Winter CSA 2010: Delivery #2

 In CSA Newsletter

Welcome to delivery #2 of the  winter share. This week’s delivery is for regular members only. If you haven’t made it through your veggies from the first delivery yet, don’t worry! Except for your greens, all of the vegetables will store for quite a long time. It is our intention to feed you through these months, as well as get you stocked up a bit for after the holidays.

From the Fields: Monday afternoon was quite exciting at the home farm this week. We pulled the plastic up over the new greenhouse! With just a little more electrical work and a heater installation, our new greenhouse will be ready for starting plants come March 1st.  We can’t tell you how thrilled we are that our baby plants will be a few steps away from our door this spring€¦ no more driving to the Pioneer road farm three times a day to water. Yahoo!

Your Share: This time of year the items in your share will look very similar from delivery to delivery. There are a few new items this time: kohlrabi, delicata squash, parsnips, and fingerling potatoes. All of these items are best stored in a plastic bag in the fridge, except the squash. You can store your delicata just as you do other winter squash ” dark, dry, cool.

  • Delicata is a sweet squash and is fairly creamy. It’s not as creamy as a butternut, much smoother than an acorn. The skin is also edible, so it can be very easy to prepare! It has the shortest storage life of the winter squash€¦ so plan to eat this one before your others.
  • Kohlrabi is the mini spaceship vegetable in your box. It is the light green color of broccoli stalk. Kohlrabi is wonderful for fresh eating. Its texture is crunchy like a radish, but its taste is much sweeter. You can julienne kohlrabi and dip it, or you can slice it up thinly on a sandwich.  See this week’s recipes.
  • Fingerling potatoes are much smaller potatoes with varying sizes and oblong shapes. Restaurants covet them for their creaminess. They are best in dishes where the fingerling is the star€¦ roasted or mashed. If they are cooked in with other things, like in casseroles or curries, their creamy quality is overshadowed.
  • Parsnips are a real autumn treat. These vegetables take the entire season long to mature, and get sweeter as the weather gets frostier. Roasting them really brings out their sugars.

Community News: As the weather cools and the fields are almost empty of food, our season of community work begins. We serve on various boards and committees focused on local food issues, and now begins when we do much of that work.

The Farley Center. We serve on the advisory committee for this wonderful organization. One of the projects they are working on is called €˜land link’. In Dane County there are many landowners who own tillable land, but aren’t farming it. Meanwhile, in the Hmong community especially, there are many farmers who don’t have access to tillable land. This project aims to link land and farmers. If you, or someone you know, has land that could be farmed, please do let me know, or contact the Farley Center directly. Main contact = Janet Parker.

Westside Community Farmer’s Market (WCM). Currently there is no winter home for the vendors who sell at the WCM. We are looking for a large, warm space for vendors to continue selling to the community. Think community room, church basement, heated parking garage€¦. If you have an idea for a space near our Segoe/Sheboygan space, please share!

Volunteer work. During the summer we donate lots of food to area pantries. In the winter we look to do more . Right now Zea and I are delivering meals to seniors in the Mt. Horeb area everyother week. The Senior Center there is actually flush with volunteers€¦ so we’re looking to volunteer elsewhere as well. If there is a group you know of (preferably westside) that could use the help of a mom and baby, please send us your idea.

Enjoy your veggies!  Sincerely, Mike, Cassie, Zea and crew

In Your Share:

  • Acorn Squash
  • Beauty Heart Radish
  • Bok Choi
  • Brussels Sprouts
  • Butternut Squash
  • Carrots
  • Celeriac
  • Delicata Squash
  • Garlic
  • Head Lettuce
  • Kale
  • Kohlrabi
  • Onion (Yellow and Red)
  • Parsnips
  • Potatoes (Fingerling)
  • Spinach
  • Sweet Potatoes
  • Tatsoi

REGs and EO’s boxes will all be the same.  EO’s only pickup on delivery #1 & #3.

Recipes

Delivery #2: Wednesday, November 17th ” REGULARS ONLY Pick-Up