Patchwork Green is a hillside and ridgetop farm overlooking the beautiful Canoe Creek Valley several miles north of Decorah, Iowa. Our family grows five acres of vegetables on a farm near Decorah, Iowa. We grow a wide variety of high quality, chemical-free vegetables using sustainable techniques.

Saturday, December 19, 2015

Veggies and Music at Saturday's Indoor Market

The last indoor farmers market of the season is Saturday, 12/19.  We'll be at the Danan Lansing Building at the Fairgrounds from 8:30 to 11:30.

At the Patchwork Green Farm table, you'll find lots of potatoes (red, yellow, fingerling and blue), lots
of cured alliums (garlic, red and yellow keeper onions, red and yellow cippolini onions and shallots) and a few fresh vegetables (cabbage, carrots, beets, cilantro and turnips).  We're thankful to still have some good produce left, due to a warm fall and a good root cellar.  We're also thankful for you, our community of healthy vegetable eaters, for supporting our farm and eating all of the food we produce!

An extra bonus this Saturday: my friend John Goodin and I will be playing music at the market from about 9:00 to 11:00.  We'll have a bunch of our CD's available for your holiday shopping, of course.

The recent mild weather has allowed me to do some good fall cleaning of facilities and containers and wash about 2000 pounds of potatoes for winter sales.  The multiple inches of rain have all soaked in beautifully, and it's reassuring to know we'll have good soil moisture to plant into next spring (otherwise known as MUD).  The ground should be frozen enough tomorrow to start mulching the garlic patch without making a muddy mess of things (thanks to those of you who contributed leaves to the effort).  This is certainly the latest I have ever done that job, and an unfortunate sign of the times we are living in.

The seed catalogs are begging for my attention next week, and I'll be in touch with you about Patchwork Green Farm CSA membership for 2016 in a few short months - dreaming of asparagus and peas....

Have a wonderful holiday break, and eat well!

Erik and Sara
Meg, Mairi and Nina
 
Fingerlings with Slivered Garlic 
from Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone by Deborah Madison

3 Tablespoons butter or olive oil, plus extra for the dish
1 pound potatoes, scrubbed and sliced lengthwise into halves or thirds
6 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
Salt and pepper

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.  Lightly butter a shallow baking dish.  Layer the potatoes in the dish with the garlic and small pieces of butter or a drizzle of oil and season with salt and pepper.  Make sure there's butter or oil for the top.  Add a few tablespoons of water to the dish, then cover and bake until tender, 40 or 50 minutes.  Remove the foil and bake for 15 minutes longer to brown on top.  These potatoes end up moist and succulent unless you continue baking them once they're tender - then they'll crisp on the bottom, and that's delicious, too.