Holy crap – incoming winter farm share:
What's in the October 23rd share?
Picadilly Farm
Sweet potatoes, 4 pounds. Another record-breaking harvest this year! We’re looking at a tremendous year for sweeties, with excellent flavor. We planted two varieties this year, and it’s the Covington’s that will make their appearance in the first Shared Harvest box. The sweeties are pretty well cured at this point, meaning they will store just fine at an ideal temperature of 50 degrees. A basement, attic, or even sitting on the kitchen counter would be a fine choice– just remember to take them out of their plastic bag.
Gold potatoes, 5 pounds. Store out of bag, in a cool dark place. These “satinas” are our favorites, full of delicious potato flavor.
Carrots, 3 pounds plus a bunch. These big fall “Boleros” are a mix from our farm, and from a neighboring CSA farm, Tracie’s Community Garden. Due to unfortunate weather and mechanical circumstances, our large (about an acre) fall carrot planting was a 90% loss. We replanted a few weeks later, which didn’t provide quite enough of a growing window for the carrots to get up to size. So, we traded our surplus potatoes to Tracie for her surplus carrots, harvested some of what we have, and picked the smaller “re-plants” into bunches.
Delicata squash, 3-4 pieces. If it isn’t your favorite winter squash already, it will be after you taste these! Delicata can be roasted like other winter squash, or sautéed on the stovetop. The skins are edible, and the seeds are great for roasting.
Red peppers, 1 pound, a mix of italia and Bell types. The peppers were harvested at the beginning of October, before our first frost. We’ve stored them in our cooler, taking care for proper temperature and moisture conditions, and they’ve held on. We put row cover over four 500 foot-long beds of our Red Italia peppers, with the intention of harvesting them fresh for the boxes. Unfortunately, a lot of wind and some bad luck blew into town, and we lost almost all our pepper plants after a particularly chilly night. So these last remnants of summer should be enjoyed sooner, rather than later. Most people are familiar with the rounded Bell-type peppers, but we’re also throwing in the mix our “Carmens”, which are the long, pointed Italia peppers-very sweet and perfect for salads or cooked.
Green Bell Peppers, 1 pound. Same story as the red peppers, eat them quick!
Hakurei salad turnips, a bunch. Delicious raw (try it with cheese) or cooked.
Celery, 1 head.
Radicchio, a head. Enjoy these slightly bitter heads as a salad enhancer, or try them roasted or grilled with a sprinkling of strong cheese.
Riverland Farm
Beets, 3 pounds. Try roasting them: Roasted Beets
Broccoli or cauliflower, 2 pieces. There are purple cauliflowers in a few of the shares!
Fennel, 1 bunch. Cream of Roasted Fennel Soup from the Wicked (Awesome) Whisk
Cilantro or parsley, 1 bunch
Leeks, 1 bunch. Here’s a nice recipe from a shareholder’s blog: Sausage, Potato, Leek & Spinach Stew from Semii-Sweet
Red onions, 2 pounds
Yellow onions, 2 pounds. Caramelized Onion Souffle
Spinach, about a pound
Squash, pie, 2 squashes
Busa Farm
Lettuce, two heads, one red and one green.
Greens, a bunch. You’ll find one of these types of greens in your share: Rabi senza testa , red mustard , white turnips (with edible greens) or Kamatsuna. All of these greens are lovely sauteed in olive oil and garlic or stir fried with peppers, turnips, a bit of celery and carrot.
Moraine Farm, Baer’s Best Beans
Jacob’s Cattle dried beans, one pound. This heirloom variety typically has a lot more white on it, but we think that the extreme heat and lack of water combined to leave them almost completely purple this year.
Cider Hill Farm
Apples, five pounds. Glenn Cook from Cider Hill tells us that his fruit trees didn't take kindly to the late frost in May. Frost, combined with the warm, early season had diminished the amount of variety in apples Glenn will have for us. You may choose from Mutsu, Empire, Cortland, Macoun, and Carousal varieties. What they lack in variety, they make up for in taste!
