Welcome to the 25th share of the Pitchfork & Crow 2023 Summer CSA! Here’s what’s in the share this week:

• Cabbage
• Bok Choy
• Cooking Greens Mix – A mix of three kale varieties, collards, and chard.
• Blush Onion
• Garlic
• Celeriac – A tasty root that lands somewhere on the vegetable continuum between potato and celery. It’s great in any dish you’d use potatoes and pairs well with them too. They’re difficult to peel, so we usually just square off the edges with a sharp knife for cubing. Note: Over the years we’ve heard from two members who have had allergic reactions to celeriac. The internet suggests that 6% of the general population have a celery/celeriac sensitivity and that cooking it may not trigger the allergy. This is just to say that if you’re new to celeriac you might want to ease into it slowly, and skip it if you have a known celery allergen.
• Pinto Potatoes – Red and white skins with gold creamy flesh good for frying, roasting, or steaming.
• Gill’s Golden Pippin Acorn Squash – A tasty little acorn squash that’s just the right size for a single serving. Also, we’ve put together a new winter squash page with details and recipe suggestions for all of the types we grow. Check it out here: https://pitchforkandcrow.com/winter-squash/.
• Aji Marchant Hot Peppers – These peppers have an intriguing history that you can read about here. Though spicy when yellow and under-ripe they get hotter as they mature to red.
• Farm Apples – Same type as last week, tasty for fresh eating and cooking.
• Corn Flour – We grow a flint corn called Cascade Ruby Gold that grinds partially into flour and partially into polenta when milled. This week we’re sharing flour and next week we’ll share the polenta. You can use this flour in any recipe calling for corn flour or cornmeal. We like to use it for perfect cornbread.

This week we’re saying good bye to half of those members who chose the biweekly share option. It’s the penultimate week for everyone else as next week we’ll wrap up the Summer CSA season for good. Where have the past six months gone?

From snap peas and lettuce last June to tomatoes and peppers this summer and now to winter squash and potatoes this fall the vegetables have been plentiful. We hope you’ve enjoyed the season. As we approach Thanksgiving and officially finish the Summer CSA season next week we’re especially thankful for your continued support. We couldn’t do this without you!

This week we’ll be preparing for the final week of the CSA season. Here’s our tentative harvest list for next week as you begin your Thanksgiving shopping. This list may change as we get closer to harvest day, but it should look very similar.

Last week we had a quick overnight visit from a family from SW England who also run a CSA farm. They’re touring CSA farms across the US in an RV for ten weeks and some friends farming up in Washington suggested we might make a convenient stop as they made their way between Portland and Eugene. It was a whirlwind of a stopover as we got acquainted Tuesday night after the Salem CSA pick-up and then gave them a tour Wednesday morning. Mostly it was a lot of farming talk and CSA focused discussion, learning from each other about how we’ve each chosen to structure our farms. Luckily Jeff was able to break out various fun items to help keep the kids somewhat entertained too. I think his small 70s era motorcycle certainly enhanced the farm tour. Overall it was a nice chance to reflect on the CSA model and remember how we’ve gotten here, but to also think about CSAs internationally. We wish them good luck on their continued travels and look forward to reading the report they plan to write about CSAs in the states.

Mostly this past week was focused on finishing up the potato harvest. After several slow days dodging rainstorms we now have just two beds remaining to dig in the coming week. It looks like we’re on track to finish up before the Summer season ends. And we’re timing things just right as the weekly Summer harvests come to end and our cooler space can be filled to the brim with storage crops for winter shares.

As we continue to bring in storage crops this week we also have our annual organic inspection scheduled for the end of the week. We’ll be talking harvest records, purchase records, organic practices, and more as we demonstrate that we’re following the USDA organic guidelines. Fun times!

Enjoy the vegetables and we’ll see you here next week for the last share of the Summer season!

Your farmers,
Carri Heisler & Jeff Bramlett

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Here are a few recipes to get you inspired:

Cream of Apple and Celery Root Soup with Tarragon

• Olive oil
• 2 small yellow onions, sliced
• Salt
• 2 pounds celery root, trimmed and peeled, cut into a medium dice
• 2 apples
• 1 clove garlic, smashed and roughly chopped
• ¹/₄ teaspoon cayenne
• ¹/₄ teaspoon white pepper
• 3 bay leaves
• 6 sprigs tarragon, plus 2 tablespoons reserved chopped tarragon leaves for garnish
• 1 ¹/₂ cups dry white wine
• 6 cups water

In a large pot or Dutch oven set over medium heat, add just enough olive oil to cover the bottom of the pot. When the oil is hot, add the onions and cook until they begin to soften and turn translucent, stirring occasionally. Season with a small pinch of salt.

Add the celery root, season with a pinch of salt, and continue to cook for approximately 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. While the celery root is cooking, peel and core the apples, and cut them into thin slices.

Peeling, coring, and slicing the apples probably took you about 5 minutes, so add the apples now. Continue to cook, stirring frequently, for 3 minutes. Add the garlic, cayenne, white pepper, bay leaves and tarragon sprigs. Give everything a stir. Add the white wine, turn the heat up to high, and cook until the liquid has almost entirely evaporated, stirring occasionally. Add the water, bring the soup to a simmer, then lower the heat so that the soup maintains a slow simmer. Gently cook the soup until the celery root is very soft. To test how soft the celery root is, stab it with a fork from time to time.

When the celery root is ready, turn off the heat and remove the bay leaves and tarragon sprigs from the soup. Working in batches, transfer the soup to a blender, and blend on high speed until the soup is velvety smooth. If the soup is looking too thick, add a little water as necessary until you’ve achieved a better consistency. When all of the soup is blended, taste it. Adjust as necessary with salt, cayenne, and white pepper. To serve, garnish each bowl with some chopped tarragon and a drizzle of your best olive oil.

From Food52.com by Josh Cohen, https://food52.com/recipes/39544-celery-root-and-apple-soup-with-tarragon

Creamy Sausage Pasta with Cabbage

• 2 tablespoons olive oil, plus more as needed
• 1 pound sweet Italian sausage (about 4 to 6 sausages depending on size), uncased
• 1 big pinch of kosher salt, plus 1 1/2 teaspoons, plus more as needed
• ¹/₂ large head of green cabbage, cored and cut in two pieces, then sliced into roughly 1 1/2-inch ribbons (this will yield about 5 to 6 cups)
• ³/₄ pound conchiglie (small shell) dried pasta
• ¹/₈ teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1 cup heavy cream
• ¹/₄ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, plus more to taste
• 4 ounces Parmesan, Microplaned or very finely grated, divided in two (each will be about 1/2 cup packed)

In a 12-inch oven-safe skillet, heat olive oil over a medium-high flame. Add the uncased sausages and brown thoroughly, breaking up with a wooden spoon so they’re in small, half-teaspoon-sized pieces. Once deeply browned and just cooked through, use a slotted spoon to remove the browned meat, leaving behind the oil, and set aside (season it with the big pinch of salt as you do).

Add the chopped cabbage and 1 1/2 teaspoons salt to the skillet. Turn the flame down to medium-low. If things are looking dry at this stage, add another splash of olive oil with the cabbage. Cook about 20 to 25 minutes, stirring every so often, until cabbage is very tender, with a sweet and savory concentrated flavor, and browned in some spots.

While the cabbage is cooking, bring a big pot of well-salted water to a boil (figure about 1 tablespoon per quart), and cook the pasta for 2 minutes less than the box suggests, so it’s quite al dente. (It’ll cook more in the next steps.) Before draining, reserve 1 cup starchy cooking water.

When the cabbage is tender and browned, turn on broiler to preheat. Meanwhile, back on the stovetop, make a well in the center of the cabbage and add the nutmeg. Heat about 30 seconds, then add the heavy cream, 1/2 cup reserved pasta water, pepper, half the Parmesan, and stir until cheese is melted and cream has just barely come to a simmer. Use your spoon to scrape up any browned bits from the bottom of the skillet. Add the pasta and about 2/3 of the reserved sausage (keep the rest set aside), and toss. If you need to loosen up the sauce more, add another splash of pasta water and keep tossing.

Turn off the flame, and adjust seasoning to taste as needed. Top with the remainder of the browned sausage and Parmesan. Carefully, place under broiler. Watching closely, broil for about 2 minutes, until top is bubbly and browned.

From Food52.com by Ella Quittner, https://food52.com/recipes/81852-sausage-pasta-recipe-with-cheese-cabbage

Roasted Acorn Squash with Maple and Red Pepper Flakes

• 1 medium acorn squash, cored and cut into wedges
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• ¹/₄ cup (scant) maple syrup
• pinch salt
• red pepper flakes (to your desired spiciness; I like a good hit)

Preheat oven to 400° F.

Toss the squash wedges in a large bowl with olive oil and maple syrup.

Spread into one layer on a baking sheet, and then sprinkle with salt and red pepper flakes. Roast for 40 to 50 minutes or until squash is cooked through.

From Food52.com by Kendra Vaculin, https://food52.com/recipes/32064-roasted-acorn-squash-with-maple-and-red-pepper-flakes