Category Archives: csa

The final CSA week of 2018 and it got too dark for me to take a photo of the share before it was all harvested. Instead, I’m posting a photo of one of the giant parsnips we harvested today, and a Matina tomato I gleaned from the hoop house for my lunch.

Here’s the list of what was in the share. Thursday should be very similar, although we may have a different bunching green and I’ll try to take a photo then.

Lacinato Rainbow Kale, Red Dragon mustard, Bora King radishes, Gilfeather turnips, Hablange parsnips, Einfache Schnitt 3 parsley, Napoli Carrots, Blue Solaize leeks.

It was a cold one out there today, but we’ve gotten very lucky with the weather this fall and it was nice to harvest on a dry, sunny day. Looks like we might get lucky again on Thursday for the final harvest of the year.

Next week is the final week of the 2018 CSA season and right now it’s looking like the weather will be kind to us for another week.

Here’s what I think will be in the share, but of course we never know what kind of shape things are in until we actually harvest them – especially the roots which hide underground:

Kale, red mustard, Gilfeather turnips, winter radishes, parsnips, carrots, leeks and parsley.

A few notes on some of items. The Gilfeather turnips are actually a very sweet variety of rutabaga. Germination on that crop wasn’t great so we won’t have many roots but I’m keeping my hopes up that we’ll have enough and they should be bigger. The parsnips are in this same low germination, but potentially large size camp. The leaves are at least looking really good, we’ll see what we get when we dig the roots. Talking to my farming friend Laura Masterson (47th Avenue Farm) she was telling me that she thinks of parsley more like a green than an herb and I think that’s a good approach – not something that needs to be used in small quantities only, a green that’s great cooked or fresh, and that works well with other vegetables and especially generous quantities of olive oil.

At the farm stand we should have a few remaining winter squash, all good to eat right now. If requested, we might harvest the few remaining escarole and sugarloaf as well and make those available.

We may have gotten too cold, but keep your eyes open and come a little early – it’s possible there are still tomatoes and sweet and hot peppers hiding in the field that will be available for gleaning. Definitely stock up on the fresh herbs – oregano, thyme, sage, and Mexican tarragon.

A little smaller share today as we approach the end of the fall season (only one more week of harvests after this week). Big heads of Treviso red radicchio with beautiful, sweet, crunchy white ribs, and giant celeriac are the centerpieces of the share this week. We left some of the tops on the celeriac because it’s looking good and tasting sweet and while it’s not as tender as stalk celery it’s still good for cooking and flavoring dishes.

There’s a bunch of Napoli carrots, and they just keep getting sweeter every week. The chard is giving us one last harvest and we found some nice looking arugula in the field too.

Rounding out the share is a small quantity of storage onions and shallots. After giving out most of them earlier in the year we found a small stash, big enough to give one last sample.

If you can make it to the farm with a little time for gleaning, be sure to walk through the tomatoes and sweet peppers. It’s been warm enough that they’re still producing some decent fruit. If you’re missing those foods do take advantage. The herbs are also all in good shape still so help yourselves to those too.

Follow the link to YouTube https://youtu.be/ixsjGswxyvM to see what the farm looks like these days.

This crazy warm weather is ironically a bit hard on the vegetables. The warmth, paired with short days (low light) and wet conditions is not doing the cold loving vegetables any favors. We should still have some good ones next week though. Here’s my best guess: radicchio, chard, celeriac, carrots, arugula, onions and shallots. That leaves kale, mustard, turnips, parsnips, leeks and more carrots for the final week. I might be forgetting something.

Pictured above are a few remaining kabocha winter squash. We’ll have those available for sale at the farm stand along with some other extras.

Stay tuned for a video tour of the fields too, I’ll try to post that tomorrow.

In today’s share: collard greens, carrots, mixed beets, a leek, watermelon radish, spinach and sugarloaf chicory.

A second week of big! chicory. The sugarloaf seems to have done well with the warm, dry fall. If you haven’t had it it’s a similar flavor and texture to the escarole, but a bit crisper. If you can’t eat it all at once it keeps well in the fridge, similar to cabbage. I’d suggest using the outer leaves sliced up for salad and then cutting the heart in half length wise and roasting it with olive oil and salt.

Watermelon radishes are another fall special. It’s a small crop this year but I find them nicest as a little accent and not the main course anyway.

This may be the last round of beets for the year, a mix of Shiraz and 3 Root Grex, and possibly not anymore spinach or collards either. We will have more leeks and carrots though along with a few more fall specials soon.

Three more weeks to go so we’re getting to the point where there aren’t as many crops left out in the field. It would seem like that would make predictions easier but there are actually a bunch of other confounding factors making it tricky to know what the best combination will look like until we’re actual out there harvesting.

That said, here are my best guesses for next week: sugarloaf chicory, collard greens, watermelon radishes, beets, and carrots.

Lettuce is pretty much done after today, we might have a few remaining heads for sale at the stand. The story is similar for a few other crops like sweet peppers, and tomatoes – a few stragglers but not enough to put in the shares. All three of those have gone longer than we planned though so it’s been a good fall.

Also on the possibles list for the next few weeks are turnips, celeriac, parsnips, spinach and kale – in addition to more carrots, mustards and chard.

It’s been a great carrot fall and I hope we’re not overloading you with carrots. They do keep very well in a plastic bag in the fridge (I’ve had them last months that way). If you’re not getting enough we have bulk carrots on special at the farm stand, come stock up!