Summer CSA: Week 1

Starting with the green onions, rhubarb, oregano and spiraling clockwise we have spinach, salad mix, mustard greens, radish, spring raab, zesty salad mix, kale, arugula.

Recipes: Purple Top Turnips (RePost)

Fall 2012 produced a bumper crop of the old world classic purple top turnip on our new farmland. Though they may seem dull at first, they are actually quite versatile. So I'll be compiling some recipes and links to recipes below. Please email any of your favorites along!

This Specialty Produce turnip page is a good place to start for details (and 13 great recipe ideas at the bottom!).

Friends of the farm Peter & Tina sent along this turnip expose they read recently: first page sings the praises of the turnip suggesting "turnips reclaim their rightful spot at the center of the winter table"!!!  Then these 3 images have a suite of recipes: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3.  Some of these turnip recipes are repeated online here. Thanks Peter!

Shareholder Anna shared this Aloo Palak recipe where she substituted turnips for half of the potatoes as well as mixing in   some turnip greens with spinach, and said it was very good.  Thanks Anna!

Adverse impacts of mineral fertilizers

Very interesting report with photos.  Some good ideas for incorporating natural fertilizers towards the end of the report:


Heinrich Boll Foundation
A soiled reputation.  Adverse impacts of mineral fertilizers in tropical agriculture
http://www.boell.de/sites/default/files/WWF_Mineralduenger_englisch_WEB.pdf

Winter CSA: Week 15

Oh well, had a slight warm up but now another "polar vortex" is heading our way. So storage crops are added to the fresh greens we can muster.


Spinach


Mache (aka Vit)


Giant kohlrabi (recipes in previous post)


Pickled root veggies


Potatoes and onions


Dry beans (treat like dry pinto)



Optional frozen item

Kohlrabi: Coming Soon!

If you are seeking inspiration for cooking Kohlrabi check out these old scanned favorites and/or head on over to this website which includes 20+ recipe ideas.

Light Reading

A little light reading for all to bookmark...

This strengthening resilience of modern farming systems journal article is right in line with my thinking with the phased implementation design plan I'm cooking up for my farm... but then I was getting depressed thinking about design of all the other farms in the US and worldwide.  We need more designing for resilience.

But then this article in the news highlighting some "conventional" farmers adding fruit and veg gave me some hope.

And of course, as always, if you aren't reading Mark Bittman, you really should be: this Abundance Doesn't Mean Health is a must-read.  All my talking points, better delivered.  Thank you Mark.

Winter CSA: Week 13

The cold persists, and so do we...



Frozen item


Kale & collards


Hardy salad mix


Root veg remnants


Heirloom dry beans

Cooked Inspiration

Winter CSA: Week 12

With no real let up in the well below average cold temperatures, and NOAA's long range Feb forecast looking much the same we are really going to have to dip into the dried, frozen, and otherwise preserved storage crops from this past summer...



One frozen (squash) item or one cold stored squash.


Dried hot peppers


Dried beans - you can treat these like dried pinto beans although they are more versatile than that (I've split them 50/50 with chicpeas in a hummus type mash)


Potatoes


Heirloom turnips


Hardy kale and collards

Winter CSA: Week 11

Kale, hardy winter salad mix, root veg, squash, potatoes

10 Ideas For Squash

These ideas via Real Simple magazine had some really intriguing ones from mashed squash, squash soup, squash tacos, squash & chickpea stew, to squash toasts, squash & kale lasagna, squash risotto and squash galette! Try them all!

Winter CSA: Week 10

Well this week had some sun but looks like another "Polar Vortex" is in store for the coming too weeks... wow what a winter.

Swiss Chard

Kale

Root Veg

Winter Salad Mix

 Potatoes

Squash

Winter CSA: Week 9

Well we survived the "Polar Vortex" and the coldest temps in 20 years or so, certainly the coldest since we've been trying to do four season harvests out of hoophouses. The hoophouses look okay I guess considering although there has certainly been some crop loss and crop damage. I guess we'll see what the weather throws at us next.



Arugula

 

Kale



Root Veg



Squash



Sweet Potatoes

Winter CSA: Week 8

Bitter cold temps might be the new norm but definitely eked out some fresh greens to harvest. But at least the length of daylight will be getting longer... Happy solstice!!! Seasons greetings, happy holidays, and happy new year! We have the next 2 weeks off from the CSA program. We'll see you Saturday January 11th!




Top to bottom: baby collards, arugula, salad mix, chard.


Heirloom cranberry type beans, big bag of sweet potatoes, radish/turnip mix.

Winter CSA: Week 7

Well if you search Dexter, MI at WeatherSpark.com and peruse the last couple of weeks of temperatures you will see the temps we've been experiencing are not only well below average but also steadily in the bottom percentiles of the record. While we were able to eke out a harvest this week and likely next with just a little bit of sun this does not super bode well for January harvests. Since hoophouses are passive solar and I have always operated ours since 2004 without adding any fossil fuel heat, these blocks of bitter cold impart crop damage from which it may be difficult to recover. We need some blocks of sun to have an opportunity to water the crops so that they can repair their cell wall damage from extreme low temps. Of course all is not lost. Since we worked hard over the summer we have a reserve of cold storage crops, dry goods, and freezer preserved harvests. Plus there are always the hardiest of the hardy greens like kales, mache, and eventually spinach on the horizon. But a little luck can always be used as well, so keep your fingers crossed for some some sun over this holiday season!

OK, in the share this week:

 
Arugula
 



 
Kale
 
 
Komatsuna
 
 
Christmas Limas - new this week! These are my favorite heirloom lima bean. Google "chistmas lima recipe" and prepared to be amazed!
 
 
Mustard Greens
 
 
The roots selection you are likely familiar with at this point.  Don't miss the recipes for these that have been popping up on our facebook page.
 
 
Salad mix
 

 
Selection of Sweet Potatoes and regular Potatoes.  More Sweet Potatoes next week!