More Thanksgiving Pictures

Here are a few more pictures from our Thanksgiving.

I brought home our farm fresh turkey on Tuesday along with some very large celery.

Next to me on the stove is my cooked pumpkin that I used for our pumpkin pie and my onion bread cut up and drying for the stuffing.

 My dad pulling our turkey out of the salt brine.

 Turkey all done and being cut.

Thanksgiving 2014

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Here are pictures from what we cooked this year for Thanksgiving.  I tried a bunch of new recipes this year.  I will be posting some of the recipes soon. 

Stuffed Winter Squash

I made this early, since we ate dinner pretty late, this was our lunch.

 

Spaghetti Squash with Pesto and Kale

Winter Squash, Turnips, and Radishes

Garlic Potatoes Gratin

Onion Bread Stuffing

 made with my homemade onion bread

Sweet Corn

Mixed Beans

 Homemade Gravy

 

Blue Potatoes

or if you ask me purple potatoes

Pasta Salad

with a mixture of my homemade spinach, regular, and whole wheat shells

and of course our turkey!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Recipe- Goat Cheese Pasta with Micro Greens

Goat Cheese Pasta with Micro Greens

 

 Ingredients:

1 (8 oz.) package kale rigatoni

1 (8 oz.) package rosemary garlic rigatoni

1 lb. smoked kielbasa (sliced)

1/4 cup goat milk cheese

2 tablespoons parmesan cheese

1 container brown mustard micro greens (approx. 1 cup)

1 container sunflower micro greens (approx. 1 cup)

4 medium cloves garlic (minced)

8 medium turnips (sliced) and about 1 cup turnip greens (chopped)

2 tablespoons butter

Directions:

Cook pasta according to package directions. Strain and add goat milk cheese and parmesan cheese, set aside.  To a large frying pan add butter, kielbasa and turnip roots.  Cook over medium heat until turnips are slightly browned and softened, and kielbasa is slightly browned.  Then add garlic and turnip greens, cook until greens start to wilt, then add micro greens and cook until just wilted (will not take very long).  Remove from heat, add pasta, combine and serve.

Note:  If you do not have any turnip greens or micro greens you and change things up by adding any type of greens that you like, maybe some arugula or kale.  You can also use any type of rigatoni pasta you like, but I would suggest a thicker type of pasta for this recipe, which is why I used the rigatoni.

Digging Dahlias

I almost have all my dahlias dug for the winter.  Yesterday I finished up digging most of the rest of my tubers.  Here is a picture of almost half of my dahlias, that I dug out about a week ago.  Overall I was pretty happy with the tubers that I ended up digging.  Considering that we had a bad growing year, too much water then too dry, I ended up digging out some large, nice looking tubers.

 

I can not wait till next year when I can have this again.

 

Brunswick Pumpkin Festival 2014

Just wanted to do a quick post with some pictures of our table, from the first pumpkin festival at Brunswick farmers market this past Sunday.  I also wanted to thank all our customers that stopped by on Sunday, and all our customers from both Valley City and Brunswick farmers markets.  It is hard to believe that both of our farmers markets have already come to an end for the year.

Real Veggies Farm, Brunswick Pumpkin Festival 2014

Pumpkin Festival - Brunswick Farmers Market

This weekend is going our last market of the year, and it is going to be a big one.  This past weekend was the last weekend for Valley City farmers market, but we still have one more market for the year at Brunswick.  The last market is going to be this Sunday October 12th, and it is going to be a huge pumpkin festival!   The time is going to be extended from 10am to 5pm, and we should have around 80 vendors at the market.  Most of our regular vendors will be there, plus we will be joined but many more vendors from another market. 

Some of what you will find at the market includes:
~Pumpkins, Corn Stalks, Straw
~ Gourmet Popcorn
~ Hot & Cold Cider
~ Free Face Painting
~ Free Kids  Crafts & Goodie Bags
~ Crafts (Including Fall and Christmas Crafts)
~ Apples
~ Chocolates & Treats
~ Old Fashion Soda
~ Homemade Bakery
~ Home Jams
~ Local Honey
~ Mums
~ And Much More!


We (Real Veggies Farm) are hoping to have available:
~ 15 different varieties of micro greens

Micro greens just after they were planted, or course they will look a lot better than this on Sunday

~ A large variety of our pastas
~ Radish Bunches
~ Turnip Thinnings
~ Bagged Kale
~ Baby Pac Choi
~ Heirloom Tomatoes
~ Scallion Bunches
~ Winter Squash
~ Zucchini and Summer Squash
~ Beans
~ Cut Flower Dahlias
~ Onion Bread

You can look for us at our normal spot at the market, near the big  red barn, next to the milk house.

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Brunswick Pumpkin Festival

October 12, 2014

10am- 5pm

At Brunswick Heritage Farm

4613 Laurel Road

Brunswick, Ohio

Rain or Shine we will be there!

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Fresh Cut Herbs

If you are interested in making your own basil butter, you can come down to our markets and pick up some of our many types of basil, just look for my newly built herb display unit.

 

Right now we have the following basils available:

~Blue Spice Basil (one of my personal favorites, has a very unique beautiful vanilla like smell, a little milder than regular basil)

~Lemon Basil (adds a wonderful lemon flavor to dishes which you would normally add lemon, for example chicken dishes, or pasta)

~Lime Basil (can be used similar to lemon basil)

~Cinnamon Basil (has a stronger anise like flavor)

~Sweet Basil

~Genovese Red Freddy Basil (a new one for this year and also one of my favorites, beautiful large purple leaves)

~Mixed Basil Bunches

Other herbs include:
~Thyme
~Oregano
~Wild Oregano
~Marjoram
~Spearmint

This year we lost a lot of our different types of herbs due to all the rains this spring, so there are quite a few different kinds that we do not have this year, but hopefully we will have a larger variety next year.

Basil Butter

I have had a lot of basil this year and have been trying to find ways to use it all up.  One of the things I have been making out of my basil is basil butter.  I have a ton of it frozen already and so far I think I like the basil butter better than pesto.  Pesto of course has a much stronger basil taste, while basil butter adds a milder more pleasant basil flavor.  I love it on toast, or you can also add it to whatever dish you may be cooking in place of regular butter.  If you make a lot of it up like I have been you can just freeze it.

Mixed basil leaves ready to be made into basil butter.

This is a mixture of sweet, lemon, lime, blue spice, cinnamon, and genovese red freddy basil.

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How to make Basil Butter:

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups loosely packed basil leaves (you can use a mix of whatever types of basils you want, when I make mine I just mix everything together)

1/2 pound of butter, softened

1 teaspoon lemon juice

1 teaspoon pepper

1/4 teaspoon garlic powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

Directions:

In a food processor, chop basil.  Add butter, lemon juice, pepper, garlic and salt.  Blend until smooth.  Drop tablespoons onto a baking sheet, and freeze, or you can also wrap in wax paper, form into sticks, lay out on baking sheet, and freeze.  After frozen you can place frozen butter into freezer bags.  Can be used on toast, to flavor chicken, fish, vegetables, or basically any way you would use regular butter or pesto.

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 Basil butter ready to be frozen on baking sheet.

Some basil butter ready to be frozen in sticks.

What I did Yesterday

Well yesterday I spent almost the whole day in the kitchen.  I had lots of vegetables sitting around my house that I just had to use up, so I spent the day freezing everything.  I froze beans, zucchini, tomato sauce, basil butter, basil pesto, and fried breaded zucchini.

 

Beans cut, blanched (for 3 minutes), dried and ready to be bagged and frozen.

This is a mixture of three different types of beans, Dragon Tongue Beans (yellow with purple stripes), yellow beans (do not remember what kind I planted without looking it up), and Tongue of Fire Beans (a new one for us this year it is a green bean with red stripes).

I should have all three of these beans available at my markets this weekend.

 

 

Now you are going to think I am crazy but this is a picture of some worm food, that is my scraps form the days work that I will be feeding to my worms.  I just thought it looked so pretty that I had to take a picture.  Even worm food can be beautiful!

 

Microgreens at the Market

This week was the first week that we had microgreens at our markets, and everyone seemed to like them, and I must say myself they did look beautiful at the markets.

 

I hope to have available at the markets this weekend:

Alfalfa Microgreens

Red Clover Microgreens

Red Lentil Microgreens

Broccoli Microgreens

Diakon Radish Microgreens

Brown Mustard Microgreens 

Then for the following week I am hoping to have some new exciting microgreens available, but you will just have to wait and see what they are.  

I start my microgreens in dirt, and are sold in the containers and all, so they may need to be watered, you do not want it to dry out (if keeping them inside may only need to be watered once or twice a week), and keeping them by a window is a plus.  Do be careful though if you leave them outside they can dry out very quickly on a hot day in the sun, which is why I recommend to keep them inside once you bring them home.  When you are ready to eat your microgreens all you have to do is cut them off and add to salads, wraps, eggs, stir fry (at the very end), and so much more.  Microgreens are very healthy for you, and contain lots of vitamins and minerals.  At the markets I have information about how the different types are good for your health.  I plan to post the information on here also, so check back soon (or you can come to our markets).

Below is a picture from our stand at Valley City Farmers Market this past weekend.

 

Our vegetables have been coming along very slow this year due to the excessive spring rains, a lot was lost entirely, many things I had to replant, more than half of my crops ended up getting planted late, and everything else I have had to to lots of work to finally get producing.  Lets just say it has been yet another tough growing season.  This coming weekend we should have a good selection of different varieties of zucchini and summer squash (since my second planting should be producing by the next market), we will also have Dragon Tongue Beans (my favorite type of bean), bagged kale and mustard greens, and more.  And of course do not forget about our microgreens and pasta.

 

Darrell Hudson and Friends

Tomorrow (Sunday) is the Brunswick Farmers Market (11am-3pm).  Every Sunday you can come and enjoy some entertainment while you are at the market.  Darrell Hudson and friends is in the barn, or wandering around the market, every week.  Any musician is invited to join in from noon till 3pm.  They love when others join in, so bring your instrument or just come to the market to enjoy the entertainment, fresh veggies, bakery, pasta, popcorn, and so much more.

Darrell Hudson and Friends

If you are a musician, come join in and play with Darrell and friends noon to 3pm.  They would love to have you.

For more info regarding Brunswick Farmers Market you can email Sam Boyer here.

Brunswick Farmers Market
Sundays
11a.m.- 3p.m.
June 15th, 2014 - October
Located at Brunswick Heritage Farm, 4613 Laurel Road, Brunswick, Ohio 44212

2014 Lettuce

This past Saturday I began picking lettuce for my first market of the year at Valley City Farmers Market.  This weekend I will have lettuce for both Valley City Farmers Market and the start of Brunswick Farmers Market.  Here are some pictures of the different varieties of lettuce that I am growing this year.

Romaine Lettuces:

The following lettuces are in my Ark of Taste Mix:

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Salad Mixes Available for 2014:

Just Lettuce Mix

Ark of Taste Lettuce Mix

Spicy Salad Mix

Lettuce and Greens Salad Mix

Lettuce and Romaine Salad Mix

Lettuce and Spinach Salad Mix

Lettuce and Endive Salad Mix