CSA Newsletter - Sept. 26, 2020 - Week 16

 

Billy King warming up for this season's Sweet Potato Bowl!

And Keegen makes the catch!

And then we tossed SWEET POTATOES into all of your boxes! Along with...

CARROTS

We had a grated carrot/watermelon radish salad this week - colorful!
We added a miso dressing - tasty!



BEETS

Boiled, baked, roasted or raw! Maybe Borscht weather is coming? 

KOHLRABI

Have you made "kohl" slaw? Martha Stewart has!


WINTER SQUASH - ACORN

Nutty, dry flesh



DAIKON/WATERMELON RADISH

In stir-fry, salad or soup




Watermelon in color only!


ONION

Did you know that inside one in every 3.14 onions is an opinion?



GARLIC

Garlic will keep for months if dry and at room temp.



BEANS - ROMANO AND/OR GREEN

But not yellow!

POTATOES

Why does Mr. Potato Head have a cell phone? In case Mr. Onion Rings! (sorry)


KALE - CURLY, TUSCAN OR COLLARDS





STORAGE TIPS: Nothing new except the potatoes and sweet potatoes can stay out of the fridge. If you don't get to them within the week, best to refrigerate them. 

RECIPE IDEAS:

Well you just might feel like eating sweet potatoes this week! We like to simply bake them, either whole or halved (if whole, poke several times with a fork first), and when done, enjoy with a little salt, and (optional) butter or plant-based butter substitute. The skins are very edible and fiber-licious! 




If you would like some basic info on roasting sweet potatoes, this post: How To Roast Sweet Potatoes is very helpful and includes some links to interesting-sounding sweet potato dishes.




We enjoyed a Roasted Root Veggie Medley this week, prepared by Donya Huber, who cooks most of our farm lunches. Donya roasted Butternut Squash, Sweet Potatoes, Potatoes, Rutabaga, Onion, and Garlic.  
She added rosemary, sage, summer savory (and/or thyme), salt, and cooking sherry, and baked it all at 425 for about an hour.  Optional to add butter when serving but we didn't and it really didn't need it. Very hearty, rich and fall-flavored!


Ready for the crew to dig in!


NOTES FROM THE FARM:


We survived last Friday night's sneaky little frost. We covered what we could and ran sprinklers all night on the bean patch and summer squash. It worked! The baby lettuces that we had just planted were on higher ground so they squeaked through. Lettuce is actually fairly frost-resistant, up to a point, but the young seedlings were a bit more vulnerable. Now we and the garden have been enjoying the 70 degree temps this week! And it has been a good week to finish digging the sweet potatoes.


Sweet potatoes are our last crop whose harvest has a beginning and end. When it's time to harvest, it's time to harvest the entire patch at once, as opposed to the bean patches that get picked over and over...and over...and over! So the crew took up the digging forks and went at it with gusto!


Ashleh and Cale in the trenches

Sweet potatoes need to be somewhat surgically removed so that the spuds don't get speared. And sweet potatoes tend to travel underground as they are forming so that's even more reason to be careful while digging.


Edwin and Keegen sifting for spuds

Sometimes they just aren't there



After the sweet potatoes were dug, Kenny King washed them all.


Nice to have warm temps for this watery task!


Now the sweet potatoes are drying before being packed into boxes. 



Can you tell that these are ladders with legs and screen cloth? #tofarmistoimprovise

Everyone loves sweet potatoes! We wish we had room for a whole field instead of a four-row patch (although our diggers are no doubt satisfied with our scale!). We hope you enjoy the samples we are able to add to your boxes and now you know a little more about how sweet potatoes go from dirt to dinner!



Donya loves sweet potatoes too!


HAVE A GREAT WEEK EVERYONE!


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