This Week's Harvest:
- Leeks
- Potatoes
- Acorn Squash (from Genesis Growers in St. Anne, IL)
- Asian Cabbage (Tokyo Bekana)
- Carrots
- Kohlrabi
- White JapaneseTurnips
- Dill (farm pickup only)
- Parsley (off-farm pickup only)
The Summer Season Comes to an End
This is the final week of the Summer Vegetable Share and the Summer Egg Share. Growing healthy food for our community is a privilege that we enjoy more with each passing year, and we are grateful to all who have participated in our 2012 program. This week in your CSA boxes you will receive an end-of-season letter. Though we are not actually at the end of the season yet (the 6-week fall share starts next week), I wanted to keep everyone up to speed on what's happening behind the scenes. I've reprinted the letter here:
Dear Members,
This is the final week of the Summer Share and we wanted to give you an update on how this season has been going. We would also like to fill you in on the exciting changes that will be taking place during the coming year.
As you know, farmers throughout the country struggled to bring their crops to harvest this year due to record heat and drought. While we certainly weren’t immune to the challenges posed by the weather, we feel like we handled things pretty well. We irrigated round the clock throughout much of June and July, and we made the decision to focus our efforts on heat-loving crops (tomatoes, cucumbers, beans, etc) when it became clear that the crops that prefer cooler weather would be going on hiatus for a while. We are proud to have brought you beautiful boxes every week all season long.
Looking ahead to the coming months, our focus will continue to be on growing and harvesting produce for the fall CSA season. At the same time, we will be adjusting to some big changes in our personal and professional lives. Most of you know that we (Matt, Peg and kids) have moved to the 40-acre farm we own in Brodhead, Wisconsin. We have owned the farm for 2 ½ years, and in that time we’ve had a chance to make some improvements to the house, get to know the neighbors, grow some beautiful vegetable crops, and practice our shepherding skills! Over the next several years we will expand our vegetable production in Brodhead to about 15 acres. We believe that Brodhead’s sandier soils will enable us to improve our production of crops that have been a challenge for us in Grayslake. This list includes peppers, eggplant, potatoes, sweet potatoes, pumpkins, winter squash and onions. Alongside the vegetable acreage, there are 12 acres of pasture for our sheep and chickens.
An equally important development is that we have gone into partnership with another farming family. We've known Jeff and Jen Miller for about 7 years, and Jeff has been our farm manager at Prairie Crossing for the last two. Jeff and Jen and their two little boys, Owen and Gavin, have recently moved into the farmhouse at Prairie Crossing, and they couldn’t be happier. Our new partnership will allow us to keep production of some of our crops at Prairie Crossing. In addition to overseeing the production of a dozen different vegetable crops (beets, carrots, turnips, garlic, radishes, salad greens, tomatoes, broccoli, cabbage, kale) the Millers will manage our flock of laying hens and oversee the packing and distribution of CSA shares.
The four of us will run the two farms as part of one business called Sandhill Family Farms. We will start using the new name later this fall. Sandhill Family Farms will continue to provide you with the very best eggs and organic produce we can grow. In addition to vegetables, fruits and eggs, we will introduce several new share options for 2013. Since each pickup site will be staffed by an employee next year, we will be able to offer perishable items such as fish, meats and dairy products.
Not only will we offer a wider variety of foods, but we will also offer a longer season. Deliveries will start April 17th—two weeks earlier than in the past. Because of the longer season and the additional product offerings, you will have greater flexibility in designing your own payment plan in 2013.
We are currently working on updating our website to reflect our name change and to include information on our new product offerings. We will also switch to a new online ordering process for 2013. Registration will begin in November once the changes to our website have been completed. We’ll be in touch again at that time.
Thank you for the opportunity to grow your food. We couldn’t do it without you!
Fondly,
Peg and Matt Sheaffer
Jen and Jeff Miller
Notes from the Farm Kitchen
We love
white japanese turnips for their mild, sweet taste and their soft texture. They can be sliced, grated or chopped for use in raw salads. They're also delicious when cooked in a little butter and then lightly salted.
Each year we work with Vicki Westerhoff of Genesis Growers to provide winter squash for our CSA members. Vicki and her crew began the winter squash harvest last week. Acorn is one of the first varieties to come out of the field, so that's what will be in your share this week. I love
acorn squash because its shape naturally lends itself so well to stuffing. In addition to stuffing, you can prepare acorn squash in a number of other ways. Try slicing it in rings and roasting it with a maple syrup glaze. You could also roast acorn squash halves and then scoop out the cooked flesh for use in soups. Another favorite around here is to bake the squash and then use it to make quick breads and muffins.
Leeks are a highlight of the fall kitchen. I'm especially thankful for our wonderful leek crop because our storage onion crop was pretty much a complete bust this year. We rarely have the kind of crop failure that we did with storage onions this year, and it's pretty frustrating. We're going to move next year's onion crop to the Brodhead farm to see if that makes a difference. In the meantime we'll be cooking a lot with leeks this fall and winter. Fortunately, leeks are pretty versatile. There are the classic recipes, such as potato-leek soup, in which leeks play a prominent role, but they can also be a great stand-in for bulb onions in regular, everyday recipes. There's really no reason to be intimidated by them or to seek out recipes that call specifically for leeks. I just chop them up and use them whenever I would otherwise use a bulb onion.
Next Week's Harvest (our best guess)...spinach, onions, mushrooms, tomatoes, rutabaga, napa cabbage, lettuce, radishes and more!
