Weekly news from the farm!

Greetings Everyone,

Do you remember that saying, “An apple a day keeps the doctor away”? Our parents used to say that, probably just to get us to eat apples, because we hated visiting the doctor’s office. This article is interesting because a study found that 8 ounces of an apple contained over 100 million bacteria and that organic apples were found to contain a more diverse array of different types of bacteria that is healthy for one’s gut, which leads us to believe that there are so many unknown benefits in choosing to eat organic.  It is also fascinating that our scientists are conducting more research every day in trying to understand the gut microbiome and how diverse bacteria in our gut can solve some of our major health problems, but also strains of bacteria that contribute to health problems. The NY Times published this article in studying the microbiome to understand if any collection of bacteria contributes to obesity or if introducing new types of bacterial can change ones metabolism. These researchers are looking into how to change an unhealthy microbiome into a healthy one for improving your cholesterol. Today we can find probiotics sold in the form of capsules that can be taken orally to help build the bacteria in ones gut, but because the research doesn’t yet back up exactly what types of bacteria are good or bad for ones microbiome, we farmers think it is better to try and get those probiotics naturally through diet, which not only includes eating a diversity of vegetables, but also adding fermented foods such as yogurt and kraut into your diet.  

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 Tuesday at 8 AM so that we will know what to harvest for your share! Please return your boxes because we re-use them.  Orders will be ready each Wednesday after 8 AM. 

You’ll find salad mix in the online store again!!! Normally we have this beautiful mix available all season long because we plant 16 successions of lettuce throughout the year. About mid summer, the groundhog started eating the salad mix so we quit seeding it because the seed is expensive.  We’d rather the groundhog eat the less expensive lettuce, so we took a break seeding it until we evicted some groundhogs off the farm. This salad mix contains several baby lettuce varieties for an instant salad! This gourmet mix includes a mixture of red and green leaves for different shapes and textures. Such varieties include oak leaf, romaine, buttercrunch, and sweet crisps. This balsamic vinaigrette, or if you are like us this buttermilk salad dressing or perhaps this lemon ginger tahini dressing is all the lettuce needs and it becomes a salad that satisfies our craving.

We’re harvesting arugula this week!!! This season we eliminated a few of our spring successions from our production plan because it seems as though the flea beetles are getting worse and worse every year.  We’re continuing to grow it in the fall and are pleased to be harvesting a crop this week that is mostly free of the tiny holes these critters make in our greens.  This tender green has a tangy flavor. It is included in many Mesclun mixes, but we package it separately so that you can add flavor your salads, or perhaps substitute it for lettuce as a wrap or on sandwiches. It is mentioned by several classical Mediterranean authors as an aphrodisiac. Arugula is also a good source of Vitamin C and Potassium. It is great with fruit, especially strawberries so consider Arugula Strawberry salad which is a popular recipe among CSA Shareholders.  Other favorites include Arugula Fig Pizza, or Arugula Pesto, or these Corn Crepes.  

Our first succession of “fall” radishes are in the online store!!! These radishes tend to stay mild even when temperatures fluctuate during Spring and Fall. We mostly eat these on salads but they are also fabulous roasted with other roots, roasted with their tops, or you might be interested in trying them in a slaw . The Splendid Table suggests radish butter as a spread. These radishes and bread hors d’oeuvres are easy, healthy and tasty.  Another favorite of ours is Spring Rolls where most any vegetable can go into these delicious wraps.  They can be mashed with potatoes for a gratin which can be made vegan in substituting New Balance or oil for butter and nutritional yeast for the cheese. If you haven’t yet pickled radishes, be sure to give it a try because it is great as a topping on tacos! Occasionally these radishes are sold without the tops.

Above is our Southwestern Black Bean Salad.  We put tomatoes, sweet corn (10 small ears), orange peppers, red onions and cilantro.. 

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. )

• Lettuce: Salad Mix for your convenience of an easy salad this week.
• Sweet Corn:  We’re loving these briefly steamed!!. These will be smaller ears than last week so you may need to boil them for a couple minutes, then cut them off the ear and add to salads.
• French Filet Beans (Mixed Colors):  Mix of green, yellow and purple
• Mixed Braising Greens:  Special for the Farmer’s Choice share is a mixture of Arugula and also Mizuna and Scarlet Frills greens.  We normally just wrap these greens fresh and uncooked in corn crepes.
• Radishes – Red Round:  These are amazing roasted!!!
• Parsley: Italian Large Leaf:   Excellent for seasoning soups and salads. 
• Garlic: We can’t live without this and add it to every meal!!!
• Hot Peppers:  A couple serrano peppers for seasoning your meals!!!

The following are included only in the veggie share:

• Greens: Green Curly Kale.  This kale is tender and works well in salads.
• Spaghetti Squash. A very versatile winter squash!!!

The following are included only in the meat share

• Bone-In Pork Chops:   Carl has been making the most awesome chops by searing the outside, then putting them in a dutch oven with onions and baking at 225 degrees for an hour, sometimes longer, until the onions are caramelized into a gravy and the meat tender.  SUPER DELICIOUS!!! 

While the above photograph may not look like much to the casual eye, it is a significant milestone for us farmers.  As we’ve been diversifying into offering Farm-Stays so that we can continue eking out a living off this beautiful farm, the last few years we’ve struggled to juggle getting our fields cleaned up and a cover crop sown, along with hosting guests.  That means, for the past several years, we’ve seeded our cover crops too late for them to germinate well and produce a lot of biomass to feed the soil.  This year, we finally seeded our cover crops in a timely manner, so now we are waiting for much needed rain so they will germinate.  Everyone, please pray for rainfall on these fields where the food for your spring and summer shares were grown. 

So many of our pollinators have been hanging out in the soil as we’ve been irrigating.  It is incredibly dry here on the farm, so we’re happy that our irrigation is providing the much needed water for our pollinators.   While walking the fields this week, we’ve been admiring the Blue Winged Wasp (Scolia dubia) digging around in our soil. Just another reason for you to be supporting organic agriculture, because bugs such as this wasp are able to dig around in the soil without being killed by pesticides!!!

Above the female wasp will dig into the soil to create a nest  for its babies, and once the babies are growing in the soil they will feed on grubs such as the babies of the Japanese Beetle. So let us hope that she is laying eggs to protect your food from pests!!!   

We’re certainly glad our irrigation is keeping your crops growing and providing the much needed water for all the beneficials thriving on this organic farm!!!