In the CSA Share this Week:
- Carrots
- Celery
- Eggplant
- Yellow Onions
- Sweet Peppers
- Red Potatoes
- Asian Pear Medley
- Lacinato Kale
- Acorn Winter Squash
On Rotation:
- Broccoli
NOTES ON THIS WEEK'S HAUL:
Celery: Nothing says "hope springs eternal" like Valley Flora celery. For twenty years I've been trying to figure out how to grow big, fat, juicy heads of celery like the ones from California that you see at the grocery store. We've tried everything: trialing countless different varieties over the years; giving it twice as much water as anything else (celery is a bog plant and likes a ton of h20); layering on extra compost; using drip irrigation versus overhead (overhead was a disaster last year when the entire planting got a water-borne foliar disease in the middle of summer and bit the dust). If the goal is grocery store celery, I still haven't cracked the code. But if the goal is flavorful and fibrous, we're acing it. For some reason, what comes out of the Valley Flora fields is not so much your blanched, mild, plumped-up, ants-on-a-log stuff; it's more like a crunchy herb that makes great soup base. All to say, this would be my kitchen tip of the week: skip the cream cheese and use your celery as the foundation for your next scrumptious dinner by making a killer mirepoix instead.
Sweet Peppers: Our outside pepper production is hitting its peak so you're seeing new red, orange and yellow sweet Italian peps this week. All the peppers you've received to date have come spilling out of Bets's greenhouses, but those have tapered off in perfect timing with our outdoor planting. Peppers are my favorite food, so I'm one happy little pepper pig these days. :)
Asian Pear Medley: Fun stuff, you're getting all three of our currently-ripe-n-ready Asian pear varieties this week - so you can run your own little taste test and decide which is your fave! The light yellow one is Nijiseiki (same as what you got last week). The darkest copper-skinned one is Chojuro, with rich butterscotchy flavor and denser flesh. The more freckled gold one with a copper blush is Yoinashi, which has some of the best traits of Nijiseiki and Chojuro combined (juicy and refreshing with great depth of flavor).
Winter Squash: The first in our winter squash lineup for Fall, you're getting two kinds of Acorn squash: Night Shift (the dark green one with the orange spot) and Starry Night (the colorful speckly one). There are lots of things you can do with Acorn squash, but honestly I tend to revert back to the most simple of all: lobbing them in half (careful you don't lob off a limb in the process!), scooping out the seeds, and baking them face down on a cookie sheet in a puddle of water until soft and steamy. Then grab a spoon, delight in watching a pat of butter melt in your Acorn boat, and scoop away.
LAST WEEK OF ABBY'S GREENS SALAD SHARES!
Sad but true, this is the final delivery of Abby's Greens Salad Shares this week. You should be able to continue to find her greens at the farmstand, the Langlois Market, McKay's in Bandon, the Port Orford Co-op and maybe Coos Head (?) as long as the season allows.
NEW FALL FARMSTAND HOURS: WEDNESDAYS ONLY FROM 11:30 to 2:30
As of this week, our farmstand is now operating on a Wednesday-only schedule for the remainder of the season (until mid-December when we close for winter). Remember, you can place a pre-order for farmstand goodies, or feel free to drop in and shop any Wednesday, 11:30 to 2:30 (the only exception is the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, November 26th - we will be closed that day). Some seasonal items are not available for pre-order, like winter squash, pumpkins, tomatoes, zucchini, etc, but we keep the display well-stocked so you can grab those items when you arrive.
Thanks for supporting the farm, whether you're a farmstand shopper, a CSA member, a co-op/grocery store customer, a restaurant diner, or all of the above! We wouldn't be here without you all!
xoxo
