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!