Farm Newsletter

Win-win

On: October 21, 2015
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We finessed an interesting deal this week. As I’ve explained before, we buy potatoes from organic farmers that we trust. When we started our CSA, I made Steve agree that we would grow everything except potatoes. He would want every piece of equipment needed to grow potatoes, and it’s a big line-up. Our friends/neighbors Peg and Matt Schaeffer of Sandhill Family Farms have a bumper potato crop this year but not enough employees to get them harvested. We have an unusually large crew working for us this fall. We made a deal – our crew will help dig the potatoes, and we’ll buy them at a reasonable cost. They have nice varieties; German butterballs for the November 5/6 box, and Carolas and Red Marias for the storage share. Matt dropped samples at our house and we enjoyed a mini potato-cooking festival.

Oddly, the toughest part of the deal was finding enough containers to hold the potatoes. Every economy has its currency. Right now, both our farms are running short of plastic crates for harvest. We filled all ours with sweet potatoes and winter squash. They filled theirs with potatoes. We scrounged and washed out every crate available while Matt emailed “Beth, we are DESPERATE for crates.”

Two employees at a time have gone to the Schaeffers’ to help. We have heard nothing about the harvest, only about the ducks, chickens, sheep and a donkey named Daisy. That’s all anyone has talked of. I am afraid we will lose our entire crew to the Schaeffers’ petting zoo.

Kelcie and Daisy. Photo by Madeleine.

Where oh where could our crates be hiding?

Alien vegetables – Romanesco and colored cauliflower.

Let’s talk about the striking vegetables in your box.
Romanesco broccoli (pale green conical head, possible tinged with purple) – This is the prettiest vegetable we grow. 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.
Purple, white or orange cauliflower – Cauliflower comes in brilliant colors besides white. We planted purple and orange varieties this year, and will rotate the types are they are ready to harvest. Treat the colored types like white cauliflower for cooking. There is a slight flavor difference between white and purple but it is subtle. Purple cauliflower gets its color from anthocyanins, the same compounds that color red cabbage. The color of purple cauliflower fades to blue during cooking. I’ve read that it will stay purple if you acidify the cooking water, but haven’t tried it yet. Orange cauliflower gets its color from beta carotene, which means more vitamin A in your diet.

Romanesco broccoli, the prettiest fractal on the farm.

Purple, white and orange cauliflower.

Even the stems of orange cauliflower are permeated with color.

Veggie List and Veggie Notes

Savoy cabbage
Butternut squash
Leeks, 1.5 – 2 lb
Carrots, 2 lb
Frying peppers, about 5
Poblano chiles, 2
Garlic
You’ll receive two of these:
– cauliflower
– Romanesco broccoli
– broccoli

Next week’s box will probably contain cauliflower OR Romanesco broccoli, winter squash OR sweet potatoes, mustard greens, carrots, onions, and more.

Sweet frying peppers on the left. Mildly spicy poblanos in bondage on the right. We avoid sending similar-looking peppers together when some are hot, some are sweet. It’s the end of pepper season, and our options have dwindled. Respect the rubber bands if you want to keep the types separate.

Frying peppers (long, slender, green or red) – These are sweet.
Poblano chiles (triangular, shiny, green or red) – These are mildly hot. Poblanos are the creme de la creme of chiles. They have lots of great flavor in combination with manageable heat. Steve protected these plants from frost so we would have the chiles for you. Roast and add to soup or casseroles. For our household, they are emblematic of fall cooking.
Savoy cabbage (round green cabbage with pretty, crinkled leaves) – Savoy cabbage can be handled and cooked the same as green cabbage.
Butternut squash – This is our “Metro” variety, a favorite because it cures and sweetens quickly after harvest. These are medium-sized squash, average weight <2.0 lb.

Tip for cutting winter squash

If you want to peel or dice your butternut squash, microwave the intact squash on high for one minute. That’s enough to warm and soften the squash, making it much easier to peel. I find this trick useful even when just cutting the butternut in half.

THIS WEEK’S RECIPES

Comforting Classics

Pulled Pork Sandwich with Sauteed Savoy Cabbage
Squash Cabbage and Tofu Thai Curry with Glass Noodles
Carrot Leek Soup
Parmesan Roasted Romanesco
Mashed Cauliflower
Salisbury Steak with Pepper and Mushroom Gravy

Outside the Box Recipes

Oven Braised Savoy Cabbage
Butternut and Poblano Quesadillas
Creamy Braised Leeks
Steamed Romanesco with Mustard Butter
Cauliflower Latkes
Muhammara

Kitchen Sink Recipe

Braised Chickpeas with Butternut Squash and Cabbage

Quick and Easy Meal Idea

Roasted Savoy Cabbage with Tomatoes and Sausage

Sweet season

On: October 14, 2015
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Fall weather does not get better than this. Our farm work is so pleasant when the weather is sunny and mild. Prepping parsley bunches when it’s sunny and 65^oF? That’s perfect – our fingers are ungloved and nimble, we can handle rubber bands. Try tackling that job when it’s 35^oF and raining and you are dressed in bulky layers. We know frost is coming soon, but we are trying to extract as much pleasure as we can from these last warm days. The sweet potatoes and winter squash are all harvested (yeah!), and we’ve begun harvesting cabbage for winter storage. These are satisfying milestones. Here are photos from the last few weeks. Beth

Sweet potatoes pop out of the ground when the soil is just right – not too dry, not too wet. From top, Steve mows the vines and undercuts the roots to bring them to the surface. We pick them up by hand. They need to be handled very gently at this stage. At bottom, Jeremy finds a favorite.

Billy tosses cabbage to Kyle.

Maggie and team sort winter squash as it comes up the conveyor belt.

Winter squash primer

We will pack several types of winter squash this week, although each member will receive just one type. We tried a few new varieties this year, and are sharing ones that passed our taste tests. Some new varieties are great but others are duds. We only send the good ones. If you have a strong opinion about the squash you receive this week (good or bad), could you let us know? We’ll keep track of where the varieties are delivered.

Clockwise from top right, Sugar Dumpling (2), TipTop acorn, sweet dumpling (2), and Honey Boat delicata.

The early winter squashes were not very productive because of pest problems. On the other hand, the butternuts did great. Above, keeping the butternut squash warm and dry in the greenhouse so they cure and sweeten.

Veggie List and Veggie Notes (Oct. 15/16, 2015, week #22, green EOW)

Yellow potatoes, 3 to 3.5 lb
Red beets, 2 lb
Broccoli AND/OR cauliflower
Frying peppers, mixed colors, ~4
Bell AND/OR Oranos peppers
Zavory “mild” habaneros, small handful
Yellow onions, about 2
Scallions, 1 bunch
Parsley, 1 bunch
Winter squash; acorn OR sweet dumpling OR Sugar Dumpling OR delicata

Next week’s box will probably contain cauliflower OR Romanesco broccoli, winter squash, cabbage, leeks, carrots and more.

Peppers! – It’s a pepper medley this week. We are stripping the plants in anticipation of frost in a few days. It is so hard to let the pepper season end. We’ll protect a few varieties with floating row cover so we have peppers for you next week.
Frying peppers (red, green or yellow; long & slender) – Don’t confuse these sweet peppers with last week’s HOT anaheim chiles, in you have any left in your fridge. Look at photos in last week’s newsletter to see how similar they appear. This is our biggest delivery of frying peppers so far this year. Frying peppers are my favorite pepper, so let’s share how we cook them at our house:
– The classic use; pan fried with ones and garlic, then used to top sausages.
– Grilled or roasted, then served atop cheesy polenta.
– I keep a few roasted peppers in the fridge, to top pizza or salads, or dress up grilled cheese sandwiches. They are handy to dress up simple pasta dishes.
– Roasted then pureed with grilled or sautéed onions and garlic to make a chunky spread for bread.
Zavory “mild” habanero chiles (small; red, orange or green) – Well, these chiles have gotten hotter than the last time we delivered them. Not sure why. They are still pretty mild, about the same as an Anaheim, with lots of interesting flavor.

At left, sweet frying peppers. At right, mildly hot Zavory habaneros.

THIS WEEK’S RECIPES

Comforting Classics

Cream of Broccoli Soup
Parmesan Scalloped Potatoes
Russian Beet and Potato Salad
Sweet Italian Pepper Sauce with Capellini
Cauliflower with Olives (works with broccoli too!)
Honey Soy Squash Rings

Outside the Box Recipes

Grilled Marinated Broccoli
Potato Enchiladas
Vegan Beet Chocolate Lava Cakes
Sloppy Joe’s with Pickled Sweet Peppers or Vegan Sloppy Joe
Hot Pepper Hash Browns with Cheddar
Oven Fried Squash Rings

Kitchen Sink Recipe

Moroccan Stewed Vegetables over CousCous

Quick and Easy Meal Idea

Sausage and Pepper Frittata

U-Pick Wrap-Up

On: October 07, 2015
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Steve and I are still coasting on the energy from our pumpkin u-pick this past Sunday. Lots of members wandered the farm to pick pumpkins and glean some extra produce. We’re happy to share. Much of the gleaned produce would be lost to frost in a week or two. Some of you have brought your children to our gleaning party since they were babies. We always hope mucking around during the u-pick will encourage open-mindedness about food in a few more children. Parents told us lots of broccoli and carrots were munched on during the u-pick. For those who are curious, here’s the final list of gleaning crops we offered: carrots, broccoli, tomatoes, tomatillos, Italian beans, kale, jalapeños, cilantro, peppers and raspberries.

I’ve posted photos from the u-pick on our Facebook page, but here are more.

Steve and I enjoy the chance to visit with members. We’ve fed you all season!

Second runner-up winner in the ‘guess the weight of the giant cauliflower’ contest, with her prize. The giant cauliflower would fit in a CSA box, but there would not be room for anything else.

I love this photo because it captures the scale of our farm. First-time gleaners mentioned the unexpected distance they covered while gleaning. The farm feels big when you are on foot. FYI, the grassy planting on the right is a rye-vetch cover crop.

It’s not just pumpkins that are interesting. Thanks Marty for the last two photos!

Julie Garrett found the beauty in our raincoats hung up in the washroom.

Questions that arose during the u-pick.

If one person asked, then others are probably curious too.

What about that tomato u-pick?
We are busted – we promised a tomato u-pick this season but did not pull it off. For a u-pick to work, we need a big surge of tomatoes. We planted two tomato fields (as usual) but the early one did poorly because of the wet spring. The second tomato planting did great, and really carried the load for the CSA boxes. Week after week, we had enough tomatoes for 4 lb per box, but those were all harvested from one field. We had just enough extra tomatoes to bottle tomato juice for next season. Without two fields ripening at once, we never reached a moment when we were sloshing in tomatoes and ready to host a u-pick. Maybe next year?

Are you going to put raspberries in the CSA boxes again?
Nope, our raspberry-production days are over, due to the fruit fly that arrived in Wisconsin a few years ago. We mowed down half our raspberry planting but can’t bear to rip it out completely. That’s where members picked berries this weekend.

Is the CSA season over now that the gleaning party has happened?
No, there are six deliveries to go, including this week. See below for the final delivery dates.

A member asked if this is the first time the gleaning party happened before frost.
He remembered many years when frost came a day or two before the gleaning party, and how much it affected the tomatoes he tried to glean. That’s pretty accurate. We time the u-pick for near the average first frost date for this area, October 8. If we host it too early, we won’t be ready to offer crops for gleaning. If we wait too late, most of the gleaning crops will be badly damaged.

Six boxes yet to pack

November 5/6 = final delivery for purple EOW members
November 12/13 = final delivery for weekly members and green EOW members.

Veggie List and Veggie Notes (October 8/9, 2015, week #21, purple EOW)

Sweet potatoes, about 2+ lb
Broccoli, 1 head, some are small
Red kale, 1 bunch
Carrots, 2 lb
Bell peppers, red or green, about 3
Yellow onions, about 2
Fennel, 1 head with fronds
(You might not get fennel if your cauliflower is big.)
Cauliflower OR globe eggplant OR Japanese eggplant
Anaheim chiles, HOT, 2 – 3
Scallions, 1 bunch
Baby ginger, 1 chunk
Garlic, 1 head

Next week’s box will probably contain potatoes, peppers, winter squash, broccoli or cauliflower, and more.

Sweet potatoes – Some of these are BIG. The early samples we dug seemed so modest in size. At harvest, we found they had grown quite a lot. Don’t worry, quality is fine for the big ones. Just don’t try to roast them whole. It will take a long, long time. Big ones, small ones, all are excellent cut into pieces, oiled, and roasted at 425oF , e.g. as sweet potato fries.
Anaheim chiles (long slender peppers, red or 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 peppers left over from previous weeks.

See how much this week’s HOT anaheim chiles (above) resemble last week’s SWEET frying peppers (below)? Keep them separate if you still have peppers leftover from last week.

THIS WEEK’S RECIPES

Comforting Classics

Crunchy Broccoli and Carrot Salad
Kale with Smoked Paprika
Roasted Sweet Potatoes with Hot Sauce
Caramelized Fennel
Stir Fried Eggplant with Tofu and Peppers
Curried Cauliflower

Outside the Box Recipes

Broccoli Latholemono
Sweet Potato Kale Hash
Chai Scented Sweet Potatoes
Fennel and Sausage Risotto
Spiced Peppers and Eggplant
Cauliflower and Fennel Vegan Bisque

Kitchen Sink Recipe

Sweet Potato Shepherd’s Pie with Carrots and Broccoli or with Lentils

Quick and Easy Meal Idea

Fennel Olive Goat Cheese Flatbreads

Ginger harvest

On: October 01, 2015
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We harvested half our ginger this week. It’s time – nights are chilly inside the greenhouse, and we don’t want the tropical ginger to get damaged by cold. I have loved this small planting. It feels garden-like on this scale, at least in contrast with our vegetable fields. It’s always interesting to grow something new and unusual. Above, Jory digs the ginger from the ground. Aren’t the plants lush? Most of what you see are ginger but the taller plants on the left are turmeric. We planted a few seedlings for fun and were surprised at how big they grew.

Caitlin’s job was to grade and trim the ginger root.

This is baby ginger, bright white and pink because it hasn’t grown a brown epidermis yet. It takes a long season to grow into the mature ginger you find in stores. It’s usually grown in warm places like Hawaii. Baby ginger is special because it has the full ginger flavor and spiciness but almost no fibers. That’s why it’s used to make the pickled ginger served with sushi.

We cut the roots into plump pieces to distribute in this week’s CSA boxes. We’ll harvest the remaining ginger next week, so the purple EOW members get to try some too. See the brown piece at bottom right? That’s the seed piece we originally planted in spring.

Storage Shares

We have just a handful of storage shares left. Sign up by the end of this weekend if you are still interested. You can read here about what we delivered in last year’s storage share.
Current Tipi members, sign up here.
New members, sign up here.

Please scratch your name off the checkoff list every week.

One of our site hosts called last week to tell me there was one unclaimed box at her site, but six names still on the list. She didn’t bother making reminder calls that week. Please scratch your name off the checkoff list. Please take care of it before you take your box – your hands are empty and you are less likely to get distracted by your beautiful produce.

Veggie List and Veggie Notes (October 1/2, 2015, week #20, green EOW)

Red bok choy OR Yukina
Edamame soybeans, 1 bundle
Carrots, 2 lb
Broccoli OR cauliflower
Italian beans, 1 lb
Frying peppers, 3
Oranos peppers, 2 – 3
Tomatoes, 1 to 3
Yellow onions, about 2
Jalapeño chiles, 2
Basil, 1 husky sprig
Baby ginger, 1 knob

Next week’s box will probably contain carrots, onions, peppers, ginger and much more.

Some sites will get red bok choy, some will get Yukina. These related vegetables are similar, although Yukina is larger and more strongly flavored. They can be used interchangeably in recipes.
Red bok choy (loose rosette with thick stems and magenta leaves) – This Asian green is good for stir-frying or sautéing or in soup. It’s also good as a raw, marinated salad, like a fresh unfermented kimchi. You can think of the stems and leaves as two separate vegetables. The stems require longer cooking. The leaves will cook almost as quickly as spinach. Refrigerate in a plastic bag.
Yukina (large heads of dark green leaves) – This is my favorite fall green. It is nutritious, delicious, a great combination of mustard-like leaves with crunchy stems. These yukina look big, but will shrink once cooked. We usually steam and drain chopped yukina, then dress it with a cooked mixture of fried garlic and ginger simmered with olive oil, balsamic vinegar, soy sauce, a little sugar and a lot of paprika or hot pepper flakes.
Edamame (bundle of stems with pods attached) – See our notes from three weeks ago about how to cook.
Carrots – The first fall carrots!
Italian beans – The last summer beans! Really, that’s the end. We added an extra bean planting this year, for a total of seven deliveries. We hope you enjoyed them. These Italian beans are mature enough that they will be best braised. Pat came up with a nice braised chicken and Italian bean dish for us.
Tomatoes – Well, tomato season is ending. It’s so hard to let go. Enjoy these last few tomatoes we picked for you this week.
Jalapeño chiles (small green chiles) – These are HOT. Handle with caution. Remove the seeds and midveins to lessen their heat.
Baby ginger – See above. Wrap in a damp cloth or paper towel, and keep in the refrigerator in a plastic bag. Eat soon; baby ginger is perishable and we plan to send more next week. This stuff bruises easily so we gave it just a light washing, and figured you could do the fine washing when you cut it up.

THIS WEEK’S RECIPES

Comforting Classics

Chilled Lemon Marinated Cauliflower
Cheesy, Creamy Brown Rice, Broccoli and Greens Casserole
Braised Chicken with Romano Beans
Sesame Salad with Bok Choy or Yukina
Slow Braised Goulash
Ginger Curried Carrot Soup

Outside the Box Recipes

Cauliflower Gallette Crust
Broccoli Hummus
Yukina Savoy with Sweet Chili Sauce
Braised Sausage, Pepper, Onion and Scrambled Egg Sandwich
Japanese Carrot Ginger Dressing

Kitchen Sink Recipe

Roasted Fall Vegetable Quinoa Salad

Quick and Easy Meal Idea

Basil Marinated Caprese Sandwich

Last chance for storage share + Willy Street parade

On: September 23, 2015
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Storage share = two large boxes in November.

We still have a few storage shares available for hungry members who want to extend their CSA season. Our storage share consists of one delivery of two large boxes. Delivery date will be November 19/20, 2015 (Thurs/Fri sites). This is the last chance to sign up – we need to place our potato order soon.

To register for a winter share, go to tipiproduce.csasignup.com/members/updatemembership and follow the instructions.
Cost: The cost is $105.
Payment: Register online, then send a check for $105 to Tipi Produce, 14706 W. Ahara Road, Evansville, WI 53536
Deadlines:
– The deadline to register is September 30, or when the shares sell out.
– To hold your reserved storage share, we need your payment in hand one week after you register, and no later than Oct. 6.

The produce: This delivery is much larger than deliveries during the CSA season, about 3 times the size of our typical CSA box, packed into two large boxes. The contents will depend on the weather, and what is available and good quality. Expected contents include potatoes, carrots and onions, plus stored crops such as winter squash, leeks, garlic, cabbage, beets, celeriac, parsnips, rutabagas and winter radishes. We will probably include something fresh from the garden, eg. Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, broccoli or greens. Some veggies will need to be refrigerated. Others can be stored at room temperature. Click to see what we delivered in the 2014 storage share.

Not sure if you already ordered a winter share? Send yourself an email with your membership info at tipiproduce.csasignup.com/members/statusemail. Once the email arrives, look under Membership Details/ Member Type 1 to view whether you have already signed up for a winter share.

Willy Street Fair

Our crew gathered to march in the Willy Street Fair parade again this year, powered by Maggie and Jon’s energy. Actually, everyone was pretty enthusiastic. This year’s innovation? Maggie screen-printed sixty “Water On” Tipi t-shirts to give away. This is the special shirt she designed for our farm crew. That woman has so much energy. Jon constructed a catapult from a giant rubber band and a u-boat, a type of cart. That meant we didn’t just toss the t-shirts into the crowd, we launched them. Orange Orano peppers, grape tomatoes and flowers were our other offerings. Our friend Rob Summerbell of Jolly Giants Entertainment followed us in the parade, steering his enormous Wacky Wheeler. “Look at that,” he thought, “everyone is eating orange popsicles.” Nope, those were our orange peppers. Some people take them, some people don’t. I guess peppers and tomatoes are unexpected parade treats.

We were positioned just behind the bubble mobile, a pearlescent place to be. Check out the boys’ outfits. They planned them for weeks. We were glad to hear many shouts of “Hey! That’s my CSA.”

Maggie made the banner last year. The handles are rims for canning jars!

From back, Lizzy (with kale), Kelcie, Jory, Madeleine with Pickles in pouch.

The bubble-mobile. We were honored to trail the parade’s biggest celebrity.

Melon Man and Brassica Boy, armed with kale sabers. They made their capes from cauliflower leaves, the sturdiest leaves on the farm right now. See the noisemakers trailing Maggie’s rickshaw? More canning jar rims.

Jon (carrying kale), Steve and Jeremy bring a u-boat loaded with peppers and tomatoes. The thick rubber band nearest the top is our t-shirt catapult.

Our tallest fan enjoys a grape tomato.

Maggie with her rickshaw. Someday soon, I will write about the crew’s efforts preserving produce for winter. They are heroic.

We feel like such amateurs. Maybe for next year’s CSA boxes?

Extra produce sales

Hey folks, I’d like to explain our extra produce sales, for the benefit of new members this year. You’ve probably noticed our emails offering extra tomatoes or peppers for sale. We offer these sales at peak season when we have more than enough for the CSA boxes. It’s a chance to preserve some tasty produce for winter. At this point, tomato sales are done for this season. We might offer red peppers again, but maybe not. Later this fall, we’ll offer boxes of green kale. Basil is unlikely this year due to a disease problem.

The turn-around time to place an order is often short, sometimes just a few hours. We realize this can be difficult for members, but we cannot open sales until we’re confident we have what’s needed for the CSA boxes. That often means a short window to place your order. FYI, I usually make the announcements on Tuesday or Wednesday.