Oktoberfest Bundle - $20

Last week the bundle sold out really quick. So to be fair, we made another batch of sausage, pierogies, and pretzels to run it again. Limited to 50 this week.

This week, our bundle includes a few new items, and although they may not be picture perfect like something from a factory, they are made with clean ingredients and are handmade.

Oktoberfest Bundle - $20

1# Oktoberfest Weisswurst

6 handmade pierogis (kraut and potato filling)

1 # raw sauerkraut

1 soft pretzel

Pierogis are boiled already and frozen. Remove from the freezer and spread them out to thaw so they don't stick together. Cook in butter over low heat for a nice color and crunchy finish.

Soft pretzel is fully cooked and can be warmed up in the oven to soften.

Raw kraut should remain refrigerated.

The weisswurst can be boiled or seared, serve with mustard and kraut. It is a pork sausage made with heavy cream and lightly seasoned with mace, ginger, onion powder, white pepper, and lemon zest.

Beer Brats - SALE

We are proud to work with GLBC to make custom beer brats for their menu. This week, keeping with the Oktoberfest theme, we made some extra to share with Fresh Fork members.

If you frequent their taproom, you'll notice the selection changes. We are currently supplying them with a special Christmas Ale Brat, spiced up with holiday spices, for their menu. That's not available at Fresh Fork.

What we do have available this week is:

Dortmunder Beer Brat - this is our original and a staple on their menu. A pork brat loaded full of Dortmunder for a juicy snap.

Cheddar and Jalapeno Beer Brat - our dortumnder brat oozing with smoked cheddar cheese and a hint of jalapeno for a balanced spice.

Both sausages are smoked for a consistent snap and juicy finish.

Sold in 4 links per pack, approx 1.25# per package.

Dortmunder Brat - $10

Cheddar Jalapeno Beer Brat - $11.20.

This week we put together some stew beef kits that make an easy dinner.

1.5# of grassfed beef stew meat is marinated in a classic red wine marinade of red wine, cider vinegar, rosemary, thyme, and spices. We "vacuum tumble" to tenderize the meat and pull the marinade all the way thru.

It is packaged with fresh carrots, onions, and celery - your classic mirepoix - ready for the dutch oven and an easy dinner.

Stew Meat Kits - $15

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 - 6 ct (approx 2#) for $4

Other Varieties Also Available

Crimson Sweet - 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 coming this week and next week, then that's it. 2# bag for $4.25

TO BE ANNOUNCED!

Wow, thanks for all the response to the competition. We had over 50 submissions and there were a lot of good ones. It took a few hours to go through them all.

To be fair to all the work you put into submissions, we are creating a separate page on the website for the recipes, photos, and more.

Being that the phone is already ringing asking what's in this week's bag, I'm going to get this newsletter out then send a separate Pizza Contest Winner newsletter as soon as I can.

There were a few fun themes and lots of creative tips I liked:

• a lot of you grow basil at home, and it was a prevalent ingredient
• thank you for all the tips, from salting the crust to preserving basil in oil for color retention
• confit and roasting were popular techniques - roasting onions and tomatoes for sauce, or making a garlic confit to infuse an olive oil
• hot honey and balsamic reductions are definitely trending
• the recipes were honest, including my favorite..."sorry no photos, we were to hangry to wait"
• regional touches, from New England to Iowa, and everything in between
• pizza, and Fresh Fork, is certainly a family endeavor and we appreciate everyone sharing how the whole family participates

So stay tuned for the big announcement. I will warn you, there is a tie and will be more prize than I initially offered.

This time of the year is super busy. I'm racing to get the newsletter out to go help the kitchen staff that is drowning in baked goods and tomatoes!

Each week we try to help "put up" the harvest. The big items right now are hot peppers and tomatoes. So Monday thru Wednesday we try to do the prep that is needed to get to our canning days - Thursday and Friday - while still cranking out the usual baked goods.

The prep work this week includes: roasting 1,200# of tomatoes, peeling those tomatoes, chopping and peeling hundreds of pounds of onions, jalapenos, and garlic.

On Thursday and Friday, we'll make salsa and tomato sauce. On our small commercial scale, there a few technical pieces to the puzzle.

• our facility is inspected and registered with the Ohio Dept of Agriculture
• our records have to be thorough, including everything from pH to the temperature of our boiling water for the hot water bath
• each recipe has to be approved by a "Process Authority," registered with the FDA, and executed by a supervisor trained and tested for "Better Process Control"

So in short, I have a certificate from University of TN for process controls, and it's my responsibility to monitor every aspect of our processes.

To give you a real example, this week we will make salsa. It's considered an "acidified" product and a "hot pack" product. That means that we add an acid - in this case cider vinegar - to adjust the equilibrium pH to a safe level. This is because non-acid ingredients - like peppers and onions - are in the recipe. Tomatoes, the naturally acidic ingredient, are borderline in terms of a safe pH to can.

This product is then cooked in a kettle to a specific temperature - 195 or greater - and held there for 6 minutes or more to sterilize the ingredients and acidify the non-acid ingredients.

I then check the pH and adjust it to match the recipe. In this case, our pH needs to be below 4.20.

We then line up our jars and lids and get ready to work fast. I have to record the initial temperature going into the jar, and it needs to be above 195 degrees. We then immediately cap the jar and invert it upside down and hold it there for 30 seconds or more. This sterilizes the neck and lid without a hot water bath, but requires higher temps and more records.

We record the pH, the initial temp, the cook temperature and hold time, any defective jars/lids, and the time it takes to can the product. Original records, such as hand written notes, must be kept. I've learned over the years that what is obvious to you and I isn't defendable to an inspector. You have to record the exact times - such as water bathed from 3:53 to 4:08 pm - as opposed to saying it went thru a 15 minute water bath. Further, you have to prove that, in the case of a hot water bath method, that your water bath was boiling by recording the temperature of the boiling water. I've made both mistakes in the past and have had to throw out hundreds of jars of product.

While this is a lot of work, it is a required step in balancing our local food system. To keep prices fair, we have to be able to utilize the entire harvest and be able to offer a product all year long.

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.