Week 9; August 20, 2014

What's in the box?

Full Share

sweet corn

bell peppers

tomatoes

sweet onions

head lettuce

potatoes

parsley

brussel sprout greens

cantaloupe

green top carrots

Single Share

tomatoes

bell peppers

sweet onions

head lettuce

potatoes

sweet corn

brussel sprout greens

cantaloupe

green top beets

Notes on the box...

If your cantaloupe looks green, let it ripen on your counter for a few days. We harvested some a little early because we were getting quite a few split melons after the rain. We thought it would be better to let them ripen on your counter than not be able to deliver them to you at all! Cantaloupe is ready to eat when you smell it and the scent is delicious sweet melon!

Remove the tops for your carrots and beets before storing. Beet greens are wonderful to eat and you can add them to the brussel sprout greens for a healthy dose of greens! Carrot tops can be combined with parsley for a nice tabouli.

Brussel sprout greens can be prepared as you would collards, kale, or other hearty greens, thought they might cook up a little quicker and be more tender. We remove the greens to allow the sprouts to size up better. Sprouts will be coming to you later in the season or in the fall shares depending on when they are ready.

This week, at dropsites where it is practical, we left some boxes of tomatoes that we couldn't fit into individual CSA boxes open for you to take more of as you would like. These are first come first serve. Please help yourself!

Recipes...

Sweet Corn and Coconut Mini Cakes with Corn Cob Jelly (a dessert!)

Tabouli Salad

Potato Rosti With Pancetta and Mozzerella

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On the farm...

We had a really nice time at the cookout. Thanks so much to the members who were able to make it out. It was great to meet all of you or see you again! We hope you had fun and got enough to eat. If you couldn't make it to the cookout (or even if you did) we hope you can make it to the harvest party on September 20. Here are some pictures from the cookout

and from the farm, giving the beets some TLC

and a little something for our art and design friends

Remember that now is the time to sign up for the extended season share if you are interested! We will add 4 additional weeks of mainly storage type crops as well as any greens that are still hanging on at the end of the season after the frost. These veggies will be sweet sweet sweet from the frost. Squash and other veggies will keep you in local foods through September and many can be stored easily through December. Click here to sign up and please let us know if you have any questions! Thanks!!

Turnip Rock FarmerAugust 21, 2014 Comments

Week 8; August 14, 2014

What's in the box?

Full Share

sweet corn

onions

peppers

eggplant

oregano

cherry tomatoes

slicer and heirloom tomatoes

rainbow chard

carrots

greenbeans/ dragon tongue beans

zucchini/ summer squash

cabbage

sweet corn

eggplant

peppers

oregano

hot peppers

tomatoes

carrots

zucchini/ squash

cabbage

head lettuce

Notes on the box...

Remember to remove the tops from the carrots before storing to keep them fresh and crisp. There's a carrot top pesto recipe in the week 6 blog post.

Eggplant gets bitter as it sits longer. Try to eat it soon! If you think you don't like it, try cooking it and eating it sooner than later. The freshness makes all the difference with eggplant! Store in an open plastic bag in your crisper to retain moisture.

Remember not to put tomatoes in the fridge unless they are super ripe and you can't get to them right away and plan on cooking them later.

Hungarian hot wax ranges from a bright yellow to a limey green to an orangey red color. They are long and slender, but smaller than the red sweet roasting peppers. Not sure if it's a hot pepper? Taste with caution!

Recipes...

Thai Chopped Salad with Mango and Coconut Dressing

Summer Corn Salad

Chard Fritters

Chard Salad with Lemon and Breadcrumbs

Tomato and Carmelized Corn Galette

Cold Noodles with Miso Lime and Ginger from Smitten Kitchen (see photos of the farm for a picture of our lunch!)

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On the farm...

We are excited to invite you and your family out for a Summer cookout on August 16th at the farm. We will be grilling and hope you bring a dish to pass. There will be farm tours and plenty of time and space for kids and adults to explore, sample goodies straight from the field, get to know your farmers, breathe some fresh air, and release your wiggles! We’ll plan on dinner at 6 PM, You can come a little early to explore the farm (around 4 or 5) and feel free to camp out overnight if you’d like. Please let us know if you plan on attending! We are on google maps, just search for Turnip Rock Farm

Our Harvest Party will be September 20th. Another potluck! Mark your calendar! pumpkins to pick, and fall colors.

Sam Karns, a friend and Turnip Rock employee is raising hogs over at his farm nearby and he still has pork for sale! If you're interested in purchasing some for delivery this fall, contact him at birdnbearfarm@gmail.com

building the box

Otto helped to arrange the vegetables for the pictures

a beneficial bug doing a little hoeing in the brussel sprout patch

Rainbow chard!

Sweet sweet sweet corn!

Turnip Rock FarmerAugust 13, 2014 Comments

Week 7; August 7, 2014

What's in the box?

Full Share

sweet corn!

potatoes!

sweet onions

green top beets

bell pepper

zucchini / summer squash

sage

broccoli

tomatoes

cucumbers

green beans

green top carrots

Single Shares got same as full in lesser quantities, excluding beets and broccoli.

Notes on the box....

To preserve flavor and texture, store tomatoes and potatoes out of the fridge. Use the ripest tomatoes first and save less ripe ones for later in the week. Store tomatoes with the stem side facing down, sitting on their shoulders. This will help keep the tomato in better shape for longer, so that the bottom doesn't get a soft spot from sitting on the counter.

To keep beets and carrots from going soft and bendy, remove tops before putting them in the fridge. You can cut off the tops of the beets right below the rubber band so that the greens stay in a neat bunch for later use. Tops of both beets and carrots are edible. Beet tops can be used as you would chard or spinach. See last weeks blog for the recipe for carrot greens pesto.

Sweet onions are not cured (meaning dried for storage) and should be kept in the fridge.

Sweet corn should be stored in the fridge and tastes best eaten sooner than later. We love it husked, silked, and boiled for just a few short minutes and served with butter and salt.

Recipes...

Carrot Salad with Tahini and Crisped Chick Peas from Smittin Kitchen

Summer Vegetable Tian

Refrigerator Cucumber Salad

[yumprint-recipe id='41'][yumprint-recipe id='42']and for those of you who might still have cauliflower or cabbage from previous weeks, a couple of recipes from our lovely member, Abby...

Curry roasted cauliflower:

Dress cauliflower florets and stems in coconut or olive oil, salt, pepper, and 3 ish tbsp of curry powder. Roast at 400 about 40 minutes, finish with lemon juice and fresh cilantro.

Kids Love It.

Grilled cabbage:

Cut a head of cabbage into quarters (or more if its big), keeping the core intact so wedges keep their shape. Drizzle with olive oil, salt, pepper, wrap in tin foil, grill until amazing.

Thanks for sharing, Abby! and anyone else who has recipes to share, please email us or comment.

We are in search of a good dilly bean recipe. I lost my favorite recipe that we sent out in a newsletter years ago, before the blog. We've had a request for the recipe, but I can't find it! Anyone out there have a tried and true dillybean recipe??

On the farm...

A big thank you to our friends at FoxTail Farm for growing the corn and potatoes this season. We decided to ask them to grow these crops for us this season so that we could do some soil building and not have our limited land base completely in use. It's opened up about 2 acres that we have been able to cover crop this Summer. Josh worked for Paul and Chris at Foxtail years ago and counts them as mentors and great friends. They are really pros at these crops and we and our soil greatly appreciates them growing these crops for us!

WOW! A very big THANK YOU for all the comments and emails we got after last weeks blog! We are feeling very grateful and we hope that we can convey how much we appreciate our members. Simply put, we honestly would not be here without you! CSA is our first love and will continue to be the heart of our farm, even as we try to diversify with some wholesale, cheese making, and livestock. We have really been enjoying eating meals where vegetables take up over half of our plates and we hope that you have been able to do the same. We hope that the veggies are extra delicious and that you are fortified by the love and intention that we grow them with! We have been reading and sharing the feedback with our farm crew this season and everyone says thanks for the kind words. Lots of gratitude and we look forward to seeing any and all of you on the farm!

We are working on fixing the hiccups with the garlic add-on and the fall share. Please check back or email us if you'd like us to sign you up for either option.

Reminder: August 16 is the cookout on the farm!

Sweet farmers making bunches of sweet onions for you. Taste tested by baby Sadie!