Welcome to Week 21!
Next week is our last CSA delivery season for the 2014 season.
Today is another warm day and although cold and windy, the
weekend temperatures were not nearly as cold as was predicted. It looks as though another cold front is
coming for next weekend, but still the low temperatures will not be
horrible. Most everything we have remaining
in our fields will easily survive these temperatures. That is good news for next week's harvest and
future buying club harvests.
Speaking of the buying club.
As we did last year, we will be extending our harvest with a winter
buying club. The buying club will
continue for as long as we have product to harvest. Look for lots of greens! We will also continue to have radishes,
rutabaga and turnips available. In
addition, we will be buying in a few storage crops from our friends in Lebanon
County, Landisdale Farm. Landisdale is a
certified organic operation and they grow some beautiful sweet potatoes! We currently also sell our pastured,
organically fed chickens through our buying club. Soon we will be adding our apple orchard, as
well. Watch for more details about the
buying club coming soon. As I have said
in past newsletters, we are considering adding a buying club pick up in Mountain
Top.
As most of you have seen, our harvest is heavy with greens
this time of year. Look for more greens
going out next week. Some of these
greens, such as kale and mustard, get milder and even sweeter with the cooler
temperatures. Other greens, such as broccoli
raab and chicory retain their bitter undertones. As I have said in the past, try lightly
boiling or steaming these greens first to tame the bitterness a bit. I like to pair raab with some crisp fried or
roasted potatoes. Cook the potatoes
while you are washing and blanching the raab.
I tend to cook the potatoes in the oven, as I have never had success
with traditional fried potatoes. (My
Mother always told me I stirred them too much?)
Once your potatoes are roasted (or fried) and browned and crisp, add
them to a saute pan with your blanched raab, olive oil and lots of garlic. Stir to coat everything with the oil and
garlic and cook until raab is the desired doneness. A fried egg or two makes this a meal for me!
With fall underway and winter knocking at the door, our
kitchen has turned in to soup central.
This time of year most of our soups revolve around chicken stock and
greens. One of Farmer Don's favorites is
a soup featuring kale and tortellini.
Very simple, sauté some garlic and onions in olive oil, add a quart or
two of chicken broth, kale and cheese tortellini. Cook until the tortellini and kale are cooked
and serve topped with fresh grated parmesan cheese. We do make our own chicken broth using our
own stewing hens. Stewing hens are older
hens and require a long cooking time and generally do not provide lots of meat,
but do produce beautiful, tasty broth. Speaking of stewing hens. We have stewing hens available through our
buying club.
You should have received an email last week concerning our
pork. If you are interested in reserving
pork, please email us. All pork is on a
first come, first serve basis and we have had a lot of interest. In order to hold your pork we are asking for
a small deposit. ($50 for a half and
$100 for a full). If you have questions
about purchasing pork, please email or call us.
All meat is custom cut and wrapped at a USDA certified butcher. We often get asked about freezer space
needed. A half hog should easily fit
into a 3 to 4 cubic foot freezer.
We have been receiving quite a few inquiries concerning
registration for next year's CSA. We
will be again offering early bird and returning member discounts. As was the case with this year, all 2015
members will be choice members, so you will be able to pick the items you
receive in your box each week. Currently,
we are working to get the 2015 registration up and running on our website. Thanks to everyone for their patience on
this!
Speaking of 2015. We
are already planning for next year. This
year we were back on the learning curve, as Farmer Don likes to say. This was our first season to offer all
members the ability to choose their items.
Thank you for your patience as we fine tune things and learn which items
people really like and which items are not nearly as popular. We will be using this year's harvest data to
help us plan our planting schedules for next year. We are always looking for input and feedback,
so please feel free to email us with any suggestions or comments.
It's about that time.
Shady, the dog, is snoring loudly on the couch! She knows she isn't supposed to be on the
couch and besides, why is she inside on such a warm, beautiful, spring (oops I
mean fall!) day? Time to
"encourage" her to move outside.
And time to wrap up this newsletter.
Be safe, be well and enjoy those veggies!
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