Sunday was the Feld’s Annual Holiday Brunch, a holiday highlight. Tables piled high with food, people crowded into all corners of their charming house in West Chester. We returned home with our stomachs and spirits full and dozed for an embarrassing portion of the afternoon. I’m still thinking about the apple cake and angling for the recipe.  I brought along poached pears and recommend this easy dish for anyone looking for an addition to their holiday table.

Poached Pears

8 ripe but not overripe pears (you’ll want to shop for these a few days prior to give under ripe pears a chance to ripen)

Freshly squeezed lemon juice from 2 lemons

Approx. 2 cups Apple cider

1/3 cup light brown sugar, lightly packed

Nutmeg and/or Cinnamon

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

Peel the pears and slice them lengthwise into quarters. With a small sharp paring knife  remove the core and seeds from each pear. Toss the pears with some lemon juice to prevent them from turning brown. Arrange them, core side up, in a baking dish (or two) large enough to hold the pears snugly. In a bowl, combine the apple cider and brown sugar, stirring to dissolve the sugar. Pour the mixture over and around the pears. You want a generous amount of cider in the dish for the pears to cook in so add a little more if more than half the pear is sticking up out of the liquid. Sprinkle pears with nutmeg and/or cinnamon. Bake the pears, basting occasionally with the cider mixture, for approx. 45 minutes, or until tender.  Use a fork to test – if your pears were very ripe, your cooking time will be less. Set aside until warm or at room temperature.

It’s such a terrific time of year to open the mailbox and find all those holiday cards. We’re also starting to get a first glance at the 2012 seed catalogs which we are setting aside until after the holidays. The tree is up and gift wrapping is next on the list.  My cookie of choice this year is these “cut-outs.” They go by a lot of different names but you know the ones I’m talking about.  Stars seem to lend themselves well to the process and hold up from counter to cookie sheet well.  I used the master recipe for Rolled Butter Cookies from my Best Recipe Cookbook by the Editors of Cooks Illustrated magazine. If you want to skip the artificial dyes and don’t have another alternative on hand,  “raw” turbinado natural cane sugar lends a lovely simple sparkle.  Leave some sugarless for tiny hands, there’s enough sugar in the dough to make them nice and sweet.

Cut out cookies warm from the oven

I was fortunate to run into one of our farm members at Bon Appetite in Princeton yesterday and we enjoyed an impromptu lunch.  Great catching up with you Carley!

With the holiday season upon us, thoughts turn to cookies! Growing up, pizzelle making was a favorite part of our holiday baking – a tradition that my parents still continue. In their kitchen, these delicate cookies disappear as fast as they come off the pizzelle press.  I have every intention of timing my next visit home with pizzelle baking day. They are terrific plain or sprinkled with a little powdered sugar and go perfectly with a cup of tea. At our place, I like to experiment with different cookies each year. Favorites include sugar cookies, gingerbread men and snickerdoodles. Perhaps this year is a good year to give those traditional cut-outs a try? So many tasty recipes, so little time. There’s a new nursery to paint and countless other projects that always seem to fall by the wayside.

Fresh Pressed Pizzelles

On Friday we sent out a short survey to our CSA members asking them to provide feedback on their experience during our 2011 growing season. We’ve had some great responses so far. If you are a member and have not yet had a chance to fill out the survey, please do so this week. Your responses help us as we plan for next year.

The Northeast Organic Farming Association’s Winter Conference is on our radar and we are considering attending some of the sessions. This conference is one we try to check out every year. Some of the discussions are geared more toward farmers than others and there are plenty of interesting sessions for those who are simply interested in organic food, backyard gardening or food policy.

Pumpkin Pie

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! We’ll be celebrating the holiday with family and we’re making the pumpkin pie. The pie dough has been made and is stacked in the fridge. Tomorrow is reserved for pie baking.  This was sort of a deep-dish variety we tried one year which was good but we’re planning to bake 3 regular pies tomorrow. So much to be thankful for this Thanksgiving.  At the top of our list of blessings is our family which is growing! Add another seat to the table, there will be one more Appelget this time next year. We are expecting a new baby in March! Life is funny. One minute your cup seems half-full and the next it’s overflowing. May your life be bountiful and your dessert table full of PIES.

Kristin's Jack-o-Lantern - nice carving!

Trick-or-Treating at Aunt Kristin's

Gillian and Hayden

We spent last week between Kevin’s parents house and my parents in Garnet Valley, PA while we waited for our new heating system to be installed. After a very cold 24 hours without heat or hot water we were thrilled to finally have our heat up and running on Saturday afternoon.  It was an impromptu vacation of sorts and the girls enjoyed a little extra time with their grandparents. Kevin’s sister Kristin hosted us for dinner on Halloween and the girls got a kick out of helping her give out candy to an endless stream of trick-or-treaters. Despite Aunt Kristin’s full schedule, she still found time to carve a terrific pumpkin and cook up a delicious pot of chili. Thank you to everyone who shared their warm homes with us!

Picking Brussels Sprouts this afternoon

After a welcome week off from cooking thanks to our mothers turned bed & breakfast innkeepers, I’m eager to be back in my kitchen.  Kevin and I harvested our paltry Brussels Sprout crop this afternoon in an attempt to glean enough tiny sprouts for this favorite Apple Bacon Brussels Sprouts recipe. (Goes great with pork tenderloin cooked in the slow cooker with a cranberry sauce.) Overall, the Brussels Sprouts were disappointing this year but we’re making notes to improve our crop next time around.  With a few things left in the garden, I find myself planning this week’s meals around the remaining gems – small heads of cauliflower, chard, kale and the like.  Not a lot, but just enough to sustain us with fresh produce a little while longer! At this point, we’re not going to see any additional growth given the cold night time temperatures and what’s standing won’t survive too many frosts.

Tractor trailers full of soy beans have been rumbling up the lane all day, much to the delight of the girls, to unload this year’s soybean crop into the 3 waiting grain bins.  Here they will stay for a couple of months or so until the day they are loaded up and sold. Other than that, a nice quiet weekend around here. We celebrated our favorite nephew’s birthday last night. I remember getting the phone call five years ago while in Montreal with my friend Sowmya and being so excited about becoming an Aunt for the first time.  Max is the coolest five-year old we know!

Feeling good about being FIVE!

Ichiban Eggplant

Fresh Cabbage

Last week was our last official week of our 2011 farm season. We took a little extra care as we prepared the shares – happy to finally be sending off baby carrots, broccoli, collards and other cold season crops like cabbage and squash.  It’s been a great year and we will miss seeing our faithful members each week.  We got a lot accomplished on Farm Volunteer Day thanks to a small but dedicated group of willing workers. Special thanks goes out to Andrew Kulley, John and Ty Thomas and Tiffany Gershon for pitching in to help clean up the fields in preparation for next season.  We enjoyed sharing a pot of calico beans with the group at lunchtime, an Appelget Family favorite. A fellow farmer was  kind enough to plant some rye for us in our back field recently. Cover crops add organic matter when they are tilled into the soil and their root system provides organic mater and opens passageways that help improve air and water movement.  Read more about cover crops.

I’ve had a few requests for potluck recipes so I thought I’d share this terrific recipe for a green gratin from Whole Foods shared by Chef Cristin Mallinder.

Green Goat Cheese Gratin

The slight tang and creaminess of goat cheese brings richness to this baked gratin of wilted greens and leeks for a satisfying, ultra-tasty side dish using fresh ingredients.  This was a popular dish at our potluck and Cristin was nice enough to share her recipe. Fresh local greens abound this time of year so it’s an excellent time to try a new recipe incorporating them.

Ingredients

4 teaspoons butter

3 leeks (1 1/2 pounds), dark green parts removed, remaining light green parts thinly sliced

2 pounds organic greens (about 3 bunches chard, kale and/or collards ), stems removed and leaves coarsely chopped

3/4 cup 2% reduced-fat milk

1 (6 ounce) log Chèvre (goat cheese) , rind removed

20 Wheat Square Crackers, crumbled

Preheat oven to 425°F. In a large saucepot, melt butter over medium heat. Add leeks and cook until softened, about 6 minutes. Stir in greens, cover and cook 8 to 10 minutes or until just wilted, stirring occasionally. Cook greens in batches if your pot doesn’t hold them all at once. Transfer greens mixture to a bowl and set aside. Add milk to saucepot and heat just to a simmer. Remove from heat, crumble in goat cheese and whisk until melted. Stir in greens mixture until combined, then transfer to a shallow 3-quart baking dish. Bake 10 minutes, then top with cracker crumbs and continue baking until crumbs are toasted and greens are heated through, about 10 minutes longer

Serves 8

Fresh from the fields: Winter Squash, collards, lettuce, eggplant, carrots and broccoli.

On the home front,  a natural gas line was run up to the house yesterday which is a milestone for the farm.  We are now officially modernized with water, sewer connection and natural gas!  Our new heater is still on order and we’re hoping to get a call any day. In the meantime, we’ve been making do with a few small but efficient electric heaters and extra layers of clothes.  Having the oven on helps to warm up the kitchen so I plan to do my part by  making my first pumpkin pie of the season today using this recipe.  This isn’t my Thanksgiving Pumpkin Pie but rather my go to shortcut pie recipe that I use with a store-bought pie shell.  Like pumpkin pie? You can have a pie in the oven in 15 minutes with very little cleanup.  Your place will smell incredible and you can look forward to a delicious dessert.  What’s in your oven?

Heirloom Tomatoes

Buttercream and Chocolate Sunflowers

Potluck Feast 2011

It’s October, glorious October! We’re expecting the corn to be harvested soon.  The combine is rumored to be around the corner on Post Road ready to harvest the soy beans at Hunter’s Farm so it will soon make it’s way here.  Gillian and Hayden are looking forward to their first ride. It’s amazing how quickly the combine will work in the fields around our house. In mere minutes really, it roars at a high speed through the corn knocking down every stalk in it’s path with it’s giant teeth. That thing can GO! When the corn is gone, our landscape really changes. I’ll miss seeing the corn that surrounds our house on 2 sides but the fields that it lays bare are also lovely in their own way. Especially when they are snow-covered during the winter.

Our Field to Table Potluck was a success despite the gray skies and showers that sent us scrambling to move tables and chairs onto the porch just as we were getting ready to eat. Thank you to everyone who participated.  The food was delicious!! The evening felt a little like Thanksgiving as folks perched here and there watching football, enjoying a glass of wine – kids running this way and that. I’ve had several requests for recipes, if you are willing to share, send them along and I will post for the group. Acorn squash risotto, green gratin made with collards and kale, stuffed cabbage, roast pork, Aunt Ruth’s fabulous coleslaw, it was a truly wonderful FEAST!

Farm Volunteer Day will be this Saturday, October 8th 9:30-2:30. Join us for our end of season member work day to clean up the fields in preparation for next year. All welcome.  No special skills required. There will be coffee in the kitchen in the morning and a pot of Calico Beans on the stove for lunch.  Oh what I wouldn’t give for a member that could play the banjo.

Fresh from the fields: Acorn, Butternut and Spaghetti Squash, Collards, Lettuce, Parsley, Tomatoes oh my. Our final cold season crops are almost ready, unfortunately there’s nothing we can do to help speed them along.  We’re looking forward to the possibilities of a final harvest of carrots, beets, broccoli, cauliflower, etc. if all goes well.

We’ve had some beautiful crisp fall mornings this week. I wouldn’t trade them for anything even though we don’t currently have heat. A new heater has been ordered! We’re also on a waiting list to have a natural gas line run up to the house which is a milestone for the farm.  Hopefully it won’t take too long and the temperatures won’t dip too low in the meantime. I’ve appreciated hearing that we have some new readers keeping up with farm happenings. Thank you for you kind words of encouragement! Finding time to post is sometimes hard but we love sharing our challenges and successes with our members, family and friends. Have a terrific day.