Chef At The Market!

I've always had a sense of how the rhythm of life on a farm rises to a fever pitch as the days begin to shorten. Perhaps it's because my extended family used to gather annually for a family reunion in nearby Allegany County (N.Y.) on a great-uncle's dairy farm with farmhands were busy in the fields and milking cows even as we enjoyed potato salad, hot dogs and hamburgers. Or maybe I recollect how my childhood friends who lived on farms were relieved to get back to school each fall, wearing their deep suntans as badges of honor.

These days, we're gaining a new appreciation of the busy-ness of farm life in August. In the midst of everyone's busiest season, the growers who comprise the Potter County Farmers' Market added another task to their to-do lists - orchestrating an outdoor cooking demonstration.
Chef At The Market came together with barrages of e-mails, telephone calls and hurried exchanges of information at the weekly Farmers' Market. This event was the brainchild of Alvie Fourness of Wooleylot Farm and his careful leadership is to be applauded!
As we all tended our tables at the Farmers' Market on Friday, our guests, Chef Butch Davis and Chef Colin Jack, demonstrated ways to use locally-grown vegetables and fruits and locally-made baked goods to concoct mock crab cakes (with zucchini) garnished with beet slaw and corn relish, brushetta (using some of our colorful heirloom tomatoes) and a delicious fruit compote served over pound cake for dessert.
Growing a local food movement is exciting to all of us who are setting up our canopies and tables on a grassy lot in downtown Coudersport each Friday afternoon. I delight in introducing a customer to a carefully-nurtured tomato that is yellow with red stripes or dark brown. And then we'll talk about the potatoes that are red and purple and blue and yellow inside!

It's very satisfying to see folks walk through the Market, making their selections at each canopy and I can only imagine the ways they'll enjoy local foods.
One of the stated goals of the Potter County Farmers' Market is to: 

Cultivate a community in which the values of eating locally are celebrated and promoted.

With our first "Chef At The Market" event, we've taken a giant step forward in realizing this goal for it truly was a celebration Friday afternoon.
Next week it will be business as usual at our Potter County Farmers' Market - Friday afternoon beginning at 1:00 o'clock. If you haven't come before, this is a perfect time to see what it's all about!

A riot of tomatoes - all colors, shapes and sizes!

Heirloom Tomatoes

There has been lots of talk about "heirloom" tomatoes in the past few years. There are thousands of varieties of heirloom tomatoes, each marked by different tastes, colors, traits and origins. This makes them different from the tomatoes in the supermarket – hybrids grown with genetic modifications for optimal size, color, and durability. These modifications make the tomatoes look pretty and last for weeks while they're transported to far flung supermarkets. However, they have very little taste!

Here's a picture of some of the heirloom tomatoes from our farm. Among these you'll find Cherokee Purple (a favorite in our family), Stupice, Brandywine, Black Krim, Amish Paste, Black Trifele, Silvery Fir Tree, Moonglow and more. I also grew some specialty tomatoes this year including Indigo Rose, Green Zebra, Austin's Red Pear, Black Cherry and Sweetie Cherry.
Are you wondering how they taste? Come to the Potter County Farmers' Market this week (Friday, August 30) to watch two guest chefs prepare delectable food with locally-sourced and locally-grown products. There will be free samples to enjoy.

Growing For Market

Since its opening day on a cold Friday in late May, our Potter County Farmers' Market continues to attract more customers and more vendors.
Now that we're deep into July, more farm-fresh produce is available, transitioning from the cool-loving crops like lettuce, spinach and scallions to the heat-loving crops like peppers, tomatoes, berries and soon-to-ripen sweet corn.
On our farm, we put a lot of emphasis on tomatoes this year after having been seduced by the descriptions and photos in the seed catalogs. We've tried many new varieties this year including Speckled Roman, Green Zebra and Moonglow. I've found it difficult to come away from the high tunnel with any of the Sweetie Cherries in my basket - they all go right in my mouth!

Peas!

When we moved to Potter County back in the spring of 1976, we planted a garden here under the watchful eyes of Arthur's grandfather and grandmother. Grandma Metzger told me her goal was to have peas with new potatoes for the Fourth of July and that meant getting the peas in the ground by Good Friday and the potatoes soon after.
Pictured above are the peas we enjoyed for supper on July 3. Now I have a confession ... they were from the "volunteer" peas that grew where peas were allowed to dry on the vine last summer to be saved for seed. Yes, we missed a few!
This week we begin harvest of the peas planted just a little later than Good Friday. We hope to have them for sale at the Farmers' Market Friday afternoon.

Taking Stock

Summer has finally arrived in Potter County. It's been downright hot the last couple of days. The cool of the morning, just after sunrise, is the perfect time to work in the fields, gardens and high tunnel.
Come, take a walk out to the high tunnel with me before it gets too hot . . .

The very first ripening tomato on a Stupice bush.

These little gems are known as "Sweetie Cherry."

Look closely to see "Ring Of Fire" peppers. They turn red when ripe.

The first green bell pepper – a "King of the North."

Lettuce destined for the Farmers' Market this Friday.

On the way to the high tunnel, you'll pass summer squash plants,  Swiss chard just peeking through the soil, and a planting of soybeans, to be harvested as edamame in late summer.

How Does Your Garden Grow?

The sun's shining today and gentle breezes blow. We've been outside all day – weeding, putting up fence, laying down weed barrier, pruning tomatoes, planting seeds, even mowing the lawn - whew! Tomorrow it's going to rain again so the window of opportunity is small for work like this.
Here are a few pictures of tomatoes in the high tunnel, most of which have been in their raised beds since mid-May. We started a large variety of all-heirloom seed this year and have well over 150 tomato plants in the high tunnel and even more planted outside.

"Sweetie Cherry" Tomatoes

Tomato plants growing on their trellis.

Lettuce for the Farmers' Market ... and for us!

... and in the yard a glorious Summer Lilac has burst into bloom!

Week Two At Market

We had the first of the 2013 new potatoes available for sale at the Farmers' Market on Friday afternoon. These potatoes were grown in the high tunnel and had been planted on a snow March day. We also had a few carrots too. As much as I grumble about it, I really appreciate the benefits of growing things in there!

And looking at this photo, here's an appropriate quotation from one of my favorite bloggers ... "This is National Dirty Fingernail Week. Wear them proudly, and give up the notion that you’ll remember or be able to wear gloves transplanting small sets or pulling tiny weeds. Black is beautiful. "