse environment is so much warmer that we will be able to grow weekly supplies again. This week’s sprouts are an unusual combination of clover, garlic and cress.
Plenty of persimmons right now as we’re mid-harvest. We’re experimenting with drying and if successful, may include dried persimmons later on. We’ll use a dehydrator, but if you’d like to try your oven, here’s a link: www.marthastewart.com/recipe/oven-dried-persimmons-slices
The butternut squash can sit on your counter for quite a while. Baked, and the flesh scooped out, it offers the base for pumpkin pie, a hearty soup, pumpkin bread/muffins and a fine vegan gravy.