Ecological Orchard

AsideFebruary 7, 2017February 7, 2017 Goodness Grows3 Comments

I am really excited to share our new adventure this year… I have just closed the lease on a 28 acre fruit tree orchard. I have just finalized a lease on a 28 acre fruit tree orchard close to our farm. We had some fruit trees, but now we have thousands of fruit trees! I […]

Wholesome Living Marketplace and Altoona

March 13, 2016 Goodness GrowsLeave a comment

Winding up with such velocity I can barely stand it!
This week, our friend Jess at Wholesome living marketplace is allowing us to take over the store with some of our certified organic goodness for you to choose from! Catch me at the Station Medical Center from 10am-1:30 pm on Friday. Then I’ll swing down to Bedford at Wholesome living marketplace from 3:30-5:00. Saturday morning I’ll be in Frostburg at Mountain City Traditional Arts from 10 am-1pm.

I will be baking my head off, as I have already received orders from several of you who just can’t wait to get some freshly milled, fresh baked breads grown right here on the farm. I also spotted some collard greens out in the field that need to be saved from the plow. I am bringing some micro greens and baby salad blends this week to Altoona, Bedford, and Frostburg.

I want to say that we really can use the financial support through purchases right now, as we are about to embark on a very major, much needed (and expensive) barn repair. We finished the greenhouse project and the new cover and new sides have made our plants, happy, cozy, warm and very productive. I will be bringing some certified organic starts in the weeks to come. So if you plan on having a garden, check with your locally certified organic growers first, before you hit the chemical soaked everyday big box department store plants for food. Busy weeks ahead for Goodness Grows!

Follow our website if you would like to receive updates as we are posting more on the blog. Also check out our facebook page, make sure you sign up to receive our latest and greatest news in your newsfeed.

Sunchokes

AsideFebruary 15, 2016 Goodness GrowsLeave a comment

Jerusalem artichokes, sunchokes, are a member of the sunflower family and are a native plant to North America. I love growing native foods and reintroducing them to our area’s cusine. The benefits of growing natives verses some of our better known grocery store varieties is that we are stewarding the natural indigenous biodiversity in […]

Variety is the Spice of Life

June 16, 2015June 23, 2015 Goodness Grows1 Comment

Snow peas, Garlic, Basil, Zucchini, Summer Squash, Lettuce, Kale, Swiss Chard, Onions, Carrots, Kohlrabi and a few cucs, peppers and eggplants are all on tap for this weeks markets. We will also have some of our award winning breads and honey, see you there.

We are growing 3 varieties of zuchini and 4 varieties of summer squash for the season….

And I have a recipe from CSA member Carolyn Forrester

Bok Choy/chicken stir fry

1/2 pound chicken sliced in bite sized pieces ( can use Tempeh also for a vegetarian dish)
1/2 a large sweet onion or green onions, sliced
1large clove of garlic chopped
1TBL soy Sauce
1bunch of bok Choy, chopped
Or a mixture of any greens from Goodness Grows ( I used part Mountain Spinach too)
1Tbl CHILI GARLIC SAUCE

SAUTE chicken , garlic, onions, white stalks from bok Choy for 5-10 minutes in 1-2 TBL olive oil. Season with salt and pepper.
Add rest of chopped greens; sprinkle with soy sauce and steam 5 minutes just til greens wilt.
Stir in chili garlic sauce for a bit of spice.
Serve with rice or quinoa

I can share another video with you with yet another recipe for your goods this week…

http://www.wearecentralpa.com/story/d/story/healthy-summer-smoothie-from-goodness-grows/32634/G9Et6V5bI0GxKaGBABGdxw

Let the CSA’s Begin!!!!

May 26, 2015 Goodness GrowsLeave a comment

We have a huge spring worth of work to show for my long stint of silence….and to the 40 or so people that have been looking at my stagnant blog daily, I am truly very sorry that I haven’t been posting. But this spring was screaming plant, pick and pull weeds, because it has been beautiful here in the gorgeous valley!
I will begin by saying everyone is going to have a lovely salad for the first week of CSA’s because we are in to our elbows with

Lettuce!

Today I harvested some 3.5 pound heads of

Napa Cabbage

and we have tons of

Bok Choy

We pulled 6 pounds of Asparagus out of the garden. Get to the markets early for the asparagus, or email me to hold some for you! The thing about Asparagus is that it is prolific long before the markets begin, so it is hard for me to have it for CSA, but we should get some to everyone this year:)

Baby Carrots

Swiss Chard

and

Scallions

will be available too.

Now for a cute video of a recipe that uses our Bok Choy…enjoy!

http://www.wearecentralpa.com/story/d/story/local-farmers-markets-summer-kick-off/38743/BGC57lQrLkq_rCPPU7P6RA

Easy Salmon Burgers

March 9, 2015March 9, 2015 Goodness Grows1 Comment

We had such a great day today! We got lots of transplanting done in the greenhouse and coldframe including scallions, broccoli, cabbages of various types, kohlrabi, pak choi, and cauliflower. It really felt like spring today!

Now for the recipe-

These burgers are too easy! First I open the can of salmon and drain the juices into a measuring cup. Then I add enough water to the cup until it reaches 1 1/4 cup. Then I add 1 box of Fantastic Falafel mix and let it absorb the water and salmon juice for 5 minutes.

Then I mix the salmon meat into the falafel mixture.

I form patties from the salmon falafel mix and place in hot oil in a skillet for about 5 minutes or until brown. flip over and brown the other side.

Serve with Goodness Grows Honey Mustard

Top with Goodness Grows Micro Greens

and serve on a Goodness Grows organic bread bun, I like to use rye for this recipe!

Educational Series of Events

March 5, 2015 Goodness Grows2 Comments

(All events are on the farm unless otherwise indicated. To RSVP to any of the classes and events, please check out the Events tab on our Facebook page.)

Tree Tapping (Weather Dependent)follwed by farm tour: Thursday March 12, 2015 at 5:00 pm class is approximately 1 hour $15.00 fee.

Bread Making,Thursday March 19th, 2015 at 4:30pm–Making bread with fresh milled grains can be much different than flour that sits on the shelf for months. Learn how to work with fresh whole grains to make nice loaves of bread with no added gluten or preservatives. Fee includes materials and recipes Take home your work and some flour to make your own at home. Class is approximately 1 hour 20 minutes $15.00 fee.

Soap Making Class Thursday March 26th 4:30pm followed by a farm tour. Learn how to make luxuriosly rich goat’s milk soap. Class time approximately 1 hour 20 minutes. $20.00 includes materials and recipe take home your work.

Rabbit Harvest, Thursday April 2nd, 2015 at 4:30 pm. Learn to humanely and properly skin and dress a rabbit. Class time approximately 1 hour. Class fee is $30.00 take home your work.

Cheese making class Thursday April 9th at 4:30 pm. Learn how to make some simple cheeses with ordinary ingredients. We will learn to make chevre, paneer, yogurt and ricotta. $20.00 fee includes recipes materials and supplies. Take home your work.

Not to toot my own horn but….

February 26, 2015 Goodness Grows1 Comment

I would like to thank ACRE magazine for featuring us in their February pulbication. And I would like to send a very special thank you to Linda Williams for writing such a beautiful article.

Also today I was on Central PA live again to demonstrate our farmer’s market feature here is the just in case you missed it-

http://www.wearecentralpa.com/story/d/story/taste-of-the-alleghenies/19630/CsZP8E4ie0Ki8aeGtvtcsg

Here is the recipe that we’ll be using on Central PA live and Taste of the Alleghenies

Sausage Apple Chutney Crostini

1 Baguette from Goodness Grows

1/4 cup of Clover Creek Shredded Cheddar Cheese

1/2 pound of Sausage from Greener Acres Farm

2 cups of Apple Chutney (see recipe below)

Brown sausage and combine with chutney and heat to 150 degrees. Slice bread into 1″ discs and toast in the toaster. Top the toast with 1 heaping tablespoon of chutney and sausage mix and sprinkle shredded cheddar cheese on top of the warm chutney mix. Enjoy!

Apple Chutney

2 cups apple cider vinegar
2 cups sugar

1 1/2 pounds tart green apples (such as Granny Smith from Christmas Valley Tree Farm), peeled, cored, chopped into 1/2-inch pieces
3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
10 large garlic cloves
1 2-ounce piece fresh ginger, peeled, coarsely chopped
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon dried crushed red pepper (from Goodness Grows)
1 1/2 cups (packed) golden raisins
2 tablespoons yellow mustard seeds

DIRECTIONS:

Bring vinegar and sugar to boil in heavy large nonaluminum saucepan, stirring until sugar dissolves. Reduce heat and simmer 10 minutes. Remove from heat.

Toss apples and lemon juice in large bowl. Combine garlic, ginger, salt and red pepper in processor; blend until finely chopped. Add apple and garlic mixtures, raisins and mustard seeds to vinegar. Simmer until apples are tender and chutney thickens, stirring occasionally, about 45 minutes. Place in bowl. Cool. Cover; chill. (Can be made 1 week ahead. Keep chilled.)

Happy St Patty’s day everyone! Lettuce pray.

March 17, 2014 Goodness Grows2 Comments

I took a look around today and I saw life.

: Lettuce and Cauliflower

I’ll leave you with a little poem I wrote for St Patrick’s Day a few years ago:)

Ode to the Potato

Oh we have misunderstood you, dear potato, taking your children but only a few. We depended on them to provide for us and when they got sick, we fled.

Oh how we massively mistreated you, giving you a bad reputation, slicing you skinny and frying you in oil.

We didn’t see the beauty, your rich history, your diversity and complexity.

How I long to find your real roots, so I may restore you to your former glory.

I will plant you today with your eyes looking up.

I will respect you whole.

Beware the Ides of March

March 16, 2014March 17, 2014 Goodness GrowsLeave a comment

That theme has rung true this week, and that statement has sounded clear a few times this week.

Oh I have so much to tell you all!

We had a visit from our PCO inspector and was awarded our very official Organic Certification

We gave a workshop on organic gardening for Care for Creation. Care for creation is a non-profit organization that has been growing vegetables for food banks and soup kitchens in our area. Care For Creation is located at the Monastery in Holidaysburg PA. They welcome volunteers, and if anyone would like to participate you may use the link to their website here:

http://www.thefranciscanfriars.org/c4c

We also had a wonderful Farmer to Farmer workshop here at the farm. There were close to 40 participants from all over the state. The high tunnel was part of the workshop.

Our hot water heater stopped working early in the week, so Rob spent some time fixing it. Hot water is back, so nice!

Our high tunnel took a huge spill this week too. This is what it looked like just hours after our workshop.

So we picked up the pieces and life goes on. I would like to thank all of the volunteers that helped us clean up!

We are trying to negotiate a reasonable and satisfactory solution with Grower’s Supply, a division of Farmtek. We will keep you all updated with any progress on this.

We had a seed starting class on Saturday Morning. We worked with seeds and seedling transplanting then Saturday afternoon we had Open Farm for tours of the farm. It was great to meet all of our new farm members and show you what we do here1 Thanks everyone for the support you give!

We are putting up another cold frame so we have a place for all of the beautiful lettuce that’s growing here right now!

It will also be placed over our hot water heating pipes, so we will have some warmth during the really cold nights. That has worked out really well for us this winter.

This week our hens have been laying oodles of eggs! We are placing an order for peeps with Myers Poultry Farm. They are located in South Fork, PA. We plan to pick up the peeps, rather than have them go through shipping, and if you want to add to our order, we’ll pick them up. The benefits of a combined order and reduced shipping will save $$$ so consider placing your orders with us. I would like to have our peeps before Easter, so we have plenty of time to prepare for them.

Here is a link to that website:

http://www.myerspoultry.com/

We will also have spinach this week and Swiss Chard- Oh so exciting to see more veggies:)

I’m so glad the ides of March have passed….Whew!

We’ll see you this week-D

goodness grows

100% certified organic csa, fresh milled breads, free range eggs and more

Tag: Spring