Winter Shares Available Now!

If you haven’t signed up for winter vegetable and fruit shares, now is the time to do it! You can sign up online or download a signup form at www.rsfarm.com, or email us (csa@rsfarm.com) or call 563-735-5613 and we will send a form to you.

Our Sarah

As we’ve seen in the news lately, one person can make a big difference. And we’ve certainly found this to be true here on the farm from year to year. This year, we feel very fortunate to have Sarah Noecker staying with us into the winter. Since she’s one of the major players on the farm, we thought you’d like to know her a little better.

Although Sarah grew up in the small town of Waukon, in the next county east of here, this is her first job on a farm. Although it would have been hard to describe her as an organic fanatic when she started here in May, she has become more excited about it as time goes on. “If this is what the future holds, I’d like to be a part of it.”

This summer, Sarah rapidly became our packing house coordinator. We don’t typically hire for specific jobs, but slide people into the places they seem to fit; Sarah’s eye for quality, her organizational capacity, and her ability to move with calm and determination through the week really allow her to shine in this position. Of course, since we’re a small farm, nobody gets to do just one job. This summer, Sarah was an important member of the harvest crew, and she now often leads harvest tasks when other work beckons to Chris or Kim.

Sarah was also a star member of the transplanting crew this summer, so much so that I was reluctant to transplant without her. She set a tone of quiet competence, determination, and cheerful attitude that made it difficult to complain about this often tedious, hot, and muddy task. And she was pretty darned fast, too.

As she has taken on more responsibility, Sarah’s can-do attitude has made a real difference on the farm. Enthusiastic about getting work done, Sarah tracks progress on the various jobs that need to be done, often thinking a week ahead about something like the supply of labels or clean onions. She holds our feet to the fire when it comes to making certain that time and resources are allocated to the things that need to be done, and takes the initiative to tackle jobs that otherwise might sit on the backburner. Just as importantly, she displays a real sensitivity to the context of our decision-making, and makes allowances for those times when Chris or Kim have to bring our larger-picture perspective into the planning.

Sarah occasionally disrupts the peace and quiet of the farm with a piercing shriek as she encounters the various jumpy or crawly things one finds on the farm. Toads and snakes get a reaction, but the loudest screams usually result from the discovery of a tomato horn worm, monstrous caterpillars that feed on the tomato plants in the greenhouses.

Asked if there was anything she would like to say to our readers, Sarah shared a short poem:

Though your tasks are many,
And your rewards are few,
Remember that the mighty oak,
Was once a nut like you.

In Kim's Kitchen

This crop of Beets with Their Greens comes from our first harvest on the new bottomland we brought into production this year, three miles south of our home farm. This ground was brought to our attention by our banker last June, and we put it into a bare fallow in late July, cleaning up thistles and perennial grasses. This year, we continued the weed-cleaning fallow until mid-July, when we planted the beets. The new ground is relatively difficult to access, located quite a ways off the gravel, over a pretty bumpy access road, so we have chosen to use it primarily for storage crops this year.

These sweet fall Beets taste delicious raw or cooked. I especially like them sliced paper thin, or julienned or grated into a raw salad with Carrots, as in the following recipe.

Beets and Carrots Salad

1 medium beet
1 medium carrot
2 tsp rice vinegar
1 tsp sesame oil
1 tsp canola oil

Grate all of the roots together, and add salt and pepper to taste. Add rice vinegar, sesame oil, and canola. Makes 4 small servings.

Don't forget to enjoy the tender beet greens, as well. Cooked as you would spinach, they taste great with just a little bit of butter, or as part of a larger vegetable sauté.

Sautéed Greens with Warm Feta

This is a nice appetizer or side dish with chicken.

1/2 pound feta cheese, sliced 3/4 inch thick
1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1/4 teaspoon lemon juice
2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
coarsely chopped beet greens
salt and pepper

Preheat the oven to 375. Cut the feta into large triangles and arrange in a single layer in a baking dish. In a small bowl, combine 2 tablespoons olive oil with the red pepper, lemon juice, and half the garlic slices. Spread over the feta cheese and let stand for 15 minutes. In a large skillet, heat the remaining oil. Add the garlic and add the greens, a handful at a time, cook, stirring until greens are wilted, about 4 minutes. Pour off liquid and season with salt and pepper. Keep warm. Bake the feta for about 5 minutes, until heated through. Spoon the greens onto plates and add the feta.

The fact that we continue to harvest Dragon Tongue Beans provides a real testament to the goofy fall. Lots of cool weather has failed to result in a frost, even down in our cool bottom fields. So we keep on picking. Oliver and Isabel think these beans taste great cooked on the grill. I've also heard reports that they are popular included raw in lunches, and probably provide for some interesting lunchtime conversation.

For snack foods, I find it hard to beat Sweet Red Peppers, which we keep sliced in a Rubbermaid container in the fridge for a quick little kick with a bite of cheese. Like the beans, every week we harvest these now is like a small gift of the weather, as the peppers will succumb to the first hint of frost.

Roasted Red Peppers

Place whole red pepper on a hot grill (or over a gas flame). When the bottom becomes charred, turn slightly to expose another surface. Repeat until the pepper is fully charred, then place in a bowl and cover. Let the pepper steam for five or ten minutes, peel the charred stem, and seed and stem the peppers.

I will admit to feeling just a little proud of the fat, beautiful bulbs of Fennel we harvested on Wednesday afternoon. Fennel has a delicious, licorice-like flavor, and we enjoy it both raw and cooked. Fantastic sliced thinly and paired with shaved parmesan, it makes an equally tasty presentation when quartered, drizzled with olive oil and salt, and grilled until tender. Somewhat surprisingly, they also pair nicely with beets.

Pasta with Chicken and Fennel

1 lb penne pasta, cooked al dente
1 lb chicken breast, cut into 1 inch piece
1/2 cup chopped onion
1/2 cup sliced fennel
1/2 cup chopped red pepper
1/4 cup chopped parsley
olive oil
salt pepper
1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese

Sauté onions in olive oil until tender. Add chicken pieces and brown for 5 min. Add fennel, red pepper, parsley and more olive oil. sauté until chicken is cooked. season with salt and pepper. toss cheese in and serve.

For flavor and color, I find that Red Onions make things just a little more fun in the kitchen. Store these cured onions in a dry, cool place for the best lifespan.

We've enjoyed nibbling on these little Saladette Tomatoes. Conveniently, on box-packing day, I've managed to position myself at the right spot in the line to enjoy a little extra snacking. The saladettes also work nicely as a paste tomato in recipes, as they have a lower moisture content than a beefsteak-type tomato.

I find that as the days get shorter, the flavor in the Round Red Tomatoes that we grow in our unheated greenhouses loses some of its intensity, but we still enjoy them in these declining months.

The Broccoli successions continue to perform well, providing an ongoing supply of immature inflorescences (that's botany-talk for broccoli buds) for your eating pleasure and ours.

Farm Happenings

Weather: The weather here again featured a string of beautiful, warm days and pleasantly cool nights. Surface moisture was extremely low until a nice thunderstorm rolled through in the middle of Tuesday night, providing about an inch of much-needed rain.

Harvest Notes: We wavered on starting our fall storage crop harvest in earnest. Many crops like to get a little bit of frost on them to sweeten them up. Cool nights help, too, but it’s hard to start picking things up without that nice burst of frost.

Autumnal Equinox: We noted the passing of the autumnal equinox on Monday, so now we are officially into that headline rush towards the darkest days of the year. Time to gather in and settle down