|
Greetings Everyone,
We’re pleased that last week the glamping site was booked nearly the entire week and hope you will read on for an inspiring story about Corbyn, one of our glamping guests last week, about her adventures on a farm in Thailand. We’re realizing, that while we aren’t able to travel the world because of being tied to the farm (and lack of financial resources), we are super fortunate to learn about other cultures through our guests.
In-between hosting guests, not only have we been busy trying to keep the crops growing, but have increased our production a tiny bit for sales at the North Asheville Tailgate Market in September and October. We are pleased to have uncovered our first seeding of summer arugula, radishes and turnips, which are still too small for harvesting but are looking really delicious!!! We’ve hoed those crops and are hopeful that we will be harvesting arugula and radishes next week. We certainly hope the groundhog doesn’t discover them.
You will probably need to white list our email to receive correspondence from us because we have changed our email from farmer@MountainHarvestOrganic.com to Farmer@MountainHarvestOrganics.com (our email is organics plural).
Your Farmers (and cleaning staff),
Carl and Julie
NOTE: Your’re receiving this eNewsletter because you’ve either been a subscriber to MHO in the past OR if you’ve registered for our newsletters from our website. Feel free to unsubscribe if you no longer wish to receive this eNewsletter!
CSA Shareholders: You can access our online store using this link, if using a desktop you will log in by clicking the icon of the person in the top right hand side of the web page, if you are using a phone click on the menu icon and choose the login option. All orders need to be placed by Thursday at 8 AM so that we will know what to harvest for your share! Please return your boxes because we re-use them. All orders need to be placed by Thursday at 8 AM so that we will know what to harvest for your share! Please return your boxes because we re-use them.
|
|
|
What is new and abundant this week!
|
|
| We’re excited to be offering you spaghetti squash this week!!! The farmers ate theirs tossed with butter, basil, garlic and chopped tomatoes for the perfect meal! This squash is a winter squash so it has a hard skin. Spaghetti squash has been known as “vegetable spaghetti†because, once baked or cooked, the flesh is removed from the skin like strands of noodles. Do yourself a favor and try it with basil and tomatoes or perhaps this simple recipe with it tossed in garlic and parmesan. It is especially great for breakfast, or used for making pad thai. It is so versatile that it can be prepared like other winter squashes so it is great sliced and roasted or stuffed. This squash is excellent as a main entree when stuffed with wild rice, with kale and sausage, in a southwestern style with beans, peppers, corn and tomatoes or even stuffed into burrito bowls. This squash is tasty simply baked and while many recipes suggest using sugar for basting the squash pulp, we feel winter squash is sweet enough that we normally baste with olive oil, garlic, salt and pepper. You might be interested in this simple recipe for slice and roasted squash rings because it highlights the flavor of the squash. |
|
| Krimzon Lee Peppers!!! We use these peppers for seasoning almost any of our meals. If either jalapeno or serrano peppers are too hot for your palate, try substituting with this Krimzon Lee pepper. This chile is a type of paprika, that is both sweet and spicy, which is why it is among our favorite peppers. If you’re adventurous you can make chile rellenos or this 4 pepper salsa. We always add chiles to pork chili or this vegetarian chili. Believe it or not, they are excellent stuffed with potatoes. During the summer, when tomatoes and tomatillos are in season, this salsa is a staple that we make weekly. Another staple in our household is guacamole. This stewed tomatoes and peppers are a great dip for chips, pizza topping, spread for bread. During the summer, you might make this burger with chopped Krimzon Lee peppers and cook it on the grill! Using roasted peppers, we make this vegan spread and sometimes this non vegan creamy spread that are delicious either as a topping for bread or a dip for veggies.
|
|
| Deb at Smitten Kitchen, has this recipe for Grilled Eggplant with Caponata Salsa that is something we are excited about making!!! CSA Member Nina mentioned that she had made Caponata Salad, and we thought to ourselves, silly us we haven’t yet made it this season!!! So this is on our menu plan for this week. Once we began harvesting greens, those being the choy’s, all our meals included these delicious greens. We must remember, it is still summer, so we need to enjoy all these summer delicacies before their peak ripeness is gone for the season. |
|
|
This Weeks Farmer’s Choice Veggie Share
|
|
| Eat the RAINBOW!!! Above is our weekly bok choy slaw with thinly sliced bell peppers, onions, bok choy, and komatsuna. We LOVE our greens and nearly always toss some cilantro into our salad for added nutrition and flavor.
This week’s Farmer’s Choice Share includes: (share contents are subject to change based on our actual harvest.)
We’re offering both a Farmer’s Choice Veggie and Farmers’ Choice Veggie & Meat Share. Items common in both shares are listed first, followed by items specific to the veggie share the finally the veggie/meat share. The Farmer’s Choice Veggie & Meat share normally has smaller portions of vegetables. )
The following are included only in the veggie share:
The following are included only in the meat share
|
|
|
What’s Happening on the Farm
|
|
| All photographs have been contributed by Corbyn Biles.
A glimpse into Corbyn’s life on an organic farm in Thailand!!!
Our glamping guests this past week found Julie working in the field while trying to find the Thistle glamping site. Those who pick up on the farm know how extremely dirty Julie can be when working in the fields, yet Corbyn our guest said, “hop in the car and you can show us where the site is.”. Nobody in their right mind has ever offered Julie a ride in their clean vehicle. It turns out, Corbyn was just recently living, working and learning on an organic farm in Thailand. So Julie knew right away they were kindred spirits. Above is Corbyn all dirty after a long day of hard work on the Little Farm in Thailand, and Julie was that dirty, yet rode in their car up to the glamping site. |
|
| The Thailand farm was completely off the grid and powered by one solar panel. That means Corbyn and the entire farm family had to wake up each morning and start a fire to cook their breakfast. When working hard on a farm, breakfast is one meal you don’t skip!!! At the end of the day, they bathed in the river, then at the end of the week they washed their clothes in the river. Above is Corbyn’s housing while living on the farm. She said during the rain, the roof would leak, and if you look closely, the hut is suspended off the ground to keep her dry. |
|
| The farm was highly diversified having growing areas for rice, vegetables gardens, pastures for pigs, ducks and chickens for eggs. Above are the ducks that was one of Corbyn’s responsibilities during the day. When a hog is butchered, it was eaten in it’s entirety that same day, because it was too much for the farm Corbyn was at, it was shared with others in their community. |
|
| All her meals were made in this kitchen. The kitchen was stocked with the basic necessities, yet they did have an adobe oven, that is used to occasionally make pizza. This farm didn’t have the luxury of refrigeration, which means everything they ate was fresh. |
|
| Corbyn making a meal for herself!! At the farm, each person would be required to cook a few weekly meals for them self, then they would have a group meal. Without refrigeration, this recipe provided from her farm uses pork, but meat was a delicacy for them since they didn’t have refrigeration. |
|
| The gardens were tiered, with different things growing on different layers. Unlike us here in Western North Carolina where we have rains throughout the year, in Thailand they have a rainy season. They would collect water in ponds at the top of the farm during the rainy season, this water would then be piped for farm use for the humans, animals and the gardens throughout the dry season. If you look closely at the photograph, you will see that they have raised beds, and water can be “flooded” between the beds to irrigate the plants. |
|
| Isn’t it amazing how sustainable this Little Farm in Thailand lives, endures and thrives with such a minimalistic and sustainable way? The goal of the farm is to provide a respite to traumatized women and children by creating a place for them to heal through being connected to nature! We know firsthand how working outside in nature with plants and animals is soothing to the soul, after all that is why the farmers at MHO haven’t yet taken the plunge into getting a “real job”. We love how the military uses farm jobs to treat soldiers who have PTSD and reintroduce soldiers into society after they’ve been in a war zone.
Corbyn raised $15,000 to fund her trip abroad, staying on a number of farms, but this farm was by far her favorite. You can read about her journey by visiting her blog. Corbyn is scheduled to lead a trip for youths to Cambodia, so imagine all the folks she will impact along her journey through life in sharing how we can all live without all the materialistic goods that so many Americans are accustomed to having? One of the major ways to reduce climate change is for each of us to have a smaller footprint on Mother Earth. Corbyn has been inspiring to us beyond what we could have imagined and we are thankful that she, and so many more youth, are going to be changing our planet in a positive way by choosing to live a more sustainable lifestyle. |
|
|
|
