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In the share this week: 1 head celeriac 1 bunch radishes 2 bell peppers 1 lb onions 1 bunch dill 1 bag spicy salad mix 1 pie pumpkin Thoughts from Farmer Anna: It's been a little while since I've updated you on our straw bale house building progress. We are nearly finished with the first coat of lime plaster. We ran out of lime before finishing the last bedroom and we're waiting on a new shipment. Though we need to put two more coats of plaster on the straw walls before we're finished, we are getting a better idea of how the house will look once complete. Plastering is labor intensive, but it has been really rewarding to do this first coat ourselves. We are hoping to hire out the next two coats but have had some difficulty getting plaster contractors to respond or get back to us. It sounds like this is a common experience, as there really just aren't enough tradespeople to go around these days. Thankfully, we had a couple of plasterers stop out just yesterday to take a look at the project. These guys are the real deal. They both grew up and were trained in England and one has even had experience plastering a straw bale house. Hopefully they come back to us with a reasonable quote, because we really need their experienced crew if we have a chance of getting these next two coats of plaster on before it gets too cold. The share this week is nearly identical to last week's share, except we have a fresh crop of radishes on instead of the swiss chard. I still wanted to pass along a swiss chard recipe that could also incorporate your spicy salad mix as well since it pairs very nicely with eggs: I'm so happy with these little pie pumpkins this year! We do love to make pumpkin pie with fresh pumpkin and yours should keep for a month or two if you'd like to save it for Thanksgiving time. If you'd like to try something a little different, winter squashes are an awesome risotto ingredient. Here's an idea to try and I think it would be delicious with your dill swapped in for the rosemary in this recipe: It's been super dry on the farm the last two weeks and now pretty darn hot the last few days. The veggies could really use some rain, but we've been irrigating them to keep them happy. The plants and humans will definitely appreciate the cooler temperatures on the way. We have lots of delicious fall things on the way!

In the share this week: 1 celeriac/celery head (pictured below) 1 bag spicy salad mix 1 bunch swiss chard 1 lb red onions 1 pie pumpkin 2 sweet italian peppers 1 bunch dill Thoughts from Farmer Anna: Fall is really creeping up on us this week! These last two mornings have been cool enough that it feels good to wear a jacket for a bit before the sun warms us up. It's been harder to get out of bed in the morning since it's so dark. For the record, I'm on team standard time if we have to give up the time change, but honestly I appreciate it and think that a few days of pain in the spring is better than some really dark and brutal mornings for several months in late fall and winter. Seems like I might be in the minority though :) I'm excited about all of the fall crops showing up in the share this week too! Pie pumpkins are always fun and typically keep on the counter for several months, so you can use yours as decoration for awhile before you cook it up. I'll post some recipe ideas for them next week. The swiss chard is finally looking pretty good this fall! We've been dealing with some fungal disease that has affected our chard crops the last few years and trying to fight off the goldfinches (which have learned to nibble on these greens - who knew?!). I'm planning to make a bean soup featuring some swiss chard for our farm lunch tomorrow. I'll share a recipe idea for that next week too. Our spicy salad mix is looking fabulous, so you'll get that this week and next. Don't be intimidated by the 'spicy' moniker, these greens aren't so hot but they are baby mustard greens so they have slighty nutty and mildly spicy similar to a radish. We love these greens fresh in a salad, or cooked in something like a frittata (maybe combined with your chard?). The craziest veggie in your share this week is the celeriac, although it may actually be regular celery that has grown a bigger root. Celeriac is celery root that has been selected for larger root size. Honestly, we thought we were planting a regular celery variety this year, but it has grown some fairly big roots so we're not totally sure which one it was supposed to be. The bonus for you is that each of your roots has a pretty nice amount of celery attached to it. Garden celery is always a bit more fibrous that what you are used to in the store, but it is also much more flavorful so we like to chop it small before cooking it into soups, etc. The root portion of the vegetable is also great for soups and I love the idea of combining your dill with it: You could also use some or all of your celeriac along with other veggie (or scraps) to make a really delicious vegetable stock: Finally, if you don't want to use your dill in the soup above, it is pretty great paired with fish. This is a quick weeknight dinner using your dill and sweet peppers: Hope you all have a great week!

In the share this week: 2 lbs tomatoes 1 bunch cilantro 2 eggplant or 2 summer squash 1 lb green beans 1 bunch green onions 1 pint peppers (jalapenos, aji rico, or mix) 2 bell peppers Thoughts from Farmer Anna: We got away for a couple of days this weekend to go camping with the kids and my parents and to attend the Nowhere Else music festival (http://www.nowhereelsefestival.com/) that was originally scheduled for May of 2020. It often feels difficult to do the planning and packing necessary to get away, but it sure is worth it. Camping forces all of us to slow down to human speed, focusing only on the basic necessities and relaxing. This trip was even better since we got to listen to some amazing music while we relaxed. The kids did admirably well at the music festival, even though it did get boring for them at times and we forgot to pack stuff to keep them occupied. And at the campground, our youngest took off on her bike for the first time and didn't want to stop. I think they'll have fond memories of seeing awesome live music at a farm in the middle of nowhere :) As we enter September, we have the last hurrah of some of the summer veggies in the share this week - green beans and eggplant. One of our members told me that she loves to make eggplant lasagna, which does sound like an awesome way to use this veggie! You could also cook up your tomatoes, peppers and green onions into a pasta sauce to use with the lasagna. Here's a recipe for some ideas: The rain this weekend, while very good for the farm, is also accelerating the demise of some crops that are susceptible to fungal disease late in the year. Many of the tomato plants are looking tough, our second planting of zucchini and summer squash has just barely come on and now the plants are starting to wilt and die. This is all to be expected at this time of year and it comes with a mix of sadness and relief. The slow down is coming and the fall crops that I love so much will be here soon. In fact, next week we'll have a big shift in the share veggies as we turn again to more greens and our winter squash, along with some other special once-a-season crops. If you have too much cilantro this week, remember that you can freeze it for later. We like to blend it up with olive oil and freeze flat in a zip top bag. You could also make this cilantro sauce that would keep in your fridge for a couple of weeks. It's delicious drizzled on lots of dishes! Have a great week everyone!