FULL SHARE & YELLOW HALF SHARE PICK UP TONIGHT

Pick up today: 5pm - 7:30pm at PS 56 on the corner of Gates and Downing

This Week's Share

Sweet potatoes
Ginger
Spinach
Butternut squash
Escarole (or kale)
Koji (a dark green choy)
Fennel (bulbs and fronds)
Yellow onions
The last of our sweet peppers

Letter from Windflower Farm

Delivery #21, Week of October 22nd, 2018

Cold weather is expected this week, along with sunshine. Fall colors are fading, and final harvests are underway.

This week’s share.

Sweet potatoes, ginger, spinach, butternut squash, escarole (or kale), Koji (a dark green choy), fennel (bulbs and fronds), yellow onions, the last of our sweet peppers. Next week’s share is the very last of the season and will include a variety of greens and root crops.

What’s new at the farm?

Today, Jan, Nate and I are washing and sorting ginger for this week’s delivery and planting elderberries. The Medina clan is harvesting the last four caterpillar tunnels of sweet peppers and the last four beds of sweet potatoes. Collectively, we are wearing every manner of outdoor clothing, none of which is likely to be seen on this year’s fashion runways. Martin is wearing a matching tan Carhartt jacket and balaclava, with green rain pants and duck taped black rubber boots. Daniel, whose appearance is the most sophisticated among us, has on a set of bright orange Helly Hansen fishermen’s bibs over a black Hefty trash bag. He might have just come off an Alaskan trawler. I’m wearing EMS’s flannel lined dungarees, in blue, and a black Prava jacket I found at the second hand shop in town, neither of which, it turns out, is any good in the wet.

Nate and Jan have been testing their new foul weather gear, most of which includes polypropylene and gore-tex and various shells, in part to keep them comfortable today, but also because we are heading off on a hiking trip the day after we make our last delivery, and they would like to know how well the stuff works. Our vacationing happens in the off season. Last year, we went to Acadia in coastal Maine in December and had the hiking trails to ourselves. This year, it will be Sierras and southern Utah in November. When we return, it will be just in time to prepare the first of your winter shares, and we’ll know exactly what to wear. This year’s surprise find is waterproof socks by Seal Skin (not real seal skins, of course).

Our winter share sign-up is underway!

Help keep the Windflower Farm team off the streets of Valley Falls – please sign up today for our winter share. The link is here: https://windflowerfarm.wufoo.com/forms/m1xr27rk05nzoa8/

The winter share consists of four monthly deliveries that will include approximately 2 lb. of organically grown greens (including spinach, kales, Swiss chard and other greens) and 8-10 lb. of storage vegetables (including carrots, red and yellow onions, winter squash, a variety of potatoes, beets, leeks, sweet potatoes, popcorn, black beans and more), along with 4-6 lb. of fruits, and either apple cider or homemade jam or local honey - all packed to fit in a returnable box. This year, some of the storage vegetables (including carrots and butternut squashes) will come from neighboring organic farms, but almost everything else will come from Windflower Farm.

What’s new? Less plastic packaging! There are too many plastic bags in the world and we fully intend to reduce the number we use in packaging your vegetables. We’ll pack loose where we can, and use paper bags where we need packaging. Our GOAL will be to use zero plastic bags, but, because we are not yet sure that we can, we’ll promise this: to use no more than one plastic bag per month. And we have found a reusable, recyclable, tape-free box to help reduce waste.

An optional EGG share from neighbors raising free-range hens is also available in the winter, as is a MAPLE share. Our four deliveries are timed to coincide with the deliveries made to your CSA pickup site by Lewis-Waite Farm (of CSA Extras) for one-stop shopping.

Delivery dates: November 17th, December 15th, January 12th and February 9th. Follow this link for pricing and site specific details: https://windflowerfarm.wufoo.com/forms/m1xr27rk05nzoa8/

I hope you’ll join us.

Have a great week, Ted

Halloween Party Tonight!

This pickup will be ghoulishly fun! Bring your kids, come in costume, and celebrate Halloween a few days early. We’ll have arts and crafts for our younger CSA members and a potluck party for everyone.

The more members bring treats the more we’ll have to share, so please let us know if you can bring something: email core member Sarah Chinn at sarahchinn67 at gmail dot com to let her know what you’re bringing.

Winter Share

Ted's letter contained some information about his wonderful winter share. To keep the veggies flowing for the next few months, you can join here.

In addition, the Crown Finish Cheese folks, who've been offering delicious cheese samples these last few weeks, will be joining in with their own winter share, which you can pick up when you pick up your winter share—same time, same place. You can find out more about the cheese share here.

Member Survey

If you haven't already, please fill in our survey to give feedback on how the season went for you! You can complete it online, and if you have additional comments, feel free to email them to our Outreach Coordinator, Chelsea Frosini, at chelsea dot frosini at gmail dot com. We look forward to hearing from you!

Root Vegetable Gratin

This tempting casserole by Ina Garten (via Smitten Kitchen) is a home for this week's fennel and sweet potatoes. Serves 8 to 10.

Ingredients

Olive oil
1 large onion, sliced (1 1/2 cups)
2 cups (1/4-inch-sliced) fennel, top and core, if thick, removed
3 cloves garlic, minced (1 tablespoon)
1 pound sweet potatoes, peeled and sliced 1/4-inch thick
1 pound celery root, peeled and sliced 1/4-inch thick
1 pound yukon gold, peeled and sliced 1/4-inch thick
1 cup heavy cream (see Note up top)
2 cups chicken or vegetable stock or brother
2 cups grated gruyere cheese (6 ounces with rind)
2 teaspoons minced fresh thyme leaves
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 1/2 cups coarse fresh breadcrumbs or panko (what I used)
2 to 3 tablespoons melted butter

Method

Heat your oven to 350°F. Butter a 13×9-inch deep baking dish.

Heat 2 tablespoons olive oil in a large deep (ideally 12-inch) saute pan over medium heat and add the onions and fennel. Cooking, tossing occasionally, until lightly browned and tender, about 10 minutes. Add the garlic and cook for one minute more.

Meanwhile, in the largest bowl you own, combine the onion mixture with remaining vegetables, cream, stock, cheese, thyme, 1 tablespoon kosher salt and 1 1/2 teaspoons black pepper. Pour mixture into prepared dish and spread until even. Mix breadcrumbs and butter until evenly coated and distribute evenly over top of dish.

Bake 1 1/2 hours uncovered, or until vegetables are very tender when tested with a small knife and the top is browned and bubbly. Allow to set for 15 minutes at room temperature and serve hot.

THE BEET: VOLUME 17; WEEK 21