Salsa Verde!

The cold of winter finally came in this week. Up until now we have enjoyed a relatively mild November and early December which extended our season.

We still have crops in the garden left over from fall such as carrots, celery, spinach, onions, cilantro, parsley and some other herbs. They were great to pick for Thanksgiving dinner and especially turkey soup. They are now covered with cold frame tops along with new raised beds of lettuce and spinach.

tomatillos and red onion for chopping

One of the last good harvests of summer crops happened in early November with our plants of Tomatillo and Cape Cod Gooseberry. We found the seeds online back in April and our neighbor, Fred, was nice enough to start them for us in his greenhouse in his Sperry Wood Farm. We also had quite a few gooseberries sprout up around the garden from last year’s plant drops.

tomatillos and gooseberries are ready to pick when the husk is a loose papery skin

The larger Tomatillo and smaller gooseberry are key ingredients in our Salsa Verde made with onions and peppers from the garden. The peppers add some heat, the gooseberries add some sweet and the tomatillos some tang.

Our base recipe (based on the old Ball Blue Book) - improvising encouraged:
· 6 cups chopped, cored tomatillo and gooseberries – 2 lbs.
· 1 cup chopped onion
· 1 cup chopped peppers – chili, Hungarian wax, jalapeño, etc.
· 4 cloves garlic
· 2 tbls. Cilantro
· 2 tsps. Cumin
· ½ tsp. salt
· ½ tsp red pepper
· ½ cup vinegar
· ¼ cup lime juice

Serve with crackers, cheese, a cold beer and a football game and chill out and hunker down.

Strong to the Finish

The weather has been getting cooler and our bed of New Zealand Spinach really perked up. It looked so this past weekend good that we decided to harvest the new growth and blanch/freeze it for soups and such this winter.

The spinach got a little bitter in the dog days of summer but it never bolted. Now that it is cooling again the leaves are definitely sweeter.

The spinach was so thick with new growth that we used hedge clippers to harvest.

The picking process was a bonus for others as well

This bed has been producing since May and our plan is to put a cold frame cover on it and keep it going.

“I’m strong to the finish, cause I eats me spinach”

It's A Boy!

New Farm's Most Unwanted


by Kate
When you order enough chicks from Murray McMurray Hatchery, they are kind enough to throw in a “surprise bonus chick.” With a combined order between us and some family friends of over 25 chicks, we qualified. When we picked up our variety of chicks from the post office one early morning in April, this little lady (or so we thought) arrived free of charge.

At first, we joked how funny she looked and donned her with the only proper name we have ever given a chicken: Arsinio. Named after the early 90’s comedian Mr. Hall and his flattop haircut, Arsinio arrived in style to New Farm.


As the chicks grew, Arsinio’s flat-top feathers developed into an explosion of white and black plumage. We began to question Arsinio’s gender. The older Arsinio got, the more she started to appear to be a he. One day, in early July, my mother reported that she had heard a feeble “cock-a-doodle-do.” Our suspicions were answered: It’s a boy.


We identified him as a Silver Polish, one of the crested breeds of chickens. His striking silvery white and black plumage gave it away.

The honeymoon stage of rooster ownership lasted only a few weeks. At first it was charming to hear our bantam crow out to our hard working, egg laying ladies of the coop in an attempt to swoon. We were true farmers now, awoken at sunrise to mother nature’s alarm clock. Arsenio behaved as if he was responsible for the sun coming up in the morning.

But like all relationships, ours and Arsinio’s began to turn. His crows became louder and more frequent. The neighbors began to ask questions. Each night he would escape the fence and roost on top of the coop. Each day he would chase around Whitey Jr. (apparently we were host to the only monogamous rooster) and attempt to mate. By August, we had established that Arsinio was a problem. He had quickly risen to the top of New Farm’s most unwanted list.

For the past few weeks, I have arisen to the sound of Arsinio crowing into the leafy suburban morning. In an attempt to provide Arsinio with another home far, far away, I searched some animal rescue websites and even considered a post on Craigslist. From this search, I discovered that bantams are difficult to give away for free on the internet, let alone for a few dollars. Animal shelters don’t even take roosters. Apparently, no one wants a bantam.

Arsenio's habit of roosting out of the henhouse eventually got the best of him. A few days ago, Arisnio simply vanished. How and where, perhaps only the local owls or coyotes know. It seems his nightly escape habits proved too risky for NewFarm. I can’t say I’m sad to have him missing because tonight, I will sleep soundly knowing that I won't be awoken. Not at 4:30 A.M., not at noon, not at dinner, not a sunset.

R.I.P. Arisnio. Here’s hoping our next New Farm “bonus” will be a bumper crop of butternut squash instead.














Arsenio in happier days with his girls

Getting Canned

Peach Jam, Apple Butter, and Apple-Onion Chutney

by Kate

Yesterday, my mother and I canned for 8 hours. My mother has been canning, pressing, processing, and storing food for decades (including the homemade baby food she fed my sister and I), but I’ve only been in the game for a few years. When I came home from college in 2007, I hadn’t seen a New England autumn since high school. I had been sweating it out in the Texas heat for four years and had developed an obsession with making my apple butter as part of my homecoming. It’s one of my favorite spreads; nothing beats apple butter on a warm English Muffin or over a piece of pork.

When I expressed my desire to make apple butter to my mom, she obliged. She had been canning intermittently since my childhood making the occasional zucchini relish or pickled peppers, but my motivation and determination for apple butter put us into a canning frenzy these past few years. Since arriving home from college, we’ve put up a variety of canned goods: jams, relishes, peppers, dilly beans, sauces, canned fruits, and butters. It’s exhausting work and culminates in more dirty dishes than a Thanksgiving dinner, but totally worth it.

This year, due to the dual graduation of my sister and I, plus my bar exam studying, and my post-bar traveling, I wasn’t able to join my mother to can until I arrive at home about week ago. We immediately made plans to go to Bishop’s, a local orchard, to grab a truck-load of fruits.

Although I would prefer to make blueberry and raspberry jam every year, it requires a long day of picking early in the growing season. This year we didn’t have the time to pick in May and June and our own blueberry bushes were picked off pretty good by the birds. But our late arrival this year did not deter our readiness to pick.

I was happy to see that we caught the last few days of peach season as peach jam had been on my canning bucket list for years. We picked a large bag of each peaches, pears, and Cortland apples. At $1.25 a pound for pick-your-own fruit, we left Bishop’s $55 later. We picked on a Friday and planned to can on Monday to allow proper ripening time.

On Monday morning, my mother was already cooking down apples by the time I got to the kitchen. During that day we made the following:

· 2 batches of peach jam
· 1 gallon bag of peach pie filling/ chopped frozen peaches
· ½ batch of apple-onion chutney
· 2 large jars of unsweetened apple sauce
· About a gallon of apple butter

We’ve still got the pears to process. My mom is thinking pear butter, I’m leaning towards canned pears. We’ll see who wins.


Recipes:Peach Jam: The recipe on the back of the Pectin box (plus a little extra fruit)
(*we prefer the low-sugar recipe when we can find the low-sugar pectin)
Apple Butter: apple puree and nutmeg and cinnamon to taste
Hint: cook down the apple butter until it peaks, and then cook it down some more. The previous years we were impatient with our canning and our apple butter turned out to be more of an intensely flavored apple sauce. The thicker, the better.
Apple and Onion Chutney: One onion, five large apples, one peach, one pear (I added a peach and a pear for a little extra sweetness), yellow mustard seed, raisins, toasted fennel seed, ginger, salt, pepper.

The Glory of Morning

Most gardeners find the early morning a special time and at New Farm we agree. The sun peaks through the canopy to the east and it a good time to be outside.

Morning dew collects in the saucer leaves of nasturtium

It’s a quiet time and the awaking of the new day shares its metaphor with the promise of a garden and farm. The bees start humming, the flowers open and the chickens begin to scratch. There are eggs to collect and perhaps some veggies to snip and add to your omelet.

Bees begin to stir as the sunlight hits the hive and warms them

Even just a stroll through with a cup of coffee sets up the day with a perspective of the natural world. Pick off a few bugs, grab some flowers for the table and think about what to plant or harvest. Some mornings we can hear the clarion of the church steeple a mile to the north through the trees.

                                Morning Glories on the fence open to the east

The sunrise steams the dew off the roof our shed

It is easy to linger too long but no matter what works lays ahead this is the way to start the day!

Twist and Shout

Hurricane Irene came roaring through 2 weeks ago. New Farm was lucky as we suffered no real damage other than the loss of power and communications for a week. The generator protected our well stocked freezer and refrigerator. Our friends and neighbors 7 miles south on the coast of Connecticut were not as lucky as the new moon, high tide storm surge caused considerable damage. Luckily the official yacht of New Farm, Gedaway, was pulled out by us prior to the storm hitting Long Island Sound. She is now back safe at her slip at the local marina.
Our friends and neighbors to the north in Vermont also took it on the chin as the rivers swelled over the banks and took out bridges. We saw that first hand as well as we were north for a wedding when Irene hit.




The Connecticut shore got pounded by Irene


The Vermont rivers were angry - Here the Quechee River rages a covered bridge.

One thing that did happen here was an apparent micro-burst that twisted trees, branches and even a couple utility poles. It traveled in pretty much a straight line though the woods. It went down the middle of our garden but stayed high. It then went just north of the garage and then past the shed and on into the woods to the west. It twisted down a tree that fell between the apiary and the hen house with its canopy just reaching into the squash patch. It also took down a few more trees in the yard while on its path.

It did take down a section of the deer fence but that was easily repaired. We bucked up the logs to add to the firewood stash and chipped up the brush for the garden path and we were back in business not too much worse for the wear. One other event was in the sunny days after the storm some of the insect pests we battle really exploded. They included three of our main nemeses in organic gardening. Squash Bugs, Mexican Bean Beetles and Cucumber Beetles that put an early end to our squash and cucumbers. We had to pull the plants and get rid of them.
The path of the microburst was interesting to see. The trees were not knocked over at the roots but rather twisted off at the trunks. The microburst must have also stayed fairly high occsionally dancing down to twsit off a tree top.



This tree just missed the hives and hen house.

Good Night Irene!

Too many Tomatoes

& Homemade Garden Veggie Pizza

First of all, yes, we survived Hurricane Irene much thanks to an instant classic of a recipe "Hurricane Casserole" made by mother on the grill each night as we waited 7 days for power to be restored.  Many thanks CT Light & Power.

The night we did get power back, however, we celebrated with homemade pizza.  Save the pre-made dough and cheeses, every other ingredient came from the backyard garden.  The first pizza, "The Classic", was homemade pesto from homegrown basil, sliced tomatoes from the garden, mozzerella cheese and dried oregano sprinkled on top.  Our garden has been producing an enormous amount of tomatoes and any chance to cook with them is welcome. We planted a large variety of species this year: sun-gold, cherry, San Marzano, and Better Boy.

For the pizza, we simply roll out the dough, spread pesto over in place of sauce, and decorate. 

The Classic: pesto, sliced tomato, mozzarella, dried oregano

Great Balls of Fire: pesto, sauteed onion, grilled summer squash, sun gold tomatoes, mozzarella, rosemary
Everything: pesto, sauteed onion, hot red peppers, pickled peppers, swiss chard, cherry tomatoes, summer squash, goat cheese, mozzarella

Place the pizza stone on the grill, and cook for about 10 minutes. 

Buono cena!

The Blueberry Thief

Berries safely netted...or are they?

Through the years we have planted 13 high bush blueberries and 24 low bush blueberries in and around New Farm. There are also dozens of wild blueberries in patches at the edges of yard and woods. Some years, particularity the wet years, we get many quarts and make jam and pies. Last year we got gallons. This year we will get perhaps a few pints. The reasons vary with timely rainfall a key element. The other big reason is that we are not the only ones interested in the blueberries.

We compete for the berries with creatures such as White-tailed Deer, Chipmunks and American Robins. The main culprit is one particular bird that is truly a professional thief.

The Grey Catbird is a bird that has nested around our house for years. Its color is mousey gray with a black cap and a roufous patch under its bobbing tail. It is a mimic like its cousin the mockingbird and will imitate other birds around the yard; however it also calls with its unique “meow” from which it gets its name. It eats the berries small and large, green and ripe.

Public Enemy #1 (for blueberries anyway)

We net our most productive high bush plants and race the birds for the others. Some years they clean us out and others the abundance is even more than they can handle and we get lots. Catbirds will first hit the earlier currant bushes. The catbird is adept at finding its way under the netting or picking through it. When I hear that scratchy meow coming from the bushes I know the thief is at work. Sometimes we find the bird under the net feasting!

Catbird ready to pounce

Next year we hope plant a cherry tree and construct a grape arbor. We also plan to move our currants so we can net them as well. Our strategy is to produce more fruit and berries so there is more than the thief can handle and insure that there is always plenty for us.

The Theif doesn't get it all

A single wild berry at the edge of the woods

The Beet Goes On

It has been a great year for beets and the harvest is on! Beets in raised beds, beets in rows and beet greens.

We love roasted beets with a pinch of salt and some fig balsamic vinegar. The natural sweetness of the beets is perfect with the salty tartness with a little assist on the sweetness from the fig . Awesome!

The beet greens have also been fabulous. We like to steam them solo or with some Swiss Chard and New Zealand Spinach (luckily the spinach has stayed sweet and not bolted even through the recent hot spell). We add a little butter and oil, a bit of salt and/or herb and voilà. Sometimes we heat it up with some hot red pepper flakes and the balsamic is always excellent on steamed garden greens.

These beets are like dessert…everything is everything and red is cool.