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! 

lovely clean carrots

nice spinach bunches

broccoli!

Sadie having a snack of her two favorites from the box this week

Aimee picking beans in the rain

and Liberty

and of course Haley

and even Darth Maul showed up to pick some beans in the rain. He's not all bad, I guess.

Mmmmmmm

Cauliflower!

Roasted tree of life

Otto's wolly catipillar collection

another

and another!

Kiddos with their carrots at the harvest party!  Thanks so much to all who were able to make it out! 

Tricky to get all those kids together!  They were a lot of fun!  We love veggie loving kids!!

What's in the box? 

carrots
sweet peppers
red onions
delicata squash
broccoli
cauliflower
romanesco
lettuce
spinach
dill
green beans!  (finally)

Notes on the box. 

Everything except for onions and squash should be stored in the fridge. 
If you are overloaded on peppers, dice them up and put them in a freezer bag for later use.  Add them to soup or stir fry for some color and local food when the snow is on the ground.  No need to blanche them and no need to thaw them before cooking.  You can also roast them with olive oil and freeze them for a nice pizza topping.  We will be putting them in the boxes until frost kills the plants. 
We were able to get some romaesco that didn't go all wonky!  It's smaller than in years past, but tasty and fun to look at.  It's nice steamed and served with cheese sauce or roasted, just as you would broccoli or cauliflower. 
 

Cosmic Wheel Creamery Cheese Shares.

Vega is the aged cheese.  It's great on veggie sandwiches or grated or cubed and put onto salads.  It's a good melter, too.  I sent the feta in block form and not crumbled this week.  This way you can crumble or cube it as you wish.  It's got a short-ish shelf life when it's not stored in its brine, but it's a manageable portion to get through.  Or if you would like, you can make a little brine to store it in at home.  Just mix 3 tsp of salt in 2 cups of cool water for your brine.  The outside of the feta might get a little soft, but it should still be good.   

Recipes.

Cauliflower Roasted Red Pepper Soup

Cauliflower Shepard's Pie

Greenbean Salad with Feta, Dill, and Walnuts

On the Farm.

Harvest Party is this SUNDAY!  Starts at 2 PM.  Bring a Dish to share.  Be ready to have some fun and relax.  For directions, type Turnip Rock Farm into google maps.  Let us know if you will be able to make it out. 

There only two more weeks of the main season left!
If you have an eat like a farmer share then you will keep getting deliveries for four more weeks.
We will offer a few more extension shares once we get past next week. We will let you know when we make them available online. We have a great squash harvest, tons on big butternut squash, and acorn. Lots of onions and more potatoes and carrots. With this mild fall weather we will be harvesting greens and other fall goodies well into October. We may start picking brussel sprouts next week!
    As I write this we are getting another huge dose of rain. This wet weather makes me a little nervous. We are starting to see some low spots in our fields hold too much water and kill off a few crops. This may only amount to 10% loss or so, and you may never be the wiser if I didn’t tell you. But it is just that type of thing we have no control over and try to plan ahead to curb risk and make sure we all get something to eat. But it still weighs heavy on our minds. In the big picture we have been really really lucky out here in Western WI, north of 94. Seems like every directions around us has had more rain and more severe weather. It won't always be that way.  We've had really bad weather years out here.  But this year we have mostly been spared (save for the few crops that were lost)  But we’ve had a pretty nice year. It’s because we’ve had enough rain and enough heat (not too much), good people on the farm, and enough years now to have built up fertility in the soil and learn what our soil can do.

We will be sending out a survey in the next couple weeks. So keep an eye out for that, and be sure to give us some feed back. We listen to what you say, and bench it against what we can do.  We have had members who have stuck with us through some really tough times, moving the farm, changing drop sites and share options. Community Supported Agriculture is not possible without YOU!  You are the community of eaters that make our farm exist!  Looking ahead...

Areas we wish to improve upon for the coming years

1 Carbon neutrality, producing our own energy, conserving more energy, solar panels?

2Reusable boxes/totes for CSA.  eliminate cardboard boxes

3 More immediate feed back from members. We want to know what you liked and didn’t like, weekly! Whats the best way?

4 Increase member connection to each other and farmers. More face time, maybe over pizzas? On the farm?

I know we can accomplish these things together. Just over the past 8 years we have made huge strides in accomplishing our goal of a sustainable farm balanced with animals and annual crops. The next 10 can be even better.

clean up before the rain
 

squash field with a bumper crop!

dewy dill

natural pest control

get ready for a lot of squash!

little buddy found in the field

Coming up for the last two weeks...
Brussels Sprouts
Spinach
Pie pumpkins
Beans?
Arugula
Radishes
Cilantro
Carrots
Onions
Turnips?
Sweet potatoes?
Cauliflower Broccoli
Romanesco
Peppers

What's in the box? 

Radishes
Sweet Onions
Green Onions
Delicata Squash
Garlic
Savoy Cabbage
Broccoli or Cauliflower
Sweet Peppers
Cucumber
Lettuce
Tomato
Carrots (medium and large)
Green Top Beets (medium and large)
 

Notes on the box. 

Tomato, Garlic, and squash should not go in the fridge, but everything else should.  Remove tops from roots of radishes and beets for best storage.  Tops of both are edible. 
The recently endless rains have caused for quite a bit of disease on our second planting of cucumbers, making the harvest very light.  The rain also pools on the leaves of things like cabbage, nappa, bok choy, and it can pool on the top of the broccoli making for shorter shelf life or bad leaves on the inside for the plants.  We try to catch these things, but sometimes they are not visible until you cut into the vegetable.  Apologies for any quality issues that may come up. 
The first squash of the season!  The skin of Delicata squash is tender and edible.  Enjoy!  There will be more squash on the way. 
Wrong once again about the green beans.  I know I've said this for the last 2 weeks, but here's another...  green beans next week.  Hope they are good, that's an awful lot of anticipation for some beans!!

Cosmic Wheel Creamery Cheese Share.

This week we have two addictive cheeses!  Tarazed is crumbly and salty and makes for a great snacking cheese.  I love it with a red ale.  It's also good to shred on top of stuffed peppers or stuffed squash.  And cheese curds!  Have you tried putting a few into a bowl of chili or veggie soup as you serve it?  They soften and are a wonderful addition.  

Recipes.

Stuffed Delicata Squash (you can sub cabbage or beet greens for kale in this recipe)

Parmesan Herb Roasted Delicata Squash

Roasted Radishes

Creamy Cucumber an Radish Salad

On the Farm.

Harvest Party will be on Sunday, September 25.  We will gather starting at 2 and enjoy potluck food.  Farm will provide meat and cheese and roasted squash.  Join us for Farm tours, meeting animals, and pulling your own carrots and seeing veggies in the field.  There is plenty of space for free ranging kids and others to explore.  If you have any tractor fanatics in your family, they will not be disappointed! 
 

Oh no!  What's going on with the romanesco?!  So much planted, but it's not looking good.  Put on tiny heads too early and are now bolting.  Heatbreaking. 

cabbage toss

beautiful day in the cabbage patch!

cheese curd bliss

Have you discovered eating peppers like apples?  Highly reccommended! 
 

Ginger Bug and Tooya!