CSA WEek 15 Newsletter (Sept. 12-18, 2021)

CSA Newsletter Week 15

Sept 12-18, 2021    |    “A” Week

What’s in the Veggie Box this Week?

DELICATA SQUASH (2) — from Turnow Ventures farm. Store them properly in a cool, dark place. The skin on this winter squash CAN be eaten if desired. Cut them into rings and bake. Or cut long-wise and scoop out the seeds. (Roast them!) These can be cut in half and steamed upside down in a sheet pan filled with water.

POTATOES (1 quart)—  sourced from Mile Creek Farm. Store these in a cool, dark place — not your fridge. Use within 3 weeks. I like to scrub them before cooking. Roast, pan-fry, or boil/mash. Chop into desired size. Peeling is not necessary.

GLOBE TOMATOES (3) –– These are the classic round tomato — they have more water in them than the paste tomatoes. Use them for juice, or simple slicing tomatoes, or canned tomatoes. Store on the counter and use within 5 days. If you see them starting to ripen too fast, throw them in the fridge, although this may alter the flavor.

CHERRY TOMATOES (2 PINT) –– Store on the counter and use within 3-5 days. If you see them starting to ripen too fast, throw them in the fridge, although this may alter the flavor.

RED BELL PEPPERS (2) —  These are sweet. Store in a plastic bag in your fridge and use within 7 days. To use, wash and then chop off the top stem. Remove the seed bank from inside, as well as the ribs. Then chop to size. Peppers can also be frozen whole or chopped using the “Ziplock bag and freeze” method. These are great for grilling!

Patty Rodgers picks tomatoes during UPick last weekend.

GREEN BELL PEPPERS (2) —  Store in a plastic bag in your fridge and use within 7 days. To use, wash and then chop off the top stem. Remove the seed bank from inside, as well as the ribs. Then chop to size. Peppers can also be frozen whole or chopped using the “Ziplock bag and freeze” method.

GROUND CHERRIES – these little fruits are a cross between a grape, a cherry tomato, and a pineapple. Remove the papery husk from the fruit. Then pop the golden kernel in your mouth! Add to a salad or roast or turn into a preserve or cocktail! You should get around a pint.

FRESH DILL WEED – (Wayward Seed Farm) Use this herb within 5 days. Highly perishable. Store in a Debbie Meyer Green bag, or in a glass of water in your fridge. Excellent with fish, potatoes, or roasted veggies.

TOMATILLOS – These are hiding in the “Salsa pack.” Tomatillos look like little mini green tomatoes with a papery husk around them that has split. They are often firm to the touch. Remove the husk and discard. Then roast the tomatillos to add to a delicious salsa.

SALSA PACK – this will include everything you need to make a batch of salsa (except the cilantro!) — Jalapeno, onions, Roma tomatoes, and garlic.

SWEET CORN (NOT ORGANIC) – this may be the last week for corn. We are winding down, and the ears are starting to be pretty wormy at the tips. Should you find a worm, just cut it out and use the rest of the ear. Store in the fridge in a plastic bag, and use within 4 days.

Sometimes the way to eat our food is so simple.

THIS WEEK’S ADD-ON SHARES:

It’s “A” week (for all our bi-weekly shares)

Fruit Share: red seedless watermelon (Bench Farms), Honeycrisp apples (Quarry Hill Orchard) and Cortland Apples from Eshleman Orchard.

Maddie & Bella Coffee: Sumatra Orang Utan – caramel, apple, dark chocolate

Knueven Ice Cream: Pumpkin Spice

Cheese: Flat Rock and Wabash Erie Canal (Canal Junction), Tomato Pesto Cheese Curds (Turkeyfoot Creek Creamery)

14-Day FREEZER CHALLENGE

Show me how you’re freezing your food for the winter!

Dates: September 12-25, 2021

Are you swimming in peppers and greens? (I know you are!!) Welcome to our end-of-season Freezer Challenge. I want to see all the ways you are storing things away in your freezer! Document your food preservation — even if it’s nothing mind-blowing. Show me your freezer meals. Show me your bags of frozen onions! Let’s encourage each other to get it done!

This is a contest, and that means there are prizes! So here are the rules.

1. Dates of the challenge are Sunday, Sept. 12 through Saturday night, Sept. 25, 2021.
2. You must be a CSA member to win, and be at least 10 years old (Samplers count too)!
3. Take a picture of something you’ve frozen and post it in our private Facebook group.You must explain in the post what vegetable it is, and what you did with it. Use this as an inspiration moment to help others in the group.
4. To be eligible to win a prize, you must enter at least 3 separate times.
5. Hashtag your photos #FreezerChallenge2021 so I can find them.
6. I’ll choose 3 entries as my winners. I’ll be choosing my favorites based on the quality of the image, but also for simplicity or complexity of the idea. Winners will receive a fun foodie prize — hand-selected by their farmers.

So start posting and documenting your freezer journey! Let’s motivate and get this done!

Kurt chopped a lot of the fields down. This is the corn patch. Just one final planting of sweet corn is now left.

PRE-ORDER CONCORD GRAPES NOW

Each year, we give you a chance to pre-order a peck basket of Concord grapes — seeded. (That means they come WITH seeds inside). This is the grape used for making wine or juice or grape jelly. Pecks cost $35 each, and they run about 12-15 pounds. Place your order via email with Corinna (or in the Facebook post). When they become available in the next week or two, she’ll grab one for you and bring it to the pickup site.

HOW TO MAKE GRAPE JUICE: My mother-in-law taught me an easy way to make grape juice long ago. You’ll need one peck basket of grapes, a couple bags of sugar, hot boiling water, and some Mason jars and lids to pull this off.

See how to can grape juice in this quick tutorial. No water bath needed. We use one peck basket per year of Concord grapes to make our batches. Let them sit for about 2 months after you prepare. They are ready by Christmas. Filter the grapes out before drinking.

FARMER KURT’S FIELD NOTES

Howdy everyone!

This week I continued the job of cleaning up the beds. I chopped down the curly and dinosaur kale plants. They had yielded multiple harvests for us, and it was time to say good-bye. I’ve got plenty of other crops that can give us greens in the next few weeks — brussels sprouts, kale-lettes, collards, and broccoli.

This week, you’re seeing some of my first Daikon radishes. I planted a HUGE amount so I can sell them to multiple outlets over the next winter months — as well as serve the CSA. The leaves are a bit fuzzy — you can still eat them, but I’d only prepare them as a “cooked” green. Just my opinion.

Tomato and pepper picking continues. Thanks to everyone who came out last Sunday for the Tomato U-Pick. It was awesome! You totally cleaned off my plants! (which is what I wanted!) Nothing went to waste. This week, you’re getting a double portion of cherry tomatoes since there are so many of them!

Corinna and I sat down and had our monthly check-in meeting. We do this every month and take a look at the financials, production forecasts, as well as what’s coming ahead. Since we’ll be pre-selling our CSA memberships for next year in a few weeks, we’ve started having conversations about what next year will look like and what changes we want to make.

The Butler boys actually kicked their momma out of the picture so they could take all the credit for harvesting these beauties!

We’re examining our product suite, our labor shortage issue, our site workflow, our profit margins — all trying to find out ways we can make our business more efficient and consistent, and continue to improve our quality of life during the high season. We’ve identified some changes we could make — some of them easy, some of them a little nerve-racking, because it involves some what-if’s. Corinna’s side-hustle with MyDigitalFarmer.com is starting to earn some consistent revenue now for our family, so I’m trying to find ways to give her more time and opportunity to follow that dream and support the larger CSA farm movement in the process.

Amanda caught this on camera this week. It’s a tomato horn worm, infested by the brachonid wasp parasite. This beneficial wasp lays eggs in the tomato worm, and when the pupae finish feasting on the worm, they hatch! (And the worm is eaten alive).

Harley, our new dog, has been growing restless. Last week, she chased Corinna down the driveway, into the road, almost a half mile. She really doesn’t like being away from her side! I’m not happy about how much the dog is in our house. She’s supposed to be an outside dog, and yet, this dog seems to want to be an inside dog — or wherever Corinna is! Plus she keeps eating my hats and shoelaces. She will not come to my call yet, which is partly our fault for not making this training a priority.

It’s Paw-Paw season! I took some time this Saturday to go hunting for paw paws with my boys. My cousin has some woods nearby that we take a walk in every fall around this time. We shook a few trees, got covered in burrs, and broke open a few of these creamy delights to eat raw. Did you know the paw-paw is the state fruit of Ohio? I actually planted some trees a couple years ago, and one of them even bloomed this year! Maybe in a few years I won’t have to go foraging in a cob-webbed forest. (Although that’s kind of fun!)

Corinna is doing a lot of canning this weekend – -banana pepper rings and salsa. I’m staying out of her kitchen.

Until next week, Farmer Kurt

WEEK 15 ANNOUNCEMENTS

1. Order bulk sweet frying peppers. Some of you asked about bulk colored peppers. They are now here. Look for them in the online store! We are selling them for $2/lb in 10 lb. increments. Orange or red.
2. Pre-order Concord grapes. They are being sold by the peck basket for $35. This is about 12 pounds of grapes. This variety DOES have seeds. We use them for making grape juice. Email Corinna if you want one, and payment will be due upon receipt. We’re not exactly sure when they will be ready, so we are taking orders now. You’ll be informed when they are coming.
3. Order your Bulk Tomatoes. Cost is $1/lb. Tomatoes are winding down…You can choose either the ROMA or GLOBE variety. They come in a black crate this year, for easier transport and stack-ability in our truck. We will continue to put more into the store each week — about 20-30 at a time for each variety.
4. When do I sign up for next year’s CSA? Don’t worry. Pre-registration for next season begins October 1st at 6 AM and runs for 10 days through October 10.  Anyone who is a full season member of a Sampler member will get equal access to our Early Registration Offer. Stay tuned for more info soon.
5. You can order additional items from the Shared Legacy Farms online store.  This week we have: bulk Roma tomatoes, bulk globe tomatoes, rye flour, spaghetti squash (small), B-grade hard-neck garlic, cherry tomatoes, kale-lette greens, white hakurei turnip bunches, collard greens, red round of Hungary peppers, orange Italian fry peppers, red Italian fry peppers, potato medley (3 lb.).
6. Our store link is super easy to remember: www.sharedlegacyfarms.com/store. We reload and open the store inventory on Saturdays, around 5 PM. Just be sure to select the right pickup site that coincides with your pickup location. If the pickup option is greyed out or not available, it means you missed the window to order. You need to place your order 2 days before your site, because we harvest the product early on Monday and Wednesday mornings.

Kendra Davis roasted her hoard of U-Pick cherry tomatoes at 200 Fahrenheit for about 30 minutes. Then packed them into Mason jar and covered them with olive oil, and stored them in the fridge. The rest she dumped into a Ziplock after roasting and froze.

WEEK 15 CSA RECIPES

Members: You can download these recipes as a PDF here. These recipes are designed to inspire you to use your box this week! Please check inside our private Facebook group to find your fellow members sharing ideas for what to make with their box! Share a photo and you might be featured in next week’s newsletter!

Crispy Breakfast Hash with Bacon and Potatoes

Simple Stuffed Delicata Squash

Easy Roasted Delicata Squash

Roasted Delicata Squash and Tomatoes

Hearty Corn Chowder

Freezer Breakfast Burritos with sausage, eggs and salsa

Tomato Mozzarella Arugula Naan Pizza

Pickled Cherry Tomatoes

Pickled Radishes

Avocado Salad with Bell Pepper and Tomatoes

Corn Tomatillo Relish

Grilled Tomatillo and Corn Salsa

Bell Pepper Salsa

Spicy Roasted Daikon Radish French Fries

Creamy Dill Potato Salad

Shredded Daikon Salad

Creamy Dill Sauce

Balsamic Watermelon Chicken Salad

Honeycrisp Apple Blondies