Grapes

Cluster of Grapes

Destemmed Grapes

Extracting Juice from Grapes

Grape Juice ready to made into Sorbet

Cabernet Sorbet

When we first moved to Hope Valley in 2002, one of the first thing I did was plant grape vines. My intention was to make from my own grapes. Unfortunately, the weather never got warm enough for the grapes and the wine produced was just OK. I ripped out the vines after a couple of years and bought grapes for California to make my own wine.

But, one rouge vine persists and today I picked the grapes, just a few pounds, but still tasty. In the past, I've made grape jam, but today I decided to make a sorbet from the grapes. After destemming, deseeding and getting rid of the skins, I used the juice with some organic sugar to make a sorbet mix. But, the mix needed a little something else, so we added a glass of Cabernet which gave the Sorbet a great depth of flavor. Not to mention a great deep color.

Pumpkin

Pumpkin Gelato with shaved Chocolate

Pumpkin Ravioli

Today is the first full day of Fall. To me, Fall means squash; butternut, acorn and of course, pumpkins. Because of a wet spring and Hurricane Irene, the pumpkin crop in the Northeast is much smaller than usual and the price of Pumpkin is twice the normal rate.

Even with the Great Pumpkin Shortage of 2011, it wouldn't be Fall without Pumpkin Raviolis. Usually, we have the Ravs with butter a Sage topped with Parmesan Cheese. But today, we braised some of our Carrots and Peas in butter with Sage and added in the Pumpkins Ravs and topped with Cheese. Simple and hearty. Delicious.

We also made some Pumpkin Gelato. We took canned Organic Pumpkin and added in some Nutmeg, Allspice, Cinnamon and Ginger. Organic Sugar and Local Milk go in the Gelato, then we topped it with Shaved Belgian Chocolate.

Cherry Tomato Salsa

Three pounds of Cherry Tomatoes. Washed and ready for the oven

Roasted Cherry Tomatoes. Sweet and caramelized, rich and smokey.

The Final Product. Ready to be served or jarred and preserved.

Of the varieties of tomato we grew for the first time this year, my favorite is Matt's Wild Cherry (here is a post about my now second favorite, Black Cherry Tomato). The tomatoes are small, but pack a great flavor. This heirloom variety produces like crazy, so we have tons to eat fresh, sell at the farmers' market and still have a lot left over. That's fine because I love preserving tomatoes. My favorite way as I have posted about before is by freezing, especially the heirloom varieties. But we also can some salsa and marina in jars.

While I have seen people freeze Cherry Tomatoes, I decided to make these into a salsa this week. I took three pounds of Matt's Wild Cherry Tomatoes, roasted them in the oven until they were caramelized.

I also roasted my Onions, Sweet Peppers and Garlic with some salt an olive oil until they were soft and caramelized as well.

Once cooled, I used an immersion blender to make the tomatoes into a smooth sauce and cooked them in a sauce pan until the sauce gave up half its volume. I chopped and added the peppers, onions and garlic and let the salsa simmer for another 30 minutes. I added a little salt and the salsa was ready to go! Here is a post with another salsa recipe. I put some in sterilized jars and processed in a water bath for 45 minutes. That salsa will be wonderful this winter. The rest I will have on the side of our meal of roasted garden veggies tonight(Potatoes, Peppers, Onions).

Eggplant

I've posted several times about my favorite way to prepare Eggplant; Eggplant Balls. But there are lots of other ways to enjoy Eggplant. You can roast it with other veggies, like onions, peppers, potatoes and garlic. You can grill it. My favorite way to enjoy grilled Eggplant is to marinate it in Garlic Scape Pesto for an hour before grilling.

We also love to make Breaded Egpplant and freeze it. It's super easy to make. Just peel the Eggplant and cut lengthwise in half inch slices. Then, coat the Eggplant slices in flour. Dunk the slices in milk and then coat in Eggplant. Roast the in the oven until crispy. You can freeze the Eggplant slices for later or use them right away or use it in Eggplant Parm.

Husk Cherry Tomatoes

Husk Cherry Tomatoes (also called Ground Cherries) is a great undiscovered treat. They look like a tiny Tomatillo, but when you peel back the husk and pop them in your mouth, you get an unbelievably sweet mango or pineapple flavor. We love just peeling them and eating them, though people do use them in jams and pies or in cocktails!

Husk Cherry Tomatoes propagate easily. In fact, much like Tomatilos (who are in the same biological family of the Physalis), we have not planted new Cherry Husk Tomatoes in several years. The seeds easily sprout the next year wherever they land. Even though I built new beds this year and last, the Ground Cherry Tomatoes sprung up BETWEEN the bricks and weed block! These are super tough and hardy plants.

And the plant produces tons of fruit. The only problem is harvesting them. They don't call them Ground Tomatoes for nothing. The vines grow along the ground so you have to really stoop down to collect the sweet fruit. Sounds like a good job for kids who are already close to the ground and don't have bad knees!

Radishes

Earlier this summer, the Providence Journal did an article on succession planting. Tom Meade interviewed me on this topic and Kris Craig took some nice pictures at One Love Farm. Here is a link to that article in the Pro Jo.

Some of the best crops for succession planting are beets, lettuce and radishes. Radishes only take 28 days from planting to harvest and love cool weather. So, we plant radishes early in the spring and again in late summer every two weeks for continuous harvest. In fact, we are picking radishes this weekend for the Richmond Farmers' Market on Saturday.

Parsley

We grow lots and lots of Parsley at One Love Farm. Folks don't eat a lot of Parsley (even though it is delicious fresh in salads) but we dry it, grind it and use it in our Chili Powder recipe where it adds a lot of flavor to the mix.

Last Wildflower

Our wildflower garden was a surprise this year. Echinecia came up this year even though I don't remember planting it. We added Hollyhocks for next year. Sweet William came back along with lots of other wildflowers. But, as we get into September, all the wildflowers are done except for this one last wildflower.

Hurricane Irene

By the time Hurricane Irene hit Rhode Island, she had been downgraded to a tropical storm. Since the path had shifted, we ended up being on the east side of the eye, which means we got more wind and less rain. To the west side of the eye, you usually get more rain and less wind. We still got a few inches of rain, but it was the wind that did the most damage. While we lost many tomato plants at One Love Farm, most of the other plants made it through fine. Best of all, the greenhouse survived. I very much expected to find blown to bits all over South County.

We also lost power for five days. Trees knocked down power lines all over the state causing three quarters of the state to lose power. We have a well, so we lost water for those five days, too. This was a problem not only for the humans at One Love Farm who like water for drinking and showering and flushing the toilet, but also for the plants who like to be watered regularly. For the established plants like the tomatoes, peppers and eggplant, they did fine living off the water from the storm. But, we are also planting lots of fall crops this time of year. For them, they require watering, in some cases every day, to ensure germination and proper growth. Hopefully, they will be able to withstand this short respite from regular watering.

Early September Blooms

Karen planted these Limelight two years ago and it has thrived. This one has been blooming prolifically for two months!

Russian Sage is one of my favorite under appreciated plants. It's gray silver foliage has a great aroma and it blooms forever in the summer with fragrant lavender flowers.

Turtle Head blooms with tons of pink flowers in the late summer. It might be too early to tell, but this year's Turtle Head blooms may be fewer than in past years.

Salvia is just starting to bloom. The light red tint will become a dark red by fall.

We sliced some grass off the mother plant near the water garden last fall. Strangely, this grass is sending up plumes weeks before the mother plant.

As anyone who has planted Morning Glory knows, it will reseed in places you did not intend. We had Morning Glory potted to keep it from spreading, but the seeds sprouted in locations far flung from the original pot.

Eggplant Balls

We've been harvesting a lot of eggplant this year so we've been busy making and freezing Eggplant Balls. Here is a post with a recipe for Eggplant Balls. Like all good recipes, this one changes over time. Somtimes we add onion roasted with garlic and the eggplant. So, here is another recipe for our Eggplant Balls. Eggplant is so plentiful and inexpensive now that we are in full harvest in New England that you should try this staple.