Harvest Newsletter

Greetings from the Garden!  This week's CSA box has greens. potatoes, parsnips, sun chokes, carrots, celery root, turnips, squash, onions, black radish,.

Field Notes.  We are in a transition time.Last week saw our first harvest from hoops rather than sunny windows in the house.  The greens are slower than usual this season as we have had some colder temperatures and less sunlight than most years.  

Ken has been wrapping up pottery making, maple syrup season and the felling and cutting of trees shading the garden.  We have been splitting and stacking wood for next winter.  The cool mornings have been perfect for this task.  

Much of farming is taking advantage of windows of opportunity.  Too cold to plant?  Cut wood.  Raining?  Work in the green house.  Ken is a master juggler of many diverse tasks and rarely drops a ball.

From the Kitchen.  This week starts sun choke season.  Sun chokes are also called Jerusalem artichokes - they are not related to artichokes and they are not from Jerusalem!  They are indigenous and related to sunflowers.  The tubers are a crunchy texture with a slightly nutty taste.  They contain inulin, a cousin to insulin, and therefore are good for blood sugar issues.  I just scrub making sure I remove any grit where the outside skin overlaps.They are good raw, wonderful pickled as they stay crunchy, and great in fast cook stir fry.  Warning: over cooked sun chokes become grey mush!  

I like to fast fry in hot oil or fat, add minced garlic and tamari or soy sauce just before serving.  Sun chokes are a great substitute in recipes that call for water chestnuts.  Enjoy

'Til Next Week, Judith and the Crew