What's in the box?

salad turnips
red onions
Romanesco
red romaine hearts
curly kale
brussel sprouts
garlic
storage carrots
scarlet turnips
kennebec potatoes
winter squash (butternut and a black futsu)

Notes on the box.

Kennebec potatoes are really versitile, but are more on the starchy side, so work great as french fries or mashed or baked potatoes.

The Red Romaine hearts will make a nice little salad or good on a sandwich or burger.

The skin of the black futsu squash is edible. We love to cut it in half, scoop out the seeds, slice along the ridges into crescent moon shapes, coat in olive oil and roast in the oven (375 degrees) spread out on a baking sheet until tender. You can use them to top a warm salad after roasting this way.

Everyone gets Romanesco! Cook as you would cauliflower or broccoli, but we love it roasted (pan or oven) the very best.

Cheese Shares.

This week we have two cheeses that look very much the same, but whose flavors and textures are quite different. Taste them side by side and let them inspire you! I'm enjoying the Vega as a snack with some crackers and Riesling or cider. The Perseid is going to be grated on top of the nutty roasted Romanesco or earthy roasted brussel sprouts (or a combo of the two).

Recipes.

Haley's Curried Vegetables

In a pan combine over medium heat 1/4 tsp. cayenne, 2 tsp ground coriander seeds, 2 tsp. dry mustard, 1/4 tsp tumeric, and 1/2 tsp curry powder. Stir around in the dry pan over medium heat until a shade darker and fragrant. Add 1/2 cup water and your choice of vegetables. Haley suggests chopped Romanesco, broccoli, or cauliflower, a diced onion, 4 cloves pressed garlic, diced potatoes, chopped carrots or peeled and diced butternut squash. Saute/ steam until vegetables are tender. Add 1/2 cup coconut milk, 2 Tbsp lime or lemon juice, and salt and pepper to taste. Serve over rice. Great with dal.

Pizzoccheri

1 stick butter ( 1/4 pound)
4 fresh sage leaves
1 clove garlic, peeled and smashed
3-4 small to medium waxy potatoes (red fingerling or yukon gold), peeled and thinly sliced
1 small head cabbage or 1/4 to 1/2 large head, trimmed and thinly sliced
optional- shredded or very thinly sliced greens (braising mix, collards, kale, etc)
1/2 pound buckwheat noodles (pizzoccheri) or whole wheat noodles
1 cup semi-soft cheese, grated (you can also use cubed stinky cheese such as Taleggio)
1 cup harder, dry crumbly cheese or Parmesan, grated
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Bring a large pot of water to a boil. In a small saucepan over low heat, melt butter with sage and garlic until butter turns nut-brown; be careful not to burn sage leaves. Set aside.

2. Cook potato and cabbage (and optional greens) in boiling water until they begin to soften, just 5 minutes or so. Add pasta to same pot and continue to cook until pasta is nearly done. Drain.

3. In a large oven-proof dish, spread a layer of vegetable-pasta combination, then a layer of grated cheeses, sprinkle with salt and pepper. Continue this layering until all ingredients are used, ending with a layer of Parmesan. Drizzle with melted butter and sage (discard garlic). Bake for about 15 minutes, or until top is golden-brown and cheese has melted. Serve hot or warm.

Turkey Meatballs and Greens. We are making this with ground pork instead of turkey.

Simple Kale Soup

On the farm.

It's the last of the boxes for the 2015 season! We were happy to have a late fall and a nice season overall. Haley who has stuck around to help out with the fall CSA boxes is soon to be heading off to Japan for a few months! She will be working on some farms and eating lots of exciting foods and seeing the sights! She's also planning on coming back to work with us again next season which we are over the moon excited about. It will be her third season with us and so she is getting into the real nitty-gritty side of farming and helping us with planning, planting schedules, and managing!

Winter for us this season will involve as many Winter farmers markets as we can go to selling cheese! Come visit us at the Linden Hills Winter Markets indoors at Sunnyside Gardens. We are making plans for holiday giftbaskets, so come check them out!

There may also be Winter jobs again this season depending where we end up as we catch-up on book keeping and budgeting. Hopefully we can get a little break and focus on planning for next season and taking care of the cows. We are going to keep milking and making cheese as long as the cows are able to find grass to graze on. Now that the vegetable CSA is wrapped up, they will get to enjoy grazing through what was formerly vegetable fields and eating the leaves left of kale, broccoli, and cabbage (in moderation so that the cheese doesn't taste weird!)

Thank you all so much for joining us for the 2015 season! We love being your farmers and hope you will join us again for the 2016 season. We will let you know as soon as we open sign-ups!

Stay warm and eat well!

The farmer and the kale! the farmer and the kale! hi hi ho the dairy oh the farmer and the kale!