CSA Newsletter: Summer 2010 – Week 16

 In CSA Newsletter

Community News: Just a few more weeks and then it’s party time at the farm! Have you marked your calender for Saturday, October 16th?  We’re hosting the party at our NEW pack-shed building at our HOME farm on County Road J in Cross Plains. (Click here for directions.) The party starts at 5pm. It’s a potluck and byobeer. We’ll provide cider and the music ” The Point Five Band. This band does a mix of rock and singer/songwriter tunes. A husband and wife duo do most of the singing and the harmonies are just beautiful! They’ll start playing around 6pm. After the band plays we hope to have a fire and create some music of our own. Feel free to bring an instrument if you play one.  This will be a party and there will be drinking€¦. so please consider camping out at our place as opposed to driving home. We’d love to have you!

As I wrote earlier, we are having the party in our NEW, BLUE packshed.  Mike and I are extremely excited to have this building project completed. We could not have done it without your membership in our CSA. You see, by joining our farm and paying up front, you enabled us to figure out our budget exactly.  Instead of guessing and estimating what our cash flow would be for the year and worrying that the project might go over or a crop would fail and we’d be without a way to pay, your membership gave us an exact number to work with. So much worry avoided! Your upfront membership also helped us finance the project a full season sooner!  THANK YOU for your support. We do hope you’ll come to the party and see the new building.

From the Fields: Everything started and ended so early this year. Our internal clocks are feeling a little out of whack. Usually there would be peppers, eggplant and tomatoes, but they are all done. Eggplant? What eggplant? Crazy year. Last year our CSA members were practically drowning in eggplant, and this year nothing. The plants are the tallest, most beautiful plants we ever seen€¦ row upon row€¦ and barely any fruit to speak of. A total mystery that we are still trying to figure out.  It’s a been a strange year weather wise, and a harsh one for diseases. When we are at the farmer’s market, it’s all we farmers can talk about! At least we know we’re not alone, but here’s hoping the natural world is a little nicer to us next year. The other talk of the market this last weekend was the hail on Friday night. We fared pretty well; the only damage on our crops is on the chard. You’ll see the chard in your box is full of holes and rips. Edible, but not very pretty.

Your Share: As promised, there are 3 new items this week: sweet potatoes, brussels sprouts, and delicata squash. Here are some notes about these new items:

  • Never had brussels sprouts? They are like tiny cabbages. You can clean off any outer leaves that need cleaning and use a knife to cut the base off the sprout. We like them best done simply€¦ cut in half and sauteed in butter. See this week’s recipes for more ideas.
  • Sweet Potatoes will store best in a dark, dry cabinet. If you want to store them for many weeks, wrap them up in newspaper to help them cure and keep longer.
  • Delicata squash is one of several different kinds of squash you’ll receive. To cook winter squash you can cut it and half, scoop out the seeds and roast it OR you can peel it, cube it, and boil it.  I love winter squash best in soups and curries.

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

p.s. REGs, You have to try the roasted green beans recipe. IT’S AWESOME!

In The Box:

  • Bok Choi
  • Brussels Sprouts
  • Cabbage ” EOs
  • Chard
  • Delicata Squash
  • Garlic
  • Green Beans – REGs
  • Leeks ” EOs
  • Parsley, Curly
  • Radishes
  • Romaine Lettuce
  • Sweet Potatoes
  • Yellow Onion – REGs

REGs = Regular Shares Only
EOs = Everyother Shares Only

This Week’s Recipes

Summer Week 16: Wednesday, September 22nd – Everyother Group B