Spring 2010 Farm News – One Week to Markets with Apple Cider and More

     Farm News

********************************** Spring 2010 **********************************

2010 Farmers Market Schedule 

Tuesdays
Fairfax – Van Dyck Park on Old Lee Highway
May 4 – October 26
8:00 AM – Noon

Crystal City – Crystal Dr. between 18^th & 20^th Streets
May 18 – October 26
3:00 PM – 7:00 PM

Wednesdays
Oakton – Oak Marr RECenter, 3200 Jermantown Rd.
May 5 – November 17
8:00 AM – Noon

Annandale – Wakefield Park, 8100 Braddock Rd.
May 5 – October 27
2:00 PM – 6:00 PM

Saturdays
Fairfax – Behind old Fairfax Co. Courthouse, 10500 Main St.
May 1 – October 30
8:00 AM – 1:00 PM

Vienna – Beside the Red Caboose, 131 Church St. NE
May 1 – October 30
8:00 AM -Noon

Washington DC – 14th and U Street, NW
May 1 – November 20
9:00 AM – 1:00 PM

Sundays
Lorton – VRE Parking Lot, 8990 Lorton Station Rd.
May 2 – October 31
9:00 AM – 1:00 PM

 

Hello Loyal Farmers Market Customer,

Just a reminder, the opening of the 2010 Farmer’s Market season is fast approaching! We can’t wait to see all of our wonderful customers again this spring. Look out for our new items – such as jams & jellies and sunchokes.

After a very snowy winter, we’re trying to cope with the earliest spring we’ve seen in a long time. Everything is about 3 weeks ahead of schedule. Apples, peaches, plums, cherries, and blueberries are all blooming at the same time! Can’t believe it is only mid-April. Just keep your fingers crossed that the weather stays moderate enough that we don’t lose the crop to a late spring freeze.

On the plus side, the warm weather has brought our first nibble of spring with a hefty harvest of asparagus. After pining away all winter long for something fresh and seasonal, those tender spears sure taste delicious! (Hey, you’re not the only ones awaiting the arrival of asparagus each year.)

Our efforts to transition the operation from the 4^th generation of the Kuhn family Dave and Mary Margaret) to the 5^th generation (Sidney) continue to move ahead. We look forward to bringing the freshest fruits and veggies to the Northern VA/DC area for many years!

Sincerely,

David, Mary Margaret, and Sidney Kuhn
Sandy Lombardi, Rusty Lamb, Steve Donaldson

May at the Market

For the first weeks of market, we will have the following available for sale:

• Apple Cider – Our cider is pressed at a local mill (Kime’s) from a mixture of our own apples! There are no preservatives or sweeteners added, just pure apple juice.

• Asparagus – We sell our homegrown asparagus in bunches of tender “tips”!
• Rhubarb
• Fuji, Pink Lady Goldrush and Braeburn Apples – from Storage.
• Asian Pears – from storage – very limited supply, so get ‘em early.
• Peas – English, snow and sugar snaps. Something new this year for the early season!
• Radishes – All colors, shapes and even the shockingly red in the middle Watermelon variety.
• Bunching Onions – We’re growing all the rest of the members of the onion family, why not these too?!
• Sunchokes (Jerusalem Artichokes) – Try some of these overwintered tubers that we dug in mid-March before spring officially arrived. Sunchokes are crunchy and have a mild, nut-like taste that works well sliced raw into salads, sautéed in a little butter, roasted, or in cream of sunchoke soup (the Kuhn family’s Thanksgiving appetizer last year)!
• Canned Peaches – Our own Summer Breeze peaches canned in light syrup.
• New this year!! Jams & Jellies – Processed by a family friend from our own frozen fruit.

At some of our farmers market locations we will also be offering:

• Eggs – Fresh white and brown eggs from free-walking hens raised by a neighboring farm.
• Fresh North Carolina Strawberries – Grown about 10 miles outside of Wilson, NC where Mary Margaret was raised, by James Sharpe of Fresh Pik Produce.
•  Honey – Harvested and bottled by the bee-keeper who tends the hives on  our farm that pollinate our fruit trees.*****************************************************************        Produce of the month………. Rhubarb!!!!!

So what exactly is Rhubarb? Is it a vegetable? Or a fruit? Rhubarb is a perennial plant ith large, long stalks ranging in color from greenish pink to dark red. The color of the stalk actually has no bearing on the flavor! Although a vegetable, rhubarb is eaten as a fruit, cooked and usually sweetened with sugar to offset its tart, lemony taste. Rhubarb makes a wonderful addition to strawberry pie and as the base for many jellies, desserts, sauces and condiments.

Choose stalks that are firm and crisp, avoid stalks that are limp. Rhubarb leaves must be removed before cooking, and must never be eaten, raw or cooked, as they are toxic. Rhubarb will last up to two weeks when put in a plastic bag in the coolest part of the refrigerator, but we suggest you enjoy them within 7-10 days.

Our Favorite Rhubarb Recipe

RHUBARB CUSTARD PIE
2 eggs, separated
1 cup sugar
2 Tbsp. flour
¼ tsp. salt
2 Tbsp. melted butter
1 cup milk
2 cups cut rhubarb
1 unbaked pie shell

Beat egg yolks, sugar, salt, flour and butter until light; add milk.  Pour mixture over rhubarb in pie shell. Bake at 400° for 10 minutes, then 300° until custard is set. Then beat egg whites with 2 Tbsp. of sugar. Top baked custard with egg white mixture and return oven to lightly brown. Makes a 9-inch pie.

For more Rhubarb recipes, check out our website at www.kuhnorchards.com

On the Farm ………                                                    

New Products for 2010 (& Beyond)!!!
We are always adding something new to our wide array of fruits, vegetables, flowers and herbs — it keeps life interesting! Some of our most intriguing new crops (some may not be in production for 2 or 3 years):

• Day Neutral Strawberries – Unlike the traditional June-bearing strawberries we grow, these berries will fruit from July until the first frost in October.
• Melons – Mostly the specialty types in a smaller 2-5 lb. size. We’re also trying some of the single serve cantaloupes, mini-honeydew and seedless watermelons. Who ever knew there were so many kinds….. Christmas melons, Canary melons, Charentais melons…..
• Garlic – Our first year! German White, as recommended by our neighbor, will be the majority of our crop, but we’re also trying out some of the spicier Purple/Red varieties!

• Fall Bearing Blackberries – We’re trying out a new university released variety (hasn’t even been named yet!) to extend the season – blackberries in late October, anyone?
• Red Fleshed Apples – Not just a novelty, these red and pink-fleshed varieties actually taste good, with a range of tart to sweet. These apples have a high concentration of anthocyanins – which give the fruit its pigment and are believed to have antioxidant properties. Imagine pink applesauce, pink cider, or pink apple pie!
  Table Grapes – So you’ve enjoyed our Concord and Niagara Grapes? Wait until you try the new varieties we are planting! We were blown away by their flavors – and the array of colors from pink to blue to black to green to amber are gorgeous. And yes, they are almost all seedless with edible skins!
• Horseradish
• Pears  – We’re planting a wide variety of pears this year, including the old favorites: Seckel, Red Bartlett, and D’Anjou and some new disease resistant varieties such as Sunrise and Shenandoah. We hope that once these start producing, our pear season will start in mid-August and extend into October.
• Brussels Sprouts – We love eating them so much, so isn’t time we grew them?
• Fall Head Lettuce
• Perennial Herbs – Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme, along with Lavendar, Oregano, Marjoram.

Crisp Apples in Spring???? Ever wonder why our apples are still so crisp in the spring? It’s a technology called “Controlled Atmosphere” (CA) cold storage. Apples continue ripening after they’re picked from the tree. They absorb oxygen through their lenticils (little dots on their skin) and release carbon dioxide as they convert their starches to sugars. In a CA storage room, the atmosphere is altered to remove all but 1% to 2% of the Oxygen versus the 21% Oxygen found in the air we breathe. So with limited Oxygen, the apples can’t respirate, and they maintain their crispness. In November, we fill our CA storage with our best storage apples (GoldRush, Fuji, Pink Lady and Braeburn) and put them into “hibernation” for the winter. When we open the storage in March, the apples are nearly as good as the day they were harvested. Enjoy!

Planting Pear Trees

Coupon During the month of May, bring a printed copy of this coupon to any of our farmers markets and receive $3 off a $12 purchase. One coupon per customer, please.