CSA Week 11

Hello! Welcome to week 11!

Last week as I was harvesting sunflowers I noticed many more bees than usual. I stepped back to look at the row of flowers and saw there were 5 to 8 bees on each head of the sunflower. This was a sure sign that Armando was up to something with his bees. I look up the hill and there he is with Joe, both in their bee suits, giving the hives a little pine needle smoke from the smoker to quiet down the colonies so they can work in relative calm to collect our summer honey.

Here is a short pictorial of how that incredibly unique golden syrup got into those glass jars.

Here is Armando.

He has about 3 lbs. of bees to start the hives in the spring.
We started three more hives this year. Last years' hives restarted themselves after the long,
cold winter.

The bees are poured into the hives...........

Armando takes a close look to make sure the colony is accepting it's new queen.

The queen is shipped along with the bees but in a separate, little wooden box with mesh windows.

The mesh screen allows the colony to smell the pheromones of their new queen and to give

them time to accept her as their collective mother.

On August 11th , they smoke the bees to keep them calm as they take away the "supers" or

honey storage portions of the hive.

The wax caps are carefully scraped off, revealing the glistening sweetness inside each

tiny cell.

The frames are put 2 by 2 into the honey extractor and through centrifugal force,

the honey is thrown to the sides of the extractor.

The liquid gold is then put through a sive and bottled.

Your majestic summer honey is ready!

Harvested just for you...............

Honey

Lettuce Mix

Green Scallions

Sweet Italian and Bell Peppers

Tomatillos

A variety of Heirloom Tomatoes

Jalapenos

Yellow Storage Onions

Adirondack Blue Potatoes

Seasonal Fruit Share:

Blueberries

Nectarines

Jupiter Grapes

Charentais Melons

I tasted these beautiful Jupiter Grapes last week at Mick's stand and could barely walk away from them. These are seedless and full of flavor. Enjoy!

What's for dessert? The Charentais Melons are a French variety, deliciously sweet, cantaloupe with a light flower aroma. These are grown by Peter Kline of Seedling Fruit.

Adirondack Blue Potato, yes this potato does have a bold blue/purple skin and flesh. These are great roasted, boiled, steamed or mashed and also adds a great color in your salad.

Peppers! This is their first appearance from the field. The Italian variety is a long and conical in shape pepper. Both varieties will have various colors from red to orange to yellow. All are ripe and ready for your grill or thinly sliced, raw and wonderfully crunchy.

Tomatillos! "Tomato Verde" These are the small green round tomatoes that are popular in Mexican Cuisine. You will want to discard the husk around the tomatillo and store them in a plastic bag in your fridge until ready for use. Here is an easy and tasty tomatillo salsa recipe:

8 to 10 tomatillos, husked and well washed, quartered

1/2 bunch of scallions, roots and green ends trimmed, cut into segments

5 garlic cloves, smashed

2 jalapenos, roughly chopped

Pinch of allspice

Salt to taste

Puree all ingredients together until very smooth either in a blender or food processor.

Season with salt.

Top your favorite enchiladas, tamales or skirt stake.

Enjoy the bounty of the farm!

Your farmers,

Tania and Chris Cubberly

CSA Week 10

Hello!

Welcome to Week 10!

Thank you to all of you that came out to the Second Annual Farm Tour last Saturday! We enjoyed seeing you on the farm and showing you where your food is grown. Our many conversations about our food system, locally grown food, pasture vs. free range chicken, farm land in Lake County, what farmer's markets mean to us and all the different interests all of you have really shows us your support. As you applaud us we applaud all of you for stepping out of the grocery stores and supporting your local farm. Thank you!

Here are some of the many pictures from the tour. I can't fit all of them in this newsletter but will include them in my future writings. Enjoy!

Our youngest member, 4months old, Aliana Roubitcheck from Chicago.

Harvested just for you:

Tomatoes: Striped German, Black Ruffles, Rose, Big Beef, Ibsen Gold

Nadia or Beatrice Eggplant

Fresh Basil

Garlic

Summer Color Carrots

Mustard Greens

Leeks

Pasture Raised Eggs

Seasonal Fruit Share:

Peaches

Purple Plums

Paula Red Apples

Sweet Granite Cantaloupe

Arava Melon

The Sweet Granite Cantaloupe and Arava Melon is grown by our friend farmer Peter Klien of Seedling Fruit in South Haven Michigan. Among his 81 acre farm filled with 70+ varieties of apples he grows beautiful melons that we didn't want you to miss! On Peter's recipe page you'll find a great ice cream base recipe for your fruit as well as a recipe for apple infused vodka. Cheers!

Leeks resemble an over grown green onion with a sweeter and more delicate flavor than an onion. Remove most of the greens from the top and peel away the outer tough portion. I usually start by cutting the leek in half lengthwise and then decide how thick or thin the pieces should be.

Our very own pasture raised eggs! We share the bounty of our farm fresh eggs once a season. Many of you have been enjoying our farm fresh eggs and know how rich and wonderful they are, for those of you who haven't tried them yet here is your chance to get hooked and not look back to the other side of the fence. Roasted tomatoes, crispy leeks and a fried egg, it's not just for breakfast at our house.

Eggplants are one of my favorite plants grown on the farm. Among the green leaves and stems glows a magnificent hue of purple. With it's unique oblong shape the deep purple eggplant is called Nadia. The more pale purple hue and round in shape is called Beatrice. It will be a suprise to see which is in your share this week! They may have a slight difference in flavor but share the same pleasant bitterness and spongy texture. If you don't plan to use this right away store it unwashed and uncut in a plastic bag in your fridge. Once you're ready to use it peel or don't the skin and let it rest with a good amount of salt to eliminate some of the water. You're on your way to cook it as you wish. Here is a great Grilled Eggplant and tomato sandwhich to enjoy!

Your farm crew: from left to right, Michael, Armando, Wes, Tania, Fransicso, Joe and Chris.

Enjoy the bounty!

Your farmers,

Tania and Chris Cubberly

CSA Week 9

Hello!

Welcome to week 9!

Last week we were finally able to turn off our window air conditioners and fans and fall asleep listening to the crickets sing with the cool night air. Although the days have still remained in the upper 80's we've kept up a good pace around here. We spent much of our day on Wednesday and Thursday pulling onions out of the ground, loading them into crates and then organizing them on tables in the greenhouse for them to cure.

This season you've been able to enjoy shallots, wala wala onions and red cippolinis in your shares. We also grew yellow storage onions and yellow cippolinis that will be in your shares the next couple of weeks.

Harvested just for you.........

Lettuce Mix

Red, Cioggia, and Gold Beets with out greens

Cucumbers

Wala Wala Onions

Crimini Mushrooms*

A Variety of Tomatoes

Carrots with green tops

Fresh Thyme

Fruit Shares:

Nectarines

Blackberries

Red Raspberries*

Red Raspberries may be substituted with peaches this week due to the rains in Michigan. These berries are very fragile to harvest in the rain so lets see what happens and hope that the rains go away for harvest time.

Your crimini mushrooms are from our friends from River Valley Ranch in Burlington Wisconsin. These will go wonderfully sauteed with your wala wala onions. Here is a nice recipe that could be paired with your entree or topped on a slice of great crusty bread.

Don't Forget!

Saturday August 7th is our Second Annual Farm Tour! We'll open our doors starting at 12:30pm and will start the tour promptly at 1pm. The tour will start at 18080 W. Millburn Road. You'll find plenty of parking there. There will be washrooms and water available there. The tour will consist of lots of walking and lots of talking. Please wear good walking shoes ( no sandals or flip flops ), bring your water bottle, wear sun screen, a sun hat will be a great relief, your camera and your questions!

One more note.................

It's great to see all our members so interested in locally grown healthy food especially the children help out mom, dad, or grandparents to help pick food from the table. I know one dad that will buy his kids ice cream if they can identify all the vegetables they are picking up. Here are a few shining faces that we see at our farm.

Enjoy the bounty of the farm!

Your farmers,

Tania and Chris Cubberly

CSA Week 8

Hello!

Welcome to week 8!

After all this heat last week we ended up with a little over 6 inches of rain from Friday and Saturday. Yes, rain is good but too much is not so good around here. With the drain tiling that was done on the 13 acres my mind was rest assured that we would not have any severe flooding in the field. What came after the rain was a real mess going in for the harvest! We're prepared with our muck boots and rain gear but when I was out cutting flowers I was glad that the rest of the crew were in the same field with me in case I needed to be pulled out from my sinking boots in the mud.

Of course I grabbed the camera and took some pictures of our crew harvesting, rain or shine! Above is Michael, who many of you met at the On Farm Pick Up. He never thought he'd wear so much yellow in one day! At the bottom left is Joe cutting some greens off yellow onions. On the right is Wes who just finished pulling onions from the muddy ground. I may not have introduce Wes before but he came to us in late June and will be leaving to go away to school the second week of August. We've been lucky to have him be part of our crew this season and we're hoping that he'll come back next season since he literally lives around the corner from the farm! Thank you Wes!

Your bounty for this week:

Fresh Basil

A variety of small early ripening Tomatoes

Green Zucchini/Yellow Summer Squash

Shallots

Sweet Corn

Baby Arugula

Italian Romano Beans

Seasonal Fruit Share for this week

Blueberries

Nectarines

Red Plums

The Sweet Corn grown on our farm is never sprayed. You may find a small corn-ear worm or two at the tip of the cob. Don't fear! Simply flick 'em to the side or cut the tip off. They will do no damage to us, they're just trying to eat some really good corn!

Every year I've compared the current season to the previous season's harvest. Last season we did not start harvesting early tomatoes until the very end of August! This year we were able to begin harvest July 16! You can really say that this is summer weather, hot days and warm nights! Enjoy the flavor with your fresh basil!

Shallots are wonderful in so many ways....... here is a tomato salad with crispy shallot recipe.

A Blueberry and Nectarine Crisp! This recipe came from a great recipe site that one of our crew, Michael, pointed out to me. It's called http://www.foodgawker.com/

Andrea Landsberg, CSA member, also shared with me another great site for recipes, http://www.eatingwell.com/ fun cooking up some great recipes from that site! Tomato-Corn Pie!

Date to remember!

August 7th is our Second Annual Farm Tour. The tour will begin at 18080 W. Millburn Road. This is the address of our wash pack shed where we'll start the tour. There is plenty of parking there too. We would like to begin the tour promptly at 1pm and end by 2:45. Since this is a harvest day for us we can only dedicate a couple of hours for the tour. The tour will be a walking tour through vegetable and flower fields. We'll also visit our layer chickens and broiler chickens. The farm is 13 acres so there will be a lot of walking. If the sun is out please bring a sun hat and plenty of water, you'll be happy you did. Another recommendation is to please wear closed toe shoes. Many areas of the farm is rocky and bumpy so let's protect our toes! Children are welcomed though strollers would be a struggle in the fields. If a stroller is necessary we'll do our best to help you get through the fields. I will include more details next week.

Don't forget to send me an email to let me know you'll be coming to the tour!

Enjoy the bounty of the farm.

Your farmers,

Tania and Chris Cubberly

CSA Week 7

Hello!

Welcome to week 7!

Our trip to Arthur, Illinois went well. Not much, if anything, has changed over there which is good. It has this natural feeling there where everyone waves hello. At the Red Hen Restaurant the locals there have a large communal table where friends come and go and talk about the day.

It was also good to see lush vegetable and flower gardens that the Amish plant by their homes. I would even say it's close to a true farmette. With all the acres of tall green corn and soy beans growing around their bright white homes these vegetable and flower gardens makes this scene more "lived in".

Our pasture raised, organically fed chicken is now available for purchase on Wednesdays during our on farm CSA pick up (4 - 7pm), Saturdays at 61st Street Farmer's Market (9-2pm) and Sundays at Logan Square Farmer's Market (10-3pm). We sell them whole, frozen for $3.45 a pound and whole cut-up, frozen for $3.75 a pound. Come out and enjoy what real chicken should taste like!

Other news............

In the news twice in one month!! NBC nightly news, with Brian Williams. The show is called Making a Difference. It was based on making healthy eating more affordable for people using LINK/food stamps. Although the Connecticut farm dominated to show, Tempel Farms Organics made the cut for the show!

We were also front page in the Gurnee Review Newspaper! It was really great to have this article written about the farm. The community here really needs a local source for organic healthy food and we're proud to be able to offer it.

It's been sunny and hot! The tomatoes are just starting to ripen and same with our peppers. I would predict in a week or perhaps two you will be seeing these beauties in your share.

This weeks bounty:

Fresh Dug Cippolini Onions

Fennel Bulbs

Green and Yellow Wax Beans

New Red Potatoes

Chives

Cucumbers

Large Red and Gold Beets without greens

Sweet Corn*

This weeks fruit share:

Brightstar peaches

Blueberries

Yellow Plums

Your cippolini onions are an Italian variety, flat, pale yellow with thin skins. These should be used right away or stored in your fridge in a plastic bag. These are your cooking onions and are fantastic roasted. They make a great caramelized onion. Pair these up with your fennel on the grill, break apart some fresh mozzarella on your plate and enjoy being the chef of your kitchen.

Cucumbers are thriving and all I have to say is that it is your duty to eat as is or begin pickling! Great recipe on our website, http://www.tempelfarmsorganics.com/.

New Red Potatoes! It's great to see these first potatoes being dug from the ground. As you will see their skin is fresh and very delicate. They may not look so pretty but their taste will make you forget about how they look. My advise.... grill, mashed or salad. Enjoy!

Where are the beets? I know, these are huge!! and full of flavor. I know I have juicers out there that are going to be very satisfied! The greens are gone because the heat has really wilted them away but left us with a wonderful vegetable.

These delicious Brightstar Peaches will help quench your thirst this summer and leave you with memories to remember this winter.

Grilled Salmon with quick Blueberry Pan Sauce......... I'm not a nutritionist but we all can hear our mothers telling us how healthy they are for us! If you can't seem to eat this superfood right away then store them in your fridge unwashed in it's container. I on the other hand can't store these. They go right under the water for a rinse and then half of them get mashed for Charlie and mixed with yogurt. The rest are dealt for us to top Chris's homemade ice cream!

Just a reminder............

Our Second Annual Farm Tour will be August 7th at 1pm. If you haven't done so already please email me to let me know that you will be able to make it. I need a head count and car count please! Bring a friend! I'll post additional information about the tour, where to meet, what to bring....in a later newsletter.

Pasture Raised eggs and chicken, organically raise but yet not certified are available for purchase on Wednesdays during the On Farm Pick Up between 4 and 7 pm, Saturdays at 61st Street Farmer's Market and Sundays at Logan Square Farmer's Market.

Your farmers,

Tania and Chris Cubberly

As you can see my blogger skills are not perfected yet! I can't seem to keep the spacing that I want in between paragraphs and setting the pictures where I want them. As the weeks of newsletters go by I'm sure that by week 20 I should have this down. Thanks for your patience!

CSA Week 6

Hello!

Welcome to Week 6!

It is Monday evening and Chris and I are going over the chores for the farm crew to do while we're off to Arthur, Illinois for a few days. Arthur is located 4 hours south in central Illinois, the heart of Illinois Amish Country! Other than our pick-up truck and a few others driving through you'll find mostly horse drawn buggies and plenty of bicycles on the vast flat open roads.

So, why are we going to Arthur? No, not vacation! We're visiting the only USDA poultry processing facility in the entire state of Illinois. We have been involved in many conversations about the need of a USDA processing facility in Northern Illinois but are still waiting to see it in the works. Four hours doesn't seem like a long time to travel but when you need to be at the facility by 6 am we need to start driving our chickens down by 1:30 am! We do have the chance to stay over night, while we wait for the chickens to freeze, and take advantage of touring Amish farm fields. In your next newsletter I'll post some pictures from our trip.

With this news, we are pleased to announce that our broilers will be for sale beginning on Wednesday July 14 at the on farm pick up and at both our farmer's markets in Chicago, 61st Street and Logan Square. We didn't raise our broilers last season so I know there are many of you, including us, who have been waiting a long time for these pasture raised chickens!

This week's bounty:

Broccoli

Yellow Summer Squash/ Green Zucchini

Cucumbers

Green Curly Kale

Swiss Chard

Garlic

Shiitaki Mushrooms*

This week's fruit share: from Mick Klug Farm

Harbinger Peaches

Sour Cherries

Gold Cut Apricots

The Shiitaki Mushrooms are from our friend farmer of River Valley Ranch. In 1976 Bill and his son Eric Rose founded River Valley Ranch and have been producing beautiful mushrooms and other specialty crops without the use of pesticides or any harmful chemicals. They are located in Burlington WI and have a store on the farm. It would be a great place to go for a visit and see the mushroom farm and shop at their store. For more info go to http://www.rivervalleykitchens.com/. Shiitaki mushrooms are great tossed with pasta, sauteed with onion, made into a soup, carmalized, so many choices. Since we just added this to our share we don't have it on our recipe page. Try these: www.allrecipes.com/Recipe/Shiitake-Angel-Hair-Pasta/Detail.aspx. Shiitake mushroom gravey for so many reasons: www.naturalmushrooms.com/gravy_recipe.php. Enjoy!

Sour cherries are definitely for baking. Here is your chance to show off your baking skills. If you don't have the time to use them up right away you could store your cherry pie filling with 3/4 cup sugar to 1 quart of sour pitted cherries. Pack in an airtight container with 1/2 inch of head space of use a freezer bag. These will last from 10 to 12 months in your freezer. However, if you're ready to bake try this Sour Cherry Pie with Almond Crumble, www.smittenkitchen.com/2010/07/sour-cherry-pie-with-almond-crumble/

Make it a date!

Our Second Annual Organic Farm Tour: August 7 at 1pm - 2:30pm. Rain date will be the following weekend, August 14. Please send me an email to let me know that you'll be coming. I will need a head count and car count. If the heat keeps up this summer you'll need to bring water, a sun hat, sun lotion, closed toe shoes (absolutely no sandals!), your camera, your children, sorry no pets, and all your questions. We are looking forward to seeing everyone on the farm!

We have been giving out two complimentary tickets for our CSA members to visit the famous Lipizzan Horse Show here at Tempel Farms. If you didn't get your tickets please let us know and we'll get them to you. You don't want to pass up this unique and sophisticated show. Please visit our website for more information on show days and times, http://www.tempelfarmsorganics.com/ .

Volunteer and future farmer in training, Erica, harvesting purple cone flowers for market.

Enjoy the bounty!

Your farmers,

Tania and Chris Cubberly

CSA Week 5

Hello!



Welcome to week 5!











We've had a week filled with blue skies and lots weeding being done now that the ground is dry enough for us to work on. With all the vegetables growing strong I pay more attention to the flowers that have seemed to bloom over night. This morning I cut about 30 stems of Sunflowers that I'll bundle and have ready for sale at the on farm pick up sight. I've brought many bouquets of Yarrow and Wildflowers to Logan Square and will also bring Sunflowers with Red Jewel Seteria Grass. Come early as these sell out quickly!







A project that has been in the works for a couple of months now is the new space for the on farm CSA pick up. Here in the picture you can see our Mortis and Tenon style lean-to. The wood used for the outside and inside of the space has been cut from using old oak trees from the farm. (no live trees have been harmed for this project.) The roof will have a slight slope and will be a grass roof, this may be the first grass roof in Lake County! The project also consists of reconstructing part of the garage to house a fridge for our produce and eggs, a freezer for chickens, shelves for our honey and room for our future products. I can't say when this project will be finished but when it is I'll be proud to let you know, everyone will be welcomed for a visit!

From the farm's bounty this week:

Romain Hearts

Fennel Bulbs

Fresh Dug Wala Wala Onions

Zucchini/Yellow Summer Squash

Cucumbers

Red Beets with Greens

Green or Purple Kohlrabi

Green Cabbage

Fruit Share this week:

Blueberries

Red Raspberries

Harbinger Peaches

Harbinger Peaches are one of the first variety of peaches to ripen in the midwest. You'll find that the pits are split, this is normal for this type of peach. It's full of flavor and ready to eat!

Cucumbers! The first of the season have bloomed! The skin on these beauties may be a little tough. I've peeled some of the skin off, thinly sliced them and set them in a medium bowl. Add a good amount (enough to cover) of Seasoned Rice Vinegar (also known as sushi vinegar) and a splash of cold water. For a great refreshing side dish I also add a few ice cubes and stir it all around. Add salt and pepper to taste and even some thinly sliced wala wala onions.



Wala Wala Onions are freshly dug and have not been cured. If you don't plan on using these right away please store them in your fridge in a plastic bag. These are a perfect onion, mildly sweet, that are great grilled along with some zucchini and yellow summer squash. Place these on some really good chiabbata bread with goat cheese, a side dish of cucumber salad and enjoy the day!



Fennel Bulbs, a wonderful flavor and aroma of licorice with the same crisp as a celery. This unique bulb is great raw added to your slaw or roasted with olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Remove the stalks and cut off the bottom part of the bulb. Thinly slice and enjoy!

Don't forget to visit our website, www.tempelfarmsorganics.com and look up recipes using our recipe finder.

A few of the recipes on our recipe finder:

Roasted Cabbage Wedges
Beet, Cucumber and Celery Relish ( you can substitute the celery with fennel)
Cabbage Braised with Riesling and Caraway
Fennel and Radish Salad


Upcoming dates to remember:

*Whole and Whole Cut-Up Organic, pasture raised Broiler Chicken will be available starting July 14!! Read more about our broilers on the poultry page of website.

**Second Annual Farm Tour will be held August 7th at 1pm. Rain alternative will be on August 14 at 1pm. Mark your calendars and let me know if you'll be able to make it, send an email!


Enjoy this weeks bounty!

Your farmers,

Tania and Chris Cubberly