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Greetings Everyone,
We’ve been loving the cooler temperatures these past couple of days for working outdoors! We know the basil, peppers and eggplant aren’t too fond of these temperatures, but it is good for our outlook in knowing that Fall will soon be here. This article titled, “Enough with ‘local’ and ‘organic’. We’ll begin to eat well when we farm well” had us thinking of all you CSA Subscribers because you are seeking out local food from us, and trusting that we are using good farming practices from a perspective of healthiness for both food and the earth. We are continually trying to improve our farming practices, so this summer we decided not to use some of our organic pesticides because they are destructive to bees, that means we lost our summer squash earlier than usual! In fact, our last succession was planted, and began starting to flower, then it died! Do you think it was worth that risk in us not having as much diversity in our online store this month?
Here is a link to the online store to place your order.
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! All orders are due by 8 AM on Tuesday. Pick-ups in Spring Creek are either Wednesday from 1pm – 8pm OR Friday from 8am – 8pm.
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What is new or abundant this week!
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We’re harvesting of the second batch of sweet corn! That means the corn cobs aren’t as big, but they are still delicious! Organic corn is difficult to find because it is hard to grow on an organic system. We hope you’ll enjoy the last of the corn for the season.
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Above is Starry Night, a new variety of winter squash for us, and in our opinion it is delicious! Since our summer squash quickly succumbed to disease, we’re certainly glad that we have winter squash right now!!! Starry Night is excellent baked with fruit in it, a family recipe tradition that we acquired from Carl’s mother. This squash is excellent as a main entree when stuffed with wild rice, with kale and sausage, or with tomatoes, peppers and corn. An easy “go to†side that works for almost all of our winter squash varieties is by either roasting or grilling them. This squash is tasty simply baked, and while many recipes suggest using sugar for basting the squash pulp, we feel winter squash is sweet enough that we normally baste with olive oil, garlic, salt and pepper
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Our regular sized Bok Choi is back!! We’re so happy that many of this first fall planting survived while we lost many of our other greens. One of our favorite salads, that works with either the baby or large bok choi, is this vegan rice noodle salad. Another favorite is Bok Choi Risotto which is delicious as a meal! As always we are including CSA member Lorraine Connard’s refreshing salad. During the fall, one of our favorite stir-fries is bok choi with butternut squash and turnips. A slaw is always great, and we tend to include peppers, turnips and carrots in ours, but the ginger dressing makes the salad delicious! This recipe ginger tahini salad dressing; is vegan and one favorite of ours and works for salads made with either greens or lettuce.
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Fall Collards are starting to mature!!! LIKE all our leafy greens, when the plant first starts producing, we harvest these baby so the bunches are smaller yet the price is still $3/bunch. That is because the entire plant is super tender and the stems completely edible. Once the leaves become larger and less tender, then we start harvesting larger bunches knowing that the greens will need to be cooked a bit longer. Collards are the greens that are highest in calcium. This recipe for these greens with caramelized onions is one we frequently make. This recipe for collard greens and dumplings is excellent because we love dumplings! We make this colcannon casserole that is warming and a one dish meal. Or maybe use your collard greens for making wraps because you can fill them with seasonal veggies!. Simple, delicious and healthy!
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This Weeks Farmer’s Choice!
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Above is a vegan bok choi salad, that one could pretty much consider a “Spring Roll” salad because it has all the farm fresh veggies that normally go in spring rolls: baby bok choi, sweet bell peppers, scallions, carrots, serrano peppers, thai basil, cilantro and garlic. All this deliciousness tossed in a “peanut dipping sauce†salad dressing.
This week’s Farmer’s Choice Share includes: (share contents are subject to change based on our actual harvest.)
We’re offer both a Farmer’s Choice Veggie (FCV) and Farmers’ Choice Veggie & Meat (FCVM) 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:
The following are included only in the meat share
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What’s happening on the farm!
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It’s that time of the year that we work frantically cleaning up the fields, pulling out spent crops, removing plastic mulch, pulling out drip tape, removing trellis’s from the cucumbers and peas. We’re trying to get the ground prepared for seeding cover crops. Our critical period for seeding cover crops is in the next couple weeks because we like them to germinate and get a good root system established so they survive the winter then grow and flourish in the spring! Above is the field where your Spring crops were grown.
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Above is the fall field where we’re harvesting lettuce, bok choy and other greens. We have cabbage and broccoli planted, yet sadly many of the plants died. We’ve mostly grown these types of crops in another field that we’re letting rest. We’re reminded how well these crops grew in our other field and are missing the soil from that field this year.
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Above is a dahlia from our dahlia patch! Our dahlias haven’t done well this year, but nevertheless they are beautiful.
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