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Week 27 of 28 from Valley Flora

Beet Box -

Week 27 of 28 from Valley Flora Happy Thanksgiving!!!
Thanks for eating locally from our family farm!
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What's Cookin' at the Farm...
  • All CSA Pick-Ups on WEDNESDAY this week!
  • Turkeys Gone Wild
  • Parsnips
  • Farmstand is at the Barn for the rest of the Year!
One of the turkey Toms strutting his stuff on the farm, having very successfully passed on his genes this season up Floras Creek...
 
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What's In Your Share This Week:*
  • Shallots
  • Brussels sprouts
  • Carrots
  • Celery
  • Rosemary
  • Parsnips
  • Yellow Potatoes
  • Kale
  • Butternut Squash
On Rotation:
(Some locations will receive it this week; others in a future week)
  • Radishes
*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 FINAL share
  • Yellow Onions
  • Carrots
  • Beets
  • Red Cabbage
  • Celeriac
  • Radicchio
  • Winter Spinach
  • Potatoes
  • Kabocha Squash

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ALL CSA Pick-Ups on WEDNESDAY this Week!
It's Thanksgiving week! (The reason we know that, irrefutably, is because tomorrow - our biggest harvest day of the year - we're supposed to get torrential rains and high winds, a longstanding Thanksgiving harvest tradition at Valley Flora! There's many a tale of digging last-minute parsnips by headlamp in sideways rain and oozy mud, and pickup trucks getting abandoned in the field (oozy mud), and boots getting sucked off our feet (yes, oozy mud) - all on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving. Wish us luck. :)

This week we are delivering every single CSA tote on Wednesday, November 27th, including Bandon and Port Orford. As a result, there is no CSA delivery on Saturday, November 30th. If you are a Bandon or Port Orford member, please mark your calendars and set a reminder to pick up your food on Wednesday next week, not Saturday!

Pick-up times will be as follows:
  • Coos Bay: unchanged, Wednesday 12 pm to 7 pm
  • Farm: unchanged, Wednesday 9 am to 4 pm
  • Bandon: Wednesday, 11 am to 5 pm
  • Port Orford: 9 am to 5 pm
We will resume our normal delivery pattern the week of December 2nd (Wednesday 12/4 and Saturday 12/7). That will be our 28th and final CSA distribution for the season.

A well of gratitude to everyone for your support of the farm this season. Happy Thanksgiving!
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Turkeys Gone Wild
If anyone has yet to procure a turkey for their Thursday table, might we suggest a free-range, organic wild turkey from Valley Flora? We've had a few turkeys lurking about for years, but the population exploded this season: We currently have at least three distinct roving bands at the farm, totaling around 70 birds. They've eaten their weight in cover crop seed this fall, have developed a worrisome taste for low-hanging apples and strawberries, and have made the artichoke patch their favorite dust bath hang-out. Worst of all, I fear the neighbors think I've lost my marbles because on a daily basis I'm reduced to the lunatic behavior of chasing after them, screeching, screaming, flapping my arms, zig-zagging around the farm: yes, officially, that crazy lady up the creek.

I'm sure it's some karmic retribution for every turkey I've joyfully partaken of at the end of November, but I'll admit: this many cocksure wild turkeys are a little hard to swallow. If you're interested in helping bring the population into slightly better "balance," let us know: turkey season is open through the end of December, limit two birds per person says ODF&W... :)
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Parsnips
For better or for worse, it was a laughable year for parsnips. We grew more than ever and harvested fewer than ever, thanks in part to some voracious rodents who tunneled their way down the rows and ate them from the bottom up. The joke was on us when we starting digging them last week and discovered nothing but air beneath the tops (yes, they left the tops, just to rub it in a little more). What that means for you is fewer parsnips this week than expected (still enough to make a side dish, at least).

It seems like parsnips fall into that same vegetable category as beets and fennel: people either love them or they hate them. For me it's both: I really enjoy eating them, seasonally, but I don't love growing or harvesting them (our veteran CSA members have heard all about my thwarted attempts to divorce parsnips for good, but here I am, still embroiled in a semi-disfunctional relationship with a root crop). I don't seek them out if they aren't at my fingertips, and once we run out on the farm, that's it until next fall for me. But while they're here, I do love eating them. In addition to the recipe I posted last week (Roasted Winter Squash and Parsnips with Maple Syrup Glaze and Marcona Almonds), there is a wonderful parsnip soup recipe from Six Seasons: A New Way with Vegetables by Joshua McFadden: Parsnip Soup with Pine Nut, Currant, and Celery Leaf Relish. If you don't own the cookbook, you can follow this adapted version online.  It's sweet and creamy and tangy and nutty and excellent, which unfortunately proves the parsnip worthy of all the headache. Enjoy.
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November/December Farmstand Hours
 
Every Wednesday, Rain or Shine
Located at the Barn
(a half mile beyond the usual location)
10 am to 1 pm


Fresh Produce
Homemade Jam & Hot Sauce

Please bring your own bags!

Directions to the Farm
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.
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