Dear loyal readers, 
 
I know I’ve been a bit delinquent in my blogging. Too busy!  Thanks for your patience.
 
Here we are at the end of the 2018 season, our 46th as a farm, and the worst year yet for vegetable production in this awful, wet weather.
 
You’ve  probably noticed a few shortages at the market, but on the other hand we’ve  had great apples, great pears (bosc will start this weekend) and always plenty of organic kohlrabi, thank goodness!  And now our greenhouses are kicking in with beautiful lettuce and other greens, which we’ll have tomorrow.
 
So we’ll be here with some great holiday pies—mince, (my personal fave) pecan, apple and pumpkin of course, and lots of choices of stocking stuffers, like organic olive oil, jars of delicious things from our friends at Tait Farm, 3lb xsharp cheddar cheeses from our fellow farmers coop in Cabot, VT and more!
 
Keep in mind that next week, the 29th, we will not be at market. We always have taken off that week, but we will return the following Saturday, January 5.
 
Hope you like our new winter set up which we experimented with last winter. It still may need some tweaking but we think it’s a great improvement for those cold days we have about three or four times a year. I can’t really say it’s warm in there, with those heaters and the sides on the shelters, but it’s so much better than open air.
 
At the end of another year I want to let you know how much we appreciate your loyal shopping with us, for many of you 30 or 40 years of that!  The weather may be abusing us, but you, our devoted customers, really keep us going and make us feel that the efforts and risks are worth it. You wouldn’t believe how much your moral support means to us, and your dollars kinda help too! 
 
Enjoy your little gift from us of a 5% discount, if you say the magic words: “organic Santa”!
 
See you tomorrow,
 
Jim ​

​Honey and Rosemary Sweet Potatoes
Recipe By:Coco
"Baked until chewy on the outside and soft on the inside, these are a perfect balance of salty and sweet. The rosemary makes them addictive."
​
Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1/4 cup honey
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh rosemary

• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 3 large sweet potatoes, peeled and cut in 1-inch cubes

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.   Line a baking sheet with foil or parchment paper.
2. Mix the olive oil, honey, rosemary, salt, and black pepper together in a large bowl, and stir the sweet potato cubes in the mixture to coat. Remove sweet potato cubes with a slotted spoon and arrange in a single layer on the prepared baking sheet.
3. Bake in the preheated oven until tender, about 45 minutes. Turn oven heat up to 450 degrees F  and bake until browned, another 15 minutes.

​8/24/18
Schools are starting, Labor Day is next week, I know that it feels like 
summer is over.  The farm season has it's own rhythm, and in fact each farm will have it's own seasons.  Here at New Morning Farm it is still summer.  So how do we measure summer? We're still planting, watering, weeding, and harvesting all the summer crops: tomatoes, summer squash, cucumbers, beans, and sweet corn.  We've still got peaches, plums, nectarines, and cantaloupe melons to enjoy from our neighbors.  Our summer market, Tuesday, is just gearing up for it's biggest markets.

At the same time, we see the shift towards fall, though it's not here 
yet.  We're transplanting the last of the fall brassicas, lettuce, and 
other field greens.  The potato and winter squash harvests are done and they are curing for storage.  This week, we're harvesting the big carrot planting for the year.  As we squeeze these milestones into our regular work schedule, we can start to say, "That's done for the year."  It's a relief for sure.

Other signs of the shifting season include the later sunrise, and the 
quiet dawn, no more dawn chorus from the birds.  The geese are overhead every morning for their training flights, and the insects chirping whirring and buzzing has replaced the tree and marsh frogs.

At market this week, look for fresh harvested orange carrots! We're 
really pleased so far with the harvest, and the flavor is all carrot 
with none of the bitterness you sometimes get from the supermarket.  The cooler and cloudy days has meant trouble for many crops, but the lettuce is doing great. We'll have the full selection this week from butterheads to romaine. 

Hope to see you there, Jennifer

​Bosc Pear Crumble Recipe

Prep Time 15 mins      Cook Time 25 mins 
Servings: 6 servings
Ingredients
·    5-6 ripe Bosc Pears
·    1 tsp. cinnamon
·    1/2 tsp. ground nutmeg
·    1/8 tsp. ground cardamom
·    1 stick butter 1/4 lb:
·    1/4 cup brown sugar
·    1/3 cup white sugar
·    1-1/2 cups of chopped pecans
·    1/2 cup rolled oats
Instructions
1.  Preheat oven to 375F. Quarter and core the pears and roughly chop them into a medium sized pot. Cook for 7-10 minutes, until some of the juices are released and the fruit is softened. Add cinnamon, nutmeg, and cardamom, coating the pears with spices. Place into a 8” x 8” baking pan or 9-inch pie plate.
2.  Heat the sugar, butter, rolled oats and chopped pecans over medium heat in a medium sized pot until the pecans and oats are fully coated.
3. Sprinkle the topping over the pears and bake for 25 minutes or less, until the topping is golden brown and the pears are completely soft and bubbling. Another indication that the pears are done is that the skin should be brown and no longer green or yellow. Remove from oven and cool slightly.
4.  Serve warm or cool, plain or topped with ice cream or fresh whipped cream.

8/1/18
Well, we didn't quite get the weather we wanted for the garlic harvest.  Instead of dry and sunny, we received cloudy with 8.6 inches of rain in 5 days!  But the garlic was ready to go, and so the crew worked extra hard in the pouring rain and mud to pull in all into the barn.  It's now hung to dry, with some extra fans for air movement.  Incredibly it's looking okay, even good.  Whew!

We are so thankful the river was able to handle all this rain without flooding any of our fields.  It was oh so close.  8.6" in a week is definitely on par with a hurricane or tropical storm for us.  We do all we can to prepare and manage the risk from these in September and October, using the high ground for the late crops, protecting the soil with strong cover crops, limiting soil disturbance starting in August.  A flood in July would be devastating for many of our summer plantings: beans, corn, summer squash, winter squash, tomatoes, celeriac, lettuce, and the list goes on.  But there was no flood, this time.

On the positive side, the broccoli, cabbage, and brussels sprouts transplants are loving this weather.  They don't really appreciate our normal summer days with highs in the 90's.  Last year we had some similar weather in regard to temperature, and had beautiful broccoli in September.

At markets this week, look out for our own field grown tomatoes! They're quite late, but we are just getting in to our big harvests.  We'll have both heirlooms and standard red field tomatoes.  Do you have a favorite heirloom?
Be Well,  Jennifer ​