Week 1

What a difference a year makes.  In my first post of last year, I commented that I felt as if the farm share should have started earlier.  We had been bunching carrots for a few weeks and we had just started to pick zukes and cukes.  I wrote that Kel and I had a hard time narrowing down what to put in your boxes.  Well, this year is a different story.  We sat at the kitchen table this morning staring at a list that said lettuce, chard and turnips and we sat in silence for a moment or two.  In the end we came up with a good list.  Some years the variety just comes a little slower than other years. The snap peas and carrots you may have been hoping for will just taste that much better next week!

As always, I spent a good chunk of my free time this winter looking through cookbooks.  Kelly and I briefly stuck with a plan to each make a new recipe every week.  I would recommend checking out A Modern Way to Cook and a Modern Way to Eat by Anna Jones if you need a little veggie inspiration.  The recipes tend to be pretty straight forward and most are quick.  I am including a link to one of her recipes below.

If you are unsure what something is/what to do with something please ask.  We will do our best to give you ideas and often another farm share member will chime in as well.

Head Lettuce 

Swiss Chard - Anna Jones has lots of chard recipes.  Chard is veggie that I don't love on it's own but I have come to enjoy it when it is prepared right and we tossed it into a lot of things this spring when I grew tired of winter kale.  The recipe for chard and black eyed peas is full of flavor.

Green Garlic -  The entire thing can be eaten.  It will be milder than cured garlic.  It should be kept in a bag in your fridge until you are ready to eat it.

Salad Turnips - Erin, the produce manager at the West side Co-op, loves, loves, loves this soup.  Although I haven't made it, her enthusiasm makes me believe that it has to be delicious.  It is also, easy and uses both the greens and the turnips.  It is an Alice Water's recipe.

Beets - We roasted some of these the other night and had them with a dollop of sour cream mixed with a little yogurt, lemon, lemon zest, green garlic and salt.  

Herb Choice - Basil (limited), Cilantro, Dill

Cabbage - Large Only

Salad Mix - Large Only

Next Week Sneak Peak
Carrots
Scallions
Snap Peas

Week 16 

With the equinox just around the corner and the ground littered with leaves it seems appropriate to start dishing out winter squash.  Your first squash will be a spaghetti squash.  There are people who think it tastes great with marinara.  I am not one of them, but the strands are fun and it makes a simple side dish when tossed with some garlic, herbs and butter.  It is also good tossed with butter, roasted kale, mushrooms and topped with a bit of Parmesan.  Because it has a mild flavor you can season it any way you like.  If you are looking for some  inspiration and recipe ideas  the Huffington Post has a couple dozen photos with recipe links you could check out.

We have only pulled spaghetti squash and some delicata (in your boxes soon, I promise) thus far but this week we hope to get the rest of it out of the field and into the barn.  Where it is all going to go I have no idea!  We didn't seed anymore than last year but after seeing how much space the spaghetti squash is taking up I am a little skeptical.

Carrots
Beets - If you haven't jumped on the beet chip bandwagon yet here is your chance.  Be careful, they are easy to burn.
Potatoes - We have been rubbing potatoes with oil, rolling them in course salt and rosemary and baking them right on the oven rack.  So good - I forgot how tasty a good baked potato can be.  I know what potatoes I would like to give you tomorrow but some of the varieties have a lot of bug damage so I am going to resist making promises about the variety but I find that even the waxy potatoes are great baked.
Lettuce
Turnips - These small Japanese white turnips star in a very nice short video in the Kitchen Vignettes segment on PBS.  It is only three minutes long and shows you how to make soba noodles with turnips and shitake mushrooms.  You can find the dancing turnip video here or if you would rather just check out the recipe it can be found here.
Cherry Tomatoes - last of the season!
Kohlrabi - We don't grow much kohlrabi because it isn't particularly popular but I think it tastes great.  We had a salad tonight for dinner with some shaved radishes, kohlrabi, carrots and the the lettuce that most of you will be getting.  I made a poppy seed dressing that I liked.  It was much lighter than the really sweet poppy seed dressing you can buy.  The whole salad was inspired by the recipe for a shaved turnip and radish salad from a beautiful cookbook I heard about on The Splendid Table radio show.
Spaghetti Squash
Zucchini - Large Only
Number Two Tomatoes - The slicing tomatoes haven't been looking great lately but summer is quickly coming to an end and we thought you might enjoy one last tomato even if it is a little on the ugly side.

Week 19

I am trying to resist commenting on how fast the season went by because I know I refer to time flying by all the time. But it still surprises me every year.

As far as crops go we had many successes and a couple failures this year.  Hopefully you were happy with what was in your boxes each week.  We are incredibly fortunate to have pick-up at the farm and to have so much community support.  You may not think that buying one farm share makes that much of an impact but we are a small farm and your support means a lot both as individuals and as a community.  There are so many books and movies out there about local agriculture that it starts to seem a bit redundant and even trendy at times to talk about supporting local farmers.  We don't want to be a trend or hip or be treated like rock stars,  but we do want to grow good food and we need people like you to do so.  Thank you for your support!

If you find yourself missing your weekly box of vegetables the stand will be open on Saturdays from 9am until 4pm and on Wednesdays from 3pm until 6pm from now until the end of November.  Come by, say hi and get some veggies.  We will have bags of storage vegetables as Thanksgiving gets closer.

Today's Box

Hakuri/Tokyo Turnip - The juicy bunched turnips you had in your boxes in the spring.
Purple Top Turnip - The classic fall root vegetable that has a peppery bite.
Parsnips
Yellow Onions
Garlic
Red Kabocha Squash - A squash popular in both Japanese and Korean culinary traditions but also excellent in a pumpkin pie.  It is my favorite squash to use in a pureed soup that also has stock, coconut milk, lemongrass, galangal, red chiles and a squeeze of lime.  If that sounds up your alley there are many similar recipes on line that will give you amounts and measurements.  I just throw everything in the pot and hope for the best.
Carrots
Napa - Really good in a salad - sweet and crunchy
Romanesco - Looks crazy, tastes like cauliflower.

A farm share member (you know who you are) accused me of bad mouthing fall turnips while singing the praises of the rutabaga.  I will confess, I try but I find it hard to like fall turnips.  There is one way that I love them though and that is as a Middle Eastern pickle.  This recipe is adapted from The Joy of Pickling and it is a fermented pickle.  The beet makes them pink.

1 pound peeled turnips cut into 1/4 to 1/2 inch wedges
2 garlic cloves
1 small beet
1 cup white wine vinegar
1 cup water
11/2 tbs pickling salt

Add beets, garlic and turnip to a sterilized quart jar.  Mix the remaining ingredients until the salt has dissolved and pour over the vegetables.  Lightly cap and let stand at room temperature for 10 days and then keep in the refrigerator.  Only putting the cap on lightly allows gases to escape as the pickle ferments.