Review of the 2024 Farm Season
Welcome to the Carters' Farm Newsletter, where you can find information on farm events and produce, our favorite recipes, and reflections from the family. The 2024 season has come to a close.
The 2024 season at Carters’ Farm has come to a close. It was a good crop of tomatoes, sweet corn, cucumbers, kale, peppers, and pumpkins.
Produce
The tomato greenhouses received a make-over, with new lumber and plastic being installed throughout the summer. Moreover, the tomatoes, which were started in the loneliness of winter, flourished inside and outside, nourished by on-farm manure with the soil. Cucumbers and zucchini, along with a newer pepper crop and kale, produced well.
Sweet corn came at a relatively early date, and we were happy to be welcomed at the Detroit Lakes Farmers’ Market, along with regular markets in Walker and Park Rapids.
Fall Festival
The Fall Festival this year was blessed with warmer-than-normal weather on most weekends, and ended with a bang—with a busy last day on October 26th when several hundred visitors came out. We were happy to welcome back Imaginick, the Abello family, and Carter Junction for performers, as well as the Oxbows, a band from Bemidji, who performed for the first time on the corn crib stage.
The Pirate wagon ride was also a hit this year, and we’re thankful for several new (and returning) actors who were recruited to play in this year’s skits. As always, the festival was made meaningful by family members’ contributions, as well as their own enjoyment of the fall fun with their families.
As the year winds down, we’re looking forward to a restful winter, in anticipation for another season of fresh produce, a fall festival, and events in the year to come as we celebrate 70 years of Carter produce in the Minnesota heartland!
PUMPKIN BOWL
If you have leftover sugar pumpkins, why not take out the filling and pack in your favorite dip? Recently at a dinner party, with inspiration online, I filled a pumpkin with brie and baked it with other delicious toppings—toasted pecans, bacon bits, and “hot honey” (honey melted with red pepper flakes). All you have to do is carve an opening, place in your cheese of choice, and top it with a mixture of crunch, sweet, and salty. Try using your pumpkin as a vessel for your favorite dip (or even soup!), and you’ll have the top of the pumpkin as a built-in lid.
—Renée Carter
November comes,
and November goes,
with the last red berries
and the first white snows.
With night coming early,
and dawn coming late,
and ice in the bucket
and frost by the gate.
the fires burn
and the kettles sing,
and earth sinks to rest
until next spring.
- Elizabeth Coatsworth