Kretschmann Farm Aug. 1, 2006
don@kretschmannfarm.com www.kretschmannfarm.com
Greetings from the Kretschmanns,
Had enough of the heat and humidity? Don had a brief respite with a weekend at
Chautauqua Institute, enjoying walking, listening to music and otherwise
resting from the normal farm chores. Becky had the
pleasure (and luxury?) to spend the entire week there joined by two grown
daughters. The theme for the week was
environmental awareness, with a special lecture by Al Gore, and other talks by
a pantheon of environmental scientists, science writers and religious
educators. I realized that we here at
the farm are educated, but not educated enough; concerned, but not concerned
enough, and committed, but not committed enough. There is just so much to do…We try very hard
to care for our land and not just use it – to provide you with nutritious, low
input, organic, local food. In all the
talk of global warming there was some discussion of food supply. My new motto is: If you like being dependent on foreign oil
you’ll love being dependent on foreign food!
So thanks for supporting your local farmers.
On Sunday we were surprised by the ferocity
of the thunderstorms. There was 1.25 “ of rain in about an hour.
We’ve been getting about an inch a week, which is just what the crops
need, but it would be better if it wasn’t quite so sudden. This has spurred the late season planting of
broccoli and cauliflower-quadrupling in size in a week.
The farm this week brings some new things. We are passing on the first of the ’06
apples--Pristines.
They are a great baking apple—juicy and a little tart. Pardon if some are a little bruised. This variety is very tender and we had
cleaned up under the trees so any that accidentally fell would not be damaged. And since they mature somewhat unevenly, we
had picked the ripest late last week.
Then came the wild winds with the storms on Sunday and the ground was
littered with fruit. Such is life! The next varieties—Williams Pride and Redfree—will follow soon.
We’ll try to fairly allocate the apples, but the early ones are not as
numerous as those in September. We are
planting more Pristines in the spring as well as
several other varieties.
Hoping you are finding ways to cope with the
summer “dog days”, we are, sincerely,
Becky, Don, & The
Kretschmann Crew
P.S. When
leaving a message for us, please indicate your stop letter
and be sure to leave the last name listed for your account. (especially
e-mailers) We can then go right to our
lists and saves us having to look up the stop or puzzle out the name from the
phone # or e-mail address.
Apple Slice Cake: Sift 1 c. pastry flour, 1 ½ tsp baking powder, ¼ tsp
salt, 2 tbs sugar.
Mix in 4 tbs vegetable oil until well
mixed. Beat 2 egg yolks adding ½ c. milk
and stir well into dry mixture. Pour
into oiled shallow pan. Cover with thin
slices of 4 apples. Sprinkle with 4 tbs
sugar, ½ tsp. cinnamon, 1 tbs grated lemon rind, and
dot with butter. Bake
@ 400 deg. 35 min.
Salad Spring Rolls with
Peanuts and Basil: Soak 1 oz. bean thread
noodles in hot water 15 min. then drain well and toss with 1 tbs. vinegar and
salt to taste. Crush 2 tbs roasted peanuts, sliver ¼ c. basil, 1 small scallion,
wash and spin dry several leaf lettuce leaves and remove any thick ribs. Roughly
grate or sliver about 1 c. various vegetables—cabbage, cucumbers, carrots,
summer squash are good. (Or parboil,
cool, and spin dry greens cut in ribbons--like kale or swiss chard)
Soak 2- 8” rice paper rounds in shallow pan of hot water about 1 min.. Dry one carefully
on paper towel, then spread lettuce leaf to cover within ½” of edges. Spread about ¼ of peanuts, ¼ of carrots, ¼ …
cabbage, scallions... basil, and noodles in a line on lettuce. Roll up the veggies with the rice paper to
form roll, closing the sides as well.
Take second rice paper and repeat re-rolling the spring roll. Repeat to use all ingredients in 4
rolls. They can be wrapped in wet paper
towels and sealed in plastic bag for later use.
Serve at room temp. w/peanut sauce. One can also add mint and cilantro.
Peanut sauce: Grind ½ c. roasted peanuts in blender until somewhat creamy. Saute ¼ c. chopped
onion, 1 clove minced garlic in 1 tbs vegetable oil
until tender about 5 min. Blend with 1 tbs lime
juice, 1 tsp honey, and ½ c. coconut milk (or yogurt or whole milk) Mix with
peanuts. Add salt, curry, and hot pepper
to taste.
Zucchini
“apple” crisp
– Cook 8 c. zucchini, 2/3 c. lemon juice, and 1 c. sugar in saucepan until
tender. Mix 4 c. flour, 2 c. sugar and 2
sticks softened butter until crumbly.
Press half the flour mixture into 9 x 13 pan and bake @ 375 deg. 10 min.
Remove and cool. Add half of remaining
flour mix into zucchini and mix well. Pour into pan over other flour mix. Add 1 tsp cinnamon to the last of flour
mixture, pour over zucchini and bake @ 375 deg. approx 35 min
Zucchini Salad: Slice several med. zucchinis, toss with fresh
basil and freshly grated parmesan cheese.
Dress with favorite vinegrette. (Try
balsamic—1/4 c. balsamic vinegar, ¼ c. olive oil, ¼ tsp honey, salt&pepper to taste)
Special Order Items:
Blueberries:
12 pint flat--$39 (one
of our most popular items—easy to freeze and a pint is great to sneak into a
movie theatre to munch—good for you to boot! ;
Basil-1/2 bu. @ $10.Veggie ID: The bunches of
herbs are thai basil and cilantro.