Saturday, December 6th, 11 am - 1:00 pm - Holiday Wreath-making: We provide the wreath frame and loads of fresh foliage, berries, and evergreens as materials for your wreath. $25 per person. Event is full.

Chris Hogue captured this great photo of an Allen's Hummingbird at Halcyon Farms. It's considered an uncommon find for our area.

With late-night Halloween parties behind us, an intrepid group of birders gathered in the Halcyon Farms parking lot Sunday morning to brave the fog and chill in search of...well whatever birds we might see through the murkiness! In truth the haze didn't hamper us one bit as we quickly heard and then spied goldfinches and sparrows feeding on the seeds of the dried zinnia flowers. And then right on top of the metal framing for the raspberry hoop house, a juvenile Cooper's Hawk sat, apparently drying out its damp feathers. Exciting times for us birders! You wouldn't think it, but quite a variety of birds make their way through the farm on their annual pilgrimages north and south, while other birds are here year-round - like that young Cooper's Hawk. Studies conducted at strawberry fields of the Central Coast found that the more wildlife habitat available around or interspersed through a farm, the more benefit provided by the birds with less feeding on strawberries or other produce. Thank goodness for that! Farmer Ariela was cheering on the Killdeer eating beetles in the asparagus field, I can tell you! What else did we see? Lesser Goldfinch, Common Yellowthroat, Anna's Hummingbird and Allen's Hummingbird, American Kestrel, Yellow-rumped Warbler (quite striking colors!), Say's Phoebe, Cassin's Kingbird, Hutton's Vireo, Acorn Woodpecker, and many more! Wishing you could see a few of our flying friends? No problem. Grab some binoculars, and take a turn around the farm. The trees on the periphery of the farm are a great place to start, but you will also find many perched atop the blackberry stakes, darting in and out of the rosemary bushes, and flying among the rows of corn. Once you start looking, you'll see them. They're everywhere!

Get your shishitos here! Plenty of beautiful peppers have been harvested: red and gold Cornitos peppers, jalapenos, and poblanos. Blue Lake green beans are plentiful, beautiful, and tasty. Tuesday will find just a bit of broccoli and cauliflower, but lots of cabbage, bok choy, and leeks. Butternut squash has joined its winter squash friends. Now we're just waiting on 'Winter Sweet' green kabocha squash to get in on the fun. Corn continues. Amazing! Lettuce heads are quite nice right now. A delivery of new citrus arrived on Saturday. We now have early satsuma mandarins and petite kishu mandarins from Smith Groves in Exeter. Both are easy-peel and seedless. Limequats also came along for the ride. These are a hybrid Key lime and kumquat - nice for fish dishes and great for making a twist on salsa to use in tacos. More apples will be heading our way: pink lady, fuji, granny smith and more. Calling all u-pickers: our blackberry bushes are still loaded! Come on out and pick. Alternatively, just pick some up from our berry shelf. We anticipate strawberries as well. Whatever you do, stop by to say hi!

Thanks to everyone for joining in on guessing the weight of the big pumpkin! We'll let you in on the secret now: the big pumpkin came in at 615 pounds! Woohoo!

-Eileen

Tuesday, November 4, 2024

Harvest Bag

all for $20

____

Kabocha Squash

Leeks

Sweet Cornitos Peppers (see recipes)

Green Beans

Kale (see recipes)

Zucchini

Green Salanova Lettuce (see recipes)

Corn

Blackberries

Leek, Fennel, and Squash Soup with Sausage

Ingredients

• 1 lb. hot Italian sausage, casing removed
• 1½ lbs. leeks, white and light green parts only, halved lengthwise, cut into ½-inch pieces, and washed thoroughly
• 1 fennel bulb, halved, cored, and cut into ¼-inch pieces
• 4 garlic cloves, peeled and sliced thin
• 1 Tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil
• ¼ tsp. table salt
• 1 bay leaf
• 4 sprigs fresh thyme
• 1½ lbs. kabocha (or butternut) squash, peeled, seeded, and cut into 1-inch pieces
• 6 cups chicken broth
• 1 15-oz. can cannellini beans, rinsed
• ½ cup finely chopped fresh parsley

Directions

1. Trim root end of 1½ pounds leeks and remove tough dark-green ends. Halve lengthwise and cut into ½-inch pieces. Wash and drain thoroughly. Transfer to bowl and set aside.
2. Remove stalks and fronds from 1 fennel bulb. Halve bulb, remove core, and cut into ¼-inch pieces. Add to bowl with leeks.
3. Halve 1½ pounds kabocha squash. Scrape out seeds, then peel and cut squash into 1-inch pieces. Set aside.
4. Cook 1 pound hot Italian sausage in Dutch oven over medium-high heat until browned, 5 to 7 minutes, breaking up meat with wooden spoon.
5. Use slotted spoon to transfer sausage to plate, leaving fat behind in pot; set sausage aside.
6. Add leeks, fennel, 4 thinly sliced garlic cloves, 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil, ¼ teaspoon table salt, 1 bay leaf, and 4 thyme sprigs to pot. Reduce heat to medium and cook, stirring occasionally, until vegetables are tender and just beginning to brown, about 7 minutes.
7. Stir in squash; 6 cups chicken broth; 1 (15-ounce) can cannellini beans, rinsed; and sausage, scraping up any browned bits. Cover pot, increase heat to high, and bring soup to vigorous simmer.
8. Reduce heat to medium and simmer vigorously until squash is tender, 20 to 25 minutes, adjusting heat as needed. Serve.

Adapted from https://lynnandruss.com

Halcyon Farms | 1075 The Pike in Arroyo Grande | www.halcyonfarmsag.com