Holy Hotness, Batman!

Hello Friends!

And hello hot August weather! Monday was completely miserable … and I only spent 20 minutes outside walking from city hall to the Movie Fan to get a guilty pleasure flick to watch between the end of work and the start of the Town Council meeting! I can only imagine how hot and uncomfortable the farmers were that day.

Tuesday was much worse, though, for so many reasons. Tuesday was filled with the most improbable of circumstances. A ripper of a thunderstorm came through around 5 a.m. Not a problem for us – just one branch down and the power stayed on. Not so in Eureka. I took Ben in to preschool Tuesday morning to find that the entire town had no power, and huge tree limbs were laying all over highway 117. The preschool teachers told me they’d have to send the kids home if power wasn’t restored within a couple of hours given the forecasted heat. That was bad news since it was a harvest day (in which Bill has no time for anything) and it was a day in which I was giving a presentation at 10 a.m. for which I had not prepared.

I proceeded to work, hoping that of the 27,000 people without power in the Peoria area, the Ameren line workers would come to Eureka’s rescue first. Right.

About 8 miles from the preschool (and half a mile before getting onto the interstate), I heard a very unpleasant and very loud grating noise under my car. I immediately pulled over and found that the strap holding my muffler up had busted. I called my neighbor, who works at ISU, and was able to hitch a ride to work with him, leaving my car to be towed.

I furiously prepared for my presentation (which turned out mediocre at best – I’m not being modest, either!), and at 9:30 a.m. I got a call from the preschool. No power. I had told Bill to check the phone messages frequently, figuring it was likely that he’d get a call from the preschool. Unfortunately, Noah had been the last person to use our phone and hadn’t hung it up correctly. So when I called home, all I got was a busy signal. I had to then call the neighbor (the one neighbor that we have who would be home!) and have her send her kid over to find Bill either at home or down in the field.

The story ends with Bill picking up Ben, harvesting with two small-and-marginally-helpful boys, and bringing them both in to the market. I then took part of the afternoon off to help run the circus that we call our market stand. (It was also Noah’s first market where he sold his “art” – colored pictures out of the Elmo coloring book – for 25 cents.) If we seemed a bit out of sorts (code for “crabby as hell”!), that’s the back story.

But enough about us, how are you? Are you feeling like making pesto this week? I hope so! Our basil is kicking some major butt right now and needs a serious thinning. We will be bringing in small bunches as usual AND one pound bags for a discounted price of $6/bag.

Here’s a very easy pesto recipe from the Moosewood Cookbook:

Place 3 cups (packed) fresh basil leaves and 3 garlic cloves into a food processor and mince well. Add 1/3 cup pine nuts, walnuts, or almonds (we use almonds – CHEAPER!) and keep blending until ground. Drizzle in 1/3 cup olive oil while machine is still running, until you have a smooth paste. Transfer to a bowl and then add in 1/3 cup parmesan. Add salt and pepper to taste. (Side note: You can also make pesto with the same recipe but substituting cilantro, dill, parsley, etc. for the basil.)

We primarily use pesto on pasta and pizza. We always freeze batches of it in the summer for use in the winter. To freeze it, just mix up everything except the parmesan. You can add that when you thaw it out. We have had great success freezing into ice cube trays and then popping them into a freezer bag. It also works to use mason jars with a layer of olive oil on top. In fact, if you keep a layer of oil on top, you can keep pesto in the fridge for weeks and weeks.

Many customers have asked about storing fresh basil. It is a very perishable item, but we’ve been most successful getting it nice and wet (especially after a morning out at the market stand) and putting it into a glass of water on the counter. If you want to put it into a bag, it can’t be nearly as wet or it just turns to mush against the plastic.

What’s going on in the field? Many of the fall crops have germinated – rutabaga (which has yet to become a chic vegetable), fall radishes, chois, arugula, tatsoi, salad mix, head lettuce, and daikon. The sweet potatoes look great. And thank heavens that the parsnips look awesome. What a change of pace. Usually, Bill plants parsnips and can’t keep them weeded and they turn out to be a big failure and waste of space. Not this year! The fall markets promise to be amazing unless we have a serious breach of security in the deer fence.

We hope that the market won’t experience the annual drop off in customers after the start of the school year. We think it won’t be as drastic given how many new people seem to be attending the market this season. It’s truly been amazing.

Here’s some additional info on erstwhile missing vegetables … head lettuces will reappear in two weeks with Japanese turnips following in another two weeks. I also anticipate some salad mix before too long.

New this week will be sweet peppers and fresh soybeans! Yay! As most gardeners will tell you, this has been a bad pepper year. We’re not sure why, but the cool weather in June was likely the culprit. Our bell peppers aren’t as productive as usual, but they’re still tasty! We’re also bringing non-bell sweet peppers that are more flavorful than the bells. This year we’re featuring Jimmy Nardello, Carmen (an Italian Sweet Pepper!), Marconi Red, Krimson Lee, and Golden Treasure.

We’ll also have some hot peppers, including Anaheim and Poblano.

And since not a week can go by without a mention of my sweet baby boys (am I becoming Kathy Lee Gifford?), I should point out the pictures this week of Ben helping with the onion harvest. He’s actually quite helpful with the less delicate vegetables. He can be very focused when he gets set on a task. He’s got two cute little habits that I wonder about in the long-term … he’s a hand wringer when excited and he sticks out his tongue when concentrating. It’s so cute, but I have a hard imagining a 40-year-old doing the same thing.

Here’s what we’ll be bringing to the market this week:

Eggplant
Beets (Traditional, Golden, and Chioggia)
Kale
Parsley
Basil
Swiss Chard
Summer Squash/Zucchini
Carrots
Garlic
Bulb Onions
Leeks
Potatoes
Tomatoes
Okra
Fennel
Peppers
Soybeans

Bill has just started a new delivery system. He’s delivering to the Garlic Press in Uptown Normal on Tuesdays and to Common Ground in downtown Bloomington on Saturday mornings. So if you miss a market or just run out of veggies, head to Common Ground! And if you need the veggies prepared into a fabulous meal, Garlic Press is right down the road.

We’ll see you at the Downtown Bloomington Farmers Market on Saturdays from 7:30 a.m. – noon. BRING YOUR BAGS!! We’ll also be at the Trailside Market in Uptown Normal, every Tuesday from 3:30 – 6:00 p.m.

Please let your friends know about the blog. We plan to put out the email sign-up sheet during the market season again. Call us at 467-9228 or email us at blueschoolhouse@yahoo.com if you have questions.

Thanks!
Mercy Davison

The Rare Posting from the Elusive Farmer Davison

Hello Friends!

We’re approaching a major life and farm transition … Noah starts kindergarten in three weeks. Our little baby boy is growing up! Sniff sniff. Actually, we’re just so happy for him. He’s totally ready for the next big step in life.

As for the farm, when Noah goes to school, Ben will become our littlest farm hand. He will start staying home from preschool on Tuesdays and Fridays (as Noah has for the last two years) to help with the harvest. He may enjoy farming more than Noah – he is very eager to please us lately, and he truly loves vegetables and eating them! You should see him in the green beans. Somewhat like a very big Japanese beetle but without the hard shell. Ha!

I’m including a picture of our boys in their new sun hats. We purchased them from a company called Sunday Afternoons. The hats are rated for maximum sun protection. Bill and I have had similar hats for a long time, and they’re amazingly light and comfortable. I let the boys pick the colors. After all, it’s important for kids to control what little they can in life. When I showed them the colors available online, Noah immediately picked his favorite color … bright blue.

Ben then had to choose from sand, dark grey, hot pink, and lavender/pink. He immediately chose the lavender. It was one of those parental dilemmas … do I say something about the fact that a pinky purple is, in many people’s opinions, a “girl color”? I asked him, “Are you sure that’s the color you want?” No hesitation … “YES!” Then I just had to ask him (based on the fact that I was spending $25 on a hat that I can’t afford for him to suddenly decide is unacceptable), “What if the other kids say it’s a girl color?” He looked truly puzzled for a second and then said, “But it’s beautiful!” And that was that.

I’m also including a photo of a ginormous onion with boys for perspective. This is Bill’s banner onion year. If you haven’t eaten any, you’re missing a real treat.

And now a word from the farmer himself …

I have a confession to make. This will be our first poor tomato year in 6 years of farming. After walking through our large hoophouse tonight, I can no longer deny that our bligh-infected plants are only going to yield a quarter of their normal production. (Fortunately, the tomatoes we will harvest will TASTE GREAT!) Since tomatoes are our best selling crop, this really hurts. I have been taking care of these plants since March. I have invested a tremendous amount of time, mental energy, and hope on these plants and they are now nearly dead. I kept thinking they may still produce despite the fungal infection that steadily crept up from the bottom of the plant and now has browned the leaves up to the top ¾ of our 10 foot tall plants. Hundreds of full size green tomatoes sit in a state of suspended ripening, waiting for nutrients the plant cannot deliver because it has almost no green leaves. Their photosynthetic capacity reduced to near zero.

Our field tomatoes are in better shape, but many of them have the same blight due to our rainy growing season. Of course, I have been breaking a cardinal rule of farming by trying to grow the same crop in the same space for three years in a row. You are always supposed to rotate your crops to prevent diseases from building up to the point they destroy your crop. Such is the allure of tomatoes! It is hard not to keep planting them in the hoophouse because few other plants can produce $60 worth of income from a single plant.

You tomato lovers may be asking yourselves what I am going to do to recover from such a tragedy. Do not worry. I have a plan. I am going to research the possibility of grafting tomatoes onto disease-resistant rootstock and planting those in the hoophouse. I am also going to research the possibility of creating mobile hightunnels in the field. They will consist of fabric rowcovers over wire hoops and a layer of plastic over pvc or re-bar posts above the rowcover. I may also lay down plastic mulch to help warm the soil and prevent soil from splashing up on the leaves. That is how the fungal spores get transmitted from the soil to the plant. All of this work will partially re-create the near perfect tomato growing conditions of the larger hoophouse but will allow me to rotate my tomato plantings. Of course this entails much more work, but my early tomatoes are worth it!

I learn so much every year and this year is no exception. I am already on my second 50 page field notebook. I take the time to write down everything I see and learn that I think will help me improve next year. As a result, I continue to get better every year. So, rest assured I will do everything I can to ensure a tremendous abundance of tomatoes next year. The poor yield of this year’s tomatoes is very disappointing, but learning to overcome such challenges is also one of the reasons I love to farm. Mercy tells me I am obsessed with vegetables. She may be right, but I think there are worse obsessions in life.

While I am filling you in on our challenges this year, I may as well let you know that we will have a gap of a couple of weeks in our head lettuce production after this week. I switched from transplanting lettuce to direct seeding and I lost track of time and did not plant lettuce seed soon enough, hence the gap in production.

I planted fall crops today and I am so glad to see the rain this evening! I planted winter radish, daikon radish, arugula, choi, lettuce, tatsoi, kohlrabi, turnips, mesclun, beets, rutabaga, and ruby streaks mustard greens.

I have included a picture of a winter squash blossom with its biggest enemy (the cucumber beetle) and its greatest ally (the bee). I'm also including a picture of a young butternut squash. The plants look good and they appear to have potential. I will spare you all the details of what can go wrong with winter squash. Let’s just hope for the best.

And back to Mercy …

Wow. I’m exhausted after reading Bill’s posting! I usually don’t know this much about what’s going on, and maybe that’s not a bad thing. He usually makes it look so easy!

Here’s what we’ll be bringing to the market this week:

Head Lettuce
Green Beans
Eggplant
Beets (Traditional, Golden, and Chioggia)
Kale
Parsley
Basil
Swiss Chard
Summer Squash/Zucchini
Cucumbers
Carrots
Garlic
Bulb Onions
Leeks
Potatoes
Tomatoes
Okra
Fennel

On Tuesday evenings Bill delivers produce to Common Ground in downtown Bloomington and to the Garlic Press in Uptown Normal. So if you miss a market or just run out of veggies mid-week, head to Common Ground! And if you need the veggies prepared into a fabulous meal, Garlic Press is right down the road.

We’ll see you at the Downtown Bloomington Farmers Market on Saturdays from 7:30 a.m. – noon. BRING YOUR BAGS!! We’ll also be at the Trailside Market in Uptown Normal, every Tuesday from 3:30 – 6:00 p.m.

Please let your friends know about the blog. We plan to put out the email sign-up sheet during the market season again. Call us at 467-9228 or email us at blueschoolhouse@yahoo.com if you have questions.

Thanks!
Mercy Davison

The Rare Posting from the Elusive Farmer Davison

Hello Friends!

We’re approaching a major life and farm transition … Noah starts kindergarten in three weeks. Our little baby boy is growing up! Sniff sniff. Actually, we’re just so happy for him. He’s totally ready for the next big step in life.

As for the farm, when Noah goes to school, Ben will become our littlest farm hand. He will start staying home from preschool on Tuesdays and Fridays (as Noah has for the last two years) to help with the harvest. He may enjoy farming more than Noah – he is very eager to please us lately, and he truly loves vegetables and eating them! You should see him in the green beans. Somewhat like a very big Japanese beetle but without the hard shell. Ha!

I’m including a picture of our boys in their new sun hats. We purchased them from a company called Sunday Afternoons. The hats are rated for maximum sun protection. Bill and I have had similar hats for a long time, and they’re amazingly light and comfortable. I let the boys pick the colors. After all, it’s important for kids to control what little they can in life. When I showed them the colors available online, Noah immediately picked his favorite color … bright blue.

Ben then had to choose from sand, dark grey, hot pink, and lavender/pink. He immediately chose the lavender. It was one of those parental dilemmas … do I say something about the fact that a pinky purple is, in many people’s opinions, a “girl color”? I asked him, “Are you sure that’s the color you want?” No hesitation … “YES!” Then I just had to ask him (based on the fact that I was spending $25 on a hat that I can’t afford for him to suddenly decide is unacceptable), “What if the other kids say it’s a girl color?” He looked truly puzzled for a second and then said, “But it’s beautiful!” And that was that.

I’m also including a photo of a ginormous onion with boys for perspective. This is Bill’s banner onion year. If you haven’t eaten any, you’re missing a real treat.

And now a word from the farmer himself …

I have a confession to make. This will be our first poor tomato year in 6 years of farming. After walking through our large hoophouse tonight, I can no longer deny that our bligh-infected plants are only going to yield a quarter of their normal production. (Fortunately, the tomatoes we will harvest will TASTE GREAT!) Since tomatoes are our best selling crop, this really hurts. I have been taking care of these plants since March. I have invested a tremendous amount of time, mental energy, and hope on these plants and they are now nearly dead. I kept thinking they may still produce despite the fungal infection that steadily crept up from the bottom of the plant and now has browned the leaves up to the top ¾ of our 10 foot tall plants. Hundreds of full size green tomatoes sit in a state of suspended ripening, waiting for nutrients the plant cannot deliver because it has almost no green leaves. Their photosynthetic capacity reduced to near zero.

Our field tomatoes are in better shape, but many of them have the same blight due to our rainy growing season. Of course, I have been breaking a cardinal rule of farming by trying to grow the same crop in the same space for three years in a row. You are always supposed to rotate your crops to prevent diseases from building up to the point they destroy your crop. Such is the allure of tomatoes! It is hard not to keep planting them in the hoophouse because few other plants can produce $60 worth of income from a single plant.

You tomato lovers may be asking yourselves what I am going to do to recover from such a tragedy. Do not worry. I have a plan. I am going to research the possibility of grafting tomatoes onto disease-resistant rootstock and planting those in the hoophouse. I am also going to research the possibility of creating mobile hightunnels in the field. They will consist of fabric rowcovers over wire hoops and a layer of plastic over pvc or re-bar posts above the rowcover. I may also lay down plastic mulch to help warm the soil and prevent soil from splashing up on the leaves. That is how the fungal spores get transmitted from the soil to the plant. All of this work will partially re-create the near perfect tomato growing conditions of the larger hoophouse but will allow me to rotate my tomato plantings. Of course this entails much more work, but my early tomatoes are worth it!

I learn so much every year and this year is no exception. I am already on my second 50 page field notebook. I take the time to write down everything I see and learn that I think will help me improve next year. As a result, I continue to get better every year. So, rest assured I will do everything I can to ensure a tremendous abundance of tomatoes next year. The poor yield of this year’s tomatoes is very disappointing, but learning to overcome such challenges is also one of the reasons I love to farm. Mercy tells me I am obsessed with vegetables. She may be right, but I think there are worse obsessions in life.

While I am filling you in on our challenges this year, I may as well let you know that we will have a gap of a couple of weeks in our head lettuce production after this week. I switched from transplanting lettuce to direct seeding and I lost track of time and did not plant lettuce seed soon enough, hence the gap in production.

I planted fall crops today and I am so glad to see the rain this evening! I planted winter radish, daikon radish, arugula, choi, lettuce, tatsoi, kohlrabi, turnips, mesclun, beets, rutabaga, and ruby streaks mustard greens.

I have included a couple of pictures of our winter squash blossoms and a very young butternut squash. The plants look good and they appear to have potential. I will spare you all the details of what can go wrong with winter squash. Let’s just hope for the best.

And back to Mercy …

Wow. I’m exhausted after reading Bill’s posting! I usually don’t know this much about what’s going on, and maybe that’s not a bad thing. He usually makes it look so easy!

Here’s what we’ll be bringing to the market this week:

Head Lettuce
Green Beans
Eggplant
Beets (Traditional, Golden, and Chioggia)
Kale
Parsley
Basil
Swiss Chard
Summer Squash/Zucchini
Cucumbers
Carrots
Garlic
Bulb Onions
Leeks
Potatoes
Tomatoes
Okra
Fennel

On Tuesday evenings Bill delivers produce to Common Ground in downtown Bloomington and to the Garlic Press in Uptown Normal. So if you miss a market or just run out of veggies mid-week, head to Common Ground! And if you need the veggies prepared into a fabulous meal, Garlic Press is right down the road.

We’ll see you at the Downtown Bloomington Farmers Market on Saturdays from 7:30 a.m. – noon. BRING YOUR BAGS!! We’ll also be at the Trailside Market in Uptown Normal, every Tuesday from 3:30 – 6:00 p.m.

Please let your friends know about the blog. We plan to put out the email sign-up sheet during the market season again. Call us at 467-9228 or email us at blueschoolhouse@yahoo.com if you have questions.

Thanks!
Mercy Davison

Bill Takes to the Air Waves

Hello Friends!

Thanks so much to all who came out for last week’s rainy market! We had an awesome crowd!

Did you hear Bill on the Dean of Green last week? Laura Kennedy and Don Schmidt did a very nice piece on local food. They even interviewed Jackie at the Garlic Press Market Café while she was cooking with local food – you could even hear her Cuisinart chopping up the pesto ingredients! I thought they did a great job, and not just because it featured our farm. Here’s a link to the show: http://www.wglt.org/podcasts/dean_of_green/audio/dog080718.mp3

I also have another link for you to check out: http://www.chicagotribune.com/features/lifestyle/green/chi-evanston-farmer_bdjul20,0,4473050.story
It’s an article from the FRONT PAGE of the Chicago Tribune about local farmer, Henry Brockman. The piece is about Henry charging for his biodegradable bags rather than handing out free plastic bags. As you know, we’re also charging for bags this season (although a dime per bag rather than Henry’s 25 cents for up to 4 bags). It’s been going remarkably well. I’d estimate that we’re still handing out 75% fewer bags as a result. We’ve only had one or two irritated customers – we try to explain to everyone why we’re doing it. The bags are expensive and we’re just covering our cost. Henry also has a great letter on his website about bags if you’d like to check it out: http://www.henrysfarm.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=38&Itemid=62

I’m including photos of our friends Sandy and Annie, the horse and goat next door. They feast on Bill’s compost every week. Have you ever had a horse run straight for you? It’s pretty funny (and not terrifying, because I’m on the other side of the fence!). When Sandy sees me walking to the compost pile with the pail, he just goes nuts. He’s a big fan of carrots, corn husks, and various other green things.

This week’s recipe is my favorite cucumber salad. I have never been a fan of cucumbers because the ones in the store have thick skins and are somewhat bitter. Bill’s are crisp, refreshing, and without a hint of bitterness. This salad is very quick to whip up. I’d say it requires a half hour lead time, and that’s only because the yogurt and cucumbers need to sit for a while.

Cucumber Salad with Tzatziki Sauce

Put 1 cup of yogurt into a fine sieve and allow to drain for 2 hours. (I do it in about half an hour by stirring frequently. That encourages the water to drain out more quickly.)

Peel and dice about a pound of cucumber and then put into a colander. Toss in 1 tsp of salt, and let cucumbers drain for half an hour. Press out excess water, rinse quickly, and blot dry. (I skip this step and then don’t add the following amount of salt.) Mash together 2 cloves or garlic and 2-3 pinches of salt. Combine yogurt, garlic and cucumbers in a bowl along with:
2-3 tsp white wine vinegar
2 tsp chopped mint OR dill (It’s AMAZING with mint, although I’ve made it many times without any fresh herbs.)
Salt and ground pepper to taste

Bill is trying a couple of new things this season: fennel and okra. Here’s what Alice Waters has to say about fennel:

Fennel has celery-like stalks (although more bulbous at the end) covered with feathery leaves topped with umbels of yellow flowers. Its strong characteristic anise flavor goes well with many other flavors, particularly fish. Alice adds the feathery leaves to marinades for fish and to numerous salads, sauces, and soups. It also works as a garnish. Alice frequently slices the bulbs raw into salads, parboils it with pastas, caramelizes it for a side dish, braises it whole, and cooks into broths. You typically peel away the outer layer and eat the white hearts.

Okra is a favorite southern vegetable. I’ll admit to never having eaten it until college, when we bought a bag of frozen okra! It’s a tasty little veggie. Elizabeth Schneider (Vegetables A to Z) describes okra as a bit like eggplant in that its flavor is heavily impacted by the accompanying ingredients. She also says the slippery texture on the inside is balanced well with something more acidic, such as tomato, lemon, and vinegar. It thickens dishes while cooking, which is nice in low-fat recipes. Okra is pretty perishable, so eat it within a couple of days. To prepare okra, just trim off the stems. Elizabeth Schneider’s favorite way to eat okra is steamed with butter.

Here’s what we’ll be bringing to the market this week:

Head Lettuce
Green Beans
Eggplant
Beets (Traditional, Golden, and Chioggia)
Kale
Parsley
Basil
Swiss Chard
Japanese Turnips (white and pink)
Summer Squash/Zucchini
Cucumbers
Carrots
Garlic
Bulb Onions
Leeks
Potatoes
Tomatoes
Okra
Fennel

On Tuesday evenings Bill delivers produce to Common Ground in downtown Bloomington and to the Garlic Press in Uptown Normal. So if you miss a market or just run out of veggies mid-week, head to Common Ground! And if you need the veggies prepared into a fabulous meal, Garlic Press is right down the road.

We’ll see you at the Downtown Bloomington Farmers Market on Saturdays from 7:30 a.m. – noon. BRING YOUR BAGS!! We’ll also be at the Trailside Market in Uptown Normal, every Tuesday from 3:30 – 6:00 p.m.

Please let your friends know about the blog. We plan to put out the email sign-up sheet during the market season again. Call us at 467-9228 or email us at blueschoolhouse@yahoo.com if you have questions.

Thanks!
Mercy Davison

Let the Tomato Extravaganza Begin!

Hello Friends!

I hope you are all well. We are great! We’re excited to really get Tomato Season 2008 started … this week we’ll be bringing many varieties of tomatoes to the market. Stupice, Rose de Berne, Striped German, Prudens Purple, Cherokee Purple, Nyagous, Juliette, AND MORE! Every year we include the following two recipes because they are just that good …

A Big Tomato Sandwich
(Deborah Madison’s Local Flavors)

1 large loaf ciabatta*
Herb Vinaigrette (see below)
2 or more big ripe, juicy tomatoes**
1 large yellow or red bell pepper, roasted, peeled and quartered
4 oz fresh mozzarella, goat, or other favorite cheese, sliced
sea salt and freshly ground pepper

1. Slice the top third off the loaf of bread and set it aside. Pull out the inside. (You can use it to make bread crumbs for another recipe.)
2. Paint the inside of the bread with some of the dressing, then make layers of sliced tomatoes, pepper, and cheese. Bathe each layer with the dressing and season with salt and pepper.
3. Add the top, press down, then cut into quarters or sixths.

The Herb Vinaigrette . . .
¼ cup basil
1 T chopped marjoram
1 T chopped parsley
1 small clove garlic, minced
1/3 cup olive oil
4 t aged red wine vinegar
sea salt and freshly ground pepper

Finely chop herbs with the garlic, then add olive oil. Add vinegar and season with salt and pepper.

* Ciabbatta is an ideal bread for this – crusty, strong-textured, and able to drink in some of the juice without falling apart.
** Choice tomatoes for this recipe are Prudens Purple and Striped Germans.

Tomato salad
(Chez Panisse Vegetables by Alice Waters)

Simply chunk up some ripe tomatoes. Moisten with balsamic vinegar, season with salt and pepper, and drizzle generously with olive oil. Mix gently. Excellent additions include croutons, slivered fresh basil, avocado, red onion, corn, fresh mozzarella, cucumbers, and small pieces of broccoli. This healthy and delicious dish can be made in about 10 minutes, and is best eaten fresh. (The texture gets funny if refrigerated and eaten the next day, but it can be done.) We eat this almost every day!

I’ve also had a request for the dip recipe that we make for eating Japanese Turnips raw. Here it is:

1 cup Tahini (a sesame paste – it looks like pale peanut butter! If you don’t have tahini, peanut butter works, too!)
2-3 Tbsp soy sauce or Bragg’s
2-3 Tbsp fresh lemon juice

Stir it and then add water to make it a good dipping consistency. The amounts are really approximate – just add the soy sauce and lemon juice to taste.

This week’s visual art are posters from the World War I and/or II eras. Bill really wanted me to include them because he thinks the times, they are a-changin’. Seriously. I am no historian, but it does seem that we are entering unchartered waters with the global economy and global food production. The demand for food will continue to increase quickly, and the demand on farmland will similarly increase. What will we choose to do with the good farmland that we have? Develop it? Grow ever more corn and soybeans? We can’t leave it to large agribusiness to grow food that we need to be healthy (and to enjoy!!). Instead, we will increasingly look to small-scale farms to provide the best, most nutritious food on the planet.

Could you be one of those small-scale “farmers”? How about in your own backyard with a Victory Garden?? We don’t face the obvious enemy of Hitler or his ilk, but we do have a war to win against shortages of good food. I just love the posters from the past. At one point during World War II, approximately 40% of the food eaten in this country came out of home gardens. Wow! Bill may do a class this fall/winter to help you plan a small victory garden in 2009. It’s really not difficult to grow a handful of vegetables … and we assume that you’ll still come to the farmers market to fill the gaps. Some of our best customers have gardens!

Here’s what we’ll be bringing to the market this week:

Head Lettuce
Green Beans
Eggplant
Beets (Traditional, Golden, and Chioggia)
Kale
Collard Greens
Parsley
Basil
Swiss Chard
Japanese Turnips (white and pink)
Summer Squash/Zucchini
Cucumbers
Carrots
Garlic
Green Onions
Bulb Onions
Leeks
Potatoes
Tomatoes

Don’t forget that we’re delivering fresh veggies to Common Ground and the Garlic Press on Tuesday evenings …

On Tuesday evenings Bill delivers produce to Common Ground in downtown Bloomington and to the Garlic Press in Uptown Normal. So if you miss a market or just run out of veggies mid-week, head to Common Ground! And if you need the veggies prepared into a fabulous meal, Garlic Press is right down the road.

We’ll see you at the Downtown Bloomington Farmers Market on Saturdays from 7:30 a.m. – noon. BRING YOUR BAGS!! We’ll also be at the Trailside Market in Uptown Normal, every Tuesday from 3:30 – 6:00 p.m.

Please let your friends know about the blog. We plan to put out the email sign-up sheet during the market season again. Call us at 467-9228 or email us at blueschoolhouse@yahoo.com if you have questions.

Thanks!
Mercy Davison

60% Chance of Rain, 100% Chance of AWESOME VEGETABLES!

So the weather forecast is less than farmers market stellar ... what to do? COME TO THE MARKET! We will not be deterred by the clouds. Nay, we'll be out there with totally awesome vegetables no matter the weather! And it's that time of year when the produce is so DIVERSE and DELICIOUS that you really don't want to miss it.

Heirloom tomatoes just picked off the vine -- Bill has too many varieties to name! Be sure not to miss the first week of the brandywines, striped German, and more.

Cucumbers and Onions -- sounds like we making gazpacho at this point! Have you discovered the joy of gazpacho? Tomatoes, cukes, onions, and whatever else you like! We always add croutons from the Garlic Press Market Cafe! We also LOVE to make a quick cucumber salad with a tatziki sauce -- thinly sliced cukes in a dressing of strained yogurt, onion, garlic, and white wine vinegar with a dash of salt and pepper. Toss in some fresh dill or mint if possible!

Awesome lettuces -- Bill grows varieties that don't get bitter in the summer heat. It takes a very special farmer to do this (in my unbiased opinion!).

Carrots -- to die for! These are so crisp and sweet that they'll be eaten up before you know it!

Potatoes -- get in on the new potatoes before they get ... older! They're great all season, but there is something extra special about the newbies.

And all the rest of the amazing greens! This could be your week to try swiss chard, kale, collards, or some other tasty green heretofor missing from your diet.

We REALLY hope to see you tomorrow, rain or shine! Come join us under our rain-free tent!

Mercy

p.s. WE HARVESTED ALL OF THE GARLIC YESTERDAY! We had an amazing crew of volunteer harvesters who helped bring it in from the field in one day. To Liz, Timothy, Kevin, Jeff, and our loyal farmhands -- THANKS!

Name that Bug

Hello Friends!

It seems that summer has finally arrived. The hot daytime temperatures and warm nights are just what the doctor ordered for the heat-loving vegetables like tomatoes, eggplant, and peppers. We hope you enjoy this change of seasons as much as we do!

As the season progresses, so does the crazy parade of bugs that we see on various plants. The picture I’m including this week is a mystery caterpillar. If any biologists know what it is, feel free to post the name on the blog! We just love the color. It says, oh-so-subtly, "Eat me and puke." (I'm also including a photo of the garlic harvest in progress. It's going well!)

Did you happen to catch the recent New York Times article on “The 11 Best Foods You Aren’t Eating?” It a great list – check out the article at http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/06/30/the-11-best-foods-you-arent-eating/?em&ex=1215316800&en=1d0deabcae7532d5&ei=5087%0A.

And what are the TOP THREE items on that list?
1. Beets
2. Cabbage
3. Swiss Chard

Does that sound like our farmers market stand, or what??!!

We recently heard that one of our youngest customers -- a high school BOY, no less -- has been cooking up a storm with our vegetables. His mom called me to say that he'd seen swiss chard cooked on the Food Network, and he was inspired to try the recipe out on his family. They all LOVED it! And now they all know the joy of cooking with greens!

Another customer recently told us that she’s having her wedding in Bloomington rather than the Chicago area because she wants to incorporate Bill’s food into the reception! How flattering! If you have any special requests for catering ingredients, just let us know and we’ll see what we can do!

And finally, a fit of insanity came over me this past week and I mowed. I grew up with three brothers, and my dad never made me mow. They always had to do it. My first time mowing was only a couple of years ago. Can you believe that?? So the urge to mow just came over me and Bill got me set up. He has to pull the cord the first time (when it’s harder to start), and then he has to give me the refresher course over which levers do what – a blade lever, throttle, speed lever, and those two bars. Totally confusing.

I was using the 1987 John Deere from my grandma. (We call it the Sissy Mower because Grandma went by “Grandma Sissy.”) We inherited it a few years ago after she passed away. She spent almost $900 when she purchased it in the late 1980s, which was a small fortune. She had it tuned up EVERY YEAR. It’s all metal, has 5 speeds, and is self-propelled. I was practically pulled off my feet a few times! I think I may have suffered permanent hearing loss, and the smell of exhaust was horrendous. Still, I had a pretty good time!

Here’s what we’ll be bringing to the market this week:

Head Lettuce
Beets (Traditional, Golden, and Chioggia)
Kale
Kohlrabi
Broccoli
Collard Greens
Parsley
Basil
Swiss Chard
Japanese Turnips (white and pink)
Summer Squash/Zucchini
Cucumbers
Carrots
Garlic
Green Onions
Bulb Onions
Leeks
Potatoes
Tomatoes

Don’t forget that we’re delivering fresh veggies to Common Ground and the Garlic Press on Tuesday evenings …

On Tuesday evenings Bill delivers produce to Common Ground in downtown Bloomington and to the Garlic Press in Uptown Normal. So if you miss a market or just run out of veggies mid-week, head to Common Ground! And if you need the veggies prepared into a fabulous meal, Garlic Press is right down the road.

We’ll see you at the Downtown Bloomington Farmers Market on Saturdays from 7:30 a.m. – noon. BRING YOUR BAGS!! We’ll also be at the Trailside Market in Uptown Normal, every Tuesday from 3:30 – 6:00 p.m.

Please let your friends know about the blog. We plan to put out the email sign-up sheet during the market season again. Call us at 467-9228 or email us at blueschoolhouse@yahoo.com if you have questions.

Thanks!
Mercy Davison