In Your Share This Week

• Beets, baby mix
• Cabbage
• Carrot, mix
• Celeriac
• Kale, mix
• Onions, Cortland
• Radicchio
• Winter Squash, Butternut & Delicata

Beet, baby mix: We gave you a bag of mixed baby beets that includes red, gold, and Chioggia varieties. The mix is primarily red beets, and the size is great for roasting in halves or boiling whole.

Cabbage: These lovely green cabbages are a type known as a ‘semi-savoy’, which means they have a slightly more crinkled in texture than what you may typically think of when you envision green cabbage. It also a flatter, squat shape, but it still cooks and tastes like a regular green cabbage. We love this type of cabbage because it holds so well in the field through all types of weather conditions, including ice, frost, rain, wind, and heat.

Carrot, mix: This week we blended our standard orange carrots with a purple-skinned variety called ‘Dragon’. Both are tasty either raw or cooked but the purple skins on the Dragon fade when cooked…but another really cool thing happens- the interior flesh turns a darker, richer shade of orange and it looks (and kind of tastes) like a sweet potato. At least that’s what we thought…try it out and see what you think!

Celeriac: Its our very first celeriac of the winter season! You may also know this crop as ‘celery root’ or ‘knob celery’- its a variety of celery that has been cultivated and bred over time in order to produce a large, bulbous root rather than the fleshy stems and leaves we all recognize as celery. This is a great staple for winter soups, stocks, stews, casseroles, and gratins. Celeriac also has tremendous storage life and can last over 6 months in storage so long as the humidity is sufficient, which is why it was probably more common in America several generations ago when putting up food for the winter was a more widespread activity rather than trips to the grocery store. You will want to peel the celeriac before using it; to do that, start by trimming off the top and most of the root mass on the bottom. Now that the bottom is flat, set that on the counter and trim along the sides with your knife. These peelings are indispensable additions to the stock pot!

Kale, mix: Viva diversity!!! This bag of kale mix features most of the kale varieties that we grow. We skipped washing the kale in order to avoid cracking, bruising, and the like- so we recommend giving it a rinse before eating just in case it has any soil splattered on the undersides from the rain. You’ll find red, purple, green, crinkled, smooth, wavy, ruffled…you can rough chop it all together for cooking, or if you want to have a kale taste-off you can try each type on its own and see how it cooks and tastes. I’ve used the super ruffled green (a winterbor kale) in the past for raw ‘massaged’ kale salad and I hear its good for kale chips too. If you’re wondering what exactly massaged kale salad is, pay a visit to this website for a base recipe and some excellent variations.

In Your Share This Week

• Cabbage, red
• Carrots
• Kale
• Onions, red
• Parsnips
• Radicchio
• Rutabagas
• Thyme
• Winter Squash, Butternut
• Winter Squash, Pumpkin

Crop Notes

Kale: This is a blend of kales sourced from Wild Garden Seed that is a genetic rainbow of Red Russian type kales that have historically done very well throughout the winter long after all the other kales have withered away from the cold. With the cold weather, we have seen the leaves all darken from plain green to a beautiful rich reddish-purple color. Enjoy!

Rutabaga: I always think of rutabaga as one of those weird looking vegetables (along with kohlrabi and celeriac) that are really tasty, but less common in our modern diets. An interesting aside is that in the British Isles, rutabagas have been the longstanding vegetable of choice for Halloween-time vegetable carving to ward of evil spirits. We grow a variety called ‘Joan’ that is thought to have originated in Russia or Scandinavia, and came to the United States by way of England around the early 1800’s. It has a nice mild flavor and good texture, just trim the top and the roots off before using…peeling is a matter of personal choice on this one!

Thyme: I love thyme on just about everything, especially in savory winter soups. We made little bundles for the share this week (which Rhiannon and Tabitha harvested and felt particularly satisfied with…thanks ladies!). While its a lot more thyme than you’ll need at once, its one of the easiest herbs to dry so you can have it around for as long as you need it. It generally dries out quite well just left out on the countertop, but you can also hang it upside down to dry it. To use, you can either strip the leaves off of the stem, or if you’re roasting/simmering/stewing just toss a whole sprig in and then fish it back out before serving.

Winter Squash, Pumpkin: These squash are a pie pumpkin- which means the flesh is a little drier and less stringy than a jack-o-lantern type. You can find lots of recipes on the internet involving ways to stuff and bake the squash whole, which makes for a great presentation (or sometimes a good Julia Child story moment in the event that the walls give way and soup goes all over your kitchen). You can also cube the pumpkin with skins and all for use in curry or soup.

All of us here at Sauvie Island Organics
wish you and your family a very Happy New Year
We look forward to nourishing you in 2016!

In Your Share This Week

• Beets, Chioggia
• Cabbage, Napa
• Carrots
• Fennel
• Kale
• Leeks
• Radish, Daikon
• Shallots
• Winter Squash, Kabocha

Welcome to winter! We are excited to kick off the second year of our winter CSA. We have found that our growing systems, soils, and infrastructure enable us to grow really fantastic fall and winter crops. We have also trialed lots of varieties and have  selected our very favorites over the years- crops with great flavors, colors, textures, and storage abilities. Our goal is to provide you with a share that has as much variety as possible during the winter season; earthy roots, fresh crunchy radishes, aromatic herbs and alliums,  rich winter squash, sweet leafy greens, and juicy cabbages…you get the idea! Look forward to lots of great staples like beets, carrots, and squash, along with slightly lesser-known crops like chicories, kohlrabi, or celery root. Putting together the CSA share is almost like curating an art exhibit and we love it! Happy eating!

Storing Your Bounty

Each week we will provide some tips on how to best preserve the freshness and quality of your produce. Onions, shallots, and squash can stay out on the counter, or live in the pantry or garage. Just monitor them to check for mushy spots that might start to develop. Just about everything else would love a spot in your fridge inside a plastic bag (those are like antiques in Portland by now, right?). If you don’t have space in the fridge for everything, there are various cellaring options that we’ll go into throughout the winter. A bucket or tote with sawdust is a popular way to keep roots firm and moist for a long time (I’ve personally kept roots good this way until APRIL). The real keys here are cool temperatures combined with humidity retention. The ideal conditions are very near freezing and 90-100% humidity; which may or may not be attainable for your personal circumstances, but its a goal to aim for and keep in mind. Whatever you do, never ever ever place root crops, greens, or cabbages in the fridge, on the stoop, in the garage, or anywhere else without somehow wrapping or sealing them to keep the moisture in. Totes, tubs, plastic bags, buckets or the like will keep the moisture content from evaporating.

Another tip is to keep a bag or tub in the freezer for all your veggie scraps and trimming. Leek tops…onion skins…carrot tips…cabbage ends…meat bones…toss it all into the bag in the freezer and when you’ve reached critical mass you can simmer it into some fantastic stock. The only exception is to not load up on too many brassica crops (kale, cabbage, kohlrabi, radish) because it’ll give the broth a bitter flavor that overpowers a lot of the other ingredients. If you’ve included meat scraps or bones, add a splash of apple cider or white wine vinegar to draw all the nutritious marrow into the broth.

Crop Notes

Beets, Chioggia: These are a festive heirloom from Italy.  The pink and white stripes are stunning but alas do not stick around very well through the cooking process. Nonetheless, these beets are a tried and true favorite that always has a spot in our beet plantings.

Cabbage, Napa: We are really proud of how this Napa cabbage came out. We normally grow it in the spring, and this was a inaugural foray into late-season possibilities. We will admit, we were not expecting great things as excessive warm weather and pests took their toll. After proceeding to ignore the Napa for a while, we noticed it had bounced back and actually tasted great! Napa is great for creating kimchi (along with Daikon and carrots), can be shredded and used raw in salads or slaws,  or cooked lightly. Some of the heads have ‘pepper spot’ which is a harmless condition that appears as if the cabbage leaves have little flecks of pepper on them. Its a cosmetic attribute that doesn’t affect its taste or edibility, so you don’t need to worry about trimming it off.

Carrot Mix:  This is a blend of a super juicy and sweet orange carrot along with a French yellow cooking carrot known and Jaune De Doubbs. You can use them all together or select each for different applications. The yellow carrots hold up very well to cooking and turn a rich golden yellow. So if you hate the baby food effect of sometimes overcooking the carrots in soups or stews, give the yellow carrots a try- they really shine in hearty roasted or stewed dishes.

Kale: We put in a bunch of Red Russian and a bunch of Rainbow Lacinato.  Both are selected and refined by the fabulous Wild Garden Seed company. These are bred to thrive in our climate and that they do! We are glad to have lots of hearty winter greens like kale for the CSA…they are so good for you in the winter (or anytime) and go great with just about everything.

Radish, Daikon: These extra jumbo snowy white roots also come to us by way of Japan. I like making a refreshing slaw with an Asian twist by shredding radish and Napa cabbage together and dressing with sesame oil, tamari,  rice vinegar, and a hearty dose of minced ginger, garlic, and chili flakes. Even though its a cold dish, on a gray drizzly day this will get your tastebuds and your circulation hopping! There may be an occasional dark spot along the length of the root- which is evidence of a pest known as ‘rust fly’. It’d be a cryin’  shame for us to discard the whole fabulous root over a little blemish…so if you find that, either give it a quick peel or cut that spot out. These will store for a very long time in the fridge in a plastic bag, so don’t worry about having to eat it all at once.

Winter Squash, Kabocha: This is a really wonderful winter squash that comes to us from Japan. It ripens quite quickly in the late summer/early fall and is always the first to be harvested. It has a dry, flaky texture and an amazing nutty flavor. This is definitely a farm favorite! A classic way to prepare it is to cut it in half, scrape out the innards, and slice the whole thing (rinds and all) into fairly thin slices and roast in the oven. This method really highlights the texture and flavor of this variety.

Beets: Our harvest manager Jen admittedly went crazy and indulged her creative tendency to beautify your CSA share once again.  The three or more different shades of beets of this mix, washed and co-mingling in our large harvest bins are just gorgeous.

Celeriac: Still with that odd alien beauty that is unlike any other vegetable we grow. Slicing into the celery root releases a bit of summertime as a well appreciated mid-winter dose of aromatherapy. I enjoy it grated raw and mixed with raw grated carrots as a winter salad. Nutritionally celeriac is especially a bargain and by keeping our soils supplied each spring with macro and micronutrients, those minerals get passed on to you to help keep you healthy this winter.

Kale: The kale patch is showing some signs of slowing down and wanting to hibernate.  The cold weather with out much day length makes it difficult for even the toughest varieties to put on much new growth quickly. Most of what you will find bunched together this week is a hardy mix of ‘rainbow lacinato’ and ‘wild garden kale.’

Onions: This summer of record heat helped produce a massive and record size yield of all of our onions. This variety of yellow onion has been selected to last, cured in storage for up to and beyond 9 months depending on how they are kept. Right now, as long as there isn’t a threat of a deep freeze they will stay where they have been waiting comfortably in the dark loft of the barn. The crew has fond memories of an entire morning hoisting and carrying 6 tons of fifty pound onion bags up to their storage space.

Parsnips: These beauties were seeded back around the fourth of July, and with a lot of work watering, tractor cultivating, weeding, harvesting, and washing they are ready for you some five months later.  This variety has proven to be a real keeper, huge and delicious.  So far we have harvested half of our patch, just under 1/8th of an acre.  More will remain in the field until needed for supplying the 2015-2016 Sauvie Island Organics Winter CSA.

Potatoes: These Yukon Gem’s are an improved selection from the well known variety Yukon Gold. They seem to produce super well from very vigorous disease free vines.  These potatoes have been in cold storage for a little over one month now, around 32 degrees, so most of their starches have converted to sugar making them very sweet to the taste. The only downside to this high sugar content is that if you attempt to deep fry them, those sugars tend to cook super fast, brown, get smokey, and potentially burn. So, if you intend to make fries, just set the potatoes in a dark place at room temperature for a few days first.  Otherwise, straight from cold storage or your fridge, roasted or mashed they are really tasty this way.

Pie Pumpkins: A little smaller than the ones distributed prior to Halloween, but maybe sweeter?  Anyhow, they make a fantastic simple pumpkin soup.

Radicchio: Every year improvements are made in production systems. The simple, but time consuming job of keeping weeds out of the chicory patch reward us tremendously with a greater quantity of larger radicchio heads. And this year with a combination of tractor cultivation and hoeing, we were able to keep weeding by hand to a real minimum. Another triumph in their production, is that no extra nitrogen fertilizer was applied to the field, these beautiful chicories grew with nitrogen provided them naturally from a cereal rye and common vetch cover crop that was worked into the soil about a month prior to transplanting.

Winter Squash, Delicata: We classified the size that you will be receiving this week as medium to large, but in reality they are huge compared to some previous seasons. Thank you record hot summer! We used to frantically race any forecasted frost or freeze event, normally in October to get all of our squash out of the fields. No such stress this year. We just leisurely waited for the morning dew to dry and then on those beautiful fall afternoons picked them up with the assistance of our tractor operators into large wooden bins.

Don’t Want the Deliciousness to End… 
Join our Winter CSA!

Its a festive, fun full-spectrum share this week! It seems like the 2015 CSA season flew by so fast for us on the farm, we hope you’ve all enjoyed the variety of produce in your shares throughout the seasons. 

If you want to keep the SIO goodness going, you can do it several ways:

1. Join our Winter CSA for bi-weekly deliveries of storage crops and winter greens.
2. Stock up via our bulk ordering and have lots of Organic local produce on-hand all winter long.
3. Come see us at winter Farmers Market…details TBA but we have some exciting plans up our sleeves! 

Crop Notes

Beets, golden: Probably my favorite beet…both because of its lovely color and great flavor. If you like juicing, Gold Beets are also great along with carrots, apple, ginger, or turmeric- they add a boost of nutrients without the overpowering flavor of red beet juice. 

Field Greens: We are really excited to include this specialty item in the share- its a rather large staple on the farm throughout the late winter months. ‘Field Greens’ are a product we created that is essentially a farmer’s choice mix of nearly all of the various greens that we grow. It has a festive visual appeal and tastes great chopped and used raw, or cooked. It’s a great test of your plant identification skills…look for pac choi, napa cabbage, chard, escarole, a rainbow of both mild and spicy mustards, and 3-4 types of kales! Because the leaves are somewhat large, the Field Green mix doesn’t do well in our washing equipment (the stems poke holes in other leaves, ribs crack, bruising happens…trust us, its not great)- so we don’t wash the Field Mix at all. When you’re ready to use your greens, fill your sink partway with water or get a large tub or bowl to submerge the leaves in, then pull the leaves out and place in a colander and then shake gently or roll in a towel to remove the excess water. Dont store the greens super wet because they have a tendency to get slimy if you do that. Enjoy! 

Kohlrabi: It’s the last kohlrabi installment of the 2015 season…and we’ve got both Kossak (the very large green kohlrabi that you’ve seen in the shares before) and also the aptly named ‘Gigante’. These both will store very well in your refrigerator (we’ve successfully kept some until Feb/March in storage trials on the farm), just wrap it in a plastic bag to help it retain its moisture and juicy crunch. You can also cut it in half or quarters as needed for cooking and put the rest into the bag in the fridge for next time.   

Winter Squash, Butternut: I know this time of year, the good ol’ refrigerator veggie drawers can get kinda full with the plethora of root veggies. I was taught a nifty trick about what to do with the rest of the squash if you don’t need or want to use the entire butternut all at once- cut off a part of the neck for cooking with, and after a few minutes you’ll notice some clear liquid ‘sap’ coming out of the pores where you made the cut. Just wipe this around the entire surface of the cut, and leave it out! Yup, that’s right…leave it out! Essentially what happens is the squash ‘scabs’ over the cut surface and prevents bacteria, fungus, or other microbes that incite decay from getting into the body of the fruit. Pretty cool!  

• Carrots
• Celeriac 
• Kale, Red Ursa
• Leeks
• Radicchio
• Shallot, Eds Red
• Winter Squash, Acorn 

A Few Reminders

1. Next week (Nov. 9-13) is the last week for salad shares. 
2. Two weeks from now (Nov. 16-20) is the very last week of the regular CSA season! This is a double share to help bulk you up for Thanksgiving and send you off with some nice storage veggies. More details will follow, but we would like to remind everyone that you may not receive a vacation makeup during that week, so make sure to use it beforehand.
3. We are offering a Winter CSA again this year! Sign-ups are happening now and we have limited space available so contact us soon for more details, or to join us!

Stock up Your Pantry

Bulk sales are now available for carrots, beets and onions. Want to stock your pantry, juice or can we are offering 10 pound boxes of carrots, beets and onions. Email us at csa@sauvieislandorganics.com to place your order.

• Beets, red- $20/box
• Beets, golden & Chioggia- $24/box
• Carrots, orange- $20/box
• Onion, red & yellow- $14/box

Crop Notes

Carrots: We sure do love carrots! We’ve been featuring them in the share regularly because they’re so versatile both raw and cooked. Carrots grow really well for us here on the farm, and this Fall we’ve been pulling some whoppers out of the fields…plenty of carrots weighing in at a pound a piece!!! This time of year is also great for carrots because the cooler weather and cold nights stimulate the roots to sweeten up even more. Essentially the plant is creating its own natural ‘antifreeze’ by converting starches into sugar. Yum!

Celeriac: Maybe we should have put this in the Halloween share since it looks like an alien sea creature? An interesting fact for such a funky looking vegetable with pale coloring, is that its a total vitamin powerhouse with loads of vitamins B and K! 

Leeks: I’m going to admit that I couldn’t think of anything particularly interesting to say about leeks that hasn’t already been mentioned, so I thought I’d take a ramble through internet-land to get some inspiration. In addition to some growing and cooking information, it turns out that leeks were a part of humanity’s diet in Egypt and Mesopotamia since the second millennium BCE. Also, leeks have made some interesting cultural appearances over time- as a national emblem of Wales, on military helmets as identifiers, on certain vintages of British pound coins, on the coronation gown of Elizabeth II, mentioned in Shakespeare plays, featured in internet memes based on Japanese anime, and even in pokémon. Well played, leek. 

Shallot, Ed’s Red: We procured the seeds for this Open Pollinated (OP) shallot from Uprising Seeds out of Washington. Most shallots are hybrid varieties, so its somewhat less common to find OP varieties. This is a red dutch-style shallot that looks somewhat like a squatter, smaller red onion and has a nice mellow flavor. We like the festive color too! 

• Cabbage, Savoy
• Carrots, Boleros
• Beets, Chioggia
• Kohlrabi, Azur Star
• Lettuce
• Onions, Yellow Storage 
• Pie Pumpkin

Crop Notes

Beets, Chioggia: We had a wonderful bounty of our Italian heirloom Chioggia beets, so we’re excited to feature these festive beets in the share. You’ll see that they have a nice bright pink skin, and stunning pink and white rings on the interior. The vibrancy fades when cooked or canned (the canning lesson I learned the hard way- good flavor but rather visually unappealing). Use them the same way you would a red beet…but they wont stain everything in sight like a red beet will.

Cabbage, Savoy: We increased the spacing of our cabbages in the field, and have seen sMaShInG results! Many of our cabbages up to twice the size of what we were producing in the past, hence the half cabbages this season. These savoy were absolutely stunning in the field and a good deal were over 6# a piece! Savoy is a little more delicate than other cabbages, meaning it cooks up faster- so be careful not to overdo it. All of the crinkly textured leaves are great for holding lots and lots of yummy dressing as well…

Kohlrabi: This purple variety is such a treat to look at, the color of the skins is just mesmerizing. This type is meant to be harvested on the smaller side and the tops looked nice so we included those too as a little bonus. You can peel these if you like, but I’ve often found that on these smaller varieties the skins are generally thin enough that you don’t have to.

Lettuce: We highly suspect this is the very last lettuce distribution of 2015. Cool nights and continual dampness on the island are making it difficult to grow heads of sufficient size and without too much yellowing/bug damage/molds/mildews and all the other fun rainy season maladies that Portlanders know all too well. These heads are on the smaller size, and do plan to peel off some of the outermost leaves.

Pie Pumpkin: We included some festive Pie Pumpkin just in time for Halloween! These little pumpkins look super cute on your table or doorstep, but they taste even better- so enjoy having them around for decoration but definitely dont miss out on the eating part. Pie pumpkins are less stringy than Jack-o-lantern pumpkins that are used for carving and they generally have thicker walls and a smaller cavity (in proportion to the size of the squash). I was just informed by my Mom that you can even ‘bake’ a pie pumpkin in a crock pot…its insanely easy. Pumpkin puree freezes really well so you can store it away for later pie-making adventures (tip: most pumpkin pie recipes call for 2c puree, so thats a good amount to pack into a tupperware or bag). I also enjoy pumpkin curry this time of year, as well as pumpkin muffins, cookies, and savory treats like gnocchi or pumpkin-filled ravioli. 

The last week of CSA pick up is the week of November 16. This will be a double share to stock you up for Thanksgiving. If you do not want the bounty to end in just a few weeks, join us for the Winter season!

We are excited to be offering a Winter Share again this season. As farmers we love all the roots, squashes, cabbages and hardy greens of the Winter. Please join us if you do too! We are selling a limited number of shares (about 50), so don’t miss the chance to continue to eat locally & deliciously from December 2015 to March 2016.

Number of Deliveries: 8 (Two deliveries a month December-March)

Price: $640 (one share size)

The Bounty: beets, braising greens, cabbage, carrots, celeriac, chicories, herbs, kale, kohlrabi, leeks, onions, parsnips, potatoes, pie pumpkins, radish, rutabaga, turnips, shallots & numerous varieties of winter squash (butternut, delicata, acorn & kabocha varieties)

Quantity: approximately 30 pounds per delivery, most of the crops can store for many weeks in your refrigerator or root cellar.

• December 3 & 17
• January 7 & 21
• February 4 & 18
• March 3 & 17

Delivery locations:

• SE: Grand Central Bakery @2230 SE Hawthorne
• NP: New American Restaurant @2103 N Killingsworth
• NW: Kobos Coffee @2355 NW Vaughn St
• SW: Hillsdale Food Front @6344 SW Capitol Highway
• The Farm: 13615 NW Howell Park Rd

Sign Up Today!

Checks can be mailed to: SIO, 20233 NW Sauvie Island Rd. Portland, OR 97231