Potato Day 2009

Many hands make light work… and with 1,675 # of potatoes we used all the hands we could get!

More potatoes!  Go, girl, go!

Quite a production.  But potatoes aren’t our only “bumper crop”

The eggplants are simply incredible!  If you haven’t tried one, you are really missing out!  Ask Vanessa for a recipe.

And look what is hiding quietly in the tomato patch.  Fall is right around the corner.  Have a blessed week.  We look forward to seeing you soon.  Vanessa has chosen Friday, September 11 from 4 to 7 p.m. and Saturday, September 12 from 8 to noon for the Fall Plant and Produce Sale.  Please make plans to attend and savor the last of the summertime garden as well as decorate for fall.  We look forward to seeing you there!

This time of year is particularly crazy as it seems the long hot days of summer bring the garden to a crescendo of flavorful delights that you just cannot eat enough of fast enough.  Would it be wonderful if just some of these tomatoes ripened in December? 

New to the Email Produce Route this week are Mushroom Peppers.  Ours are still green, but we would like to offer them now as the cute peppers are very hot – so enjoy with your favorite salsa, as a garnish, for pickling or drying!

Happy Birthday to H. this week too!  Enjoy your day!!

One of the items listed on this past week’s Email Produce Route that is creating quite a conversation is Edamame Beans, or young soybeans.   Served frequently at Asian restaurants, these beans are sometimes boiled in the pods (as the recipe below indicates), but they can also be prepared a variety of ways.

The United States Department of Agriculture states that edamame are “a soybean that can be eaten fresh and is best known as a snack with a nutritional punch”.

Here’s what you’ll find in a half-cup serving of shelled edamame (or 1 1/8 cup edamame in the pods):

• 120 calories
• 9 grams fiber
• 2.5 grams fat
• 1.5 grams polyunsaturated fat (0.3 grams plant omega-3 fatty acids)
• 0.5 gram monounsaturated fat
• 11 grams protein
• 13 grams carbohydrate
• 15 mg sodium
• 10% of the Daily Value for vitamin C
• 10% Daily Value for iron
• 8% Daily Value for vitamin A
• 4% Daily Value for calcium

Edamame Snack – very easy to prepare and enjoy

We have been a bit remiss in posting recently

(could it be all the greenbeans? )

So here a quick “visual” tour of the last two weeks…

The guineas are growing fast.  They are almost bigger than the Bantam hens that hatched them.  And flying just comes naturally!

Then there is our resident shepherd.  He has spent several hours taking the goats (via collars and leads) all over the Farm.  Amazingly, if one is on a lead – the rest follow and stay together!

Aren’t the zinnas gorgeous?  Such a riot of color for late summer.  Don’t forget to collect the seeds this fall.  Simply store them in any paper (not plastic) sack in a cool dry place (basement works well) and replant next spring.  Almost as easy daylilies

We have been eating really, really well lately too.  J. has perfected Eggplant Parmesan, and we are all enjoying it.

Check out the following link to make your own:

http://startcooking.com/blog/383/How-to-Make-Eggplant-Parmesan

Enjoy the coming week!