Week Six

In the Bag
-Swiss Chard
~Sugar Snap Peas
~Snow Peas
~Lettuce
~Kale
~Carrots
~Summer Squash (Zucchini, Yellow Squash and Sunburst Yellow Squash—though you may not get all of these at once).
~Broccoli florets
~Green Onions
~Ornamental hot pepper plants (these will produce colorful little peppers with a lot of spice! This way those of you who really like the spice can have a steady supply...I would recommend transplanting these into a larger planter or garden very soon).
~Basil

Snow peas are slightly fatter/bigger with small peas inside...they are in with the lettuce. Both kinds are good for raw eating or in stir-fry. I think the snow peas are actually sweeter....eat the pods and all.

Farmer’s Muse from Erin

Thank you to all who showed up to weed this weekend. With the help of the Klandermans, Snyders, M. Smith, the Gildersleeves, Haas/Watts, J. Riske, and the farm crew, we weeded out most of the sweet corn and several rows of beans and onions. I’m sure they were all impressed that we can grow such fine, vigorous weeds! We are much better off now and should be able to finish up the last few rows without a problem.

Besides weeding, we have been busy taking care of our honey bees. It seems we have lost on of our queens and now need to re-queen one of our hives. Our bees are moving around the farm and today I saw them pollinating squash and zucchini, crawling into what to them must be an impossibly large blossom and brushing up against the stamen. Sometimes they pack a little extra pollen under their legs and carry it back to the hive with them for later use. I was greatly enjoying watching our bees until I squatted down yesterday to mulch some beans and got stung in the derriere′. Youch!

Matt plowed up another small field area that we will shortly begin cover cropping in preparation for future use, and we replanted a field we will use next year in buckwheat, which will smother out weeds and loosen the soil.

We also took out the brush hog and mowed down thistle around the garden and made some paths for summer walking and winter skiing. We still get excited when we can use the tractor for anything. It makes us feel very farmerly.

The tomatoes grow by leaps and bounds every day and those who walked through our hoophouse this weekend will surely agree we are about to have a bumper crop of tomatoes. They are green for now, but huge and bountiful. In a few short weeks, the true summer bounty will arrive.




















Zucchini Feta Pancakes from the Moosewood Cookbook

4 packed cups coarsely grated zucchini
4 eggs, separated
1 heaping cup finely-crumbled feta cheese
½ cup minced scallions
¾ tsp. dried mint
salt and black pepper
1/3 cup flour
butter for frying
sour cream or yogurt for topping

Place the grated zucchini in a colander in a bowl, salt it lightly and let it stand 15 minutes. Rinse it, and squeeze out all excess water.

Combine squeezed zucchini, egg yolks, feta, scallions, flour, and spices. Mix well.

Beat the egg whites until they form soft peaks. Fold into first mixture.

Fry in butter, on both sides, until golden and crisp. Serve topped with sour cream or yogurt.




Chilled Cream of Summer Green from the Moosewood Cookbook

1 lb fresh spinach (or other green like kale or chard)
1 small head sweet leaf lettuce (appx. 3 cups, chopped).
1 medium zucchini, chopped
1 quart buttermilk
1 ¼ tsp salt
lots of freshly ground black pepper
1 tsp. tamari
1 tbs. sherry
¼ cup each chopped parsley and scallions
1 tsp. basil, chopped
dash of nutmeg
½ tsp. dill weed

Remove the stems from the spinach and steam it in one cup of water five minutes. Chop the zucchini and steam it in one half cup of water five minutes. Puree both spinach and zucchini thoroughly in their cooking water. Combine in a kettle or large bowl.

Puree the chopped lettuce in 1 ½-2 cups buttermilk. Add to zucchini and spinach mixture. Whisk in remaining buttermilk, and add everything except the scallions and parsley. Chill until very cold.

Serve garnished with parsley and scallions, and pass the pepper grinder around for extra pepper lovers.










A Yummy Kale Recipe (adapted from Will Allen from Growing Power)

1 bunch kale
¼ cup olive oil
½ tsp. salt
¼ tsp pepper
1 tsp. sugar
1 tsp minced garlic

Chop kale. Heat the olive oil in a large pan over medium heat with salt, pepper, sugar, and garlic. When the oil is hot, add kale and stir often 5-10 minutes until tender… Eat and enjoy.

Week Five

In the Bag
-Broccoli
-Swiss Chard
~Kale
~Sugar Snap Peas
~ Lettuce
~Fennel
~Beets
~Kinko Carrots (an early variety that is short but fat).
~Summer Squash (Zucchini, Yellow Squash and Sunburst Yellow Squash—though you may not get all of these at once).
~Basil

Some of the sites are getting the last of the kohlrabi for now.


Some of the beans I weeded and mulched yesterday...

Weedathon: n. meaning, an extended weeding event or race -the Piney Hill Farm dictionary

I have spent significant time (significant equaling up to ten hour days for the last several weeks) hand pulling weeds from the garden in order to “save” plants. We are well beyond making the garden look pretty and organized. We are into operaion save the sweet corn, save the onions, save the green beans. I do triage every day, and I have to say there are some vegetables that have been left to die. I just simply cannot weed any faster, and I will never get to the celeriac at the rate I’m going.

It is our own fault really. The field we are growing in was not ready for vegetables. Last year we used considerable amounts of plastic mulch to avert the weed crisis, but this year, being the environmentally conscious person I am, I wanted to avoid using plastic as much as possible...so we put those plants right in the ground, thinking we could weed and mulch with straw and no problemo! Wrong.

Some farms would use a tractor cultivator, but we don’t own one, and I wouldn’t know what to do with it. We have tried tilling between the vegetables, which works well when the weeds are less than eight inches tall and there is room for the tiller... but in some places the weeds are over three feet high! If you were here at planting day and saw the potatoes, imagine that over the entire garden and we still have a row of potatoes we haven’t gotten to since then.


Onions that we weeded and mulched this last weekend...

During my many hours of weeding, I have had some time to think. Wouldn’t it be helpful, I thought, if people considered weeding a sport, like running or biking or anything else, and we had weedathons instead of marathons. Think of all the farms that would benefit. I guarantee a great work-out. After four hours of weeding as hard and as fast as you can, you get the same bodily affect as running a marathon (I’ve ran a couple, I know).

If you too would like to do a weedathon, we are holding events all weekend. New records are set daily. We have prizes and a spaghetti feed. I can guarantee a full body work-out and if you go fast enough you might even get your heart rate up. Maybe we can make this so popular that people can get pledges for a charity, but instead of a day-long bike or run, they can weed!

You may think I have lost my mind. I may have. I am very tired. We could use some help. I hate to ask, it’s not like me, but I really want you to have your sweet corn this summer.

First Annual Piney Hill Farm Weedathon

When: anytime this weekend
Bring: gloves if you have them
RSVP if you can come




Fennel can be eaten raw, baked, steamed or sauteed with excelland results. Cut raw fennel into slices and use for dipping, and use the feathery leaves as a fresh herb for seasoning....Try in place of dill...

Here are a few recipes:

Fresh Fennel Bulb Salad (from Asparagus to Zucchini cookbook)
1 large or 2 small fennel bulbs
2 tablespoons white wine or red wine vinegar
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
2 tablespoons frozen orange juice concentrate, partially thawed
2 tablespoons olive oil
salt and pepper

Remove fronds from the fennel bulbs. Cut away the root and slice fennel into very thin pieces (it can also be grated). Make dressing by combining vinegar, mustard, ¼ tsp salt, and orange juice concentrate in a bowl. Gradually whisk in olive oil. Pour over fennel and allow to marinate at room temperature 20 minutes or longer. Season to taste with pepper and salt.

Braised Fennel from Asparagus to Zucchini Cookbook
3 tablespoons butter
¼ cup chopped shallots
seeds from 2 cardamom pods, crushed
1/8 tsp ground mace
2 medium fennel bulbs, cut lengthwise into 6 pieces each
1 ¼ cups chicken stock
salt and pepper to taste

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Melt butter in heavy, ovenproof skillet over low heat. Add shallots, cardamom, and mace; saute 8 minutes. Add fennel and toss to coat. Stir in stock, bring to boil, cover, and braise in oven 30 minutes, basting occasionally. Place skillet over high heat and boil until liquid thickens slightly, about 15 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Makes 4 servings.

Beet Chocolate Cake from Asparagus to Zucchini Cookbook

2 cups sugar
2 cups flour
½ tsp salt
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
3-4 oz. unsweetened chocolate
4 eggs
¼ cup oil
3 cups shredded beets

Heat oven to 325 degrees. Grease two 9 inch cake pans. Whisk dry ingredients together. Melt chocolate very slowly over low heat or in double boiler. Cool chocolate; blend thoroughly with eggs and oil. Combine flour mixture with chocolate mixture, alternating with the beets. Pour into pans. Bake until fork can be removed from center cleanly, 40-50 minutes.

Week Three

In the Bag
~Easter Egg Radishes

~Lettuce mix/Spinach

~Bunching Onions

~Herbs (Cilantro)

-Broccoli

~Garlic Scapes (the top of a garlic plant...chop and stir fry—nice garlic flavor).

~Cabbage

The Week in Review...

-The summer solstice spent weeding until dusk, walking up from the garden to a wine red sky…

-Bees swarming from their hives because they were crowded and needed room, an emergency intervention in full bee suits in 90 degree heat with the help of our Wwoofer, Gina, calmed them…

-Spritz the goat with an abcess gone awry…messy, need I say more?

-an explosion of potato beetles.

-all broccoli ripening at once…filling every nook and cranny of the produce fridge (anyone have an old fridge they want to get rid of?)

-strawberries!!!

-serious, non-stop weeding—it’s like this every year and I swear every year it’s just too hard, but then I do it all over again…

-snap peas are coming, cauliflower I can’t even believe I grew is coming, tons more broccoli, summer squash are even beginning to form, tomatoes are turning into a jungle, potatoes are flowering, garlic is nearly ready for harvest…everything is growing, growing, growing—holy smokes, summer is here!


Creamy Broccoli Salad with Raisins and Bacon

1 head broccoli
½ cup green onion, chopped
1 cup roasted sunflower seeds or walnuts
½ cup raisins
8 strips bacon, fried crisp, drained and crumbled
1 cup chopped apple

Dressing
1 cup mayonnaise
½ cup sugar
2 tbsp. vinegar

Wash and cut up broccoli into bite size florets. Peel and cut stems into bite-size pieces as well. Add onion, sunflower seeds, raisins, and crumbled bacon. In a small bowl, mix dressing, add toss with salad. (You can blanche the broccoli briefly if you like it slightly cooked, then rinse in cold water).


Asian Cabbage Slaw

2 cups shredded cabbage
1/3 cup grated carrot
½ cup minced onion
2 tablespoons fresh cilantro
2 tablespoons rice vinegar
2 tablespoons peanut oil
1 tablespoon rice wine
2 teaspoons honey
1 teaspoon toasted sesame oil
salt, pepper

Combine dressing ingredients and toss with vegetable ingredients.

Piney Hill Farm Newsletter Week Two

In the Bag
~A few more Cherry Belle Radishes before the next radish bed ripens...

~Hakurei Turnips (the white ones—good for raw eating, on salads, or in stir-fry)

~Buttercrunch Lettuce/lettuce mix

~Bunching Onions

~Herbs (Tarragon, Cilantro, Chives)

~Sweet William/Lupine Bouquet

~A bag of mixed cooking greens (kale, collards, chard, spinach—when in doubt, stir-fry!)

-Tall Top Beets—Mix the beet tops with your cooking greens...

The Farmer’s Muse from Erin

Each day I walk the paths between garden beds, gauging each plant’s progress since the last time I checked. Sometimes there is nothing to see. Sometimes, plants have died. This week the broccolis have began forming heads, new flowers have come into bloom, and the onions have finally started to bulk up. The tomatoes inside the hoophouse are forming small fruits and the green beans have sprung from the ground.

This is the busiest, most frantic month on the farm. We are still planting lettuce, herbs, flowers and second and third seedings of carrots, beets and more; the weeds have completely overtaken half the garden and threatening the remainder, and deliveries have already begun so we spend half our time harvesting, packing and delivering the vegetables. By July we might sit back and enjoy the sultry evenings…




About Greens:

In this delivery is a bag of mixed cooking greens: collards, kale, swiss chard and spinach, but you can also add the tops of your beets, radishes and turnips if you wish. They are all packed with calcium, iron and vitamins A and C. They are also very high in dietary fiber.

Be careful not to overcook greens as this reduces their nutritional content. Boil for 2-4 minutes, steam for 5-8 minutes, or sauté for 2-5 min.

Mix them into an omelet, quiche, lasagna or casserole…or toss cooked greens with red wine vinegar, olive oil and salt…or sauté with garlic, butter and onion (my personal favorite, because everything is good with butter, garlic and onion isn’t it?).

You probably aren’t getting too many greens yet, but just in case you are, or maybe later in the summer, you can freeze them easily. Just blanch them for 2-3 minutes, drain and pack in zip-locks for use in mid-winter.

Spanish Greens from MACSAC cookbook

2 tablespoons olive oil
3 cloves garlic, smashed
1 pound spinach, chard, collards or other greens, stemmed and well washed
salt and pepper to taste
¼ c golden raisins
3 tablespoons pine nuts

Heat oil over high flame in very large skillet. Add garlic cloves and stir-fry until golden, about 30 seconds. Discard garlic. Toss in greens. Season with salt and pepper. Cover; wilt greens 2-3 minutes. Add raisins and pine nuts. Check for seasoning and serve. Makes 2-4 servings.





Fresh Greens Pasta Pie
From MACSAC cookbook

6 oz. vermicelli
2 tablespoons butter or margarine, softened
1/3 c Parmesan cheese
5 eggs
2 teaspoons cooking oil
1 small onion, chopped
2 cups chopped fresh spinach or other greens
1 cup shredded mozzarella
1/3 c milk
½ tsp salt
½ teaspoon fresh ground pepper
1/8 tsp ground nutmeg

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease a large pie plate. Cook vermicelli according to package directions; drain. Stir butter and Parmesan cheese into hot vermicelli. Beat 2 of the eggs and stir well into pasta. Spoon mixture into pie plate, and use a spoon to shape vermicelli into a pie shell. Cover with aluminum foil and bake 10 minutes. Set aside. Heat oil in small skillet, add onion and sauté until tender. Beat the remaining 3 eggs and combine with spinach, mozzarella, milk, seasonings, and sautéed onions. Spoon spinach mixture into pasta shell. Cover pie with aluminum foil. Bake 35 minutes; uncover and bake an additional 5 minutes. Let stand 10 minutes before slicing. Makes 6 servings.

Piney Hill Farm Newsletter Week One

In the Bag
~Cherry Belle Radishes (the red ones—you can eat radishes raw, but also cooked in stir-fry)

~Hakurei Turnips (the white ones—good for raw eating, on salads, or in stir-fry)

~Spinach

~Buttercrunch Lettuce

~Rhubarb

~Horseradish (the skinny root thing—a little goes a long way...hot, hot, hot! Good for meat sauces or an addition to mashed potatoes)

~Herbs (Tarragon, Cilantro, Chives)

~Kale

~Swiss Chard (multi-colored stems...not to be confused with rhubarb... you can eat the stems and leaves in stir-fry...)

Farm members planting squash...

The Farmer’s Muse from Erin

I am a Virgo. I like things organized, tidy, and maintained. I want to feel in control. I am a perfectionist.

I am finding these personality traits to be at odds with farming. Vegetable farming is chaotic. At this scale, I have no control. Just when everything seems to be going well, I notice the turnips have become infested with flea beetles, or the cabbages are losing their tops to an unknown herbivore, or the peppers are one-by-one being eaten down to the root. “Stop eating my plants!” I yell to no one in particular. There is no one to blame after all.

This year the farm is supplying 65 full shares of produce to members in Wisconsin and the Twin Cities. We are also feeding two gophers, one delinquent chicken, a large snake, and an undetermined amount of small mammals with mysterious identities and eating habits.

This year farming has been more in control than last year. We were able to re-cover our hoophouse with new plastic that is not supposed to rip (last year our plastic tore off in a wind storm). We are cover cropping fields in preparation for next year. We cleaned our maple syrup equipment within weeks after the syrup season ended (last year we didn’t clean the equipment until the following spring!).

Members turned out in large numbers for the planting day. Many thanks to all who turned out. We planted squash, melons, and sweet corn galore. At ten pm, long after everyone had left, we realized it was going to frost on everything that had just been planted… Five of us went down to the field with headlamps and covered every squash and pepper.

We did this two more nights after that… the first week of June! We lost some things to the frost…some of which has been replaced or will be…

As a writer, I revise. I can go back and re-arrange my words, perfect them, mold them into a beautiful thing that on a really good day becomes poetry. I often try and do this with vegetables. I tend to them in the greenhouse, plant them tenderly in the garden, mulch, hoe, water and prune. I watch them grow. I try to create poetry. But where I can control words, vegetables sometimes fail. There is no undo button or delete or copy and paste or thesaurus or poetics in the garden. On a good day, maybe. On a bad day, the cabbage is eaten and the turnip leaves have holes.

The perfectionist in me would like to give you only the most perfect of produce. The realist in me must give you whatever we have. We wash everything here…but we recommend you do the same. Organic gardens are full of life…sometimes this life will make its way into your produce and home. Worms and slugs like organic veggies too.

Despite the frost, drought, extreme heat and now cool temperatures, we are off to a good start. I hope you enjoy the weeks ahead.





Creamy Spinach and Tarragon Soup with Apple and Toasted Almonds
From Farmer John’s Cookbook
Serves 2

2 tablespoons chopped or slivered almonds
1 apple, peeled, cored, cut into chunks
1 cup water
2 cups coarsely chopped spinach
1 tablespoon chopped fresh tarragon
1 ripe avocado, peel and pit removed, quartered
freshly squeezed juice of ½ lemon
1 tablespoon almond oil or olive oil
½ tsp. salt

1. Toast the nuts in a heavy dry skillet (preferably cast iron) over medium-high heat, stirring constantly until they are lightly browned and begin to smell toasty (not burnt).
2. Put the apple chunks and water in a blender and puree. Add the spinach and tarragon; pulse the blender a few times to partially blend in the leaves. Add the avocado pieces, lemon juice, oil, and ½ teaspoon salt. Blend the ingredients until smooth, thinning with more water if necessary. Add more salt if desired.
3. Pour the soup into two bowls, top with the toasted almonds, and garnish each with a fresh tarragon sprig.

For those who bought syrup shares, this is excellent!

Sweet Maple and Balsamic Vinegar Dressing
From Farmer John’s Cookbook

1 cup extra virgin olive oil
3 tablespoons maple syrup
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
2 tablespoons finely sliced fresh basil
1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 tsp dry mustard
1 clove garlic, minced
salt and pepper

Combine and shake in a jar until blended. Toss into salad.



Opal’s Rhubarb Custard Pie
From the Gunflint Lodge Cookbook by Chef Ron Berg and Sue Kerfoot

Crust (pat-in-the-pan)

2 c. sifted all-purpose flour
2 tsp. sugar
1 ¼ tsp salt
2/3 c. vegetable oil
3 T. milk

Preheat oven to 450°F. In a sifter, combine flour, sugar, and salt and sift into an 8-inch pie tin. In small bowl, beat together oil and milk with a fork. Pour over flour mixture. Combine with the fork until all flour mixture is moistened. Remove about one-third for the top of the pie.

With your fingers, press remaining crust mixture as evenly as you can over the bottom and sides of the pie tin. Flute the edges with your fingers if desired. Set aside.

Rhubarb Custard
1 ½ c. sugar
3 T. flour
½ tsp. ground nutmeg
1 T. butter, cut into bits
2 eggs
3 c. chopped rhubarb

In medium bowl, mix together sugar, flour, nutmeg, and butter. Add eggs; beat until smooth. Stir in rhubarb. Scrape into prepared pie crust. Crumble reserved crust mixture over top of the filling.

Bake pie on middle shelf of 450°F oven for 10 minutes. Reduce heat to 350°F; bake until filling thickens and bubbles around the edges, about 30 more minutes.