Weekly Weeder


Olin-Fox Farms Volume No. 7 Issue No. 38 December 7, 2006

www.olinfoxfarms.com Fall Season Week 4

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 Week's News From the Farms

No nor'easter this week, despite some meteorologists’ predictions.  Now things can get back to normal as we get ready for whatever mix of weather Mother Nature has in store for us this winter.  All the farms of our CSA are finishing up the fall harvest, leaving some crops for early in 2007 and others to over-winter until spring. 

 

At this time of year on the farm, the application of row covers, mulching, and the solarization of growing areas takes place.  Solarizing is a great labor-saving technique for processing a vegetable or flowerbed over a period of several months.  The area to be planted is covered over with a heavy-duty weed guard in order to break down any vegetation and kill most weed seeds.  Once removed, the area is ready for tilling or planting seedlings, without the need for any backbreaking work.  In addition, to prepare for Old Man Winter, planning and planting continues for the year-round grower. Many seed orders are being placed and some seeds sown, such as garlic. Red, white and yellow onions have already been planted. 


Over the next few weeks, we will meet with our other growers to discuss adding even more variety to the CSA, to include more fruits, vegetables, herbs, mushrooms, and our own resident honeybees.  Canning Farm's high quality beef was introduced at last summer's beef tasting and sale at Olin-Fox Farms.  We are working with them to offer their natural beef to our members, thus bringing us closer to being a full-service CSA.    

 

Please note:  Next week is the LAST week of the Fall Program. 


The 2007 All Season and Winter programs start Wednesday January 10th through Saturday January 13th.  We would very much appreciate receiving your registration for any of the 2007 programs by Friday, December 29th.  This will help us in early processing and scheduling, so we can spend more time more productively out in the field growing produce for you.

 

New payment option: For your added convenience, you can now use PayPal from our website (www.olinfoxfarms.com) to pay for your subscriptions.  The Fall 2006 and All Season 2007 schedules can also be found on our website.


Crop Report

As we come to the end of one season while preparing for the next, we pause to acknowledge how blessed we’ve been this year with such a good harvest.  Despite some severe weather, the majority of our crops made it through, even surprising us with some late summer produce, such as tomatoes and peppers.  Now, with the falling temperatures and shorter days, plant growth slows down drastically; but, as a year-round grower, you learn methods for extending a crop's growing season and ways to promote a longer growing cycle for many types of plants.  Crops currently on the brink of harvest are:  cabbage, more broccoli, more potatoes, winter greens to include cress, lettuce mixes, and, of course, our very first horseradish.



Weekly Weeder, December 7, 2006 Page 2

In Your Produce Basket This Week

Fall Salad Mix, Kennebec White Potatoes, Acorn Squash, Spearmint, Selection of Fall Produce (see your Produce List at your Distribution Point).


Recipes


It’s entirely possible there’s a few of our members who even recall the heyday of the downtown flagship department stores of yesteryear, back in the day when ‘going shopping’ was still a big deal. Ladies got all dolled up, donning dressy frocks, stockings and high-heels, pillbox hats with veils, and those ubiquitous Junior League-style white gloves to spend the better part of a Saturday browsing the aisles with a covey of their closest friends for bargains in such elegant ‘basilicas-of-commerce’ as Filene’s in Boston, Wanamaker’s and Strawbridge’s in Phillie, Garfinkel’s in DC, Sak’s and Lord & Taylor’s in NYC, or, if Richmond was their Mecca, then the destination was surely Thalhimer’s and Miller & Rhodes, side-by-side on Broad Street. And the highlight of the day out there was enjoying lunch together in Thalhimer’s gracious penthouse restaurant, ‘The Richmond Room’, accompanied by live piano music drowned beneath the cheerful tumult of excited treble-pitched voices, the clatter of bone china, iced tea glasses and embossed silverware. Here’s a classic treat from their menu,


Thalhimer’s ‘Richmond Room’ Rice Pudding


9 eggs 1 ½ cups rice, cooked

1 quart milk 2 ½ teaspoons nutmeg

1½ cups sugar 2 ½ teaspoons cinnamon

1 cup butter, softened 6 tablespoons vanilla

1 cup raisins


Combine all ingredients and mix well. Pour into a 9-inch square pan. Bake at 300 for 25 to 30 minutes, or until pudding becomes firm (mine took almost an hour!). Serve to a hungry crowd, hot or cold, with a liberal dowsing of heavy cream. Why not garnish each serving with a sprig of fresh mint?




Newsletter and Recipes by Ethan Brent, Official Newsletter Focalizer

Bon Appetit!