It’s getting cold around here. When I wash produce at this time of year I spend a lot of time thinking about how I really need to go over to Hamilton Marine to buy a pair of fishermans neoprene gloves.

Progress on farm projects has been slow for the past few weeks. Between our involvement in MOFGA’s Common Ground Fair and Nose to Tail Pork Processing workshop, we’ve been pretty busy off the farm and have had to hustle just to keep up with harvesting. Last week was our last salad harvest, though, so that will take some pressure off of us. We’ve only had one real frost so far, but a good hard freeze is all but inevitable this week. That will hopefully finish off the last of the tender crops which are hanging on in the hoophouse (and which I haven’t had the heart to yank, yet). Aside from generally cleaning up and putting things away for winter, the big farm tasks left are seeding some cover crop in our veggie field, dismantling the hoophouse out in the veggie field and planting garlic.

The end of the CSA is in sight, which is bittersweet. The last CSA delivery marks our last official produce obligation, so continuing to pick and wash after that is just a matter of determination and masochism. It’s a shame though, to see the season come to an end and to see the last of the veggies leave. We’re not, however, in a bad spot for this winter; we’ve got plenty of kale and corn (not our own) frozen, some carrots, beets, potatoes, leeks and (hopefully) onions to store and our living room is full of winter squash and pumpkins.

A note about Eggs and Bags: Thank you to all of you who return your egg cartons and canvas bags every week. If you have any bags or egg cartons kicking around, please bring them back next week. We ran out of bags this week, so I know that at least one of you has a secret stash somewhere.

Three weeks left. The last share will be November 3rd.

Detailed share information, notes about the veggies, storage tips and recipe tips are all inside the full post.

All shares contain:

• Celeriac
• Stir-fry Greens
• Garlic
• Long Pie pumpkin

“Full” shares also contain:

• green Peppers (the round ones)
• Salad Turnips
• Basil (ah, the last of the season)
• more Garlic
• Parsley
• hot Peppers (the long, pointy ones)

Bread shares: no bread this week

Veggie Notes

Celeriac – The parsnip of the celery family?!? Hidden behind it’s humble appearance is a wonderful, mild celery flavor. These keep very, very well and are excellent anywhere you would use root veggies and/or celery. (Specifically soups, stews and roasted.) To prepare, trim off the top (with the green stems), the bottom (where all of the trimmed root nubbys are left) and peel, peel, peel. Then just prepare according to your recipe’s instructions for the other root veggies.

Garlic – This week’s garlic is a variety named “German Extra Hardy” but could just as easily be called “German Extra Big-Ass Cloves”. They have fewer cloves per head than other garlics, but the cloves are massive, making this a lot of fun to grow and use in the kitchen.

Long Pie Pumpkin – A true Maine heirloom, it doesn’t look like much but it is unparalleled for making pumpkin puree for pies, muffins, cheesecakes or anything else “pumpkin” flavored.

Storage Notes

Store celeriac, greens, parsley, turnips and peppers in a plastic bag in the fridge. Garlic and the pumpkin are fine on the counter with no bag. As for the basil, use it up!

As always, we welcome your feedback. Please let us know if you have any questions, concerns or problems. Also, please send along any recipes you’d like to share.

We hope you enjoy the share!