Thanksgiving

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving.  I always love Thanksgiving because I love being able to cook up a large variety of my vegetables all on one day for one meal.  For Thanksgiving I only cook up sides that contain my veggies.  The only thing that is not mine is the turkey.  So of course I had to take pictures of my Thanksgiving meal to share with everyone.

 Mashed Potatoes and Turnips

Turnip, Carrot, and Cabbage Slaw

Spaghetti Squash with garlic and butter

Sweet Corn

 

Dragon Tongue Beans

Pumpkin Bread Stuffing

Sweet Potato Cornbread

Salad with Lettuce, Kale and Mustard Greens.

Not the best picture of our turkey since my dad started cutting it before I got to take the picture, but I think it was a really good turkey.  I got the turkey from Plum Creek Farm in Valley City, and I will plan to get a turkey from them again next year.  Plum Creek Farm on Local Harvest

Our table decorated with gourds and winter squash.

The crazy thing is the turkey was done way earlier than I had expected so I did not get to cook up all the sides that I had intended to make.  I did not even get to use my beets and other winter squashes.  Oh well, for the four of us I think we had enough food.

I also forgot to take a picture but we also made some homemade pumpkin pie, made out of real pumpkin.

Mix Your Own Cherry Tomato Containers

I started something new this year with my cherry tomatoes, instead of just having the cherry tomatoes premixed in containers I decided to let customers choose which varieties of cherry tomatoes they wanted to fill their containers with.

 

We have over 15 different varieties of cherry tomatoes, and are available in many different colors and sizes.  We have red, orange, yellow, green, pink, purple, brown, and striped tomatoes.  Also available are pear tomatoes, which are shaped like a pear but are the size of a cherry tomato, we have yellow pear, red pear, ivory pear, and purple pear tomatoes.

Since we did not have a frost on Monday morning like they were saying we could, we should be able to have our cherry tomatoes available for at least one more week.  And if the first frost will hold off for awhile we may be able to keep picking them even longer.  It basically all comes down to the weather as far as how much longer we should have tomatoes for.

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Here are a few more pictures that I took the other day around the farm.

 

One of many many gourds that I will be picking very very soon.

 

A whole bunch of gourds.

 

Some may be hard to see but there were quite a few gourds in this one area.  The bigger green ones are bird house gourds.

Just to let everyone know pumpkins, winter squash and gourds are going to be coming to the market this next weekend, and I will be continuing to pick more over the next couple of weeks.

Special Guests at Market

Tomorrow my parents are going to be lucky enough to have two very special guests join them at market.
Mr. and Mrs. Pepper.

Valley City Farmers Market Pictures

Here are some more pictures from Valley City Farmers Market this past weekend.

Cooking at the Farm

I do not live where I grow so when I get hungry I either have to bring food with me or pick food to eat.  So the other day, I brought foil, butter, some of my greens and garlic seasoning, some sausage, a knife and a fork and in the end this is what I ended up with.

 

I picked a scallion, a turnip, garlic, some celery, a three summer squashes, some sweet peppers, a green tomato, some broccoli, snow peas and shelling peas, and some swiss chard (that is not in the picture).

I put some butter in the foil first cut up all the veggies, mixed in some of my garlic and greens seasoning,  put some more butter on top and sealed it up real well.  Put it on the grill for about 10 to 15 minutes, or until the veggies are tender, and done!

I also did this again just recently and added some beans and cucumbers to the mix, I did not have them producing in the first time.  You can basically do this with a mix of any vegetables that you like, no mater what it still tastes awesome.  It is great for cookouts, instead of just having hamburgers and hotdogs you can have a bunch of veggies too! 

Rats Tail Radishes

This is the first year that I have grown Rats Tail Radishes and I will, for sure, be growing them again.  Rats tail radishes are not grown for their roots (in fact they do not grow roots like regular radishes) but are instead grown for their seed pods.  Actually you can eat the seed pod of all radishes, but rats tail radishes are grown specifically for their seed pods.  So the seed pods of other radishes may be edible but will most likely not taste as good as rats tail radishes do.  They taste much like regular radish roots but are not quite as strong tasting, which can make them a wonderful addition to salads, you do not even have to cut them you can just throw them in.  They can also be great added to stir-fries and can even be pickled.

Rat's Tail Radishes are an Asian heirloom that began being grown in gardens in the US in the 1860's.  The great thing about this radish is that it may be grown all summer long since it actually likes the heat.  Most radishes will go to seed (bolt) when it is too hot (and will not produce a good root), well that is not a worry with rat's tail radishes since bolting is what you want them to do.

Unfortunately my first planting of rat's tail radishes is almost done producing, but I do have another planting in the ground that I should be able to start picking from in a few weeks.

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What's Growing Update:
Just thought I would let everyone know how things are growing and what you can expect to be available over the next few weeks.

~ Peas ~ They are slowing down but my guess is I should have some type of peas available for at the next week or two.
~ Turnips ~ Sadly I have almost pulled all my turnips for this spring.  I should still have some for this next market, but that may be it until the fall, when I will be planting some more.j
~ Lettuce ~ Lots of people have been asking about lettuce.  I have a bunch of summer lettuces and greens growing right now but it will still be at least 2 or 3 more weeks before my summer salad mix is available.  Of coarse in the fall I will have all my main salad mixes available again, since I am planning on planting a very large variety of lettuces and greens.
~ Mustard Greens ~ I know a lot of people liked the mustard greens, and they will return again in the fall, when I will once again have them available for sale in mixed bunches and also in my Spicy Salad Mix and also mixed bagged mustard greens.
~ Zucchini and Summer Squash ~ My zucchini and summer squash is just now beginning to produce.  I am expecting to have some available for the next market.  Some varieties are ahead of others so I will not have all my varieties of summer squash and zucchini available this week.  The common green zucchini, and a few different varieties of yellow summer squash should be the first that I will be bring to market.
~ Zucchini Bread ~ Of coarse since I am going to be beginning to pick zucchini, I will be able to start making some zucchini bread for market again.

Well that is just a little update of how things are coming along.  If you are wondering exactly what we have available right now check out the list in the column to the right titled "What We Currently Have Available".

New Dried Mixes Now Available

This year we now have a new product available, our dried seasoning mixes.  Since it is a new product this year we will slowly be adding new mixes and new dried items throughout the season.  Right now we have available: Dried Scallions, Dried Mustard Greens and a Dried Greens and Garlic Mix, which contains Mustard Greens, Kale, Swiss Chard and Garlic Scapes.

These can be used for so many things you can basically throw it into your favorite dish.  They are great for adding to a dish that may be to liquid and need some thickening, since they are dried and will soak up liquid from what you are cooking.  It can be added to soups and stews for this purpose or even if you are making a stir-fry and it needs some thickening.  These seasonings would be great added to pastas and also one my favorite ways to use greens, by adding them to scrambled eggs.  The dried scallions would also make a great addition to dips just be sure to let them soak for a little while.

So don't forget to check out our new item at Valley City Farmers Market and keep checking back for our new mixes that we will be adding throughout the season.