The Weekly Dig Newsletter

October Ninth

This is Week 19 out of 20 summer share deliveries.  Next Wednesday will be the final Summer Share delivery of the season.  We will then take one week off with no delivery and before we deliver our first Fall Share box of the season on Wednesday, October 30th.  Fall Shares are an additional share you must Sign Up for if you would like the vegetable boxes to continue coming your way.  There is also a Thanksgiving Share box (1 time box) that is delivered on Tuesday, November 26th. 

For the superstar, committed, local, organic vegetable lovers, The Fall Share and Thanksgiving Share boxes at the end of the season are delivered in much larger boxes, 1 1/9 bushel boxes, stuffed with larger quantities of storage produce like 5lb bags of carrots, 5lb bags of potatoes, 3lb bags of onions, 3lb bags of sweet potatoes, a variety of winter squashes and other storage gems like beets, storage radishes, Brussels sprouts, cabbage and more!  Everything that keeps  well either at room temp or in the fridge. 

All of these vegetables require so much work and preparation.  I must tip my hat to you all!  You have made it through a midwestern summer consuming mostly local produce!  You have (hopefully) stretched your comfort zone and made better friends with some of the vegetables that you previously struggled with or didn’t know what to do with.  You ate ultra-fresh produce picked just hours before it made it your countertop free of bar-codes, stickers, and semi-truck flavors. 

You managed to eat seasonally.  You ate your asparagus, radishes and lots of tender lettuce this Spring.  You ate lots of yummy melons, sweet corn, green beans and tomatoes this summer and now that we’re fully emersed into Fall you’re eating your Brussels sprouts, celeriac root, potatoes, sweet potatoes, and winter squashes.  Your truly a locavore if you eat Brussels sprouts off the stalk in the fall!  I’m so proud of you! 

I’m reading a book called Atomic Habits right now where the author, James Clear, talks about how create new healthy habits or move away from old habits that aren’t serving you well anymore.  I love the way he talked about making new habits ‘easy’.  Eat just 1 vegetable a day.  Or cook just 1 healthy meal at (insert time) in (insert place) to remove ambiguity and hold yourself accountable to do it.  Of course my vegetable farmer brain goes right to thinking about how to help people 1) make time for cooking their vegetables and 2) eat their vegetables; even the ones they thought they wouldn’t like or wouldn’t know what to do with. 

I also liked how he talked about giving yourself small rewards for doing the new habit you want to create.  Like pouring yourself a glass of wine while making dinner.  Or getting to listen to your favorite podcast while making dinner.  Or getting to sit down and play your favorite word game or video game or crossword puzzle after you have made dinner.  For me the reward would simply be getting to eat the delicious home-made dinner.  Or getting to eat that delicious cheese I bought at market with my dinner.  

He also talked about surrounding yourself with the kinds of people you want to be like.  Make your friends foodie-friends.  Make friends with people who love to cook.  Share recipes.  Have friends for dinner and hold yourself accountable for cooking those veggies!  My guess is that since you signed up for a CSA farm, you WANT to eat your vegetables.  But have you eaten them?  I sometimes hear stories about how much food goes to waste when people sign up for a CSA and it breaks my heart!  It makes think about how part of my job is to help you get those veggies into your gut. 

I’ll leave you with one of Jame’s Clear’s habit tips which is the ‘Law of Least Effort’.  Make eating your vegetables so easy you cant avoid it.  Buy hummus or sour cream dip to just dip your raw veggies into.  Leave them in obvious places where you must look at them, eat them or take the with you.  Do not pack them away in your crisper drawers and forget about them.  For some of you, eating your veggies is no burden.  It is no task at all.  You are my hero.  Sadly we have become a culture that loves fast, convenient and easy.  Preparing nutritious home-made meals can be fast, convenient and easy, but with some vegetables, it might take more intention, preparation and time.  For anyone who struggles to eat their veggies, don't give up!

What's in the Box?

Tomatoes-  5 lbs per member but we sometimes had to pull one or tomatoes out of a box in order to get them closed during packing this week.  Tomato production is gearing down finally.  We had our first frost this Sunday night, but somehow the tomatoes and peppers did not get frosted.  There was only frost on the low grass.  So we'll keep picking and sharing through week 20 this year!  Allow unripe tomatoes to sit on the couter until they are ripe.  Do not refrigerate.   

Peppers- 2-4 peppers per member depending on space in the box at packing time!  

Pumpkins-  One pie pumpkin per member this week.  These pumpkins can certainly be cooked up!  Slice them in half lengthwise, discard (or save) the seeds, and place them in a baking bag face down with a little water and cook for one hour in a 350 degree oven. 

Thyme-  One bunch of tyme for your fall cooking!  If you can't use it all at once, unbunch and allow to dry or dehyrdate in a warm oven.  Once dry cumble the leaves off of the stems and store leaves in a mason jar with an air tight lid.  

Brussles Sprouts-  Did you know that Brussels Sprouts are spelled with an 's' at the end of the brussel?  Yes!  One time someone reveiewing our websute sent me an e-mail and told me I had mis-spelled Brussels Sprouts, but alas, I do know my vegetables, they are indeed 'Brussels Sprouts' and not 'Brussel Sprouts'.  We left the work of snapping them off of the stalk to you.  Snap your sprots off of the stalk and store the sprouts in a plastic bag in the fridge.  Do not let them sit out on your counter un-refrigerated.  

Sweet Potatoes-  2lbs sweet potatoes per member.  Sweet potatoes were just harvested last week and have been curing in an 85 degree room with as close to 100% humidity as we can get.  Did you know the skins are edible as well?  Our kids love it when we cook the small ones up and they can eat the whole sweet potato, skin and all!  Do not refrigerate.  Keeps best at room temp.  

Leeks-  1 leek per member.  Leeks are a nice addition to fall soups.  Eat the entire leek from the white part all the way into the green as far as you like.

Celeriac Root-  One of my favorite old-time storage veggies.  Celeraic has so much flavor, character and unique-ness it has stood the test of time.  Remove the greens and celeriac will keep for months in a plastic bag in the fridge.  But if you're ever wondering what to do with it, I love it just diced up and added to chicken noodle soup or mashed with potatoes for Cerleriac Mashed Potatoes.  

Broccoli-  One head of broccoli per member this week.  Keeps best when kept very cold in the fridge.  A plastic bag preserves moisture.  

Cauliflower-   One head of cauliflower per member this week.  Keeps best when kept very cold in the fridge.  A plastic bag preserves moisture.

Kohlrabi-  One kohlrabi per member.  Keeps best when kept very cold in the fridge.  A plastic bag preserves moisture.  

Cherry Tomatoes-  We put them in plastic clamshells this week because so many of them were wanting to split we thought they would be better protected in the plastic clamshells.  I don't love using the plastic, but sometimes it's necessary!  We can take them back if you want to send them back to the farm clean.  

 Next Week's Best Guess:  brussels sprouts, sweet potatoes, rutabaga, tomatoes, peppers, kohlrabi, fennel, parsnips, leek, butternut squash, broccoli or cauliflower, sage.  

 Recipes-

Best Brussels Sprouts Recipe

Celeriac Potato Hashbrowns witih Jalapeno and Cheddar

Home made Tomato Sauce

October Second, 2024

On week 18, as we reach the end of the season I am aware of everything it takes to bring all of this food to the table. I feel the responsibility of reminding you all about the people behind the food.  There is an arsenal of really hard-working and committed folks showing up early in the morning and working all day long in the heat, the, rain, the cold, or whatever unknown conditions may arise for the day.  
 
If I close my eyes I can imagine all of their hands, sometimes 10 pairs of hands, moving efficiently, swiftly, and smoothly at the same time while picking cherry tomatoes that roll into their palm while they pick a few more before they go back to their bin.  Many of them confidently reaching for fruit with their bodies moving and their minds carrying on a conversation while continuing to harvest, a surprisingly difficult thing to do. 
 
It’s interesting as well to watch new people, ones who bodies have not done these movements struggle to learn how-the way a child learn to holds a pencil or to balance on one foot.  At times there is an awkwardness to these primal movements that not everyone has learned.  How to squat, kneel, or ergonomically carry a bin or lift a bin or push a bin.  There is a strength in the body that needs to develop from working and walking on uneven ground.  A strength that needs to develop in the core, the legs, the back and the wrists and hands.  Strength needs to develop in the eyes, the feet, the knuckles, the shoulders.  Often times we are working with young people or people from vastly different backgrounds who are still stumbling into their capabilities.  

But the work is meaningful, and even though muscles get sore, the mind feels alive, the heart feels full and the gut activated.  This is what keeps them coming back.  
 
Especially admirable is that many of these people earn lower wages than many other American workers choosing to work for large companies, institutions, the state or the government or government subsidized contract work. This is just real, unsubsidized, small business work.  The job is seasonal and there are not a lot of opportunities for higher ‘growth’ in our small business.  So I humbly awknowledge these things publically while also grabbing the lime light and putting it on them for a minute so you can see the joyful, selfless, hardworking community members that contribute to your share.  I would wager that none of them are here solely for the paycheck.  There are benefits that go beyond the American dollar. The workout, the sunshine, the good food, the good company and the feeling of contributing to a community much larger than themselves.  For this they deserve recognition and so, so, so much respect!  

These also happen to be the people that make up our friend-group.  Of course our only friends are those who are closely related to the farm as neither Adam or I ever actually leave the farm unless it's related to one of the kid's sports or musical events.  They're our closest friends, our kid's friends, our extended community.  The people we call when we need help, and in turn we become the people they call when they need help.  Because asking for help is how we build community.  Never needing help or asking for help does nothing to build community.  On this day, at the end of a long season, with so many heavy harvests coming in, I am especially grateful for all of our fantastic help!  

What's in the Box?

Tomatoes-  4.75 lbs per member.  A reminder that we pick any tomato with a 'blush'.  This means we pick any tomato showing any signs of color at all because they ripen so fast once they begin to turn colors.  We recommend putting them out on your counter to ripen until they have reached the desired ripeness.  Do not refrigerate your tomatoes unless the are getting over-ripe and you need to buy yourself some time.  We also recommend removing them from the plastic bag as soon as you receive them.  Condensation can build up in the plastic bag and cause the tomatoes to go bad.  Herilooms of all colors, romas, slicers, oh my!  It's finally tomato season!  

Cabbage-  Artost is a lovely fall cabbage.  It is not technically a storage variety but Artost are pretty solid and will keep for awhile yet in the fridge. 

Acorn Squash-  A classic winter squash variety.  Will keep best on your countertop until you get a chance to use it up.  Do not refrigerate.  

Kohlrabi-  2 Kohlrabi per member.  You may have received two purple kohlrabi or one white kohlrabi and one purple kohlrabi.

Peppers-  4-5 peppers per box.  It seems like pepper production has peaked and some plants have had all of the peppers picked off of them.  There are still a lot out there, but some are a little smaller in size now.  Still all the amazing flavor and color that we love in sweet peppers.  Peppers freeze very well, just slice them up and stick them in freezer bags if it's too much for you now and enjoy them on home-made pizza this winter!  

Broccoli and Cauliflower-  1 cauliflower and 2-3 Broccoli heads depending on size and room in the box.  

Garlic-  A wide selection of garlic varieties went out this week.  One head per member.  

Mini-sweet peppers-  1/2 pound mini-sweets in a small brown paper bag in your box.  These are excellent snacking peppers.  

Onion-  One onion per member.  

Potatoes-  2 lbs gold potatoes.  We have had a very nice potato harvest this year!  Golds are nice for mashing!  

Next Week's Best Guess:  brussels sprouts, sweet potatoes, leeks, celeraic root, broccoli, cauliflower, tomatoes, peppers, winter squash, thyme or sage

Recipes

Creamy Roasted Red Pepper Pasta

Stuffed Acorn Squash

Broccoli Cheddar Potato Casserole

 Mediterranian Inspired Stuffed Tomatoes

September Twenty-Fifth

A fun picture of some of our very beautiful and handsome crew members this week!  So hard working and such lovely humans to know and to get to work with each week!  

The Fall Equinox rolled in in style this week with lightening that lasted for hours and rain and wind and cooler weather.  It was a dramatic shift in weather from the very warm and dry weather we had been having.  Fall is officially here and now it finally looks and feels like it.  It even sounds like it with the constant cricket chorus and the crows cawing now and again in the distance.  There is a quietness and stillness now as there aren’t as many bird songs in the trees. 

On the farm we are now harvesting many of the brassicas that we have been caring for all summer.  There were four successions of broccoli that were planted of the course of a month that we had planned to come on slowly over the course of the last four weeks of CSA deliveries that are now coming on all at once!  There was over 1200 broccoli this week which is enough to give everyone three heads!  The cauliflower is starting to mature as well.  There was enough this week to give everyone 3 heads of broccoli and 1 head of cauliflower.  50 people received 4 heads of broccoli instead of cauliflower.  With the cabbage, all the tomatoes and peppers and broccoli/cauliflower we had to leave out the winter squash and celeriac root because there wasn’t space in the box.  We will plan to still give these items over the course of the last few weeks of CSA deliveries!  There is a kohlrabi succession that is nearly ready for harvest that we simply could not fit in the box and will have to wait either in the field or the cooler until next week. 

The pepper plants are still cranking out loads of very beautiful and colorful peppers.  We think this may be our very best pepper year ever as we bring in two truck loads of peppers on harvest day.  We expect this to continue until frost gets here.  The tomato plants are also still giving truckloads of tomatoes.  Last week was the tomato peak and it will likely go down a little steadily until the end of the season.  We will get to continue picking tomatoes until frost gets here as well. 

As the season winds down we will share with you some of our favorite fall seasonal gems.  We will soon harvest our sweet potatoes and put them into the curing room.  We will have new fun offerings like Brussels sprouts, leeks, daikon radish, parsnip, kohlrabi and a variety of winter squashes we have not shared yet.  We are about half way done harvesting our potatoes for the year with 

Strangely this season feels so much like a prolonged summer it’s hard to believe it’s really fall.  Just three Summer Share CSA deliveries left?  Although the warmer weather this fall is very comfortable to work in, many of the cool-season plants we have planted are maturing earlier than expected due to the warm weather. 

Since last week’s newsletter we received 1 inch of rain and then another half inch of rain on Saturday afternoon and evening which has relieved us from having to do any kind of irrigating anymore.  We’re now feeling like we have enough rain for awhile and some dry weather for doing all of the fall root-crop digging would be nice so we’re not slipping and mucking in the mud for digging which is also hard on our equipment. 

Our annual Farm Potluck event was a success this last weekend as well.  CSA Members and community came to the farm for wagon ride tours of the farm, raspberry picking, pony rides, cider pressing, a potluck and live music.  The weather was perfect, the company was lovely, and the food was plentiful.  I feel like everyone who came had a good time.  The farm is almost done for event for this year. 

 This coming weekend we will host one more event of the season.  Two of our crew members, Sawyer and Ellena, will be getting married on the farm this weekend.  They are off this week busy preparing for a medium-sized ceremony and celebration to follow happening at the farm on Saturday night.  We’re so excited for Sawyer and Ellena and are honored to be able to support them in their transition into married life.  Sawer has worked 5 seasons on the farm and Ellena has worked 3 seasons here.  This will be the second wedding to happen on the farm other than when Adam and I got married back in 2011.  So far it seems to be good luck to get married here!  We feel so lucky to have such hardworking, dedicated

 What’s in the Box?

Potatoes-  2 lbs gold potatoes.  Freshly dug gold potatoes.  Many of the gold potatoes looked very nice this year.  There is noting like freshly dug potatoes for eating! 

Onion-  One per member. 

Tomatoes-  5 lbs per member.  A reminder that we pick any tomato with a 'blush'.  This means we pick any tomato showing any signs of color at all because they ripen so fast once they begin to turn colors.  We recommend putting them out on your counter to ripen until they have reached the desired ripeness.  Do not refrigerate your tomatoes unless the are getting over-ripe and you need to buy yourself some time.  We also recommend removing them from the plastic bag as soon as you receive them.  Condensation can build up in the plastic bag and cause the tomatoes to go bad.  Herilooms of all colors, romas, slicers, oh my!  It's finally tomato season!  

Peppers-  6-8 sweet peppers each!  Wow!  What a great week for sweet peppers!  They are loving the heat and sunshine for ripening.  Some thin-walled red peppers and some thick-walled red peppers.  The thin-walled peppers ripen earlier and faster and the thicker-walled ones take a little longer to ripen and come into season.  We also are sharing some thicker walled yellow and orange peppers. 

Hot Pepper-  Hungarian Hot Wax pepper tucked inside your tomato bag.  These ripen lime-green to orange to red and are very mild on the spectrum of hot peppers. 

Sun Gold Cherry Tomatoes- One whole pound of sun gold cherry tomatoes this week!  Imagine the hours it takes to pick 400 lbs of sun gold cherry tomatoes I love that we can give these in paper bags.  One less item that we need to buy plastic for!  Those little plastic clamshells are expensive and add up to a lot more waste! 

Broccoli and/or Cauliflower- There was enough to give everyone three heads of broccoli and one cauliflower except that we were 50 heads of cauliflower short of being able to give everyone 1.  So 50 people received 4 heads of broccoli!  Wow! 

Garlic-  A mix of varieties going out this week.  Garlic keeps well at room temp for months.  It also does just fine in the fridge for longer storage. 

Artost Cabbage-  Artost is a lovely fall cabbage.  It is not technically a storage variety but Artost are pretty solid and will keep for awhile yet in the fridge. 

Next Week’s Best Guess:  3-5lbs tomatoes, sweet peppers, onion, garlic, broccoli, kohlrabi, cauliflower, Yellow potatoes, cabbage?  Acorn squash? Cilantro

Recipes

Chicken and Broccoli Coconut Curry

Rigatone with Broccoli and Sausage

Broccoli Cheese Soup

Cherry Tomato Tart (to die for!)

September Eighteenth

On a farm like ours there are a thousand decisions that need to be made in a day.  Some decisions foreseen and prepared for.  Some spontaneous and unpredicted.  Some huge, pivitol and important.  Some tiny and insignificant.  Interacting with a crew of live and dynamic people all day, navigating their needs, sensitivities, strengths and preferences is one layer of management that requires a good decision-maker.  A farmer must also observe the crops and their needs and time sensitivities.  Good farmers can prioritize.  They must be present, in the field, and have the skill to make good choices.  Deciding what everyone will do, how they will do it, when they will do it, and then deciding who is the best person or crew for the job requires expertise. 

While I don’t consider us experts, we are certainly experienced.  We have 19 years experience running a CSA farm and many of the decisions we make on a day-to-day basis have been made here before.  I’ve had people say things to me over the years like, “So when are you going to hire someone to manage your farm for you?” Or “can’t you hire someone to manage the crew to take over the operation so you can have more time for family or scaling back?”.  I have spent a lot of hours thinking about this question.  While I’m sure this approach works in certain kinds of business, I’m not sure it would work very well on a farm like ours.  CSA Farming is too specialized.  It would require a unique young person with a burning desire to become a CSA farmer.  Someone good at multitasking and who doesn’t mind working insane hours.  It’s a labor of love.  No one gets into farming for the paycheck. 

The reason I can’t see hiring someone to do my or Adam’s job is that there are simply too many crops to mange.  You can’t just hire a farmer the way you can hire a clerk or a dishwasher.  A thousand hours go into just thinking about the day to day decisions on top of the action required to execute them.  Every day is different on the farm.  Every season is different. 

This week we had to make a hard decision.  Should we buy more drip-line?  Should we have one person work most of one day laying out the drip line on the fall brassicas?  Should Adam put in all the extra work running the pump to get water to the crops that need it if it might rain sometime in the next week?  Should we assume it’s not going to rain again soon?  Will it rain enough if it does rain?  It’s been a long time since we’ve had rain and it is now very hot and very dry on the farm.  What will happen if we don’t water the fall brassicas?  Will they size up in time?  Will they size up at all?  It’s late in the season to be irrigating.  We’ve never irrigated this late in the year before.  This is one tiny example of a difficult decision.  Unpredicted, time-sensitive, and hard to make. 

 We generally play it on the safe side whenever we can.  Not often in farming do you have control over the outcome of your crops.  But when something is within your control (like getting water to your plants and you’re feeling sure they’ll do well if they get water), even if it’s an expensive decision, you had better just play it on the safe side.  You had better get water to those plants.  Because if you don’t and then it doesn’t rain, you might have unhappy CSA customers if they don’t get broccoli in their fall CSA boxes;).  We can’t shield the crops from high winds or protect them from errosion or hail or even ground squirrels.  But we can get them water when they need it.  

Farming is so much like gambling sometimes.  It’s a little exciting, a little nerve-racking, and pretty addictive.  You gotta know when to hold ‘em and know when to fold ‘em if you know what I mean.  Skill and experience will get you a long ways in farming, but luck (the weather) is the variable completely out of your control that ultimately determines the outcome of your season.  Sometimes we win.  Sometimes we loose. 

The beauty of CSA farming is that while there have been crop ‘failures’ this year like the spring spinach and peas, there are always 40 other crops to share that we might have better luck with.  Finally the tomatoes are coming on strong.  Good thing farmer Adam made that good, but hard, decision to prune those tomatoes back this Spring. 

What’s in the Box?

Spaghetti Squash-  These are the big, yellow, hard squash in your box.  Not to be confused with a melon!  Spaghetti squash are popular in the gluten-free world.  Slice in half lengthwise and remove the seeds.  Bake face down in a baking dish for 1 hour.  After about an hour, remove from oven and use a fork to scrape the noodle-like squash into a bowl. 

Celeriac Root-  These deserve an explanation!  These very unusual looking roots are especially cultivated so that the roots of the plants grow large and not the stalks or stems like in the celery plant.  The roots are hard and dense like a potato.  Just use a pearing knife to peel away the rough/ugly outer later of the root and reveal a smooth, white inside flesh that cooks up much like a potato.  Cube it into small cubes and it makes a lovely addition to any soup with a potato-like texture with a celery flavor.  Once cooked it also purees nicely into a soup.  It can also be grated raw into a salad.  The greens can be used like celery in a soup as well.  Celeriac store fantastically well.  Remove the greens from the root and store the root in a plastic bag in the fridge for up to 5 months.  Boil and mash celeriac with potatoes and discover celeriac mashed potatoes and your life will be reformed!   

Potatoes-  2 lbs red potatoes.  Freshly dug red potatoes.  Many of the reds were small this year.  There were a lot of them, but they were smaller.  We found that they still had a very smooth texture.  Freshly dug potatoes ‘scuff’ easily especially when we washed them and handled them a little extra.  Normally potatoes are allowed to sit and ‘cure’ where their skin toughens up a bit.  But curing doesn’t affect flavor.  Nothing like freshly dug potatoes!!!! 

Onion-  One or two onions per member. 

Tomato-  7 lbs per member.  A reminder that we pick any tomato with a 'blush'.  This means we pick any tomato showing any signs of color at all because they ripen so fast once they begin to turn colors.  We recommend putting them out on your counter to ripen until they have reached the desired ripeness.  Do not refrigerate your tomatoes unless the are getting over-ripe and you need to buy yourself some time.  We also recommend removing them from the plastic bag as soon as you receive them.  Condensation can build up in the plastic bag and cause the tomatoes to go bad.  Herilooms of all colors, romas, slicers, oh my!  It's finally tomato season!  

Peppers-  5-7 sweet peppers each!  Wow!  What a great week for sweet peppers!  They are loving the heat and sunshine for ripening.  Some thin-walled red peppers and some thick-walled red peppers.  The thin-walled peppers ripen earlier and faster and the thicker-walled ones take a little longer to ripen and come into season.  We also are sharing some thicker walled yellow and orange peppers. 

Kale-  Green curly kale this week to keep you stocked in cooking greens. 

Carrots-  2lb bags of kale this week!  Wow!  These are still spring carrots that were dug that we have a large stock of in the cooler.  These beds of carrots weren’t the most cosmetically beautiful carrots we’ve ever grown, they still have that great locally-grown carrot flavor that makes them so much better than Cali carrots. 

Hot Pepper-  Hungarian Hot Wax pepper tucked inside your tomato bag.  These ripen lime-green to orange to red and are very mild on the spectrum of hot peppers. 

Mini-Sweet Peppers-  These came in their own little brown paper bag and are sweet!  Not to be confused with hot peppers!  Mini sweets are a fan favorite with kids.  I have stop my kids from raiding the mini-sweet patch so there are plenty to share with all of you!  They’re a little addicting and a great snack with hummus or just by themselves! 

Next Week’s Best Guess:  5-7 lbs tomatoes, sweet peppers, onion, garlic, cabbage, broccoli, kohlrabi, celeriac Root, Spaghetti Squash, Yellow potatoes

Recipes

Spaghetti Squash Casserole

Kale Chips

Pepperonatta (A sauce, a spread or a topper for pasta, toast or grain of your choice!  Maybe even for Spaghetti squash?)