Monday, September 29, 2014

Squash Blossom Farm Fall Festival

With wall to wall beautiful weather on Sunday we exhibited our pumpkins and squash at Squash Blossom Farm's fall festival. The event was a great success.

Susan and Roger are friends and neighbors with similar commitments to the farm and rural life.

If you didn't get a chance to attend, put the last Sunday in September on your list for next fall.


Saturday, September 27, 2014

Easy Dill Pickles

Making pickles is not difficult no matter what you choose. Dill pickles are especially easy.

The key to good pickles is fresh crisp cucumbers from your local farmers market. They don't have to be pickling cucumbers. Small slicing cucumbers will do just fine.

Here is the recipe...

The ABCs of The Fall Garden - Winter Squash

This has been a delightful year for winter squash. The quality and flavor is some of the best I have seen. We have 12 different varieties at the farmer's market.

I have also included cooking instructions. I know many folks cut their squash in half before they cook them. I never do. They take a little longer if you leave them whole but they will not dry out as much and are very tender.

See below for the list in alphabetical order.


Friday, September 26, 2014

Market Menu for September 27, 2014

I picked about 25 baskets of not quite perfect tomatoes for canning this week. I have been canning some salsa my self and have about 70 pints so far. The recipe is on our web site.

I made some really good bread and butter sweet pickles this week. I like B&B Pickles from the store. Making your own is amazing in terms of the flavor. I did everything with organic ingredients and spices.

Here is the recipe for pickles.

I picked 10 large 50 + pound pumpkins this week. They are gorgeous with heavy duty handles. If you are decorating your porch these would make a great center piece.

The squash varieties available this week:  Acorn, Butternut, Buttercup, Carnival, Delicatta, Confetti, Spagetti, Orange Hubbard, Kubotcha and Pie Pumpkins.

The fall greens are wonderful. We are picking from new beds of spinach, arugula, wild arugula, Kale, Red Russian Kale, Dinosaur Kale, lettuce, and beet greens. A new bed of cilantro too.

Cherry Tomatoes, Fre$h! Credit: Reed Petersen

Reed took this picture of our cherry tomato display at market last week. We will have about a hundred boxes of cherry tomatoes this week. Sun Gold, Grape, Black Cherry, and Yellow Pear. Reed and Christopher pick a whole bunch after school.

If you like tomatillos, I picked three bushels this week.

We will have the following items at the Farmers Market for Saturday, September 27, 2014 (New items are in Bold Print)

Wednesday, September 24, 2014

I Relish the Thought

I made these bread and butter pickles a few weeks ago and I have been eating them on sandwiches. I mixed some peppers, onions and garlic into the pickles and I like this "relish" just as much as the pickles.

I've made the pickled relish separately, which is also a great addition to sandwiches, I have been fine tuning the approach and seasonings. 

You can make these two different ways, one is without canning called refrigerator relish and the second by using a water bath to heat and seal the jars. You can also salt the relish for a more crispy relish or use them unsalted if you want a low salt alternative.

Friday, September 19, 2014

Market Menu for September 20, 2014

I picked about 30 basket of not quite perfect tomatoes for canning this week. I have been canning some salsa my self and have about 70 pints so far. The recipe is on our web site.

I made some really good bread and butter sweet pickles this week. I like B&B Pickles from the store. Making your own is amazing in terms of the flavor. I did everything with organic ingredients and spices.

Here is the recipe for pickles.

I picked 15 large 50 + pound pumpkins today. They are gorgeous with heavy duty handles. If you are decorating your porch these would make a great center piece.

I picked some of all of the squash varieties we planted. Acorn, Butternut, Buttercup, Carnival, Delicatta, Spagetti, Orange Hubbard, Kubotcha and Pie Pumpkins.

The fall greens are wonderful. We are picking from new beds of spinach, arugula, wild arugula, Kale, Red Russian Kale, Dinosaur Kale, lettuce, and beet greens

Cherry Tomatoes, Fre$h! Credit: Reed Petersen

Reed took this picture of our cherry tomato display at market last week. We will have about a hundred boxes of cherry tomatoes this week. Sun Gold, Grape, Black Cherry, and Yellow Pear. Reed and Christopher pick a whole bunch after school.

If you like tomatillos, I picked three bushels this week.

We will have the following items at the Farmers Market for Saturday, September 20, 2014 (New items are in Bold Print)

Saturday, September 13, 2014

Financial Peace Univeristy

Lisa and I are hosting a class on personal finances called Financial Peace University. The teaching is done by Dave Ramsey via DVD. We have had over 350 people from the church and community go through this class and the results have been amazing. Just during the 9 week class our class members have report a reduction in debt of over $800,000. Some of our class have reported later that they have paid off their homes or are completely out of debt. We cover topics like budgeting, saving, investing, insurance and giving.

If you are interested, you can register and get materials at the Dave Ramsey web site.

The class is starting Saturday night September 13, 2014 (yes tonight). It goes for 9 weeks.

It will be held at Autumn Ridge Church, in Rochester, Minnesota, from 7-9:00 pm.

We have a Saturday evening contemporary worship service from 5:30-6:30. The class is after that.

If you can't make it this week but would still like to come. Just come next week.

Hope to see you there!

Friday, September 12, 2014

Market Menu for September 13, 2014

500 heirloom tomato plants are in full production as are 300 Roma tomato plants. I picked about 30 basket of not quite perfect tomatoes for canning this week. I have been canning some salsa my self and have about 70 pints so far. The recipe is on our web site.

I made some really good bread and butter sweet pickles this week. I like B&B Pickles from the store. Making your own is amazing in terms of the flavor. I did everything with organic ingredients and spices.

Here is the recipe for pickles.

We had several 50 + pound pumpkins last week. They are gorgeous with heavy duty handles. We have about 50 pumpkins this size. If you are decorating your porch these would make a great center piece.

I picked some of all of the squash varieties we planted. Acorn, Butternut, Buttercup, Carnival, Delicatta, Spagetti, Orange Hubbard, and Pie Pumpkins.

The fall greens are wonderful. We will have spinach, arugula, wild arugula, Kale, Red Russian Kale, Dinosaur Kale, lettuce, and beet greens

Cherry Tomatoes, Fre$h! Credit: Reed Petersen

Reed took this picture of our cherry tomato display at market last week. We will have about a hundred boxes of cherry tomatoes this week. Sun Gold, Grape, Black Cherry, and Yellow Pear. Reed and Christopher pick a whole bunch after school.

If you like tomatillos, I picked three bushels this week.

The fall greens are also exceptional. I'm starting a new bed of Arugula this week...no holes.

We will have the following items at the Farmers Market for Saturday, September 13, 2014 (New items are in Bold Print)

Monday, September 8, 2014

Extraordinary Chicken Salad

I'm sure the tried and true chicken salad recipe has an infinite amount of variations. I developed a recipe that I really like based on the basic recipe and a little curry with a twist.

Read on...


Saturday, September 6, 2014

Tomato Seed Saving

Tomato harvest is in high gear. Even the longest season open pollinated heirloom plants are ready. The words open pollinated, means you can save seeds from these varieties. (If a tomato is a hybrid, typically designated by F1. Then if you saved the seed it would not come true to the original plant, but would revert back to the traits of the parents. This is a complicated topic and one for another post.)

Saving seed from an OP variety of tomato is relatively easy, but why would you want to? One reason is to preserve an older variety. Another would be to select for traits favorable to your local climate and needs. If you are selling commercially like we are, maybe cosmetics and flavor are important. If you are just cutting the tomatoes up for canning, then maybe juiciness, flavor, or color is key.

OP varieties I like are Brandywine and Pruden's Purple, but there are hundreds of other varieties in each category of slicers, Roma's or cherry tomatoes. Assuming you have chosen the variety you want, if you haven't grown any this year you can go down to the local farmer's market and get a wide variety there. Select several tomatoes for seed from different plants if you can to keep the genetic base as wide as possible. Tomatoes are typically self fertile so having fruit from several plants is not critical like it would be from a corn population (again a topic for another post).

So here we go, how to save seeds.

Friday, September 5, 2014

Market Menu for September 6, 2014

500 heirloom tomato plants are in full production as are 300 Roma tomato plants. I picked about 30 basket of not quite perfect tomatoes for canning this week. I have been canning some salsa my self and have about 70 pints so far. The recipe is on our web site.

I made some really good bread and butter sweet pickles this week. I like B&B Pickles from the store. Making your own is amazing in terms of the flavor. I did everything with organic ingredients and spices.

Here is the recipe for pickles.

I picked several 50 + pound pumpkins today. They are gorgeous with heavy duty handles. We have about 50 pumpkins this size. If you are decorating your porch these would make a great center piece.

If the pumpkins are ready then the squash have to be too, right?  Yep, we picked several bushel of squash.

This will likely be our last week of sweet corn. It has been delicious. I didn't loose a single ear to the racoons due to another of Reed's e-fence projects. We also had no worms in the ears, which was great.

Cherry Tomatoes, Fre$h! Credit: Reed Petersen

Reed took this picture of our cherry tomato display at market last week. We will have about a hundred boxes of cherry tomatoes this week. Sun Gold, Grape, Black Cherry, and Yellow Pear. Reed and Christopher pick a whole bunch after school.

If you like tomatillos, I picked two bushels this week.

The fall greens are also exceptional. I'm starting a new bed of Arugula this week...no holes.

We will have the following items at the Farmers Market for Saturday, September 6, 2014 (New items are in Bold Print)

Wednesday, September 3, 2014

Sweet Pickles - Bread & Butter

I have often wondered why those nice crunchy sweet pickle slices are called bread and butter pickles. Maybe it is obvious to everyone else, bread and butter has the connotation of sandwiches, so I guess it is a sandwich pickle vs. a hamburger pickle.

So I did a little research on this.

Turns out the sandwich part is a good guess. These pickles were developed during the Great Depression when food was scarce and cucumbers were plentiful. The pickles could be preserved for a time of winter scarcity. Cucumber sandwiches were a frequent healthy meal during the off season when garden vegetables were not available but bread and butter were plentiful.

Here is a great recipe that I have made several times and have been fine tuning the approach and seasonings. The first time I made it we ate two jars in the first day.

You can make these two different ways one is without canning call refrigerator pickles and the second by using a water bath to heat and seal the jars. You can also salt the cucumbers for a more crispy pickle or use them unsalted if you want a low salt alternative.