CSA Week 17 Newsletter (Sept 27 – October 3, 2021)

CSA Newsletter Week 17

September 26 – October 2, 2021    |    “A” Week

This is what Scarlet Kabocha winter squash looks like.

CSA Week 17 Box Contents:

LEEKS ~  (from Wayward Seed Farm) Cut off the green tops (save them for your freezer scrap bag). Rinse the white parts thoroughly under water. Chop off the roots. Mince and add to soups, sauces, and more. You can chop and freeze your onions into a Ziplock bag.

POBLANO PEPPERS (6)  ~  Store in the fridge in a green bag. These have a little heat. Great for freezing or stuffing. Also good in salsas or making spicy sauce.

CELERIAC ROOT (3)  baseball size, no tops ~  These will have a hairy appearance on the outside. You’ll want to remove the hairy skin with a chef’s knife. Then chop and use like celery. Concentrated celery flavor. You can also grate the root.

DELICATA OR HEART OF GOLD WINTER SQUASH (1)  ~  We are getting rid of these varieties, so we’re not sure which one you’ll get in your box! Store on the counter or in a cool, dark place. Bake, steam, or boil. The yellow flesh on the inside is creamy and sweet. Remove seeds.

ORANGE KABOCHA WINTER SQUASH (1 or 2 depending on size)  ~  These are a bright orange color, similar to a pumpkin (See picture above). Store on the counter or in a cool, dark place. Cut in half and scrape out seeds. Bake, steam, microwave, or boil. The orange flesh on the inside is creamy and sweet.

POTATOES (quart) from MILE CREEK FARM  ~  Store your potatoes away from onions and out of the light. Use within 4 weeks.

COLLARD GREENS (1 bunch)  ~ Store in a Green Bag in your fridge and use them within 4 days. You can blanch them, saute them, add them to stews or stir fry meals. These are typically sauteed with bacon and beans for a classic Southern dish. You can add them to spaghetti sauce, make chips, or use them in wraps.

GREEN CABBAGE (1)  ~ Wayward Seed Farm, Crisp green heads. Store these in the back of your fridge in a Green bag. They’ll last for a month or more. Remove the outer limp leaves. Cut out the core. Shred for cole slaw or cut into “steaks” and roast.

This week’s apples are going to be some of the best you’ll get all year!

It’s “A” Week. This is the final week for bi-weekly “A” share types!

FRUIT SHARE:

BAKING APPLES  –  Rhode Island Green & Northern Spy; store these in a bag in the fridge.

EATING APPLES – Ambrosia & Pixie Crunch — get ready to have your socks knocked off!

BOSC PEARS — from Quarry Hill Orchard – if they are still hard, you’ll need to leave them on the countertop for a few days to soften up. THEN put them in the fridge to slow the ripening.

MADDIE & BELLA COFFEE SHARE: Bella’s Breakfast Blend

KNUEVEN ICE CREAM: Cookies & Cream

CHEESE SHARE: (Final Week for Cheese!):

Peppercorn Chevre, Catelette Mountain Style (Smooth savory swiss and Gruyere notes); Bandit Red Young Red Cheddar (creamy, medium sharp, and buttermilk tang), from Black Radish Creamery, Alexandria, OH.

Early Bird Sign up for next season runs October 1-10.

HOW TO SIGN UP FOR NEXT YEAR’S CSA

So many of you have been asking, “How do we sign up for next year?! When does this happen?…”

Well… it’s time! Registration opens this coming Friday, October 1st.

Every fall, we try to get as  many of our full season members and Sampler members as possible to make their CSA commitment early. This helps us plan for the future, and gives us a sense of financial security through the winter. It also helps us see how many new members from our paid wait list we can invite into our CSA.

For TEN DAYS (beginning this Friday, October 1-10th), we’ll give our current members and Sampler members FIRST DIBS on the spots for next year at an early bird discounted price. After that, we open our remaining spots to our paid wait list. Then we open it to the public. 

The Early Bird offer is the BEST offer we make of the year. It includes a discount as well as an early signing bonus gift. It’s only around for 10 days. So if you know you want to renew, THIS is the time to do it.

Let’s walk through some of the details…

Q: When does the early bird offer/sign-up officially open?

We open the doors to sign up on Friday, October 1, at 6 AM sharp. And we close the early bird offer on Sunday, October 10, at 11:59 PM.

Some of our share types (aka eggs and flowers) are limited and will likely sell out early, so if you really want to grab one of those, I recommend you be ready to place your order on Friday for best selection.

Q: How do I sign up? What’s the link I’ll use?

You’ll go to our online store link: www.sharedlegacyfarms.com/store starting on Friday morning. It will be loaded and ready. We will not offer any other items in the online store that week — only CSA shares. Be sure to choose the correct pickup site during checkout. It will list a date in June, 2022, as your pickup date.

Noah holds up our “surprise” from last week — hand-harvested edamame pods. Shell the beans from inside the pod and steam — add some seasonings! YUM! Protein burst!

Q: Are there any major changes for next year?

Yes, quite a few. Let’s do a quick overview. Details will be in the later sections below.

1. We are dropping our membership numbers from 425 to 375.
2. We have removed Knueven’s chocolate milk share type. You will still be able to buy this from their online store “a la carte” each week for pickup. We’re simply not offering it as a weekly share. The Lowfat and Whole milk will remain.
3. Several adjustments to our cheese share:
   1. We have removed the “hard cheese only” and “goat cheese only” options from our product suite. There is only the combo cheese product, which inlcudes 2 half-pound “hard cheeses” and one goat cheese.
   2. The price for this product has increased slightly, due to an increase in feed prices for farmers.
   3. The cheese share will now include 2 additional creameries — Blue Jacket Creamery and Knueven Creamery — to the mix of cheese varieties. We wanted to make this share type more diverse!
4. We have raised the price of the vegetable share by $10. Our labor costs will be increasing next year due to the necessity of moving to a worker-visa program.
5. We are dropping the number of egg shares from 100 to 80 shares.
6. The coffee share has increased in price by $10.
7. We are capping the number of flower shares at 100 shares.
8. The future of a bread share is still up in the air. If we decide to create one, we will let you know later in the spring.

---

The Vegetable Share — what’s included

• 18 weekly boxes of certified organic veggies (mid-June through mid-October). Pick up will continue to be drive-through for all four of our pickup sites (Port Clinton, Perrysburg, Elmore, and Sylvania).
• Access to the private SLF Facebook group community and all its awesome-ness. If you do not renew your membership, your access to the Facebook group ends January 1st.
• Weekly Recipes prepared by our CSA Coach each week
• 5% off all orders from CitizenSalmonAlaska.com – you will receive a new, unique 2022 coupon code in the spring.
• Access to the CSA Membership Academy to help you learn how to use your food
• Access to our farm events, contests, & challenges so you can keep sharpening your foodie skills and having fun!
• Early access to our online store each week to add in additional popular veggie items for weekly pickup.

2022 Early Bird Veggie Share Prices:

Order early and receive a $10 discount for your veggie share. You’ll get the early bird discount of $10 off automatically when you order in the store between Oct 1st and 10th. No coupon code needed.

• Standard Box:Early Bird Price: $440

• Large Box: Early Bird Price: $840

NOTE: There are 375 spots available for next year — that’s down 50 from last year.

---

Egg shares typically sell out in the first 4 hours. SO if you want an egg share, be sure to renew your membership on Friday!

ADD-ON SHARE PRICING:

You can also add on other types of shares. The eggs and flowers have limited quantities, so be sure you snag one of those on the first day.

1. Egg share (Free Range) ~ THESE WILL SELL OUT ON FRIDAY!

Weekly Dozen $90; Bi-Weekly Dozen $45

ONLY 80 AVAILABLE – THESE SELL OUT FAST! — These eggs will be sourced from Knueven Creamery.

2. Fruit Bag (not organic) ~

Weekly $360 or Bi-Weekly $180 – 16 weeks

Includes: melons, table grapes, peaches, strawberries, blueberries, pears, cider, apples, plums, and blackberries.

3. Cheese Share Combo –

Bi-weekly (9 deliveries): $214

This includes 2 half-pound hard cheese varieties plus one goat cheese chevre log.~ sourced from: Turkeyfoot Creek Creamery, Blue Jacket Creamery, Knueven Creamery, and Canal Junction Farmstead

If you purchase any size coffee share during our Early Bird period, you’ll receive a free bag of Maddie and Bella’s Holiday Blend (available on Thanksgiving Weekend).

4. Maddie & Bella Coffee Share:

Weekly $262 or Bi-weekly $131 – 18 weeks

Bag of roasted, whole-bean coffee, different variety each week.

EARLY BIRD BONUS:FREE BAG OF M&B’s CHRISTMAS BLEND FOR ANY COFFEE SHARE ORDER PLACED DURING EARLY BIRD SIGNUP.

5. Flower Bouquet Share – THESE WILL SELL OUT QUICKLY

Weekly: $216 or Biweekly: $108  ~ 18 weeks

100 AVAILABLE ~ LIMITED QUANTITY. A large bouquet of seasonal, freshly cut flowers from Clay Hill Organic Farm.

Kristy Buskirk of Clayhill Farms drops off the flower shares. These have been very popular this year. There is a limited quantity available next year, so be sure to order these on the first day too.

6. Whole Milk Share, Knueven Creamery – 1/2 gallon

Weekly: $50 ~ 18 weeks NOT AVAILABLE FOR PORT CLINTON

7. LowFat Milk Share, Knueven Creamery – 1/2 gallon

Weekly $50. 18 weeks. NOT AVAILABLE FOR PORT CLINTON.

8. Ice Cream Share, Knueven Creamery – pint size

Weekly: $108. 18 weeks  NOT AVAILABLE FOR PORT CLINTON.

Fun variety each week 

---

Early Bird Signing Bonus #1

Jar of Brinery Sauerkraut

Renew a CSA membership by October 10th, at 11:59 PM, and you’ll receive a 24 oz jar of the Brinery’s “Fair N By” Lacto-Fermented Sauerkraut. As elemental as it gets — green cabbage, sea salt, and filtered water — this kraut embodies the tradition of fermentation. Sturdy, simple, and crisp – it is the flagship of the Brinery’s fleet. Keep refrigerated.

If you order before your last pickup site date (October 5 or 7), I’ll even be able to hand you your jar on your final CSA pickup. Otherwise, you’ll receive it at a schedule pop-up before Christmas.

EARLY BIRD BONUS #2

The Cocktail Diaries PDF

Have you enjoyed all the cocktails flying around in our Facebook group this year? Well we turned them into a fun PDF compilation called “The Cocktail Diaries.” If you sign up early, we’ll also include this PDF remembrance made by our very own cocktail queens, Esther Hertzfeld and Danielle Kuhl.

We are still working on creating this PDF, so it likely won’t be ready for a couple weeks. This bonus will be delivered to you by October 15th via email.

Howdy everyone!

Did you enjoy our surprise last week? It was edamame! This is my first time growing it on the farm. I still need some practice learning the optimal time to harvest, and I definitely need to figure out a more efficient way to glean the pods off the plants. My crew spent an entire day harvesting and pulling pods off by hand — a pretty expensive venture done that way. But I’m curious to see what you make with it. Remember, you don’t want to eat the skin of the pods! It’s way too tough.

We spent the better part of a day, shelling the pods off the edamame by hand. You can still eat the yellow pods. Just make sure you are removing the pods before eating.

I celebrated my birthday last weekend at my parent’s house with family. Mom always bakes me a Black Walnut cake. It’s my favorite. My brother-in-law Derek has a birthday in September too, so we always get to share our birthday photo (and cake) together. Thanks to all of you who wished me a happy day. And all the beer — SO MUCH BEER. Much appreciated.

Well, it rained a lot. 3.5″ to be exact! Standing water for a couple days. There wasn’t much damage to the crops in the ground though. I use “raised beds” for this very reason, so the water can drain off into the trenches along the beds. The biggest issue was that the rain deters us from getting ahead of the game. With a skeleton crew, I’m always trying to pre-harvest what I can, so I don’t have to do it all on one day. I gave the crew the day off, because there was nothing we could do out there.

Large puddles of rainwater caused us to switch things up at the Perrysburg pickup site last week.

The rain also caused some fun havoc at our Perrysburg pickup site! Did you see the giant lake in the parking lot? My team didn’t skip a beat though. They’re all champs.

Tomatoes are done. Eggplant is done. Many of the tomatoes split and cracked with all that rain. We still have some green ones on the vines. So I’ve decided to open up a free Gleaning Day on Sunday, October 3rd, from 3-5 PM. You are welcome to come out and glean whatever tomatoes and peppers you can from any of my fields. All I ask is that you leave some percentage of your pickings behind to donate to the Seagate Food Bank. We will make that delivery on Monday.

Irrigation has been pulled. Pipe is all laid away. I’m still rolling up the lay flat hose. Glen has been prepping our transplanter for next spring. He’s only with me a few more weeks, so I want to use his mechanical genius to have things ready to rock in May.

I’m working on fall root harvest. I’m getting the root digger prepped so I can pull out all those daikon radishes and watermelon radishes and Spanish radishes here in the next week or two. It needs to dry out though before I have any chance of using it. This will be a big wholesale crop for us to live off of in the winter months.

Roasting peppers and then letting them steam in a bowl covered in plastic wrap… Peel the skins and freeze in portion sizes in a Ziplock. FreezerChallenge2021

I found a new (and bigger) box reefer truck on Facebook Marketplace. Unfortunately, they aren’t calling me back. I’m hoping they’re just busy right now as farmers, and haven’t checked their account in a while. It would be perfect for us, and Corinna has even given her stamp of approval.

It’s winter squash season now! I’ll hopefully have some butternut for you next week. I’m trying to clear all my stockpiles this week for your shares. So some of you may be getting the Heart of Gold, and some may be getting delicatas. The delicatas are not holding up as well as years past. So I recommend you eat them sooner rather than later. Or cook them and freeze them. If they start to feel a little soft, they’re still okay to eat. You just want to cook them now.

If your freezer is filling up with produce, I recommend keeping a master list nearby, and crossing things off as you use them. This will help you remember what’s even in there!

Mom is recovering from her knee surgery just fine. I took a long bike ride with Josiah today — just the two of us. Corinna spent an evening at the Orchard Farmstand restaurant in Catawba with a friend Kendra Davis last night. We are blessed to have so many friends come out of our CSA community. I seriously pinch myself sometimes. I’ve got it so good.

Corinna is going to be talking ALL week about Early Registration. She’s been working on her communication plan for the last 5 days to make sure the sign-up process is glitch-free, and you all know what’s going on. So for the next 2 weeks, you’ll be seeing more than the usual posts and emails about different features and elements of the early bird registration offer. You have until the final day of our season (Oct. 10), to renew at the special early bird rate. After that, there will probably still be spots — although we do have a paid wait list of people standing by. So if you want in again next year, I encourage you NOT to wait until April to decide, but rather to lock it in on October 1st.

Our final week of the CSA is next week. I’ll see you at the pickup!

~Your Farmer, Kurt

RSVP FOR THE PUMPKIN HUNT

October 9th, 2021, 7:30-9:15 PM | FREE FOR MEMBERS

Bring your kids to the farm for our annual “Flashlight Pumpkin Hunt.” How does it work? This is a kid-friendly event and it’s FREE for all CSA members. We hide 10 pumpkins around our house in the darkness. Each pumpkin is marked with reflective tape. You have to find all 10 pumpkins using your flashlight! It’s like Hide-and-Seek in the dark with pumpkins!

The hunt starts around 8 PM when it’s dark enough, and takes about 10 minutes! After the hunt, we have 2 campfires burning, and you’re welcome to set up your chairs and enjoy the fire. Bring some skewers to roast marshmallows. (We provide all the fixings for smores). And enjoy some donuts and cider on us! Kids can play on the swingset or sandbox or just run around our lawn!

Please RSVP at this link if you plan to attend so we can get enough food. You will be asked to tell me how many people are attending, as well as your email address so I can send you a reminder. In case of rain, high winds or other bad weather, this event will not be rescheduled.

PEPPER-TOMATO GLEANING

October 3,2021   |    3-5 PM

We’re coming to the end of peppers and tomatoes. So we’re holding a “Gleaning Day” on Sunday, October 3, from 3-5 PM. Our customers are invited to pick through the flagged areas in the pepper/tomato fields, and take whatever you want. Bring your own bags. Dress for potential muddy conditions. FREE to all CSA members. We ask that you leave behind a percentage of what you have gleaned for the Seagate Food Bank of NW Ohio.

WEEK 17 ANNOUNCEMENTS

1. FREE TOMATO & PEPPER GLEANING EVENT – Date: Sunday, October 3, from 3-5 PM. Bring your own bags and pick all the peppers you want… poblanos, jalapenos, fry peppers, and bells. The plants are shutting down, so you can pick your way through what’s left. FREE to all CSA members. We ask that you leave behind a percentage of what you have gleaned for the Seagate Food Bank of NW Ohio.
2. Early Registration for next season’s CSA begins on this Friday,  October 1, at 6 AM sharp. Be sure to read the section in this newsletter that spells out all the details. I will be emailing and posting in the facebook group all week long, breaking down the important details you need to know.
3. Sign up for the free Pumpkin Hunt ~ October 9th, 7:30-9:15 PM. CSA members only. The hunt starts around 8 PM when it’s dark enough, and takes about 10 minutes! After the hunt, we have 2 campfires burning, and you’re welcome to set up your chairs and enjoy the fire. Bring some skewers to roast marshmallows. (We provide all the fixings for smores). And enjoy some donuts and cider on us! Kids can play on the swingset or sandbox or just run around our lawn! Please RSVP here so I can get enough snacks.
4. Shop the online store this week. We have Corinthian peppers, Round of Hungary peppers, ground cherries, and tomatillos. Be sure to place your order before Monday or Wednesday morning (depending on your pickup site).

Nike Mendenhall gifted us with this beautiful galette made with ground cherries, purple tomatillos, and apples.

WEEK 17 CSA RECIPES

Members: You can download this week’s recipes here. Here is what Coach Cadie Jardin has prepared for you…

Roasted Kabocha Squash 

Chunky Curried Kabocha Squash Dip

Roasted Delicata Squash Salad with Warm Pickled Onion Dressing 

Rich Creamy Potato Leek Soup with Collard Greens

Poblano Potato Leek Soup

Pasta with Collard Greens and Onions 

Spicy Peanut Cabbage and Chard Salad

Winter Squash and Savory Cabbage Gratin with Garlic

Potato and Celery Root Mash 

Braised Chicken with Celery Root and Garlic

Cinnamon Baked Apples

Apple Pancakes 

Asian Pear Galette with Cardamon Whipped Cream