Tuesday, November 25, 2014

Fall CSA Newsletter ~ Week 4

Fleur enjoying last weeks snow!
This week is the last week of our Fall CSA.  Including the Summer CSA we are about to complete 24 weeks of harvesting and providing our community with seasonal vegetables from our fields to your tables. Thank you to all our members for being part of the first Fall CSA here at Strattons Farm.  But it is not over just yet, we still have vegetables in storage and kale and spinach in the hoop house! We have had an overwhelming response to bulk boxes which will start the second week of December. (Details will be e-mailed out next week).


We have also had lots of our Summer CSA members contact us about registraiton for next years 2015 Summer CSA.  Normally by now we have e-mailed out registration forms for 2015.  We wanted to finish the Fall CSA before we sent out everything for next year.  So you will shortly be receiving renewal e-mails. 

The snow and cold of last week did have a huge impact on the greens that appeared in everyone boxes the first two weeks of the Fall CSA.  Thankfully the kale and spinach are holding on. 
This last weeks weather has gone from feeling like -18 with a good dump of snow to +17 yesterday and gusting winds off up to 86kph!  The wind yesterday evening did loosen some of the rope over the hoop house last night so we spent this morning having to tie down one end of the tunnel so it did not blow away! If we get a break in the wind I think we will need to re-string the whole tunnel again!  We also discovered the turkeys door had rattled open in the wind last night and they where all enjoying a stroll around their paddock first thing!!.

This weeks basket:



Acorn Squash - How about stuffing your squash this week! Stuffed squash with kale and red cabbage.
Garlic
Carrots Carrots with garlic all I would do is replace the sugar with a small amount of honey instead!
Kalettes - Remember kalettes are a natural crossing between kale and brussels.  You can use them like kale or use them like brussels! This weeks recipe is a brussel one! brussels sprouts with bacon almonds
Watermelon Radish - These can be eaten raw, added to stir fry or even roasted.
Red Cabbage - Why not try this quick-scandi-style-red-cabbage
Beets - How about a beet and carrot burger on a bed of wilted spinach
Kale - Found a callaloo stew for all to try.
Spinach - You could even try a spinach-scramble for lunch!
Leeks - If you do not want to use your leeks straight away, just slice them place in a ziploc bag and use in replacement of onions during winter. Or you could try a carrot and leek cobbler.
Parsnips - We managed to get the last of the parsnips out yesterday after the snow had melted! This weeks recipe is for parmesan-baked-parsnips.

Monday, November 17, 2014

Fall CSA Newsletter ~ Week 3

Kale in the snow on Friday.
Not sure we were ready for all this snow!! Since living in Canada I think this is the earliest we have seen this much snow!
For everyone who is picking up at the farm please allow extra time for your drive and please be careful on our drive and getting to the stand.
Thanks to the early onset of winter the box has changed, the cold temps and snow have left crops under the fleece covers not looking too happy! But the crops in the hoop houses are hanging on in there.
We have been rather happy that the ground had warmed up enough yesterday and today to dig out some parsnips for everyone.  Also today's temperatures also allowed us to harvest spinach and kale from our hoop houses.  Michael did have to take the reciprocal saw to the Kalettes as it really was the only way to cut them down, it looked like he was felling miniature trees.

This weeks box:
Potatoes - Dakota Pearls this week. These potatoes will work really well in this Spanish potato dish
Garlic
Pie Pumpkin - Yes it's long and not round but will make amazing soup, pie or even really nice added to mash potato.
Beets - I think one of my favourite ways to eat beets is roasted with balsamic vinegar and feta cheese!
Swede/Rutabaga - I am finding lots of great recipes for your root vegetables. This one you can also add your kale to.  Why not try making Rumbledethumps
Celeriac - I have found a rather yummy roasted vegetable recipe for your celeriac and parsnips this week!
Parsnips - Finally at 4pm on Sunday the ground had thawed enough to allow us to dig a tub's worth of parsnips out the ground in the snow.  We are hoping the weather might give us a small window of opportunity to get some more out for next weeks shares.
Golden Turnips - How about using your root vegetables to make a gratin
Carrots - Or you could even try Veg in the hole with your root veg!
Kale - Something different to do with your kale and you can use any type of kale for this Turkish tahini greens dish.
Spinach - Something easy and cheesy to do with this week's spinach!
Kalettes - Yes these are rather weird looking. Kalettes are the result of years of traditional breeding work crossing Brussels sprouts and kale. Grown and harvested similarly to Brussels sprouts, the open, flower-like florets can take up to 138 days to grow!!!.  All you need to do is break off the florets, these can be stored in a Ziploc bag in the fridge.  They can be roasted, sauteed or eaten raw.  We sauteed some on Sunday evening with garlic, onions and cranberries to have with our roast pork and roasted veggies! All we can say is Delish!

Next week sees the last delivery of our Fall CSA.  If you would like a bulk vegetable box after next week then please let us know ASAP.


Monday, November 10, 2014

Fall CSA Newsletter ~ Week 2




Last week should have been a simple week of vegetable deliveries and field clearing and storing!! It ended up being one of those weeks! As one of our customers said "CSA builds community" and we could not agree more.

We delivered our first box on Tuesday morning all excited, jumped back into the truck to head off to the next delivery and the truck just died on us!!!!! 
Long story short the starter motor had gone.  We have to say a huge thank you from us to our CSA members and one of our friends Marj, who were all ready to come to our rescue.  
We were certainly very lucky that where the truck broke down our CSA family were home. We took over their home, phones and phone books in order get the truck towed and to figure out how to do deliveries.  


We had several of our CSA families offer to come and get us, loan us a vehicle and one of our families offered to chauffeur us to complete the deliveries. So I spent the afternoon cackling away with Linda as we drove around Belleville doing vegetable deliveries while Michael got the truck towed and headed back to the farm.  So again a huge THANK YOU to all of you who offered to rescue us on Tuesday we would not have got through the day with out you. 

You will notice you will be getting some of the same greens again this week.  They have held on really well in the field under fleece covers so while these vegetable remain happy in the field we are going to keep filling your boxes with fresh greens rather than root vegetables. 


We love receiving pictures and recipes of what you are all doing with your produce from the farm.
Colleen sent in her Fall Stir fry with left over roast pork.  As Colleen said in her e-mail, everything was from Strattons farm! 
We have added Debbie's picture to the recipe list below for radicchio.


This weeks basket

Potatoes - Great recipe for hiding those greens in foods! Why not try Kale and potato cakes
Carrots - carrot mash
Radish 
Kale - kale, potato, celeriac Stilton Pie You could replace the Stilton with any blue cheese!
Lettuce
Spinachsag aloo spinach or chard and potato
Pac Choi - With the winter nights drawing in why not try a chicken broth and pac choi broth.

Napa Cabbage - Why not try roasting your napa cabbage this week!
Leeks - We like to find you different recipes and this weeks leek is for cottage pie with leeks and potato topping
Mustard Greens
Celeriac - This vegetable may come under the ugly category but it is yummy added to mashed potatoes or roasted with other root vegetables
Radicchio Debbie sent in this photo and recipe for her Radicchio.
Quarter and wash the radicchio. Dry on a tea towel for 1/2 hr or so. Put in a baking dish. 
Make dressing. Mine has apple cider vinegar, thyme, salt, pepper, olive oil, lots of chopped garlic, Dijon mustard and sun dried tomatoes. Crumble  bacon on top and pour dressing on top. Cover with foil at bake at 350 for ~1 hr or how ever you like it cooked. 


Monday, November 3, 2014

Fall CSA Newsletter ~ Week 1


Thank you to everyone who signed up for our inaugural Fall CSA. We had limited shares for the first one but we had such an over whelming response we are already looking forward to enlarging the offering of Fall boxes for next year.

It Feels very odd being in November and we are starting at week one all over again! We have been busy bringing crops in for storage as well as experimenting with some late seeding in our hoop house and the unheated greenhouse we have.

Our aim is to make sure you get a mixture of root and leafy greens in your boxes for the next four weeks.  This week everything has been dug fresh from the field including the carrots! 

Please remember for those having delivery to doorstep 
to leave either a cooler box or large tote out for us! 

Please do look back over the last few weeks of the summer CSA Newsletter for additional recipe ideas.

Pac Choy under fleece.
This week basket: (click the top photo to enlarge, we have labeled all the vegetables for you in the photo!)
Daikon Radish - Can be eaten raw like any other radish, added to stir fry etc.
Carrots
Swede/Rutabaga - This is becoming one of my new favourite vegetables very versatile in so many dishes.  This one comes with a little spice! Indian spiced swede
Hakurei turnips - These can again be eaten raw or you could do a braised carrots turnips with honey

Napa Cabbage - Lots of different idea for napa cabbage in the summer CSA newsletters
Radicchio - We grow a green radicchio over red. I have found a very nice risotto recipe.
Lettuce - Not in the mood for salad then why not try  braising your lettuce instead!
Pac Choy - Great in stews, stir fry, salads.
Kale - We have put the kale in freezer bags in case you do not want to use it straight away all you need to do is pop the whole bag into the freezer for winter use.
Ruby Streaks Asian Greens - This is a mustard green but we have found the plants on the field (after the very heavy frost on Saturday night) seem to have mellowed the flavour compared to the plants growing in the greenhouse.  This can be eaten raw, added to stir fry or made into pesto.
Cauliflower - The little green pointy things in the box this week are cauliflower they are called Romanesco.