CSA Week 15
This week you MAY have apples, onion, peppers, hot peppers, Napa, kale, winter squash, Shunkyo radishes?leeks?
Redcorts, Cortland, Gingergold, McIntosh, Molly Delicious apples
There will not be any gourds in your box…so if you find something hard and squash-like, it probably is. Be sure to check out our website for lots of pictures for ID help if you need it. I know you have all seen Delicata, so it is likely you will see something different this week like Carnival, Buttercup, Sweet Dumpling, Sunshine, or Butternut. The Carnival is a fancy looking acorn type and the Sunshine is a red kaboka type – looking much like a pumpkin.
Bok Choy this week? You may recall from last week’s letter that Bok Choy is Brassica rapa vs Brassica oleracea (regular head cabbage). and is part of the Chinensis group – the type of Chinese cabbage that has leafy stalks. Speaking of the Brassicas… I am seeing kohlrabi again and will remind you that is the weird looking, purple or green, hard, round thing, possibly with leaves attached.
There may also be radishes in your box and it is likely some of you will see a stunning variety of red Shunkyo. They are nice and spicy with gorgeous daikon-type radish leaves which are nice eating. If you get the leaves with your bunch and are going to not use right away, be sure to separate the tops from the bottoms so both stay snappy longer.
Potatoes…they’ve been very busy digging this past week and you are bound to see several varieties. In addition to the white and red-skinned, white fleshed varieties, there are also the Yukon Gold, all red, all blue, fingerlings, etc, etc. If your taters come bagged, please remove them and let them breathe. Right now the potatoes are very moist which is not a good combination with a closed plastic bag.
Recipes
Squash soup – SOOOO many recipes!!! If you have never made it, why? All it really IS is pureed winter squash thinned with broth of your choice and seasoned with your favorite herbs and/or spices. It can be anything it wants to be!
Here’s what I wrote a while ago:
Squash Soup
OK, don’t have any leftover squash on hand, start as above, add the broth, then add your peeled and chunked squash (5+ cups) and simmer until tender. Puree (I love my immersion blender for this) and enjoy. Adding an apple or two (peeled and diced) near the end of the cooking time is nice (season with a little curry, cinnamon and nutmeg if you like). You can’t go wrong!
My friend Nancy makes her soup by cooking the squash in a little water and them puree with a container of Boursin. What could be easier—or tastier!!!
I am making soup as I type and will post that later 🙂
I decided to paste in an actual recipe for stir fried Bok Choy, for those of you who enjoy rules and measuring and stuff. So funny that everyone featured the baby Bok Choy…well I don’t recommend cooking ours whole stalk/leaf as seen all over the internet, that really is only going to work with the dwarf varieties. Having said that, you can use any of those recipes, but slice ours first.
Bok Choy Stir-Fry (Genius Kitchen)
CHEF’S NOTE
“This is a wonderful side dish for an Asian style entree. Bok choy has awonderful, crisp texture that is reminiscent of celery. You can easily add shrimp or chicken to make a main dish, but I recommend doubling the sauce if you do so. Simple and yummy:)”
READY IN: 20mins SERVES: 4-6
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 2 -3 cloves garlic, minced
- 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
- 4 cups bok choy, thinly sliced
- 1 chicken bouillon cube, dissolved in 1/2 c. water
- 1/4 cup soy sauce
- 1 teaspoon granulated sugar
- 1 tablespoon cornstarch
Heat oil in saucepan over medium heat. Add garlic, ginger, black pepper, and bok choy. Stir fry about 3 min. In bowl, combine dissolved boullion and water, soy sauce, sugar, and cornstarch.
Whisk well. Add cornstarch mixture to skillet and stir fry until sauce thickens and cabbage is tender, about 3 min. Serve hot.
GORGEOUS Shunkyo Radishes. The greens are great cooked too!
Farm Dirt
FOUR CALVES! Four! Ha ha ha. I feel like the Count..who’s with me?
18 had her calf an hour after the rain stopped last Tuesday and that officially completes calving season here this year. It is wonderful to have new life AND to have, basically, doubled the herd.
Our new visitors are still hanging out and now we think they are young Green Herons. Whatever. It’s fun to have them out there and apparently we are too busy to sneak around to get close enough to have a really good look. So, either way, all cool water birds are welcome 🙂
The major potato dig is happening now. We actually have a potato digger. We bought one a few years ago from a company who makes them to order right here in the USA! It is pulled behind the tractor and is gear driven; it scoops under the taters, leaving them on the surface to pick up and toss into 15 bushel bins …much easier than using the carrot fork to turn them up and actually better for the tuber. Our early potatoes are still dug the old-school way, but when we get into the big harvest, we try to cut labor where we can. As hourly wages increase, we will continue to look for machinery we can buy to replace humans. It’s kind of tricky to buy machinery because we have such diverse crops. Those special crops require human attention. Last year I had some grad-students come out and take countless pictures of our greenhouse tomatoes; they were hoping to design a robot to pick them. A few years ago I would have said that would never be a thing, but with continued wage hikes, I can see investing thousands in a tomato-picking-robot. Even in MA we have a false sense of what food costs. We have voted for rules and regulations in the US and our Commonwealth, that make it more costly to farm. It is SO important that we/you continue to support our farmers that abide by the laws and regulations we have voted for. In other words, we cannot, as a community, push for higher minimum wages and then buy produce from another country where it is cheaper to do business. It’s something to think about. I remember asking a friend who was boycotting CA grapes if she would pay more for her fruit. She quickly told me she couldn’t afford to pay more for grapes because she was on a tight budget. Well, that’s a conundrum. NO ONE should be abused or taken advantage of, EVER! BUT, are we willing to, can we, pay more for beans to be hand picked and packed when the bean picker gets paid six-times on average that of a worker in Mexico? We know YOU, our CSA members, are committed, that’s why you are here, why you are CSA members. I’m not sure how much we can raise our prices to pay for all that is required of us before we lose folks to food that is cheaper because it is cheaper to produce. Something to ponder.
I hope you remain committed to supporting diversity, keeping farmland in farming, employing humans, and nourishing yourself with locally grown food from our (and yours!) family farm in Massachusetts.
Meanwhile, the Elms are turning yellow, the Red Maples turning red, Gray Squirrels running around and squirreling away Hickory nuts, turkeys congregating, wasps looking for new homes (in mine), Ilex Winterberry coloring up, darkness coming earlier, the morning chill…it’s suddenly Fall!
Where did Summer go?
Eat well,
Geneviève Stillman
