Harvest Newsletter

Mobile high tunnel in its winter location

Greetings from the Garden!  This week's CSA box has greens - lettuce, spinach, salad and braising greens, cabbage, carrots,  parsnips, a rutabaga, leeks, the first potatoes, parsley,  pie pumpkins, and salad turnips

Field Notes.  Let the digging begin.  Each fall Ken starts what I call the big dig.  He is usually out in the field and I am in the root cellar storing the roots for the winter.  We are committed to eating from our farm year around and offering vegetables year around.  

This fall we are seeing dramatically lower yield in several crops due to weather - fewer and smaller squash, smaller onions, fewer potatoes, and the list goes on.  The weather did not only affect this farm - while in co-ops in the area and in the Twin Cities, we see smaller and more expensive produce from most of the local farms that have been growing for many decades.
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During these beautiful fall days we are grateful for the weather, and the food we have to harvest and to you, our loyal members.  Thank you

From the Kitchen.  Pie pumpkins are part of my New England tradition.  Most years we only have enough to send out around Thanksgiving, but this year the pumpkins did MUCH better than the squash!  So consider using a sweet pumpkin in lieu of squash in your recipes.  They tend to be sweet and a bit juicier than squash.. I bake them, serve them like squash as a side dish, and then scoop any remaining flesh for a second meal -  I also like to toast nuts in a skillet, add some butter and add the cooked pumpkin to warm and absorb the butter.  The nuts give it a rich flavor.  Of course the cooked flesh is also great in quick bread, cookies or pie.

Salad turnips are so lovely in the cool weather of the fall.  I like them in salads, but they are also delicious cooked.  I add the highly nutritious greens to braising mixes.  Years ago I read the greens have even more nutrition than the roots!

Leeks and potatoes - the perfect soup.  Clean leeks by slicing lengthwise and rinsing.  Saute,  Add soup stock and peeled potatoes.  Simmer.  Run through a food mill, food processor, or blender.  Add  some cream or yogurt and a spring of parley before serving.  Great hot or cold.
'Til Next Week, Judith