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The FINAL Week!

Beet Box -

The FINAL Week! Tetsukubotu Squash!
Thanks for eating locally from our family farm!
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What's Cookin' on the Farm...
  • The Grand Finale for 2018!
  • Share your Feedback with Us!
  • 2019 CSA Sign-ups
  • Tamales this Week!
A huge Thank You from the Valley Flora crew! Not pictured: Cleo (age 7), Evan (Saturday deliveries), and Cora, Maggie and Beth (farmstand). What a team!
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What's Probably In Your Share This Week:*
  • Carrots
  • Onions
  • Beets
  • Celery
  • Green Cabbage
  • Tetsukubotu Squash
  • Bunched Asian Greens
  • Parsnips
  • Potatoes
  • Radishes or Turnips
On Rotation:
(Some locations will receive it this week; others in a future week)
  • Nothing this week...
*Harvest Basket contents may vary between pickup sites in a given week depending on what's ripe and ready on the farm. Don't worry - if something is on the list but not in your tote, you'll get it soon!

The VF Crystal Ball - What Might be in your Share Next June...
  • Lettuce
  • Strawberries
  • Kale
  • Mint
  • Broccolini
  • Asparagus
  • Arugula
  • Radishes
  • Cherry tomato plant
The Grand Finale!
I have this problem anytime I leave town, where I pack ridiculous quantities of vegetables into a cooler or snack bag to take with me. Then, far from a fridge, I find myself under the inevitable pressure of perishability and there I am again trying to eat a whole pound of sunflower shoots in the car before they go bad, or crossing my fingers that my veggie stash will make it past TSA at the airport. It's a food security disorder, probably diagnosable, stemming from some semi-irrational/semi-well-founded fear that there is nothing real to eat once I leave the sphere of the farm. So I take my veggies with me. Everywhere I go.

The last week of the CSA season is kinda the same for me, but it's your food security that I am fretting over, not my own. I want to pack you every last stick of long-keeping produce I can fit into a Rubbermaid tote in hopes of staving off your first trip to the grocery store for as long as I can. Giant green cabbages? Stuff 'em in there! More parsnips? YES! Potatoes, carrots, radishes, turnips, beets (it'll all store well in your fridge)! Onions: great for weeks if not months in a cool, dry spot. And that Tetsu winter squash? Well, we were still eating them last June after nine months of storage, so no pressure there!

For those of you who are coming along for the Winter CSA ride, starting January 9th there will be plenty more produce coming your way to see you through until next June. For anyone who isn't signed up for the winter season but who might want to stock up here and there, our farmstand will be open starting January 9th, every other week in conjunction with our Winter CSA pick-up in our barn (we'll post a farmstand schedule in the new year).

I hope this last tote feeds you well into December, and I hope that every time you tuck into that giant cabbage you'll think of us and know how grateful we are to you for being one of the essential bricks that make up our farm's foundation. Our CSA members are the bedrock of our farm in so many ways: financially for sure, but you also buoy our spirits, motivate us to innovate, and inspire us to get better at what we love to do each year. That's an enormous gift. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts.
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Share your Feedback!
We'd love to hear any feedback you have about the season. There's no formal survey to fill out, but if you're inspired send us an email and let us know what you loved, what you didn't, what you want more of, or what you never want to see in your CSA tote ever again (raise your hand if you already miss eggplant?!).

I crunched the numbers and this year the value of the produce in your 28-week share added up to $980, based on our farmstand prices. You paid $800 for that produce, which means you got to enjoy a 22.5% discount on all the food you took home as a CSA member this season. I'm pretty sure that's the largest seasonal discount we've ever seen in the past ten years, thanks to some great yields in certain crops and expanded crop diversity throughout the season!
The Harvest Basket mostly hovered above $30 in value all season, with a few spikes upwards of $45 in August and September. Good job eating your vegetables, everyone!
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2019 CSA Sign-Ups
It'll be June before we know it with summer's bounty upon us again, but whaddya say we take a few weeks to rest and digest the 2018 season before we think about that? I promise to send out a sign-up email for the 2019 Summer/Fall CSA Season in January. Anyone who was a member this year will automatically get priority for next season, so there's no need to put yourself on our waiting list. Many of you have been with us since 2009 when the CSA first began, a whole decade ago. Amazing! We are so lucky to have committed supporters like you, who bravely do kitchen combat with giant kohlrabis and bumpy-skinned squash. They should make an action film about you guys!
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Tamales this Week!
It's your last tamale delivery of the year. A big thank you to Juana for the 2,100 tamales she made for everyone this season!

Remember to grab your labeled dozen from the marked cooler at your pick-up site this week!
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The Farmstand is Open for Winter Hours!
Every Wednesday 10 am to 2 pm, rain or shine!
(No more Saturdays until next June)

Fresh Produce
Homemade Jam & Hot Sauce

Please bring your own bags and u-pick containers!

Please note our hours are slightly changed from year's past, closing at 2 pm instead of 3 pm
 
For Recipes & Cooking Inspiration:
 
Valley Flora Recipe Wizard
Our own collection of recipes gathered over the years.
 
Epicurious
A vast collection of recipes, searchable by one or multiple ingredients
 
Full Belly Farm
Recipes from one of my favorite farms in California, pioneers of the organic movement since the 80s.

Farm Fresh to You
A storehouse of recipes, searchable by ingredient.
 
Helsing Junction Farm
A Washington farm that has a good collection of seasonal recipes geared toward CSA members.
Copyright © 2018 Valley Flora, All rights reserved.


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Get high-quality, low-cost produce on campus with Fresh FAVs - Illinois State University News (press release) (blog)

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Illinois State University News (press release) (blog)
Get high-quality, low-cost produce on campus with Fresh FAVs
Illinois State University News (press release) (blog)
The program is similar to a community-supported agriculture (CSA) program* in that produce is bundled together for convenient pickup each week. Since Fresh ... *Please note that produce available through Fresh FAVs is high quality, but not organic or ...

Organic Grower Summit Announces Thaddeus Barsotti as Grower of the Year Award Recipient - And Now U Know

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Organic Grower Summit Announces Thaddeus Barsotti as Grower of the Year Award Recipient
And Now U Know
MONTEREY, CA - The Organic Grower Summit is nearly here, and among events not to be missed is the honoring of this year's Grower of the Year. California Certified Organic Farmers (CCOF) and the Organic Produce Network (OPN) announced they will ...

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Clemson to launch weekly farm market and expand research at campus farm - Clemson Newsstand

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Clemson Newsstand
Clemson to launch weekly farm market and expand research at campus farm
Clemson Newsstand
Calhoun Fields, or The Bottoms as it is commonly known, lies between Hartwell Lake and Perimeter Road on the Clemson University campus and is the location of Clemson's Student Organic Farm and Community Supported Agriculture Program (CSA). It is also ...

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