CSA Newsletter // Week 11

Greetings All!

I hope you guys are having a great Labor Day Weekend! I started the morning with feeding the hogs and getting their hoses run around for water. Then got everyone set up with their jobs for the day and what they're harvesting. Yes we have employees at our house every day of the week, at this time of year. My Mom & Dad are taking my kids to my Sister's in Nisswa and they're going to be harvesting wild rice this weekend, what a blessing to have family come and take my kids to do something so cool!

I am jealous they're going to go have fun without me, but I have a crew here today and I can't leave. I did say everyone can have Sunday (tomorrow) off but Monday we'll have a full roster here to harvest tomatoes and peppers; the list goes on! I also help Ben in the mornings as he loads up to go to the Farm Stand. Plenty to do right now- it's the busiest time of the season!! It's normal to be jealous of others' having fun but we'll have plenty of fun on the ice this winter :) Gotta make the most of our time while we are in the harvest season!!

QUICK REMINDER: CSA Shares are pushed back a day because of Labor Day! So Monday deliveries will be delivered Tuesday, and so forth. CSA pro-tip: add a reminder to your calendar now!

FARM STAND:

If you are headed through Zimmerman or on 169, we're just a little way off the main highway there at Hudson's Hardware Hank in the parking lot with our tables of veggies and freezer stocked full of fun heritage hog pork products, and we even have some chicken in there!!

HOURS for this weekend- Friday, Saturday 9-6, Sunday 9-5 and Monday 9-5!

@ Hudson's Hardware Hank in Zimmerman

The farm stand has been QUIET this season; we're at about 40% of our normal sales there which is a hard blow to take (because of road construction). They have had it completely blocked off all season basically, but the roundabout is NOW OPEN!! Which is so exciting!! The problem with the road construction is that we don't do any less work, we just make less money from sales with less people coming by. But that's farming for yah. You have to be a little bit crazy to do what we do, to say the least lol.

Like I said: it's the BUSIEST time of the year on the farm!!! Look at all these tomatoes:

This is such a fun time of year!!! All of my free time is basically like: what am I going to process for the off-season?! What do I even have time for?! Every waking minute is either working in the pack shed, the farm stand, with our livestock, or in the kitchen. There is no rest during tomato season because it's such a short and special time of year, we have to make the most of it!

I am still hanging in there, but I do have a lot of fatigue from the concussion, so I'm just trying to get a couple batches of salsa done by the end of the weekend, that would be a WIN. Whereas last season I canned over 100 jars Labor Day Weekend (because I sell it at the stand under my cottage foods license). So this year definitely looks a little different in some ways, but still plenty to be grateful for!! Maybe I'll have a chance to make some spaghetti sauce, we'll see what I can get to tomorrow.

If you want tomatoes for canning, NOW is a great time!! We'll have them for a few weeks yet but this season is fast and furious! The past couple weeks we've been harvesting almost all romas (which is why most of you have only gotten romas so far!) But now the bigger tomatoes are starting to ripen fairly quickly too- so you'll be seeing more of those in your Shares hopefully starting this week! We keep track of it so everyone will get hopefully 50/50 but the romas did set heavier than the traditional slicers this season. We'll do our best to get you guys good variety!!

If you want to get tomatoes, peppers or onions ordered, feel free to go into the online store and place your order there. You can even write on the note line if you want to order them now and write "don't deliver until Sept 15th" or something like that. The same can be done for peppers and onions too!

**Some of our CSA Members has inquired about the box sale and we will still be doing that as well. A couple weeks from now I'll make a store on our website where our Members can go and purchase boxes of onions, carrots, squash, # 2 apples, and more. So keep an eye out for that, just mentioning it here so ya'll know it's coming in the next couple weeks!

I wanted to let you guys know, the squash are all dying!!! Oh no!!!!! Just kidding. That's not a bad thing, contrary to popular belief. This time of year is when the greenery around these squash starts to die back naturally. They're pushing all of their energy into the squash for seed production and sugar in the squash! Not because a squash wants to taste good but because the seeds are more successful with germination with higher sugar content. Hence, the sweeter the squash, the better/ more successful their offspring will be! There are so many squashes that we get to look forward to this fall, but the one we're rolling out this week is the spaghetti squash!! I'll get you lots of into in the section below about these and how to use them in case you're not familiar with them.

Add-on Shares are available through the end of the weekend!!!!

The Fall Share has quantities of all sorts of root crops and squash varieties, along with the guide to explain each one and how to store the different varieties properly for long term storage in the pantry. Though some folks choose to can/freeze some of the produce, most can be kept successfully in a cold spot in the basement away from heat, by circulating air. We keep boxes of goods in our basement with a little fan on down here so the air is circulating. Stagnant isn't good. Keep your root crops away from the washer/dryer because changes in temp can cause them to spoil faster. Apple Shares- these are THE MOST popular by far. I'd guess about 30% of our Members get Apple Shares, some even get multiples because they're so good. You don't have to take my word for it, but you'll probably regret it if you don't, lol!

*Quick reminder that you do still get apples inside of your CSA Shares regardless of whether or not you order the extra box full of apples. You'll get Honey Crisps in your CSAs in a couple weeks and I would guess SweeTango apples the week after that, as well. It's all dependent what the orchard has for us, but he did just send me a pic yesterday and the yields look amazing!!

SHOP | Brown Family Farm

^^This is the farm store where you can select the produce, honey, or add-on shares that you want delivered with your normally scheduled CSA Shares! We want to make eating healthy as easy as possible for ya'll!!

WHAT YOU CAN EXPECT IN YOUR CSA SHARES THIS WEEK:

Jumbo & Family Shares: Sweet Corn, Spaghetti Squash, Red Potatoes, Bell Peppers, Tomatoes, & Jalapenos!

Single Shares: Sweet Corn, Spaghetti Squash, Red Potatoes, Bell Peppers & Tomatoes!

Remember last week when I was warning that this could be the end of zucchini and cukes? Well, that time has come my friends. The zucchini patches are producing about boxes instead of the average 30 that were coming out of there every harvest. The pickles and cukes are producing 3 bins or so, when at the peak they were at about 15. Needless to say, there isn't much left for us in those patches but we'll sneak some in if we have enough. Some of you might be happy to hear that they're finished but personally we eat them like candy around here so it's a real bummer. The good news is that we're rolling into the fall crops in full swing, so you'll start seeing a lot of fun varieties that are specific to fall that you haven't seen yet this season ;)

This is my favorite picture of spaghetti squash and shows the ripe squash on the left and the underripe squash on the right. These are always the first to ripen out of the winter squash family. They grow almost totally green with specks and then when they're ripening they turn a cream color and can vary from this to a bright yellow color. Scarring is often present on the outside (with all squash varieties) because as they grow and expand on the ground, there are rocks, roots, vegetation, etc. that can leave little marks on them. But winter squash has a thick shell that keeps the flesh protected and also earns it's reputation: WINTER SQUASH because they store into the winter for months without any super special conditions!

My sister left one of our pie pumpkins on her windowsill for 18 MONTHS, because her daughter painted it and we turned it into a science project basically lol. 18 months and she threw it away only because they were painting more to replace the one she kept on the counter for so long, haha! It didn't even soften, it was really hard still! Which again, is why these crops earn their reputation for storage capacity.

If you're not familiar, let's go over the spaghetti squash in a bit more detail. Squash comes in two main forms- winter squash and summer squash. The summer squash is zucchini and crook neck summer squash, the thinner skin squash that can go from flower to full size in a couple days (or overnight, as some claim, haha!). Zucchini is known for growing fast!

Winter squash on the other hand, is started in the spring and has been growing for months quietly in the background of the buzz around the farm here. They grow larger and larger until they start ripening which can be triggered by daylight hours, temperature or a combination of both factors. The vines naturally die off and the leaves get yellow and wilty. Eventually the patch will be bare of vegetation and all you can see is the squash sitting out in the field!

Winter squash comes in many forms and you'll get to see a lot of different varieties this season! We've got the classics like acorn squash, buttercup, butternut, etc and we've got some fun ones like the spaghetti squash, delicata, sweet dumpling, for example. One thing I need to make sure you know is that Spaghetti squash is different from every other type of squash out there because of it's texture. No other squash is like this one!!!!

Cut your spaghetti squash in half, scoop out the seeds and soft membranes that hold the seeds. Then use your hand (or a paper towel) and rub olive oil around on the inside of the squash. Salt & Pep. Place open face down on a baking sheet and cook for appx 30 minutes for a medium sized squash. It's done cooking when it's fork tender, meaning you should be able to stick a fork through it without any tension/ kind of like a potato.

Once you know it's done, flip it over so you can see the flesh and use your fork to run the length of the squash. There really isn't any way to 'mess this up'. By using the fork, you're creating little "spaghetti" noodles out of your squash. Every other type of squash is removed from the skin with a spoon; you just scoop the flesh out of the skin. Spaghetti squash is different because it's the ONLY squash that will result in this texture! You could use a butternut squash and use a fork, and it'd never turn out anything like this. These are unique!

Freshly dug red potatoes!!

These are not sorted by size in the field but we do try to make sure you get comparable sizes in your CSAs. We're not going to give you the biggest and the tiny potatoes; because we know that when you prepare them you might use those differently. The bigger ones are peeled and used in mashed potatoes for example, while the little ones are scrubbed up and put in tin foil on the grill. So just FYI we do care a lot about what goes into your boxes!

For short term usage, like these potatoes here, we hope you'll use these within a week or two. Just pop them in the fridge if you won't be able to use them soon, they will soften if left on the counter. But like most other things, if you're cooking it anyways it doesn't really matter if they soften a touch!

Bell Peppers and jalapenos!!!

These peppers are pretty straight forward and I assume most of you will skip right over reading this section anyways ;P But for those interested in storing them, keep them in a container in the fridge so they stay firm. If they're exposed to the circulating air in the fridge they'll soften pretty quickly within a couple days. If you know you won't have time to use them (hello, first week of school!), these are the easiest veggies to freeze! You don't have to blanch them at all. Just cut them up into whatever sized pieces you like. Personally, I freeze half bells and half onions and toss it all together so they're mixed in my freezer bags. Then when I go to make sloppy joes, tacos or fried potatoes, etc. I just toss in a handful of my pre-made mix and viola! Plus, we love onions and peppers together, so there really ever isn't an instance where I want just onions or just peppers. It's always both, lol!

My Mom always freezes some in bigger pieces because they'll use those for shishkabobs in the winter time or to cut up into strips for a pasta dish. I usually dice all of mine because that's what we'll actually use. Which brings me to a side story which is very important: The story of my dehydrated carrots.

WRAPPING IT UP:

Setting the story: Ben and I were still living in town in Big Lake with the kids in a little rambler and we were renting fields all over the place when we started our farm. When we first started farming we actually lived in an apartment in Zimmerman. I had just started down my healthy eating journey after realizing a lot more truths about our food and realized how much produce I could process to put away for the off season to save money (and benefit our health at the same time!). I wanted my kids to have the best and I knew we had lots of extra carrots at the time. So I figured I'd buy a dehydrator and use it to put up about 30# of carrots. I peeled them all and chopped them by hand and placed them on the trays to put into the dehydrator. I dehydrated for days and eventually filled a little mason jar with a fancy lid. I was so proud of my carrots, it took SO long! Gosh they were so pretty!! Fast forward to two seasons later and they were still just as pretty in my little fancy mason jar but they were not getting used. I had also frozen carrots, and I had a friend who gifted me some canned carrots. PLUS I kept a whole box full basically in the fridge for fresh eating too.. So, I wasn't using those pretty little carrots for my soups and stews or hotdishes like I had imagined I would. It was DAYS of processing and years of sitting on the shelf before I finally put them outside for the squirrels. The moral of the story: Don't process 30 pounds of anything until you know you're actually going to use it. If you're trying something new don't apply the "go big or go home" mindset. Start small. Start with little changes in your kitchen. Just like how we change our eating habits- start with small changes to find success! While it seemed like a great idea, it was really just a lesson that I needed to learn the hard way. The hardest lessons to learn are the easiest to remember. I've been saying this for years after my own personal experience... If you have to learn the hard way, you'll always remember the time spent, money invested, love lost, etc. I'm not here to tell you not to dehydrate carrots because we want you to eat healthy and these carrots are great for you! If you will use them, more power to you!! I was just explaining there are many ways to put up crops and you should preserve what you'll use... I just want you to spend your time wisely because at the end of the day that's all we have.

Time is the only unit of currency that actually holds any amount of value. How we spend our time says a lot about us. Lending your time to others' to help them with projects, taking Grandma flowers, taking care of your animals and spending a few extra minutes loving on your pup because you know they'll just roll over in awe of how much they love you.

Spend your time on something valuable this weekend. Time with your kids before the school year starts, calling a friend to check in and see how they're doing, driving over for a visit someone special, taking a walk outside to be thankful for the change of season... it's all valuable. And time well spent.

XO ~The Farmer's Wife