A Community of Sharing

We have the best CSA members!  Ari and I really feel like we are part of a community-we share advice, recipes, plants, and good times :)  We love meeting the families and children of our members.  We especially love being fed and have devoured meatballs, eggplant Parmesan, stuffed zucchini, tomato and eggplant gratin, chocolate cake, and look forward to the red sauce and fish that awaits us in the freezer.  Yes, it is like having a surrogate Italian mama, a culinary fairy godmother.  Thanks Gail!   Our flower garden has been enriched with bee balm, Veronica, and irises from the Horns who also generously share their recipes and successes with our veggies (hello collard chips! i love you <3).  I am so excited about this.  A flower garden, to me, is more than a beautiful space in one's yard; it's a living storybook, an intertwining of the language of flowers as well as the memories of the flower giver.  Without a doubt, the flowers that have been passed on hold so much more meaning and delight than the one's I've picked up at Home Depot or Ace Hardware.  I love how one plant can be divided and shared and grown lush and divided again to be shared with more people and have a generational effect, leaving the original plant no less glorious than it was before it was paid forward.   More so, though, we have formed friendships, based in the belief of the importance of organically-grown, local veggies and pastured, happy chickens and their eggs.  Because of this little venture, which is more than a business to Ari and I, we have met some truly incredible people whom we may have otherwise never had the opportunity to.  And that is what makes this so really very special :)

We Got Married

So, this past 4 July, I walked down the aisle and met my husband-to-be on the most incredibly beautiful Monday afternoon.  Ari's best friend from forever officiated an emotionally-charged, heartfelt ceremony and our siblings read the truest passages we found as we searched endless places for the words that most reflected how we felt about each other, our families and friends, the rite of passage that we were about to celebrate.  We were joined, among the pine trees at Perona Farms, by the people most important to us and then, just like that, it was over.  There was a reception, of course, and fireworks in our hometown of Washington, too.  But somehow, it's next week already.  And I imagine the passing of time will continue to be just as aggressive and unforgiving the older we get!

Ari and I got away for two and half days, escaping down to Spring Lake this Sunday, returning late last  night.  As my new husband said, "Spending the day on the beach really beats the stuffing out of you!"  Well, he's not kidding.  I went back to school today for a workshop and was I ever destuffed...  It won't be long before we'll both be back out in the fields (Ari's in the fishing fields today; he wondered back out to the Atlantic Highlands to fish with a work buddy today).  I imagine the farm's call will be answered tomorrow, tonight, even, if Ar returns in the next few hours.  When it does, I am really excited to put my new FoodSaver vacuum sealer into action and blanch up all the greens we've subsisted on for the inevitable winter ahead.  We've also received as a wedding present a food grinder attachment for my KitchenAid Stand Mixer which should, hopefully, make canning tomatoes a breeze!  The maters aren't here yet, but when they do arrive, they demand immediate and constant attention.  What I'm most itching to do though, is make some artisinal ice creams of the unusual sort, with the help of my KitchenAid Stand Mixer (love this thing!) ice cream maker attachment.  I am most currently dreaming of a creamy lemon basil sorbetto, but searching for other inspiration, starting with The Bent Spoon's ice cream board.  Plum lavender sorbet anyone?  How about raspberry goat cheese ice cream?  Blueberry mascarpone?  What am I not thinking of that I can't find in the store?

But for now, time to replace my stuffing, last seen on Spring Lake Beach, with a good, ol' fashioned veg out on the couch!

The Garden Abounds

Rain and the warm, but not oppressively hot, weather have created near-perfect growing conditions.  That means lots of garden goodies this week.  Look forward to mustard (the hot, spicy curly leaves that look like kale), swiss chard (it is so breathtakingly beautiful that I shout to no one in particular everytime I bunch it), collard greens, arugula, etc. etc.  Luckily, it continues to be cool enough that the lettuce hasn't bolted and the beets are growing slowly but surely.  We've resisted the urge to yank them out and marvel at their ruby redness (well, not entirely true; we did yank a golden beet and it was a sunrise ripped from the soil and so sweet and strange but it made ari's throat swell up :(  no raw beets for him.).

our baby girls are getting big and jumping over the fence of their pen.  they can get out but they haven't quite mastered the getting back in despite ari's tutorials on the three-stop process (jump on the food barrel, jump on the fence, jump down into the pen).  If I can, I will absolutely try to capture this on video and sneak it on here.  The fox has not been seen recently and hopefully it stays that way.

Here's to continued good eating.  I hope to post a recipe for the amazing dinner ari made the other night.  I was out shopping for wedding rings all day and came home to an amazingly simple yet stunning dinner.  Oh, and I made foccaccia last night, too, which I will post later about because there's too much to do right now, what with a wedding to finish planning and all...

Violent Mother Nature

     So Ari, ever-dedicated disc golfer that he is, decided that despite the nasty weather and the radar indicating a storm with a pink and purple center was sweeping just north of us (Field of Dreams is just north of us) he must go disc golf.  It is league night, after all, and one other dude was also going to go, so of course.  Meanwhile, thin, cruel lightning bolts struck and dark, heavy clouds loomed as Ari shouted over the phone to another dedicated but let-us-say slightly more sensible disc golfer that "it's not even going to rain-check the radar!" as his buddy, who lives a block away (if we had blocks in rural northwest new jersey) told him that it was really quite nasty out and would not be joining him for a round.  Scoffing, Ari tugged on socks and sneakers, pulling a baseball hat low over his brow.  As a last ditch effort to keep him safe, I brought him outside to look at the black clouds which were moving fast and swirling much the way smoke from a fire does. 
     "That's a tornado cloud," he mused.  "They do that before a funnel forms.  But according to the radar, it's not going to rain," he yelled back as he hopped in his car and  drove into the dark swirling cloud.

     Not twenty minutes later, as I was safely inside but after the clouds has dissipated and the sun reemerged, I heard the crunching of rocks under car tires and stomping on the outdoor steps.  I was agape to see Ari standing in the doorway, proclaiming his drive to be the craziest he's ever taken.  Not long after leaving (less than 5-minutes-not-long) it was raining on Valley Road, and from there it just got worse.  Tree branches and leaves covered the ensuing roads, rivers overflowed onto their banks, whole trees were felled, power lines snaked through the streets.  Sounds like the tornado he was talking about.

     Anyhow, we didn't get one drop of rain, which we really could have used.  And it's a bit cooler, but no less swampy than it was before.

Week 3A

We had yet another bigger than expected week here at Little Wing Gardens, harvesting more that we suspected possible just a few days ago!  It was a delight to meet another family who belongs to the wonderful group of people we are honored to share our produce with.  Ari and I are so happy to be in the company of those who believe in eating well and living in balance with the earth.  It really feels and tastes good, doesn't it?

We are so excited for the upcoming weeks as we are on the cusp of a veggie explosion (not literally, of course, but with Ari's science background and the 4th of July just around the corner, I'm sure it could be arranged!).  But for now, here's to enjoying the week's bounty, which includes:

1 head of green Romaine
1 head of Simpson
1 bag triple-washed baby spinach
1 bunch of carrots
1 pound of sugar snap peas
1 head of radicchio (This can be a bit bitter for some people's tastes.  I prefer to grill mine, but it can be roasted or braised.)
2 garlic scapes
1 bunch collard greens
1 herb bunch-Sage,  Basil, Summer Savory

Week Two Pickup

Ari and I made a trip to the grocery store after the pickup (our fridge was bare to make room for the harvest!) and scanned the contents of the produce department.  I guess I'm spoiled by what we grow and eat here at Little Wing Gardens; I could not believe the state of the veggies that had clearly been trucked from far away and sitting on a shelf for who-knows-how-long.  So while your greens may have some tiny holes where some bugs took a bite (who can blame them?), you can be assured that you are eating the freshest, pesticide-free produce you can get your hands on!

Week Two brought a variation on what we harvested at the start of the season.  Each member received:

1 head Black Seeded Simpson lettuce
1 head Red Romaine (with one lucky person receiving a Butterhead)
1 bunch arugula
1 bunch early carrots
1 bunch radishes with 1 turnip (saute those greens!)
1 pound sugar snap peas
2 garlic scapes
1 herb bunch (rosemary, dill, cilantro)

Also, we've modified our egg share prices to $75 for the season, with half shares available.  A couple are spoken for with a few still available.  We are proud to be able to offer a pastured lifestyle to our chickens.  They roam our property all day long, eating bugs, grass, and fruit and veggie scraps from our kitchen and garden.  At night, they enjoy the safety of a clean, dry coop, stocked with food and water and out of reach of the local foxes. 

We are looking for feedback, so let us know what grabs your tastebuds and what doesn't and we will modify away!  Enjoy the veggies this week!

Egg Shares Available

Starting next week, we will have a limited number of weekly egg shares of one dozen eggs available for the season.  The share is made up of eggs laid by our pastured hens who spend their days outside, roaming our property, eating up grubs, insects, grass, seed, cracked corn, and fruit and vegetable scraps.  We have a variety of breeds, including Rhode Island Reds-Scarlet, Cerise, and Rose, a Buff Orpington-Buffy, an Auracana-Racqy (the green egg layer!), a white Silkie bantam-Camilla, as well as their offspring with our handsome Barred Rock rooster Earl.  We expect our pullets to start laying any time now as well!

The shares are $100 for the sixteen week season and first-come, first-serve.  Please let us know if you are interested or have any questions.