Taliaferro Farms

We're at week 19 of the season. I can't believe I've been coming to the farm every week for the entire summer. Now it's moving quickly into Fall, as the cool weather today reminded me. Nevertheless, there were still many wonderful things to eat. I've got some great pictures at the bottom of the blog of the sweet potatoes being harvested, so be sure to check them out.

I saw bins of broccoli raab, beets, arugula, lettuce, garlic, scallions, spinach, kale, radishes, romano beans, carrots, eggplants, poblano peppers, acorn squash, butternut squash, spaghetti squash, sweet potatoes, potatoes, apples, and even watermelons. Of course, the available items may be more or fewer depending on what's exactly available when you arrive at the farm stand.

I got a chance to ask Pete about the pumpkins. He told me that they had less than one large bin of sugar pumpkins because the deer devastated them. Apparently the deer thought the pumpkin field was their personal fast food restaurant. Alas, it seems we won't have pumpkins this year.

Some wonderful mushrooms arrived when I was there and I also noticed a new offering of Apple Butter from much Mor bread for purchase.

~Sights on the Farm~

One of Pete's dogs.

A gaggle of geese heading north, flying low and loud.

A greenhouse ready for a winter crop.

~Herbs and Flowers~

There are still plenty of herbs and flowers for your pleasure. There is still a ton of cilantro and the sage looked lovely too.

The sunflowers are a bit droopy and many have been cut by people taking advantage of their beauty. However, the zinnias and even the snapdragons look good.

This bee looked very cold and was warming itself on this flower.

A new crop of some kind of flower is ready. I don't know the name of these flowers. Feel free to suggest the name in the comments.

Look carefully for the little bug camouflaging itself.

~People~

Now to one of the most important parts of the farm -- the people. I had an opportunity to get a close look at the harvesting of the sweet potatoes. Claudette and Neville were proud to show me how easy it was to harvest the potatoes. Well, they thought it was easy...I think it looks like hard dirty work, especially in this cool weather. I mentioned last week about Claudette being featured in Edible Hudson Valley's Fall 2013 magazine. If you didn't see it last week, check out her spread.

Neville and Claudette harvest sweet potatoes

Neville and Claudette harvesting sweet potatoes

Neville shows his technique

I saw Paul today and he told me his experience harvesting sweet potatoes. He said that when the vines come away from the potatoes they leak a milky white fluid. This fluid is notoriously difficult to remove from your hands. Apparently it is almost pure sugar! He said his hands were sticky for days afterwards.

Ian was working with the forklift to carefully move apple crates around. He put one crate on top of another with wild precision.

Ian stacks with precision

Susan and her friend Lynnette were shopping today. My apologies for this poor picture! They were much better looking in person.

Susan and her friend Lynnette

Now you know I can't end a blog without a photo of Ana. She worked so hard today. When I arrived there was a technical problem with the card reader. She was on the phone for 31:29 minutes getting it fixed. Meanwhile, an extremely patient member, Lenny, calmly waited for Ana to resolve the issue so he could pay. Ana really needed Delaney to help her today. Between the technical difficulties and the many empty bins, she was running ragged to keep things running smooth. Through it all she kept her winning smile.

~Food~

The weather has been so pleasant the last week or so. I really enjoyed just being outside and walking around the farm to see the chickens, pick some flowers and choose my share. And speaking of food, everything looked wonderful. I was thinking of what kinds of things I could cook with all the food choices.

radishes,
summer spinach,
arugula, lettuce, kale salad,
sweet potatoes, fingerling potatoes
watermelons, apples,
poblano peppers, hot peppers
summer squash, zucchini, spaghetti squash, acorn squash,
garlic, scallions,
beets, carrots
green beans,
eggplant, and
butternut squash seconds.

(Please keep in mind that the items are subject to change based on availability.)

Kale Salad, so yummy.

Wow, I'm tired just typing all those vegetables. I couldn't try everything with my half-share, but I did snag some watermelon (I love eating it every day), kale salad, and eggplant.

Someone asked me what is a 'second' vegetable. This is an item that is damaged or tiny or otherwise not top shelf. It is still safe to eat, but is offered to members as a 'freebie' to take home and cook so that it doesn't go to waste. Non-members can purchase these seconds at a reduced price. Seconds are great for soups or canning, but I just use them for general eating. Everyone is hoping that the butternut squash we saw this week were just the beginning and that fatter, sexier squash will arrive next week.

Many people were asking about pumpkins. It's that season, you know. There weren't any pumpkins when I was at the farm stand today and I wasn't able to get any information from Pete about them. Last year, I recall that there were some pumpkins around this time. Last year Pete had sugar pumpkins, which are really for making pies or eating and aren't the huge fat carving type.

~Cilantro~

There is a ton of cilantro in the herb garden. Please pick some herbs! The herbs are all labeled with nice white signs...except for the cilantro, which is labeled by this tiny wooden sign at the beginning of the row. I actually didn't know what cilantro looked like so I had to ask which it was! Maybe these photos will help you. You can clip your own herbs (ask for scissors at the Farm Stand) as part of your share or farm card.

~Ombucha and Cheese~

I'm not sure Ombucha and cheese actually belong together, but maybe you can think of them as related since they are both fermented. If you haven't tried the Ombucha, give it a whirl. There are usually tasting cups nearby and if you feel refreshed, you can buy a whole cup to drink on your way home or while you shop.

And don't forget about the Acorn Hill goat cheeses. They are truly special in your mouth and go lovely with almost anything. Acorn Hill also makes fudge made with goat's milk (exquisite!).

~People~

Susan made some incredible apple brownies and I was lucky to get to try one. Yum!

Claudette is featured in Edible Hudson Valley's Fall 2013 magazine. She's on p. 46 in the print edition, or scroll about a quarter of the way down on the linked page. You haven't met Claudette? I haven't either. It just goes to show you how many people are involved behind the scenes to produce the containers of food we enjoy each week.

Ian was working with the forklift to move around some large crates.

The dog was relaxing in the warmth.

Delaney was still in school so Ana was single-handedly replenishing all the different food items as well as checking everyone out, all while keeping her upbeat style.

~Land~

Up until now, I haven't written much about the land. I was noticing today how much of the land was being worked even though, to me, it seems very late in the season. Pete told me that they are now working to get cover crops planted for the winter.

~Tractors~

OK, you know I have this weird fascination with the tractors on the farm. At first, I just thought "oh, they have a tractor", but now that I've been coming to the farm for a few years, I realize they have multiple tractors...different sizes, ages, and uses. Here are two different tractors I saw today.

This first one is a John Deere 5325N. Fun fact for the day is that it uses approximately 3.6 gallons of diesel fuel per hour. If you want to change the oil, you'd better have 11 quarts of fresh oil handy. If you'd like to see what the driver's console looks like, here is a link to a diagram in the owner's manual. The attachment on the back is a "chisel plow" which is used to plow with limited soil disruption.