We've been enjoying some nice fall weather over the past few days! While the warm weather makes for pleasant working conditions on the farm, it can't reverse the progression of fall and create a dramatic burst of growth. Once the daylight hours get this short, plants grow very slowly. We have a few plantings of greens and lettuce, as well as some cauliflower and cabbage that should mature in the coming weeks, but for the most part, everything else in the fields is done growing and just waiting to be harvested. Still, we have plenty other than harvesting to occupy us for the remainder of October, like picking up irrigation lines, taking down trellising, pulling up plastic mulch, mowing and tilling in crops that are done for the season, seeding cover crops, and preparing to plant and mulch next year's garlic as well as mulch next year's strawberries. It's not quite the breakneck pace of June and July, though - we are now getting the chance to enjoy some of the beautiful fall sunsets that we've had over the farm during the last week!
Many of you have been asking whether we will offer the chance to order more veggies for pick-up after the store closes on October 31st. This week we are planning to more thoroughly assess what crops we'll have available in bulk quantities and we're hoping to have order forms available next week. At this point it looks like we'll have winter squash, leeks, cabbage, carrots, beets, celeriac, Brussels sprouts, kale and collards, but stay tuned as we will likely add a few other items to that list!
In the CSA this week:
- Shallots and cipollini onions - these add great flavor to salad dressings and sauces. Both are a little milder and sweeter than regular storage onions, so they can be finely diced and added raw to salad dressing. Cipollini onions are also perfect for caramelizing.
- Celeriac - this oddly shaped root tastes like celery (it should be cooked, not eaten raw) and is a great addition to soups and mashed potatoes (see recipe below).
- Watermelon radish - these spicy and sweet radishes have a gorgeous magenta flesh. When shaved thin, they make a really colorful addition to salads. Check out this recipe at alexandracooks.com.
- Elba potatoes - these yellow skinned, white fleshed potatoes store really well. They also taste great!
- Peter Wilcox potatoes
- Brussels sprouts
- Broccoli
- Cabbage - green storage and savoy
- Leeks
- Celery
- Carrots
- Beets
- Butternut squash
- Buttercup squash
- Hubba Hubba squash
- Kale
- Tat soi
- Lettuce
CSA PYO:
Pick-your-own is winding down for the season, but there is still parsley and sage, and there may be some sunflowers to scavenge.
In the store:
In addition to the crops listed above, we'll have Delicata and Gold nugget squash, pie pumpkins, spinach, mustard greens, chard, collards, scallions and jack-o-lanterns from Kenney Farm in Concord!
Celeriac and Potato Mash
from Bon Apetit, December 2010
- 1 pound celery root (celeriac), peeled, cut into 1/2-inch pieces (about 4 cups)
- 2 1/2 pounds potatoes, peeled, cut into 1-inch pieces (about 6 1/2 cups)
- 1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, cut into pieces
- 1/2 cup (or more) whole milk
Cook celery root in large pot of boiling salted water 5 minutes. Add potatoes to pot; cook until all vegetables are tender, about 20 minutes. Drain. Return vegetables to pot; stir over medium-high heat until dry, 1 to 2 minutes. Remove from heat; add butter. Using potato masher, mash vegetables until butter is incorporated. Add 1/2 cup milk; mash until almost smooth, adding more milk as needed. Season with salt and pepper.