Now available at the market! Take one home today!
Fresh Baked Fruit Pies
Grand Opening!
Come out for our Grand Opening!
Good news folks! We have wanted to open a produce market for quite some time now and the right opportunity has come along. Many of you may know the space as “Cap’s Farm Market” located at 183 Blackman Road in Egg Harbor Township. We will feature local farm fresh produce, fresh flower bunches, local honey, fresh baked pies, Jersey made jams, and other locally made food products. We will also have in stock Talluto’s fresh pasta and sauces, as well as a wide range of Italian specialty products.
heirloom kale, lettuces, herbs, carrots, and more greens, greens, greens!
Locally grown hot house tomatoes, asparagus, and for Memorial Day weekend some pretty tasty watermelon and cantaloupes from the south.
Please come in an see us! We appreciate your support. Ask us about our CSA options!
Jersey strawberries!
Follow the link for more great strawberry recipes!!
Strawberry Freezer Jam and Roasted Green Garlic
2017 CSA
Hello, friends!
2017 CSA information is now available. Please check out the sign up tab on our website. Please direct any questions to Gene at 609-381-3919.
We are excited for the upcoming season and reconnecting with all of you!
Gene and Sally Castellini
2016 CSA
CSA 2016 information is now available on our website.
Cold Ease Soup
Soup is food for colds
Soup has its origins in ancient human’s cooking history. It fed both rich and poor alike-as part meal, part drink. Each culture had it’s own variation on spices and ingredients. Portable, frugal, nourishing, and not necessarily humble-soup was a staple.
After coming down with a terrible cold this week, my body was craving a bowl of piping hot homemade soup. Oh, how we know the vapors and the steam open our airways and the warm broth warms our bellies and eases our dry, sore throats. Soup is food to feed our colds.
On day three, I pulled myself into the kitchen, but decided to forego the standard chicken soup for something lite and meatless. This recipe has many healing ingredients including fresh ginger and garlic, lemon, and ground turmeric, and cinnamon as well as mushrooms, carrots, and kale. All ingredients to help stimulate the immune system-naturally.
Traditionally, turmeric was used to fight colds (check), congestion (check), headache (check), and sore throat (check). Sounds like a winner to me. Here is my version of cold ease soup.
Saute a small diced onion and 3 cloves of garlic, diced, in a little olive oil. Add one box of washed and sliced mushrooms- I used baby bellas- and about 4 carrots, chunked. Saute about 5 minutes, seasoning with salt and pepper to taste. Then add 2 tsp. of grated fresh ginger, 1/2 tsp of turmeric, and 1/2 tsp. to 1 tsp. of curry powder-depending on your preference and 1/8 tsp. of cinnamon. Mix well. Pour in two boxes of vegetable broth. Add 5-8 pieces of wakame flakes (dried seaweed) and 1/4 cup of sprouted green lentils, and one half a bunch-about 2 cups of chopped fresh kale leaves. Simmer until lentils are tender. Stir in a bag of Shirataki noodles (made from soybeans-available in refrigerated produce section at grocery store) and simmer 5 minutes more. Squeeze half a fresh lemon into soup and serve.
It’s Febbrrruary
Today, the wind is whipping and the air is cold. February is oddly the last little bit of oasis before the season gets underway with seeding for the greenhouse, more repairs, and spreading lime over the fields. But the mind is never at rest.
I thought about the seed catalogs piled on the table and the need to get the orders in shortly. A farmer’s work, never really ends. Gene will put in months of hard work before the first radish is plucked from the ground, radishes being one of the earlier crops to harvest.
I am looking forward to fresh, living, produce to create our meals, but in the mean time, we rely on our storage of seasons past.
I took inventory today to see how we are managing. We still have two boxes, half full, of both white and orange sweet potatoes, skins still crusted with dirt for storage. Corn, kale, and spinach frozen in blocks are dwindling. Plenty of limas and stringbeans. Peas are gone. Much broccoli. Blueberries are down to two bags and three bags of cantaloupe balls from 2013. The pantry shelf is in good shape with preserved beets, peppers, salsa, and jam. The caponata jars were precious and few and disappeared by mid October.
I decided to cook with what we had still on hand. This morning, I made a sweet potato and kale hash with a sunny- side- up egg. I love eggs and they are usually my breakfast of choice when time allows. This turned out really delicious and satisfying. I liked the idea of skipping my normal rye toast in lieu of the sweet potatoes to sop up the creamy egg yolk. Talk about a power breakfast.
Sweet Potato and Kale Hash with a Fried Egg
Peel and dice two sweet potatoes. Saute in a small amount of olive oil, or coconut oil. Toss in 1 Tbsp. of minced shallot. Cook for a few minutes and add 1/4 C of water. Cover with lid and allow to steam cook. When water is evaporated, remove lid and add a bit more oil to prevent sticking. Cook the potatoes until they are browned to your liking. Meanwhile, chop up frozen kale in the amount of 1 C. Wrap in a paper towel and squeeze out excess moisture. Saute separately in a small pan with butter. Add the kale ,once tender, to the browned potatoes and stir to combine. Season with your choice of seasonings. I used salt, pepper, and a dash of jerk seasoning. Fry an egg in the small pan covering with a lid to set the yolk. Serve egg on top of warm hash.
I’ve had a half empty bag of frozen blueberries in the upstairs freezer for months it seems, leftover from something or another. I decided to make a blueberry protein smoothie. I had cashew milk on hand and used that instead of the usual almond or coconut milk. Great for mid morning pick-me up.
Have a favorite recipe you tried last season with your box ingredients? Please drop us an email and tell us about it.
There is still time to join our 2015 CSA. Refer to our website for more details.
CSA 2015
Sample weekly box of fresh produce.
2015 CSA information has been posted on our site.
Before we schedule group deliveries and pick-up dates, we would like to get a count first of customers interested. That information will be available shortly.
Group deliveries must meet a minimum number of customers to be viable.
Please contact Gene if you have any questions. Thank you and think spring!
Preserving the Harvest
Field of Collards
November ends the cycle of planting for the year on our farm. It is the last call for preserving the season’s harvest. The weather has been beautiful and mild, but that is soon to change with a polar vortex pushing colder air our way by next weekend. So, get your canning jars ready and put some food by. You will thank yourself later.
Hopefully, you have taken the time to put up some of summer’s bounty. Corn, lima beans, stringbeans, whole tomatoes, and blueberries, I prefer to freeze. Making tomato sauce, jams, jellies, and pickling are worthwhile investments of your time. Be creative with casseroles, soups, stews, and entrees too. A well stocked freezer and pantry is a sign of ingenuity.
I spent the past week canning beets and blanching an freezing broccoli and greens. Spinach, kale, and collards can be stored frozen for best flavor. It’s easy to pop them into soups, stews, and pastas for winter meals.
Beets and spinach.
Watching the landscape change from season to season is like watching an artist create. The colors change gradually, the daylight becomes softer, and the wind blows crisper. Autumn is the beautiful pause between summer and winter.
farm road in autumn.
Field of beets- they taste sweeter after the first frost.
There is still much work to be done in the coming months. Preparing fields for spring, servicing tractors , draining pumps and irrigation pipes are just a few on the list. Fields are planned for spring crops and seed and plants are ordered. And then the cycle will begin again.
We are looking ahead to next season and will be updating information on our CSA shortly. If you would like to be placed on our mailing list to get the updates for our 2015 CSA , please email us. You can also follow us on Facebook.
Final Week for CSA Group: Extension to Begin Next Week
Rows of peppers
We are reaching the finish line for our 13-week CSA. We want to thank all of you that have joined- (such a nice group of people!) and we appreciate your support of our farm. For those of you that have joined for the extended period, it will start Thursday of next week and continue for a total of four weeks.
Children enjoying our farm day.
We had a great turn-out for our Open House. It was a pleasure to see you all come out and enjoy the day with us. We got to chat, take a tour of the farm, pick some delicious vegetables, and have a bite to eat together.
Face-painter, Amy, did a great job.
Adorable
We received this sweet note yesterday from one member. Just makes us smile.
July is moving into August. We have been fortunate to have many cool mornings and nice temperatures. Most fields are finishing as seeding and planting begins for Autumn. This is a crazy busy time as time is divided between harvesting, and preparing for the next phase of crops, which will be our last of the year.
zinnias and sunflowers!
Beautiful heirloom cherry and grape tomatoes! Delicious!
We are up to our ears in tomatoes. We walked the rows yesterday and within a half hour had our trays full. Many, many more left to harvest. The heirloom tomatoes make the best sauce- sweet and flavorful. Gene likes to make a spicy seafood cioppino with the heirloom sauce, which was our dinner last night.
Heirloom tomatoes!
This whopper is larger than my hand!
I have been gorging myself on tomatoes, cantaloupes, and watermelon this week. I am just in my glory. Cantaloupes are rich in vitamin C and Vitamin A, watermelon helps relieve inflammation, and tomatoes are rich in lycopene.
Black Cherry
Can you ever have enough cherry tomatoes? No, of course not. Snacking delicious! Refill please.
the orange ones are my favorite!
Cantaloupes on the vine.
The cantaloupes ripen on the vine. They are really outstanding this year. It has been dry and hot and they are lovin’ it. There are several varieties planted. I like the tiny,”personal-sized” lopes- easy to carry and easy to eat.
Black eggplant
jalapeno peppers
a big boy!
The butterflies and bees are enjoying the flowers as much as me. Today, two hummingbirds were vying for the nectar of a flower. Zinnias are glorious bursts of color. What is summertime without a vaseful of zinnias?
We hope you enjoy the remainder of the summer. Stay safe and have fun!
Farm Day is Scheduled
Hello, Friends!
We have scheduled Farm Day for:
Saturday, July 19th from 1:00 until 3:00.
This tour de farm is for our CSA customers and their families. We ask that your RSVP with a head count as soon as possible.
We will gather at the homestead and then leave on a guided tour of the farm. You will be given a reusable bag to pick your own produce along the way. We will then return for refreshments and friendly chat.
Please contact Gene to RSVP.
Gene Castellini Farms 