What’s in the box?
broccoli
salad mix with spinach
Carnival Winter Squash (the spotted one) and/or Thelma Sanders Winter Squash (the tan one)
parsley
potatoes
turnips with tops
leeks
garlic
a final cabbage….
A few notes on the box…
Amazing what some dry weather and sunny days will do in the fall.
This carnival winter squash and Thelma Sanders can be enjoyed the same as you would the Acorn type. Carnival is just more festive! and Thelma Sanders is an heirloom.
We put the spinach in with the salad mix because it didn’t size up fast enough to amount ot much on it’s own. Makes for an extra tasty salad, though. To be sure your salad mix is grit free: 1)fill your sink with cold water. 2)put the salad mix in the water. 3)slosh it around gently and allow it to sit for a few minutes to let the dirt settle to the bottom of the sink. 4) place sald into colander to drain shaking it gently or give it a whirl in your salad spinner. 5)enjoy!
Turnips and radishes store for a long time if you remove the tops and keep them in a plastic bag. Cube up the turnips and potatoes and cook them along with a roast. They can also be mashed with potatoes or alone or made into a gratain. OR try the amazing recipe below that Jenna made for our lunch…
The final cabbage. sigh. I know a lot of folks have been overwhelmed with this veggie, but our brussel sprouts didn’t make it this season… The good thing about this variety in particular is that it is a storage cabbage. That means it will hold in your fridge for a long long long time. Perhaps until you are craving some brats stewed in thinly sliced and steamed cabbage with onions? And don’t forget, cabbage it a miracle, it has been known to dissolve tumors.
We soaked the broccoli in cold water for a long time to get the little looper worms to let go. If you still happen to have any on your broccoli, our apolologies. They won’t hurt you, but they might gross you out. Try Soaking them again in a sink of cold water and aggitating them to shake them loose. The way we look at it is this, you either get a few worms or a dose of chemicals. Who needs an Organic certification agency when you have worms hu? Store the broccoli in a plastic bag in the fridge. When you are ready to eat it, be sure to cut up the stalks and include that part as well. It will stretch your broccoli and it tastes great! If you have too much broccoli to get through… chop, steam gently, allow to cool, then freeze it in a freezer bag.
Recipes
Jenna’s Amazing Turnip Rock Last box lunch
Wash then cube your turnips. Place in a pot with a little bit of water and leeks, and bring to a simmer. You have two options for adding the squash. you can peel it then cut it in half and remove the seeds, then cube it and add it to the turnips. Otherwise, roast your squash then scrape it out and add it to the already tender turnips. Its a sweet and tender mash of squash and turnips.
Farmers musing on the season……
So since it is the final box and we have heard a lot of your opinons of how the season went. We thought it would only be fair to give our assesment of the 19 weeks of produce. Although we have been at this for over 6 years on our own and between two different locations, We still are learning A LOT. Every season has it’s own unique challenges. Right when you think you have tomatoes figured out, the varieties to choose, how to trellis 6000 plants, the various insects and disease that want to kill them. There always seems to be something else that comes down the line that makes you go, OH, I’ve never had that happen before. So now we have to learn about that (i.e. record heat and rainfall) On down the line…. We really try to stray away from the moaning and groaning about the weather, and just roll with the punches and over plant and keep planting. which in it self in daunting and overwhelming.
But in summary, the Spring was great on many counts,we felt we really pulled out the stuff we wanted to feature in the boxes, like the spinach and head lettuce, and broccoli. But the as the summer progressed things did get more challenging weather wise and really made for a touch and go late summer/ fall. But all told we feel like we came close to what we had planned. Even though we had a whole list of crops fail or be comprimised because of the weather.
SO… here is what we are going to do about.
1 raised beds. a lot of the dying off we experienced in the fields was because of low spots. We are going to raise up the beds we plant into and this will help with many different aspects of vegetable growth. Less wash out potential, and more even all around yields (hopefully)
2 greenhouses for a more sure summer crops and earlier/later spring and fall crops
3 take into account the suggestions and adjust planting accordingly. i.e.. many of you don’t want so much cabbage, so we are kicking around a take it or leave it option at your dropsites. So when we do have these ‘on the fence crops’ where half want it and half don’t you can take it from the dropsite box or leave for someone else. We always are aware the more options and flexability are a plus, so we accomodate as much as we can with moving delivery dates around and what not.
4 we will have pork available from our farm next spring in a ‘pork sampler’ package of 15-20 lbs for just 5$ lb. bacon, chops, hams, roasts, ribs, what’s not to like. and an egg share option
On the farm……
as I write this we are having the greatest farm experience ever. A home birth of our first baby boy.
thanks for all your support… Hope to see you next season.
2010 crew; jenna, kate, rama, josh, abbie, nick
radishes
60 miles per hour wind blew over our chicken coop! whoops! Don’t worry, the chickens were all okay and the coop should be righted and will be fine as well.
