Welcome to the 2nd share of the 2019/2020 Pitchfork & Crow Winter CSA! Here’s what’s in the share this week:

• Red Brussels Sprouts
• Radicchio Chicories – Chicories are a winter-hardy fresh-eating green that make cold weather salads worth it, though they have a reputation for being bitter as compared to say, lettuce. They’re also hardy enough to take a little cooking, if that’s more your thing. There is a chicory revolution happening in the small farm and foodie world right now and this week’s Rosalba pink radicchio is heading up the charge. This is our first year growing this particular variety and it seems like a great intro-to-chicory option. Not a bitter leaf in sight. Though the revolutionaries claim bitter is better, I like that our friends Jess and Brian at Working Hands Farm up in Hillsboro say radicchio is #adultlettuce.
• Red Dragon Napa Cabbage
• Cilantro
• Mixed Carrots
• Celeriac – A root with a texture similar to potatoes that tastes like celery? Yes please! We like to add these to the sheet pan when we’re roasting diced up roots, but they’re great in any potato-centric dish that could use a little celery kick like mashed potatoes, gratin, and soup.
• Purple Viking Potatoes – We really loved these purple skinned potatoes but this year they showed signs of a virus which made the resulting crop look a little rougher than we’d generally like. They’ll likely need an extra scrubbing on your end.
• Shunkyo Long Pink Radishes – Sweet fall radishes that are great raw in salads, roasted with other rooty vegetables, or pickled for future taco toppings.
• Red & Yellow Onions
• Bunching Onions
• Spaghetti Squash – I’d link to the spaghetti squash, egg, and onion casserole that Jeff made for dinner two nights ago if I could, but I can’t because he just made it up. That’s his style, and I think it lends well to the versatile nature of this squash. Just sayin’.
• Festival Acorn Squash
• Ancho Poblano Dried Chile Peppers – Ancho chiles are fully ripe and dehydrated poblano peppers. They can be ground into a chile powder or blended with roasted onions, garlic, and tomatoes into enchilada sauce. Click here for a great rundown on them. And click here for a recipe for enchilada sauce!
• Dried Apples – We grew ’em, we picked ’em, we dried ’em!

Happy New Year! We hope you’ve had a good bunch of holidays and are ready to start the new year off right, with vegetables! We’re bringing you a colorful haul this week: pink & red radicchio, red Brussels sprouts, purple Napa cabbage! Perfect for brightening up your meals on these grey January days and dark winter nights.

We’ve finally settled into the winter rhythms of the farm after the long fall push of harvest and wrapping up the summer season. The every other week CSA distribution allows for a little less structure to our winter weeks. There’s time for longer winter projects, time for dreaming and planning for the season ahead, even some time to read a book that has nothing whatsoever to do with farming. Between a little holidaying with family and friends, we hunkered down and got to this winter work of the farm these past couple of weeks.

Mostly late December on the farm for us is planning season. We review the past season, discuss the highs and lows, and set a trajectory for the season ahead. We’ve gotten through much of the overarching review and are now deep into crop planning for 2020. Choosing varieties and seed sources for the 300+ vegetable varieties we grow takes time, which luckily is something we’ve got at the moment. Making the effort now to create a solid plan for the busy season means we won’t have to make those decisions during crunch time or scramble for seed mid-season. Our future selves are already thanking our current selves for making life a little easier.

Of course the point of all this scheming and planning is to get you vegetables next year! On that note we’ll be opening up the 2020 Summer CSA memberships in the next couple of weeks. Keep an eye out for the email announcement. Luckily there are plenty of delicious winter vegetables to keep us full and fueled while we’re all dreaming of next summer’s bounty.

Enjoy the vegetables and we’ll see you in two weeks!

Your farmers,
Carri Heisler & Jeff Bramlett

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Here are a few recipes to get you inspired:

Spicy Napa Cabbage Slaw with Cilantro Dressing

• 1/4 cup rice vinegar (not seasoned)
• 2 teaspoons sugar
• 1 teaspoon grated peeled ginger
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1 fresh serrano chile, finely chopped, with seeds
• 1 small head Napa cabbage (1 1/2 pounds), cored and cut crosswise into 1/2-inch slices
• 1 bunch scallions, sliced
• 1/2 cup coarsely chopped cilantro

Whisk together vinegar, sugar, ginger, oil, chile, and 1/2 teaspoon salt. Add remaining ingredients and toss well. Let stand, tossing occasionally, 10 minutes.

From Epicurious.com via Gourmet by Ruth Cousineau, https://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/spicy-napa-cabbage-slaw-with-cilantro-dressing-243168

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Sausage with Caramelized Red Onions and Radicchio

• 1 tablespoon butter
• 2 teaspoons olive oil, divided
• 2 medium red onions (about 10 ounces each), halved, thinly sliced (about 5 1/2 cups)
• 2 large heads of Chioggia or Treviso radicchio (about 20 ounces total), cored, thinly sliced (about 8 cups)
• 3 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
• 4 fully cooked chicken-apple sausages (about 3 ounces each)

Melt butter with 1 teaspoon olive oil in heavy large skillet over medium heat. Add red onions and cook until soft and golden brown, stirring often, about 25 minutes. Add radicchio and sauté until wilted, about 2 minutes. Add balsamic vinegar and cook over medium-high heat until liquid is absorbed, about 1 minute. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Keep onion-radicchio mixture warm while preparing sausages.

Heat remaining 1 teaspoon olive oil in another heavy large skillet over medium-high heat. Add chicken-apple sausages and cook until sausages are well browned and heated through, turning frequently, about 5 minutes.

Serve onion-radicchio mixture alongside sausages.

From Epicurious.com via Bon Appétit by Myra Goodman & Sarah LaCasse, https://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/sausages-with-caramelized-red-onions-and-radicchio-241090

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Wild Mushroom Enchiladas with Ancho Chili-Cream Sauce

(Because two enchilada recipes are better than one. For a quicker option check out the linked recipe at the top of the post under the Ancho poblano description.)

• 2 cups water
• 2 dried ancho chilies
• 4 large garlic cloves, peeled
• 2 cups whipping cream
• 4 teaspoons fresh lime juice
• 3 tablespoons butter
• 3/4 cup chopped onion
• 12 ounces fresh wild mushrooms (such as oyster and/or stemmed and sliced shiitake and portobello)
• 5 ounces feta cheese, crumbled
• 6 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
• 2 medium tomatoes, seeded, chopped
• 1 small avocado, pitted, peeled, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
• 8 6-inch-diameter corn tortillas

Bring 2 cups water to boil in small saucepan. Remove saucepan from heat, add chilies and soak 30 minutes. Drain chilies, reserving 6 tablespoons soaking liquid. Cut stems off chilies. Cut chilies open. Scrape out seeds and discard. Combine chilies, 6 tablespoons reserved soaking liquid and garlic in blender and puree until smooth.

Preheat oven to 350°F. Combine cream and chili puree in heavy large skillet. Bring to boil. Reduce heat; simmer 3 minutes. Whisk in lime juice. Season with salt. Strain sauce; return to skillet. (Sauce can be made 1 day ahead. Cover and chill.)

Melt butter in another heavy large skillet over medium heat. Add onion and mushrooms and sauté until onion is translucent and mushrooms are tender, about 5 minutes. Add cheese, cilantro, tomatoes and 3 tablespoons cream sauce. Simmer until just heated through, about 4 minutes. Stir in avocado. Season filling with salt and pepper. Remove from heat.

Bring remaining cream sauce to simmer over low heat. Cook 1 tortilla in cream mixture until softened, turning to coat, about 15 seconds. Carefully transfer tortilla to baking sheet. Repeat with remaining tortillas. Cover remaining sauce and keep warm. Spoon generous 1/3 cup filling down center of each tortilla. Roll up tortillas, enclosing filling completely. Arrange seam side down on same baking sheet. Cover enchiladas with foil.

Bake enchiladas until heated through, about 10 minutes. Transfer to plates. Spoon some sauce atop each. Serve, passing any remaining sauce separately.

From Epicurious.com via Bon Appétit, https://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/wild-mushroom-enchiladas-with-ancho-chili-cream-sauce-4097

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