News from the Farm, Monday November 2nd

“We had a huge effort on the part of the staff and working shareholders and volunteers this week. Not only did we have to navigate the final week of the 150 person summer CSA, but from Wednesday through Friday with cold and rainy and then snowy weather pretty much non-stop for the entire three days we harvested thousands of pounds of vegetables ahead of the big freeze Friday night of 20 degrees. We got 6 inches of snow on Friday and the last thing we picked on Friday was the cabbage for this week’s share. We had to kick the snow off to find the cabbages! I can’t thank the folks who worked here all week enough, for the incredible effort on behalf of the farm and the fall share.

The good news is that the snow was deep enough that it encased the kale, collards, parsley, celery, spinach, etc. We will see how flat the veggies are that we covered with row cover, but they should be quite edible. After another promised dip to 25 degrees on Tuesday night it looks like it will be warm for a bit.

A recipe for a great root soup – celeriac, rutabaga, potatoes, onions, carrots – cook in beef stock or other stock, add garlic, salt and pepper, puree, then top with chopped cilantro or parsley. We also added a pound of cooked ground beef to it.

Celeriac – Dr. Seuss or Wizard of Oz vegetables. In the midst of the rain on Thursday we pulled these celery family veggies and found the most root mass I have ever seen on a veg. On top the leaves which resemble celery, looked as if they had been braided from the root. Amazing vegetable. And it was a high for us during that storm – you should have been there!”

– Julie