Organic Farmers of the Year!

Steve and I accept the Organic Farmers of the Year award, with our children Sophie and Ari and longtime employees Kerry Devlin, Simone O’Donahue, and Maggie Schley.

Steve and I have some news to share.  We have been named the 2016 Organic Farmers of the Year for the midwest, and received the award at the MOSES organic farming conference last weekend.  In our community of organic farmers, this is the highest possible honor.  We are thrilled and excited and still buzzing from all the love that came our way at the conference.  It was one of the best weekends of our lives.  Tipi CSA members, this award belongs to you too.  We could not farm without your loyal support!

We invited longtime employees Kerry, Simone and Maggie to the conference with us, and introduced them during the award ceremony.  They got a big round of applause when we explained that they’ve worked for us for 10, 16 and 20 years respectively.  They (and all our employees) are a key part of why our farm has reached its current stability and productivity.  We could not farm it without them.

Here’s the full award text from the conference booklet.

Storage share, Nov. 19/20, 2015

Things you need to know about your winter share

* Your delivery will consist of two different boxes, labeled “A” and “B”.  Take one “A” box and one “B” box.  The boxes contain different vegetables.
* Please pick up your boxes on the day of delivery, during the normal hours for your site.
* Outpost members, please get your boxes on Friday.  This is the busiest weekend of the year for the Outpost staff, so we cannot ask them to hold boxes past Friday.
* Members at outdoor sites, please carefully put the blankets back on the boxes.  That keeps everyone’s produce in good shape.
* The boxes are heavy!  It’s OK to take home the packed boxes, then return the empty boxes to your pickup site within two weeks.  We’ll swing back and pick them up.

Veggie List and Storage Info (Storage share, Nov. 19/20. 2015)

We hope you enjoy this shipment of veggies!  Strategize to use them well, as some will last longer than others.
* This vegetable is the most perishable: kale.
* These are the next-most perishable: Brussels sprouts, cabbage, leeks and onions.  Keep an eye on your butternut, potatoes and sweet potatoes.  The last two are susceptible to drying out.
* These will last the longest: Beauty Heart radish, beets, carrots, celeriac, garlic, parsnips and rutabaga.

Box “A”

Beauty Heart winter radish, 2
Beets, 3 lb
Brussels sprouts, 1 – 2 short stalks
Carrots, 6 lb mixed colors
(orange 4 lb, yellow 1 lb, purple 1 lb)
Celeriac
Green cabbage
Kale
Leeks, 3 lb
Parsnips, 3 lb
Rutabaga, 1 or 2

Box “B”

Butternut squash, 3-6, ~12 lb
Sweet potatoes, ~10 lb
Red Maria potatoes, ~5 lb
Carolla potatoes, ~5  lb
Red onions, 1 lb
Yellow onions, 4 lb
Garlic, 3

Beauty Heart radishes (round, white with pale green shoulders and bright pink interior) – Refrigerate.  The interior color is lovely.  Slice thinly and add to salads, cook lightly in mixed vegetable medleys or cut into matchsticks and add to pasta salads.  We enjoy grated carrot and Beauty Heart salads all winter.
Beets – Refrigerate in a bag or container.  Beets will store for two months or longer.
Brussels sprouts – Pluck from stalks and refrigerate in a bag or container.  Eat soon.
Cabbage – Refrigerate.  Cut off chunks as needed.
Carrots, orange.  Refrigerate in a plastic bag.  Will keep for several weeks.
Carrots, yellow and purple.  These varieties are pretty AND they taste good. The purple carrots will turn your tongue green. That will get the kids interested.
Celeriac – Will store for months in your fridge.  Cut off chunks as needed.
Garlic.  Can be stored at room temperature.
Leeks.  These need washing.  It was getting dark as we prepped them, and we did not realize how much soil was still on them.  Refrigerate and eat within three weeks.  Leeks are not a long-storage crop.  You may need to strip off one or two outer leaves to freshen the leeks before you cook them.
Onions: Store in a cool, dark spot or refrigerate.  Protect from light.  Exposure to light stimulates sprouting.  Refrigerate if you expect to hold for more than one month.
Parsnips (These look like large white carrots.) – Refrigerate in a plastic bag.  Parsnips will store for two months but will darken in color.  That is a harmless change.
Potatoes, Carola and Red Maria – Can be stored at room temperature or in a cool spot, but must be kept in the dark so they do not turn green.  The Carolas are think-skinned and prone to drying out, so keep an eye on them.  A loose plastic bag over the paper bag might help, but do not close the plastic bag.  Both types will store longer if kept cool.  Around 40 – 50 F is ideal.  These potatoes were grown by our friends/neighbors Peg and Matt Schaeffer.
Carolas are small to medium potatoes with yellow skin and flesh.  Matt says they are his favorite potato and referred me to this description online:  “These yellow-fleshed potatoes have moist, creamy-sweet flesh and satisfying texture; a favorite for oven roasting to a rich golden-brown, as well as grilling, steaming, mashing or frying. They add sensational flavor and texture to soups and stews.”
Red Marias are another favorite for the Schaeffers.  They are good all-purpose red potatoes with moist, sweet white flesh, good for boiling, mashing, roasting, and salads.  Stores well.
Rutabaga (round root, cream-colored with purple shoulders) – Cover and refrigerate.  Will store for several months.
Sweet potatoes – These are the Covington variety, and have developed excellent flavor and sweetness.  Store at room temperature, no lower than 55 F.  Keep them on your kitchen counter where it’s easy to keep an eye on them.  I like to keep ours in a paper bag so they don’t dehydrate.  Cook promptly if they start to soften.  The roots come in a wide ranges of sizes and all are good.
Butternut winter squash –  You will receive three to six butternuts, depending on size.  They are a mix of varieties: Metro, Waltham, JWS.  Store winter squash in a cool, dry place.  50 F is ideal.  Do not put in a plastic bag.  Inspect your squash frequently and cook promptly if you see any soft spots developing.  You can cook, mash and freeze the squash for future use.  I find that you can refrigerate cut raw squash for up to one week.  This runs counter to the accepted way to store squash, but is useful if you want to cook just half a squash at one time.  Try microwaving your squash for one to two minutes before cutting or peeling.  This softens the squash and makes large butternuts easier to handle.

What are you cooking for Thanksgiving?

We are creatures of habit when it comes to Thanksgiving.  Here are our plans so far: brined roast heritage turkey (Beth), Brussels sprouts with garlic-mustard vinaigrette (Steve), roasted sweet potatoes with garlicky yogurt dip (Sophie), glazed butternut squash (Beth), crunchy carrot-Beauty Heart salad with sesame-seed dressing (Steve), homemade applesauce (Ari), and apple pie (Sophie).  We love celebrating Thanksgiving and the end of harvest season!

Menu Ideas

There are many terrific Thanksgiving menus and recipes online right now.  Many include vegetables that you will receive in this delivery.  Here is a list of the recipe sites I rely on for new vegetable and salad recipes.  Search any of these sites if you are stumped about what to do with your storage share.
* The New York Times Cooking app keeps getting better and better.  They post appealing recipes and recipe collections every day, and just posted a Thanksgiving menu planner.  In my opinion, Melissa Clark is the best NYT food writer.  She’s practical and her dishes are always flavorful.  David Tanis, Mark Bittman and Martha Rose Shulman are other favorites.  The app and recipes appear to be free to the public, but I think you need to be a NYT subscriber to save recipes.
* I like the lively Food52.com site, and always read the community comments.
* Smitten Kitchen is our go-to site for dessert recipes but has excellent veggie recipes too.  Plus the blogger is funny.  She’s posted a string of interesting recipes this month.  Once our work is over, I’m cooking my way through all of them.
* The Kitchn.  I found this site after wandering over from their Apartment therapy home-design site.  Good recipes.
* 101cookbooks.  Always has good vegetarian and whole-grain recipes.
* Finally, remember that we have access to the entire catalog of Local Thyme recipes all winter.  Check them out for Thanksgiving ideas.

Do you have favorite menu sites for fall and winter recipes?

If so, please share in a comment!

Final box + Tipi Secrets Revealed

This is the final box of our regular CSA season.  Thank you so much for joining our adventure this year.  We hope you have enjoyed the food and the experience.  We think about our community of eaters each week as we harvest and prepare your produce.  We cannot thank you enough for the trust you have placed in us.

It was a good season.  Too wet in spring, too dry in summer.  In other words, quite normal.  November weather usually leaves us battered and ready to hole up inside for the winter.  Not this year.  The mild fall has been a blessing, and we end the season feeling like spring chickens.  There are still housekeeping details to wrap up the season, so we will be in touch again in the next few weeks.
– 2015 survey, coming soon.
– 2016 CSA registration, coming soon.

Please return all boxes to your pick-up site.

We will retrieve them next week.  It is best to unpack this week’s produce and leave the empty box behind.

Storage share members …

We sent you an email on November 4 with delivery dates.  Contact us if you didn’t receive that email.

Tipi Secrets Revealed

I tend to curate the images we share, focussing on our farm’s beauty and productivity.  To end the season, let’s share a few things we’ve never shown you before.  The common thread?  Each of these images represents a moment of joy for our crew.

Last summer, there were reports of problems with the orange watermelons.  Not many, but enough to keep us from shipping the final melons from that harvest.  Not sure what to do with them, we left them in the cooler until it was clear they destined for the compost heap.  (Haven’t you done that with leftovers in your fridge??)  Billy, Maggie, Boi and Jon cleaned out the remnants and the job turned into a melon-smashing spree.  I have never heard them laugh so hard.  Photo by Bri Fiene.

Young lettuce fields are photogenic and filled with promise, so we usually share photos like the top one above.  Reality is that many of those lettuce heads will not be good enough to harvest.  Rot, insects, bolting, tip burn, rain damage – there are many, many ways for lettuce to go bad.  In the lower photo, we have harvested almost every single head.  That is rare and unusual, and made our lettuce crew very happy.  Maggie “Lettuce Queen” Schley still talks about this particular field.

I could fill the newsletter with scenes like this napa and kohlrabi harvest but it would be bewildering for readers.  That was a terrific field but looks like a scene of wanton destruction.

Oops. We felt bad after mowing the sweet corn. Madeleine noticed something shiny at the edge of the field and found these remnants of a garter snake. Gage tanned the skin for Madeleine, then ate the snake.  He says it tasted like chicken, with the consistency of a rubber band.  He is a unique and resourceful guy.  OK, that was an interesting episode rather than a moment of joy.

Our neighbors baled their corn stalks a few weeks ago.  There was endless discussion among our crew about whether it’s possible to leap up onto the bales unassisted.  Here are three answers:

That’s it!  Enjoy your winter and we will see you next spring.  Beth and Steve

Veggie List and Veggie Notes (Nov. 12/13, week #26, green EOW)

Red cabbage
Sweet potatoes, 2 – 2.5 lb
Brussels sprouts, on the stalk
Butternut squash
Leeks, 1.5 – 2 lb
Carrots, 2 lb
Beauty Heart radish
Garlic

Next week’s box will probably contain … Wait!  The next CSA box will be on May 19, 2016. Put it on your calendars. Our best guess for that box is asparagus, spinach, lettuce, green garlic, potatoes, arugula, radishes, and rhubarb.

Beauty Heart radishes (round, white with pale green shoulders and bright pink interior) – Refrigerate. The interior color is lovely. Slice thinly and add to salads, cook lightly in mixed vegetable medleys or cut into matchsticks and add to pasta salads. We enjoy grated carrot and Beauty Heart salads all winter.

THIS WEEK’S RECIPES

Comforting Classics

Confetti of Watermelon Radish and Carrot
Leek Bruschetta
Black Bean Burrito with Chipotle Sweet Potatoes and Red Cabbage
Sweet and Sour Braised Red Cabbage
Steamed Brussels Sprouts with Butter and Thyme
Winter Squash Soup with Gruyere Croutons

Outside the Box Recipes

Hazelnut Butter and Beauty Heart Radish Sandwich
Beer, Ham and Cheese Chowder with Leeks
Sweet Potato Polenta
Seared Red Cabbage with Crumbled Blue Cheese Dressing
Brussels Sprouts Braised in Nutmeg Cream
Butternut Squash Soup with Ham and Peas

Kitchen Sink Recipe

Hearty Garden Salad with Shaved Beauty Heart Radishes, Beets, Carrots, Eggs, Tuna or Chickpeas, and Sweet Garlic Dressing

Quick and Easy Meal Idea

Fusilli Mac and Cheese with Brussels Sprouts

Final week for purple EOW

The calendar says “fall” but the weather says “summer.”  I am sure you have noticed.  Nonetheless, we are near the end of our CSA season.
This week, November 5/6 = Final box for our purple EOW members.  Thank you!
Next week, November 12/13 = Final box for weekly members and for green EOW members.
Storage share members – I sent you an email yesterday to confirm that you are registered, and with info about the delivery schedule.

Kelcie and Billy harvest Brussels sprouts in shirt sleeves.  That’s not shabby.

Compare with our 2013 Brussels sprouts harvest.  What a difference.  We cut the stalks and took them back to the warm barn to pluck the sprouts from the stalks.  It’s impossible to do outside when it’s that cold.

Veggie List and Veggie Notes (Nov. 5/5, 2015, week #25, purple EOW)

Brussels sprouts
German butterball potatoes, 3.5 lb
Butternut squash
Beets, 2 lb
Celeriac
Yellow onions, about 2
Garlic
Cauliflower
OR small cauliflower + Romanesco
OR small cauliflower + broccoli

Next week’s box will probably contain sweet potatoes, Brussels sprouts, leeks, winter squash, red cabbage, carrots, Beauty Heart radish and garlic.

Brussels sprouts – We are sending the sprouts on the stalk.  Pluck from the stalk soon to keep the sprouts from wilting.  Saves space in your fridge too!
If you are a new CSA member, please approach Brussels sprouts with an open mind.  Many of us grew up eating awful, overcooked Brussels sprouts.  These Brussels sprouts are completely different.
Here is our method to cook Brussels sprouts: Wash the sprouts and trim the cut ends. Cut an X in the stem end of large sprouts.  Cut a single slit in small or medium sprouts.  This does two things. It helps the Brussels sprouts cook evenly, plus it allows them to soak up any marinade or dressing.  Place sprouts in a pot with one inch of water in the bottom and steam until tender, 7 to 10 minutes.  If the sprouts are uneven in size, then set aside the smallest ones and add to the pot after the larger ones have cooked for a few minutes.  Don’t overcook them!  You can also oven-roast Brussels sprouts.  Here are a few dressing ideas for cooked sprouts:
– Sherry vinegar/olive oil/Dijon mustard/garlic/white wine/salt and pepper.  This is our favorite, especially when you combine the Brussels sprouts with slivered peppers and thinly sliced onions.  Delicious warm, cold, or at room temperature.
– Balsamic vinegar/olive oil/garlic/salt and pepper
– Lemon juice and zest/melted brown butter/poppy seeds/white wine/garlic/salt
German butterball potatoes – These are from our friends Peg and Matt Schaefer of Sandhill Family Farms, and are the potatoes our crew helped harvest a few weeks ago.  Matt says German Butterballs good all-around potatoes with outstanding flavor.  This variety was the first place winner in Rodale’s Organic Gardening “Taste Off.”  Best uses are roasted, boiled or fried.  We boiled small ones in salt water and they were excellent.  Everone in our house chose a different accompaniment for the potatoes; sriracha mayo (Ari), garlic mayonnaise (me), kimchi (Steve) and parmesan cheese (Sophie).
Butternut squash (tan, cylindrical winter squash) – This “Metro” variety has cured very nicely, with good sweetness, flavor, and color.
Celeriac (knobby, round, bizarre-looking vegetable which smells like celery) – Flavorful celeriac is good raw or cooked.  It is excellent in mixed roasted veggies or in soup.  It’s especially good in cream soups, alone or mixed with potatoes.  Grated raw celeriac is a great starting point for winter salads.  Celeriac will store in your refrigerator for months.  Cut off chunks as you need them.  Peel before using.

THIS WEEK’S RECIPES

Comforting Classics

Creamy Cauliflower Potato Soup
Butternut Pie or GF Butternut Pie
Brussels Sprouts with Pecan Brown Butter
BSK Breakfast Potatoes
Beet, Gorgonzola and Toasted Walnut Salad
Apple Celeriac Waldorf

Outside the Box Recipes

Cauliflower Polonaise
Winter Squash Galette
Whole Grain Spaghetti with Brussels Sprouts and Mushrooms (included are vegan substitutions)
Bangers and Mash
Ginger Glazed Beets
Celeriac, Smoked Mozzarella and Prosciutto Salad

Kitchen Sink Recipe

Brussels Sprout and Butternut Squash Dressing

Quick and Easy Meal Idea

Shanghai Style Beef and Broccoli Stir Fry

Dwindling palette

The farm colors are dwindling but beautiful.  Asparagus fronds are brilliant yellow for just a week or two.

Carrot-green at left, cover-crop-green on the right.  We’ve begun harvesting carrots to store and sell through the winter but have a long way to go.

Empty bins lined up and ready for carrots.

The red and green kale are hanging in there.  They can handle a lot of cold without damage.

Our workers are the brightest thing in the landscape in their rain gear.  Caitlyn after a muddy daikon harvest.

Delivery count-down

November 5 = final delivery for purple EOW members
November 12 = final delivery for weekly and for green EOW members

Last chance to get a 2015 receipt

Go to this link to send yourself a receipt for your 2015 CSA shares.  I need to wrap up the books for the year, and will disable the receipt link in about one week.

Veggie List and Veggie Notes (October 29/30, week #24, green EOW)

Butternut squash OR sweet potatoes
Broccoli, a modest amount
Cauliflower OR Romanesco broccoli
Red mustard greens, 1 bunch
Carrots, 2 lb
Parsnips, 1.5+ lb
Kohlrabi, 1
Frying peppers, about 5
Yellow onions, about 2
Garlic

Next week’s box will probably contain German butterball potatoes, winter squash, Brussels sprouts, beets, onions, celeriac, cauliflower OR Romanesco broccoli, and more.

Butternut squash – These are the ‘Metro’ variety again.
‘Beauregard’ sweet potatoes – Here are a few things we’ve learned about sweet potatoes:
– For best flavor, cook your sweet potatoes so they brown and caramelize.  We have a simple, favorite way to roast sweet potatoes.  We used to prepare sweet potato fries.  Now we just quarter the potatoes, rub with olive oil, dust with salt and place cut-side-down on a cookie sheet.  Roast in a 450 F oven without turning until soft.  The flavors will caramelize (like sweet potato fries) but preparation is simpler and the cooking time less exacting.  Slender sweet potato fries go from undercooked to overcooked in the blink of an eye.  Larger slices are less exacting, and therefore are easier.  Small sweet potatoes can be cut just in half.  Jumbos will need to be chopped into pieces.  Otherwise, they will take a long time to cook.
– Store your sweet potatoes at room temperature.  They suffer chilling injury below 50 F.
– The sweet potatoes we grow require slightly longer cooking than ones from the supermarket, perhaps because they contain higher moisture so soon after harvest.
– Sweet potatoes are good at any size. We have cooked everything from tiny to jumbo and consistently find that all sizes taste good.
Red mustard greens (bundle of red and green leaves) – These might be the final greens for the season.  We’ll see.  We grew two types of red mustard greens this year, one of which looks like red bok choy.  As usual, you can eat both the stems and leaves.
Parsnips (tapered, cream colored roots) – Those long, white roots are not carrots, they are parsnips. The two vegetables are related.  When cooked, parsnips are sweet and starchy.  For the best flavor, brown them to caramelize the sugars.  Here are a few ideas for parsnip preparation:
– Caramelize the parsnips by roasting them in a vegetable medley.
– Parsnip fries are delicious: cut like French fries, coat very lightly with oil, place on a cookie sheet and roast in a hot oven until brown and cooked through.
– Try substituting grated parsnips in a potato pancake recipe. They brown beautifully and are very tasty.
– Steve loves pan-fried parsnips with onions and garlic.
Kohlrabi (pale green, round vegetable with thick skin) – Crunchy and sweet, kohlrabi is a great addition to salads.
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.
Frying peppers (sweet red or green peppers) – Eat these soon!  We don’t think they will store for long.

THIS WEEK’S RECIPES

Comforting Classics

Savory Butternut Scones
Cheesy Orecchiette with Ricotta and Mustard Greens
Braised Brisket with Parsnips
Tangy Kohlrabi Slaw, with Cumin and Honey Dressing
Bourbon Ginger Glazed Carrots
Roasted Romanesco

Outside the Box Recipes

Butternut Squash Tahini Spread
Smoked Pork and Quinoa Soup with Mustard Greens
Parsnip Pancakes
Smoked Trout Salad Sandwich with Kohlrabi, Apple and Onion, on Rye
Curried Carrot Pilaf with Kohlrabi
Decadent Cauliflower Puree

Kitchen Sink Recipe

Mashed Fall Vegetables with Bacon Vinaigrette

Quick and Easy Meal Idea

Fajitas with Chicken, Onions, and Peppers