This is the last week of the 2010 CSA Season.

Yukon Gold Potato Love Photo Credit: April Jones

Meet Your Food

Butternut or Canada Crookneck Winter Squash: Canada Crookneck is on the Slow Foods Arc of Taste.  Find out what that means here.

Beets OR Leeks

Black Turtle Dry Beans: Use just as you would any other dry bean.  These beans aren’t near as dry as store bought varieties.  They will cook tender in less than 2 hours, and there is no need to soak them overnight.  Just make sure you triple rinse them, allowing any dry ‘chaff’ to float to the top of the bowl, where it is easy to pour off, leaving clean beans.

Yukon Gold Potatoes

Rutabaga OR Cabbage: Try mixing mashed rutabagas with mashed potatoes for a nice twist on a old classic.  If that’s too much work, peel and slice into sticks and eat raw with carrots and dip.

Kohlrabi: The return of a spring favorite!  Have you tried crisping the leaves into cruchy “chips”?  Wash and pat dry, cut in large pieces or strips,  toss/drizzle with olive oil and salt, and cook on a baking sheet in the oven (250-300 degrees) until crispy.  Check them often while cooking in the oven so they don’t burn.

Cipollini Onions: Deliciously sweet when cooked, cipollini onions are the perfect accompaniment to sautéed mushrooms.  Furthermore, mushrooms and cipollini onions make a fantastic ‘topping’ for any winter squash.

Farmer Jones Notes

In my mind, the photo above sums up this season nicely.  All of you, new friends and old, have contributed such joy to my farm and CSA program this year.  I truly hope you’ve appreciated the seasonal eating experiment as much as I have appreciated being your Farmer.  As we head into the winter months, know that I’ll be hard at work making adjustments to the farm plan.  Just like all these plants we tend so carefully, I want our Farmer-Eater connection to continue to grow and blossom.  Please, if you have any ideas, suggestions, thoughts on the subject, don’t hesitate to connect with me.  For example, based on your feedback, one change I’m already planning to implement is a reminder email each Friday, to help those of you with such busy schedules not forget the veggies.

On another note, I have decided to add at least 10 shares for next season and would like nothing more than to fill those spots with friends of yours, so thanks in advance for spreading the word.

With deep, profound gratitude,

April

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Glorious Leaf Art Photo Credit: April Jones

Meet Your Food

Winter Squash: It is mix and match week!  You’ll have lots of good varieties to choose from, including Buttercup, Cinderella Pumpkins, Baby Pam, Sugar Dumpling, Butternut, Thelma Sanders, Blue Banana and Delicata.

Brussels Sprouts OR Cabbage: If you’ve never tried roasting brussels sprouts, you are in for a treat.  Trim and wash the sprouts, cut into halves, and put in a bowl.  Drizzle with olive oil and a bit of salt, using your hands to mix in the oil and lightly coat the sprouts.  Pour out onto a roasting pan or cookie sheet in a single layer and roast in a 450 degree oven until the edges are a browned and a little crispy, about 45 minutes.  Every 10-15 minutes, use tongs or a spatula to turn the veggies so they roast evenly.  Roasted vegetables are such an easy, multi-purpose dish.  They are great hot, but cold (leftover) roasted vegetables are tasty as a salad topper or mixed in with shredded raw cabbage.  Try roasting carrots, beets, fingerling potatoes, onions and leeks, separate or together (all the different colors make for a very pretty dish).  Also, whole or chopped cloves of garlic added to the roasting pan will impart a wonderful flavor.

Fingerling Potatoes: Roast or cook in the crockpot (whole, skin on), with your favorite meat or with herbs (rosemary or oregano), chopped onion, a can of whole crushed tomatoes and any variety of frozen vegetables for a nice winter soup.  I usually use salt and a little red pepper as seasoning.

Beets: Check out the beet fritter recipe below.  If you don’t think you like beets, give this one a shot.

Carrots and/or Green Peppers

Red Wing Onions

Lorz Garlic

Apple Cider: (for Tesla Half-Share Members)

Beet Fritters
Cut off the tops and tails of the beets.  Scrub clean under running water, but do not peel.  Heat over medium high your favorite cooking oil in a small frying pan (about 1/4 in deep).  Shred beets with a grater or in a food processor (coarse grate).  Put grated beets in a small bowl and add flour, mixing in with your hands, a little at a time.  Add just enough flour so the beets stick together.  Roll into balls and squash flat with your hands to round patties.  Fry in hot oil until crispy on the bottom.  Flip over, turn heat to med-low and cover.  Cook until crispy on second side and hot in the middle. Drain on paper towels.  Sprinkle with salt and eat piping hot, like french fries.

Farmer Jones Notes

Tesla Half-Share members, this is your last week of the season.  Full share members, next week is the final pickup of the year.  All members:  if you haven’t let me know you want to sign up for next season, this is the week to do it!

We’ve had another beautiful week at the farm, amidst a bit of rain here and there.  While things are definitely winding down, there’s still a nice supply veggies in the field.  Do you need any produce for your Thanksgiving cooking?   Contact me if you are interested purchasing a few extra goodies for your holiday needs.

Gratefully,

April

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Sunny November Rows Photo Credit: April Jones

Meet Your Food

Winter Squash: Your Choice- Cinderella Pumpkins, Butternut, or Delicata Squash

Brussels Sprouts OR Baby Cabbage

German Butterball Potatoes

Beets

Leeks

Nootka Rose Garlic

Apple Cider: (For Gus Half Share Members)

Farmer Jones Notes

Whoa.  Here we are at Week 23 of 25.  ”Gus” half share members, this is your last week of the CSA season, can you believe it?

If you haven’t already signed up for the 2011 CSA program and would like to, here’s the commitment form to fill out and send in.  I have opened up the signup now to new members, so please let anyone who might be interested know that there are shares available.  My marketing budget is very small, so I greatly appreciate your referrals.

The weather as of late has been absolutely delightful for completing a whole host of once-a-season-chores that must happen this time of year.  The pace has slowed, but there is still harvest work and livestock care with which to be concerned.  In addition, this is the season I catch myself thinking about the successes and necesssary improvements required for 2011 and beyond to keep the farm moving forward.  It’s a funny mix:  I may be shelling out dry beans in the morning and planning next year’s vegetable offerings in the afternoon. Or kneeling deep in soil and water, I may be washing leeks in the field, then thinking thru machinery and implement wish lists when I pass by the hay barn.  I’m here, in November, but also dreaming of the warm spring days 2011 may bring.  Do you think it’s all this sunny November weather?

Contemplatively,

April

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