This week is available to the general public without a weekly subscription. Place your order by TONIGHT at MIDNIGHT for pickup this week - Wed, 10/11 thru Sat, 10/14.

Our pickup locations and times can be found here: SUMMER PICKUP LOCATIONS

You will select a pickup location at checkout. Orders must be paid online and submitted by Tues, 10/10 at Midnight.

Smoked Meatloaf Meal Kit - $50

I initially had a bunch of meal kits planned for this week - then ran out of time!

But we did get one awesome, easy to prepare meal kit ready for you this week.

SMOKED MEATLOAF. This is an OCP original where we start with a blend of grassfed beef and pasture raised pork. The meat is ground and paddle mixed with a panade of heavy whipping cream, eggs, whole wheat bread crumbs, mirepoix and spices. The loaves are then formed and baked at a high heat in the oven to "set them up."

It's then a game of "hot potato." The meatloaves are removed from the molds and loaded into a hot smokehouse where they are finished slowly with hickory smoke. The final touch is to spin them in a bowl of homemade bbq sauce then put them back in the smoker.

Each loaf is fully cooked and weighs approximately 3.5#. To reheat, simply warm in the oven. You can also enjoy cold by slicing and putting on a sandwich, or slicing and searing in a skillet.

We paired the meatloaf with a few appropriate sides, blending the end of summer with fall flavors. Try the ratatouille served with the meatloaf - the acid of the tomato helping offset the richness of a meatloaf. Add a sweet potato gratin and some maple glazed carrots to the plate and your meal is complete.

Meatloaf Bundle Includes

1 Smoked Meatloaf, approx 3.5#

2# carrots

3# sweet potatoes

1 quart of ratatouille

And Smoked Chicken Wings

Thank you for everyone who wrote in with kind words about last week's smoked chicken wings in the bag.

They're ready to reheat - just pop 'em in the oven at 350 for approximately 10 to 15 minutes to warm up. Want to add a little crispiness? Turn on the broiler for the last few minutes.

1.5# bags - $9

Concord Grape Pies

This is a seasonal special that we only make once per year. Working with the concord grapes makes a mess of our kitchen. I told the Amish girls it looked like a smurf died in here....they have no clue what I'm talking about!

We start with whole concord grapes and cook them just enough to get the skins and seeds out. The filling is slightly sweet but still acidic and distinctively concord grape.

We top it with a top crust dusted in organic cane sugar.

This is our signature farm crust of organic whole wheat flour, butter, and lard from our pasture raised hogs for a flaky, delicious crust.

Large Concord Grape Pies - $18

Small Concord Grape Pies - $10

Apple Cinnamon Quick Bread

This is our fall quick bread, a moist hefty loaf of bread layered with spiced apple pieces.

This loaf makes a great breakfast bread, toasted with butter on top, or even served as a dessert with a scoop of applesauce on the side.

Apple Cinnamon Loafs - just $5

Apples are in full force, and each week our selection changes.

This week, we continue to have a good supply of Honeycrisp. Our supplier - Quarry Hill in Berlin Heights - wants to keep you happy, so we have a sale price on HoneyCrisp this week.

SALE: Honeycrisp - 2# (approx 5 to 6 apples) for $4

Other Varieties Also Available

Jonathan - so good that this old fashioned apple has been used to cross into many newer varieties, such as jonamac and jonagold. The jonathan is sweet with a bit of tang, good crunch, and a smooth, shiny skin. The jonathan is always a farm market favorite!

Crimson Crisp - one of our grower's favorites. Medium size, crunchy with a sweet-tart flavor. More "interesting," in my opinion, than a honeycrisp

Gala - a fresh eating classic. Crunchy, sweet and one of the most popular varieties.

Empire - as the name suggests, an apple originating from NY. This apple is medium sweet, with a good crunch and a texture that holds up great in pies and pastries. This is one you won't usually find in a grocery store - more of a farm market variety.

Jonamac - as the name suggests, a cross between Jonathan and Macintosh. A firmer apple than macintosh, with a beautiful red color and a unique undertone of spice in the background. Good eating and baking apple. Stays firmer longer than the macintosh.

Macintosh - an old fashioned favorite for baking and sauce. The tender flesh cooks down easy to thicken pies and sauces. It's very juicy and usually only available for a short time.

Bosc Pear -

Ok, this is not an apple, but I get really excited when we have pears. The Bosc is a European cultivar best known for it's use in poached pears and French baked goods. Like all pears, you want to leave them at room temperature for several days to ripen up. You can check a pear by depressing your thumb into the neck. When the neck of the pear gives, it is ripe.

A bosc is less juicy than a Bartlett, but it's sweet flesh holds up better in cooking applications.

We have a limited supply of these. They are all of the tree so what we have is what we have for the year!

2# bag for $4.25

A few things have had me thinking about bees lately. First, I just mowed off my buckwheat, which had me thinking of the bold, unique flavors of buckwheat honey. And second, that there are so many bees flying around in the fall.

Where do the boys go? The bees buzzing around lately are usually the male bees - called drones - looking for a home. In the fall, the colony naturally starts to shut down for winter and conserve it's food supply. The females block out the boys, and they aren't allowed back in the hive! They will eventually die, and the colony does this to make room for the "brood," or nursery, of baby bees for next year.

If you take the honey, what do they eat all winter? Have you ever thought about a hive and how it is managed? I talked to our bee-keeper - Jason Bosler - and he explained how he manages the hives in the fall.

First, he treats for mites. A mite can carry diseases and wipe out a whole colony if locked up in the hive all winter. He starts treating all of his colonies - all 500 - with an organic miticide, oxalic acid. He then gets out the scale and weighs the hive.

Why weigh the hive? He knows that his empty hive is about 20# with just the frames and box. During the summer, the hives swell to almost 100,000 bees and nearly 200#. As frost moves in, they drop to about 40,000 bees. At this point, he is taking his final extraction of honey.

Jason knows that on an average winter the colony needs to weigh about 80 to 100# going into the winter. He removes honey until the hive is down to that weight, then leaves the rest in the brood chamber to feed the babies.

What happens if they run out of food? Throughout the winter Jason checks in on the bees. If they get too low on honey, he adds a sugar brick that's a blend of three simple sugars - sucrose, glucose, and fructose. This feeds the bees until the flowers bloom again.

So what about the buckwheat?

Buckwheat is a very versatile cover crop that sprouts easily even in poor soils and dry conditions. It is also very important crop for the polinators.

Organic produce growers usually use buckwheat as a mid season cover crop between a spring crop - such as spinach - and a fall crop such as turnips or beets. It comes up really quick then can be tilled down in as "green manure."

Boslers manages a few buckwheat fields, including nearly a 30 acre patch in Fredericksburg. They harvest the honey and there is no question what the bees have been feeding on.

The buckwheat honey is extra dark, very bold and robust. The flavor is less sweet than other honey, but loaded with complex flavor notes that remind you of malted grains, toffee, and even molasses.

I like to keep buckwheat honey on hand to use in sauces, including homemade ketchup and bbq, as well as to utilize in baked goods like muffins or pancakes.

Others have told me it's a secret ingredient in homemade cocktails, as it pairs well with bourbon, and others have told me they drizzle it on ice cream, yogurt, or even oatmeal for a healthier option than brown sugar.

New Honey Flavors

Buckwheat Honey - 12 oz bottle - $11

Habanero Honey - 12 oz bottle - $11

Mixed clover honey infused with habaneros for a spicy touch

Truckpatch Honey - 8 oz bottle - $6.5

Honey gathered from pollinating organic produce patches, particularly strawberries.

Light, floral and sweet. Try it on a cheese board.

THE FALL RUSH

As they say, when it rains it pours. The fall around a farm can be quite busy. For us, it's as much about making next year a better year as much as it is finishing this season.

Right now, many of our produce growers are trying to get in cover crops. Cover crops serve three purposes on an organic farm:

1.  Soil preparation. The roots of cover crops will prevent erosion this winter and loosen compacted soils, allowing better drainage next year.
2. Weed suppression. A strong cover crop can crowd out voluntary weeds, helping making managing produce easier the next year.
3. Fertilization. It’s called “green manure” for a reason.

Planting cover crops requires quite a bit of work to prepare the soil. Plow, disc, then finish with a harrow, before running a drill across the field to plant the seed. For most large scale farmers – those raising cash crops like soybeans and corn – this is too much work when harvest is starting. 

I remember last year reading an article in the local paper about the local soil and water conservation district broadcasting barley as a cover crop from an airplane! I should have saved the paper longer, but I think they said they seeded nearly 30,000 acres, mostly soybean fields.

They had explained that cover cropping wasn't common among conventional crop growers. The intent was to add "green manure" and prevent erosion over the winter. The airplane broadcasting didn't produce a strong "stand" of cover crop, but it was better than nothing and way cheaper than what we do.

PLANTING GREEN MANURE

Cover crops are interesting. The concept isn't new, but the practice isn't widespread, particularly in crop fields (where corn and soybeans are grown).

Cover crops are crops that are planted before winter with the intent that you plow them under the next spring. Some people call this "green manure" as the vegetative matter adds nutrients back to the soil as it decomposes. Some plants, such as legumes like peas and clover, have the ability to pull nitrogen to the surface of the soil and have it ready for next season.

Sounds like magic, right? Well, why doesn't everyone do it? It's simple. Time and money. It takes a lot of time for us to get the fields ready for cover crops, all at the same time that you are trying to harvest other crops.

Timing is also very important. Not all plants will germinate this late in the season. Common late season cover crops include hairy vetch and cereal rye.

IN THE SPRING, WE PLOW DOWN THE COVER CROP

If done correctly, next spring the plowing down of the green manure will add up to 120 lbs of nitrogen per acre (as well as many other important nutrients). Nitrogen is important for promoting green growth in plants, which allows them to trap more sun and nutrients.  This is just one of the many nutrient benefits of the cover crop.

When I say plowing down, that means just running the plow through the field and turning the cover crop under the soil. It has to sit there for a few weeks before the ground is worked further. This allows the plant matter to decay and add nutrients back to the soil. If the farmer plants in it too quickly, it can actually "burn" the crops with too many available nutrients. The ground is eventually worked with a series of discs, harrows, or a tiller to make it workable for planting. The plant matter and roots left in the soil help to add tilth and drainage all at the same time.

THE COST OF COVER CROPPING -

Beyond the price of the labor and time, the seed to do this isn't cheap. The planting rate is approximately 50# per acre, and a 50# bag of seed ranges from $175 to $200.  

For a farmer in conventional agriculture, work is prohibitive. The easier solution would be to apply synthetic chemicals like urea. Using urea at 46% nitrogen would require approximately 200 to 250 lbs per acre to get the same amount of just nitrogen. 

Historically, urea was approximately $200 per ton, that means only $20 to fertilize that acre of land.  And the urea can be applied at planting or greenup, eliminating work in the winter. 

Well, one of the consequences of the pandemic, supply chain issues, and the war in Ukraine (because urea is derived from natural gas, and natural gas prices are soaring), is that urea is really expensive these days. Not only is it difficult to come by, but prices have fluctuated this year, often up to $900 per ton.  

So for the last couple years, cover crops are a little more attractive to all farmers.

OK, all you super-prepared people who have been calling since June to try to reserve a heritage turkey....

The order form is now live! Please place your order online so I don't lose it!

Turkeys are a big focus right now on the farm, and in the kitchen we'll soon start roasting pumpkins to freeze puree for pies and more. The work has already begun!

Our offerings are similar to last year, and prices are the same. We expect to quickly sell out of heritage turkeys, and should have plenty of our pasture raised "market" turkeys available. Stay tuned for all the email updates as they continue to scratch and gobble around the farm.

Not sure 100% what you need? You can always update or change your order later. It's best to at least get on the list and reserve a turkey at a minimum.

With just 4 more weeks of the Summer Season, we are preparing for our upcoming Winter Season that starts November 1st.

We'll see fresh produce for the first few months, then move into more storage-crop/fall items, prepared items in the winter that have all been made from scratch using all local ingredients, and end with early spring produce.

There is one size bag in the winter. Winter season items are less perishable than in the summer and after the first three weeks, we move into an every-other-week pick up schedule. The winter size is closer is size to the summer large. See what's been included in past winter bags HERE..

Want to join in? 2 easy ways to sign up.

1. Login to your account and find the Winter Season in the "Subscriptions" category
2. Reply back to this email and include the following details: package type (omnivore, vegetarian, carnivore), pick up location and payment plan (upfront or weekly).

*Note: Your account is not automatically re-enrolled or subscribed into the next season, so please sign up via your online account or email.

More details about the Winter Season packages can be found HERE.