CSA Newsletter

Greetings from the Garden!  This box has salad mix, carrots, beets, potatoes, squash, potato onions, celeriac - celery root, shallots, garlic, and parsley

Field Notes.  Work here continues around the weather.  Ken has been watching for the snow melt and ground thaw so we can dig parsnips.  This is later than most years. We just had a week of warm weather and now a week of colder nights. We plan to have spring dug roots in the next box - parsnips, sunchokes, etc. Ken has been repairing hoopettes that came down during heavy snow.  And he has been planting and transplanting in the greenhouses.  One is full and one is nearly full.

Ken has also been out trimming apple trees.  He started on the ground with snow shoes.  He was happy that he could start with the deep snow as that meant he could reach higher up in the trees from the ground.  Then when we had some nice weather he got the ladder out and now is nearly done.  Trimming unproductive branches allows the tree to focus energy on productive ones.  Cutting to allow space between branches allows the leaves to get maximum sunlight.

From the Kitchen.  I have been moving into spring.  On cool mornings I light the cook stove.  On the few warm mornings we have had I use the gas stove.  We have been eating eggs as it is egg season.  We sell both chicken and goose eggs.  Ken bought some smoked fish and I have made omelettes with some sauteed onion, grated cheese and smoked fish. I also make custards and quiche.

The potato onions are not true shallots.  They grow like potatoes - you plant a bulb and then harvest a clump.  their flavor is milder than a shallot.  I use them in place of storage onions or shallots.  We grow them as they fill a gap on years like this when cool spring weather stalls out the green onions.  

When this last cool spell started I have been cooking carrots with ginger.  The ginger is a warming herb.  I have been cooking beets, slipping the skins and then slicing into warm butter and ground fennel seeds.  Fennel seeds are a good digestive aid herb.  This is the time of year I work to come up with new ways to dress up familiar food.