Volume 21, Week 18
Full share & đ yellowđ half shares
218 Gates Avenue between Classon and Franklin
(IMPACCT Brooklyn at the Gibbs Mansion)
5:00 to 7:30 pm
Halloween is just around the cornerâŚ
âŚAnd weâre hoping to revive our Halloween potluck, a once annual tradition, dormant since 2020âŚ
The festivities will take place during distribution on October 27th - if youâre interested in baking a treat or contributing in any other way (ideas welcome!), please reach out to Sarah - sarahchinn67@gmail.com
Raffle + Recipe Update!!
All entries must be received by October 20! Send us photos and recipes of your favorite dishes, drinks, and desserts to make with your late summer and fall produce! For every submission, we'll enter your name in a raffle - you'll have a chance to win goodies from Lewis Waite farm and Clinton Hill CSA swag! You may even see your recipe on social media (follow us!), or here in the Beet! The raffle winner will be announced October 27th, and can claim their prize at pickup on October 27th or November 3rd!
Submit your recipe + photo here! Feel free to reach out to information@clintonhillcsa.org with any questions!
This weekâs share
Acorn squash
Lettuce
Broccoli
Sweet peppers
Tomatoes
Onions
Chiles
Rosemary
Carrots
Fruit: Empire apples ânâ Bosc pears from Yonder Farm
Extras: herbal medicine, mushrooms, bread, eggs, Lewis Waite deliveries, and samples from Mustard Seed ânâ More!
A message for members with FRUIT SHARES: To make up for last weekâs missed share, we will be extending the fruit share by a week for FULL and GREEN FRUIT MEMBERS. You will receive your make up share on October 27th!
Thank you for your patience, flexibility, and understanding!
News from Windflower Farm
Distribution #18 - Week of October 3, 2022
Whatâs new on the farm?
The first hard frost of the season is expected here in the wee hours on Monday morning, and the entire farm team spent a couple of hours setting floating row covers over the top of frost-sensitive crops. We covered arugula, lettuce, kale, spinach and radishes. And we harvested the last of the tomatoes, eggplants and summer squashes against the likelihood that they wouldnât survive the cold. All that remains in the field is the hardy stock: potatoes, still in their hills, sweet potatoes, snug under their vines, broccoli, leeks, turnips and kohlrabi. The consensus among the produce growers in my circle is that global warming is most apparent in the fall, when the season remains relatively mild for perhaps two weeks longer than when we first started farming, but that it is still important to watch out for those stray early frosts.
Windflower Farm is 150 miles due north of Fort Tryon Park in Washington Heights. I know this because I had to explain to a State Trooper why I was exempt from the kind of recordkeeping he was asking for on my way home last week. What regularly surprises me each Tuesday when I drive the delivery truck is how much warmer it is in NYC than here. The water surrounding the city has a moderating effect that explains much of the difference. All the concrete and a few degrees of latitude must also help. I imagine how much longer my season would be if I could relocate my farm to the open fields of Van Cortland Park in the Bronx. We may be just 3 ½ hours by car from you, but we are three or four weeks north by the gardening calendar.
Feed the soil, weâve been told, and your healthy soil will produce good vegetable crops. Stick to these basics: keep the soil covered, alternate cash crops and green manures, rotate crop families and minimize tillage. We used the last of our rye-hairy vetch seed mixture today. Cold hardy winter rye will be sown alone from this point forward. But not to worry â itâs tough enough to germinate in the snow. Nate and I picked up mulch and drip tape from a newly harvested sweet potato field so that we could disc and sow the cover crop mix today.
It was dirty work, and there was a chill in the wind. We pulled out our cold weather work clothes for the occasion. While we worked, we reminisced about a two-day getaway: To get her annual ocean (and seafood chowder) fix late last week, Jan dragged us off to a spot near the Rachel Carson National Wildlife Refuge on the southern coast of Maine. The woods were lovely. Many of our old friends from the Boreal Forest were present â red maples, white pines, hobblebushes, wild sarsaparilla, hay scented ferns â but it was the upper story of mature white oaks combined with an understory of cinnamon ferns along with the backdrop of tidal marsh that stood out for us. We wished for kayaks. Fall colors were already at their peak along the road over Bennington Mountain. Back at the farm, golds and oranges are popping out.
Best wishes, Ted
Community Events
Hollenback Community Garden are hosting their annual Harvest Festival this Sunday, October 9th. Plants! Books! Baked Goods! Grilling! Books! Raffles! Blue Ribbon Contests! Oh my!
Are you a maker? Apply to be a vendor at the upcoming Local Artisans Craft Fair hosted by the Friends of Clinton Hill Library on Saturday, October 22nd from 11a-4p (rain date 11/5).
You can request an application by going to the CH library (380 Washington Avenue) info desk or by emailing tmantrone@bklynlibrary.org. Applications are due by September 30th!
The fair will be held outside of the library. In case of rain, it will take place on Saturday, 11/5/22. The library will provide tables, chairs, and tablecloths (no electricity or shade cover are available). All items sold must be hand-made by the applicant and no more than two vendors of similar items will be selected.
Recipes
This weekâs recipe for End Of Summer Plum Crostata is a submission from member Aemilia Madden! Keep submitting your recipes, you may see them here or on our Instagram!
Editorâs note: We may have missed the window for plums, but thereâs no reason why you couldnât use apples or pearsâŚ
To start, I use Alison Roman's pie crust recipe - listed out below. It's enough for two galette crusts so I tend to stick one flattened disk in the freezer for later.
2 ½ cups all-purpose flour, plus more for rolling
2 teaspoons sugar
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 Ÿ cups (2 ½ sticks) unsalted butter, cut into 1-inch pieces, chilled
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar or white distilled vinegar
Âź cup ice water
1. In a large bowl, whisk the flour, sugar, and salt together. Add the butter and toss to coat it in the flour mixture. Using your hands, smash the butter between your palms and fingertips, mixing it into the flour, creating long, thin, flaky, floury, buttery bits. Once most of the butter is incorporated and there are no large chunks remaining, dump the flour mixture onto a work surface.
2. Combine the vinegar with the ice water and drizzle it over the flour-butter mixture. Run your fingers through the mixture like youâre running your fingers through your hair, just to evenly distribute the water through the flour until the dough starts coming together.
3. Knead the dough a few more times, just to gather up any dry bits from the bottom and place them on the top to be incorporated. Once youâve got a shaggy mass of dough (it will not be smooth and it certainly will not be shiny), knead it once or twice more and divide it in half. Pat each piece into a flat disk, about 1 inch thick. Wrap each disk individually in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 2 hours.
NOW! On to the galette assembly.
Ingredients:
1 Pie crust
Around 1 lb of plums, sliced evenly (I believe I used about 6 for this recipe)
1/2 tsp. cinnamon (or alternately allspice for a fall-y twist)
1/2 tsp. white sugar
1 tsp. lemon juice
A few cracks of black pepper
Salt tp sprinkle
Cut up the plums and toss them in a bowl with the sugar, cinnamon, and lemon juice allowing them to macerate.
Pre-heat the oven to 375 c.
When the butter / crust has cooled, take it out of the fridge and place it on a lightly floured surface. Roll it flat and round-ish without letting the butter get too soft. To be quite honest, I don't have a rolling pin, so I used a water bottle and all ended just fine.
Start arranging the plums in the pastry starting at the center and pinwheeling outwards. It's ok if they overlap and stack, you want max fruit. Leave enough of the edges unfilled to allow you to fold them over.
Once you've placed all the plums, fold the crust edge inwards, slightly covering the outer layer of plums. Don't worry if pieces crumble off, the main need is to make sure the bottom edges feel thick enough to hold and not leak. Feel free to use loose pastry to enforce weak spots.
Now, finish the tart with the leftover maceration juice, and a dash of pepper. Then, as a final touch, add a bit of salt both over the plums and on the crust (I like a flaky kosher salt here)
Place in the oven for 40-50 minutes, checking to make sure it doesn't look too burned and that the plums are nice and juicy.
Remove â let rest for 10 minutes and serve. This also travels well cool!