THE BEET: VOLUME 19; WEEK 21
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!
Halloween (and the end of the season) is upon us!
We'd love to see your little ones in costume tonight!We will be handing out some individually wrapped treats to celebrate! (please note - this is not a potluck as in previous years,and we regretfully cannot accept any homemade goods)
Tonight is the FINAL pick up for yellow half shares. The fruit season has ended, and next week will be the final pick up of the season.
If you haven't already, please take a few minutes to complete our end of season survey!
You can also sign up for your winter shares!The winter share consists of four monthly deliveries beginning November 21st. You'll receive a big box filled with greens, winter vegetables, fruit, and goodies like cider, jam, and honey. You can also sign up for egg and maple shares!
And in neighborhood news -
The Clinton Hill branch of the Brooklyn Public Library will be opening for lobby service on November 16! Check out their Facebook pageto read about some of the virtual programming they're offering in the meantime (Samhain singalong, anyone?) They're also looking forvolunteersto help replant their pollinator garden. If you haven't fulfilled your work shift and you'd like to help out, you can get credit for your 2020 volunteer hours!
The Fort Greene Community Fridgeis in need of volunteers! Email FGCommunity Fridge@gmail.comif you're interested!
If you are able, please consider donating to JACK Theater, our generous distribution host. 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.
The News from Windflower Farm
Distribution #21, Week of October 26, 2020
Hello from Windflower Farm (where winter CSA shares are still available!)
This week’s share:
Savoy cabbage
Swiss chard
Kale
Garlic
Ginger
“Rainbow’ carrots
Red potatoes
Leeks
Butternut squash
Next week’s share will include shallots, red cabbage and more sweet potatoes along with more of the usual suspects.
If you are an odd week CSA member, this week’s share is your last of the season. On behalf of everyone here at Windflower Farm, many thanks for being with us. We hope you have enjoyed your share of our farm’s 2020 harvest. It is because you decided to be with us that we were able to pursue the work that we love for another year. If you haven’t had enough of our produce, and want to help keep my staff and me from running wild on the back roads of Washington County, consider joining us for our four month, four delivery winter share. It will begin on the Saturday before Thanksgiving Day and run through early February and include hardy greens from our unheated greenhouses, a wide variety of our stored root vegetables, apples and pears from neighboring farms and something sweet (cider or jam or honey) with each delivery. For more winter share information, please click here: https://windflowerfarm.wufoo.com/forms/m1xr27rk05nzoa8/
What’s new on the farm?
Jan, Nate and I have just come in from washing carrots and ginger and it got me thinking about soups. The cookbook, Soup’s On, has one of our favorite recipes featuring these two crops: Coconut Carrot Soup with Ginger and Dill. The only thing better than reaching a beautiful mountain lookout on an October hike is digging into your daypack and finding a thermos full of hot carrot ginger soup with which to admire the view. Nate will post the recipe on our Instagram page.
Many of the ingredients of a potato leek soup can be found in the week’s share, too. Our favorite comes from Moosewood, where carrots are also an important part. This week’s variety of carrot is called ‘Rainbow’ and they are from the last bed on our farm. Then there is butternut squash, which makes one of the very best “feel good’ soups I know. With a pot of soup on the stove, no winter day is too cold, no sky too bleak.
Jan is now napping, Nate is again baking pumpkin muffins for the farm crew - a triple batch for a cold day! - and the Medinas are wrapping up the harvest of some leeks and cabbages. The local staff are off today. They’ll be here tomorrow morning to offload whatever returnables are on the truck, wash tubs and the greens that will be in shares this week, and then fill bags, the heavy vegetables in one, and the light and leafy vegetables in another.
Our season began in March, which feels like a very long time ago. We welcome the change in seasons and what that portends for those of us whose lives move closely with them. Our last CSA harvest will take place on Wednesday of next week, and although the to-do list is still long, we see an end to the work, or at least a change in the nature of the work. In the next ten days, we’ll plant the final three acres of rye cover crops, transplant the last 20,000 or so of our fall onion sets, cover our strawberries, garlic, onions and winter greens, and tuck away our pumps, unneeded row covers, sand bags and irrigation lines. We expect a low of 17 degrees by week’s end.
The Medinas will head off to Mexico next Saturday and what appears to be a calendar full of fiestas in celebration of weddings, births and faith. After work today, young Martin came to ask if we would employ his spouse next year. They are hoping to work on a house of their own before starting a family. I told him it was something we would try to make work.
I believe our election matters. I bet you do, too. I can’t believe that nearly half of us don’t vote. Please tell everyone you know to get out to the polls next week!
Take care, Ted
Recipes
Here's a great carrot ginger soup recipe, and if you're looking for a project, here's how to make butternut squash gnocchi from scratch!
Our website has extensive information on all the different items that come in your share. Wondering how best to store your share? Look no further! Never cooked with leeks before? Click here to learn how to wash and prepare them (and how to make potato leek soup!). Still not sure what kohlrabi is? It'll probably turn up in your winter share, so read up!