It is really getting dark early now after daylight saving's time, but it was a beautiful sunset and dusk tonight before it got dark. We are now done planting and mulching our garlic, and we planted a little field of tulips in front of the farm stand that hopefully should be making beautiful blooms next April. I am brainstorming about some winter projects, like reorganizing the farm stand and improving the irrigation system. Aside from a few rough patches, and a handful of pest issues this Fall, we have really had a great growing season this year. It was so warm, it's actually kind of hard to plan for next year now, not knowing if it will be another year like this, or a more normal Spring and Summer.
Hope you're enjoying the last of the Fall shares! We've got two more nice ones planned for you before we go into our Winter hibernation.
Delicata squash- More of our tasty delicata squash. They are so easy to use- I'm cooking some for dinner tonight and I'll tell you what I did. I cut the ends off, and then split the squash in half long wise and scooped out the seed cavity, and then sliced the two halves into half inch crescent shaped pieces. I put them in a large, hot cast iron pan and stirred them with some salt, olive oil, chili powder, garlic, and maple syrup. Then I added a bit of water and put a lid on it to let it steam for five or ten minutes. After that I removed the lid and put the whole pan in the oven at 350 degrees to finish cooking for 20 minutes or so. I wasn't following a recipe, and we haven't eaten it yet, so I hope it's going to be good!
Carrot- No surprise here, as promised the carrots keep coming. I have been eating a bunch of carrots lately, as I'm guessing you have too. We had them just plain steamed in a steamer basket and with a tiny bit of salt with dinner last night, and it was really tasty on a Fall night. Nico likes them the same way, but hold the salt.
Cauliflower- The beautiful Fall cauliflower is back in your share this week. I didn't want to give you cauliflower three weeks in a row, so we skipped last week and I was worried we wouldn't get rid of it all. I think we wholesaled over 175 lbs though! So with any luck we won't have any going to waste.
Celeriac- This is an unusual vegetable you may not be familiar with; also called celery root, it is very very similar to celery, but it has been cultivated to grow a great big root rather than having taller, more tender greens. The tops are still great for soup or stock, as you would use celery, but are too tough for fresh eating. The roots are surprisingly easy to use; use a knife or a peeler to cut off the outer skin, and the inside is crisp, juicy and tender, with a flavor like celery but a texture similar to kohlrabi or even apple. If it is sliced very thin or grated, it is tasty raw on a salad. Or it can be roasted or steamed like potatoes. Here are some celeriac tips from who else but Martha:
http://www.marthastewart.com/274202/celery-root-recipes#184425
Watermelon radish- These are a cool winter radish not too different from the black radishes in your shares a few weeks back. The Flower Cafe was serving a salad with these radishes a few months ago that everyone was crazy about, and people were asking us for watermelon radishes, but ours weren't ready yet! I'm not sure exactly what the salad was, but here's one that looks good:
http://www.williams-sonoma.com/recipe/radish-salad-vinaigrette.html
This calls for using the radishes raw and thinly sliced, but they can also be roasted or steamed or souped like other Fall/Winter veggies.
Fennel- These nice, smaller fennel bulbs were planted in late Summer as a bit of an experiment, and they have grown pretty well.. while the bulb is somewhat small, the green fronds are nice and can be used as an herb! A Fall salad with celeriac, fennel and apple may be in the making...or here's a recipe for fennel and celeriac soup, that you may have to halve....nice looking blog!
http://www.feastingathome.com/creamy-celeriac-fennel-soup/
Lettuce- I lied last week when I said you were getting the last of the lettuce in your share...I was surprised how much lettuce we still had in the ground, and this warm weather has meant it's continued to grow and size up. One more week of lettuce...maybe to use with the watermelon radish recipe posted above!
Garlic- Nothing too noteworthy here, the same batch of nice (I believe "Music" is the variety??) garlic from our friends at Deep Harvest. We planted over TWICE as much garlic as last year, so hopefully this time next year we'll be giving out our own garlic!
Thank you, as always, and have a great week. We'll see you on Thursday.
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