CSA Week 16
Is this your last CSA pickup? Don’t forget Monday deliveries will have another week to make up for Labor Day and Thursday deliveries will be making up for Independence Day…so it is still only week 15 for you. To clarify a little more, if you get you CSA on Monday or Thursday, at any location, there will be a delivery next week. 🙂
This week you MAY have celeriac, apples, onion, peppers, hot peppers, potatoes, winter squash and some kind of cole crop
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. The red kabocha squash, aka, Sunshine, are the bright orange-red pumpkin looking ones. Sometimes there are green streaks in the flesh, particularly near the skin; no worries, it is completely fine and delicious to eat. I’ve written about green on veggies before – I think we get nerved up about green because we are not supposed to eat green potatoes right? The green in/on a potato is an indicator of solanine, which occurs naturally in potatoes in small doses, but when exposed to light long enough, can develop into toxic levels (think nausea, confusion). The green is actually part of photosynthesis and represents chlorophyll, but that can only happen with light…so you know the solanine levels are higher. Peeling slightly green skin off removes the solanine and makes the taters fine to eat, but I would toss a potato that was all green – why risk it? BUT, green in squashes and carrots and other non-solanums (nightshades) is just chlorophyll, fine to eat, and not potentially toxic. Hope that helps :^}
Cole crops are plentiful now so I’m sure you will see some representation in the form of broccoli, cabbage, kohlrabi, kale, etc.
I forgot to write about celeriac! It is mostly referred to as celery root, But when I study it, it is more like a swollen stem like kohlrabi. Yes, there are a bunch of hairy stems coming out of it, but most of it grows above ground, unlike most every other actual root vegetable. The celery stems are useful as flavoring in stock, but you will find them very fibrous, and not pleasant to eat. The bulb part, once cleaned up, is quite nice. Yes, you can eat it raw, but it is especially good roasted, mashed, stirfry….it is a natural with other tubers and roots, as well as apple! It is pretty high in potassium, which is nice too.
Recipes
If you really have no idea what to do with your celeriac, try cubing it and cooking it with your potatoes. Then mash up and season. It will add a nutty, celery flavoring to your mashed. OR, cube up with any other roots or tubers you have and roast at 400 until tender. It cooks about the same as beets and potatoes, so keep your sizes similar for even cooking.
Last Week’s Stuffed Delicata
The girl child was quite insistent on stuffed Delicata on Sunday, below is how it transpired:
- 2 delicata
- bunch kale, washed, stemmed, chopped medium-fine
- 1-2 leeks chopped or small onion
- 1 cup cooked quinoa
- 1 lb ground pork or beef
- 1 red pepper small dice
- 2 cloves garlic minced
- S & P
Wash the squash – delicata skin is quite edible and so you want to have that option dirt-free. Carefully halve the squash the long way, scoop out the seeds, arrange in a baking dish. In a large skillet, cook the ground meat. When the meat is almost cooked through add the garlic, leek and pepper, stirring around for a minute or two. Add the kale and if your skillet is not large enough, add it in batches until it cooks down and add more. Once all the veggies look tender (it was like 5-6 minutes), remove from heat, stir in the quinoa, adjust seasoning. Stuff the waiting squash with the filling (I had enough filling left over for another squash which I cooked for breakfast with an egg…but it would have frozen nicely too for the next stuffed something), cover dish with foil and bake at 375 until the squash is tender, 30-40 minutes. If you are a cheese hound (me) once the squash is cooked, remove the foil, sprinkle with cheese and bake a few more minutes until it’s melted.
Yummy!
Don’t forget potatoes come in many flavors: vanilla, grape, pink 🙂
Farm Dirt
Lots of color happening out this way! The Red Maples are peaking scarlet, the sumac is bright crimson and burgundy and the Ash and Beech trees are just starting to turn golden. The Sugar Maples are not even turning yet and so I think the traditional leaf peeping time of Columbus Day Weekend will be perfect! As I have written for about 15 weeks now, it is always a great time to visit the farm. Come on out! If you do migrate this way while leaf peeping, be aware that the Mass Pike can be nuttier than average, so check the traffic and enjoy off highway travel – it’s prettier too!
Personally, I enjoy when you come to the farm, as it is the only time many of you and I get to see each other and I do like to put a face to the name/email 🙂 We will be offering our annual gleaning but, hopefully, it won’t be for a while yet. I will send out an email when it is imminent. New to gleaning? “Then she left, and went and gleaned in the field after the reapers.” Gleaning is the act of collecting anything that might be left behind after the main harvest. The first hard frost kills any tender crops here in New England, so we harvest as much as possible before then. In spite of all our efforts, there are always a few peppers or tomatoes left on the plant, or squash and potatoes (no the green ones ;)) laying on the surface. For several years now we have invited our CSA members (only) to glean before the killing frost. Some things will survive and if the weather doesn’t completely suck, we can continue to harvest greens, lettuces, broccoli, cabbages, dig carrots and such well into November. A few years we have even harvested broccoli and Brussels in December!
Stay tuned for gleaning!
I really cannot believe I am writing the last CSA letter of the season. Part of me has no idea where the summer went and the other part of me is ready to be done writing and driving. There is a lot that goes into running a CSA – it’s not just the weekly packing. We start planning for next season NOW. The main seed potato order has been placed even though we don’t want to see it until next Spring. The seed garlic arrived this week and will be planted late October – we will mulch the strawberries with straw then too. The main vegetable seed order will be placed in deep winter and we will seed your first tomatoes in February. Field prep will begin in April and before you know it is another CSA season! During that “down” time, we try to tweak things for next season: make improvements to varieties offered, timing, delivery routes, respond to requests for new CSA drop off locations, look for ways to improve your experience…
I will be in touch very soon about signing up for the 2020 season. Do be on the lookout for your 2020 discount codes and don’t miss out on the early signup.
We count on constructive feedback from our members. Ideally this happens throughout the season, when we can make adjustments and accommodations. Sometimes people wait for the end of the year to tell me what was wrong or what they wished had happened…hard for me to do anything to make it right at that point. We don’t normally get many complaints, and AMAZINGLY, I did not field a single one this season. I will say the entire team put a lot of extra time and effort into mixing it up and trying to keep it interesting – but not too interesting. LOL. We try to hold to a limit of one kooky thing per week (I’m pretty sure that thing is celeriac this week). There’s nothing we can do about weather ruining crops or not cooperating with our planting plans, but I feel like everything was awesome in quantity and flavor. What about you?
If you live near the city, you will be able to find us at all the markets until the end of October, Copley and JP ‘till Thanksgiving. Sundays too! If you live IN the city, you will find us at Boston Public Market every day!!!!
Curt and Halley are busy taking Winter CSA signups. It’s a once a month delivery starting late October and you can read about their program here stilllifefarm.com/winter-csa.html
From all of us at Stillman’s, we are honored and blessed to grow food for you and thank you for being part of our family. We sincerely hope you have eaten well this summer, and maybe learned something new about farming or vegetables, fruits, insects, birds, cooking, something? Some of you may have a winter CSA you belong to (like Curt & Halley’s awesome WINTER CSA), some may shop at winter farmer’s markets, some may have a plethora stashed away in the freezer or pantry, and some may go back to the convenience of the supermarket. Whatever your circumstance, we wish you the best in eating well!
Eat well,
Geneviève & Glenn Stillman  ~and the Stillman’s Farm crew
