On the Farm
BRR! It’s starting to feel like winter. I’ve been loving all these snow showers we’ve gotten over the past week. The first time I visited Tracie’s Farm was in January of 2016. There wasn’t much snow cover at the time, just frozen ground with a light dusting. It was colder, though. I met Kristen–one of the former farm managers–at the barn and we hoed spinach for a couple hours. I’ll never forget that day, it’s the image that comes to mind when I think about Tracie’s Farm. I was reminded of it while I walked out to the greenhouses first thing this morning, frozen ground with a light dusting of snow.
Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! We have reached the last week of CSA shares for the 2022 season. WOW! We’ve been packing shares every Wednesday for the last 35 weeks. For the last week we’ll be packing shares tomorrow, TUESDAY NOV. 21.
I had to count on my fingers to make sure that I had actually been at Tracie’s for the last seven years. It’s been a wonderful time here, and I don’t have any plans for moving on in the future. Tracie’s has been my home for the bulk of my adult life. I’ve lived in the house by the barn year round since 2017. In 2019 I planted fruit trees behind the house as part of a USDA grant, and this year was the first time I got to eat a peach from one of them. I’d love to see them grow to maturity. I’ve been lucky to work for both Tracie and Tom and Mary, and have worked alongside some of my closest friends over the years.
I always get introspective towards the end of the season. It’s hard not to when the changes are so glaring. I look back through old photos and journals from the year that feel like they were from another time. I was just reading about our unseasonably warm weather we had in late April/early May. I remember it being warm for about a week around that time, but I neglected to actually write down the temperature! I’ll give myself a few more weeks of reflection on the season, then it’s time to start focusing on 2023. We open CSA share signups in late December, and have to have the foundation of our yearly planning set by then.
I’ll be in touch periodically through the winter. It won’t be every week, but there is always news to share from the farm, even once we have shut down for the winter.
Thank you to all of our CSA members this year. I say it every year, and corny as it sounds, none of this is possible without you. The CSA is the heart of our farm, it’s what allows us to purchase all of our supplies in the winter to prepare for the following season. Our members take a risk with us as we prepare to plant, and share in the reward when the fields start to produce. We have had members come out to the farm and lend a hand on bigger projects, you send me articles you’ve read and ask questions about why we do things certain ways. I love the CSA. It’s what makes me feel connected to our customers in a business that can be hard to find time outside of. Thank you all for sharing the harvest with us this year. I look forward to hearing from you over the winter. Happy Thanksgiving and the rest of the end of the year holidays to all. See you again in 2023!
FALL SHARES WEEK 8!
FINAL WEEK OF SHARES. PICKUP TUESDAY 11/22
That’s it for the greens this year. The freeze last night was a killing frost, so shares this week will be all roots–except for some leeks. We’ll be wearing hand warmers and gloves tomorrow as we pick for shares.
Carrots, Onions, Garlic, Potatoes, and Sweet Potatoes are the weekly regulars in shares. Beets are coming back into shares for Thanksgiving. Leeks will be in shares for the first time since early on in the season. Parsnips are a first timer! I will be including a recipe below. Rutabaga is the other new variety! It will also have a recipe below. They will have some marking on the outer skin, but I haven’t noticed anything affecting the root itself. The Rutabaga apple mash below is one of my favorite Thanksgiving recipes. I save the “odder” veggies for thanksgiving week because there is a great opportunity to use em up them for the big meal!
Check for recipes below!
Shares Week 8:
Beets
Carrots
Garlic
Leeks
Onions
Parsnips
Potatoes
Rutabaga
Sweet Potatoes
Egg Share: CHECK LIST FOR NAME
Bread Share: Roasted Potato CHECK LIST FOR NAME
Monadnock Farm and Community Coalition Appeal
As regular readers know, I am a board member of the Mondanock Farm and Community Coalition, an organization that promotes local agriculture as a form of community building in our region. We are making our annual appeal in the hopes of reaching a fundraising goal of $5,600 by December 31st. Usually I try to keep my board self separate from my farmer self to avoid any conflicts of interest, but in this case, I think it is fitting to speak from both experiences. The MFCC has had a direct impact on our farm and many other farms in the Monadock Region.
This year we saw the roll out of a Mobile Food Pantry that has so far visited three towns in the Monadnock Region. One of those towns was Fitzwilliam, where the Mobile Pantry worked with the fantastic group that organizes the Fitwilliam District Nursing Association to organize a pickup at Emerson School. The MFCC helped fund raise for the mobile pantry so that they could purchase fresh produce from local farms, and when the mobile pantry came to Fitzwilliam, they reached out to Tracie’s to provide fresh produce.
If you visit our store, you will see a poster and stickers featuring a “Monadnock Grown” logo that indicates a product was produced locally to our region. This is the MFCC’s latest project to promote local agriculture, and will continue to be rolled out over the winter and into next year. I have been a strong supporter of this project as I love to see producers gather together to make a truly local product. Adjacent to this project has been what is called the Harvest Bridge program, which the MFCC has lent assistance for. Harvest Bridge is taking aim at finding out how to get farmer’s crops to last through the winter by preserving them in a value added form. Through the MFCC, I met Jacob Sherwood of Harvest Bridge, and we have been working on making pesto using only local ingredients, as well as minced garlic. Jacob and I are still working everything out, but we hope to have Tracie’s pesto in our store at some point in 2023!
These are only a couple of the projects that the MFCC works on in any given year, but they are real stories of how the organization supports local farms. We are one of many that have stories like these with the MFCC, and I believe it is an organization worth supporting in our region. If you would like to help us reach our goal of $5,600 by December 31st, please follow THIS LINK . Your commitment to our local agriculture is greatly appreciated!
Jack
LINK: OVEN ROASTED PARSNIP
Ingredients
* 1 1/2 pounds parsnips
* ▢2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
* ▢2 teaspoons chopped fresh rosemary
* ▢1 clove garlic, minced
* ▢Kosher salt and pepper
Instructions
* Preheat oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit.
* Peel the parsnips. Cut parsnips down the center, lengthwise. Then cut each half into 3 to 4 pieces, about 1/2 inch to 1-inch wide and about 4 inches long. You can cut away the woody core, if desired.
* On a rimmed baking sheet, toss parsnips with oil, rosemary and garlic, then season with salt and pepper.
* Roast until tender and golden, about 25 to 30 minutes, stirring once halfway through. You should be able to easily pierce them with a fork.
LINK: RUTABAGA AND APPLE MASH
Ingredients
| ▪ | 1 large rutabaga, peeled and cut into 1-inch cubes |
| ▪ | 1 apple, peeled and cut into 1-inch cubes |
| ▪ | 2 Tablespoons unsalted butter |
| ▪ | ¼ cup heavy cream |
| ▪ | 1 teaspoon salt |
| ▪ | ½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper Preparation |
Tracie's Community Farm 