CSA Newsletter

Greetings from the Garden! This box has cabbage, celery, carrots, potatoes, rutabagas, turnips, daikon radish, leeks and /or green onions, squash and/or sweet potatoes, parsnips, parsley and the last of the peppers.

Jack surveys the changes

Field Notes.  Dry, dry, dry.  Our well is pumping air.  I worry.  The plants you usually see in the box like greens are just waiting for moisture.  Ken irrigated until the well started pumping air.  On the good news front, Mark has been working on the irrigation ponds near the garden and mobile high tunnel.  He is finding clay Ken may be able to use in pottery.  And once the project is complete, when it does rain, we will have a way to contain and save it.

Ken has been harvesting and I have begun the task of burying roots in sand in the root cellar.  I have nearly completed the carrots and beets are next.  Ken and Loyal have been clearing out space in greenhouses - taking out the old  plants, etc.  Planting has begun,in the greenhouse in the field.  They are clearing and moving the high tunnel to its winter location this week, but it would be nice to get some rain so there is soil moisture for the small seedlings before they get transplanted.  They are in a holding pattern by the back door. One fall we had no sun and nothing grew.  This year no water.

Thursday Ken will be speaking at the Amery Garden Club meeting at the Village Pizza around 12:30.  All are welcome.

From the Kitchen.  Cool weather and denser food go together.  I have been sauteing leeks or onions adding carrots and cabbage for a side dish.   I am either baking or steaming squash.  Ken has made the first squash pie.  I have also been making hearty stews and bean dishes with meat.  Although the temperatures have not been that cold, the wind has been fierce.  Everyone - people and animals seem hungry.

This week we have rutabagas - a vegetable that people underrate - they are a nutritious member of the brassica family that are great boiled in soup, mashed with potatoes, baked au gratin or in filled pasties.  Turnips are another underrated vegetable - they, too are nutritious and tasty.  I like them cubed, boiled and served with cream or butter salt and pepper.

Daikon radish are a mild Japanese radish that is often used in soups, grated with sushi or salads, and pickled.  Ken and I like them sliced or grated with a bit of tamari.  They are a nice zippy addition to a cole slaw or cooked cabbage dish.

Sweet potatoes are a seasonal favorite.  We have not had enough to store in the past, nor had we found a way to cure them in 80 degrees after we dig them in fall.  I usually bake several and when we don't eat them all, I peel, slice in thick pieces and heat in a bit of butter just to when they start to caramelize.  Enjoy!

'Til Next Week, 
Judith