What’s in the Box: Spaghetti squash, red potatoes, red storage onion, green peppers, purple stripe garlic, white porcelain garlic, red radish, butternut squash (bi-weekly only), jalapeño pepper, spicy salad and/or braising mix, thyme, eggplant, sweet pepper, and arugula.
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 #20 of 20. It has been a long and very 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 can possibly be squeezed into each share with as much variety as possible. We are loading everybody up with garlic this week because it goes good with everything and who can really have enough garlic? These dry bulbs will store until spring if it takes that long to use them at room temperature. Do not refrigerate your garlic for long as it will sprout. Keep it dry and room temp and out of direct sunlight. The same goes for the winter squash, they should not be refrigerated for long periods as this induces spoiling early. spaghetti squash you have had a few weeks ago and it is an easy one to prepare and Bi-weekly members are also getting butternut since they have not received one yet. I love these baked with some pasture butter and real maple syrup but the spaghetti needs to be forked out after baking. Plenty more of our peppers coming your way this week too as we are including an assortment of green and colored peppers. Yes they are getting smaller but we think its best to enjoy them while we still can with cold fruitless months coming soon. Try them roasted or with butternut squash for soup, or of course they are good with pasta, eggs, stir fry and so many other uses for the sweet peppers. We have had many fresh herbs too enjoy this season but its about time we bring the thyme back 🙂 If nothing else remember you can always hang a bundle of herbs up to dry and use later in the winter when fresh local herbs are a near impossibility. Other things going on this week include plenty of clean up taking the tomato vines out of the greenhouses, tilling in weeds, moving posts, and hoops and other equipment into storage for winter.
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. 11th and for Thursday folks it is Oct. 13th. We will be shelling garlic for planting over the next week here and prepping our fields for planting it. It was a very good garlic year and we have a lot of some very large seed garlic which should make for another good year for it next season. Garlic also adapts t0 its soil slowly over the years and our stock had definitely progressed into noticeable larger bulbs every year. To prep for planting this we break all the bulbs up into individual cloves which will be hand planted one by one right side up into their hand dibbled holes in a few weeks. We still have two more solid months of work here before we 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. I will be attending 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 and possibly some Dane County Farmers Market indoors are on the agenda for winter from mid November until Christmas and there will be some excellent frost sweetened greens and garlic to be had among other things. We will also be downtown on the square and at our regular market locations through October. Thanks again to all our bi-weekly members, we will be in touch regarding sign up opening for next season around the turn of the new year if we don’t hear from you first. Until next week then for the rest of our members, enjoy the produce folks!
