CSA Newsletter Week 16

October 8-14, 2023    |    “B” Week

CSA Week 16 Box Contents:

ROMANESCO ~ Grab the free PDFguide here for this vegetable.This looks like a weird cauliflower, with lime-green, fractal shapes. To store:  Wrap dry, unwashed romanesco loosely in plastic and store it in the refrigerator for up to a week. To prep: Remove the leaves (which you can eat like kale). Cut out the hard core. Break into florets or cook whole. To use: Serve raw on vegetable trays with a thick dip. To steam: cut off florets and steam for 5 minutes. To roast: drizzle with olive oil and salt/pepper, bake at 450 degrees on a foil lined cookie sheet for 20 minutes, then sprinkle Parmesan cheese on top. To make rice: pulse florets in a food processor fitted with a normal blade. To freeze: Blanch 2-4 minutes in boiling salt water. Soak in ice water bath for 4 minutes. Drain, let dry, and pack into Ziplock containers. You can also freeze riced romanesco.

CARROTS (with tops) ~  (from Wayward Seed Farm) : Remove the green tops as soon as you can, leaving about an inch of stems. Refrigerate these carrots in a plastic bag. You can also store them in a bin of water (like celery) to keep them crisp, changing out the water every few days. Save the tops in a plastic bag. To prep: Organic carrots don’t need to be peeled. Boil 2-inch cubed carrots in rapidly boiling salt water, uncovered, for 7-10 minutes. Fresh carrot tops can be chopped into a green salad or stir-fry too! The greens can be dried and used as an herb like parsley. To freeze: Blanch cut coins for 3 minutes in boiling salt water, dunk in cold ice water for 3 minutes, drain, let dry, and pack in airtight container.

PIE PUMPKIN WINTER SQUASH (1)  ~ This looks like a mini pumpkin, but it’s edible like any other winter squash.  Cut open squash. Scoop out the seeds and pulp. Save the seeds to roast. To cook: Steam 1-2 inch chunks for 15-20 minutes. Puree or top with butter and use for your pumpkin pie filling. Or you can boil 1-2 inch chunks in salted water until tender, 8- 10 minutes. Or cut pumpkin in half, scrape out seeds/pulp, and bake cut-side down with 1/2 inch of water in the pan at 400 degrees for 45 minutes. Then allow to cool and scrape the flesh out and puree in food processor. Pumpkin seeds make a great snack too, baked in some olive oil and salt at 350 degrees until browned.  To freeze: Cook squash and mash or puree it. Then pour it into ice cube trays and freeze. Pop the frozen cubes into freezer Ziplock bags. From our cousin Steve Turnow at Turnow Ventures.

POTATOES (quart) from MILE CREEK FARM  ~ Keep unwashed potatoes in a cool, dark, dry place, such as a loosely closed paper bag in a cupboard. They will keep for two weeks at room temperature. Light turns them green, and proximity to onions causes them to sprout. Don’t put them in the refrigerator, as low temperatures convert the starch to sugars. To prep: Scrub well and cut off any sprouts or green skin. Peeling is a matter of preference. In soups, the skins may separate from the flesh and float in the broth, but when baked, pan- fried or roasted, the skins acquire a crisp, crunchy texture. To cook: Boil potatoes in water for 20-30 minutes until tender. If desired, mash them. Use potatoes in soups, hash browns, and salads. Roast sliced or whole small potatoes with fresh herbs, salt, and olive oil at 400 degrees until tender, about 20 minutes.

LARGE “HAGRID” ONION, CURED (1) NOT ORGANIC!! ~ To store: Sweet onions may be kept in any cool, dark, dry place with adequate air circulation for several months if they are cured. Do not store them next to potatoes. Fresh onion will need to be stored in a plastic bag in the fridge and use within 2 weeks. To prep: Peel the onion’s skin and cut off the roots and top. Save your papery onion skins in a bag in your freezer reserved for making vegetable stock. If you encounter a little rot in your onion, just cut away the bad sections. If there are a few black spots, rinse the whole onion in cool water and rub the spots off with your thumbs. To freeze: Cut or slice onions to desired size and place in freezer Ziplock bag. Remove all the air and seal. It helps to freeze them in 2-3 cup increments. From our friends at Riehm Farms (not organic)

Hazel Baranowski was wowed by these “Hagrid” sized onions.

DINOSAUR KALE ~ To store: Place kale unwashed, wrapped in a sealed plastic bag in the crisper drawer of the refrigerator. Best used very fresh, but may last for a week. To prep: Wash leaves in basin of lukewarm water to remove grit. If your greens have thick stems, you must remove them. Fold each leaf in half and slice out the stem. Then stack the leaves up and slice them diagonally into 1-inch-wide strips. To use: Saute in olive oil. Use in soups, spaghetti sauce, pesto, quiche, or kale chips. You can also eat the stems. To freeze: Blanch washed greens for 2-3 minutes. Rinse in cold ice water to stop the cooking process, drain, and pack into airtight containers. Stems can also be frozen.

RED JIMMY NARDELLO PEPPERS (4) SWEET ~ These are the long, curvy looking red peppers. They are sweet. To store: Refrigerate peppers unwashed in a sealed plastic bag in the crisper drawer for 1-2 weeks. To prep: Cut in half and remove the seeds from the inside. Slice, chop or mince. To use: Try roasting peppers over a flame until the skin blackens. Place the pepper inside a plastic bag to cool. Then remove to slide off the skins. To freeze: Wash and dry peppers. Freeze whole or cut into bite-size pieces and place in Ziplock freezer bag, removing as much air as possible.

GREEN BELL PEPPERS (4) ~ To store: Refrigerate peppers unwashed in a sealed plastic bag in the crisper drawer for 1-2 weeks. To prep: Cut in half and remove the seeds from the inside. Slice, chop or mince. To use: Try roasting peppers over a flame until the skin blackens. Place the pepper inside a plastic bag to cool. Then remove to slide off the skins. To freeze: Wash and dry peppers. Freeze whole or cut into bite-size pieces and place in Ziplock freezer bag, removing as much air as possible.

RED JALAPENO PEPPERS (2)  ~  Store in the fridge in a green bag. These have some heat, so use caution when chopping. The seeds and the membranes are what contain the spiciness. You can remove those for a milder heat. You may want to wear gloves to cut these, or at least wash your hands after handling. Great for freezing or stuffing. Also good in salsas or making spicy sauce.

These golden berries are in the online store for the first time ever. They are tart-sweet with mango overtones and some citrus. Bigger than a ground cherry.

LONG RED RADISH (no tops) ~ Store in a crisper of your fridge in a plastic bag for up to 6 weeks. To prep: Scrub radishes well. Trim off the stem and rootlets. To use: Eat radishes raw with a sprinkle of salt. Grate radishes into slaws and salads. Try small young radish leaves in salads or scrambled eggs. Blanch whole radishes in boiling, salt water for 5-10 minutes, or steam them until just tender, 8-12 minutes. Top with butter, salt, and pepper or with a vinaigrette. They’re also great grilled and pickled. To freeze: Blanch for 3 minutes, then dunk in ice water for 3 minutes. Drain. Pop in a freezer bag and freeze. The radish greens can be blanched as well — but only for 2 minutes.

RED ROMA TOMATOES (6) & GLOBE TOMATO (1) ~  Do not refrigerate tomatoes. Store them at room temperature out of the sun stem side down. Putting them in a paper bag will accelerate the ripening process. Heirloom tomatoes will have strange shapes and cracks. These are highly perishable and should be eaten within 1-2 days. To prep: If you’ll be cooking tomatoes, consider removing the skins so they don’t float around in your dish. To do so, score the  end of the tomato with an “X,” dunk whole tomatoes in boiling water for 30 seconds, lift out with slotted spoon, plunge into ice water, and the skins will slide off. To freeze: Tomatoes can be frozen whole with the skin on. The skins will slide right off when they thaw. Simply pop the washed tomatoes whole into a Ziplock bag. Thawed tomatoes are appropriate only for cooking sauces, salsas, or purees.

Alyssa Baker submitted these spaghetti squash fritters to become a finalist

ADD-ON SHARES, WEEK 16

It’s “B” Week. This is the final fruit week for bi-weekly “B” share types! Weekly fruit share will get ONE more bag on week 17 (since we began on week 2).

FRUIT SHARE: apples (TBA), pears (TBA), half gallon apple cider We did not have a final decision from Quarry Hill by the time the newsletter published.

MADDIE & BELLA COFFEE SHARE: TBA

KNUEVEN ICE CREAM: Toffee Crunch

HOW TO SIGN UP FOR NEXT YEAR’S CSA

Well… it’s time! Registration for 2024 CSA opens NEXT Sunday, October 15, at 7 AM.

Every fall, we try to get as  many of our members as possible to make their CSA commitment early. This helps us plan for the future and provides us with needed cash flow for the first 6 months. It also helps us see how many new members from our wait list we can invite into our CSA. When we are nearly sold out, it gives us incredible peace of mind over the winter break, and we can truly take some time of to rejuvenate.

For SEVEN DAYS (beginning next Saturday, October 15th through October 23rd), we’ll give our current 400 full-season members (plus the 65 Sampler members) FIRST DIBS on the 385 spots for next year at our early bird price. If we still have spots remaining after October 23rd, we open them to our wait list on November 1st. Then we open it to the public. 

The Early Bird offer is the BEST offer we make of the year. It includes a $20 discount (for the standard size), as well as an early signing bonus gift. It’s only around for 7 days. So if you know you want to renew, THIS is the time to do it.

THE DETAILS: 

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

We open the doors to sign up on Saturday, October 15, at 7 AM sharp. And we close the early bird offer on Monday, October 23, at 10 PM.mSome of our share types (aka eggs) 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 Saturday for best selection.

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

You’ll go to a SPECIAL online store link. This link will be emailed to you several times over the next 7 days as we share information over email. (I don’t want to post it here, so the public can’t find it). Be sure to choose the correct pickup site during checkout. It will list a date in June, 2023, as your pickup date.

Q: Are there any major changes for next year? YES. Let’s review…

1. Our membership enrollment numbers will decrease to 385 from 400. We are slowly scaling back our CSA.
2. We have discontinued the Port Clinton site for 2024. If you’re a Port Clinton customer, this shouldn’t be a surprise to you, as we already spoke to each of you one-on-one about this. We encourage our Port Clinton members to stay on our email list and participate in our seasonal special offers like the Spring Plant Sale or the Thanksgiving Pop-Up Market, when you might be willing to make the 40 minute drive out to the farm for a special occasion. There are a handful of PC members who plan to switch to the Elmore pickup site on Tuesdays (5:30-6:30 PM). For those of you who do so, I will connect you so you can create a carpool system and share the driving.
3. There is a limit of ONE egg share per order. If you order a weekly share, you can only order 1 share. If you order a biweekly, you can only order ONE biweekly. No weekly + biweekly combos are allowed. We hope that by doing this, more people can get a chance at having some eggs.
4. We increased our standard veggie share price slightly by $1/week from last year’s basic price.
5. We may change our Sylvania pickup site location. The time should stay the same, but we are actively looking for another site that does not have scheduling conflicts and has less congestion. It will not be far from the current location. If you’re a Sylvania customer, just choose the SYLVANIA site, and we will let you know the specific details once we have them.
6. When you place your CSA renewal order, you will be going to a DIFFERENT online store link — not the usual one of every week. This link is not available on this public blog. You must find it in your email or in the private Facebook group.
7. Milk and ice cream CSA shares will no longer be offered at any of our sites. We are saying good-bye to our CSA partnership with Knueven Creamery, and we encourage you to continue to support them in their other sales venues. See their beautiful letter explaining this business decision below…

What if I was a CSA Sampler member? Can I sign up for this 18 week season with everyone else?

Yes. You have an equal chance to get one of our 385 spots for next year. Early bird gets the worm! If you don’t want to upgrade, and you want to remain a Sampler member, we won’t offer that product until all the CSA shares are sold out. We encourage you to become an online store client each week instead — so that we can keep our limited Sampler spots open for people who are “testing” the CSA concept.

2024 CSA Early Bird Pricing:

Order early and receive a $20 discount for a standard veggie share. (Full shares also get an early discount). This early pricing will be applied automatically when you order in the store between Oct 15-23, 2023. No coupon code needed.

• Standard Box: Early Bird Price: $560 ($31/week)

• Large Box (double portion): Early Bird Price: $1080

NOTE: There are 385 spots available for next year — that’s 15 less than last year.

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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. Fruit Share Bag (not organic) ~

Weekly $400 or Bi-Weekly $200 – This is for 16 weeks

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

One of our most popular share types — ordered by about 60% of our CSA veggie members!

2. Cheese Share Combo –

Bi-weekly (9 deliveries): $240

We’ve partnered with MacKenzie Creamery, Knueven Creamery, Blue Jacket Creamery, Black Radish Creamery, Urban Stead Creamery, and Canal Junction Farmstead Cheese to bring you a mix of locally sourced cheese every other week. I’m hoping to find one more new cheese vendor next year!

With each bi-weekly disbursement, you will receive three cheeses: two (1/3-1/2 pound) “hard” cheeses and one 4 oz. variety of soft goat’s cheese. Many of the hard cheeses and the goat cheese will freeze for longer-term storage. Varieties include: multiple Cheddars, Abondance, Cheese curds, Gouda, Gretna Grillin, Red Bandit, Charloe, Gruyere, Garlic chevre, Apricot-ginger chevre, Cognac-Fig chevre, and more.

3. Maddie & Bella Coffee Share:

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

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

4. Egg share (Free Range) ~ THESE WILL SELL OUT!

Weekly Dozen $90; Bi-Weekly Dozen $45 | LIMIT: ONE PER ORDER

ONLY 100 AVAILABLE – THESE SELL OUT FAST!

5. Flower Bouquet Share

Weekly: $270 + sales tax or Biweekly: $135  + sales tax ~ 18 weeks     This comes to $15/bouquet

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

Early Bird Signing Bonus:

FREE Gallon of Premium Apple Cider from Witt Orchard if you order by October 23, 2023

Renew a CSA membership by October 23rd, and you’ll receive Free gallon of apple cider from Witt Orchard. I’ll hand you your cider on the final week of CSA pickup (Oct. 24 or 26).

Renew your CSA share during our promotion period (Oct. 15-23, 2023), and receive a free gallon of apple cider at your last week’s pickup.

This week, we started “popping” garlic. (See picture above), That refers to the process of separating garlic cloves from the garlic bulbs. We do this by hand. This year, I didn’t have as much garlic as usual, so it only took my crew a half day to knock it out. I wanted to plant it on Thursday, but then it decided to rain. So I sent everyone home and gave them Friday off.

My guys started pulling plastic off the fields. The plastic mulch on the melons and cucumbers gets rolled up and thrown away. This is always a sign that the season is wrapping up. I  planted a bunch of cover crops this week, too. This process will get the ground covered and protected for the winter, so it can start growing organic matter. All those roots underground do something important — they keep the micro-bacterias alive in the soil through the winter, as they break it all down.

The crew harvests watermelon radishes

This week, we started harvesting watermelon radishes for a big wholesale order. I’m a bit upset by what I’m finding though. There’s a lot of worm damage in the roots, which will probably mean I only get about 50% of my expected yield. I’m angry at myself for letting this happen, and trying to figure out what I could have done differently. I won’t be able to sell the slightly damaged produce to the cooperative – they condition has to be excellent. Live and learn I guess.

Corinna and I drove around Sylvania this Friday, looking at potential new Sylvania CSA sites. The one that is most promising is the Tamoshanter ice rink. We’ve got the name of the contact person and we’ll see if we can line that up. Looks like there’s a “farmer’s market” that happens in the park next door during the same time — which is the only issue we need to square away. If that doesn’t work out, we have a couple other large church parking lots we are looking at, such as the Westgate Chapel. We’ll be sure to let you know. If you are a Sylvania member, just choose the Sylvania site for now, and we’ll get it all squared away in a few weeks.

This coming week, I need to get the tomato twine cut. We used up most of our tomatoes this year! I love it when that happens and there’s no waste. I was able to find a home for all of it. I have one more big picking of Romas this week for the CSA, and then we’ll be done. I have some volunteers from SAME Cafe who may come out to help cut the tomato twine for me. This is the first step before i can pull out the stakes. Only then can I go through and chop the plants down.

Witt and Gaines installed the electric in my pack shed.

I got electric lights installed in the pack shed and wash bay!! YEAH!! Witt & Gaines called me back and said they could make time for us in between projects. I jumped on it and said, “Git ‘er done!” Now my pack crew can see what they’re doing on CSA pack night. It’s such a difference!! I remember when I told everyone back in May, “This will be done by Week 2…” Well, here we are on Week 15, and I finally made good on my word.

The sweet potatoes were harvested this week. The yield was good. My guys got it done in just a few hours. I think we filled up 4 bins. I run a plastic lifter under the beds to raise up the roots. Then my guys go through and pull them out by hand — kinda like hunting for gold. They have to cure for a couple weeks, but you should be getting them in the Week 18 (final) CSA box. And I should have a little bit left to sell in our Thanksgiving Pop-Up market.

When does the CSA end? I’m starting to hear that question. Your final pickup will be either October 24th or 26th, depending on your pickup site.

You’ve probably hear some pretty big news while reading this newsletter. Lots of changes for next year — things like dropping a CSA site, looking to possibly move Sylvania to another location nearby, saying good-bye to the Knuevens and their milk and ice cream. But these are all a part of a growing business. As we look ahead and start to plan out how we want our last 10 years to look, these adjustments are healthy and good for us. Many of them represent an attempt to increase our “quality of life” and spending more time with loved ones. We want you to know our business is in great shape. This season has been our BEST one yet, and we are riding on a high energy wave.

Sign up for next year’s CSA starts NEXT Sunday (not tomorrow), October 15th, at 7 AM sharp. Are you ready?!! Corinna has been a busy beaver all week, getting the communication plan sorted out and tested. She always gets so nervous about this week, but I tell her, “Don’t worry! Our CSA members are amazing.” Just remember, you have until Monday, October 23rd to renew at the special early bird rate. After that, there will probably still be a few spots — but Corinna will offer them to the Wait List as soon as the CSA season is officially over. I think it’s a pretty good number on that list too.

We took Friday off and went to Woodmore’s Homecoming football game. It felt good to be able to join the real world and have a life. As we look at the end of our season, we’re starting to talk about vacation! We usually go to Hocking Hills the weekend after our CSA ends. But we also want to do a week long vacation to the West Coast over Christmas break this year, to see Yosemite and the Redwoods, maybe visit Corinna’s brother and the nephew s.

I’m grateful for your support. I love what I do, and we love growing you! Thanks for letting me live my dream.

~Your Farmer, Kurt

A Letter from the Knueven Family ~ A message to our Shared Legacy supporters: 

After four bountiful seasons with Shared Legacy Farms CSA, working with Kurt, Corinna, and the dedicated group of volunteers, we’ve had to make a difficult business decision to discontinue supplying milk and dairy products for the seasonal Shared Legacy CSA shares—a result of limited supply and staffing resources, plus what makes reasonable business sense.

We’d like to thank Kurt, Corinna, and You, the Shared Legacy community, for your support these past years. Every person in our family has been part of the weekly CSA drop offs. We’ve enjoyed getting to know you and understanding the people and families who appreciate and enjoy our foods. You are ’the why’ we do what we do.

Our small, fourth generation, family-owned organic farm remains dedicated to bringing you minimally processed cream top milk and dairy products like the old days. We look forward to partnering with SLF in other ways—through dinners, events and other ways that build community.

Where to find us going forward? Visit us every Saturday at the Toledo Farmers Market for milk, eggs, and ice cream. While we work on market placement in the Perrysburg, Elmore, and Toledo areas, we invite you to stop by our small store in in Gilboa, Ohio (this is where the ice cream magic happens). Please let us know if there are any local markets you’d like us to reach out to.

Follow us on Facebook and Instagram (@knuevencreamery) and visit us at our Gilboa location.

Visit knuevencreamery.com to sign up for our email list. We’ll send infrequent notifications on where to find us, new products, and other newsworthy updates.

With Gratitude,

The Knueven Family

CSA Giveaway Week is THIS Week! Please play with us!

This week we’re doing a fun and EASY contest in our private Facebook group that has a quick reward. I hope you participate! It’s a fun way to see what other people are thinking in our community and create energy for our Early Bird promo starting next Sunday, October 15.

Here’s how it works:

1. Every day, starting Sunday, October 8th, I drop a question into the Facebook group. All you have to do is type out a quick comment to answer it to enter to win.
2. Around 8 PM every night, I choose one person at random from those who have commented to win a FREE jar of raw honey! This honey comes from Adelle Rodriguez’ hives in Genoa. Adelle is one of our Monday CSA packers who is also a beekeeper! And I want to spotlight her and support her amazing product. So I’ll be giving away her honey every day.
3. A new question drops M-F of this week, so be sure to keep entering to win!

Are you coming to watch the fun? There are still a few tickets available!

Chopped Finalists Compete This Friday!

Have you bought our tickets yet? This Friday, October 13, our 6 CSA Chopped Finalists will compete for the title of SLF Chopped Champion. We’ll have two rounds of competition. They will have to create an appetizer, main, or dessert within 30 minutes, using the mystery ingredients provided, as well as anything they can find in our pantry. Our panelist of 3 judges will choose the winner.

Our finalists include: Clara Eckel, Lindsey Simpson, Jim Hertzfeld, Melinda Fluckinger, Chistine Zychowicz, and Alyssa Baker.

Be sure to watch the action on Facebook this Friday as we share pictures of the event!

WEEK 16 ANNOUNCEMENTS

1. Early Registration for next season’s CSA begins NEXT Sunday, October 15, at 7 AM sharp. Get the sign up link in your EMAIL!! 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.
2. Play CSA Giveaway Challenge with us this week! See above for how to enter. You could win a jar of raw honey. I’m giving away a jar every day to one winner through Friday.
3. Order your tickets for the Chopped Challenge. The SLfarms Chopped Competition is happening this Friday, October 13th, starting at 6:30 PM at Cork & Knife Provisions. Come watch 6 of our CSA members duke it out for the title of Chopped Champion! There are still about 5 tickets left! You can order them here for $35 each. This includes one starter drink, one starter snack, and the entertainment for the evening. We have 6 finalists: Clara Eckel, Lindsey Simpson, Jim Hertzfeld, Melinda Fluckinger, Chistine Zychowicz, and Alyssa Baker.
4. Shop the online store this week. We have Golden Berries (NEW!), Heart of Gold winter squash, honey nut mini squash, delicata squash, small spaghetti squash, smaller white cauliflower, cheddar cauliflower, polish linguisa tomatoes, dinosaur kale, dandelion greens, cilantro, head lettuce, chard, red turnip (no tops), daikon radish mix, purple haze carrots, sweet banana peppers, hot banana peppers, orange italian sweet peppers, gold or red beets, tomatillos, ground cherries, Jonathan apples, Crimson Crisp apples, Golden Supreme apples, Honeycrisp apples, Ambrosia apples, maple syrup, Rowdy Rider bourbon glaze, honey, extra flower bouquets.Be sure to place your order before Monday or Wednesday morning (depending on your pickup site).

Jim Hertzfeld submitted these appetizer bites to win a spot as a Chopped finalist.

WEEK 16 CSA RECIPES

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

Balsamic, Onion and Thyme Carrots
Carrots with Shallots, Sage, and Thyme
Pasta with Kale and Onions
Crispy Jalapeno Garlic Potatoes
Parmesan Roasted Romanesco
Pan Roasted Romanesco with Hazelnuts and Crispy Bits
Creamy Radish Soup
Kale, Potato and Carrot Curry
Tuscan White Bean and Kale Soup
Crispy Breakfast Hash with Bacon and Potatoes
Fresh Pumpkin Pie
How to Roast a Pumpkin
The ORIGINAL PUMPKIN PIE
Loaded Apple Cider Oatmeal Muffins
Apple Cider Skillet Meal
Fresh Pear Bread