Hello!
The house has been moved. It was amazing – so quiet and smooth. I imagine tomorrow will include more noise – the sound of 85 years worth of sagging being corrected in 5 minutes. Ouch! The world’s most expensive chiropractor visit.
How did you like the early fall broccoli last week? We’ll have more next week if you missed it.
As the cool weather sets in, you need to be prepared for the disappearance of your summer favorites. The first frost, which could happen any time, will kill off the sweet peppers, eggplant, green beans, and summer squash. So get some now before it’s too late!
October confuses people. They think the market is over, that plants stop growing, and that it’s time to stop eating real food until next May. NO! Please let your friends know that the market lasts until October 31 – come in costume, and we’ll throw in a free head of garlic! Ha ha.
Here’s what we’ll have on Saturday …
Sweet Potatoes
Broccoli
Winter Squash
Parsnips
Eggplant
Leeks
Sweet Peppers
Green Bell Peppers
Green beans
Summer squash
Potatoes
Carrots
Shallots
Fennel
Swiss chard
Head Lettuce
Beets
Onions
Garlic
If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to email us at blueschoolhouse@yahoo.com, although during the farm season we can’t guarantee that we’ll be checking the email as often as usual. Our phone service is won’t be restored until next week!
Best,
Mercy
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Thursday, September 24, 2009
Autumn Broccoli and Sweet Potatoes
Hello!
This will be a quick one because it’s early in the morning and I need to get the boys ready for school. This week’s big news is BROCCOLI! Have you been missing it? It’s back, and it will be delicious. This is the first year EVER that Bill has had fall broccoli. It is so sweet and crisp – be sure to get some!
Also, you should know that the squash is getting PROGRESSIVELY BETTER every week. It really needs to cure for a few weeks before the flavor fully develops. We ate acorn squash last night and were amazed at how much better it was than last week (when we also liked it).
We’ll also have SWEET POTATOES! Whoo-hoo! Like squash, sweet potatoes really need time to cure but we can’t wait that long to sell them. If you want to be really diligent, you could buy sweet potatoes and put them in a space heated to 80-90 degrees with 90% humidity for 7 days without burning your house down. (They are really a southern plant, so they like the heat.) We do this by putting them in our little space under the staircase, running a space heater and a humidifier, and covering the crates with wet towels. We just can’t do that for 1000 pounds of potatoes!
Here are two funny things from Noah this week. Yesterday in the car, Noah was reading a book out loud. I heard him read the phrase “a little black male.” I gasped and asked him to read it again. He said the same thing. My sensitivity meter going bananas, I asked for a spelling and it turned out to be “a little blackmail.” He was just sounding it out. Thank goodness. I thought Captain Underpants (the book) was going to have to be confiscated. The second funny thing was at the prayer before supper last night. We all went around the table to say one thing we’re thankful for. Noah said (and I’m not exaggerating), “Thank you God for the world being just like it is and not any worse.” (He’s been watching the Planet Earth series and the most recent episode was filled with some of the bad news, like animal extinctions and climate change.) Noah is already preparing for the worst. We try to reassure him, but he’s pretty smart and opinionated!
Here’s what we’ll have on Saturday …
Sweet Potatoes
Broccoli
Squash – butternut, acorn, spaghetti
Parsnips
Eggplant
Leeks
Poblano Peppers
Sweet Peppers
Green Bell Peppers
Green beans
Summer squash
Potatoes
Carrots
Shallots
Fennel
Swiss chard
Head Lettuce
Beets
Onions
Garlic
If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to email us at blueschoolhouse@yahoo.com, although during the farm season we can’t guarantee that we’ll be checking the email as often as usual. Our phone service is dead for the next few weeks until the house is moved back onto the new basement!
Best,
Mercy
This will be a quick one because it’s early in the morning and I need to get the boys ready for school. This week’s big news is BROCCOLI! Have you been missing it? It’s back, and it will be delicious. This is the first year EVER that Bill has had fall broccoli. It is so sweet and crisp – be sure to get some!
Also, you should know that the squash is getting PROGRESSIVELY BETTER every week. It really needs to cure for a few weeks before the flavor fully develops. We ate acorn squash last night and were amazed at how much better it was than last week (when we also liked it).
We’ll also have SWEET POTATOES! Whoo-hoo! Like squash, sweet potatoes really need time to cure but we can’t wait that long to sell them. If you want to be really diligent, you could buy sweet potatoes and put them in a space heated to 80-90 degrees with 90% humidity for 7 days without burning your house down. (They are really a southern plant, so they like the heat.) We do this by putting them in our little space under the staircase, running a space heater and a humidifier, and covering the crates with wet towels. We just can’t do that for 1000 pounds of potatoes!
Here are two funny things from Noah this week. Yesterday in the car, Noah was reading a book out loud. I heard him read the phrase “a little black male.” I gasped and asked him to read it again. He said the same thing. My sensitivity meter going bananas, I asked for a spelling and it turned out to be “a little blackmail.” He was just sounding it out. Thank goodness. I thought Captain Underpants (the book) was going to have to be confiscated. The second funny thing was at the prayer before supper last night. We all went around the table to say one thing we’re thankful for. Noah said (and I’m not exaggerating), “Thank you God for the world being just like it is and not any worse.” (He’s been watching the Planet Earth series and the most recent episode was filled with some of the bad news, like animal extinctions and climate change.) Noah is already preparing for the worst. We try to reassure him, but he’s pretty smart and opinionated!
Here’s what we’ll have on Saturday …
Sweet Potatoes
Broccoli
Squash – butternut, acorn, spaghetti
Parsnips
Eggplant
Leeks
Poblano Peppers
Sweet Peppers
Green Bell Peppers
Green beans
Summer squash
Potatoes
Carrots
Shallots
Fennel
Swiss chard
Head Lettuce
Beets
Onions
Garlic
If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to email us at blueschoolhouse@yahoo.com, although during the farm season we can’t guarantee that we’ll be checking the email as often as usual. Our phone service is dead for the next few weeks until the house is moved back onto the new basement!
Best,
Mercy
Thursday, September 17, 2009
Fall crops are coming in. Welcome, parsnips!
Hello!
We’re still in the neighbor’s basement, but our basement is coming right along. The walls are up, their pouring the floor today, and the house moves back next week. We just need this dry spell to hold.
The school year is also going well. Ben is doing a great job in kindergarten, getting a “smiley face” almost every day (which in his world is a big deal). He’s still in pronouncement mode, where he randomly bursts out with declaratory statements. Last night he said (with no obvious provocation), “You can’t get married when you’re little because your lips can’t reach anyone.” So there.
Noah has taken first grade by storm. He’s a little ahead of the curve right now, which makes our lives easier. He recently came home and asked for a shoebox. No explanation. I said we didn’t have one. He asked for any other box. I spotted a beer box on the floor and said he could have that. He busily got to work, cutting off the top flaps and coloring the inside. I finally asked him what he was doing. He said he was creating a diorama about the snowy white owl for his big assignment. Good lord … a diorama in a beer box. Not appropriate in any first grade setting but particularly inappropriate in such a religiously conservative area!! So he has to cover up the beer logo, etc. before turning it in.
But enough about our kids. Let’s talk farmer’s market. What happened to everyone? This past week marked the beginning of what we call “The Dropoff.” Many people just stop coming. We know that you are still coming, of course, and buying a lot of produce I might add. We appreciate that! Consider bringing a friend or at least talking about the market at work – we could use some extra traffic.
Here’s another reason why you should keep coming – this is Bill’s last season. Yes, Bill is not going to farm anymore. It’s complicated, but let’s just say that he’s tired of being tired. All the time. 10 months of the year. For very little money. Bill’s also concerned about the toll this takes on his body. Pick a joint above the waist, and it hurts. (Fortunately, he doesn’t have knee or hip problems! It’s all back, neck, shoulders, arms, etc.) We would also like to have more of a normal family life. We’ll actually be able to cook and preserve the food we grow next year! Yee-haw!
Clearly, the worst part about not farming will be that we won’t be a part of your lives anymore. We have really loved serving you the best food we have every Saturday for the past seven years. We know your kids, your food tastes, your politics, your favorite college football teams, and more. Sigh. It is sad, but I guess it’s just a seven year cycle that’s coming to an end.
But for the rest of this season, Bill will continue to bring you the best of what he has! No slacking off! (This season is paying for our basement!! Ha ha.) He’s also going to cap off his career with a rockin’ Thanksgiving market.
Here’s what we’ll have on Saturday – note the new PARSNIPS!! …
Squash – butternut, acorn, spaghetti
Parsnips
Eggplant
Leeks
Poblano Peppers
Sweet Peppers
Green Bell Peppers
Green beans
Summer squash
Potatoes
Carrots
Shallots
Fennel
Swiss chard
Head Lettuce
Beets
Onions
Garlic
Basil
If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to email us at blueschoolhouse@yahoo.com, although during the farm season we can’t guarantee that we’ll be checking the email as often as usual. Our phone service is dead for the next few weeks until the house is moved back onto the new basement!
Best,
Mercy
We’re still in the neighbor’s basement, but our basement is coming right along. The walls are up, their pouring the floor today, and the house moves back next week. We just need this dry spell to hold.
The school year is also going well. Ben is doing a great job in kindergarten, getting a “smiley face” almost every day (which in his world is a big deal). He’s still in pronouncement mode, where he randomly bursts out with declaratory statements. Last night he said (with no obvious provocation), “You can’t get married when you’re little because your lips can’t reach anyone.” So there.
Noah has taken first grade by storm. He’s a little ahead of the curve right now, which makes our lives easier. He recently came home and asked for a shoebox. No explanation. I said we didn’t have one. He asked for any other box. I spotted a beer box on the floor and said he could have that. He busily got to work, cutting off the top flaps and coloring the inside. I finally asked him what he was doing. He said he was creating a diorama about the snowy white owl for his big assignment. Good lord … a diorama in a beer box. Not appropriate in any first grade setting but particularly inappropriate in such a religiously conservative area!! So he has to cover up the beer logo, etc. before turning it in.
But enough about our kids. Let’s talk farmer’s market. What happened to everyone? This past week marked the beginning of what we call “The Dropoff.” Many people just stop coming. We know that you are still coming, of course, and buying a lot of produce I might add. We appreciate that! Consider bringing a friend or at least talking about the market at work – we could use some extra traffic.
Here’s another reason why you should keep coming – this is Bill’s last season. Yes, Bill is not going to farm anymore. It’s complicated, but let’s just say that he’s tired of being tired. All the time. 10 months of the year. For very little money. Bill’s also concerned about the toll this takes on his body. Pick a joint above the waist, and it hurts. (Fortunately, he doesn’t have knee or hip problems! It’s all back, neck, shoulders, arms, etc.) We would also like to have more of a normal family life. We’ll actually be able to cook and preserve the food we grow next year! Yee-haw!
Clearly, the worst part about not farming will be that we won’t be a part of your lives anymore. We have really loved serving you the best food we have every Saturday for the past seven years. We know your kids, your food tastes, your politics, your favorite college football teams, and more. Sigh. It is sad, but I guess it’s just a seven year cycle that’s coming to an end.
But for the rest of this season, Bill will continue to bring you the best of what he has! No slacking off! (This season is paying for our basement!! Ha ha.) He’s also going to cap off his career with a rockin’ Thanksgiving market.
Here’s what we’ll have on Saturday – note the new PARSNIPS!! …
Squash – butternut, acorn, spaghetti
Parsnips
Eggplant
Leeks
Poblano Peppers
Sweet Peppers
Green Bell Peppers
Green beans
Summer squash
Potatoes
Carrots
Shallots
Fennel
Swiss chard
Head Lettuce
Beets
Onions
Garlic
Basil
If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to email us at blueschoolhouse@yahoo.com, although during the farm season we can’t guarantee that we’ll be checking the email as often as usual. Our phone service is dead for the next few weeks until the house is moved back onto the new basement!
Best,
Mercy
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
Tasty Squash now in season!
A boat-load of squash
A busy day at the Blue Schoolhouse
Hello!
Sorry about missing a blog posting last week. Our house project is pretty time-consuming and I figured you could live without a rambling blog post! Ha ha. Speaking of the house, everything is going well. We should have the basement floor poured early next week and the house moved back to the new foundation the week after. We have gotten so comfortable in our neighbor's basement, though, that I'm not sure how we'll readjust to living in our place!
This week Bill will have some really delicious squash -- acorn, butternut, and spaghetti. We've been eating it, and it's PERFECT! Be sure to grab a few. It's easy to cook squash and scoop out the guts into a ziploc bag in the freezer for later use in the winter.
We will also have tons of sweet peppers. Have you ever roasted and frozen them? It's so easy, and it's wonderful to pull them out of the freezer in the winter to add to homemade pizza. We go through a ton that way. If you do roast them, put them into a covered bowl immediately afterward. The steaminess makes it much easier to peel off the blackened skin.
You'll notice by the veggie selection that we are transitioning nicely into fall. We'll have lots of head lettuces, beets, rose-heart radishes, Japanese turnips, arugula, ruby streaks, and more!! The radishes are pretty mild and very crisp right now. The rose-hearts have a brilliant pink interior -- perfect for slicing onto the side of a main dish. The ruby streaks are for those who like arugula -- it's just another fantastic mustard green with the perfect amount of sparkle in flavor and appearance.
Please come out this weekend. We're starting to experience that September slow-down in customers, which is disappointing because we have so much delicious produce to share! Bring a friend! Here's what we'll have:
Squash -- acorn, butternut, and spaghetti
Tomatoes (much fewer)
Eggplant
Leeks
Poblano Peppers
Sweet Peppers
Green Bell Peppers
Cucumbers
Green beans
Summer squash
Potatoes
Carrots
Shallots
Fennel
Swiss chard
Head Lettuce
Beets
Onions
Garlic
Basil
Okra
Best,
Mercy
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