In the share this week:
2 lbs sweet potatoes
4 oz fresh ginger (pictured)
1 bag carrots
1 bunch salad turnips
1 green pepper
1 bag salad mix
1 bag spicy salad mix
Thoughts from Farmer Anna:
I really love harvesting fresh ginger in the last few weeks of our CSA season. Mostly, it just smells so amazing as we dig it up. Fresh ginger is also really pretty and of course adds such a fresh, bright flavor to dishes. You'll want to keep your ginger in the refrigerator if you plan to use it within a couple of weeks, or freeze it for longer storage. We've found that the fresh ginger doesn't keep as long as the cured variety that you may be used to at the store. Looking over the contents of this week's share and considering the cooler temps today, I'm thinking that a gingery sweet potato soup would really hit the spot. Here's a recipe for an idea:
Alrightly, I think I need to include an ode to the salad turnips in this week's newsletter. Geez, we love these turnips at our house. I'm actually somewhat surprised by how many folks with customizable shares remove these beauties from their shares. I'm curious if you have tried them? I know we give them a lot when they are in season, so maybe it's just too much. And maybe you have given them an honest try and really don't like them - that's totally reasonable. But if you are taking them out of your shares and haven't ever tried them because you think you don't like turnips (or have had purple top turnips in the past and didn't like those), do yourself a favor and give them a go. They are incredibly sweet and tender and really versatile! If you want to keep it simple, try grating your turnips into your salads this week for crunch and sweetness. Or you could make some kick-butt veggie fritters to go along with the sweet potato soup (see recipe below). I put some into a veggie minestrone type soup for our farm lunch today and they were delightful. We also commonly roast them with oil and salt as a side dish and my kids like them sliced raw with a little cajun seasoning (because everything is better with cajun seasoning in their opinions right now).
The pace of our farm work feels really comfortable in these last weeks of the season. We turned over the tomato and pepper hoophouses and I planted some spinach and kale in one of them yesterday. Later this week we'll be planting out of overwintering onions and early next week the garlic will go in as well. I feel such a calm satisfaction as we clean up the farm and get the last few remaining crops planted. It's the feeling of tucking your children into bed and watching them drift peacefully off to sleep. I love the transition in weather and work in the fall as well. I feel like I still have one foot in this season, while I'm busy thinking and planning for stepping into the next one. I'd love to hear how this season as a CSA member went for you too. I know it can be both a joy and a challenge. We'll be thinking about some more open-ended survey questions for you this year, because I really want to understand what the experience is like for you and I find that simple survey questions don't always get at that kind of information. We always appreciate your feedback as it helps us become better farmers each year. Keep an eye out for a survey once the season has concluded in November.
Hope you all have a great week!