photo by: Marylindsay Clark

Can you feel fall coming? I surely can. The slight change in the green of the trees, the turn of the wind, already full acorns on the pin oaks: all signs that fall is going to be here before you know it! I had a great chance to visit Asheville NC this past weekend and explore the restaurant and local food movement scene there. It is thriving, growing by leaps and bounds. It seems every restaurant has sought out the local farmers and artisan food producers. Green Door Gourmet is happy that we have forged some great partnerships and that some of Nashville’s premier places use our produce. Ask us when you are at the farm the next time and we’ll give you a run down of these spots!

Here are a few: Miel Restaurant, The Silly Goose, 1808 Grille, and Cafe Nonna.

The Asheville visit also gave me lots of inspiration for things to do on the farm. We will have a big update to the website very soon…telling you more! I hope to offer a few CSA cooking classes as well… keep checking the site often for updates!

Now for your farmyard basic lesson this week…let’s talk tomatoes! We just took about 800 tomato plants out of the field. They had all but stopped production so it was their time to go and make way for fall crops of beets, lettuces, kale, collards, turnips, radishes etc. We still have around 2,800 plants producing, but they are slowing down. The summer heat really made the plants work hard so they will not flower as abundantly. This part of fall always makes me sad when I see the tomatoes go. I love them so much! Usually a handful of cherry tomatoes and some raw (yes raw) baby okra is my morning snack in the field. Delicious! One thing you may have noticed on lots of the tomatoes everywhere this year was cracking in the skin. This condition is caused by uneven water. Those torrential downpours that came in between dry spells gave the plants so much water at once they literally were bursting at the seams! Cracking does not affect the flavor of the tomato, but it can affect the shelf life. Use those first when you get them and enjoy! And you know to Never store your tomatoes in the fridge…it turns them to mush. 62 degrees is as cold as you should go to maintain a good texture.

photo by: Marylindsay Clark

 We are pleased to welcome the Jolly Barnyard as our new Chicken vendor! We will carry their whole chicken, chicken breast and leg/thigh packets and chicken livers. You are probably seeing their great product on restaurant menus all over town… we are the only place to buy it in a farm market setting in the area! Click here to explore more about their farm!

Are you ready for a super Labor Day bargain? We have it for you! Everyone will be enjoying the last BBQ’s and cookouts of the summer season this weekend and we want to help make it extra special. Get a Green Door Gourmet Labor Day picnic package this weekend for only $50!

It includes:

A full rack of pasture raised beef ribs with your choice of our original BBq sauce or a spicier one of your choice.

1 Dozen organic chicken eggs ( to make deviled eggs, and we’ll give you a recipe!)

2 pounds of all natural grass fed Gourmet Pasture ground beef

Your choice of either Green Door Gourmet Black Bean Salsa or Peach Salsa

Your Choice of either Green Door Gourmet Spicy Dill, Regular Dill, Sweet pickle relish or Bread and Butter pickles.

AND we’ll include extra slicing tomatoes and onions and cucumbers, and some peppers to roast on the grill!

You can order extra racks of beef ribs for only $10 THIS WEEK only! Please say extra ribs in your email if you want them.

Email us at info@greensdoorgourmet.com to order yours today. Please specify which choices you want in your email. Supplies are limited on certain products so order now!

In the box, farmer’s choice of all the good end of summer produce, including tomatoes, squash and watermelon! Order your CSA box by clicking here!

Barnyard Basics 101

Greetings from the fields! Summer is wrapping up and I have to chuckle when the newspapers run certain stories… I noticed in addition to a well written and lovely piece on basil this week, The Wall Street Journal was touting squash blossoms. Maybe in New England where the weather can be cooler will you find an abundance of local squash blossoms, but not here. This has me on a mission… Let’s learn about farming. It should give you valuable info on what to look for in “good” produce and help me explain what is going on here on the farm. Sounds fun doesn’t it!

(Photo of our CSA by MaryLindsay Clark)

Ok let’s talk first about organic versus conventional. I could fill volumes on this subject, but I am going for Barnyard basics so…

Organic (at least to me)  means not using chemicals that destroy the soil, not using genetically modified seeds (which change the very nature of the plant and make seed saving impossible), no pesticides,  and as little as possible use of fossil fuels.

Conventional farming became the norm in the middle 1900’s when it made things grow fast and large to feed a burgeoning population. It made us the breadbasket of the world, and now the world is rapidly consuming the volumes of GMO corn, soybeans and wheat we are producing. I am not here to demonize Big Agriculture, they are feeding the world (not in the healthiest way, but folks aren’t starving, so it really is rock and a hard place situation) but I am just saying it is good to choose what you want to put in your body.

Now with that out on the table, IF you want to eat organically and support local farms, here are some basics for that…

Not all things come ripe at the same time, even in the same row in the same field and that can throw farmers for a loop. Sometimes however, every single plant will yield at the same time even if planted a few weeks apart in different fields. I bet every farmer wished crystal balls worked, then we would know how to plan! Last year I took 500 pounds of cucumbers to the Rescue mission because every plant produced in volume all at the same. Go figure!

Organic produce is going to have blemishes, bumps, odd shapes, pests, knots and weird colors. This is what produce does when it isn’t manipulated. You have to decide if you want to contend with those possibilities. I think it is beautiful and I don’t mind the occasional pest. I have learned that if the bug is chomping on the produce it means it is at the peak of perfection; I just have to fight the critter for the deliciousness.

As the summer plants are now fading, we are getting ready to enter into what I call the window of unpredictability. I really can’t tell you on Monday what will be in the box, because I won’t know till we see what is in the field on Thursday! Whatever we have will be ripe and ready though and still a good value…so you will have to gamble on your farmer for the next couple of weeks during the summer to fall transition…I bet you’ll come out a winner!

Hoping to have melon, eggplant, white and regular cucs, squash, field peas and okra…plus herbs! Click here to get your box and support local agriculture!

Two  Join in our Co-op Nest

The weather this week is causing smiles all over! People are less grumpy and so are the plants. The tomatoes have new flowers, the eggplant is all but dancing in the field and even the wildflowers have started to bud!

I wish I could say the same for some of my landscape plants in our yard. The heat was too much for them. Now I have some spots that need filling and it is still summer, so I want something pretty, but I also want things that will make it through fall and maybe even add winter interest. I have heard a lot of folks say the same thing. In order to solve this dilemma, our co-op partners at Riverdale nursery are sending us a shipment. They are a wholesale company, so you can’t order direct from them, but since they are a co-op partner you can get your late summer/fall shrubs, herbs, perennials and some annuals right here at Green Door Gourmet. Come Check out the selection and great pricing too! You can have a second chance at a lovely yard after all! Also, they are sending fig and blueberry bushes in case you are ready to try your edible landscape thumb!

Can I just say we have the best customers! I am so appreciative of everyone who is making their way to the shed each Saturday. It really has a feeling of community, and although we are still learning and growing we hope we are keeping you happy! One of the most fun things for me is introducing new things to our clients. This week we are going to do this by giving you a bonus in the box…treats from Shelton Farms. Shelton Farm is a diverse farm in New Market TN, and Danny Shelton has been growing berries and veggies, as well as milling corn and wheat for over 15years. You will get one of Danny’s 3 lb bags of milled items as a bonus this week! If you haven’t tried his stuff yet, you will love it. The grits are stone ground, thick yellow corn, almost like polenta, his corn meal makes some killer cornbread ( yes, we have recipes for you) and the wheat flour makes rolls that melt in your mouth! I can’t wait for you to try these! AND he is sending some frozen black raspberries for purchase… mix those with some peaches for a cobbler extraordinaire!

Green Door Gourmet urges you to enjoy the bounty of summer while you can. Soon it will be the end of cucs and squash, melons and beans. We are starting to see the first butternut squash flush color and certain early tomato varieties are no more.

This week in the box: cucs, cocktail and slicer tomatoes, squash, potatoes, okra, field corn, peppers, eggplant and more! Click here to order your box!

See you Saturday

Attention, all you friends and foodies out there…

First off, check out this article “Too Hot to Cook: Simple Salads” from StyleBlueprint. They’ve given us some really tasty ideas for the perfect summer salads, bursting with flavor and–of course–fresh, local food.

Next up, we’ve got an incredible “slime-free” okra recipe from our friend (and loyal customer) David Bauer! He used the okra, tomatoes, and green chiles from his CSA box and said the recipe  ”was a great combination and received rave reviews!” Check it out:

Okra in a Spicy Tomato-Onion Sauce

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup oil
• 2 tsp curry powder. We used Malaysian Ginger Curry, but any sort you like will do.
• 1 pint okra, trimmed, then cut on a diagonal into 1/2-inch pieces
• 1 tbs minced or grated ginger root (use fresh)
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tomato, diced medium
• 1/4 to 1/2 fresh hot green chile, minced fine (without seeds. use as much or as little you like, according to your need for spiciness!)
• 2 tbs chopped cilantro

1. 1. Have all of the prepared ingredients ready next to the stove.
2. 2. Heat the oil  a large wok or skillet over medium heat. Add the onion, increase the heat to medium high, and saute for a few minutes, until the onions are just wilted. Add the curry powder, stir and let the spices bloom for a minute or two.
3. 3. Add the okra, and stir to coat the okra with the spices.  Stir-fry for 2-3 minutes or so, until the okra starts to brown lightly.  Adjustment of the heat might be needed here to find the point that allows the okra to brown without burning the spices. Some of the curry may stick to the bottom of the pan, don’t worry about that.
4. 4. Add the ginger, stir, and cook for 30 seconds, then pour in the tomatoes, salt and chopped green chile.  Stir well.  Reduce the heat to low, cover the pan, and cook for 3-5 more minutes. If there still is a bit of spice still on the bottom of the pan, pour in a little white wine to deglaze a bit. The goal is to get the okra to have just a bit of bite, like al dente pasta — but not all mushy.
5. 5. Stir in the cilantro, check for salt and serve.

In case you missed a couple recipes, or maybe more than a couple, here are some  of the delicious recipes we’ve had the past few weeks. Print them or save them or share them, but definitely use them!