Fresh and Value-Added Items:
- Carrots; Carrot Cake Cupcakes; Carrot Ginger Miso Soup
- Potatoes; Baked JoJo Potatoes
- Daikon Radish: Roasted Daikon and Carrots
- Onions
- Garlic
- Fresh Winter Spinach
- Kale; Simple Sauteed Kale (can’t seem to get enough of this right now!)
- Eggs-1 dozen
- Pickles
- Long Island Cheese Pumpkin (use like a butternut); Stuffed & Roasted Recipe
Frozen Items:
- Vegetable Stock 1 Qt: water, onions, carrots, potatoes, celery, rosemary, sage, thyme, bay leaf, salt & pepper. Uses for stock; Pasta with goat cheese cream sauce
- 2 Soups of Choice, or substituted items (Winter CSA Store)
- Raspberries 1 qt (frozen): whole berries, keep frozen until you want to use them. Great in yogurt and smoothies.
- Grandma Bessie’s Sweet Corn 1 pt (frozen): sweet corn, butter, salt, sugar; Polano Peppers & Corn Salad (otherwise known as a blast of summer salad!)
- Broccoli 1 qt (frozen): blanched broccoli; Ham & Broccoli Quinoa Bites
- Zucchini 1 qt (frozen): shredded green and yellow zucchini; Chocolate Zucchini Bread
The weather outside is frightful, but my kitchen is so delightful…
We have so many wonderful items to put into the boxes throughout the winter! Many thanks to our crew last season who worked so hard in the field, and in the kitchen putting away all of this food for us to enjoy during the winter. Creating our winter shares takes planning and effort during an already busy summer season, but we think it is well worth it to offer all the different flavors and colors of the summer all year long.
I had a hard time restraining myself with this CSA delivery, so much that the box this week is literally overflowing. The main issue was with the size of the long island cheese pumpkins which have been stored in the root cellar waiting for this very moment. Use them as you would a butternut squash. The texture is very fine once cooked and quite delectable. I have a recipe linked above for a stuffed squash by Dorie Greenspan, Around My French Table. This fall, Mercedes and I simply ate one of these pumpkins out of the oven by the handfuls it was so good.
I hope our trial of offering a flexible CSA Soup option was user-friendly. We will have to make some minor adjustments next week to the process, but it seemed to work pretty well on our end. One of our issues is that we are now preserving and offering so many items that the overall value of our winter CSA share has grown beyond what we charge per box, by over 20%. So enjoy the abundance this winter as we try to figure out the best way to proceed for next season. Any feedback or ideas are welcome.
If you are new to our CSA, please be sure to find BOTH of your boxes at the CSA pick-up site. One box is frozen items, and the other box contains non-frozen items. The frozen boxes are set outside, or in a freezing area, of the pick-up site and the nonfrozen box is kept in a warmer or inside location (sometimes under blankets to help keep them from freezing). Be sure to bring a box, crate, or bags to transfer your items into and leave the boxes, neatly unfolded in a pile, at the pick-up site. Because there are deli containers of frozen soups, you may find a box or crate lets you pack these items without tipping them over.
Eat Well. Smile Often.
Your Farmer,
Heather