Welcome to the 2nd share of the Pitchfork & Crow 2022 Summer CSA! Here’s what’s in the share this week:

• Spinach
• Red Ursa Kale – Tender greenhouse kale, great for cooking or kale salads.
• Salad Mix – A mix of four lettuces.
• Broccoli
• Small Purple Cauliflower
• Sugar Snap Peas
• Purple Radishes
• German Butterball Potatoes – We’re using up the last of last season’s potato crop. Eat them up!
• Carrots
• Overwintered Sweet Onions – Planted last October, we’re excited to get into some fresh onions! These are Tropea and Ailsa Craig varieties, both on the sweeter end of things. You can use the green tops too.
• Dried Apples
• Polenta (aka grits) – 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 polenta and last week we shared the flour. You can use this polenta in recipes calling for uncooked polenta or corn grits. We like to cook it in our rice cooker at a 1 cup polenta to 3 cups water ratio. It’s even better if you add some butter and cheese once cooked.
• Second Chance at Tomato Plants – More plants to take home!

Here we are, week 2 of the Summer CSA! After kicking the season off last week with an anxious start we can’t say enough how thankful we are for your support. As we’d noted previously, the last couple of months have been very cold and wet resulting in a rough time for getting crops established in the field. We appreciate your willingness to stick with us as we ride out the results of the rough start to this growing season. Hopefully it will just make later season harvests that much more welcome!

Looking at the weather forecast this week it looks like we’ve got some warmer weather and then more rain headed this way over the weekend. As the temperature slowly climbs into the high 70s I’m reminded that a year ago we had a heatwave and it hit 97 here the first week of June. At least we won’t be losing any crops to heat just yet!

Though we’re still watching the forecast for rainstorms we did manage to get caught up a little with planting this past week. With a longer dry window the soil was easier to prep for planting leeks, broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, and the second round of zucchini. Hopefully our lucky streak will continue and we’ll get the next rounds of corn, chard, cilantro, dill, basil, and beets in the ground this week before we get rained out again.

Rainy days this past weekend did help us make time for non-planting tasks too. I got caught up on propagation and started flour corn, plus more broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, kale, collards, cilantro, dill, and parsley. Jeff managed some carrot weeding and pea wrangling after attempting a fix to a leak in the mainline of our irrigation system. Unfortunately the fix didn’t take and he spent several hours last night re-doing that work. Fingers crossed it holds this time! We’re going to need to get some irrigating happening this week before the rain returns again.

Enjoy the vegetables and we’ll see you here next week!

Your farmers,
Carri Heisler & Jeff Bramlett

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Here are a few recipes to get you inspired:

My Husband’s Broccoli-Nut Salad

4 cups broccoli florets, chopped into bite-sized pieces
2 carrots, peeled then grated
¹/₃ cup finely diced red onion
³/₄ cup chopped candied walnuts
1 cup mayonnaise
2 tablespoons wildflower honey
1 tablespoon cider vinegar, plus more as desired
¹/₄ teaspoon sea salt

In a mixing bowl, toss together the broccoli, carrot, onion, and walnuts. Set aside while you prepare the dressing.

In a small mixing bowl, whisk together the mayonnaise, honey, and vinegar. Taste the dressing. If it is a little too sweet for you, add another tablespoon of vinegar. Add the salt, combine, and pour over the vegetables and walnuts.

Toss the salad until the vegetables are well coated. Cover the bowl and refrigerate for several hours or overnight. Before serving, toss the salad once again and serve it chilled.

From Food52.com by Janeofmanytrade, https://food52.com/recipes/28636-my-husband-s-broccoli-nut-salad

Creamy Polenta Bowl with Pan Roasted Vegetables

2.5 cups stock: chicken or vegetable
1 teaspoon salt
.5 cups polenta, instant or traditional
.5 cups freshly grated Parmesan cheese
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 small red onion, peeled and slivered
2 carrots, peeled and cut into thin strips
.5 pounds green beans, trimmed and rinsed
2 cups fresh kale, rinsed with stalks removed and cut into thin slivers
2 radishes, rinsed trimmed and cut into thin circles
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
Fresh thyme leaves
Cup pea shoots, rinsed
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

To make the polenta, bring the stock to a boil in a large saucepan. Add the salt. Slowly drizzle in the polenta, stirring the entire time to assure it does not lump up. Lower the heat to a simmer, then continue stirring until the polenta is cooked. Instant polenta will be ready in about 5 minutes; traditional polenta in about 50 minutes. The polenta is ready when it pulls away from the sides of the pan. It should be runny. Remove from heat. Stir in the freshly grated parmesan. Cover and keep warm.

To cook the vegetables, heat the olive oil in a large skillet. Add the onions and carrots. Cook until they begin to soften, just a couple of minutes, then add the green beans. Let the beans brown on all sides and continue cooking until they are tender, another 5 minutes or so. Add the kale. Continue cooking until the kale is wilted and all vegetables are cooked to your liking*. Add the balsamic vinegar and give everything a good stir.

To serve, divide the cooked polenta between 4 serving bowls. Top with cooked vegetables. Garnish with thyme leaves and pea shoots. Add salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste.

Enjoy.

From Food52.com by denatbray, https://food52.com/recipes/27279-creamy-polenta-bowl-with-pan-roasted-vegetables

Spinach, Potato and Cheese Frittata

1 tablespoon Butter
1 tablespoon Olive Oil
1 teaspoon Diamond Crystal Kosher Salt
¹/₂ teaspoon Freshly Ground Black Pepper
1 tablespoon Aleppo Pepper Flakes
3 Large Potatoes, peeled and diced into 1-inch cubes
1 Medium Onion, diced (about 1 cup)
8 Large Eggs
1 Box (10 oz.) Frozen Spinach, blanched and drained, or any sauteed dark green (1&1/2 cups))
1 ¹/₂ cups Sharp cheese, cubed into 1/2-inch pieces
¹/₄ cup Grated Romano or Pamesean cheese

Add the butter and olive oil to a 10-inch nonstick or cast-iron pan over medium heat. Once the butter has foamed (the water cooks off), add the potatoes and cook gently, covered for 5 minutes, then uncovered for 10 minutes more, turning occasionally, until nearly cooked through. Add the diced onions, and cook 5 minutes until translucent, but not brown. Add the salt, pepper, and Aleppo pepper flakes.

While the potatoes and onions are cooking, place the frozen spinach in a small covered saucepan with ¼ cup of water. Bring water to a full boil over high heat; reduce heat to medium. Cover & cook 8 minutes. Separate with a fork and cook 2 more minutes. Drain. When cool enough to handle, squeeze out all the liquid with a clean dish towel or your bare hand. You can also use a sturdy sieve and press with a rubber spatula. Remove as much moisture as possible.

With a fork or whisk, beat 8 large eggs in a medium bowl vigorously until well mixed and no visible separation of whites and yolks is evident. Add the cooked, cooled spinach and half the cubed cheese and half the grated cheese.

Pour the eggs mixture over the potatoes evenly in the pan. Dot the top of the frittata with the rest of the cheese cubes, and sprinkle over the grated cheese. Lower heat to medium low. Cook covered for 10 minutes, then uncovered for another 10. Check bottom with a flexible spatula. When it is firming up the frittata will begin to pull away from the sides.

If your pan is oven safe, you can place the frittata in a 300-degree oven to finish cooking through. I prefer to slide the frittata out of the pan onto a tray or plate, and using pot holders to hold the underside of the pan, flip the top side back in so it is now on the bottom. Usually this only needs two minutes to firm up and finish cooking, then I flip it back out, onto a plate, then transfer to a wire rack so the bottom does not get soggy.

Let it rest for at least 15 minutes to firm up, and let the flavors further meld. Ideally, let it rest for 60 to 90 minutes so it is just barely warm. Slice in wedges and serve with a tart green salad, and some crusty bread.

From Food52.com by Gary Schiro, https://food52.com/recipes/87913-spinach-potato-and-cheese-frittata

Welcome to the 1st share of the Pitchfork & Crow 2022 Summer CSA! Here’s what’s in the share this week:

• Fava Greens – These are the leaves of the fava bean plant. They taste a little green beany and are great sauteed or tossed with pasta or into soups.
• Red Ursa Kale – Tender greenhouse kale, great for cooking or kale salads.
• Salad Mix – A mix of four lettuces.
• Strawberry Paw Potatoes – We’re using up the last of last season’s potato crop. Eat them up!
• Carrots
• Mostly Purple Radishes
• Leek Scapes – This time of year leeks produce a tall stalk that eventually become a flower. Before they become too woody they stalks are a seasonal leeky treat that can be diced up and used i place of leeks or onions.
• Shallots – Drier than most onions, shallots are a little more pungent but can be used in place of onions in any recipe.
• Dried Apples
• 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 but we also recently made corn dogs with some locally sourced beef franks and it was just like the county fair.
• Tomato Plants – We have enough tomato starts for everyone to take home at least two!

It’s happening! We’re finally kicking off the 2022 P&C Summer CSA season! As we get things underway we’re happy to welcome back previous members (85% of you!) and welcome new members to the group.

Hopefully you’ve been reading the member emails over the past couple of weeks and preparing for the season to begin. (Check your spam or promotions folders if you haven’t been seeing our emails and let us know if you don’t find them there.) By now most of your questions should have been answered by the CSA Member Handbook. Don’t forget, you can find lots of logistics reminders over on the CSA Member Resources page and extra helpful tips and info about vegetables on the Secret Member Resources page.

Leading up to the first share of each season always makes us nervous, even after all these years. Getting those first seeding dates just right so we’ve got vegetables now, but not two weeks ago and not until two weeks from now, can be tricky. It’s weather dependent and weed dependent and every year it’s different. Was it too hot or too cold or too rainy, and the crops didn’t grow well?

Last year at this time we’d missed the window on the first round of broccoli and bok choy. They’d grown too fast due to the very warm spring weather and they’d gone to flower before the season started. This year we’re in the opposite boat. The extended cold and wet spring has delayed many crops and made the start to this growing season a slog in the field. This has been the wettest, coldest, and longest spring we’ve experienced since 2009 when we started this journey.

As we begin this CSA season we want to be upfront with our expectations for the coming months. In all honesty we think the shares for the first couple of months of this season are going to be quite a bit smaller than in past years due to the poor field conditions we’ve been experiencing. Though we’ve been working hard to keep planting schedules on track and we kept hoping for a change in weather to get things growing, it just hasn’t happened. The sunny weather windows in April and May haven’t been long enough to properly dry out ground to prep for planting. We’ve had to plant into less than ideal conditions and we’re seeing the plants respond to that stress.

We’re committed to getting things back on track now that the weather is clearing for longer periods and warming up. It’s going to take some time before we’re experiencing the bounty we’ve become familiar with from past seasons. There will be vegetables from week to week, just not the mix and quantity we’d like.

We appreciate your support and hope you know we’re doing all we can to get you the vegetables we all love. That said, please let us know if you’d prefer to part ways and we’ll get you a refund. We don’t want to disappoint anyone who had chosen to join us and understand if you need to change your mind.

In the week ahead we’ll be evaluating crops and making some tough decisions about how to proceed now that the sun has arrived to the party. We believe some crops will rebound with warmer weather and drier soil. I’m sure there will be some things that won’t make the cut and will get tilled under to make room for healthier transplants waiting in the wings. We’ve got the third rounds of broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, and corn, the second rounds of dill and cilantro and summer squash, and the leeks all ready to go into the field as soon as possible. Needless to say, we’ll be keeping busy.

Enjoy the vegetables and we’ll see you here next week!

Your farmers,
Carri Heisler & Jeff Bramlett

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Here are a few recipes to get you inspired:

Spicy, Peanutty Udon with Kale

¹/₂ teaspoon sesame oil
2 teaspoons soy sauce or tamari
1 teaspoon Sriracha
¹/₈ teaspoon fish sauce, plus an extra dash at the end
2 tablespoons peanut butter (any type)
3 ounces udon or soba noodles
¹/₂ bunch kale, deribbed and sliced into 1/2-inch pieces (1 packed cup)
Chopped scallions, for serving
Chili flakes, for serving
Chopped peanuts, for serving

Heat 1 quart of water in a saucepan to boil.

In a sauté pan over low or medium-low heat, add sesame oil, soy sauce or tamari, Sriracha, and fish sauce. Stir ingredients or rotate pan to combine and let cook for about 30 seconds. Add peanut butter, stir to combine, then turn off heat.

When water is boiling, blanch kale for about 15 seconds. Drain the kale and add it to the sauce in the sauté pan and stir to coat.

Bring clean water to boil. When the water is boiling, add the noodles and cook until al dente. Fresh noodles will cook very quickly; dry noodles will cook in 3 to 4 minutes.

Use tongs to add the noodles straight from the water to the sauté pan with the peanut sauce and the kale. The unstrained noodles will carry enough water to dilute the peanut sauce; if you decide to strain the noodles and then add them to the sauce, add 1 tablespoon water, as well. Add a dash of fish sauce to finish.

Garnish with chopped scallions, chili flakes, and chopped peanuts.

From Food52.com by Laura, https://food52.com/recipes/26169-spicy-peanutty-udon-with-kale

Spring Vegetable Jumble with Tarragon Butter

• For the vegetables:
• 8 small fingerling or new potatoes, scrubbed and halved
• 8 radishes, tops removed except for a 1/4 inch of stem, cleaned, and halved
• 8 baby carrots (actual baby carrots, not those bagged ones that are pieces of big carrots), halved, or 1 larger carrot, cut into matchsticks
• ¹/₂ bunch asparagus, stems removed and cut into 1-inch pieces
• Olive oil
• 1 young leek, white and light green portions only, cleaned well and cut into thin slices (or leek scapes)
• ¹/₂ cup English peas (fresh, if possible)
• Lemon-Tarragon Butter (recipe below)
• Sea salt and white pepper, to taste
• Fresh tarragon, to garnish (optional)

• For the Lemon-Tarragon Butter:
• 2 tablespoons minced shallot
• ¹/₄ cup fresh lemon juice
• 2 tablespoons heavy cream
• 4 tablespoons cold butter, cut into 1-tablespoon pieces, divided
• 1 tablespoon minced fresh tarragon

For the vegetables:

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add the potatoes and lower heat to a low boil. After about 3 minutes, add the radishes and carrots. Cook for another 3 to 5 minutes, or until the vegetables are slightly tender. Add in the asparagus and cook for an additional 3 minutes. Drain the vegetables and run under cold water to stop them from cooking further. Spread them out onto a clean towel or baking sheet to hang out while you sauté the leek.

In a large sautée pan, heat a splash of olive oil over medium heat. Add the sliced leek and cook until softened. Add the potatoes, radishes, carrots, asparagus, and peas to the pan.

Stir in the Lemon-Tarragon Butter (recipe below), stirring to coat the vegetables well. Cook for about 1 to 2 minutes, until everything is just reheated. Season to taste with salt and white pepper and serve warm. Garnish with a bit more minced tarragon if desired.

For the Lemon-Tarragon Butter:

In a small saucepan, combine the shallot and lemon juice. Bring to a boil and cook for a couple of minutes, until the juice is approximately reduced by half.

Stir in the cream and reduce to a simmer for 1 minute. Then, turn down the stove to the lowest possible heat. Stir in the butter, 1 tablespoon at a time, stirring constantly as it melts and adding each one as the one before it disappears. Take off the heat and stir in the tarragon. Use immediately with the spring vegetables or store in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 1 week.

From Food52 by fiveandspice, https://food52.com/recipes/11712-spring-vegetable-jumble-with-lemon-tarragon-butter

Garlic Scape Pesto

1 cup garlic scapes, thinly sliced crosswise (or try leek scapes!)
¹/₄ cup pine nuts
¹/₂ cup good olive oil
¹/₄ cup Parmesan
Salt and pepper, to taste

Add the scapes and pine nuts to the bowl of a food processor and pulse until everything is broken up a bit. Then turn the processor back on, and with it running, add the oil a little at a time until it’s fully incorporated.

Add cheese, pulse, then season with salt and pepper to taste.

This won’t brown like basil pesto will, so if you’re not using immediately, just store in a container in the fridge. It will last a week.

From Food52.com by Kenzi Wilbur, https://food52.com/recipes/22491-garlic-scape-pesto

Welcome to the 10th, and final, share of the Pitchfork & Crow 2021/2022 Winter CSA! Here’s what’s in the share this week:

• Cauliflower
• Purple Sprouting Broccoli
• Tatsoi – Somewhere between spinach and bok choy, this Asian green is great in salads and soups alike.
• Rainbow Chard
• Teenage Red Ursa Kale – Not baby kale, not full-sized adult kale, but right in the middle. Tender enough for salads and fast wilting for soups.
• Spinach
• Yukon Gem Potatoes
• Parsnips
• Red & Purple Radishes – Too many radishes? We suggest trying them roasted with other roots or cooked into soups and curries.
• Leeks
• Onions – We ask a lot of our storage crops. We harvest them in early fall and then let them sit and wait and wait until they make an appearance in the share. We’re getting better at selecting long storing varieties but there’s just only so long an onion wants to store sometimes. That’s to say, eat your onions sooner than later.
• Dried Cherry Tomatoes
• Dried Apples

We’ve made it to the final share of the Winter CSA season! Last week’s cold snap certainly reinforced the “Winter” part of the Winter CSA but the freezing temps, various hailstorms, and dusting of snow didn’t phase the crops in the field. We’re excited to be bringing you an abundance of goodness for this final share of the season.

Many thanks for joining us this season. We hope you enjoyed the past five months of local, seasonal eating. The weeks since we started back in December have flown by and it’s hard to believe we’re already wrapping up another season.

We’ll see most of you at the beginning of June for the start of the Summer CSA season and we hope to see everyone again next winter. We’ll be sure to reach out to all of you in late summer when we’re ready to sign-up members for next year’s Winter CSA.

April is usually when the planting begins ramping up here on the farm. Cold hardy crops make it into the field and the tomatoes get planted in a high tunnel. The rain and chilly overnight lows of the past two weeks meant a pause in planting while we waited for warmer temps and a dry spell and we tried to focus on other projects. We managed to get the trellising installed for the snap peas, stay on top of propagation and seed sowing, get a field prepped for planting between rain storms, and fix a leak in the mainline of our irrigation system among other things. We also weeded the early high tunnel carrots:

Once the overnight lows were once again out of the thirties on Sunday we hopped to it and planted the tomatoes!

528 tomato plants and 100 t-posts later, we’re ready for tomato trellising and eventually tomatoes!

With the last Winter CSA harvest finished we’re now looking ahead to the Summer CSA and the work that needs to happen before it begins. Although we will be taking a break from harvesting for the next five weeks we’ve got plenty of other things to keep us busy. There’s ground to prep, transplants to plant, seeds to sow, grass to mow, blueberries to mulch, irrigation pipe to move, and the list goes on.

Thanks again for joining us for this past winter of vegetables! We couldn’t do this without you and we’re routinely humbled by your willingness to sign on to this adventure in eating. Thanks for letting us grow your food!

Enjoy the vegetables and we’ll see you many of you the first week of June for the start of the Summer CSA!

Your farmers,
Carri Heisler & Jeff Bramlett

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Here are a few recipes to get you inspired:

Clever Oven Parsnip Soup

1 small head of garlic
¹/₂ teaspoon coconut oil or ghee
2 pounds (1kg) parsnips
3 medium yellow onions
6 cups (1.5L) vegetable broth or water
1 ¹/₂ cups (250g) (about one 15.5-oz. can) white beans, such as cannellini, great northern, or navy, drained and rinsed
1 to 2 teaspoons fine sea salt (use 1 teaspoon if using broth; 2 teaspoons if using water)
1 tablespoon cold-pressed olive oil, plus more for serving
1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
Freshly ground black pepper, for serving
Parsley leaves, for serving (optional)

Preheat the oven to 400° F (200° C). Slice off the stem of the garlic bulb and the portion just below the stem, revealing the open cloves. Spread the coconut oil on top, wrap the bulb tightly in aluminum foil, and set it on a rimmed baking sheet. Roast for 15 minutes.

While the garlic is roasting, peel and roughly cut the parsnips into similarly sized chunks to ensure even roasting. Chop the onions. After the garlic has roasted for 15 minutes, add the parsnips and onions to the baking sheet. Roast until tender, about 30 minutes.

Add the roasted parsnips and onions to a blender. Remove the foil from the garlic and squeeze the bulb from the bottom to extract the cloves into the blender. Add the broth, beans, salt, olive oil, and lemon juice, and blend on the highest setting until the soup is smooth and creamy. Transfer the soup to a stockpot and heat until steaming, if necessary.

Serve hot with a drizzle of olive oil and some black pepper and parsley, if using.

From Food52.com via Naturally Nourished by Sarah Britton, https://food52.com/recipes/76146-clever-parsnip-oven-soup

Fried Cauliflower Sandwich

¹/₂ head cauliflower
2 cups lacinato kale (or similar)
2 cloves garlic
6 tablespoons olive oil (approximately)
Salt, to taste
2 ciabatta rolls (or similar good, crusty white bread)
2 tablespoons pickled banana pepper rings
4 slices provolone cheese

Trim the cauliflower, leaving the core intact, and cut into 1/4-inch slices (don’t worry if they don’t stay perfectly intact — as long as the have a relatively “flat” side they should brown up nicely). Set aside.

Slice the kale into thin ribbons and peel and mince the garlic. Set aside.

Pour enough oil in a heavy fry pan so that it completely coats the pan’s bottom and will slightly edge up the sides of the cauliflower pieces when you add them. Heat the oil over medium-high heat. When it’s very hot, add the cauliflower slices and let them sizzle, untouched, for 4 to 5 minutes (you may need to adjust heat so that they cook long enough to get brown and cook through). Flip the slices and cook them for another 3 to 4 minutes. Remove to a plate and sprinkle with a little salt.

Turn off the heat and add the kale and garlic to pan. Cook in the residual pan heat for a minute or two until the greens are wilted, then scrape onto a plate.

Turn the oven broiler on. Split and toast the ciabatta rolls. Take the two bottom halves and layer on the fried cauliflower slices, then the greens, and lastly, the peppers. Top with 2 slices of cheese and broil in oven just until melted. Top with the other ciabatta halves and enjoy.

Note: I highly recommend using a cast-iron skillet if you have one. If you don’t, they cost about $12 at your local hardware store. Otherwise, choose a very heavy pan so you get a nice crust on the cauliflower.

From Food52.com by Laurie from crunchygooey.blog, https://food52.com/recipes/24731-fried-cauliflower-sandwich

Roasted Sausage, Swiss Chard, and Cannellini Beans

1 bunch Swiss chard, stems and ribs removed and leaves roughly torn into 2-inch pieces
1 can cannellini beans (16 or 19 ounces, or about 2 cups), drained and rinsed
Finely grated zest and 1 tablespoon juice from one lemon (reserving extra juice for finishing dish)
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1 teaspoon smoked Spanish paprika
3 tablespoons olive oil
16 ounces (about 3 or 4 links) good-quality chicken or pork sausage, removed from casings and cut into 3/4-inch pieces (can also use pre-cooked sausage, sliced into small pieces)
Finely grated Parmesan or pecorino, to serve

Heat oven to 400° F.

Combine chard and cannellini beans in a large casserole, baking dish, or ovenproof skillet. It will look like a lot of chard, but it will considerably cook down. Season with a few pinches of salt and pepper.

In a small bowl, whisk together lemon juice and zest, Dijon mustard, smoked Spanish paprika, and olive oil. Add to chard and cannellini beans and toss well with hands to evenly coat. Evenly distribute the chard and beans in a single layer—or as close as you can get to a single layer. Nestle the pieces of sausage on top of the chard and beans.

Roast for about 20 to 25 minutes, or until the chard is tender with crispy edges and the sausage is no longer pink. For extra security, you can toss about halfway through the cooking time to ensure even cooking.

Taste and add more salt, pepper, or lemon juice if needed. Top with grated parmesan or pecorino. Serve warm.

From Food52.com by EmilyC, https://food52.com/recipes/35346-roasted-sausage-chard-and-cannellini-beans

Welcome to the 9th share of the Pitchfork & Crow 2021/2022 Winter CSA! Here’s what’s in the share this week:

• Cauliflower
• Purple Sprouting Broccoli
• Mixed Brassica Rapini – Choose from kale, cabbage, and collard rapini bunches. Prepare it like you would sprouting broccoli or kale.
• Arugula Rapini
• Bok Choy
• Spinach
• Mixed Magic Molly & French Fingerling Potatoes
• Carrots – After a long winter of hanging out in the ground, we suggest these carrots are going to be best cooked.
• Red & Purple Radishes – Too many radishes? We suggest trying them roasted with other roots or cooked into soups and curries.
• Sunchokes (aka Jerusalem Artichokes) – These are roots of a sunflower variety.  We enjoy them shredded and sauteed but they’re good raw, roasted, and in soups too.  Please note that they contain high levels of the carbohydrate inulin, which is difficult for some folks to digest.  Converting the inulin to fructose through cooking with vinegar or fermenting seems to be a good solution.
• Onions – We ask a lot of our storage crops. We harvest them in early fall and then let them sit and wait and wait until they make an appearance in the share. We’re getting better at selecting long storing varieties but there’s just only so long an onion wants to store sometimes. That’s to say, eat your onions sooner than later.
• Tetsukabuto Winter Squash – A cross between butternut and kabocha = the best of both worlds!
• Dried Apples

We’ve made it to the penultimate share of the 2021-2022 Winter CSA season! We’ll see you all again in two weeks for the final share of the season to wrap things up.

Spring is springing here on the farm. The plum and pear trees are flowering and the beekeepers brought some beehives back to the farm this past week just in time. The lengthening days and some recent warmer temps have got the grass, weeds, and crops all growing like crazy.

Back on January 15th we direct sowed arugula, bok choy, and spinach, all of which are making an appearance in this week’s share. It always feels like a leap of faith to put seeds in the ground and expect food to appear, and never more so than in the dead of winter. Somehow it’s worked again and we’re all going to be eating well for the next couple of weeks thanks to the miracle of seeds and soil and water and sunlight.

The most exciting news from the farm is that we’ve officially begun the transplanting season! After a fall/winter of chasing tractor repairs we seem to be back in business with the repairs behind us for the moment. Our tractor is an integral part of how we make this farming thing work with just two people and it’s back in action just in time. The first successions of chard, kale, broccoli, cauliflower, and cabbage all found a place in the field this weekend. Fingers crossed the weather settles itself soon and we’re able to continue to make planting progress.

Here’s a little video of the first transplanting of the season. Actions shots of just how we get those plants in the ground using our water wheel transplanter, plus a lot of ball throwing with Leo.

While we attempted to patiently wait for a new radiator to be built for the tractor over the last couple of weeks we tried to make progress on other spring projects. The blueberries got some attention as we weeded and fertilized them. There was plenty to do in the propagation house between sowing seeds, moving flats out to harden off for planting, potting up celery into larger cells, and sowing more seeds. And we’re trying out a new trellising method for the peas this year and Jeff managed to get the infrastructure installed and ready for trellising.

In the next couple of weeks we’ll be transplanting onions, lettuce, kohlrabi, and fennel as the weather allows. We’ll also transplant the tomatoes into a high tunnel shortly. There’s lots of propagation to undertake as it’s time to start summer squash and zucchini and cucumbers. And we’ll be preparing for the final harvest of the Winter CSA! It’s starting to get busy over here!

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:

Roasted Sunchokes with Hazelnut Gremolata

Roasted sunchokes

• 2 pounds sunchokes, peeled and cut into 3/4″ chunks
• ¹/₄ cup olive oil

Hazelnut gremolata

• 2 tablespoons hazelnuts, toasted and chopped
• 3 tablespoons Italian parsley, chopped
• 1 teaspoon lemon zest, minced
• 1 small clove garlic, pressed or finely minced

1. Add 2 tablespoons of kosher salt to a stock pot of boiling water. Add the sunchokes and boil until tender, about 15 – 20 minutes depending on the size of your chunks. Drain the sunchokes and pour out the water in the pot. Add the sunchokes back to the warmed pot to steam off the excess water. Add the olive oil and toss, season with kosher salt and pepper.
2. In a pre-heated 425 degree oven, cook the sunchokes on a baking sheet unti crispy. Another 15 – 20 more minutes.
3. Toss all of the gremolata ingredients together and season with salt and pepper. Serve the sunchokes with gremolata sprinkled over top.

From Food52.com by Megantv01, https://food52.com/recipes/14599-roasted-sunchokes-with-hazelnut-gremolata

Slow-Cooker Moroccan-Spiced Lentil Soup

2 cups chopped onions
2 cups chopped carrots
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 teaspoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1 teaspoon ground turmeric
¹/₄ teaspoon ground cinnamon
¹/₄ teaspoon ground pepper
6 cups vegetable broth
2 cups water
3 cups chopped cauliflower
1 ³/₄ cups French green lentils or brown lentils
1 (28-ounce) can diced tomatoes
2 tablespoons tomato paste
4 cups chopped fresh spinach or 10 ounces frozen chopped spinach, thawed
¹/₂ cup chopped fresh cilantro
2 tablespoons lemon juice

1. Combine onions, carrots, garlic, oil, cumin, coriander, turmeric, cinnamon and pepper in a 5- to 6-quart slow cooker. Add broth, water, cauliflower, lentils, tomatoes and tomato paste and stir until well combined.
2. Cover and cook until the lentils are tender, 4 to 5 hours on High or 8 to 10 hours on Low.
3. Add spinach to the slow cooker. Stir, cover and cook on High for 30 minutes.
4. Just before serving, stir in cilantro and lemon juice.

From Food52.com via Eating Well Soups, https://food52.com/recipes/78164-slow-cooker-moroccan-spiced-lentil-soup

Roasted Radish and Potato Salad with Black Mustard and Cumin Seed

1 large Yukon gold potato, cut into bite sized pieces
8-10 radishes, can be a variety of sizes and types (I had small – large Easter egg radishes and French breakfast radishes), ends trimmed
Extra virgin olive oil
Sea Salt
Freshly ground black pepper
¹/₂ teaspoon black mustard seeds
¹/₂ teaspoon whole cumin seeds
2 tablespoons whole milk yogurt
2 tablespoons thinly sliced green onions
2 tablespoons lemon juice mixed with ½ t salt and ½ t sugar in a small bowl, until salt and sugar are dissolved

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. In a medium sized bowl, combine potato pieces with a glug or two of olive oil, a good sprinkling of sea salt, and a few grinds of black pepper, tossing evenly to coat. Roast potatoes in a single layer on a foil lined baking sheet for 10 minutes.
2. Meanwhile, halve and slice any large radishes into wedges, leaving smaller ones whole. Using the same bowl that you tossed the potatoes in, combine radishes with olive oil, sea salt and black pepper; mix well to evenly coat.
3. Once the potatoes have roasted for 10 minutes, using a wooden spatula or spoon, gently push potatoes around, being careful to keep skin intact (as best as possible). Push potatoes to one side of pan, adding radishes in a single layer to the other side. Continue to roast for another 10-12 minutes or until potatoes and radishes are tender, shaking pan midway through (at 10 minutes start checking to make sure radishes do not overcook).
4. Meanwhile, in a small skillet, heat 1 teaspoon of extra virgin olive oil over medium heat. When hot, add black mustard seeds and whole cumin seeds and gently mix. Cook for about a minute, until fragrant, being mindful that black mustard seeds will start to pop. I used my wooden spoon to shield the seeds from popping all over the place. Remove pan from heat and set aside.
5. Remove pan from oven and allow vegetables to completely cool (making it easy to remove from pan without sticking – especially the potatoes). Halve small radishes. Transfer roasted radishes and potatoes to a bowl. Add yogurt, black mustard/cumin seed mixture and green onions, folding with a spatula to combine. Add lemon juice mixture by the teaspoonful until you reach desired taste. I added one and a half teaspoons of lemon juice-salt-sugar mixture. Fold to combine. Cover mixture with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least an hour to allow flavors to develop. Bring salad to room temperature before enjoying.

From Food52.com by Gingerroot, https://food52.com/recipes/6642-roasted-radish-and-potato-salad-with-black-mustard-and-cumin-seed

Welcome to the 8th share of the Pitchfork & Crow 2021/2022 Winter CSA! Here’s what’s in the share this week:

• Kalettes – A cross between Brussels and kale, pop off the kale florets and use them like kale, or Brussels sprouts. Roast them, saute them, salad them, you get the idea.
• Purple Sprouting Broccoli
• Cabbage
• Rainbow Chard
• Salad Mix – A mix of lettuces and arugula.
• Spinach Mix
• Yukon Gem Potatoes
• Carrots – After a long winter of hanging out in the ground, we suggest these carrots are going to be best cooked.
• French Breakfast Radishes
• Rutabaga
• Bunching Onions
• Red Onion – We ask a lot of our storage crops. We harvest them in early fall and then let them sit and wait and wait until they make an appearance in the share. We’re getting better at selecting long storing varieties but there’s just only so long an onion wants to store sometimes. That’s to say, eat your onions sooner than later.
• Tetsukabuto Winter Squash – A cross between butternut and kabocha = the best of both worlds!
• Dried Apples

The vernal equinox on Sunday officially marked the first day of spring and the crossing into more daylight hours than dark hours. We’ve made it through another dark winter! The recent time change has a way of emphasizing the arrival of spring with the push of the clock forward and a later setting sun. Things here on the farm are about to get very busy.

Much of my (Carri’s) time is spent managing the propagation house these days. We’re into a weekly seed sowing schedule now which means a weekly session of filling flats with soil mix, getting seeds into the flats, and stacking the flats into the germination chamber. We keep the germ. chamber heated to 75-85 degrees depending on the seeds and it generally takes a few days for the first seeds to sprout.

Once the first signs of germination are noticed the flats are quickly moved into the propagation house. Heat loving crops like tomatoes, peppers, and eggplants are put on heat tables and other crops are set out on wooden benches. This time of year the nights can still get fairly chilly so we cover flats with row cover and cover the heats tables with both row cover and a plastic sheet as needed.

We aim to begin transplanting into the field at the beginning of April and it takes some crops longer to get to transplanting size than others. That means the propagation house is already filling up with the plants we’ll be transplanting in a couple of weeks plus the crops like tomatoes and peppers that will get transplanted in late April and May. A walk through the propagation house is a glimpse into our future work and our future food.

If you recall the journey of tractor repairs I mentioned two weeks ago you might wonder where we ended up. Well, we may have predicted it, but we discovered we needed to replace the radiator in addition to the numerous other parts we’d already dealt with. Down side of a radiator replacement is that our Italian tractor came with a specialized Italian radiator that was not easily found on the internet unlike the other parts thus far. Upside is that we discovered that the world headquarters for Radiator Supply House, a radiator manufacturing and repair company, is located just up the road in Sweet Home. They’re building us a new radiator as I write and we hope to be back in business with tractor work by the end of the week. Fingers crossed that’s the last tractor repair for a while.

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

Your farmers,
Carri Heisler & Jeff Bramlett

.

Here are a few recipes to get you inspired:

Miso Brown Sugar Cabbage

1 tablespoon white miso
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 teaspoon light brown sugar
2 teaspoons sesame oil
4 cups cabbage, shredded into 1/4-inch thick pieces (about 1/2 a head of cabbage)
1 pinch salt

In a small bowl, using a fork, mix together the miso, soy sauce and brown sugar until well combined. Set aside.

Heat a large nonstick pan over high heat. Once hot, add the sesame oil. Add all of the cabbage. You should hear a sizzle when it hits the pan. Cook, without stirring, until the cabbage bigs to char, about 1 to 2 minutes. Stir the mixture just once and then let sit for another 1 to 2 minutes to let the cabbage char a bit more. Remove the pan from the heat, add the sauce and toss to combine.

Plate onto a shallow bowl and serve warm.

From Food52.com by Grant Melton, https://food52.com/recipes/82533-miso-brown-sugar-cabbage

Chard Gratin

1 pound chard, stems and leaves
Salt
Butter, for the baking dish
1 tablespoon whole grain mustard
1 ³/₄ cups heavy cream
A handful of grated parmesan
Freshly ground black pepper

Heat the oven to 350 degrees F. Cut the chard leaves from the stems. Chop the stems into short lengths, then cook briefly in boiling, lightly salted water until crisply tender. Remove the stems. Drip the leaves in the boiling water briefly, until they relax. Drain, let cool, and wring out the leaves. Spread the stems and leaves in a buttered shallow ovenproof dish.

Put the mustard in a bowl and stir in the cream and a grinding of salt and black pepper. Pour the seasoned cream over the stems and leaves, cover with grated Parmesan, and bake, 35 to 40 minutes, until the top has a light crust the color of honey.

From Food52.com by Amanda Hesser, https://food52.com/recipes/22420-chard-gratin

Radish and Butter Tartine

1 slice good bread, toasted
Best-quality salted butter, at room temperature
A few small radishes, sliced
Flaky salt, like Maldon or Jacobsen

Smear the butter on one side of bread; it’s best when the bread is no longer hot, since you don’t want the butter to melt. Top with radishes, then sprinkle with good flaky salt.

From Food52.com by Marian Bull, https://food52.com/recipes/28345-radish-and-butter-tartine

Welcome to the 7th share of the Pitchfork & Crow 2021/2022 Winter CSA! Here’s what’s in the share this week:

• Kalettes – a cross between Brussels and kale, pop off the kale florets and use them like kale, or Brussels sprouts. Roast them, saute them, salad them, you get the idea.
• Purple Cape Cauliflower – a cauliflower form of purple sprouting broccoli. Treat it the same.
• Purple Sprouting Broccoli
• Cooking Greens Mix – A mix of braising greens including lacinato kale rapini, curly kale, rainbow chard, and collard greens.
• Salad Mix – A mix of lettuces and spinach.
• French Fingerling Potatoes
• Parsnips – Roasted and mashed parsnips are delicious, but also don’t forget about parsnip cake!
• Celeriac
• Salad Turnips & Daikon Radishes
• Leeks
• Garlic – This is the last of our 2021 garlic crop. Enjoy!
• Yellow Onions – We ask a lot of our storage crops. We harvest them in early fall and then let them sit and wait and wait until they make an appearance in the share. We’re getting better at selecting long storing varieties but there’s just only so long an onion wants to store sometimes. That’s to say, eat your onions before they sprout because spring is just around the corner.
• Butternut Squash
• Shishito Pepper Powder – We dried and powdered the red shishito peppers that we harvested ahead of the frost last fall. This is a little taste of last summer’s sunshine!
• Dried Apples

Amazingly we’ve only got 2.5 weekly (or 5 biweekly) shares remaining in the Summer CSA! It’s time to reserve your spot if you want to join us for a summer and fall of local, seasonal, and organic vegetables. Find all the details and a sign-up form over on the Summer CSA page.

We’ve rounded the corner of winter and it’s been feeling like spring is beginning to show up in these parts. After successfully making it through the scare of low temperatures two weeks back, we’ve been enjoying the return of some rain as well as some pleasantly sunny days. As we head deeper into the Winter CSA season we’re now arriving at those couple of months in late winter/early spring known as the hunger gap. The storage crops from the previous season begin running low and the newly sown crops in greenhouses are just getting going. If we’ve planned well and the weather and remaining field crops all cooperate we’ll make it through to the end with no problems. This week seems to have come together without a hitch!

We’re now beginning to countdown to the start of the Summer CSA. Part of our crop planning is to count the weeks backwards from the first Summer CSA share to help determine when to start and transplant the crops we want to be ready for the first few shares. Last week we started the first rounds of broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, kale, chard, and fennel, all of which should get transplanted in about a month and then be ready to harvest throughout June.

We also sowed the first round of carrots for summer shares and the snap peas that will show up in early summer shares. These get direct sown, where we put the seed directly in the ground instead of transplanting.

Jeff built a new fence to keep deer and turkeys out of the two high tunnels at the back of the farm. The fence looks great and has worked so far, though he did hit a buried irrigation line during the installation. While it’s nice to have much of the irrigation infrastructure on the farm buried, any issues require first digging to locate the problem which makes for a more involved project. Let’s just say Jeff has gained a lot of experience over the years with digging and pvc repair.

Over the last month Jeff’s main focus has been on tractor repair. He’s been methodically working through a seemingly endless list of minor and more major repairs on our main tractor all winter actually. First it was installing a new instrument panel, then repairing a leaking fuel line, then it became obvious we’d need a new water pump soon. Unfortunately the water pump repair was taking place during the big cold snap a couple of weeks back and the tractor had more water than coolant in its system. The freezing temperatures led to an oil cooler cover crack and subsequent repair. Once the new water pump and oil cooler cover were both installed there was a fluke incident with a broken weld on a hydraulic cylinder attached to the tractor’s loader, which ended up being the fasted repair actually due to not having to wait for a part in the mail but instead taking the whole thing into a local metal shop. Today a new water connection tube should be arriving in our mailbox, which is hopefully the last of the repairs for the time being.

It’s been a learn-as-you go situation and Jeff has been a trooper tackling each new issue that pops up. He says he’s not a mechanic but he’s sure learning a lot about diesel engines and I’ve been impressed with his willingness to take on these repairs. I’ve been little help, though I’ve taken on the part research and sourcing role and I feel like I’ve also got a better understanding of the inner workings of our tractor’s engine as I’ve searched the internet for Perkins engine details, manuals, and parts. Sometimes farming is more than plants and seeds and weeds and growing things. Though honestly I think we’re both ready to get back to that stuff.

As we wrap up the tractor repairs (fingers crossed!) we’ll be turning our attention back to spring preparations. There’s ground to fertilize and prep for transplanting, seeds to sow (peppers and eggplants this week), grass to weed out of the garlic and overwintering onions, and supplies to order. Just like the lengthening days, the work is starting to ramp up for the season ahead. Perhaps we’ll also get in a day off the farm again before things get too busy.

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

Your farmers,
Carri Heisler & Jeff Bramlett

.

Here are a few recipes to get you inspired:

Skillet Strata with Bacon, Cheddar, and Greens

6 large eggs
1 ¹/₂ cups whole milk
3 scallions, thinly sliced (or how about leeks)
4 ounces cheddar or fontina cheese, shredded or cubed, about a cup
4 slices bacon, chopped
1 onion, finely chopped (a scant cup)
3 cups packed 1-inch cubes bread (6 to 7 ounces)
3 ounces kale or chard leaves, tough stems removed, coarsely chopped, about 2 heaping cups

1. Adjust oven rack to the middle position and heat oven to 425° F. Beat eggs and milk together until thoroughly combined. Stir in scallions, 1/2 teaspoon salt, pepper to taste, and the cheddar.
2. Cook bacon in a 9- or 10-inch cast iron pan over medium heat until crisp, about 10 minutes. Transfer bacon to a small dish, leaving the fat behind. Add the onion and cook until softened and lightly browned, about 5 minutes. Add the bread, carefully fold into onions, and cook, stirring occasionally, until lightly toasted, about 3 minutes.
3. Remove pan from heat, add reserved bacon, and fold in the egg mixture. Add half of the greens and fold into the mixture until combined. Add remaining greens and fold again until combined. Transfer skillet to oven and bake until center of strata is puffed and set and edges have browned and pulled away slightly from the sides of the skillet, about 15 minutes, rotating skillet halfway through baking. Let strata cool for 5 minutes before serving.

From Food52.com by Alexandra Stafford, https://food52.com/recipes/55148-skillet-strata-with-bacon-cheddar-and-greens

Mashed Potato, Rutabaga, and Parsnip Casserole with Caramelized Onions

• 7 cups canned low-salt chicken broth
• 3 pounds russet potatoes, peeled, cut into 1 1/2-inch pieces
• 1 1/2 pounds rutabagas, peeled, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
• 1 1/4 pounds parsnips, peeled, cut into 1 1/2-inch pieces
• 8 garlic cloves
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 teaspoon dried thyme
• 3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) butter, room temperature

Butter 13 x 9×2-inch glass baking dish. Combine first 7 ingredients in large pot; bring to boil. Reduce heat, cover partially and simmer until vegetables are very tender, about 30 minutes. Drain well. Transfer vegetables to large bowl. Add 1/2 cup butter. Using electric mixer, beat mixture until mashed but still chunky. Season with salt and pepper. Transfer mashed vegetables to prepared dish.

Melt remaining 1/4 cup butter in heavy large skillet over medium-high heat. Add sliced onions and sauté until beginning to brown, about 5 minutes. Reduce heat to medium-low and sauté until onions are tender and golden brown, about 15 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Spread onions evenly over mashed vegetables. (Casserole can be prepared up to 1 day ahead. Cover and refrigerate.)

Preheat oven to 375° F. Bake casserole uncovered until heated through and top begins to crisp, about 25 minutes.

From Epicurious.com via Bon Appétit, https://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/mashed-potato-rutabaga-and-parsnip-casserole-with-caramelized-onions-2607

Barley & Root Vegetable Rainbow Stew

2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
1 small yellow onion, finely chopped
Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste
4 cups mixed, peeled and 1/2-inch diced root vegetables, such as parsnip, carrot, sweet potato, white potato, and yellow beets
¹/₂ cup pearled barley, rinsed
4 cups chicken or vegetable broth
1 tablespoon lemon zest
2 tablespoons sour cream, plus more for serving
2 tablespoons chopped dill, plus more for serving

In a large, heavy-bottomed pot melt the butter and oil over medium heat. Add the onion and cook until translucent, 10 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.

Add the root vegetables and cook until they are browned in spots, another 5 minutes.

Add the barley and broth and bring to a simmer. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables and barley are tender, about 25 minutes.

Transfer 1 cup of the soup to a blender and puree until smooth. Return the pureed soup to the pot and stir in the zest, sour cream, and dill. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Top with more sour cream and dill to serve.

From Food52.com by Samantha Seneviratne, https://food52.com/recipes/86601-root-vegetable-soup-recipe-with-barley

Best Sage Quiche

1 medium butternut squash, peeled, seeded, and cut into 1/2-inch chunks
1 ¹/₂ tablespoons olive oil
³/₄ teaspoon salt
1 leek (white and light green parts only), chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
4 large eggs
2 cups milk
4 slices prosciutto, chopped (1/2 cup)
1 cup Pecorino Romano cheese
1 tablespoon chopped fresh sage
1 10-inch pie crust

Preheat oven to 400°F. Place squash on a greased cookie sheet and drizzle evenly with 1/2 tablespoon olive oil and 1/2 teaspoon salt. Bake squash for 25-30 minutes at 400°F or until tender. Lower oven heat to 350°F.

Heat remaining 1 tablespoon olive oil over medium heat in a large skillet and saute leeks for 5 minutes or until tender. Add garlic and saute one additional minute.

Beat eggs and milk in a large bowl until well mixed. Mix in butternut squash, leeks, prosciutto, cheese, sage, and remaining 1/4 teaspoon salt. Line a 10-inch pie pan with prepared pie crust; pour in quiche mixture. Bake at 350°F for 45 to 60 minutes, or until set. Cool slightly and cut into 8 wedges. Makes 8 servings.

From Food52.com by Kerstin, https://food52.com/recipes/8125-roasted-butternut-squash-prosciutto-and-sage-quiche

Welcome to the 6th share of the Pitchfork & Crow 2021/2022 Winter CSA! Here’s what’s in the share this week:

• Savoy Cabbage – Wrinkled, crinkled, sweet and tasty. Winter cabbage is the best!
• Purple Sprouting Broccoli
• Cooking Greens Mix – A mix of braising greens including lacinato kale, curly kale, rainbow chard, and collard greens.
• Salad Mix – A mix of lettuces and spinach.
• Parsley
• German Butterball Potatoes
• Carrots
• Rutabaga– Less pungent than most turnips, but similar, we like rutabagas mashed with potatoes or oven roasted with their rooty friends.
• Kohlrabi – Giant kohlrabi are a winter wonder. Generally not pithy, they’re frost-sweetened and just the ticket for kohlrabi and peanut butter snacks.
• Bunching Onions
• Garlic – See the note below about onions.
• Shallots
• Red Onion – We ask a lot of our storage crops. We harvest them in early fall and then let them sit and wait and wait until they make an appearance in the share. We’re getting better at selecting long storing varieties but there’s just only so long an onion wants to store sometimes. That’s to say, eat your onions before they sprout because spring is just around the corner.
• Mixed Winter Squash – Choose from acorns, delicata, spaghetti, kabocha, and butternut.
• Polenta (aka grits) – 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 polenta and last time we shared the flour. You can use this polenta in recipes calling for uncooked polenta or corn grits. We like to cook it in our rice cooker at a 1 cup polenta to 3 cups water ratio. It’s even better if you add some butter and cheese once cooked.
• Dried Apples

Amazingly we are somehow over 97% full for the Summer CSA! It’s time to reserve your spot if you want to join us for a summer and fall of local, seasonal, and organic vegetables. Find all the details and a sign-up form over on the Summer CSA page.

We may be over halfway through winter, but that doesn’t mean the winter weather is done with us. We’ve got some cold nights on deck this week including tonight’s current projected low of 18, which is actually better than the 13 that was projected a few days back. Winter farming is always a gamble and it looks like we landed in some especially unpredictable territory this week. We get nervous when the temps drop below 20, but we’ll know soon enough which of our surviving field crops takes a hit in these cold temperatures. Fingers crossed the past winter weather has toughened up the remaining plants to take this cold snap in stride.

Despite this week’s return to chilly temperatures, things here on the farm have been feeling rather springy lately. The fall-sown spinach and lettuce that you’ve seen in shares planted in one of our high tunnels has been re-growing nicely thanks to some warm sunny days. The newly sown radishes, arugula, and spinach in another tunnel are putting on their first true leaves. Jeff prepped three other tunnels this past week and we filled up two with potatoes, mizuna, radishes, lettuce, and kale. The third house will be planted out with carrots and peas next week. So many tasty treats in our future!

After several months of an empty propagation house it was time to start growing transplants for the upcoming season. We start things off with tomatoes because they’ll be headed into the new high tunnel in April and can use a good head start. After many days in the warm germination chamber we’ve had high germination rates and now they’re happily growing stronger having been moved to the heat tables in the propagation house. Forty-five flats of onions and leeks are now filling the shelves in the germ. chamber. This cycle of mixing prop. mix, filling flats, sowing seeds, waiting for germination, and moving flats into the prop. house until they’re ready for transplanting will continue on through October when we finish up the last of the transplanting in 2022. The propagation fun is just beginning.

In the next couple of weeks we’ll be continuing to add flats of baby transplants to the propagation house. We’re about a month out from transplanting in the field if the weather cooperates so we’ve got lots of seeds to get started. We’ve also got a tractor repair to undertake, a high tunnel to sow seeds in, and some orchard and blueberry maintenance to get done. We’ll be keeping busy!

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

Your farmers,
Carri Heisler & Jeff Bramlett

.

Here are a few recipes to get you inspired:

Desperation Minestrone Soup

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 small yellow onion, diced
2 cups finely chopped “pantry” vegetables (carrots, fennel, leeks, potatoes, cauliflower, cabbage, winter squash, etc.)
2 large garlic cloves, minced
one 15-ounce can diced or crushed tomatoes
8 cups vegetable or chicken stock
1 teaspoon salt
¹/₄ teaspoon red pepper flakes
one 15-ounce can cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
1 cup green vegetables (zucchini, green beans, peas, leafy greens, broccoli, etc.), finely chopped
¹/₂ cup gluten-free elbows, orzo, or orecchiette (optional)
¹/₂ cup herbs (basil, chives, parsley, tarragon, or a combination), roughly chopped or torn
Shaved Parmesan or Pecorino, for serving (optional)

Heat the oil in a large Dutch oven or stockpot. Sauté the onions and pantry vegetables over medium-high heat until soft, 5 to 7 minutes. Stir in the garlic and cook until fragrant, another minute. Pour in the tomatoes and simmer until the liquid is reduced and the tomato chunks have softened, about 5 minutes. Add the stock, salt, and red pepper flakes to the pot. Bring to a boil.

Stir in the beans, green vegetables, and pasta (if using), then reduce the heat to medium-low. Simmer for 10 minutes, or until the pasta is cooked through. Off the heat, stir in herbs and taste for seasoning. Garnish with a drizzle of olive oil and shaved Parmesan or Pecorino for a salty bite.

From Food52.com via The Wellness Project by Phoebe Lapine, https://food52.com/recipes/73204-desperation-minestrone-soup

Irish Banger Skillet

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 pound Irish banger sausage
¹/₂ pound red skinned potatoes, sliced thinly crosswise
1 medium onion, sliced thinly crosswise
¹/₂ head green cabbage, cored and thinly sliced
3 carrots, peeled and sliced on a diagonal into 1/2″ pieces
1 ¹/₂ cups low sodium chicken or vegetable broth, divided
2 teaspoons fresh thyme, divided
¹/₂ teaspoon kosher salt
¹/₄ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

In a 10-inch skillet with a tight fitting lid, heat the olive oil over medium high heat. When the oil starts to glisten and moire, carefully add the sausages and cook, turning occasionally until browned. Transfer the sausages to a plate. Into the pan, over a medium heat, layer in half of the onion, potatoes and cabbage. Layer the remaining onions, potatoes and cabbage. Sprinkle with carrots and add 1 teaspoon of the thyme. Pour 3/4 cup of broth over the vegetables, sprinkle with salt and pepper and cover tightly. Simmer for 10 minutes.

After the vegetables have cooked for 10 minutes, nestle the sausages into the potato mixture, along with any accumulated juices. Add the remaining broth and thyme, cover and cook for an additional 10 minutes, or until potatoes and carrots are very tender. Remove the sausages and cut them into chunks. Return the sausages to the pan and serve.

From Food52.com by Garlic and Zest, https://food52.com/recipes/41662-irish-banger-skillet

Kohlrabi Salad

1 head kohlrabi
¹/₂ apple, such as Gala
2 tablespoons rice vinegar
2 tablespoons sesame oil
¹/₂ bird’s eye chili
1 pinch cumin
¹/₂ teaspoon fish sauce
3 tablespoons chopped cilantro
Salt & freshly ground pepper to taste

With a sharp knife, cut off the “branches” of the kohlrabi. Peel it with a vegetable peeler.

Cut the kohlrabi into matchsticks either using a sharp knife of a mandolin (I used the latter). Do the same with the apple.

Toss the kohlrabi and the apple with the remaining ingredients and chill before eating.

From Food52.com by Sassyradish, https://food52.com/recipes/8689-kohlrabi-salad