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Archive for July, 2010
Cranguyma news from the July WWOOFers
July 27, 2010
Hi! We’re Erin, Maggie, Emily, and Amelia, and have landed at Cranguyma from respective home states of Texas, Virginia, and Michigan. We’re halfway through our month-long stay here at the farm, and thought it was high time to post some new farm stories and updates for the Cranguyma readers.
Our projects over the last two weeks have been diverse, so we’ll fill you in via bulleted list:
- deep cleaning, painting, mending, and decorating the blueberry shed (now, with flowers!)
- laying a brick path in the garden
- replanting parts of the garden, labeling the vegetables, and improving soil chemistry
- pruning and weeding in the blueberry patch, and as the berries begin to ripen, stocking the blueberry shed with pints of freshly picked berries
- power washing and organizing the garage, especially setting up a new base for wreath making
- getting to know Erin & the fabulously cute Diego
- benefitting from the patience and mechanical knowledge of Rafael, Keith & Terri
- absorbing pearls of farming wisdom from Cranguyma neighbor and sustainable living guru Larkin Stentz of Green Angel Gardens
- fraternizing with the peacocks (did you know that 80 (!!) live on the farm?)
So clearly we’ve been engaged with a medley of tasks, and at present we’re starting to think about recipes for the up-coming Farm to Fork dinner! We’ve had such a nice time preparing and devouring dinner each night that we thought it would be great to expand our circle. So we’re inviting friends and community members over on August 3 for a potluck, where all can enjoy Cranguyma’s bounty while sharing some of their own. The idea is that everyone will incorporate locally grown produce into their dishes- for those of you who aren’t yet growing your own, we recommend investigating the Green Angel Garden farm store or the Port of Ilwaco Farmers Market on Saturdays from 10-4.
At Cranguyma, our superstar ingredient these days is the blueberry, so we’ve been paging through truckloads of tantalizing recipes that ooze with antioxidants. After much deliberation, we have narrowed the list of finalists to ten. Thus we would like to nominate the following recipes- readers, send us your votes in the comment section! We shall prepare five, and post our favorites onto the Cranguyma site. Thanks for reading- check back with us soon!
Lemon, Blueberry and Gingerbread Trifles
Lime Tart with Blackberries and Blueberries
Lemon and Blueberry Upside-Down Cake
Balsamic Blueberries and Peaches
Cranguyma Blueberry Sauce (served over vanilla ice cream)
Emily’s Peach Blueberry Crisp (see recipe below):
For the fruit
1 1/2 (about 4 cups) pounds peaches, pitted and cut into slices*
1 pint (about 2 cups) blueberries, rinsed and dried
1/3 cup packed dark-brown sugar
2 tablespoons flour
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
small pinch of salt
For the crumble:
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 oats
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup light brown sugar, lightly packed
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 pound (1 stick) cold salted butter, diced
Preheat oven to 350°F (218°C).
Toss peaches with blueberries, sugar, flour, lemon juice, cinnamon and salt in the bottom of a 2-quart ovenproof dish.
In a large bowl, combine brown sugar, oats, flour, cinnamon and butter. Mix until crumbly. Cover fruit with topping. Mix on low speed until the butter is the size of peas. Rub the mixture with your fingertips until it’s in big crumbles, then sprinkle evenly over the fruit.
Bake for 40 to 45 minutes, until the tops are browned and crisp and the juices are bubbly.