Let’s review our schedule

We have four more CSA deliveries after this week:
October 16/17 (this week) – purple EOW
October 23/24 – green EOW
October 30/31 – purple EOW
November 6/7 – final box for green EOW members
November 13/14 – final box for weekly members and purple EOW members

We will contact our storage share members directly with the delivery date for that share.  Our storage shares are sold out.

New Madison-area CSA site in 2015?

We would like to open one additional CSA site in the Madison area next year, in a neighborhood or a workplace. We are particularly interested in working with current Tipi members.  Wouldn’t it be convenient to have your CSA box delivered directly to your neighborhood or workplace?  Read more here, and contact us if you are interested.

Farm News

It’s been a wet week but we keep working, even when it rains.

We hurried to complete our field harvests during the dry spells.  From left, Mario, Tristan and Kerry harvest scallions, while Jon and Joel harvest bok choy.  Bonnie and Michael wash the choy on the wagon.  This field overlooks our neighbors’ soybean field and their large prairie planting.

Steve hopes it does not rain again until after Thanksgiving.  Even our sandy soils turn to mud after 2.5 inches of rain.


Good thing broccoli is waterproof.

Veggie list and veggie notes

We will pack mixed veggies that you can combine in Asian-style dishes; bok choy, daikon radish, scallions, garlic, ‘mild’ chiles with lots of flavor.  You can stir-fry these these ingredients together, or make an excellent fresh kimchi salad.  Steve points out that “every dish at a Chinese restaurant includes celery”, so perhaps you will add the celery to this list.

Bok choy, 1
Daikon radish, about 1 lb
Scallions, 1 bunch
Garlic
‘Mild’ habaneros, a handful
Cauliflower OR broccoli
Celery
Winter squash
Bell peppers, about 2
Yellow onions, 2

Next week’s box will probably contain sweet potatoes, Yukina greens, russet potatoes, peppers, Romanesco broccoli, onions, carrots, and more.

Bok choy – You will receive either red or green bok choy.
Daikon radish – Finally, we have daikon for you!
‘Mild habaneros’ – These ‘mild’ habaneros are pretty interesting.  They do have heat, about the level of a typical Anaheim or poblano (not this year’s poblanos which are unusually mild).  These habaneros are useful because you get manageable heat with really great flavor.  We are sending about 4 per box.
Celery – You will probably want to cook this celery because it is strongly flavored, and has some insect scarring.  We experimented with our one annual celery planting this year.  We planted later than usual so it would mature in cool weather and be more tender than celery harvested during the summer.  It sort of worked.  This celery is more tender than in other years.  However, planting later created more opportunity for insect attack.  Look it over, taste it raw, and decide how you want to use it.
Winter squash – You will receive either butternut OR Sunshine OR acorn OR Sweet Dumpling.  See below for photo ID and hints for cooking Sunshine squash.

Squash ID.  Clockwise from top left, Sunshine, acorn, Sweet Dumpling, butternut.

Notes on Sunshine squash

Roasted Sunshine squash slices

This is the first year we’ve had many Sunshine squash to distribute.  These bright orange squash have a dry texture when cooked, with a mild, sweet flavor reminiscent of chestnuts.  The skins are tender and edible.  We find that Sunshine do not store well, probably because of the thin skins.  Eat these soon.  Like all winter squash, they are best stored at room temperature with good air circulation.  On your kitchen counter is perfect.

Now that we finally have some to cook (!) I’ve settled on a favorite simple preparation.  Dry roasting seems the best way to bring out their delicate flavor.  Cut the Sunshine into thick slices, toss with olive oil, and roast on a well-oiled cookie sheet at 425oF until soft.  The slices will fall apart if you overcook them but you have a fairly wide window to get them out of the oven successfully.  You want to roast them until the cut surfaces are caramelized.  Season with salt after they are out of the oven.  Serve with a yogurt-garlic-olive oil dip.  The skins are edible.

Squash (or Sweet Potato) Muffins with Candied Ginger

Adapted from Deborah Madison’s Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone.
Make 12 muffins.
Beth’s note:  This is a great way to use leftover roasted winter squash or sweet potatoes.

1/2 cup candied ginger, dried cranberries or raisins, or a mixture
(plus extra candied ginger to top the muffins.)
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/3 cup unsulfured molasses
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1 cup mashed cooked winter squash or sweet potato
2 eggs
1/2 cup buttermilk (see substitution)

1 3/4  cup whole wheat pastry flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. cinnamon

Preheat the oven to 375oF.  Oil or spray your muffin tin.

Mix the ginger and wet ingredients in a bowl until smooth.  Mix the dry ingredients together separately.  Combine the two, and mix gently until well blended.  Spoon the batter into the muffin tin.  Top each muffin with a bit of candied ginger.  Bake on the middle shelf until lightly browned, 25 minutes.

Soy substitution for the buttermilk: Mix 1/2 cup soy milk with 1 1/2 tsp white vinegar.  Stir and let sit for 5 minutes.

Gleaning fun

The pumpkin and gleaning party was a big success.  Members visited to enjoy the perfect weather, pick pumpkins and glean a few vegetables.  There were loads of pumpkins to choose from; it was a strong, healthy crop this year.  The day was very enjoyable for Steve and I, a chance to hang out with the people we’ve fed all year.  I’ve posted additional photos on our Facebook page, labelled #tipiglean14.

Members wandered across the farm, reaching the furthest corners of the farm.  I think Steve included a few distant fields in the gleaning list for just that reason.

It was a family outing for many.

UW graduate student Claire Luby offered samples from her carrot research trial which she just finished harvesting.  I’ve written before about Claire and Irwin Goldman’s research plots at our farm.

Our daughter taught members how to find good raspberries.  The fruit flies are not too bad right now, so persistent (and patient) members could find good berries.

The thrill of digging up a big carrot!

I enjoy seeing our farm through our members’ eyes.  Julie Garret took the lovely photos below.

Thanks to everyone who shared their photos with us.

Veggie list and veggie notes (10/9/14, week #21, green EOW)

It’s been a busy week for us.  All our winter squash and sweet potatoes are safely harvested.  That feels good.  I’ll post photos of the harvests next week.  We hope you enjoy this pretty box of veggies.  Everything is so vibrant right now.  We plan to send lots of winter squash in the remaining boxes, especially butternuts which are so versatile for cooking.  See below for a favorite butternut recipe.

‘Metro’ butternut squash, 1
Cauliflower
Golden beets with greens, 1 bunch
Eggplant, globe or Japanese
Carrots, 2 lb
Bell peppers, 2
Anaheim chiles (hot), 2
Yellow onions, about 2
Parsley, 1 bunch

Next week’s box will contain winter squash or sweet potatoes, bok choy or cabbage, scallions, garlic, onions, daikon radish, peppers and more.

Butternut squash (tan, long) – These are the ‘Metro’ variety, a favorite because it cures and sweetens quickly after harvest.  These are medium-sized squash, average weight 2.0 to 2.5 lb.
Eggplant – We finally have eggplant to share.  It has been a difficult year for eggplant due to season-long insect attacks.  The plants set a late crop.  We’re glad they are ready to harvest before frost.  By this time of year, the eggplant may be seedy.
Anaheim chiles (long, slender, red, green or mixed red and green) – These are hot peppers. Anaheims usually have medium spiciness although it varies from pepper to pepper.  As usual, the heat is concentrated in the seeds and midveins. Remove the seeds and midveins is to lessen the chili’s heat. Anaheims are easily mistaken for Italian frying peppers. We never send them in the same box for that reason. Keep this in mind if you have frying peppers left over from last week.
Golden beets with greens – Beet greens are delicious. They are similar to Swiss chard in flavor, texture & cooking time (the two crops are very closely related.) You can remove the thickest midribs before cooking if you wish, but it is not essential.
Storage: Cover and refrigerate. The beet roots will last for weeks.  Beet greens are perishable and should be eaten soon. Separate the tops and roots if you don’t plan to eat the greens immediately, to preserve freshness in the roots.

Masala Winter Squash

Mark Bittman, ‘The Best Recipes in the World.’  Serves 4.  Time: 40 minutes.

Beth’s notes: This is a lively dish with lots of flavor.  It’s OK to skip the tomatoes unless you have a few in the freezer; just add lime juice at the end to replace the acidity.  Add the lime juice bit by bit – it doesn’t take much.  Serve with rice.  Mark Bittman writes this is a “lovely winter stew that can be a centerpiece for vegetarians (or for meat eaters with the addition of a few cubes of boneless chicken).”

1 large onion
5 garlic cloves, peeled
1 small dried chile or 1 tsp hot red pepper flakes, or to taste
2 Tbsp. corn, grapeseed or other neutral oil
salt and black pepper to taste
1 Tbsp. curry powder, or to taste
1 cup chopped tomato (canned is fine), optional
about 1 ½ lb winter squash, like butternut or firm pumpkin, peeled and cut into 1-inch cubes
lime wedges for serving

1.  Combing the onion, garlic and chile in a food processor and grind until pasty.  Put the oil in a large skillet or flameproof casserole with a lid over medium heat and add the onion mixture along with some salt and pepper and the curry powder.  Cook, stirring occasionally, until the onion begins to brown, 5 to 10 minutes.

2.  Add the tomato or ½ cup water along with the squash.  Cover and adjust the heat so the mixture simmers steadily.  Cook, stirring occasionally (and gently) and adding more water if necessary, until the squash is tender, about 20 minutes.  Serve with the lime wedges.

Our newest tools

Our own semi-trailer, parked next to our red box barn.

Steve is working to upgrade our root storage and washing before the big fall harvests begin.  Our winter root crops look abundant, more than we can fit in our current coolers.  Several years ago, we stored part of our carrot crop in a cold storage facility in Madison, but that created transportation hassles.  The solution?  We bought a used refrigerated semi-trailer that was ready to retire from the road.  It’s 53 feet long and can hold about 50,000 lb of roots in big wooden bins.  No more running back and forth to Madison to retrieve carrots to wash at the farm, then ship back to Madison.  I’ll post photos later this fall as we fill the trailer.

We are also in the midst of upgrading our root washing equipment.  This is a big deal for us.  We wash and sell 60 to 70 tons of roots through the winter, so our crew appreciates any improvements.  Our goals are to ease the physical labor involved, and to find equipment that’s easy to clean.  Our newest tool is a barrel washer from a Mennonite group in Pennsylvania.  We’ll use it to wash carrots and other roots.

Steve with Mark Roeters who sold us the new barrel washer. They caught up on gossip about who-bought-what new farm equipment.  Mark sells and delivers throughout the USA, so he knows everyone’s equipment.

Steve is very absorbed in these preparations.  Evolving plans for the new washing setup are scattered in our office and kitchen.  His gaze wanders back to the trailer, which keeps popping up in conversation.  “You know, that trailer will be great storage for our empty bins.  It will really free up space in the barn” or “I might add an extra layer of insulation, just in case.”  We don’t have much time before the weather turns cold.

Farm news and Veggie list (10/2/14, week #20, purple EOW)

Our cabbage-family crops are growing strongly.  Almost all our broccoli, cauliflower and Romanesco are harvested or will be ready in the next two weeks.  This is not normal.  Often, the cauliflower and Romanesco barely mature in time for our final CSA deliveries.  We’re glad to have these crops for the CSA boxes now, but we have to recognize that we will not have much broccoli, cauliflower or Romanesco in late October and early November.

Yellow potatoes, 3.5 lb
Romanesco broccoli, 1
(We’ll send a broccoli head too if your Romanesco is small)
Acorn squash, 1
Delicata OR Sweet Dumpling squash, 1
Leeks, 2 lb
Carrots, 2 lb
Frying peppers, mixed colors, about 3
Jalapeño chiles, 2
Cilantro, 1 bunch
Garlic

Next week’s box will probably contain cauliflower or Romanesco, winter squash, peppers, onions, carrots and more.

Romanesco broccoli (pale green conical head, possible tinged with purple) – This is one of our prettiest vegetables.  Look at it closely to appreciate its branched beauty and repeating spiral pattern.  It is called broccoli, but is closely related to cauliflower which it resembles in flavor and texture.  Like broccoli and cauliflower, it is fine eaten raw or cooked.  It requires cooking times intermediate between the two.  Don’t overcook it.  I usually steam it, then dress it simply with a butter-lemon-garlic-mustard sauce.
Acorn squash – Acorn squash are mild and benefit from browning the cut surfaces to bring out their flavor.  We like to cut acorn squash into slices, then roast or pan-fry the slices until they caramelize.  Acorn squash are also good for stuffing.  These are ‘Tip Top,’ our favorite acorn squash variety.  We have tested many varieties over the past few years, and settled on this one as the best.
Jalapeño chiles (small, dark green or red) – These are hot.

Farm and raspberry news

We have enjoyed this week so, so much.  An entire week of warm, dry weather at this time of year is a gift.  Mud and rain complicate every task.

Steve walks the farm in the morning to make his harvest decisions. I love this corner of our farm.  Unlike most of our flat fields, this area is a basin.  Steve contours the fields, so they are all at different angles.

We are making progress with our winter squash harvests.  All the Sweet Dumpling, delicata, acorn and Sugar Dumplings are tucked away.  We’ve begun the butternut harvest, but there are many more to pick.  It looks like a very good squash crop this year.  From right, Boi tosses acorn squash, Jory clips the squash, Jon catches, and Caitlyn packs the acorns into wooden bins.

Our farm work is so enjoyable on warm days.

From left, Mario, Kerry and Tristan harvest fennel for your CSA boxes this week.

From left, Clint, Billy and Michael clean onions.  We dry our onions in the greenhouse, then run them though a topper to remove leaves and loose skins, and knock off most of the dirt.  It is a dusty job, so it’s great to take care of this step outside.  Now the onions are stashed in our dry storage cooler.

Sunset through the greenhouse.

Raspberry update

It is time to acknowledge that we will not have raspberries for the CSA boxes, nor will we host raspberry u-picks.  Spotted wing drosophila (SWD) have wreaked havoc again this year.  This fruit fly pest arrived in the USA in 2008, and in Wisconsin in 2012.  We invested in growing a raspberry crop this year, but our techniques to control SWD failed.  We are collaborating with UW entomologists again this year (and will next year too).  So far, their studies have focussed on the fruit fly’s biology and behavior, as there are big gaps in basic knowledge about the pest.  This past winter answered an essential question of whether SWD can survive our coldest winters.  The answer is “yes.”  Remember last winter’s Polar Vortex?  The fruit fly survived without trouble.

At this point, our primary concern is learning enough about SWD to avoid risk to our strawberry crop too; the fruit fly showed up at the end of the strawberry season this year.  We will grow raspberries again next year, and will try to control the fruit flies with cultural methods.  Picking every berry is essential to controlling SWD.  This can work quite well on a home garden scale.  We plan to reduce the size of our field, narrow the rows, prune out early flowers and try our best to pick every berry.  This is a tough situation for all raspberry growers and we are still learning how to manage this new pest.

We are disappointed that we couldn’t offer raspberry u-picks this fall.  We will probably offer some berries to pick during the pumpkin and gleaning party.  We’ll keep you posted.  Beth

Earlier posting of the weekly veggie list?

A few members have asked us to post our veggie list earlier.  I am now posting the week’s list in our website sidebar by about 7 pm Wednesday night.  This is a few hours earlier than I have our newsletter ready.  The sidebar “Box Contents” is visible on the right side of both our homepage and our farm newsletter page.  I hope this helps.

Veggie list and veggie notes (9/25/14, week #19, green EOW)

Green cabbage
Cauliflower AND/OR broccoli
Fennel, 1 bulb
Green beans, 1/2 lb
Bell peppers, about 2
Red onion, 1
Yellow onion, 1
Slicing tomatoes, just a few
Poblano chiles, 3
Lettuce, 1 medium head
Garlic

Next week’s box will probably contain winter squash, potatoes, leeks, cilantro, peppers, carrots and more.

Fennel – We have trimmed away most of the fronds so the fennel will fit in the box.  The plants stand three feet high out in the field.  We’ve left the tender central fronds so you can chop and add them to cooked dishes for extra anise flavor.
Fennel is a ‘swing vegetable’; it can be used raw or cooked.  Clean well and slice as thinly as possible for use in raw salads.  It is good simply prepared with olive oil, lime or lemon juice, salt and shaved parmesan cheese.  Cooking softens and sweetens fennel, and mellows its anise flavor.  Both the bulb and leaves are edible.  We’ve send the fennel in combination with the last few tomatoes because they are so good cooked together.  I asked Pat of Local Thyme to come up with an interesting use this week.

Slicing tomatoes – We will send just a few tomatoes this week.  The tomato season is nearly over.  These late season tomatoes are a bit soft and will not store for very long.  Eat them up.  Personally, I prefer to cook late-season tomatoes, rather than prepare them raw.

Poblano chiles –  The flavor of the poblanos is quite good this year.  As I wrote a few weeks ago, these chiles are unusually mild this year, with occasional hot ones mixed in.  Remove the seeds and midveins to reduce the chance of heat.  Taste a sliver.  Use your best judgement.

Lettuce – This is the last lettuce of the year!

Youthful energy

Every day, our work crew carries us forward with their youthful energy.  Maggie and Clint organized a Tipi contingent for the Willy Street parade this past weekend.  They asked us to walk with them.  We stalled, viewing it as another chore.  We are quite busy this time of year.  They convinced us with their enthusiasm and creativity.  We are so glad they did!  It was a blast.

Ringleader Maggie with her decorated rickshaw.  Maggie is an expert at canning, freezing, drying, pickling – all forms of food preservation.

Ringleader Clint dug up beautiful kale plants for us to carry.  With their denuded stems, they look just like palm trees.

The kale was a hit with Billy’s son.

Maggie and her mom made us a banner.  We all wore “Water On!” t-shirts that Maggie silk-screened for us a few months ago.  From left, Karen, Steve, Maggie, Jory, Bonnie, Clint, the boys with me behind them, Andy, Mario, Jon, Billy with his little boy.

Steve danced his way down the street with a watermelon.  We handed out peppers, cherry tomatoes and a few watermelons.  We could not hand out candy!  Blue (left) joined us for a block during her lunch break.  Bonnie rode her festooned bike and handed out produce.  Jon marched and twirled his kale stalk as our ‘kale guard’ – it’s like color guard but with a kale stalk instead of a baton.

Happy melon recipients.

Our son and his buddy wore cabbage caps.  Good thing they are not shy kids.

See?  Everyone looks good in a cabbage cap.  Karen and Beth (that’s me.)

Farm news.

Of course, it’s back to work for us now. There were a few light frosts this past week. We checked the sweet potatoes first – they are our most frost-sensitive crop. Sure enough, the tops of the foliage were singed.  That’s a wake-up call for us even though the damage was slight.  In summer, time for work seems endless.  The weeks go on forever.  By this time of year, we can feel the limits of the season yet there is still so much to do.  We were glad to wrap up a few summer crops like zucchini and onions, but now we must move on to the next urgent harvests. We have a beautiful winter squash crop, and will hurry to get that and the sweet potatoes tucked away in the next two weeks.

The curled sweet potato leaves were damaged by frost.  The damage is not severe, but it is enough to hurry us along.

Veggie list and veggie notes (9/18/14, week #18, purple EOW)

Delicata winter squash, 2
Snap beans, green &/OR yellow, almost 1 lb
Cauliflower AND/OR broccoli, 1 or 2 heads
Slicing tomatoes, 2.4 lb
Broccoli raab, 1 bunch
Green bell pepper, 1
Red bell pepper, 1
Scallions, 1 bunch
Yellow onions, 2
Purple OR green kohlrabi
Jalapeño (hot), 1

Next week’s box will probably contain snap beans, fall brassicas (cabbage/cauliflower/broccoli), tomatoes, peppers, carrots, winter squash, poblano chiles and more.

Delicata winter squash – These are flavorful, thin-walled winter squash.  You can even eat the skin.  Like the Sweet Dumpling we sent last week, delicata will not store for long, so eat them soon.  There may be flaws that need trimming before or after cooking.
Storage:  Store all winter squash at room temperature.
Preparation: These squash have a central cavity that can be stuffed if you wish.  Cut squash in half, scoop out and discard the seeds.  To cook, I place the cut squash face-down on a cookie sheet, then put some water in the pan, and roast at 400 oF until easily pierced with a fork.  The water in the pan is optional.  The flavor is best if you allow the pan to dry during the cooking, so the squash has a chance to caramelize.

Purple OR green kohlrabi – Crunchy and sweet, kohlrabi is a great addition to salads.  Some of the purple kohlrabi are scarred from strong storms last month.  The green kohlrabi from the adjacent row show no damage.  They are simply sturdier.  We see this with a lot of red or purple vegetables.  They are pretty but often less vigorous than their green counterparts.
Storage:  Kohlrabi bulbs will store for a month in the refrigerator.
Uses:  Kohlrabi are good peeled and eaten out of hand, or added to sandwiches.  It is good mixed into salads, or prepared as a salad on it’s own.  You can grate it, slice it, or cut it into matchsticks.  It’s also good cooked.  If you have it, the Asparagus to Zucchini cookbook has a long list of kohlrabi suggestions.

Broccoli raab (large bunch of tender greens) – This cool-season vegetable is also known as rapine, and is similar to “broccolini.”  Has a robust flavor similar to mustard greens.  Broccoli raab is harvested with young flowering stalks.  Chop and include these tender stalks when cooking.  Similar cooking time to mustard or turnip greens.  After years of trying, this is our first successful crop of this nutrient-rich green.

Jalapeño (small, dark green or red chile) – These are hot.

A generous bunch of broccoli raab.

Include the tender flower stalks when you cook the broccoli raab.

Sept 11 2014

Veggie list and veggie notes (9/11/14, week #17, green EOW)

The switch to fall crops has begun, with winter squash, cauliflower and broccoli harvested this week.

Red potatoes, 3.5 lb
Cauliflower AND/OR broccoli
Sweet Dumpling squash, 2
Slicing tomatoes, 1.5 lb
Plum tomatoes, 2 lb
Mixed sweet peppers
Lettuce, 1 small head
Yellow onions
Garlic
Some sites will get an heirloom tomato

Next week’s box will probably contain red cabbage, broccoli or cauliflower, tomatoes, peppers and more.

Red potatoes – My favorite potato farmer Chris Malek retired from farming this year.  Chris and I shared a lab during graduate school at UW/Madison in the 1990’s.  He is very conscientious and I always trusted him to do a great job with the potatoes.  On Chris’ recommendation, we’ve bought this batch of organic potatoes from his cousin Chad Malek.  We only buy a few items for our CSA (potatoes, mushrooms, some garlic) and want the quality to be consistent and high.
Sweet Dumpling winter squash (round, speckled green and white or yellow) – This is one of our most flavorful winter squashes and a personal favorite.  Sweet Dumpling are one of the first winter squash types ready to eat in fall.  These will not store for long so eat them soon.
Storage:  Store all winter squash at room temperature.
Preparation: These squash have a central cavity that can be stuffed if you wish.  Cut squash in half, scoop out and discard the seeds.  To cook, I place the cut squash face-down on a cookie sheet, then put some water in the pan, and roast at 400 oF until easily pierced with a fork.  The water in the pan is optional.  The flavor is best if you allow the pan to dry during the cooking, so the squash has a chance to caramelize.
Mixed sweet peppers – We are sending mostly sweet Orano peppers this week.  These orange peppers are the best flavored peppers we have right now.  Excellent raw or cooked.

The challenges of a bumper crop

This is absolute peak season. We have five coolers running right now, and each is full the night before deliveries. The trucks are stuffed.  Our hard-working crew has kicked into high gear.  These peaks are inevitable and desirable.  How do we handle these moments?  Here are our ‘pressure valves’, our strategies to make good use of abundant produce:

• First, we stuff the CSA boxes.  We want to share as much as we can with you members.  This week’s box is full and heavy again.  Fortunately, it’s summer produce that everyone loves.
• Steve encourages our store customers to put abundant items on sale.  For example, Willy Street Coop has our watermelons on sale this week.
• We sell extra produce to you folks.  This is the time of year when we can spare some tomatoes and peppers from the CSA boxes.  Freeze or can them and enjoy in winter.
• We donate less-than-perfect produce to Second Harvest Foodbank, which distributes it to food pantries, soup kitchens and families in need.
• We are going to can tomato juice again this year!  That will consume 1500 lb ripe tomatoes, and means there will be tomato juice in your CSA boxes next year.  This is a great way to capture perishable tomatoes at peak flavor.
• We find ourselves with an abundance of round watermelons over 25 lb.  Not even the stores will take melons this big.  We are donating 1000 lb of these melons to FairShare’s Bike the Barns fundraiser so they can feed them to thirsty bicyclists.

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A sea of tomatoes for the CSA boxes.  At back, Jory, Boi and Maggie wash tomatoes.

Yellow, red, and pink slicing tomatoes, ready to be washed.

Our packshed manager Jon with a donation ready for Second Harvest.  We donate #2 grade produce each week.

Finally, we try to be creative with our excess produce.  Jon and friend, with Karen at left.

Veggie list and veggie notes (9/4/14, week #16, purple EOW)

Red watermelon
Sweet corn, 4 or 5 ears
Cauliflower OR edamame soybeans OR cherry tomatoes
Red frying peppers, about 2
Orano peppers, about 3
Poblano chiles, 3
Slicing tomatoes, 3.5 lb
Leeks, about 1.5 lb
Garlic
Basil, 1 sprig
Zucchini, 1
An heirloom tomato OR cherry tomatoes

Next week’s box is likely to contain red cabbage, red potatoes, garlic, cauliflower or broccoli, lettuce, scallions, peppers, tomatoes and more.

Watermelon – This is probably the last melon.  We have simply run out of melons that will fit in the CSA boxes, plus the fall produce is ripening.  You can still buy our large melons at Willy Street Coop, Outpost Natural Foods, Basics Coop and Paoli Natural Foods.  We will supply them with melons for a few more weeks.
Sweet corn – This sweet corn variety is not particularly sweet.  It’s a new variety for us.  However, the ears are big and the flavor is terrific.  This corn is excellent cut from the cob and added to dishes.  We tried three new sweet corn varieties this year because our standard variety was not available this year.  This one was very productive but I think we’ll look for sweeter varieties next year.
Edamame soybeans (bundle of stems with pods) – It was not an abundant year for edamame.  Only one spring planting survived, sparsely.  We’ll try again next year.
These edible soybeans are a treat.  Pull the pods from the stem and wash well.  It helps to submerge the pods and rub them together.  Boil in water until the pods have split and the beans are quite tender.  Season with salt and pop the beans out of the pods into your mouth.  This Japanese specialty is becoming more and more popular in the USA.
Storage:  Remove the pods from the stems promptly and refrigerate.
Red frying peppers and Orano (orange) peppers – These peppers are all sweet. Some of these peppers may be part green and part red (or part orange).  You can distinguish them from the spicier poblanos because the poblanos are solid green.
Poblano chiles (dark green, shiny, triangular) – These chiles have low-to-medium heat and great flavor.  Most I’ve cooked so far this year are milder than usual, but a few were corkers.
Leeks (look like big scallions) – These alliums have a milder flavor than onions.  Nonetheless, they can be used in recipes that call for onions.  To wash, split the leek lengthwise, from the green tops about halfway to the base, leaving the base intact.  Rinse well under running water, separating the layers to flush.  If necessary, split the leek further if soil has penetrated more than halfway down the leek.  Shake dry.  Leeks are generally eaten cooked.  They can be sauteed, steamed or roasted.  Intact leeks will store 2 to 3 weeks if covered loosely and refrigerated.  The outer leaves will yellow.  Just peel them off and discard.  The inner leek layers will be fine.
Garlic – This batch is from John Hendrickson of Stone Circle Farm again.
Basil – We’re sending another small sprig of Thai basil.  It is tolerant to the downy mildew disease spreading across Wisconsin, so we still have a small amount to share.
Heirloom tomatoes (large tomato that’s not in the paper bag with the other tomatoes) – Heirloom tomatoes are full-flavored but delicate.  If you receive one this week, please handle it gently.  These fragile beauties bruise easily.  You might have to ripen your heirloom tomato at room temperature for a day or two.  Don’t let it get overripe.

Poblanos (left, low-to-medium heat), Oranos (center, sweet), and red frying peppers (right, sweet).  The Oranos and frying peppers might have a bit of green.  The poblanos will be all green so you can recognize them.

Water on, water off

We had too much water and too little water at the same time on Monday.  A thunderstorm brought two inches of rain in about 45 minutes.  That’s fast.  Everyone worked indoors for an hour before heading out into the mud.  Only one truck got mired!  Meanwhile, a nearby lightning strike damaged the electronic control for our farmstead well.  A broken well means we cannot wash produce.  This is a big problem on a muddy day.  We continued harvesting while our well expert Charlie Davis diagnosed the problem, gathered the parts, and got it fixed.  By afternoon we could start washing.  That was a full, busy day.

A total of 2.7 inches rain fell on Monday and Tuesday.

Steve checks electrical components in our well house.

Melon harvest is at its peak so we are sending two melons this week.  Read below about the types.  Enjoy them over the Labor Day holiday.  This was a demanding week for Steve, as he picks and throws every watermelon.  He estimates he picked 19,000 lb of watermelons and honeydew melons this week.  Right now, he’s lying down on the floor to rest.  A second crew, led by Michael and Billy, takes care of the muskmelons and crenshaws.  The melon crews love this work.  It’s fast-paced and productive, and they get to eat any dropped melons.  Still warm from the sun, they are luscious.

Melon harvest.  From right, Steve chooses ripe melons then tosses them to Edgar, who tosses to Jon, who tosses to Ari, who washes the melons in a tank on the wagon.

A modern scare crow protects the corn.  The final sweet corn will be ready next week.

Veggie list (August 28/29, 2014, week #15, green EOW)

This is another full, heavy box.  Carry your box from the bottom so it doesn’t break open.  We’ll send everything on this list, as long as it fits in the box.

Orange watermelon
Crenshaw OR honeydew melon
Sweet corn, about 6 ears
Slicing & plum tomatoes, 3.75 – 4.0 lb
Colored bell pepper, 1 or 2
Orano pepper, 1 or 2
Yellow onions, 1 or 2
Cucumber (1 or 2) OR pickles
Lacinato OR Red Russian kale, 1 bunch
Dillweed, 1 stalk
Some sites will get eggplant.  Some will get an heirloom tomato.

Next week’s box will probably contain red potatoes, sweet corn, leeks, tomatoes, peppers, poblano chiles, and more.

Tomatoes – All the tomatoes are in one bag.  Here’s the breakdown: plum tomatoes, about 1 lb; slicing tomatoes, about 2.75 – 3 lb.
Yellow onions – We are sending yellow onions for the first time this year.  These are pungent cooking onions, good for frying.  We’ll switch back to sweet Walla Wallas over the next few weeks, so keep them segregated if you carry onions from week to week.
Cucumbers – There are a few oddly-shaped cucumbers this week.  The cucumber season won’t last much longer,  and we’re eager to send them while we have them.  They are still delicious.

Melon ID (crenshaw vs honeydew), plus how to judge ripeness.

Orange watermelons – Round or slightly oblong, with the usual variegated watermelon ride. These are ripe.  Eat soon.
Crenshaw melons – This oblong melon has a yellow exterior.  The interior is pale orange with a soft, creamy texture, similar to muskmelon.  These melons were ripe or nearly ripe when harvested but will improve after a day or two on your countertop.  The end opposite the stem scar should be slightly soft when pressed.  Refrigerate at this stage of ripeness.
Honeydew melons – This melon has an off-white rind, and a pale green interior.  Most are round.  We picked most of these melons slightly under-ripe to avoid the cracking that often ruins an otherwise good crop.  Let your honeydew sit at room temperature for one to four days, until it softens slightly at the end opposite the stem.  Feel your honeydew the day you bring it home, so you can recognize once it softens a bit.  Honeydews without an attached stem will ripen sooner than those with a cut stem piece.

Two honeydew melons (left) and two crenshaw melons (right)

Out with the old, in with the new.

We recently retired our first zucchini and summer squash planting.  The field was productive for two months but now the plants are exhausted and the field is overrun with weeds, bugs, diseases.

Everyone was relieved to move into planting #2.  Doesn’t that look better?  From left, Bri, Peter, Karen, Boi, and Clint place zucchini on the harvest belt conveyor which ferries it to the wagon.  Kerry sorts and packs on the wagon.  Michael drives the tractor.  The squash on the ground are early, oddball ones that we cut to clean up the plants before the first harvest.

The harvest belt is one of the best investments we’ve ever made.  It saves carrying squash out of the field, which saves everyone’s backs.  It’s even more useful during heavy cabbage and winter squash harvests.  Actually, it’s our two best investments, as this is our second harvest belt.  It took ten years to wear out the first one.

Pepper feedback, please?

We’ve noticed internal problems on some of our bell peppers.  We think the problem is isolated to one field, but we are not sure.  We can’t open all the peppers to find out, but you can.  Would you please tell us if you notice any internal problems on the peppers you receive this week, or last week?  If you find problems, please send us an email titled “peppers!” with this information:
– your name,
– your pickup site,
– the week you received the pepper,
– what problem you found inside the pepper, and
– the type of pepper (red bell, yellow bell, orange bell, frying pepper, or Orano)

Thank you so much.  We’d like to get this problem solved.

Please return all empty CSA boxes.

We are running low.  Remember, we ask that you unpack your box and leave the empty at your pickup site each week.  That keeps the boxes clean and prevents them from getting lost.

Veggie list and veggie notes (8/21/14, week #14, purple EOW)

We will send ingredients to make salsa: juicy tomatoes, cilantro, sweet onion, bell peppers and a few chiles of varied heat and flavor.

Slicing tomatoes, 5 lb
Cilantro, 1 bunch
Walla Walla onion, 1 or 2
Garlic, 1 bulb
Jalapeño (HOT), 1
‘Zavory’ habaneros (NOT HOT), 2
Bell peppers, mixed colors, probably 2
Oranos pepper, 1 or 2
Muskmelon
Romano beans OR globe eggplant OR Japanese eggplant
Cucumbers OR pickles OR Silver Slicer cukes, probably 2
Zucchini/summer squash, probably 2
Thai basil, 2 sprigs
Some members will receive one heirloom tomato.  We will rotate the heirlooms among the sites as they are ready.

Next week’s box will probably contain watermelon, tomatoes, peppers, onions or leeks and more summer goodness.  We’re on a roll with summer veggies!

Jalapeños (small, dark green, shiny) – The jalapeños are HOT, with estimated 5,000 Scoville units.
‘Zavory’ habaneros (small, pale green or red) – These habaneros are NOT HOT.  Almost all the spice has been bred out of them, leaving a barely detectable trace of heat.  Now we can all learn what habaneros actually taste like.  The blazing heat always got in the way, as normal habaneros are about 200,000 Scoville units.  You should still approach these chiles with caution.  This is the first year we’ve grown ‘Zavory’, so we don’t know if there are off-types mixed in.
Garlic – The lovely garlic is the first harvest from our friend John Hendrickson of Stone Circle Farm.
Orano peppers (orange, tapered, sweet) – These sweet orange peppers look like frying peppers but behave more like bell peppers during cooking.  They are excellent raw.
Muskmelon – Most are ripe and ready to eat.  If you receive one that seems a bit green, let it ripen at room temperature for a day or two.
‘Thai Magic’ basil – This basil variety looks like Thai basil with it’s purple flowers but tastes much like Italian basil.  We planted this variety because it is tolerant to a disease that’s circulating in Wisconsin this summer.

At left, Oronos (sweet); top right, jalapeño (hot); bottom right ‘Zavory’ habanero (not hot).

Our thoughts on a recent New York Times op-ed piece

Last night, our dinner conversation centered on an opinion piece in the New York Times titled “Don’t Let Your Children Grow Up To Be Farmers.”  Author/farmer Bren Smith claims “The dirty secret of the food movement is that the much-celebrated small-scale farmer isn’t making a living.”  It’s not true!  We don’t claim that farming is easy but our farm (and others in Wisconsin) are proof that you can support a family on a small farm.  Like many professions, the pay is low while you learn your skills.  We lived frugally while starting and expanding our farm.  We plowed our earnings back into the business for years but now we earn a middle-class income, like many of our customers.

What would we tell Bren Smith if we could talk to him?
– Don’t give up.  There’s a long learning curve if you did not grow up farming. It will take time to accumulate the intuition, skills and tools that you need to be successful.  Your land may need time and investment to develop too.
– Work on other farms.  You will learn so much while earning a wage.
– Extend your season.  It’s difficult to make a year’s income during a short growing season.  Extend your work (and income) to a longer season with hoophouses or stored crops.  Selling stored root crops through the winter is an important part of our farm’s stability.
– Understand that your income will fluctuate from year to year.  Save during the good years.
– Farming (like every new business) requires investment.  Your friends with salaried jobs do not have to invest financially in their work, but you do.  That’s how it is.  Be smart/cautious/frugal in your investments, including education.
– Start a food co-op.  Co-ops become the hub for customers interested in local, good quality food.
– Band together with other farms in your area.  Smith is correct when he writes that we need to “start our own organizations — as in generations past — and shape a vision of a new food economy that ensures that growing good food also means making a good living.” Our farmer coalition FairShare is an excellent example, in its efforts to foster the CSA marketplace in Wisconsin.

We think farming works in this region because of the consumers.  That’s you, Tipi members.  People in this area are willing to seek out, pay for, and eat food from small local farms.  Each of those steps is a hurdle for the average customer.  Whether through CSAs, farmers markets or local stores, people in this area support local farms and are rewarded with fresh, great-tasting food.  Thank you all.

Beth & Steve

Sign up soon for Bike the Barns.

Bike the Barns will be held Sunday September 14.  Learn more and register here.  Hosted by FairShare farms, the annual ride is the primary fundraiser for our Partner Shares program.  This year’s ride heads northeast from Madison, for either 45 or 60 miles.  Don’t wait if you plan to join the ride.  Registrations often fill by late August.

Upcoming sales of extra produce

We hope to have extra basil and extra slicing tomatoes to sell during the next month.  Watch for emails from me.  It will be a few more weeks before we have plum tomatoes to sell.

When should you refrigerate tomatoes?

Ripe tomatoes (top) and less-ripe tomatoes (bottom).

As usual, we have packed a mix of ripe and less-ripe tomatoes so you can stretch them through the week.  The top two tomatoes in the photo are ready to eat.  The bottom tomatoes need to ripen at room temperature for a few days.  Put on your counter or keep in a brown paper bag.

Tomatoes retain their best flavor and texture when stored at room temperature, no lower than 55oF.  However, you should refrigerate your tomatoes if they are fully ripe and you don’t expect to eat them right away.  It is better to sacrifice a little flavor and texture than lose your tomatoes to rot.  Also, fully-ripe tomatoes are less sensitive to chilling injury.

Farmhand Caitlyn holds today’s most celebrated tomato. It’s the largest tomato we picked and it looks just like an “old grandmother’s face.”

#2 Grade Red Bell Peppers

I write about pepper grading every year.  Returning members can say “yeah, yeah” and skip ahead.  New members, please read.
Many of the red bell peppers we send in the CSA boxes will be our #2 grade.  We do this to avoid waste and to deliver good value to our CSA members.  The #2 grade peppers are excellent eating quality, but are not quite pretty enough to sell to stores.  As a result, we place a much lower value on these peppers.  This allows us to provide generous amounts of red bell peppers over the course of the season, about three times the amount we could provide if we only gave #1 grade.  We feel this is a good exchange, even if it means you occasionally open a pepper and find that it needs trimming.  Here are the reasons that peppers are downgraded from #1 grade to #2 grade:
1.  They may have a minor blemish, or
2.  They may have minor insect damage, or
3.  They may be very ripe and beginning to wrinkle.  (These are especially sweet and delicious as they are fully ripe.  These cannot be sold to stores because their shelf life is short.  The texture is less crisp than a #1 grade pepper, but the flavor more than makes up for it.)
4.  They might be partially red and partially green.
5.  Others are just too small.

The eating quality is fine (or excellent) for all these #2 peppers.  We throw away all peppers that we suspect have rot inside (although one may occasionally slip through in either #1 or #2 grade.)  Today’s peppers are #2 grade.

Veggie list and veggie notes

Be prepared, this box is very full and very heavy.  We will send everything on this list, as long as we can fit it in the box.

Sweet corn, about 10 ears
Yellow watermelon OR orange watermelon OR muskmelon
Red slicing tomatoes, 5 lb, mixed ripeness
Bell peppers (red, yellow, or orange), 1 or 2
Romano beans, 1 lb
Carrots, 2 lb
Cucumbers (1 or 2) OR pickles
Walla Walla onion, 1 or 2
Flat parsley, 1 bunch

Next week’s box will probably contain melon, tomatoes, peppers, cilantro and more summer goodness.

Sweet corn – This is a new variety, picked at its peak.  It’s more creamy and less sugary than the variety we sent last week.  Steve says this variety achieves the ‘old-fashioned’ flavor of the varieties he grew years ago.
Melons – Everyone will get a muskmelon (netted skin, orange flesh) or a yellow watermelon (sweet, yellow interior) or an orange watermelon (pale orange interior, sweet, tender).