What's in the box? 

Radishes
Sweet Onions
Green Onions
Delicata Squash
Garlic
Savoy Cabbage
Broccoli or Cauliflower
Sweet Peppers
Cucumber
Lettuce
Tomato
Carrots (medium and large)
Green Top Beets (medium and large)
 

Notes on the box. 

Tomato, Garlic, and squash should not go in the fridge, but everything else should.  Remove tops from roots of radishes and beets for best storage.  Tops of both are edible. 
The recently endless rains have caused for quite a bit of disease on our second planting of cucumbers, making the harvest very light.  The rain also pools on the leaves of things like cabbage, nappa, bok choy, and it can pool on the top of the broccoli making for shorter shelf life or bad leaves on the inside for the plants.  We try to catch these things, but sometimes they are not visible until you cut into the vegetable.  Apologies for any quality issues that may come up. 
The first squash of the season!  The skin of Delicata squash is tender and edible.  Enjoy!  There will be more squash on the way. 
Wrong once again about the green beans.  I know I've said this for the last 2 weeks, but here's another...  green beans next week.  Hope they are good, that's an awful lot of anticipation for some beans!!

Cosmic Wheel Creamery Cheese Share.

This week we have two addictive cheeses!  Tarazed is crumbly and salty and makes for a great snacking cheese.  I love it with a red ale.  It's also good to shred on top of stuffed peppers or stuffed squash.  And cheese curds!  Have you tried putting a few into a bowl of chili or veggie soup as you serve it?  They soften and are a wonderful addition.  

Recipes.

Stuffed Delicata Squash (you can sub cabbage or beet greens for kale in this recipe)

Parmesan Herb Roasted Delicata Squash

Roasted Radishes

Creamy Cucumber an Radish Salad

On the Farm.

Harvest Party will be on Sunday, September 25.  We will gather starting at 2 and enjoy potluck food.  Farm will provide meat and cheese and roasted squash.  Join us for Farm tours, meeting animals, and pulling your own carrots and seeing veggies in the field.  There is plenty of space for free ranging kids and others to explore.  If you have any tractor fanatics in your family, they will not be disappointed! 
 

Oh no!  What's going on with the romanesco?!  So much planted, but it's not looking good.  Put on tiny heads too early and are now bolting.  Heatbreaking. 

cabbage toss

beautiful day in the cabbage patch!

cheese curd bliss

Have you discovered eating peppers like apples?  Highly reccommended! 
 

Ginger Bug and Tooya!

What's in the box? 

Salad mix
butterhead lettuce
vitamin green
broccoli
carrots
bok choy
napa cabbage
cucumber
radishes
sweet red peppers
garlic
sweet onion
cilantro
heirloom tomato (large and medium)

Notes on the box. 

Greens are back!  It was a very rainy and muddy harvest, so be sure to give everything an extra rinse/ wash to get rid of any lingering dirt. 
Cilantro was a little late to the party, so maybe if you still have some tomatoes you can add it to a salsa.  If not, try the asian slaw recipe below or add to tacos or fajitas made with the lovely red peppers and onion. 
Greens should all be stored in plastic bags in your fridge.  Remove tops from radishes before storing. 

Cosmic Wheel Creamery Cheese Share. 

This week is plain quark and Antares, our cows milk manchego, aged 4 months.  Made back in May when the grass was just really getting going!  It's a good melter or good for snacking.  I like the quark on a fancy little sandwich with cucumbers or radishes.  It's also nice to mix in your favorite herbs and dollop onto salmon on scrambled eggs at the end of cooking. 

Recipes.

Harissa Red Pepper Carrot Soup

Thai Quinoa Salad (you can substitute napa for red cabbage in this recipe)

Sesame Choy Sum

Bok Choy Fried Rice

Peanut Slaw

Make room in the fridge by making this kimchi! 
1 large Napa cabbage, cored and chopped into (roughly) 2 inch pieces
2-3 Tablespoons unrefined salt
some radishes, carrots, and turnips, thinly sliced
minced garlic (we like at least 2 cloves)
knob of ginger, peeled then minced or grated
1 teaspoon fish sauce (optional)
1 teaspoon crushed red chili pepper (optional or add more to taste)

Take a leaf off of the outside of the cabbage and set it aside.  Place cabbage pieces in a large bowl, sprinkle salt on the leaves, then toss to distribute well. Allow to rest 30 minutes as the salt pulls moisture from the cabbage.  Using clean hands or a wooden pounder, gently mash the cabbage leaves to further release juices.  Add in the remaining ingredients and combine well. Transfer the kimchi mixture to a sterilized quart-sized wide-mouth jar, pressing down with a wooden pounder or your hand.  Pack the jar so that more brine juices are released. Your goal is to fill the jar just up to 1-inch below the lip, allowing space for expansion.  Cut or fold the reserved outer leaf to fit on top of the mixture and press it down so that the brine is above the leaf.  If your cabbage did not exude very much moisture, you may need to add a little filtered water to the finished product so that the brine is above the kimchi ingredients.

Loosely cap the jar and place out of direct light in a dish to capture liquid that may bubble out of the jar as it ferments.  Allow to ferment for 3 to 21 days (warmer temperatures make fermentation happen more quickly.  The longer the kinchi ferments, the more pungent it will become). Add/remove brine if the level is not maintained at 1-inch below the lip of the jar. You should see occasional tiny bubbles rising along the inner sides of the jar as the veggies begin to ferment.  After 3 to 21 days, move the kimchi to the fridge. Serve with beef, chicken, pork, eggs, as a condiment with rice.  

The ideal household temperature for vegetable lacto-fermentation is 72 degrees. Fermenting may occur more slowly at cooler temperatures and more quickly at warmer temperatures
Enough salt in the ferment should keep mold from growing on your kimchi.  Lacto-fermenting is considered to be a very safe technique for preserving foods but, when in doubt, throw it out. 

On the Farm.

We didn't get greenbeans in the box this week.  :(  They hadn't *quite* sized up enough and we were a little short handed this week and the rainy muddy weather makes for a slowed harvest time overall.  Next week is looking promising, though. 

As mentioned in last weeks blog, the harvest party will be Sunday September 25th!  Mark your calendar! 

Another lovely lettuce shot

This is what harvesting has been looking like.  Wet wet wet and muddy. 

Cheese! 

This is one of our heifers (a young cow who has not had a calf yet) doing a voluntary practice run through the milking parlor. 

What's in the box? 

cantaloupe (large and medium)
cucumbers (large and medium)
scarlet turnips (large and medium)
broccoli (large and medium)
sweet red peppers
tomatoes
bok choy
butterhead lettuce
kale
sweet onions
garlic

Notes on the box. 

This will be the last of the melons this season.  We are pretty bummed about another less than stellar crop this season, especially since we made some changes to our growing in an effort to assure a good crop after last season, but we will certainly be reviewing our varieties and trying again next season.
This is the start of our second planting of cucumbers.  There will be more in the coming weeks. 
As promised, tomatoes are winding down.  The field tomatoes have had their time and are all done.  You may get an heirloom or two from the greenhouses, but tomatoes are on the way out.  Late blight has been found nearby, so we went ahead and mowed and harvested the potatoes which can also be affected by late blight.  Potatoes will be coming in CSA boxes soon. 
Are you already swimming in peppers?  We cut them up and put them in Otto's lunch box and he actually eats them!  Sadie will eat them (all of them if we let her) as a snack without even cutting them up.  If you like they are also super easy yo freeze!  Just core them and dice them and put them in a freezer bag.  I add them (still frozen, no need to thaw) to sautes and stir fry in the Winter. 

Cosmic Wheel Creamery Cheese Shares.

Fresh Cheese Curds!  let them come to room temp to experience the "squeak".  Also included is Arcturus.  It has a lemony flavor and a texture reminiscent of cheese cake, both creamy and crumbly.  Enjoy! 

Recipes.

Spicy Peperonata
*you can make this not spicy by omitting the chili flakes
1/3 cup olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 Tbsp chili flakes (adjust amount to desired heat)
4 large sweet red peppers (or more meduim/small ones) thinly sliced
3 cups sliced sweet onions
1 Tbsp fresh thyme
2 Tbsp fresh oregano leaves
2 Tbsp capers
3 Tbsp red wine vinegar
salt and pepper to taste
In a large skillet, heat 3 Tbsp oil over medium heat.  Add garlic and chiliflakes and saute for 1 min.  Add peppers, onions, and thyme and reduce heat to medium.  Saute until peppers are tender (about 6 minutes).  Add capers and the rest of the oil.  Saute another minute.  Transfer to a bowl.  Add vinegar to skillet and reduce by half (won't take long).  Add vinegar over peper mixture and stir in oregano.  Season with salt and pepper.  Serve with pasta and ricotta or on a crusty bread with cheese. 

Quick Beef and Bok Choy Bowl

Sesame Kale Glow Bowl

Roasted Red Pepper and Walnut Dip

On the Farm.

Harvest party date is set!  Looks like we are going to have the party on Sunday, September 25th.  Mark your calendars!  It will be a daytime party this season.  We normally have the party on Saturday, but this year three of us are off the farm at markets on Saturday morning leaving just Josh with the kids to set up and get ready for the party.  We decided we would all like to pitch in, so we will have the celebration on a Sunday.  We look forward to having you out at the farm! 

It's looking like fall out here!  Sumacs are turning red and fruiting crops are winding down.  We will have lots of peppers until frost comes, though.  Tomatoes will be sparse from here on out.  Wet weather seems to be the norm and the plants really do not like it.  It makes for a short season, but hopefully you have enjoyed a few weeks with abundant tomatoes and can enjoy a couple more with a little less.   Fall crops are looking nice!  Looks like a fantastic crop of winter squash.  Really nice butternuts out there!  Those will be in boxes soon.  Next week we should have green beans (finally!!) and carrots coming in abundance along with broccoli and leafy greens. 

Some pictures this week!  Yay!
 

beautiful crop of lettuce

peppers getting their bath

view from the packing shed

kale harvest

Sadie helping out

still growing!