Althouse: At the Meadhouse Harvest Café...

September 24, 2011

At the Meadhouse Harvest Café...

... have you gathered anything yet?

26 comments:

ndspinelli said...: Just got back from the Dane County Farmer's Market. I like to walk against the flow and play Find The Republican as I look @ the people head on. Then, I walk in the street, find a stand that has what I want, cut in, buy and then back out to the express lane to find the next stand. There are a few others who use this technique. We're not looking for "an experince" we're looking for some fucking produce!! Or pie.; 9/24/11, 12:06 PM
ndspinelli said...: I really have to search for broccoli rabe. But, at least some farmers now know what it is and grow some. That wasn't the case until recently. When I first moved here and looked for rabe I would get blank stares.; 9/24/11, 12:14 PM
Anonymous said...: ndspinelli, how do you spot Republicans at a farmers' market? ;-)

(If you ever come to the Tuesday market on the north side of Chicago (Lincoln Square) I'm the one with short graying hair, nondescript clothing, and a big canvas Field Museum tote bag. No T-shirts with slogans, no jewelry, no nothing.)

As for the home harvest (entirely planted and maintained by my husband) we've brought in the broccoli (eating it right away because I've never frozen or preserved it successfully) and the tomatoes, and my son is now digging the Yukon gold potatoes out of the patch near the back fence. All very autumnal and satisfying.; 9/24/11, 12:22 PM
Marica said...: "... have you gathered anything yet?"

Yes!

Pumpkins, delicata squash, seven 12-20 lb. Tennessee sweet potato squash, spinach, radishes, sweet potatoes, tomatoes, cherry tomatoes.

That was this past week.

By the way-- you can grow broccoli raab in a container.; 9/24/11, 12:27 PM
ndspinelli said...: AnneB, In the People's Republic of Madison Republicans are required to wear a scarlet 'R'. They're hard to spot w/ on Badger game day.

Used to live in your great city and would go to a farmer's market @ Lincoln Square or thereabouts. We lived in the 2100 block of Waveland.; 9/24/11, 12:55 PM
ndspinelli said...: Marcia, As Johnny Carson would say, "I did not know that." Thanks for the rabe tip!; 9/24/11, 12:57 PM
chickelit said...: Sammeln im Herbst; 9/24/11, 1:06 PM
Ann Althouse said...: "I like to walk against the flow and play Find The Republican as I look @ the people head on."

Years ago, in the 80s, all the smart people knew the way to walk was against the flow, so you could see different people and see their faces. If you go with the flow, you see the same people and only from the back. But today, almost no one goes against the flow, and it's too crowded, really, unless you get there super-early.

We almost never go. And the dirty little secret is: Local produce isn't really very good! You can get better stuff at Whole Foods and I don't think it's more expensive. The hours are better, and you can get everything you need.

I'm just not that excited by the prospect of slogging along in a crowd, and the interest some Madisonians seem to have with the faux-authenticity of talking with "farmers" is perfectly silly.; 9/24/11, 1:10 PM
Anonymous said...: I'd starve at MeadeHouse-

grow things nobody wants

The system worked...; 9/24/11, 1:15 PM
Hagar said...: Tou gonna eat that?; 9/24/11, 1:38 PM
edutcher said...: Do you smoke it?; 9/24/11, 1:41 PM
chickelit said...: Meade sure is storing up seed.; 9/24/11, 1:44 PM
Dusty said...: "... have you gathered anything yet?"

Thanks for asking. Yes, all spring/summer long. Roughly 50# strawberries, 20# currants, 15# raspberries, asparagus, and a quart jar (dried) of spring sage. I used all the currants and raspberries and a third of the strawberries for jam/jelly, froze about 5# of strawberries and gave the rest away.

I've been picking Kentucky Wonder and Blue Lake most of the summer and am now shelling four of the six kinds of dry beans. Keep your fingers crossed for my pintos and kidneys as I planted them late and it's going to be close and I really don't want to have to protect them from frost. More strawberries for the freezer for an additional month now if I keep the frost off them.

Same for my broccoli and caulifower going in late, but there's still enough time. I'm not as sure about the okra, though and I'll have to see about the spinach since its the first time I tried it in the fall. I'll only get a few watermelon and cantaloupe, cukes, butternut and zucchini; it seems as though this was a bad year for them, but I don't know why. Same for the bell peppers, though the jalapeno, cayenne and Hungarian did well.

Tomatoes are really late this year, too, though I've been getting a trickle for the past two weeks and they'll all come at the same time this year. Pretty much all the Roma go into the freezer 'cause I'm almost all canned out and saving up what desire is left for the grape jam and juice work to come. If you like heirloom, try the Abraham Lincoln, Sioux and, especially, the Cherokee Purple.

Basil, cilantro and dill in the next couple of weeks, though I don't know what I'll do with the dill now as my Picklers have died off.

Beets, snow and snap peas are next month. Carrots and Brussels sprouts will be sometime in November/December.

Thyme, tarragon, oregano, rosemary are on the porch for the winter along with my artichokes plants and Fall crop of baby Bok and rape.

That's about everything.; 9/24/11, 1:50 PM
Anonymous said...: @Dusty

Nice work.

At least man can find something to eat at your place....just sayin'; 9/24/11, 1:53 PM
ndspinelli said...: I'm w/ you professor. However, I have some Hmong farmers near me that I buy produce from most the time. I go to the Square for specialty stuff I can't find most places. And, @ this time of year, I'll go to Square as they're about to close and buy a large batch of tomatoes and peppers. Liberals don't like to dicker but they will if you push them a bit.I did that last week..made sauces w/ the 'maters and roasted the peppers, freezing all that glorious taste.; 9/24/11, 2:00 PM
Fred4Pres said...: I had some nice kale growing and the deer ate it last night.

I am thinking I better plan on harvesting some venison this year.; 9/24/11, 2:24 PM
Fred4Pres said...: Meade, what did you harvest there?; 9/24/11, 2:25 PM
Ann Althouse said...: We went last week. Bought tomatoes. They weren't that good. Why would tomatoes grown in Wisconsin be good? Grow tomatoes where tomatoes grow well. This locavore fad is not supported by reason.; 9/24/11, 3:19 PM
Ann Althouse said...: It's not food. It's cleome.; 9/24/11, 3:19 PM
BJM said...: Okay Wisconsinites, put down that hoe and back away from the veggies.; 9/24/11, 4:12 PM
gail said...: A 3-week early frost messed up my new variety of heirloom tomato harvest. I'm trying "Jersey Giant", a paste tomato approaching the size of a supermarket bell pepper. They have few seeds, little liquid and decent taste.

Also trying an open pollinated bell pepper that is supposed to be huge, but with the weather cooling off so fast I'll probably end up with normal size peppers. Germination was terrible on these seeds last spring-about 20%-, so I plan on keeping every seed and start selecting for shorter maturity next year.

Heard on NPR this am, the "eat local" movement has a negative impact on farm labor and income in developing countries that rely on food exports. (That unseen component of food choice.).; 9/24/11, 5:13 PM
wdnelson93 said...: Are there any protesters left in Madison or have they all moved to Wall Street? (Where the free pizza tradition lives on)

occupywallstreet.com

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150297287072282.331872.680962281

Deanna; 9/24/11, 5:53 PM
SGT Ted said...: Not much gathering. Just hunting.; 9/24/11, 6:24 PM
rhhardin said...: The corn and beans still have to age.

A lot of hay has been cut.; 9/24/11, 8:12 PM
rhhardin said...: Food from far away is best.

Only the highest quality stuff is worth shipping around the world, since you have to want it in spite of the shipping cost, so you get better stuff far away than they have locally. All the good stuff ships, and the bad stuff stays.; 9/24/11, 8:16 PM
Clyde said...: I just saw a web ad for Chicago XXXIII: O Christmas Tree, with the band's iconic logo in peppermint candy stripes. And I was struck by the size of the number: That's almost as many as there are Super Bowls!

It speaks to longevity, if not necessarily to relevance. What is the most recent song you've heard from them? What percentage of teh current lineup was originally in the band?; 9/25/11, 2:58 AM