Weekly Weeder

Olin-Fox Farms Volume No. 10 Issue No. 29 November 19, 2008

www.olinfoxfarms.com Fall Season Week 8

STANDARD REMINDER

Please be sure to wash your weekly share thoroughly before serving. To preserve freshness, it is NOT ‘table ready’ (i.e., pre-washed). We deliver your Olin-Fox Farms’ produce right from the fields to ensure highest quality.

This is the Eighth week of the Fall Program.

Thanksgiving Week (November 26-29) is an OFF week.

The Ninth Week will be December 3-6.

Schedules can also be found on our website, www.olinfoxfarms.com

This Week's News From The Farms

Old Man Winter has not yet arrived, but it sure feels like it! Many have even seen a light dusting of snow. Despite the current weather, we are including more ripe tomatoes in your shares this week. Yes, it's hard to believe, ripe tomatoes in November? The truth is, they were picked while green, and ripened by the warmth and light of the sun in greenhouses. So, enjoy them, they will probably be the last for the season.

Although we are hoping that Mother Nature will smile upon our organic tomato growers in Florida, for the first of the Winter Program 2009 deliveries that will also include citrus, Virginia honey, and our locally grown greens and root crops, to name a few.

In the remaining two weeks of the Fall Program, we will be including the 2009 brochure in your shares for your convenience. If you have already signed up for 2009, please pass it along to someone who may be interested or leave it somewhere for someone to pick up, like a doctor's office or a work break room, or place of interest. Please do not just throw it away, as we are all conserving our planet's resources.

In addition to the tomatoes included in your shares this week, we are including an array of nice leafy greens. In the remaining Fall Program weeks in December, we hope to include more Winter Squash, Eggs, Broccoli, Salad Mixes, Potatoes, and more. So, stay tuned!

In other news, here we go! Thank you for your patience during last week's website and email disruption, as we were in very much need of changing and upgrading our service. So, we have some exciting news to share with you: the long-anticipated return of Windows to the Farms slide show is back on line. It can be found on the Media Center page (www.olinfoxfarms.com) and it was developed by our own Farmer John to be Internet dial-up service friendly.

And, our all new video page also on found on the Media Center page. Please note: the video page is still in development but is fully operational. Videos can be viewed from our website, or found on the Olin-Fox Farms channel at U-Tube. We do recommend a high speed Internet connection for viewing.

So, enjoy, and have a Happy Thanksgiving!

In Your Produce Basket This Week

Turnips, Cabbage, Spinach, Romaine, Tatsoi, Rosemary, Tomatoes

See your produce list for more details.

Please Note: With elements beyond our control such as the start or the end of a harvest, or extreme weather conditions that may limit the quantity of produce coming in, we systematically address each delivery and pick up group each week and do our very best to see that everyone receives some of everything.

Recipes/Information

BLT and Its Variants

This may be one of the last times to have a Bacon, Lettuce and Tomato sandwich with locally grown tomatoes! And, we have come to enjoy this sandwich with many variations, perhaps you have a few:

Bacon, Lettuce and Tomato

Bacon, Onion, Lettuce and Tomato

Bacon, Napa Cabbage and Tomato

Bacon, Spinach, and Tomato

Lettuce as found at: http://www.calettuceresearchboard.org/Origin.html

and: http://www.ifood.tv/node/1031

Lettuce has been used for thousands of years - 4,500 year old Egyptian tomb paintings are believed to depict bunches of lettuce. Support for its Mediterranean origins includes a wild lettuce variety which may be the basis for our lettuce of today. Compositae or Sunflower is the family that lettuce is from.

The first written accounts of lettuce were by Herodotus in 550 B.C., who said that lettuce was on the royal tables of Persia. Greek writers such as Aristotle, Hippocrates, and Galen, and Roman writers Columella and Pliny wrote of this leafy green vegetable. In fact, the Romans no doubt introduced lettuce to Northern Europe.

Romaine lettuce may have a common ancestry with the stem lettuce found on those Egyptian tomb paintings. In fact, stem lettuce is commonly consumed in current day Egypt.

Lettuce was probably brought from Italy to France by either Rabelais or the Pope when he was exiled in Avignon. At that time it was served as a hot dish. In the late 1600s, Chevalier D'Albinac travelled from France to London, where he made his fame and fortune by dressing raw lettuce in private hotels and fashionable restaurants. D'Albinac used vinaigrette, caviar, flavored oils, soy sauce, anchovies, truffles, meat juices, and flavored vinegars.

We have a Mr. T.W. Whitaker to thank for iceberg lettuce, which he developed in 1940. From the 1950s to the 1970s, this was the main commercial type of lettuce grown.

There is a wide variety of nutritional value among the various types of lettuce. However, the types most often in your shares, leaf and Romaine, have very similar nutritional values. They contain Calcium, Potassium, and Iron, and Vitamins A and C.

Bon Appetit!