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Thank you for visiting the Noggins Corner Farm Blog. Here you will find all of the lastest details on our seasonal harvest, our agritourism offerings, some delicious recipes and other bits of information. Please feel free to post comments so we can all share. Enjoy!

Monday, July 19

Raspberry Pictures






Week 6

This weeks share will consist of:
1- 2L Sweet Apple Cider
1- Bag of Jonagold Apples
2- pints Raspberries
1- pint sweet cherries
1-12 oz bag of frozen cranberry
If you are not getting your e newsletter each Monday please email me so we can be sure you are in the loop. I know I have missed some of you. So sorry!!! pbishop@nogginsfarm.ca

This week is raspberry week. My father, Andrew came in to visit yesterday and told me that the raspberries are on strong this week. Some years there is a nice steady pace of ripening. The weather provides the conditions for a more drawn out season, but this year it is boom – raspberry season.

It is also the time to enjoy the sweet cherries. With the amount of rain we had last week quite a few cherries split. The trees take up water via their roots and cause the cherries to be nice and plump. If there is too much water during the ripening, then the cherries split. They are still very good even if they do split – i just ignore how they look and eat them. If you get a crack or two, don't be afraid to eat it up just like the rest. It would be great if we could start to relearn the idea of a perfect piece of fruit. It doesn't need to look perfect it needs to taste great.

I have always wanted to make Brandied Fruit. I don't like Brandy, but the idea of a brandied fruit dessert sounds so good. Or giving away, as a gift, a nice jar of brandied fruit seems like it would be different and fun. All you need to do is continue to add fresh fruit to a mason jar with brandy in it. Just an idea I've had and wanted to pass it on.

Raspberry Sauce – Taken from this link:
http://allrecipes.com//Recipe/raspberry-sauce-4/Detail.aspx

Ingredients
1 pint fresh raspberries
1/4 cup white sugar
2 tablespoons orange juice
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1 cup cold water
Directions
1.Combine the raspberries, sugar, and orange juice in a saucepan. Whisk the cornstarch into the cold water until smooth. Add the mixture to the saucepan and bring to a boil.
2.Simmer for about 5 minutes, stirring constantly, until the desired consistency is reached. The sauce will thicken further as it cools.
3.Puree the sauce in a blender or with a hand held immersion blender and strain it through a fine sieve. Serve warm or cold. The sauce will keep in the refrigerator for up to two weeks.

Have a great week!

Monday, July 12

Week 5 CSA Fruit Box

Week 5 CSA Fruit Box
July 12 - 15th

This weeks share consists of:
1 bag Crispin apples
2 pints raspberries
2 quarts strawberries

The season of berries is upon us. The strawberries have gone so quickly. These are the final days of strawberries until we get the fall bearing varieties in the late summer and fall.
Sweet Cherries are just beginning. They will be plentiful next week. The rain, although wonderful for most crops, is touch and go with cherries. The water provides a good sized cherry, but too much will lead to cracked cherries. It is really hard to control the amount of rain fall. Where cherry production is done with a tunnel over head, there is the ability to control the amount of water the trees take up, and so we are able to size up the cherries without splitting them. Without the cover, it is up to nature, what kind of cherry season it will be.
For those who have not been getting this enewsletter, but have now been added to the list, the apples for the past two weeks have been Jonagold. They have held up really well in storage. This week you are getting Crispin. Both of these apples are great for fresh eating and also for cooking.
If you are getting overwhelmed with berries you can easily freeze them. If you don't have time to deal with them you can just rinse them and pop them into the freezer in a ziploc bag or container. If you want frozen berries that will not be stuck together, just lay them out on baking sheet in the freezer. Once they are frozen then you can put them into bags to dip into them all winter.
Smoothies and jam or sauces are also great ways to use up berries. Raspberry Strawberry Jam sound lovely!. ORRRR, like I have just discovered, dehydrated berries are a great snack. Our kids love them. We didn't add any sugar, and they devoured them.