CSA Newsletter for Week 15 of the 2023 Season

 Farm Update

Hi everyone! Hope you're doing well and enjoying this lovely fall day!  As I write this, I am sitting at my deck table with a cup of coffee, trying to squeeze every last bit of nice weather out of this year.  Things at the farm are starting to get quieter and easier to manage.  While we are still weeding a little bit, the weeds grow a lot more slowly and are generally better-behaved than they were two months ago, when they were trying to swallow up the whole farm.  We're still bringing in the major harvests of what would generally be considered storage vegetables (squash, onions, etc.) for the winter, except that we don't intend to have a lot to store by the time we wrap up the season.  Just enough to keep our family in potatoes, carrots, onions, and squash until about February or March, until the first spring veggies start coming out of the hoophouses.

It's a bittersweet time of year for vegetables.  The tomato vines are definitely on the downswing, to the point where we never know exactly when they are going to be done for the year, but we know it's going to be soon.  We're going to keep harvesting the slicing tomatoes as long as they look nice and can refrain from cracking, but we don't have nearly as many as before.  I'm always sad to see the tomatoes go, because it's impossible to get a good tomato anywhere during the cold months, and they're one of my favorite foods.  But the upcoming fall plantings are looking beautiful and strong, and before we know it, we'll be back into spinach and some especially excellent fall carrots.  Right now, I'm really loving our arugula and cauliflower, which are special treats this time of year.  I asked Fred why our cauliflower is so much better than I remember cauliflower being when I was a kid, because I suspected it isn't just because I like vegetables in general a whole lot more than I did when I was young.  I was right.  He chose a special variety of green-stemmed Asian cauliflower that is sweeter, more tender, and just more lush than the standard varieties we grew up with, and you can definitely tell the difference!  

We have three new veggies making their debut this week, and I am super excited for the first sweet potatoes, baby amara greens, and radishes of the fall!  Last year was the first time we grew the amara greens, and they are so good!  They're like a slightly garlicky, mustardy baby kale, and would make a fabulous salad with apples and bleu cheese.  You could also sauté them lightly, but since they're a baby green, they would cook down pretty quickly into not much volume, so I'd definitely recommend enjoying them in their flavorful raw glory.  I am also super excited about sweet potatoes!  They feel like dessert for dinner, and I can't wait to have the first ones this week!  They'll be in the same station as the cauliflower at the drop-off, and this is one of the many times I am glad I don't have to choose one or the other.  But if you have a half share and that is going to be a really hard choice for you, here's a tip:  This week has a pretty strong possibility of being the end of cauliflower season (once the weather turns nasty, the cauliflower heads will go downhill pretty quickly), but we'll have sweet potatoes all the way up to the end of the season.  Just in case that helps you make your choice. ;-)

And, now for a big announcement!  Sign-ups are officially open for the 2024 season!  If you already know you want to sign up for next year, you can do so starting now!  Just fill out this form, and I'll put you on next year's membership list!  For anyone who signs up and puts down at least a partial payment before December 31, you lock in this year's price of $340 for a half share or $630 for a full share at one of our regular drop-offs!  (Just add $95 to that if you're signing up for home or workplace delivery.)  And just let me know if you have any questions about signing up for next year!  We would love to have you in the CSA again for 2024! 

What to Expect in the Shares this Week

 

If you pick up at our Alma, Mt. Pleasant, or Midland drop-off, here are the options for your shares!  If you have a half share, you’ll choose one item from each choice category, and if you have a full share, you’ll choose two.  And if there is something you don’t like or can’t eat, you can bring it to the trading station at the end and trade it for something you like better. 
 

• Potatoes or Delicata Squash
• Spring mix, arugula, or baby amara greens
• Carnival squash, butternut squash or leeks
• Cabbbage, kale, or beets
• Green pepper, tomato, or 3 serrano peppers
• Cauliflower or sweet potatoes
• Radishes, 2 kohlrabi, or 3 onions

If you pick up at our Lansing, Okemos, St. Johns, Midland hospital, or Alma hospital drop-off, or if you have home or workplace delivery, here are your options!  We have three different prepacked shares, and you can let me know which one you want by filling out this quick form by lunchtime the day before your drop-off.  If you have a half share, you can choose one of these options, and if you have a full share, you’ll choose two.

Share A:

• Potatoes
• Spring mix
• Carnival squash
• Kale
• Tomato
• Cauliflower
• 3 onions

Share B:

• Delicata squash
• Arugula
• Carnival squash
• Cabbage
• Green pepper
• Sweet potatoes
• Radishes

Share C:

• Potatoes
• Baby amara greens
• Butternut squash
• Beets
• 3 serrano peppers
• Cauliflower
• Radishes

Recipes

If you're looking for something yummy to do with cauliflower this week, check out this recipe for 20 Minute Sesame Cauliflower!  This is quick and flavorful, perfect for a busy weeknight dinner!  Enjoy! 

CSA Newsletter for Week 14 of the 2023 Season

Farm Update

Hi everyone! Happy fall!  It is officially autumn as of today, and the farm definitely reflects that right now!  We are very much in the middle of the harvest season, and while we finished bringing in all of our potatoes a few weeks ago, we are still working on bringing in the squash and onion harvest in the pockets of time when we're not harvesting, washing, packing, and delivering veggies for the deliveries and CSA drop-offs.  Fortunately, we've been delivering a lot of squash, and we've been sending it out the door almost as fast as we can harvest it.  That is a good thing, because it takes up A LOT of space, and the barn is already feeling pretty cramped as it is.  So as soon as I bring several crates of squash to the drop-offs, a few more appear to take their place.  In this way, we will probably work through most of our squash supply over the next six weeks of the CSA, and hopefully we'll still be able to move around the barn in the meantime.  We've also started harvesting the first of the sweet potatoes, and they are currently curing in the barn so that they will have the maximum shelf life out on your counter or in your pantry.  That is, unless you eat them as soon as you get them, because they are so delicious! 

Right now, harvesting takes up the majority of our time at the farm, but we are also doing some end-of-season planting.  We're still planting some things outside in the fields, such as some spinach, arugula, and radishes for the very end of the season, but most of our planting will move into the hoophouses now that the weather is starting to turn.  Fred planted the first hoophouse this week full of green onions, cilantro, dill, and spring mix to be harvested in October and November, and he plans to plant the second hoophouse this weekend.  (In the picture above, Fred is transplanting green onions in the coldframe with our paper pot planting system.)  The hoophouses (which are also called coldframes) are unheated greenhouses that allow us to extend the number of months each year that we can grow things at the farm.  They shelter the plants from wind, rain, and cold temperatures just enough to get another two months or so of produce in the late fall.  Then we are able to plant some especially coldhardy plants (like kale, spinach, and arugula) to overwinter, so that they have a head start growing when spring finally arrives.  That means we can start harvesting the very first veggies at the end of February or beginning of March, instead of two months later, which would be the very first harvests of anything from the field.  

The weather has been especially nice for this time of year!  Normally we expect it to rain most of October, but the extended forecast predicts a much drier fall than we're used to.  We've actually had to do some irrigating, which is extremely uncommon for this time of year, but I'll definitely take it.  The longer it stays sunny, the less we have to work in the cold October rain, which freezes you straight through and just kind of kills your soul after several weeks of it.  October rains also make it a lot more likely that our field crops will succumb to foliar diseases, which makes it a lot harder to plan for fall CSA shares.  So I will absolutely take the sun for as long as it sticks around, even if it does mean moving around irrigation lines a lot longer than we thought we'd have to. 

Today is the autumnal equinox, which means that today, the we have an equal amount of day and night.  That naturally means that starting tomorrow, the dark starts taking over little by little, coming earlier each evening, and staying later each morning.  When day length starts to decrease, the plants can't get the sunlight they need to keep thriving, and they eventually start to shut down for the season, and the soil gets a well-deserved break for the winter.  We still have several weeks before that happens, but when it does, the humans at the farm start to feel like it's time to wind things down and take a break as well.  

But for now, the sun is shining, it's surprisingly warm out, and the plants are happy and thriving.  So here's to six more weeks of excellent veggies!  Welcome to Week 14 of the CSA, and I'll see you at the drop-offs! :-)

What to Expect in the Shares this Week

 

If you pick up at our Alma, Mt. Pleasant, or Midland drop-off, here are the options for your shares!  If you have a half share, you’ll choose one item from each choice category, and if you have a full share, you’ll choose two.  And if there is something you don’t like or can’t eat, you can bring it to the trading station at the end and trade it for something you like better. 
 

• Spring mix or arugula
• Beets, cauliflower, or Carnival squash
• Cherry tomatoes, slicing tomatoes, or broccoli
• Potatoes or bag of small onions
• Kale, cabbage, 2 kohlrabi, or Swiss chard
• Acorn squash, delicata squash, or a small pie pumpkin
• Onion, green pepper, or 3 serrano peppers

If you pick up at our Lansing, Okemos, St. Johns, Midland hospital, or Alma hospital drop-off, or if you have home or workplace delivery, here are your options!  We have three different prepacked shares, and you can let me know which one you want by filling out this quick form by lunchtime the day before your drop-off.  If you have a half share, you can choose one of these options, and if you have a full share, you’ll choose two.

Share A:

• Spring mix
• Carnival squash
• Broccoli
• Bag of small onions
• 2 Kohlrabi
• Small pie pumpkin
• Green pepper

Share B:

• Arugula
• Beets
• Tomatoes
• Potatoes
• Cabbage
• Delicata
• 3 Serrano peppers

Share C:

• Spring mix
• Cauliflower
• Cherry tomatoes
• Potatoes
• Kale
• Acorn squash
• Onion

Recipes

Now that the evenings are getting decidedly chilly, it's starting to feel like soup weather!  If you're looking for something warm, filling, comforting, and tasty, try out this Cabbage, Sausage, and Potato Soup!  If you're getting a buildup of potatoes and you still have some carrots in your fridge from last week, this is a good way to use them up!  And if you still have leeks from last week, awesome!  Throw them in!  If not, you can substitute an onion.  That is the beautiful thing about soups; you can play around with the ingredients and proportions according to what you have, and you end up with something delicious and hearty comforting.  Just in time for fall! :-)

CSA Newsletter for Week 13 of the 2023 Seas

Farm Update

Hi everyone!  While we have a week before the calendar officially announces the fall season, all of the signs are pointing toward autumn at the farm!  We have a busy harvest week ahead of us continuing to bring in onions and squash, and quite a few of them are headed out on our delivery vehicle as soon as they come in from the fields and get cleaned up.  'Tis the season for fall veggies!  It's just as well that we don't have to store as many of our squashes, onions, and potatoes for long, because we're already pushing the limits of what our small space can handle.  This week is the perfect marriage of summer and fall veggies, and that means that we have a lot to harvest!  

Another thing that happens every year when the weather starts to look more like fall is that the deer start to act contrary to their best interest.  Once deer near their normal mating season, the young males especially try to enter the farm however they can, whether that's jumping over our deer fence, squeezing into cracks, or entering into the few places where the fence is the weakest.  We've definitely seen evidence of their presence the last few weeks, and Fred has been walking around the farm every morning and evening to scare them away.  Deer can do a surprising amount of damage to the veggies overnight, so we have to be extra vigilant this time of year so we don't return in the morning and find that they've eaten a week's worth of spring mix.  There is one yearling in particular who has been making his presence especially noticeable, and Fred has been quite intent on scaring him away for as long as possible.  I have taken to calling this young deer "Moby Dick".

We're still planting our fall greens, such as spinach and arugula, out in the fields, but the planting season is slowing down.  We'll still be harvesting for another two months, (or maybe even three, depending on the weather), but we won't be putting new seeds into the field for much longer.  We are nearing the time to slow down, and I'll definitely be ready when that happens.  But we continue to harvest a lot of onions and squash, and we have a large trailer full of pie pumpkins and winter squashes of all varieties curing in the shelter of one of our coldframes.  That will allow them to have a longer shelf life on your kitchen counter until you use them to make delicious fall dishes.  And there is nothing that says autumn like a big trailer piled with butternuts, spaghetti squash, delicatas, and pie pumpkins.  (You can see a picture of them above).  I hope you all enjoy them as much as we have been!  

And I guess that's it for this week!  Here we go into week 13 of the CSA, and I'll see you all at the drop-offs! 

What to Expect in the Shares this Week

 

If you pick up at our Alma, Mt. Pleasant, or Midland drop-off, here are the options for your shares!  If you have a half share, you’ll choose one item from each choice category, and if you have a full share, you’ll choose two.  And if there is something you don’t like or can’t eat, you can bring it to the trading station at the end and trade it for something you like better. 
 

• Potatoes or a bag of small onions
• Spring mix or butternut squash
• Pie Pumpkin, leeks, or delicata squash
• Carrots, cherry tomatoes, or beets
• Cabbage, kale, or Swiss chard
• Microgreens, 2 tomatoes, or 2 peppers
• Kohlrabi or a large onion

If you pick up at our Lansing, Okemos, St. Johns, Midland hospital, or Alma hospital drop-off, or if you have home or workplace delivery, here are your options!  We have three different prepacked shares, and you can let me know which one you want by filling out this quick form by lunchtime the day before your drop-off.  If you have a half share, you can choose one of these options, and if you have a full share, you’ll choose two.

Share A:

• Potatoes
• Spring mix
• Pie pumpkin
• Carrots
• Cabbage
• 2 peppers
• Kohlrabi

Share B:

• Potatoes
• Butternut squash
• Delicata squash
• Cherry tomatoes
• Cabbage
• Tomatoes
• Onion

Share C:

• Bag of small onions
• Spring mix
• Pie Pumpkin
• Cherry tomatoes
• Kale
• 2 peppers
• Kohlrabi

Recipes

It's pumpkin and squash season!  If you are one of the many many people who are not sure how to get the pretty pumpkin sitting on your counter into a form you can actually use to make food, never fear!  Here is a quick and easy tutorial on how to turn a pie pumpkin into pumpkin puree, and then you can make pies, pumpkin rolls, or whatever pumpkin goodies you like to make!  

We also have cabbage this week, which makes me really excited for fall veggies in general!  If you're not sure what to do with cabbage but want to try it out, here is a great recipe for Sautéed Cabbage, which is sure to answer your "What do I do with cabbage?" questions, and is super yummy for any meal of the day.  Enjoy! :-)

CSA Newsletter for Week 12 of the 2023 Season

 Farm Update

Hi everyone!  Things continue to be busy at the farm as we bring in the large fall harvests!  We are still bringing in all of the onions we planted back in the spring, and which are now ready to come out of the ground and be cured for winter storage, and we are starting to harvest the first of our winter squashes.  In fact, we'll have the first delicata squash, butternut squash, and spaghetti squash in the shares this week!  Fred and I cooked up one of each of them this week to make sure they were nice and ripe, and they were fabulous!  The season is shifting from summer to fall, and the next two weeks will have the best of what both seasons have to offer!  We're still rolling in tomatoes and enjoying peppers and other summer veggies, but we're also starting to see the first fall season veggies.  After two weeks or so, once the tomatoes start to wane and the beets, hearty greens, and sweet potatoes come into abundance, the shares will be much more autumnal in nature.  And this week, we'll have a rare treat available in the shares!  Usually once a year, we harvest sweet potato greens before they start to wither and die back, signaling the time to unearth the sweet potatoes.  They are actually the green part of the sweet potato plant that stays above the ground and photosynthesizes, producing energy so that the root of the plant (the part we generally eat) can grow big and delicious.  But the greens are also really yummy, so we like to harvest some of them and bring them to the CSA before sweet potato season starts in earnest. 

As for what we're doing around the farm, our farm work is also a mix of summer work and fall work.  We just finished planting the last of the greens for fall, and planting is something we are doing all the time in the summer and barely at all in the fall.  (The picture above is of a few new beds that have just been planted, but the seeds haven't germinated yet so they look pretty bare.)  Both insect pressure and weed pressure are greatly diminished from their summer heights, so we spend a lot less time fighting with bugs and weeds.  The relentless pace of farm work is starting to slow down a bit, which is extremely welcome after a long season, and the weather hasn't yet become uncooperative and started making everything we do harder.  So really, right now is a golden time that deserves to be fully appreciated for the beautiful transition that it is.  And we still have eight weeks of veggies to look forward to!

Welcome to Week 12 of the CSA!  See you at the drop-off! :-)

What to Expect in the Shares this Week

 

If you pick up at our Alma, Mt. Pleasant, or Midland drop-off, here are the options for your shares!  If you have a half share, you’ll choose one item from each choice category, and if you have a full share, you’ll choose two.  And if there is something you don’t like or can’t eat, you can bring it to the trading station at the end and trade it for something you like better. 
 

• Potatoes or sweet potato greens
• Carrots or spring mix
• Butternut squash, spaghetti squash, or leeks
• Cherry tomatoes or Swiss chard
• Delicata squash or 3 tomatoes
• Microgreens, 2 green peppers, or 2 kohlrabi
• Onion or slicing tomato

If you pick up at our Lansing, Okemos, St. Johns, Midland hospital, or Alma hospital drop-off, or if you have home or workplace delivery, here are your options!  We have three different prepacked shares, and you can let me know which one you want by filling out this quick form by lunchtime the day before your drop-off.  If you have a half share, you can choose one of these options, and if you have a full share, you’ll choose two.

Share A:

• Potatoes
• Carrots
• Leeks
• Cherry tomatoes
• Delicata squash
• 2 kohlrabi
• Onion

Share B:

• Potatoes
• Spring mix
• Butternut squash
• Swiss chard
• 3 slicing tomatoes
• 2 green peppers
• Onion

Share C:

• Sweet potato greens
• Spring mix
• Spaghetti squash
• Cherry tomatoes
• Delicata squash
• 2 peppers
• Slicing tomato

Recipes

Now that we're headed into fall, I am constantly reminded that in a few months, everything will be covered with snow and there won't be a decent tomato to be had anywhere, except for the ones we preserved ourselves right now.  So if you are also trying to carry a little bit of summer into the colder months, what better way to do that than with these Slow Roasted Cherry Tomatoes Preserved in Olive Oil!  When fresh tomatoes are long gone, you can add these to pasta or other winter dishes for some excellent summer flavor! 

CSA Newsletter for Week 11 of the 2023 Season

Farm Update

Hi everyone!  Hope you're doing well and enjoying the holiday weekend!  A few people have asked me what the plan is for Monday's CSA drop-off in Alma, as this Monday will be Labor Day.  So if you are also wondering about that, the CSA drop-off will be occurring as normal, but we totally understand if you can't make it to the drop-off because you're out of town, or at a party, or whatever.  If that's the case, you have a few options.  You can either have a friend come pick up your share, you can postpone your share and get a double share the following week, or you can pick up your share at one of our other drop-offs later in the week (such as in Mt. Pleasant on Tuesday).  If you're having a friend pick up your share, I don't need to know about it beforehand, but if you're not going to be picking up on Monday, just let me know by Sunday so I can take you off the harvest list for Monday, and we can go with whatever option is most convenient for you!  

For us at the farm, Labor Day is a pretty normal Monday, and we will be doing what the name implies... laboring.  We are still very much in the middle of our large harvests, and this week we will be harvesting and drying the first round of our onions.  We'll pull them out of the ground and spread them out flat in one of the now empty hoophouses where they will be warm and dry, and we let them cure.  That's how they get that papery skin, and also what allows them to last several months at room temperature so we can store them for winter.  Now that we have all of the potatoes harvested and safely in the barn, there are several empty beds that can receive new seeds, so we'll be planting the next round of arugula, spring mix, spinach, and radishes.  Those will be for the last few weeks of the CSA, and we can also continue harvesting them into November.  By then, the quintessentially summer veggies like green beans and cherry tomatoes will have finished their life cycle for this season, but some more cold-hardy vegetables (like most of the leafy greens) continue to survive the colder temperatures and produce food well into the late fall.  So we'll be relying on them to carry the day when things like zucchini and basil are but a fond memory, and we all start thinking about coming inside, putting extra blankets on the beds, and starting a fire in the fireplace.  

It has often been said that there is nothing new under the sun, and the very cyclical nature of life at the farm definitely reinforces that for me.  The subtle shift from late summer to early fall feels much the same this year as in years past.  However, this week at the farm, we got something very new under the sun!  Several months ago, Fred and I started looking into what it would entail to switch to primarily solar energy, and this week, that project came to fruition!  On Monday and Tuesday, a crew came out and installed 16 solar panels in the front field, and we are just awaiting the inspection before we can get them hooked up to the grid!  It is projected that the solar panels will cover 92% of the farm's electrical needs, and we are excited to be able to use the sun (which we often have in abundance) to power the farm!  So although the earth travels around the sun in the same way every year, and our lives at the farm look much the same from year to year depending on where we are in that journey, little by little, things actually are changing.  Every once in a while, we get a new tractor or a new greenhouse or new solar panels, and after a decade, everything looks completely different.  Even though we didn't really notice it changing, when I think about what the farm (and our lives) looked like 10 years ago, the difference is incredible.  It makes me excited to think about what it might be like 10 years in the future, even though it all happened in small, barely perceptible ways, one day and month and fence and tractor at a time.

But with all that said, welcome to week 11 of the CSA!  See you at the drop-offs, and have a wonderful Labor Day weekend!

What to Expect in the Shares this Week

 

If you pick up at our Alma, Mt. Pleasant, or Midland drop-off, here are the options for your shares!  If you have a half share, you’ll choose one item from each choice category, and if you have a full share, you’ll choose two.  And if there is something you don’t like or can’t eat, you can bring it to the trading station at the end and trade it for something you like better. 
 

• Potatoes
• Cherry tomatoes or spring mix
• Carrots or beets
• Slicing tomatoes
• Kale, leeks, or chard
• Basil, 2 onions, or frisée
• Green bell pepper or kohlrabi

If you pick up at our Lansing, Okemos, St. Johns, Midland hospital, or Alma hospital drop-off, or if you have home or workplace delivery, here are your options!  We have three different prepacked shares, and you can let me know which one you want by filling out this quick form by lunchtime the day before your drop-off.  If you have a half share, you can choose one of these options, and if you have a full share, you’ll choose two.

Share A:

• Potatoes
• Carrots
• Spring mix
• Slicing tomatoes
• Kale
• 2 Onions
• Green bell pepper

Share B:

• Potatoes
• Carrots
• Cherry tomatoes
• Slicing tomatoes
• Leeks
• Frisée
• Green bell pepper

Share C:

• Potatoes
• Carrots
• Spring mix
• Slicing tomatoes
• Swiss chard
• Basil
• Kohlrabi

Recipes

I am beyond excited that we finally have green peppers!  I have been looking forward to them for weeks, and we just had the first one with lunch a couple of days ago, which was delicious.  And I am pleased to report that we will be bringing these lovely delicious peppers to you this week as well!  If you love starting the day out with a hearty breakfast, check out this recipe for Southwestern Skillet Potatoes.  Technically it's a breakfast recipe, but you can eat these potatoes any time of day, and it includes potatoes, peppers, and onions, which are all in the shares this week. What a nice way to slow down and enjoy a leisurely weekend breakfast!