Season Extension Week 1, October 13, 2016

What's in the box? 

Acorn Squash
Butternut Squash
Red Onions
Carrots
Green Top Beets
Potatoes
Savoy Cabbage
Peppers
Radishes
Romanesco
Spinach
Dino Kale
Garlic

Notes on the box. 

Sorry to not have pictures for the week!  If anyone happens to get a good box pictures and emails it to us we will put it up! 
Squash, onions, potatoes, and garlic should be stored out of the fridge. 
Remove tops from beets, carrots, and radishes for longer storage. 
Looks like that might be the last of the peppers!  It was a good season for them. 
 

Cosmic Wheel Creamery Cheese Shares.

Deneb is our gouda style.  It's a good melter and pretty mild.  Shred of top of roasted potatoes or romanesco.  Or make a perfect egg and cheese sandwich.  Don't forget the wilted spinach!    Quark is back!  You can flavor this yourself by adding your favorite fresh herbs and some garlic and salt.  My favorite flavor combination is dill and garlic.  Thyme, lemon, and honey is also a really nice addition.  Flavored or plain, the quark is nice dolloped on top of scrambled eggs or salmon at the end of cooking.  Or it's nice on a wrap style sandwich or just spread onto crackers.  Quark, radish, and salt and black pepper on top of a slice of baguette is one of the most perfect snacks. 

Recipes.

Polenta Tart with Asiago and Spinach (or use your Deneb cheese!)

Balsamic Honey Roasted Cabbage Steaks

Slow cooker Butternut Squash, Kale, and Quinoa Stew

 

On the Farm.

This is a busy week as we are wrapping up the Summer season and getting ready for some cold weather.   The lambs and pigs have made their exit and will be heading out to members who have signed up for ELAF and meat shares as soon as butchering and curing is done.  We will send more info about that as delivery day gets closer.  The bees have been taken away by our bee keeper and will be going all the way to California for the Winter!  We are excited to get a taste of the honey they made at our farm soon. 

No pictures were taken this week as the scramble to get things out of the field before the first freeze was on.  We are anxious to see what things look like out in the field after the low temps that were predicted for the night.  We really lucked out on the mild weather this fall.  There's been an increasing number of harvest days with cold fingers, as it should be! 

We likely had the last of the peppers this week.  Romanesco and cauliflower have all put heads on and are done (happened a little quicker than expected with the warm temps well into September and October).  But we still have lots of great veggies coming your way.  The green taste better and better as cold weather sweetens them.  More potatoes, squash, onions, and root veggies will be coming your way next week.  And hopefully some pictures again.  Enjoy your week!  Thanks!

Oh!  If you are interested in some wonderful herbal medicine for the Winter season, please check out our friend Nancy's herbal CSA.  If you order we can deliver it to your drop site.  She grows or wild crafts the herbs and makes the medicine.  Her Red Clover Herbal Apothocary is the best herbal medicine we have had!  Here's the link

 

Turnip Rock FarmerComment
Week 18; October 6, 2016

What's in the box? 

Green Top Carrots
Potatoes
Red Onions
Cauliflower (large and medium)
Green Beans (large and medium)
Kale
Butternut Squash
Spinach
Bell Peppers
Romanesco
Acorn Squash
Radishes

Notes on the box. 

Remove tops from Carrots and Radishes for storage. 
Potatoes, onions, and squash should be stored outside of the fridge.  Everything else can go in the fridge. 
Green beans in October?!?! The warmer weather makes for a nice end to the season. 

Cosmic Wheel Creamery Cheese Shares.

The Circle of the Sun is really nice and sweet!  We are training Liberty in as a cheese maker and this is the first cheese that she helped to make back in May.  Well, she actually helps with all of the cheese making by milking the cows and taking care of their grazing.  But now she's helping even more!  This cheese is a good melter for adding to recipes, if you can resist eating it all up on its own. 
The ricotta is perfect for a nice butternut squash and spinach lasagna.  It will last in the fridge for about 2-3 weeks. 

Recipes.

Blissful Butternut Squash Soup with coconut milk.  Thanks for the recipe, Paula! 

Dry Fried Green Beans with Garlic

Cauliflower Roasted Red Pepper Soup

Butternut Squash and Spinach Lasagna I made this but used sage instead of basil. Super Tasty!

Spinach and Potato Patties from NY Times

Cauliflower Gratin From NY Times

 

On the farm.

Last week for regular season deliveries! If you have an Eat Like a Farmer or Eat Like a Vegetarian Farmer Share, your deliveries will continue automatically for another 4 weeks.  If you signed up for the regular summer season and would like to keep getting veggies for 4 more weeks, we have some season extension shares available.  Last week I sent the wrong link.  Sorry about that!  If you want to add the season extension (with optional cheese and eggs) click here!  Please let me know if you have any trouble or any questions. 

It has been a wonderful season.  We are so grateful that we get to be your farmers.  We are changing up our survey questions and once we get it done, we will send that out to you.  Your feedback is important and we make decisions based on member feedback in balance with our needs and goals as your farmers. 

We have had help from an amazing farm crew this season.  They will be sticking around to help out with the season extension shares.  This type of farming at our scale is very labor intensive and requires a lot of resilience and a positive attitude and a lot of physical strength.  Our crew this season has met every challenge and have been fun and wonderful to work with!  We lucked out again this season!  A big huge thanks to Hannah, Anna, Miranda, Andrew, Aimee, Liberty, and Haley for making this season a success.  And thanks to you for your dedication to local, Organic foods and supporting a small family farm.  We couldn't do it without you! 

We will send out an email letting you know when we start accepting sign-ups for 2017 season.  It will likely be in January when you are dreaming about fresh local veggies.  Till then (or till next week)! 
 

Turnip Rock FarmerComment
Week 17; September 29, 2016

What's in the box? 

carrots
green beans
garlic
onions
cilantro
sweet peppers/ bell peppers
arugula
radishes
broccoli
acorn squash
spinach
radishes
cauliflower (large and medium)
brussel sprouts (large and medium)

Notes on the box. 

Remove tops from radishes before storing.  The tops are edible and if you plan on making an Arugula pesto, the radish leaves are a nice addition. 
Green beans and radishes again this week give you another chance at making the recipe that I put in the blog last week for the green bean salad.  I made it for the harvest party and quite a few folks really liked it and said they plan on making it.  I have also been told that it is even better the second day when the flavors have had a chance to meld.  Give it a try! 
The acorn squash should be store outside of your fridge.  And guess what... the skin is edible!  so you can make pretty roasted half moons to add to salads.  Liberty made this amazing squash recipe featuring garlic and cilantro and it was really really good.  Check it out below.  We are very very very sad about the brussel sprouts.  They looked so great a week ago, but when we went to harvest them, they have gotten rotten from the inside out.  Too much rain and not enough sun to ever dry them out.  We are sad that this looks like the extent of the sprouts for this season.  Just two weeks ago we expected a really nice harvest, but all the rain has squished that dream and the brussel sprouts.  ugh. 
 

Cosmic Wheel Creamery Cheese Shares.

This week an nice bag of cheese curds and our Lyra cheese.  Only a few more wheels of Lyra around until I can find more elderberry wine to wash the rinds with.  I haven't got much time for wine making these days with all the cheese making going on, but I am looking for someone to make a few jugs of elderberry wine for us to wash this wonderful cheese in (and maybe a bit for us to sip on, as well).  Any wine makers out there? 

Recipes.

If you didn't try it last week, here's the link again... Green Bean Salad with Feta and Radishes.

Liberty's Lunch, a warm squash salad

2 (1 1/2 – to 1 3/4-lb) acorn squash
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons olive oil
1 garlic clove
1 Tbsp honey
1 tsp cumin
1 1/2 tablespoons fresh lime juice, or to taste
1 teaspoon red pepper flakes (optional, adjust to taste)
4 Tbsp chopped fresh cilantro

Preheat oven to 450°F. Halve squash lengthwise, then cut off and discard stem ends. Scoop out seeds and cut squash lengthwise into 3/4-inch-wide wedges. Toss squash with black pepper,  salt, and 2 tablespoons oil in a bowl, then arrange, cut sides down, in 2 shallow baking pans. Roast squash, switching position of pans halfway through roasting, until squash is tender and undersides of wedges are golden brown, 25 to 35 minutes.

While squash roasts, mince garlic and mash to a paste with remaining 1/4 teaspoon salt. Transfer paste to a small bowl and whisk in lime juice, chile (to taste), honey, cumin, cilantro, and remaining 1/4 cup oil until combined. Transfer squash, browned sides up, to a platter and drizzle with vinaigrette.

Eggs and fake Poached Spinach on Toast
One of my favorite things to cook with spinach. Makes a quick and satisfying meal. 
Wash and chop Spinach roughly.  Melt about a Tbsp of butter in a pan.  You can add minced garlic if you like.  Saute spinach in the pan until lightly wilted.  Crack eggs on top of spinach, sprinkle with salt, and cover the pan with a lid.  Cook over medium heat until eggs whites are cooked and yolk is cooked to your liking.  Scoop off onto a plate with toast or your favorite roasted veggies.  Enjoy! 

Cauliflower Creamed Spinach

Linguine with Butter, Pecorino, and Arugula  a nice comfort food recipe for these cooler days

Green Bean Radish Feta Salad

On the Farm.

There is one week left of the regular season CSA!  IF you would like to sign up for 4 more weeks of delivery, we have some season extension shares available.  It's $150 for the 4 weeks. Those who get an Eat Like a Farmer or Eat Like a Vegetarian Farmer have the season extension included as part of their share. 

 What will be in the extension? sweet fall greens. like kale collards, spinach, tatsoi, arugulm tons of butternut squash, pie pumpkins, carrots, onions, beets, carrots. Plus what we can keep pulling out the fields before a hard frost.

Thanks so much to all who made it out to the harvest party!  It's always so nice to see your faces and to reconnect with members that we have gotten to know over the years.  Seeing the kids growing up is amazing.  Knowing that the food that we grow is nourishing you and your families is EVERYTHING to us.  All of our hopes and aspirations about changing the food system and healing the environment and our big goals for re-localizing the food system and feeding people nutrient dense and just food is all just noise when we see kids that have grown taller than us over the years.  When we see folks pulling their own carrots and talk to members that we now know as friends about the amazing dinners that they have enjoyed with their friends...  We can't ask for anything more than that.  The food that we grow providing nutrition and energy for you and your families to grow and connect and be strong and accomplish your daily tasks....  We are grateful to be able to this.  Our hearts are full and we feel renewed.  Thank you! 

 

Turnip Rock FarmerComment