ohmygato farm

(We apologize for the piecemeal newsletter for this week. We’ve been having internet connectivity problems.)

Hello farm friends, hope this letter finds you all well! Last week we lost our internet connection while we were making the csa delivery. Now we are back up and running and we hope to make up for our missing recipes by adding these special personal recipes that we’ve perfected. Last Saturday I ahd a chance to meet some of sandee’s very special school mates, all graduate students in the fine arts dept. at U of O. We harvested potatoes and cooked a fine meal afterwards. Our first recipe is a variation of my fathers gnocchis.

ingredients:

3-4 large potatoes

olive oil

flour

salt

thyme

1/4 cup parmesean or ricotta cheese

Use three to four big potatoes and coat them well with olive oil, using your bare hands. bake for one hour or until done at 350 degrees. unwrap and let cool. Once the potatoes are cool place in large bowl and smash ‘em! add two eggs, 1-2 cups of flower (to desired consistency). more firm is best. pinch of nutmeg, one tablespoon of dried thyme, teaspoon of salt and a 1/4 cup of parmesean or ricotta cheese. make several baseball sized balls and roll each ball into 1/2″ in diameter snakes. Using the edge of the fork cut into 1″ pieces. Roll pieces in hand until round and then with the tines of the fork make grooves on little balls using a short rolling motion. Boil water and add a bit of salt and olive oil. Once water is at full boil toss a gnocci in and wait for it to float (1 min.) Try and then toss the rest in. Top with pesto or butter or marinara…it’s up to you! YUM.

My sister, Michelle has been here for a visit and it’s been wonderful to have her around. She packed boxes with us today and has been full of good ideas about how to make our lives a little less chaotic. It’s a dream but I know we’ll get there eventually. I’m so sad she’s leaving tomorrow Here’s a picture of her with her new little bump! Very exciting news for all of us!

I hope you all enjoy the harvest!

today’s harvest:

potatoes

summer squash

basket of mixed tomatoes

heirloom tomatoes

onion

eggplant (a very small quantity, but great to add to a vegetable medley stir fry!)

carrots

Hello! I hope all is well with all of you. This has been a very interesting week for us. I’m sad to report that the deer ate almost half of our strawberry patch! They actually left some little leaves on the plants though, so we’re hopeful that they’ll come back.. not the deer, the strawberry plants. I hope those deer appreciate the dear snack they had, but don’t remember where exactly they got it from!!
Yesterday was 106 degrees on the farm and we weren’t doing much past noon. We’re up extra early today in order to get the boxes packed well before the heat. The tomatoes are still just trickling in by the handful. Lots of other farmers are having the same problem so we think its been this very strange from pretty cool to very hot weather. The tomatoes don’t know what to do. Also we planted indeterminate tomatoes, which don’t come on all at the same time.
The growers market location has changed from the Antique mall parking lot to the lot next to bi-mart. It’s a better location for us because we’re not selling our produce in this heat on blacktop. Eventually it would be really nice to be under some trees! Also, I’ve been baking a yummy scones and Anthony has been making bread for the market. And of course we’ll also selling all of our produce, so if you haven’t stopped by and are fee one of these Tuesdays we’d love to see you at our new spot! Fall is fast approaching and if you come to visit the farm you get to see into the near future because the pumkins, acorn squash and butternuts are all taking their lovely shapes and gaining weight.

today’s harvest:
basil
tomatoes
potatoes
onions
collards
chard
cabbage
summer squash

some recipe’s for you…

Yummy Roasted Vegetable Pasta (by Sandee)

Ingredients:
summer squash chopped
1 med or several small eggplants chopped
1 med onion chopped
2 large tomatoes
6-8 whole garlic cloves peeled
16 oz whole wheat fusili pasta
extra virgin olive oil
1/4 cup balsalmic vinegar
parm or feta cheese (or both)

Preheat oven to 425. Chop all of your veggies and spread them out onto a cookie sheet. I use a large pizza tin. Also put your garlic cloves with your veggies. Drizzle with olive oil, salt, pepper and sprinkle a little fresh or dry thyme over everything. Place in oven and bake for 35-40 minutes. Meanwhile boil your pasta for 9 minutes. Drain pasta and pour about 1/4 cup of extra virgin olive oil in to your pasta and add a little salt. Toss everything together indluding cheese and balsalmic vinegar.
Enjoy!!

it’s a must see. Here’s a link to part one of the Bill Moyers interview featuring Michael Pollan, which was done 6 months ago. Well before the release of the Food, Inc. Honestly folks this is good stuff.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZhuNAQ16J24

Hello Everyone! Greetings and salutations! Now I have to say that our last box seemed a little puny compared to the previous ones, but don’t worry this weeks box will be back to our normal weight. From time to time you’ll have a box that might not be as weighty or fluffy as other boxes. It depends on what’s in that weeks box and what’s happening on our field. We’ll always make sure you get the value that you paid for.
This week the box features yellow plums which were given to us from some of our members. Leonard and Sharon have a plum tree which gave them much more than they could handle so they dropped a box off at our place a few days ago. Thank you Herzstein’s;) What a treat! The salad greens are coming along nicely and we just put in a new beds of lettuce & onions. The yellow ones are sweet heirlooms and the reds are spicy this time. A nice mix. We also put in more rainbow chard, which I’m sure you’re all so happy about! More broccoli also went in this week.
Unfortunately we lost some strawberry plants to the deer :/ We still have to fence our strawberry patch, but since we cover it each night and are busy with other duties we’ve put it on the backburner. Anthony sprayed rotten egg around the patch tonight because a friend told us that this works. This just to buys us a little more time and may give us another option rather than putting up a fortress.

today’s harvest:

summer squash

eggplant

heirloom tomatoes

sweet onions

a rainbow of potatoes

collard greens

rainbow chard

carrots

plums (yellow with a splash of purple!

Basket of cherry tomatoes (Full share only)

some recipe’s for you…

Heirloom Tomato Salad with Blue Cheese Bon Appétit | August 2003

Hello Everyone! It’s week 10 and we’re just trying to catch our breath because so much is happening. Our WWOOFers will be on their way to Canada very soon and we’ll be so sad to say goodbye. It’s been great to have them in our home and on our farm. It was a huge growing experience for all of us as we adjusted to working and living together for two full weeks. We’re also very excited for them as they return to Poland and begin their own little farm…bringing traditional life back into light with their enthusiasm and energy. Good luck to our new friends!

We are planting our fall & winter crops. Today we were putting in broccoli, lettuce, cabbage, cauliflower and rainbow chard. There won’t be salad greens in the boxes for another week or two, but you can look forward to some after that. The broccoli we planted in the spring is just now making their flowers, so that is also something to look forward to! Eggplants are developing nicely and the tomatoes are ripening in handfuls, so that is why the harvest this week may seems slightly pathetic. Also, I wanted inform you all that the purple potatoes are meant to be baked or mashed. They fall apart and so this makes them great for mashed potatoes or fries.

This photo of Anthony is meant to announce our new clay bread oven, which is still in progress. Marek and Anthony mixed the mud mortar and Ania helped bring the rock, bricks and chunks of cement over. It’s been a labor of love! We’re so excited because this has been Anthony’s and my dream for the past 7 years. Anthony farmed in the Italian-Swiss Alps 2002-2004 where he planned, designed and built an oven for a WWOOF farm, Pianta Monda. He was a permanent member of the garden crew and participated in their farmer’s market which is held once a year. Anthony baked 75 breads which were all hand kneaded for the markets he participated in!  We’ve been baking bread for the Grower’s Market and we’re in the midst of testing recipe’s.

Today’s Harvest:

potatoes

onion

summer squash

carrots

rainbow chard

beets

basket of mixed berries

tomatoes (one or two at most because they’re taking their sweet time)

basil

some recipes for you:

Grilled Potato and Summer Squash Salad with Marjoram-Lemon Vinaigrette Bon Appétit | August 2006