Stuffed Patty Pan Squash

2 patty pan squash

1 Tbsp olive oil

1/4 onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

1/4 cup quinoa

1/2 cup beef broth, chicken broth or vegetable broth

1/2 cup parmesan cheese

1/2 lb grass fed ground beef

sea salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 350. Bring the beef broth to a boil in a saucepan. Add quinoa, reduce heat to low and simmer 12-15 min. or until liquid is absorbed. Allow to cool. Slice the bottom tip off the patty pan squashes so they will lay flat on the baking sheet. Slice the tops off the squash and carefully scoop out most of the inner flesh. Chop the scooped squash. Heat oil over medium heat. Cook onion, garlic and squash in oil about 3 minutes. Add ground beef and cook through. Remove pan from heat and stir in cooked quinoa and cheese and season with salt and pepper. Fill squash to the top with stuffing mixture. Place tops back on squash and drizzle with some olive oil. Cover pan with foil and bake for 30 min. Remove foil and bake another 10 min.

Patty Pan Squash with Eggs

2 Patty Pan squash

2 Tbsp olive oil

1/2 onion, chopped

1/2 tsp sea salt

2 minced garlic cloves

1 tsp minced fresh thyme

4 eggs

Preheat oven to 375. Cut bottom tip off squash so it will sit nicely on the baking sheet. Cut stem end of squash off and reserve. Scoop out insides of squash and reserve for later use. Brush squash and tops with some of the olive oil. Set on baking sheet and bake until tender, about 15 min. Meanwhile, heat some of the olive oil in a pan over medium high heat. Add onion and sea salt to taste. Cook, stirring until soft. Add garlic and cook 30 sec. Add thyme and cook until combined. Divide onion mixture evenly among squash. Crack 1 egg into each squash. Sprinkle eggs with remaining salt. Bake until eggs are set, 15-20 min. Serve with tops replaced.

Yellow Summer Squash and Zucchini Thai Style

Slice squash into thin rounds. Meanwhile, heat coconut oil in large pan over medium high heat. place squash in pan. Saute’ until tender. Add chopped Thai basil to taste and saute’ until basil is wilted. Enjoy!

News From The Farm

We were blessed to have finished construction of our two new high tunnels last week, in time for fall plantings. They are more like hybrid greenhouses: we can plant directly in the soil, but they have exhaust fans and will soon have some supplemental heat. As a farmer, we must be eternal optimists; always looking at the problems we have had and trying to make improvements. This is the one form of control we have as Mother Nature can be an extremely discouraging force at times, and her, we have no control over!

Chey’s Corner

Cheyenne has resumed her job of rabbit hunting in and around our vegetable fields. She loves this and takes great pride and enjoyment in being able to jump at least four times as high as her adversaries. She has never as of yet caught a rabbit, but it hasn’t curbed her enthusiasm a bit! Check out our Instagram page: pam.schreiber or our Facebook page: Eight Mile Creek Farm (links are on the home page of this website) for a great video of Chey hunting rabbits!

The post Week of August 1, 2021 appeared first on Eight Mile Creek Farm.

Although the summer season has ended and the weather is turning colder, things are still hopping here on the farm. We are switching gears and focusing on nurturing the cold weather crops which we had started in the greenhouse back in July and transplanted into the high tunnel in August and September: kales, chard, arugula, napa cabbage, salad greens, and spinach to name a few. The fields are still full of many varieties of greens under row covers. We have already planted our cover crops in between these rows to provide a protective cover for the life-giving soil. This cover will also provide nourishment to the soil when turned in come spring. Many of the root veggies have been harvested and placed into storage for the winter months, along with the cabbages, onions, winter squash and others. Irrigation equipment is put away and we are preparing equipment for winter feeding and watering of the animals. Our hay equipment has just been cleaned and put away in the barns or covered for the winter. The greenhouse is being worked on to make sure it is tight and the heat is working properly. This week we will be butchering our turkeys, growing since early May, they will provide many families with healthy holiday meals. Our younger cows and just weaned calves are warm and dry in the barn while the mother cows are still grazing out in the fields. We have lots of amazing, healthy food to provide to our customers this winter!

Produce available from EMCF this week: Celery, Radishes, Chicory, Red Leaf Lettuce, Kale, Bok Choy, and Parsley

Chicory

Chicory is a very versatile green that can simply be used like lettuce for a salad. It just needs a delicate vinaigrette. You can add a citrus fruit, chopped and you have a delicious salad. alternatively, you can saute’ it lightly with olive oil and garlic.

Celery Soup

2 Tbsp olive oil or butter

1 onion, diced

4 large garlic cloves, rough chopped

1 bunch celery, sliced, reserving some leaves for garnish

2 cups potatoes, sliced

4 cups chicken or vegetable broth

1 cup water

1 bay leaf

1 tsp sea salt

1/2 tsp pepper

1/8-1/2 tsp cayenne

1/2 cup parsley

1/2 cup heavy cream

Heat the oil or butter in a big pot over medium heat. Add the onion and stir 5 minutes. Add the garlic, celery, potatoes, broth, water, bay leaf, salt, cayenne and pepper to your taste. Cover, bring to a boil, then turn heat down and simmer about 10 minutes, until veggies are tender. Turn heat off, remove bay leaf and add the fresh parsley. Use an immersion blender, or transfer to a blender and blend in batches. Transfer back to pot and heat on low. Add cream and heat through. Sprinkle celery leaves on top of each bowl of soup before serving.

adapted from feastingathome.com

Radish Herb Butter

1 bunch radishes, greens reserved for a salad or to saute’ with another veggie

1/2 bunch parsley or cilantro

butter, brought to room temperature

sea salt

Mince radishes. Mince herbs. Mix herbs, radishes and enough butter to make a spread. Season with sea salt. Spread on your favorite crusty bread and enjoy!

Chey’s Corner

Hi! My name is Cheyenne. Most people call me Chey (pronounced “SHY”) I am anything but shy, though! I am very friendly and love all people and animals. I am not afraid of anything, not even our 2,000 lb bull. I am an Australian Shepherd and live and work here on EMCF. There are two of us here. Jenny is my “big sis” and she is teaching me the ropes. I run all day following Pam and “help” her by chasing the cows and horses, pigs and chickens. I get in trouble for doing this but can’t seem to help myself! Jenny only moves them when Pam asks her to, like when the cows need to be moved to a different field or when Pam is trying to get their water trough filled and she needs them to move away from it. Some day I want to be more like Jenny.

Bravery is the audacity to be unhindered by failures, and to walk with freedom, strength and hope, in the face of things unknown.

Morgan Harper Nichols

The post November 15,2020 appeared first on Eight Mile Creek Farm.

Through the Eyes of a Farmer

With so much life on a farm there is, unfortunately, death. There is, in fact, death just about every day, and so it is something that I have become very intimate with in terms of acceptance, but have not become immune to its impact. It could be the death of a tray of romaine lettuce that never made it out of the greenhouse into the field to be planted because the exhaust fan in the greenhouse broke and it got too hot; or it didn’t get enough water that day. It could be the chicken that got captured at dusk by a fischer or mink because she was enjoying the cooler evening, pecking around and got left out of the hen house that night. Or, it could be something like what happened in this past week, where I lost two of my beloved horses: My beautiful cremello mare that, despite our efforts through the wee hours of the night, succumbed to colic. And my Wildfire. My horse who was with me through the worst of times, who helped teach my son to ride, who I had to make the decision to let the vet euthanize this Tuesday because he had become so neurologic that he couldn’t feel his back legs. His mind was all there, but his body had failed him. As a fight or flight animal, he became aware over the weekend, that he had no flight. I then knew it was time, as I could see the fear in his eyes. It was a delivery day. Time on a farm waits for no one. Not illness. Not fatigue. Not weddings, birthdays or certainly not grief. The cows still need to be milked twice a day. The pigs, chickens, cows still need to eat and drink. The plants watered, weeded and harvested. A farmer takes this all to heart; all of this life. And the death.

Basil Vinaigrette

1 bunch basil leaves

1 clove garlic

1/2 cup olive oil

1/2 tsp red pepper flakes

1/2 cup olive oil

4 Tbsp apple cider vinegar

Sea salt and pepper to taste

Wizz all ingredients in a food processor or blender. Enjoy over lettuce.

Zucchini and Summer Squash with Coconut Oil

Coconut oil has many health benefits. Paired with the nutrient density of Zucchini and Summer squash, you have a power packed side dish. Stir in one of the ancient grains such as amaranth or quinoa and you have a main dish! Toss in some sausage or crumbled ground beef to add heartiness!

Heat coconut oil in large saucepan until melted. Add minced garlic, onions, sea salt and pepper to taste. Add sliced squash. Stir to coat. Cook over medium heat until desired texture is reached. Adjust seasonings.

Next week……beets, scarlet kale, arugula

The post Week of July 12, 2020 appeared first on Eight Mile Creek Farm.

1. Red Leaf lettuce
2. Rainbow Swiss chard
3. Dill
4. Napa cabbage
5. Italian dandelion greens
6. Siberian kale
7. Bok Choy

Through the Eyes of a Farmer

When I was in high school and college, I worked each summer as a server, then called waitress, which was a natural job to seek, as food was always valued in my family and there were plenty of restaurants to apply to. One evening, a table of customers I was waiting on asked me what I was studying in college. I replied, “cardiorespiratory therapy. I think it’s an important job.” They replied, “yes, breathing is important!” Through my years working in healthcare, I lived in several different states, and witnessed the disapperance of farmland. I saw huge areas go from predominantly rural farmland to being saturated with houses and strip malls. Several years later, I went back to grad school to study nutrition and wellness. The more I learned about nutrition, learned how the majority of our food is produced, and the more I saw farmland disappear, the more I wanted to do something about it. It was as if the land was being suffocated; the environment couldn’t breath. So I “bought” a farm. (More on this in a later post) Besides breathing, what could be more important than eating? I thus immersed myself in everything farming, learning everything I could from growing stacks of books piled everywhere in my home. Trying not to make the same mistake more than once, for almost 20 years now, my life has become that of a Farmer. Farming is my livlihood and as such, it is also who I am. The stacks in my home have spread to more than books on agriculture, they have become piles of mail, unattended to, clothes, yet to be folded, to do lists, yet to be done….. Someone once told me, to be a successful farmer, it has to be a 24 hour obsession. They were right. Obsession, not because you don’t care about anything else, but because of what is required of you. The season’s change, the weather is out of your control and the land will demand and take so much from you that it will leave you exhausted by the end of the day, with a to do list even longer than it was that morning. The animals and plants and fields always demand more attention than the house to be dusted or the laundry to be folded or the room to be painted…. But, as the quote by Will Rogers says, To be a Farmer, you must be an eternal optimist. Because every morning, despite the challenges from the day before, depite the knowledge of the 16 hour work day ahead of you, you rise with new ideas and new hope. After all, what could be more important than growing healthy food for people? What could be more important than caring for this beautiful land? What could be more important than trying to make your animals as comfortable and well fed and watered as possible? Through the Eyes of a Farmer, nothing else is more important. And then, this land that asks so much from you, gives so much abundance back.

A word on storage of your veggies

When you get home, unpack your vegetables. The cut bunches of greens, such as kale, Swiss chard, etc. can be placed in a container of water and put in a cool spot out of sunlight, much like a cut flower bouquet. Alternatively, you may wrap a wet paper towel around the cut stems and place in a plastic bag in the fridge. All fresh cut herbs like to be placed in a small jar of water, then put in the fridge. The exceptions are basil and mint, which like to be on your countertop as they don’t like to be cold. Lettuce can be stored in a plastic bag or, if you have a salad spinner, wash the leaves and place them in the strainer portion of your salad spinner. Put the spinner together with the lid on and then store in your fridge. If you find yourself getting behind on your veggies, pretty much all of them can be washed, chopped, and placed in a plastic bag. Squeeze air out, fasten shut, and freeze for later use in soups or slow cookers. Lettuce can be sauteed with butter and onions for a tasty side dish if you find you are not in the mood for salads that week.

Kale Caesar Salad

1 bunch kale
2 Tbsps mayonnaise 
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tsp Worcestershire sauce, or 2 anchovies,  minced
1 tsp dijon mustard 
1 to 2 Tbsps lemon juice
1/4 cup olive oil
Sea salt and freshly ground pepper
Grated Parmesan 
Finely chop kale stems. Slice kale leaves into ribbons. Massage kale to soften. Mix dressing ingredients and pour over kale. Refrigerate for a bit to let flavors mingle then serve. 
Dressing from smittenkitchen.com
Much thanks to Marie Fabian, one of our Croton-On-Hudson customers at The Organic Teaching Kitchen for sharing this wonderful recipe! We love hearing how you cook with our food!!

Dandelion Greens

Dandelion greens can be sauteed with garlic and olive oil, as can the rainbow chard and kale. Just slice the stems of the chard and kale and give them a 3 to 4 minute head start before adding the chopped leaves. Dandelion greens also make a wonderful pesto. Use a traditional pesto recipe substituting dandelion greens for basil. Delicious on pasta or spread on toast. They also are very nutritious as an addition to smoothies!

Lemon Dill Dressing

3 Tbsp fresh lemon juice
3 Tbsp dijon mustard 
1 tsp honey
2 garlic clove,  minced
1/2 tsp sea salt
 freshly ground pepper 
1/2 cup olive oil
2 Tbsp finely chopped fresh dill
Mix all ingredients and drizzle over lettuce 

Next week……sugar snap peas, chicory or escarole, green leaf lettuce, Fordhook chard

Have a wonderful week!

The post Week of June 27, 2020 appeared first on Eight Mile Creek Farm.

Red leaf lettuce, Crispino Lettuce, Kale, Bok Choy, Cilantro, Onions

Apple Bok Choy Salad
1 head bok choy, finely chopped
1 large apple, shredded
3 small carrots, minced 
1/2 cup chopped pink onion
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup raw cashews
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
1/4 cup raisins
1 tsp dijon mustard 
Combine bok choy, apple, carrot, and chopped onion in a bowl. Blend milk,  cashews, vinegar, raisins and mustard in a food processor.  Add to chopped vegetables.  
adapted from epicurious.com 

Kale Salad with Balsamic Dressing 
1/4 cup dried cranberries 
1/3 cup pine nuts
1 bunch kale
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar 
3 Tbsp olive oil
1 Tbsp rice vinegar 
1 Tbsp honey
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper 
1/4 cup grated parmesan 
Toast pine nuts by heating in a pan over medium high heat.  Chop kale fine and place in a bowl. Whisk balsamic,  olive oil,  rice vinegar,  honey,  salt and pepper in another bowl. Toss kale with cranberries,  pine nuts,  and dressing. Just before serving,  stir in grated Parmesan.
From simplyrecipes.com

Cilantro Lime Salad Dressing
1 bunch cilantro 
3 garlic cloves
3 Tbsp fresh lime juice
1/2 cup Greek yogurt 
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper 
6 Tbsp olive oil 
Blend and adjust for seasonings.  Drizzle over lettuce.

Next week…….Swiss chard, dill, lettuce

The post Week of June 20, 2020 appeared first on Eight Mile Creek Farm.

Available from the farm this week:
Cabbage, Carrots, Onions, Microgreens, Beets, Rutabaga, Leeks, Butternut Squash, Veggies Frozen at their Summer Peak: Chard, Dandelion Greens, Escarole
Eggs, Beef, Chicken

Butternut Squash ala EMCF
Lay peeled, cored, sliced butternut squash out in a single layer on a roasting pan. Drizzle generously with extra virgin olive oil and sprinkle with sea salt. Roast at 400 degrees on a center rack in your oven until golden brown around the edges. Enjoy!

Pot Roast with Winter Veggies
1 EMCF chuck or shoulder roast, defrosted
2 or 3 leeks, washed and cut in half then into 1 inch pieces
Several carrots, washed and cut into 1 inch pieces
1 large or a few small onions, cut into wedges
Sea salt and pepper
Turmeric, rosemary, thyme
2 to 3 Tbsp olive oil or EMCF pork lard
Heat lard or oil in cast iron Dutch oven over medium high heat until melted. Place roast in pan and brown on all sides. Sprinkle roast with salt, pepper and a generous amount of the dried spices. Add 1 to 2 cups water to pan and bring to boil. Turn heat to low and cover pan. Cook on low at least 3 hours and up to 5 hours, adding leeks, onions and carrots during last hour. Check often to see if more water is needed. Serve over rice.

“A nation that destroys it’s soil destroys itself.”
~Franklin D. Roosevelt

The post Soil appeared first on Eight Mile Creek Farm.