• Farm News
• Recipes: Green Tomato Suggestions & New England Pumpkin Pie 
• This week's share & U-pick update

Farm News

We continue to enjoy a beautiful stretch of fall weather. A little rain, but nothing that keeps us out of the fields. We're chipping away at the fall 'to-do' list. There's still 8 beds of potatoes out in the field (down from 36). The cover crops are growing nicely, and all the winter squash and pumpkins finally made it out of the field. We are prepping the barn for a new coat of paint before winter. And we finished our plans for the 2020 CSA season.

So we're working on our CS member mailing - it should go out early this week, and get to your mailbox before the weekend. The most important change for next year will be the longer harvest season -- from 20 to 22 weeks, early June to very late in October.

Meanwhile, it's just beautiful outside on the farm. The foliage is spectacular. Flowers in the U-pick are very vibrant. And we are hard pressed to recollect the time when we grew such outstanding fall crops as we are harvesting right now.

Your farmers,
 
Raymond and Sara

Recipe: New England Pumpkin Pie

There comes a point when it’s time to consider to make this week’s New England Pie Pumpkin the center piece of a from scratch, home-made pumpkin pie. Here’s a recipe for some inspiration!
 
Ingredients:
 
For the single-crust pie:
1 1/3 cup flour
½ tsp salt
½ cup butter
3 ½ T cold water
 
For the filling:
2 cups mashed, cooked pumpkin (Split pumpkin in half, remove seeds, and roast roasting pan with some water in the oven for about 45 minutes at 350F or until flesh is soft)
1 (12 fluid ounce) can evaporated milk
2 eggs, beaten
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon salt
 
Directions:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Prepare pie crust by mixing together the flour and salt. Cut butter into flour; add cold water 1 tablespoon at a time. Mix dough and repeat until dough is moist enough to hold together.

With lightly floured, hands shape dough into a ball. Roll dough out to about 1/8 inch thickness on waxed paper. With a sharp knife, cut dough 1 1/2 inch larger than the upside-down 8- to 9-inch pie pan. Gently lift and flip the dough on the waxed paper and ease the dough into the bottom of the pie pan.

In a large bowl, beat pumpkin with evaporated milk, eggs, brown sugar, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and salt. Mix well. Pour into a prepared crust. Bake 40 minutes or until when a knife is inserted about 1 inch from the edge comes out clean.

And what about those green tomatoes?

They are back, those green tomatoes. At this point in the season, there's little chance for them to ripen on the vine - and we think it's not a right thing to compost all those flawless green tomatoes. There's a lot of nice green tomato recipes around on the internet. Our favorite is a green tomato casserole with a white sauce. And of course there's the fried green tomatoes.

But you can also pickle them - the firm green tomato does well in a vinegar brine!. Make a green tomato jam or relish. Or use them in a pie. To good culinary green tomato adventures!

In this week's share & U-pick update

This week's share:  Red Maria or Kennebec potatoes, New England Pie Pumpkin, Lettuce, green tomatoes, Garlic (Full share only) and onions. We are rotating broccoli, spinach, eggplant, and peppers,

U-Pick update. The U-pick is still worth the visit. We should get around to pull the cherry tomatoes this week - leaving still a lot of beautiful flowers, a wide spread of culinary herbs, tomatillos, pole beans and ground cherries. Come and take in some beautiful fall scenery on your travels!
 

Thank you for your support of our family farm!

We pride ourselves in providing our CSA members with an experience that exceeds your expectations. Please don't hesitate to contact us with any of your questions or concerns regarding the farm. 

Sara and Raymond Luhrman, Fox Creek Farm CSA

182 Fox Creek Farm Road, Schoharie, NY  12157