Hello all,
I hope your weekend is going well! We wrapped up the weekend with a little field work; pulling tomato stakes and twine, and weeding the new lettuce patch.
Most CSA Share members will all have the same question at this time of year, “When is the CSA season over?”. Well folks, we still have 4 more weeks of deliveries! We will happily deliver your CSA Shares through the first week of October, Thursday October 5th will be the last delivery day. On the last week of CSA Shares, please make sure all of your CSA Share boxes are returned (bringing a reusable bag to empty box contents into is helpful) as we will collect them that week.
I know it’s hard to believe, but we will be starting to plow under some of our fields within the next few weeks as prep for the off season. We till under all the plant remnants from the season, and plant a winter cover crop of rye. We will be working with the Soil & Water Conservation District to incorporate some of their cover crop options as well, they suggest a mixture of grasses and root crops to hold topsoil and maintain nutrients overwinter.
A little housekeeping: Most CSA Share members have been diligent at returning their boxes this season, thank you! Thank you to all of our CSA Share site hosts, you are helping connect our communities with locally grown produce by providing a convenient pick up site at your home. To all members who pick up at residential sites, please make sure to collapse your CSA Share box and neatly stack it on the side of the pick-up area. We want these folks to offer to host again in the future.
This week in your CSA Share you can expect: Sweet Corn, Red Potatoes, Carrots, Acorn Squash, Red Cabbage, Bell Peppers, Pickles, and Fresh Dill!
The sweet corn is still sweet! In the first few weeks, you likely boiled it and ate corn on the cob. Well now that we are 13 weeks into the CSA Share season, you might be looking for a new way to use it. It could be cut off of the cob (after cooking it) and added to a casserole, chili, or added to a Pico de Gallo salsa to make it into a corn salsa. In the fall I like to blanch & freeze corn in serving sized bags so that in the winter I can get home-grown sweet corn taste. Blanching the corn is easy, place the cob in boiling water for about 3 minutes and then remove the cob and place it in an ice bath (to stop cooking process). Cut it off the cob and put it in a bag.
We plant our potatoes in several plantings so that they aren’t all giant by this time of the year. We are currently digging the last patch of red potatoes! They can be kept in a cool, dry place; it is unnecessary to refrigerate them.
Acorn Squash is the “classic” squash. It is the one that almost everyone can recognize at the farmer’s market because of it’s dark green color and unique shape. It is a favorite of many because of it’s approachable size- not too big and not too small. It is most commonly baked, but can be added to soup or pureed into many other dishes. I like to add squash to our mashed potatoes so that the kids can’t see they are eating squash, but they are getting the wonderful nutritional benefit of winter squash.
Red Cabbage is nutritionally superior to the green cabbage. The insoluble fiber from red cabbage is known to prevent constipation, and help relieve symptoms of gastrointestinal conditions such as IBS. Along with these benefits, the amount of vitamins is superior to the green cabbage. It can be used in red cabbage slaw, steamed cabbage, braised red cabbage, or simply eating it raw in salads. When cooking, red cabbage normally turns blue; if you want to retain the red color, add apple cider vinegar or acidic fruit to the pot.
Bell peppers are coming this week, we will try to have as many colors included as possible. There are a variety of colors that we grow, so just to clarify- any of the peppers in the shares this week will be bell peppers, even if you don’t recognize them right away.
Pickles and dill will be coming with the CSA Shares this week! This is a more specialty combination, using the two together is suggested but there are plenty of other ways to incorporate dill or pickles into your weekly schedule without having to make refrigerator pickles. Dill is also commonly used in soups and dishes containing poultry. If you don’t have a use for the dill this week, it can be frozen. Lightly wash the flowers and pat dry with a paper towel, place in a freezer bag and remove the air. The frozen dill can be used in substitute for any recipe requiring fresh dill.