Welcome to the 7th share of the Pitchfork & Crow 2024/2025 Winter CSA! Here’s what’s in the share this week:

• Spinach
• Lettuce Mix
• Purple Cape Cauliflower – A rare winter treat that’s falls somewhere between cauliflower and broccoli. It heads up like cauliflower but has the texture of purple sprouting broccoli.
• Purple Sprouting Broccoli – We know we’ve turned the corner on winter when the PSB shows up. If you’re new to this one, just treat it like broccoli but eat the stems and leaves too.
• Savoy Cabbage
• Kalettes – These are a cross between kale and Brussels sprouts. Pop the kale sprouts off the stalk and enjoy them in your favorite kale/Brussels recipes. We usually just cut the sprouts in half, toss with a little oil/salt/pepper, and roast at 400 degrees for ~20 minutes, just like Brussels. Note that some of these stalks have bonus kalette rapini too! Delicious! And yes, they do resemble shrubbery.
• Carrots
• Rutabaga
• LaRatte Fingerling Potatoes
• Bunching Onions
• Yellow & Red Onions
• Garlic – This is the point in the winter that I start to remind you to use up your garlic and onions. It may not feel like it everyday, but we’re headed toward spring and these guys want to sprout. They’re generally still edible if you see a small green sprout but eat ’em up sooner than later.
• Tetsukabuto Winter Squash – A rare cross between butternut and kabocha = the best of both worlds!
• 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.

Things are starting to pick up around here. The weekly propagation schedule has kicked in and the propagation house is starting to fill up with baby plants. We’ve got peas and tomatoes and onions and all the brassicas and celery and fennel all getting a little bigger every day plus peppers, eggplant, and leeks in the germ chamber. Spring feels imminent.

We just heard from our tractor mechanic that his repairs are going to take a few more weeks. We’re starting to feel the pressure to get into the field during any dry spells and not having a tractor doesn’t feel great. Stay tuned in the coming weeks to hear how we decide to proceed on that front.

In the past couple of weeks we’ve kept busy with some spring cleaning, including gathering up pruned branches from the orchards and re-organizing the barn now that the winter squash is no longer the star of the show in there. We also cleared the dry corn out of the prop house where it had been drying down and de-cobbed it for storage in the freezer. That’s quite a process to get through with our handy antique corn sheller. And we stocked up on propagation supplies for the upcoming season with a trip to Marion Ag. up in St. Paul. We also spent time weeding overwintering onions outside and spinach and bok choy in greenhouses. With the increasing daylight and warmer temps things are starting to take off out there, including the weeds.

Tomorrow, ahead of the on-farm CSA pickup, we’ve got our annual organic inspection scheduled and our spring organic fertilizer delivery scheduled too. It’s going to be a busy morning. Later this week it’s back to more propagating plus some remaining winter projects like mower maintenance. We’ll also decide how we want to proceed with the tractor situation, and it’s time to get our taxes in order and soon those peas are going to need to be transplanted into the pre-prepped greenhouse beds. Should be a productive couple of weeks ahead of us.

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:

Cheesy Cabbage and White Bean Soup

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 medium onion, or 2 leeks, white parts only, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
¹/₂ medium head green or Savoy cabbage, shredded (about 5 cups)
¹/₂ teaspoon salt, plus more as needed
2 (15-ounce) cans cannellini beans, including the liquid, or 4 cups cooked white beans with a few ladlesful of their broth
5 cups vegetable broth, or 1 tablespoon bouillon base dissolved in 5 cups water
1 cup shredded Gruyère or Parmesan cheese, or 1 1⁄2 cups shredded sharp cheddar
Freshly ground black pepper
Fried breadcrumbs or croutons, for serving (optional)

1. Warm the olive oil in a soup pot over medium heat, then stir in the onions and garlic, followed by the cabbage and salt. Cook for about 5 minutes, until just starting to soften, then add the beans and broth.
2. Bring to a simmer, then cover and cook for 30 minutes, or until the vegetables are tender and the broth is flavorful.
3. Remove from the heat and add the cheese a handful at a time, stirring until it melts into the broth.
4. Taste and season with additional salt, as needed (depending on the saltiness of your vegetable stock or bouillon, it may need quite a bit of salt, as the beans really soak it up), and a few grinds of pepper.
5. Serve hot, topped with breadcrumbs or croutons, if desired.

From Food52.com by Lukas Volger, https://food52.com/recipes/82951-cheesy-cabbage-and-white-bean-soup-recipe

Irish American Boiled Dinner (Corned Beef and Cabbage)

1 corned beef brisket (up to 4 lbs), with excess fat trimmed
³/₄ cup dry white wine (like Sauvignon Blanc)
32 ounces chicken stock or broth
¹/₂ tablespoon black peppercorns
2 cloves garlic, peeled and smashed
2 bay leaves
2 large yellow onions, peeled, quartered, and cut into eighths
6 large white potatoes, peeled and chopped into 1 1/2 inch chunks
1 large rutabaga, peeled and chopped into 1 1/2-inch chunks
5-6 large carrots, peeled and chopped into 1 1/2 inch pieces
1 large head green cabbage, core removed and cut into eighths
yellow or grainy mustard (optional, as a condiment)

1. Place corned beef in the bottom of a large stock pot, and add 1 onion, peppercorns, bay leaves, and garlic. Pour in white wine, and then just enough broth to cover the meat. If you need to add water to cover the meat, that is fine. Simmer, covered, until a fork inserted in the middle glides in easily. This can take up to 3 1/2 hours, but begin checking after 2 1/2 hours.
2. When the meat is done cooking, remove to a platter and cover with foil. Add potatoes, rutabaga, carrots, and remaining onion to broth, and bring up to a gentle boil. Reduce to simmer and cook covered until potatoes are still slightly firm, about 20-25 minutes.
3. Add cabbage, replace the cover, and simmer until cabbage is tender but still green. Do not overcook the cabbage.
4. Remove from heat. Slice meat across the grain when ready to serve. My mom used to cut the meat into large (4-inch) pieces and put back into the broth with the vegetables to serve.

From Food52.com by Crafty Fork, https://food52.com/recipes/16497-classic-irish-american-boiled-dinner-aka-corned-beef-and-cabbage-plus

Two-Pan Pasta with Spinach

kosher salt
12 ounces pasta, see note above
1 pound spinach, cleaned, see notes above or tender kale or chard
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
¹/₂ cup white wine or sparkling wine (Prosecco, Champagne, Cava, etc.)
¹/₄ cup crème fraîche
zest of one lemon
1 cup toasted walnuts, see notes above, or pine nuts plus more to taste
freshly cracked pepper to taste

1. Fill a large (wide if possible) pot with water. Bring to a boil over high heat. Add 2 tablespoons kosher salt. (Only add this much salt if you indeed are using a large pot—I use an 8-qt pot.) Add the pasta and cook until al dente. Ladle 2 cups of the pasta cooking liquid into a liquid measure or small bowl and set aside. Add the spinach (lifting it directly from its bowl of cold water, see notes above) to the pot and press it down with a spoon, so that it is completely submerged. Drain the pasta and spinach into a colander.
2. Add butter and garlic to the now-empty pot and cook over medium-high heat until the garlic begins to soften, 2 minutes. Add the wine and bring to a simmer. Add the crème fraiche and whisk to incorporate. Add ½ cup of the reserved cooking liquid and bring to a simmer.
3. Add the pasta and spinach back to the pot. Use tongs to lift the noodles and spinach up, separating them if clumping together.
4. Add lemon zest and walnuts and toss further. Taste. Add salt and pepper to taste. Toss again. Add more of the reserved cooking liquid by the 1/4 cup as needed to ensure the noodles are coated in a light sauce—I typically add at least another 1/2 cup of the reserved cooking liquid but add more as needed. The longer it’s simmering on the stovetop, the more liquid will be absorbed and so the more reserved cooking liquid will be needed. Serve immediately.

From Food52.com by Alexandra Stafford, https://food52.com/recipes/70278-two-pan-pasta-with-spinach-walnuts-and-lemon