Fall Share LAST NEWSLETTER – November 27th, 2013

Hello folks! We have come to the last box of the CSA season. We want to thank you all again for your support this year – we are so incredibly grateful to all of you for participating in the CSA program with us. We really enjoy growing food and, even more importantly, sharing it with other people, and we hope that the experience has been positive for you as well. Please feel free to contact us with comments or suggestions at midnightsunfarm@gmail.com – we take customer comments seriously, and it is always helpful to know if, for example, we gave you too many (or not enough) beets this year!

This winter, we will spend time recharging our batteries, choosing seeds for next year, planning where everything will get planted, fixing up vehicles and building new farm equipment, and catching up on our paperwork. All of these preparations will make next season our best one yet. We hope that you all have a wonderful, restful winter, and we’ll be back in the spring with greens, eggs, and radishes before you can say “hoop-house”!

What’s In the Box This Week?

Wednesday pickers-up will find:

• Napa Cabbage,
• Bok choi,
• Cabbage,
• Broccoli,
• Turnips or celery (we had an issues with out cooler, so we we short a few bunches of turnips and had to substitute celery),
• Carrots,
• Storage onions, and
• Potatoes.

Everything this week but the onions and potatoes can be stored in the fridge in plastic containers or bags, or in your crisper drawer. Separate the turnips from their tops and store both separately. The onions can go in a cool, dry place in your kitchen. The potatoes can go in a cool, dark, dry place in your kitchen.  Try to use everything within the week, but the onions, cabbage, and carrots will keep longer.

What to do with it all?

We tried to provide a mix of vegetables this week – some that will certainly be useful as you prepare Thanksgiving-type dishes, and others that will pair well with leftovers or offer a lighter touch to post-holiday fare.

Potatoes can be boiled and mashed, or you could try a new twist on potatoes, Potatoes Anna. The benefit to this baked dish of sliced potatoes and butter is that it can be made ahead and re-heated, making room in the kitchen for other activities.

Carrots, celery and onions are all great base ingredients for soup and casseroles, can be used in stuffing, and are just generally great workhorses to have around the kitchen.

Turnips can be roasted with other root vegetables, in addition to mushrooms, winter squash (skinned or not skinned), brussels sprouts, and onions. When roasting vegetables, a good rule of thumb is to halve, cube, or wedge vegetables so that they are between 1/2 to 1 inch thick, toss the veggies with 2-3 tbsp. olive oil per 2 lbs. of vegetables, and roast in a single layer on a baking sheet at 425F. Broccoli, brussels sprouts, carrots, mushrooms, or onions can roast for 25 to 35 minutes, and squashes and potatoes can roast for 35 to 45 minutes, but you should check for doneness at around 25 minutes, since cooking time can vary.

Napa cabbage‘s texture and meatiness make for a fine addition to turkey or chicken soup – I like to shred it or cut it into strips. You can mix chopped, leftover turkey with chopped onion, shredded carrot, and mayonnaise, and either mix with shredded cabbage for a nice salad, or wrap the turkey mixture in a napa leaf. You can also try this recipe for turkey tacos with napa slaw! Regular cabbage is great in soups and slaws, too, but my favorite way to eat it in the winter is sauteed with sliced apples and onions.

Bok choi is another fine addition to soups – try this recipe for turkey and bok choi noodle soup. If you’re feeling the need for some green after all the beige of turkey and potatoes, a stir fry is also a good way to go:

Chop bok choi into 1/2-inch strips, slice onions into 1/4-inch wedges, cut carrots into 1/4-inch thick slices, and cut broccoli tops into florettes and peel the stalk and cut into 1/2-inch slices. Aim to chop about 1/2 lb. of vegetables total. Finely chop a few cloves of garlic and 1/4 inch hunk of garlic, peeled. Heat a heavy pan to medium-high heat and add 1-2 tbsp. peanut oil. Add carrots, onions, and broccoli stalks and cook for a few minutes, stirring continually, and continue to add vegetables in the order of their cooking time (longer cooking times first). When the veggies are all cooked and crisp-tender, add the garlic and ginger and cook one minute more. Add soy sauce, peanut oil, red pepper, or any other sauce-type ingredients you like. Serve over noodles or rice.

Happy Cooking!