Passion for Parsnips

Almost all roots we harvest in the fall for storage to eat and sell as long through the winter as we can. Except parsnips. Well, we harvest some in the fall to enjoy all winter. But we save some. We save them in the ground. They freeze in there with the dirt all winter. And now, this time of year, we dig them up.

Why? The long freeze of winter brings out in them a wonderful sweetness of flavor, beyond that of those harvested in the fall. It’s a spring treasure. A little hoard we had hidden away.

A truckload of spring dug parsnipsWe had to be patient this year and wait until the late snows melted and the ground came unfrozen. We waited and here they are – the Spring Dug Parsnips! We love them here at the farm.

Early on, when I was falling for my farmer husband Ryan, I wrote a little song for him for his birthday. The refrain goes like this…

“Passion for parsnips and radio listenin’,
fresh salad in a muddy kitchen,
raw lips from too much kissin’,
O, no, there’s nothin missin!”

You should have tasted the excellent breakfast parsnips Ryan made that inspired that one. Maple syrup, walnuts, raisins, parsnips all in a skillet.

For little Wally, I now make parsnip puree. We boil the parsnips until soft, then put them in the food processor with a little of the boiling water, some butter and a pinch of salt. Puree and eat! One bite for me and one bite for Wally is how they go down.

Spring-dug parsnips are a seasonal delicacy, gaining in sweetness from the cold winter in the ground.

Roasted Spring-Dug Parsnips

Chop into sticks, coat with olive oil and a little soy sauce, salt and pepper. Bake in the oven at 400. Stir after a half hour. When cooked-through and lightly browned, remove and serve.

A few more recipe links….
Raw Parsnip Winter Salad
Parsnip Coconut Rice

You can find our Spring Dug Parsnips at the Winter Farmers Markets on Saturdays. Though not listed on our website, we are at the Northampton Winter Market on April 13 and April 20th. We may have some also for sale when the Granby and Montague Farm Stands open on April 27th, 2013.

Thanks for reading!

~Sarah Voiland
Red Fire Farm

Deep Winter Recipes

Here are a selection of tasty recipes with winter produce that you can try for your winter feasts, or other meals this time of year.  Great for Thanksgiving dishes!

You can get ingredients for these recipes, for your celebrations and storage, from our farm at our bulk ordering page.

Roasted Watermelon Radishes – Surprisingly sweet, tasty, and so pretty.
Kohlrabi and Potato Gratin – Rich and creamy
Raw Parsnip Winter Salad – Sarah makes this for fall and winter feasts. Parsnips are amazing raw.
Mashed Potatoes with Shallots – Shallots give a really nice flavor to the potatoes.
Daikon-Apple Salad – Refreshing and light.
Caramelized Leeks and Apples – A sweet and savory side dish.
Turnip Puff – A really fun way to serve turnips.
Maple-Glazed Sesame Sweet Potatoes – yum.
Rosemary Vinaigrette – A nice way to use this aromatic herb.
Warm Maple Dressing with Shallots – Great flavor to warm up a salad, or for slightly wilting spinach or other greens.

Parsnip “Fries” – A good appetizer

Beet and Winter Squash Strudel – Appetizer or main dish.
Kale ‘n’ Apples – Stellar fall/winter combo.
Butternut Squash and Rutabaga Puree – Smooth and creamy.
Butternut Apple Bisque
Curried Carrot Dip
German Sweet and Sour Red Cabbage – Tangy and sweet, and a gorgeous purple color.
Gilfeather Turnip Puree – Featuring Gilfeather turnips from the Slow Food Ark of Taste. They are so flavorful!
Stuffed Delicata Winter Squash – You can use this recipe with other types of winter squash too.
Coconut-Rutabaga-Carrot Mash
Baked Apples– Very easy, personal-sized, and delicious dessert.
Sweet Potato Pie – Sweet potatoes make a really amazing pie. Most say it’s better than pumpkin.

Visit our bulk order page to see what is in season now. Happy cooking!

Who Are Your Farmers? — Abby

Abby Getman — Planting & Production Manager in Granby

Abby is in charge of the fields and greenhouses, from seeds to weeds.  The Granby farm produced most of the early season crops, like the first successions of cucumbers, melons and tomatoes, as well as the majority of storage items like sweet potatoes, onions and cabbage.

In the Spring, you could find Abby in the greenhouses, banging out tray upon tray of onions, cucurbits or micro-seeding all of those exotic heirloom tomatoes!  These days, there’s a lot of bulk harvesting going on, so she’s usually found on a tractor or in the field with the crew, bringing in the bounty.

How did you get into farming?  I grew up on my family’s small farm in Northern Connecticut.  My great-grandparents bought the land when they came over from Lithuania and worked in the textile mill down the street.  My mother spent her summers growing up there, so she convinced my dad to buy the farm and they’ve been farming the land for the past 28 years.  My mom got my sister and I into vegetables by forbidding us to go into the garden, so we’d snack on carrots, peppers and spinach when she wasn’t looking. Cherry tomatoes and sugar snap peas were prime targets, and to this day she claims that she never got to eat a ripe pea pod until we were in high school and too busy to ravage the garden.

I was the weird kid who brought sandwiches of whole wheat bread with leftover ham (not deli sliced) and lettuce to school. I’m glad that kind of whole, local eating has become increasingly popular! Being a farm kid, or eating local and organic wasn’t that cool when I was growing up. Staples of my childhood were  broccoli, macaroni and cheese with fresh goat’s milk (yes, straight from the udder), home made sausage and eggs from our chickens. I took all of that healthful food for granted until I was studying Human Rights abroad and kept seeing major food security issues permeating the societies I was studying and living in.  Seeing, experiencing and reporting on those issues made me realize my skills as a farmer were needed much more on the farm than off.  Having grown up on the land, I also crave a certain connection to my food. Finding the amount of productivity and satisfaction from your daily labor can be hard to find in a lot of jobs these days, and the rewards of farming are so delicious!

What role does farming play in the rest of your life?  I see farming as a meaningful lifestyle.  I’ve always been involved in growing my own food, be it from bottle feeding calves or staking tomato plants, and I know that growing food suits me.  It combines the essential elements of being active, eating well, and living seasonally.  I expect to be able to share my connection with the land when I have my own family someday.

What’s your favorite vegetable? How do you cook with it?  I don’t have just one, but I always love the “first” of every season.  The first cucumber of the season, pepper, or melon, it all depends. We just started harvesting parsnips, so I would have to say I’m digging them right now, ha! Parsnips are one of the crops I spent a lot of time on the tractor cultivating, so I’m enjoying their sweet, peculiar taste.  I love making parsnip fries with olive oil, garlic and rosemary, or adding them to a hearty soup.

What do you like to do when you’re not farming?  I enjoy all of the requisite New England activities, especially those I can do with my dog Lucy; she’s the best hiking partner!  I love biking, reading and enjoy making incredible feasts with my housemates and friends. Right now, much of my off-farm time is consumed by school; I’m taking a couple night classes and considering perusing an alternative healing degree.  I want a career that will keep me involved in nutrition and health, while allowing me to have my own small farm someday.

Who Are Your Farmers? — Eli

Eli Dibner-Dunlap — Vegetable Grower/Tractor Operator

Eli spends most of his days behind the wheel of a tractor, preparing fields for planting, annihilating 96% of the weed population, and grinning gleefully while hoeing, tomato staking or transplanting.  In his 2nd year at RFF, Eli is 24 years old and from Cleveland, OH.  He is tall enough to easily pick out in a crowd, and he can’t make up his mind: mustache or beard?  Eli is a recovering political junkie, a former French horn player of 9 years, and has never been confused for legendary chess player, Bobby Fischer.

How did you get into farming? It all started back in college when I asked myself, “what is the most basic function of a human?”  I thought about it and I realized, it’s eating!  So, I started to consider eating, and what people eat.  Eating seems like such a simple thing we do daily, but the reality of how that food gets to us is a much more complex process.  It’s complex because of the consolidation of land, of merging companies that operate such lands, of an increase in food processing…this all becomes a list of 20 ingredients.  I was totally confused by what was going on in our food industry the more I learned about it that I felt I needed to find a much simpler way of doing such a simple task as eating.  I decided I wanted to eat less ingredients.  Our food industry has become disturbed on so many levels — socially, ecologically and economically, that I felt like I wanted to take control of my relationship to those disturbances.  Learning how to farm has been an essential way for me to feel like I am taking part in a real movement away from our complicated, damaging food system.

What’s your favorite vegetable? How do you cook with it?  Poblano peppers. They add such a rich flavor to any dish and also a touch of heat.  I like to throw them in all soups, but a big hit is mixing them in a roasted corn chowder.  It’s a crowd pleaser.  Try it.

What role does farming play in the rest of your life?  Farming for me has become not just a job, but a way of life.  I now follow the rhythm of the farm season, including long summer days and winter spent in hibernation.  I look forward to growing food for the rest of my life, keeping a small garden for my family’s needs and to maintain my own land connection.  I recommend it to any and all.

What do you like to do when you’re not farming?  I’m currently taking an EMT class, which requires a lot of time and energy.  Health and medicine is a potential next step for me, which feels like another layer on top of my initial attraction to agriculture.  But to get real, what I love most is a well-crafted potluck, baking a crusty loaf of bread, a raucous square dance, and a sweet smelling autumn bike ride.

How To Store Winter Vegetables

It is time to fill the cellar. Or the “cellar” as is the case for many folks. (The “cellar” is whatever somewhat appropriate environs you can carve out of your small apartment living space 🙂
We have many vegetables for bulk order that need nothing more than a cool dark place to keep well through the long cold nights of winter. If you are interested in stocking up, we recommend ordering unwashed vegetables since these will keep better (and it saves us time too!).

Here is just a little bit of basic information about how to store vegetables during the winter…

STORE THINGS DIRTY: the process of cleaning things causes tiny scratches and damage that may shorten the storage life of the produce, so store things dirty and wash right before use.

STORE ONLY THE HEALTHY: When you put away produce into storage, check for disease and damage, and set aside damaged produce for early use. It is indeed true that one bad apple can ruin the barrel.

CHECK PERIODICALLY: Go through your stored produce and remove for use or compost anything that’s starting to decay.

IDEAL CONDITIONS:
Keep in mind that you don’t have to have it exactly perfect to be successful in storing months worth of local produce.

True Root Vegetables – these include Carrots, Parsnips, Beets, Turnips, Rutabaga, Storage Radishes and Celeriac. Kohlrabi also stores well under the same conditions. Store all of these vegetables in the refrigerator. They need high humidity in order to stay crisp, so put into a plastic bag first with a few drops of water. I find that it is best to leave a tiny bit of air circulation though, so don’t use a twist tie on the plastic bag, just leave the top open, folded over. These crops easily can keep until May under these conditions.
Ideal conditions for storing them in a root cellar are 32-40 degrees with 90-95% humidity. You can create humid storage containers by packing the roots in damp sand, sawdust, leaves or other packing material.

Sweet Potatoes – Keep at room temperature (above 55 F is important – cooler temperatures will result in chilling injury to this tropical root.) Keep dry in paper bags or baskets out of direct sunlight.

Butternut Squash, Pumpkins, and other Winter Squash – Keep cool and dry. Traditionally squashes were kept under beds in the upstairs of farm houses where there was always above freezing temp, but not super hot either. Optimal conditions are from 50-55 degrees with relative humidity of 50-70 percent. Most homes are a little drier than that, which may cause a little drying of the squash, but that is not a huge concern. Temperatures below 50 degrees will cause chilling injury to squash. Butternuts are one of the longest storing winter squash varieties and might keep until around February at the best.

Onions and Garlic – Keep at room temperature in the kitchen for medium storage. They like it dry, and on the cooler side (32-50 F ideally, though kitchens work well for medium length keeping). Don’t put in plastic bags as humidity encourages sprouting. You can also keep small quantities in the kitchen and bulk amounts of garlic or onions in a cooler spot in mesh bags or containers that allow lots of airflow.

Onions eventually start to sprout, but you can then give them some light from a window and use the leaves that grow from the center as scallions in late winter sprout salads! Garlic will also keep well at room temp. in a dry area.

Potatoes – For shorter term storage, just keep roots in the 40- 60 F range and they can keep for weeks until they begin to sprout. Keep potatoes in the dark in opaque containers like paper bags, as light will turn them green and cause them to sprout sooner. More humid conditions will keep them from shriveling.

For longest term storage, keep under refrigeration, or similar conditions. However, if you refrigerate, take out and leave at room temperature for a week before eating. This allows the starches to convert back to normal inside the potato. Potato starches turn to sugars in the cold. You can also eat them directly out of the fridge, though they may be sweeter and have a slightly different texture.

Cabbage – 32-40 degrees, 80-90% humidity. They do well in humid refrigeration. Even if outer leaves get gross and moldy you can peel them away to find a good head underneath.

SPACES TO CONSIDER when you don’t have refrigerator space:
Spaces that are cold but don’t freeze or may only freeze if very cold outside (on these nights take your containers inside) are good options for root vegetables and other produce where refrigeration is recommended. You would need to set things up to have higher humidity in some way. Here are a few types of locations that people have used for storage.

• Entryways
• Stairwells & Bulkheads
• Attached Garages
• Four season porches
• Drafty closet that you don’t open often

Visit these Cornell Storage Guidelines for more details on length of storage time by crop and more ideas for how to pack produce or set up a root cellar.

Happy storing and winter cooking! Please post comments about ways you’ve found that work well to store produce, especially if it might help out other folks with limited space or resources.

Who Are Your Farmers? — Max

Max Jiusto — Trainer

Max is responsible for teaching new employees harvest techniques and standards.  He shows newcomers what’s expected on the farm, and aims to have that the daily harvest happen efficiently and on time.  Max is 23 years old, from Worcester, MA and is in his second year at RFF.

How did you get into farming? I needed one more credit at UMASS, so I signed up for a gardening course called Garden Share.  Gardening was totally new to me, but I really liked it.  I was graduating that Spring of 2011, so I decided to give farming a shot.  I applied to Red Fire and got hired for the summer.  Since working here, my entire perception of eating food and where our food comes from has changed.  I think from now on, I will always be involved in growing my food in some way, whether volunteering or working on a farm.

What’s your favorite vegetable? How do you cook with it?  Onions.  I put them on everything.  I make what I call the “RFF Burrito” with black beans, onions, garlic, tomatoes, peppers and a green of some sort, usually spinach.  I prefer red onions best.

What role does farming play in the rest of your life?  For a while, I’ve had a growing interest in our country’s food system, as well as more generally, our world’s food system.  I thought that working on a farm seemed like a good place to start learning more about food production.  Red Fire represents the new wave of organic agriculture.  I hope we can get more and more people into this way of farming, and relying less on industrial farming.  This year I’m hoping to get into canning and preserving food.  It makes sense to put food away for the winter seeing that there is such bounty on the farm.  Tomato sauce is my goal this year.

What do you like to do when you’re not farming? I love to play music.  I play guitar in a band called Adult Fiction and I also play saxophone.  I’m also a wild man on the dance floor.  Going out to dance parties is probably my favorite thing these days.

Max is an eligible bachelor who will charm you on the dance floor, and serenade you with his saxophone melodies.

Oven Roasted Tomatoes

Written by Mary Nelen

This method of cooking tomatoes will result in something similar to sun dried tomatoes except the end product is more lush and fresh. The tomatoes can be served as an appetizer, as part of a salad, on house made pizza with fresh ricotta or as a side to grilled bluefish.

Equipment

parchment paper

baking sheets

Ingredients

4- quarts cherry tomatoes, any kind

olive oil

sea salt, pepper

Directions

Preheat oven to 425

Halve cherry tomatoes and toss with salt, pepper and olive oil. Place cut side up on parchment lined baking sheet.

Place in oven and roast for 30 minutes before going to bed. Turn off heat and leave tomatoes in the oven so they continue to roast over night.

Serve warm or for later use, fill a small jar with oven-roasted tomatoes and add more olive oil.  Place in fridge or freeze in freezer bags.

Canned Plum Tomatoes

Written by Mary Nelen

Putting food by is the art of preserving the freshness of summer. Flavor as well as nutrition are benefits of taking the time to can summer food. According to the USDA, vegetables handled properly and canned promptly after harvest can be more nutritious than fresh produce sold in local stores.

In this recipe, plum tomatoes are cooked briefly to remove skins, cored, placed into jars and boiled in a canner creating a vacuum that removes air bubbles to prevent spoilage.

I use plum tomatoes, also known as “Roma” or “paste.”  They have less water than other tomatoes and make a great base for making everything from ketchup to tomato paste to various sauces all winter long.

RECIPE: Canned Plum Tomatoes: Yield: 1 dozen quarts. Time: 3 to 4 hours.

EQUIPMENT

12- 1-quart Ball Jars with lids and bands, cleaned and warm

1 canner (21-quart) with canning rack

1 set canning tongs

1 canning funnel

1 small saucepan for lid sterilization

1 stockpot for scalding tomatoes

1 large bowl or cooler for ice bath

1 small set of tongs for removing lids from saucepan

1 plastic spatula to remove air bubbles

1 cutting board

1 small paring knife

Clean Dish Rags

INGREDIENTS

36 lbs tomatoes, about 6 tomatoes per jar

24- tablespoons bottled lemon juice

12- teaspoons salt or 6 teaspoons of citric acid

DIRECTIONS

Create this assembly line in your kitchen:

1)    Fill your canner ¾ full of water. Bring to a simmer, put the lid on and keep on a back burner until ready for use.

2)    Fill a stockpot with water to scald tomatoes in batches. Bring to a strong simmer.

3)    Fill a small saucepan half way with water and keep water almost to a boil.

4)    Wash tomatoes in batches and set aside for scalding

5)    Prepare ice bath for scalded tomatoes by filling cooler or bowl with water and ice.

6)    Place cutting board next to ice bath for skinning and coring tomatoes.

7)    Next to that, have a bowl ready for the skins and cores and line up 6 jars and bands.

8)    Place lids with rubber lining in sauce pan to sterilize.

9)    At the end of the line, have lemon juice, salt, measuring spoons and dishrags ready.

Wash all of the plum tomatoes in cold water. In batches, place in boiling water to scald. When splits appear in skin, after around 3 minutes, remove several tomatoes at a time with a slotted spoon or small colander and place in the ice bath.

When the tomatoes are cool enough to touch, remove skins and cores with a paring knife. Try to keep them intact, if possible. Using the funnel, fill each jar with tomato flesh only, leaving about 1” of headroom in the top of the jar. Add 2 tablespoons of lemon juice and one teaspoon of salt or 1/2 teaspoon of citric acid (to lower the Ph value) to each jar.

Use rubber spatula to remove air bubbles in mixture by sliding it around the edges of the jar. Wipe the neck of the jar clean with a dishtowel. Use a small set of tongs to remove a lid from the saucepan. Place lid on top of jar with a tap of the tongs and screw the band around it, “finger tight,” but not too tight. That will make it possible to allow air to escape during processing. The goal in processing is to eliminate all air to prevent contamination.

Bring water in canner up to a strong simmer. When all of the jars in the canning rack are filled with tomatoes and the lids are screwed on, place entire rack in water, turn heat up to high and process for approximately 45 minutes. Jars should be fully submerged with 2 to 3 inches of water above the jars. Add boiling water to bath if necessary.

When the jars have been processed in boiling water for the recommended time, turn off the heat and remove the canner lid. Wait 5 minutes before removing jars.

Using jar tongs, remove the jars one at a time, being careful not to tilt the jars. Carefully place them directly onto a towel or cake cooling rack, leaving at least one inch of space between the jars during cooling. Avoid placing the jars on a cold surface or in a cold draft.

Repeat this process until all of the tomatoes have been processed. Leave jars undisturbed for 24 hours. You will hear a popping sound when the seal is made.

To check to see if a seal has been created in the jar, press on center of cooled lid. If jar is sealed, the lid will NOT flex up or down. If it does flex up or down, refrigerate and use within 2 weeks. Store sealed jars in cool, dark place for up to one year.

Congratulations! You have just put canned tomatoes. Enjoy this summer’s bounty all year long. See www.valleylocavore.com for additional tomato recipes.

*USDA GUIDELINES HOME CANNING: Tomatoes and more…

http://nchfp.uga.edu/publications/usda/GUIDE%201%20Home%20Can.pdf.

Tomato Trot 2012 Results!