Squash Tomatillo Soup

We've been fans of Moosewood cookbooks since the late '80's and finally made it to the restaurant itself in Ithaca, NY last summer (2011) where we had a fabulous dinner and, as it just so happens, bought the cookbook where this recipe appears ("Moosewood Restaurant New Classics" p 75).
One day in October we were looking for something new and seasonal to make for dinner. We were still harvesting both squash and tomatillos on our farm (as well as onions and tomatoes), so this recipe just leapt out at us. It is a superb soup, both our kids love it, and it has quickly become part of our standard cooking repertoire -plus it's a cinch to make!

Tomatillos
Fresh tomatillos are still very hard to find in Ontario. We grow and sell them at our farm from early August to late October. To extend the tomatillo season, you can keep them in the refrigerator for about a month, and they freeze very well -just remove the husk, wash, and freeze whole in freezer bags. Avoid canned tomatillos at all costs!

Squash
We often use butternut for soups, etc. It tastes great, has a rich colour and smooth texture, plus it's the easiest squash to peel and cube. This soup would also be great with any of the great tasting heirloom pumpkins that we grow, such as Musquée de Provence, Flat White Boer...

Our first batch of Squash-Tomatillos Soup, a memorable meal, Oct 30, 2011

Recipe (original Moosewood version)
This recipe makes a lot of soup (serves 8-10), reheats perfectly.

18 fresh tomatillos (about 2 pounds)
4 - 5 cups chopped onions
8 garlic cloves chopped
1 tablespoon olive oil
6 cups peeled and cubed winter squash
6 cups vegetable stock
3 cups chopped tomatoes
1 - 2 teaspoons minced chipotles in adobo sauce
salt and pepper to taste

Toppings
sour cream
chopped fresh cilantro
avacado cubes
crumbled tortilla chips



Preheat the oven to 450°
Remove and discard the husks of the fresh tomatillos. Rinse the tomatillos, cut them in half, and place them cut-side up in a single layer in a shallow baking dish. Roast for 30 - 35 minutes, until soft.


Meanwhile, in a soup pot, cook the onions in the olive oil on medium heat, stirring frequently for about 10 minutes, until golden. Add the garlic and cook for a couple of minutes, until fragrant. Stir in the squash, stock, and the tomatoes with their juice, cover, and bring to a boil. Lower the heat and simmer for 15 to 25 minutes, until the squash is quite tender. Add the chipotles and the roasted tomatillos.


In a blender, purée the soup in several batches and return to the pot. Add salt, pepper, and more chipotles to taste, and gently reheat if needed.


Serve hot, with some or all of the toppings.

Our latest Newsletter, August 2011

A Great BLT!

The Worlds Greatest BLT

We are now in peak tomato season, with lots of roma, cherry, beefsteak, heirloom, and good old field tomatoes coming in from our fields every day. It's time for freezing, canning, making chili sauces and salsas, and most importantly, eating as many yummy tomatoes as you can, especially in the form of bacon, lettuce, and tomato sandwiches! To make a truly great BLT, you need to do it yourself. If you order one at a restaurant, it will never be as good as homemade. Enjoy it with a glass of milk for lunch, or maybe a glass of Chianti for dinner. Then make it a meal with a delicious heirloom watermelon for dessert.

Fresh Picked Field Tomatoes

The Real Tomatoland!
It's time to celebrate and wallow in great tasting tomatoes. I think the ones we grow on our farm are probably about the best you can find anywhere. Under our tender loving care, our tomatoes have survived drought and deluge, and have ripened into delicious maturity. They are being picked at their field-ripened best, so you can't go wrong with whichever type you choose. They're at their peak for the next few weeks.

Photo: Our just a few of our fresh picked field tomatoes ready for grading.

I just finished reading Barry Estabrook's Tomatoland, all about growing tomatoes in Florida (everything you didn't want to know about growing tasteless tomatoes). A fascinating read, now I know why our tomatoes taste so good, and why so many others are not worth looking at. 

Brattleboro, NH Farmers' Market

Best Farmers' Market Yet!
At the end of July my family took a quick vacation to Bretton Woods, NH to visit Mount Washington (the highest mountain east of the Mississippi, and home to the highest wind speed ever recorded). While traveling, we always keep a lookout for farmers' markets, and we found ourselves one Saturday morning at the Brattleboro Farmers' Market in southern Vermont. It is perfect in size, with about 50 vendors situated in a park with huge trees providing shade, gravel pathways and a grassy centre courtyard. The vendors could only sell what they grew themselves (in other words, none of the "reseller" nonsense that you find at Burlington and Milton), so it was refreshing knowing we were buying from real farmers. The market also had a good selection of artisans/craftsmen, and what we really liked was the vendors offering prepared food. Everything from African dishes to Indian yum yums to gourmet pizza, all made by people passionate about their culinary heritage. You could eat at the market or take it home for dinner. In addition, each Saturday there is a different musician serenading the market. We love the Burlington and Milton farmers' markets, but the diverse array of goods, and the relaxed community atmosphere at the Brattleboro Farmers' Market was a delight, we didn't want to leave!
 

Heirloom Watermelons

Not Seedless! :-)
One of our sources for heirloom seed is the Seed Savers Exchange. While browsing through their gorgeous catalog last winter, I was intrigued by all the watermelon they had listed. Big ones, small ones, early ones, late ones, pink ones, yellow ones, white ones and orange ones. I thought to myself, you don't suppose the breeders of modern seedless watermelons are sacrificing flavour as they try to breed out the seed?
There was only one way to find out, and that was to grow some heirloom watermelons ourselves. Our harvest has begun, and we like what we're tasting. Our favourite from yesterday's taste test was "Cream of Saskatchewan" (bottom centre of photo).

For the next few weeks it is peak season for all the summer goodies growing on our farm, including melons and tomatoes (see the full list at the upper right corner of this email).

There are a million ways to make a BLT, here's mine:

4 slices of your favourite bread (I'm a big fan of sourdough), toasted lightly
8 slices of bacon, cooked almost crisp (don't succumb to grocery store bacon, get the fabulous thick sliced bacon from J&G Meats at Burlington Mall Farmers' Market, or Maziarz Meats at Milton--- if you're going to do this BLT thing, do it properly!)
6 big, thick slices of your favourite heirloom tomato (in the photo we used Aunt Ruby's German Green, and Pineapple)
Lettuce
Mayonnaise
Salt & Pepper to taste

Enjoy your sandwich(es). Follow it with an heirloom watermelon, and if you have kids, have a watermelon seed spitting contest! Enjoy summer's bounty. Life is good.

Bye for now,  

Zucchini Salad

I think this recipe comes from Jamie Oliver. It's become one of our favourites, the key is to use zucchini that was picked that day.

Use a potato peeler to thinly slice green and/or yellow zucchini lengthwise (remember with zucchini, the smaller the better).

Dressing:
Equal parts olive oil and freshly squeezed lemon juice
fresh red chile -deseeded and very finely chopped

Strawberry Shortcake

Strawberry Shortcake
You can't let a strawberry season go by without making strawberry shortcake. Here's our recipe, a traditional, complete from scratch version (and that's my bowl, hands off!).

The three parts of a superb strawberry shortcake:

The Biscuits
(makes 8, freeze the extras for next time)
2 cups flour
4 tsp baking powder
2 tsp sugar
¼ tsp baking soda
½ cup shortening
¾ cup buttermilk

Mix the dry things, cut in the shortening, mix in the buttermilk, roll ½" thick, cut into 3" round shapes, bake @ 450º 12 mins.

The Strawberries
Wash and slice 1 quart of berries. Mix in 1 tbsp. sugar.

The Whipping Cream
Nothing beats the flavour of home made whipping cream!
Whipping cream, mixer, a spoonfull of sugar, beat it!

Assembly
Slice the biscuit in half, and layer the berries and whipping cream in any which way you can!

Enjoy!

Where have all the blogs gone?

I don't think it's just me, but it seems that a lot of blogs die. There are probably many reasons, the novelty has worn off for the writer, and Facebook, are a couple that spring to mind. I am not posting very much to this blog, and Facebook is the main reason. I write this blog for two reasons. 1) I like to write. and 2) I like to spread the news about what is going on at our farm. Facebook does a better job at that than this blog! I plan to continue posting copies of our newsletter here (some people with old email software have troubles reading it), and I will continue to post recipes here. Heck if there were two of me we would have lots of recipes posted here.
So, if anyone is reading this, I sure hope you're following us on Facebook, because that's where all the action is these days!

Hutchinson Farm News Vol. 15 No. 3

April 17, 2011

As I begin to write this newsletter, it is a cold and blustery Friday morning. With the sun shining bright, it is a lovely place to be. The greenhouses are comfy and warm, and one is surrounded by plants with deep vibrant green leaves, with splashes of colour from the blooms that are starting to open up. The air is moist, and smells alive. I set the greenhouse temperature to about  23 - 25C, great for growing and enjoying. It feels great. Short sleeves and all that. With the sun streaming in through the greenhouse plastic, the greenhouses gradually heat up, and the thermostat sends a signal to the ventilation fan: "start blowing, it's getting hot in here!" If you are standing at the back of the greenhouse, the temperature gradually falls a few degrees as the fan blows out the hot air, and draws in the cool air from outside. If you can picture our greenhouse fans, they are pretty big, about four feet across, so they can move a lot of air in a hurry. Now, if you happen to be standing near the front of the greenhouse, you're basking in 25C air, and then the fan goes on and WHAM, you are hit with a blast of frigid 3 degree air. Ugh. It gets worse: our greenhouses aren't connected, so you have to walk outside from one greenhouse to another (which I do a lot). Today was simply unbearable, the shock made it almost too cold to breathe, and you've got to feel sorry for the plants by the doors!

• Third Annual Open House (pun intended)
  All our greenhouses will be open for a sneak peek on Sunday April 24th from 1:00 - 4:00 pm.
  It's a time to see what we've be doing for the past three months (growing annuals), check out the new flowers, get some ideas for your garden,  enjoy some time in the country, and just have a nice visit with my family while enjoying the beautiful flowers in our greenhouses.
  
  
• One of my favourite parts of our open house is that everyone gets to vote for their favourite flower. It may be an easy decision, or hard decision, but either way, it's a lot more fun voting for flowers than politicians!
  
  
• We also have a couple of special activities for kids. Rebecca is going to be running a seed planting station where kids will be able to plant their own pot of seeds to bring home. We also have a little treasure hunt exploring the diveristy of our flowers, and there is a rumour that the Easter Bunny may have hidden a few goodies amongst the flowers.
  
  
• New Flowers
  This year we have close to 400 different flower varieties growing in our greenhouses. Lots of the tried and true varieties, and some new ones too. Calibrachoa (aka Million Bells) has the most new colours. If you've never grown cali's, you should. With an outstanding colour range and season long flower power, cali's are a welcome addition to any garden. There are two new cali's this year: SuperBells Blackberry Punch, and SuperBells Coralberry Punch. For the first time we are also growing the complete series of trailing calibrachoas, so in total, we have 26 different cali's in our greenhouses. Also of note: Lanai Strawberries and Cream Verbena, Luscious Citrus Blend Lantana, some 'new' heirloom nasturtiums, plus a few more. We had requests to grow ivy, so new for us this season is German Ivy, and three varieties of Engish Ivy.
  
  
• Sustainability
  As we continue to strive to reduce our environmental footprint, some of our actions affect our customers, such as:
  
  
  • Flower Labels: We are now only using labels when we are forced to by the flower patents. Our unlabeled flowers will have their name hand written on the pot.
    
  • Flower trays: Please bring your own boxes to take your flowers home in, or skip the tray completely and gently place your flowers in your car.  We will have many free used boxes, but not enough for everyone. New flower trays are available, $2.00 each. Donations of boxes are most welcome!
  • Coffee: lots of customers enjoy a cuppa, we know, because our store garbage can is primarily full of Tim Horton cups! We will have complimentary coffee, tea & juice available at our open house, but YOU MUST BRING YOUR OWN MUG!
    
    
  We hope you embrace our sustainable philosophy!
  

Our official selling season begins Sat April 30, and we'll be open every day until the second Monday in August. We're looking forward to seeing lots of you at our open house, bring your whole family, and please invite your friends and neighbours as well. The long range forecast looks sunny and warm, so it should be a fun afternoon. Don't forget your camera!

Bye for now,



More than a newsletter: Our FaceBook page is becoming more and more popular, and this month we're posting almost every day with lots of pictures and quick stories that aren't in the newsletter.

Spring in the greenhouse

We've been planting in our greenhouses since Feb 23. The first thing that gets planted are the ivy geranium hanging baskets. Normally we'll cut off all the buds, but it is nice to leave a few so that we can enjoy the colour! In the foreground of the picture is "Minicascade Pink", in the background are "Minicascade Lavender" and "Minicascade Red". If you talk to me in May, I'll tell you that Mini Red and Mini Lav. make the greatest hanging baskets (colour all season, extremely low maintenance, and they're forgiving if you forget to water them)! I'm not so keen on Mini Pink -it fades, but right now in our greenhouses, with relatively low light conditions, it is a beautiful colour. Click to see the full size image.

New Heirlooms

Thanks to everyone who voted in our 2011 heirloom tomato poll, and double thanks to Alexander who voted twice. Six new heirlooms have been decided on for planting in our fields this May, giving us  a total of about three dozen tomato varieties. If you discover a tomato cultivar you would like us to grow next year, let me know, and I'll add it to next years poll. 

Here are the winners:

Andrew Rahart's Jumbo Red: This will be the first "regular" red heirloom tomato we've grown. I keep coming across more and more growers who love this tomato not just because of its flavour, but also for the quality of the fruit and health of the plant.

Blondkopfchen: This is a yellow cherry. We've grown lots of yellow cherries before, and like most yellow tomatoes, they are mild flavoured. This one is supposed to be the best tasting yellow cherry, we'll see! Anyone speak German? Tomato websites say it means "little blond girl", but Google translates it as "blond brains!"

German Red Strawberry: We grew an orange strawberry last year, so this is a welcome addition to the strawberry, or heart shaped tomatoes.

Indian Stripe: This one wasn't on my top six list, and come to think of it, I don't think I voted, oh well. It's described as being similar to Cherokee Purple (one of our favourites) but with occasional stripes.

Stupice: One of the best tasting red tomatoes. This small tomato is the earliest tomato to ripen, maybe we'll taste these in mid July! Stupice is from the Czech Republic and is pronounced "Stoo-peach-ka"

Speckled Roman: This is a red plum with orange stripes that looks great in photos, and supposedly tastes great also. Can't wait to see it!

The photo is of our three colours of plum tomatoes, about to go into the oven. In our poll, I was hoping that "Black Plum" would get enough votes, it would look so good next to the red, yellow, and orange plums. Better luck next year.

How to dry an apple gourd

This is perhaps an odd time of year to write about gourds, but bear with me, you'll see why. We grow too many gourds, but what's not to like about all the crazy shapes and sizes, multitude of colours, and textures? Most gourds are simply used to decorate your homes for the autumn harvest celebration, and probably get thrown in the compost when it is time to put up the Christmas decorations. Some of those gourds will have started to pass to the other shore, I know I've found my share with a puddle underneath where they are sitting, these are the ones you're sometimes afraid to lift up!

"Apple Gourds"  have a much longer life span.  They start off looking like a big apple, with their mottled dark green and light green skin, they even have a cute little stem on top. We've had one decorating our kitchen counter for three months now, and until recently it looked great, and its colour even matched our Christmas decorations.

As you can see from the photo, it is now time to banish it elsewhere. It is covered in white mold, which will soon turn black. If you saw any other vegetable covered with this mold, you would throw it out. With apple gourds (or any other of the "bottle" gourds), I'm don't have to do that. I don't want all those spores in my house, so I could wash it, but the mold would come back quickly.

I'm going to let that gourd dry out all by itself, covered in mold, in my garage. I'll post an update in a few months.