A New Season on the Farm

This is the first in what we hope will be a regular series of articles about Leigh Hauter and his CSA operation at Bull Run Farm in The Plains, Virginia. Leigh has been farming in the Washington area for 15 years, first at the Cheseapeake Bay Foundation's Clagett Farm in Prince George's County. He was involved in early efforts to bring a farmers market to underserved residents of the District of Columbia east of the Anacostia River. Leigh now has about 500 subscribers to his CSA. His wife Wenonah is executive director of the advocacy group Food and Water Watch.

Signs of life are beginning to appear on the farm. For Leigh Hauter, that means ramping up the heating system in his greenhouse--fixing leaky pipes, lighting the furnace and planting seeds.

A constant temperature of at least 70 degrees is necessary to prompt germination in thousands of pepper and eggplant seeds. Leigh has a fairly new, high-efficiency furnace fired by the wood that grows on the farm. The system runs hot water--90 to 100 degrees--through copper pipes under his seed trays, giving the seeds a nice warm bed in which to sprout and keeping the greenhouse toasty when nighttime temperatures dip.

Leigh is aiming for a last frost date of April 15, so he's planting things now that typically require at least eight weeks in seed trays before they can be safely transplanted outdoors. That means peppers and eggplants by the thousands. He's planted at least eight different varieties of bell peppers--red, orange, purple, white among them--and more hot peppers than he can count. That will mean plenty of visual interest when subscribers open their CSA boxes later in the year.

Leigh is also starting to plant tomatoes. He hopes to be shipping two varieties of cherry tomatoes--Early Girl and Siberian--as early as the middle of June. This is also onion planting time, but Leigh does not plant his own onions. He purchases thousands of plants in bunches from a firm in Indiana. They'll be planted in the ground later.

Also at this time Leigh is planting broccoli. His customers like broccoli and unlike some other brassicas, such as cauliflower, broccoli will withstand a bit of frost. He's planning four successive crops, aiming for 1,000 plants in each spaced one week apart.

Leigh used to start his CSA deliveries in May, but at that time of the year the crops available for harvest are mostly greens. "People don't like six weeks of greens," he said, "so I'm giving them three weeks." Asked if he wasn't including spinach among his early crops, Leigh said, "I have a hard time finding spinach that doesn't bolt in this season." We have the same problem with bolting spinach. Spring in Washington gets too hot too fast.

Leigh Hauter is a former English teacher whose introduction to the farm was keeping bees at the urging of his father-in-law. Leigh sold the honey at farmers markets and has since managed to make farming a full-time occupation. We'll be checking in on him on a weekly basis so that kitchen gardeners in our area can see how a professional grows beautiful, bountiful produce.

The above photo is of the greenhouse seed starting operation at One Straw Farm in Baltimore County, taken last July.

Roasted Vegetable Lasagna

This is a perfect time of year for roasted vegetables. Making lasagna with them can be quite a process. But there's a payoff in the end: lots of food, either for a crowd or to freeze for later.

This particular lasagna is time consuming but not difficult. All it really takes is a little knife skill to cut eggplant and zucchini into thin slices. These are layered with a mix of roasted red onion and goat cheese, seasoned with one of my favorite herbs, marjoram, which we just happen to have growing in abundance outside our front door.

This recipe will fill a standard Pyrex baking dish, meaning a dozen adult servings. You'll need two pounds of eggplant, two pounds of zucchini, three medium red onions, six ounces of goat cheese, three cups of marinara sauce and lasagna noodles. (I used no-boil noodles from Whole Foods, but don't be shy about making your own.)

Heat the oven to 500 degrees. Trim and peel the eggplant, then slice it lengthwise into 1/4-inch pieces. Salt them generously on both sides and place in a colander to drain for 30 minutes. Squeeze them dry between sheets of paper towel.

Lay the eggplant slices on a baking sheet, brush them on both sides with extra-virgin olive oil and season with pepper. Place them in the oven and cook until they are starting to brown. Slice the zucchini lengthwise into 1/4-inch pieces, brush with olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Roast them also until starting to brown. Peel the onions and cut them into thick rings. Toss them with olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Spread them on a baking sheet and roast as you have the eggplant and zucchini.

When the onions are cool enough to handle, chop them roughly and mix with the goat cheese. Spread some marinara sauce on the bottom of your lasagna pan and cover with lasagna noodles. Layer some eggplant and zucchini over the noodles, dot with the onion-goat cheese mix and pour another layer of marinara sauce. Season with chopped fresh marjoram.

Add more layers until you've run out of ingredients or filled your pan, whichever comes first. Lower the oven to 375 degrees and put in your lasagna--it's a good idea to have a baking sheet underneath to catch any drippings. Bake until the the noodles are completely cooked through and the vegetables are bubbling,l about one hour. Before pulling it from the oven, grate some Pecorino cheese generously over the top and cook a few minutes more.

Serve this with a fresh fall salad and your favorite red wine.

Pickling Marathon

I will be giving a Powerpoint presentation on "Pickling for Dinner" later this month at the Historical Society of Washington, DC. That means getting very busy pickling just about everything in the garden and taking photos. Our Asian eggplants are heavy with fruit...

For our wedding reception about a century ago, my wife and I presented an October buffet with tons of pickled and preserved items. One of them was eggplant thinly sliced and preserved with layers of garlic, red pepper flakes, basil leaves, red wine vinegar and olive oil. Normally, my wife's not a big fan of eggplant. But she makes an exception for this.

It's high time we planted our own fig trees. They do fairly well in our climate. Figs were on sale at Whole Foods so I brought home a couple of pints to make these delicious pickled figs with strong flavors or cinnamon, cloves and allspice.

These tarragon "flame grapes" could hardly be simpler. After being loaded in pint jars with sprigs of tarragon, they're covered with a sweet-and-sour brine of white wine vinegar and sugar, then allowed to sit several weeks until the brine has permeated the grapes.

I finally found an alternate use for those giant squash on my Italian zucchini plants: zucchini bread-and-butter pickles. The process is very similar to the one used to make simple bread-and-butter pickles from cucumbers. The resulting pickles are equally as delicious. Next stop: zucchini relish.