We call this weekly email the Farm Newsletter. But, in honor of the 2018 weather, we think we should rename it to the Rain Newsletter. Or maybe because of the allure of alliteration we should call it the Rain Report.
We got a 25 degree freeze over the weekend but we’d covered everything that needed a warm “blanket” to stay alive. Large areas of the farm are now covered with white agricultural fabric. What a sight!
Here’s your Rain Report on the ides of November:
We have to be careful we don’t lose a child in the sinking mud! (See photo above. That child did have to be extricated by an adult. No one was harmed in the taking of the photo. And yes, carrots can be consumed while your boots are stuck in the mud.)
It has been rainy the past week! We haven’t washed away yet, and we are very, very glad for all the vegetables that we have growing in hoophouses. Those are the beds from which we are harvesting this week! (Mostly, anyway.)
This latest soaking rain (on top of a saturated ground) may mean an early end to the life of some of the brassicas (kale, cabbage, kohlrabi, broccoli) and lettuces in the field. We shall see!
The outside beds that we’re harvesting from right now are a bit less smile-inducing. 
But it all leads up to…
delicious Farm Shares:
…and wonderful market booths filled with goodness:
Farm Share sign up for 2019 is open and details plus the sign-up link are found here. You’ve been getting a zillion emails from us recently, so we hope you’ve seen the details about the new Farm Share software that we are using called Harvie. It allows you, the member, to swap out, swap in, and add-on items in your personal share, week to week. It also allows you to choose a bi-weekly share if that is right for your household. We think this new system is slick and helps you get more of what you want and less of what you don’t prefer. Granted, it can’t make carrots and broccoli rise up out of the mud after the plants die from too much rain, but it gives the Farm Share member options that our previous software didn’t. Please join us for 2019! (Our new Winter Share is now sold out. We may offer open up more spots at the beginning of February, which is when our hoophouse plants usually start growing again after January cold. Meanwhile, purchase a share for our regular 2019 season (May through November)!
Saturday’s Farm Share will likely include:
Salad Mix and/or Lettuce
Microgreens OR Sugar Snap Pea Shoots
Kohlrabi OR Cabbage
Carrots
Turnips
Radishes
Greens Tomatoes (out of the box….take them as you prefer)
The BRANDERMILL MARKET is open this Saturday. We will have your Farm Shares — and our usual booth — at the Brandermill Market, along with our usual offerings at our St. Stephen’s market booth.
Vegetable Notes & Recipe Suggestions…also cataloged on our Recipe Page and see our Pinterest Page
Green Tomatoes – Our family made this Green Tomato Curry with Lentils recipe and it was very delicious. It’s a surprising combination of flavors and our oldest declared it “Tremendous!” No lie. We subbed Lentils where it called for Yellow Split Peas, and we used Honey where it called for a touch of sugar. It involves a long list of spices to make your own curry, but you could probably shortcut by using a Curry blend of your choosing.
Microgreens and Pea Shoots – These are both great mixed in with scrambled eggs or on sandwiches or on top of a larger leaf salad.
Turnips – Put these lovelies in soup, or in sandwiches, or on top of a green salad. Portugese Wedding Soup doesn’t call for them, but make it and put them in anyway. (Plus, use our cabbage in place of the celery it calls for.) Clearly, we don’t consider many recipes sacred.
Radish – Dip them in hummus! Layer them on sandwiches! Slice them on salad!
Cabbage – Two of our (related) Farm Share members lost a loved one in their family last week. Here is his yummy Pepper Hash recipe!
Head of cabbage
½ cup sugar
1 small onion
1 green pepper
6 or more green olives, cut in half
Dressing:
1 cup white vinegar
1 cup sugar
½ cup oil
1 teas. Celery seed
½ teas. Prepared mustard
Grate head of cabbage and small onion. Chop green pepper and cut up olives. Mix together with half cup of sugar.
Mix the cup of vinegar, cup of sugar, half cup oil, celery seed and mustard in pan and bring to a boil. Pour over the cabbage mixture, while still hot. Let set.
Our harvest for Saturday’s farmers’ market will include:
Arugula, maybe Cabbage, Carrots, Hearty Greens Mix, Kale (two types!), Lettuce, Microgreens, Parsley, the very very last Green Peppers (bullhorn shape), Radishes, Green Tomatoes, Scallions, Turnips,…and our Organic Hearth Baked Bread (Baguettes, Herb, Whole Rye, Raisin, & Seed loaves for this weekend).
{Our farmstand is open Thurs & Friday with most of the above items…see here for updated inventory}
Everything remaining after CSA shares are distributed and our farm stand is shopped (plus the bread we bake Saturday morning)… we’ll bring on Saturday to the Brandermill Green Market and to the Farmer’s Market @ St. Stephen’s . Keep an eye on what we have available via the online farmers’ markets: FallLineFarms.com.
Enjoy ~
Janet, Dan, & the whole Broadfork crew
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