Dear Friends of B & H Organic Produce,

Thanksgiving is over for another year. Thanksgiving is very appropriate as a time for a great harvest and then preparing for a winter's rest. I actually took almost 4 days off. That is a bit indulgent after working for 6 months with only 1 day off. I loved lounging around with my husband and eating yummy foods.
We are now in the mode for cleaning up and getting the garden ready for bed. Pictured above 1 and 2 are the view from our new field looking out into the valley; picture 3 is 50 acres of daikon radishes planted for a cover crop.
This will be our last week of work with our employees. It is always so sad to see our interns go for the season. For the past 10 years I have been working on farms with seasonal help, and yet this never becomes easier. The interns become your best friends and family. Lisa left us a month or so ago and Miriam will be leaving this week. So so so many thanks for all of their hard work and enthusiasm. I have never had a more positive (and I do mean positive) working environment in my life. Thank you. And to Pamela whom is priceless, and thankfully she will be with us next season.
Well if there is anyone out there reading this and they would like to order produce for this Thursdays drop off, send me an email with your order by Wednesday evening. This is what we will have this week:

• carrots- red and orange $2.50
  
• beets- baby red $2.00
  
• lettuce- romaine or butterhead $2.00
  
• spicy mix $4.50
• arugula $4.50
  
• daikon radishes $2.00
  
• savoy cabbage $2.00
  
• fennel $2.00
  
• baby pac choi $2.00
  
• turnips $2.50
  
• celery root $1.50
  
• butternut squash $3.00
  

And don't forget we have produce in our store!!!!!!!!!! Hartz Natural Foods.
Thank you all so much for all of your support.
Erica

Pictured here 3 essentials for your Thanksgiving Feast: Fennel, Carrots and Celeriac (Celery Root).
Thanksgiving is less than a week away. I cannot believe it. We worked very hard this summer to be sure we would have enough vegetables to make your Thanksgiving meal very local and very tasty.
My husband and I host Thanksgiving for our families. It is truly a celebration of our harvest and hard work. Each year the menu changes based on what is best from the garden. We begin with a turkey from Shollenberger's Organic Farms (West Reading Farmer's Market). Then we add all the yummy vegetables. Here is what our menu will look like:

• Butternut squash and apple soup: I like to leave this unblended. http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/butternut-squash-soup-recipe/index.html I will use leeks that I have saved from our harvest as well as a stock that I make continuously throughout the season.
  
• Roasted Beet and Goat Cheese Salad: http://allrecipes.com//Recipe/roasted-beets-with-feta/Detail.aspx I will use our baby red beets and the Fromagina goat cheese from Amazing Acres Goat Dairy at the West Reading Farmer's Market.
• Fennel and Leek stuffing: http://www.marthastewart.com/recipe/fennel-sausage-stuffing I like this recipe except I skip the sausage.
  
• Celeriac Au Gratin: http://www.a-taste-of-france.com/celeriac-au-gratin.html
• For dessert Butternut Squash Pie (aka Pumpkin pie)http://southernfood.about.com/od/pierecipes/r/r71128d.htm Butternut Squash makes a better pie than Neck Pumpkins. As one customer says "you get more bang for your buck."

Other holiday ideas:

• Honey glazed carrots topped with goat cheese.
• Sauteed Broccoli Raab with shredded parmesan. I just had this at Papillon and it was amazing.
  
• Dirty mashed potatoes: use our petite potatoes and don't peel them. The peels still have all the minerals in them. Also, this is more fun than plain white potatoes.
• Mashed turnips- Our hakurei turnips are great when made the same as potatoes for mashed potatoes. Also, they are lighter when you already have a heavy meal.
• Roasted root vegetables- we have an array of colorful vegetables to make this dish very fun: daikon radish, watermelon radish, carrots (red and orange), beets (be careful these will bleed), celeriac, potatoes, turnips, fennel.
• Try baby pac choi instead of celery in your stuffing for a fun twist. Baby Pac choi is also known as chinese celery and can be used in place of celery in almost any dish.
  
• Don't forget our famous salad mix which is sure to impress the family. This makes any salad gourmet.
  

We will be doing deliveries on Tuesday and Wednesday evenings to West Reading to ensure your Thanksgiving is local and fresh. Deliveries will be made after 4:30 pm each evening. Please email me with your order by Monday evening (bhorganics@gmail.com, yes I can receive emails at this address). I will respond with an email and the details of your pick up as well as a total. We will have a large selection of items at market on Sunday. If you are afraid you will miss something email and let me know so that I can save you what you need. Here is what we will have available:

• carrots- red and orange $2.50
  
• beets- baby red $2.00
  
• lettuce- romaine or butterhead $2.00
  
• mustard greens $2.00
  
• daikon radishes $2.00
  
• savoy cabbage $2.00
  
• fennel $2.50
  
• baby pac choi $2.00
  
• salad mix $4.50
  
• broccoli raab $2.00
  
• turnips $2.50
  
• watermelon radishes $2.00
  
• celery root $1.50
  
• butternut squash $3.00
  
• potatoes- kennebec (white potato) #2- $3.50

Thank you all so much. Have a safe, healthy and happy Thanksgiving.
Erica

(here are the cows enjoying the carrot tops from market)
Dear Friends of B & H Organic Produce,
I think things are finally back to normal.
All the love at market on Sunday really helped me out.
Not to mention the love of my new friend and a friend Louise whom spent 1.5 hours working the kink out of my neck from all the stress. Yes, the whole email ordeal was literally a "pain in the neck."
For this week I will be using the blog to send out my mass email. I am looking into an email service but I am not sure I will be able to have it up and running by this week. So please pass this message along to anyone whom may be interested.
One week of market to go. And I expect this to be a big one with Thanksgiving just days away. I will be posting a list this Friday for what we can deliver before Thanksgiving. I will be delivering on Tuesday and Wednesday evenings to West Reading for your convenience. Although, we will have the same items at market. You may also reserve items for pick up at market on Sunday.
Here is what we will have for market this week:

• carrots- red and orange
• beets
• lettuce
• mustard greens
• daikon radishes
• savoy cabbage
• fennel
• spinach
• baby pac choi
• salad mix
• broccoli raab
• turnips
• watermelon radishes
• arugula
• spicy mix
• collard greens
• celery root
• butternut squash
• potatoes

Recipes:
This week's feature is Celery Root aka Celeriac.

1. http://www.vegetarianforlife.org.uk/vfl.aspx?page=570 This is Baked Celeriac. Almost like cheesy chips.
2. This is totally sinful and awesome http://www.deliciousmagazine.co.uk/recipes/baked-creamy-celeriac-and-potato-gratin
3. And you can eat it raw http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=10000001955344
   

Here is what we will be delivering this week, Thursday November 18th:

• carrots- red or orange $2.50
• lettuce- romaine or butterhead $2.00
• mustard greens $2.00
• daikon radish $2.00
• savoy cabbage $2.00
• fennel $2.50
• baby pac choi $2.00
• salad mix $4.50
• broccoli raab $2.00
• turnips $2.50
• celery root $1.50
• butternut squash $3.00
• potatoes- kennebec (white potato, larger, can be peeled, not quite baking size)

Please have your orders in by Wednesday evening.

Keep an eye out for our Thanksgiving recipe blog coming in the next day or two.
Have a great week,
Erica

Hackers

Dear Customers,
Yes, my email was hacked and they emailed all of you an email stating that I was stuck in London and needed money. Well rest assured I was at the farm cleaning our irrigation lines and weeding asparagus. Unfortunately, they erased all my emails, my contact lists, and they had all my emails forwarded to them. Fortunately, there were so many people around to support me and help me figure it all out. Unfortunately, I could not contact you all till it was too late and some of you I was not able to contact at all because I do not have an accurate contact list.
I apologize for the inconvenience. I reported this to: the local police, the FTC, IC3 and Google. I thought Gmail was the safest email out there. Although I know it could happen to any one, google was not supportive at all.
I am still unable to retrieve my email list and will probably not be able to do so. I had to singly type in 700 email addresses last night to send the message to those of you whom I have addresses.
Please spread the word to everyone you know. It is impossible to get the money back and impossible to track these people in Nigeria whom hacked into a computer in California to pull off this scam. Be aware of suspicious emails. Do not send money to anyone whom you are not 100% positive is whom they say they are.
I had been looking into one of those email services for next season. At this point I want to check their security. I will not be sending any more mass emails until I can find a safer way to send them out. For now I will be using this blog to contact you.
I can receive emails at bhorganics@gmail.com, but at this point I am only allowed to send one out at a time. I am assuming that the hackers are done with my email address for now.
If you or anyone you know has sent them money please contact me.
And please, please let everyone that you know, know about these scams. They are happening to everyone.
Sorry for the inconvenience.
We will be at market on Sunday. I love being a farmer and being in the field and at market makes all this worth it.
Erica

To all of our customers,
Our email account was hacked into. I did not send that email!!!!!!!!!!!! Please do not send anyone money!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Please Please Please. I am here safe in PA.

Hacked

(Pictured is an entree at Papillon. Butternut Squash puree topped with baby pac choi, served with risotto cake topped with scallops. This made my mouth water reading about it. I tried my best to recreate it this week.)

Dear Friends of B & H Organic Produce,
The market was blustery and cold. Thank you all for coming out. It is amazing how dedicated you all are to the market. It was a great day.
We still have 2 more weeks. We will be at the market on November 21st the Sunday before Thanksgiving for all your holiday needs. We will also be doing our weekly West Reading delivery a bit early that week. We will be delivering on Wednesday after 4:30. I will send out the list of what will be available on Sunday evening and orders will need to be placed by Tuesday evening. The Wednesday delivery will most likely be the same items as what we will have at market on Sunday.
We are still working on our cleanup as well as harvesting for our winter storage. It is hard to be motivated in the cold so we are hoping for warmer temperatures by the end of the week.
This Sunday we will be offering 10% discounts to our former CSA members whom visit market. Consider it a customer appreciation. At this point we are planning a CSA for 2011 although we still have to figure out the details. Stay tuned for that information in January.
A quick apology about our salad mix. In case you have not been to the farm I should let you know that we do not have a greenhouse. All of our crops are field grown. This is a bit tricky this time of year. We plant extra in the early fall and cover everything with a frost cloth. With last week's very cold nights some of the greens suffered frost damage. We tried our best to clean this out but some of the leaves were tricky and ended up in the salad mix. These leaves are fine to eat but tend to spoil faster than the other items. We strive for the best tasting and long lasting salad mix. If you have had a problem with the salad mix please let me know. We would be happy to make it up to you. Also, if you have had a problem with any of our products please let me know. It may be a problem we are not aware of and can correct. We learn a lot this way. Many complaints/ observations teach us valuable lessons.
So many of you ask me every week for recipes and ideas for cooking. I am so happy to introduce to you another friend of mine Suzie Carpenter whom teaches cooking classes for healthy seasonal eating. We are blessed to have so many opportunities in our area to learn how better to care for ourselves as well as enjoy all the fresh flavors. Check out Suzie's website for her upcoming classes. There is one this week for Holiday inspiration. YUM! http://www.suziecarpenter.com/events/
Lastly, I would love to thank the Impellizzeri family for visiting the farm this week. They won a tour of our farm at the Taste of West Reading this Summer. It was so great to have the children in the garden. I was so grateful for their openness and enthusiasm. I loved spending time with this wonderful family.
And now, for this the list of what we will be bringing to market next week:

• spinach
• mustard greens
• salad mix- with less flowers due to the frost
• carrots
• beets
• daikon radish
• lettuce
• broccoli
• peppers
• cabbage
• fennel
• baby pac choi
• broccoli raab
• radishes
• turnips
• arugula
• spicy mix
• kale
• potatoes
• butternut squash

Recipes for this week: I spend either Sunday or Monday evenings preparing dinners for most of the week.

• last night's dinner inspired by Chef Phillip Davis at Papillon (check out our blog for a picture of his entree http://bhorganics.blogspot.com/). We had Butternut Squash Puree topped with Roasted Baby Pac Choi, and Roasted Halibut (caught by my very good friend Kelly), topped with a Mustard Green Pesto.
• Butternut Squash Puree- first I roasted the butternut squash and when it was soft I blended it with a little bit of tamari, 2 tablespoons of stock (becareful not to make it too runny), and an even smaller amount of raw honey. I spread this as a thin layer on the bottom of the plate.
• Mustard Green Pesto- I love making pestos with lost of different kinds of greens and herbs. It is a great way to store them. I made this pesto and then froze the leftovers. This way I can have the greens later in the winter. First, I toasted about 1 cup of walnuts in the oven. Then I blended them with 1 bunch of mustard greens, 2 tablespoons of olive oil and 2 tablespoon of goat cheese.
  
• Roasted Baby Pac Choi- I sliced a larger pac choi in half lengthwise and placed this in the roasting pan with the halibut drizzled with olive oil, salt and pepper. I roasted them for about 25 minutes.
• And for this week's soup: ( I try to make a soup every week even in the summer. This is a great thing to have for meals on the go throughout the week) African Peanut Soup. http://showmevegan.blogspot.com/search?q=african+peanut+soup As usual I changed it up with my own interpretation. I used carrots in place of the sweet potatoes. I also added turnips, lots of ginger, too much hot pepper, our seasoning peppers, and celery root. This was my version of the recipe last year when I made it. : I substituted delicata squash for the sweet potatoes and added hot peppers, kale and in place of the tomatoes I used apples, beets and carrots. Yum!

For this week's weekly delivery:

• mustard greens $2.00
• salad mix $4.50
• carrots- red or orange $2.50
• beets - red $2.50
• daikon radish- $2.00
• lettuce- butter or romaine $2.00
• potatoes- butterball #2 $3.50
• cabbage- savoy $2.50
• broccoli #1 $3.50
  
• peppers - 1# $2.00
• fennel- $2.50
• baby pac choi $2.00
• broccoli raab $2.50
• radishes - purple or french breakfast $2.00
• turnips- $2.00
• arugula- bunched $2.00
• butternut squash - $3.00

Thank you all so much and have a super week.

Dear Friends of B & H Organic Produce,

November is here and the weather sure feels like it. But, we are not giving up yet. We use row covers on all our frost sensitive crops so that we can continue to reap the benefits of our hard summer labor. The West Reading Farmer's Market will continue for 3 more weeks until November 21st. We are still out there when it is cold. And we will have all your needs for your amazing Thanksgiving dinner.
Our store, Hartz Natural Foods also carries our produce. Come in and check it out.
On the farm we are busy harvesting and trying to bring the crops in for winter storage. Did you know that all root crops (radishes, turnips, carrots, potatoes etc.) can be stored in your refrigerator through the winter? I was even eating cabbage until April of last year. I simply store my roots in a plastic bag in my crisper. You must check them periodically for spoilage. If there is a rotten root int he bag I remove it and was the other roots for continued storage. Be sure to remove the greens as they will spoil quickly. Also, if you are harvesting from your own garden with storage in mind- don't wash the roots- the minerals in the dirt will help to preserve them longer.
This is what we will have at market this week:

• spinach
• mustard greens
• salad mix- with less flowers due to the frost
• carrots
• beets
• daikon radish
• lettuce
• broccoli
• peppers
• cabbage
• fennel
• baby pac choi
• broccoli raab
• radishes
• turnips
• arugula
• spicy mix
• kale
• potatoes
• butternut squash

Recipes this week:

Our dinner this evening:
Roasted chicken with a fennel cream sauce (http://www.greenchronicle.com/recipes/fennel_cream_sauce.htm I think I will add leeks and use plain yogurt in place of the cream). Served with sauteed Broccoli Raab (simply placed in a hot pan with olive oil and garlic sprinkled with a bit of salt). And mashed turnips ( I will prepare these the same as mashed potatoes, but this will be a lighter version)

Tomorrow night:
Pot Roast in the crock pot. Eye round roast with carrots, garlic, onion, celery root, daikon radish, turnips and fingerling potatoes.

On Wednesday night:
Organic egg salad in radicchio cups.

Enjoy!!!!!!!!!!

For our midweek deliveries:

• mustard greens $2.00
• salad mix $4.50
• carrots- red or orange $2.50
• beets - red $2.50
• daikon radish- $2.00
• lettuce- butter or romaine $2.00
• broccoli- 1# $3.00
• peppers - 1# $2.00
• fennel- $2.50
• baby pac choi $2.00
• broccoli raab $2.50
• radishes - purple or french breakfast $2.00
• turnips- $2.00
• arugula- bunched $2.00
• butternut squash - $3.00

Please have your orders in by Wednesday evening.
Thank you all and have a great week,
Erica