When I was a little girl, I used to love playing in mud puddles. I guess some things never change! Right now the farm is quite saturated with over 4 inches of rain received over the last few days. It was much needed, as was the break in temperatures. I do adore this time of year with the glimmer of a leaf turning gold and spinning wildly in the wind, the crisp fall nights, and the change of harvest and cooking style. We trade the quick chop of summer for the long braise of fall! I am officially ready for soup season!

Asparagus Pilaf, from Nigel Slater's cookbook "Tender"

I did take the opportunity to start reading/cooking out of the amazing book Tender by Nigel Slater. It is 618 pages of gorgeous photos, recipes, and writing all about a cook and his vegetable patch. Talk about epic! This is a life work folks, crammed full of great info and also inspiring photos. This is not a book to pick up on an empty stomach though… 5 minutes of looking at the pictures and you will be raiding the fridge! I think he has done a brilliant job of getting to the heart of seasonal cooking and gardening.

People often ask how to better understand the local food movement, eating seasonal and building a basic knowledge of what real food looks and tastes like versus what has become the grocery store normal “pretty cardboard” food.  Of course there are great books, but surely there is a simple means of thinking about it: a comparison to something we already practice. Ah, an epiphany…think of food like clothes. Ok let’s get a few things out on the table… I am not a clothes horse by any means. The plants don’t care if I am wearing Calvin Klein or Cow & Vine and given the choice I would buy seeds or cookbooks or wine for the cellar over clothes anyday! But stay with me here… We dress seasonal so why don’t we eat seasonal? Think of winter squash like that winter jacket… you take it out of the closet (pantry or fridge) at just the perfect moment, and slip into the comfort of it so easily. So put away that summer beach oufit (watermelon, peaches, tomatoes) and take out those favorite jeans and a spiffy sweater (greens, apples, and butternut squash).

So thanks for bearing with us as we “change out our closet” over the next few weeks and have a mix a summer and fall items in the box! Saturday is CSA Pickup day, so click here to order your veggies.

This weekend on the farm… we are getting our fall plants and the start of pumpkins coming in! We are delighted to offer a delivery service for fall plants and décor purchased on the farm. We will bring your hay, corn stalks pumpkins, mums, pansies etc right to your door! Inquire at the farm on Saturday for more info.

We will also have our first kid’s club event on Saturday at 1 pm. The parents have spoken and Saturday afternoon seems to be the best fit for a fun 30 minute learning session, weather permitting. Please come dressed to get a little dirt on your hands and clothes! This is for ages 3-6 years old, and the cost is $3 per child. This cost includes any supplies, coloring sheets, seeds, craft materials) used in the activity as well as a small stipend for our kid’s club helpers. We are limited to 20 spots, so reserve your spot by emailing us at info@greendoorgourmet.com.

We are pleased to offer a “pack the freezer” special on our breads. 2 for $10. Pick some up on Saturday! Also we just got in some super fun new jams and pickles including dilly beans and a southern sweet tea jelly. Delicious.

Farmer’s choice is the theme of the basket this week… I will be out in the mud in the next day or so figuring out what survived the cooler temps and rain… but I bet our new fall seeds are already up by the time you come out on Saturday, so turnip greens here we come!

Don’t forget we now carry Jolly Barnyard chicken here at the farm. We have breast, leg/thigh, whole chicken and chicken livers. Also, we will be substituting jolly barnyard eggs for cub creek for the next two weeks while our friends at cub creek take a little R&R time.

See you all on 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.

I must say that I am not the most tech savvy person. I fall into the high touch – low tech descriptor rather well: so when the social media phenomena made it into my life, it was a big adjustment. I still do not (much to many persons’ dismay) spell check my typing there, or worry that every post may be grammatically perfect. I tend to think it is social media, not English class. (Though if you are tech-savvy, feel free to like us on Facebook!) That said, I got added to a group post from my hometown. It has been a hoot to reminisce the joys and insanities of small town life AND it got me thinking…

I cannot remember buying produce at the grocery store. We grew most things on our farm, and the things we didn’t we would get from neighbors or cousins, and if they didn’t have it we went to the produce stand out in the country. Not to give away my age or anything, but that was a number of years ago and the world has become a faster, more convenient oriented place. I miss going to my cousin Stowe Carpenters for melons… sweet summer watermelon and cantaloupe! My dad carried a salt shaker on the dash of the old pickup just for those visits to Stowe’s farm. The kids were allowed to go out and pick a melon and bring it back to the truck. Dad would take out his pocket knife, slice it open right there, whip out the salt shaker and shazam! A portable feast! We won’t go into visiting any of the Beam’s Stan or Sunny for some of the world’s finest tomatoes. I dream of growing maters like those of my youth. We were locavores before the word was invented!

{ The New Oxford Dictionary”s 2007 word of the year, locavore,  was actually coined in 2005 by a group of four women in San Francisco who proposed that local residents should try to eat only food grown or produced within a 100 mile radius. The locavore movement encourages people to buy from local farms, farmer’s markets, or grow your own, arguing that fresh local products are more nutritious and taste better} reprinted from the 2008 Local table magazine

The last two decades took folks away from those visits. Sad, really, that you miss the great produce, and the neighborly visits, too, when you depend on the grocery store for your food. I am so pleased to be right smack in the middle of trying to change all that. We hope to provide you that feeling of visiting a neighbor’s farm, catching up on the local scene, and getting some terrific food as well!

At our CSA, or Community Supported Agriculture, we are all in this together, sharing the bounty of our farm and those of our Cooperative partners. The box we bring you each week is brimming with wholesome goodness from each of the members. If you are feeling that you need something different than what is in the box this week, please come to the market prepared to shop for those things! We have much produce available on market days, and you are more than welcome to customize what you walk away with rather than participate in the CSA program. We want you to eat well and be happy. That being said, the CSA box is a deal—a good deal. We are providing you what is most in season at that very moment, and the bountiful harvest that Mother Nature provides us enables you to get the most bang for your buck when you order our box. Any substitutions may result in an increase in price of the CSA box, so we kindly suggest to shop around on market days for what your family needs, instead of ordering a box, on those weeks you may not be as interested in the farmers choice.

This week in our box we’ve got heirloom tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers (sweet and hot), heirloom eggplants, okra, more summer watermelon or cantaloupe, squash if the weather holds, and herbs and recipes as always. Corn may or may not be in there, we won’t know till a little later in the week. Click here to order! And when you are shopping in the market this week, grab a couple canned goods—this week only, they are 2 for $10! One is normally $6.50, so take advantage of this great deal this Saturday only. We have 10 additional  varieties of canned items so it is a good chance to try something new!

See you then!

Sylvia