DIGGIN SWEET POTATO
Join us Friday between 10am-1pm for some sweet potato diggin. It's like easy treasure hunting, the tractor brings them to the surface and loosens the soil. All ages welcome. There might be some tractor watching too. Message me if you want a schedule update on Friday 301-461-6575.
WHAT'S GROWING ON
This week we have sweet potatoes and white potatoes, garlic and butternut squash. Kale and lettuce. Peppers and tomatoes. It's a gift to hang on to tomatoes this late in the season, a little bonus season extension. We are harvesting some of our late nappa cabbages! They are huge. I held mine like a baby. Make sesame ginger slaw with scallions on top. Make kimchi. Shred and eat it with your favorite salad dressing. Scoop rice or use it as a lettuce wrap. Remember? All the fun of spring napa, returning for fall season. The pumpkin patch was overrun by butternuts, so we don't have any more pumpkins but we have lots of butternut...which can replace pumpkins in recipes. including pumpkin pie! try it!
We are monitoring the fall crops and happy to see them thriving. The turnips are little white globes that need a bit more time. We have fingers crossed that the broccoli will sprout, the leaves are big and pretty. Sets of lettuce should keep us stocked if we can continue to keep the critters out with our row covers. Things look good in the garden and we are starting to clean up for the winter's rest. The soil is draining finally, so we should be able to plow up the last couple rows of the sweet potatoes. Come Friday before 1pm and join us for some digging, all ages welcome.
TACO TIME
I’ve been making quick, healthy tacos for dinner. Maybe more like fajitas. I heat a pan, add a little oil and then sautee red peppers, the bulbs from the young onion/scallions, maybe a store onion and mushrooms. Add a little salt and chili powder. Add a bunch of kale on top for the last minute until wilted. Remove the vegetables from the pan and use the hot pan to heat some taco shells and melt cheese on them. Sometimes I also cook chicken or shrimp to add to the vegetables. Then the table is set with the vegetables, optional meats, salsa, hot sauce, black beans or refried beans and avocado. Consider making fresh salsa with tomatoes, peppers, onions and jalapenos. Phil and I have been living on these recently.
SOUP’S ON! My favorite two soups I also posted last week. I’m making the pumpkin soup today (with butternut squash instead of pumpkin).
Sweet Potato Minestrone Soup by Moosewood. Peel and cut sweet potatoes into cubes and toss them into a pot of minestrone soup, simmer for 20 minutes or so until potatoes are soft. Sweet potatoes add a great unique dimension to any tomato-base minestrone. Here is my favorite sweet potato minestrone recipe, the Moosewood Restaurant’s Winter Minestrone.
Tunisian Pumpkin Soup by Moosewood…
This is my go-to soup that I serve at fall bonfires at the farm. I use butternut squash every time for this recipe. The best part is the magic swirl of spices that you swirl into your bowl. It’s garlic, lemon, savory spices and cilantro. https://spoonforall.wordpress.com/2015/08/08/moosewoods-pumpkin-soup-with-magical-swirl/
Share your fall soup favorites with me, or better yet, with us all on the Facebook Group called House in the Woods Farm and Friends.
