Posts in Delicata Squash
Week 14; September 17, 2015

What's in the box?  

Medium Share

Medium Share

  • bell peppers
  • onions
  • potatoes
  • vitamin green
  • salad or scarlet turnips (medium and large)
  • cauliflower or broccoli
  • musk melon or cantaloupe
  • lacinato kale
  • sweet dumpling winter squash (large and medium)
  • acorn winter squash (large and medium)
  • delicata winter squash (small)
  • sage
Small Share

Small Share

Notes on the box.  

More of the likely underripe melons.  If they don't smell ripe yet, allow them to sit on your counter until it smells sweet and fruity.  Or you can try them in a more savory recipe like the Cantaloupe, lime, chili salad below.  Or in a recipe that adds more sweetner, like a sorbet or a smoothie.  

You may have quite a pile of potatoes adding up.  My favorite way to cook them is to cut into large dice, par-boil them until just fork tender, drain them, put them into a cast iron skillet with lots of butter and salt, and roast until browned in a 450 degree oven.  If they don't al get eaten at dinner, they are great added to scrambled eggs in the morning.

Vitamin green is also known as choy sum.  It's good added at the very end of a stirfry or added to soups.  

Winter Squash season has begun!  Your squash does not need to be stored in the fridge.  You can set out and start making a festive fall arrangement as you work your way through these beauties.  We will be giving Winter Squash through the remainder of the season and we have several different types.  But the cooking of any of them is pretty much the same idea...  Carefully cut the squash in half from stem to end.  Scoop out seeds.  Place cut side down onto a greased or oiled baking dish.  Add a little water to the bottom of the pan (about 1/4 to 1/2 inch deep water).  Bake at 400 until you can easily stick a fork into the squash through the skin (20- 40 min depending on the squash).  Serve with butter.  All of the squash this week (sweet dumpling, acorn, and delicata) have skin that is edible, though the acorn skin can be tough.  Squash with edible skin are great for slicing into thin cresent shapes, coating with spices (chili powder, curry, cumin, or whatever you feel like) and roasting.  I'll link a recipe below.

Cheese Shares.

This week we have a young jack style cheese we are calling Aquila.  It tastes clean, milky, and grassy with a creamy paste.  It's very easy to eat!  

the glow

the glow

Want to try our cheese at an exciting spot in Minneapolis?  GYST fermentation bar just got a couple of wheels from us to add to their amazingly gorgeous cheese plates.  Yay!  

Recipes.

After School Cantaloupe Smoothie by Otto

Remove seeds and skin from 1/2 a cantaloupe.  Chop and put in blender (you may chop and freeze and then use frozen for an icy cold smoothie).  Add a scoop of honey or vanilla yogurt, or plain yogurt and add honey to taste.  A pinch of cinnamon or cardamom (optional).  Add milk.  Debate adding peanut butter, but decide against it.  Blend until smooth.  Yum!  

Chili Lime Cantaloupe

  •  medium cantaloupe
  • 2 Tbsp fresh lime juice (about ½ lime) 
  • 1 Tbsp honey 
  • salt to taste 
  • crushed red pepper to taste
  1. Cut the cantaloupe in half and scrape out the seeds with a spoon. Cut off the rind. Once the rind is removed, slice the melon into thin pieces.
  2. In a medium bowl, combine the lime juice, honey, salt, and crushed red pepper. Stir until the honey is dissolved.
  3. Add the sliced cantaloupe and toss to coat the melon in the dressing. Serve immediately, or chill until ready to eat. Give the melon a brief stir before serving.

Cheesey Baked Cauliflower Tots

Roasted Salt and Pepper Delicata Squash (you can also use sweet dumpling or acorn)

On the farm.

Ahhh, transitions.  We are transitioning into fall, and the weather has been all over the place.  It was so hot and humid, then suddenly cold and super rainy, then warm again...  We have had plenty of rough Springs, but this season, Fall seems to be hitting us with some disease, crops lost due to too much rain or overtaken by weeds when it was too wet to cultivate,  and uneven ripening.  This morning, we've had close to 2 inches of rain since 2 AM already, so things aren't looking good for our already waterlogged spinach.  During the thunderstorms last night, there was also some hail.  We haven't been out to the field yet to see the damage, but hopefully it's not too bad...  we have spinach, lettuce and salad mix, radishes, cauliflower, greens, broccoli and cabbage out in the field that we are hoping didn't get too beat up.  In the coming weeks we will also Winter Squash, onions, garlic, potatoes, greens, and peppers for as long as the frost holds off.  I think in the blog last week I said there were 4 weeks left, but it's actually 4 more after this weeks delivery.  Still plenty of veggies to come!  

The farm party will be next week, September 26th.  We really hope you can make it!  We will provide meat and cheese and ask that you bring a side or desert to share.  Feel free to BYOB.  Kids and guests are welcome!  Unfortunately, our dogs aren't friendly with other dogs, so we ask that you leave your fur family at home.  

Gold and orange on the farm this week...

Week 15; October 2, 2014

What's in the box?  

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 pak choi

delicata and sweet dumpling winter squash

bagged spinach

head lettuce

broccoli

bell peppers

onion

green top carrots

cauliflower

Single Share

pak choi

delicata or sweet dumpling winter squash

bagged spinach

head lettuce

bell peppers

onions

carrots

cauliflower

arugula

Notes on the box...  

We've been enjoying spinach everyday this week.  It's so versatile, you can throw some in a soup at the very end of cooking, you can add it to lasagna, you can use it as a raw salad green, you can simply steam them down into a silky tender bunch of emerald goodness.  We hope you are enjoying it, too.  If you can't get through it in the week, you can steam it down freeze it in a freezer bag for later use.  

 Winter Squash can be stored on your counter until you are ready to use them.  The skins of both of these varieties are edible, but it is thinner, so the squash may not keep as long as other varieties.  Slicing and roasting these varieties together makes for a beautiful dish.  Recipes are below.  

Always remove the tops for your carrots when storing so they don't become soft and bendy.  Though, if you have soft, bendy carrots and tops, you can use them for soup stock.

Recipes...

Lots of roasted vegetable recipes links this week.  It's oven on weather!  

 Miso Harissa Delicata (and/or sweet dumpling) Squash with Carmelized Onions

Roasted Delicata (and/or Sweet Dumpling), Pomegranate, and Arugula Salad

Sriracha Cauliflower Bites with Peanut Dipping Sauce 

Spicy Roasted Pak Choi

A raw soup recipe for our vegan raw friends...  Our backyard mushroom logs are really popping, so we will be having a quick, cooked version of this soup with canned coconut milk.  Raw Coconut Pak Choi Spicy Soup

Italian Spinach Orzo Soup 

On the Farm...

Hey!  It's time to sign up for Winter Shares or, if you'd like to, sign up early for next season!  We put a flier in the box explaining why we really need you to go ahead and sign up for next season if you enjoyed this season.  This will be the online paragraph with the same information:  

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The last box of the regular season will be on October 23rd, just 3 weeks away.

If you are enjoying your Turnip Rock Summer CSA, we invite you to join us for 4 more weeks added on to the end of the growing season.

You can sign up for a Winter Share online that will deliver a full size box every Thursday at your usual pick up site from October 30- November 20th (the week before Thanksgiving).

The crops will be cold sweetend greens like lacinato and curly kale, collard greens, spinach, salad mix, brazing mixes, arugula, and head lettuce. Also storage crops like Butternut, Acorn and Pie Pumpkin, brussel sprouts, carrots, onions, beets, cabbage, and daikon radishes among other goodies.  

The cost of the Winter Share is $152 for 4 weeks and is a full size box. Many veggies store well into the winter with little extra care.  We have only 40 spots still open. So if you are interested, please sign up soon!  You can sign up by going to your account and adding the Winter Share, or you can simply email us (turniprock@gmail.com) and we will add it to your account for you.  

 Also, while you are there, we encourage you to reserve your spot for 2015 by going to your account and signing up for next season, with a minimum payment of 1/5th of your total. Egg shares sell out fast and the best way to get one is by signing up early.  We will not be expanding our CSA!

We need your support this fall as we are building an AMAZING cheese share option that no other CSA will have.  There will be very approachable farmstead, raw milk, aged cheese, and super fresh squeaky cheese curds made right here on our farm and going right in your box! We will keep you posted on progress, but we need an infusion of cash to complete our cheese making space to get it up and running in time for next Spring!  Your early sign up and signing up for a Winter share would help greatly!  Please contact us with any questions.  

MANY THANKS!  Your farmers, Josh, Rama and Turnip Rockers

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Signup
Signup

To add the Winter Share, go to your accountand press the Add Subscription button.  The Winter Share option should show up.  To sign up for 2015, you can go to your account, choose the season "2015" and then add a subscription.  If you have any trouble at all or any questions, please let us know!  There's often hiccups when we first put this out and we will try to fix any of them quickly!  

If you are splitting a share and want to sign up on your own next season, You can also follow this link to sign up for 2015.

As returning members can use the coupon code RETURNIP for a discount on your share, if you'd like to!    If you are a dropsite host, you will have a different discount code that will be emailed to you.  

Signing up early ensures that you will be charged this seasons price, if we find we need to raise the price of the shares.  Egg share options are first come first serve and we aren't expanding our flock!  Also, If you think you can handle the amount of veggies included and you easily went through your half share, please sign up for a full share! Thanks!

Picture time!

We took advantage of the last of the warm sunny weather that we saw in the forecast and enjoyed some puddle play in the packing shed.

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The weather cooled off at the beginning of the week and the leaves colors keep getting better and better.  The oaks are just starting to turn bronze.  Fall is so beautiful this season!  

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It was a cold, windy day and we found a cute garden gnome out in the field!

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We were shorthanded as a flu took down a couple of our employees.  We called in for reinforcements.  Thanks for helping out, MJ!