(Mt. Vernon, Iowa)
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Greetings shareholders,
This week, we have potatoes, onions, kale, mustard greens, cilantro, garlic, a little arugula, and squash. I also hope to have daikon for you. We dug it, but didn't get it out of the garden before the rain began. Not sure if we can get close enough to it today to get it out of the field. I hope so, because it is delicious, very sweet and crunchy (but you have to take off the skin; it's bitter and a little hot). Like last week, we aren't going to have the big armload of vegetables I like to give you this time of the year. Too bad, because I think the fall things are the best.
I've given up trying to get the garlic planted for next year, so I'm going to give you the bulbs we saved for seed from this summer. Garlic is usually planted sometime in October and dug in July. We had a ton of winter kill last winter, so rather than giving any of the very small harvest to you, I was saving all the bulbs to use a seed for the 2010 crop. But, there's just no way to get it into the ground in time, so we're going to eat them. I'll buy some fresh seed in October of 2010 and start over then.
As usual, wear your mud clothes on Saturday. As I write this, I've got 2.75" of rain in the bucket, but it looks like we might get a bit more before it goes away for a few days.
The squash will mostly be bonbon, acorns, and sweet dumplings. "Bonbon" http://www.harrisseeds.com/storefront/p-3735-squash-bonbon.aspx is a really nice buttercup type and is one of my favorite squashes. It's tastes a little nutty, not so sweet. Another good one is "Sunshine" http://www.harrisseeds.com/storefront/p-543-squash-sunshine.aspx , similarly nutty and very dark orange flesh. We went to the field this week to pick up the last half of the squash crop, but were extremely disappointed to find out that nearly all the remaining butternuts, spaghettis, Sunshines, and heirlooms weren't good enough to harvest. Too bad. There was A LOT of very nice squash out there. The hard freeze on Oct 11 (about 4 weeks before it should have happened) caused the tops of the thin shelled squashes to soften. Then, the deer and mice took a few bites out of some of them (but only the nice big ones), bugs drilled into some of them (notice, the bugs were not killed by the 22 degree night!), and fungus coming up from the wet soil started to dissolve them. We picked up a few of the best of them, but left lots of squash behind to become fertilizer for next year.
If you haven't looked at or eaten the squash you got the last two Saturdays, you better check it immediately. I'm guessing that you could have some problems, especially with the thin-skinned butternuts and spaghettis. To salvage squash, bake the parts that are still good and then put the flesh in ziplocks in the freezer. I baked 3 messy butternuts this week and they were surprisingly good, but wouldn't have lasted another week. Now, they live in the freezer and will be good for side dishes and baking over the winter. If you find any soft spots on the squash you get this week, either from cold or deer or rodents or bugs or fungus or a broken stem, COOK IT and enjoy!!! It won't keep.
There are still a few things in the lost and found. Some Monday person left his/her (can't tell!) sunglasses here about 2 months ago. There's also a green grocery bag, like the kind they have at Gary's, that somebody left here two weeks ago that has some squash and red peppers in it. I've been keeping it cool, so the fresh things inside might still be good. If you couldn't find your acorn squash one time, it's here.
Three kitties still don't have homes. Please spread the word that they are available and as cute as any vertebrate can possibly be.
Remember the CHILI AND SOUP SUPPER AT SOUTHEAST LINN Saturday night. Serving begins at 4:00 and will run until 8:00, or whenever we run out of soup and sandwiches. Adults $6, kids $3, little kids free. Put on your costume and come over to Lisbon for all the fun. It's a GREAT time for the kids.
Also remember, THANKSGIVING TURKEYS can be ordered now. The details are in last week's newsletter. Call Susan Jutz (929-5032) to make your order. Pickup will be here at the farm on Tuesday, November 24th, 4:30 to 6:30.
Thank you very much for your participation in the CSA in 2009!!!! It's been an interesting year, full of challenges and stress, but also full of some really good food. Thanks for sticking with me though all my farmer whining and griping about the challenges. You've all been great, very supportive and accommodating. I hope you had a good experience and learned some more about eating locally and seasonally, and I hope you'll let me grow food for your family again next year.
See you Saturday,
Laura
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Posted by Laura
@ 09:23 AM CDT
Greetings shareholders,
This Saturday, we'll have potatoes, onions, daikon radish, squash, chilies, arugula, kale, turnips, and herbs. We'll also have a little bit of mustard greens and chard. You'll be taking home less food than usual. The never-ending bad weather is catching up with us again and has really limited what I've been able to grow and harvest for you.
One strategy I use to make sure that we always have a nice selection of vegetables is called "relay cropping". It means that I plant the same crop several times in sequence, timing it so one planting will be ready to harvest just as the previous planting is fizzling out. It usually works pretty well - but not this year. Remember the 28 rain-free days in September? At the start of that time was when the crops were planted that we should be harvesting right now. But, since it didn't rain, they couldn't germinate, and then when they finally did, they couldn't grow because it was so cold. So, the beets and turnips are a little too small to harvest, the daikon are considerably smaller than usual, the broccoli and cabbages never really made the right parts the right size, the spinach is about the size of quarters, the Asian greens are dots with leaves, the radishes are like peas, etc.... It's not like you haven't heard this story already this season!!! More than once!!!! What a year.
I'm not the only one griping about the fall. The crop farmers are very worried about harvest. We are about a month behind where we should be in harvesting the corn and soybeans. Plus, the air is so damp that the seeds in the pods and on the ears can't dry, so when they are harvested, they have to be dried down ($$$$) to a moisture level that will preserve their quality during storage. Plus, there have only been a few days when it hasn't been raining, or so muddy that the machines will sink in the fields. One good thing, prices are going up to reflect the worry that that everything won't be harvested before snow gets here. It's a tough time for farmers of all sorts. Running up against Mother Nature like we have this year makes you realize how vulnerable our food supply really is.
The shiny anti-deer tape seems to be working. So, maybe the lettuce will regrow enough that we can have one more lettuce salad next week. The regrowth doesn't know that there was a freeze, so should be of very nice quality.
We have butternut, spaghetti, sweet dumpling, and acorn squash this week. There is still quite a lot of buttercup and kabocha squash in the field, but the stems are still green and juicy, so it's not yet ready to cut. No matter what, I'll cut it next week so we can have it for the last pickup. All of the squash was a little bit frozen in the very cold night two weeks ago. You can see the freeze damage on the skin of the squashes, on the part that was facing up. It didn't hurt the flesh inside, but it probably means that the squash won't store forever. If you are saving them for later, keep an eye on them and cook them if they look like they are starting to deteriorate. You can freeze cooked squash. It comes out perfect.
There are probably a million websites with squash recipes, so this may not be the best one, but it does describe the different kinds of squash and show pictures. http://www.recipetips.com/ All you have to do is type in the squash type and lots of info will pop up. We have a few Long Island Cheese squashes this time. That one's not on the website. "Cheeses" are very much like butternut, only cooler looking. I've got a few more heirloom squashes still in the field, just about ready to cut.
We dug quite a few of the Viletta Rose potatoes this week. Thanks to the Barnyard Buddies 4-H club for their help. I never would have started on the patch if they hadn't been here. Vilettas are a red storage potato. They are excellent for boiling and mashing or for adding to soup. Because they spent so much time in cold, wet soil, they developed "scabs" on their skins. Sounds worse than it is. The little bumps don't go into the flesh, didn't change anything about the eating quality, and will basically disappear when you boil the potatoes with skins on. They are cosmetic. Enjoy the potatoes in spite of their blemishes.
Everybody is invited to the Halloween Soup Supper at Southeast Linn Community Center next Saturday, October 31. It's the night the town of Lisbon turns goofy for Halloween, shuts down Main Street, decorates all the businesses and lets the kids go crazy. So, bring the kids for trick-or-treating, then come by for soup and grilled cheese sandwiches. Or, come over just to eat soup. We serve from 4:00 until about 8:00. Adults are $6, big kids are $3, kids under 5 are free. It's a really fun time and the biggest fundraiser for our Community Center.
Local Harvest CSA is taking orders for organic free range turkeys for Thanksgiving. Henry and Ila Miller, family farmers near Kalona have been providing turkeys for their CSA members for at least 7 years. They are wonderful tasting fresh turkeys. The price is $2.90 per pound. You will pay when you pick up your turkey. (Henry says to expect smaller turkeys this year, 12-15 lbs. They have not been growing as fast as expected.) The turkeys will be available for pickup on Tuesday afternoon, November 24, at Metro High School or at Abbe Hills Farm. If you wish to order a turkey, please send a message with the number of turkeys, preferred weight, (We try our best to get you a turkey close to the size you request, but along with the weather, the growth rate of a turkey can be unpredictable), and a phone number where we can reach you if we run into a last minute problem on pick-up day. You can make your order directly with Susan Jutz, 319-929-5032, or localharvestcsa@southslope.net .
See you Saturday,
Laura
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Posted by Laura
@ 11:30 PM CDT
Greetings shareholders,
This Saturday, we'll have potatoes, onions, winter squash, chard, red radishes, daikon radishes, turnips, beet tops, arugula, mustard greens, baby Red Russian kale, big kale, and herbs. Hopefully, there will also be lettuce. As usual, it's going to be cold, muddy, and gray, so wear your boots and a coat that could get a little mud on it.
There are some Stripetti squash from ZJ Farm left from last week, so if you want another one, we will have it. Tomorrow, Friday, we will start harvesting winter squash here. I hope there is so much that we can't get it all done in one day, in spite of all the awful things the ground squirrels did to ruin it for us back in June. Not sure what kinds we will have for you this week, but some selection of acorn, sweet dumplings, butternut, buttercup, and kabocha, and maybe some more I can't remember. It should be good, now that it has had it's cold snap (actually, a little colder than I had in mind when I made the plan).
Daikon radishes are big, long, crsipy, white things that are a bit intimidating. But yummy. You have to remove the peel because it is bitter and tough, but the flesh is mild and sweet, and not very radishy. You can eat them raw, or dip them in something, or grate them and make slaw, or stir fry them. Quite versatile and quite nice. We've got three kinds this year.
Beet tops are a little like chard, only better. Might as well eat them since there probably isn't time for them to make beets. Saute them in a little butter and they are fabulous. We'll have lots of greens this week and next, maybe even for three weeks. Even though it got awfully cold last Saturday night, they pretty much survived. You might find some damage at the leaf tips of a few things, but basically, it was a miracle, and we still have greens. It's that time of year. Arugula, mustard greens (spicy, taste like a bite of French's), baby kale, regular size kale in two colors. There are also a few Chinese cabbage for people who didn't get one last week. Next year, we'll plant more of them for this time of year. They are so beautiful and fun.
Which brings us to Queen Green - lettuce. The good news is that the lettuce survived the freeze Saturday night. Not surprising, because lettuce is full of antifreeze and can take it pretty cold with only minimal damage. Unless you touch it while it is frozen; then it turns to wet Kleenex and it can't recover. The bad news is that the deer danced through it while it was frozen on Sunday morning and stomped it down. In the following evenings, the areas that they didn't ruin by walking on it, they ate. In about 3 nights, they ate or wrecked almost all of the lettuce that I was saving for you. And, it was fantastic. I hadn't cut any of the really good stuff yet; I was saving it for the last three weeks. So, I'll salvage as much as I can for you for this week, but it likely won't be enough to make you happy. The areas that I cut earlier in the month will regrow when it warms up next week, and if I can keep the deer out of it, we might have more lettuce for the last couple of weeks of the season. I've got the DNR guy coming tomorrow to take a look. Hopefully, he'll give me permission to send a few well-fed deer to their final destination - somebody's freezer.
We're going to dig potatoes again in the upcoming week, Monday and Tuesday are supposed to be dry and nice. I am still trying to get some of the good winter-storage red potatoes for you. They are a kind called "Viletta Rose", and I think we are going to like them if we can just get them out of the ground. So, if you're in the mood for some exercise, join us. This might be your last chance for a while.
See you Saturday,
Laura
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Posted by Laura
@ 11:13 PM CDT
Greetings shareholders,
Tomorrow, we'll have potatoes, onions, the last of the eggplant and peppers, chilies, herbs, radishes; turnips, arugula, kale, chard, broccoli, lettuce, and a winter squash called "Stripetti". http://www.recipetips.com/glossary-term/t--35482/stripetti-squash.asp . Local Harvest CSA gave us the squash because they have too many of this kind. We'll be cutting the squash out of our gardens this week. Hopefully, they've all yielded well and we, too, will be overwhelmed with squash.
The potatoes will be either the white ones, "Superior", or "Russets", which are the oblong brown potatoes used for baking and making French fries. They're not huge like the ones at the store because they haven't been overdosed on fertilizer all their lives. Instead, they are medium sized and huge on taste.
Turnips are root vegetables. They are usually harvested a little bigger than the ones we have now. Peel them, and then you can eat them raw (crunchy and sweet), or steam or saute them, or mash with potatoes, or roast with meat, or put in soup. They have lots of uses, and have a flavor a little like sweet cabbage when cooked.
The eggplants, peppers, chilies, and broccoli left in the garden will all be killed when the temperature drops this weekend. What a goofy year. Rain, cold, dry, cold, flooded, cold, pounding rain, and now, a killing freeze way too early, before we have even had a light frost. I hope this is the last time I have to farm in such extreme weather for a few years. Sheesh. It has been never-ending surprises and foiled plans. We're going to have to hustle to have everything as ready as possible for the weekend. It's possible that, if it gets really cold for more than a couple of hours, even the lettuce and greens could be damaged. Won't know until it happens. I've got lots of other things in the garden for you that I hope we will still get to enjoy this month, things like beets, Asian greens, spinach, cabbage, Chinese cabbage, turnips, chard, herbs, daikon radishes .... but we need them to survive the deep freeze and then get some heat and sun to grow just a little more to reach harvest maturity. Hope for the best!!!
Don't forget the CROPWalk this Sunday. You can contribute by putting a donation in my donation envelope on the checkin table. A good chunk of the donations to CROP will be given to our food pantry at the Southeast Linn Community Center. The rest will go for international food and development aid through Church World Services.
I've collected a few of your things over the summer that you might like to have back. They will be piled on the checkin table. Please look them over and take what is yours. I'm keeping whatever is left over, and there is some good stuff in the pile.
Please come prepared for rain and cold on Saturday, Wear boots (there is mud everywhere) and coats and gloves that could get muddy (some mud on the food, too). I worked really hard this week to keep everything as clean as possible, but it's been a challenge. And remember, please park on solid parts of the driveway, where there is rock, and leave the spaces on the grass near the shed for the people who have trouble walking far. Thanks for your patience with all the mud and yuck.
See you tomorrow.
Laura
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Posted by Laura
@ 09:10 AM CDT
Greetings shareholders,
This weekend, we'll have white potatoes, very nice onions, mountains of sweet red peppers, eggplant, chilies, fantastic leaf lettuce, red globe radishes, arugula, green beans, a few tomatoes, kale, chard, and herbs. We open at 10:00 Saturday morning, although if it is still raining by then, you might want to delay your arrival if possible. We've got a hayrack in the middle of the shed loaded with vegetables that we thought we might lose in the frost that was predicted this week, and I don't want to pull it out into the rain if we don't have to. We'll stay open until 2:00, although if we get a late start, I can keep the food out until 3:00. At 3:30, I have to leave, so please be here before then.
The potatoes are called "Superior". Make sure they are fully dry (it's been a rainy week and they never dried out from washing them) and in the dark, and they should last a long time. The onions are "Big Daddy". Keep them dry, cool, and in the dark, and they should be good keepers. Never keep onions or potatoes in plastic bags; they need a paper bag or cardboard box so they can breathe a little. We really do have a mountain of sweet peppers. They are just marvelous. I love growing sweet peppers just because they look so pretty this time of year. Plus, they taste great. If there are too many for you to use in a week, you can roast and freeze them, stuff and freeze them, or slice and freeze them. Roasted red peppers make a great side dish when it is snowing and cold.
The lettuce continues to be beautiful. Lettuce loves cool weather. We also have arugula now. Arugula is a spicy green in the mustard family. I think it tastes a little like walnuts with tabasco sauce. Some people like to saute it and eat it with pasta or eggs or cheese. I think it is very good when mixed (in moderate quantities) with lettuce in a tossed salad. It gives the salad a little spunk. We should have arugula and radishes from now until the end of October, so you'll have several opportunities to find ways to use them. The radishes this week are the regular red globes, but we also have a few shunkyo radishes now, and soon we'll have a couple of kinds of daikon. Radishes also love cool weather. They can be eaten raw in a salad or sandwich, or shredded for a slaw, or stir fried like water chestnuts. All yummy.
No winter squash yet. As most of you know, I'm a believer is letting the winter squash get good and cold out in the field. I think it helps with ripening and makes the squash sweeter. So, don't panic. There will be squash, and it will be great. While we wait for the frost, buy some homegrown squash from some farmer's market vendor to get you through. Then, really enjoy squash when the good stuff is ready in a couple of weeks.
Anybody have a 4-H club or youth group that might like to help with potato digging? We'll be back at it as soon as the mud becomes a little less muddy. Let me know if you would like to help.
The Mt. Vernon/Lisbon CROPWalk is going to be Sunday, Oct 11. Registration starts at 1:45 at the Presbyterian Church. Walkers walk to Lisbon, then back to the Methodist church in Mt. Vernon for at light dinner. Everybody is welcome to walk, and EVERYBODY is welcome to make a donation to support a walker. Donations to CROPWalk are used by Church World Service to support international food relief and anti-hunger development, and to support our local food pantry at the Southeast Linn Community Center. I'll be walking, and since I know so many people, they are calling me a "celebrity walker". Please, please, please - don't let me embarrass myself! Help me maintain my celebrity and help me make a great big donation. You can donate $1, $5, $500, or anything in between. We'll have donation envelopes available on Saturday, in case any of you or your kids would like to join me on the walk.
Please take a look inside the hoophouse sometime. It looks beautiful now with the greens that I'm growing for the Late Fall CSA shares that I will be offering. I've got most of the details on the new mini-CSA figured out, and will be posting to the website and sending you sign-up information very soon. There will only be enough for 30 shares, so be ready to register when you hear from me. It looks like weekly pickups will be on Wednesday afternoons from the first week of November until the week of Christmas.
See you tomorrow,
Laura
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Posted by Laura
@ 11:13 AM CDT
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