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From Field to Table
What's Happening Now at Magicland Farms
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Volume Two, Issue Fourteen
Sunday - August 15, 2010
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Greetings!
Welcome to the Magicland Farms' newsletter for the week beginning August 16th. We hope to keep you up to date with the happenings at our farm,
along with providing
you with some of our favorite recipes and other
information we think you might find of interest. If you know of someone
who might be interested in receiving our newsletter, you can forward it to them by using the forward link at the end of this newsletter. |
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This Week at Magicland Farms - August 16th to August 21st
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| This week we will have Mirai Bi-Color Sweet Corn. Also, Sugar Pearl (all white) and Honeyselect
(all yellow) sweet corn, huge selection of heirloom tomatoes, green beans, beets,
both large and ice box watermelon,
spaghetti squash, red and Yukon Gold potatoes, sweet onions, cut sunflowers, zucchini
and more.
Also, in our craft room you
can find handmade jewelry, art, gourd crafts, knitting, rosaries and more!
We accept both the Bridge Card and Project Fresh. |
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From The Kitchen |
| One of the most popular dishes at our house is tacos (BBQ anything is also pretty popular). With the availability of fresh vegetables, tacos sure become something special during this time of year. An interesting touch (discovered this year) is adding sauteed sweet corn to the meat mixture; it adds an interesting texture and flavor to the taco.
Annemarie's Basic Tacos
2 pounds ground beef (I have also used chicken breast with great success) 1 can diced tomatoes 1 chopped onion
1 chopped green pepper
1 recipe Taco Seasoning (below) 1 cup water 1 recipe Sauteed Corn
Brown ground beef in skillet. Add green pepper and onion and cook about 7-10 minutes. Drain; add taco seasoning, diced tomatoes and water. Simmer for 20-30 minutes. Add sauteed corn, simmer just long enough to heat corn (you don't want to cook it to mush) and then reduce heat to warm. Serve with taco shells and shredded cojack cheese.
Taco Seasoning
1/4 cup chili powder 2 teaspoons garlic powder 2 teaspoons onion powder 2 teaspoons red pepper flakes 2 teaspoons dried oregano 1 teaspoon paprika 2 tablespoons cumin 1 tablespoon sea salt 1 tablespoon black pepper
Mix all ingredients together. Makes enough to season 2 pounds of meat.
Sauteed Corn
8-10 ears of sweet corn, husked 3 tablespoons butter 1 teaspoon salt 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
Cut kernels from corn, cutting as close as possible to the cob.
Melt butter in skillet, add corn, salt and pepper. Saute uncovered on medium-high for about 8-10 minutes. Taste and add more salt and pepper if necessary. Serve.
My notes:
- During tomato season, I would substitute fresh diced tomatoes for the canned tomatoes.
- Add the onion and green pepper to your taste. Sometimes I follow the recipe and sometimes not - it depends on how many green peppers and onions my husband chops for me. Everybody seems to like it no matter how it's made.
- In the taco seasoning recipe, I rarely use the crushed red pepper. I did the first time I made the seasoning and it was too hot for some of the family.
- The sauteed sweet corn is excellent as a side dish as well.
Enjoy!
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Specials In The Spotlight |
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Freezing and Canning Special: Sweet Corn picked
same day: $10 a bushel-bring your own containers.
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Questions Our Customers Are Asking |
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In this section, we usually answer the most commonly asked questions by customers at the stand and via email. If you have any questions, email us and we'll do our best to answer.
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The Boss's Corner
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I first want to thank Ken DeLaat for that kind article he
wrote for the Fremont Times Indicator on Magicland Farms. My wife commented to me after reading the
article, "Ken is a good writer-he reminds me of how you write!" Two complimented with one simple sentence! Now that's class!
Ken stopped by one morning (he stops by often, by the way)
and asked one of my daughters, who was the sales associate at the time, if he could
talk to me about an article he was planning on doing on Magicland Farms. Since I was out in the field doing something
(No, not sitting under that big shade tree in the fencerow, at least I don't
think so!) she wrote down his number and let me know basically what he wanted
to talk to me about. That beautiful
afternoon (it was about the coolest day of the summer-maybe only 90!) I was out
with the kids picking beans and I recalled that Ken wanted to talk with
me. I grabbed our cell phone and gave
him a call. He was real nice to talk to
and laughed a lot-a lot. He especially
liked the fact I was picking beans while I talked to him! He also laughed when I mentioned I am by far
the slowest bean picker of the group. Well anyway, we both had a good time talking with each other. Thanks Ken!
On nice days we all love to pick beans-it is the physically
easiest work we do on the farm. I sit
right down in the patch, while most of the kids kneel-some stand and bend, but
they don't seem to mind it-I would though. We all agree it is a lot better than picking tomatoes! While picking perhaps a half bushel of
tomatoes ain't bad, when you start on your tenth 5 gallon bucket with the sun
beating down and the wind nearly calm, well ... it ain't fun! Perhaps the real reason the kids seem to like
picking beans is that we usually pick them together (they kinda like me around,
at least that's the impression they give) and it gives me a chance to tell 'em
stories-mostly stories of interesting-and sometimes embarrassing incidents-in
my life and in the life of my parents and grandparents. Sometimes it is an educational time where I
talk about math, science, history and religion-for some silly reason they seem
to enjoy my embarrassing moments the best! One embarrassing moment that comes to mind (I'm tempted to write a book
with the title being something like "The Altar Boy that Went Down the Wrong
Path.") To get the feel for this brief
story you should know I attended St. Clare elementary school in Chicago
and I was an altar boy in the parish. While
the church was a neighborhood church it was HUGE and could seat over 700
people. Also, you should know that being
an altar boy at weddings and funerals was a much sought after job since there
was the custom of tipping the altar boys at these masses. I got my share of these appointments until ...
and the story starts. One day in May I was chosen as an altar boy for the 11:45 Sunday Mass that celebrated the feast of
Christ the King. Before Mass started, on this big Feast day with the church
overflowing, there was the customary procession through the church with me at
its head carrying the big cross. To make
it short, it was really embarrassing since I always seemed to go down the wrong
aisle and had to back track. (There was
no rehearsal or no one telling me which way to go; apparently I should have
"known" it!) Sister Dominick Marie, the nun in charge that year of the altar
boys, was at the Mass and saw me making a fool out of myself! After that mess she had me signed up for the
late graveyard shift-6:30AM Mass for
months. In addition, I was never again chosen
to be a Mass server at a funeral or wedding!
My mother often told me stories about her life along with
stories of her parents' life. While I
spent much time with my father-we often fished together-he rarely told me about
himself or his life (about the only thing I remember him telling me is that he
didn't like squash or sweet potatoes since that plus fish was all he claimed he
ate in the South Pacific during WW2) and the only stuff I found out about him
was from my mother who knew him ever since he was 14. What did my dad and I talk about? Fishing and the White Sox! That's too bad. I really recommend that you talk
to your kids and grandkids about the history of your family and interesting
stuff that happened to you making sure you throw in some embarrassing times to
keep them interested!
Getting back to the farm. One of the photos in drop.io shows the Mirai corn planting that should
be ready for Labor Day weekend. Another
shows an early patch that we stopped picking about a month ago. We have about 6 patches of corn that haven't
tassled yet and will ripen after Labor Day. By the way, all Mirai corn is an exceptionally good variety for freezing
and canning and we are selling it this week for $10 a bushel.
Last week I hinted that it would turn cooler the week of August 16. As I write
this the dewpoint is falling and it is in the upper 70s- a lot more comfortable
weather. There is a big high bringing
the nice weather down from northwest Canada
and should be pleasant all week. The
only problem was that there wasn't any rain before the front passed. We do need rain. Next week-the week of August 23 should be a
bit warmer but not as uncomfortable as we experienced most of this summer. Let's hope we have a decent rain by the time
the next newsletter is sent out.
As I mentioned in an earlier newsletter Annemarie has
started Mid-Michigan Bookkeeping where she will be offering bookkeeping service
to small businesses-even single person businesses. I am helping her as an adviser and
promoter. As of August 16, she will be
welcoming inquiries about her service and is now accepting clients. She is an extremely intelligent woman with
accounting in her blood, and has a college degree in accounting. Annemarie has had accounting/bookkeeping
experience at several firms including as a manager at the University
of Chicago hospitals. Annemarie has good knowledge of QuickBooks
software and is becoming familiar with Peachtree accounting software. If you or someone you know needs bookkeeping
help but does not feel justified in hiring a full-time bookkeeper with all the
costs involved, I would highly recommend a talk with her so she can give you a
quote on the job. Visit her website at Mid-Michigan Bookkeeping where you can find a customized quote form. If you haven't met her yet, you can find her at the market most days
between noon and 4PM.
Nashle!
Tom
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This Week's Photo Album |
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This year we are doing our photos for the newsletter a bit differently. Due to space
constraints on our newsletter hosting service and concern for those of you on a
dialup connection, we are going to host them on Drop.io (a web based file sharing
service). Every week you will get a link to a photo album that shows the photos
that go along with the newsletter. Simply click on the link below and it will take
you to the photos. Clicking on a photo will yield a larger image along with a description
of the photo.
This Week's Photos - 08/15/2010
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We appreciate your business and hope to see you this week at Magicland Farms.
Sincerely,
Tom and Annemarie Fox
Magicland Farms |
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