Week 18 CSA Newsletter (October 16-22, 2022)

Week 18  |  October 16-22, 2022  | “B” Week

 This is our Final week of our CSA. We say good-bye!

Help us show our gratitude to our harvest crew members. I’ve set up an optional PayPal link here if you’d like to contribute. https://www.paypal.me/slfarms 

SWEET POTATOES (3#) ~  Store these in a cool, dark place (away from your onions) for up to 5 weeks. Before eating, wash well; cut out any bad spots. Peeling is optional. Bake in foil or roast. You can also make sweet potato fries!

RAINBOW CARROTS (1 bunch) ~ Our winter carrots are finally ready! These will come in lots of fun colors! Cut the tops off of these before storing the roots in a plastic bag in your fridge. They’ll keep for many weeks this way. Peeling is not necessary. Wash well before use. Save the tops and dehydrate them, or use in pesto.

BUTTERNUT SQUASH (1)  ~ Store it on your counter or in a cool dark place. The longer you store it, the sweeter it gets. Roast it or bake it. Remove seeds. Eat the pulp. Roast the seeds too!

ORANGE SNACKING PEPPERS (quart) ~ These are sweet! Store in a plastic bag in your fridge for up to 10 days. Remove seeds and top before crunching away! You can also freeze these by throwing them into a Ziplock bag.

YELLOW ONIONS (4)  ~ store these on your counter or in a cool, dark place – preferably not next to the potatoes. You can freeze these (chopped) in a Ziplock bag too.

GREEN KOHLRABI, LARGE (1)~  You can eat the leaves on the top too. Remove the tough outer skin of the bulb. Cut the inner juicy pulp and eat it raw with veggie dip. Or boil/roast it in cubes. Shred it and add to coleslaw.

GARLIC ~ store on your counter. Try wrapping them in foil and roasting them until soft. Then squeeze out the pulp. HEAVEN!

CUT LETTUCE ~ store in the fridge in a Green bag. Wash before use. Use within a week.

Purchase any size coffee share next year by Oct. 22, and get a free bag of Holiday Blend this Thanksgiving! Renew your share at the link we sent you in your email.

THIS WEEK’S ADD-ON SHARES:

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

MADDIE & BELLA COFFEE: Harvest Blend

KNUEVEN ICE CREAM: Apple Crisp

No fruit or cheese shares.

Meet your Monday packing crew: John, Adelle, Holly, Dani, and Beth. They are AMAZING!!

FINAL CSA PICKUP INSTRUCTIONS:

This week is your final CSA pickup. You will not be allowed to take home the actual plastic bin.  Instead, at pickup, our site host crew will pull a liner bag from the CSA tote and place it right into your car! Please make sure you bring back all your CSA totes you may have collecting in your garage! 

If you renewed your membership for 2023 by Monday night, you will receive your free bottle of olive oil at your final pickup site.

Take the 2022 CSA Evaluation

END OF YEAR EVALUATION

Fill out our CSA evaluation here by November 15.

We’d like to hear what you thought of your CSA experience. Please fill out our Google Form survey at this link before November 15. We have some specific questions that we’re looking for answers to, but we also want to give you a chance to give constructive feedback. Thank you!

Kurt helps sort sweet potatoes with the crew.

Well, where did the time go? It’s time to say good-bye for the season. This is always a bittersweet moment for us. We will be sad to see you go, but we’re also ready to get a little break. In a couple weekends, we’re hoping to round up the boys and head to Hocking Hills for a weekend getaway at our Uncle Jeff’s cabin — as a way to celebrate ending our season. And later this Christmas, we’ll be doing a 10 day adventure to Washington D.C. as our second family vacation!

We have some GREAT news for next year! Thanks to all of your “early decisions” to renew for 2023, as of Saturday afternoon, we currently have 313 shares sold – -that’s about 78%. That’s an incredible response for the first day. What does this mean for us as farmers? Well, for one thing it puts us in a confident position financially, starting January 1st. Normally farmers have to take out loans (or budget REALLY well the year before) to make sure they have cash flow until the summer harvest comes in. But with so many of you renewing, we can confidently budget and predict what our financial position is for every month. This financial security gives us major peace of mind. So thank you for this incredible gift to us.

The crew sorts sweet potatoes in the greenhouse.

This week, my crew pulled out all the tomato stakes in just one afternoon. That is seriously the fastest I’ve ever seen our crew take care of this project. Yet another validation that we made the right decision to switch to a new labor system. My winter spinach is coming up in the high tunnel. (See picture below). Watermelon radishes are almost ready — maybe 2 weeks — just in time for the Thanksgiving holiday. My Brussels sprouts still look pretty small, but we stripped the leaves off the sides, and that’s supposed to help them size up. Sweet potatoes are curing in the greenhouse, and we spent Friday sorting them by size. I ended up with a yield of 4000 lbs. That’s quite a lot!

Winter spinach is coming along nicely in the high tunnels

Some of you are asking how the boys are liking school! Well, they both LOVE it. Jed is thriving at ANSAT aviation school. I met up with the pilot of the local crop-dusting airplanes out here. He was filling up the belly of his plane with my brother Arik’s wheat seed. I watch them load two huge bags of wheat and then take off into the air to broadcast it over the soybean fields. This will come up in the spring. It was very cool to watch this process. I asked the pilot if Jed could help him do some maintenance when he’s winterizing the planes, and he said YES!! There are so many exciting things ahead for him.

The pilot loads my brother Arik’s wheat seed into the crop duster. This was then broadcast from the air into his field.

I actually had to pull out the irrigation pipe again this week and get some water to my plants. Things are very dry around here. It was amazing how much it perked up my plants. My carrots grew a lot bigger in a matter of 7 days. The dry weather has been perfect for grain farmers though. The combines are out in force cutting beans and corn. We should have a great yield (and price) for our organic soybeans this year too.

The Reisingers help their grandson locate a pumpkin near the propane tank at last week’s Pumpkin Hunt.

The Pumpkin Hunt happened last Saturday! We had about 8 families show up. Harry was our winner! The weather was perfect with a full moon to light the way. Our boys built a HUGE fire that was so big it set a stump on fire next to the ring. I got some flak from Corinna for not being there. I was watching the OSU game at my college buddy’s house instead. But in my defense, she scheduled that party AFTER I committed to my friend Foxy.

My box truck is almost on its last leg. Last week I told her: “One more week, baby!” She’s shaking and rattling and buzzing every which way — my instrument panel isn’t reading the gas gauge anymore. Not to mention, every week is a game of Tetris, trying to get all the stuff to fit inside on the way to Perrysburg. Corinna is reluctant to invest for next year. Help me try to convince her.

Asuncion (Jesus) pops garlic seed.

My crew has been popping garlic this week. That refers to the process of pulling apart the cloves from the garlic bulbs. I only do this with my largest bulbs. They then sort the cloves into large and medium clove size. I use the biggest cloves for my seed. We will be planting garlic the end of October – around Corinna’s birthday.

We also purchased plane tickets to Mexico for our 4 guys this week. The official departure date is November 7th. Boy was that a logistics nightmare! I think we tried 5 times to book it online before it accepted our payment. LOL. The guys are ready to go back. They miss their wives and kids. But they keep asking me: “You DO want us back next year, right?!!” I like to tease them and say it right back, “You ARE coming back next year? Right?” I can tell they really liked being here, and that makes me feel good as a manager. We’ll be throwing them an “Adios Party” to say good-bye. We’re giving you an opportunity to “tip the crew” in our PayPal.me fund before they leave — and we’ll present them with our collective thank you as we see them off. If you’d like to give something, that’d be awesome, but no pressure.

Well, it’s time to sign off for another year. If you renewed your membership with us for 2023, a special thank you. And if this is good-bye to CSA, I want to say how much I appreciated the chance to grow for you. We say good-bye with a firm handshake, and please know that my farm is always open to serve you again. If CSA isn’t your thing, consider just buying from my online store next year. That helps us out too.

CSA Renewal signup is open until next Saturday!

This year has been a banner year for our farm — one that will go down as a milestone year. Not only was Mother Nature on our side with ideal growing conditions and weather, but we also had a consistent, top-quality crew who took the stress off my shoulders. I feel like I’ve grown as a farmer, a manager, and a father. I truly love my life.

We’ll keep in touch — Corinna will do a monthly email to our CSA folks to keep you in the loop. And for all of you wanting Thanksgiving veggies, we’ll let you know details of when to order on Nov. 1st after we get back from our trip to Hocking.

Until next season,

Farmer Kurt

FALL PEPPER GLEANING

October 22,2022   |    1-4 PM

We’re coming to the end of peppers. So we’re holding a “U-Pick Gleaning Day” on Saturday, October 22, from 1-4 PM. Our customers are invited to pick through the flagged areas in the pepper fields, and take whatever you want for 50 cents a pound. Bring your own bags. Invite your friends and bring the kids! All peppers are free game — except the Fresnos and the jalapenos.

You’ll be able to order from our online store 3 more times this fall with our “pop-up” markets. Look for details in the Facebook group and email.

How to Get MORE Veggies in a Few Weeks

Three Pop-Up Markets Scheduled

This fall, we’ll be offering a few chances to “boost” your pantry with our fall vegetables with an occasional pop-up online store offer. We’ll offer one at the beginning of November, another the weekend before Thanksgiving, and a final one in mid-December. These will be announced via email so you have plenty of time to get things organized.

You’ll have the chance to build your own cart of products. We’ll have sweet potatoes, potatoes, beets, cabbage, kohlrabi, cauliflower, watermelon radishes, winter squash, carrots, spinach, and hopefully more!

You’ll get an email from us in a few weeks with instructions to order in the online store! Until then!

We’re giving away a prize to one person every day who renews their share! Renew today to increase the odds of winning.

WEEK 18 ANNOUNCEMENTS:

1. THIS IS OUR FINAL WEEK OF THE CSA, SO YOU WILL NOT BE ABLE TO TAKE THE FINAL CSA BIN HOME WITH YOU. The bags will be lined with a large plastic liner bag, so all we have to do is grab the bag out of the bin and put it in your car. Please bring ALL plastic totes, green hampers, wooden crates, egg boxes, etc. back this coming week. We will charge you $8 for any missing totes.
2. BRING YOUR CSA DEPOSIT PAYMENT TO YOUR FINAL PICKUP IF YOU CAN. Don’t forget to post-date the check for January 2, 2023. You can also mail it to the farm.
3. Tip the Harvest Crew! We want to thank our crew for a job well done! If you feel led to make a donation to show your appreciation, we’ve set up a PayPal link here where you can contribute. You have until November 1st. There is NO obligation.
4. END OF YEAR SURVEY – PLEASE FILL IT OUT​ —  This is your chance to tell us whatever you want and share feedback that is constructive. ​We read every one, and we often use this information to make adjustments in our next season.​
5. Early Registration for next season’s CSA closes on Saturday, October 22, at 10 PM. We are now 80% full. Once we add in our wait list clients, we will be close to capacity. Do not wait until January to sign up!

6. WHEN DO I GET MY OLIVE OIL BONUS? If you renewed your vegetable share before Monday night, October 17, I will pass your bonus to you on your final week at pickup.

7. We do have other items you can buy in our online store this week!  Apple Medley bag, potatoes, kallette greens, green cabbage, red cabbage (limited), Autumn Frost winter squash, butter baby winter squash, Delicata, Spaghetti Squash, acorn squash, Heart of Gold squash, orange carrots (1# bag), jalapenos, oak leaf lettuce, dino kale, all star kale, Roma tomatoes, purple broccoli, golden or candy stripe beets, sweet potatoes (3#), fennel, watermelon, Romanesco (limited), maple syrup, eggs.

As we say good-bye this year, our crew thanks you for supporting your local farming community!

WEEK 18 RECIPES

You can download Cadie’s week 18 recipes here. This week’s recipes are:

Garlic Herb Chicken Sweet Potato Sheet Pan Meal
Roasted Squash with Sesame Seeds and Cumin
Garlic Roasted Potatoes and Carrots
Savory Stuffed Butternut Squash
Celery Root and Sweet Potato Hash
Slow Cooker Chicken and Kale Sweet Potato Stew
Carrot and Butternut Squash Puree
Roasted Kohlrabi with Parmesan
Kohlrabi Mash
Curried Carrot Soup
Maple Roasted Butternut Squash and Apple Salad (Corinna’s recipe)