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Taylor in front of the strawberry beds
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What's happening on the farm right now?
Our strawberry plants are safely tucked in the ground and and being watered in as we speak. Getting those plants last week turned into something of a saga, what with the truck driver trying to bring his massive 18 wheeler up Highway 9 through Chimney Rock and the two varieties that we ordered, which morphed into 4 varieties, getting spread out to all four farms of our group order. Still, the plants are in now and we get to do an unplanned variety trial, comparing tried and true "chandler,' with early "sweet charlie" and two newer varieties, "camarosa" and "ruby june."
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We've also planted the flowers that will overwinter outside in the field, lots of snapdragons, campanula, delphiums, buplerum, yarrow, and, new this year, orlaya, a lacy white flower. We're taking down the tomatoes and filling those high tunnel beds with late lettuces, baby greens mix, radishes and spinach. Hopefully all that will keep our store and stand and your fridge full through December.
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Other news is that this is Taylor's last week with us. She is heading back down to Winston Salem to help her Mom care for her grandma and get into all kinds of farming, flowers, mushrooms, maybe some veggies as well to continue her study of different modalities of healing. We'll miss her contagious laugh and great smile!
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CSA Market share members: I updated everyone's credit last week so you can check your wallet balances on our website.
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What's available in the store and at market this week?
I think we have almost full made the transition from summer to fall veggies this week. we'll have peppers for a few more weeks but gone are the tomatoes and eggplant. Head lettuce is back. We have romaine,r ed butter, red leaf and panisse as well as the little gems. Plenty of lettuce mix. The greens have sweetened up some with the light frosts we've had, four kinds of kale, collards and rainbow Swiss chard. Parsley and a little cilantro. Lots of juicy carrots and som ebeets. Broccoli and cauliflower. All kinds of winter squash, white and yellow potatoes. Red and yellow onions. We have truly amazing mixed bouquets and dahlias right now. With a low of 32 forecast for Saturday might, this might well be their last week. I'm not quite ready to say good bye to the dahlias, but it has been a wonderful season.
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John's Recipe of the Week
John Loyd is our dear friend, neighbor, CSA worker member and a gourmet Southern cook. His delightful cooking observations and delicious recipe offerings appear here each week.
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“To me food is as much about the moment, the occasion, the location and the company as it is about the taste.” Heston Blumenthal
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Steam or boil – Steaming is best as more vitamins are retained. Raw is not the healthiest, as cooking breaks down tough outer layers of cellular structure. Roasting also takes away nutrients.
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Here are some beet ideas.
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Quick beets. Peel and slice as many beets as you’ll need. Steam until the beets are tender. Put in a bowl, scoop in some sour cream, a bit of salt and pepper and serve.
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We allow the sour cream to warm up a bit. Yogurt will work too.
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Additions can be some feta and also toasted walnuts and pecans.
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BEET SALAD – A favorite here.
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¼ cup orange juice, fresh if you can
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2.5 pounds beets, cooked until tender
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Leafy greens to put the beets on
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Whisk together the juices and the oil and ½ tsp salt and pepper
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Slice beets into thin pieces or into matchsticks if you like
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Toss beets with the onion and dressing and season with salt and pepper
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Let this stand for 30 minutes or so.
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We also use oil and vinegar dressing to make this salad adding toasted walnuts
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A huge paper wasp nest in the hazelnuts. We co-exsisted peacefully with them all summer, not one sting and now I think they have gone and left us this masterpiece.
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Your farmers, Vanessa and Alex
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Love the flowers. Honor the vegetables. Let the weeds go!
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- Cheri Huber and Ashwini Narayanan
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