We were very excited to bring you your last share yesterday. In all the excitement and confusion, none of us remembered to send out the newsletter, sorry about that!!
It’s been a very good season, and we have all had a great time meeting you all and growing your vegetables. We are looking forward to a much improved year in 2011. We have already opened up nearly 5 more acres, and generously applied manure to the fields. We are planting a quarter acre (!) of garlic, and we plan to have a greenhouse erected before the snow flies, which should result in marvelous tomatoes, peppers and eggplants, if not some great cucumbers for the shares next year. We will be in touch to let you know how to sign up for next year. Registration should begin within a month!
Your feedback is extremely important to us in setting up for next year. We will be working with our tech support (thanks Dan!), to set up and online survey so that you can let us know, in complete anonymity, how you felt about the season and your shares. We will be using this year as a template for setting up a system that will continue far into the future, and your feedback is essential! Look forward to more info on that later.
I’d like to send out some thanks to some CSA members who became extra involved this year. Maya and David, and their sons Arayo and Marceo, were a regular Wednesday fixture on the farm, and it was really great to see them every week and feel their support for what we were doing there. Dan Auns has been a huge help setting up our website and getting us plugged into social media. Tyler and Robin have been very generous with their old appliances and Tyler is helping us set up our new kitchen/wash station/shower area for next year. Thanks to Liz Alfaro for getting some nice recipes on the website. And always, things wouldn’t be the same without the friendship and support of Bill and Catherine Shields, not to mention Bill’s astounding carpentry skills. And last but not least, a big shoutout to Anne Waters for her amazing blog about our veggies and how to cook them in new and wonderful ways. Thanks to you all.
Most of all, thanks to all of you for having confidence in a new farm just starting up in the Ottawa area. Together we built a farm that will supply many local mouths in a sustainable manner for years to come!
We hope you enjoy your last share, which, as should be expected, was made up largely of storage crops.
In your share this week:
2 acorn squash
Mesclun salad mix
bunch of carrots
bunch of beets
fingerling potatoes
quart of onions
bunch of chard
Here is a classic, and basic recipe for those acorn squash, and another basic recipe for those fingerling potatoes. We look forward to your feedback. Thanks again!!!
Classic Baked Acorn Squash Recipe
INGREDIENTS
- 1 Acorn squash
- 1 Tbsp Butter
- 2 Tbsp Brown Sugar
- 2 teaspoons Maple Syrup
- Dash of Salt
METHOD
1 Preheat oven to 400°F.
2 Using a strong chef’s knife, and perhaps a rubber mallet to help, cut the acorn squash in half, lengthwise, from stem to end. Use a spoon to scoop out the seeds and stringy stuff in the center of each half. Score the insides of each half several times with a sharp knife. Place each half in a baking pan, cut side up. Add about a 1/4 inch of water to the bottom of the baking pan so that the skins don’t burn and the squash doesn’t get dried out.
3 Coat the inside of each half with 1/2 a Tbsp of butter. Add a dash of salt if you are using unsalted butter. Add a Tbsp of brown sugar to the cavity of each half. Dribble on a teaspoon of maple syrup to each half.
4 Bake in the oven for 1 hour to 1 hour 15 minutes, until the squash is very soft and the tops are browned. Do not undercook. When finished, remove from oven and let cool a little before serving. Spoon any buttery sugar sauce that has not already been absorbed by the squash over the exposed areas.
Serves 2 to 4, depending on how much squash you like to eat.
Herb Roasted Fingerling Potatoes
Fingerling potatoes have a creamy, almost sweet flavor that makes them a nice alternative to white or red potatoes. Their unusual elongated shape, which slightly resembles fingers, will give your plate a different look.
Prep Time: 5 minutes
Cook Time: 25 minutes
Total Time: 30 minutes
Ingredients:
- 1 pound fingerling potatoes
- 1 bundle fresh herbs such as rosemary, thyme or sage
- 2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- Kosher salt, to taste
Preparation:
- Preheat oven to 425°F
- Pluck the little leaves off of the stems of your fresh herbs until you have about a tablespoon of them. If you’re using rosemary, make sure the leaves don’t have any of the woody stem attached. If you’re using sage, give the leaves a quick chop so that they’re not too big.
- Wash and pat dry the potatoes and place them in a mixing bowl. Drizzle them with the olive oil, then toss them so they’re fully coated with the oil.
- Sprinkle generously with the Kosher salt and toss again to distribute the salt evenly. Don’t be afraid of using too much salt — potatoes and salt are made for each other. Think French fries!
- Finally, add the fresh herbs and toss once again. The fingerlings should now be fully coated with the oil-salt-herb mixture.
- Transfer the potatoes to a roasting pan and roast until a knife slides easily into one of the largest potatoes — 20 to 25 minutes — flipping them every 10 minutes or so to ensure the tops don’t burn.
- Garnish with a sprig of your fresh herb and serve.
Just read your blog entry today. Thanks for that big shout out! Easy and enjoyable to write about good food and great people.