The Farm’s Bedtime Ritual: Summer CSA ’16 ” Week #20

 In CSA Newsletter

The bedtime ritual at our house follows a similar pattern every night – hecticness followed by sweetness and appreciation.

First, the hectic. Herding all three children up for bedtime requires the mental deftness of a karate master who must shield herself from the bombardment of stall tactics thrown at her. Once upstairs, follows the seemingly ‘simple’ tasks of brushing teeth, taking a bath, going potty, and getting on pjs. But as any parent knows, children have a surprising capacity to bring chaos to these ‘simple’ tasks, despite their daily repetition.  Missing wash rags, soap in the eyes, the baby standing up in the tub, flossing little teeth, locating socks, brushing tangly hair. Oh the booby traps are many. But eventually, always eventually, the kids find the bed.

And then follows the sweetness of cuddling together and reading books to help beckon dreams.  Mixed throughout this sweet time, is my daily appreciation for these little beings.  The bedtime ritual is my time to hold them, hear them, smell their little heads and be thankful for another day with our girls on this earth.

The farm too has its own bedtime rituals this time of year.  And in many ways, the farm follows the flow of our family bedtime ritual –  hecticness followed by sweetness and appreciation.

The hectic part of this ritual is getting all of the food out of the ground and in to storage before the cold begins to damage it and/or before the ground is either too wet or too frozen to get the food out.  Even though we are having unseasonably warm daytime temperatures right now, we’ve already had two hard frosts. Booby traps if you will. This time of year we have to make judgement calls about what to harvest and when based on the threat of rain and the threat of frost.  Carrots can handle the hard frosts because they are underground, but the ground needs to be dry enough to use our equipment to get them out. Conversely, kohlrabi can be harvested when the ground is wet, but it gets damaged by frost. Lots of play calls get reversed, challenged, and reiussed this time of year.

Other parts of the bedtime ritual include planting cover crops and cleaning up the fields of plastic mulch and irrigation drip tape.

Right now we are still in the hectic part of the farm bedtime ritual, but in another 10 days, we’ll be over the hump. The fields will be mostly empty of food, bare soil planted into cover crop. The remaining tasks, like cleaning out equipment and winterizing well pumps, will take on a sweet feel. Kind of like tucking the blankets in.

Just like we get that chance to slow down and appreciate our kids at night, the farm season’s bedtime ritual allows us the time to appreciate.  While I try to be appreciative all the time, this time of year finds me fully present and thankful for having been able to farm another season on this earth. I am thankful for the sun and the rain, the soil and the seed, our crew, and you – our members. Together all these things make it possible for us to farm for a living. And for this, I am deeply grateful.

Thanks for your support this CSA season. It has truly been our pleasure to feed you, and we hope you’ll give us the chance to do it again.

Many well wishes for a warm and restful winter to you all.

Thank you,

Farmer Cassie

 

 

 

In the Box:

  • Beauty Heart Radish
  • Butternut Squash
  • Carrots
  • Colored Peppers
  • Garlic
  • Kale, Green Curly
  • Onion
  • Red Summercrisp
  • Sweet Potatoes

REGs only:

  • Broccoli Raab
  • Jalapeno Pepper
  • Kohlrabi

EOs only:

  • Celeriac
  • Joe Parker Pepper
  • Soup Celery

3 Meals to Use Your Box

  1. Chili –  Start with  basic recipe and add veggies like carrots, peppers, sweet Potatoes, celeriac, and Hot Peppers
  2. Kale Pesto & Roasted Butternut Squash
  3. Broccoli Raab & Kohlrabi Panini + Side salad with beauty heart radish and carrots and chopped soup celery

Additional Recipes

  1. Sweet Potato Parmesan Gratin
  2. Butternut Squash and Caramelized Onion Galette
  3. Roasted Sweet Peppers and Carrots with Orange and Hazelnuts
  4. Winter Squash and Vegetable Soup
  5. Cornbread with Jalapeno and Cheddar
  6. Mustardy Kale Salad with Bacon and Sweet Potatoes
  7. Tri-Pepper Salad

Wednesday, October 19th” Everyother Group B (Final Box)