Love Notes #20, October 26, 2016

Love Notes #20, October 26, 2016

LAST FARM SHARE OF 2016!!

By: Hannah Slipakoff

Packing the house with love! Participants at this weekend’s community day enjoy the pot-luck lunch together. (Photo: Leah Penniman)

Contents of Share
Announcements
Farm and Food Justice News
Recipes

CONTENTS OF SHARE

Winterbor or Red Russian Kale – 1 bunch
Lettuce- 1 to 2 heads
Purple Cabbage- 1 large or 2 small heads
Garlic – 4 heads
Onions- 3 to 4 fruits
Potatoes- approx. ¾ lb bag
Sweet Peppers- 2 to 3 fruits
Daikon Radish- approx. 1 bunch
Red/ ripening tomatoes – 2 to 3 fruits- place out of the fridge in newspaper to ripen
Green tomatoes- 4-8. See recipes below!
Peas- hearty handfuls
Jalapenos- 2 to 3 fruits
Optional: 1 dozen eggs
Optional: Spicy Fenugreek and Green Lentil Sprouts

Drumroll.. PEAS! Soul Fire is hiring! You know you wanna join this crew! (Photo: Jonah Vitale-Wolff)

JOB OPENINGS FOR SOUL FIRE FARMERS: We are hiring a 2017 farmer and farm manager to run our 1.5 acre vegetable and fruit operation, 3-acre pasture, 80-100 family farm share CSA program, and ~200 chickens for meat and eggs. Soul Fire Farm is an educational and organizing farm and as such, the farmers support youth and adult learners in farming tasks during certain programs. Farming experience is required. Please spread the word!!! Priority deadline October 25.

ADDITIONAL ANNOUNCEMENTS

FALL HARVEST BOX: Mourning the end of the Farm Share? We are pleased to be offering an extra share box for delivery November 2nd. Send us an email by Sunday evening, October 30th. The box will be packed as usual, and include extra goodies for storage, such as winter squash, garlic, and onions.

FINAL 2016 COMMUNITY DAY. 8-1 Work and learn together. 1-2:30 Potluck lunch. November 12. RSVP here.

UPCOMING EVENTS: We have many public speaking events coming up the fall, including at Yale, Black Farmers Conference, and Young Farmers Conference. We will host an on-farm ancestor healing workshop with Enroue Halfkenny on Saturday, November 19 – currently full but sign up for the waiting list if interested.

GARLIC FOR SALE: We have a beautiful hard-neck garlic for sale for eating or seed! All orders can be placed by-the-pound (a pound is roughly 1 quart) and picked up at the farm or delivered on our weekly Wednesday distribution route. This garlic will store for months, so stock up for your winter supply. Garlic also makes a great gift! Contact us if you are interested. $9 per pound. $12 for seed garlic.

RETURN YOUR BOXES AND JARS please. You can leave them where you get your delivery. If you break them down, please make sure not to tear or bend any of the tabs, or just leave the assembled box for us and we are happy to break it down.

WASH YOUR VEGGIES. We DO NOT extensively wash veggies before delivering them to you. We will do some washing if there is a lot of dirt on greens and we always rinse root crops. In general, this allows the food to stay fresher longer. It also means you need to wash your veggies before consuming them. For greens: fill a bowl with cold water. Soak greens in water for a minute. Drain water and repeat two more times. Dirt will rinse to the bottom. Bugs should float to the top.

KEEP FOOD FRESH, EASY: Store leafy greens in a sealed plastic bag in the fridge. To revive wilted greens, dunk them in ice water and dry in salad spinner or with gentle toweling. To make it easier to use greens on the go, wash and chop them in advance and store them in a sealed plastic bag. Then you can just grab a handful to add to your eggs, smoothie, soup, or saute. Quick and easy.

Want to savor a taste of Soul Fire after the farm share is over? Want to prepare for Halloween? PRE-ORDER YOUR GARLIC TODAY! You won’t be sorry. (Photo: Vampiresymposium.com)

FARM NEWS

Wow. Here we are at the end of the farm share. Over the last twenty weeks we’ve grown, harvested, and delivered over 1,350 boxes of fresh vegetables to community members in Albany and Troy. We started this journey back in February, seeding our first onions to prepare for the season. Now that we’ve cycled back to the time of snow and frost, our hearts and souls remain warm with all the love and gratitude we’ve cultivated through this honorable task. Thank you for entrusting us with this duty! The cooperative, community supported agriculture we’ve cycled through is proof that together we can build a better world. A truly nourished world where we prove the strength and impact, alongside the viability, of caring for the earth, feeding neighbors, and supporting activist farmers. We will miss this all winter long!

Throw back to June 15th– Amani and Heather help Hannah and Cheryl block traffic on Delaware Ave during the first farm share delivery of the season! (Photo: Jonah Vitale-Wolff)

As temperatures plummeted this Saturday, over 50 brave and big hearted individuals graced Soul Fire with their presence for our October Community Day. The beautiful crew included three generations of volunteers, BLFI alumnae from Albany to Boston, and farmer friends from the Adirondacks. Together we worked in the 40 degree weather, through icy rain and snow, processing onions, preparing our high tunnel for next-spring’s crops, chopping firewood, transplanting strawberries, and planting over 1,800 cloves of garlic to be harvested next summer. We are so blessed to have a community that understands that farm work persists through all elements! More so, we are endlessly grateful for the collective spirit that keeps Soul Fire afloat!

This picture of the frosty herb garden makes me so grateful for the plant medicine we preserved for winter! (Photo: Leah Penniman)

Friends from near and far share some belly-warming food at Saturday’s potluck. (Photo: Leah Penniman)

While the love of our community is most honorable, last week we were also THRILLED to be selected by New York State of Health Foundation as recipients of the Emerging Innovator Award! This award honored five organizations, including Soul Fire Farm Institute, that are poised to make radical improvements to the state of New York’s health over the next ten years. In the words of the Foundation; “Your direct food distribution, training programs, and policy work have the potential to transform the health landscape in New York State and beyond”. Thanks NY State of Health!

It’s true, we love the work we do.

Goodbye- Soul Fire Style. Farm share may over, and winter may be coming, but our hearts are forever warm just like this embrace that closed out BLFI round 1 in June! (Photo: Jonah Vitale-Wolff)

Love and Nourishment for the week ahead!!

RECIPE – Daikon “Fried Rice”

Quick, easy, delicious! Add other SFF veggies like kale or tatsoi to this simple dish for extra color and nutrition! (Photo and Recipe: Inspiralized)

Ingredients

1 large daikon radish, peeled
1 tbsp oil
1/2 tsp peeled and minced ginger
1 small garlic clove, minced
1/4 cup diced scallions
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
1 large whole egg or ¼ block of tofu (optional)
Toasted Sesame Oil and tamari to drizzle
pepper, to taste

Instructions

Grate the daikon, or pulse in a food processor.
Squeeze out the excess water from the daikon.
In a large skillet, place in the oil. Then, place in the garlic and ginger. Let cook for 30 seconds.
Add in the scallions and daikon rice. Cook for 1 minute and then sprinkle on the red pepper flakes. Stir to combine and cook for 3-5 minutes, stirring frequently. Set aside when done, in a bowl.
In the same skillet, crack over the egg and let cook until the whites set. Once done, place on top of the bowl of rice and season with pepper, sesame oil, and tamari.

GREEN TOMATO RECIPES

If the snow wasn’t enough of a sign, green tomatoes in your Farm Share surely send the message- the season is at it’s end! Check out the following recipes for some creative ideas on using your green beauties.

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Green tomato pie, and several more recipes can be found here! (Photo and content: Brit.co)

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Just want to fry ‘em? Check out this classic recipe (Photo and content: Food.com)