Recipe: Creamy Dill Dressing / Sauce

Summary: Dill is great in salad dressing and for veggie dips. Dill also complements salmon and other fish dishes very nicely.

Microformatting by hRecipe.

Recipe: Moorish Chickpea and Spinach Stew

Microformatting by hRecipe.

We are very proud to say that you will have two greens in your box this box. This is the longest we’ve ever been able to provide greens! The spinach has been growing since September in our hoop house, and its nice and sweet. The tatsoi was also grown in our hoop house. This is a wonderful green. We like to call it bok choy’s baby cousin. Just like bok choy, you can stir-fry this green or use it in soups. It has a crunchy, edible stalk, and tender leaves.

The rest of the items in your box are the regular cast of root and storage veggies. As always, see the recipes on page 2 to get some cooking ideas. Don’t worry if you can’t use one of your roots right away – many of them will store for several months. They may sprout a bit if they’ve been in the fridge a while, but your roots will keep. Many years Mike and I will beets and carrots and the like still in our fridge when the following season’s crops come in! It’s amazing what a plastic bag can do to protect your veggies for a long period.

In other farm news, it looks like we will still have some carrots, potatoes, and a few other root crops to sell in the new year. We have decided to do an additional storage share in the early winter. It will most likely be a two box share with pickup at the farm only. We will send out information via email as soon as we have it all put together.

Meanwhile, we will begin taking registrations for the 2010 Summer & Winter CSA beginning January 1st. Registration should be up online by the end of this week. For those of you on the near west side of town, you’ll be pleased to know we’re adding a dropsite nearby Whole Foods for next season. Hopefully that will bring more convenience to some of you.

With this box comes a close to the 2009 season and things start to slow down a bit for us. We are able to walk (ski) out in the snow covered fields and reminisce on the many hours of labor that went into the season. Overall this was by far the best year we have ever had as a farm and as a family. To this we really have you, our members, to thank for supporting us and allowing us to make a living farming the way that we do. When we started the farm 5 years ago we really didn’t know where it would take us and if we would ever be able to make a living farming.

After the last two successful seasons we are really counting our blessings and looking forward to many years of providing you with high quality vegetables.

Our best wishes to you and yours. Happy holidays, and we hope to feed you again next year!

Sincerely

Mike, Cassie, Zea and Crew

This week you will be receiving rutabaga. This is a round root crop around baseball sized. It’s best stored in a plastic bag in your fridge. Its appearance is similar to the celeriac you received in the past, except this one won’t be quite so knobby. Rutabaga are white colored with purplish shoulders. In general, rutabaga is great for roasting, mashing, and soups.

See recipes on page 2 for some cooking ideas. If you still have a celeriac, the soup on back calls for both celeriac and rutabaga. Try it!

Also new in your box this week are beauty heart radishes. These are one of our favorite winter treats. These roots are white on the outside with green shoulders. Inside they are a gorgeous magenta! They are a beautiful accent to any salad for both the eyes and the tastebuds. These radishes are best raw, and have a very mild, sweet taste – not nearly as spicy as a summer radish.

Another fun treat in your box this week is spinach. Each of you will get just over a half pound of these sweet leafy greens. Spinach absolutely loves colder weather – the colder the weather the sweeter the leaf. This spinach was grown in our hoophouse. There it is protected from the winds, resulting in extra tender leaves. Spinach is great for so many things – sandwiches, salads, quesadillas, omelettes, etc. With these sweet leaves, we encourage you to think past savory dishes too. Early spring and late fall spinach is fantastic for smoothies too. Blend with frozen fruit for a nutritious snack!!

In this week’s box, many of the root veggies that you receive will already be bagged (like beets, carrots, and radishes). This time of year, when things really slow down and we have less labor at the farm, we bag many of these vegetables several days before the pack. It is quite possible that some

of the bagged items you receive will have some condensation inside the bags. This condensation can encourage the growth of root hairs over time. So for long term storage it’s a good idea to take the veggies out of the bag, wipe off any moisture and root hairs, and then rebag into a dry bag (or let the one we gave you dry out).

Of all the storage veggies you receive, the squashes will store the shortest amount of time. Remember to keep your eye on them and prioritize their use (butternut squash makes excellent pie by the way!).

Last but not least, despite our best efforts, some of the kennebec potatoes may have some green spots on them from sun exposure. While these spots are usually only skin deep and don’t affect the rest of the potato, you should avoid eating the green bits by shaving or cutting them off the rest of your spud.

Enjoy!!!!

Sincerely

Mike, Cassie, Zea and Crew