CSA Newsletter for Week 20

Farm Update

Don't all of these colorful beets just make you
smile?  Not only are they delicious, they are
also totally pretty!

Hi everyone! Here we are in week 20!  This is the last full week of the CSA, and the last time we're going to see the Lansing, Okemos, and Midland folks this year.  The Alma and Mt. Pleasant drop-offs will have another week after this, because technically this is only the 19th week that they've gotten veggies.  As you might recall, we started the Wednesday and Thursday drop-offs the first week, but didn't start the Monday and Tuesday drop-offs until week 2, so you Alma and Mt. Pleasant members will actually get veggies in the first week of November! 

It's always bittersweet to wrap up the CSA for the season, because I love getting to see everyone at the drop-offs each week, and I won't get to see most of you until June.  But on the other hand, when the weather gets cold and rainy and generally nasty, that's nature's signal that it's time to give the fields a rest and head inside to a nice warm fire.  And I'm definitely looking forward to that too.  Thank you all for another great CSA season!  We are so grateful to all of you who have supported our farm this season, and especially to all of you who have come back year after year.   You make this whole crazy farm thing possible, and we really couldn't do it without you.  So THANK YOU!!!

And if you're interested in signing up for next year, just let me know!  The price is going to remain the same next year ($560 for a full share and $305 for a half share at the regular drop-offs, and just hit me up for a quote if you are interested in home/workplace delivery).  And anyone who puts down at least a half payment by December 31 gets $5 off their share price.  So if you know you want to join again next year, let me know, and I'll sign you up!  

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!

• Baby carrots or beets
• Bag of small onions
• Potatoes or cabbage
• Lettuce or Brussels sprouts
• Squash or sweet potatoes
• Radishes, kale, or cooking greens
• Microgreens, shallot, 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, 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:  Baby carrots, bag of small onions, potatoes, lettuce, sweet potatoes, radishes, and microgreens.

Share B: Beets, bag of small onions, potatoes, lettuce, butternut squash, kale, and a shallot.

Share C:  Baby carrots, bag of small onions, cabbage, Brussels sprouts, Tetsukabuto squash, cooking greens, and an onion.

             

Recipes

This time of year just calls for Roasted Root Vegetables!  This is a delicious, hearty, and WARM way to enjoy all of the awesome root vegetables in your share this week!  And the recipe is so easy, even the kitchen-phobes in your family can help make it.  We like to use rosemary as our herb of choice with roasted root vegetables, but parsley or thyme would be pretty good too.  (And I am now going to have that song in my head for the rest of the night.  Oh well.  There are definitely worse things than some Simon and Garfunkel, haha!)

CSA Newsletter for Week 19

Farm Update

A lot of people don't realize that carrots
come in colors other than orange, but
they do!  We're going to have our
multicolored carrot mix in the CSA
shares this week!  Just look at these beauties!

Hi everyone!  Welcome to week 19 of the CSA!  We've been doing a lot of fall tasks this week at the farm; Fred was able to pull out most of the old tomato plantings that were past their prime, which frees up space in the coldframes to plant hardier crops that will last for the next few months.  He's been prepping the soil in the recently vacated coldframes, and over the next few days, we'll plant that space with spinach, lettuce, and mache.  We've had a few significant frosts this week, which fortunately haven't done too much damage, except to the tomatoes and peppers, which we pretty much expected this time of year.

We're also opening up sign-ups for next year, so you can get on the list for the 2020 season any time!  You know the old joke about how if you don't like the weather in Michigan, wait five minutes?  Given the variability in Michigan weather, especially in the spring and fall, we feel like we've had a harder time having the variety of vegetables we want to be able to offer until the 20th week of the CSA. So we've decided that starting next year, we'll have 19 weeks of the CSA instead of 20.  Most years, we raise the price of CSA shares by a few dollars to account for inflation and the increasing cost of labor, but we're going to leave the prices exactly where they are for the 2020 season.  So full shares are going to continue to be $560, and half shares are going to continue to be $305 for next year.  That said, it really helps us out when CSA members put down a payment early for the following year, because it allows us to manage expenses throughout the winter.  So anyone who signs up and pays at least half of their share cost before December 31 will get $5 off their CSA membership for next year!  So if you know you want to sign up, let me know, and I'll put you on the list for CSA season 2020! :-)

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!

• Potatoes or a bag of small onions
• Sweet potatoes
• Squash
• Surprise veggie
• Kale, cooking greens mix, or microgreens
• Radishes or beets
• 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, 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:  Potatoes, sweet potatoes, butternut squash, kale, multicolored carrots, radishes, onion.

Share B: Potatoes, sweet potatoes, butternut squash, cooking greens mix, Brussels sprouts, beets, onion.

Share C:  Potatoes, sweet potatoes, butternut squash, microgreens, multicolored carrots, beets, onion.

             

Recipes

I was talking to someone at the drop-off last week who was asking about all the different things we do with sweet potatoes, and I was reminded of this amazing Sweet Potato Pie that I make every fall!  You can also make it without a crust (either if you're gluten free, or if you just don't want to take the time to make a pie crust), and it comes out like more of a custard.  I usually make this for our son Timmy's birthday in November, but I think I'll make it early this year, because it just feels like time.  I hope you all enjoy it as much as we do!

CSA Newsletter forWeek 18

Farm Update

Right now, most of the crops growing
in the fields are fall veggies like these
carrots, because the summer vegetables
have been put to rest for the year.

Hi everyone! This is definitely a week where you win some and you lose some.  We were able to turn under a lot of ground that used to be planted with onions, and we've planted a cover crop of rye on those plots.  That will help the soil to store up nutrients throughout the winter and spring, and we'll have stronger soil to plant in when again it is the season for planting.  On Thursday and Friday we were able to get the rest of the sweet potatoes out of the ground and safely into the barn before the ground starts to freeze, so we're glad to have them stored up in the barn and ready to bring to the CSA drop-offs!  We've also been pretty successful at keeping the deer out of the farm and away from our veggies this week.  The downside is that the almost incessant rain and cold have really caused a lot of our crops to go downhill quickly.  While many of the crops are turned under and put to rest for the year, some of the vegetables that are still in the field are really struggling.  We have several successive plantings of carrots that do not seem to be growing in size, which confounds us to no end.  The Brussels sprouts are late in becoming ready to harvest, but they should start trickling in next week or so.  It feels like fall came upon us really quickly, and most of the summer crops dried up almost overnight.  So now is the time to really embrace the root vegetables, squash, and hearty greens of autumn!  The list of what we'll have have in the shares this week reads like a menu for Thanksgiving dinner!  So bring out your autumn decorations, pick up some apple cider, and put the extra blankets on the beds.  Because ready or not, fall is here!

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!

• Sweet potatoes or beets
• Potatoes
• Squash or a bag of small onion
• Surprise veggie
• Cabbage, kale, or cooking greens mix
• Radishes, turnips, or 2 peppers
• Onion, garlic, 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:  Sweet potatoes, potatoes, butternut squash, surprise veggie, cabbage, 2 peppers, garlic

Share B: Beets, potatoes, butternut squash, surprise veggie, cooking greens mix, turnips, onion

Share C:  Sweet potato, potatoes, acorn squash, surprise veggie, kale, radishes, microgreens

             

Recipes

Normally we don't do a lot of casseroles at our house, because we really love meals where the freshness and quality of the vegetables can really shine.  But in the fall, sometimes you just want some good old-fashioned comfort food, and these Creamy Au Gratin Potatoes are exactly the thing for weather like this!  Try out this awesome potato goodness on a damp, windy evening and relish the fact that you don't have to go outside!  :-)

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!