The Greens of Fall

Gorgeous broccoli!

Fall is my favorite time to be a farmer. Fall crops are my favorites to have for dinner and the cooler weather is lovely to work in. With the bulk of the season at our backs, it feels like we're running downhill. This week is shaping up to be a great eating week--I love the overlap of the last of the summer crops and the delights of fall crops--as well as a great weather week.

Joining us this past week is a new crew member, Chris Hendershot. Formerly an apprentice at our sister farm, Appleton, in Ipswitch, Chris has several years' experience on different veggie farms all over New England. He just finished up work on a degree in Ecological Design at the Conway School, which included a fascinating project creating a farm plan for 10 acres of perennial food crops, among other interesting projects. In addition to being a hard worker with lots of farming experience, he's delightful to chat with!

New guy Chris

Our fourth annual Farm to Table dinner on Saturday night was a great success. With a beautiful, breezy evening, delicious food and drink from JAM Gourmet and Tosca, and lots of good company, we toasted the farm as the sun went down. BIG thanks to our awesome team of volunteers and community partners for all their good work in pulling this challenging event off!

Reminders this week: Tuesday is Farm Fresh Yoga day for the rest of the season! Come to the Yellow House on Tuesdays at 5:30pm for your weekly yoga fix! Free for CSA members and sliding scale donation to our Food Access Fund for friends and neighbors and coworkers.

This winter we'll be putting together a Weir River Farm CSA cookbook with recipes for all the

Red onions ready for your kitchen.

veggies of the season. If you have a recipe you love and you'd like to share, please email me or bring a copy to CSA pickup any time. We're looking for delicious, seasonally-inspired, relatively simple, and fool-proof recipes. Thanks!

And lastly, our end-of-season harvest celebration will be Tuesday, October 27th this year, starting at 6pm. Potluck and BYOB, it's a fun and DELICIOUS evening--mark your calendar!

In your share this week: Red onions, hot peppers, one last bell pepper, a few tomatoes, radishes, a choice of collard greens or chard, broccoli(!), kale, sustainably-grown carrots from Powisset Farm, Certified Organic potatoes from Langwater Farm, PYO flowers and PYO herbs. Mmmm-mmm I love September harvests!

Recipes of the Week

Both recipes this week come from the Diana Shaw treasure The Essential Vegetarian Cookbook, and both are for greens. As a bonus, this collard greens recipe has many of these week's share veggies in it too! Alternatively, the kale would work well as a sub for the collards.

Peanut Curry with Sweet Potato and Collard Greens
serves 4

2 tsp canola or vegetable oil
1 large onion, chopped
1 2" piece fresh ginger, peeled and grated
4 garlic cloves, minced and rested for 10 minutes
1/2 c. loosely packed minced cilantro
1 red bell pepper, roasted, peeled and chopped
1 jalapeno pepper, roasted, peeled and chopped
1 Tbs ground cumin
2 tsp whole mustard seeds
2 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp ground turmeric
1 tsp paprika
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper, or more to taste
2 large tomatoes, peeled, seeded and chopped
1 medium sweet potato, peeled and chopped
1 lb potatoes, preferably Yukon Gold, peeled and cut into bite-sized pieces
1/4 c. coconut milk
2 Tbs smooth peanut butter (with no added oil, sugar, or salt)
1 lb collard greens, stemmed and coarsely chopped
2 c. cooked beans, such as chickpeas, rattlesnake, or tongue of fire, drained and rinsed

Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium high heat. When hot, add the onion, ginger, garlic and cilantro. Reduce the heat to medium and saute, stirring often until the onion is soft and translucent, about 7 minutes. Add the bell pepper, jalapeno, cumin, mustard seeds, coriander, turmeric, paprika, and cayenne. Stir to blend. Stir in the tomatoes, sweet potato, and potato. Cover and let simmer over medium-low heat until the potatoes have cooked through, about 15 minutes. Combine the coconut milk and peanut butter and stir until smooth. Add them to the skillet along with the collards and beans. Cook until the collards turn bright green, about 4 minutes. Cover and let the curry sit for 20 minutes before serving.

Swiss Chard-Ricotta Gnocchi
serves 4

1 c. ricotta
1 c. unbleached all-purpose flour, plus additional for dusting
4 c. Chard, thoroughly cleaned and chopped
1 large egg, lightly beaten
2 Tbs grated Parmesan cheese
Pinch ground nutmeg
1 lemon

In a large mixing bowl, in a land far, far away, there were two magical ponies named Spylight Twarkle and Porkie Pie Princess the Party Planner...whoops, wrong book -- I've been spending too much time with my niece. In a large mixing bowl, combine the ricotta, flour, chard, egg, Parmesan, and nutmeg. Grate 1 tsp of zest from the lemon and stir it into the mixture. Squeeze the juice from the lemon and set aside. Flour your hands and roll the mixture into walnut-sized balls. Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add the gnocchi, about 5-8 at a time, and boil until they rise to the surface, about 3 minutes. Let them boil for one minute longer, then scoop them out with a slotted spoon and transfer to paper towels to drain. Repeat this process until all the gnocchi are cooked. Sprinkle with the reserved lemon juice and serve.