First week

Here is Erlene in the packing house grading out Golden Delicious




And here are the fruit boxes packed out and ready to go for today.



Have a great day!

Week one of Noggins Fruit CSA

Welcome to the first of the Noggins Fruit CSA Shares. We are excited to enter on this journey with you.

The apples this week are Crispins. They were harvested last year and have been in storage since they were picked in October 2009. On the farm we have storage rooms that take the oxygen out of the room so that the apples slow down their respiration rate and do not break down as fast. This mean we are able to keep apples throughout the winter and into the spring and summer to keep local apples available year round. Some varieties do better than other in long term storage. Researchers, farmers and other in the apple industry spend a lot of energy on learning how to improve storage of crops so we can keep the customer happy with crispy, juicy apples.

We have 400 Crispin trees on the farm. They are a Japanese variety, and the original name was Mutsu. They changed the name to Crispin to be more appealing from a marketing perspective. These apples are best for fresh eating but you can bake with them too.

Activities on the farm:

Beth is busy with school tours in the agritourism area.

Thinning Peaches - all the focus is into thinning peaches right now to ensure we have good size fruit for harvest.

Orchards - looking great. They are 9-10 days ahead of schedule. The great rain fall was welcomed by the trees as the orchards were very dry.

Cherries – the pits are beginning to harden meaning we will begin to harvest in about 3 weeks time. Yippy!

Raspberries - in the tunnels they look great and should be ready to harvest in 2 weeks. Outside the tunnels the raspberries are in bloom.

Recipes:

The cranberries can be used as a cranberry sauce for chicken or turkey, but also you could make cranberry coffee cake, cranberry salad, oat bran cranberry pancakes, just to suggest a few ideas. I will add some of these recipes to the Noggins blog.

Roasted Rhubarb

4 cups chopped rhubarb

½ cup sugar

¼ cup orange or lemon juice

2 tbsp candied ginger or fresh ginger root (minced)

1 tsp orange or lemon peel (grated)

Combine in a baking pan. Spread evenly and bake in preheated over at 450F until rhubarb is soft but retains its shape, about 25 minutes. Stir, cool slightly, and serve with ice cream or yogurt.

Serves 4

This recipe is taken from Simply in Season cookbook, page 74. It is a great cookbook and we have copies available for sale at the farm market.

Oat Bran Cranberry Pancakes – page 187 Simply in Season

¾ cup oat bran

½ cup whole wheat flour

1 tbsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

¼ tsp ground cinnamon

¼ tsp ground ginger

Stir together in a large bowl

1 cup milk

1 egg

1 tbsp oil

2 tsp honey (slightly warmed)

Combing separately. Mix into dry ingredients.

½ cup cranberries (chopped)

½ cup apple (chopped)

Fold in. Fry in a medium-hot, greased frypan. Serve with cranberry syrup (optional)

Cranberry Syrup: boil together 1 cup cranberry juice, 2 tbsp honey, 1 tbsp cornstartch and a pinch of ground ginger.

Update on orchards

The peaches are in pink on late varieties and are in full bloom on the early variety,  Harrow Diamond. It is a great time for a photo opt. The Early Goldens and Shiros [both yellow early plums]are out in full bloom today and the pears are almost ready to pop.
Some gravenstiens are starting to show pink and the buds are separating on
the other varieties. We spent some time today putting out a little fertilizer
around some apple trees. We are pruning in earnest. The season is about
three weeks ahead of normal.

Peach Blossoms

The peaches will be blossoming this weekend. If you have the time to take a drive this weekend you will see the plums and peaches are blossoming as well as the blueberries. They are so beautiful!

Thanksgiving

We are so excited about this beautiful Thanksgiving weekend. The farm has been very busy with smiling faces as people enjoy the this fall holiday. Thanks for stopping by. Carolyn took this picture of the market this morning just before the Holiday Monday rush started.

We hope you've had a great weekend.

Wet Weather Closure

Due to wet weather conditions our Corn Maze and Barnyard Adventure Area is closed today - Sunday, August 23rd. It appears that we will get the much needed rain and only moderate winds.We'll be open as usual on Monday.  

Currently we are working on a new tile maze to add to our permanent maze collection. Drop in for a visit and check out the 2009 Triple Maze Adventure.

Corn Maze and Barnyard Adventure Area Open

It's Saturday, August 1st, opening day for NCF's 2009 Corn Maze and Barnyard Adventure Area. Our hours are 10 am to 6 pm, last admission 5:30 pm. Our maze theme this year is Australia - an Outback Adventure. We have three distinct mazes: two large and one finger fortune mini maze (for our young corn mazers). Both large mazes provide an interesting look into the culture and history of the great Australian Outback. It rained last night but this morning it is beginning to clear and the weather forecast is for a sunny afternoon and a sunny day on Sunday. Our market is brimming with lots of fresh, local produce and freshly picked, plump, juicy raspberries. Come enjoy a day on the farm. 

Three Weeks and Counting

July is here and finally I am able to put away my warm woolies. Beginning to think that would never happen. So did the corn in the maze. Now with the sun and the heat it is growing like crazy - 6" a day. Last Tuesday we cut the maze. A bit nerve wracking but 5 hours later it was completed. Hopefully next week we will get up in the air to take some pictures. Stay tuned. Our corn maze theme this year is "An Australian Triple Maze Outback Adventure" Can you guess the maze design?

Beth

Garlic Scapes

For those of you who wait each year for the fresh garlic scapes, now is the time to get them. This morning Josh brought 5 lbs of the yummy scapes into the market. There are many ways to use the scapes. Some love this garlic scape pesto.

Garlic Scape Pesto
Ingredients
1 cup coarsely chopped garlic scapes (about 10 scapes)
1/2 cup olive oil
1/2 cup walnuts, pine nuts or sunflower seeds
2 tablespoons lemon juice , more if preferred
1/4 teaspoon salt, more if preferred
water, as needed

Place all ingredients into food processor and puree (smooth or coarse, as desired). Add water, 1 tablespoon at a time, to desired consistency. Taste for seasoning; add more salt or lemon juice as needed. Will keep, covered and refrigerated, for approximately one week.

Maze Update

Five weeks and counting until the 2009 Corn Maze is open. Saturday, August 1st is the big day. Maze has been planted and the corn is growing like crazy - 12" in just 1 week. We're now ready to cut the maze. A bit of a nerve wracking job to say the least, we don't want to make a mistake. Our theme and design for this year comes from the great continent down under. We will have not just one maze but two. Can you guess our design this year?
On another note, the young eagles have grown rapidly and are up and about the nest furiously flapping their new wings. check out our Eagle Cam for the latest views.
On the crop side, strawberry season is in full swing and the raspberries are coming along nicely but it will be a couple of weeks yet before they are ready.