Stingy Jack

The traditional carving of the jack-o-lantern has its roots in a very old tale about a rather unpleasant man who dared to tangle with the devil, and ended up with naught but a glowing ember and a hollowed-out rutabaga to show for his trouble.

Stingy Jack was a miserable old drunk who wandered from town to town in a rather shiftless manner, lifting what he wanted from smokehouses and gardens that happened to lie unattended on his path. His ways of providing for himself didn’t leave him very welcome in any one place for very long, and he wandered through most of the countryside drinking in the taverns along the way, and working as little as possible. When he did have a turn of good fortune, he was loath to share it with anyone.

One day, as Jack was sitting in a tavern having one-too-many draughts of potato liquor, a figure sat down beside him. “Jack,” the figure said, “it’s time to go.”
“No,” Jack replied, “I’ve only just got started here.”

“Jack, I don’t think you understand,” said the new arrival. “You’re time’s up, and it’s time to go.”

Jack realized that the Devil had come to collect his malevolent soul. Never one to let go, he made one last request: he asked that the Devil have a drink with him before they departed. The Devil could find no reason to deny the request, and he and Jack, as kindred spirits, actually had quiet a good time before the Devil said it was time to go.

“But we have to pay up before we can leave!” Jack protested.

“Come on, now, Jack, surely you have a coin to pay your way.”

Jack was determined not to go easily. “Now, look here,” he said. “Why don’t you just change into a silver coin, and I’ll pay the bartender, and while he sleeps tonight, you can turn back into yourself and we’ll have gotten the better of the man.”

“I like the way you think,” said the Devil, and promptly changed into a coin, whereupon Jack grabbed it and shoved it quickly into his pocket, where he happened to have a silver cross that he had lifted from a shop a few villages back. The Devil, bound by the cross, could not change back from the coin, and began to howl, whereupon Jack slipped out of the tavern and ran down the road.

It didn’t take Jack long to weary of the howling, and he struck a bargain with the Devil that he lay no claim to Jack’s soul, and that Jack never be taken into Hell. Freed from Jack’s pocket, the Devil departed without looking back.

Although the Devil laid no claim to Jack’s soul, his drinking and evil ways eventually took their toll, and some seven years later, Jack dropped dead in the middle of a rutabaga patch that, of course, was not his own. Still holding onto the rutabaga - only Jack was so stingy that he could onto something after his own death – Jack found himself moving as a ghost through the netherworld. As he made his way down to hell, Jack scooped the heart out of his rutabaga and ate it.

When he got to hell, nobody greeted him at the gates. Jack rattled them until the Devil came, but the Devil said, “Jack, we made a deal, and since I can’t have your soul, and since I’m not the forgiving type, I’m not about to let you in. You’ll have to try the other place.”

“The path from here to there is awfully dark,” Jack said. “Could I borrow a light?”

The Devil reached behind him and picked up a glowing coal, and tossed it to Jack. “Go ahead and keep it. You would, in any case.” Then the Devil disappeared back into the flames. Jack raked the coal into the hollowed-out rutabaga, and poked a couple of holes in it to let the light out, and walked on down the road. But when he made it to the pearly gates of Heaven, he was turned back at the entrance.

With no place available to go, Jack returned to this world, where he wandered without a body from place to place, just him and his glowing coal.

People who know about Jack carve out a rutabaga, or some other vegetable, and put a light inside to let him know that his thieving ghost isn’t welcome at that place.

Farm Happenings

Weather: This wet and cold weather actually has me in full farmer complaining mode, although the beautiful days when the sun does come out are completely over the top. The stars on Monday morning and again on Monday night were enough to take my breath away, and I had fun introducing Isabel to the idea of pictures in the sky. A hard frost again on Monday took a toll on crops like broccoli, which we have often been able to harvest well into November; but not this year.

What We Did: Mostly, we picked roots. We’ve had some trouble with the root digger, as is wont to happen with somewhat antique equipment. I always try to remember that the year we buy equipment isn’t the year we profit from it; there’s always something of a learning curve to get through.

Comings and Goings: As we piece together our late fall crew, we were joined by Randy this week, a recent transplant to the Decorah area who had spent many years working for Hoch Orchards in La Crescent.

In My Second Life as part of the Organic Farming Conference, I wrapped up the selection of our workshop speakers for the 2010 conference, and got all of the workshop descriptions ready for the conference flier, which goes out in mid-November.

In the Kitchen

We went with a bigger box this week because of some bulky items. When you get it home, leave the Honeyboat winter squash out on the counter. Potatoes would like a dark place – I use a mixing bowl with a clean kitchen towel over it – that’s cool, but not cold. Onions want good air circulation and low humidity, so store them in a cupboard or in the pantry. Bag up everything else and put it in the refrigerator.

This week’s Spinach has suffered some from the frost, so it’s kind of ugly, but it tastes just out of this world, sweet and delicious. I love to heap it on a plate with dried cranberries, chopped nuts, balsamic vinegar, pepper, and lots of freshly-grated parmesan.

We chose to grow this beautiful Red Savoy Cabbage because… it’s beautiful. With its lighter texture, Savoy cabbage (always capitalized because it comes from the Savoy region of Italy and France) tastes best lightly cooked, or raw in slaws.

Wilted Cabbage Salad

2 lb savoy cabbage, washed and shredded
4 - 5 strips bacon, cooked crisp
salt and pepper
3 Tbsp red wine vinegar
3 Tbsp olive oil

Put cabbage in a bowl and cover with boiling water. Let stand for 10 minutes. Drain and pat dry. Place cabbage in a dry bowl and season with salt, pepper, and vinegar. Mix in the olive oil (or substitute bacon fat). Crumble bacon over warm salad.

On the other hand, we grow Celeriac because it’s ugly. Okay, not really, but I do think it is possibly the ugliest vegetable around. is the same species as celery, but bred for the swollen root rather than the fleshy stems. A more primitive version of the species, celeriac has contributed almost all of the modern pest resistance to celery varieties. The flavor chemistry is basically the same as that for celery, and the texture of the roots is similar to potatoes or turnips; in fact, it as at times been called “turnip-rooted celery”. Use it anywhere you would use potatoes, such as in soups or gratins. The strong flavors of celeriac salads taste wonderful in cool weather, and a little bit goes a long ways.

Celeriac Salad

2 lbs Celeriac, peeled and cut into matchsticks
2 Tbsp Olive Oil
3 Tbsp Balsamic Vinegar
3 Tbsp Mayonnaise
1 clove garlic (or a ¼ cup of chives)
1-1/2 tsp stoneground mustard

Blanch celeriac in boiling water for 2 minutes; dunk in cold water to stop cooking, then drain. Place in a bowl and add oil and vinegar. Season with salt and freshly ground pepper to taste. Refrigerate, covered, for at least two hours. Crush garlic into a paste and combine with the mayonnaise and mustard, and add this mixture to the celeriac and stir well just before serving.

Kale is the quintessential winter green, tasting sweet and delicious after a frost, and so hardy that it will survive right into December in some years – plus it’s loaded with all kinds of good things for you. When I feel blue or like I’ve got something coming on, I dive into the kale in a big way.

Long Stewed Kale

1 slice smoked bacon
1 onion
1 small carrot
3 cloves garlic
1 bunch green kale
salt and pepper
1/2 cup cream
1/2 tsp grated lemon zest

Cut the bacon into small dice and render it over low heat for about 8 minutes. Peel and chop the onion, carrot, and garlic into small dice and add to the bacon with a splash of water. Cover and stew the vegetables until they are soft and the onion is translucent, about 10 minutes. Wash, stem, and coarsely chop the kale. Add the kale to the vegetables along with some salt and cook uncovered over moderately high heat; the greens will give off a lot of water. Keep cooking until the liquid is almost evaporated, about 10 to 15 minutes. Add half the cream and simmer until it has been almost completely absorbed, then add the other half and keep simmering until it, too, is nearly absorbed. Add the lemon zest, taste and correct the seasoning, and serve.

The Black Spanish Radishes have a spicier flavor than the Beauty Hearts. I especially enjoy them sliced thinly and salted, and served with a dark beer and sharp cheddar cheese. We mix these with carrots for Halloween treats at the local get together.

The crew has been cooking Honeyboat Squash quite frequently for lunch lately, and has started cutting them in half and just leaving the seeds inside. Not only do the resulting squash have a deliciously nutty flavor as a result, but the seeds cook up as well and make a nice extra treat.

The potatoes in this week’s box are Yukon Golds. As is characteristic of this great-tasting variety, they have a tendency to have a little bit of hollow heart, but this isn’t harmful at all. I like to boil up a batch and keep them in the refrigerator for rosemary home fries at lunch.