Monday, November 23, 2015

FALL CSA Newsletter ~ Week 4

Happy greens after last nights heavy frost!
So here we are at week 4, the last week of our Fall CSA and week 24 of our CSA season.  We really are not sure where the last 24 weeks of harvesting have gone and the farm is going to be rather quiet come next week!
This November we have been blessed with amazing weather. Even with the very heavy -8 frost we woke to this Monday morning! We are delighted to have been able to put so many more fresh greens into the Fall CSA box this year compared to last.



Renewal letters and registration forms for 2016 have now been sent out for next years main season CSA.  Bulk boxes will be available as of next week.  Please remember there is no weekly, bi weekly or monthly commitment to these, you can order them as needed.


A huge Thank You from Michael and I to all our CSA members for an amazing season and for allowing us to be the farmers who have nourished you and your families this year.

This weeks basket:
Potatoes - This soup is great as you can use any of your root vegetables! Putting down roots soup.
Patatas bravas
Cream of potato and turnip soup
Skordalia
Slow cooked oxtails with carrots and potatoes
Onions
Carrots
Garlic
Kalettes - Yes they are back by demand! I think we had better keep these on the growing list for next year! Remember you can freeze the kalette buds and leaves.  We have also found them great for teething puppies as they love the stalks!
Parsnips - Parsnip and carrot cake
Pac choy
Turnips - It will depend on how the weather goes this week! It will either be Hakurei (the white ones) or golden turnips.
Braising greens - One of our CSA members said steaming the braising greens made them very sweet and tender.
Leeks
Spinach
Asian greens - This will all depend on the weather and how they all hold in the hoop house to which varieties head out into the boxes.  All the Asian greens can be eaten raw, steamed, stir fried or added into a potato hash or a frittata.


Monday, November 16, 2015

FALL CSA Newsletter ~ Week 3

We have had high winds, rain and cold days but are feeling lucky that we are still able to harvest lots of fresh greens from the field. 
Last Tuesday morning we planted the last of the garlic so the official count is 6000 cloves.  We would never have achieved this if it had not been for the help of three of our CSA members who helped with this epic task we set ourselves at the end of last year. 
We are still digging out root crops from the field and we have a rather full root cellar at the moment!  Clearing of the field continues which is making for some very happy pigs and chickens.
Seed catalogs have started to arrive and planning is well under way for the 2016 season.  






While the weather continues to be in our favour you will notice a lot more greens again in this week's basket.
This week's vegetable basket:
Potatoes - Parsnip and potato cakes
Onions
Pac Choy - Steamed pac choy
Carrots - These carrots are still coming fresh out of the ground and most of them do not need peeling. Just give them a wash and eat away!
Parsnips - Parsnip puree
Hakurei Turnips - These are fresh and sweet, best eaten raw but you can cook them.
Leeks - Leek and sundried tomato frittata.
Braising Greens
Kale
Bekana - Can be eaten like lettuce, used for wraps or added to stir-fry
Radicchio or Escarole - Chargrilled radicchio
Spinach

Monday, November 9, 2015

FALL CSA Newsletter ~ Week 2

I think we can all say last week's Indian Summer was lovely. It was so nice to be able to put a t-shirt back on and take the beanie off for a few days!  We had a heavy frost last night but all the tender greens and sweet turnips are still looking really good under the floating row covers.
Field clearing and storing of root vegetables continues and the pigs are loving all the trimmings that they are getting.
Thank you to several of our CSA members who arrived at the farm with their pumpkins from Halloween.  The pigs loved the sweet treat.  If anyone else has pumpkins on their doorstep the pigs would be more than happy to take them off your hands! 








This weeks vegetable basket:
Onions
Sweet potatoes
Pac choy - Steamed Pac Choy
Pac Choy with chicken broth
Carrots - Carrots with garlic
Alpine Daikon radish
Hakurei Turnips
Kalettes - We love seeing everyone get so excited about the kalettes so they are back again this week!
Kohlrabi - Braised carrots and kohlrabi
Chinese cabbage - You can use your Chinese cabbage or pac choy for this recipe Chicken with chinese leaves
Braising greens - The braising green mix has a medley of kales, collards, choys and mustard greens.  You can eat these raw, sauteed or braised.
Escarole - If you head back to the Week 20 CSA Newsletter you will find more recipes for Escarole. Escarole and Bacon!

Tuesday, November 3, 2015

FAll CSA Newsletter ~ Week 1

Daikon Radish
Here we go with week 1 of the Fall CSA. For us it is week 21 of providing vegetables to our CSA member families! 
This is our second year of running a Fall CSA for the month of November. We do not provide as many weekly baskets as our main CSA as we are still seeing how far we can push the growing season to be able to provide fresh greens along with root crops for the boxes over the next four weeks.
After last weeks 2" of rain in 24 hours it left the field rather boggy and muddy! 
We continued with harvesting vegetables for storage.  Last week we harvested all the celeriac, swede and watermelon radish, we are just about to start on the carrots and parsnips.  
For more recipe ideas please remember to look through our past newsletters. 

This week vegetable basket:
Cauliflower or Broccoli
Sweet Potatoes
Onions
Pac Choy
Carrots
Daikon Radish - We love Daikon radish! If you have the time read this great link from the 'the kitchn' on why daikon radishes deserve more love!  Daikon can be added to Asian soups, roasted, pickled, made into kimchi or just eaten raw in a slaw or salad.
Roasted Daikon radish, carrots and sweet peppers
Daikon carrot salad.
Overnight daikon radish pickles.
Hakurei Turnips - Are amazing eaten raw or you can turn them into a nice curried soup or even roast them.
Sauteed Hakurei turnips with braised greens
Roasted Hakurei turnips
Honey glazed hakurei turnips with apples
Kalettes - After everyone going mad over the kalettes last week they are back on the menu for this week.  Please see last weeks newsletter on how to deal with the kalette trees you will be receiving this week!
Spinach - This weeks spinach is from the field and not the hoop houses.  Make sure you give it a good wash when you need to use it.
Kohlrabi
Radicchio - The frost has sweetened these so you can eat them raw, roasted and turned into a warm salad, or added to soups and stews. 
Lettuce