The beans are here!

Greetings on this misty Friday. We have been hard at work lately, getting our fall crops in the ground including chinese cabbage, fennel, broccoli, among others. We’ve dismantled most of the pea beds (sniff!), a sure sign that summer is forging ahead, with fall just around the corner. Many of you have received your basil, with others patiently waiting… how is your pesto-making going?! The garlic and shallots have been harvested and are happily drying in the barn…  and coming your way soon!

If you look over a few beds down next time you’re picking flowers, you’ll see the Bodacious sweet corn is plumping up fast and is almost ready to be seen making its grand appearance on your dinner table, perhaps dressed to the nines in melted butter, mmmmm. (And yes, it really is called Bodacious, you can read more about it and why it’s so important to eat organic corn in my post here).

Yesterday, we harvested a whopping 70 pounds of green beans so get your best bean recipes out! And share them with us on our Facebook page at www.facebook.com/hopesedgefarm…  dilly beans anyone?

Thank you to all of you who came out to our potluck last week. It was a wonderful feast yet again: great company and great food. The table was filled with delicious goodies, both sweet and savoury.

Amanda made one of her famous cheesecakes again, this time an irresistible raspberry-basil version with chocolate crust. It was on the table for mere moments and poof, it was gone!

In other news, if you are interested in learning more about biodynamic farming, the 2012 Biodynamic Conference “Sacred Agriculture” is taking place November 14 to 18 in Madison, WI. Tom will be attending and giving a public talk entitled Biodynamics and Deep Ecology, and Deb from Avena Botanicals will also be speaking. The conference is open to the public, and more info available on their website: https://www.biodynamics.com/conference

This week, we had out first farm movie night where we projected a film on the wall of the shed. We kept it small this time around since we wanted to make sure we have the technical details sorted, but since it was a success and went off without a hitch, we may be doing a public movie screening at the farm very soon. There’s nothing like sitting outside under the stars and watching a great flick.

Finally, this is a farewell post from me since I am moving on, although I’ll be kicking around these parts and you can continue to follow my cooking and farming adventures on my blog www.kitchenvignettes.blogspot.com. Katrina who is working with us full-time will be continuing the Hope’s Edge summer blogging tradition. She is a talented photographer (who came to the farm on a documentary photo project via the Maine Media Workshops) so she will be sharing some wonderful images of daily life on the farm with you all. And maybe some recipes too. Here was the amazing cake she made yesterday for my last day at the farm. It has zucchini, carrots, walnuts and raisins, and is drizzled with a lemon glaze.

It was so YUM! If you ask her to, she just may give you the recipe in the next blogpost.

Happy bean eating and pesto-making everyone, and see you at the September potluck!

-Aube