Happy Snow Dog!

Paco enjoying a few licks of snow!

Happy snow day everyone! It feels officially like winter now. Luckily all of our plants are safely tucked away in our high tunnels, safe from the snow. And since the tunnels have pitched roofs, the snow slides right off and we don't have to worry about them caving in. Here are some cozy recipes to accompany your snow day!

 

 

What We're Eating

White Bean and Mustard Green Soup

My mom made this simple, nutritous soup with escarole when I was growing up, but this week we tried it with mustard greens and it was delicious! This can easily be made vegetarian, and is best served with crusty bread. (Recipe from my memory and adapted from Bon Appetit.) 

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 cup chopped onion

1 large carrot, cut into small dice

5 large garlic cloves, peeled, flattened

3 cups (packed) 1-inch pieces mustard greens (about 1 pound of stir fry mix)

4 cups (or more) chicken or vegetable stock

3 1/4 cups cooked Great Northern beans or two 15-ounce cans cannellini (white kidney beans), rinsed, drained

Freshly grated Parmesan cheese

Heat oil in heavy large pot over medium-low heat. Add onion, carrot and garlic and sauté until onion is golden and tender, about 7 minutes. Add 4 cups broth and beans and bring to boil. Reduce heat to medium-low. Cover and simmer about 20 minutes. Thin with more broth, if desired. Add stir fry mix and cook until slightly wilted. Season soup to taste with salt and pepper. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese and serve.

Quick Pickled Purple Daikon

Here's a recipe for pickled purple daikon radish that sounds delish! We love adding radishes to any plate for fire and pepper-i-ness. Pickled radishes bring the added elements of sour and tart, and we love adding the flavor packed delights to salads, sandwiches, soups, and grain bowls. 

Announcements

We wanted to give you a heads up that there will be no CSA delivery on Wednesday December 27th because we'll be travelling for the holidays. 

Also, we've had a couple of folks not complete the ordering process for their shares. There are a frustrating number of steps in the process, and we hope to offer a more streamlined ordering process in the future! For now, when ordering, make sure that you get to the screen with the blue button that says "Complete Checkout." 

Next, you'll get to a screen that says "You were checked out successfully," and you'll receive an email confirming your order. If you don't get an email confirmation, that means we didn't receive your order. Feel free to shoot us an email or give us a call if you're having any trouble with the system. Follow this link to place your order for this week! 

Have a great week!

- Joanna and Bryan

Christmas comes early at Good Dog Farm

Like a kid on Christmas!

'Tis the season

...to be jolly, and I'm definitely in the spirit. Sorry our newsletter is going out a little late this week, but we were up in Myerstown all day picking ourselves out an early Christmas gift. For the uninitiated it might look like some sort of spider-alien's dune buggy, but this glorious piece of space age tech is an Allis-Chalmers Model "G" tractor. These treasured machines are the kind of tools that vegetable farmers can build a system around. With a rear mounted engine and belly-mounted implements, the driver is able to get an up close look at work being done. I cant say I see the advantage in that for a plow or, for that matter, a manure rake (which, yes, they made). On the other hand, with cultivating tools like those pictured here to weed between long rows of beets, carrots, lettuce, and other small-seeded crops, the farmer can weed much more effectively and quickly, increasing yields and decreasing time spent on hands and knees.

Just shy of 30,000 of these orange beauties came off a single production line in Alabama from 1948 to 1955. However, due in part to an already changing agricultural system that saw returning GIs leaving farms for freshly industrialized cities, while small-hold farms transitioned to suburbs or consolidated monocultures, the "G" was a disappointing seller and production halted. Decades later, back-to-the-landers and subsequent generations would rediscover its tremendous utility for the small- to medium-scale vegetable operation. Other so-called "cultivating tractors" exist, but the "G" remains the favorite.

From a 1948 article in Popular Science.

Only in the last 5 years, as the number of small farms in America has begun to increase for the first time in decades, have companies begun to manufacture new tractors with a similar design. And now, thanks to the kind folks at Wenger's of Myerstown, Good Dog Farm is a proud owner of one! On a personal note, this just makes us feel like pretty much the coolest. But you should be excited too, because this means we can grow so many more beets, carrots, parsnips, and lettuce than ever before!

And now for some shameless self-promotion

So, while we treat ourselves like the best heavy machinery Advent calendar, you should treat yourselves and your loved ones to some Good Dog Farm swag! Shirts, bags, mugs, and sweatshirts are available here. They feature our beautiful logo designed by dear friend Spotty Boy Press, who also sells excellent woodcuts of manatees, cacti, and other critters wearing sweaters for Christmas! Support your favorite Hereford farmers and look good doing it!

And now some eats

As temperatures plummet, the number of veggies that can take it dwindles. Now that we've had one 17F and one 24F night, we've hit the low point in variety and we expect to have most of our current listings available for the remainder of the season. One of the stars in our kitchen are our mustard greens, lumped broadly together in our availability as "Stir Fry Mix." We call it that, because right out of the bag, with 3-5 minutes in a pan, these make a delicious sauteed side, especially with a splash of soy sauce or Shanxi vinegar. But these tender, nutty, sweet, extra-cold hardy greens are great for many things. This week, Joanna used them to make Saag Paneer to go with Chana Masala, and it was delicious.

But to be honest, we've been pretty busy lately and dinner has really been getting away from us some nights. As the sun starts to set before 5, where does the time go? On nights like these, we often feel like turning to our old friend garlic mashed potatoes and the jars and jars of chicken stock in the freezer. But, in the interest of classing up the joint a little, there's nothing quite like shepherd's pie. We recommend just good old Red Norlands for mashing. Here's a great vegetarian recipe that uses mushrooms. Plus, you should definitely get some of our carrots in the filling.

A couple housekeeping issues

Finally, just a quick reminder to please return your boxes. And we now have a longer pickup window. You can come to Hex as early as 1 pm to get your shares now. Order here by Monday morning for Wednesday delivery. Thanks and enjoy.

Veggie-Centric Comfort Food

One of our high tunnels full of salad greens!

We hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving! Ours was full of family and food, just the way we like holidays to be. The outdoor work on the farm is starting to slow down, which allows us more time to spend with family, friends and each other. We're almost done getting all of our garlic in the ground for next year, plus overwintered shallots that will be ready in the early spring!

what we're eating

My tastebuds and stomach are conflicted. On one hand, they crave something light and bright like a salad with citrusy dressing. On the other hand, they're really feeling this rich, comforting foods thing - it's still late fall, after all! So here are two recipes that span each end of this spectrum - go with what feels right to you and your belly. 

Caesar Salad Dressing

I think Caesar salad perfectly spans salad and comfort food. A friend of ours once described it as his "spirit food," and I can totally relate. Here's my go-to recipe. If you want to keep it vegetarian, ditch the anchovies and use vegetarian Worstershire sauce (up the quantity to closer to a teaspoon.)

Adapted from Bon Appetit

• 3 oil-packed anchovy fillets (optional)

• 1 large garlic clove, chopped

• 1/4 teaspoon (or more) kosher salt

• 1/4 teaspoon (or more) black pepper

• 1/2 teaspoon Worstershire sauce (vegetarian if you desire)

• 1 large egg yolk

• 2 tablespoon lemon juice

• ¾ teaspoon Dijon mustard

• ¼ cup plus 2 tablespoons olive oil

• 3 tablespoons Parmesan, finely grated

Food Processor/Immersion Blender/Blender Directions

Combine all ingredients except olive oil and Parmesan in your food processor/blender. Once they're a relatively uniform paste, slowly add your olive oil while the device is on. This will create a beautifully emulsified, creamy dressing. Add teaspoons of water to reach desired consistency. Once achieved, add in Parmesan. Enjoy on Good Dog Farm salad greens! 

By Hand Directions

Finely chop and combine all ingredients except olive oil and Parmesan in a medium sized bowl. Place the bowl on a damp towel on the counter to hold it in place. Whisk the mixture with one hand while gradually drizzling in olive oil with the other. Add teaspoons of water to reach desired consistency. Once achieved, add in Parmesan. Enjoy on Good Dog Farm salad greens! 

Spaghetti Squash Lasagna

Write here...

We saw this recipe in the Wegman's circular and immediately knew we needed to try it. We scaled up the ricotta and added sausage, and it was delicious! 

1 (about 2 3/4 lbs) spaghetti squash, halved lengthwise, seeded

1 tsp salt, plus additional to taste

1 tsp black pepper, plus additional to taste

2 Tbsp olive oil

2 cloves garlic

3/4 lbs braising mix greens

15 oz ricotta cheese

1 Large Egg

1/2 tsp onion powder

1/4 tsp dried oregano

1/4 tsp dried parsley

1/2 cup grated cheese

24 oz tomato sauce

1. Roast the spaghetti squash in the oven at 425F for about 15 minutes, or until you can pierce the skin easily with a fork. Once it's cool, run tines of fork lengthwise over cut surface of squash to loosen spaghetti-like strands. Scoop strands into bowl; squeeze out any excess moisture. Season with salt and pepper to taste; set aside. 
2. Heat oil in pan over medium heat; add garlic. Add braising mix a little at a time. Cook, stirring, 1-2 min until wilted. Remove from heat; squeeze out any excess moisture. Season with salt and pepper to taste; set aside.
3. Combine ricotta, egg, 1 tsp salt, 1 tsp black pepper, onion powder, oregano, parsley, and 1/2 cup grated cheese in large bowl; set aside. 
4. Spray 8x8-inch baking dish with cooking spray or coat with oil; spread 1/2 cup sauce on bottom of dish. Top with one-third squash; spread with half of ricotta mixture. Top with half of spinach. Top with another third squash; spread with remaining ricotta mixture. Top with remaining spinach; top with remaining squash. Spread with 3/4 cup sauce. Cover with parchment paper, then foil. 
5. Bake about 75 min until internal temp reaches 165 degrees. Remove from oven; remove foil and paper. Let rest 15 min before serving. Garnish with grated cheese; serve with warmed remaining sauce.

order these ingredients in your csa share!

And for posterity, here's what was on our Thanksgiving table! On the left, Bryan's sweet potato casserole (see last week's newsletter for the recipe), balsamic glazed carrots with pearl onions, and salad with blue cheese and pear - all Good Dog Farm produce! The center shows the "before" shot of that lovely produce, and on the right is the full spread.

Have a great week, and happy eating!

- Joanna and Bryan

What are you thankful for?

The farm at sunset, an increasing early sight.

Happy Thanksgiving, everybody. It's been a busy last few weeks as we try to wrap up the last few outdoor tasks before the ground freezes for good. Shorter days definitely don't help, and we've been wrapping up the day by headlamp more often than I'd like. Still, we're very thankful for all that's happened to get us here. I would have loved to catch a few more pest infestations or weed invasions before they spiraled out of control this year, but from this vantage point looking back it's hard to ignore that both the successes and the failures will make us better growers next year.

Giving thanks is about taking stock of and appreciating what got you here. At Good Dog Farm, we're very thankful for everything that has made our first year a success and will allow us to have a second year. Starting a new farm business today is a risky move, but we've had more than our fair share of help as we walked out on this limb. We're thankful for our mentors and all their moral and technical support, for our families who believe in us and what we can achieve, and for the other small farmers, extension agents, and policy makers who have long worked to preserve Maryland's farmland and build a vibrant network of small farms. We're also thankful for the owners of Calvert's Gift Farm and their Farm to Table aggregator that is enabling many of us young farmers, for Hex Ferments for being such excellent customers and supporters of our young business, and especially for you all, who put your trust in us to feed you. It's a new relationship, but we really do hold it dear, and we're excited to see it grow into the future.

Now let's eat!

Let's talk squash...

You've probably noticed we have a few squash choices at Good Dog Farm. This was really a bumper crop year for them and we're loving them, both traditional and weird. As you place your Thanksgiving order, we figured we might brief you on their various qualities. Starting from the left above, we have the Waltham butternut heirloom. These guys are really the jack-of-all-trades in the winter squash world, very sweet and a manageable size to boot. Your go-to for a small family. Next is the Tahitian melon, an heirloom from the Pacific so sweet that it helped launch the modern interest in heirloom seeds back in the 70s. Otherwise, they are very similar in texture and taste to a butternut. They are huge, so they're good for big families or you can always pre-cook the bit you aren't using and freeze them for later. I love to save some leftover squash to mix into my cheesy grits in the morning.

Then there's the North Georgia candy roaster. This heirloom banana squash has softer skin than the others, and it really wins on texture. Super-soft and velvety, this is your ideal squash for puree and soup. The golden-yellow color flesh is also quite eye-catching. The darker orange sucrine du Berry is perhaps the most unique. The texture is a bit like a cross between a butternut and a spaghetti squash, and if cubed it holds its shape well when cooked. The taste is really something special, a little less sweet but with many subtle floral notes. This is my favorite for savory squash dishes, and the enterprising chef should find it opens up a whole universe of hearty antique French soups and pastries like this one. Finally, the Thai Kang Kob is a seed-saver's favorite. An all-natural, vegan pumpkin pie to itself, its sweet, nutty, and spiced flavor does a spot-on impression with almost no work on the cook's part. After roasting, you can even cut it into pie slices to double-down on the effect. It's also the squash of choice for all manner of Southeast Asian curries and stews.

We love our various colored sweets, but for thanksgiving, it has to be orange.

Pecan-Sweet Potato Casserole

For a recipe this week, here's my take on a Thanksgiving classic that really highlights a quality sweet potato. The key to this recipe is that the mashed sweets themselves are barely spiced letting their full flavor stand out, and then they get paired with a complimentary nutty maple-bourbon topping. Sorry there's no picture, but we'll post to Instagram this week.

First bake two pounds of sweet potatoes for one hour at 375. When they're done, scoop out the flesh into a bowl, and mash with 1 tsp. each nutmeg, allspice, and cayenne, plus 1 Tbsp. salt. Place the mixture into an oiled baking dish. In a skillet on the stove, melt one stick of butter and stir in 3/4 C of brown sugar. Let the mixture start to candy for 3 or so minutes. Stir in 2 C pecans and continue to cook for two minutes, stirring regularly. Finally pour in 1/2 C maple syrup and 1/4 C bourbon, whisk together, and immediately pour contents of pan over the top of sweet potatoes.

All this can be done well ahead of time. To finish the dish just bake at 350 for 15-20 minutes (add 10 minutes if it's been in the fridge).

So that's it. Have a happy Thanksgiving!

Joanna's take on the deep freeze

Frozen lettuce transplants from 2016 - don't worry, they lived!

Things you can't control

Hi folks! This is Joanna, one of your other farmers, bringing you my take on the week. Farming involves a lot of attempting to control forces that are ultimately much greater than you - like what your soil is made of, or how much it's going to rain. There are plenty of ways that we mitigate these circumstances, such as adding organic matter (like compost) to our soil, or watering our plants with drip irrigation, but sometimes you just can't be the boss of Mother Nature. This deep freeze is a humbling example of just that! There are things we can do to keep the plants warm, like growing them inside of high tunnels (like unheated greenhouses) or covering them with row cover. Mostly we needed to take action ahead of time like moving all of our winter squash indoors. I'm choosing to embrace the cold because it means that our winter CSA is truly beginning! And I'm so excited to bring you produce year-round.

One other thing that we can't control is email filters! We sent out a direct email yesterday morning encouraging you to check your spam and promotions folders for our emails since they're sent out by Mail Chimp. Make sure to do this so that you get all of our newsletters and ordering reminders!

 

WHAT WE'RE EATING

Black Pepper Beef over Fun Jen mustard greens topped with cilantro

Bryan spent a few years living in China and knows how to make incredible Chinese food! Here he made his take on Black Pepper Beef, which could easily be made with chicken or tofu instead. Here's a link to a recipe that details how to make it yourself. We recommend substituting green peppers for fresh or rehydrated shitake mushrooms. 

And we love eating everything over a bed of greens! We especially like it when it's the tuna tartare at Towson Tavern. Fun Jen is a super sweet and only slightly spicy mustard green that's available this week as part of your CSA. Cilantro's available too! 

Baloo helping with the sweet potato harvest

That's all for this week! Feel free to let us know if you have any questions about the CSA ordering process!

Joanna, Bryan and Nick

Good evening. My name is Bryan and I'll be your farmer for the winter.

above: Some of the last bees and fireflies of the season enjoying our straw flowers. 

Our first CSA week of the... ever!

I feel like I have so much to say! First of all, thanks so much for supporting Good Dog Farm this Fall/ Winter/ indefinitely into the future. We may be trying to change the way people think about CSA, but the bottom line is still that the farm subscription concept is vital to the growth and success of a vibrant local agricultural community. As small farmers, it's a lot of work trying to reach new customers,build a brand people trust, and position ourselves in a food system that was not built with our business model in mind. So we can't stress enough how much it means to small farmers like us to have customers like you who are willing to put money down up front, put their trust in us, and show they have our backs while we do the other lifting. No matter how the food system changes into the future, it's hard to imagine a time when that type of connection and support stops being the cornerstone on which businesses like ours are built. And so, really, thank you!

Plus, CSA is just more fun! Nick, Joanna, and I have been farming for a while. We love to find and grow new varieties of familiar crops and share them with people who care about food as much as we do. And we hope this CSA will be a great opportunity to share that attention to quality, detail, and variety. Specifically, I'd like to use these newsletters to give you a little taste of life on the farm each week (like those adorable pollinators hanging on to the last little bits of warm weather) in addition to highlighting a few items that we've been enjoying lately in our kitchen. Let's start with a simple one:

Last night's dinner:

Rockfish with brown sage butter, roasted fingerling and baby potato medley, and "spicy" salad mix with miso-ginger dressing.

It's probably silly, but for me, something just seems so special about having several dishes on a plate at once. It's probably all the years living in big group homes making giant one-pot meals. Now, I still love a huge gumbo, but the old starch-salad-protein combo just feels... nice.

Anyway, I bring it up because I just wanted to point out how a few fun varieties can really bring some new joy into the old favorites. I mean, they're called old "favorites" for a reason. Roasted veggies and a salad is like a farmer's "Thunder Road". Or "Jolene." Or really it's our "Scarlet > Fire" jam if you're not embarrassed to go there.  But in any musical analogy, it's an opportunity to show off just how big a difference our products can make.

The salad is sliced Easter egg radishes and our "full flavor" salad mix, which I really encourage you to try. A few of the greens have a tiny bite, but toss them with dressing and you won't even notice. The other added flavors and textures you get from the mustards and Asian greens included are well worth it. For a dressing, I love something miso-based. In this case, 4 oz. olive oil, .5 oz. lemon juice, 1 oz. aged rice vinegar, 2 tbs. sweet white miso, and 1 tsp. sesame seeds, all shaken up together real good, with black pepper to taste.

The roast is a half-pound of our sweet potato fingerling mix (pictured below) along with a half-pound Papa Cacho and French fingerling potatoes, all cut into 1-inch pieces, tossed with oil, salt, and pepper, and roasted at 425 F for 30 minutes. We love the fingerling sweets for roasting. They're quicker to prepare, you get lots of crispy skins, and they look beautiful on a plate. It's also a great opportunity to sample our different sweet potatoes and their unique textures and flavors.

Fingerling sweet potatoes. Longest tuber pictured is about 5 inches.

Left to right: White Hamon, All-gold, Hernandez, Covington, Beauregard, Murasaki, Adirondack blue.

So that's it, our first CSA newsletter is in the books! So I'll say thanks again, and please keep in touch. We're always happy to answer any questions you have by email, and we've enabled comments on these posts if you ever want to share your own recipes or experiences with our produce. We'd love to hear them. Enjoy the rest of your weekend,

Bryan, Joanna, and Nick

A new season, a new website (and a new tunnel)

Welcome, welcome

When we started the farm in June of 2016, we talked about whether we needed a website or not. We decided to forego the luxury at the time and focus on the brass tacks of starting our operation. You know: high tunnels, tractors, carrots. So very many carrots...

After all, we were lucky enough to be members of the wonderful Chesapeake Farm to Table aggregator. Through Jack and Beckie's walk-in, Baltimore chefs and diners-out were more than capable of gobbling up all of our produce at the time. Besides, all the cool kids use Instagram anyway.

1,200 lbs of Napa cabbage, give or take, soon to be off to the great kimchi in the sky

Well, my have things been changing quickly! We have many new wonderful customers, including master kraut-heads HEX Ferments among other foodies, food trucks, small shops, and more. And they're buying as much produce as we could have reasonably dreamed last winter while we squinted at spreadsheets and sweated over budgets. And hopefully there will soon be many, many more. Like maybe you?

CS-Yay!

Our newest high tunnel, halfway prepped, with another one full of greens behind

That's probably the biggest change of all, a CSA! And we think we're ready for it. For our farm, this year has been all about experimentation. We have maintained a wholesale-focused model that has allowed us to succeed, fail and learn without letting down our customers. Maybe that red cabbage didn't do so hot, but chefs have been more than happy with the bumper crop of German butterball potatoes. As I'm fond of saying, "no one will know there weren't balloons."

A CSA takes a different level of commitment, though, and it's one we take very seriously. We've done our homework. We know what seed varieties do well, what systems work for us. We've even doubled (or tripled) down on some of them by building two new tunnels. If we don't have all the tools we need yet, we know which ones we want to buy and when. We will still be heavily invested in the wholesale side of our business, but we've decided that the best way forward is adding these new direct-to-consumer sales on top. Because we're good enough, we grow tasty enough food, and--gosh darnit--people like us!

Thus, the website. We'll be keeping up this site to reflect the ongoing details of the business and to post cute pics of the dogs (though the most up to date place to find pretty pictures will still be our Instagram.) It will be a centralized location for info about our CSA and a way to stay in touch with customers and prospective customers. This is the "News" page because sometimes the news is that we're too busy to keep up a blog. Archived CSA newsletters will always post here for posterity, though. We're very excited for the season (and thrilled to be done editing the website). Look forward to growing with you.

Keep in touch! 

- Farmer Bryan