What’s in the Box:
butternut squash, honey nut squash, acorn squash, red storage onion, green peppers, garlic, pablano pepper, pea shoots, radish, salad mix, sweet pepper, habanero, tomatoes, and dragons tongue beans.
What’s going on at the farm:
This week marks the final week of deliveries for bi-weekly members who will receive their tenth share of the season this week. Full season members still have one week remaining next week for delivery number 20 of 20. It has been a long and bountiful season and I am proud to say I think we did the best job we possibly could. That being said we are not holding back and going all out as usual this week and next bringing on as much as possible into each share with as much variety as possible. This share will be one to remember is the goal! I hope to see you all back next year to all you bi-weekly members! Regular full season members you have one more beautiful share coming!
Salad mix is back again and of course its great for salads! we wash it once and try not to keep it to moist, putting a paper towel in the bag can soak up excess moisture or use a salad spinner before serving. Try it mixed with pea shoots, peppers, and radish for a great salad!
Tomatoes are one of my favorite crops to grow! They are back for an eleventh week of tomatoes! An unprecedented amount in our CSA this year so I hope you have enjoyed them as much as we do growing them!
Garlic. We are loading everybody up with garlic this week because it is the last delivery for some members and it goes good with everything. Who can really have enough garlic? Garlic is good for your cholesterol and also helpful as an an medicinal to keep you healthy in the winter. It even combats dementia and helps to lower blood pressure. What an amazing bulb! These dry bulbs will store until spring if it takes that long to use them at room temperature. Do not refrigerate your garlic and then take it out for long as it will sprout. Keep it dry and room temp and out of direct sunlight. Here is a link to the many health benefits of garlic. https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/11-proven-health-benefits-of-garlic#section1
Storage Onions Our red storage onions are back but we are down to our last case of yellow so we will have reds for the rest of the season. These will store up to 6 months the same as the garlic out of direct sunlight and at room temperature.
Dragons tongue beans are pumping out like crazy this week. Lots of hours of bean picking out there and these are very crisp and juicy beans which will stay fairly crisp even in short high heat cooking. I have been loosely closing the bags so as not to spill them in the shares but they do seem to keep better with a little air flow so try to store them with the bag open a bit when you get them
Honeynut Squash These interesting and tasty mini-butternuts are a newer squash and were bred at Cornell. They are bred to have a personal serving size and high fructose content giving them a suburb sweetness unmatched by larger butternuts. Ours have cured to a nice golden hue over most of the squash but the green color is hot they are on the vine so don’t worry about it if there is some green coloring. They do not store well long term but will keep for up to two months.
Butternut Squash In contrast to the honey nut we are giving you these Waltham butternuts this week which are a large heirloom variety of butternut squash. unlike the honey nut hybrid these are open pollinated non hybrid variety and remain unchanged over the years going back to the 1940’s. Here is a link on them. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butternut_squash
Pea Shoots These have been a great new crop for us this year and the cooler weather is keeping them sweet and shorter this week. People really have been enjoying them everywhere we take them to market and hopefully you all have too. They have quickly become my favorite for salads and would go well with the salad mix.
Sweet Peppers Are one of my favorite crops to grow and they have been abundant lately mostly because of that super hot week we had last week. They are slowing down this week as temps drop meaning very few of these left.
Pablano is one of our hot peppers this week and they are mild and so good stuffed with rice, cheese, and beef. I like to make the mix and then roast them at 450 for 30 minutes flipping them halfway through. I do not go through the trouble of pre-roasting and removing the skins under cold water as is traditionally done because I don’t feel its necessary. I just eat the skins and save the time myself.
habanero One of our hot peppers this week is habanero and these are pretty hot so be careful with them when you cut them up. The oils can get on things so rinse them away off your knife, cutting board, etc…. The flavor is very fruity and compliments the heat well. They make a great hot sauce diluted with some vinegar, or combined with peaches or tomatoes.
This is our last week for Bi-Weekly members so thank you to everyone who joined us for a 1/2 season (Bi-weekly share) this year! Hopefully you found your experience to be a tasty one and found value in your share of organic produce with us and enjoyed the fruits of our labor. I hope we will see you returning when sign ups open this winter for another season of fresh veggies in 2017! While we are talking about wrapping up the season I will remind you one more time that full season basic and standard members still have one week remaining! For Tuesday folks the last delivery is Oct. 2nd and for Thursday folks it is Oct. 4th.
We will be shelling garlic for planting over the next week here and prepping our fields for planting it. It was not a very good garlic year because of the late snow and hard freeze but we have a lot of some very large seed garlic which should make for another good year for it next season. Garlic also adapts to its soil slowly over the years and our stock has definitely progressed into noticeable larger bulbs every year. To prep for planting we break all the bulbs up into individual cloves which will be hand planted one by one with the water wheel planter in a few weeks.
We still have two more solid months of work in general here before I can cozy in a bit and let the achy bones rest for a month or two while planning for and dreaming of another season to come. The greenhouse project still has barely begun as far as construction but the site is well prepared at this point looking level and solid with plenty of sunlight.
I am looking forward to some vacation time myself or at least a few days off every week and some more time with my children at their soccer games and other activities. I will be attending some winter markets as well if you would like to support us and find our produce through the winter months. Madison East Side Farmers Market winter market sessions will likely be at the Wil-mar Community Center but I will likely only attend one or two holiday sessions. Some Dane County Farmers Market holiday indoors are on the agenda for winter from mid November until Christmas and there will be some excellent kale, squash, and garlic to be had among other things. We will also be downtown on the square through mid November and at our E. Side Market location through October 31st in Madison. I will likely be in Fitchburg right through the end of the year there too which ends after October. Thanks again to all our bi-weekly members this year for your participation and support! We will be in touch with reminders regarding sign-up opening for next season around the turn of the new year. Otherwise I have all ready gotten a couple sign ups for next season so feel free to use the sign up form to sign up anytime for next year too. I’ve all ready cleared the old sign ups and I expect pricing to remain the same as I raised it this last season. As always I offer a 20 dollar discount to any returning members who sign up before February 15th on any share. Thanks and until next week then for the rest of our members. Enjoy the produce folks!
