Tomorrow marks the first day of October and the themes of our work around the farm certainly reflects that.  All but one of our gradens have been “put to bed” with cover crops, we’ve harvested the last of our winter squash, we’re preparing to plant our garlic, we’re digging potatoes and — most notably — we’re protecting our crops from imminent frost.

This is the 14th week for the CSA and, though we had planned on running for 20 weeks, it’s looking like we might only need to go to week 19 before we’ve given out all of you the produce that you’ve paid for (plus a nice bonus).  I’ll be keeping an eye on it and I’ll let you all know ahead of time how it’s going to shake out.

All shares contain:

• Fennel
• Broccoli Raab
• Winter Squash
• Sage
• Potatoes

“Full” shares also contain:

• more Winter Squash
• Apples
• Tomatoes

Veggie Notes

Broccoli Raab – The most common mustard greens hail from southeast Asia (think tatsoi, mizuna, komatsuna, bitamin na, and such.) but the Italians have a great one up their sleeve: Broccoli Raab.  We find it’s taste to be mild and in no way like that of “regular” broccoli.  Although the stalk of raab is edible, the base of the stalk can be quite tough and may need to be trimmed off.  To prepare: if the stalk is tough (nibble it), trim it off until you get to the tender part.  Chop the rest up into 2″ pieces and saute with garlic and olive oil.

Potatoes – The spuds in this weeks share are of the heirloom variety Green Mountain.  This variety was developed in the 1880s in Vermont (of course) and was the most widely grown variety in Maine for the first half of the 1900s.  It fell out of favor because it is quite susecptible to a potato disease called scab, but has recently become more popular since it was recognized by the Slow Food movement for it’s historical importance and superb flavor.

The ugly, corky, “scabby” blemishes on these potatoes are, in fact, common potato scab.  It’s ugly, but it can easily be peeled off or cut out.  The crisp, white flesh of these potatoes yeilds superb baked, mashed, roasted or fried potatoes.  It’s also excellent for chowder, since the points and edges of the potato chunks will crumble off to thicken the soup or chowder.

Winter Squash – Three varieties of squash made it into the this weeks share:  The bright orange ones are called Sunshine, the dark green are BonBon buttercups and the oblong yellow ones with green stripes are Delicata.  Sunshine and BonBon both have a very dry flesh which is excellent for roasting or for boiling and mashing.  The dryness of the flesh lends itself well to lots of butter.  Delicata has moister flesh which doesn’t need much butter.  The skin of the squash is edible (Delicata especially) but be sure to try a little before you go biting off a big chunk; some of them can be tough.  To prepare: cut the squash in half (from the stem down to the what-used-to-be-the-blossom end) and scoop out the seeds.  Scrape out the seeds and most of the stringy stuff.  (The seeds can be cleaned and roasted for a snack.)  Rub a pinch of salt into each half and place face down on a lightly oiled baking sheet or dish.  Roast at 350 degrees until you can sink a fork into it, perhaps 30-40 mintues. 

Sage – You know sage well by now, but I wanted to remind you all that it pairs especially well with sweet winter squash.  Either add some to mashed squash, or simmer it in plenty of butter and drizzle over the squash.

Apples – The tree from which this week’s apples were picked is labeled “Northern Spy”.  We find these apples to be deliciously crisp and tart when eaten out of hand.  Northern Spy is said to be unrivaled in New England for making pies.

Recipe Ideas

Sorry, no specific recipes today.  The veggie notes section (above) contains many ideas for using this weeks veggies, many of them very simple and easy.

As always, we welcome your feedback. Please let us know if you have any questions, concerns or problems.

We hope you enjoy the share!