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Hello members and friends!
What glorious weather we’ve been having! Sometimes we wonder if you get tired of hearing us talk about the weather, but we veggie farmers really live and die by the weather report. The weather nearly completely dictates what our days are like. When we can plant, when we should (or shouldn’t) seed, when we can or can’t weed. It doesn’t mean we get to take a day off when the weather doesn’t cooperate, it just means we have to be infinitely flexible with our planning. The only thing the weather can’t do is stop us on harvest days, rain or shine we are out there getting those crops to you. It can be frustrating but it’s also really a beautiful thing to live in true harmony with what’s going on in our world.
We’re working furiously on our impending move: we’ve consulted with the well driller (ouch! $$$), half of the milking barn has been torn down, we’re getting ready to pour concrete and put a new endwall on the remaining part of the barn, and our super hero father-in-law/stepdad came up to help refinish the original bird’s eye maple floors in our new house. We’ve been moving the perennial garden bit by bit, and are getting ready for our big move in just three weeks! Wow, has this season flown by. We did take some time to visit our friend’s place in Balsam Lake for his annual apple cider pressing, and even got to go look at the supermoon lunar eclipse on Sunday night!
It’s been a fabulous week in the fields, with a good bit of rain (again) but a good bit of sunshine and mild temps to go with it. Historically, our famous fajita box has gone out either this week or last, but we’re beginning to wonder if it will happen this year, at least out of necessity. The fajita box was created out of a need to save all the bell peppers we could when a frost was impending. We’d frantically pick every last bell pepper and hot pepper, throw in a big handful of onions, a bunch of cilantro, a few good recipes, and voila! The fajita box. Frankly, we don’t know if there will be a frost between now and Week 18, but we might just put fajita fixings in next week regardless.
Apple cider making with our good friend Mark
In the Box:
- Winter Squash: Acorn or Delicata
- Onions
- Romano Beans (3/4 lb small, 1 lb med & full)
- Cabbage
- Radishes
- Winter Greens (1/2 lb med, 3/4 lb full)
- Carrots: Purple haze (1.25 lb med, 1.5 lb full)
- Celariac (2 lb med & full)
- Cauliflower (full only)
Recipes
We happen to really like celeriac. Please don’t judge them by their knobbly, odd appearance. These roots are exceptionally elegant underneath it all! Also known as celery root (and much easier to pronounce!) think of them as a celery plant grown to emphasize the bulb, and as tasting like a cross between celery and potato, with a mild taste and mesmerizing aroma. They also keep for several weeks if you store them in a plastic bag in the refrigerator, so you can take a little time to decide what you want to do with them. We recommend the classic Slow Roast of Roots, or this fun Apple and Root Vegetable Hash. Of course, the culinary classic, Remoulade, is a fabulous way to enjoy this crisp and refreshing vegetable. Try Martha’s interesting update, the Apple and Celery Root Remoulade.
One of our members told me she made this Roasted Acorn Squash recipe, so if you still have squash from last week or need an idea for this week, try it out! She used goat cheese instead of burrata, which must have been awesome. Sounds wonderful, and thank you, Elizabeth!
Our winter greens mix is a custom blend of cold-hardy baby mustards, tender cabbages and pac chois. Similar to our spicy greens mix without the heat. We are trying some new greens in the mix this year and have been really happy with them. I really wouldn’t do anything other than enjoy them fresh as a salad or on a sandwich. Toss them with the best olive oil you have, a little salt, and a few add-ins, and savor, savor, savor. Sadly, the days of local greens are beginning to be numbered!
This is probably the last week of green beans for the season (oh, it pains us to start using that phrase, “the last of the season”!). You might really be grateful come December if you can open your freezer and pull out a bag of gorgeous green beans. All you have to do is boil them in salted water until they are nearly as done as you like, then drain them, plunge them into a bowl or sink full of ice water, drain them again, dry them on towels and then freeze. Twenty minutes of work now will bring a smile to your face come wintertime! If you want to go ahead and enjoy them now, try this Orecchiette and Romano Bean Pasta. I must be hungry as I write this, because I want to eat this right now! Orecchiette pasta can be found in most grocery stores, if you can’t find it just look for something else that’s small-ish and looks like it will hold lots of sauce in the nooks and crannies.
Sneak Peek of Next Week:
- Butternut Squash
- Kale
- Turnips
- Onions
- Carrots
Enjoy the food and the cooking, and all the best from all of us,
Heather, Brandon, Frank and Maybelle
sleepy root farm 