THE BEET: VOLUME 19; WEEK 19
FULL SHARE & YELLOW HALF SHARE
PICK UP TONIGHT
5pm–7:30pm at JACK Theater
18 Putnam Ave (between Grand and Downing)
Please wear a mask and practice social distancing!
Happy Thursday! Believe it or not, our season will be coming to an end quite soon. In the coming weeks, keep your eyes peeled for important messages regarding our end of season survey, signups for the winter share, and information about our special Halloween pick up!
This year presented us with some unique challenges, and we are deeply grateful to Alec Duffy and the JACK team for generously opening their doors to us. We spoke with Alec about JACK's role during the shutdown, and his vision for the future - if you are able, please consider donating to JACK during this strange and difficult time. You'll be directly supporting mutual aid work in our community, and helping to ensure that JACK will be able to continue to offer more of their adventurous programming in the future.
A message from Alec Duffy, founder and co-director of JACK
A year ago, we moved from our original space on Waverly Ave to our new home at 18 Putnam Ave, and had so much hope for our first season in the new space. We were gearing up to share 150 performances a year in our new space, as well as regular community conversations on issues of importance to the neighborhood. Alas, this past March, we had to halt our programming because of the shutdown, and now don't expect to open our doors again until May 2021. But when we come back, we're going to come back strong; we're putting the finishing touches on our first season back, post-pandemic, and have so many groundbreaking theater artists, choreographers, and musicians that will fill our space when we return.
In the meantime, we've found a way to serve Fort Greene/Clinton Hill by partnering with the mutual aid group We Keep Us Safe to distribute food to more than 300 neighbors in need on a weekly basis. We've also been hosting online candidate forums, so that people in our district get to know the individuals seeking our votes. We're also continuing our series Reparations365 -- featuring art and discussion around the topic of distributive justice for Black Americans -- with online programming to be announced soon. We believe an arts space is a community space, and we've had a chance during this shutdown to really make that happen.
We at JACK are continually inspired by the work of groups like Equality for Flatbush, No New Jails NYC, Movement to Protect the People, and UPROSE, among others. They are doing such selfless work in trying to bring about the city so many of us wish existed -- one that extends the same rights to all of its residents and gives each New Yorker an equal chance to flourish.
Because of the shutdown, we are in a precarious financial position, and could definitely use help to make it to the other side. Support from our local community will ensure that JACK can continue to offer a space for solidarity and resource-sharing amongst artists, activists, and community members of all kinds. We would be so grateful for donations here!: http://www.jackny.org/donate.html.
The News from Windflower Farm
Distribution #19, Week of October 12, 2020
This week’s share
‘Covington’ sweet potatoes
Red and yellow onions
‘Romance’ carrots
‘Bouquet’ dill
Sweet peppers, mostly ‘Carmen’
Butterhead lettuce
‘Kalebration’ mixed kale
Arugula
‘Fordhook’ Swiss chard
Your fruit share will be ‘Fortune’ apples (‘Empire’ crossed with ‘Northern Spy’) and ‘Bosc’ pears from Yonder Farm.
I’m imagining tacos de camotes - thickly sliced slabs (or cubes) of roasted sweet potatoes, black beans, avocados, and onions placed in a hard corn taco, with my favorite Mexican sauce drizzled over everything and topped with fresh greens. You’ll find a dozen recipes [editor's note: here's one].
What’s new on the farm?
Sweet potatoes are not difficult to prepare. Roast at 400 degrees in a pan with parchment paper until they begin to ooze their caramelized sugars and take on a bronzing around the edges, then serve. If cured properly, they won’t need anything. (Jan, who looks for any excuse to pull out the maple syrup, will tell you that a spoonful never hurts.) For fans of butternut squash soup, sweet potato soup is an excellent alternative. For the more adventurous, sweet potato lasagna is out of this world.
This week’s batch of sweet potatoes is the first to come out of our makeshift curing room. When harvested, sweet potatoes are all starch. But a week to ten days at 80 degrees turns those starches to sugar. It’s not unlike what a week in the Carribean might do for any of us after a long winter. Connor, who is new on the farm this year, came to us after his Peace Corps work in Ghana was interrupted by the pandemic. His aunt MaryJane owns some of the land that we use to grow your crops. He tells me that the weather in Ghana permits in-ground curing of the roots. In our case, we cordon off a corner of a greenhouse with a heater, turn the temperature up, flood the floor so as to achieve a humidity of nearly 100%, and wait for ten days. That’s usually all there is to it. You can ensure that curing is complete by letting them sit on your counter for another week.
Our sweet potatoes started their lives in North Carolina. Farmers there plant full size sweet potatoes in the field in early spring and then harvest “slips” - the little sprouts that emerge from the roots - and either plant them or sell them to other farmers for planting. My friend Tim, who grew 24 acres this year, drives his box truck all the way to North Carolina every spring to get the best slips, and he brings ours, too. His farm is called Laughing Child Farm, named for his four happy daughters, and on it he produces nothing but sweet potatoes. I admire the simplicity of his business, but I don’t envy it. Nate and I washed and sorted 80 bushels of sweet potatoes today (the yield from three 375’ beds), which I think will be enough for this week’s CSA deliveries, and I would have been done in by the tedium if it wasn’t for the excellent Sunday lineup on our public radio station (Le Show, Splendid Table, Afropop Worldwide and Freakonomics Radio). I prefer the challenge of the wide variety of crops we grow for the CSA.
Winter share information and a signup form should be available next week.
Have a great week, Ted
Recipes
Here's one more idea for your sweet potatoes - a warming, aromatic massaman curry. This recipe also includes instructions for preparing the curry paste, but you can purchase it online or in most Asian grocery stores.