CSA Newsletter -- Week 13
Greetings All,
I hope you guys had a great Labor Day weekend! Everyone is officially back to school now!!
But enough with the small talk already- we have a lot to get to!! 🤣
This week we're going to be sending out the Fall Shares AND the Honey Shares!!! Everyone who signed up for either the Fall Shares or Honey Shares has already been notified via email that they should expect their Add-ons this week. Such an exciting time of the year!!
On top of our normal CSA Shares, Fall Shares & Honey Shares coming this week...
We have CHICKENS going to the butcher shop on Tuesday!!! This is the final batch of broiler chickens this season. We pasture them outside in mobile chicken coops, so it's not possible for us to raise more birds in the winter. This Tuesday will be bittersweet- as we've cared for chickens all summer long, several times a day. We're feeding, watering and moving the chicken tractors multiple times daily- so this will be a nice reprieve after they head to the butcher shop. The sad part is that we're realizing it's coming to an end- all the fresh produce & quality proteins; we're a seasonal farming operation, but we do a good job of stocking up and helping others stock for winter too!!
We successfully raised 3 batches of meat chickens this summer and I think it's safe to say we need more farm land, haha!!! Ben & I are dreaming up all these different ways to increase production because we can't keep up with demand using the limited space we have here. This type of livestock is very desirable; pasture raised, organic grains, no antibiotics/vax, it's exactly what we all want to eat year round. As CSA Members you'll be offered a pre-order for chickens in the spring and only Returning Members are eligible to buy the pre-ordered chicken. That's you, if you decide to sign up for another year of CSA Shares with us! The chickens we're bringing to the butcher shop on Tuesday will be available at the Farm Stand and the Fall Sale, which I am sharing a lot more about below!!
FALL GOODIES *Updated in the Online Store
For those of you who wanted to get some extra produce to go into the winter, without committing to the Fall Shares, this is a great opportunity!! You can order online through the website and then I'll deliver your extra boxes of produce alongside your CSA. We will not be delivering any extras this week (Sept 14th-16th), but will start with the extra harvesting next Monday the 21st. The plan is to send out your orders as soon as possible, unless I see a note saying otherwise. On each product in the store there is a note section so if you want to let us know anything or have special requests, you can put it in there and I'll see it! Quick note about the bushels of squash, please be as specific as possible. You're able to buy bushels of a specific variety, or a "mixed bushel" of squash, or you can select "Other" and then fill in the details in the notes. Some folks will write "half butternuts and half delicatas" or "4 acorn squash and the rest buttercups" for example. We want to get you what you want, so be as specific as you'd like and we'll get you what you want!!
One thing that I feel like we haven't talked about enough yet is storing the produce for long term storage or processing it for the freezer. Some of the produce varieties you can store in the basement (cool, dark place), while some produce varieties you need to store in the fridge. Others, you might want to store in the freezer so you have them indefinitely, so you're blanching and freezing veggies (some varieties don't need to be blanched though!).
I am going to attach the FALL STORAGE GUIDE below. This is what goes to all of our Fall Share Members, but I want to share it here with everyone, so you guys have the condensed version of storage of the fall crops- I want to make this easy for you!!
It took me a while but I got the website totally up to date with all the Fall Crops that you can order! I took a screen shot of the store today so you get the idea- lots of bulk crops!!
The online store is ready for you, if you're ready to stock up for the winter!!
The deadline for bulk sales will be the SUNDAY before the last CSA deliveries of the season- Sunday, September 27th. So we have some time but the sooner you submit your orders, the easiest it is for us to plan our harvesting :)
When it comes to getting Fall Crops- you have options!!! We have these extras that you can order to be delivered with your CSA... or you can come out to the Fall Sale here at the farm! The one nice thing is that if you order while we're still in the CSA season you know we won't run out of anything ;) However, the Fall Sale has a lot more to offer than what we can deliver with CSA Shares- check it out!!!
FALL SALE
We're having our annual sale at the farm on Saturday October 10th and Sunday October 11th! Both days we'll have the sale at the farm open from 9am-5pm. To get here, plug us into google and it'll bring you right to the farm.
Ahead of the Fall Sale, we'll go out and glean the fields. Gleaning is just a fancy way of saying "harvesting anything that's in the fields"! The point is we harvest anything out there that we don't want to get tilled under, anything saleable will come to the pole shed. We will also have a HUGE spread of heritage hog pork products and pastured chickens too!! We'll have parted birds and also whole birds, too.
The nice thing is folks can show up and buy a tray of carrots, or a whole box full, or anything inbetween. So it's not just bushels of produce, you can get as much or as little as you want!
We also have our hogs right in our front yard! So while we aren't able to give farm tours because Ben & I will be busy in the pole shed selling goodies, we do encourage folks to walk to the hogs and give them some treats! They're just right there, next to our house! We will have bins of greenery or un-saleable produce for you to give to the hogs too, they love produce!! We also have free-range laying hens here and a handful of kitties for the kids to chase around too ;)
This event is open to the public!! I have a whole event page for this on FB and a web page devoted to it, as well.
Tell your friends and make a day of it!!! 😘
Something worth noting, the LARGEST CORN MAZE IN THE WORLD is just a few short miles from our farm here. They also have food trucks there so if you want you could do lunch over there at Stony Brook Farm! So maybe you want to come visit the farm sale, go to that corn maze & get some food; you could make a whole day of the trip north! Also- I'd suggest taking highway 10 and getting on County Road 5 in Big Lake (right by kwik trip) because that road if you drive north goes right through the Sherburne National Wildlife refuge and offers a ton of trails and the fall colors at this time of year... my goodness it's beautiful!! Our driveway touches that same road, so if you take CR 5 north out of Big Lake by Kiwk Trip, the next turn you take is into our driveway, nice straight shot.
Farm Sales, hiking, corn mazes... It doesn't get much better than that! Just a few weeks away!! :) I'll be sending out some more info as it approaches too. It'll be separate from my weekly newsletters, as we have enough to fit in here already ;)
WHAT YOU CAN EXPECT IN YOUR CSA SHARES THIS WEEK:
Jumbo & Family Shares: Red Cabbage, Sweet Mama Squash, Mashed Potato Squash, Beets, Red Potatoes, Gypsy Peppers & Tomatoes!
Single Shares: Red Cabbage, Sweet Mama Squash, Mashed Potato Squash, Eggplant, Red Potatoes, Gypsy Peppers & Tomatoes!
Please note that we just started picking our new patches of zucchini and slicing cucumbers so you all have gotten those the past couple weeks. The plan was to flip flop them (since they're smaller patches) but now we're seeing the temps in the next couple weeks dropping off significantly so we're concerned that if we put it on the list, we might not be able to fulfill the commitment to getting them into your boxes. When the temps drop, these warm season crops stop putting out. Growth is slower, not to mention there are still pollinators around but they're not as active, their 'jobs' are changing in the hive as they approach winter.
So, Ben & I decided we're not going to put them on the CSA list but we're still going to try to plug them in these next few weeks. Quite frankly- this week's boxes are going to be so full I'm not sure if we'd even be able to fit them into the boxes. We'll try though, once we see what we're able to harvest 😊
Gypsy Peppers are coming again in your CSA boxes this week!! If you recall, the last time we had them in your CSAs they were all that light greenish color and now they're starting to ripen! The real trick is seeing all those peppers on the plants for weeks and not harvesting them. It's important because they have to be on the plant to start ripening and turning these brilliant colors with this awesome sweetness! All good food takes time!! Ripened peppers are sweeter too, so try slicing these into strips and dipping in some ranch as a healthy snack for your lunch box this week. This quality of sweet pepper only comes around in the fall!!
Red peppers will soften faster because there is more sugar in the pepper so make sure that you're keeping them in the fridge in some sort of Tupperware or bag.
These are a variety that you haven't seen yet. Farmer Ben's absolute favorite, the buttercups! It is very sweet and the flesh is perfect for making into baked goods. Just cut it in half with a big knife and scoop out the seeds. All these winter squashes can be baked the same way, just cook them until they're fork tender (like cooking a baked potato), which is about a half hour on a medium sized squash. If it's too hard to cut, consider popping it in the microwave for a minute or two at a time until it's softened a touch and it's easier to cut through. All of these winter squashes are HARD so you'll need to be careful when cutting them in half. That's part of the reason they last for so long (ahem, winter squash), they come with a protective skin!
Some folks like it plain but I would say that's the most popular way to enjoy buttercups is with butter and brown sugar in the center cavity. Consider using the seeds in the center to make yourself a little high-protein snack! Just rinse the seeds until there aren't membranes on them anymore and then I soak them in salt water for a little bit before cooking them. The most important thing is to spread them out so they're even on the pan, you don't want piles of them because they won't roast correctly. Single layer on a sheet pan and then I usually sprinkle salt over the top as well but you could spice it up and make a rosemary salt blend, use dry ranch seasoning, the options are limitless. I have actually frozen these in the past in small packages and taken them out for snacks too, they are still nice and crunchy when they come out of the freezer!! *I added a little blurp about squash seeds in the Fall Storage Guide I linked above!
Mashed Potato Squash! These are becoming some of our new favorites because the flesh isn't quite as sweet and it's a lighter colored flesh that really does taste like mashed potatoes! These are an acorn variety which is a naturally more dry squash, so they last longer than most of the buttercup varieties!!
TOMATOES:
For me personally, I'm never ready for tomato season to be over. We still have SO many tomatoes coming in that we've got a ton of canning tomatoes available and if anyone wants them delivered with their CSA, this will be the last week we're able to offer them because of all the extra orders we're sending out starting the 21st. So if you want to try your hand at freezing some tomatoes, now is the time ;) We'll be sending out romas and traditional slicing tomatoes this week, alternating whatever you got last week. We'll continue to flip-flop the tomatoes until we are running short on one variety or the other.
Beets
These are just for the Family & Jumbo Shares this week. We're planning for the Single Shares, next week! Remember that you can peel them before or after you cook them, but you'll for-sure want to peel these because the skins are thicker now that they're bigger beets. At this point in the season the greens are beat up- bug holes and they're weathered, you could even say tattered. Needless to say, no more beet greens this season, we'll top these from now on!
(Speaking of greens- we did trim back all the kale a couple weeks ago in hopes that it would grow back nice tender leaves, so we'll report back on that next week to see if it's ready to be harvested again before the end of the season!) Wash the beets and cut off any rootlets and any little bits of stems/leaves. Then wrap each one in tin foil tightly so it traps the steam inside while cooking the beets. Cook at 350 for about 25 minutes and then use a fork and see if they're done. It's just like a potato- if the fork slides in easily then they're cooked. At that point I usually leave them on the counter for a bit and unwrap the tin foil. Then after a few minutes I'll come back with a paper towel and the skins should come right off. That only works if you cover them to "steam" them in the tin foil though. If they're baked in a bigger dish you can do this but I would add a little water to the bottom of the pan (like a 9x13) so there is plenty of moisture in the pan to steam them.
WRAPPING IT UP:
I had to include a picture of our kids' first day! William is in 8th, Karli 7th and Kelsi 5th grade. They're all in the intermediate school and all the teachers now know they're related too- so they poke fun with nicknames for all the kids. I'm so thankful that the kids were so excited to get back to school and see their friends, it makes the first days back so much easier!
It's nice getting back into a better routine with the kids!
Also wanted to mention that my new stove is working great! My Dad was up to harvest honey last weekend and he hooked up my new stove while he was here. I was working in my office last weekend and explained I was going to "get to that later" and then by the time I got out of my office, he already had it installed and working! What a blessing to have parents who show up and help without even being asked, I really don't know what I would do without them! Side note- I think my Dad secretly didn't have enough confidence in me to hook it up all by myself while Ben was at the stand 🤣 that's love for yah, haha!
The only problem with the new stoves is that they have safety burners which has a pressure switch in the middle of the burner. So for example if the knob gets spun accidentally, the stove won't actually produce heat unless there is weight/pressure on that switch. It's a factory setting by the way, the Gal at Menards told me all the 4 burner stoves come with it now, a new regulation. I thought- that can't be so bad! Our kids don't cook much but I thought, that safety feature might be nice! The joke is on me though- because every jar that I can (salsa, pickles, hot sauce, jam etc) has go to in the water bath canner which is a big black pot where you submerge the jars in the boiling water which seals them by pushing out some of the air in the jar and creates the seal. Well, the canner has ridges on the bottom- it's not flat!!!!! So when I put it on the stove it has to be in the absolute perfect spot to trigger that burner, and don't even wiggle it or it'll go out!! Needless to say, I'll be researching some new burners from whirlpool. I was told they have replacement ones that don't have the pressure switch. First world problems!!
The golden tomato salsa went great! A couple weeks ago I mentioned that I was trying a new salsa recipe with golden tomatoes but I had to make sure it was shelf stable before selling any. Well, after making about 50# of salsa with the same recipe as the red tomatoes, I tested the pH and it came out the EXACT SAME!! I was not expecting that... but I think that's because I add apple cider vinegar as part of my recipe. That raises the acidity and it's shelf stable which I am very excited about because the golden tomato salsa is AWESOME. I actually liked it better than my traditional red salsa!!! I'll be making more of that soon so I will have a good stock pile for the Fall Sale.
If you recall, I mentioned about a month ago that I was racing against the clock to can enough for our family and for selling too. I got quite a bit done, but the kids are working against me!!! My pickles for example- I made a couple dozen jars for our kids already and we're down to just a couple jars left! Our youngest looks at a jar of pickles as a single serving 😬 Which is surprising considering her size, she's our peanut! OK one last quick side note... The watermelon dilemma- I am relieved to say that this week our watermelon distribution went a lot better. I also had a couple of brave folks own up to taking an extra watermelon on accident. Those messages gave me a lot of relief- it was on accident- not on purpose! Remember what I said about CSA Members being the best folks in society? I think it applied here perfectly... no one would have known who took the extra melons and yet they still told me about it, I imagine because they know it'd provide some relief. Only a good person would do that!! The theory has been tested and true.. It's going to be a big day for us tomorrow! We're going to be racing against the rain in the morning to get everything harvested because it's supposed to start at about 10am. We do have some big tents we'll set up so when we get the produce to the pack shed we won't have to wash it in the rain!
I feel so relieved now that I got the online store up and running with the new fall crops, I've got all of the back-of-house tasks straightened out and am ready for the next few weeks of crazy schedules and harvesting.
The Fall Harvest is officially here and we're ready for it!!! 🥰 XO The Farmer's Wife
