CSA Newsletter for Week 17

Farm Update

Hi everyone!  It's been a very rainy week at the farm!  We've had a little bit of flooding in a few of the plant beds that has drowned some of the veggies, but fortunately, it's not extensive enough to do any major damage.  The damp weather has damaged the tomatoes more than anything, causing them to crack and develop little spots of rot.  This is pretty common for this time of year; as it gets colder, the summer crops have to work a lot harder to fight plant diseases.  However, the fall vegetables such as kale are thriving!  This chilly weather allows the kale to really play to its strengths.  There is a slight chance of frost this weekend, but we're hoping to avoid it, because once the first frost occurs, the quality of most vegetables slowly degrades until the end of the season.  The longer the frost stays away, the longer we can have a wide variety of both summer and fall vegetables.  The deer have definitely started to be more active, trying to find their way into the farm through the only two entrances in our 8-foot-tall deer fence.  They usually come just as it starts to get dark, so we've been proactive, walking around where they enter the farm at nightfall to scare them away.  We've found that if we scare them at the beginning of the night, they'll find somewhere else to go and usually not return to the farm that night.  The amount of damage a group of deer can do to a bed of vegetables in just one night is incredible, so we want to avoid that.  Folks have been asking lately how much longer the CSA will go this year, so here are the final dates:  The last Alma drop-off is going to be November 4, the last Mt. Pleasant drop-off is November 5, the last Lansing drop-off is October 30, and the last Midland drop-off is October 31.  We still have several more weeks of veggies to enjoy before the fields take a well-deserved winter rest, so let's enjoy them all to the fullest! :-)

What to Expect in This Week's Share

If you are picking up at one of our traditional style drop-offs (Alma, Mt. Pleasant, and Midland), here’s what the options will be at the different stations.  If you have a half share, you’ll choose one item at each station, and if you have a full share, you choose two items at each station!

• Carrots or Delicata squash
• Sweet potatoes or arugula
• Potatoes
• Butternut squash or beets
• Radishes or kale
• 3 Roma tomatoes or 2 peppers
• Onion or microgreens

If you have a prepacked share (Midland hospital, St. Johns, Lansing, Okemos, or home delivery), here are your options.  If you have a half share, you’ll choose either share A, B, or C, and if you have a full share, you can choose two of them.  So just email me by lunchtime the day before your drop-off to let me know which share you want for this week!  If I don't hear from you, I'll just choose for you. :-)

Share A:  Carrots, sweet potatoes, potatoes, butternut squash, kale, 3 Roma tomatoes, onion

Share B: Delicata, sweet potatoes, potatoes, butternut squash, radishes, 2 peppers, microgreens

Share C:  Carrots, arugula, potatoes, beets, kale, 3 Roma tomatoes, onion

             

Recipes

There are some things that, without fail, signal that fall is really here.  The onslaught of pumpkin spice everything comes to mind, along with the appearance of sweaters and boots as the weather starts to get chilly.  For me, beets are one of those harbingers of fall, so we have some beet recipes this week!  We do a lot of different things with beets, but Beet and Goat Cheese Arugula Salad and Oven-Roasted Root Vegetables make many, many appearances on our table throughout the fall.  In the Roasted Root Vegetable recipe, you can either use parsnips as called for, or you can switch them out for carrots, which is what we usually do.  We usually sprinkle it liberally with rosemary too.  Enjoy!