Pictured above: curried Dutch Fork pumpkin bisque with crab
Welcome back to our weekly farm blog, chefs!
This week our Dutch Fork pumpkins are ready and available! They’ve been curing out in the field for about 2 weeks now and they are perfect, silky, sweet and loaded with delicious historic butternut flavor.
Davidson River red beets are back! Fresh fall crop of sweet, non bitter, beautiful colored roots.
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 Feaster Mustard greens
- Davidson River beets are back!
- NEW! Dutch fork butternut pumpkins
⚠️ **Highlights of the week**⚠️
NEW! Dutch Fork pumpkins (SC’s Indigenous butternut variety) - Bradford Farm
Use this amazing native crop for anything you would do with a modern hybrid butternut squash, but even better!!!
This rare gem is South Carolina’s very own indigenous butternut squash! I got my original seed of this variety from my dear friend and fellow seedsman, Carold Wicker, of Pomaria, SC. This native of the Upcountry and Middle Country of South Carolina was a major foodway of the Congaree, Catawba, and Cherokee Indians, and is where Pumpkintown, SC got its names.
Following the Native Americans, the German colonists of the Dutch Fork region of SC maintained this butternut since the 1750s. It became known as the ‘old timey cornfield pumpkin’ by locals and was planted around the perimeter of cornfields to suppress weeds. As commercial agriculture advanced in the 20th century, that practice disappeared and so did the pumpkin. Only a few old seedsmen like Wicker still maintain small patches in their home gardens for local consumption. Although the German descendants revere it as the best for making pies, it can be used for any recipe that commercial butternuts would be used. It makes a silkier and smoother soup or bisque than commercial butternuts, and is unmatched for baking into pies and breads. Unlike commercial butternuts, the skin can be used as well, and the seeds can used for pepitas! It’s a great size for stuffing and roasting too.
It took us years to bring this crop back and raise awareness for this lost beauty.
NEW! Davidson River Red Beets - Clem’s Organic Gardens
Davidson River Red beets are back this week! Their harvest came in and we got all we could. This beet is extremely special if you’ve never heard of it or experienced it. What makes it special is the terroir (or the flavor coming from the soil it’s grown in), rich bottom land in the Pisgah Forest on a plot just 50 yards from where the Davidson River and the French Broad intersect. That creates a mineral-rich, nutrient-dense soil that is totally golden. It’s perfect root crop land, the Davidson River beets are candy-sweet without the earthy bitterness typically found in red beets. Enjoy shaved raw in salads, roasted, pureed or in cocktails! Truly the greatest example of red beets we’ve ever come across, only available through our farm this season!
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! Candy Cane (Chioggia)
——Davidson River Red - Clem's
——Baby Davidson River Red - Clem's
-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 - Wild Hope
——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
-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
----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
——Casper Heirloom
-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