Week 19

After this week there are two more weeks of the CSA.  There will be collard greens, fennel, baby pink turnips, carrots, leeks and more winter squash to look forward to in the last two boxes.  

Delicata Squash - What's not to love about this squash.  It is a great size, easy to cut and among the sweetest squash out there.  The thin skin can be eaten.  We like to roast rings or half moon slices in a single layer on a cookie sheet but anyway you like to prepare squash will work.  

Napa Cabbage - Some of these will be quite large.  They do keep very well for something so tender.  One food blog I have really enjoyed cooking from this summer is Woks of Life.  I just pulled it up and searched napa and they have a handful of recipes if you feel like something different.  The only one I read was the one for Sichuan Napa and the story with the recipe was brief but interesting.  I have made at least a half dozen recipes and all have been well written and delicious.  My two favorites are probably the beef chow fun and the pad see ew.  They are very similar and the best part of both of them is the noodles.  I have been buying them at Hong Phat.  They are a fresh rice noodle right next to the check out.  They are easiest to work with the day you buy them.  They have the most amazing texture.  It is springy and chewy and tender and I can't get enough of them.  Napa is easy to use.  It is great both raw and cooked.   

Potatoes 

Garlic

Spinach

Cauliflower or Broccoli

Salad - Large Only

Bell Peppers - Large Only

Week 18

Cauliflower or Broccoli

Lettuce

Kale

Turnips

Shallots

Tomatoes

Bok Choy - Large Share Only

Cucumber - Large Share Only

Next week we will start including winter squash in your box.  We will kick it off with delicata!

Week 17

The rain is coming...maybe.  The percentage doesn't seem that high, but the amount listed is almost an inch and a half on Friday.  We have the winter squash on drip irrigation which means the dirt around the squash is very dry.  If it rains hard they will get really dirty with the splash dirt and require a lot of labor to clean up so we are going to do what I am referring to as the great pumpkin push this week.   Everything but the butternuts seem ready to come out of the field.  We were going to just give slicing tomatoes this week but decided to do cherries as well in case this is the last hurrah.  The field plants are showing some signs of disease.  The rain may expedite their demise or we may get a couple more weeks of picking.  You almost never know!

Poblano Peppers

Carrots

Beets

Tomatoes

Cabbage

Zucchini - Large Only

Potatoes - Large Only

Week 16

 Last Sunday we hauled some irrigation pipe that we bought from a farm in Littlerock to our new place in Rochester.  On Thursday we picked up the last of the pipe and  pulled up some carpet as well.  I am starting to feel pretty excited about our move in the fall.  We have a lot to do farm wise to be ready to start seeding in January.  I can see the light at the end of the tunnel in terms of our season winding down though and I am looking forward to thinking more about our new set up and starting that process.  In truth, we should probably already be doing it but it is hard to find the time.  

We had BLTs, corn and homemade onion strings Saturday night because summer isn't summer if I don't fry something at least once.  Did anyone else notice it was unusually warm?  I had thought I might make a second round of cantaloupe ice cream (pureed melon, sugar and half and half) because the first batch I made earlier in the week was a little sweet but so good.  I lost my momentum/motivation and I just settled for a couple slices of melon which was still a great way to finish off our summery meal.  Melon season is so brief on our farm but with just one variety still picking it is also a relief not to have to squeeze the extra harvest into our normal schedule.  

Lettuce

Radishes 

Persian Cucumber

Tomato 

Yellow Onion

Herb Choice

Eggplant - Large Only

Mizuna - Large Only - tender enough to eat raw in salad but also can be briefly cooked

Week 15

The first box of September!   It is the month that starts with what is often the peek of tomatoes and ends in the harvesting of winter squash.  

The threat of rain last week pushed us to get a lot of onions out of the field and curing.  We grow fewer onions than we use to, so it isn't quite the push it use to be, but still a huge relief to get it done.  We have a nice charge of shallots this year which you should see in your box in the next week or two.  

Corn - yellow

Cucumbers 

Rainbow Chard

Garlic

Carrots

Tomatoes - slicing or cherry and the reverse next week.

Green and Purple Bell - Large Only

Red Daikon - Large Only white flesh, with greens

Have a great week.

Week 14

You may have been surprised by the melon in your box last week.  I wasn't sure we would have enough.  Kelly was in Montana last weekend and I was keeping watch on the melons - basically just hoping that they weren't ready to pick.  They waited.  I was thankful.  I was excited that Kelly got to see his family, particularly his grandparents.  He floated the Missouri with his brother, his stepdad made them ebelskiver and they got takeout from some places they have been eating from for 40 years.  It was nostalgic and relaxing.  I particularly love that Kelly's dad bought my dad's 1938 Ford Delux after my father passed away and Kelly got to cruise that around Helena while he was home.  

While Kelly and I have weathered the pandemic just fine thus far but we both feel like we have lost valuable visits with family.  We are not alone in this of course, but it is difficult sometimes. 

I know we have many beautiful days ahead of us but the seasons are changing.  I can feel the shift.  I love these few weeks of late August and early September.  They can be gruelling weeks on the farm but the changing light, the cooler nights, the bounty make it worth while.  In the next couple weeks we will begin to bring onions in, plant cover crop and prepare for the dark and rainy days ahead.

Cherry Tomatoes

Potatoes

Zucchini

Lettuce or Salad Mix

Shishito Peppers - Large Only

Bell Pepper - Small Only

Cantaloupe - Large Only

Watermelon - Small Only

Week 13

 Lettuce - Lilttle Gems or Bavaivian - crunchy ribs, both hold up to creamy dressings and lots of toppings

Carrots

Kale - Red Russian 

Garlic

Tomatoes - Many of you will get New Girl, a smaller red tomato.  

Eggplant 

Persian Cucumbers - Large Only

Cantaloupe - Small Only

Watermelon - Large Only

If we are short on eggplant some people might receive shishito peppers and eggplant next week.