CSA Newsletter: Week 20

Welcome to Week 20!  The final week of the Main Season CSA. 

In this week's share, you'll most likely find:

• Head Lettuce or Salad Mix
• Dill
• Garlic
• Winter Squash
• Tomatoes
• Bell Peppers  Check out this recipe for Chevre-Stuffed Bell Peppers.
• Sunchokes  Here's the lowdown on Sunchokes.
• Carrots
• Bok Choy
• Red Onions

This is the final week of the main season CSA!  We made it.  Don't despair, however, we still have a few spots open in the Winter CSA if you want to sign up. Sign up online here.  If we don't sell out, you will still be able to order Winter Share Boxes through our Flex Box program.

If you'd rather just shop at the market, we will be open daily through this month and Friday through Sunday in November.

Winter CSA Share folks:  Don't forget that all shares are now to be picked up on Fridays.  The first share is a week from this Friday, on October 29.

Thanks so much for joining us this season.  It's been a great year for us.  You'll be happy to know that Renae is going to stay with us through next season.  We'll start taking sign-ups for our 2010 CSA Shares in January.  There's a good chance we will be be expanding the CSA to Wenatchee, so if you live in that direction and are interested, let us know!

Thanks again for a great year!

Jerusalem Artichokes

Photo courtesy of www.ellenfork.com.

The Jerusalem Artichokes, or “sunchoke,” is actually a tuber or root to a type of sunflower native to North America.  Their looks resemble ginger root and their flavor has been compared to as a water chestnut (great in a stir fry).  They provide carotenes, B vitamins, potassium, calcium, magnesium and are an excellent source of iron.

Peel tubers as best you can and plunge into boiling water.  Cook for about 15 minutes, adding some fresh lemon juice to the cooking water during the last 5 minutes.  Drain in a colander, they can now be sliced and sautéed in butter or olive oil, or mashed with butter, freshly grated ginger, salt and pepper. 

Adpated from Nourishing Traditions Cookbook



Celeriac Chowder

Here's a great way to use celeriac if you've never done anything with it before.  It may become one of your new favorite soup vegetables!

Celeriac Chowder

1 celery root (about 1 lb)
2 large leeks
2 Tbsp. butter
1 potato, diced
¼ cup chopped parsley
1 bay leaf
1 large sprig of thyme
Salt and pepper
2 cups vegetable or chicken stock
2 cups half and half or milk

Peel and dice the celery root.  Wash and thinly slice the leeks.  Melt the butter in a soup pot and add the vegetables, parsley, bay, thyme and 2 tea. salt.  Cook over medium heat for about five minutes, stirring often so the leeks do not brown.  Add the stock and bring to a boil.  Reduce heat and simmer until the vegetables are tender.  Add the half and half and rewarm.  Adjust seasonings with salt and pepper.  Puree to desired consistency.  You may enjoy leaving it just a bit chunky.  Serve garnished with parsley. 

Recipe courtesy of Harmony Valley Farm



Renae Writes: High Tunnel Tomatoes

With the fall equinox approaching the cool nights are a threat.  Well maybe I am a little premature on the thought, but we did go ahead and put the plastic endwalls back up on the high tunnel.  The high tunnel is where we planted the first of the tomatoes back at the beginning of April and yes you are still enjoying those tomatoes!  After a little adjustment with the soil and figuring out how to moderate the temperatures in the heat of the summer we had a successful year with the tomatoes.  We had tomatoes in the high tunnel at least 3 weeks before our outside tomoatoes started to turn, and now hopefully we can prolong the tomato season with the endwalls up. 

The high tunnel is a 90’ by 30’ unheated structure that’s temperature is controlled by venting (i.e. wind blowing through the tunnel) and a misting system.  It is completely enclosed in the shoulder seasons during the winter, and during the nights in the shoulder seasons.   The two long sides have vented walls that roll up and down during the day.  And in the summer the endwalls are completely removed and the sidewalls rolled all the way down to allow for maximum ventilation.

Last year was our first year growing in the high tunnel, and the summer’s heat proved to be too hot for the tomatoes, reaching into the low 100s by 10:30am.  This year, we isntalled a mister system that extends from the rafters and would be on constantly from 11:00 am to 5:00 pm throughout most of July and part of August.  The mister system kept the temperature just where we wanted it--in the low 80s, even when it was in the high 90s outside.  We worried that the added moisture might lead to fungal disease, but we never saw anything, thank goodness.  We always made sure we turned off the mister with enough time for the tomato foliage to dry before nightfall.

Even with these cool evening temperatures, the high tunnel will hopefully continue to ripen tomatoes for another month or more.  The only conflict is that we'd like to get in there to plant our winter greens!  I guess we may just have to think about putting up another high tunnel...

Daniel Writes: Transitions

August passed by in the blink of an eye and September is settling in with crisp fall skies.  This is a time of the year when the garden produces both melons and winter squash, responsibilities include both seeding flats and gathering drip tape from beds that have seen their last harvest, the sun rises later, and the cool weather crops find new vitality.

The studious in the market and winery head back to school. Renae tells me there’s still plenty of work ahead, but it’s a surreal feeling to have the heat of my first full time summer behind me. 

With the desire to wander aimlessly through my free time this summer also passing, my mind can go almost anywhere thinking about what’s next.  But to be honest, I often times found myself realizing there was no place I’d rather be in the middle of work days. 

I’d like to share part of a poem called “The Sunrise Ruby” by Rumi that illustrates a helpful mentality.

Work. Keep digging your well.
Don’t think about getting off from work.
Water is there somewhere.
Submit to a daily practice.
Your loyalty to that
Is a ring on the door.
Keep knocking, and the joy inside
will eventually open a window
and look out to see who’s there.

As I gave thanks to the Evans-O’Neal family in an earlier blog of mine, I’d like to thank Renae for teaching me almost everything I know about gardening. Cheers!