BGF NEWS - August 15, 2023 - VOL. 50, NO. 10

IN THIS WEEK’S BOX:

Bean Mix: Empress (green) & Carson (yellow)

Celery: Tango

Cucumbers: Corinto, Generally, Lemon, Marketmore, Nokya or Sashimi 

Edamame: Biei

Eggplant: Orient Express, Asian Delight and/or Listada

Garlic: Northern White

Head Lettuce: asst.

Jubilee Cherry Tomato Mix: see 8/1 newsletter for descriptions

Peppers: Sweet, see descriptions below

Potatoes: Kennebec

Summer Squash: 8 Ball, Golden Glory, Patty Pan, Safari, Slik Pik, or Zephyr

Tomatoes: see 8/1 newsletter for descriptions

 

and perhaps one of the following:
Cantaloupe: Minnesota Midget

Okra: Bowling Red & Candle Fire

Herb It! option: Cardinal basil, peppermint & rosemary

Bread Share: Giant Cinnamon Rolls

Featured Recipes:

Greek Potatoes and Celery

Thai Sesame Edamame

Balsamic Tomato Salad (FarmHer recommended!)

WHAT’S UP ON THE FARM?

Precipitation in the past week: 0.05"

Week 10! It's hard to believe we are half way through the CSA season already. It always comes as a bit of a shock to me but here we are!

This week was ALL about potatoes! Well, not really, but it felt like it. We pushed hard to get all the remaining potatoes harvested before the rain, and then it didn't rain. Oh well, at least the crop is in, and what a crop it is! Given the drought and the fact that we don't irrigate potatoes we really expected a disappointing harvest. We were pleasantly surprised and honestly a little alarmed at what came in. Not only did the potatoes look good but we brought in 2,990 pounds, beating last year's total by 800 pounds!!  Holy potatoes, Batman! So needless to say, we are sending out potatoes this week, just so we don't have to store them all :)

We also harvested all of the onions and shallots for the season. Those weren't all quite as prolific as the potatoes, but it was a solid showing during a tough season. Now we just have to get them all cured so that we can store them.

We're pleased to report that the peppers are recovering from the hailstorms and we started harvesting ripe sweet peppers a little over a week ago. It's always a bit of a slow start but now that they are rolling it's time to meet the sweet peppers:

Ace- green to red bell, thin walled
Carmen-green to red Italian pepper (long, pointed)
Delite Mix-red, orange and yellow mini peppers

Escamillo-green to yellow Italian pepper (long, pointed)
Golden Star-big, thick-walled, blocky green to yellow bell 

Islander- purple to reddish-orange bell

Red Knight-large, thick walled green to red bell
Snowball-Ivory to red bell

The tomatoes, however, are still suffering from the hailstorms. 

You will likely notice cosmetic damage on the them again this week. We are sending out the best fruits we have, and this is it. Sadly the plants are showing disease stress from all the earlier hail damage so it will probably be a short tomato season. Enjoy them while you can!

A couple of other fun things heading out in boxes this week include edamame and celery! This is the best looking crop of edamame we've had in years and although they take a bit of work on your end, we hope you enjoy them. It's the first time we've grown traditional celery and we are very pleased with it so far. We think the taste is really wonderful, not the wishy-washy stuff you get in the grocery store, but also not so strongly flavored that you can't enjoy it plain as a snack. Don't forget that the leaves are useful too, use in place of parsley or cilantro in recipes.

A little detail on your produce this week:

Beans: Fresh beans are an easy "store." Just leave them in their plastic bag and keep them in the produce drawer. Can last up to 2 weeks.

Cantaloupe: If your cantaloupe seems a bit short of ripe, keep it at room temperature for a few days or until there is a sweet smell coming from the stem end. Once the melon ripens, store it in the refrigerator. It is best not to cut a cantaloupe until you are ready to eat it. If you need to return cut melon to the refrigerator, do not remove the seeds from the remaining sections as they keep the flesh from drying out. Use within 3-5 days.

Celery: Separate leaves and stems for best storage. Leaves (with thin stems) can be stored like herbs in a glass of water in your refrigerator or in a zip-top plastic bag. Main stems keep best wrapped in aluminum foil and placed in your crisper drawer.

Cucumber: Store unwashed cucumbers in a sealed plastic bag in the vegetable crisper bin for about a week. Keep cucumbers tucked far away from tomatoes, apples, and citrus—these give off ethylene gas that accelerates cucumber deterioration. You can do a lot of fancy things to the skin of a cucumber, but when it is young, fresh (and unwaxed), it really only needs to be thoroughly washed. However, if the skin seems tough or bitter you can remove it; if the seeds are bulky, slice the cucumber lengthwise and scoop them out.

Edamame: (vegetable or green soy beans): Store beans on or off the branches in a bag in the crisper drawer and use within 1 week.  To use, separate beans from branches and cook in salted, boiling water in the pods or shelled, depending on how you plan to use them. In case this is a new vegetable for you, the pods of edamame are not edible, so be sure to shell them before eating. The traditional way to enjoy them is to pull the cooked pod through your teeth, popping the beans into your mouth.

Eggplant: Eggplant prefers to be kept at about 50° F, which is warmer than most refrigerators and cooler than most kitchen counters. Wrap unwashed eggplant in a towel (not in plastic) to absorb any moisture and keep it in the vegetable bin of your refrigerator. Used within a week, it should still be fresh and mild. Many people like to peel, salt, and drain their eggplant to draw out any bitter flavor; however, bitterness develops only in eggplant that has been stored for a while, so with farm-fresh specimens this is generally not necessary. Many recipes call for salting in order to make the vegetable less watery and more absorbent—much like draining tofu. Salting is not an essential step, but it can greatly enhance the taste and texture of your dish and is well worth the extra effort. The shape of an eggplant determines how it is best prepared. Slice a straight, narrow eggplant into rounds for grilling or broiling, and cut a rounded, bulbous eggplant into cubes for stews and stir-fries.

Okra: These lovely, dark red, horn-shaped vegetables are a warm weather treat. Extremely cold sensitive, store in their plastic bag in the warmest part of your fridge, or place the plastic bag in a small paper sack and store in the crisper drawer and use within the week. Traditional southerners will cut into rounds, bread in cornmeal and fry, but our favorite version is our dear friend Annie's method, "All I do is rinse off the pods and lay them in a saucepan with a little water in the bottom. Ten to fifteen minutes is all it takes...twenty if the pods are really big and "woody" feeling. I put salt on them and eat as finger food. It reminds me of young sweet corn."

Peppers:  Place whole, unwashed peppers in a plastic bag, seal, and refrigerate for a week or more. Rinse peppers just before use. For sweet peppers, cut around the stem with a small knife and lift out the core. Slice down the side to open it up and then cut out the inner membranes. Store unused portions in a sealed bag or container in the refrigerator.

Potatoes: Keep unwashed potatoes in a cool, dark, dry place, such as a loosely closed paper bag in a cupboard. They will keep for weeks at room temperature, longer if you can provide their ideal temperature of 40 to 50 degrees. Beware: the low temperature of your refrigerator will convert the starch to sugars. So refrigerated potatoes should be brought to room temperature for at least 24 hours before using. Moisture causes potatoes to spoil, light turns them green, and proximity to onions causes them to sprout. (You can still use a potato that has sprouted, however; simply cut off the “eyes” before use.) Scrub potatoes well and cut off any sprouts or green skin. (Clean delicate new potatoes gently.) Peeling is a matter of preference. Cut potatoes according to your recipe. If baking a whole potato, be sure to prick the skin in at least a few places to allow steam to escape.

Summer Squash/Zucchini: Refrigerate unwashed zucchini and summer squash for up to a week and a half in a perforated plastic bag or in a sealed plastic container lined with a kitchen towel. These do not need to be peeled to use, just slice them up and go!

Tomatoes: always store whole tomatoes at room temperature, out of direct sunlight. Once cut, store in a sealed container in the refrigerator.

A few other details: All of your GREENS will keep best if stored in a plastic bag, with the top folded over and placed in the produce drawer of your refrigerator.

** NOTE: You will notice over the course of the season that some box contents listed above say "Perhaps one of the following..." These are items that we can’t harvest in sufficient quantities for the whole CSA to receive at one time. We do track who gets what and we will do our best to ensure that everyone eventually receives each item. On some items this may take several weeks, so please be patient.

Is a weekly newsletter not enough for you? Do you want to read more about our life on the farm and see more pictures? Follow us on Facebook at Blue Gate Farm or on Instagram at bluegatefarmfresh. CSA members can also connect with other BGF members to share recipes or ask questions on our FB community page at Blue Gate Farm Community.

That's about it for now.
If you have any questions or comments, be sure to let us know.

Best from the farm,
Jill & Sean (and the whole BGF crew)

BGF NEWS - June 28, 2022 - VOL. XLVIII, NO. 4

In this week’s box:

Baby Leeks

Celery: Chinese Pink

Choi: Beijing Express

Garlic Scapes

Ginger Mint

Head Lettuce

Kale Mix  (large mixed leaf bundle)

Snap Peas

Snow Peas

 

and perhaps one of the following: (please see **NOTE  after "A Little Detail..." below)

Cauliflower: Song

Cucumber: Marketmore or Suyo Long

Summer Squash: 8 Ball, Golden Glory, Slik Pik, Zephyr or Patty Pan.

For those with the Herb It! option: Genovese basil, bronze fennel, lemon thyme

Featured Recipes:  
Kale with Leeks

Pea and Mint Pesto

Grilled Garlic Scapes and Summer Squash/

What’s up on the farm?

Precipitation in the past week: 1.2"

Rain, sweet rain, was the theme last week! We got just exactly what we needed, just as the crops were really starting to ask for it. Perfect timing though it made for a very soggy Friday harvest!

Since we talked about the crops last week that were about to make an appearance, this week they are doing just that! We harvested the first of the cucumbers, summer squash and cauliflower this week and are sending them out into as many boxes as possible today. There won't be enough for everyone yet, but we promise to keep track and do our best to ensure that everyone gets all the offerings over the course of the season. 

We're pretty excited about some of the other items going out today as well. Beijing Express, is a new choi for us and the seed company recommends its use as a replacement for romaine in Cesar salads, which I though was interesting. 

Another crop that has come along nicely is our Chinese pink celery. It is such a beautiful celery and tasty too! It isn't really the kind of celery that you stuff with peanut butter, as the ribs are so fine, but it is lovely sliced on a salad or sautéed in butter and cooked with eggs or other vegetables. We hope you enjoy these new appearances this week.

Besides harvesting, the main tasks this past week were cultivating, cultivating & cultivating! Trying to stay ahead of the weeds this time of year is a never-ending battle. We also started pruning the tomatoes ahead of trellising them. We got a little over half-way through the nearly 900 plants. We hope to complete that task later this week so we can start trellising early next week.

A little detail on your produce this week:

Broccoli/Cauliflower: Wrap loosely in a plastic bag and keep it in the vegetable bin of your refrigerator for up to a week. Immediately before cooking, soak head down, in cold, salted water (1 teaspoon salt to a 8 cups of water) for 5 minutes. Any [organic] critters will float to the top where you can rescue them or allow them to suffer a salty death. (Note: If soaked in salt water before storing, it will become too rubbery and wilted to enjoy.) Slice the juicy, edible stems and use them wherever florets are called for. Peel particularly thick skin before using.

Celery: Store upright in a glass of water, loosely covered with a plastic bag, in the refrigerator.

Choi (a.k.a. - pac choi, bok choy or pok choy) is a member of the cabbage family and is a traditional Asian stir-fry vegetable.  Both the stems and leaves of choi can be used and are especially tasty in cooked recipes.  If cooking them, separate the leaves and stems, and begin cooking stems first to avoid overcooking the more tender greens. You can also use the leaves like any green-leafy vegetable and the stems like celery.  We tend to use choi leaves as a sandwich wrap, or just roughly chop the whole thing and sauté with garlic and/or onion.  Cook until stems are tender and dress with a little seasoned rice vinegar. Store choi loosely wrapped in a plastic bag in your produce drawer.

Cucumber: Store unwashed cucumbers wrapped in a cotton towel then in a sealed plastic bag in the vegetable crisper bin for about a week. Keep cucumbers tucked far away from tomatoes, apples, and citrus—these give off ethylene gas that accelerates cucumber deterioration. You can do a lot of fancy things to the skin of a cucumber, but when it is young, fresh (and unwaxed), it really only needs to be thoroughly washed. However, if the skin seems tough or bitter you can remove it; if the seeds are bulky, slice the cucumber lengthwise and scoop them out.

Garlic Scapes: One of our favorite crops of the year. These curly green things are the emerging flower stalk from a hardneck garlic plant. We remove them to redirect more of the plant's energy into the bulb, but it also provides us with a delightful fresh garlic treat. These keep very well in a plastic bag in your produce drawer and can be used in any recipe calling for garlic. They make a great pesto and can be minced and added to room-temperature butter, which is then stored in log shape, in the freezer for a last minute dollop of goodness for vegetables, breads or meat. We also enjoyed them tossed whole in olive oil and grilled as a side dish.

Herbs: Besides basil, most herbs keep best standing upright in a glass of water in your refrigerator with a loose plastic bag over the top. To use, simply pull a stem between your fingers and the leaves usually shear off. Chop with a sharp knife and add to your favorite recipes.

Leeks: Loosely wrap unwashed leeks in a plastic bag and store them in the vegetable bin of your refrigerator. They will keep for at least a week. Cut the leek about 1 inch above the white part, where the leaves begin changing from dark to light green. (Save the unused greens; they’ll give great flavor to your next vegetable stock.) Fan the leaves under running water to dislodge any dirt collected there, then pat thoroughly dry. You can julienne a leek by cutting it lengthwise, or slice it crosswise.

Peas: We grow snow peas (flat pod with little bumps showing immature peas inside) and sugar snap peas (rounded pods with mature peas inside).  Both have edible pods and can be used interchangeably in recipes.  They are particularly good in stir-fries and salads, though we tend to eat them fresh as a snack.  Peas keep best in their plastic container in the produce drawer of your refrigerator.

Summer Squash/Zucchini: Refrigerate unwashed zucchini and summer squash for up to a week and a half in a perforated plastic bag or in a sealed plastic container lined with a kitchen towel.

A few other details: All of your GREENS will keep best if stored in a plastic bag, with the top folded over and placed in the produce drawer of your refrigerator.  

** NOTE: You will notice over the course of the season that some box contents listed above say "Perhaps one of the following..."  These are items that we can’t harvest in sufficient quantities for the whole CSA to receive at one time.  We do track who gets what and we will do our best to ensure that everyone eventually receives each item.  On some items this may take several weeks, so please be patient.

Is a weekly newsletter not enough for you? Do you want to read more about our life on the farm and see more pictures? Follow us on Facebook at Blue Gate Farm or on Instagram at bluegatefarmfresh. CSA members can also connect with other BGF members to share recipes or ask questions on our FB community page at Blue Gate Farm Community.

That's about it for now.

If you have any questions or comments, be sure to let us know.

Best from the farm,

Jill & Sean (and the whole BGF crew)

Luci & Sky

BGF NEWS - June 29, 2021 - VOL. XLVII, NO. 5

In this week’s box:

Basil: (Sweet) Genovese or Lettuce Leaf

Celery: Chinese Pink 

Garlic Scapes, curly green bundle

Green-top Sweet Onions: Candy

Head Lettuce, assorted varieties

Napa Cabbage

Spinruts: young Hakurei turnips 

 and at least one of the following: (please see **NOTE  after "A Little Detail..." below)

Broccoli:(Gypsy) small, early heads

Cauliflower: Song

Snow Peas

Sugar Snap Peas

Summer Squash: 8 Ball (round, green), Golden Glory (yellow zucchini), Patty Pan (green or yellow, round scallop), Slik Pik (lt. yellow, long), Zephyr (yellow & light green)

For those with the Herb option: chocolate mint, lemon basil, & dill

Featured Recipes:  

Celery-Leaf Pesto

Overwhelmed with garlic scapes? Here's some ideas!

White Bean and Kale Ragout

Baked Onion Tops ** see recipe below
Cabbage Thing ** see recipe below

What’s up on the farm?

Precipitation in the past week: 0.8"

Thanks to the rains over the past 2 weeks, we are finally giving our irrigation system a break. Whenever it is dry enough, we are cultivating as fast as we can to try and stay ahead of the rain-energized weeds. It's a substantial challenge, and we have to remind ourselves that it is a marathon not a sprint. Besides waging war on weeds, our big accomplishment this past week was installing the trellising for our tomato plots. The high tunnels are pretty quick and easy, but the field tomatoes are a significant project. 

We install hundreds of posts and then run multiple layers of twine to support the tomatoes. Normally this involves a full day of really physical work, but the conditions were perfect and our crew is amazing, so we were done with time to spare...so we went and cultivated our El Norte plot. There might have been a few sore muscles the next day.

Baby cukes!

Now that summer has arrived in earnest, we are starting to see a change in the gardens as well. Early crops are finishing up and the mid-season crops are coming into production. We mentioned this last week, as we sent out the first of the summer squashes and more of those are going out in this week's delivery. We're also seeing fruit set on the cucumbers and the baby peppers, tomatoes and eggplants are growing in size. It will be several weeks before you see them in your boxes, but they'll be here before you know it. We do have some fun new things going into your boxes this week including Chinese Pink Celery, which we learned to love last year and a cool new cauliflower from China called 'Song'. This is a sprouting cauliflower, so it doesn't form a dense head like those you see in the grocery store. It forms little florets that are easy to cut apart and add into salads, stir-fries or as little nibbles on an appetizer tray. We think they are really cool, and hope you enjoy them in the coming weeks. 

Cauliflower 'Song'

We're also sending out the first of many basil bouquets. They are on the small side right now, as the basil plants are still growing, but we think basil is one of the true joys of summer. You can expect to see it return to your boxes about every 2 weeks, unless you signed up for Herb Share. Those folks get basil every week! 

Harvesting cherries

So what have we been doing with ourselves when the gardens are too wet for cultivating? Harvesting fruit! It's been a great year so far for mulberries, gooseberries, black raspberries and tart cherries. While we don't have enough of any of those crops to send in in CSA boxes, they are the stars of our jam business. We are thrilled to have lots of new and popular flavors back in our sales rotation. Check out our VegEmail orders if you are a jam-fan!

Crew Corner: Rebekah

"Blue Gate Farm: a place where vegetables and employees alike, THRIVE!!"

 

 It has taken me five seasons to come to terms with my wheel hoe. This tool has a huge impact on cutting down weeds and is easier on the crew than getting up and down from hands and knees.

A recent adventure for the crew has been berry picking in the cool, shady recesses of the forest area. It is a pleasant task that turns your fingers BRIGHT colors (and a tasty snack for the dogs if the berries should fall).  I am always amazed by the assortment of jams which Jill makes from all the fresh fruits on the farm.  Her customers are also quite smitten with them, as the jars in stock never last long.

A little detail on your produce this week:

Basil hates the cold and will turn black with exposure. Keep long stemmed basil in a glass/vase of water on your counter top (out of direct sunlight). Stems that are too short (trimmings/tops) should be placed in a plastic bag, with a dry paper towel. Then put inside of a paper bag (for insulation) and put in the warmest part of your refrigerator (usually the door) or on the top shelf towards the front.

Broccoli/Cauliflower: Wrap loosely in a plastic bag and keep it in the vegetable bin of your refrigerator for up to a week. Immediately before cooking, soak head down, in cold, salted water (1 teaspoon salt to a 8 cups of water) for 5 minutes. Any [organic] critters will float to the top where you can rescue them or allow them to suffer a salty death. (Note: If soaked in salt water before storing, it will become too rubbery and wilted to enjoy.) Slice the juicy, edible stems and use them wherever florets are called for. Peel particularly thick skin before using.

Celery: Store upright in a glass of water, loosely covered with a plastic bag, in the refrigerator.

Garlic Scapes: One of our favorite crops of the year. These curly green things are the emerging flower stalk from a hardneck garlic plant. We remove them to redirect more of the plant's energy into the bulb, but it also provides us with a delightful fresh garlic treat. These keep very well in a plastic bag in your produce drawer and can be used in any recipe calling for garlic. They would be perfect in last week's garlic salt recipe, make a great pesto and can be minced and added to room-temperature butter, which is then stored in log shape, in the freezer for a last minute dollop of goodness for vegetables, breads or meat.

Green-top onions: As you might note from their name, these are young, freshly pulled, uncured onions. They can be used as you would any onion, the difference is in the storage. Since they don't have a layer of dried skin to protect them, please store in a sealed bag or container in your refrigerator and plan to use within 2 weeks. As long as the greens are still fresh, you can use them like scallions, or try out the baked onion top recipe below!

Peas: 

We grow snow peas (flat pod with little bumps showing immature peas inside) and sugar snap peas (rounded pods with mature peas inside).  Both have edible pods and can be used interchangeably in recipes.  They are particularly good in stir-fries and salads, though we tend to eat them fresh as a snack.  Peas keep best in their plastic container in the produce drawer of your refrigerator.

Summer Squash/Zucchini: Refrigerate unwashed zucchini and summer squash for up to a week and a half in a perforated plastic bag or in a sealed plastic container lined with a kitchen towel.

All of your GREENS will keep best if stored in a plastic bag, with the top folded over and placed in the produce drawer of your refrigerator. Large leaf greens can benefit by being wrapped in a linen or cotton towel inside the bag if excess moisture is a concern.

** NOTE: You will notice over the course of the season that some box contents listed above say "Perhaps one of the following..."  These are items that we can’t harvest in sufficient quantities for the whole CSA to receive at one time.  We do track who gets what and we will do our best to ensure that everyone eventually receives each item.  On some items this may take several weeks, so please be patient.

Is a weekly newsletter not enough for you? Do you want to read more about our life on the farm and see more pictures? Follow us on Facebook at Blue Gate Farm or on Instagram at bluegatefarmfresh. CSA members can also connect with other BGF members to share recipes or ask questions on our FB community page at Blue Gate Farm Community.

That's about it for now. If you have any questions or comments, be sure to let us know.

Best from the farm,

Jill & Sean (and the whole BGF crew)

Indigo, Luci & Sky

Baked Green Onion Tops

from friends of the farm, Wendy & Roberta

We eat them as appetizers with cheese or use as an ingredient in eggs etc. Super simple and yummy too !!!

Use scissors to slice the tops uniformly  into rings so they cook evenly. Then coat the tops with olive oil. Add salt and pepper. Cook at 350 degrees for 10 - 20 minutes depending on the size and how crispy you want them. Enjoy

Cabbage Thing

4 strips of bacon, diced
2 celery stalks, thinly diced
Half of a head of cabbage (Napa or European) sliced somewhat thinly
half of a small onion, sliced
1 tbs sesame oil
2 tbs olive oil (optional)
salt and pepper to taste

 In a frying pan, sauté the bacon.  Cook thoroughly if using uncooked bacon, or just warm if using cooked bacon.

 If using cooked bacon, add 2 tbs of olive oil and 1 tbs of sesame oil.  If using uncooked bacon, just add the sesame oil. 

Add the celery and onion, sauté until softened.

Add the cabbage, and sauté for about 3-4 minutes, or until softened.

Season with salt and pepper, and serve hot.

 Recipe Source: www.beingfrugalbychoice.blogspot.com 

BGF NEWS - September 22 , 2020 - VOL. XLV, NO. 17

In this week’s box:

Baby Turnips: Hakurei

Celery: Chinese Pink

Garlic

Jubilee Cherry Tomato Mix (see 7/21 newsletter for details)

Kale: asst bouquets

Lettuce: Magenta or Muir

Peppers: asst. (see 8/11 newsletter for details)

Tomato: Slicers (see 7/28 newsletter for details)

Winter Squash: Acorn (Thelma Sanders) or Delicata

and perhaps one of the following: (please see **NOTE  after "A Little Detail...)     

Broccoli: Gypsy

Cauliflower: Goodman

Eggplant: Orient Express

Mini Bell Peppers: bite-sized, sweet red, yellow & orange peppers

Okra: Bowling Red and Candle Fire (final harvest)

Summer Squash: see descriptions in "A little detail"

For those with the Egg option [Full & Half Shares]: one dozen free-range eggs

For those with the Herb option: sweet basil, sorrel, savory

Featured Recipes:  

BGF New Favorite Kale Salad (recipe at the end of the 7/7/20 blog post)

Skillet Greens with Cumin and Tomatoes (use cherry tomatoes for this one)

Turnip and Cherry Tomato Salad 

What’s up on the farm?

 

Precipitation in the past week: 0.00" 

Happy Autumnal Equinox to you all! This is one of my favorite days of the year. I've always felt like it's the tipping point towards the "backside" backside of the calendar, a time of slower pace, hearty foods and crisp, clean air. It's a time of reflection on the farm, as we start looking back over the growing season to access our successes and our failures and to decide what crops, products and processes to keep or to retire. It quickly morphs into looking forward as we make our plans for next season and start placing seed and supply orders. It's also our wedding anniversary and this year marks 24 years of marriage for us. It's hard now to imagine what those crazy kids were thinking all those years ago, but it sure wasn't, "hey, let's move back to Iowa and become vegetable farmers!" And yet, here we are. No regrets, well, not many.

This past week we returned to our irrigating rotation. Our fall crops loved the nearly 3 inches of rain a couple weeks ago and are continuing to enjoy the cooler temperatures, but we are already dry on the soil surface with little to no rain in the forecast, so a-watering we will go! Last week we cleared more spent crops and transplanted chard and a couple beds of head lettuce, so the irrigation is particularly important for these new crops We also sowed some additional Asian greens and another planting of arugula.

In preparation for this week's delivery, we finally went out and harvested all the winter squash beds. I had been avoiding this task because we had a pretty disappointing squash year (after last year's bumper crop) with most of the plants dying off from insect pressure long before they could set a good crop. Once it was clear that those plots weren't going to produce much, we quit paying attention to them, so the weeds took over and served to hide the frustrating lack of squash. Well today was the day of truth, we waded into the tall grass to see what we could find. On some varieties, it was exactly what we expected, almost nothing. On a couple of others, it was an "ok" harvest. The crew did manage to get in one good round of their favorite annual farm game, Squash Your Boss!

"Squash the Boss"

So we are sending out some squash in today's boxes. They are good squash, but given their short plant life, I am not expecting them to store very long, so please plan to use then in the next couple of weeks.

We plan to spend the rest of the week clearing the high tunnel eggplant and tomatoes and getting those beds replanted with the final fall crops.

And speaking of "final" we've had some questions about the end of the CSA season, so here's the answer. The last CSA delivery of the season is scheduled to be on October 13th, so we have three more weeks after today. After that, you can order our produce and products via our weekly VegEmail deliveries through the end of October. Starting in November, we will move to bi-weekly deliveries that will continue throughout the winter until the start of the farmers market season.

And a final note, while we're on the subject of "the end." About two weeks ago we started seeing the first glimpses of purple flowers amongst all the fall yellows.

Frost flowers

Uh oh, those are New England asters, the plants my grandpa always called "frost flowers". He believed they were the indicators of frost and when you saw them blooming it meant the first frost would follow in two weeks. We've not found the "2 week" measurement to be particularly accurate, but they are indeed the harbingers of the end of the growing season.

A little detail on your produce this week:

Broccoli & Cauliflower: Wrap loosely in a plastic bag and keep it in the vegetable bin of your refrigerator for up to a week. Immediately before cooking, soak, head down, in cold, salted water (1 teaspoon salt to a 8 cups of water) for 5 minutes. Any [organic] critters will float to the top where you can rescue them or allow them to suffer a salty death. (Note: If you soak broccoli/cauliflower in salt water before storing, it will become too rubbery and too wilted to enjoy.) Slice the juicy, edible stems and use them wherever florets are called for. Peel particularly thick skin before using.

Carrots: These "mid-season" carrots are a little different than the candy-sweet gems of cool weather carrots. They are a little more strongly flavored, a little earthy. This makes them perfect for cooking and more complicated recipes, as some might not love them for fresh eating. Refrigerate dry, unwashed carrots in a plastic bag for two weeks or longer. Peel carrots or scrub carrots well with a stiff brush just before using. Trim off any green spots, which can taste bitter. When slicing or chopping carrots for cooking, be sure to make all the pieces relatively the same size; this will ensure an evenly cooked dish. 

Eggplant: Eggplant prefers to be kept at about 50° F, which is warmer than most refrigerators and cooler than most kitchen counters. Wrap unwashed eggplant in a towel (not in plastic) to absorb any moisture and keep it in the vegetable bin of your refrigerator. Used within a week, it should still be fresh and mild.  The shape of an eggplant determines how it is best prepared. Slice a straight, narrow eggplant into rounds for grilling or broiling, and cut a rounded, bulbous eggplant into cubes for stews and stir-fries.

Okra: These lovely, dark red, horn-shaped vegetables are a warm weather treat. Extremely cold sensitive, store in their plastic bag in the warmest part of your fridge, or place the plastic bag in a small paper sack and store in the crisper drawer and use within the week. Traditional southerners will cut into rounds, bread in cornmeal and fry, but our favorite version is our dear friend Annie's method, "All I do is rinse off the pods and lay them in a saucepan with a little water in the bottom. Ten to fifteen minutes is all it takes...twenty if the pods are really big and "woody" feeling. I put salt on them and eat as finger food. It reminds me of young sweet corn."

Peppers:  Place whole, unwashed peppers in a plastic bag, seal, and refrigerate for a week or more. Rinse peppers just before use. For sweet peppers, cut around the stem with a small knife and lift out the core. Slice down the side to open it up and then cut out the inner membranes. Store unused portions in a sealed bag or container in the refrigerator.

Scallions (green onions)- are best kept upright in a glass with about 1" of water in it, more like flowers than vegetables. Loosely cover the tops with plastic and you will be amazed at how long they will keep. We like to throw a handful of chopped scallions into nearly any savory dish, right near the end of the cooking time.

Summer Squash/Zucchini: Refrigerate unwashed zucchini and summer squash for up to a week and a half in a perforated plastic bag or in a sealed plastic container lined with a kitchen towel. These do not need to be peeled to use, just slice them up and go! Our varieties: 8 Ball (green,round), Golden Glory (bright yellow zucchini),  Patty Pan(scalloped white, green or yellow), Slik Pik (thin, yellow) or Zephyr (green & yellow)

Tomatoes:

 always store whole tomatoes at room temperature, out of direct sunlight. Once cut, store in a sealed container in the refrigerator.

Turnips: keep best if separated from their greens.  Greens are stored in a plastic bag and can be cooked like mustard or collard greens (you can add them in with your Braising Greens Mix).  Trimmed roots can go into a lidded container or zip-close bag. These aren't your grandma's turnips. These are a sweet, Japanese salad variety that is particularly tasty for fresh eating. They will still work great in cooked dishes, but we love to eat them raw, often right out of hand, like an apple. One of the farm crew's favorite mid-field snacks.

 Winter Squash:  Store winter squash in a cool, dry, dark place with good ventilation for up to a month, depending on the variety. Once squash has been cut, you can wrap the pieces in plastic and refrigerate them for five to seven days. To make it easier to prep winter squash for your recipe, try the prebaking method: pierce the squash to allow heat to escape while it is in the oven, then bake the squash whole at 350° F until it is just barely tender to the poke of the finger, 20 to 30 minutes. This softens the shell and makes cutting and peeling much easier. 

A few other details: All of your GREENS will keep best if stored in a plastic bag, with the top folded over and placed in the produce drawer of your refrigerator.  

** NOTE: You will notice over the course of the season that some box contents listed above say "Perhaps one of the following..."  These are items that we can’t harvest in sufficient quantities for the whole CSA to receive at one time.  We do track who gets what and we will do our best to ensure that everyone eventually receives each item.  On some items this may take several weeks, so please be patient.

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That’s about it this week, if you have any questions or comments be sure to let us know. 

Best from the farm,

Jill & Sean (and Luci, Indigo & Sky)

Indigo, Luci & Sky