CSA Share Notes:

We are being totally blown away by how well the late summer crops are growing this fall. It truly is out of the ordinary, and boy are we thankful for it!   Enjoy the early fall bounty!

The deer are proving to be quite a nuisance for our new young fall crops like lettuce, endive, and carrots. We’ve got our tender young greens covered with row cover to protect them, so hopefully they’ll stay outta there. The winter squash are doing really well. We should have some ready in another week.

Our next big event is only 3 weeks away: the Farm Dinner hosted with Twin Pines Beef! We still have some room for ya, and would love to fill as many seats as possible. Share the event with your friends and grab a ticket to this great evening on the farm!

Now on to your vegetable line up:

• Bell peppers—Each share received a big handful purple, orange, yellow, and red bell peppers.  Color like this only happens at the very tail end of summer, IF and only if we can keep the plants alive and healthy this long. Usually our end of season bells are teeny-tiny, about golf ball sized. This year, we are really astounded at how huge and beautiful they are. Not to toot our own horn, or anything- we are surprised by them and want you to know just what a rarity this is so you can most fully enjoy the special treats we’re sending!
• Squash—This may be our last week for sending you this crop. The plants are tired, but they’ve had a great run. Ours are going on the grill tonight with some lemon and olive oil.
• Zucchini—These are also about done. We tried to send really large zucchinis to most of the shares this week, in hopes they’ll be a good size for stuffing or making zucchini bread.
• Squash blossoms—These beautiful orange and yellow flowers were taken from our butternut and buttercup squash rows. Those crops have already set all the fruit they can possibly make before the frost comes, so until then, we can have all the flowers we want! Lucky us! If this item is new to you, don’t be intimidated. The delicate flavor would be wonderful simply chopped and sauteed with some good butter, baked into an egg casserole, or the traditional delicacy: stuffed with rice, herbs, or cheese, and fried! Here’s a link to the most amazing, inspiring, and beautiful squash blossom recipes.
• Cucumbers—Crisp and juicy! Enjoy, and give our Fridge Pickles recipe a try.
• Eggplant—This week our Large shares are receiving slender Japanese eggplant, perfect for curries, roasting, or grilling. Our small shares are receiving Italian eggplant, perfect in a veggie lasagna, a veggie bolognese sauce, or get messy and make eggplant parmesan!
• Cayenne peppers—This hot pepper is considered a medicinal herb and is used in loads of herbal preparations It’s great for boosting circulation, soothing sore throats, and warming the body if you’re fighting off a cold. It’s also fabulous for pain. We actually use Cayenne as one of the key ingredients in the Pain Massage Oil that we offer through the herbal apothecary. Crazy!  Last season we took loads of cayennes and infused them into a jar of fresh, summer honey. The resulting product is a hot pepper honey that is great on sweet potatoes, chicken, pork, or other root vegetables. Here’s a similar recipe for some super fly spicy sweet potatoes.
• Sweet potatoes— This year’s fabulous harvest of fresh sweet potatoes comes from our neighboring farm. Jose Gomez and his wife grow the BEST sweet potatoes and we are lucky enough to share them with you. Try out the recipe we linked to above!
• Sungold tomatoes—Each share received another fresh pint of our most prized crop: sungold cherry tomatoes! Enjoy these babies, we’ll only have them until frost!

Veggie Storage tips:

As a general rule, wait to wash any veggies until you’re ready to use them to help retain nutrients and prevent spoilage from excess moisture. The cayenne peppers, sweet potatoes and cherry tomatoes can all stay at room temperature.  Remember, tomatoes get mealy if stored below 50 degrees.

The eggplant, bell peppers, cucumbers, squash, and zucchini will all like to be kept cool. The squash blossoms will keep for just a day or three, use them up as soon as you can!

Thank you so much for being a part of our Spring CSA at Red Moon Farm, and for all your support of local, organic agriculture!

Your farmers,

Jess & Justin

Large Share

Large Share (L to R): bell peppers, squash, cucumber, cayenne peppers, sungold tomatoes, squash blossoms, Japanese eggplant, zucchini, and sweet potatoes.

Small Share

Small share (L to R): zucchini, sungold cherry tomatoes, sweet potatoes, Italian eggplant, bell peppers, yellow squash, squash blossoms, cucumbers, and cayenne peppers.

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