Pictured above: Feaster Family Mustard Greens
Welcome back to our weekly farm blog, chefs!
This week, we are very excited to debut a new feature on the website to help chefs plan, learn about our ingredients and build orders. You will notice at the bottom right of the page a green button “Ask ChefPilot”. ChefPilot is our own creation - it’s like a mini Sous Chef who knows everything about the crops we sell and how you can use them. Ask him question about what’s new, what’s fresh, what’s rare, how to cook an heirloom ingredient, stories about our crops and how to build a dish or menu around any combination of ingredients. ChefPilot is here to help!
A brand new crop from our sandy soil is ready for harvest, a chef favorite that we got featured on the SlowFood Ark of Taste - Feaster Mustard Greens!! Jerome Feaster is a friend of the family from Florida, he’s grown his family mustard greens for decades in his backyard. By far the best mustard greens we have ever had and the only variety that we grow, nothing else is worth growing once you’ve had these. Its signature is the large, juicy and thick midrib. Packed with flavor and a texture that’s incredible.
We are having a fire sale of Clem’s mixed heirloom tomatoes. It’s the end of the season and we need some help getting the rest of these ‘maters onto some plates!
Fall Bradford watermelons are available for another week as we are trying to unload, we would love some help doing that! Only $10 each! This is our family watermelon, world renowned for its soft, pink flesh, depth of flavor and its thick, delicate and tender rind.
Bradford okra season is coming to an end. This will be the final week of okra, thank you for making this our most successful crop yet, it warms our hearts to know that there were thousands of people this summer who had great experiences with our okra and your sweet techniques!
COMING SOON
- Brussels sprouts
- Kohlrabi
- Rainbow Chard
- Green cabbage
- Orange beets (pending)
- Rutabagas
- Purple top turnips
- Charleston Wakefield cabbage
- Dutch Fork pumpkins
- persimmons (limited quantities)
SPECIAL REQUEST: We kindly urge you to consider adding at least one of our own Bradford Farm grown crops to your weekly orders. We are working with quite a number of other farms to bring you the best access to regional flavor that we possibly can, but the heartbeat of our farm is our homegrown crops. We can’t exist without moving our own crops too. So please review the crops we offer under Bradford Farm Crops below and consider adding one or more of them. It helps us a ton.
Important Notes
-
Bradford Taylor turnip tops
- Bradford Candy roaster squash
- Prickly pears
- Broccoli from Dorr
- Restock Bolero carrots in 2 weeks
- Rosaine Little Gem Lettuce from Wild Hope will resume mid week (currently sold out)
- Davidson River beets in 1 or 2 weeks
⚠️ **Highlights of the week**⚠️
NEW! Feaster Mustard Greens - Bradford Farm (Slow Food Ark of Taste, Heirloom)
Seed saving is not a simple thing to do. And managing a breedline is even harder. So when someone places in your hand a thimbleful of precious seeds over a hundred years in the making, you know it has to be really really good. Jerome Feaster of Shiloh, Florida has been stewarding his family’s 100+ year old variety of mustard greens his whole life. It is not like any mustard we’ve ever encountered. The leaves can get the size of a small elephant ear, but is thin, tender and not at all leathery like the ubiquitous Florida Broadleaf mustard.
Our favorite part is the juicy, crisp midrib that helps the giant leaves avoid collapse. It’s a crunchy burst of vegetal water without a hint of spicy mustard burn. All the heat is actually in the leafy parts which completely disappears into a slight sweetness when cooked. We enjoy crunching on the stems raw right in the field.
It’s pretty sensitive to freezing, so this year we are we covering them with a frost protection cloth similar to what is used to protect strawberries in order to extend their availability. Don’t miss out on this amazing fleeting southern favorite! Available for at least 2 months! Expecting to plant another smaller crop to extend the season.
Slow food Ark of Taste on The Feaster Family Mustard Green:
Feaster Family Heirloom Mustard is milder in flavor than its closest relatives, such as curled and ostrich plume mustards. However, it still packs a wasabi-like heat that mellows and even sweetens once cooked. Both the ribs and leaves are tender and mildly peppery, while the stem is more mild and juicy. The stem can be eaten raw and pairs well with sauces and dips; some prefer to cook the stems separately from the leaves since they cook at different rates. This mustard is versatile: it can be used as baby greens or sprouts in salads, as mature leaves in mixed greens salads, or on sandwiches where it adds a nice flavor. Of course, it’s also perfect for the traditional southern preparation of boiling mustard greens with smoked meat. Because the stems are substantial, tender, and flavorful, the mustard is great for stir-fry dishes, similar to bok choy. Braised Feaster Family Mustard greens in olive oil with a bit of garlic is also a delicious option.
The Feaster family’s method of preparation is as follows:
· 35-30 leaves of mustard greens
· A large handful (4-6 pieces) of smoked bacon or other smoked meat
· Salt
- Wash the greens twice, strip the leaves from the midrib, and tear or cut them into small pieces. You may also cut the stems into small pieces and cook them separately, as they have the consistency of cooked celery
- Place the smoked bacon or meat into a six-quart pot , add one to two cups of water, and season with salt. Bring to a boil, then reduce to medium heat for 30 minutes.
- Add the greens to the pot a few pieces at a time. Stir and add more greens as they wilt, lowering the heat to a simmer. Cover the pot and cook until the greens are tender, about an hour for a richer bacon flavor.
- Drain the greens carefully, avoiding mashing them, and serve. The dish is commonly served with sweet potatoes and ham, and often accompanied by vinegar hot sauce.
Similar to many historical family heirlooms, this mustard may have been at risk of disappearing had Jerome not taken steps to ensure its future. Grown primarily in a region prone to hurricanes and extreme weather, it now has its seed secured with growers in Florida, Iowa, Virginia, and South Carolina. While still grown on a small scale, this mustard could become a breakout vegetable. Its unique flavor and tender midribs have already drawn the attention of southern chefs and culinarians, and its qualities make it well-suited for widespread adoption, becoming a staple in home gardens across various regions.
A note on seed saving
While seed savers across the southeast are preserving this precious southern green, the process cannot stop at home gardening and seed banks. We believe that saving an at-risk, or landrace, crop means getting them onto plates and introducing them to new markets to share the story and the experience of eating an endangered, rare vegetable or fruit. That is why we focus on growing, marketing and delivering this special green to chefs and restaurants in the tri-state area (SC,NC,GA). We humbly ask that you help us take the next step in this crops preservation by working them onto your menu or doing a special with them. They’re not just endangered, they are incredibly tasty too. So we hope that makes it easier to use! We cannot keep this going without you. Bradford Farm appreciates your wonderful work.
Fall Crop Bradford Watermelons - Bradford Farm
We’re continuing sales of our Fall Crop Bradford Watermelons this week. All you want - $10 a pop. Some of you might be a little surprised by a watermelon crop in the middle of October… but what if I told you this was actually the historical proper harvest time of our family watermelon?
The Bradford Watermelon was the most important late season watermelon in the mid 1800s and into the early 1900s before the final commercial crop was planted in Georgia circa 1922 as the shipping industry began its hostile takeover in crop diversity.
My ancestors intentionally bred this watermelon to be the last on the market. It also possessed a unique quality when refrigeration wasn’t invented or available to the masses - the cold fall nights chilled the watermelon naturally. You could go out in the morning before temperatures rose and settled in by early afternoon, harvest a watermelon and eat it right there in the field, cold!
This was the first time we have tested a crop this late, the early melons we pulled out revealed a genetic phenotype that was illustrated in hundred year old paintings and drawings of our watermelon at the markets. Summer Bradfords don’t carry the same deep lobes and super dark green skin. Another key difference was that these melons had zero disease and dealt with minimum pest pressure. They were by all intents and purposes, ideal Bradford watermelons. The watermelon that was praised in all the garden seed catalogs of yesteryear. We are saving the seeds of all the best early phenotype fall watermelons to begin only offering fall watermelons from here on out in future crops. The rest of the crop is available now on discount - these aren’t early the phenotype melons that we pulled out several weeks ago, but this is the majority of the fall crop that came in a few weeks behind the earlies.
Get em while they're cool! $10 each
Candy Cane Beets (aka Chioggia Beets) - 100+ year old Italian Heirloom
Candy Cane beets - traditionally known as Chioggia beets - are an Italian heirloom named for the old fishing town on the Venetian lagoon, where it has been grown since at least the early 1800s. It made its way into American gardens by the late nineteenth century and has stayed in them ever since. Today it goes by "candy cane" or "bullseye" beet, and cut open, it earns both names: concentric rings of candy pink and white, as graphic as anything on a plate.
Chioggia stays on the menu for its flavor, not its looks. It's noticeably sweeter and milder than a red beet, with the clean, tender character of a beet and little of the earthiness that keeps some diners away. It also doesn't bleed. Pink stays pink, so it can sit next to cheese, grains, or fish without staining the plate.
The rings are the one thing to cook around. Heat fades them, so the beet shines raw or barely cooked. Shaved paper-thin, the pattern is fully visible, and the sweetness and snap come through unmasked. The greens are tender and fully edible, so you get a second ingredient from every bunch.
For the Kitchen
- Shave raw on a mandoline for salads, carpaccio, or a plated crudo base
- Quick-pickle in thin rounds, which hold their color and look striking on a board
- Roast whole to concentrate the sweetness, then peel while warm and slice to order
- Pair with burrata, ricotta, or chèvre, and finish with good olive oil and citrus
- Dress with hazelnuts, pistachios, or toasted seeds, and bitter greens for contrast
- Sauté the greens like chard, with garlic and a splash of vinegar
Plenty of vegetables are pretty, but few are this pretty and this good to eat. Chioggia is an old Venetian beet that still looks, and tastes, like nothing else in the walk-in.
DISCOUNTS & PROMOTIONS
Field peas and butterbeans - standing order options
A la carte price for comparison - $59 per bag across all varieties.
Option 1: Sign up for a weekly recurring order of any field pea or butterbean for 12 weeks - $57/ bag
Option 2: Sign up for weekly recurring order of any combination of 2 or 3 bags for 12 weeks - $56/ bag
Option 3: Sign up for weekly recurring order of any combination of 4 bags or more for 12 weeks - FREE Winter Squash Sample Box (Value of $30) + 1 free bag, $55/bag every week after (total value of at least $280)
*note - you can switch varieties of peas and peas anytime, any week. Just notify me!
Key:
** - limited availability
*OUT- currently out of stock
*OFS- out for season
NEW- recent addition
(SlowFood AOT)- appears on the SlowFood Ark of Taste for its exceptional qualities, flavor, story, and historical significance and/or usage.
✅ Bradford Farm Crops: ✅
-Bradford collards bagged/chopped (spring crop)
-Bradford collards whole plant (spring crop)
-Hybrid green cabbage *OUT
-Purple cabbage
-Shredded hybrid cabbage
-Shredded purple cabbage
-Bradford Okra (through October)
-NEW! Candy Roaster squash (SlowFood AOT)
-NEW! Taylor Turnip tops (heirloom)
-NEW! Feaster Mustard Greens (SlowFood AOT)
-1-2 weeks - Dutch Fork Pumpkins (SlowFood AOT) (Indigenous butternut of Southeast)
🤝 Partner Farms: 🤝
-Fruit
——Apples - Lively Orchards
———Fuji
———Golden Delicious
———Gala
———Granny Smith
———Ambrosia
———Jonagold
———NEW! Arkansas Black (SlowFood AOT)
———NEW! Pink Lady
———Asian Pear (exclusive)
——Cantaloupe
——Watermelon
———red seedless *Almost gone
----Prickly Pear - Wild Hope Farm
-Tomatoes
——Heirloom slicer mix - Clem’s
——Grape, red
——Red round
——Gold slicer
——Roma
——Tomatillos
-Beets
——Gold
——Red
——NEW! Pink candy
——Davidson River Red - Clem's *OUT 1-2 weeks
——Baby Davidson River Red - Clem's *OUT 1-2 weeks
-Roots
——Bolero - Clem’s Organic Gardens
----Parsnips - Clem's Organic Gardens
----Turnips, Hakurei - Clem's Organic Gardens
——NEW! Turnips, Baby Hakurei - Clem’s
----Radish, Watermelon - Clem's Organic Gardens
——NEW! Radish, Baby Watermelon - Clem’s
----Radish, Rainbow Daikon - Clem's Organic Garden
-Potatoes
——Appalachian Gold - Clem’s
——Baby Appalachian Gold - Clem’s
----Pee Dee Sweet Potatoes
-----Large
-----Medium
-----Jumbo *OUT
-Peppers (sweet, savory, or mild)
——Green bell
----Red bell
----Italian, Carmen (frying pepper) - Wild Hope
——Jimmy Nardello - Dorr *spotty availability
——Heirloom Shishito - Dorr
-HOT Peppers
——Jalapeños - Dorr Farms
——Serrano - Dorr Farms
——Cowhorn - Dorr Farms
——Baby Banana peppers - Dorr Farms
-Squash & Zucchini
----Zucchini - Dorr Farms
——Yellow Crookneck
----Patty Pan Mixed - Dorr Farms *spotty
-Hard squash
——Butterbaby Squash - Clem’s
——Mini Spaghetti squash - Clem’s
——Autumn Frost butternut - Carawa Farms
——Delicata Heirloom - Lake City, SC
——Acorn - SC
——Blue Hubbard - Amish
——NEW! Red Kuri Hubbard - Amish
-Greens
——Kale, Scotch Curly - Dorr
——Kale, Tuscan (Lacinato, Dino) - Wild Hope
----Mustard, Curly - Dorr
----Rapa- Dorr
-Legumes
----Peas, Red Ripper (fresh-frozen) - Johnny McNair
----Butterbeans, Green (fresh-frozen) - Johnny McNair, Josh Johnson
----Butterbeans, Speckled (ff) - Johnny McNair, Josh Johnson
----Peas, Pinkeye (ff) - Johnny McNair, Josh Johnson
----Peas, White Acre (ff) - Johnny McNair, Josh Johnson
-Eggplant
——Italian Purple
-Sweet corn
-Cucumbers, Kirby
-Green cabbage
-Blue Lake Pole Snap Beans - Dorr Farms
-Broccoli - Dorr Farms
-Pecans (fresh, shelled, halved) - Johnny McNair
Coming soon:
MORE COMING SOON
….let us know if there is something else you are interested in that isn’t on our list