Monday, October 31, 2016

FALL CSA Newsletter ~ Week 1

Even though it is week one of our Fall CSA for all our members and us, it is also week 21 of producing and enjoying Organic vegetables.    
Pick Up location runs the same and even though a few of you have changed to different days the Fall CSA runs pretty much the same as the summer.  Farm pick up will start at 10am and run till 6pm and if for some reason your start up e-mails say a different day than you wanted do check in with us to confirm you have the correct pickup day and time.
This years Fall CSA is not as large as last years due to the drought and crop yield being lower but we are so happy to still be able to offer these boxes to the select few.
A huge thank you to Linda, Jess, Sarah and Karen who all braved the weather and mud to help with this years garlic planting.
The next few weeks will see us start digging our fall carrots, golden turnips and our three varieties of radish for storage.  Along with replacing the plastic on our main greenhouse (something that we have put off doing for a while now!) and also getting the plastic up and over our winter greens hoop house.  We have delayed doing this plastic due to the high winds we have had at the farm for nearly two weeks, along with the snow, sleet and rain we have had! But this week is looking calm and warm so fingers crossed we get it done!

This weeks basket:
Garlic
Kale
Spinach
Carrots
Kohlrabi
Daikon Radish - We love fall radish and this week it is the turn of the Daikon to grace your plates.
Turnip Cake
Scarlet Queen Turnips
Potatoes
Radicchio - This is one of our favourite vegetables.  We grow a green variety called sugar loaf which is not as bitter as the traditional red radicchio.  Now that it has had a few frosts and a bit of snow it does help to take a little of the bitterness out of the vegetable and make it a little sweeter.
We like to cut it into quarters drizzle with oil and grill either on the BBQ or broil until it wilts and chars.  Cut into shreds and add cooked onions, mushrooms, avocados, feta cheese and then some balsamic vinegar, chili paste and oil and toss together!
Green Onions
Swiss Chard
Hon Tsai Tai Flowering Broccoli - Is the green leaf and pink steamed green in your baskets this week.  Sadly this broccoli did not form it's bright yellow flowers but it is still very tasty with a very sweet flavour.  It is really nice added to salads, stir fries or pasta sauces and do use the steam as well as the leaves.



Monday, October 24, 2016

CSA Newsletter ~ Week 20

Louie taste testing the Fall and Storage carrots!
In the last week we have had two inches of rain! But while digging sweet potatoes on Sunday the soil told the real story, the water had only soaked down about 2-3 inches!
So here we are, the last week of our main season CSA! Neither of us at week 6 thought we would still be standing let alone get to week 20 or be able to run a small November CSA this year. 
This has been one of the toughest growing years physically, emotionally and mentally for us. As many know we had a drought in 2012 but nothing compared to this.  This has been the worst drought on record for this area.  2012 taught us so much and the work and investment made since then has helped us to be able to grow vegetables for our community over the last 20 weeks and also to be able to  offer a November CSA to a few "die hard" veggie fans and also to get some crops for storage.  Our bulk boxes will not have the selection as previous years but we will still be able to offer bulk vegetables and all being well fresh greens this winter!
A huge thank you to you our CSA families for your support this year and going forward.  For the members who have helped weed, harvest and plant, for the laughter and even the dinner that turned up on the doorstep, we have been humbled by your support this season and we thank you from the bottom of our hearts.  We really would not have got through this year without you.
Please do not forget to fill in this years survey after you have collected your last box of the season.  If you have deleted the e-mail with the link please let us know and we will forward it on to you.
From us both thank you for allowing us to be your farmers that fed your families this year.

This week basket:
Garlic
Kalettes
Kale
Onions
Schwarzer Runder Radish
Schwarzer Runder Radish - These are new for us this years.  I saw them in the seed catalog and thought we had to try them at least once! They have a very rich spicy flavour, excellent for salads and crudite.  They do have a coarse outer skin which can be peeled by hand if you do not like the taste of it.  They are often eaten in Germany as a beer radish, served thinly sliced with salt and paired with a light beer!
Arugula
Sweet Potatoes
Spaghetti Squash
Spinach
Hakurei Turnips - If you are not in the mood to eat these raw, try roasting them! Yum!
Leeks - This is another one of our favourite recipes for leeks and the spicy mustard and braising greens. The recipe calls for spring onions but we replace them with leeks just as well. Curried leeks and greens.
Carrots - One of my all time favourite soups carrot and cardamom soup by Michelle Tam it also uses leeks so if you are running out of ideas this is a great soup to make!

Monday, October 17, 2016

CSA Newsletter ~ Week 19

Cover crops seeded in August
Sunday we received just over 1/2 an inch of rain which helps to top up our cistern in the house and to water in all the cover crops that were seeded on Saturday by Ruby who is doing her "Farming" Badge for Girl Guides at Strattons Farm.
Thank you to everyone who had shown an interest in the November CSA.  Registration forms have now been sent out.  If you have not received one please let us know.
This week is also the last week for some of our half shares.  Please check your e-mails as we have sent out this years survey along with a more detailed summation of this years season.

This weeks vegetable basket:
Kalettes
Kalettes - These are a cross between brussels and kale and are ooh so good.  All you need to do is break the florets off the side of the stalk.  Fry up some onions and garlic and add the kalettes and saute for a few moments add some crispy bacon and you are done.  Kalettes can be used in your favourite brussel sprout recipes. The leafy top part of the "trees" can also eaten, just not the stalks, though the dogs love to chew them!
Garlic
Potatoes
Onions
Kale
Spinach
Leeks
Jaune Boule D'or Turnips - This weeks turnips are a French Heirloom 'Golden Ball Turnips'.  They are lovely fragrant turnip with a very sweet flavour, they are great roasted, added to mashed potato and can be sliced thinly and soaked in balsamic vinegar and salt and then eaten raw. Potato and turnip cakes.

Watermelon Radish - It has taken a while for them to grow this year but they are finally here! For 
those who have not tried them they have a sweet peppery flavour to them.  They can be eaten raw, roasted or turned into pickles. Kale Salad with quick watermelon radish pickle.
Greens
Arugula
Coriander

Monday, October 10, 2016

CSA Newsletter ~ Week 18

We hope that everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving and that a small part of Strattons Farm may have been on your table over the weekend!
We did our annual Thanksgiving walk around our farm with Louie this year and got to take in the amazing Fall colours.
By the end of this week we will have sent out registration forms for the November CSA.  I am hoping that it will be a google document this year rather than a paper one but this will depend if I have time to create it.  This years November CSA will be smaller than last year so we thank everyone who registered their interest early.
The main news at the farm is that our Market Garden is now Certified Organic.  We thought it about time we walked the talk and got our certification.  I have to say a huge thank you to McFadden Acres who have been a huge support to me through this process.  We decided to do our certification as in Ontario you can say you are Organic without actually complying to the Canadian Organic Standards.  We felt it only right that we should go through the process (and make it official, even though we have followed the standards for many years) so that our CSA member families know that our Market Garden complies to these standards.

This weeks basket:
Kale
Leeks - Sizzle and spice leek and chickpeas
Carrots- We are doing bags of carrots again this week.
Onions
Garlic
Cabbage - Yes the savoy cabbage does look like an over grown brussel sprout! But we had enough of this type of cabbage for this weeks CSA.
Potatoes
Spinach
Chard - Chard and potato curry!
Turnips - This weeks turnips are Hakurei turnips.  These can be eaten raw or cooked.
Coriander
Greens - Coconut creamed greens.


Monday, October 3, 2016

CSA Newsletter ~ Week 17

We did get a quarter of an inch of rain on Saturday evening which was a relief.  We are officially down to only being able to run our watering system for an hour a day.  So we are very thankful for the rain to refresh the crops still growing on the field as we had not been able to water at all last week!
We continued with more field clearing this week.  We have lifted and stored the rutabaga which are so small and yield is down.  We are not going to have enough for the main season CSA but they will make a brief appearance in the November CSA.
I think I was a little optimistic in our our cabbage patch! They require huge amounts of water and even though we had some it looks like they will be in the November CSA and not the main season.  Even with what we harvested at the weekend to store we have not been able to get enough for a full weeks CSA. It becomes a little sad when you see all your hard work being pulled out of the field. 



This weeks basket:
Onions
Sweet potatoes - Please remember no need to peel these as they have come straight from field to table.  Just scrub off the dirt.
Carrots - We are placing this weeks carrots in bags as the tops have died back on the patch we are harvesting from.  We have punched holes in the bag this will help them to store longer.  Again with the sweet potatoes no need to peel the skins.
Leeks - Please remember you can chop and freeze these for winter use.  Even though it is not St. Davids day! This link has some amazing leek recipes!
Beets - Found this great website with a huge list of recipes for beets. Love Beetroot
Delicata Squash - Please remember you can eat the skin on these ones.
Kale 
Garlic
Rapini
Arugula
Sweet Peppers
Beans