Small Family Farm CSA
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Week 16, 2012September 19thOne of the major benefits of belonging to a CSA farm is that when the 'gettin' is good', there is a lot to be gotten. The CSA boxes are heavy and colorful and full of scents and textures that will delight or entertain almost all of our senses. We begin to feel rich when there is so much variety to cook with, share with and possibly even store with. The bounty has been surprisingly good this year considering the length of the drought and the duration of record-breaking temperatures this summer. All of our hard work seeding, transplanting, weeding and now harvesting is paying off! But winter's a comin'! The north winds are blowing in, the sandhill cranes are flying south overhead and the threat of frost is upon us in the ten-day forecast. It's time to dig your hole and gather your nuts. It's time to grow that winter coat. At the farm we have been preserving all of our favorite veggies for winter storage. Momma Jane has been canning like no woman has ever canned before in our tiny farmhouse kitchen. We've been canning salsa, sauce and pickled beets while freezing peppers, berries, and beans and drying parsley, basil, oregano and mint. We are even drying celery for those of you who are wondering what to do with all of these greens. In the fields we are always talking about everyone's favorite way to can, freeze, dry or store the now-fresh vegetables at hand. In some ways, with so many vegetables coming to you each week, it feels like it is never going to end. But invariably, the season will end and the vegetables will stop coming. This season, especially, has been wonderfuly generous. I know you'll miss us when it's all over! As CSA farmers we are finishing up our 7th season. I'm not sure what happened in the last six years, but I'll assume that we've been learning a thing or two along the way. We've been sharpening our harvest knives, changing our oil and maintaining our equipment. And just when I thought that I might stay in my twenties forever, they too will come to an end. The years and the lessons pass by so quickly, if only there was a way to preserve them. Fortunatley for us, each season is like hitting the re-set button on the farm. We get another chance at growing something we weren't so good at growing before. We get another chance to prove we've learned from our mistakes. And (thank heavens) the deck gets shuffled and we are delt a new set of weather patterns for a new season to bring you fresh, local veggies. Sooo..... What's in the box???Beets- We cut the tops off of the beets this week because the bed we were harvesting from had the tops dieing back most of the way. Store these beets in a plastic bag in the fridge to preserve moisture. Acorn Squash- The first giving of our hard, winter squash. Acorn squash will keep in a cool and dry location for at least a couple  Ayla is now trained in on picking spinach!
monthes. The squash will potentially become sweeter with time at room temperature. Will keep best outside of refrigeration. Diakon Radish- These are the long, white, Japanese radishes in your box. The greens are edible and can be used like most cooking greens or cut up raw in a salad. The white roots can be julianned onto a green salad. Diakon Radish can be used anywhere you would use a radish or a carrot. You can eat it raw or cook with it. Grate it raw into a cabbage slaw. Roast it in a roasted root veggie dish or chop it up and put it in a stew. Diakons are also wonderful in home-made Kim-chi ferments. Diakons have a mild flavor that is very versatil e. So big they'll make you blush. White Onions- Yum Yum! Keeps best in a cold, dark and dry place. Asian Tempest Garlic- Beautiful bulbs for your everyday cooking needs. Keeps best in a cold, dark and dry place. Sweet Peppers- A medly of yellow, orange, and red peppers. What a wonderful pepper year we are having. Pepper plants are susceptable to being damaged by a frost. We're hoping the frost holds off or another week or two so we can keep picking peppers strong. The plants are really looking great and like they're still loaded with peppers. Hungarian Hot Wax Peppers- A little warmth for you life. These little guys are usually found yellow or lime green, but turn a red or orange when ripe. Jalapeno Peppers- Either a small green or red pepper. Still a lot of heat tucked into these little puppies. Broccoli- Absolutely BEAUTIFUL broccoli this week. I told you we knew how to grow broccoli. Stores best in a plastic bag in the fridge, but does need to be kept very cold. Celery- Sadly, this is the final celery giving. Celery will keep best in a plastic bag in the fridge. Don't forget to dry or cook with the flavorful greens on the celery! Lettuce- Stunning heads of romaine, green leaf or red leaf lettuce. Lettuce will also keep best in a plastic bag in the fridge to prevent from wilting. Spinach- Wonderfuly tender and succulent fall spinach. I love to eat spinach on pizza, with eggs or pureed into a dip. Love spinach! Tomatoes- Even at the end of the season we're still abel to give a wopping 4.2lbs of tomatoes. Rock on Tomato fever! Remember they will ripen quicker at room temperature. Cherry Tomatoes- Lovely cherry tomatoes to sweeten up your life. Possibly the final Cherry tomato giving. We'll see! Eggplant- Okay, I promise that the eggplants are winding down as well. They really produce in the warm weather, but now that it's getting quite cool, they won't last much longer! RecipesWeek 15, 2012September TwelfthThe winds of Fall blew onto the farm this week. It feels a little like taking a nap in the middle of the day and waking up slightly disoriented. The days have suddenly become shorter in a way that doesn't feel fair. I sometimes think that someone is laundering time from me. Like whole monthes of my life are gobbled up by a time-hoarding monster. When did the leaves on the maple tree turn yellow and red or orange when just yesterday-I swear they were green? As I stroll the baby to sleep alongside the country roads, the wheels on her stroller crunch dried leaves and I find myself steering away from them as they might be making too much noise for a baby trying to fall asleep. As much as I wish someone would stroll me to sleep down a country rode with fallen leaves, I remain alert as a guard dog because someone is trying to rip the rug of time right out from beneath me. The peppers turn colors quicker in the fall. It is as though they sense that time is running out and if they're ever going to show us what they're made of, they had better get going. I'll admit that this is my favorite time of year. I love the cool wind on my weathered cheeks. My bones feel tired at the end of a long season. My enthusiasm begins to wane for the start of the week and the day. And this season has offered a new set of challenges for me to share half of my energy with another human and forfit half of my time on the playing filed of the farm. And while perserverence remains a strong suit of mine, I cannot match my efforts with an equal amount of fervor at th end of the season. My loyalty to this farm and the CSA model and this small family of ours does not wavre, but I humbly reveal that I love 60 degrees and sunny with dry air and a north wind. Sooo, What's in the Box????Potatoes- Red Norland Potatoes fresh out of the earth Saturday. We do not wash our potatoes because (well, it's a LOT of extra work and handling of the potatoes) and they keep much better when they're dirty. These red beauties were a prolific variety for us this year. Carrots- We reached the end of a carrot bed that had the monster carrots in it and are now digging carrots from a fresh new bed. The new carrots were impressively sweet. Many more carrots to come! Dragon Tongue Beans- These are a flavorful heirloom variety of beans. Unfortunately their beautiful purple streaks disappear once they are cooked. We love the way they don't even get stringy even when they're on the large side. Broccoli- Much nicer looking broccoli this week. I told you we knew how to grow broccoli, we just need nature to cooperate with cooler temperatures and a little rain (although irrigation lines are to thank for bringing this broccoli to life!). Cucumbers- Possibly the final week of cucumbers. A few lemon cukes and a regular cucumber for everyone this week. Love your cukes while you're getting them, they're just about goooonnne! Sweet Pepper Medly- Sweet Peppers galore! We're having a great sweet pepper year with a beautiful array of yellow, orange, red, and pink peppers. The beauty of CSA is that you'll receive pepper varieties that you may not usually find at the supermarket or even the Farmer's Market at times. Hungarian Hot Wax- These would be the lime green, red or slightly orange little peppers (depending on how 'ripe' they are). They're long and pointed shaped. They're on the spicy side, so watch out! Jalapeno Peppers- These were all red this week! The Jalapeno Peppers are HOT, so have fun with them in salsa or pass them on to a friend who loves to cook spicy food. White Onion- Another white onion for your everday cooking. Does not need refrigeration but will keep well on the counter in a cool, dark and dry place. Eggplant- Either a long and thin Japanese Eggplant or a traditional round eggplant. Eggplant production is slowing down quite a bit now as eggplants love the heat. Tomato Mix- Another nice offering of tomatoes around 4.87lbs per member. Still a very nice bag. There may be a mix of unripe and ripe tomatoes in your bag. Be sure to leave your unripe tomatoes on your counter to ripen. Some tomatoes will ripen red, orange, yellow, or purple. Just give them a very gentle squeeze to know if they are ripen. So far I haven't gotten any complaints about TOO MANY TOMATOES! Yum! Sun Gold Cherry Tomato- These little guys are very ripe. We had a small issue with some of them cracking on us. I would use these guys up sooner rather than later. We ran out of our plastic clamshell containers and switch to using small paper bags for shipping the cherry tomatoes this week. A slightly more generous portion as well. Curly Leaf Parsley- Very nice sized bunches of curly leaf parsly. Use fresh in your sauce, salads and soups or dehydrate in your dryer and use in the winter monthes as a 'fresh' reminder of your fond summer days as a CSA member with the small family farm. Lettuce- Either a red or green leaf lettuce for each member this week. The heads were looking so beautiful and it was such a joy to harvest them. The irrigation lines came in handy once again when helping thse guys fill out. Keeps best in a plastic bag in the fridge to preserve moisture. RecipesRoasted Tomato Soup (Thank you Kate Parks for sharing this Recipe with us!) Frijol Mole (Green Bean Dip) (Thank you, Kristin Koepke for posting this one from Animal, Vegetable, Miracle;) Eggplant Gratin (Deborah Madison Recipe) Week 14, 2012September FifthMy neighborhood is wonderful. I love the people who live on the farm and farmettes around me. I love the rolling hillside, the cold water that comes from 350ft deep below ground level and spills out of my kitchen tap, and the gusty winds that blow in from the west on our tiny ridge top. I love the windy Kickapoo river that ziggs and zaggs between the ridges and through the valleys. I love that the people that who are attracted to live here wish to live very closely connected to their food and the earth and see the connection between the two. The beauty of where we live is being discovered. Land is being parceled-off and sold into smaller and even smaller pieces of land to accommodate the small family farmers (like us!), the homesteaders, the retired, the dooms day-ers, and the passionate land lovers. Everyone wants a piece of the Driftless area. What I see happening is curious. I see spontaneous and un-intentional community. There is barter and trade and lots and lots of giving. The people here, including myself, have a slightly reduced interest in personal appearance, style and hyper-hygiene maintenance. It's a funny thing how the men all start growing beards, the women keep gardens and the children play barefoot. I think we fit right in. This farm, about 10 years before we bought it, was originally about 200acres of land. It was then sold to a man who divided it into 6 different pieces and sold it off piece by piece. You might think this to be a sad story, but what came of it is quite interesting. The families who bought the land built modest homes and are all participating in active engagement with one another. They share, lend, loan, sell, trade, babysit, preserve food, fix machinery and teach one another. We are closely connected to one another's lives because we are neighbors in, well, the old-fashined sort of a way. Vernon county now has the highest concentration of organic farms than anywhere else in the country. The quaint little town of Viroqua supports a Natural Food Cooperative the size of a Willy Street Co-op in Madison. The Farmer's Market in downtown is highly impressive when compared to a Farmer's Market in any other town it's size up and down the Mississippi. Organic Valley-the nations largest dairy cooperative exists here and families from all over the country bring their children here to go to school at the area Waldorf schools. There's something happening here. What it is ain't exactly clear. And while Vernon county is also considered to be the most economically depressed county in the state-no one seems to mind because we're so rich in natural resources, family-based community, and really, really good food. Sooo, What's in the Box???Red or Green Cabbage- Just in case the boxes weren't heavy enough this week, we added a cabbage to top it off. Store in an open plastic bag in your fridge to preserve moisture. Red Beets- We topped the greens off the beets this week because they weren't looking as appetising. Store your beets in a plastic bag in the fridge to preserve moisture. Boil beets and then cut them up. Their color will bleed out of them if you cut them up and then boil them. White Onion- Mmmmmm, yum-yum! Onion will keep on your counter at room temperature for at least a month or more. It will not need refrigeration for short-term storage. Sweet Peppers- The red, yellow and orange peppers are BUMPING! It feels so nice to send you such a great variety of sweet peppers. Such a treat! Peppers prefer a warmer storage at 52 degrees. They do not love a very cold refrigerator. Hot Peppers- A Hungarian Hot Wax and a Jalapeno pepper again this week. Some like it HOT! Great for salsas and spicy currys. Summer Squash, Zucchini and Patty Pans- Were getting to the end of the summer squashes. I know, I KNOW-you're really wishing that you could get more squash but you'll just have to wait until the fall winter squashes start coming on! Cucumbers- Cucumbers are also heading out. Love 'em before they're gone! Celery- We think that this may have been the final celery giving for the season, but there might be one more giving out there, or at least half of a giving. Enjoy your celery before it is no longer coming in your weekly boxes. Celery should be stored in a closes plastic bag to preserve moisture in cool storage in the fridge. Yellow and Dragon Tongue Beans- Use these beans like you would use a green bean. The Dragon Tongues are a new variety that we tried. Once cooked, the beautiful purple streaks magically disappear! Swiss Chard or Purple Kale- Medium Sized bunches of chard or kale this week for cooking greens. It won't be long before we're rich in spinach and lettuce again now with the cooler weather. Basil- We've got to get our fill of basil before the big "F" gets here. You know the one that I'm talking about that usually arrives in mid September some time. Shhh, don't say it.... Tomatoes- Can you believe the tomatoes? Each bag of tomatoes weighed about 8.5lbs this week. This breaks the record for the most number of pounds of tomatoes that we've ever sent CSA members in one weeks box. We harvested around 1,780lbs of tomatoes this week. Woah! Remember that if your tomatoes aren't ripe, leave them out at room temperature to ripen. You will know they are ripen with a very tender squeeze. Some tomatoes ripen yellow, orange, pink and purple. Not all tomatoes are created Red. Cherry Tomatoes- A pint of Sun Gold Cherry Tomatoes for all again. They're wonderful grilled on skewers with your peppers, onion, some mushrooms. Eggplant- We picked a little over 100 eggplants this week, but it still wasn't enough for everyone, we started giving some broccoli florettes and extra sweet peppers when we ran out of eggplants. RecipesA Very Simple Fresh Salsa Recipe Week 13, 2012August Twenty-NinethHarvest season is in full force on the farm. It feels like we are spending almost every day harvesting something which is leaving very little time left over for weeding or for harvesting and cleaning storage crops. We're almost non stop picking cucumbers, zucchini, tomatoes and cherry tomatoes every-other-day. We're harvesting green beans on our Thursday and Friday slots, potatoes and cabbages on the weekends and somehow finding time to get everything else picked on our usual Monday and Tuesday harvest and packing days. The harvesting has been a little intense, but the boxes are really looking great! We're doing our best to keep up the hard work!
We said "Good Bye" to Sam this week as he head off back to finish school and welcomed Joe Orso to the crew this week. We're going to miss Sam's relaxed attitude and hard work but are really enjoying Joe's fresh enthusiasm and humor. Adrianne is still rock-solid, showing up for work every morning, ready for more.
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