Last box of the Summer CSA. There are still some hardy greens, lots of roots, tomatoes, and squash growing out there, but this is where Fresh and Wyld takes a break. We will be putting most of our garden to bed this Saturday in our Biodynamic Compost class, burying cow horns to get ready for next year’s soil preparations, and continue canning! There is still room left in our “Putting your garden to Rest & Building a Bio-Dynamic Compost Pile” on this Saturday, Oct 9th, from 10 to 2. It is taught by our Head Gardener Chris Carrier, You may have been reading his Blog’s on our Web-site this year. He writes as well as he Gardens, Here is a link to his blog http://freshandwyld.com/blog/farmer-chriss-blog To accompany him in instructing will be one of the Grande Dames of Bio-Dynamic Farming in our valley, Pat Frazier.
The Inn is still open for business as are our Friday night dinners and Sunday morning breakfasts. Load up the car and come on over. Don’t load it too full, you can still find apples, fresh cider and wine at Orchard Valley and Delicious Orchard.
The last few weeks of October we will spend camping, oh did I say camping, I meant to say canning! so we will have something to sell you all during the winter. We have loads of Tomatoes and Dilly Beans and Dill Pickles processed, now we will get to the apples, plums, berries and pears.
We have Turkeys and Oct 27th Fall Boxes and Thanksgiving Boxes ready to order and sell on the Web-site so let your fingers do some shopping! We are going to do a Winter CSA this year, more info on that, reserve now buy email if you are interested. We would start up the second week in November and go till February or March. We are connecting with our local Green house growers right now, to ensure a good greens supply. So…….Give us some feedback, would you like this service all winter? It would have a commitment to purchase on your part, coupled with a small down payment, but for the most part would be charged to your card weekly.
We thought we’d go out with a bang and add some fresh apple cider to your box this week from Big B’s! You also have the most delicious fuji apples from Austin’s to savor for a while, some mesclun mix from Rain Crow, and the remainder from Fresh and Wyld’s garden: leeks, braising mix (kale, spinach, arugula and vitagreens), pie pumpkins, carrots/greenbeans, or zuccini, and potatoes. Let’s hear it for the Fresh & Wyld Farm Crew! Hip, Hip Hoooray!
Lastly but not leastly, we need a Community of Investor’s to help us buy this property. We are not having any luck with the banks for a commercial loan. They are much more expensive then residential lending, and pretty impossible to qualify for. We are still shopping the banks, but we will capsize on the interest rate if it is our only option. I will keep sending you reminders and requests, we only have till January 1. We need to raise $ 417,000 by then. Are you someone who would like to help us with any amount for a 7- year period at 2 to 4 %? Any amount between $ 1,000 and $ 500,000 would be Splendid, good news to us. We would love to talk to you and discuss terms, contracts and options, please contact me by email. You can just hit reply to this newsletter and I will get it. It is Slow Money return for you, but it is secured by this property and it a safer bet than keeping your money in stocks and other risky investments, plus you will keep your money local and help grow food and Community with it! Outstanding opportunity I would think!
We are also set us as a Non-Profit on our Educational arm of Fresh & Wyld and we could accept any amount of non-taxable Donation to help us purchase our property as well.
Ok, Enjoy the Eats, Checkout our new list of S.O.U.L. Cooking Classes and Farmsteading Classes offered from November to March. Toodles! Chef Dava and the Fresh & Wyld’s
Here is one of my favorite recipes!
Navaho Apple Crumble
Semi- peel, core and cut 7-8 apples into a sauce pot. Add 1 –2 cups apple cider or juice.
3/4 cup of succanet or rappadura
1 tsp of lemon
1 tsp of cinnamon
When apples are soft add the above ingredients, make a slurry out of
2 T water and 2 T flour mixed together
In a bowl, add;
1 cup of flour (I use spelt)
1 cup of cornmeal
1/2 cup of pecans
1/2 cup of coconut
1 tsp of cinnamon
1/2 tsp ginger
1/3 cup of maple syrup
1/3 cup of rappadura
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup of soft butter
1/4 cup coconut oil
Mix together with hands and crumble over apples and pears. Bake at 350 for 1 hour. Serve with whipped or iced cream.
Here are a couple more Favorites!
Pumpkin, Mushroom and Sage Strata
This makes a nice main dish for a vegetarian meal. Serve with sautéed kale, broccoli rabe or chard.
Roasting your Pumpkin
Preheat oven to 375
This can be done up to 3 days before you make this dish and saves a lot of time. Cut open a pumpkin, butternut or acorn squash. Season with salt, pepper and a little chili powder. Poke flesh a few times with a fork or knife and add a few pats of butter. Put into a baking or roasting pan, cut flesh up. Pour about an inch of water into bottom of pan. Cover pumpkin or squash loosely with foil and roast for one hour at 375.
Making the Strata
Put rack into middle of oven and Preheat oven to 450
2 T butter or ghee
1 med onion, thinly sliced
1 cup chopped wild mushrooms
2 cloves of crushed garlic
2 T finely chopped sage
1 T finely chopped parsley
½ tsp of nutmeg
2 tsp of curry powder
½ tsp of crushed red chili flakes
1/4 cup Sherry
2 c Pumpkin, roasted and cubed
½ cup rehydrated Sun-dried tomatoes, chopped
5 eggs, beaten
2-cup heavy cream
1 tsp kosher salt
4 oz of crumbled goat cheese
2 oz of crumbled blue cheese, optional
½ pound of day old sourdough wheat or white bread, cut into 1-inch cubes, about 3-4 cups
4 oz of grated Parmesan
Heat a med sized ovenproof pan or skillet over med-high flame. Add butter or ghee. When melted, add onion, mushrooms and garlic
Sauté until starting to turn golden and then add herbs and spices. Let cook a minute and pour in ¼ cup Sherry. Let simmer a minute or two and then add Pumpkin and sun-dried tomatoes and let cook another minute.
In same pan, add the rest of the ingredients, except for the Parmesan, stir well and then top with grated Parmesan. Put into hot oven and cook for 20 to 25 minutes until set.
Chard with Balsamic Brown Butter
6 T Unsalted Butter
3 T Good balsamic Vinegar
2 bunches of Chard
2 T kosher Salt
Bring a pot of water to a boil.
Melt butter in a small skillet over high heat. Let it cook until the white solids sink to the bottom of the pan and turn a light brown, about 5 minutes. Stir in the vinegar and cook for 30 seconds. Remove the pan from the heat.
Add Chard and Salt to the boiling water. Cook for 2 minutes and drain well.
Pull out chard and let drain a minute in a colander. Put into a serving bowl while still hot and pour balsamic butter over it. Serve immediately.
I don’t know how many times this fall I’ve said the words “tonight is it for everything. Supposed to get down to 16″. But its been heard alot and I believe Joey has just stopped listening to me altogether and just goes about doing what he knows needs to be done – a good hand. Two days ago I was sure of it. Only things growing out there were some leaf lettuce, mixed salad greens, spinach, and kale. The Kale is being enjoyed each night by some unknown visitor. I suspect its the same one that has an established burrow into our kitchen scrap compost pile.The greens, spinach and lettuce were doing great and tasting better every day. So two days ago I look at the forecast – really I was looking to see if we could expect any snow in the mountains so I could go skiing soon – and saw a forecasted low of 8 degrees . I knew this was it and I better get my ass out there and harvest.
