Circle S Farms

I cried, “Mistake–forget the the steak.
I’ll take the chicken then.”
I heard a cluck–’twas just my luck
The busboy was a hen.
I said, “Okay no, fowl today.
I’ll have the seafood dish.”
Then I saw through the kitchen door
The cook–he was a fish.
I screamed, “Is there anyone workin’ here
Who’s an onion or a beet?
No? Your’re sure? Okay then friends,
A salad’s what I’ll eat.”
They looked at me. “Oh,no,” they said,
“The owner is a cabbage head.”
— Shel Silverstein

What a beautiful thing.  All those onions hanging together!  My friends know I am an onion lover.  And they have been social distancing me for years.  Most say an apple a day – I say onion.

I have always known that alliums were anti-viral.  With the outbreak of Covid-19 an herbalist friend sent out an e-mail saying one thing that would help prevent the virus from entering the body was to chew on raw garlic.  Music to my ears because – you guessed it – I love garlic too!

I recently read that one of the tactics practiced to prevent the Spanish flu from spreading was to leave a raw, cut onion out in every room.  Apparently they discovered that it would draw the virus out of the air and trap it.  They actually saw the virus collect on the open face of the onion when using a microscope.

So – true or not- YAY FOR ONIONS!!  They need some good press:)

Farm News:

Freddie has a friend.  I guess that’s what it is – it didn’t seem like an enemy.  I don’t know much about snakes, but I’m wondering how long it will be until we have little Freddies.

We delivered a total of 95 # of much needed produce to the Food Bank last week.  3 coolers, 100 bunches of greens, 25 heads of lettuce and some beets and kohlrabi.  Thanks to everyone who contributed, we had $235 to help with labor and delivery.  We will be doing periodic deliveries when we have a bounty of produce, and will let you know next time in case you want to contribute.

What’s in the bucket? Promise – last week for Kohlrabi.  Also: cabbage or Napa cabbage, beets, broccoli, Swiss chard or lacinato kale, bibb or Romaine lettuce, sugar snap peas, Walla Walla young onions (YAY!), fennel bulb and parsley or oregano.

Just remember – Kohlrabi will do anything cabbage will do.  Slaw, kraut, steamed….

I have a handful of things I call kitchen sink recipes.  Really, it amounts to what I have in the refrigerator or garden.  Soup, salad, stir fry and pasta.  I can make all of these with, basically, whatever raw vegetables I have (and the noodles and brown rice I keep on hand).  Of course ONIONS (YAY) and garlic help everything.

This week – I would make stir fry.  Broccoli, kohlrabi, onion, maybe a few thin slices of cabbage, snow peas.  Put all of these in the wok with some high heat oil and stir fry on high until tender.  Add some soy sauce, red pepper or sesame seeds.  Serve over rice and call it dinner.  You can also add leftover meat that you have in the fridge.  Just stir fry it first until it’s crispy – then do the veggies separate.

AND

a salad.

Romaine or bibb lettuce, steamed beets, caramelized fennel and onion and blue cheese.  I like to do the beets in my instapot because it’s easy – but you can steam until tender.  Then – while still warm, slice them and drizzle a little local honey over them.  Toss.  When they cool – a splash of balsamic.  Drizzle some of the leftover beet juice over them to make a dressing.  Caramelize the fennel and onion in a skillet.  Be patient and start the fennel first – it takes longer.  Let everything cool.  Serve over greens topped with blue cheese.  Add whatever other veggies are in your fridge:) Heaven!

Happy Eating and thanks for buying local food from Circle S Farm!

“The beet is the murderer returned to the scene of the crime. The beet is what happens when the cherry finishes with the carrot. The beet is the ancient ancestor of the autumn moon, bearded, buried, all but fossilized; the dark green sails of the grounded moon-boat stitched with veins of primordial plasma; the kite string that once connected the moon to the Earth now a muddy whisker drilling desperately for rubies.”  Tom Robbins

Hard to believe it is almost mid-June.  Finally summer and heat to go with it!

Farm News: Our old friend Freddie (I call him Freddie) is back.  It helps for me to name things I’m a little afraid of.  However, I like snakes better than mice, so….

He/She (Freddie works for both) greets me when I go to get eggs.  I leave the ones in the box with him/her until later.  Can’t bring myself to get to close.  But usually in an hour or two – the coast is clear.  So – our egg supply is a little low.  Thanks to Michael and Broadfork Meadows Farm for providing a few eggs as back up until Freddie gets full.

Other Farm News:  We are trying to provide the Chattanooga Foodbank with some desperately needed fresh produce.  I take my leftovers from the week every Thursday, or Friday.  Tired produce that did not sell at the Farmer’s Market.  But we have loads of extra greens that CSA members are tired of and will bolt to seed in this heat.  SO….

I am telling you about the link to our online store on our home page for 2 reasons.  1.  CSA members can shop and have items delivered at 10% discount AND 2.  Anyone who wants to make a donation to help the Circle S Farm crew pick and deliver produce to the Food bank can make a contribution.  Only if you can and want to – a lot of us have uncertainty right now.  If you donate $50 you will get your own receipt which you can use for your taxes.  Sorry – I tried to make it where you could click on it from here.  Go to the Circlesfarm.net/home and click shop now.

What’s in the Bucket:  Beet the heat with Beets, romaine lettuce, green leaf lettuce, arugula, broccoli, Napa cabbage and snow peas.

Following a recipe for beet hummus from halfbaked harvest.  I like this one because it uses the greens to make beet pesto.

“God created war so that Americans would learn geography.”
― Mark Twain

OK – so tomorrow is Memorial Day. But I am trying to keep it light because I know we are all still edgy about the current war against covid 19. And I will say, I am not going to mention “IT” except to say I am thinking of all the people who are still fighting for their lives, and those who are still working to protect and heal them.

And so a Mark Twain quote seemed ideal. We continue to learn Geography, where things come from….not to mention our food. So this week your food will be coming from, of course, Circle S Farm. I would also like to mention a partnership with Jones Farm for fruit (strawberries this week) and Broadfork Meadows Farm, Michael Mclane who is a neighbor of ours and is supplementing ours with beautiful natural flowers and pastured eggs.

By the way – the amazing picture above was taken by Julie Clark. A very talented friend who just happened to be driving by and took a picture of our cows the other day!

Farm News: the garden is finally beautiful. This is my favorite time of year with everything in the garden green! Timing is complicated sometimes – so the arugula and kale mix got a little bigger than I hoped. But otherwise I am pleased.

What’s in the Bucket? Lettuce, beet greens, Kalebration kale mix, red Russian or Siberian kale, mustard greens, arugula, young onions, spinach and rosemary and of course, Strawberries.

Don’t panic! when you see all these greens, remember you can freeze what you can’t eat. The kale, beet, spinach and arugula are wonderful raw or cooked. So you have options.
Curtis and I have on more than one occasion made slaw out of our kale to put on a hamburger. Just use your favorite slaw recipe. A handful of greens on a sandwich or in soup. Make sure you wash and dry everything asap and store in your fridge where you can grab them with no preparation. That definitely helps!

My favorite kind of pesto is arugula pesto. However – you can use Kale, Mustard, I wouldn’t use spinach but basically anything else.
Here is a basic recipe – make it your own!
2/3 cup olive oil
2 cups greens (arugula, kale, beet, mustard or – combo?)
1 cup nuts (pine nuts, walnuts, pecans – I use peanuts sometimes!)
6-8 cloves garlic – or sometimes I use onion instead
1 1/3 cup hard cheese
salt and pepper to taste

You can freeze this in ice cube trays. Great on pasta, rice, potatoes, fish etc.

Thanks for buying local food from our farm and supporting our local food economy!
Letty

“And sure enough, even waiting will end…if you can just wait long enough.”
― William Faulkner

I think waiting is something farmer’s are used to.  Waiting for a chicken to lay an egg.  Waiting for a plant to grow. Waiting for a cow to calve.

Just because we are used to it doesn’t mean we are good at it.  Every year it is a miracle to me that a seed will germinate and grow.  It truly is a miracle.  So I find myself anxious in waiting.  And mother nature loves to intervene with wind and heavy rain….a late freeze,  just to keep us on our toes.  But then eventually, the soil will warm, the plant will root and it will grow.

And I know that so many of us our waiting right now.  Waiting to go back to work, waiting to visit family, waiting to go to a restaurant and eat.  So, specifically I am impatient this year because I know that filling your plate with beautiful, nutritious food would be a treat.  So I tell the plants “hurry…..hurry”.

A note to all CSA members:  I will be getting fruit from Roy Jones at Jones Farm this year for my CSA.  Strawberries and hopefully peaches.  Roy grows the most beautiful, sustainable fruits.  The crows ate my strawberries for the second year in a row last year and I decided to give up the fight.  Everything else, veggies, flowers, eggs, and other fruits will come from right here at Circle S.

We are on track to begin the CSA this year May 18.  If we can start sooner I will do so. ” If we can just wait long enough….”

“I am a firm believer in the people. If given the truth, they can be depended upon to meet any national crisis. The great point is to bring them the real facts, and beer.”
— Abraham Lincoln

When I look out the window, nothing has changed.  Luckily, as far as we know, our animals are not susceptible to this virus.  Our processor is still working, although she said they were swamped.  I am in agreement with Abraham Lincoln, that we will all get through this together.  And if you don’t drink beer, then perhaps hot tea?

We are trying to get things started early (our fields are still so wet!) so we can offer a delivery service for our vegetables, meat and eggs starting in April.  I am extending our sign up for CSA shares until the end of March, because of the uncertainty of whether our market will remain open or not.  I am also working on an online ordering system – so you can order things online and have them delivered to your house.  Unfortunately, our delivery area remains Lookout Mountain, St. Elmo, Downtown Chattanooga and North Chattanooga.  Our delivery days will remain Mondays and Wednesdays, to give us time for other farm work.

We will be extremely vigilant about our sanitation here.  Jennifer and I are the only garden workers – so we will double scrub everything to make sure your food is safe.  We will make sure there are no visitors in and out, so we are minimizing our customers risk.

We are looking forward to growing food for you in such an uncertain time.  We want you to know we will do our very best to keep you healthy and well fed!

Letty

“I am a firm believer in the people. If given the truth, they can be depended upon to meet any national crisis. The great point is to bring them the real facts, and beer.”
— Abraham Lincoln

When I look out the window, nothing has changed.  Luckily, as far as we know, our animals are not susceptible to this virus.  Our processor is still working, although she said they were swamped.  I am in agreement with Abraham Lincoln, that we will all get through this together.  And if you don’t drink beer, then perhaps hot tea?

We are trying to get things started early (our fields are still so wet!) so we can offer a delivery service for our vegetables, meat and eggs starting in April.  I am extending our sign up for CSA shares until the end of March, because of the uncertainty of whether our market will remain open or not.  I am also working on an online ordering system – so you can order things online and have them delivered to your house.  Unfortunately, our delivery area remains Lookout Mountain, St. Elmo, Downtown Chattanooga and North Chattanooga.  Our delivery days will remain Mondays and Wednesdays, to give us time for other farm work.

We will be extremely vigilant about our sanitation here.  Jennifer and I are the only garden workers – so we will double scrub everything to make sure your food is safe.  We will make sure there are no visitors in and out, so we are minimizing our customers risk.

We are looking forward to growing food for you in such an uncertain time.  We want you to know we will do our very best to keep you healthy and well fed!

Letty

before

after

“Every day you may make progress. Every step may be fruitful. Yet there will stretch out before you an ever-lengthening, ever-ascending, ever-improving path. You know you will never get to the end of the journey. But this, so far from discouraging, only adds to the joy and glory of the climb.”
― Winston S. Churchill

Jennifer and I have been working on our small high tunnel.  We are closing in on this “ever-lengthening, ever-ascending, ever-improving task”.   Isabel (her sweet furry pup) has been giving progress reports.  And her napping is a sign we are moving in the right direction!

So as we progress…..I am here to remind you you have 2 more weeks to sign up for our CSA (don’t miss out for YOUR furry friend and sign up for our new Temple Top Dog Treats).  The sign up info is on our sign up link.  Our sign up deadline is March 15.  If you have troubles, don’t hesitate to e-mail me at [email protected]

I planted onions before the rain set in – I’m excited about our 16th CSA season…..sweet sixteen. 

“If you pick up a starving dog and make him prosperous he will not bite you. This is the principal difference between a dog and man.”
― Mark Twain

 Jennifer came to work 2 weeks ago and told me she saw a dog at the end of our driveway.

Ghost made appearances almost every day after that.  We ran her off – thinking she might kill our chickens.  I kept thinking she was someone else’s dog because she always acted like she was going somewhere.  She ran up and down our road, several miles in each direction, until the pads on her feet bled.  We finally decided we needed to feed her before she starved, but as soon as we tried to retrieve her, she became elusive.  So Curtis named her Ghost – here one minute, gone the next.

After a few days, of putting food out for her – he finally managed to reel her in.  She has been on our porch ever since.  I carried her to the vet – we tested her for heart worms and she seems healthy.  They would not vaccinate her because she was so thin.  We have been feeding her well, and will take her back soon to get her fixed and up to date on all vaccinations.  She is a big dog – 65 pounds at starving weight – so I expect she will be 75-80 pounds at a healthy weight.

We are looking for a home for Ghost.  We already have three dogs.  Two are dogs that we have taken as rescue dogs.  The other is my Blue Heeler, Temple, who has cancer and needs our attention.  If you know anyone who wants a sweet, beautiful dog, please pass this along.  We will want to talk to them to make sure it will be a good home.  She has been through too much to be passed around.

Farm News:  Find Ghost a home.  She has not chased our cats or chickens.  She seems pretty sociable, and hasn’t been aggressive to our dogs – but did snap at our friend’s small Mountain Feist.

This is the last week of CSA.  I will bring your veggies in bags so I can retrieve all my buckets.  Please remember to leave your bucket out or bring it to market.

What’s in the Bucket?   Tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, basil, peppers, green cabbage, red, white and blue potatoes.

If you are looking for a way to use those purple potatoes up – how about some gnocchi?  Chop some cherry tomatoes, basil and garlic add some olive oil and you have a nice sauce for your gnocchi.  Call it dinner:)

Happy Eating – thanks for buying local food from Circle S Farm!!

“One benefit of Summer was that each day we had more light to read by.”
― Jeannette Walls, The Glass Castle

Ahh – the long days.  I really don’t love them.  I am ready to go to bed usually by 8:30 and it is still light.   Some nights Curtis and I have to wait for the chickens to go to bed – often not until 9,  dusk.

A lovely day at the creek yesterday.  The water is low – but still cool.  A good respite from the summer heat.

Farm News:  Two more weeks of CSA.  Our black rat snake has finally reappeared.  Good because the mice have been having a hay day in the hay barn.

What’s in the bucket? Broccoli, sweet corn, cherry tomato, potato, fennel, cucumber, green cabbage, basil.

Following a recipe for

“Freedom lies in being bold.”
― Robert Frost

The vegetables are bold, aren’t they?  Bold in their color, bold in their taste – some of them.   I wonder if they feel free?

Happy Independence Day!!

Farm News:  Otis got skunked.  The only dog that doesn’t know.  He has never been skunked.  He couldn’t get any back up – no dogs to go with him.  Nevertheless – he was BOLD and he got skunked!!  A bath of hydrogen peroxide and baking soda toned the smell down!!

What’s in the bucket:  radish, arugula, fennel,  shell beans, green cabbage, sweet corn, potatoes.

We are probably all hoping for a wonderful cookout for Fourth of July.  Include some cool coleslaw – with your BBQ.  And some corn on the grill – yum.  Potato salad….

I have an easy slaw recipe – from my mother.  I always use it – but do not have measurements.   I will try to tell you how.

Fourth of July Cole Slaw

Cabbage

Mayo

Apple Cider Vinegar

Sugar or honey

Salt and Pepper

With a large sharp knife slice the cabbage thin, thin, thin.  This is the key.  Add other thinly sliced veggies or grated carrot.  Fennel works nicely too.  Then mix your dressing.  Mayo, enough apple cider vinegar to make it a dressing and sugar, salt and pepper to taste.  Guestimate how much you need – but you can always make more…..

I make this for Curtis and I sometimes on a weeknight – and only enough for two.  Other times, I use the whole cabbage and make enough to share and for leftovers.  Simple and flexible.

Happy Eating and Happy Fourth of July.  AND thanks for buying local food from our farm.

Letty