For us the holidays are a chance to pause, step back and catch our breath... Instead, this holiday has been a bit busier than most as we've had our hands full of puppy. The vegetables really do much better with a canine patrol in action, from leaving scent to physically scaring away animals. I can't wait to see her bounding after deer, pouncing through the grasses on voles, and rummaging in the hedgerows to scare away the rabbits. There's lots of space for these creatures at the back of the farm (we have over 100 acres of swamp and about 50 acres of hay fields they are welcome to live in). By patrolling the 12 acres of garden fields we deter them from nesting in, and consequently nibbling on our precious greens and roots. Plus, there's nothing like doggie spunk or a nuzzle to help bring a smile to anyone's face on a long hard day in the field. I'm happy to report she's already bringing smiles... just have to work on the pest control now!
With the new year comes a review on pricing. You'll be happy to hear that we're able to drop prices on a few key staple items thanks to production improvements last year. We hope you're able to enjoy more of these basic but delicious veggies as a result ;)
Carrots are all frost sweetened. This year our carrot harvest is mostly small to medium in size, which we pack into bags by the kilo. We've got lots of both red and orange carrots for you to choose from. While we try to leave anything smaller than a finger in the fields, some always get thrown in and so we've started packing up "Baby" carrots for you too. Perfect for school lunches or using whole, our real-farm-size-criteria is smaller than a finger, cuz we've all got fingers to check with!
We have three kinds of potatoes this winter: Arizona are a yellow skin, yellow flesh waxy potato great as a multi purpose and holds it's shape well in cooking so our choice for potato salads. Sangre is a red skin, white flesh floury potato which means it behaves more like a russet when baked, and is the top choice for a nice thick soup, mash, or potato pancakes. I'll note classic "red skin" potatoes are waxy (and until this year ours have always been too)... but there were very limited varieties available from our breeders this year. Finally, our old favourite French Fingerling is a slightly oblong shaped potato generally a bit smaller in size. Red skin, cream flesh with some pink swirl in the odd one for flourish. These are our top pick for stand-out flavour.
Onions are fairly classic, yellow and red are the two we grow. Nice strong flavours which are a hallmark of a good storage onion, we pack up the yellows by the kilo as our basic cooking onion while the reds we sell by the pound for salads and salsas, and shine whenever raw onions are used. Not to forget, we also have shallots which are a nice mild flavour we love sautéed as garnish with anything from steak to lime and miso roasted tofu.
Finally, squash are starting to shine here at Fiddlehead. It has taken us years to figure out how to grow and store them well to sell through the winter. It turns out the secrets for us have been mulch for weed control, pest control (selecting varieties resistant to insect pests, and keeping the raccoons out of the garden), and dedicating a winter storage area for them with humidification. This winter we have some pumpkins left, and we're sending out a full round of autumn frost and butternuts. The autumn frost are a rich orange flesh which is super flavourful and sweet, an acorn shaped squash with good size without being huge. The butternut is a classic, with very hard skin, and our favourite of the "traditional" squashes these grow to be the biggest ones we have on offer. Keep an eye on the product description to get a sense of size, each month we offer up different sizes as we work through our stock.
