The BEET: Volume 14, Issue 23
IN THIS WEEK'S BEET:
- The end of the 2016 season--join us after we close for a quick gathering to celebrate!
Letter from Ted, and sign up for the winter share today!
Volunteers needed for survey
Interested in joining the core? Email us!
One final recipe
NOTE FROM YOUR CSA CORE:
To all of our members: We are so grateful to you for joining us for the 2015 Clinton Hill CSA season. Thanks to those of you who've cheerfully volunteered your time on site and in other ways. We hope that you have enjoyed the season and had many delicious meals. Thanks for your survey input. To celebrate, we'd like to invite you to come out for a happy hour after the pickup on Thursday, November 5 (that's today!) at Fulton-Grand, which is--you probably figured this out--on the corner of Fulton and Grand. We'll be heading over there around 7:30.
All our best wishes, the Clinton Hill CSA core group
NEWS FROM WINDFLOWER FARM
CSA Delivery #22, November 5, 2015
This week’s share, your last until the winter season (a sign up link is below), will include garlic, fennel, sweet potatoes, fingerling potatoes, yellow onions, broccoli, a rutabaga or two, a winter squash, probably Butternut, your choice of kales, your choice of tatsoi or Tokyo Bekana, and adolescent Romaine lettuces. Jan and I would like to thank you for being with us this season. We hope you have enjoyed your share of our 2015 farm season. We have certainly enjoyed growing your vegetables.
We’d also like to thank the members of your core group. They are the people in your neighborhood with whom we work most closely, and without whom our CSA would cease to exist. We remain eternally grateful to them. If you have an interest in becoming more involved with the CSA, consider joining the core group. I have not had a chance to make an end-of-season survey, but I expect to. If one arrives in your email inbox, please take a few minutes to fill it out. Your thoughts really do help guide our decision-making around the farm.
It’s time to sign up for your winter share! Help keep your farmer and his staff off the streets of Valley Falls this winter by giving them something better to do with their time. Click here to sign up. https://windflowerfarm.wufoo.com/forms/windflower-farms-20152016-winter-share/. Or read on for more information.
This year we are celebrating our tenth winter share season! The share is meant to be something of an antidote to the long winter, and includes fresh salad greens from our greenhouses, stored roots, bulbs and tubers from our root cellars, and locally grown fruits in the form of cider, berry jams and stored apples. Shares are delivered just once a month so as not to overwhelm your kitchen.
Your four monthly deliveries will include approximately 2 lb. of our organically grown greens (including spinach, kale, tatsoi and Swiss chard) about 10 lb. of our storage vegetables (including carrots, red and yellow onions, a variety of potatoes, beets, leeks, sweet potatoes, rutabagas and more), along with 4-6 lb. of fruits, and either the Borden’s apple cider or our homemade jam from our own or locally grown fruit - all packed to fit in a returnable one-bushel box. An optional egg share from neighbors raising free-range hens is also available. They are fresh brown eggs from free-range hens raised by the Brownell and Davis families, and they are raised on grass and hay and given no feed that contains GMOs, antibiotics or hormones.
Our winter deliveries will take place on four Saturdays - November 21st, December 19th, January 9th and February 6th – and are timed to coincide with the deliveries made to your CSA pickup site by Lewis-Waite Farm and Winter Sun Farm. PLEASE sign up for your winter share by November 5th, the end of our regular season.
Best wishes for a healthy and happy fall and winter season,
Ted and Jan
MORE NEWS
VOLUNTEERS NEEDED
Calling all volunteers! Haven't done your volunteer hours? Done your hours but looking for more CHCSA opportunities? We are in need of volunteers to compile our annual survey! This is data entry that can be done at home on your own time over the next week--a perfect opportunity for those members who have trouble finding the time to volunteer on site. If you're interested, please contact core member Roxanne Earley at roxanne.earley@gmail.com.
JOIN THE CORE GROUP!
Come join the core! Are you interested in becoming more involved with the CSA? We'd love to hear from you! We have a position open on our core leadership group starting next spring. As you may or may not know, core members--who put in many hours over the course of the season--receive a free vegetable share, as well as the satisfaction of helping to steer the CSA and keep it going! Even if you think you don't have time, there may be a place for you. If you're interested, email us at information@clintonhillcsa.org.
ONE MORE RECIPE
What's that you say? The weather's getting colder, and you're looking for a long, slow-cooked soup? Well, I don't know a better way to use up those delicious squash, carrots, and onions than this: Baked Winter Squash Soup (slightly paraphrased from The New Basics, by the authors of the Silver Palate cookbooks)
BAKED WINTER SQUASH SOUP
1. Preheat the oven to 350.
2. Cut 2 butternut squash and 2 acorn squash in half lengthwise (note: you can use about 4 pounds of any winter squash) and scoop out the seeds. Place the squash, skin side down, in a shallow roasting pan and place 1 Tbsp butter and 1 tsp brown sugar in each squash half. Arrange three large carrots, peeled and halved, and one thinly sliced onion around the squash. Place 2 cups of stock (chicken or vegetable) in the pan, cover tightly with aluminum foil, and bake for 2 hours.
3. Remove the pan from the oven and allow the vegetables to cool slightly. Scoop out the squash pulp from the skins and place in a soup pot. Add the carrots, onions, and cooking liquid.
4. Add 8 more cups of stock and 3/4 tsp nutmeg, 3/4 tsp ginger, a pinch of cayenne pepper, and salt to taste. (Note: I have also made this with a Tbsp of curry powder, and I sometimes add turmeric as well.) Stir well and bring to a boil, then simmer, uncovered, for 10 minutes. Puree the soup until smooth. Serve each portion with a dollop of yogurt and a sprinkle of chives.