CSA, Weekly Farm News

Weekly news from the farm!!!

Posted on by mhoadmin
*|MC:SUBJECT|*
 

 

Greetings Everyone,

This is a reminder that this week’s delivery on 10/23 will be our last delivery until November 13th as we are taking a 2 week vacation from harvesting and packing shares!!! 

Many of you may have seen this article in the news titled,  “Stunning Survey Reveals Quarter Of Americans Have Never Eaten Vegetables”. Of those who do eat vegetables, the average person only includes veggies in a third of their meals.  We’re thankful that you subscribers aren’t part of that statistic or we wouldn’t be able to sell all the vegetables that we’ve so carefully grown. The top 5 vegetables that the survey respondents consume are: corn, potatoes, carrots, tomatoes, onions and green beans.  Of those top 5, carrots are the only one of those we didn’t have in the online store yet this season, but we’re planning to harvest some for our November 23rd delivery!!!  The least favorite vegetables were: turnips, beets, radishes and brussel sprouts.  Since y’all CSA Subscribers are not representative of those who responded to this survey, we hope you’ll love the radishes and turnips in your share this week.  Consider roasting them because they are so tasty tossed in olive oil, garlic, salt and pepper then roasted until tender.

Your Farmers (and cleaning staff), Carl and Julie

NOTE: Your’re receiving this eNewsletter because you’ve either been a subscriber to MHO in the past OR if you’ve registered for our newsletters from our website.  Feel free to unsubscribe if you no longer wish to receive this eNewsletter!

CSA Shareholders: You can access our online store using this link, if using a desktop you will log in by clicking the icon of the person in the top right hand side of the web page, if you are using a phone click on the menu icon and choose the login option. All orders need to be placed by Tuesday at 8 AM so that we will know what to harvest for your share! Please return your boxes because we re-use them.  Orders will be ready each Wednesday after 8 AM. 
What is new and abundant this week!
Romanesco is in the online store!! Also known as Romanesco broccoli, Broccolo Romanesco, Romanesque cauliflower.  The flavor is much like a blend of broccoli and cauliflower. We love to roast our romanesco like this or this. It is also great as a raw snack dipped into this peanut sauce. It is fabulous baked with mozzarella and olives. You can make an entire meal with this romanesco by roasting it and tossing with pasta and capers.  This vegetable won’t store in your refrigerator very long so you’ll want to eat it within a week.
Cauliflower is available again this this week!!!  Last week we forgot to make this crop orderable in the online store so the farmers were fortunate to eat a lot of cauliflower. We cut it into spears and roasted it, but also had it in a gratin. We love cutting them into spears, along with broccoli and roasting it all together for a beautiful sidedish or one pot meal.
We’re putting rib eye steaks in the online store!!!  While the majority of our production is vegetables, our newsletter tends to focus on recipes for cooking veggies, but with winter approaching we’d like to highlight recipes for meat.  We do like to raise some beef and pigs each season because they add a lot to our soil fertility, not to mention it is our understanding that grass fed beef is healthier for you than Confined Animal Feeding Operation (CAFO) raised beef.   Recently, we’ve had guests purchase our steaks so we had to figure out the best way for grilling a steak. It can be challenging to have tender steaks with grass fed beef but we have several recommendations in our online store.
It is important to have a meat thermometer if you want  your steaks tender!!!  COOKING THE STEAK ON THE GRILL: Carl has found that on a grill, it is best to cook a steak where you can use both direct and indirect heat.  On a gas grill light one burner and let the grill get hot.  First sear the steak for 2 1/2 to 3 minutes on each side over the flame.  Once seared, move the steak to the opposite side of the grill with the burner off but leave the first burner on.  Cook for another 3 to 4 minutes on each side with the lid closed except for turning the steaks.  This should give you medium rare steaks where the internal temperature should be about 135 degrees.  COOKING THE STEAK ON THE STOVE: Carl will use a cast iron skilled because it holds the heat. First sear the steaks on both sides for 2 1/2 to 3 minutes, then turn the heat down and cover the skillet with a lid for 3 minutes per side or put them in a 350 degree oven for the same time.  Checking the internal temperature is always the best way to assure they are cooked the way you want them because grills and stoves vary!
This Weeks Farmer’s Choice Shares

Our guests this week were cooking up a batch of hasselback potatoes which is something we love and we don’t mind roasting them in the oven (we don’t have air conditioning) now that Fall has arrived!!! 

This week’s Farmer’s Choice Share includes: (share contents are subject to change based on our actual harvest.) We’re offering both a Farmer’s Choice Veggie and Farmers’ Choice Veggie & Meat Share.  Items common in both shares are listed first, followed by items specific to the veggie share the finally the veggie/meat share. The Farmer’s Choice Veggie & Meat share normally has smaller portions of vegetables. ) The following are included only in the veggie share:
  • Peppers: Italian  An amazing sweet pepper!!! 
  • Kale: Green Curly: This has become our favorite kale with climate change because it holds it’s flavor and it stays tender.  Our guests voted this Kale #1 for kale chips during their stay.
  • Delicata Squash: Delicata won’t store as long as butternut so eat them up in the next couple weeks!  This will hold until next week at room temperature if you’re unable to eat the entire share this week.
The following are included only in the meat share
What’s Happening on the Farm
For us since we aren’t able to travel, hosting guests is a way to meet folks from all over and we’ve had the opportunity to meet many amazing people filled with love, compassion, empathy and respectfulness in this wonderful world. This past week we’re feeling blessed to have had the most amazing guests stay with us, who came all the way from Germany, and brought with them their kindness, happiness and gratitude. We know that our community has so many caring people who not only have great friendships, but support one another by volunteering for community functions, so it is great to that kind people like this are found everywhere throughout our country and in all other countries.
We had the sweetest email from CSA member Elaine that she and Frieda shared a meal together and everything was from this farm with the exception of the Apple Sauce.  We get so many emails from ya’ll about the meals you’ve prepared with the food we’ve so carefully grown and raised, that it keeps us motivated to continue farming year after year, because there is nothing more important to us than to nourish your with good organic food!!! 
This is the last dahlia of 2019. Jack Frost graced our valley on October 18th with a killing frost. While a few days earlier we had a scattered frost that killed the basil growing in our field, a killing frost to us is when Jack kisses our summer loving crops goodbye, those including the flowers and peppers. We’re especially thakful for all the summer food and blooms this year!!!
mhoadmin

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