Clagett Farm Notes

You-pick

During most weeks of the growing season, in addition to their weekly share (and at no extra cost) shareholders are welcome to the farm to you-pick (u-pick) veggies/berries to take home. To find out what's allowed to be u-picked in any given week, check the list on the board at the wash station or ask a farm staff person (next season shareholders will also be notified by email.)

Judging from last year's survey results, over 2/3 of shareholders you-picked at least once during the season. Many of them did it almost every week. Some shareholders u-picked more than twice the amount of tomatoes they got in this season's shares. I also know of shareholders who u-picked more than eight quarts of strawberries in one outing. Needless to say, even though it is not included in our share totals the you-pick option (if exercised) adds significant value to a shareholder's benefits.

A record of the 25 weeks of CSA shares in 2005

A few weeks before the season's end, we put together a chart of the shares you have received.  Perhaps it will help jog your memory so you can more easily fill out your end-of-the-year survey.  Or perhaps future members can look at this document to see what they missed.  Unfortunately, it's pretty big, so you'll need to zoom a few times to see it well.  Perhaps next year we'll come up with a better format.  In the meantime, I'm going to give myself a pat on the back, because I've resolved to become a better record-keeper, and this represents a real accomplishment. 

Thanks to help from CSA member, Fred Delventhal, you can see the chart in either of two formats.  Click on one below to check it out:

Download Adobe Acrobat version: sharelog2005.pdf
Download Excel version: sharelog2005.xls

NOTE: The sharelog does not take into account the veggies that members you-picked. For a quick explanation of you-pick, read the you-pick post, immediately above this one.

Love Those Okra...

From Roshani

Hello everyone,

Hope you all enjoyed the great okra harvest this year!  These critters sure did...

Future greens

This grasshopper is enjoying the baby arugula bed. And in a couple of weeks it will be the shareholders turn to enjoy the arugula growing in this bed. In addition, our spinach, spicy mix, lettuce, turnips and radishes are doing well and we hope shareholders will end this CSA season enjoying their fresh greens.   

What to expect in the rest of your shares

Many people have wondered what remains of their share this fall, especially given these dry conditions.  Let me give you my best guess. 
    We should expect a small to moderate harvest of sweet potatoes, which we're planning to begin next week.  You will probably also get a few more butternut squash, and lots more garlic.  Your broccoli, cabbage and cauliflower survived being transplanted, but they have been very slow to grow, and the deer and groundhogs have been using them and the sweet potato greens as an emergency fuel now that the dry weather is stunting their usual clover diet.  Perhaps they will produce small heads in October, or perhaps they will wait and produce bigger ones in November--it's hard to say.  The kale and collards are doing surprisingly well under the circumstances.  Everyone should continue getting a half pound or so each week, and much more if it ever begins raining again.  They also get a bit sweeter once the first frost hits.
      Your baby mustard greens, lettuce, spinach, arugula, carrots, beets, cilantro, dill, radishes and turnips were planted in August in two fields--a small one that can be irrigated and a large one that cannot.  We have not had a soaking rain since then, so nothing has germinated in the large field.  Only a bit of arugula, baby mustards, turnips and radishes have matured in the small field, and we will be doling them out carefully to everyone in October.  In September, when our grim circumstances were becoming apparent, we tore out some poorly-producing squash and cucumbers and dug some more beds near the washing station so we could seed more greens and roots that could be irrigated.  They have all since germinated in happy abundance, but I don't think they will be ready to harvest until November.  Carrots and beets need so long to mature that it didn't make sense to replant them, so I'm sorry to say that this is going to be a carrot and beet-free fall. 
     We still have some beans, cucumbers, summer squash, peppers, eggplants and okra.  You might have noticed that these summer crops slow down their production as the weather cools (the dry weather is contributing to their slow-down, as well).  All of the summer crops die abruptly with the first frost, which usually comes in early or mid-October.  It's been unusually warm, though, so perhaps we'll keep them a little longer. 
     We have planned for your last shares to be November 8 and 12.  November 18 and 19 (the Friday and Saturday before Thanksgiving) will be the gleaning weekend when you can pick all you want of what remains.  I don't think we'll need to make any changes to that schedule, but we'll certainly keep you informed if we do. 
    Autumn is usually my favorite season, and the farm's most abundant one.  It saddens me to have to eek out such a small share to everyone this October.  I deeply appreciate how understanding everyone has been.  Our customers seem to be taking this dry spell in stride, and that helps me relax and keep a better perspective on the viscicitudes of farming. 

Sorting garlic

Although we have several weeks of harvesting left, the coming of autumn also means that it is time to start working on next year's garlic. The preparation of the field and the planting itself will take place in a few weeks, but first we have to select our planting stock (seed garlic) and then, right before planting, we do plenty of "clove popping."

Right now we are at the seed garlic selection stage. This means that we climb into the barn loft where our garlic is stored. Then we move from variety to variety and select the largest, healthiest looking bulbs for our planting stock. The bulbs that do not make the grade are slated for food. In other words, the best garlic is planted, not eaten.

Above we see Bei up in the loft sorting German Porcelain garlic. Bei is a statistician, so we are quite confident in her sorting prowess. 

The first one on the left is Todd, who is clipping the stems of garlic destined for food. The pile of stems behind him will eventually end up in one of our compost piles. Jennie, Olivia (with her back to us) and Nina are involved in the sorting. Tyler, back on the right, is also clipping, but his bulbs are the ones that were selected as seed garlic.

Once all our garlic has been sorted, the planting stock is "clove popped." That is, the seedbulbs are broken up and separated into individuals cloves, a process that can take some time to complete. By then the field should be ready for planting. After planting the cloves, the field is covered by a fairly thick layer of straw mulch. At this point the garlic cloves are ready for a cozy winter. One of the exciting signs of early spring is to see garlic shoots poking out of the straw.    

Sweet and Sour Okra

Loraine DiPietro sent us an okra recipe she likes. This is what she says about it:

Here's a recipe for okra that shareholders should know about. ... It's easy and wonderfully delicious. Folks who are hesitant to try okra, or who are turned off by its mucilaginous texture will be converts.

Sweet and Sour Okra (Kutchhi Bhindi)

From Madhur Jaffrey’s Indian Cooking revised 1994.

400 g (14 oz) fresh, tender okra

7 medium-sized cloves garlic, peeled

1 dried, hot red chili (use half if you want it very mild)

7 Tbsp water

2 tsp ground cumin

1 tsp ground coriander

1 tsp ground turmeric

4 Tbsp vegetable oil

1 tsp cumin seeds

About 1 tsp salt

1 tsp sugar

About 4 tsp lemon juice

Rinse off the fresh okra and pat it dry. Trim the pods by cutting off the two ends. The top end is usually trimmed with a paring knife to leave a cone-shaped head. A tiny piece of the bottom is just snipped off. Cut the okra into 2 cm (3/4 inch) lengths.

Put the garlic and chili into the container of an electric blender with 3 Tbsp water. Blend until you have a smooth paste.

Empty the paste into a small bowl. Add the ground cumin, coriander, and turmeric. Mix.

Put the oil in a 9 inch frying pan or sauté pan and set over medium heat. When hot, put in the cumin seeds. As soon as the cumin seeds begin to sizzle—this happens within a few seconds—turn the heat down a bit and pour in the spice mixture. Stir and fry for about a minute. Now put in the okra, salt, sugar, lemon juice and 3 Tbsp water. Stir to mix and bring to a gentle simmer. Cover tightly and cook on low heat for about 10 minutes or until the okra is tender. If your okra takes longer to cook, you might need to add just a little more water.

Serves 4 to 6

Winter squash

Monday last week we harvested pumpkins, this Monday we harvested winter squash. By no means all of them. There are plenty more in the fields and we even didn't touch the butternuts, of which there are many.

We would gather them in piles and then load them up on the wagon as it drove next to the piles. Incidentally, black widow spiders love to shelter in the underside of pumpkins and winter squashes. Only yesterday we flicked four of them from the squashes they were sheltering in.

 

Going to the wash station. Carrie driving the tractor and Joe riding the wagon.   

Fast dwingling tomatoes

Shareholders no doubt noticed that the amount of tomatoes in their shares has been going down drastically. We are approaching the end of our tomatoes quicker than we expected. Last year we had tomatoes until mid October. We don't yet know whether we will have tomatoes in our share next week. Why are tomatoes quitting on us so early? We are not quite sure. The drought conditions we are experiencing had an obvious detrimental effect, but there may also be other factors involved. Here is a view from earlier today of our shrunken tomato plants. 

But let's put things into perspective. Our tomatoes had a great August. And although greatly reduced in number, as the September 13 photo below shows, they still look great:

    

Chiles

Those who like it hot are in luck, we are having a great chile year at the farm. Jalapenos, sugar chiles, long cayenne, habaneros, Thai dragons and Bulgarian carrot chiles are all doing well at the farm. No doubt some of our chiles will participate in the 2nd Annual Chili Bowl Bonanza, which takes place today at the Anacostia Farmers Market.

Here is a sample of some of our chiles, in increasing order of burning power. (The pictures were taken after yesterday's harvest.)

Sugar chiles. Mildly hot and sweet.

Bulgarian carrot chiles. There is more heat in these ones.

Thai dragons. Small but as fiery as they look.

Habaneros. Proceed with great caution.