New Brochure!

Members & Friends, 

We’ve updated the Free Range Farm Truck brochure.  Among other changes, there is now a Cheese Share!  You can download the brochure HERE.

Print it off and send it to us at PO BOX 667, Hampden ME 04444 or just give it to us when we see you next.

Thanks, as always, for your support.

 

 

Potatoes

If it weren’t for the seemingly infinite variety of potatoes, we would surely get sick of them.  The first “new potatoes” are dug around the 4^th of July and the last potatoes leave the ground in late fall. The best storage varieties among those late potatoes are kept in root cellars through the winter, remaining firm and crisp for our enjoyment.  Some will keep until March or April, which means that here in Maine we’re eating local potatoes 9-10 months out of the year. That’s a lot of spuds.

Varieties
Given the potato’s long season, we’re lucky to have dozens, even hundreds, of varieties to keep us on our toes. Maine prides itself as a potato state (have you ever seen the potato farms in The County?) and the small farms we source from grow a stunning variety of potatoes.  There are yellow, red, white, blue and purple skinned potatoes with flesh in just as many colors. Some are good for mashing, others for baking, roasting, frying or chips. Even small farms commonly grow a dozen or more varieties.  Classics like Yukon Gold, Katahdin, Red Gold and Kennebec are perennial favorites and new varieties are trialed every year.  

Winter Squash: A Staple to Celebrate

This week we celebrate the humble Winter Squash, from Butternut to Blue Hubbard and everything in between. Winter Squash is healthy, delicious and aesthetically pleasing, yet we have a tendency to feature it at Thanksgiving and then ignore it for the rest of the season. Whatever the reason for the oversight, we do Winter Squash a great disservice by not celebrating it fully throughout the winter months.

While it doesn’t arrive on our tables until late fall, winter squash gets a head start on the farm way back in the early days of summer. The plants are tended for several months before the squash itself can be harvested and brought inside to “cure”, a process that basically involves letting the squash sit in a warm place to ripen fully. The sweetness we recognize in winter squash is a direct result of that curing process.  A properly cured squash will store for months, providing farmers with a source of income through the winter and providing us with rich, nutritious food long after greens are off the menu.

Varieties
Since we work with so many farmers, we see a great number of squash varieties and look forward to offering our favorites to you this winter. 

What’s in a Share?

If you’re new to Free Range Farm Truck, and even if you’re not, you’re probably wondering – what’s in a share?
Each week we talk to farmers and producers around the region to put together a diverse and delicious selection of food for your share.  We visit their farms, hear their stories and head back home with a truck full of the best food Maine has to offer.  Before the food gets to you, we sort through those boxes and bags to come up with a weekly share that best represents the seasons and the farmers. Right now we offer shares of Vegetables, Meat, Dairy, Bread & Pantry items, and soon will be adding a seafood share!

While the diversity of vegetables available might be most exciting during the height of the growing season, we view the winter months as an opportunity to be creative with a somewhat more limited selection of vegetables.  This winter we’ll highlight unique varieties of squash, share our favorite potato recipes, and start some lively conversations about the versatility of carrots.  We’d love for you to take part in the discussion!  As you eat your way through your share, let us  know what you’re doing with the food you’ve received from us. Email us at freerangefarmtruck@live.com.

Happily, our selections of meat, dairy, bread and pantry shares don’t need to change much season to season. 

free range farm truck in the BDN!

One of our share members, Melanie Brooks, will be blogging about her adventures in local food!
Check out her first post in the Bangor Daily News:
Farm Share Foodie: The Beginning
by Melanie Brooks for the Bangor Daily News

Before I start sharing all the amazing meals I make from my farm share goodie bag each week, I’d like to introduce to you the two people who make this blog possible. Jon and Kate Boehmer are the lovely couple who pack my farm share grocery bag each week. Aren’t they just the cutest?

Jon and his family moved from their farm in North Dakota to Maine when he was in middle school.  He studied business and ecology at Western State in Colorado and returned to Maine in 2004. That’s when he met Kate. She grew up in Aroostook County and studied political science at the University of Maine in Orono.

Kale: A Late Fall Treat

Fall is heading quickly towards Winter (how ‘bout that snow last week?!) and this is the time of year to celebrate kale. This leafy member of the brassica family (which also includes cabbage, Brussels sprouts and broccoli) is one of the season’s only green vegetables, a color we long for in the long slog from now until next season’s salad mixes arrive.

Kale is particularly hearty, and can often be harvested into late December, even, happily, after a snowfall. Though it can be grown throughout the spring and summer, kale benefits from some good hard frosts. Sensing that the real freeze is not far away, kale plants actually pump sugar into the water that is stored inside the leaves, thus lowering the temperature at which freezing begins.  Their survival scheme is our sweet treat – you can really taste the sugars in kale harvested from October on.