I’m not the only one that noticed the snow, right? It did happen? Right? It was actually kind of fun to dig the parsley and cardoons out from under a few inches of snow, though any more than a few inches and it would have just been bothersome.

The past week has seen us cutting the last of our tomato plants from the field and pulling up the last of our black plastic. We hung our popcorn crop up to dry and we started planting garlic. Last year we planted six 100′ beds of garlic, and I’d like to do the same this year. We also seeding our big garden to cover crop and got a new (to us) reach in cooler up and running. The second cooler will be great for the fall and winter because it will let us keep our big storage crops in our big cooler and we can keep our apples and such separate from them in the reach in. Next year the second cooler will let us take better care of some crops that don’t like to be chilled so much such a eggplant, peppers, zucchinis and such.

Two 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:

• Cabbage (from Freedom Farm, Freedom, ME – also MOFGA Certified Organic)
• Delicata squash
• Cardoons
• Parsley
• Popcorn

“Full” shares also contain:

• a bigger Cabbage
• more Delicata
• Celeriac
• Leeks

Bread shares: one loaf each of Brooklin and Multigrain Sourdoughs

Veggie Notes

Cabbage – Just a cabbage. To prepare: cut in half and cut out the conical “core”. Now prepare as the recipe indicates. See below for a recipe.

Cardoons – OK, so, yes, these have thorns. And they’re BIG. They’re also just kind of strange all around. These are a leafy relative of an artichoke from which you eat the tender stalk instead of the flower. There is also a bit of prep work involved (cut off leaves, peel off thorns, blanch) but once you get past that they really are delicious. If you’re really curious about this odd (to us) veggie, check out this great write up of Cardoons of at the Ladybug Letter, in which he mentions not only Charles Darwin’s feelings for cardoons but also that the Swiss developed chard because they couldn’t grow cardoons. (The name “Chard” is, apparently, descended from the French word for cardoons, or “chardon”, and “Swiss Chard” was, again apparently, a sneering dismissive used by cooks with access to real cardoons.) To prepare: Step 1: cut off the top of the stalk as it too small to be of much use (about the size of a pinky finger) and then cut off the leaves that remain on the stalk. Step 2: Now use a knife or a veggie peeler to remove the thorns that grow along the edges of the stalk. Some suggest that the skin of the cardoon is bitter and should also be peeled, but we haven’t found this to be true. If you will be chopping up the stalk, there is no need to do any more peeling, but if you will be using the stalk whole (for dipping, perhaps) then you may want to peel off some of the stringy bits from the ridges on the back of the stalk. Step 3: finally you’ll probably want to blanch the stalks in salted water. Bring a pot of salted water to boil as you would for pasta and, just before adding the cardoons, add a splash or two of red or white wine vinegar. (The vinegar keeps the stalks from discoloring.) Boil them until they are “fork tender”. (How tender depends on how much more cooking you’ll be doing to them: if you’ll be making a dip out of them, then you’ll want them pretty tender, but if you’ll be baking them for another 45 minutes in the Potato and Cardoon Gratin, then you can leave them a little al dente. Finally, Step 4: prepare the blanched cardoons according to your recipe.

Popcorn – We did grow popcorn this yes, but this popcorn is actually from last year’s crop. We harvested last years crop and hung it to dry, only find that every test batch we tried failed to pop. So there it hung, in our living room all winter, spring and summer. Now that we’ve harvested this year’s crop (disappointed, we planted a different variety this year — the same one that was a resounding success in 2007) we needed to hang it to dry, so I had to clear out last year’s crop to make space. But before I composted all of it, I tried one last batch … and it popped wonderfully! Two, three, four more test batches followed just to be sure — they were all great. So now this year’s crop is drying and you get to enjoy last year’s crop. The variety of this popcorn is called Pennsylvania Dutch Butter Flavored. (Do you blame me for growing something whose name includes the words “butter flavored”?) Some might disagree, but we don’t taste any butter in there, but we do taste a light, crunchy, fun snack. To get the kernels off the cob: sometimes you can loosen up the kernels just by working them back and forth with your hands, but wedging a butter knife between rows of kernels and prying it one way or the other will do the trick. Once you have a row or two of kernels removed along the length of the ear, you can get the rest off simply by rubbing with your thumbs or by pretending you’re back in elementary school and the ear of corn if the forearm of your friend who you’re going to give an “Indian burn” to: grasp the ear firmly in both hands and twist your hands in opposite directions. (Do this over a bowl!)

Storage Notes

Store celeriac, cardoons, parsley, cabbage and leeks in a plastic bag in the fridge. Delicata squash and popcorn are fine on the counter with no bag. Note too that the celeriac, cabbage, squash and popcorn can keep for months; the leeks can keep for weeks.

Recipe Ideas

Cabbage – Kendra and I love to make a cabbage dish from Deborah Madison’s book Local Flavors. It’s called White Beans with Black Kale and Savoy Cabbage. This cabbage isn’t a savoy cabbage, and there was no Lacinato kale in the share this week, but it’s still a great recipe. It even calls for leeks! The recipe in question is the second one listed on this website.

Cardoons – I will again direct you to the excellent write up of cardoons over at the Ladybug Letter. Further down, there is a recipe for Potato and Cardoon Gratin (which we’ve made and loved several times in the past week) as well as a link to a “photoessay” of the making of the dish. If that doesn’t do it for you, then Kendra and I both think that the cardoon would be excellent when substituted for artichokes in a Spinach and Artichoke Dip.

Popcorn – If you have an air popper or a stove top popper, you’re all set. If you don’t? We have had luck in the past just using a large soup pot: we heated it over medium-high heat, added the oil and popcorn, put on the lid and periodically shook ther kernels around. Once they started to pop, we just shook things up more often. You’ll need some potholders, but it works fine. But now the more interesting option (for those of you with microwaves): homemade microwave popcorn. All you need is a microwave, a brown paper bag and some popcorn. Too cool.

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!