Winter - Just around the Corner?

Wow. I think everybody in the Midwest knows what sort of a weather week we’ve had. Cold and cold and snow-y. At least the greenhouses didn’t do a Metrodome on us!

We’ve put a lot of time and effort into plowing the driveway. We do this by putting a large blade on the back of the tractor, and driving backwards, pushing the snow off to the side. The first few plowings of the spring are a critical time to put the snow in the right place to avoid drifting, always pushing the snow to the south and east of areas we want to keep clear through the winter. Where we can’t push snow aside, large piles get pushed up in strategic locations to also facilitate proper drift formation, as well as to leave enough room to pile more snow as the winter progresses.

Plowing also requires careful attention to timing, since plowing our driveway and farmyard takes a little over an hour. You don’t want to plow to soon and have to plow again, but the wrong snow conditions can result in an unmanageable mess. Last Saturday morning we saw slushy snow, which got covered up by cold, powdery stuff in the afternoon, so I went out and plowed in the middle of the blizzard to clear as much of the slush as possible. By Sunday morning I was glad to have gotten rid of that layer, because the places I had left had turned to ice.

With a little care, I’ve also managed to locate windrows of snow in the places where cars are most likely to slide off the driveway when they take the corner too fast. More than once, this has saved me from having to pull somebody out of the ditch!

Driving out on Monday night, drifts on the road north of the farm towered over the road where the snowplow had cut one lane through them, so that it felt like driving through a canyon; as of Thursday morning, the situation was unchanged.

Ben took a well-earned vacation last week, and arrived back to a pretty changed landscape with the extensive snow cover.

Hannah finished the seed inventory, so we expect to move on to seed orders soon. Like Christmas catalogs, seed catalogs seem to come out earlier and earlier every year, although spring still seems to arrive at about the same time it always has.

Chris travelled to the Midwest Organic and Sustainable Education Service to continue his work with coordinating the Organic Farming Conference, and helping the organization manage the development of a new contact and event management database. It’s kind of weird what a guy gets good at in this farming business. I’m still not much of a mechanic, but I’ve ended up building several databases over the years to manage various aspects of the farm…

Recipes You Can Use

Roasted Brussels Sprouts

1 lb Brussels sprouts
3 Tbsp olive oil
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper

Preheat the oven 400 degrees. Mix Brussels sprouts with olive oil, salt, and pepper. Roast on a baking sheet for about 40 minutes, shaking occasionally, until crisp on the outside but still tender inside. Sprinkle with even more salt, and serve.

Rutabaga Gratin

1-1/2 lbs rutabaga, sliced very thin
2 tbsp flour
1 teaspoon chopped fresh rosemary
1 cup grated parmesan
1 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup chicken stock or water
2 cloves minced garlic

Preheat oven to 375. Steam rutabaga slices for about three minutes, until crisp tender. Butter a 5 x 9 baking dish. Arrange 1/3 of the rutabaga slices evenly over the bottom and sprinkle with 1/2 of the rosemary, 1/2 of the flour, 1/3 of the parmesan, and black pepper. Add a second layer, and sprinkle with the remaining rosemary and flour, another 1/3 of the parmesan, and black pepper. Add a third layer, and sprinkle with parmesan and black pepper. Combine the cream, stock, and garlic and bring the mixture just to a boil. Pour over the rutabagas. Cover and bake for 30 minutes, then uncover and bake for an additional 20 minutes or so, until browned.

Roasted Cipollini Onions

Cipollini Onions
Rosemary

Place onions in a heavy pan and drizzle generously with olive oil. Top with chopped rosemary. Cover and place in a 400 degree oven until tender when poked with a fork (20 minutes or so).

Coleslaw

1 small cabbage, sliced thin
2 carrots, grated
1-2 T cider vinegar
1-2 T honey
pinch of celery seed
salt and pepper to taste
1/4 cup mayonnaise
1/4 cup yogurt
1/4 cup minced onion
Optional stuff
1 T poppy seeds
1/4 cup almonds, toasted
some raisins
garlic

Combine all ingredients and mix well. Chill.

In this Week's Box

When you get this week’s box home, the squash and the onions go in a cool, dry place. Bag the broccoli, the rosemary, and the roots, and put them in the crisper drawer. The cabbage will keep fine for two weeks in your crisper without a bag.

The Rutabaga’s reputation is a mystery to us. With a texture as smooth as a new potato and a delightfully earthy flavor and golden color, why are rutabagas so unloved? The smooth-skinned, purple-topped rutabaga was developed from crossbreeding a cabbage and a turnip; its original improvement and promotion was the work of Swiss botanist Caspar Bauhin in the early 1600’s—hence the rutabaga’s frequent appellation as a “Swede” or “Swedish turnip.” Delicious mashed with potatoes.

Brussels Sprouts often garner looks of disdain, with memories of childhood dinners ruined by the funny little cabbages. But wait! Brussels sprouts harvested after a hard frost are an entirely different vegetable than the specimens from the coast of California. Try them! To prepare for cooking, pare off the tough bottom part of the sprout stem. Steaming works well, and is more forgiving than boiling, but don’t overcook them! Sprouts are best when tender but not mushy.

Carrots

Savoy Cabbage

Beauty Heart Radish – Green shoulders, white bottoms, and a pink blush on the tip, these are beautiful, bright pink on the inside, and sweetly flavored. If you peel them, you’ll remove almost all of the radish-y heat.

Black Spanish Radish – Black-skinned, with a sharp flavor Sliced thinly, these taste great with a good sharp cheese and a nice cold beer. Also nice cooked as you would a turnip.

Broccoli – Stored from before the last hard freeze, this seems to be in pretty good shape. I’d use it soon.

Red Onions

Cipollini Onions - These flat onions have a rich flavor and lack the sulfur peaks of regular onions. Try to feature them if you can. You can peel a bunch by dipping them in boiling water, then running them under cold water and slipping the skins off.

Heart of Gold Squash

Rosemary – from our greenhouse

(Spinach) – as I write this, spinach harvest is in doubt. Cold weather followed by grey has left the leaves quite frozen, and you can’t harvest frozen spinach (you can harvest frozen kale and that turns out just fine, but not spinach).