Week 20: October 29 - November 2, 2007
Dear CSA Members,
This week you will receive 1-2 squashes of one sort or another, kale, collards, chard, beet tops, and dill (if they survive the frost), Brussels sprouts (if ready), cilantro, parsley, mesclun, carrots, beets, potatoes, and either red or green cabbage, broccoli, or cauliflower.
I am emailing separately an evaluation form that I would appreciate for you to fill out. It gives us good guidance for next year.
We have sold out completely on our Early Winter CSA. Thanks to those of you who have taken a risk with us. This is our first attempt and I'm just a tad nervous that we will get you a good share. Next year we will be able to better judge what we can provide folks.
This week on the farm we will be planting garlic as our main attraction. This garlic bed, which is about an eighth of an acre, has undergone some serious fertility enhancement. First we ran our chickens through there, then the pigs, and then we spread 10 truckloads of our neighbor's alpaca manure. After that we harrowed and planted oats to hold on to the nitrogen and further enhance the organic matter in the patch. Last week we harrowed the oats, roto-tilled, made beds, and spread 75 lbs of our "magic" Summa Minerals (volcanic ash). This week we will de-rock the area (for the 17th year), plant the garlic, and mulch it heavily with hay from the farm. I admit to always giving garlic the best treatment. I heard a story once that the folks who ate garlic during the European Plague were the ones who survived. Garlic has to be one of the most nutritious and health giving plants that we raise. I guess that's why I give it such special attention.
Edwin and Brian and company finished our last hoop house this week. If you notice across the field over where the pond is, you will see that Dan was able to cover one of his hoop houses covered this week also. We are quite excited about these infrastructure enhancements and what they can mean for a longer growing season. I don't have plans formed up yet, but am strongly considering running an April 1 - June 15 CSA next spring with a combination of food from the hoop houses and early crops from the field. Stay tuned.
I struggle with the knowledge that for so many people the preparation of the food that we give you is a major barrier to eating it. Hopefully, the recipes that Nina and others have provided this year have been useful to you. This week, perhaps a little late in the game, I started a "cooking class" with the Almost Home folks who come on Friday. We have been sending them home with three shares a week this season, but I think often food has been wasted. We put together a "CSA share stir-fry". I hope to keep this up each week and help people become more familiar with whole food preparation. Here's the recipe we used on Friday:
Thanks so much for supporting our farm this year. You have been by far the most interactive bunch of folks we have ever worked with. Our apologies for packing errors and any quality control issues that came up from time to time. As you have gathered, we have hundreds of people working here throughout the season. We do our best to keep tabs on everything, but some things do slip through the cracks. Thank you for your correspondence, both your congratulations and suggestions for improvements. It all helps us to do a better job. Thank you for all your gifts of paper bags, plastic bags, and other recyclables that keep our costs down. And thank you for supporting local organic agriculture. I truly feel that local organic agriculture is a major solution to our climate change issues.
Julie
Recipe From Nina