Winding Down

October 19, 2021

Hello there!

The farm is truly winding down now. Of course there is A LOT of garlic to plant, and tulip bulbs to get in the ground, but there isn't a lot left to harvest. (We're doing garlic and tulips in a big way next year! Look for our tulip bouquets early next the spring!) There are many winter projects on our list, like building a high tunnel that we received with an NRCS grant, building out our new walk-in cooler, and revamping the farmstand...but at least for now most of the fall work is done. The beds are cleaned and filled with cover crop, and the overwintered veggies are settling in for winter. Hmm...there are two tunnels full of tomato plants still...I'll get to those eventually.

Online veggie orders will be closed until the Spring, but we still have so many carrots in the ground. We'll keep bringing lots of bunches to the farmers market, and if you'd ever like to place a special order, just send me an email. These fall/winter carrots are so sweet and crisp. I always say, there's nothing better than a fall carrot...or at least I've said that a number of times.

This weekend at the Farmers Market we will also have walnuts! Last week, frustrated by the amount of time it takes to dry large amounts of walnuts in our little dehydrator, I began the online search for instructions for a DIY large dehydrator. I had all the supplies written out and I was about to head to Swains for a heating coil and small fan, when I realized I could just put the base of our dehydrator into the old broken fridge in the three-bay. Sure enough, I created a big ol' walnut drying machine from a broken fridge and the base of a simple dehydrator. Works like a charm, and now you get more walnuts, faster, and we don't have to have hundreds of pounds of walnuts drying a few pounds at a time in our guest room!

So, there will be walnuts! Andy and I fell in love with these fresh walnuts last year. They truly have so much more flavor than anything you can buy in a bag at the store. We use our meat tenderizer and slam it down on the nuts to break the shells right on our kitchen counter. By the time we're done snacking, our counter has taken a serious beating and is covered with a huge pile of empty walnut shells. Last year I made a walnut pie instead of pecan for thanksgiving and it was chefs kiss delicious!

OH! If you want fresh, local, grass fed poultry stay alert for next week's HPF email. I placed the chick order last week and next week I'll be opening orders for people to reserve their birds. All the details will be in next week's email!

I think that's it for this week! See you at the farmers market! 10-2, Saturday at the downtown transit center.

All the best from our tiny farm,

Melissa