Kretschmann Farm July 6, 2010
don@kretschmannfarm.com www.kretschmannfarm.com
Greetings from the Kretschmanns,
We apologize
to those who didn't get any peas last week.
We waited all day Monday for the showers to stop and the leaves on the
peas to dry so we could pick. Finally
late in the day we thought we could give it a shot. After a half dozen runs though the field with
the picking machine, we were getting tire of untangling the picking spindle
jammed with pea vines and weeds. The
peas were a little beat up too. We
chalked it up to that field and figured we'd do much better in the other field
on Wednesday afternoon. Thus we missed a
good many Tuesday subscribers. After a
few frustrating runs through the "good" field, it was clear the
machine was not going to pick this year's peas--the stems were just too
fragile. So we picked madly the rest of
the week by hand and got nearly enough for everyone, but not quite. We had ruined so many with the machine, there
weren't (aren't enough for all to even get a taste.
People often
ask, what do we do for "bugs" .
There's a whole menagerie of methods and strategies. We'll describe a few. Three of our most serious apple pests are
moths--coddling moth, oriental fruit moth, and the tufted apple bud moth. In the early spring we put out thousands of
plastic twist ties impregnated with the scent of the females of these
pests. So when the males are searching
for a mate, they smell them everywhere but can't find one. Thus there are no fertile eggs and no worms
of these species. There's a bacteria--bacillus
thurengiensis--which we spray for leaf eating catepillars, like the cabbage
looper, which is deadly to them but totally harmless to us. Something we're quite optimistic about this
season is a new product which is an extract of giant knotweed which induces an
immune system response in a plant to resist fungal and bacterial
infections. There's been evidence this
is has been actually effective in controlling the dreaded phytophthora
infestans--late blight in tomatoes and potato blight in spuds. Another remarkable new biological spray is
produced through fermentation of a microorganism--Actinomycetes spinosa. This is highly toxic when ingested by a
variety of pests. Under organic
management we also use a number of mined materials like sulfur, phosphorus,
calcium (in many forms from limestone to aragonite which is seashells), copper,
lignite (a source of humate), and boron
as well as seaweeds and fish emulsion (remember those grade-school images of
native Americans throwing a little fish in each hole with a few corn seeds?)
That's a brief snapshot of an ever evolving process.
We try always
to learn to cooperate with nature to produce food while conserving or improving
the resources we've been blessed with.
Life, health, nutrition, cooperation, and balance are the keys.
Hoping
you're enjoying your summer.----Don, Becky, & The Kretschmann Crew
Note: "New
potatoes" are incredibly tender and cook alot quicker. Also, keep them refrigerated because they
have no skins.
Thai Basil , Salad Spring Rolls with
Peanuts: 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, roughly grate or
sliver ¼ c. carrots, finely slice 1/3 c. cabbage, sliver ¼ c. Thai basil,
sliver 1 small scallion, wash and spin dry several leaf lettuce leaves and
remove any thick ribs. One can also add mint and cilantro. 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.
Zucchini Bread: Beat the 3
eggs until light and foamy. Add 2 c.sugar, 1 c. oil, 2 c, grated zucchini
and 3 tsp. vanilla and mix lightly but well. Combine 3 c. all purpose
flour, 1 tsp salt, 1 tsp. soda, ¼ tsp. baking powder, and 3 tsp
cinnamon and add to the egg-zucchini mixture. Stir until well blended,
add 1 c nuts, pour into two 9x5x3-inch oiled and floured loaf pans. Bake
in preheated 350 degree oven for about one hour. Cool ten minutes and
remove from pans. It keeps well and freezes well.
Warm Asian Slaw: Wisk together dressing of 1 tbs soy sauce, 1
tbs cider vinegar, 2 tsp sesame oil, 1 ½ tsp. grated ginger root, 1 c. creamy
peanut butter, and 1 tsp. sugar. In 1
tbs vegetable oil sauté 2 carrots julienne sliced 2 min. then add ½ small head of cabbage cut ¼”
thick, and sauté about 4 min longer until wilted but still
crisp-tender. Remove from heat and
dress, and toss well. Julienned
cucumbers are good to add too as are a few peppers, hot or sweet to the saute.
Fresh Dill Pickle Spears: Slice 1 or 2
cucumbers into spears and place in a glass quart jar with a few sprigs of fresh
dill. Heat 1/8 c salt, 1/4 c vinegar,
and 2 c water to boiling with a cut-up clove of garlic. Pour over the cukes. When it cools,
refrigerate. (To avoid breaking the jar
with the boiling water, run hot tap water on the outside of the jar just before
filling w/ boiling liquid)
Greek Cucumber-Dill-Yogurt Dip: Line sieve with cheesecloth and drain 2 c. yogurt overnight. Seed and grate 2 cucumbers mix with 1 tsp salt, cover and chill 3 hrs. or also overnight. Drain cucumber well. Mix yogurt, ½ c. sour cream, 2 tbs. lemon juice, 2 tbs. finely chopped fresh dill, 1 clove minced garlic. Mix cucumber into yogurt. Chill and dip with pita bread wedges brushed with olive oil and baked until crisp.
Simple Fennel: Remove stems from bulb
reserving fronds for other uses if desired.
Quarter bulb lengthwise. Remove
core and cut up bulb into larger bite sized pieces. Arrange these in oiled baking dish place
chicken pieces on top, brush with oil, add a very little water, sprinkle with
salt/pepper, and bake covered until chicken is tender. Remove cover and bake
another 10 min. or so to brown chicken. You
can do this with lamb as well.
Veggie ID: The bunched
herb with flowers is Thai basil.
Celerylike bulb with fronds is fennel.
Farm Tour: We'll be part of the Buy
Fresh Buy Local Farm Tour, Sat. July 24 10:00-6:00. See ours, and our neighbors' farms.