A Little Down Time...NOT

It might be a little less busy gardening/farming on the farm but things are buzzing!

Deer gun season opens this week and Andy hopes to be able to spend some time in the woods.  And hopes that he is able to bring some deer meat back for the winter.  I think he likes the time to be able to be in the woods and listen to 'nature'.  I am hoping he gets at least one because i had some of the best deer bologna the last time I visited.  Really don't like venison but the bologna was good...really good.

Sad to report that next week is the last week of the CSA season for this year. (But that doesn't mean the blog will be taking a break.  I have lots of things that I have learned to share in the coming months.)  So if you want to order any extra to tide you over, you need to do it now.  Just email the farm (well, actually Rue and Susan) and they will see that Andy and Lizzie get your order for the last box.  I know that I am getting some maple syrup and jellies...maybe some soap too.  They make great Christmas gifts.  My family thanks me over and over again.  They actually fight over it!

Moses Update...Andy and Lizzie took Moses back to the doctor in Millersburg for another check-up.  The doctor seemed pleased wit they way his little had is healing  up.  There is still some question about his fingertip and how they will heal up.  the treatment they are using is B&W ointment (which is mostly honey) and Burdock leaves has been working very well. (more to come with pictures in a later blog)  The Burdock leaves help relieve the pain and reduce swelling.  They left the hospital three days after the accident and Moses hasn't needed any pain medication and without antibiotics, there is no sign of infection.  And healing is taking place. I will report what I see when I visit the next time which will be in the very near future because....a new addition has finally been added to the family.  I  am thrilled to announce (and I am sure that Andy and Lizzie are more thrilled) that I got a letter in my box announcing the arrival of little 6 pound 11 ounce, 21 inch long baby girl with a full head of dark. Mother and baby are doing fine.  Her name is Lovina Hershberger.  I CAN NOT wait to love on her!  I will give you a full report after my visit...but then again I may not come home!

Recipe Share; Baked Veggies

Baked Veggies

 

This Thanksgiving we took the veggies that came in the CSA box on Tuesday and added some from the crisper drawer and made the most wonderful veggie medley.  I can not take credit for it...our 'earthy' daughter whipped it up the other week. 

 

onions, beets, broccoli, garlic, butternut squash, acorn squash, celery, carrots

 

Wash and cut up all veggies in chunks.  Toss in large bowl with EVOO, salt, and pepper.  Line a lipped cookie sheet with parchment paper (for easy cleanup).  Place in a 450 over for 20-40 minutes...until the look done.

DELICIOUS!

 

Recipe Of The Week: Potato Dumplings

Potato Dumplings

1 quart of water
1 teaspoon of salt
5 cups of mashed potatoes
1 1/2cup of flour
2 eggs slightly beaten
1 teaspoon of baking powder
1 teaspoon of salt

In a saucepan, bring water and 1 teaspoon of salt to a boil.  In a bowl combine remaining ingredients and mix until fluffy.  Roll into 1 inch balls and drop gently into boiling water.  Cook for about 7 minutes.  Drain and serve warm.  Serve with roast beef and gravy.

Cedarmore Farm Fresh Produce Club

Eat Better:  Join Our CSA Produce Club

 

Get fresh picked,  locally grown vegetables each week, all season long

Feed your family healthy, seasonal fruits and vegetables

All our produce is grown locally in Highland county

We farm using only organic methods.  No chemical pesticides or fertilizers!

 

For 2013, we are pleased to offer these CSA share options:

 

Fresh Egg Share:  available for you to receive pasture range eggs each week.

Weekly Canned Goods Share:  adds a surprise jar to your produce box.

Weekly Baked Goods Share: adds a fresh baked surprise to each box.

 

We will take orders throughout the season for fresh baked pies, cinnamon rolls, breads, cookies and bars, as well as home canned goods and maple syrup.  Also grass fed chicken will be available in season. 

 

All extra items ordered can be picked up with your weekly produce share.  You will be billed at the end of the month.

 

Free delivery is included to many Greater Cincinnati pick up locations.  Your share will be in a produce box labeled with your name at the pick up location of your choice.

 

We continue to offer the option to pay your full amount due when you sign up, or to pay 50% up front and the balance by July 1, 1013.

 

 

Crops Planned For The 2013 Season

 

Spring:  beans, broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, Swiss chard, cucumbers, lettuce, onions, radishes, salad greens, strawberries, summer squash, tomatoes and zucchini

 

Summer:  blackberries, broccoli, cantaloupe, carrots, cauliflower, eggplant, garlic, green beans, onions,peppers, potatoes, red beets, sweet corn, tomatoes

 

Fall:  broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, Swiss chard, lettuce, onions, radishes. carrots, squash (sweet dumpling, acorn, butternut), garlic, potatoes, res beets, kale, Chinese cabbage, sweet potatoes

 

Choose Your Shares

All Season Share:  sign up by March 1st to get a produce box delivered weekly for 32 weeks
1st week of May-1st week of December
$515 per share

Spring Share:  Sigh up by March 1st and get a produce box delivered weekly for 10 weeks
1st week of May-1st week of July
$190 per share

Summer Share:  Sign up by April 1st and get a produce box delivered weekly for 12 weeks
2nd week of July-last week of September
$180 per share

Fall Share:  Sign up by May 1st and get a produce box delivered weekly for 10 weeks
1st week of October-1st week  December
$170 per share

Pasture Range Egg Share:  Available each week with you share from above.
$3.50 a dozen

Weekly Canned Good Share:  One Surprise Jar each each with your share from above.
Possibilities are ketchup, tomato juice, tomato chunks, pizza sauce, pickled beets, pickled sweet peppers, or hot pepper butter, dill or mustard pickles, strawberry, blackberry, or red raspberry jam, peach or pear butter and more.
$4.00 per jar

Weekly Baked Good Share:  Get one surprise each week with you share from above.
Possibilities include:  pies (blackberry, cherry, blueberry, raspberry, pecan nut, or apple), cookies (monster, chocolate chip, pumpkin, chocolate no-bake, buttermilk, or raisin oatmeal), bars (3 layer snack bars, peanut butter, pumpkin with frosting and nuts, pumpkin with chocolate chip, or granola bars), cinnamon rolls, zucchini bread, banana bread or wheat bread.
$5.00 per week

Pick Up Locations

Cedarmore Farm:  12612 Turley Lane, Hillsboro, OH on Tuesdays 5:00-8:00PM
Anderson #1: 7225 Cobblestone Court on Tuesdays 5:00-8:00PM
Anderson #2:  1980 Gainsborough Lane on Tuesdays 5:00-8:00PM
Batavia:  3553 St. Rt. 222, Batavia on Fridays 5:00-8:00PM
Clarksville:  3668 Nicholson Road on Tuesdays 5:00-8:00PM
Mt Orab:  16844 Bodman Road on Fridays 5:00-8:00PM
Wyoming:  508 Wirtz Way on Tuesdays 5:00-8:00PM
Milford:  1224 Eagle Ridge Road on Tuesdays 5:00-8:00PM
Eastgate:  4873 Beechwood Road, Cincinnati on Tuesdays 5:00-8:00PM
Hamilton:  914 Richwood Avenue on Tuesdays 6:00-9:00PM
Hillsboro:  8586 US HWY 50 on Tuesdays 8:00-10:00PM
Lebanon:  2308 Wood Road on Tuesdays 6:30-9:30PM
Loveland:  865 Miami Ridge Drive on Tuesdays 5:00-8:00PM
Mason:  106 W Church Street, Mason, on Tuesdays 6:00-9:00PM
Clifton:  2170 Elysion Place on Fridays 5:00-8:00PM
Covington:  836 Alhambra Court, Park Hills, KY on Fridays 5:00-8:00PM
Burlington:  6989 Lucia Drive, KY on Fridays 5:00-8:00PM
Norwood:  1624 Sherman Avenue on Fridays 5:00-8:00PM
Oakley:  2733 Arbor Avenue, Cincinnati on Fridays 5:00-8:00PM
Westwood:  310 Coral Park Drive on Fridays 5:00-8:00PM
Downtown Cincinnati:  1222 Race Street on Fridays 5:00-8:00PM

Choose Your Payment Option

Pay total now or pay 50% of total now and 50% by July 1
Mail sign up sheet and checks made out to Cedarmore Farm to

Cedarmore Farm
12612 Turley Lane
Hillsboro, OH 45133

For comments, questions, or ordering extra goods please email
cedarmorefarm@TDISP.com




 

 

Other Great Items That Are Available To Order

Baked Goods
(Preorders only...please order three days before pick up day)
Breads:  zucchini, banana, or wheat bread  $3.00 per loaf
Rolls:  cinnamon  $5>00 per tray
Pies:  cherry, blackberry, raspberry, pecan nut, apple  $6.00
Bars:  three layer snack, peanut butter, pumpkin with frosting and nuts pumpkin with chocolate chips or granola bars  $4.00 per tray
Cookies: monster, chocolate chip, pumpkin, chocolate no-bake, buttermilk, raisin oatmeal  $4.00 per dozen

Canned Fruit Products
red raspberry jam  $4.50 a pint or $2.75 a 1/2 pint
strawberry or blackberry jam  $4.00 a pint or $2.50 a 1/2 pint
pear or peach butter  $4.00 a pint or $2.50 a 1/2 pint

Canned Vegetable Products
(pint jars for $4.00 each)
pickled beets
pickled sweet peppers
mustard pickles
dill pickles
bread & butter pickles
sweet pepper butter
hot pepper butter
ketchup
tomato juice
tomato chunks
pizza sauce
salsa

Maple Syrup
(from Andy and Lizzie's trees on the farm)
one gallon  445.00
half gallon  $25.00
one quart  $14.00
one pint  $8.00
half pint  $5.00

Pasture Range Eggs
$3.50 per dozen

Homemade Bar Soap
(made by Lizzie's Mom at $3.00 per bar)
unscented
spearmint
Lilly of the Valley
cucumber melon
rose
lavender
lemon grass
love spell

**availability is not guaranteed and the prices subject to change.

Send orders to cedarmorefarm@tdisp.com

Billing will be sent at the end of the month. 

Ready For The Thanksgivng Table

Work at Cedarmore has slowed down enough that Andy and Lizzie are now able to do some of those 'honey-do' jobs.  Like wood to cut for warmth this winter, fences to fix to keep everyone safe, a few projects around he house...just a lot of things that have been on the back burner during produce season.  Then there is all the paperwork that has to be done for he upcoming season.

 

The potato crop has not been very good this year, especially the late crops.  They had a few neighbor farmers that grew potatoes, but during inspections they found lots of bad and rotten spots on them.  They just felt that these potatoes were not worthy of being included in our boxes.  Hopefully they will be able to include some and these will be the last for the season.

 

We are in luck because there seems to be a surplus of canned goods.  So Andy and Lizzie have decided to run a sale until the end of the CSA season, which is December 7th.  There will be a 10% discount for the following items:

 

Tomato juice

Vegetable juice

Pizza sauce

Salsa

Dill pickles

Bread & Butter pickles

maple syrup

 

You must by a full case to get the discount (12 in a case), except for Maple syrup.  You can mix and match to make a full case.  You will get a discount on maple syrup no matter the quanity you buy.

lettuce, carrots, butternut squash, turnips, garlic, spicy greens

 

Recipe Of The Week: Greens and Bacon Salad

Greens and Bacon Salad

8 slices of bacon cut into bite size pieces
2 quarts of broken salad greens
3 hard boiled eggs, sliced
8 cherry tomatoes halved
1/3 cup of mayonnaise
2 Tablespoons of sugar
2 Tablespoons of vinegar
2 Tablespoons of salad oil
2 teaspoons of dry mustard
1 teaspoon of paprika
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1/4 teaspoon of garlic salt

Fry bacon until crisp and drain on paper towels.  Put greens in salad bowl: arrange eggs, bacon, and tomatoes on top.  Combine remaining ingredients and serve with the salad.

Lizzie's Handiwork

There are lots of behind the scenes things that go on at the farm.  One of them is Lizzie's quilt making.  For as long as I can remember I have been a lover of anything quilted.  I can't tell you the exact time I fell in love with quilts made by Amish hands.  The time before last trip to the farm Lizzie had put new quilts on all the beds.  I asked her if I could share pictures and she said I could...not realizing how special they are.  These quilts are used every day.  They are not just pretty uilts to look.  They have a purpose just like everything else on the farm. 

 

I know this pattern because I made Cassie and Trevor a Drunkard's Path as a wedding present.  Lizzie made a pillow for one of the kids out of hers.

 

Dennis already has the book chosen that he wants to read before he takes a nap.

I know that this quilt pattern is actually bigger but Lizzie did the math and cut each piece down to make a smaller sized quilt.

 

Yesterday while visiting Lizzie, she took this quilt top out that she had already hand quilted and was ready to sew on the binding.  But the binding was added to the backing so all she had to do was double fold it under and blind hem stitch it to finish.  I watched ever so closely and took notes.  One day in her spare time she has promised to teach me how to hand quilt.  It was a good thing she finished it last night because her due date was on the 14th and she looks and feels close to delivery.  I wanted so  badly to spend the night because she said that she thought her time was close.

 

I will get the news in my CSA box on Tuesday or by snail mail (Andy says that is the Amish way) sometime this week...keeping my fingers crossed.

 

Preparing For Winter

Another week has slipped by quickly.  Even this late in the year there is still lots of work on the farm.  Right now Andy is working on pulling up the drip lines and taking out the irrigation system.  They are just in garden clean up mode for the winter.  There are also hundreds of tomato stakes to pull out and put away.  The best part about it all has been the weather.  With the warmer, sunny says they have been able to get a lot accomplishes.

There is still a nice patch of Chinese cabbage coming on as well as some regular turnips and carrots.  The cauliflower and regular cabbage might have been planted too late.  It all depends on the weather if we are going to see any in our boxes in the coming weeks.  Also in the greenhouse there is a batch of lettuce that has already been harvested.

onions, garlic, squash, 'special' radishes, Chinese cabbage

Moses Update:  His hands are healing nicely.  And he had very little pain.  His left hand is pretty much back to normal.  They keep his right hand wrapped up.  It has to be redressed twice a day with B&W ointment and burdock leaves.  All the redressing takes about 45 minutes each time.  Moses really is not a fan.  In the note I got from  Lizzie today...the dressing changes use to take 60 minutes.  I can only imagine how hard it was for them all.  Lizzie's brother, Adam, helps with the redressing...which they are very, very thankful for.

This weekend I am hoping to make a visit to the farm and I will get more information on B&W ointment and burdock leaves, pictures too I hope.  I have to be honest, I have been trying some new Amish remedies.  I now swear by jewel weed for poison ivy.  I am going to ask Lizzie what she uses for sinus infections/sinus pressure because I have tried everything that I can think of and I am miserable.

Rai, Rain, And More Rain

  There has been rain, rain and more rain in the last week.  So much the the ground is pretty saturated.  And on top of that there was a little snow as the result of Hurricane/Super Storm Sandy.  Before writing the newsletter the temps have been in the 40's and 50's which actually make it pretty nice when working outside.  Hopefully with this weather our fall crops will be producing very well.  Broccoli, Chinese cabbage, lettuce, Swiss chard, spicy greens, radishes, and turnips are all being harvested now.

 

In last weeks boxes there were some onions that were bad on the inside.  Andy says he is not sure what caused it.  And he will be doing a more thorough check when adding them to the boxes from now on.  Please remember that there really is no way to see what is going on inside and onion from the outside.   Andy could throw them all away but does not really want to do that because you take a chance of throwing perfectly good onions away.  We just need to remember that this is part of the CSA.  Andy and Lizzie do their best and they want us to only get the best for the CSA.  But if you don't know, and can't tell by looking at the outside...I just removed the bad part and used the rest,  It was fine.

Update on Moses:  Things are healing well with his left hand almost back to normal.  His right had is slower in the recovery.  He actually lost part of his index finger, which is so sad.  But considering all things, they are very thankful that ietdidn't turn out a lot worse.   They are hopeful that the rest of his hand will heal nicely.

I hope I can remember it all...spaghetti squash, Swiss chard, garlic, sweet potatoes, beets, green peppers, broccoli and radishes.

 

Recipe Of The Day: Broccoli Ham Soup

Broccoli Cheese Soup

 

6-8 cups of chopped broccoli

3-4 cups of chicken broth

1 cup of light cream or whole milk

2 cups of cooked, diced ham

1 teaspoon of salt

1/4 teaspoon of pepper

2 Tablespoons of butter

1/2 pound shredded Swiss cheese

 

Cook broccoli and broth in a large covered saucepan for 7-8 minutes.  Remove broccoli.Add cream, ham, salt, pepper, and butter to broth.  Bring to a boil and simmer for 5 minutes.  Stir in cheese and broccoli.  Heat but do not boil.

Still Waiting And Hopeful

Found out that my laptop needs a new hard drive and it should be back on the kitchen table by the weekend.  I am trying to post from an iPad...hard to teach an old dog new tricks.  Still unable to download any pictures.

Everyone is busy on the farm cleaning up from this year and actually planting garlic aboard next year.  I think I might try to grow some here like they do on the farm...find the best cloves and break up the sections and then just shoving them in a hole and covering them up.  Sounds so simple.  If I am lucky each clove will grow into a garlic bulb.  I will let you know.

I am so glad that Andy let us know about Moses...Moses (18 months old) wandered into the pasture where the pigs are kept.  It was a freak accident that happened so quickly.  Moose, Anna and Dennis had been playing under supervision.  Somewhere along the line Moses climbed under the gate...which is the only place he could have gotten in.  They discovered him missing and went searching for him.  When they found him his little hands had already been chewed by the pigs.  He also had a small gash on the left side of his head.  They ended up in the NationWide Children's Hospital in Columbus from Friday until Monday.  Dr. Maya Spaeth, a very good plastic and reconstruction surgeon, was the doctor on the case.  And Andy and Lizzie were very satisfied with the care they received.  A week after the accident, Moses is recovering well.  The doctor gave them permission to use their B&W salve and burdock leaves on his wounds.  The burdock leaves work very well to relieve his pain and reduce some of the swelling.  Moses has had some restless nights and lets everyone know that he doesn't lie to have his bandages changed.  He seems to be doing well and doesn't seem to have a lot of pain.  Andy looks back and knows that it could have been a lot worse and he is very thankful that it wasn't.  Please pray for the family.  Andy will keep us updated with Moses progress.

carrots, turnips, onions, green peppers, squash, garlic

Recipe Of The Week: Greens With Red Peppers

Greens With Red Peppers

1 bunch of tender greens

2 cloves of garlic

1/4 cup of butter

1/2 teaspoon of salt 

1/8 teaspoon of pepper

1 medium red sweet pepper cut into 1/2 inch thick pieces

Wash green well.   Trim tough stems.  Chop coarsely.  Bring 1/4 inch of water to a boil in a 10 inch skillet.  Add greens.  Cover and cook one minute or until greens are wilted.  Drain and set aside.  Melt butter in same skillet.  Add red pepper and garlic;  cook until tender.  Stir in greens, salt, and pepper.  Cover and cook 3-5 minutes.