CSA Newsletter ~ Week 16

The Frost arrived on the overnight of Saturday into Sunday morning. Our market garden is a sea of floating row covers to protect the most sensitive crops.  Sweet potatoes got hit the worst but after digging it was the leaves that got the damage and not the root. It will be a chore this year digging the sweet potatoes as the soil is like concrete and the yield will be down.  It is sad as the potatoes would have had a good yield but they are all really small! If only we had had a bit more rain! 

Field clearing continues along with prepping beds for next years growing season.  So far we have over 2000ft in cover crop to help build the soil.   Our cover crops add organic matter, nutrients and also hold the soil together so that we do not lose the precious topsoil to gusting winds.

We have started to pull crops that have not come to anything which is really sad! We have taken out over 400ft of cabbage as it is not heading, we are hoping the savoy might get a little bigger and we do have one row of cabbage that is looking quite promising! Storage beets are looking amazing. I have not dug any of the storage carrots yet but we are hoping they will be just as good as the beets.

We will shortly be making the garlic beds ready for next years crop and we will also be putting up our winter hoop house to protect the kale and spinach we have seeded.

This weeks basket:
Onions
Sweet potatoes - Lisa sent me in this recipe a while ago and changed the parsley in the dressing for basil this week you could swap it out for cilantro Turmeric roasted sweet potatoes.
Carrots
Acorn Squash - This recipe requires zaatar seasoning.  This is the same seasoning we use for the carrot zaatar. stuffed zaatar roasted acorn squash with lemon tahini sauce
Kale
Rapini - Cime di rapa (turnip tops) descends form the wild mustard plants that have carpeted the heel of Italy's boot since the ancient times.  Here in North America we tend to call it rapini or broccoli raab.
Use the whole plant! We love to keep it really simple so we chop up a few cloves of garlic heat some oil in a pan, chop all of the rapini including steams! Saute garlic for a few moments add the rapini and saute until wilted.  We have also found, for a little more punch, adding a few anchovies and some chilies to the mix is amazing!
Hakurei Turnips - Please remember these yummy little turnips can be eaten raw!
Asian Greens
Cilantro - I feel like this is a bit of a "Woo Hoo" moment! For some reason we have always struggled to grow this.  It either bolt or does not germinate.  This year I directed seeded it and hoped for the best and it has not done too bad at all!
Tomatillos - Last week of these until next years so enjoy!
Sweet Peppers
and maybe
Ground Cherries or Arugula