Fall add-on week five

News from the field:

The 2007 season – it’s a wrap! Today’s the last basket of the year and tomorrow [we wrote this Friday so actually today] is our last market. It’s a good thing too because harvesting in the freezing rain and snow was getting old.

But excitement is already starting to build around here for 2008. We’ve already had one intern application and two seed catalogs arrive. Waverly’s been listing all the things she wants to grow in her garden next year. Her friend Zaia has grown and sold gourds at the Waitsfield market, and Waverly is talking about growing and selling gooseneck gourds. And salad turnips and tomatoes. And Mimi was reviewing melon varieties with her in the Johnny’s catalog and then gee Ma can’t we put in some blueberry and raspberry bushes and ahh winter is the time to dream and dream big.

The height of the growing season can be insanely busy for us, and so the holidays are the time to slow it down, snuggle on the couch with the kids, visit with family and friends, and be very thankful for our wonderful life.

Have a great Thanksgiving and I hope we’ll see you next year!

In the Basket:

Spinach - Waverly told Henry at the dinner table to eat his spinach because it is sweet like candy. It is coarse, to be sure, but sweet from the cold, full of flavor and great raw or cooked.

Broccoli - It was a great year for broccoli!

Carrots - I love the frost touched carrots like these. So sweet and juicy and orange.

Squash - Perfect for Thanksgiving.

Onions - Keep these in a cool dry place or in the bottom of your fridge and they should hold till New Year’s at least.

Potatoes - Try Robyn and Tim’s yummy – and totally doable – recipe on the back!

Kale - My favorite winter vegetable. I like it steamed then dressed with tamari and sesame oil, and there are multiple recipes on the blog for it too.

Fall add-on week four

News from the field:

Last week the cold wasn’t any big deal. This week, the consistent nighttime temperatures in the teens and twenties are starting to affect the veggies. For example, this week you will find the spinach kind of tough, but extremely flavorful. The cold typically increases the sugar content of the veggies, making them taste better, but the cold also starts to beat up their cell structure, making things tougher, and in some cases, deader. For example, this week we add romaine to the dead list, which means no more lettuce until spring.

But these gray days aren’t for mourning spring – they are for making hearty soups and eating lots of bread. So try the recipe on the back and eat it in front of the woodstove.

In the Basket:

Potatoes – These are a variety that has red skin and white flesh. They are more toward the moist end of the spectrum, which means they are great for soups, for boiling, potato salad, and even roasting in cubes. But they are not the greatest baked potato in the world. Don’t be shy about using these because there will probably be a few more potatoes of a different variety in the basket next week.

Broccoli - People seem happy with the broccoli, and it is super tasty and bountiful right now. Try the recipe on the back, with the potatoes as well, for a yummy fall soup.

Spinach – A big bag – about one pound. As was mentioned above, the cold has made this spinach a little tough, but extremely tasty.

Cabbage – A dense storage cabbage. Pretend you live in Siberia and make some cabbage soup!

Garlic – Everything in this basket tastes better with garlic!

Fall add-on week three

News from the field:

Getting chilly. The cool nights keep getting cooler, the leaf peepers have all gone home, and it is time to wear your blaze orange when you go out to walk in the woods. But somehow we still have a few veggies for you. We feel a little bad about throwing more broccoli at you, but the stuff is good right now, and it will be the first to fade as our evening tempts consistently fall into the 20s.

As for us, we are getting the fall chores done, and we are almost ready to put the fields, greenhouses, and equipment asleep for a few months. Hard to believe that Thanksgiving is less than three weeks away!

In the Basket:

Buttercup squash - This is a dark green squash, with the yummy yummy orange stuff inside. Its not as beautiful as acorn squash, but it kicks acorn squash’s butt on taste. So much so that we’ve basically stopped growing acorn squash. Try Susan Houle’s soup recipe on the back.

Onions - Use in the soup recipe on the back or whatever. These are cured so they’ll keep.

Broccoli - People seem happy with the broccoli. Its super tasty and bountiful right now, and the predicted cold may knock it back, so we’re giving it to you again.

Hearts of romaine - Great for fall salads. If you still have beets left from last week, Peter made a great fall salad with romaine, grated (raw) beets, and dried tomatoes. Maybe throw in a few of the carrots below.

Carrots – These are a variety that are a little sweeter than average, but that also don’t store so well. So don’t count on having them around three weeks from now. Make a yummy carrot salad today!

Fall add-on week two

News from the field:

The romaine this week is a good example of how things change as the temperatures drop. Lettuce is not cold hardy, meaning that if the temperatures dip below 32, and it frosts, the lettuce dies. But romaine is the hardiest of lettuces, and we have kept the romaine you are eating this week in the field under cover. Still, we have had a couple of nights in the mid-20s. So while covering the plants has enabled them to survive, they are small and starting to bolt prematurely from cold stress. As a result, we picked them this week, trimmed back the frost damaged outter leaves, and you basically have some romaine hearts in your basket this week. The romaine still tastes great, but the encroaching cold weather definitely affects the presentation.

In the Basket:

Broccoli - The broccoli is tasty and beautiful with this weather and so we are giving it to you again. Let us know how you like it.

Romaine lettuce - Chop it up, add the dandelion greens, shred or shave a raw beet or two, maybe add some nuts if you have them in the cupboard, and you have a late, late fall salad.

Beets - Since we got our barrel washer going, we’ve been doing more beets without greens. Its way more time efficient in the washroom, and, while missing their beautiful greens, the flavor and texture of the beets themselves is excellent that way.

Garlic - We are almost done planting garlic for next year. This year was a great garlic year. The heads are big and juicy. Enjoy!

Baby dandelion greens - A slightly bitter Itailian cooking green. But boy, do they stand up to the cold. Try the recipe on the back!.

Fall add-on week one

News from the field:

Welcome to the first annual fall add-on! We are excited to be expanding our season this way, and we are glad you decided to give it a try. A few reminders – these baskets are smaller than the regular season baskets. During the summer, we try to pack $22-24 worth of produce in your basket, and for the add-on, we are shooting for the $15 range. Also, the variety will be somewhat more limited, especially if we get a foot of snow here sometime soon. But we still think what we will be able to offer is better than what you can get from California in the supermarket, and keeping it local will make it easier on the environment as well. So enjoy!

In the Basket:

Delicata squash - You can bake or steam these like any winter squash, but the easy peeling skin (or edible skin ) also provides other opportunities, Deborah Madison also suggests pan frying them: Peel the skin with a vegetable peeler, slice of the ends, scoop out the seeds with a spoon, slice into rings about 1/3 inch thick. Pan fry in olive oil (or butter but keep the heat low) about 6 minutes per side.

Leeks - Great for soup, of course, or try the recipe on the back.

Brussel Sprouts and broccoli - Nothing says fall like hardy green veggies. And hopefully, the frost has sweeten these up a bit!

Salad turnips - These are an Asian variety of turnip we grow to eat raw, like a radish. You can cook with them, but don’t substitute them one for one for purple top turnips because these are much wetter.