Kretschmann Farm
Sept. 15, 2009
don@kretschmannfarm.com www.kretschmannfarm.com
Greetings from the Kretschmanns,
Changing of the guard occurs right before
our noses—the last few tomatoes, and transition to much more fruit. We’re furiously picking
Sally’s Cider Press has opened and we’ve
pressed the first cider of the ’09 season!
It’s always the most glorious
sight to see the nectar coaxed out of those fruits. After all these years it still seems like
some sort of magic at the cider press—one minute you’ve got a truckload of
apples, and the next minute your are filling up jug after jug with sweet
cider. The first cider is always a
little tart because the early apples aren’t as sweet as the later ones. Our cider is UV treated. This is similar to
pasteurization, but without the heat, so it tastes like liquid apples. Apple juice is entirely different.
The winter squash parade continues—this week
with spaghetti squash. We’ve always
enjoyed simply cooking it whole in a large pot of boiling water until it’s
tender (insert paring knife to test), then cutting it in half and scooping out
the strands of “spaghetti”. A little
butter and salt is all it takes. Fancier
ways detailed below.
The green orbs in paper-like husks are
tomatillos. You can make a simple green
salsa cooking and mashing them up with onion, garlic, cilantro, and a dash of
lime or get fancier by adding some diced fresh apple to the mix. They have a lot of pectin and create a thick
sauce easily.
We’ve been enjoying this planting of green
beans. The variety is “EZ Pik”. We like the
sweeter and more tender quality of this bean, plus,
like the name says—it’s easy to pick.
The only downside is that the bean beetles prefer it to all other beans,
so we have to wait seeding until these insects aren’t apt to bother them.
As the rains have ceased, we’ve begun
irrigating again. There’s lots of water
in the pond to bring on the beautiful fall crops. We’re starting to see the first few
cauliflower heads, broccoli shouldn’t be far behind, and don’t look now, but
there’s more cabbage out there.
As the days slowly
shorten, we are, sincerely,
Don, Becky, & The Kretschmann Crew
Note on E-mail: We’ve had a number of indications from various subscribers
this season that they are not receiving the newsletters or e-messages. The problem seems to be intermittent, because
for others, there is no problem at all.
We been really stumped as have those who are apparently being blocked
out. I spoke with a tech person from our
provider-Verizon- and it was suggested that if you are experiencing problems,
you could go to www.verizon.net/whitelist
and register our address as not being spam.
The upshot is that their software can pick up my messages and block them
as spam. Also, your own spam filters
and your provider might be blocking the messages. Check with them, also, to see how you can
allow messages through.
Tomatillo-Avocado
Dip: Cook 1/2 #tomatillos and 1 deseeded
jalapeno in boiling water until soft but still whole, about 3 minutes. Drain.
Cool. Place tomatillos in blender, add 2 tbs. lemon or lime juice, 3 cloves garlic, 3 tbs sour cream, ½ c. loosely packed cilantro leaves, and 1
small pitted and peeled avocado. Blend
until smooth. Chill. Great as a dip or topping
for enchiladas, burritos, or other Mexican fare.
Spaghetti Squash Variations: 1)After
cooking, try tossing strands with parsley, butter, basil, salt, pepper, and
sage. 2) Sautee green/red pepper,
onion, cilantro, garlic, salt, cumin, olive oil, and cider vinegar. Mix in
cooked spagetti squash, olives, and peanuts. 3)
Sautee green pepper, onion, garlic, , basil, oregano,
olive oil, tomatos. After squash is cooked, toss
strands with sauteed mixture and parmesean
cheese. You can also stuff the squash with this same basic veggie mixture and
bake.
Buttered Green
Beans with Sunflower Seeds: Steam 1# green beans until just tender.
Just before serving, melt 1 tbs. butter in skillet at med-hi heat and
add 1/4 c.sunflower seeds. Let sizzle until toasty-3-4
min. Stir in beans, salt to
taste, and serve
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
pared apples. Sprinkle with 4 tbs sugar, ½ tsp. cinnamon, 1 tbs
grated lemon rind, and dot with butter. Bake @ 400 deg. 35 min.
Also
a tip for apple crisp from a subscriber...
Whatever
recipe you use for apple crisp can be made in a crock pot, so you don't heat up
the kitchen in the hot summer months. Butter the inside of the crock pot,
fill with apple mixture, top with crumb topping, cook on high for about 2
hours, just leave a wooden spoon in the crock pot to keep the lid cracked
during cooking to achieve the "crisp" top.
Tuna Stuffed Peppers: Combine 7 oz. tuna in oil, 8 black olives (oil cured), 2T chopped capers, 4 anchovies(chopped), 1/2 c. fresh bread crumbs, 2T minced parsley, 1+ cl. garlic(minced), 2T. oil, a few raisins, sunflower seeds or walnuts. Stuff 4 med. peppers halved. Preheat oven 450 deg. Add 1/2" wine or water. Cook uncovered 20 min. You can also stuff peppers with any of the grain-burger mixes available. And of course there's the All American ground beef and rice stuffed pepper. Red peppers make exceptionally tasty stuffers.
Are peppers accumulating in the
frig? Cut the tops off, clean out
the seed cavity and freeze for stuffing later.
Special Orders: Apples—Golden Supreme $20/half bushel Gala--$25/half bushel Beets--$12/half bushel
