Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Fall planting time on the Anderson Farm



Harvest is over and the crops were average to above average, this is always a good thing. Now my husband Joe and his brother, Jay have begin the ritual of planting the winter wheat. This year we have selected three different kinds of wheat to plant in different fields. It's sort of a guessing game as to what variety to select as we can only guess what the weather for next year will bring. One variety was selected due to it's high yielding potential, plus it did very well in our neighbor's field - which borders our field, so we will hope for the same results. We will know next harvest if we chose the right varieties for the other 2 varieties.

On our farm, Joe and Jay work in tandem, one driving the tractor which pulls the air drill (which puts the seeds & fertilizer) in the ground and the other is the support team, hauling fertilizer and seed to the other to keep him running efficiently as well as spraying Round-up to kill unwanted foliage.


The weather has turned cool and very Fall feeling. Kip Mayer, the local hardware store manager at Pacific Northwest Farmer's Cooperative gave me his last copy of the Pea & Lentil Cookbook, so I thought I'd try one new recipe each week and give my comments about it. Growing up, I really didn't eat many legumes - I was a picky eater (and still am). So thumbing through the cookbook, I looked at what I had on hand and chose the Golden Pea and Squash Soup. (I literally have a wheel barrow full of acorn squash from my garden) Peeling the squash took a little bit of time, but the effort was worth it, as the soup was quite tasty. It needed a tad bit more salt than the recipe called for, but the hint of Allspice was perfect. I didn't have leeks as called for in the recipe, plus they were kind of expensive at the grocery store, so I substituted 1/2 white onion for them. Next time I make it I'll probably add some canned green chili's. Over all, it passed the picky Gayle test and I would serve it again. =) If I get permission to publish the recipe from the Pea and Lentil Commission, I will so stay tuned. I pared the soup up with a Zuchinni Parmeasan Bread which is easy to make and very good. That recipe is as follows:
Zucchini Parmesan Bread
3 cups flour
1 cup peeled, shredded zuchinni
1/3 cup sugar
1/2 teas baking soda
1 teas baking powder
1 teas salt
1/3 cup butter, melted
3 Tbl parmesan cheese
1 cup buttermilk
2 eggs
1 tablespoon grated onion (optional)
Mix all ingrediants into a bowl and mix well. Batter will be thick. Spread in a greased & floured bread loaf pan and bake @ 350 for 1 hour or until done.


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