Monroe Family Organics Newsletter for Week 19

 Farm Update

Hi everyone!  Hope you're doing well!   This is it, the final week of the CSA!  Every year the CSA season is a journey with all sorts of twists and turns and things to work through, but we are about to pull the proverbial train into the station.  And I am so excited about the variety of produce in the shares this week!  We have a lot of the same things we've had for the last few weeks, but we also have fall spinach and leeks, just in time for the final drop-offs of the year!  We were really hoping that our fall planting of spinach would be ready in time, so I am thrilled to be able to bring you some this week!  Also new this week are our honeynut squashes, which were a little on the green side before, but they're ready to eat now.  We had the first one of the year for lunch yesterday, and it was so delicious and sweet!  If you are a squash fan, you are going to love these little honeynut squashes!  

After the upcoming week, the CSA will come to an end, but we'll still have some odds and ends coming out of the fields and hoophouses for a while.  If you are interested in continuing to get our produce after the CSA is over, there are a few stores that carry our veggies!  You can find them at Greentree Co-Op Market in Mt. Pleasant and the Argus Farm Stop stores in Ann Arbor until about Thanksgiving, and maybe even until mid-December, depending on what the weather does.

And if you're interested in joining the CSA again next year, here's the link to the sign-up form!  The cost for a half share at the regular drop-offs will be $330 until January 1st, when it will go up to $340.  And a full share will be $610 until the new year, and then it will go up to $630.  So if you sign up now and put down at least a partial payment before December 31, you'll lock in next year's share at this year's price.  And if you're interested in home or workplace delivery, just check that box on the sign-up form, and I'll make sure your address is within our delivery zone and email you a quote for the delivery fee.  Just let me know if you have any questions about any of that!

Thank you all for a great season!  It has been so fun to get to talk to you all at the drop-offs, hear what you are cooking with your veggies, and get to know everyone!  And while I haven't gotten to meet and chat with all of the Lansing-area CSA folks or people with home delivery each week, I have really enjoyed meeting those of you who I have gotten to see!  Thank you all for joining us for another crazy chapter in the adventure that is the farm, and we hope to see you again next year!  And in the meantime, I'll see you next week for the final 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. 

• Carrots or Brussels sprouts
• Potatoes, arugula, or a bag of onions
• Butternut squash
• Sweet potatoes, spinach, or leeks
• Cabbage, radishes, or kale
• Honeynut squash, other small squash, or microgreens
• Onion 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:

• Carrots
• Arugula
• Butternut squash
• Leeks
• Radish
• Honeynut squash
• Kohlrabi

Share B:

• Carrots
• Potatoes
• Butternut squash
• Spinach
• Cabbage
• Honeynut squash
• Onion

 

Share C:

• Brussels sprouts
• Potatoes
• Butternut squash
• Sweet potatoes
• Kale
• Delicata squash
• Onion

 

Recipes

One of the big surprises this year was how well the squash did!  We have had way more squash this year than pretty much any other year, and our butternuts were especially prolific.  We have butternut squash in the shares again this week, so I wanted to share with you all something I learned this year, and it has been a game changer for us!  Did you know that you can puree your butternut squash and use it as a substitution in any recipe that calls for pumpkin puree?  So if you have a recipe for pumpkin pancakes, pumpkin muffins, pumpkin pie, or pumpkin chocolate chip cookies, you can substitute pureed butternut squash!  And in my opinion, that is even easier than making pumpkin puree!  So here's a tutorial for how to do make your own butternut squash puree, and you can make all of your all-pumpkin-everything dreams come true, but with our prolific old friend, the butternut squash!