extension week 6: the last week of 2011!!

This has been the most amazing week, well what did I expect of the last week of such an incredible year? Nothing less than total perfection. Wrapped in a blanket of love from our family friend’s visit last week, we began the final week of the season with high hopes and optimism: plant the final garlic bed, 1/3 of our intended 9000 plants, start fetching hay for the winter’s animal feed, cover all of our winter field crops with floating row covers to protect from harsher and harsher frosts, and hunt. Deer season opened in Kentucky last Saturday and both Paul and Andy planned to have a go at it. Paul really has only hunted once before, 2010 deer season with his visiting Uncle Ed. This year began with more information, more intention and higher hopes. I will leave out many details here, I know the topic of hunting is one with many sides, but yesterday, really the final day that was free enough for these guys to head to the woods, ended with a dawn buck for Andy and a dusk doe for Paul. We were all so thrilled. The garlic was safely in the ground, completed on the first of the week, also the last day before a serious drenching would have prevented us from digging in the earth for many days to come. Last night, just before the heaviest freeze, all of our crops were blanketed under the protection of the white lengths of fabric, a tedious and necessary job well done. This crystalline morning, when the sun rose on our last harvest day for the season, we smiled, made a fire, did the chores, and thrilled in the perfect completion to the week, the month, the season. As Andy said while he dipped lettuce into frigid water with I am sure cold hands, “ I am content”. We all are.
As I look back on this year, I am full of joy and thankfulness. 2011 will live on as one of our brightest years: a season that began with doubt, welcomed our third child, and ended with perfection. To our dear CSA, the best support any farmer could want, you supported us now more than ever, when anxieties were high and you all shared our faith and confidence: my deepest thanks. To Andy and George, words are not enough. You embraced the farm life and the Hill and Hollow family in every way: we know you will succeed and we will miss you more than you will know. Now, with the best wishes for the winter we have all been waiting for, enjoy!

In your basket:
daikon and misato rose radishes
kale
chard
lettuce
butternut squash
Jerusalem artichokes
garlic

extension week 4

These has been some amazing days on the farm, one that began with a deep breath last week at this time. We had a jam packed weekend of farm guests, trunk or treating, Cinderella, and George’s season’s end departure. Each of these is worthy of telling, but I must make some choices. This week, you can hear the tale of our big trip to Ohio Valley Natural Fibers. Since the onset of our careers as shepherds in 2006, we have been thinking and planning, scheming and trying to make useable wool products from our sheep’s annual gift to the farm: their shorn fleeces. Lately, many shepherds are turning towards a breed Katahdin, sheep that shed, also known as hair sheep. This choice eliminates the need for the annual shearing. Paul and I have chosen an old time breed, Jacob’s sheep,one that is good for both wool and meat. Why remove the opportunity for another farm product we wonder? With countless hours hand shearing and for the past 2 years electric shearing, Paul has actually become quite adept at removing the pounds of annual growth in good time and shape. Once we had all of these amazing bags of wool, the issue soon became, how does this become yarn or roving or anything useable to plain old me and others like me? For a fleece to make it to yarn, it must be washed (take care, hot water and agitation leads to felt!), picked (sheep’s fleeces will pick up all types of vegetable matter if care is not taken with their feeding and housing), carded (once clean, the fibers are brushed so they all lie in the same direction). From here it must be spun, either by hand or machine. We have worked with a local hand spinner for most of those years, but hand spinning is slow work and despite the beauty of the yarn our spinner has produced, she was not able to keep up with the ever growing supply of fleeces. We did some research and found a small, family owned fiber mill just over the Ohio river in Sardinia. We have been trying to get there for years. The reality of transporting ourselves and over a hundred bags of wool was daunting. Year after year the trip eased its way closer and closer to the top of the “to do” list and finally this year, full of the success of the 2011 season, we planned it, booked it, did it! Arrangements had to made: Sasha and Andy stayed back at the farm, took care of all the livestock and priority farm work. Madeline stayed over at Grandmom’s house. Paul and I were free to travel with just William. We felt like youngsters, traveling like the old days when it was just Sasha next to me in the infant car seat. The mill had an apartment so we could spend the night there. With a van loaded with wool, off we went at dawn on Tuesday. The flawless journey north, with friendly stops at our friend Katie’s Louisville coffee shop and former apprentice Megan and Todd’s Facing West Farm in Henry County, KY, we made it to our rural Ohio destination late on Tuesday afternoon. We toured with awe the facility housing the gigantic carding and spinning machines. We read book after book on knitting and felting in their well stocked library. We asked question after question and joyed in the answers: our fleeces we fabulous and the team at OVNF were going to transform them into yarns: brown, gray, speckled, white, all as gorgeous as our flock! Happily we headed home, proud of our trip, our sheep, our farm, ourselves. This year just keeps getting better and better.

Radish Butter on Toasted Baguette
From Martha Stewart
8 medium radishes (about 1 bunch), cleaned, root ends trimmed
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
One 8-ounce baguette
Coarse salt and freshly ground pepper
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Grate radishes on the large holes of a box grater; place on paper towels, and squeeze out excess liquid. Combine radishes and butter in a small bowl; mix well. Slice baguette in half lengthwise, and place in oven; toast until crisp and browned. Remove from oven, and cool slightly. Spread radish mixture on toasted baguette; season with salt and pepper. Slice each half into four pieces, and serve.
Pasta with Butternut Squash and Pecans also from Martha Stewart
1 pound tubular pasta, such as strozzapreti or penne
1 butternut squash (2 pounds), peeled, seeded, and cut into 1/2-inch pieces
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/2 cup pecans, coarsely chopped
Coarse salt and freshly ground pepper
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for serving
1/2 cup fresh flat-leaf parsley, thinly sliced
1/2 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese
1 cup, fresh ricotta cheese
Fill a saucepan fitted with a steamer basket with 1/2-inch water and bring to a boil over high heat. Place squash in steamer basket and cook, covered, until easily pierced with the tip of a knife, about 8 minutes. Remove from heat and set aside.In a medium skillet over medium heat, cook butter, stirring, until melted and just beginning to brown, about 5 minutes. Add pecans and cook, stirring, until lightly toasted, about 3 minutes. Add squash and stir gently to combine; season with salt and pepper. Bring a large pot of water to a boil over high heat. Generously salt water and return to a boil. Add pasta and cook according to package directions. Drain and return to pot. Add olive oil and parsley and season with salt and pepper; toss to combine. Divide pasta evenly between 4 plates and spoon squash mixture on top of pasta. Sprinkle over parmesan and top each with a dollop of ricotta. Drizzle with olive oil and serve immediately

In your basket:
radishes
kale
Swiss chard
greens choice
butternut squash
garlic

extension week 2

“Oh yeah, the other Fall” Paul muttered under his breath as he donned rain gear earlier this week. Monday dawned lovely, but by Tuesday mid morning the wind picked up and everyone was talking about the coming storm. Paul had big plans for the week, Andy is out of town and he and George were going to do some serious work on the 22 by 45 greenhouse we absolutely have to have up and running by this winter. Monday’s progress was so successful that as the wind picked up on Tuesday Paul was determined to put the plastic on to ensure a dry workspace for the rest of the week. The eternal optimist meets the annoying realist, I mutter only “ I am not totally confident”. Paul was right( we certainly would never be where we are today if he listened to boring old reality all the time!) and despite the wind the plastic went on flawlessly and we were all gleeful as the storm rolled in, high winds, hail and all, in our plastic covered safe space! The rest of the week was “the other fall” wet, cold, damp, windy, gray, you know the fall I mean. Despite the gloom, Paul absolutely had to retrieve his tractor that was stuck wheeless on our neighbor’s road. Paul had driven up there nearly 2 weeks ago to prepare some vegetable beds and on his return home the entire wheel fell off the tractor. A frustrating series of attempts to locate the needed bearings resulted in his tractor being up the road…still….when the storm came in. Alas, Tuesday night, we finally got the parts in our hands and despite the horrible conditions outside on Wednesday, they headed up the hill. I prepared a warm chicken soup to greet the hopefully successful team upon return. I waited and waited and just about the time when I was tempted to drive up the hill and check, I heard a hollering so loud, so happy, my heart jumped. The tractor was home. The plastic was on the greenhouse. The rain was pounding and frost was imminent, but boy were we happy. What a week!

Daikon Radish Salad
2 cups julienne cut daikon radish
1 tsp kosher salt
1 tbsp seasoned rice vinegar
2 tsp granulated sugar
1 tsp sweet rice wine (mirin)
OPTIONAL crushed peanuts
Place the daikon in a colander/mesh strainer over a bowl or the sink and sprinkle with salt. Mix well. Let sit for 30 minutes. Squeeze out excess water and then rinse well with cold water. Drain. In a small saucepan, combine the seasoned rice vinegar, sugar and rice wine. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until the sugar dissolves (this will only take a few minutes). Transfer the daikon to an airtight container and pour the rice vinegar mixture over. Shake or stir well to combine. Chill for 20 minutes before serving.This can store for up to a few days in the fridge, if it lasts that long. If desired, serve topped with crushed peanuts.

Beijing Radish Salad these 2 recipes are very similar, but still thought it was worth putting them both on here
1 medium daikon radish
2 tablespoons rice or balsamic vinegar (or a combination)
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 teaspoon sugar
2 teaspoons sesame oil
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
Wash and julienne radishes. They can be peeled or not as you like. You can use a mandoline to do the julienne-ing, or you can grate them. Mix together the rest of the ingredients and dress the radishes with the dressing.

In your basket:
kale
swiss chard
pac choi
peppers
basil
butternut squash
garlic
Daikon radish

extension week 1

Hello all and welcome to the Fall extension. It has been a great week on the farm. It all began on Sunday with a very mellow and super lovely Field Day. Without the cider pressing as a culinary activity, we decided to fire up the earth oven and bake pizzas. We constructed this cob masterpiece in the summer of 2009 and have yet to fire it up this year. Andy has been baking pizzas in our “regular” oven for weeks on his cook day, so he was primed for the challenge of baking them in the earthen oven we stare at each day. We had hopes of firing it on Saturday night to greet our honored pre Field Day overnight guests. Alas, that was a bit optimistic even for us, so we chose Sunday instead. Cooking in the earth oven is a commitment to tending a fire. To really heat the oven high enough to cook pizzas, a hot fire has to rage in there for about 2-2 1/2 hours. It can’t be a smoldering fire, the kind that works perfectly in our wood stove, it has to burn hot. Andy collected most the wood needed on Saturday while we were at the Farmers Market, and once back on the farm, the rest of us joined in. With crusts made, an assembly line of toppings and toppers formed around the oven and 8 tasty pizzas were popped out before the temperature in the oven dropped too low to quickly cook the savory pies. At that time, we loaded the space with washed sunchokes that baked perfectly in the residual heat that can last for hours. Cooking in the earth oven is an art, one that I have not fully mastered, but am getting better and better at with each firing. Andy is ready to go at it again, so it looks like these chilly fall days will be greeted with lots of fires and pizzas!
The week went on from there with more lovely days and cool nights. The guys cultivated all of the fall beds early in the week, just in time before the rain came, slow and sweet for 2 days. I spent my days blazing trails with the kids. Our land is mainly woods, 120 acres of trees, hills and hollows. We have always wanted to make trails up and around these glorious acres, but it has not gotten to the top of the to do list, that is, until now. Sasha and Rosie want to walk these trails and there is nothing like a demanding pre teen and his horse to get something to the top of the list. So, tree saw and loppers in hand, we head to the hills. Now, Madeline has taken quite an interest and proves to be a budding cartographer and flagger. Trail one is near completion: a nice trek up behind the cabin, connecting to our ridge trail and then down at the end of Field 8, near the A frame. It is flagged (in pink satin, thank you Madeline), and drawn to perfection in her field book, to be later transcribed onto larger map paper. Even on the busiest of days, like today, when I am processing the dairy, writing the newsletter, preparing and delivering local shares, and and and, I simply can not resist the plea to hike in the woods with my trail making crew. There could not be a better way to enjoy a sunny fall day! Wishing all the best to you as you enjoy this first basket of our fall season, it is just a wonderful collection of tastes!
Browned Butter Tatsoi back by popular demand
1 pound pasta shells
1 stick unsalted butter (1/2 cup)
Salt and pepper, to taste
3-4 cups tatsoi leaves, lightly packed
1/2 cup fresh sage, chopped
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese, grated
Bring a pot of water to boil and cook pasta as directed on the package. Drain and return to pot.
When pasta almost done, melt butter in a skillet over medium heat. Stir the butter in the pan as it foams. When butter begins to brown, add it to the pasta, turn the heat to medium, and mix to coat with butter. Add salt and pepper to taste. Add tatsoi and sage and cook until slightly wilted, about 1 to 2 minutes. Toss with parmesan and serve immediately.

In your basket:
kale
tatsoi
beets
basil
butternut squash
peppers
garlic

csa week 20

We had our first light frost this week. We felt the temperatures dropping as we dined al fresco last Saturday night. Paul and Andy had stopped by a fresh water shrimp harvest in neighboring Monroe county on the way home from market. With hopes of fresh shrimp, the arrived just in time to come home with 3 pounds. Once they returned to the farm, the grill was fired up and we enjoyed an incredible buffet of the shrimp along with grilled steak and vegetable medley. That ushered in a week which was so full, so precise and so well executed, words won’t do it justice. With grand goals for these October days: garlic planting, fall bed preparation, barn building and erecting a green house, we have not a minute to spare! The guys hit the ground running each morning by hauling load after load of aged manure from our neighbors barn: utilizing 2 trucks and a trailer, the piles of black gold quickly accumulated around the fields. Afternoons they donned their carpentry togs and went to work on an old barn site. Day one: site cleared and readied. By Wednesday, all the cedar posts were in place and it is clear we are going to have a building. The weather is so darn agreeable, it is hard not to be happy as we head into the final weeks of our season. This has been an incredible year. (you all did not think you would get a final main season newsletter out of me with out some sappiness??) Last year around this time when I discovered I was pregnant, my mind started whirling and our conversations often turned to: how are we going to get through next season with a baby born in MAY??? It all seemed so unmanageable, so overwhelming. Then, all of a sudden it was upon us. Our baby, William, born nearly 3 weeks early…and….blink….here we are on the eve of our final main season delivery. It has been a most joyous time and I feel so blessed to have shared it with each and every one of you. The support we have felt from you each week as we struggled to keep it all together, when often it seemed the odds were against us, was so sustaining. The fields responded with an unexpected bounty and our hearts swelled over and over again with the love of a baby and the support of an amazing group of individuals and families that are Hill and Hollow CSA. With the deepest gratitude to all, enjoy this wonderful final basket of the main season.
Please join us tomorrow for the celebration of Fall and the season’s end, details on back side.
The extension starts next week and runs until the Saturday just before Thanksgiving, please confirm your participation!

In your basket:
sunstroke
hot peppers
basil
garlic
greens
butternut squash

Sunchoke Gratin
2 lbs. sunchokes (Jerusalem artichokes)
Butter or oil for pan
Salt, freshly ground black pepper, freshly grated nutmeg
1 cup broth, cream, half-and-half, or some combination
½ to 1 cup shredded parmesan or other hard grating cheese

Preheat oven to 375. Scrub and roughly peel sunchokes.
Cut sunchokes into even, 1/4-inch slices. Butter or grease a 2-qt casserole or equivalent baking pan. Lay enough sunchoke slices in the pan to create a solid layer. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Make a second layer and sprinkle with salt, pepper, and nutmeg. You can add a sprinkle of cheese to this layer too, if you like. Keep layering and sprinkling — adding nutmeg only to every-other layer. When all sunchoke slices are in the dish, pour broth or cream over sunchokes, sprinkle with salt, pepper, nutmeg, and cheese. Cover pan with aluminum foil and bake until just tender when pierced with a fork, about 40 minutes. Uncover and bake until browned and bubbly, another 20 minutes or so.

csa week 19

Polls. Rods. Iron Pins. Angles. Due North. This is how deeds read, placing important things like a farm’s boundary on 8 inch white oaks (when was said tree said diameter?), or fallen ironwoods. We have pieced together our current 150 acres in 4 separate purchases. Some of the parcels were surveyed back in the summer of 2001. Others, not nearly so recently. Over the years we have hiked through the woods, compass in one hand, deeded description in the other in efforts to know what land really is ours. We have found a few flags, some of the pins lying close to the base of trees. Lately though, our desire for a proper survey has grown. We want to do big things: cut down trees, put up fence. When you do that, you want to be totally sure you are on your own land. A few weeks ago Paul took a walk in the woods and discovered a deer stand and feeder placed, we were confident, on our property. I called Leftwich Land Surveyors in Glasgow. These helpful men informed me they would help us with our deeds and descriptions with their computer software and we could head to the woods with a much clearer picture of our boundary lines. Wednesday morning we were there before they opened at 7:30 and left nearly an hour later with a platte in hand eager to see if we could find any of the landmarks. Thursday we had a family day. George and Andy were heading to a CRAFT event in Louisville. We decided not to haul our enlarged family along on the 5 hour round trip and stayed back. After chores and a horse ride, we headed to the woods. The deer stand that Paul described was more of a deer compound. A metal shack had been erected and painted sublime camo, feeders hung, area cleared. Paul headed in the general direction of the boundary line with hopes of finding a pink capped metal peg at the base of an 8 inch white oak. Not many minutes later, over a hill into a lovely little clearing, Paul shrieked with joy! He found it! The woods walk would have been delightful enough, but to discover our boundary line was way past where we ever hoped it would be made the trip that much sweeter. We tacked a pleasant note on our intruders deer hut and headed back into the hollow. The rest of the day was wonderful as well, we sat and ate both lunch and dinner together as a family, hung laundry, planted perennial flowering bushes. You know the kind of stuff we should do every day together, but rarely have time. We went to bed tired, happy and surrounded by even more beautiful land than we ever thought we owned.
Next week is the last week of the main season. Please let me know by then if you plan to take part in the Fall Extension or not. Have a great week!
Field Day is Sunday October 9th, come one come all! To get to the farm from Nashville, take I65 to KY Exit 43, onto Cumberland Parkway toward Glasgow. Take Cumberland Pkwy. To Exit 27 towards Edmonton. Go left off the ramp, go through the town until you reach the town square with a flashing red light. Go straight through the flashing red light, then take the next right onto Hwy. 496. Drive out of town, around a sharp turn and at the bottom of a big hill, take the left on to Hwy. 533 at the red barn. At this point you should click your odometer and go 8.7 miles and look for 8707, a black mailbox on the right. Start to slow down and pay attention at about 8 miles, you will see a white house with green shutters and a red barn, next a large A- frame house with a barn just on the side of the road and then on the right the driveway to the main farm. Fear not, cross the creek!
In your basket:
peppers
eggplant
summer squash
tomatoes
garlic
green beans
pac choi
basil
Fried Green Tomatoes
4 large green tomatoes
2 eggs
1/2 cup milk
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup cornmeal
1/2 cup bread crumbs
2 teaspoons coarse kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 quart vegetable oil for frying
Slice tomatoes 1/2 inch thick. Whisk eggs and milk together in a medium-size bowl. Scoop flour onto a plate. Mix cornmeal, bread crumbs and salt and pepper on another plate. Dip tomatoes into flour to coat. Then dip the tomatoes into milk and egg mixture. Dredge in breadcrumbs to completely coat. In a large skillet, pour vegetable oil (enough so that there is 1/2 inch of oil in the pan) and heat over a medium heat. Place tomatoes into the frying pan in batches of 4 or 5, depending on the size of your skillet. Do not crowd the tomatoes, they should not touch each other. When the tomatoes are browned, flip and fry them on the other side. Drain them on paper towels.

csa week 18

Livestock. No farm would be complete without it. As omnivores, our plates are filled with their offerings. The heart of our fertility lies with their manure. Here in the hollow, the list of benefits of our farm’s livestock is extensive: work and pleasure from the equines Earl and Rosie, dairy and meat from the bovines Addie and her calves, meat and rendered fat from the porcine, and meat and wool from the ovine (the sheep, I admit to having to look that one up!) ,eggs and meat from the poultry. Paul and I debate over the livestock on probably a daily basis, with this impressive list you ask, “what could possibly be the question?”. Well, the livestock consume hours and hours of our time. Whether it be moving fence, building coops, protecting from predation, watering, feeding, milking, or just plain worrying, the 4 legged members of the Hill and Hollow family are demanding in a way that is oftentimes hard to explain. Herein lies the debate: are they worth it? Are they profitable? We have been having these conversations for years, I stand solidly on the side of keeping all animals, I constantly measure the abstract value of fertility, farm diversity, pleasure. Paul wavers. You see, he is the shepherd, the farm manager, the first responder. He gets the absolute unadulterated burden of caring for this lively crew. On good days, all is well. These talks always take place on bad days.
Today is a good day. We have efficiently processed and sold all but a few cuts from our latest lambs we hauled in. (Bonus, I kept track of all costs and profits on this and the last batch, proving to myself and Paul that if we slaughter in the fall before we have to buy hay to feed the many mouths, we can actually make a dime on the project)This past week we completed a simple but necessary fencing job, complete with gate, that ensures we can separate the ram lambs and have control over their breeding. And, the grand finale, this morning I found out that our sheepskins are ready at the tannery. The wool from the sheep is an integral part of their contribution to the farm economy. Last Fall we succeeded in selling the first of the yarn we had spun from their annual sheerings. We sent off a pile of their pelts to a tannery in Wisconsin months ago with the hopes of yet another woolen item to warm us. We have been waiting for months and finally yesterday the calls came to the top of my to do list: contact tannery and find out the status of our pelts. Miraculously my contact with the tanner resulted in an invoice, payment and shipping all this morning. We are both so excited not only to see the skins, but to cuddle with them as the temperatures cool and to sell them, one more addition to this crazy dance called the farm economy. The sheep, at least for today, aren’t going anywhere, even Paul agrees!

In your basket:
peppers
squash
tomatillos
tomatoes
green beans
basil
tatsoi
garlic

Salsa Verde
1 lb. tomatillos (4-5 tomatillos)
2 hot peppers (can be as much or as little as you want,
take out seeds if you want it milder, use a few sweet peppers if you want to!)
2 unpeeled garlic cloves
1 onion
1/3 cup cilantro
1 tbsp. lime juice
1/2 tsp. Salt and 1 tsp sugar
Move an oven rack to the top position for broiling. Preheat broiler to high. Remove husks and wash tomatillos. Place tomatillos, peppers, onion and unpeeled garlic cloves into an oven-safe baking dish with sides. Place into the oven, 4 inches from the preheated broiler, until the tomatillos are roasted and the peppers are slightly charred on all sides, about 10-15 minutes. Rotate tomatillos, peppers, onion and garlic during roasting to ensure all sides are slightly charred. Remove the baking dish and add chicken stock to de-glaze the pan. If vegetables are stuck to the bottom of the dish, use a wooden spoon to scrape the baking dish. Once cool to the touch, peel the garlic and discard the skins (you may have to squeeze the soft garlic out of the skin). Add the tomatillos, garlic, onion and peppers to a food processor as well as the cilantro, lime juice, sugar and salt. Add about 1/2 of the chicken stock from the baking dish and pulse the food processor 3-4 times or until the salsa has come together. You can add more chicken stock based on your own preferences for consistency. Serve salsa warm.