Last Box, #22, October 20, 2011

Items In Your Box This Week:   

Garlic

Mixed Onions

Butternut Squash

Romaine Lettuce

Sweet Potatoes

Carrots/Parsnips

Red Potatoes

Sunchokes

Winter Red Radishes

Radishes

Tomato

Spinach

Herb: Thyme

The last box of the 2011 season is here. We hope you have enjoyed the last 21 weeks of produce and have enjoyed being members of our farm.  Thank you for choosing us to be your Farmers for the season. We wouldn’t have the farm without you. Thanks for all the great emails and posts during the season. We have had a lot of fun and feel like it was our best season yet. We could have done without the extended heat and humidity wave we had in August, but we pushed through it and had a great end of the season. It seems Mother Nature keeps following us each year and throwing some wrenches into our plans.

            You will be getting an email in the next few days with a survey monkey link. Please take a couple minutes and fill out the survey for us. We do read them all, and we do listen to what you have to say. You will be receiving an email in early January about the 2012 growing season as well.  If don’t want to wait until January or already know you will be joining up again, you may send us a check to hold your spot for next year. Just post date it 1/1/2012. We will not cash them until next year and it will hold your spot for veggies. $150 will hold your spot.

            Let us know if you have any questions or need any more suggestions with how to use the rest of your produce. Check out the storage tips on the back and thanks again for a great year. Also, check out www.shopthehouse.com if you are interested in cooking classes this winter in Stoughton. Andy will be teaching another few over the cooler months and they usually sell out fast.

            We hope you enjoy your last box!

Kelly Bratt & Andy Watson, Sprouting Acres

The invite below may sound familiar but no we didn’t forget to erase it from last week’s newsletter. It turns out that some of the hoophouse pipes that were originally delivered to the farm were the wrong size. By about 1/4”. The new pipes are now here and we are going to give it another try this Saturday. We would love as much help as we can get.  Here it is…..

If anyone is looking for a good way to spend Saturday afternoon, come on out to the farm and help us erect our new hoophouse. There will be plenty of jobs for everyone. Drilling, holding boards, connecting pipes, enjoying the nice weather, and then enjoying a home made meal by Andy, drinks included.  We hope some of you can make it. We will start around two and we stop  at five. Then eat. Let us know if you are coming so we can plan accordingly.  

Storage Tips

Autumn is the time for storage crops. You will be getting a few in the box this week.

Butternut squash should be stored in a cool dark place. A basement is perfect, but just in the pantry works as well. Butternuts actually get sweeter the longer the store. The smaller squash should be eaten in the next month or so.

Sunchokes should be kept in the bag they are in. They will last for months in the crisper as long as they are in bag. For freshness, they should be eaten in a month or so. Recipe to the left.

Sweet potatoes should be eaten in the next couple weeks or so. We dug ours late because of the season and did not have time to properly cure them for storage. They can stay in a paper bag in the pantry or basement until use.

Carrots/Parsnips should stay in the bag they are in. They can be stored in the fridge for a couple months.

Radishes, small ones should have greens removed, and stored in a bag for a week or two. The large ones,(loose in the box) are a different variety. They are winter radishes and will store for a month or so in a plastic bag in the fridge. They can be eaten just like a radish but they are much sweeter and great on salads or pickled.

Onions/Garlic should be stored in paper bags or mesh bags but kept away from light. If you want to slow down the onions and garlic from sprouting in late winter if there are any left, toss them into the fridge. For now, they can sit on a dark, cool shelf or in the basement.

Herbs can be kept in the fridge in a bag or hung up to dry. Once dried, toss them into a ziplock bag and then to pantry.

Our winter red radishes have bright fuscia-pink flesh. These are sweeter than most radishes & are stunning grated or sliced on salads. In China they are treated more like a fruit & eaten like an Asian pear.

Here is a recipe for pickled radishes from Mother Earth News…

Here is a general recipe that can be tweaked to your liking:

Quick Pickled Radishes 

1 1/2 cups radishes 

10 fl oz vinegar 

10 peppercorns 

2 teaspoons salt 

2 teaspoons sugar (optional, or use honey, stevia, etc.) 

1 small onion 

1 bay leaf 

Slice up radishes and onion. Bring vinegar, peppercorns, sugar and salt to a boil.  Place radishes, onion and bay leaf into a clean mason jar.  Pour vinegar mixture over radishes.  Refrigerate overnight.  Makes 1 pint.  So delicious! 

Sunchokes are a tuber in the sunflower family and once cooked, they have a mild artichoke flavor. They can be eaten raw as a snack or on a salad but they really shine when cooked. Here is a recipe…

Roasted Sunchokes

Ingredients:
2 to 3 large sunchokes, sliced 1/4-inch thick
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 sprig of fresh rosemary, leaves removed
3 to 4 cloves of garlic, peeled and left whole

Preparation:
Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F. Scrub the sunchokes under cold running water and slice 1/4-inch thick. Add the sunchokes and garlic to a roasting pan or baking sheet and toss with the olive oil so the bottom of the pan and the sunchokes are lightly coated. Add more olive oil a tablespoon at a time if you don't feel like the vegetables are coated enough, but not too much; you don't want them swimming in olive oil. Sprinkle with the salt and rosemary. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, until the sunchokes are tender inside, like a potato.