Farm News
 

2010 Farmers Market Schedule 

Tuesdays
Fairfax - Van Dyck Park on Old Lee Highway
May 4 - October 26
8:00 AM - Noon

Crystal City – Crystal Dr. between 18^th & 20^th Streets
May 18 - October 26
3:00 PM – 7:00 PM


Wednesdays
Oakton - Oak Marr RECenter, 3200 Jermantown Rd.
May 5 - November 17
8:00 AM - Noon

Annandale - Wakefield Park, 8100 Braddock Rd.
May 5 - October 27
2:00 PM - 6:00 PM

Saturdays
Fairfax - Behind old Fairfax Co. Courthouse, 10500 Main St.
May 1 - October 30
8:00 AM - 1:00 PM
 
Vienna - Beside the Red Caboose, 131 Church St. NE
May 1 – October 30
8:00 AM -Noon  

Washington DC - 14th and U Street, NW
May 1 – November 20
9:00 AM - 1:00 PM  

Sundays
Lorton – VRE Parking Lot, 8990 Lorton Station Rd.
May 2 – October 31
9:00 AM - 1:00 PM

Hello Loyal Farmers Market Customer,

Just a reminder, the opening of the 2010 Farmer's Market season is fast approaching! We can’t wait to see all of our wonderful customers again this spring. Look out for our new items – such as jams & jellies and sunchokes.

After a very snowy winter, we’re trying to cope with the earliest spring we’ve seen in a long time. Everything is about 3 weeks ahead of schedule. Apples, peaches, plums, cherries, and blueberries are all blooming at the same time! Can’t believe it is only mid-April. Just keep your fingers crossed that the weather stays moderate enough that we don’t lose the crop to a late spring freeze.

On the plus side, the warm weather has brought our first nibble of spring with a hefty harvest of asparagus. After pining away all winter long for something fresh and seasonal, those tender spears sure taste delicious! (Hey, you’re not the only ones awaiting the arrival of asparagus each year.)

Our efforts to transition the operation from the 4^th generation of the Kuhn family Dave and Mary Margaret) to the 5^th generation (Sidney) continue to move ahead. We look forward to bringing the freshest fruits and veggies to the Northern VA/DC area for many years!

Sincerely,

David, Mary Margaret, and Sidney Kuhn
Sandy Lombardi, Rusty Lamb, Steve Donaldson

May at the Market                                                    

For the first weeks of market, we will have the following available for sale:

• Apple Cider – Our cider is pressed at a local mill (Kime's) from a mixture of our own apples! There are no preservatives or sweeteners added, just pure apple juice.
• Asparagus – We sell our homegrown asparagus in bunches of tender "tips"!
• Rhubarb
• Fuji, Pink Lady Goldrush and Braeburn Apples - from Storage.
• Asian Pears – from storage – very limited supply, so get ‘em early.
• Peas – English, snow and sugar snaps. Something new this year for the early season!
• Radishes – All colors, shapes and even the shockingly red in the middle Watermelon variety.
• Bunching Onions – We’re growing all the rest of the members of the onion family, why not these too?!
• Sunchokes (Jerusalem Artichokes) – Try some of these overwintered tubers that we dug in mid-March before spring officially arrived. Sunchokes are crunchy and have a mild, nut-like taste that works well sliced raw into salads, sautéed in a little butter, roasted, or in cream of sunchoke soup (the Kuhn family’s Thanksgiving appetizer last year)!
• Canned Peaches - Our own Summer Breeze peaches canned in light syrup.
• New this year!! Jams & Jellies – Processed by a family friend from our own frozen fruit.

At some of our farmers market locations we will also be offering:

• Eggs - Fresh white and brown eggs from free-walking hens raised by a neighboring farm.
• Fresh North Carolina Strawberries – Grown about 10 miles outside of Wilson, NC where Mary Margaret was raised, by James Sharpe of Fresh Pik Produce. 
•  Honey - Harvested and bottled by the bee-keeper who tends the hives on  our farm that pollinate our fruit trees.
  
  *****************************************************************        Produce of the month………. Rhubarb!!!!! 

           So what exactly is Rhubarb? Is it a vegetable? Or a fruit? Rhubarb is a perennial plant ith large, long stalks ranging in color from greenish pink to dark red. The color of the stalk actually has no bearing on the flavor! Although a vegetable, rhubarb is eaten as a fruit, cooked and usually sweetened with sugar to offset its tart, lemony taste. Rhubarb makes a wonderful addition to strawberry pie and as the base for many jellies, desserts, sauces and condiments.

           Choose stalks that are firm and crisp, avoid stalks that are limp. Rhubarb leaves must be removed before cooking, and must never be eaten, raw or cooked, as they are toxic. Rhubarb will last up to two weeks when put in a plastic bag in the coolest part of the refrigerator, but we suggest you enjoy them within 7-10 days.

Our Favorite Rhubarb Recipe

RHUBARB CUSTARD PIE
2 eggs, separated
1 cup sugar
2 Tbsp. flour
¼ tsp. salt
2 Tbsp. melted butter
1 cup milk
2 cups cut rhubarb
1 unbaked pie shell

 Beat egg yolks, sugar, salt, flour and butter until light; add milk.  Pour mixture over rhubarb in pie shell. Bake at 400° for 10 minutes, then 300° until custard is set. Then beat egg whites with 2 Tbsp. of sugar. Top baked custard with egg white mixture and return oven to lightly brown. Makes a 9-inch pie.

 For more Rhubarb recipes, check out our website at www.kuhnorchards.com

On the Farm ………                                                    

New Products for 2010 (& Beyond)!!!
We are always adding something new to our wide array of fruits, vegetables, flowers and herbs --- it keeps life interesting! Some of our most intriguing new crops (some may not be in production for 2 or 3 years):

• Day Neutral Strawberries – Unlike the traditional June-bearing strawberries we grow, these berries will fruit from July until the first frost in October.
• Melons – Mostly the specialty types in a smaller 2-5 lb. size. We’re also trying some of the single serve cantaloupes, mini-honeydew and seedless watermelons. Who ever knew there were so many kinds….. Christmas melons, Canary melons, Charentais melons…..
• Garlic – Our first year! German White, as recommended by our neighbor, will be the majority of our crop, but we’re also trying out some of the spicier Purple/Red varieties!
• Fall Bearing Blackberries - We’re trying out a new university released variety (hasn’t even been named yet!) to extend the season – blackberries in late October, anyone?
• Red Fleshed Apples – Not just a novelty, these red and pink-fleshed varieties actually taste good, with a range of tart to sweet. These apples have a high concentration of anthocyanins – which give the fruit its pigment and are believed to have antioxidant properties. Imagine pink applesauce, pink cider, or pink apple pie!
  Table Grapes – So you’ve enjoyed our Concord and Niagara Grapes? Wait until you try the new varieties we are planting! We were blown away by their flavors - and the array of colors from pink to blue to black to green to amber are gorgeous. And yes, they are almost all seedless with edible skins!
• Horseradish
• Pears  - We’re planting a wide variety of pears this year, including the old favorites: Seckel, Red Bartlett, and D’Anjou and some new disease resistant varieties such as Sunrise and Shenandoah. We hope that once these start producing, our pear season will start in mid-August and extend into October.
• Brussels Sprouts – We love eating them so much, so isn’t time we grew them?
• Fall Head Lettuce
• Perennial Herbs – Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme, along with Lavendar, Oregano, Marjoram.

Crisp Apples in Spring???? Ever wonder why our apples are still so crisp in the spring? It’s a technology called “Controlled Atmosphere” (CA) cold storage. Apples continue ripening after they’re picked from the tree. They absorb oxygen through their lenticils (little dots on their skin) and release carbon dioxide as they convert their starches to sugars. In a CA storage room, the atmosphere is altered to remove all but 1% to 2% of the Oxygen versus the 21% Oxygen found in the air we breathe. So with limited Oxygen, the apples can’t respirate, and they maintain their crispness. In November, we fill our CA storage with our best storage apples (GoldRush, Fuji, Pink Lady and Braeburn) and put them into “hibernation” for the winter. When we open the storage in March, the apples are nearly as good as the day they were harvested. Enjoy!

 Planting Pear Trees

     Farm News
 

2009 Farmers Market Schedule

Tuesdays
Fairfax - Van Dyck Park on Old Lee Highway
May 5 - October 27
8:00 AM - Noon

Wednesdays
Oakton - Oak Marr RECenter
May 6 - November 18
8:00 AM - Noon

Annandale - Wakefield Park, Braddock Rd.
May 6 - October 28
2:00 PM - 6:00 PM

Saturdays
Fairfax - Behind old Fairfax Co. Courthouse
May 2 - October 31
8:00 AM - 1:00 PM
 
Vienna - Beside the Red Caboose
May 2 – October 31
8:00 AM -Noon  

Washington DC - 14th and U Street, NW
May 2 – November 22
9:00 AM - 1:00 PM  

Sundays
Lorton – VRE Parking Lot
May 3 – October 25
9:00 AM - 1:00 PM  

Hello Loyal Farmers Market Customer,

Earlier this week all of our summer fields were covered with our first official freeze for the season. So we bid goodbye to tomatoes ripe from the vine, cut flowers, and fragrant raspberries. And as our harvest is winding up, (just a few more apple varieties to pick!) we also bid goodbye to the farmers market season. This is always a bittersweet time of year, for we all need some rest, but we also miss our interaction with our customers and harvesting such an abundance of produce. A big “thank you” for your patronage all season long and cheers to another best year ever at our markets!

Please note that all of our farmers markets continue through the end of October. In addition, we will attend the farmers markets at Oak Marr RECenter until Nov. 18^th, and 14^th and U Street until November 22^nd, so you can gather a bounty of produce to create your Thanksgiving meal!! We’ll continue to offer all kinds of apples, cider, and a wide variety of pumpkins and winter squash throughout the month.

Make sure to reserve your half bushel box (or more) for the last week of market so you can continue to enjoy apples far into the winter. The best apples for storage include: Fuji, Goldrush, Braeburn, Pink Lady, Stayman, and York. We’ll take your orders at market, or give us a call or send us an email.

On a different subject, we are signing the documents this week to permanently protect 40 acres of land on our farm through the US Dept. of Agriculture's "Wetland Reserve Program". In addition to the preservation of a large stand of virgin native grasses (the land has never been tilled), the USDA will help us to restore portions of this former pasture to function as valuable wetlands that once existed prior to the installation of tile in the 1940-1950 era. Many generations of our family have made a living off of our land, and we hope that by protecting and restoring it, we can provide the same opportunities to all future generations and the land can continue to serve as wildlife habitat and a water resource forever.

Sincerely,

David, Mary Margaret, and Sidney Kuhn

Sandy Lombardi, Rusty Lamb, and Steve Donaldson



At the Market  

Pumpkins, Squash and all kinds of Apples……………

During the month of October, we will have the following available for sale:

* Apples – Many, many varieties. To find out when your favorite will be available at market, check out our Apple Variety Availability chart online or at market.

* Bartlett Pears

* Winter Squash – Acorn, Delicata, Butternut, Mini Blue Hubbard, Pink Banana, Tennessee Sweet Potato, Zapalo Plomo and Kabocha (Green, Blue and Red) to name a few.

* Pumpkins and Gourds – A rainbow of colors and shapes for your fall decorating and cooking needs.

* Chestnuts - Our sweet-flavored Chinese Chestnuts are produced on our massive 50 year old trees.

* Onions – Sweet white ‘Candy’ and spicy red ‘Mars’.

* Apple Cider – Pressed from our own Gala, McIntosh and Jonathan apples for a crisp, sweet/tart taste.

* Sweet Peppers – An array of Italian Frying peppers that are also great roasted, plus Round of Hungary (perfect for making Pimiento Cheese).

* Tomatoes - We grow a wide variety of fresh slicing tomatoes on raised black plastic beds. Many of our tomatoes are "heirlooms", and the rest are the best of the more recent varieties. Harvested mostly green right before our first freeze, these tomatoes may not taste vine-ripened, but they’re the best you’ll get this time of year!

* Quince – A relative of pears and apples, with hard strongly-perfumed flesh. Quince are too astringent and sour to eat raw, but they make excellent jam. They also may be peeled, then roasted, baked, stewed into a sauce or poached. The flesh turns a red color after a long cooking time.

* Sunchokes (Jerusalem Artichokes) – The tubers are harvested from this Native American plant that is part of the sunflower family. The tubers look like small knobby potatoes, but are crunchier and have a mild, nut-like taste that works well sliced raw into salads, sautéed in a little butter, roasted, or in cream of sunchoke soup. Unlike most tubers, sunchokes store the carbohydrate inulin that is stored as fructose, instead of starch, which is served as glucose, making them great choice for diabetics.

* French Filet Beans (Haricot Vert) – Thin and tender green (Maxibel) and yellow (Soleil) stringless beans.

* Canned Peaches – Our own Bounty peaches canned in light syrup. Save some for a taste of summer in the middle of winter.

How to Prepare a Chestnut

Cut an “X” on the flat side of the nut using a serrated knife, making sure you cut all the way through the shell to keep the it from bursting. 1 pound unpeeled chestnuts yields about 3 cups of meat.

Roasting
Fireplace – Use a long-handled chestnut roasting pan or a fireplace popcorn basket. Hold the pan just above the flame, and shake as if you were making popcorn. Cook about 15 minutes or until the outside shells are black.

Oven – Place nuts in a single layer in an ovenproof baking dish. Bake at 325° for about 20 minutes.

Stovetop – Place nuts in a single layer in a large heavy skillet (preferably cast iron). Cook over medium-high heat, shaking the pan occasionally, for 15 minutes or until shells darken.

Cool before peeling.

Microwave
Place chestnuts around the outer edge of a paper plate, and cook at HIGH in 15-second intervals until shells are soft. Cool before peeling.




Our 50+ Year Old Chestnut Grove

A note on Bartlett Pears Pears continue to ripen off the tree (indeed, they really have to ripen off the tree to avoid a woody texture). So we bring our pears to market a little green and firm, so that they won’t bruise. Just leave them at room temperature and they'll finish up nicely. Then you can refrigerate them until they’re ready for a delicious snack!! Pear Trivia: Did you know that the Bartlett pear actually dates back to the 1770s? The Bartlett, called the Williams pear in England where it was first found, gets its name from Enoch Bartlett, who was the first person to sell the trees in the U.S. in the early 1800s.

A word of Caution

Fall has basically arrived at the Farmer’s Markets, but along with it comes the invasion of Yellow Jackets. So remember that you’re not the only one who enjoys fresh sliced apples, and please use caution when sampling the many apple varieties.

  July Special

Spend $20 or more and recieve a free Kuhn Orchards shopping bag!!!

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Box 95

Cashtown, PA 17310

(717) 334-2722

kuhnorch@superpa.net

 www.kuhnorchards.com

  
Have you seen them?

Kuhn Orchards is now selling our own reusable shopping bags at market. They’re only $1.50 each, but how can you put a price on saving a plastic bag?? Purchase one next week, they’ll be a collector’s item before you know it!




Raspberry Sauce

Toss ½ pint Red Raspberries with 2 Tablespoons Sugar. Let sit 5 minutes. Pass through sieve into another bowl, pressing with a spoon to extract as much liquid as possible. Discard solids. Use immediately or refrigerate.

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On the Farm …………..

Planting and thinning were the words of the month for May. All the vegetables, herbs, flowers and our great variety of Tomatoes have finally gotten in the ground. A large part of the month was either too wet or too hot and dry to plant. We’re always poised to plant at the most opportune time, no matter when that appears.

We are currently in the second stage of thinning (green fruit) all of our peach and nectarine trees. So what does thinning mean and why do we do it? If the fruit is not thinned on a tree, it will create a large crop, but the fruit will be of minimal size. Fruit trees can be thinned either by removing blossoms or removing the tiny green fruit as it forms. With less competition, the remaining fruit will then have a greater chance to grow up big and healthy. Blossom thinning can only take place while the tree is at a certain stage of bloom, and so we are often left with a 1 to 3 day window to thin per variety in early May. By removing the blossoms, the remaining fruit gets the benefit of a longer time period to size up. In May we blossom-thinned by hand and also tested out a new mechanical string thinner, known as the ‘Darwin’ that was originally constructed in Germany. This new tool is mounted on the front of a tractor, and as the horizontal bar spins around, the strings knock off blossoms as they move through the tree canopy, kinda like a huge weed-whacker. We have been cooperating with Penn State, who has experimented with using the device in our peach orchards (along with several other growers) in order to evaluate its labor saving benefits and affect on fruit size. Looks like promising new technology!

We’re still in the thick of Rhubarb and Strawberry harvest. Check out this photo of Sidney with the largest Rhubarb stalk we’ve ever harvested. With the leaf intact it weighed 1.6 pounds! Asparagus harvest is very much slowing down. As Barbara Kingsolver described in her book Vegetable, Animal, Miracle “For most crop species, the season ends when all the vegetable units have been picked and the mother plant dies or gets plowed under. Asparagus is different: its season ends by declaration, purely out of regard for the plant. The key to the next spring’s action is the starch it has stored underground, which only happens if the plant has enough of a summer life to beef up its bank account.  Of all our familiar vegetables, the season for local, fresh Asparagus is the very shortest, for this reason.”

*************************************************************************************************************************

Box 95

Cashtown, PA 17310

(717) 334-2722

kuhnorch@superpa.net

 www.kuhnorchards.com

    Farm News 

  Spring 2009

****************************************************************************************************************

Just a reminder, the opening of the 2009 Farmer's Market season is fast approaching!

We hope that you will enjoy this first edition of our Kuhn Orchards newsletter. Our plans are to publish the newsletter at least once a month in order to provide you with up to date information about our products! If you would prefer to receive our newsletter via email, you can sign up on our website at www.kuhnorchards.com.

In January a new Production Manager, Rusty Lamb, joined our team. He brings a diverse background of growing vegetable and fruit crops in Massachusetts and New Jersey after acquiring a Associate of Science degree in "Fruit and Vegetable Crops" from the Stockbridge School of Agriculture (University of Massachusetts). We think he will be a great asset to our business!

After a nice winter break, we look forward to seeing you all again at market.

Sincerely,

David, Mary Margaret, and Sidney Kuhn

Sandy Lombardi

*****************************************************************************************************************************************

2009 Farmers Market Schedule

Tuesday
Fairfax - Van Dyck Park on Old Lee Highway
May 5 - October 27
8:00 AM - Noon
 
Wednesday
Oakton at the Oak Marr RECenter
May 6 - November 18
8:00 AM - Noon

Wednesday
Annandale - Wakefield Park, Braddock Rd.
May 6 - October 28
2:00 PM - 6:00 PM

Saturday
Fairfax - Behind old Fairfax Co. Courthouse
May 2 - October 31
8:00 AM - 1:00 PM
 
Saturday
Vienna - Beside the Red Caboose
May 2 – October 31
8:00 AM -Noon  

Saturday
Washington DC - 14th and U Street, NW
May 2 – November 22
9:00 AM - 1:00 PM  

May at the Market

For the first weeks of market, we will have the following available for sale:

• Apple Cider – Our cider is pressed at a local mill (Kime's) from a mixture of our own apples! There are no preservatives or sweeteners added, just pure apple juice.
• Asparagus
• Rhubarb
• Fuji, Pink Lady and Goldrush Apples - from Storage.
• Canned Peaches - Our own Bounty peaches canned in light syrup.

At some of our farmers market locations we will also be offering:

• Eggs - Fresh white and brown eggs from free-walking hens raised by a neighboring farm. Check out their website at www.weikertseggfarm.com. Their hens do not live in cages, they walk freely in their rooms. Taste the difference!
• Fresh North Carolina Strawberries – Grown about 10 miles outside of Wilson, NC where Mary Margaret was raised, by James Sharpe of Fresh Pik Produce. Check out their website at www.freshpik.com. To get a jump on the season, we haul these large and sweet Chandler berries up once a week until ours ripen.
• Honey - Harvested and bottled by the bee-keeper who tends the hives on our farm that pollinate our fruit trees.
• Jams and Jellies – Rhubarb butter, Gooseberry Jam, Raspberry Jam, Tart Cherry Jam, yum!!! 

Produce of the month………. Asparagus!!!!!

So what makes our asparagus different from what you will buy anywhere else??? 

Our 1 ½ acres of asparagus is harvested every day, because we won’t bring tough, woody spears to our customers. We sell our homegrown asparagus in bunches of tender "tips" with the tough base already removed! Our firm bright green spears have closed, compact tips, a sign of their tenderness.

Asparagus has a wonderfully distinctive flavor and a meaty texture. It's often served as a side dish, after being steamed or briefly boiled.  Fat and skinny spears are equally tender. To store asparagus, place cut ends in a glass with a small amount of water. Refrigerate for up to a week. Today we saw the first purple tips poking up through the mulch. A sure sign that spring has finally arrived!!

Our Favorite Asparagus Recipe

MARINATED ASPARAGUS

1 lb. fresh asparagus

3 TBL. vinegar – we use cider vinegar

¼ cup vegetable or olive oil                 

½  tsp. salt

¼ tsp. ground pepper                  

1 TBL. fresh parsley

1 clove crushed garlic                 

½  tsp. sugar

Cook asparagus until tender crisp and drain well.  Add all other ingredients until well blended.  Pour onto asparagus and place into sealed container and refrigerate at least six hours or overnight. 

For more Asparagus recipes, check out our website at www.kuhnorchards.com

On the Farm …………..

While we are not busy with farmers markets during the winter months, we were very busy pruning all of our fruit trees, shrubs and vines, updating our website www.kuhnorchards.com and preparing for the 2009 season.

We are currently in the process of completing our new farm repair shop building and are putting together plans to add a second story to our office.

Planting time!!!

Spring has brought a lot of planting so that we can continue to provide a large diversity and longer season of fruit for our customers. We hope that some of these will be in production in 2-3 years. Some of our most interesting new crops:

‘Anne’ yellow raspberries and ‘Jewel’ black raspberries

What is a Jostaberry??? Jostaberries are a cross between a Black Currant and a Gooseberry.

The apricots and plums are already blooming; cherries, peaches and nectarines will follow soon, and then the farm will be covered with a blanket of white petals when the apples bloom.

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 Coupon

During the month of May, bring this coupon to any of our farmers markets and receive $3 off a $12 purchase. 

One coupon per customer, please.

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Kuhn Orchards               ph: (717) 334-2722            email: kuhnorch@superpa.net   

Box 95  Cashtown, PA 17310