The mornings are downright cold these days, but the sunny warm days remind us of why we love living in Colorado! The plants are looking tired; some got nipped by the frost we had about ten days ago and are more than tired! But the raspberries are still loaded with sweet ripe berries, we are still picking the tomatoes, eggplant and peppers and the lettuce and arugula I planted a month ago are sweet and tender. Emily and Patrick hauled in all of the winter squash and parked it in the driveway and the pumpkins will be next. An acorn squash sliced in half, seeded and roasted in the oven with brown sugar and butter is indeed an autumn treasure on a crisp fall evening. Another of our favorites here at Hoot 'n' Howl is pumpkin bread made with our little pie pumpkins. They are perfect for anything that calls for canned pumpkin. They are sweeter than what you buy and much more colorful.

Depending on the size of the pumpkins, prepare one or two of the little pumpkins by cutting them in half, scooping out the seeds and inverting on a baking sheet. Bake at 350 degrees for about 45 minutes until the flesh is soft. Cool until you can handle them , scoop out the flesh and puree in the blender. Then use it in your favorite pumpkin recipe.

Pumpkin Fruit Bread adapted from Crème de Colorado Cookbook

2 C. sugar

1 C. vegetable oil

3 eggs

2 C. cooked, pureed pumpkin

3 C. flour

1 t. baking soda

½ t. salt

½ t. baking powder

1 t. ground cinnamon

1 t. ground cloves

1 t. ground nutmeg

1 C. chopped nuts

Optional: 1 C. raisins

1 C. chopped dates

In large mixing bowl, beat together sugar and oil. Beat in eggs and continue beating until light and fluffy. Add pumpkin and mix well. Sift together flour, soda, salt baking powder, cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg and add to pumpkin mixture. Stir until dry ingredients are moistened. Fold in nuts (and fruits). Pour into two 9x5 inch loaf pans greased with vegetable cooking spray. Bake at 325 degrees for 60-70 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Leave loaves in pans for 10 minutes before removing; cool on wire racks.

Last night we had a super delicious pizza made using a lot of Hoot ‘n’ Howl ingredients. You’ll need pizza dough for one pizza, either from the store or you can make it yourself. I used the recipe below that I found on a blog called “Pioneer Woman.”

Pizza Crust (for two pizzas)

1 teaspoon Active Dry Or Instant Yeast

4 cups All-purpose Flour

1 teaspoon Kosher Salt

1/3 cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Sprinkle yeast over 1 1/2 cups warm (not lukewarm) water.
In a mixer, combine flour and salt. With the mixer running on low speed (with paddle attachment), drizzle in olive oil until combined with flour. Next, pour in yeast/water mixture and mix until just combined.

Coat a separate mixing bowl with a light drizzle of olive oil, and form the dough into a ball. Toss to coat dough in olive oil, then cover the bowl tightly with plastic wrap and store in the fridge until you need it. ***It's best to make the dough at least 24 hours in advance, and 3 or 4 days is even better.

I made this by hand without the mixer and used it right away. Both of which worked fine.

FOR THE PIZZA:

4 medium/large Hoot’n’Howl tomatoes cut into eighths

4 cloves Hoot’n’Howl garlic, peeled and sliced

2 medium Hoot’n’Howl eggplants, sliced thin

kosher salt, for sprinkling

8 ounces fresh mozzarella cheese, sliced very thin

2 oz. feta cheese

2 stems fresh Hoot’n’Howl basil, chopped

extra virgin olive oil for drizzling

Cut tomatoes into eight wedges and slice garlic cloves. Place together in baking dish and sprinkle with olive oil. Toss lightly and roast in 375 degree oven for 45-60 min

Thinly slice eggplants. I used a large purple one and a large pink one. Sprinkle the slices on both sides with kosher salt and place in a colander to drain approx. 30 min. Then rinse, pat dry with paper towels and sprinkle with olive oil. Toss to coat with oil and place in single layer on shallow pan and broil 3 min. Turn over and broil 3 min. more.

Brush pizza pan with olive oil and roll dough out on it. Brush the dough with olive oil and place slices of mozzarella over it. With a slotted spoon lift tomatoes and garlic out of roasting pan and arrange over mozzarella. Place eggplant slices on top of tomatoes.

Crumble Feta cheese on top and then top with chopped basil.

Bake in 500 degree oven for 10 min. or until crust is golden brown.

Wow! We had such positive response to our switch to U-Pick berries that we are picked clean! Our fall berries are setting on and will begin ripening soon. Then you'll be able to come pick once again. Today Emily (our faithful and hardworking farmhand) and I began pruning out the old canes on the summer berries that you all just picked. That will rejuvenate them so they can bear big, sweet and juicy for us next summer.

Right now our cucumbers, beef, tomatoes and many other vegetables, are in abundance! See the full list below and come on over!

We have:

Arugula

Beef: 100% grass fed; Never exposed to feedlots, hormones, antibiotics or pesticides

Cucumbers: American slicing, pickling, “salt and pepper”

Eggplant: purple and pink Asian

Sweet green peppers (LOTS!)

Hot wax Hungarian peppers

Jalapeno peppers

Parsley

Basil (LOTS!)

Cilantro

Zucchini

Yellow Summer Squash

Swiss Chard

Tomatoes: Big Beef, Heirloom Cherokee Purple, Heirloom Rose and Sun Gold cherry!

Zinnias (LOTS!)

Gomphrena

Coming Soon

Melons

Beets

Winter Squash

Potatoes

Come on over and pick yourself some red and/or black raspberries!

You-Pick rules:

1. We ask that you bring a container in which to pick (if you forget, we have some). Don’t put too many berries in any container or bag: The berries are quite fragile.

2. Parking: Almost all of the time, there is plenty of parking in our drive. If it gets full, it is OK to park on Jay Road, but park your car completely off the pavement. The shoulder on the north side of Jay is especially wide.

3. Walk through our drive to the gate immediately north of the farmstand. To open the gate, grasp the handle, pull and lift the gate toward you, press on the thumb latch, and the push the gate open. Walk all the way to the north end of our yard, and go through the north gate (opens easily) to the farm.

4. Stay AWAY from the ponds! They are DANGEROUS! The small pond immediately west of the NW corner of our yard is eight feet deep, with vertical clay walls and a bottom of one foot of clay mud. VERY difficult to get out of. KNOW WHERE YOUR KIDS ARE if you bring them!

5. This, obviously, is a working farm. BE CAREFUL OUT HERE! A lot of the rows have steel pins in the ground at the ends of the rows to which we tether the trellises. Those pins are easy to hit with a toe or shin. Some of the steel trellises are angled into the alleys between the rows. They are easy to hit if you aren’t careful. Stay off the tractors and machinery! Watch and control your children

6. Pick only ripe berries. You know a berry is ripe if it pops right off the stem when you gently grasp and pull it. If it doesn’t come right off, please leave it for tomorrow.

7. Pick thoroughly. Pick one side of the row at a time. Don’t try to pick the other side until you get to the end of the row. Lots of the berries are hidden in the foliage. Gently move the leaves and peek under them. This is a treasure hunt!

8. Please do NOT cross the raspberry rows. If you touch a raspberry cane, the thorns will tell you not to do it again. But the plants are actually fragile and are easily damaged. The plants are planted in soil ridges, and the ridges are VERY easy to damage. So, if you want to go to another row, PLEASE walk to the end of the row rather than crossing the row. Again: Please keep your children informed of this rule.

9. The eating rule: We would never ask you not to eat while you pick. But please be fair: suggestion -pick ten eat one. Remember we have to pay our bills. Or eat all you want, but pay for them!

10. Some of the rows may be muddy. Dress accordingly. Wear shoes, not sandals, not barefoot.

11. Where are the berries? Walk north by the hoophouse on our main north-south farm lane. Vegetables are initially on the immediate east and west sides of the lane. The vegetables are NOT You-Pick. Please stay out of the vegetable rows—The plants are very fragile. After the vegetables, you will come to the berries, first on the east side of the lane. There is a row of elderberries on the north end of the east vegetables. Then a row of blackberries. Neither the elderberries or blackberries are ripe. The next two rows are red raspberries and have ripe berries. Pick to your heart’s content!!!

12. And more berries: Continue north on the lane to the end of the east-west rows. The first four north-south rows on the east side of the lane have ripe red raspberries. These plants are a year younger than the plants in the above paragraph. So many of the berries are hidden in the foliage.

13. After the four N-S red raspberry rows, row 5 is a blackberry row—Not ripe yet.

14. Row 6 is our black raspberry row! Pick away!

15. We suggest that when you finish picking, you put your berries into the lightweight plastic bags we have on the roll on the fence next to the farmstand. The You-Pick operation is just like the farmstand: The honor system: Weigh your produce on the scale, use the calculator and paper pad to compute what you owe, and pay into the black mailbox on the post next to the plastic bags. To make change, we have a Change jar with Hoot ‘n’ Howl bucks and U.S. coins.

16. Come to the farm! Have fun!

Janet ‘n’ Bob

Hoot ‘n’ Howl Farm LLC

6033 Jay Road

Boulder 80301

Farm: 303-530-9504

Cell: 720-771-0483

Pesto Recipe

We have lots of basil right now. It makes the most tasty pesto, which is delicious on pasta or as a dip with crackers. It also freezes very well and is so nice to have in the middle of the winter!
Here is the recipe I use. It is from "Colorado Cache."

Basic Basil Pesto

Ingredients:

½ C. Pine nuts

½ C. Walnuts

1 t. Coarse salt

½ t. Ground white pepper

1 T. Garlic, minced

3 C. Loosely packed, fresh basil leaves

4 oz. Asiago cheese, grated

2 oz. Parmesan cheese, grated

1 C. Olive oil

Directions

In food processor, combine pine nuts, walnuts, coarse salt, white pepper, garlic and basil. Pulse until finely chopped. Add Asiago and Parmesan and process until smooth. With processor running, add olive oil in slow steady stream. Process until well blended. Place in jar and store in refrigerator up to 1 week, or place in tightly sealed freezer-safe container and freeze up to 3 months.