Field Update: Germination, Recipe Ideas, and Sunchokes!
Week 28, Sept. 17-23, 2012, Week 38 of the Year
Only 1,300-1,500 more bed ft. available for planting and seven (counting this one) weeks left in the program. I hope you are all enjoying the bounty of the CSA. There is even more available in the fields, if only we could get it picked! No significant rain last week but temperatures have cooled which slows water uptake and evaporation in the fields.
Our efforts to pay very close attention to seed depth have payed off in great germination rates. This week we see lettuce, spinach, 3rd bed of arugula, daikon and radish all coming up strong. We are finally able to weed beds as the appropriate time! We still have some big weeds to get caught up on, but our farmies will get to enjoy weeding with a hula hoe at the appropriate time! I know it sounds silly, but weeding can be easy and enjoyable when you space rows according to your hoe size and run through the beds when weeds have 1-2 sets of leaves and your seedlings are small. This gives our crop a huge advatage and allows it to be done on time. We have seeded beds heavily due to being nervous about our germination rate which has led to a lot of thinning. We will cut down on the heavy seeding in future plantings. I am the most guilty when it comes to over-seeding.
As temperatures cool, days shorten, smiles widen, and plant metabolism for summer crops and weeds slows. This means there is less fruit, but also slower growing weeds which is always reason to rejoice. We celebrate the Autumnal Equinox this Saturday September 22nd. On this day the day and night length will again be equal as days will continue to shorten. This is a time to respect the coming darkness but more importantly be thankful for the light. We have already noticed the angle of sun hanging more southerly in the sky and pink and purple hues on the crops earlier in the evening shifts. For me, this is a very welcome change. In ancient Greek tradition, and also for myself on the farm, this is a time to reflect on the successes and failures of the season. I take time to note what varieties were liked, which performed, which seeds failed to germinate, what sold best at market, and what notes I have for myself for next year. It is very easy for a gardener or beginning farmer to start to get that itch in January or February which is accompanied by a foolish and endless optimism about what can be accomplished in the following year. I equate this to what happens to women following childbirth that allows them to go back on the promises they made in labor – and once again desire to be pregnant. Some sort of amnesia, thus I take notes so that we can plant and tend the appropriate amount of land for the workforce and the land. This is also a time to wish “shana tovah u’metukah” a “good and sweet new year” to those observing Rosh Hashanah the beginning to the Hebrew high holy days. In this tradition it is the time to sum up this past year, looking forward to a new slate for next year and a time for a spiritual wake up call when one can ask for forgiveness. So I too wish you a good and sweet new year as you look back on this season and use what you have learned to plan for the upcoming year.
Flea beetles have also been seen on the farm, which will create holes in our arugula and other cole crops. We have some wood ash we will sprinkle in the beds soon that acts as a deterrent. We tested this in a bed 1/2 with and 1/2 without in 2010 and the difference was clear. While the damage was not eliminated, it was a lot less. There is also damage on the cabbage and kale from caterpillars of the cabbage looper or cabbage moth. We will continue to treat these crops weekly with Bt (rain pending) or one caterpillar can destroy a whole head of cabbage.
I learned this week that Pac Choi/Pak Choy and Bok Choi/Choy are essentially the same. Bok Choi means “white vegetable” in Cantonese. Pac Choi is very low in calories and high in vitamins A, C, & K, phyto-nutrients, water soluble antioxidants, calcium, iron, mangnesium, etc… I know this vegetable is new to some of you so I thought I would give you some ideas on how to cook it. Keep in mind you will find more recipes online if you search “Bok Choy”
Stir Fried Pac Choi with Sesame Ginger Sauce
Ginger Sweet Tofu with Pac Choi
Steamed Ginger Salmon with Garlic Pac Choi
Here are also some recipes for using your Red Noodle Beans (called Bodi in the Caribbean). Yard long beans are more drought and heat tolerant. This summer’s intense heat, drought, and our lack of irrigation nixed the option for bush beans this season although we do have some more plants flowering now. While these beans are nontraditional they are very tasty and popular among chefs.
Red Noodle Beans with Slivered Garlic
Yard Long Beans in Coconut Milk
Molly Rockamann, suggested them beer battered and deep fried with lemon aioli
I have also pickled them for bloody mary fixing holiday gifts. Here is a Lemon Rosemary Pickled Bean Recipe I am looking forward to trying.
Zucchini –Zucchini Pickles
Wildlife of the Week- Jerusalem Artichokes/ Sunchokes, Helianthus tuberosus
Several of you have noticed the beautiful 9′ tall sunchokes blooming on the farm. Sunchokes are a sunflower relative (Compositae or Asteracae) native to eastern North America and cultivated for it’s tuber (root). Like sunflowers what we call a flower is actual a cluster of many florets, this is characteristic of the Compositae family (lettuce, marigold, dandelion, thistle, and zinnia also belong to this family). The tuber ranges in size from 1-2″ wide by 3-4″ long and look similar to a ginger root although do not taste at all like it. People are unsure how it got the name ‘Jerusalem Artichoke’ but speculate that the Italian immigrant name for the plant “girasole” (means sunflower in Italian) was misheard and turned into “Jerusalem”. Artichoke comes from a French explorer who felt that the root tasted a bit of artichoke. Sunchokes were first cultivated by Native Americans long before settlers came to the Americas and then it was also domesticated in the early 1600 when explorers began cultivating it in Cape Cod. In the 1980’s a pyrimid sceme caused many mid-west farms to plant sunchokes on their farms. Since there was not yet a market developed for the tuber only those in the middle and upper portion of the sceme who sold tubers to other farmers made money. This scheme has been blamed for the ruin of some farms not only because of the financial loss, but because they are hard to eradicate and convert the area to a sunchoke-free farmland again. Unlike other tubers the sunchoke stores inulin instead of starch. The plants are very hardy and can naturalize (i.e. take over; look for this word when planting new plants!). Just one tuber can reproduce 75-200 more by fall! These tubers can be used in ways you would use a potato although they have a sweeter nuttier flavor. They can also be sliced thinly for a salad, pickled, fried, roasted, etc. They hold their texture better if steamed rather than boiled. Because the human body has trouble digesting inulin some people experience gas pain after eating sunchokes, so eat in moderation. Sunchokes are high in potassium, fiber, iron, niacin, thiamine, phosphorous, and copper.
Celebrations- Happy (belated) Birthday last Friday to our Farm and Community Education Coordinator, Rachel Levi! Our Fund and Resource Development Coordinator, Mandy Brooks, celebrates a birthday this coming Saturday. Happy Birthday, Mandy!
Thank Yous- To the Northern Arts Council for having a group of artists out to the farm on Sunday for our Plein Air Art on the Farm event. Also thank you to the Vegan and Raw Meetup Groups for joining us at the farm for a potluck on Sunday evening.
Needs- We would welcome any help harvesting. Shares could be bigger, but we don’t have enough hands on harvest days to pick. This past Wednesday we were down to just 3 farmies and Friday is always short staffed as well.