Wednesday, October 7, 2009

October 5th Newsletter from Jacquie

Dear Shareholders,

This was one of the most interesting years to farm in. We had such a cold and rainy summer! To tell you the truth, we really didn’t know what to expect from the crops that were planted. We have started to use more plastic mulch and drip irrigation every year. This year, it was a god send. The plastic mulch allowed plants to survive the rain as well as thrive. We feel we couldn’t have harvested as much variety without this important part of our irrigation system.

We have now had our first hard freeze. Normally, we can get a frost (sometimes not killing) anytime after the 20th of September. This year it occurred Friday, October 2nd with the low getting down to 25 degrees. Because of the help coming from Working Members and the Volunteers, we were able to get most of the tomatoes and peppers picked for the next few of weeks. We were also able to get most of the sweet potatoes harvested for the Winter Share. Thank you all for your time given to the farm!

I’m sorry I couldn’t get everyone out to pick pickles & tomatoes this year. We got as many people out as the field could handle and still give out the numbers we needed for distribution every week. Unfortunately, that’s what Mother Nature gave us to work with! We can only hope next year will be more plentiful!

This week you are getting Sugarloaf winter squash, red potatoes, yellow onions, carrots, diakon radish leeks, garlic, bell peppers and tomatoes.

Potato Bread

1 pkg active dry yeast 1 cup mashed potatoes, warm not hot
1 1/2 cups warm water 6 to 6 1/2 cups all purpose flour
2 Tbsp sugar 1 cup whole wheat flour
3 Tbsp softened butter or vegetable oil 1 tsp salt
2 eggs at room temp. milk to brush over top of loaves

Mix yeast with water in large bowl; let stand 5 min. Add in sugar, butter, eggs and potatoes. Add 5 ½ cups flour, the wheat flour and salt to make a soft dough. Now add another cup of flour to make a smooth dough. Knead dough on floured surface until smooth & elastic – about 5 minutes. Place dough in a greased bowl; let rise, covered, in a warm place until double the size. This will take 1 to 1 ½ hours. Punch down and divide dough into 2 pieces. Shape and place into greased 9X5 loaf pans. Let stand, loosely covered, until double in size - another 45 min. Brush loaves with milk and bake at 375 degrees until golden brown; approximately 45 minutes. Remove from pans and cool on a wire rack.

1 comment:

  1. Since there was a request for it, I've put up all of Jacquie's Newsletters from July 12 through now on the blog. Click on the 'Newsletter' category on this post or to the right and they can all be viewed on one page.

    Anisa

    ReplyDelete