As I think back over the week and the tens of folks who passed through our front door, it is a kaleidoscope of fond memories and appreciation for so much labor on behalf of this farm. Those who have come here for a while might notice that I am more organized each day and thus more ready to push on to the next task, and bring others along with me. A look into Wednesday afternoon from 1-3 found Gwendolyn, Jack and Luke (all visitors) being dragged along by Paula, Leslie, Marissa and me to harvest one last batch of shiitakes, collect and cut up what turned into 20 quarts of winter squash that was a bit rotten here and there, slice 5 gallons of peppers for the freezer and strip, cut and blanche kale to 9 full gallon bags, also for the freezer. But then there were the chores – pigs, turkeys and layers, and organizing the garage for the next day’s grain delivery, picking the chard, lettuce and Asian greens for the Friday CSA (we were afraid of frost that night), and the covering of a bed of lettuce and one of chard with row covers. That was just one 2-hour window of hyper productivity in a very swift week. Thanks, new and old many hands for this maximum output.

Here is a short quote from Gwendolyn – “Thank you so much for having me as a visiting volunteer at your many hands, many hearts making many dreams, many people as and in and nature in all her many forms, many beings coming together to make love real on your farm yesterday.  What a powerful experience.”

You can see Paula’s feet in the foreground, and Luke is a bit obscured by Gwendolyn

Special Gratitude this week

An important driver on the farm is Marissa, who usually only works 1 day per week, though we were blessed with her presence on Wednesday and Friday. This week I want to spotlight her because she truly is a human dynamo. And I particularly appreciate her this week because she brought what turned into 6 packed gallon bags of chopped parsley for the freezer. I had shared those seedlings with her in the spring, and because our parsley crop failed due to obliteration by weeds. What goes around often does come around! Thank you, Marissa.

What is in your CSA Share this week?

Share week of October 14

There are only 2 weeks left for the summer share. Week of October  21, 28

Best guess for week of October 21

• Chard – it has frozen many times but bounces back each morning

• Arugula
• Apples
• Peppers from the walk in
• Tomatoes from the basement floor!

• Winter squash – butternut for larges and carnival for medium and smalls – these presently reside in the barn

• Lettuce
• Peppers – you will get more of these this week – in the walk in we have 14 crates of them to dispense!
• Carrots
• Chives
• An Asian green each
• Broccoli for larges
• Sweet potatoes for mediums and smalls – these are resting on the kitchen floor where it is warm enough for them

Now is a good time to sign up for the fall share. It runs for 4 weeks in November. We will have green field crops if the weather is in our favor, plus lots of things like garlic, potatoes, squash, leeks, beets, carrots, etc. The fall share usually runs on the larger side; and you should be able to keep a lot of this stuff around for eating into December and January.
Sign up here – https://mhof.net/pick-up-locations-and-times/

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Volunteering at MHOF

Thanks to Gwendolyn, an old NOFA friend from 20 years ago, and Jack and Luke, two brothers who are taking sustainable ag courses at UMass with friend Renee Ciulla. We love to host, for a one off or for a more long term commitment.

Jennifer’s recipe for the week

Cheesy-Tomato Spaghetti Squash

This past Tuesday I brought the kids to the farm to pick up 80 pounds of potatoes and 89 pounds of squash that I bought from Dan (see below). Many of which I have never had but excited to try new squashes and recipes.  It also provided Madelyn some fun entertainment.  The Hubbard squash (left) weighed almost as much as her.

I decided to a cook one of the spaghetti squash first, something I’m a little more familiar with cooking.  I recently learned a different technique to cook the squash so it has long strands of “spaghetti”.  Instead of cutting length wise, cut across making 2-3 inch rounds.

Ingredients:

• 1 Spaghetti squash, cut in rounds with seeds scooped out – save the seeds (see below)
• Tomato sauce of your choice, I used a veggie garden sauce that was made with all ingredients from MHOF and canned a few weeks ago.
• Shredded cheese of your choosing
• Ghee, butter or coconut oil
• Salt and Pepper to taste

To make:

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
2. Place squash rounds in a baking dish.
3. Lightly oil, salt and pepper both sides.
4. Cook for 30-40 minutes flipping one time half way through.
5. Take out of oven and fluff your spaghetti squash away from the skin.
6. Switch oven to high broil.
7. Add sauce and cheese on top of the squash and broil until golden and crispy.
8. Enjoy!

 

One of my favorite parts of cooking any squash is cooking and eating the seeds that are filled with nutrition.  Cook at 300 degrees on a cookie sheet with a little ghee or coconut oil and salt.  Tossing occasionally until golden brown.  About 20-25 minutes.  I love eating them warm from the oven.

For those of you receiving butternut squash this coming week, click on the picture below for my Ginger Butternut Squash soup.

Food available for sale for preserving – be in touch to order

• Swiss chard – $3/lb. – it made it through the frost
• Kale – $3/lb.
• Collards – $3/lb.
• Peppers – $3/lb. – high quality and dense

 

• We are also selling the following preserved foods
• frozen applesauce – nothing added – $7/quart.
• Frozen pear sauce – nothing added – $7/quart – this one is especially good for your gall bladder
• frozen peaches – $6 per pound in bags of around 2-3 bs.
• canned tomatoes – $10/quart.
• Canned tomato juice – $10/quart
• Canned apple juice – $10/quart
• NEW ITEM – cooked, pureed, frozen beets in pints – $6 – good for almost everything – https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8565237/; we plan to use it in soups and add it to our super drink everyday

Mexico Holds Firm in GM Corn Dispute by Jack Kittredge

If the U.S. government was hoping the new president of Mexico would weaken the country’s resolve to ban the cultivation and consumption of genetically modified corn, those hopes have been dashed. “We will not allow the cultivation of genetically modified corn,” president Claudia Scheinbaum stated in her inauguration speech Oct. 1. This article details the background and latest details in this “trade dispute” which the US started in an effort to force Mexico, homeland to Maize, to plant and grow genetically modified corn.

Dan has some items for sale

Potatoes and tomatoes, each at $3/lb. And new this week – winter squash at $2/lb. Contact him at 978-257-2627 or dan@bionutrient.org.

Fresh Squeezed Cider Available Monday, October 28

We will press cider on Sunday the 27th and it will be for sale at $15/gallon. You can place your order and come and pick it up Sunday afternoon, the 27^th through the next Friday at the farm. If you are a Monday, Wednesday or Friday shareholder and would like to either pick it up here or have it travel to your site, we can arrange that. First come, first served – we will probably have around 10 gallons for sale. It goes fast and is only getting better and the frosts hit the apples. Contact me at julie@mhof.net or 978-257-1192

Time to order your turkey

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Details and to order your Turkey

Farm Doins

We still had bags that were painfully difficult to pack this week, mostly because of the 2 lb. lettuces. A good problem to have I suppose. Monday and Friday both saw a lot of harvesting of apples, and also some pears and paw paws.

On Tuesday we moved the pigs without too much of a problem and then moved onto cider making.

That is badass Paula and Skippy at the back of the pig house as Matt drives the tractor.

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Wednesday was the second day that the WPI students with professor Reza came to dig some holes and insert probes for their project using drones to determine water depths. They came three days this past week and had lunch with us. Here they are showing off their tools

Friday morning saw us finishing up the Wednesday food preservation

Not a crop to write home about this year, we had a few sweet potatoes. Luke was the major digger for this operation, with Nick taking over on Wednesday. The rest of us followed up with hand digging.

Fun in the arugula

The big chicken move – the young ladies are now in their winter home with free range of the farm during the day. Happy birds indeed.

Food preservation exploits were many this week. I keep hoping that it will wind down, but it turns out that we preserve a lot of stuff. This week we did a big batch of frozen kale, two batches of peppers (for these all we need to do is slice them and freeze them), froze the parsley from Marissa, cleaned out a whole bunch of pawpaws and are freezing them in little pawpaw custard packs of a half pint, did up 20 quarts of cooked down and pureed winter squash from damaged squashes, and made up a large batch of collard puree – chop, blanche, cool, puree, and freeze in pint containers – to add to our daily herb, mushroom, kelp, beet and now collard drink – breakfast of champions! We might have started on the pear sauce from damaged bartlett pears by the end of Sunday.

Julie

Our super friendly pigs give us a lot of joy – here they are enjoying pats by Marissa and Luke.Saturday as Sophie and I drove by their enclosure, they tore down the field to say hi to us. Great pigs!

Quick Links

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Link to buy J and J’s book – Many Hands Make a Farm-
https://www.chelseagreen.com/product/many-hands-make-a-farm/