Week 20 marks the final week of Summer Share deliveries for Full and Even Week CSA members. We have enjoyed a very bountiful season where we have been able to pack the CSA boxes each week to the top with colorful, flavorful and nutritious vegetables! Each season brings it’s own hardships with the un-predictable weather patterns but despite the challenges we feel it was a very productive season!
Your farmers are very much so looking forward to our season of rest. We will miss the bounty of food, our weekly connection with our CSA members, and the rewards that come with doing this work, using our bodies and spending every day outside amidst fields of glorious vegetables with our friends who come to share the work load with us.
Believe it or not, we still have a large bounty of produce yet to bring in from the fields. There will be no CSA harvest and packing next week but we will spend our days lifting carrots, beets, parsnips and leeks from the fields. There is enough work left to do that can keep a crew of helpers busy through the middle of November.
There has been very few seasons that we have made it all the way to our final CSA delivery week and we have not had a frost yet. We feel thankful that we are able to continue to share peppers and even Fennel this week with you which are frost sensitive items that we would have otherwise lost. We are watching the weather for signs of frost. Our crew will show up each morning bundled in stocking caps, long johns, scarves, layers of sweaters and thick coats and warm gloves.
While I have spoken of gratitude in previous newsletters, I feel I cannot end a season without expressing my deep and sincere thanks for you, our loyal CSA members, one last time. The CSA model is so perfect for Adam and I and our small family in so many ways. Farming is our dream, but farming in a way that allows us to be connected to the families that eat this food, nurtures my spirit. Being allowed to work with the land and also be linked to our shareholders feels like a privilege. I cannot imagine a more beautiful exchange. There is a spiritual element to working with plants and animals so intimately that we are allowed to experience when we slow down long enough to feel it.
Simply saying Thank You in a newsletter that I typed on my keyboard bleary-eyed after a long day of working on the farm feels inadequate still. But this is the platform I have to use. In a world where connection to the people, places and the work it takes to bring food into our kitchens is nearly lost altogether, we are preserving a sense of transparency here together. We are preserving an endangered species. A species of people who genuinely long for a connection to the land and a community around food.
When I say I am thankful for you, it’s not just because you wrote a check out to the farm this Spring for your CSA share. You likely live in a place where you have dozens of choices of where you can access produce each week, but you chose us. You chose to support an organic CSA farm. You chose local and organic and family owned and operated. You chose to know your farmer and your food and to close the gap between farmers and eaters. For this I am forever thankful. With my hands together, my head bowed, and from the deepest part of me, thank you.
Napa Cabbage- Also called Chinese Cabbage, Napa are delicious raw in salads, fermented into kim chi, spring rolls or any way you love. It has all the tenderness and crunchiness of salad greens! Fabulous seasonal favorite!
Sweet Potatoes- 2.5lbs sweet potatoes per member. These papas had an extra week to cure and sweeten up in our curing room. They should be even sweeter than they were last week. Sweet potatoes keep best at room temperature. Do not refrigerate.
Brussels Sprouts- These puppies are still on the stalks. We left the work of snapping them off the stalks to you. Snap all of your Brussels off of their stalks and store in a plastic bag in the fridge. They will keep longer and stay fresher and greener in cold storage. Discard the stalk itself. Brussels are such a wonderful fall treat and so nutritious!
Fennel- One fennel per member. These guys are little on the smaller side. Fennel will caramelize up nicely like onions and loose much of it’s licorice flavor once cooked. It it lovely raw on salads if shaved very thinly. The frawns can be used for garnish.
Cauliflower- 1 nice cauliflower per member. We are also having a very nice cauliflower crop this fall. Very happy to share it with you!
Broccoli– 1 Broccoli per member. We are so thrilled to have such nice Fall Broccoli. We had our summer broccoli plantings fail on us. Stores best in a plastic bag in the fridge.
Sweet Peppers- About 4-8 peppers per member this week depending on size and space in he box. We continued to pick them greener this week knowing that this was our last week to sahre them with you so we harvested a little more agressively. We’re always thrilled when we can continue to give peppers all the way to the end of the season because frost holds off. We picked anything with any kind of color this week. Peppers will continue to turn colors slowly off the vine if held at 50 degree storage which is difficult to achieve at home. We suggest using them up as is. We only grow colored peppers, but you can always pick them before they turn colors at the end of the season like this.
Mini Sweet Peppers- About 1 generous pint of mini sweet peppers per member this week. The mini sweets were in white paper bags again this week. Using the paper bags helps us fit them into the box easier when there is very limited space in the box. We are also happy to avoid using plastic clamshells which are, well…plastic and also expensive. Excellent kids snacks. It’s a good thing we grow these or I would go broke buying them for my kids they eat so many!
Cilantro- SO excited to be able to offer cilantro on the last box! We know that most members love cilantro. We got lucky that it matured just in the nick of time! Keeps best in a plastic bag in the fridge.
Leek- Leeks are wonderful in fall soups. Leeks have a mild, onion-like taste. When they are raw they are crunchy and firm. The edible portions of the leek are the white base of the leaves (above the roots and stem base), the light green parts, and to a lesser extent the dark green parts of the leaves. The dark green portion is usually discarded because it has a tough texture, but it can be sautéed, or more commonly added to stock for flavor.
Honey Mustard Brussels Sprouts Salad
Roasted Sweet Poato and Black Bean Burrito Bowl with Chipotle Mayo
Broccoli Stir Fry with Ginger and SesameBroccoli Stir Fry with Ginger and Sesame
Risoto with Sweet Sausage and Fennel
