October sunflower heads bobbing in the dry, fall breeze. There are still so many to take home from the cutflower garden!
THIS WEEK’S SUBSCRIBER MENU:
• Lettuces
• Cannellini Shelling Beans
• Arugula
• Collard Greens
• Torpedo Onions
• Tomatoes
• Sweet Peppers
• Eggplant
Click on the links above for information and recipes about these crops.
COMING SOON:
Potatoes
Baby Turnips
Spinach
Hard-Shelled Squashes
The Harvest Moon rises over the pole beans. A Harvest Moon is the first full moon after the Autumnal Equinox.
Technically, Autumn begins on or around September 21. It’s a vague marker, really. Sometimes fall slowly creeps in with the rain and wind, stormy and wet. This year, it’s strangely sneaking past us camouflaged by summer. It may be October, but it is sunny, dry, and warm. At least, during the day. At night it’s getting chilly and frosty. We actually made it into October before we lost the basil and summer squash plants. I don’t know if I remember getting our first frost that late in the season before. Some years, we get a damaging frost in early September. Not this year.
We are still irrigating. In October. We are still planting—in October. Usually we try to beat the imaginary planting clock, with a deadline of September 1—before the rain starts, simply because it’s nearly impossible to plant anything in mud. Sticky soil makes it impossible to use seeding machinery, and very difficult to use hands to set transplants.
But we are still planting. It’s dry, might as well throw some more ___ in the ground. This week, it’s salad greens. What the heck—might as well try, right?
In the meantime, we are having an awesome harvest of Shelling Beans. In wet years, we struggle to get them picked before they get moldy. But, in a dry year, the beans dry beautifully and the colors are nice and bright. This week we are offering Cannellini, which are an Italian white Kidney-type bean. They still only take 15-20 minutes to cook at a simmer. If you can’t use them up now, let them dry for later. Just remember that you’ll need to soak them before you cook them if they are dry.
Make a quick ratatouille with the surprise eggplant and peppers, to go along with the bountiful tomatoes we’re having this year. We had a delicious salad of arugula, sliced tomatoes, and cured olives the other night. Very tasty.
Don’t forget that our winter season is only five weeks away—I know it’s easy to forget with the everlasting summer. 10 extra weeks of deliciousness—all the way into January. Let us know if you’re interested, or pick up a flyer in the farm stand.
Whistling Train Farm 
I want you to know that last night I made the shelling bean gratin recipe that you’ve got posted. It’s to die for! Comfort food x 1000! Thank you for the recipe and the beautiful beans!!
So great to hear! We love it too!
I agree the shelling bean gratin is delicious. I just made it the third week in a row.
What an amazing week – the eggplant, tomatoes, and peppers, oh my…
We made a delicious linguini dish with the canellini beans and arugula – it had the texture of fettichini alfredo. The beans break down a bit and the starch from the beans and pasta thicken the sauce – butter, garlic, and wine. Not as rich with out the cream, but still amazing!
Inspired by an Oktoberfest dinner event we attended, we made some delightful little mushroom puff pastry pockets over the weekend. This paired well with an autumn slaw created with the collards, carrot, apple, dried cranberries, and sunflower seeds.
Tonight we’re having a roasted curry – we tossed the tomatoes, eggplant, peppers, some onion, garbanzo beans, and a potato with olive oil, curry powder, salt, and pepper then roasted at 375 until everything was soft an carmelized (the garbanzos get a little toasted/chewy). We’ll top some couscous with it tonight for a quick dinner and enjoy the leftovers for lunch tomorrow. I still have 1/2 a bunch of collard greens and will likely braise them with an onion, raisins, pine nuts, and a bit of hot sauce to go with the curry.
I was happy to see Mike back at the U-District Farmer’s Market and get a preview of what might be in our box next week. I was also oggling the winter squash and dreaming of roasted squash, squash rolls, pumpkin chili, and stuffed squash (mmm with hazelnuts!). Its so weird to enjoy a 70+ degree day and still have nights chilly enough for baking and dreaming of pumpkin pies…
Are there winter shares available? How much do they cost & how do we get the veggies?
Sent from my iPhone
Yes, we do have winter shares available! There’s a link for the winter application in the top post on our home page. You can pick up the produce at the farm, or at either the University District Farmers Market on Saturday, or the West Seattle Farmers Market on Sunday, or one of our Seattle neighborhood drop-sites in Capital Hill, North Seattle, or Columbia City.