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From Field to Table
What's Happening Now at Magicland Farms
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Volume Two, Issue Nineteen
Sunday - September 19, 2010
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Greetings!
Welcome to the Magicland Farms' newsletter for the week beginning September 20th. 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 - September 20th to September 25th |
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This week we are featuring GIANT PUMPKINS! GIANT CORN
STALKS! GIANT GOURDS!
Also, sweet corn, acorn,
butternut, buttercup, spaghetti, hubbard and Heart of Gold winter squash, sugar
(pie) pumpkins, Red LaSoda potatoes, sweet potatoes, broccoli and more.
Looking for fall decorations? We have an extensive selection of pumpkins of
all sizes (1 to 400 pounds) as well as gourds, Indian corn, corn stalks and
more!
We accept both the Bridge Card and Project Fresh. |
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From The Kitchen | Have you heard about the great canned pumpkin shortage of 2009/2010? It seems that a disastrous growing season for pumpkins last year has resulted in a shortage of canned pumpkin at this time. Check out this story. While shopping at the grocery stores over the last couple of months, I have noticed signs indicating that the store is out of stock on canned pumpkin but expects shipments soon.
One way to avoid being dependent on the grocery stores for your pumpkin puree is to make your own. It is really very simple and guarantees you some great tasting pumpkin for your Thanksgiving dinner. We have a very good crop of pie pumpkins this year and every year we freeze pumpkin puree. I use it over the winter in pies and pumpkin squares. You can also use it in cookies and bread as well.
Here is something Tom wrote up on how to puree pumpkin:
Making Pumpkin Puree
(for pies, cake, muffins, cookies, bread, soup, etc.) from Sugar Pumpkins
- Wash
sugar pumpkin well.
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Take
off stem and cut in half.
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Remove
seeds (seeds can be roasted for a special treat)
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Place
pumpkin half, skin side up, on a cookie sheet that has an eighth inch of water in it. (Hint: For easy clean-up, first cover cookie
sheet with aluminum foil.)
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Place
in 350 oven for 90 minutes, or until pumpkin flesh is soft.
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Scoop
out cooked pumpkin flesh and puree using a blender or a hand mixer.
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Use
finished pumpkin puree in your favorite pie, or other recipe. Remember, some canned pumpkin has added sugar
and salt so if you usually use canned pumpkin, you might want to think about
adding sugar and salt.
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Keep
in mind when figuring how many pumpkins you need, an average sized sugar
pumpkin should give you enough puree for one pumpkin pie. The exact amount is really hard to know. However, if you make too much puree it is piece
of "pie" to freeze the excess. We freeze
a lot every year! (See below.)
Using a Microwave?
While we don't
use a microwave, many do. If you want to
cook the pumpkin in a microwave, follow the first three steps above and then
instead of using a cookie sheet and baking in regular oven put pumpkin halves
in a microwave safe dish and cook on high for 15 minutes. Repeat cooking in
microwave for smaller increments of time until the flesh is soft. Normally takes about 30 minutes. Next follow steps 6 through 8.
Freezing Pumpkin Puree
After
pureeing the cooked pumpkin as mentioned in Step 6 above, place pumpkin puree
in clean plastic freezer containers and place in freezer. Pumpkin puree keeps over a year in a deep
freeze. A quart of pumpkin puree will
make about 2 pies.
In a couple of weeks, I will have some pumpkin recipes to share with y'all including our pumpkin pie recipe.
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Specials In The Spotlight |
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Winter Squash:
$5 for a half bushel or $8 for a bushel. If you are purchasing a bushel, it is helpful if you bring your own containers.
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The Boss's Corner
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Well, we are back again picking sweet corn. While it isn't Mirai, it's good tasting
bi-color corn. Saturday we started
picking our 4th from last patch of sweet corn and we also picked our
5th from last patch of corn. The
good news is that we no longer can find corn earworm moths in our traps-a
couple of weeks ago the traps were filled with those pesky moths. (The moths lay their eggs on the silk which
then hatch into tiny caterpillars who find their way down the silk into the ear
unless a bird or other insect eats them first.)
Don't be shocked, though, if you do find earworms in the tips of the corn
this week since a few weeks ago when the corn first put out silk there were a
lot of night flying moths around. Too
bad the traps don't get them all! It
looks like the corn we start picking next week will have very few
earworms. For now, while the earworms
are less than they were a week or so ago you will be still be able to find
them!
Our last patch of green beans look beautiful and are
blooming in abundance. I'm not
sure but we just might start picking them toward the end of the week. They will be definitely tender and tasty-trust
me here!
We've been asked when we will be picking our fall crop of
sugar snap peas. I think in about 10
days to two weeks but since fall sugar snaps are new to us we aren't sure. We will be picking sugar snaps most of
October.
You probably have heard about the canned pumpkin
shortage. Well we don't have a shortage
of pie pumpkin-that's for double sure! I
was perusing the news about canned pumpkin (especially Libby's canned pumpkin
which has over 85% of the market. Libby's canned pumpkin division,
by the way, is owned by Nestle, as is Gerber, so if you must buy canned pumpkin
make sure you buy Libby's.) By the way,
I always have had a soft spot in my heart (tummy?) for Nestle. Back in Chicago
our next door neighbor to the north (her house was only 25 feet from our house)
worked for Nestle and every Christmas she brought us a huge can (possibly 2 gallons)
of Nestle chocolate syrup. In my mind anyway (that part of it connected to the
tummy, at least), that was the best Christmas present we got! You see, I am a dedicated chocoholic! Getting
back to my story, as I was looking over the news I read a story that canned
pumpkin was starting to find its way to the warehouses and Meijer was selling
twelve 29 oz cans of Libby's pumpkin for something like $25. I then went to Meijer's website and
checked. They had it on the website
all right, but if you tried to order it OUT OF STOCK showed up. Also, Meijer online has a free shipping promotion
until September 23. (Promo Code SEPTFREE.) They have several good bargains available. However, they only sell in bulk. You must buy in case lots. This is great for large families like
ourselves. One item they have for sale
that Annemarie is excited about is sugar. Eight 5 pound bags of Meijer brand Pure
Granulated Sugar is only $19.08. Sales on sugar have been few and far between lately so Annemarie was happy to see a lower price on this item. Keep in mind this is only the Meijer brand of
sugar--Domino and Pioneer are more. (Meijer's Cane sugar is also more.) Also keep in mind the free shipping to your door is only good until
September 23 even though the Promo Code is SEPTFREE.
I received a couple of emails from people who want to know
about growing Vardaman sweet potatoes in their flower garden. First you need to get the Vardaman. Happily we will have them for sale. Next you will need a couple pots, some top grade potting soil (although
plain water can be used) and you need an insulated window that faces the
south. For an idea of what you do simply
look at the photos in drop.io. More
specifically, take the sweet potato and put it in a pot with good potting soil
(you also can put them in a jar of water with toothpicks stuck into it so half
the potato is above the water.) Put the
pot on a sunny window sill and wait until the sprouts come. Then when they get over 6 inches long make
cuttings and put them in little pots with potting soil so they root. Then in late May simply plant them in your
garden. Hints: Keep the sweet potatoes
in the dark until at least Christmas and at a temp between 55 and 60. I
recommend you start the sweet potatoes in January or February or earlier if you notice the sweet potatoes are
going bad. Make sure the sweet potatoes
don't get too cold by being too close to the window on bitter cold winter
nights. Don't worry that the vines get
real big as long as you have enough space for them. Plant them out in late May. While they need full sun to get any food out
of them partial shade is fine if you just want them for a decorative vine and
perhaps some flowers. Make sure you get a copy of the November/December issue of
Grit magazine to read my article and for even more info.
Now a bit about the weather. The temperature so far this month was pretty close to normal. However, there was a lot more rain than
normal. Last year September was
beautiful-close to 80% sunshine with just a few sprinkles. It is seems to be a given that the rest of
September will be warm-at least warmer than normal. Rain? It's a toss-up. It looks like
October will be mild and dry. Winter? Well, I noticed this
spring and summer was very similar to 1955. How was the 1955-56 winter? I
don't know. I will try to find info on
it and I think the coming winter will be somewhat similar. I hope to have some preliminary ideas about
the coming winter next week.
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 - 09/19/2010 |
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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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