CSA Week Seventeen

News from the field:

It doesn’t get much better than this – sunny, mild, beautiful days. Tomorrow we plant our last planting of fall greens in one of our greenhouses, and then that is it – no more planting until next year. We still have a ton of work to do this fall. We still need to clear the greenhouses of tomatoes, plow the fields in and get the last of the cover crops down, and continue preparing a new piece of land for next year. But taking our weekly planting chores off the board frees up time to start getting ready for next year.

Announcements:

This is the second to last CSA distribution for 2007!! Next week is the last pick-up for the regular season. Please bring a bag with you for next weeks’ veggies. Also, please bring back any baskets you may have around the house next week.

We have big beautiful jack-o-lantern pumpkins and pie pumpkins and lots of gourds for your foliage displays. See us at market or stop by the house any time – the pumpkins are in the front yard.

Thursday, October 4 is Share the Harvest Day. Please shop that day at St. J Coop or Natural Provisions, or Hunger Mountain, or eat at Positive Pie or a number of restaurants in Montpelier and such. Participating businesses like these are donating 15% of their revenue that day to NOFA-VT’s Farm Share Program. Farm Share helps make a CSA subscription affordable for low income Vermonters. More information – and a list of participating businesses – is at www.nofavt.org

In the Basket:

Fall salad – Spinach, a few tomatoes, and some radishes for your crunch.

Collards – My favorite way to eat these are in ribbons. Take out the stem by slicing along the two sides. Stack up the leaves one on top of the other like sheets of paper, roll up like a cigar, cut across the short end as thinly as possible, and you end up with a bunch of thin ribbons. Wash the ribbons, heat up a cast iron skillet, put in oil, throw in the still damp collards and some chopped garlic, cook 3-4 minutes until bright green and just soft, salt and enjoy while hot.

Buttercup squash - Another family favorite. This is a richly flavorful winter squash. It is very dry. When I told someone at market on Saturday about the dryness, he said, all the better to absorb the butter! I like to cut it in half, remove the seeds, put on a cookie sheet cut side down, bake till soft, scoop out, add butter and enjoy.

Brussel Sprouts - Okay I can’t just write that everything is my favorite, but I really do love brussel sprouts. Great recipe on the back.