Chili Powder

Rista Chili ready to be dried

Dried Rista and Hot Portugal Chili

Chili Powder

Early fall is one of my favorite times of year at One Love Farm. The cool weather means fall beets are ready and cold weather crops like radishes, lettuce and arugula thrive. It also means hot peppers (chilis) are ready to pick.

We grow several kinds of chilis and sell them at the market. But we also grow lots of chilis to dry and make chili powder. I posted some pictures above showing the major steps in making chili powder. First, we pick the peppers. At One Love Farm we use Cayenne, Hot Mexican, Hot Portugal, Rista and Pablano in our chili powder. For the adventurous (read crazy) we also make a limited amount of chili powder using Habanero! Next, we dry the peppers in a dehydrator. If you're thinking of drying chilis, you can do so by hanging them in a cool, dry place or placing them on a cookie sheet and putting them in the oven on its lowest setting.

Once dry, we crush the chilis in a blender. Last, we make a spice mixture of smoked paprika and other organic herbs like parsley, cumin and oregano and add it to the crushed chilis to make the powder.

We add more or less chilis to change the flavor profile and heat of the chili powder, but any way you like it has a smokey and spicy flavor that is great on anything. We add it to olive oil for salad dressing or marinade, put it in soups and sauces and even have it with omelettes. We also make a chocolate truffle with chili powder that is very popular, if unusual. Since I only use chilis that I grow myself, we make less than 100 bottles of chili powder a year and always sell out.

Luckily, I always keep some back for us at the farm and to send to my family at the holidays. My father was in town last weekend and he was sure to remind me before he left that he was getting low on One Love Farm chili powder!

More Eggplant

Good thing I love eggplant, cuz there is tons of it this year! I just picked another boatload on Saturday and made Eggplant Parmigiana. Here is a link to Mario Batali's recipe, but I prefer to slice the eggplant and use the 3 dish method to coat the eggplant. First dunk the eggplant in flour (with some salt), then drop in an egg bath and coat. Finally, put in a dish of seasoned bread crumbs and put in a baking pan coated with olive oil. Bake in a 400 degree oven until crispy and brown. Then, let the breaded eggplant cool. Put some nice marinara in the bottom of a lasagna pan and add a layer of cooked eggplant. Then a layer of mozzarella cheese and another layer of marinara. Repeat at least one more time (two is better) and sprinkle with parm cheese. Cook for 20-25 minutes until the cheese is gooey and a little brown. Take out of the over and let stand at least 20 minutes or you will get eggplant parm soup. I had some last night and again today for lunch!

Check out my other posts about eggplant here and here. Also, check out one of my all time favorite recipes for Eggplant Balls!

Italian Eggplant

Eggplant has been so incredibly productive this year. We got eggplant early and because of that I expected it to be done by August. But, it has continued to produce into late September and shows no sign of letting up. With the Italian Eggplant (the most common type of eggplant you see in American supermarkets) we like to pick the fruit early before too many seeds form which can be bitter.

I bought a cookbook about Italian cuisine from the region of Puglia (the heel) and found a variation on one of our all time favorite eggplant dishes, eggplant balls! If you have eggplant in your garden, give it a try because I know that if you grow eggplant, you have tons of extra and are wondering what to do with it!

Onions

We don't grow a lot of onions at One Love Farm. As my fellow farmer John Jackson says "Why grow it when you can get it just as good at the grocery store." While the fruit and veggies you grow in your yard and I grow on my farm are way, way more tasty than anything you can get in the grocery store, there are exceptions. Tropical fruit is one exception. Another might be onions. That is why we grow only a few dozen onions every year and just tuck them between spaces of other crops.

One of the reasons we grow onions is because it is very rewarding. I like watching the shoot grow larger until it topples over signaling harvest. I also like knowing that every ingredient in the salsa I make, from the tomato to the garlic to the peppers to the onion all came from the farm. The only thing I have to buy is the salt and lime juice!

Here is a nice salsa recipe. Feel free to adjust amounts and substitute ingredients. That's how you make it your own!
Ingredients

6 Roma tomatoes, chopped

4 garlic cloves, minced

2 seeded and minced jalapenos, plus 2 roasted, skinned and chopped jalapenos

1 red bell pepper, fine dice

1/2 red onion, fine chopped

2 dry ancho chiles, seeded, cut into short strips and snipped into pieces

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 lime, juiced

1/2 red onion, chopped

2 tablespoons chopped cilantro

Chili powder, salt, and pepper, to taste

Combine all ingredients and refrigerate for an hour

Serve with tortilla chips

Beets

We've always grown beets at One Love Farm with great success. Traditional red beets and golden beets (variety: Touchstone Gold) do very well here. Last week I picked over 50 pounds of beets and will probably pick that much this week as well! Many of the folks who come the Richmond Farmers' Market tell me that they love to roast, steam or boil the beets to eat in salads. One lady got over 10 pounds from me to pickle and give to her family for Christmas. What a great gift!

In addition to the beet root (a lady from England told me that they call beets "beet root" in the UK) the greens are also wonderful to eat. When the plant is very small (an inch of two high), we thin the seedlings and use the greens in salads. Then, when the plant is fully mature, we pick the beets and use the greens as well. They can be steamed or sauteed in olive oil with garlic. After taking the pan off the heat, you can add sea salt, red pepper flakes or Parmesan cheese to finish off the dish.

This year we experimented with a new variety for us, called Forono. Forono is an Italian beet with a cylindrical shape rather than a sphere. They have a wonderful taste and tend to be more tender than some beets that can become fiberous as they mature. While some traditionalists were skeptical of this new beet, once folks try them they are hooked. We will definitely be planting lots of Forono beets next year.

Black Cherry Tomato

We usually don't grow a lot of cherry tomatoes at One Love Farm. They split so easily and a lot of them don't have much flavor because they suck up so much water. But, this spring I found a Black Cherry Tomato and decided to plant a few. What I got really surprised me. The flavor is very sweet but also rich and complex. Like a Cherokee Purple, but in a smaller container.

I have tried to research the origins of this tomato, but there is not much information about it. Except that this is an heirloom, I don't know a lot about this variety except that it is delicious.

Unfortunately, when the remains of Hurricane Earl blew through Rhode Island and dropped two inches of rain, all the cherry tomatoes split. But, there are still some green ones out there, so I hope we will have a few of these delicous tomatoes before the season ends!

Morning Glory

First things first, Hurricane Earl was a dud. Only a couple of inches of rain and no major wind in our area. I didn't even bother to bring in the patio furniture. I did pick some unripe tomatoes, thinking that they would be damaged in the storm. Turns out that was a wasted precaution.

Now, morning glory. Morning glory was first cultivated in the Far East where some varieties are still used in cooking. Here in the US, morning glory is used as a reseeding annual flower. The vines twist and twirl and will climb up just about anything. Lots of people use this characteristic to brighten up walls and arbors.

We've grown morning glory for years, and I can tell you few things about this plant. First, it doesn't mind poor soil. We were growing it in a container near some very sandy and nutrient depleted soil. In fact, the only thing in that area was gravel and few stray weeds. The morning glory dropped its seeds in this area and the plant has flourished there. We're happy to have it there because nothing else will really grow there.

Second, which is related to the first, is that morning glory is invasive. Some varieties have been listed as noxious weeds by the federal government and are illegal to possess or sell. I know from experience to keep morning glory away from your prized veggies or ornamental plants. Years ago, I planted some morning glory near a fence and some tomatoes. My idea was to let the morning glory climb the fence. It did climb the fence, but it also strangled some tomato plants! Ever since then, we have kept the morning glory out of the veggie patch.

Veggie theft

There was a great story on NPR this morning about community gardens in Chicago. Apparently, there is a problem with "veggie theft." Folks taking other people's bounty of zucchini and radishes. Luckily, at One Love Farm the only theft we have to worry about is rabbits stealing lettuce and carrots!

Valencia Tomato

The Valencia tomato is an heirloom that can be traced back to Maine. Past that, its origins are in dispute. Some say it comes from Valencia, Spain. This seems unlikely to me since the Valencia likes cool weather, but maybe the farmers of Valencia grew them in late winter or very early spring when the weather is cool. Others say the name comes from the fact that the tomato looks like a Valencia orange.

Either way, this heirloom produces early and has a sweet flavor. In fact many of my friends say it is their favorite of the heirlooms we grow. It has lower acid than many of the red tomatoes, but is well balanced and not so low in acid that you don't get a true tomato flavor.

Few people grow the Valencia and it is considered to be endangered. So, we will definitely be growing more of this tomato in the future.