July 24
THE BELLS
BENDER
Week 11: Squash! Tomatoes!
The Harvest:
- Sweet Corn
- Beans - Asian Yard Long beans, our first Purple Beans and Green Beans (not pictured)
- Tomatoes - More heirloom tomatoes! If you get a firm tomato, let it sit another day or two for full ripeness. We may be short on corn this week (dang deer), so we will have a lot of extra tomatoes.
- Potatoes - Red potatoes and new potatoes
- Peppers -
a mix of sweet and hot peppers
- Cucumbers - Still waiting for our big planting of cukes to come in...
- Zucchini, Zephyr, and
Yellow
Squash
- Garlic
- Basil
- Dill (not pictured)
Organic Chicken from
Bells Bend will be available at the Farm pick up and by order this
week. Truly free-range and fed organic, local feed, these birds are not
only incredibly delicious, but incredibly local! Either pick up
chickens at farm on Tuesday from 4-6 pm or contact Fletcher at FletchersPoultry@gmail.com. East
Nashville pick up can order in advance for Wednesday. Chickens are
whole and are $5/lb.
Blueberries will
be
available for pre-order beginning this week. These incredible
blueberries are biodynamically/organically grown at Hidden Springs Farm
near Cookeville. These are the same blueberries we had last year and we
highly recommend them. Email us for order at
BellsBendFarmsCSA@gmail.com Cost is $6/pint
We will
also have blueberries for sale at the market.
News from the Farm
Every time we harvest a squash, tomato, flower, or anything else that is picked and sent elsewhere, we export nutrients from our farm. In a sustainable farming system, these nutrients are added back in the form of organic fertilizers. Compost is our main source of organic fertilizer. The breakdown process is virtually the same as a forest environment: leaves fall, animals die, plants grow, plants die, worms and microorganisms break down surface material and turn it into good soil, and...you get the point. Basically composting is this natural process + human intervention. We speed up this process by adding the right ingredients, mixing the right ratio of carbon to nitrogen and aerating for months to get high-quality, nutrient-rich compost that grows really good food (hopefully).
The second way we try to add fertility back to the soil, and a method I am learning much about through trial and error, is cover cropping. A cover crop is a crop grown to hold nutrients in the field, return nutrients to the soil, prevent soil erosion, smother weeds, and on and on. As a general rule, we try to plant a cover crop whenever a main vegetable crop is harvested or when a field is not in use. Right now we have several fields in cover crops, but the future fall garden is getting the most attention. This is the section of the garden where we will plant the next round of carrots, lettuce, spinach, cabbage, brussel sprouts, broccoli, greens, and many of the veggies we enjoyed this spring. Currently however, the field has a nice stand of buckwheat and cowpeas -- our cover crop. The buckwheat takes up nitrogen, holding it in it's succulent-soft stalk. The cowpeas, a legume, are nitrogen fixers, meaning they capture nitrogen from the air, collect it in root nodules, then add it to the soil in a form usable to plants when broken down.
Today we worked under some of the buckwheat/cowpea cover crop:
The green stalks with white flowers (left of tractor) are the buckwheat and cowpeas. George is using a bog-disc to turn under the cover crop. Full bloom is the best time to turn in a cover crop -- now the plants will be broken down under the soil and the stored/captured nitrogen will be ready for the next round of plants to use.
 Here is the same shot after George's second pass. After this pass, I spread about 2 tons of compost on the newly-worked section. This will help the cover crop break down faster, while adding even more nutrients and fertility to the soil. The lighter soil to the far left was recently planted in the same cover crop and will be worked under when blooming (about 1 month from now) and planted with more fall crops. Yes, preparation for the fall garden has begun! We are already seeding fall leeks, onions, lettuces, broccoli, and more. It sounds (and feels) insane planting cool-weather fall crops in the heat of July, but that's how long it takes for these crops to mature. Shorter days mean less sunlight, which means slower plant growth. At any rate, the tiny fall lettuce sprouts give us some hope that it will actually cool off in just a few months!
Have a great week!
Your farmers,
Eric,
Brooke, George, Kevin, Peter, Evan, and more!
Recipes
Smashed Potatoes
I know you're
thinking "smashed potatoes" might just be a cute way of saying "mashed
potatoes," but it's a totally different preparation, and we can't get
enough of them at the farm. They are everything you want in a potato,
creamy and buttery on the inside with a golden crispy exterior. We try
not to make them every night, but usually end up having them every other
day, or so.
Ingredients
- 8 medium potatoes
(about 2-3 inches long; 1 3/4 pounds)
- 1/4 cup
extra-virgin olive
oil
- 1/2 cup grated
Parmigiano-Reggiano (optional)
Preparation
Preheat the oven to about 475 degrees F.
Generously cover potatoes with cold water in a
3-to
4-quart pot and add 1 tablespoon salt. Boil until almost tender, 10 to
15 minutes. Drain potatoes. Transfer to an oiled baking sheet and
lightly crush
to about 3/4 inch thick with a potato masher, keeping potatoes intact
as much as possible. Drizzle the taters with olive oil and a generous
sprinkling of salt. Roast until golden brown around the edges, and flip
to crisp the other side. Serve with Parmesan and black pepper.
Oatmeal Summer Squash Muffins
Adapted from one of my favorite cookbooks, Simply in
Season
makes 12 muffins
1 c. all-purpose flour*
1/2 c. whole wheat flour*
1 c. rolled oats
1 T. baking powder
1/2 t. salt
1 t. cinnamon
scant 1/2 t. mace
1 egg
1 c. milk
1/4 c. oil
1/4 c. honey
1 1/2 c. grated summer squash or zucchini
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
Combine flours, oats, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and mace in a
medium-large bowl.
In a medium bowl, combine egg, milk, oil, and honey. Mix well. Add
wet ingredients to dry ingredients and stir until just moistened.
Gently fold in squash.
Fill lined or well-greased muffin tins 2/3 full. Bake for 15-20
minutes, until a toothpick inserted into center comes out clean.
*Note: feel free to use whatever flour combination you want — all
whole wheat, all AP, whole wheat pastry, white whole wheat — just make
sure it adds up to 1 1/2 cups in total!
Bell Pepper Soup with Sour Cream & Dill
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
4 large bell peppers (2 pounds), stem, ribs and seeds removed and
discarded;
flesh diced*
1 medium Yukon Gold potato (8
ounces), diced
1 small onion,
roughly chopped (to yield 1 cup)
1/2 teaspoon salt; more to taste
Generous pinch red pepper flakes
1 1/2 cups simmering vegetable or chicken stock; more if needed
Sour cream orcrème fraiche
for garnish
4 small sprigs fresh dill weed
In a cast-iron
Dutch oven
or a heavy stockpot, heat the oil over medium-high heat. Add the
peppers, potato, onion, salt, and red pepper flakes. Cook, stirring, for
1 to 2
minutes. Reduce the heat to low, cover and simmer, stirring
occasionally, until
the vegetables are tender, about 1 hour. Remove from heat.
Transfer to a blender or food processor and puree in batches, or puree
thoroughly with a hand immersion blender. Force the pulp through a
coarse sieve
or a food mill. Transfer to a saucepan and stir in the vegetable or
chicken stock, adding a
bit more if you like a thinner soup. Taste and adjust the seasonings.
Serve warm or cold, garnished with a dab of sour cream or creme fraiche
and a
sprig of dill.
Makes 4 servings (about 5 cups).
Enjoy!
Brooke |
