This Week’s Share
Carrots
Choi
Dill
Fennel
Garlic
Kale
Leeks
Peppers
Pumpkins
Tomatoes
Carrots – Seems like they just keep getting sweeter. Full of beta-carotene they should help your early morning commute, but please continue using your headlights, there are non-CSA members on the road too.
Choi – These heads of Mei Qing choi are oh, so juicy. Nice in a quick stir fry, or raw as a celery substitute snack smothered in peanut butter.
Dill – A plant whose name is derived from the Norse word ‘dylla’ meaning ‘to soothe’ can be placed over your closed tired eyes to help you sleep soundly. Dill goes great baked with salmon, crushed garlic, thinly sliced bulb fennel, and lemon juice.
Fennel – Bulb fennel is perfect quickly sautéed with apples and served along side a dish that is just a bit salty like sausage, bacon, or smoked salmon.
Garlic – A timely share item for both keeping colds at bay and heating up dinners on these colder fall nights. If you feel like you are getting a cold or the flu try adding one crushed clove of garlic, a tablespoon each of lemon juice and honey to some hot water and sip away.
Kale – The variety in your share is Lacinato kale. Try sautéed with onions and garlic until tender and then serve with some apple cider vinegar, baked beans, corn bread and mashed pumpkin for a nice vegetarian comfort meal.
Leeks – With a climate very similar to our own, France is the world’s leader in leek production, but they have nothing on these blue leaved beauties grown right here at SIO. I can feel my ankles swelling with pride, an equivalent French expression to our “someone’s getting a big head”.
Peppers – This week’s mix of sweet and hot peppers will work great in any Mexican cuisine. Hot peppers will include cayennes and jalapenos. If you can not use all your jalapenos try dicing and freezing. Peppers will be in your shares until our first frost.
Pumpkins – Pumpkins are named after a Greek word meaning mushroom and short for its original North American name “askutasquash” not to be confused with sasquatch. This variety, Snack Jack, has hull less seeds which make great toasted pepitas full of linoleic and oleic acid, protein, vitamin E, iron, zinc, and selenium.
Tomatoes – A last one or two tomatoes will be in this week’s share, savor them on a tomato, mayo, dill sandwich. We say farewell to tomatoes until next summer.
Note- Although Hakurei turnips are in the photo above they will not be in your share this week. The bed we were to harvest from had much more disease and pest damage then we previously thought; making most of the turnips unusable.
Recipes
Pumpkin Pie
Adapted from Southernfood.about.com
1 1/4 cups pumpkin puree
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon all-purpose flour
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 cup evaporated milk, undiluted
2 tablespoons water
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 unbaked pastry shell (9-inch)
Combine pumpkin, sugar, salt, spices, and flour in a medium mixing bowl. Add eggs; mix well. Add evaporated milk, water, and vanilla; mix well. Pour into pastry-lined pie pan. Bake at 400° for 15 minutes; reduce heat to 350° and bake about 35 minutes longer, or until center is set.
Pumpkin Kibbeh
Adapted from chowhound.com
2 cups mashed pumpkin or squash
1 cups fine bulgur (soak in boiling water, drain before adding 2 tsp salt)
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1 teaspoon coriander
1 teaspoon allspice
3/4 teaspoon cumin
1/4 teaspoon cayenne
1 medium onion chopped
4 cloves garlic
1/2 cup flour
Olive oil (for greasing)
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Place the pumpkin, bulgur, salt, pepper, coriander, allspice, cumin, cayenne, onion, garlic, and flour in a food processor until thoroughly blended. (Alternatively, in a large bowl mix all these ingredients by hand.) Taste for seasoning and add more salt or spices as required. If the mixture seems too moist, add a little bit more flour and mix it in.
Grease an 8-inch square pan with olive oil. Pour the mixture into it, smooth the surface and pour a tablespoon of olive oil over the top. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until the surface looks dry. (The inside will be moist.) Alternatively you can form the mixture into 2-inch patties and fry them in olive oil.
From the Fields
This last week we received close to 2 inches of rain on the farm which really halted tractor work for a bit. So it turned out to be a week of scheduled tractor and farm vehicle maintenance. Even so, the crew dodged raindrops and pulled in a great harvest. Inside the dry barn garlic heads were ‘popped’ into individual cloves to be used as seed. Beds have been ready for the garlic planting, and the forecast looks favorable for them to dry out a bit and get planted this week. The Hay Grove high tunnels were vented during those gusty days and still remain standing. That is great news for all of us, especially for the new salad greens just transplanted under them. A minor accomplishment was bringing a pick-up truck load of used tractor motor oil and filters to the metro waste transfer station. The employees there are really interesting and full of great information and suggestions to make all of our operations even more environmentally friendly. Please visit them often with any of your household hazardous wastes. I was very pleased and a quite proud that we have absolutely no pesticide or herbicide waste, it is very rewarding knowing that the food we grow is indeed grown in a very healthy way. Thank you, shareholders for choosing our farm and for keeping our working conditions safe.
CSA Pick-up Note
There have already been a few questions about the Thanksgiving week pick-up. So mark your calendars because for the week of Thanksgiving all pick-ups take place on Tuesday November 20th- same time and place just a different day for many of you. This allows everyone to get their produce in a timely manner for the holiday and allows our crew to enjoy the holiday with friends and family.