Abbe Hills Farm CSA

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