September Twenty-Eighth
This week the farm shifted. The winds started to roll in. The air became cool. The leaves started to fall, the hillside off in the distance started to take on shades of orange and tan and red and yellow. The Fall Colors has begun. We are even feeling bit of a rush now to begin getting our fall roots and tubers out of the ground. Many of our new and interesting favorite Fall vegetables will begin to appear in these last few weeks of Summer Share deliveries.
Fall is my favorite time of year. I love everything that looks and feels like fall. My constitution is one that thrives in the cooler weather and I love to bundle up in a knit hat and wool sweater when I head out to work. We have to remember to dress in layers this time of year when we go to work because it may be cool and cloudy and cold in the morning, but as soon as the sun comes out from behind the clouds or if we switch to a task that requires more movement we may have to take a layer or two off. The farm truck and packing shed can become littered with random pieces of clothing that the farm workers need to take off and put back on depending on how the weather behaves from hour to hour or minute to minute.
We have survived the flood of 2016. Many of the area roads were closed due to land-slides, rock-slides or from simply being under water or part of the road washing away. Our farm handled this years flood quite well for the most part. We did have hail a couple times for just a half a minute or a minute. Even just 30 seconds of hail can do a lot of damage to a tender fall spinach crop. When we picked spinach this morning we were a little sad to see so many torn leaves. The only other major damage was the slow rotting of many of the carrots, some of our Brussels sprouts and part of our fall broccoli crop. We’re a little nervous to see what the remainder of our potato and sweet potato and other root crops will look like once we get them out. When roots are sitting in the ground that is constantly soaked and saturated with water, the are much more susceptible to rotting or a decreased storage life once they are out of the ground. But other than all of the above mentioned and little wash out in the drive way, we’re making it through just fine.
I feel hopeful and optimistic for a beautiful Fall. We still have a good 6 or 7 weeks of work left to do out there before the ground is frozen. I know that it has got to stop raining at some point so we can get going on harvesting many of our Fall roots and tubers. The winter squash is holding up quite well in the green house and we’re also excited about offering some other unique Fall Veggies such as leeks, celeriac roots, sweet potatoes and daikon radish in the coming weeks. Keep us in your thoughts! We’ve got you in ours! Here’s to a colorful, bountiful and DRY Fall season up ahead!
Sooo…What’s in the Box???
Butternut Squash- These are the beautiful, creamy yellowish-orangeish colored squash at the bottom of your box. Butternuts are possibly one of the most delicious and smooth sqashes out there. They’re not my all time favorite, but in the top three for sure! Cut them in half lengthwise, scoop the seeds out and lay the squash cut-side down in a 9×13 pan with about a half inch of water at the bottom of the pan. Bake them for about an hour at 350. After one hour, you will be able to scoop out all of the yellow/orange flesh.
Russet Potatoes- 3lbs of russet potatoes per member this week. We were really happy with how these guys looked! Yes, they are dirty since we don’t wash potatoes, but we did have to dig them all with a pitch fork since the ground was so wet we couldn’t get any machinery in the fields. Cheers to the amazing and hard-working helpers who helped get these guys out of the ground!
Red Onions– Red Onions to keep a little spice in your cooking! They’re all cured down by now and we’ll continue to shell them out until then end of the season!
Jalapeno Pepper– One of these little guys per box. Jalapenos turn red as they ‘ripen’ near the end of the growing season. We’re nearing the end of the hot pepper season, possibly more more week to go on these guys. You may have received a red Jalapeno. Jalapenos pack a little more heat than the Hungarian Hot Wax peppers. We recommend wearing gloves if you go to cut these up!
Sweet Bell Peppers– Two sweet peppers per member this week. You may have received red, orange and/or yellow peppers this week. A wonderful addition to your salsas, stir frys and salads! We are also nearing the end of the sweet pepper season. We’ll continue to pick them as long as the frost holds off. We started picking them a little more aggressively, even if their color hadn’t turned completely. They have slowed down considerably with the amount that we are getting. Enjoy them while they last!
Lunchbox Sweet Peppers- Everyone received about 1-2 of these little, small sweet peppers that could be mistaken for a hot pepper, but they are not hot. They usually come in red, yellow and orange colors. We grew these little guys last year for the first time and totally fell in love with them! Eat these for a snack raw, or cook with them like you would any other sweet bell pepper.
Brussels Sprouts- A very fun fall vegetable! We leave the Brussels sprouts on the stalk because it’s so much less work for us to not have to pick them all off for you. Plus, it’s fun for you to see how they grow! We worried that we had a near crop failure on the Brussels this year. So very many of them had rotten or black sprouts at the bottom of the plants that we had to snap off. We tried very hard to clean these up for you as best as we could, but there are still sprouts with some small black spots. You’ll have to sit with a pearing knife and peel away a couple of the outer layers on soe of these before you eat them. We like to just steam them and then toss them with butter, but I have seen some wonderful recipes where they are roasted on the oven coated in a little oil and salt. Try whatever sounds good to you!
Red Beets- 1 lb of red beets per member this week. They varied in size quite a bit, so you may have received just a couple large beets, or a handful of small to medium ones.
Green Curly Kale- One bunch of green curly kale for everyone this week to make sure you have plenty of greens in your cooking!
Thyme- A very aromatic and lovely bunch of thyme. If you can’t use it up right away, and some of these bunches were hefty, we recommend laying your bunch out and dehydrating the rest on a cookie sheet in a warm oven or on a dehydrator tray. Once it is dry, strip the leaves off of the stem and store the dried herb in a mason jar with a tight lid and enjoy local herbs in the winter thyme!
Broccoli- Eat these up ASAP, the broccoli will not keep well. Because of the all of the moisture they may have very small spots on them somewhere where decay has begun, but most of them looked really good. We just think it would be best if you used these up immediately while they still look good. We don’ think they will keep well. We had to cut and toss a fair amount of broccoli this week due to the heads rotting in the field from all of the rain. But we still managed to get at least one broccoli for everyone! If you did not get a cauliflower, you received two broccoli.
Cauliflower- A cauliflower for most members, but if you did not get a cauliflower, you received two broccoli. Again, eat these up quickly. We do not think the cauliflowers will keep well.
Spinach– .38 lbs per member on spinach this week. The spinach leaves were a little torn from being so tender from so much moisture and from the heavy rains and hail that we received. They still looked harvestable to us, but they are a little more torn that usual. Again, we don’t think these greens will keep well, so use these up as soon as you can in your eggs, lasagna or whatever is your favorite way to eat spinach!
Green Leaf Lettuce- One or two heads per member this week, depending on the size. Lettuce keeps best in a plastic bag in the fridge to preserve moisture.
Next Week’s Best Guess: beets, potatoes, cauliflower, broccoli, lettuce, brussels sprouts, sweet bell peppers, winter squash, leeks, red cabbage
Recipes-
Southwest Stuffed Acorn Squash
Seared Broccoli and Potato Soup
