Share Notes Jan 16, 2024

Today begins our Winter CSA season, and we’re so excited the timing is working out for us to harvest this week rather than last week (lows were in the low 20s) or next week, (lows could be in the upper teens!). This week’s weather is perfect and we’re loving working in it. Lots of fun stuff is happening on the farm this time of year. When the weather dictates we focus on other projects besides the massive Spring and Summer gardens, we tackle other tasks that provide a great change-up to the normal routine:

• Annual peach tree pruning
• Building a chicken pen for our new laying hens (will be laying in May or June!)
• Starting about 10k baby seedlings which we will plant in 2 more months for the Spring CSA season
• Planting the onion field
• And a very frequent chore of covering and uncovering row upon row of our garden plants and hearty flower seedlings, doing our best to protect them on frosty nights

Here’s your vegetable line-up:

• Carrots –  For all the shares! Mixed bunches for all.
• Broccoli – Unfortunately these plants are too tall and giant for us to cover with row cover, so many of the small crowns that were exposed to the bitter cold last week did not do well. This means there are only a few florets to go around this week.  These robust plants are doing great sending up lots of side-shoots, though, so we hope we’ll have a good bit more next harvest.
• Radish –  Watermelon radish for all. This is a greenish-hued root with small tops, and cutting them opens reveals their beautiful hot pink center.  These should all be fairly spicy, but weather often dictates that. Enjoy them atop a salad or dip slices in melted butter.
• Cabbage – Petite cabbages for the Large shares.  Make a delicious crunchy slaw! Toss in your radishes, salad turnips, and broccoli stems!
• Turnips – Regular shares received Purple Top turnips, a traditional southern cooking turnips, great roasted, mashed, or sauteed. Large shares received our white Hakurei salad turnips. These are a Japanese salad turnip and they are eaten raw. Turnips are high in vitamins, particularly vitamin C, so eat those veggies!
• Beets – For everyone, mixed bunches. Beets are excellent roasted. Scrub them up really well, drizzle with oil and wrap in foil, and roast in a hot oven, 400 degrees, until fork tender. Then scrape off the loosened peel using the edge of a spoon or butter knife.  Toss with butter, or a yummy orange and maple glaze you can whip up on the stovetop while they’re cooking. We also have a lovely beet and walnut hummus we love to make when beets are fresh. It turns a gorgeous magenta color and is scrumptious. We make it a few times a year and gorge ourselves, it’s so delicious.
• Kale – Regular shares received Winterbor kale, bagged because the leaves are a bit too small to bunch. Large shares received Red Russian, and Mini shares received Lacinato kale

Veggie Storage tips:

• Everything wants to be washed well before cooking, but keep the dirt on till then, to prevent faster spoilage.
• Everything wants to be stored in your fridge. Seal them up in a bag or container to retain moisture for longest storage life.
• Roots will store best when severed from their tops, and stored separately (remember the tops are edible, too!)

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 to row left to right: Red Russian Kale, carrots, lacinato kale, 1 watermelon radish,  beets. Bottom:  purple top turnips, and broccoli.

Large shares: bagged curly kale, collards, hakurei turnips, carrots, beets, bottom: 2 watermelon radishes, broccoli, cabbage