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October 17, 2005
Seasonal eating with CSA
This is going to the last hurrah for two favorite crops. This will be the last of the raspberries for CSA. It will be red, gold or a mixture depending on what is looking the best that day. Berries this time of year are very full of water and fragile. Plan on eating them right away. This is also the last week that we will be able to guarantee good haricot vert. Again, the beans harvested this late in the season have a shorter shelf life than those harvested in peak season. They are very slender, tender and exquisitely flavored. The small shares are getting an extra produce variety this week so everyone can get this last chance.
We are also providing you with "Happy Rich" Broccoli, which is very similar to the kailaan you received last week. It is a new variety that we are testing and we are very interested in your feedback. You can read more about it and give us your opinions here.
Mache is a European salad green with a slightly minty flavor. It is making an appearance in the large shares this week and makes a great salad with apples. Our sweet onions finished a few weeks ago, so now we are offering yellow storage onions from Desert Ridge Farm.
We are giving traditionals both bok choy and fennel this week because they are looking great now but will not survive if we get an early frost. After much deliberation, we decided to go with some of the more fragile crops this week to ensure that we don't miss any opportunities. Later today, Brett will be blogging about the challenges of this transitional time of year if you are curious to learn more about how we decide what and when to pack crops for the traditional boxes.
One of the biggest benefit to being part of a CSA is developing a relationship with a farm. We take your participation as an investment in the farm and want to make sure you benefit from that investment. One of the ways that we do that is to provide you first dibs on additional produce. Sometimes we are confronted with produce that is second quality, most often due to weather damage. When available we will be offering this to our CSA customers for no or minimal charge on a first come basis. This week we expect that some scarred or blossom rot tomatoes will be available. Just cut off the damaged area and enjoy the great taste of vine ripened tomatoes. If any such produce is available, it will be in a marked box next to the name labeled boxes.
Small
1/2lb salad mix, 2 yellow onions, 1/2 pt raspberries, 1 bunch Happy Rich Broccoli, 3/4lb haricot, 1 bunch fennel, 1 bunch baby bok choy and 1 bunch gold beets
Medium
The same as small with additional salad, onions, Happy Rich and haricot. Plus cabbage.
Large
Same as the medium with additional salad, onions, haricot, fennel, bok choy and beets. Plus mache and gala apples.
*****NEXT WEEK: Everyone will get a pumpkin!*****
Posted by Christine at October 17, 2005 02:13 PM
CSA