Early Season Week 2
It isn't often that we eat a CSA share. Typically, I just grab whatever culls are around unless I have my heart set on something special. This time of year there isn't a lot of random stuff coming back from market so I harvested an extra of everything and we had all the same things in our fridge that you did this past week. I thought the salad was extra primo and the spinach not as good (but still yummy), as it was a couple weeks ago. It was the last picking from the greenhouse planting and it is loosing its sweetness and developing more of an oxalic acid taste(next week's box will have field grown spinach in it). Taste and textural differences between plantings is most often related to plant maturity, the weather and the nutrient level in the soil. When all three of those things are in alignment it makes for epic food. This week the bok choy looks like it is going to be epic - mild, juicy, crunchy and delicious.
Enjoy the produce.
Lacinato Kale - the first picking of spring.
Bok Choy
Arugula or Mizuna - not sure which of these we will go with
Bunched Turnips
Green Garlic - We plant garlic close together for green garlic and harvested like scallions, you can use the entire thing. It is milder than dried down garlic.
Salad Mix - all lettuce this week
Little Gem Lettuce
Monday, April 27, 2020
Tuesday, April 21, 2020
Early Season Week 1
Salad
Radishes
Turnips - good raw or cooked - greens are also edible.
Spinach
Beet Greens - A spring time favorite on our farm. Trim off the stringy tap root, leaving the beet root base and wash well. We typically chop and saute them.
Mustard Bunches
Next week we should have some green garlic in the bags! Have a great week.
Salad
Radishes
Turnips - good raw or cooked - greens are also edible.
Spinach
Beet Greens - A spring time favorite on our farm. Trim off the stringy tap root, leaving the beet root base and wash well. We typically chop and saute them.
Mustard Bunches
Next week we should have some green garlic in the bags! Have a great week.
Sunday, October 13, 2019
Week 20
We did it - we grew veggies - you ate them(I hope) - success! On a whole it has been the most challenging year of farming we have had. We sincerely hope you didn't notice. We did our best to stay true to our mission of selling high quality produce, but at times it was a struggle. Mostly this is tied to some irrigation issues we had - it is a long boring story, particularly if you aren't a farmer, but it was stressful. With the fall rains, it is mostly behind us. However, it did contribute to the smaller size of both last week's leeks and this week's parsnips. Small vegetables still taste great and preceding any vegetable with the word baby is trendy - so there is that. I am pretty sure I am giving myself a pep talk here. Let's talk about you.
You all are great. Many of you stuck with us as we changed our model and some of you joined with out even ever having had our produce. Thank you for trusting us to grow your food. I did miss chatting with you about all the delicious things you made with your produce as that is one of my favorite parts of my job. Even at market pick-up, I was often too busy to chat much. If you made anything you really liked and it is easy to find the recipe on the Internet you should send me a link or snap a photo and email it to me. Or you can put it in the comment section and share it with everyone.
It has been the week of the squash as we try to eat a bunch of the varieties we are selling. We ate two of the new butternuts we trialed and I made the butternut squash queso from the Thug Kitchen. It was so flavorful. They have a unique writing style, I assume to try to set themselves apart from other vegan lifestyle blogs, but be warned it involves a lot of swearing. Because we are not vegan we actually made the squash sauce for the nachos and topped them with black beans, some grilled peppers and a little cheese. The sauce softened the chips a bit and for that reason I think I enjoyed it more when I ate it the next day as dip for the chips. Thinned out just a bit I can see it being delicious as a sauce on some enchiladas.
I still have lots of squash dishes I want to cook this season including spaghetti squash carbonara, a butternut and miso soup and these sweet potato cakes that I am thinking I can make subbing squash for sweet potatoes.
We are finishing the season with a really pretty box. We trialed the red napa last year and planted it this year specifically for the CSA. I apparently cut it kind of close on the seeding date but I scoped it out on Friday and feel pretty confident there are enough sized up for everybody. Phew. I made the most beautiful slaw of my life with a red napa, some shredded carrot, cilantro and a sesame vinaigrette. It is mild and eating it raw gives you chance to really take in its beauty.
Thank you again for supporting local organic agriculture!
Parsnips
Rainbow Carrots
Butternut Squash
Spaghetti Squash
Shallots
Red Napa Cabbage
Kale - Large Only
Yellow Onion - Large Only
We did it - we grew veggies - you ate them(I hope) - success! On a whole it has been the most challenging year of farming we have had. We sincerely hope you didn't notice. We did our best to stay true to our mission of selling high quality produce, but at times it was a struggle. Mostly this is tied to some irrigation issues we had - it is a long boring story, particularly if you aren't a farmer, but it was stressful. With the fall rains, it is mostly behind us. However, it did contribute to the smaller size of both last week's leeks and this week's parsnips. Small vegetables still taste great and preceding any vegetable with the word baby is trendy - so there is that. I am pretty sure I am giving myself a pep talk here. Let's talk about you.
You all are great. Many of you stuck with us as we changed our model and some of you joined with out even ever having had our produce. Thank you for trusting us to grow your food. I did miss chatting with you about all the delicious things you made with your produce as that is one of my favorite parts of my job. Even at market pick-up, I was often too busy to chat much. If you made anything you really liked and it is easy to find the recipe on the Internet you should send me a link or snap a photo and email it to me. Or you can put it in the comment section and share it with everyone.
It has been the week of the squash as we try to eat a bunch of the varieties we are selling. We ate two of the new butternuts we trialed and I made the butternut squash queso from the Thug Kitchen. It was so flavorful. They have a unique writing style, I assume to try to set themselves apart from other vegan lifestyle blogs, but be warned it involves a lot of swearing. Because we are not vegan we actually made the squash sauce for the nachos and topped them with black beans, some grilled peppers and a little cheese. The sauce softened the chips a bit and for that reason I think I enjoyed it more when I ate it the next day as dip for the chips. Thinned out just a bit I can see it being delicious as a sauce on some enchiladas.
I still have lots of squash dishes I want to cook this season including spaghetti squash carbonara, a butternut and miso soup and these sweet potato cakes that I am thinking I can make subbing squash for sweet potatoes.
We are finishing the season with a really pretty box. We trialed the red napa last year and planted it this year specifically for the CSA. I apparently cut it kind of close on the seeding date but I scoped it out on Friday and feel pretty confident there are enough sized up for everybody. Phew. I made the most beautiful slaw of my life with a red napa, some shredded carrot, cilantro and a sesame vinaigrette. It is mild and eating it raw gives you chance to really take in its beauty.
Thank you again for supporting local organic agriculture!
Parsnips
Rainbow Carrots
Butternut Squash
Spaghetti Squash
Shallots
Red Napa Cabbage
Kale - Large Only
Yellow Onion - Large Only
Sunday, October 6, 2019
Week 19
Our stand at the market moved fully into fall this week with a big pile of winter squash at one end. I love setting up the squash display although it means we schlep a lot of squash back and forth to market. We have been eating a lot of the new varieties and I am hoping I won't burn myself out on winter squash before winter arrives! Our days are still packed with harvest, but we should find time for more clean-up as the week goes on. Our seed garlic arrived this week and our garlic beds are almost prepped.
I had someone hold up a bunch of carrots at market not long ago and ask me how we get them to all grow the same size. I pointed out to her that there were bunches of other sizes in the pile but that we sort them as we clean them and then put similar sized carrots in a bunch. She looked at me like I was out of my mind! I though of it as I was writing this because I am hoping to give you all rainbow carrots this week or next week and they can be hard to sort and size because the different varieties grow so differently. I think to maintain sanity we will just put those in your boxes without the tops and randomly sized.
Lettuce
Carrots
Scarlet Queen Turnips - These can be enjoyed raw but they become sweeter when cooked. We slice them thin and sautee them in butter.
Silver Bell Squash - An older variety introduced in the 1950's. We grew it maybe 5 years ago and liked it a lot. It will slowly turn pink in storage but it stays delicious into the winter and stores well.
Leeks
Potatoes
Garlic
Arugula - Large Only
Peppers - Large Only
Our stand at the market moved fully into fall this week with a big pile of winter squash at one end. I love setting up the squash display although it means we schlep a lot of squash back and forth to market. We have been eating a lot of the new varieties and I am hoping I won't burn myself out on winter squash before winter arrives! Our days are still packed with harvest, but we should find time for more clean-up as the week goes on. Our seed garlic arrived this week and our garlic beds are almost prepped.
I had someone hold up a bunch of carrots at market not long ago and ask me how we get them to all grow the same size. I pointed out to her that there were bunches of other sizes in the pile but that we sort them as we clean them and then put similar sized carrots in a bunch. She looked at me like I was out of my mind! I though of it as I was writing this because I am hoping to give you all rainbow carrots this week or next week and they can be hard to sort and size because the different varieties grow so differently. I think to maintain sanity we will just put those in your boxes without the tops and randomly sized.
Lettuce
Carrots
Scarlet Queen Turnips - These can be enjoyed raw but they become sweeter when cooked. We slice them thin and sautee them in butter.
Silver Bell Squash - An older variety introduced in the 1950's. We grew it maybe 5 years ago and liked it a lot. It will slowly turn pink in storage but it stays delicious into the winter and stores well.
Leeks
Potatoes
Garlic
Arugula - Large Only
Peppers - Large Only
Sunday, September 29, 2019
Week 18
With a possible frost in the forecast and limited crew we have had a busy week. I am happy to say that all the winter squash is out of the field, my dahlias are all tagged and we got one last good picking off the zucchinis. I am hoping to cover peppers and maybe some lettuce later today. Those of you who pick up at the house will have to navigate around a few squash bins. At the moment squash storage is split up with most of it at the South Bay location but we needed to use the building at our house for some of it.
Carrots
Delicata Squash - We sliced some of these into half moons and roasted them on a cookie sheet the other night just so I could be confident they were ready to eat - so good. Hope you enjoy them.
Spinach
Zucchini - We will continue to have some zucchini because we planted a late round in one of the hoop houses but this will be the last time we have enough quantity to put them in your boxes.
Potatoes- Yellow Finn is our yellow fall storage potato this year and it is not has pretty as the potatoes you have been getting but, the skin blemishes are superficial.
Red Onion
Savoy Cabbage - Large Only
With a possible frost in the forecast and limited crew we have had a busy week. I am happy to say that all the winter squash is out of the field, my dahlias are all tagged and we got one last good picking off the zucchinis. I am hoping to cover peppers and maybe some lettuce later today. Those of you who pick up at the house will have to navigate around a few squash bins. At the moment squash storage is split up with most of it at the South Bay location but we needed to use the building at our house for some of it.
Carrots
Delicata Squash - We sliced some of these into half moons and roasted them on a cookie sheet the other night just so I could be confident they were ready to eat - so good. Hope you enjoy them.
Spinach
Zucchini - We will continue to have some zucchini because we planted a late round in one of the hoop houses but this will be the last time we have enough quantity to put them in your boxes.
Potatoes- Yellow Finn is our yellow fall storage potato this year and it is not has pretty as the potatoes you have been getting but, the skin blemishes are superficial.
Red Onion
Savoy Cabbage - Large Only
Sunday, September 22, 2019
Week 17
Another damp Sunday morning. I have not checked the stats but I know we have had more rain than usual for September. I have mixed feelings about it. It speeds up decay in the garden and forces us to transition to fall crops maybe a tad bit before they or we are really ready. It does look like there is some sunshine in the forecast for the week and I am hopeful we will have sunny days to harvest winter squash. It comes out of the field much cleaner on a sunny day. It may have some soil spattered on it but that wipes off fairly easy. Wet dirt that is smudged all over the squash requires a lot of wiping to get it ready for market. You can expect to see some delicatas in the box next week. We also grew a pretty blue grey squash called silver bell for the CSA. There will only be spinach in the large share boxes this week but everyone should get it soon. Kelly and I were harvesting cauliflower on Friday and I was coming up with mental rough draft of what would be in the boxes this week. Kelly was harvesting out of the bed next to the daikon radishes which are covered with row cover. I asked him to reach in and grab a daikon so we could see if they were sized up and ready for the boxes. He pulled out what is probably the largest daikon we have ever grown which sent us both in to a fit of giggles. Yup. They are sized up. Daikon is great raw but you should also try cooking with it. Don't be intimidated by the word radish or by its size. It is actually pretty mild and versatile.
Lettuce
Carrots
Specialty Pepper - Either sweet pimentos, poblanos or shishitos. The pimento or sheep nose peppers are hands down, in my opinion, the best sweet pepper we grow - and they are cute. The poblanos this year are a new variety, but have the same rich flavor and heat that is typical of them. Steak tacos with rajas or rajas con crema are a couple of our favorites. Shishitos became trendy in food magazines several years ago, but ya know, things are a bit slow to make it to Olympia. Blistered shishitos are a breeze to make and are delicious.
Kale
Daikon Radish
Broccoli
Spinach - Large Only
Onions - Large Only
Another damp Sunday morning. I have not checked the stats but I know we have had more rain than usual for September. I have mixed feelings about it. It speeds up decay in the garden and forces us to transition to fall crops maybe a tad bit before they or we are really ready. It does look like there is some sunshine in the forecast for the week and I am hopeful we will have sunny days to harvest winter squash. It comes out of the field much cleaner on a sunny day. It may have some soil spattered on it but that wipes off fairly easy. Wet dirt that is smudged all over the squash requires a lot of wiping to get it ready for market. You can expect to see some delicatas in the box next week. We also grew a pretty blue grey squash called silver bell for the CSA. There will only be spinach in the large share boxes this week but everyone should get it soon. Kelly and I were harvesting cauliflower on Friday and I was coming up with mental rough draft of what would be in the boxes this week. Kelly was harvesting out of the bed next to the daikon radishes which are covered with row cover. I asked him to reach in and grab a daikon so we could see if they were sized up and ready for the boxes. He pulled out what is probably the largest daikon we have ever grown which sent us both in to a fit of giggles. Yup. They are sized up. Daikon is great raw but you should also try cooking with it. Don't be intimidated by the word radish or by its size. It is actually pretty mild and versatile.
Lettuce
Carrots
Specialty Pepper - Either sweet pimentos, poblanos or shishitos. The pimento or sheep nose peppers are hands down, in my opinion, the best sweet pepper we grow - and they are cute. The poblanos this year are a new variety, but have the same rich flavor and heat that is typical of them. Steak tacos with rajas or rajas con crema are a couple of our favorites. Shishitos became trendy in food magazines several years ago, but ya know, things are a bit slow to make it to Olympia. Blistered shishitos are a breeze to make and are delicious.
Kale
Daikon Radish
Broccoli
Spinach - Large Only
Onions - Large Only
Sunday, September 15, 2019
Week 16
As I am sitting here, a little damp from morning harvest, with the front door open, I am wondering if I shouldn't close it and pop on the heat for just a minute. For someone who works outside all day I am such a baby when it comes to being warm (as in very warm) when I am inside. Perhaps I will build our first fire of the season.
We are having farmers over tonight with a theme of food that you didn't eat enough of this summer and I am really not feeling all that summerish at the moment. I am sure I can change my tune if I just think about the fact that I am not going to eat a tomato for many months starting very soon!
Hope you all are enjoying the rain.
Green Beans - We were really on the fence about planting green beans. They can be hard to sell at a price that justifies growing them and they just never do as well for us as we think they should. After 10 years of them not really working that well in our system and our downsizing it seemed like a good time to let go of them. Then I got sad about it one May day and planted a bed in a part of the field that has always had hideous weed pressure. I knew it was less than ideal but it was one of the few places on the farm that wasn't already mapped out. Well, that went about as well as one would have expected. After the spring carrot field turned into our last planting of zukes and cukes there was about a hundred feet of empty space. Hmm, I thought, is it too late? Almost too late, but they made it and are in your box this week. We ate some grilled on a salad with grilled steak, grilled onions and blue cheese and they were so good that we ate some again the next night.
Rainbow Chard
Carrots
Garlic
Potatoes
Cherry Tomatoes
Radish - Large Only
Herb - Large Only
This green beans goma-ae calls for mirin and is the recipe I use, but many recipes don't call for it if you don't have it and don't want to buy it. They typically use a little more sugar. With just a few ingredients it is an easy dish and incredibly delicious. The Asian grocer, Arirang out by the Goodwill in Hawk's Prairie sells already toasted sesame seeds if you want to eliminate a step. Some stores also sell them pre-ground but I don't think Arirang has them packaged that way.
As I am sitting here, a little damp from morning harvest, with the front door open, I am wondering if I shouldn't close it and pop on the heat for just a minute. For someone who works outside all day I am such a baby when it comes to being warm (as in very warm) when I am inside. Perhaps I will build our first fire of the season.
We are having farmers over tonight with a theme of food that you didn't eat enough of this summer and I am really not feeling all that summerish at the moment. I am sure I can change my tune if I just think about the fact that I am not going to eat a tomato for many months starting very soon!
Hope you all are enjoying the rain.
Green Beans - We were really on the fence about planting green beans. They can be hard to sell at a price that justifies growing them and they just never do as well for us as we think they should. After 10 years of them not really working that well in our system and our downsizing it seemed like a good time to let go of them. Then I got sad about it one May day and planted a bed in a part of the field that has always had hideous weed pressure. I knew it was less than ideal but it was one of the few places on the farm that wasn't already mapped out. Well, that went about as well as one would have expected. After the spring carrot field turned into our last planting of zukes and cukes there was about a hundred feet of empty space. Hmm, I thought, is it too late? Almost too late, but they made it and are in your box this week. We ate some grilled on a salad with grilled steak, grilled onions and blue cheese and they were so good that we ate some again the next night.
Rainbow Chard
Carrots
Garlic
Potatoes
Cherry Tomatoes
Radish - Large Only
Herb - Large Only
This green beans goma-ae calls for mirin and is the recipe I use, but many recipes don't call for it if you don't have it and don't want to buy it. They typically use a little more sugar. With just a few ingredients it is an easy dish and incredibly delicious. The Asian grocer, Arirang out by the Goodwill in Hawk's Prairie sells already toasted sesame seeds if you want to eliminate a step. Some stores also sell them pre-ground but I don't think Arirang has them packaged that way.
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