CSA Newslettter

Greetings from the Garden!  This box has sweet potatoes, leeks, potatoes, celery, beets, parsnips, rutabagas, baby cabbage, greens like kale or chard, lettuce, and arugula, sage, and pie pumpkins.

  
Field Notes.  The mad dash is on to finish up all the fall tasks.  Ken and Loyal are pulling roots for me to bury in sand in the root cellar. They also moved the mobile high tunnel to its late fall and winter location.  Although it has been empty for about a week, they were waiting in hope of rain for the soil before they covered it with a greenhouse.  No such luck this time.  And the irrigation pond is dry.  So water will have to be brought in to transplant seedlings.  Ken has also held off to do field work as the soil is so dry.  Soon we will planting garlic and green manures even if the rains do not come.

There is progress on the heavy equipment work to expand the irrigation pond by the mobile high tunnel and new dam and pond by the garden. 

Farmall

Ken also got his favorite tractor back from repairs.  It is a Farmall B - a small tractor about 1937 vintage with a crank start - no battery to replace.  It is a smaller 18 horse power tractor with a narrow front end. The front and two back wheels are equidistant.  It is amazingly how easy it is to maneuver.  It works for most of the jobs here, and uses much less fuel than the larger 1950's vintage Massey Ferguson 65's with 55 horsepower.  

Massey

We don't use tractors as much as most farms - most of Ken's work is done with hand tools.  Tractors are used in moving components of compost, hauling roots from field to packing area and moving the egg mobile. 

The goats browsing

Loyal

Loyal and his animals are settling in here.  He has brought two goats, Mangalitsa pigs, an old breed from Austria known for chacuterie, and three rabbits. 

Mangalitsa

From the Kitchen.  With rapid shifts in weather I have been alternating slow oven cooked meals with quick cook summer like fare.  I have been doing lots of cabbage in cream or cheese sauce - saute onion or leek, add chopped cabbage, a bit of flour, milk or cream and then cheese.  I vary this with different cheeses, herbs and spices.

pie pumpkins

Today's box has pie pumpkins.  I alwys try to have them in the boxes before Halloween.  These are not jack o' lantern pumpkins, but great to use for pies, pumpkin breads or soups.  Cut out the cap, scoop out the seeds, and either reset the cap and bake or cut into pieces and steam to tender.  Ken uses squash, pumpkin and sweet potato or a combination for pie.

These tiny cabbage are more of a salad quality rather than most fall cabbage that is better cooked or made into sauerkraut.  Enjoy it any way you would prepare a summer cabbage - stir fry or cole slaw.

Sage is a delicious fall herb that is best when sealed in - like in egg dishes or traditional poultry stuffing.  I recently added sage to some biscuits to go with a stew for supper - delicious.  They are also good in dumplings.

Til Next Week, 
Judith