CSA Share Notes:

Week 6 of the harvest is ready!  A smaller harvest after a big freeze this weekend (28*!) The cold nipped back the leaves on the kale, arugula, mustard, and, of course, took out all the warm season crops- peppers, eggplant.

Normally crops like kale and arugula don’t mind a light frost, but a lot depends on how prepared they are- if they’ve been experiencing cold weather, like nights in the 30s, for a while leading up to the freeze, their cells are primed and ready. But it was in the upper 80s all the way until the day before the freeze, so it caused more damage than usual.

So that leaves the boxes a little lean this week, but the pleasant weather of the next week should have things regrowing beautifully.  And we’ve got lots more crops coming ready over the next several weeks, if the weather stays fairly mild.

Your vegetable line-up:

• Broccoli — For everyone! And lots more coming in another week or two.
• Cauliflower — Enough for the Large shares to each get a small amount.
• Cabbage — A large Savoy-leaved (crinkly) cabbage for the Large and a petite one for the Mini shares, and a Tendersweet smooth cabbage for the Regular shares.
• Garlic — A bulb or two of our last yield of summer garlic. Yes, the bulbs are teeny- they’re the last ones of the season- but they’ll pack a lot of flavor for a meal or two!
• Radish — Red Rover radishes for Large and Regular, French Breakfast for Mini. You’ll notice frost damage on the leaves of the radishes this week. Either discard the leaves, or trim away the damage so they don’t spoil their neighboring leaves. Same strategy with damaged turnip leaves, friends!
• Turnips — Hakurei salad turnips for the Mini shares, (eat these raw!), and Purple Top turnips for the Regular and Large shares. The purple top are the southern heirloom and here’s what to do (of course you’re welcome to seek out alternative options)  Cube up the roots, chop the greens, chop a yellow onion and a few cloves of garlic, and one jalapeno if you like. Also, chop up 2 slices of bacon, or a bit of ham. Once all ingredients are ready, cook the bacon until it’s cooked through but still tender- add in the onion and optional jalapeno, saute till soft. Add the garlic for 1 minute. Add the roots and saute until soft, and last add the chopped greens and wilt them.  You can add a dash of tobasco to it at the end for a bit of southern flair. And there you have it, folks, southern turnip greens. Oh, so good alongside a steak and baked sweet potato.   Now for the white Hakurei salad turnip, here’s the run down: This variety of turnip is actually a FRESH EATING Salad turnip. You don’t cook them! You snack on them like radishes. They are so delicious and nutty and a bit sweet. If you think you don’t like turnips, don’t be afraid to try these, they’re so good!
• Acorn Squash — We still have enough for another week!  These have been so delicious. We hope you’re enjoying them.

Items from other neighboring farms:

• Tony Philips Sweet Potatoes — Our friend and neighbor Tony Philips grows the regions best sweet potatoes, just a couple of miles from Red Moon Farm. These are fantastic, sweet, with a long storage life. Enjoy them on the regular. You’ll get lots more throughout the fall!
  • A few notes about Tony’s Practices: He is not aiming to be organic, so some years the above-ground parts of the plants have non-organic products used on them, however, the roots never have anything applied to them.
  • Usual standard practice in commercial sweet potato production is to use sprout-inhibitors on the crop post-harvest, and these chemical compounds are known to be extremely harmful to the thyroid and other hormonal systems in the human body.** (It’s why, when we can’t get them from a local grower and have to rely on a grocery store, our family chooses to only buy organic potatoes, sweet potatoes, onions, and garlic.) Well, Lucky us: Tony Philips never, ever uses sprout-inhibitors. His potatoes simply get a clean water bath to rinse the ETX sand off of them, so we eat them with confidence, and we believe you can, too.

Veggie Storage tips:

• Everything wants to be washed well before cooking, but keep the dirt on till then, to prevent faster spoilage.
• Acorn squash, garlic, and sweet potatoes like to be out at room temperature in a dry spot.
• All leafy greens, the radishes, turnips, etc all want to be in your fridge. Seal them up in a bag or container to retain moisture for longest storage life.

We’d love to hear stories and recipes of your culinary adventures this week. Tag us on Instagram or Facebook, showing us how you’ve used your CSA share.

Your farmers, Jess & Justin

Regular Share

Regular Share top left to right: Red Rover radishes, broccoli, Tendersweet cabbage, (2nd row) sweet potatoes, Purple top turnips, garlic, and acorn squash.

Large Share

Large Share top left to right: Red Rover radishes, broccoli, cauliflower, Savoy cabbage, (2nd row) sweet potatoes, Purple top turnips, garlic, and acorn squash.

Mini Share

Mini Share top left to right: French Breakfast radishes, broccoli, Savoy cabbage, (2nd row) garlic, sweet potatoes, acorn squash, and Hakurei turnips.