Terra Firma Farm
In This Issue
Recipe of the Week
What's Growing This Week:   

Tomatoes

Apples # 

Watermelon

Garlic

Sweet Peppers 

 

Zucchini (S)

Potatoes (S,L)

 

Painted Serpent Cukes (M,L)   

Figs (M,L) 

Eggplant (M,L) %

 

Onions (M,L)

   

Melon (L)   

Basil (L) 

   

 

Items may be substituted without notice.

% -- Eggplant this week comes from our CCOF certified organic neighbors at Eatwell Farm.

 

# -- Apples are either Galas from our own orchard or Sommerfelds from CCOF certified Coco Ranch.

 


Storage Tips

Tomatoes and Peaches should be stored outside the fridge until eaten.  Refrigeration will turn them mealy.

 


Bulk Tomatoes

You can still get 12 lb. boxes of tomatoes from us with your regular delivery, every week if you like.  Log into your account and go to the web store to order, or just send us an email. 

 


Newsletter Archive
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Quick Links
Contact Us:
terrafirmafarm.com
csa@terrafirmafarm.com

CSA Rates 2011
Boxes are  charged on Monday for the week's deliveries at:

$14  Small
$24  Medium
$32  Large

For a payment of $300, get a 3% bonus. Your account balance will be $309.

For a payment of$850,  get a 5% bonus.  Your account will be posted as $892.00

For a payment of  $1,400, get a  7% bonus. Your payment will be posted as $1,498.
 
Vacations are charged weekly when notice is given as a fee, no charges occur during the vacation week.

$4 Small
$8 Medium
$11 Large

Payments, Billing, and Changes
Schedule vacations, change box sizes, make payments or sign up for autopay by logging in to your subscriber account at terrafirmafarm.com
News From Terra Firma Farm
Community Supported Agriculture

Greetings!   

     

Early September is always a busy time for us at Terra Firma.  Many of the crops we've been tending all summer are finally maturing.  The leaves of our butternut and acorn squash have turned yellow and are beginning to collapse, a sure sign that the fruit is ripe.  In our storage onion field, the bulbs have been bagged up in burlap sacks and are curing in the hot sun.  Asian Pears are finally turning from greenish brown to yellow and orange.  And in our Sweet Potato field today, I dug up two perfectly sized dark orange roots.

 

Meanwhile, fall planting is in high gear.  We're halfway through our 2012 strawberry field and our second shot of broccoli and cauliflower is scheduled to go in on Thursday.  I've seeded Kale, Chard, Beets and lots of Carrots. Down next to the creek in the shadehouse where we grow our fall transplants, there are thousands of tiny seedlings in various stages of growth -- and we still have one more round to sow. Between August 15th and October 1st, we will have put in 30 acres of new crops, making that our busiest six planting weeks of the year. 

 

As if all that weren't enough, some of our summer crops are really just getting into high gear -- six weeks late.  The prize for late arrivals goes to our melon crop:  we are just now harvesting our first melons planted directly from seed.  In a "normal" year, melons planted in May would be ripe by mid-July.  And yet watermelons have been ripening normally all summer, which means the season is almost over.

 

We are happy to have an abundance of Tomatoes and Melons finally and it appears that the weather in September will probably be more like summer than either July or August was.  But it means that we will have an even busier ninth month of the year than usual.

 

 

Thanks,  

 

Pablito
 
Save the Date:  Farm Day
Terra Firma's annual farm event for subscribers will take place on Saturday, October 22nd in the afternoon.  We'll announce more details soon!

 
Peppers
It seems like every year I write a piece in the newsletter about how difficult it is to grow organic peppers and how bad we are at it.  This year we were sure it was going to be different.  For six weeks after we planted the peppers, the field looked beautiful -- big, lush, green plants with plenty of leaves to protect the fruit from the sun.  Then almost overnight, the plants seemed to shut down, the leaves shrinking and leaving the ripening fruit exposed to the sun.  Peppers, which are dark green bordering on black before they ripen, are extremely susceptible to sunburn.  Although it wasn't terribly hot, the peppers were getting cooked just before ripening.

This week, we decided to stop waiting and harvest peppers anyway.  You will receive in your boxes peppers that are not fully ripened, or ones that may have a small blemish.  We have several different types this year, including red and yellow bells, red/orange/yellow frying peppers, and orange/red Gypsys.
   Peppers that are not-quite-ripe (greenish red or greenish yellow) will be sweeter than a green pepper, but not as sweet as a fully colored pepper.  Any blemishes on your peppers will be small and can easy be cut away to leave plenty of usuable vegetable.  We hope that either of these "defects" is preferable not getting any peppers in your boxes at all.

 
Recipe -- Grilled Eggplant with Afghan Yogurt Sauce (Bouranee Baunjan)
This is a traditional Afghan way of serving eggplant with a delicious twist.  Roasting the eggplants instead of frying gives the dish a smoky flavor and a more interesting texture.
Heat the oven to 400 or fire up the grill. 
Cut 1-2 eggplants in 1/2" rounds (slice Asian eggplants in half lengthwise) and brush the cut side.  Mix together 2 T. olive oil and 2 t. soy sauce and brush it on the cut sides.
Place the eggplant cut side down on a cookie sheet and roast in the oven, flipping once to brown both sides.
Meanwhile, heat 1 T. olive oil in a skillet. 
Thinly slice 1 onion and 1 large or 2 small sweet peppers and a dash of red pepper flakes.  Saute the vegetables until they are soft and nicely browned.
Dice 1 lb. of tomatoes and add to the onion/pepper mixture.  Raise the heat to high and when the tomatoes start to bubble, lower to a simmer.  Cook for 15 minutes.
Add 1 C. thick plain yogurt to the sauce along with 1 small clove of garlic, minced.  Season with salt.
Add the eggplant slices to the sauce and stir, then cook for 5 minutes.  Serve slices of eggplant topped with the sauce.
Serve over long grain brown rice.