Barking Moon Farm

Happy new year to everyone! This week, believe it or not, we start seeding in the greenhouses for early spring production. We have three large hoop houses, which give us the ability to grow vegetables in the early part of the season while it is still cold. This week, we are seeding chard, lettuce, chicories, and peas — all will be planted in February destined for grocery stores, restaurants and farmers’ markets in March, April and May! It is hard to believe the 2012 season is already underway. For us, there is always a combination of uncertainty, excitement, and trepidation in starting a new season. On one hand, it is another year and a new opportunity to begin again on the farm — make changes and improve on what we did last year. On the other hand, there are so many unknowns and questions in farming that this can be interesting to navigate. Will it be a good year? What does the weather hold for us? Will we fulfill our potential? Will there be markets for our produce? The list of questions goes on. Mostly though, we get excited about planting those first seeds knowing that in a few months we will be eating fresh succulent spring peas or chomping on fresh escarole and lettuce salad. And, more excitement for bringing that food back to the community at farmers’ markets.

Stay tuned for information about our winter brunch for the CSA on Sunday, February 5th. It is going to be a lot of fun for the whole family! Farm tour, music, good food and community!

Here’s information about your boxes this week.

• 1.5# Mixed kales, chard and napa cabbage — I don’t know about you, but we eat this mix at least twice a day — usually breakfast AND dinner. Kales this time of year are just so tasty! Great for soups too. Check out a recipe that CSA member and awesome fellow farmer, Glenda Ponder, sent over. Thanks Glenda!
• 2# Mixed yellow and red onions — Remember, alliums are so good for you! If you have too many, think about caramelizing a whole pan and putting it on top of meat or other vegetables. Heidi, a fellow CSA member, recently did this and topped her roast. Yum!
• 4# Carrots — We just started digging from a new bed that has smaller carrots. So sweet! Try a shredded carrot/raisin salad for something different.
• 1# Beets — Sweet, red and yummy!
• 2# Russet Potatoes — I love russets because they are the best for making oven baked fries. Mashed potatoes too. Every year, I make Josh plant these just because I love them for the above two reasons.
• 1/2# Salad Mix — A mix of red lettuce, mustard greens and arugula.
• 1# Black Beans — Yes, we grew these as an experiment this year. We are trying to expand our winter CSA offerings by providing other portions of your diet in the boxes (like the popcorn). In general, the beans were pretty low maintenance in the field. We harvested them into the back of our Ford truck and then threshed them on tarps. We did not clean the bag of beans, but here are some suggestions for cleaning out chaff, seeds and rocks. Rinse them in a bowl of water to float the light woody stuff and separate those out. Then, you might want to spread the beans on a plate to pick out stones, pebbles and bad beans. We’ve given you about two cups, so after they are soaked and cooked, it should expand to about 5 – 6 cups. Just enough for burritos, enchiladas or other yummy dishes!
• 1 Green Cabbage — Sweet and delicious!
• 1.5# Golden Turnips
• 3 Stalks Brussels Sprouts — Probably the best treat in the box and the best thing we’ve grown this winter! So so good. We’ve given you the brussels sprouts on stalks. These are easy to prepare for eating. Just pinch off the sprout from the stalk and peel outer leaves. Trim end and toss with olive oil, salt & pepper and roast at 350. So delicious and so good for you.
• 1 Spaghetti Squash
• 1 Rutabaga — We grow ALOT of rutabaga. We love it so much. We hope you do too. You must try the rutabaga fries recipe! Yum, yum! By the way, these rutabaga are gigantic. Don’t think you need to eat the whole thing in one sitting. I chop off one rutabaga for awhile. Just store it in a plastic bag and keep using it in your soups and mashed potatoes!

And here are your recipes for the week: CSARecipesJanuary5th

Have a great one!

M, J, E & A

Here's our son harvesting spaghetti squash this past October. Now, you are eating it!