CSA : 2009 Fall

Week Five

November 17, 2009

Notes from the Field:

Thank you for a wonderful season! Despite a wet start, the late blight scare, and a cold blast in October, we have had a great season on our end. We hope you have enjoyed the results. And we can't thank you enough for your support, encouragement, and good wishes.

Have a great winter everyone, and a wonderful 2010!!

In the Basket:

This week’s basket is a double sized one. We hope this will give you a start to a delicious Thanksgiving and a great winter. We hope you’ll be back next year!

Five pounds kennebec potatoes - Keep these cool (ideally 40-50 degrees) and out of the light.

Five pounds yummy frost sweetened carrots – Store in the fridge. The bags we use have holes in them which let the ethylene gas out while keeping them moist. Try not to store near apples or other fruit.

Five pound dark red ace beets – Same storage recommendations as carrots.

Two buttercup squashes (about 7 pounds) – Store in a dry, dark, cool (50-60 degree) place.

One pound purple top turnips – Same storage recommendation as carrots.

One pound spinach – This is so good you should eat it now but if for some reason you can’t, it freezes well. I usually blanch, squeeze out the extra water, chop roughly, put in a Ziploc bag, squeeze the air out, smush flat and freeze. Several customers told me they just freeze the spinach as is and take it out of the freezer as many leaves as they’re going to eat and it works fine.

One bunch dandelion greens – I love these. They’re delicious and supernutritious. I love them raw, sliced up, and wilted with a hot dressing, but you definitely can cook them – the original version of the turnip greens tart recipe was for dandelion greens. There’s an intriguing hot dressing recipe on epicurious – if anyone tries it, please let me know what you think.

Three heads garlic

This is the article I excerpted on the back of the paper flyer this week.

Recipes:

Week Four

November 10, 2009

Notes from the Field:

What a wonderful late late late Indian summer. We have been using the extended period of nice weather to get the last of the field work done, like plowing and harrowing new ground for next year, mowing down old crops that don't decompose well, such as brussel spouts, start in on the late fall clean up chores. But it is so much nicer to not need a heavy coat when doing these things. Some years the ground is frozen solid by now and we are worrying about the first big snowfall cementing some things into place around here. Not this year, and it feels great.

In the Basket:

Two buttercup squashes – “Winter squash is a nutrient-dense vegetable, with lots of vitamin A in the form of beta carotene (the more orange the flesh, generally the more vitamin A in the squash), vitamin C, potassium and dietary fiber.” - Martha Rose Shulman, NY Times

Five pounds onions – These are Cortlands, a good eating and storage onion. “Believed to have originated in Asia, onions have been valued for their culinary and medicinal properties for over 5,000 years and were used as a form of payment for builders of the Egyptian pyramids. Onions contain chromium, a trace mineral that helps cells respond to insulin, and several anti-inflammatory agents.” – High Mowing Seeds catalog.

Three pounds beets – These are red ace beets. “Among superfoods, the humble beet is high on the list. Not only is the beet packed with nutrients, but beet pigments are loaded with powerful antioxidant compounds called betalains. But the best reason to eat a beet is because you like the taste.” – Tara Pope, NY Times

One pound spinach – Spinach is “one of the most nutritious vegetables you can eat.” “Spinach is filled with flavonoids, which may have antioxidant properties, and its plentiful vitamin K (1,000 percent of the daily recommended value in 1 cup of cooked spinach) contributes to bone health. The list of nutrients that come in large quantities in a serving of spinach is a long one, including iron, vitamins A and C, manganese, folate, magnesium, calcium, potassium, vitamins B2 and B6, tryptophan and dietary fiber” – Martha Rose Shulman

Recipes:

Week Three

November 3, 2009

Notes from the Field:

Usually I am not too crazy about this time of year -- lots of gray clouds and leafless winds. But lately things have seemed really beautiful. Maybe it is this late warm spell. Maybe it is starting our quieter time of year. But it has been really nice lately.

This week we say goodbye to Jamie Bussiere, the last of our crew for the year. Jamie has been an indispensible part of what we have been doing around here this year, and we will miss her. But hopefully we will see her again in a few months when we kickoff the 2010 season!

In the Basket:

Five pounds carrots

Five pounds Kennebec potatoes - These are the thin skinned, white fleshed russet we grow. They are a great all around potato – use for French fries, boiling, baking or mashing. Keep them cool (ideally 40-50 degrees) and out of the light.

Two leeks – The cold has made these more tender and mild.

One bunch salad turnips – These are an Asian variety of turnip that are meant to be eaten raw, like a radish. I like them cut up in salad, like a radish. Waverly likes them sliced and eaten out of hand. (She’s been known to pull one out of the ground, wipe of the dirt, and just start eating them!). Peter likes them with goddess dressing.

Three baby bok choy – Try them roasted or stir fried or in soup.

1/2 pound spinach

Recipes:

Week Two

October 27, 2009

Notes from the Field:

Well, things continue to wind down. Our farmer's markets have ended, which is a big chunk of time that frees up in our week. Now the clean up and repair chores start in earnest -- the garlic is planted for next year, some cover crops have started to spout, we have sorted out and organized the seed racks, cleaned out the last greenhouse, and pulled plastic mulch from the field. We also need to clean out the barn to make room to store field equipment over the winter, we are starting to get some repair work done on the greenhouses. There is still a lot to do, but the pace is much more manageable when compared with the frantic rush of high summer.

And away from the farm, this is the time of year we start to make plans with friends and family. Our weekends aren't only for working anymore, which is nice. Of course, after telling everyone we weren't available for the last six months, we tend to overbook ourselves this time of year, so things can be hectic in a different way. But it is still a welcomed and much needed change of pace.

In the Basket:

Two buttercup squashes

Three pounds onions

Two heads garlic

Three pounds beets

One pound spinach

Recipes:

Week One

October 20, 2009

Notes from the Field:

Wow. It’s been cold. We have had repeated nights in the teens, which can really beat up the tender greens in the field. But we still have hardier stuff for your basket, like kale and bok choy. And we try to hedge our bets by pulling all the tomatoes out of the greenhouses and planting fall greens in there. This means we should have more green stuff as the fall CSA moves forward, including more spinach, and maybe even a salad turnip or two. But the frost actually helps sweeten some things, like the carrots we have for you today. So enjoy what the season brings and munch those carrots right out of the bag.

We are also starting to wind things down in earnest. The list of things to do before the season is over is now in the single digits, instead of in the dozens. And believe it or not, we are already starting to think about next year -- about varieties for our seedling sales, planting fall garlic that will grow in the spring, and thinking about our big picture needs for next year, like a more professional storage cooler, or perhaps learning how to tackle fruit trees. Every year it is fun to tinker and dream as we grow this place and we want to thank you for being a part of that process.

In the Basket:

Five pounds carrots - These will keep for 2-4 months if stored at 32-40 degrees. The best place to store is in a refrigerator, in loosely closed plastic bags to maintain humidity.

Three pounds potatoes - For short term, store in a dark, cool place in the kitchen. For longer term, store at 40-50 degrees. Lower temperatures affect potatoes’ flavor. If they sprout, the temperature is too high. Do not store with apples.

Two leeks

Bok choy or kale

One pound spinach – Eat this now, lots more to come!

Recipes: