Weekly news from the farm!

Greetings Everyone,

NOTE: We’re increasing the limit on Cherry Tomatoes! You may now order 2 of these popular tomatoes!  So sorry that last week we forgot to change the setting for increasing the limit.

We want to thank everyone for supporting this small farm in eating from the fields each week! This news article appeared in our news feed and it reminded us how thankful we are that you are voting with your food dollars for supporting increased biodiversity on planet earth.  Lisa Schulte Moores quote really hit home with us,  “When she moved to Iowa to teach ecology at Iowa State University, she didn’t get that same feeling when she found herself amid acres of corn. She wasn’t hearing birds or seeing many bugs. “All I can hear are the leaves of the rustling corn,” she says. “Not one biological noise. You know, they call it the green desert.”  As we’re seeing a steep decline in our polinators this year, we know it is important that our open spaces provide an abundance of habitat so that all living beings can grow and thrive.

It is our feeling that all of us can be a part of the solution to climate change in voting with our dollars to support farms that have an abundance of diversity because that supports so much more biodiversity! So thank you for being part of the solution to climate change.

Here is a link to the online store to place your order.

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!  All orders are due by 8 AM on Tuesday.  Pick-ups in Spring Creek are either Wednesday from 1pm – 8pm OR Friday from 8am – 8pm. 

Since we’re pepper addicts, these bell peppers sweetening up are making us super happy! The peppers are huge so we’re increasing the price of the product in the online store, only because we want to provide you one of each color because it is important to eat the rainbow.  Just know, that each package size will weigh a minimum of 1 – 1/2 pounds.  These sweet bell peppers are mixed colors of red and yellow/orange. Bell peppers are on the â€œDirty Dozen” list as contaminated from pesticides and herbicides in conventional agriculture so be thankful that we have carefully grown these organically so they are healthy for you. They are excellent sliced for snacks, a topping for sandwiches or salads. Try this Romesco Sauce that may be used as a dip or as a topping for a quiche! Roasting almost any pepper transforms the sweetness into an incredible snack so consider taking a little time to do this. We typically cut our bell peppers in half, de-seed them, then roast in the oven to speed up their cooking time. Once peppers are roasted, this recipe is excellent!  If you’re in the mood for stuffing peppers, this recipe for vegetarian quinoa stuffed peppers, or if you need some meat seasoning, these meat stuffed peppers. Stuffing peppers has been popular since we can remember, so the NYTimes suggest these stuffing options. This recipe for red pepper sauce can be used on pizza, pasta, or your favorite grain such as quinoa.

Italian roasting peppers are also ripening!   This variety is the sweetest peppers we grow! These are great roasted or raw in salads, on pizza, or sliced for snacks and dipped in hummus or baba ganoush. Compared to bells, they are thinned skin, which is why they are well suited for roasting. Using roasted peppers, we make this vegan spread and sometimes this creamy spread.  We love cutting these peppers in strips and including them in a slaw with either kale, napa or green cabbage.  We’re doing a lot of laundry this week, but perhaps next week we’ll find the time to fire up the pepper roaster for you. 

The early bird gets the worm!   We had a crop failure on many of our onions so we only have a few pints of these available.  Farming is incredibly hard and we’re a bit depressed with our crop loss of onions because it is 1/8 of our farming income! For those who are able to nab a pint of these, you’ll find these onions are slightly flattened and thin skinned bulbs. Their name literally means “little onion” in Italian, and indeed they are! Cipollinis are about the size of a golf ball, but when grown under good weather conditions they tend to be a little bigger. Roasted whole in the oven or roasted with a vinegar glaze you are sure to fall in love with these onions. Cooked in a little butter on the stove top, cipollinis become soft and practically melt in your mouth. Their residual sugars caramelize and concentrate, leaving behind none of the astringent raw onion flavor. After all, our region is know for beer, so consider these beer braised cipollini onions.

Austrian Crescent Fingerling Potatoes are dug and in the online store! A golden crescent-shaped fingerling with deep yellow flesh. The waxy and firm texture is delicious for salads or roasting. This variety is also known as Kipfel — German for “croissant” — hence the lovely name “Austrian Crescent.”So tasty for hasselback potatoes, don’t let the name of the recipe name fool you into believing it is a â€œhassel”  to make, it is so simple and delicious that we find ourselves making almost weekly.  Fingerling potatoes are also well suited for roasting with herbs and garlic and for skillet roasted potatoes!   This fingerling potato salad is sure to satisfy your potato craving  and the NY Times suggests this grilled fingerling potato salad. When roasting, we love mixing this potato with the French Fingerlings, Magic Molly Fingerlings for the color combination as well as for variations of flavor and textures. While we scrub our potatoes, and cut the spots out, we nearly always leave the skins on.

Above is Tabbouleh Salad which is an incredibly refreshing salad and the flavor increases as the salad absorbs the flavors from the mint/garlic.  It can easily be made gluten free!  We spiced our salad up a bit by putting a couple serrano peppers in our salad dressing.  

This week’s Farmer’s Choice Share includes: (share contents are subject to change based on our actual harvest.)

We’re offer both a Farmer’s Choice Veggie (FCV) and Farmers’ Choice Veggie & Meat (FCVM) 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:   Oakleaf Bunches for the FC Veggie and Summer Green Leaf for the FC Veggie & Meat Share.
• Tomatoes:  Slicing Tomatoes and Cherry Tomatoes
• Scallions:  These are amazing grilled!
• Carrots  Great for a salad! 
• Summer Squash:  Mixed Yellow Crookneck and Zucchini!!! So great roasted with beans.  The veggie share will have more of these.
• Cucumber:  It’s necessary for gazpacho!!!  The veggie share will have more of these!

The following are included only in the veggie share:

• Parsley:  Mixed bunches of Italian Large Leaf and Curly Leaf.
• Cabbage: Napa  Great in a salad with carrots, peppers and a ginger/garlic salad dressing!!!  Our ginger salad dressing is similar to this recipe except we might add a splash of toasted sesame oil and reduce the honey. 
• Sweet: Peppers A mix of Bells and Italian Roasting 

The following are included only in the meat share

• Basil:  Genovese which is great for pesto or chopped in your salad for extra flavor.
• Beef: Ground (Hamburgers) Great for stuffing peppers!