What's in the box?

• onions
• potatoes
• carrots
• butternut squash
• spinach
• collard greens
• turnips
• cabbage
• brussel sprouts
• broccoli (a few people got bulk carrots instead because we ran out of broccoli)

Notes on the box. 

Fingerling potatoes are so yummy.  My favorite way to cook them is to roast them.  But to make them the very best way, par boil them whole and THEN cut the bigger ones in halves or quarters and leave smaller ones whole.  Finish them by roasting in the oven in a cast iron skillet and top with lots of butter at about 450 until the outsides are browned and crisp.

Spinach is sweetened by the frost now and sweet.  Great for fresh eating in a salad or for cooking.    We washed it, but always suggest another washing to be sure there's no dirt.

Collard greens are also frost sweetened and nice.  The greens just get better when the weather gets cold.  

Cheese shares.

It's lasagna time!  Spinach and this ricotta together is sure to make a nice one!  Or Butternut squash lasagna.  Yum.  I love making ricotta when it's cold out.  The milk has to be heated to 180 degrees before the acid is added to coagulate the milk into the ricotta.  The whole cheese room gets very warm and toasty.  Sometimes I really miss being out in the field, but being inside on these cold days makes me feel very lucky! 

And Antares, our cows milk manchego.  A favorite, for sure. 

Recipes. 

Butternut Spinach Lasagnain case you can't decide on one or the other!

Japanese Cabbae Pancake  Uses 6 cups of cabbage, that will make a dent in your cabbage supply

Braised Cabbage

Pan Roasted Turnips and Carrots

Large dice turnips and thick coin carrots.  Heat a pan over medium heat with some oil of your choice.  Add turnips and carrots and saute for a few minutes.  Add a splash of water or stock and cover.  Uncover and stir occasionally until carrots and turnips are fork tender.  When they are, uncover the pan and turn the heat up to allow water to evaporate and edges of turnips and carrots to caramelize.  You can add some crushed garlic, crushed red pepper, butter, soy sauce, and honey or any combination of those if you like.  Otherwise you can season with a little salt.  The veggies are so tasty they don't need much dressing up! 

On the farm.

It's snowing as I write this.   

It got cold!  It got the kind of cold that once you get cold, you don't feel warm for the rest of the day until you get a hot shower.  Damp and misty cold.  The kind of cold that calls for more coffee! And soup, stews, braised food, and going to bed early. 

We hope you keep your oven going with these veggies and stock pile what you can't use for later.  Stay warm and stay dry out there! 

Sadie enjoying the Wintery mix before the snow started

What's in the box?

• Onions
• curly kale
• broccoli
• bell peppers
• salad mix
• salad turnips
• red romaine hearts
• carrots
• Kennebec potatoes
• Butternut squash
• storage cabbage

 Notes on the box.  

Remove tops from carrots and salad turnips before storing in a plastic bag in your fridge.  Turnip tops are edible.

Onions, garlic, squash, and potatoes should not be stored in the fridge.  Potatoes should be stored in a dark place (a paper bag works well) and ideal temp is 45-55 degrees, but room temperature is fine, too.

The storage cabbage is great for sauerkraut or kimchi. It will store for at least a couple months in your fridge.  

Greens and broccoli should all be stored in a plastic bag in your fridge.

Recipes.

Autumn Miso Peanut Soup with Butternut and Kale

Saute 1 diced onion, 1 peeled, seeded, and cubed butternut squash, some minced ginger, and minced garlic in oil or fat of your choice until onions are translucent.  Add a pint or more of chicken or vegetable stock, cover, and reduce heat and steam until squash is tender.  Stir in one bunch of de-stemmed chopped kale (or bok choi, chard, or broccoli).  Cook until greens are wilted and turn heat to low.  Add a few spashes of soy sauce.  In a seperate bowl, mix a big glob of peanut butter and 2 Tbsp. Miso with very hot water until miso and peanut butter are dissolved.  Mix peanut butter, miso with vegetable soup.  Add more liquid if the soup seems too thick.  Serve over brown rice or soba noodles.  

Six Ingredient Potato Sausage Kale Pie

Squash and Chickpea Moroccan Stew

One Pot Cabbage Casserole

Miso Broccoli Sweet Potato Bowl (substitute squash for sweet potato)

Cheese shares.

Two cheeses this week.  The cheese with the little bit of tape with grass on it is a Gouda type made in early May when the cows were eating a rye cover crop. The other cheese with the diamonds on the tape is a tomme type that is 3 months old.   

On the farm. 

The weather has been feeling like December in Texas out here.  Not to cold and very humid. It's a bit disconcerting, but it's kind of nice to not be harvesting with frozen fingers.  The 2016 garlic has been planted and mulched.  Our crew is now just Josh and Haley and Rachel for harvesting and packing these last few boxes and milking the cows and taking care of the chickens.  The pigs and lamb have all been brought into the butcher.  Cheese is still being made since the cows are still on pasture.  It's been an outstanding year for grazing!  Other than that, it's pretty quiet on the farm, but still busy. 

Just a reminder, if you haven't signed up for a Foxtail Farm Winter Share, we highly suggest you check it out!  And if you have signed up, we are excited to be offering an optional cheese addition to their Winter Share.  The grassy cheese will be a nice reminder of warmer days and will help to warm you up(along with a glass of wine) during the cold days ahead!

planting garlic for next season

Sadie helping

mulched!

washing taters

tallest kale plant ever!  (or maybe shortest farmer?)

Turnip Rock!

Final week of the main season! 

What's in the box? 

medium share

• garlic
• onions
• peppers
• hakuri (aka salad) turnips
• carrots
• brussels sprouts
• dino(lacinato) kale
• broccoli or cauliflower  
• yukon gold potatoes
• diakon radish
• cabbage (savoy for small, storage for medium and large)
• winter squash (butternut for medium and large, acorn or sweet dumpling for small)
• salad mix (medium and large)
• vitamin green (large)

small share

Notes on the box. 

It's the last box of the main season! 

Diakon radish will hold in your fridge for quite a long time.  It is great to use in kimchi or shredded and added to salad. 

We had to take the brussels sprouts off the stalks to fit them in your boxes. They are best roasted in your oven or on the stovetop.  Bacon and brussel sprouts?  YES. 

Cheese Shares.

I ran out of the waxed paper that I usually wrap the cheese in and had to use plastic wrap. 

The yellower cheese is a variation on an English style cheese.  It is aged two and a half months and tastes like Summer to me.  Great all purpose and snacking cheese. 

The cheese with the quilt design tape on the wrapper is our gruyere type aged 6 months.  It goes perfectly with roasted vegetables or melted into any kind of galette, grilled cheese sandwich, or to top off a chunk of bread on french onion soup.   

Did you know that if you signed up for a Season Extension, you can get cheese and eggs added on to that?  YES!  So if you would like to add that, please let us know and we can add it to your account. 

Recipes.

please check back! 

On the farm.

We are wrapping things up and very grateful for the warmer weather to harvest and pack the last box of the main season.  Sam had his last day with us last Friday and Ben and Dana will be heading off at the end of this week.  Haley will stay on to help out with the season extension shares (last chance to sign up!).  We can't say enough about how great the crew has been this season.  Super strong, competent, resilient, thoughtful, and fun people picking and packing your produce this season.  They also planted and tended to each seed, weeded the crops, helped with problem solving, and caring for animals on the farm.  We cook and share lunch together and live in a family style setting all season long.  It's a very challenging job and takes adjustment as a lifestyle.  Farming certainly isn't for everyone, but we could confidently say that anyone on our crew this season is fully capable and would make a great farmer! 

There is a survey in your email and we hope that you will take some time to fill it out and let us know how the season went for you, what you would improve upon, and any other thoughts you might have.  This season we took out the section about quantities of each individual crop.  It is so subjective and in the past we have had a quarter of respondents saying "too much", a quarter saying "not enough" and half saying "just the right amount" of any given crop.  We will continue to try to grow the best quality possible and include usable quantities of vegetables each week.  We DO need to hear about any quality concerns that you may have had so that we can improve.   We did have a few instances of boxes toppling over in the back of the delivery van and crushing peoples tomatoes and possibly bruising other veggies.  We are looking into tote style boxes for next season.  We will have to find something affordable that works with our share sizes, but hopefully that will happen for next season.  We also know that the melons were pretty spotty as to good and bad ones this year, and that some of the radishes in the spring were overgrown.  Please do let us know of any other areas of improvement that we can work on! 

Overall, I'd say this was a pretty good season.  The spring was great with perfect weather.  The Summer was okay with some sudden cold weather that threw us and some crops for a loop.  Then the warm fall came with way too much rain during what is normally the driest part of the season, so that has been a little difficult.  But we didn't have any major pest infestations, we are noticing the effects of the soil building and improvement that we have been working on, we are working out systems to gain efficiencies, and we are still and always learning and adapting. 

We've been really pleased with the feedback that we've gotten on the cheese and happy to have the resturants and stores that we've brought it to be very receptive.  Raw milk cheese from 100% grass fed cows is quite rare and we hope that the choices that we make in raising our animals and in the cheese making process are noted for how unique they are!  Starting a new business and learning the ropes for marketing cheese has been full of learning and challenges, but we are loving it all and will continue to develop this side of our business in hopes of creating a balance and harmony on our farm between our lands fertility needs and our animals and our own work load.

We will be holding off on 2016 signups likely until January.  Don't fear, though!  Our previous members always get first dibs on shares and we will let you know as soon as we are taking sign-ups!  If you are a returning member, you will ALWAYS get priority in signing up. 

Also, we will be emailing you periodically to let you know about Winter farmer's markets that we will be attending with some storage crops and with cheese.  We are planning on making some gift baskets for the holidays for pickup at the markets, so be on the lookout for that! 

We are so grateful for your support and commitment this season.  We would not be here without it!  Thank you for your contribution to relocalizing the food system, supporting our small family farm, and for voting with your forks and dollars for an environmentally sustainable and just agriculture! 

Thank you for letting us be your farmers!