Floods damage area and local roads

Damage on the roads--- the dirt roads as well as restricted travel on some of the main roads. Has forced us to cancel CSA pickup for Monday August 29. CSA members who pick up at the farm, please check your emails regularly for update about your pick up. We are aiming for Wed but may organize a drop-off in south royalton village.

forcast of hurricane cancels open house

Hi All,

I think we will officially cancel our open house. Perhaps it will be a perfect day to spend in the kitchen making tomato sause, salsa and eggplant dishes..... we will try again in September. Everyone enjoy a quiet day (?) at home. Best to stay off our long and hilly dirt roads...

We did just put shingles on the pizza oven house roof with Steve Hoffman today.... lets see if the job was good enough!

Hot Peppers 1

To help our CSA members identify the hot peppers they got in the shares this week here are these photos. In general, the larger varieties of hot pepper are the mildest. Thus, Anaheim and Pablano are fairly mild peppers. Hungarian Hot Wax and Jalapeno are in the middle range and Serranos and the Long Cayennes are hotter. I actually think the Nippon Taka chili's may not actually be very hot even though other chilis that look like that are typically pretty hot. I am a bit of a whimp myself when it comes to hot peppers so I haven't just tried one....

Here are two hot pepper recipes. You might like to make the hot pepper sauce if you don't know what to do with a quantity of hot peppers all at once. This sauce keeps well in the refrigerator and you can spread your hits of hot pepper over a very long period of time. This sauce also makes a good gift if you know someone else who would take more pleasure in the hot peppers then you would.

HOT PEPPER SAUCES:

Hot Pepper Sauce from Epicurian

Habanero peppers
Jalapeno peppers
Cayenne peppers
Hot chili peppers

really any type of hot pepper you want
Approximately 2 cups, total (of the peppers)

1 head unpeeled garlic
1 cup red wine vinegar
1 T. sugar

Directions:

The exact proportions of the various types of peppers above can be varied depending on your personal tastes and what you have available. For a milder sauce, milder varieties such as Hot Wax, Banana, Pimento, or Bell peppers can be substituted for a portion of the hot varieties listed above.

Using rubber gloves, clean and de-seed approximately 2 cups of peppers. In a saucepan, combine the peppers, garlic, and vinegar and cook, covered, over low heat for approximately one hour. Keep an eye on the liquid and reduce heat and add more vinegar if it seems to be boiling away quickly. Press through a sieve or a food mill, add the sugar, and return to low heat for approximately 30 minutes or until slightly thickened. Pour into a jar or bottle which can be sealed and refrigerate. Will keep in refrigerator for several months.

Great on pork or chicken!

HOT PEPPER PICKLE

Ingredients:

4 qts long red, green, or yellow peppers
1 1/2 cups salt
4 qts water
1/4 cup sugar
2 tbls prepared horseradish
2 cloves garlic
10 cups vinegar
2 cups water

Directions:

Wear rubber gloves to prevent burning hands. Cut 2 small slits in each pepper. Dissolve salt in 4 qts water. Pour over peppers and let stand 12-18 hours in a cool place. Drain; rinse and drain thoroughly. Combine remaining ingredients; simmer 15 minutes. Remove garlic. Pack peppers in hot jars, leaving 1/4 inch head space. Heat brine to boiling. Pour hot over peppers, leaving 1/4 inch head space. Remove air bubbles. Adjust caps. Process 1/2 pints and pints 10 minutes in boiling water bath.

Yield: about 8 pints.

AUGUST OPEN HOUSE

The last Sunday of the month and we want to do it again.

We are having another Pizza Oven and open house Sunday August 28.

Let us know if you would like to bring kids and their ages and we will have some fun kids activities if we have a critical mass... or maybe we will just plan some other optional fun activities that all can participate in.

Anyway, here is the scoop

3pm- 4:30 or 5----- Farm tours and activities (one of which may be chopping veggies for the pizzas!

4:30 or 5 Pizzas start coming out of the oven.

We may also have an open traditional/folky jam from pizza time on if any of you would like to join in with instruments, voices, clapping or just listening.....

Feel free to bring a little snack or something to share or even some cheese or topping for the pizza but don't feel obligated.

You are also welcomed to bring beer or wine. We will have water and apple juice.

If you can RSVP that helps us plan for bread dough and activities..
email us lunableufarm@myfairpoint.net or call 802-763-7981

Thanks

Hope to see you at the farm!

If you need directions, go to our June post. The detour is still in effect. You can always call or email for directions too.

EGGPLANT! a bumper crop!

Get out those favorite eggplant recipes. Lots of eggplant in the CSA shares and at farmer's market. I think I will freeze a bunch for eggplant parm this winter.

Here are some of our favorite recipes.


Baba Ganouj-- a Middle Eastern eggplant dip. Makes a wonderful light summer meal surrounded with lots of fresh vegetables and bread to dip into it.

One large or two med-small eggplant 1 tsp. salt (to taste)

juice of one lemon plenty of black pepper

1/2 cup tahini 1 Tbs. black olive oil

3 crushed cloves of garlic 1/2 cup minced parsley

1/4 cup minces scallion or red onion

Preheat oven to 400. Cut off eggplant stems. Prick eggplant with fork here and there. Place directly on oven rack and roast until completely saggy soft (about 45 mins to 1 hour). Let cool enough so you can scoop out the insides and mash (or put into food processor) and mix with other ingredients. Chill completely.

Thai Eggplant Dip-- From Asparagus to Zucchini: a guide to Farm-Fresh Seasonal Produce

Prepare eggplant as you do for Baba Ganouj above but mash or blend with the following:

3-4 cloves Garlic 1 TBS minced fresh ginger

2 TBS soy or tamari sauce 2 TBS rice vinegar

1TBS sesame oil 1 TBS minced fresh cilantro

1/2 tsp crushed red pepper flakes salt to taste.

Serve with Warm PITA BREAD triangles. makes about 2 1/2 cups.

Ratatouille-- the Moosewood Cookbook

Now is the time for this Mediterranean vegetable stew! Also freezes well for a taste of summer when there is snow on the ground! Try grilling some or all the vegetables before combining in stew for a rich grilled flavor!

1 med onion, chopped

2 bell pepper, in stripes or cubed

1 or 2 summer squash or zucchini, cubed

1 small or med eggplant, cubed

4 cloves garlic, crushed

2 med tomatoes in chunks

bay leaf

1 tsp: basil, marjoram

1/2 tsp oregano

dash of rosemary

3 TBS of dry red wine

1/2 cup tomato juice

2 TBS tomato paste

2 tsp (about) salt

black pepper

1/4 c olive oil

some parsley, chopped

Sauté onion, garlic and bay leaf in olive oil until onion turns transparent. Add eggplant, wine and tomato juice. Add herbs, mix well and simmer 10 minutes. Add salt pepper, tomatoes and tomato paste. Mix well , Simmer until tender. Serve with fresh parsley on a bed of rice or in a bowl along with some good hearty bread.. also good with grated cheese on top!

Family Day at the Farm

Mark your Calendars! Sunday July 31 beginning at 2pm

Come out to the farm for an afternoon of family fun. Some of our farm crew are planning some fun kids activities but I bet folks of all ages will want to participate! We will also be happy to take folks on a general farm tour. Lots to see in the fields and pastures.

Of course we will fire up the pizza oven too so there should be at least a slice or two for everyone to enjoy beginning at about 5pm.

If we can get any of local jammin' musicians to stop by, maybe we will even have some music fun with the pizza.

If you are inspired, bring some grated cheese for the pizza or some other tid bit or desserty thing to share. We will certainly have good cool water and probably some juice but feel free to bring anything in that department as well.....

Hope you can come! An RSVP to our email will help us to know how much pizza dough to make.... lunableufarm@myfairpoint.net

Sweet Peppers and Fennel

Late July CSA Share
In the CSA shares this week you will find Fennel, pictured on the right. We have some tips for using fennel in a post from last year but here is another recipe to try. This is slightly adapted from the MACSAC cookbook that many of you have purchased.

Orange and Fennel Salad with Mixed Greens

1 bulb of fennel, cut in 1/2 and remove core
2-3 blood oranges or 4-6 tangerines
salt & pepper
1/4 cup of extra virgin olive oil
1/4 cup dry sherry (optional)
4-5 cups mixed greens ( to divide on 4 plates)

Slice fennel as thin as possible (use a food slicer or mandolin if available).
Cut one of the oranges (two tangerines perhaps) in half and squeeze out the juice and pulp. into the bowl. Peel & section the remaining oranges. Poke the sections with a sharp fork so they will absorb the dressing.
Mix sliced fennel, juice & oranges with olive oil and sherry- season with salt & pepper.
Let stand for 10 minutes then serve over a bed of greens on individual plates.


No hot peppers in the share.... Those long green peppers may look like a hot pepper but they are not. The dark long green ones (on the left in the photo above) are "Carmens", an italian bull-horn type pepper. It is one of my favorites. They yellow one on the right is similar. We call it a cubanelle or italian sweet pepper. For some reason, most info about this pepper says it is often fried but we often just eat it raw like the other sweet peppers.
If we ever put hot peppers in your share ( and we hope to later in the season), we will put them in their own bag and label them so you will know.

Mixed spicy greens. In the shares you will often get a choice of a type of green that you can cook. Kale, Chard and mixed spicy greens are the most common in the middle of the summer. The bag of mixed greens are often a little on the spicy side. You can sautee them just like you would other cooking greens but you could also mix them with lettuce to spice up your salad.
Don't be afraid of cooking greens. Just try not to over cook. I usually start by sauteing some garlic and onion in butter or olive oil. Once they are translucent, I just toss in my greens (ususally chopped a bit and if necessary, I will seperate the stem from the rest of the leaf and cook that a little first since it is a little longer) Once the leafy stuff goes in, just cook for a little bit until the color gets bright and shiny then get it right off of that heat! drizzle a little lemon juice, vinegar or tamari over them. Serve as a side or on rice or pasta. Experiment and have fun!

BASIL, BASIL

We hope our CSA members have been enjoying all of the basil we have been sending in the shares. We imagine that many of you are already fans of pesto, but if that is now in your culinary repertoire, you can try this basic recipe:

A food processor is really good for this but I guess traditionally it everything was just chopped and then ground up with a mortar and pestle... I think a blender can work, but you need to be careful you don't burn out the motor.

Put in the food processor
3-4 cloves of garlic or a bunch of garlic scapes (pre-chop these a bit)
1/2 or so of walnuts (pinenuts are traditional but they are more expensive and exotic... but taste great)

run processor until you get a nice rough peanut butter texture
add
3-4 cups of basil leaves (although, I often just put the whole bunch, stem and all, in the cuisine art) You can also sub in up to about 1 cup of basil with parsley.
1/2 cup of olive oil

run processor again. You may want to add some more olive oil as it runs to help everything along... maybe 1/4 cup or so.

mix in about 3/4 - 1 cup of grated Parmesan cheese (if you have it in a chunk, you can pre-chop it a bit and put it in the processor in that first stage with the nuts and garlic)

You end up with a fairly thick paste that you can toss with hot pasta. It is a delicious, easy summer meal.

You can also dry or freeze basil. I usually freeze it by chopping up leaves in the food processor with some olive oil. I then glop big spoonfuls onto waxpaper on a cookie sheet, freeze it over night or so then put all those little chunks into a freezer bag. Then I can take out the amount I need during the winter. This year I just froze the leaves on a cookie sheet (that's the photo at the top of the page...) then put them in a bag. This is what Aurora's family does.

Introducing Kohlrabi......

A belated intro to one of our favorite vegetables: Kohlrabi. I really love Kohlrabi. One of our early CSA members, Jim Hornig, suggested that we grow it about 20 years ago. It is a fast growing brassica (member of the broccoli/cabbage family) that has been more common in Europe than the US. Of course, now that we have been introducing it to the Upper Valley for all these years, we see it more and more at other farmers' stands... just another example of Luna Bleu charting new waters from way back when.... or not...

Anyway, what should be done with this wild looking vegetable that looks like it may have floated down from outer space? Typically, people eat the "bulb" (really, a swollen stem), but you can also eat the leaves like you would collards or kale. It is best to peel the bulb with a paring knife because the skin is a bit fibrous. Then you can cut it up and enjoy it raw... use with dips or put into a salad. One of our apprentices, Aurora, made a lovely salad with julienned cucumbers, kohlrabi and carrots (we still have some in the cooler from last fall!). I don't know exactly what sort of dressing she made... maybe sort of a lemony vinaigrette... You can also cook with it. At this time of year, I like to put it in stirfry. It has a crisp and juicy texture... sort of like a water chestnut or maybe jicama (although I don't think I have had either for years... not since I have kohlrabi!). Of course it is also good in soups and other cooked medleys of vegetables or just on its own.

Enjoy your kohlrabi. If you would like to share any of your favorite ideas or recipes, just let us know.

Pizza Oven House

It has been about a year since we built our pizza/bread oven and now finally we are getting a shelter built for it. Steve Hoffman, a good friend of ours is doing all of the skilled work and we helped with a little of the heavy lifting. Now we have the beginning of a beautiful frame and all we need is the roof... Not sure if it will be completed by our next open house... but maybe...

It will be really nice to put away the tarp that now covers the oven all the time. We will also be able to store wood next to the oven and keep other supplies out there. Oh it will be so spiffy!

Tonalli, one of the WWOOFers who helped build the oven last year, is here visiting for a few weeks so she gets to help put this shelter up now!

Bridge Construction causes detours to farm

MILL ROAD BRIDGE UNDER CONSTRUCTION: Alternative Routes to the farm. The best route for most people is to go over Happy Hollow Road from Route 14. Happy Hollow is between route 110 and Welch's Hardware (on the right if going toward Bethel, on the left if coming from Royalton Village or Bethel)Go all the way up the hill to the end of the road (2.5 mile). Turn right at the T. Go about a mile. Look for a Luna Bleu Sign by our mailbox on the right. Our driveway is a sharp left turn. You might find it easier to go a little farther to the end of the road and turn around.

If you are coming from Tunbridge or points north on route 110, take Russell Road from Route 110 to get to the farm. Turn right up Russell Road. Go 1.6 miles and take a left to continue on Russell Road. Go a little over a mile. Take left at the next intersection (Mill Road) and go down the hill. As you go down the road you will actually see the farm and greenhouses on the right. Continue down the road, curve to the right and take the right on Rix Road. We are the second driveway on the right.

We'll try to make sure signs are up during this time. Don't forget to drive slowly on those back roads!!

Farm Open House

Here is a photo of the Catamount Solar guys putting up the first panel on our new pole barn roof. Long time follows will remember a post from back in December when we were working on this barn... in the freezing cold.. Well, these guys waited for one of the hottest days this year to get up on that nice metal roof. I think that is sort of a nice balance.

To celebrate the completion of this big project and the beginning of summer, we are having an open house on the farm this SUNDAY, June26 3pm to 6pm. Dan Kinney, one of the solar guys will be around to answer questions about our set up. We'll also give tours of the farm and fire up the pizza oven. Catamount Solar is bringing some things to nibble on and drink. Summer is here. Lets have some fun!

Just remember the Mill Road bridge is out so you have to go over Happy Hollow Road from Route 14 or Russell Road from Route 110 to get to the farm. We'll make sure some signs are up. Don't forget to drive slowly on those back roads!! RSVP can help me know how much pizza dough to whip up! 802-763-7981 or lunableufarm@myfairpoint.net

GARLIC SCAPES! I think of these as some of the great examples of local farms introducing people to a new and beautiful (in a weird and wild way) food. They are the "flower" of the most popular type of garlic grown in the Northeast. Despite what you might think from the previous post, we did not introduce this culinary treat to the world... we won't even try to take credit.

Young and tender like these, you can use them anywhere you would use garlic. They are also great brushed with oil and thrown on the grill. CSA members will find them in their shares for these next few weeks. The rest of you, just come to the farmers' market, or go out to your garlic bed!

What else is in the share this week... well, a little like last week... lettuce, bokchoy AND bokchini, a few zucchini and cukes, basil, spinach or chard, scallions... I think that is all.

What is it? Bok Chini!!

Luna Bleu Farm has taken to popularizing what would, to the less.... creative.... farmer, be seen as a bolting vegetable and turning it into a culinary treat! It is true, as a grower, I might be embarrassed by this photo. Yet, as YOUR farmer I am delighted to introduce to you a tender and tasty delicacy that we like to call "bok chini" (sort of like broccolini etc.) Typically would would not see this crop being sold with the pretty yellow flowers on top.... but what a loss to the world. I just started eating it in the field and found it crispy but still tender. It has a nice bok choy like flavor that ends with a little zip! You could certainly just eat it raw out of hand as I did or put it in salad. Most people would probably chop it up and make a little stir fry with it... toss in some of those scallions, a zucchini.... looks like a meal!

Earlier this spring we discovered kalini and tatsini from our overwintered kale and tatsoi.... they were hits at the farmers market. In a few years it will be all the rage. Just remember, you saw it at Luna Bleu first!

2011 Harvest Shares Begin

Well, the silence on the blog is because we have been so busy jumping around the crazy spring weather we have been having and trying to get things planted for the harvest season. Finally we begin to have some proof that we have been out in the fields planting for you. Here is the first CSA share. It is a little later than usual but we hope it will be worth the wait. The Zucchini and Basil are from one of our unheated greenhouses. The Scallions were actually overwintered outside from last fall's planting. Everything else has been growing rather slowly out in the field. It would certainly help if we had a little more sun and warmth (but please not the extreme jumps into the 90's!).
Although we love to complain about the weather and it has indeed been challenging here, I do acknowledge that we really should be counting our blessings..... we have not been flooded, haven't had hail or tornadoes or other severe weather events.... just inconvenient snows and rains...

We are happy to be harvesting for you all again. Despite the crazy weather so far, we look forward to an abundant year with lots of exciting things happening on the farm. We will get into the routine of a regular weekly blog post.

Introducing LARD

OK We recently gave lard in our meat shares. Since lard has really disappeared from most Northern American's kitchens, many people don't know what to do with lard or even why they might want to do ANYTHING with it. I rendered the leaf lard from the most recent pigs that we slaughtered. Leaf lard is the fat around the kidneys and is the finest type of pork fat. This is probably the best kind of lard to use for pastries. Anyway, here are two articles that might inspire you to try lard for food you saute or fry or for pastry-type things:

Food and Wine article

Slate article

Enjoy!

Grafting Tomatoes: Off with Their Heads!

We grow lots of lovely heirloom tomatoes in our summer greenhouses (they are really the same greenhouses as our “winter greenhouses” it is just the season that is the difference). These old fashioned tomatoes have great flavor but they do not usually produce as well as the hybridized varieties. Over the last several years many commercial tomato growers that we know have started grafting their favorite tomato varieties onto a very hardy and vigorously growing tomato root stock. It seems fancy and high fallutin’ but it is really kinda fun. First you proclaim “Off with their heads!” as you see here in this photo to the left.

Then you connect the "head" of the plant that produced the fruit that you love onto the stem of the vigorous root ( you cut off that head too, but just tossed it unceremoniously into the compost bucket). These funny little plastic clips keep the two pieces together as they heal and fuse. It certainly takes more time to create these seedlings, but we think it is worth it. We have a very good success rate with our grafts.

We have to pamper the newly grafted plants for 4 or 5 days. We make a dark little place for them and put plastic domes over the trays to keep the humidity really high. In a few weeks they will be ready to plant into a larger pot and soon after that they will go to their final destination in one of our greenhouses.

Winter Harvesting and Planning for Next Year

Getting ready for the last winter markets. Here is Russ washing sorting washed carrots. It is cold, wet work. Still, Russ is smiling... I think. Last growing season we had lots of rust fly damage so we have a greater percentage of 2^nd quality carrots than ever before. This season we will be trying a special type of row cover over the carrots as they grow. Typically a row cover will keep a crop warmer while excluding flying insects. In mid-summer, that extra heat may suppress germination and crop growth so we have been hesitant to use it. We learned about a light weight netting that would have the same effect of keeping out pests but would not heat up the soil and crop. Hopefully that will do the trick. Our carrots really keep their sweet crisp flavor into the spring so they are very popular. Many people even love our seconds cause we sell them at a lower price and they still taste yummy... just require a little more work to prepare. Still, we would rather have fewer 2nds and more beauties!

We also have our winter greenhouses from which we get to harvest greens! Here is our new apprentice, Ruth Ann, harvesting spinach for our winter CSA members and a March farmers’ market. The spinach is incredibly tasty and sweet when grown over the cold winter months. Next year we plan to have spinach over more of the winter months. We will also be growing more cold hardy greens that we can harvest in December and others that will survive and begin growing again in February. All of these greenhouses have no supplemental heat… just the sun! We do have row covers in the greenhouses that go over the plants when the temperatures go below freezing (why am I writing that in passive tense as if it just happens automatically!... we put them on when it is cold and take them off again when it is sunny and warm). You can see the white row covers behind Ruth Ann.

A bushel of green spinach contrasts with the white winter snow...... a basket of hope! Ahhh how poetic... or something!

MORE piglet photos

From the top: Randy's piglets enjoying the warm sunny day. Randy's babes beginning to be curious and peeking out of their house... one became afraid and quickly turned to run back in.
Flo's six piglets at a day old... 3 pink and 3 black with spots. Can you count them all?

Spring Babies

Baby Piglets! Flo and Randy have both recently had their spring litters. Randy, of course, picked one of the coldest nights in February but had 7 cute black and white babies. Flo just farrowed on Wednesday and had three pink piglets and 3 black piglets. Happily the weather is warming. We just need to worry about flooding.

The Orchard

As if there weren't already enough things going on here, last spring we decided to add a new project to the farm, and planted a small orchard. Former apprentice Russ returned to the farm for a season as a certified arborist, and somehow he and I convinced Tim and then Suzanne that fruit would be a good addition to what we can offer CSA members and potentially Farmer'sMarket customers. In the field that the pigs turned over the year before, we planted about 30 apples, 27 plums, 9 apricots, 6 peaches, and 6 pawpaws. Right now it's all a little bit of an experiment but hopefully in a few years you will see the fruit. In the meantime, the trees are in the field closest to the house, right beyond the pizza oven and when you come by the farm topick up a CSA share or for plant sales or a gathering, you're welcome to take a look.

Here Russ and I are doing a bit of winter pruning and testing branch spacers so Russ can make more to put on when the weather warms up a bit.

Bald Eagles Visit the Farm

(no, we did not take this photo.. but the birds sure looked just like this!)

Last week, I walked out to milk the cow and as I headed toward the pond a huge bald eagle flew out from the trees and then another smaller one flew up from the ground. I stood in mild disbelief... it is just pretty amazing to be just watching these big birds cruising around the pond.
In the winter, eagles often need to supplement their diet with carrion since open water and fish are scarce. The eagles had found some of the remains of the pigs we had slaughtered earlier in the month.

The next day I went out toward the pond again and as I approached, I saw 6 no, 12 or more big black birds perched in the trees! All the eagles of Vermont? Opps no, they are really just the flock of turkeys still roosting in the trees. Later that day though, we did see the eagles again. They came a few days in a row. Pretty neat!

Winter on the Farm

Cold is settling in and it is time to get ready for the next growing season. November and December have been relatively busy for this time of year. We are building a new pole barn in which we can store our equipment and field supplies and create a more sheltered space for processing chickens. On the roof we will have solar panels installed to meet most of the farm's electricity needs.

Above is the beginning framework of the new structure. It was so cold and the wood was green so it wanted to split any time a nail was hammered in so holes had to be predrilled before nails were hammered. Butch Howe has been the lead on this project but here we have Lucas and Tim working in the flurries. Days are short so things didn't seem to move along very quickly.

Winter animal chores are of course a constant. Here is Shona returning from handmilking Sweetheart the cow. Where are your gloves Shona? Tim is more appropriately bundled.

Eleven pigs were butchered mid January. Many of them went to customers wanting half an animal, but we replenished our pork cuts for retail sale as well. Today we loaded up a steer to take to Royal Butcher in Braintree.

With this new supply of meat cuts we are offering meat shares over the winter which will include beef, pork and chicken. The meat shares are picked up once a month and offer an alternative way to get a quantity of meat at a discount from our regular retail prices (and you don't need lots of freezer space) .

Well, this is my first post. I haven't quite gotten the hang of the formatting, but oh well.