The Sunny Side – Week of 10/26/14

The Sunny Side – Week of 10/26/14

In Thursday’s box you will find:

  • Brussels Sprouts
  • Tatsoi (a bunched green like bok choi)
  • Spinach
  • Leeks
  • Carrots
  • Rutabaga
  • Celeriac
  • Celery

In Sunday’s box you will find:

  • Brussels Sprouts
  • Collards
  • Tokyo Bekana (lime-colored frilly green)
  • A mixture of Storage Onions
  • Beets
  • Bok Choi
  • Celeriac
  • Baby Lettuce Heads

In the Field

Well, folks, this is it! You received your last CSA box on Sunday or Thursday. It has been a pleasure to grow vegetables for all of you this year. You have our sincere thanks for supporting the farm through your CSA membership. We truly could not do it without you. Thank you for being a part of our 2014 farming season and for your support of local agriculture.

We have just a little more harvesting to do this week, and then we’ll start to focus on cleaning and packing up the farm and house. Our new farm is waiting patiently for us, and we are excited to get out there and start readying the barn and building a greenhouse for next year. We’ll miss Lake County and being close to all of the wonderful farm folk we’ve met here, but we are looking forward to getting to know a new farming community. And we’re looking forward to raising pigs, keeping bees, planting asparagus and rhubarb, harvesting apples…… It will be good to be on a piece of land where we can put down more permanent roots.

We’ll keep everyone updated about the new farm and plans for next year’s CSA as soon as we have solidified them. In the meantime, please feel free to contact us with any questions, comments, or concerns. Thank you again for your support this summer, and have a great winter! All the best – Nick, Becky and Ray

Storage tips for this week:

  • Remove the tops of the carrots, beets, rutabaga, and celeriac from the roots and store separately.
  • Carrots, beets and celeriac can store a long time – 3-4 weeks – if stored in a crisper drawer or plastic bag with a little ventilation.
  • Onions can be stored on your counter for 3-4 weeks.

Cooking tips for this week:

  • Bok Choi, tokyo bekana, tatsoi, spinach, and lettuce  are all great salad ingredients. Use lettuce and tokyo bekana as a more neutral base, and add spinach, tatsoi and bok choi in smaller amounts to perk up the taste.
  • Beet greens are very tasty – cook them like you would spinach.
  • I roasted brussels sprouts last week with minimum effort and great success. Slice off the very end of the sprouts and cut a cross in the bottoms, then rinse and toss with a little olive oil and salt and pepper. Bake on a baking sheet at 350F for about 25 minutes or until tender. Oooooooh the were so good.

Recipes

Maple-Bacon Roasted Apples & Celeriac(From http://www.eatingwell.com/recipes/maple_bacon_apples.html)

  • 1 large or 2 medium-sized celeriac, about 1 1/2 pounds, peeled and cut into 1-inch pieces
  • 2 teaspoons extra-virgin olive oil
  • 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 2 apples, cut into 1-inch pieces
  • 2 slices bacon, chopped
  • 1/4 cup pure maple syrup
  • 1 teaspoon chopped fresh thyme or rosemary or 1/4 teaspoon dried
  1. Preheat oven to 450°F.
  2. Toss celery root with oil, pepper and salt and spread on a rimmed baking sheet. Roast until starting to brown, 10 to 12 minutes. Add apples, toss gently and continue roasting until the apples and celery root are tender, 6 to 10 minutes more.
  3. Meanwhile, cook bacon in a medium skillet over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until just crispy. Remove to a paper-towel-lined plate with a slotted spoon; discard all but 2 teaspoons of the bacon fat. Add maple syrup to the fat in the pan and bring to a boil, scraping up the browned bits. Add the cooked bacon and thyme (or rosemary). When the celery root and apples are tender, gently toss them with the maple-bacon glaze and roast for about 5 minutes more.

 

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