Welcome to the 4th share of the Pitchfork & Crow 2024/2025 Winter CSA! Here’s what’s in the share this week:

• Arugula
• Chicory – We’ve got the pink Rosalba and speckled green castelfranco to choose from this week. Great for robust winter salads with punchy dressings and nuts and strong cheese and citrus. Holds up to a little warming too. We’ll eat it under oven baked salmon, rice, and creamy dressing for a quick dinner. Soaking in ice water or light cooking can help reduce the bitterness if needed. Click here for some tips if you think radicchio and chicories bring too much bitter to the table.
• Lacinato Kale
• Brussels Sprouts – Pop the sprouts off the stalk and enjoy them in your favorite recipes. We usually just cut the sprouts in half, toss with a little oil/salt/pepper, and roast at 400 degrees for ~20 minutes. Don’t forget to check out the recipe index here on our website if you’re looking for suggestions.
• Watermelon Radishes – An unassuming greenish on the outside, these are a lovely red on the inside, hence the watermelon name. They’re tasty sliced or grated raw in salads but also delicious roasted with other root veggies.
• Celery Root (aka 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.
• Sweet Potatoes –These are the last of the sweet potatoes. In an effort to prolong their storage life we’re giving these out unwashed. You may want to give them a soak pre-scrubbing. Enjoy!
• LaRatte Fingerling Potatoes
• Purple Bunching Onions
• Yellow & Red Onions
• Garlic
• Butternut Winter Squash – Want to know more about these winter squash varieties? We’ve got a page on our site for that! Check it out for squash details and recipe ideas.
• Dried Apples – These are organic apples we purchased through the produce store down the road, 4 Seasons Farmers Market. We dried them here at the farm.

We’re planning on opening up the 2025 Summer CSA to current and former members on Saturday February 1st! We’ll be updating the details on the website later this week and will be in touch to kick things off this weekend. Keep an eye out on Saturday for the email if you’d like to join us again next summer.

I think the story of the past couple of weeks since we last were here is frost and freezing mornings and bright sunny afternoons. What a lovely close out to January we’ve had this year. You can’t deny it’s winter when you wake up to frost blanketing the world and temps in the 20s. It’s been a forced slow down, a somewhat restful reprieve. There’s no sense in rushing outside in the morning if everything is frozen. This is the sort of winter weather we like. No snow and ice and wind that all can wreak havoc on greenhouses. Looking at next week’s forecast, we may be in for a change though.

But there’s still work to get done. Last week we began tackling the fruit tree pruning. We had let it go for a season and it’s quite a job to thin out the branches in hopes of higher quality and quantities of apples and pears in the coming year. The first step is weed whacking back the blackberries growing close to the trees, where the tractor-mounted flail mower doesn’t reach. Then comes the quick considering of the length and path of each existing branch on a tree. Imagining the future weight and spacing of the fruit and trimming back overlaps and prioritizing some branches over others. It’s a job I enjoy, but don’t feel particularly skilled at, and always wish there was a little more time to give over to. Short winter days mean getting a move on if we’re going to make it through all the trees.

The propagation house is a cozy respite from the frost these days. Checking in on the baby greens growing up on the heat tables in there has been a nice chore. They get covered with row cover and plastic to keep the heat in through the cold nights and then uncovered as the temps rise to give the plants some sunlight encouragement. The plan is to plant these starts into a greenhouse in a few weeks for harvest in late March and April.

Runs to our mailbox in town have meant picking up varying sizes of boxes and envelopes of seeds the past few weeks. Our planting plan includes orders from 11 different seed companies that are a mix of small, local seed growers and larger seed houses offering those hybrid varieties we’ve found do well in our successions. Most of our seed orders have now arrived for the growing season ahead and we’re ready to get things going for real soon. It won’t be long before we kick things off by starting onions and tomatoes and peppers, oh my.

In the coming couple of weeks we’ll continue the fruit tree pruning push. We’ve also got a couple of greenhouse beds to weed and we’ll be checking in on field crops once the freezing weather finally passes. We’re starting to see the first signs of new growth suggesting rapini season is imminent, which is always a welcome and tasty sight this time of year. Let’s all keep our fingers crossed for minimal valley snow and ice next week.

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

Your farmers,
Carri Heisler & Jeff Bramlett

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Here are a few recipes to get you inspired:

Mashed Celeriac with Truffle Oil and Deep-Fried Apple Bits

(click thru the link below for more celeriac info and recipes!)

• 3 large celery roots, peeled and cubed
• 2 Idaho potatoes, peeled and cubed
• 1 pint light cream
• 2 tablespoons butter (1/4 stick)
• 2 tablespoons salt
• 2 tablespoons truffle oil (optional if unavailable)
• 2 crisp apples, cored, peeled and diced fine
• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil

Boil cubed celery root and potato in a large covered pot until soft. Drain thoroughly and return to pot. Add cream, butter, salt and truffle oil, and mash and whip until integrated and smooth.

Dredge the diced apple in the flour. Add 1/2 cup of oil to a saute pan and heat over high heat until smoking. Add apple bits and “flash” fry (quickly over high heat) until crisp, about 2 minutes. Drain on paper towels.

To serve, reheat the mashed celeriac until warmed through, transfer to a bowl and sprinkle the apple bits over the top.

From NPR, via The Vegetable World’s Ugly Duckling: Celeriac by Jack Staub, http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6551175

Pickled Watermelon Radishes

1 to 2 watermelon radishes
¹/₂ cup distilled white vinegar
¹/₂ cup water
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon sugar
2 cloves garlic, peeled
¹/₂ teaspoon peppercorns, lightly crushed

1. Wash your watermelon radishes well, making sure to remove any dirt. Using a mandoline or a sharp knife, thinly slice your watermelon radishes into discs, then place in a clean canning jar.
2. In a non-reactive saucepan, bring the water, vinegar, salt, and sugar to a boil, and simmer for one minute or until the sugar and salt are dissolved. Remove from heat and add the garlic and peppercorns. Pour the hot liquid including the garlic and peppercorns over the radishes.
3. Let cool to room temperature, then cover and refrigerate.

From Food52.com by Alexandra Stafford, https://food52.com/recipes/33585-pickled-watermelon-radishes

Caramelized Onion and Butternut Squash Tart

• Caramelized Onion & Butternut Squash Tart
• 1 recipe pastry dough (see below)
• 1 large butternut squash, peeled, seeded, and cubed
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 2 large yellow onions, halved and sliced
• 3 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 2 eggs
• 8 ounces crème fraîche
• 4 ounces Gruyère, grated
• 2 ounces Parmesan, grated
• 1 teaspoon sea salt
• 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 4 sprigs thyme

• Pastry Dough
• ³/₄ cup all-purpose flour
• ¹/₂ cup whole wheat flour
• ¹/₄ teaspoon kosher salt
• 8 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 4 tablespoons ice water

Caramelized Onion & Butternut Squash Tart

1. Melt butter in large saucepan over medium heat. Add onions, thyme sprigs, and 1/2 teaspoon salt, stirring to mix. Cover and reduce heat to low. Cook, stirring occasionally, until dark golden brown, about 45 minutes. Remove thyme stems.
2. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 450° F. Toss butternut squash with olive oil and 1/2 teaspoon salt and spread out on baking sheet. Bake until browned and very soft, stirring once, about 40 minutes.
3. Reduce oven heat to 350° F. Roll dough out until thin and press into a well-greased 10-inch tart pan. Prick all over with a fork and bake in oven 10 minutes.
4. In a medium mixing bowl, combine eggs, crème fraîche, gruyère, Parmesan, and black pepper.
5. Spread caramelized onions in bottom of tart and top with butternut squash. Pour gruyère mixture over the squash, making sure to spread it evenly throughout the tart.
6. Bake until golden brown and cooked through, about 30 to 40 minutes.

Pastry Dough

1. Cut butter into 1-tablespoon pieces and freeze for 10 minutes.
2. Mix flour and salt in food processor or large bowl.
3. If using food processor, add butter and mix until mixture resembles small pea-sized balls. If mixing by hand, work quickly, mixing the butter in with your hands until it forms small pea-sized balls.
4. Add in ice water and mix just until dough forms and comes together. Form into disk, wrap in plastic, and place in fridge for 20 minutes.

From Food52.com by Vanessa Larson, https://food52.com/recipes/40465-caramelized-onion-and-butternut-squash-tart