Share week 20: Outstanding!

26 Sep Share week 20: Outstanding!

It’s not too late to come to a tasting and cooking demonstration class tonight at the farm- it’s All About Greens, with nutrition counselor Patti Lombardi. Not sure how to store, prep and use the greens (cabbage, kale, beet greens, collards, tatsoi and more) coming from the farm this time of year? Take advantage of this opportunity to learn how to include incredibly healthy and delicious greens in every meal. Cost is $20 and walk-ins are welcome. Class is from 7-8:30 pm in the distribution room at Blooming Glen Farm.

This week’s share has lots of varieties of greens, roots and more. Fall beets are here, the pick-your-own beans are plentiful and spicy arugula is back!

CSA share, week 20, 9/25/12

This past week on the farm we began to clean out the greenhouses, removing the summer crops and looking ahead to planting hardy greens for the winter. We will be attending winter farmer’s markets held at both Easton and Wrightstown. We continue to put fields to bed for the winter, sowing assorted mixes of cover crop seeds. Before the next round of rain, our crew cultivated the aisles of our new strawberry field, then mulched them with straw.

By far, the most exciting part of our week was participating in the Outstanding In the Field dinner on Sunday. Last year you may remember in late summer and fall we were experiencing heavy rains and soggy fields, so the long table ended up in our equipment barn. This year we couldn’t have asked for better weather, or a better setting amidst our vibrant fall crops, under the bright crescent moon. We were honored to be chosen again as a host farm on their 100 farm coast-to-coast tour, and to have the opportunity this year to meet artist and founder, Jim Denevan.

I was struck by the similarity between Jim’s artwork- he makes temporary drawings on sand, earth and ice that are eventually erased by waves and weather- and the “artwork” of the long farm table. In less then 24 hours a beautiful table is set in the field, over 150 guests arrive, and an elaborate dinner is cooked and served. The photo is all that remains the next morning as proof of the experience.

Photo credit: Jim Denevan

As farmers, we too operate in this temporary realm- crops are sown, grown, harvested and consumed over a period of days, weeks, and months, all encompased in one fleeting season. The fields start fallow and end fallow, and in between, there is color and beauty, patterns and life, roots and leaves and fruit, to be captured in photos, but eventually to be returned to the earth. The farm dinner was a celebration of many things- chefs, farmers, visionaries, foodies, and food artisans. To me, it was a reminder of the art that is farming, and of the joy that is found in the creation and the visual display of vegetables in the field and on our collective tables, the sensory and temporary experience of it all, from growing crops to eating dinner. Thank you Outstanding In the Field!

Photos (unless otherwise noted) and text by Tricia Borneman, Blooming Glen farmer and co-owner.