Restoration
A farmer needs a winter. Needs one like a day needs a night, like a bird needs a nest, like a plant needs rain or a seed needs soil. A farmer needs a rest, a period of time-if even just a short period where she can go inward and downward and deep and move slower. So much of the summer months are spent sending our energies forward and outward and onward at a quickening pace. For a farmer’s mind, Winter is a time for reflection and restoration. For her farm, it offers a grace period for improvements and maintenance on the tools and infrastructure that serve and support the farm. Our Packing night crew minus Ross who left on deliveries already. From Left to Right: Todd, Julie, Joe, Kevin, Val, Adam and Jillian Notice it’s getting dark a little earlier these days!
Winter offers the farmer a time of year to focus on family. Because the summer months consume so much of our energy and put some of our family life on hold, we are given a cozy few months to spend intimately together tightening our bond, showing our love and restoring our foundation for why this life is important to us.
Winter time is not entirely spent cozied up on the couch watching movies, drinking hot cocoa and eating popcorn. An encourageable amount of relaxation occurs, but there is much work to be done to prepare for another season upcoming. After the Holidays are over and the days start getting longer again and a new year dawns, it is time to start planning. A new year means seed orders, marketing, field plans, budgeting and bookwork, marketing, off-season storage crop sales, machinery research, continued education, and did I mention marketing?
I am thankful to be a Wisconsin farmer with a sure, solid, harsh and cold winter. If it wasn’t absolutely intolerable outside, I would be out in it trying to build, restore or grow something. I am thankful for the style of farm that we are, an organic vegetable CSA farm with an interactive, growing and supportive group of people who keep it alive. The people involved in this farm not only keep it alive by sending in their Sign-Ups year after year so we can keep our bills paid, but the worker shares and the employees keep the community spirit of the farm alive too with their fresh sense of enthusiasm for taking an active part in knowing where their food comes from.
Here we all are, keepin’ it alive. Soon the ground will be frozen and the vegetable deliveries will be over and these farm fresh reflections will stop appearing in your inbox on a weekly basis. But if farming teaches us nothing, it teaches us about death and rebirth, about cycles and seasons, about beginnings and ends and growth and maturity. This is only the end of but one short cycle in our lives. One little trip around the sun. Soon another will begin and the opportunity to revive this CSA farm with your belief in supporting a local, Small Family Farm with your local food dollars and time commitments will resurface. All too soon the 2015 growing season will be here and it will be time to get the greenhouse fires started again. We’ll be keepin’ it alive here on the farm, and we hope you’ll come back to us.
Pie Pumpkins- Each Pie Pumpkin when cooked should yield at least 2 cups of pumpkin flesh that is about the amount that most recipes call for when cooking a pie or bars.
Sweet Dumplings- These are the squash in your box that are shaped a little like an acorn squash but are colored like a delicata with the green stripes on them. They’re a delicious, sweet squash.
Brussels Sprouts- The stalks this week were a little shorter than the ones we picked last week. Each year we struggle a little with the lower Brussels on the plants getting a little black on the outer peelings. We’re working on learning why this is happening. Next year we’re going to experiment with planting our Brussels Sprouts farther away from our other brassicas and plant them a little later than we usually do in an effort to avoid the black outer peelings. Just snap these Brussels of the stalk, clean off a couple of the outer layers and steam them or roast them and be sure to coat them in plenty of butter with salt!
Sweet Potatoes- We’re hoping that the sweet potatoes are cured a little more this week than they were last week. Possibly they’ll be a little sweeter now that a bit more time has passed. If you’re not in a big, excited hurry to eat your sweet potatoes, let them sit out at room temperature a little while longer to cure longer. More of their starches will turn to sugar and they will be sweeter. Do not put your sweet potatoes in the refrigerator! They do not store well below 45 degrees!
Rutabaga- These funky roots are in the same family as cabbage, broccoli, kale and other brassicas. They are surprisingly wonderful when chunked in with a roast or mashed in with regular potatoes and butter. Or simply cook it and mash it with butter and you’ll love it!
Parsnips- Parsnips are in the same family as carrots. They’re a little more fibrous than carrots and take a bit longer to cook. Make a roasted root vegetable dish or puree into a creamy potato soup.
Fennel- Another wonderful vegetable to add to your roasted root veggies. Fennel offers a pleasant licorice flavor that dissipates as it is cooked.
Kohlrabi or Red Beets- We didn’t have quite enough kohlrabi’s to go around this week so we filled in with red beets for those who didn’t receive a kohlrabi.
Daikon Radish- Daikon radish is great shaved into salads, chunked into kim-chi, or chopped into an Asian salad. They hold their crisp texture even when cooked. The flavor is mild and quite nice.
Green Red and Yellow Bell Peppers- This is the last of the peppers. We harvested many of these peppers still green or turning color before the last frost.
Hot Peppers- The last of the jalepeno’s and hungarian hot wax peppers to add some spice to your meals.
Garlic- Another bulb of garlic for your everyday needs.
Eggplant- The eggplants were also clear cut before the last frost. You may have received either one or two smaller eggplants in your box this week. Enjoy the last remnants of summer while they are still around!
Leeks- A leek or two for everyone. Use leeks in your recipes like you would use an onion. Usually the whiter part of the leek is most desirable for cooking but every part is edible!
Spinach- A generous .70 lbs per member this week. Rockin’! Cilantro- A fresh bunch of cilantro for everyone this week! Yum!
Risotto with Sweet Sausage and Fennel
