CSA Newsletter for Week 20

Farm Update

Carrots are one of my favorite cool-season
veggies!  Fortunately for all of us, we have
plenty of delicious carrots in the shares
this week!

Hi everyone!  Here we go into week 20!  It’s the final week of the CSA, which is both sad and exciting for us.  On the one hand, I’m really going to miss seeing everyone each week, being busy and productive, and having all these great veggies in my kitchen.  On the other hand, it’s really cold out there, and once we get to this time of year, we would just rather be inside.  Also, I’m looking forward to getting our house livable again, and I know we would both like to see our kids more often.  So it’s bittersweet.  This has been an excellent CSA season, but now it’s time to turn toward hearth and home, at least for me.  Fred still has another month or so out there, albeit one with far fewer hours than he’s been working.  Once the CSA ends, there is a lot less harvesting, washing, and packing to be done, but there will still be some of that.  If you’re wondering where you can get our veggies once the season is over, we’ll have produce available at Greentree Cooperative Grocery in Mt. Pleasant for a while, and we’ll also be making occasional trips down to Argus Farm Stop in Ann Arbor if any of you find yourselves in that neck of the woods.    And of course, we’re signing people up for the 2019 CSA season now too, so make sure to get on the list for next year!  The cost for a half share is going up from $300 to $305 next year, and a full share is going up from $550 to $560, but anyone who puts down at least a half payment before the new year gets their share at this year’s price.  Thank you all for a fantastic CSA season, and we hope to see all of you again next year!  😊

What to Expect in This Week's Share

If you are picking up at one of our traditional style drop-offs (Alma, Mt. Pleasant, or 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.  Now that we're getting down to the end of the season, many of the stations have less variety than earlier in the year, but it's all pretty yummy stuff.

• Sweet potatoes
• Apples
• Carrots
• Potatoes
• Celery root, leeks, or cilantro
• Kale or extra sweet potatoes
• Onion

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 or share B, and if you have a full share, you can choose two of them.

Share A:                               Share B:

Sweet potatoes                     Sweet potatoes
Apples                                  Apples
Carrots                                 Carrots
Potatoes                                Potatoes
Celery root                           Leeks
Extra sweet potatoes            Kale
Onion                                   Onion

Recipes

Apples, apples everywhere!  Most years, the orchard doesn't produce more than a few crates of fruit, but this year, we've just got tons of good apples!  If you've eaten them plain, made an apple crisp and an apple pie, and are looking for something new to do, check out these 62 Apple Recipes from Country Living!  Even just looking through all these amazing recipe ideas, I wanted to make and eat them all right this minute.  Check out those Apple Cranberry Turkey Burger Sliders!  Seriously, yum!

CSA Newsletter for Week 19

Farm Update

Fred was able to save a ton of time and conserve a lot of 
cover crop seed with our new(ish) grain drill.  This week was
the first time he used it, and he's really excited about it!

Hi everyone!  Things are really starting to wind down at the farm, especially with that hard freeze we had on Wednesday night.  That freeze actually did quite a bit of damage to our leafy veggies like lettuce, spinach, and arugula, but we still have plenty of fall goodies to take their place in the shares.  This week at the farm, we tilled under some old crops that are no longer producing so we could prepare that ground for next year and seeded some winter rye as a cover crop.  We also planted one of the coldframes with spinach for overwintering (basically it just hangs out there, staying really small until the days get warmer and there are enough sunlight hours for it to start growing again), and seeded some mache in the greenhouse.  As has been true for the last several weeks, most of our time at the farm has been spent harvesting, and with the horrible weather, that has been quite a task.  Huge props to Fred, Carson, Ben, and Danny for their dedication and ability to endure the near freezing temps and biting wind.  For them, the end of harvest can't come soon enough, but we've got two more weeks to go.  And just in case you missed the announcement last week, we're starting sign-ups for next year's CSA, so just let me know if you want to sign up!  See you all at the drop-offs this week! :-)

What to Expect in This Week's Share

If you are picking up at one of our traditional style drop-offs (Alma, Mt. Pleasant, or 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.

• Sweet potatoes

  

  Until recently, this field contained the remains of the sweet
  potato vines, but now it has been tilled under in preparation
  for next year.

• Apples
• Carrots
• Surprise veggie
• Kale or a bag of onions
• Leeks or radishes
• Pepper, celery root, or onion

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 or share B, and if you have a full share, you can choose two of them.

Share A:                               Share B:

Beets                                     Gold potatoes
Carrots                                  Carrots
Sweet potatoes                      Sweet potatoes
Apples                                  Apples
Bag of onions                       Kale
Radishes                               Leeks
Pepper                                  Celery root

Recipes

So I bet some of you are wondering, "What in the world is celery root?"  While it's not a thing we usually see in stores (mostly because it looks really weird), it used to be a winter staple for people in cold-weather climates like ours in the days before refrigeration and grocery stores.  People used to store celery root (also called celeriac) in the root cellar with their potatoes and beets to get them through the winter.  As the name implies, it actually is related to celery (over the years, celeriac was bred for the root, whereas traditional celery was bred for the stem and leaves, but it was originally the same plant), and it has a delicious and bright celery flavor.  So before you just throw the gnarly-looking ball shaped thing in the bottom of your fridge, here are Ten (Yes, 10) Things to do with Celery Root!  But if you do forget about it in the bottom of your fridge for three months, it will still be in great shape, because celery root lasts forever! :-)

CSA Newsletter for Week 18

Farm Update

This happens pretty much every fall, but the farm is a big
muddy mess right now!  So far we haven't had to pull the
delivery vehicle out of the mud with the tractor yet this year,
but it's only a matter of time.  Also, can you believe it was
this warm on Monday?

Hi everyone!  What a week!  It went from really hot in the early part of the week to downright cold in the later half!  So far, we still haven't had our first major frost of the season, which is almost unheard of by mid-October.  The forecast called for one about a week and a half ago that never materialized, and we were supposed to get one a few nights ago too, but some cloud cover moved in just in time and acted like a big blanket over the farm.  We ended up with just a few patches of light frost, so amazingly, the natural dying back of the crops that occurs after the first frost has not yet occurred.  Now that we are winding down the season (just three CSA weeks left!), most of our work revolves around harvesting, washing, and packing the shares, and preparing the farm for it's long winter's nap.  With the weather turning colder, pretty much all of the farm tasks take a little longer and seem a little more daunting, and we are definitely wearing warmer clothing out there than we were a month ago.  This is the part of the annual life cycle of the farm where we start feeling like slowing down and coming in out of the cold, and in a month or so, the fields will naturally oblige us in that desire by stopping production for the year.  At that point, we'll still have some veggies coming out of the coldframes and greenhouse, likely until mid-December, and maybe even up until Christmas depending on the weather.
     But even as this year is starting to wind down, it's time to start thinking about next year!  We are officially opening up CSA sign-ups for the 2019 season, so if you want to sign up for next year, just let me know!  The cost of the shares is going to go up slightly for next year, so a half share will go from $300 to $305, and a full share will go from $550 to $560.  But if you sign up and put down at least a half payment before the end of 2018, you'll get your 2019 share for the 2018 price.  The 2019 prices go into effect on January 1st, so if you know you want to sign up for next year, you might as well do it early and save a few dollars!  That also helps us out, because we incur most of our farm expenses in January and February, so having that cushion there is really helpful!  If you have any questions about next year's sign-ups or anything else, just let me know!  In the meantime, we have three more weeks of the CSA left, so I'll see you next week! :-)

What to Expect in This Week's Share

If you are picking up at one of our traditional style drop-offs (Alma, Mt. Pleasant, or 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.

• Sweet potatoes
• Apples
• Carrots
• Spinach or lettuce
• Arugula, kale, or microgreens
• Radishes or bell pepper
• Onions or leeks

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 or share B, and if you have a full share, you can choose two of them.

Share A:                               Share B:

Sweet potatoes                     Sweet potatoes
Apples                                  Apples
Carrots                                  Carrots
Lettuce                                  Spinach
Kale                                       Arugula
Radishes                                Bell peppers
Leeks                                     Onion

Recipes

Now that it is consistently chilly out, I have really been digging soups.  We've been making a lot of puréed soups at our house lately, from tomato basil soup with the very last of the tomatoes, to a yummy sweet potato and squash soup that we served yesterday at our Janie's birthday party.  The wonderful thing about soups is that they are warm and comforting, and they are just as good a few days later as they are when you first make them, so you can make up a big batch and eat the leftovers throughout the week.  This Sweet Potato, Carrot, Apple, and Red Lentil Soup will stick to your bones, and it takes advantage of several major fall veggie staples!

CSA Newsletter for Week 17

Farm Update

Danny and Carson get ready to transplant lettuce in one of
the coldframes.

Hi everyone!  This week was definitely a transitional week for us at the farm.  We cleaned many of the summer veggies that are done for the year (such as zucchini) out of the coldframes to make room for some more cold-hardy crops like lettuce and spinach, which will last well into the fall.  We were glad to have missed the frost that seemed imminent on Thursday night/ Friday morning, which means that more of our veggies will be in better shape for longer.  Fred has made the executive decision that tomatoes are pretty much done for the year; for a while now, it has been pretty hard to come up with enough nice ones for the shares, and they're only getting fewer and farther between as the year wears on.  So with the exception of a few tomatoes that might make their way onto the trading table, we probably won't have any more in the shares for this year.  But as the tomatoes move out of the shares, we have more apples moving in!  The apples in the share this week will be Ida Reds, which are great for fresh eating and also for baking.  If you happen to be looking for a really phenomenal apple pie recipe, I made this one a few weeks ago, and it was amazing!  In other farm news, our very own Carson defended his doctoral dissertation on Lake Michigan Steelhead management this morning, so (after his official graduation in December) he is now our very own Dr. Carson!  A huge congratulations to him!

What to Expect in This Week's Share

If you are picking up at one of our traditional style drop-offs (Alma, Mt. Pleasant, or 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.

This tray of lettuce transplants waits to be
planted in the coldframe.

• Sweet potatoes
• Winter squash or potatoes
• Lettuce, arugula, or Brussels sprouts
• Apples
• Radishes, microgreens, or leeks
• Cippolini onions or kale
• Bell pepper or onion

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 or share B, and if you have a full share, you can choose two of them.

Share A:                               Share B:

Sweet potatoes                     Sweet potatoes
Apples                                  Apples
Winter squash                       Potatoes
Lettuce                                  Brussels sprouts
Radishes                               Radishes
Cippolini onions                   Kale
Bell pepper                           Onion

Recipes

It's Brussels sprouts season!  I always forget every year how good these wonderful little gems are, and then I'm reminded every fall when they come back around.  If you happen to be one of the haters of this delicious but oft-maligned veggie, let this be the year you give them another try!  The key is simple:  Do. Not. Boil. Them.  I'm convinced that's why such a large number people hate them, because so many well-meaning mothers and grandmothers completely ruined them in a pot of boiling water.  So now that we have the most basic rule down, you may be wondering what would be a better way to prepare them.  Never fear!  Here is a fantastic (and fantastically simple!) recipe for Roasted Brussels Sprouts to get you started.  Another favorite in our house is to simply pan-fry them in olive oil and toss them in an apple cider reduction with a pinch of brown sugar, but there are a thousand really awesome ways to make Brussels sprouts.  Enjoy!