16th CSA Week

What a beautiful harvest day. The sun was shinning, a calm breeze and even though it was chilly first thing it warmed up to be an awesome day. There was definitely frost out side this morning but the only thing it might have affected was the winter squash, the tomatoes and peppers seemed fine thankfully. Over the weekend we used a tomato press for the first time, what a marvellous invention. It separates the skins and seeds from the pulp by the turn of the crank. We are now currently cooking a gigantic pot of tomato sauce for winter eating. Yum Yum Yum.

This weeks large shares have carrots, beets, parsnips, rutabagas, garlic, red and yellow onions, kale, arugula or komatsuna, lettuce mix, cherry tomatoes and green peppers. The grab box has swiss chard, leeks, pea shoots, winter squash and more of the above mentioned veggies. Normally this would be our last CSA week but this year we decided to go for two extra weeks as last time at this year we had lots of veggies in the field. We still do have lots of certain types of veggies like parsnips, beets and rutabaga but we're quickly running out of carrots, lettuce mix, garlic, winter squash, leeks and others. It looks like my veggie planning may have been on the low side but I'll do my best to fill the baskets right till the end.

Portuguese Kale & Sausage Soup (uses slow cooker)

Saute in 2 Tbsp. olive oil:
-2 med. onions, finely chopped
-4 med. carrots finely chopped
-1 lb. smoked sausage, chorizo, or andouille sausage, cut into 1/2" rounds
(I used chorizo...and only had about 1/2 lb. on hand...the soup still had lots of heat!)
til onion is translucent.

Transfer above to lg. slow cooker (5-7 quart). Add:
-1 lb. kale, chopped into 1" pieces (I used our portion from the box...not sure of weight)
-6 cups chicken broth
-5 med. potatoes, cut into 1/2" pieces
-2 bay leaves.

Stir to combine. Cover and cook on low for 5-6 hours, until potatoes are tender.
Remove bay leaves and stir in 1/4 cup finely chopped fresh cilantro.
Serves 8.
(source: Slow Cooker: The Best Cookbook Ever, by Diane Phillips) **Thanks for Sue for this awesome recipe**

Komatsuna Saute:
2 cloves garlic
1tbs butter
1 large bunch komatsuna (chopped)
sea salt
pepper
Melt butter in large sauce pan or wok. Add chopped garlic and saute until tender, approx 3 minutes. Add komatsuna and mix with tongs until they wilt down. Add a dash of salt and pepper and enjoy. We had leftover pasta with sausage along with this meal but I think serving the greens over a nice bed of rice would be excellent. For a nutty flavor add in chopped peanuts.

Yearly Inspection: We successfully completed another organic inspection on Saturday, I always get super nervous before the inspector comes as I'm afraid my paper work will be sketchy, that data will be missing and that something glaring and obvious will be found and we'll lose our organic certification. But of course I always worry about nothing as it went well and our inspector said things were great. We do need to work on our organic seed orders however, currently we order about 50% seeds from certified organic sources but we should be aiming for 100%. So I'll have to buckle down next year when I'm seed orderning and do a better job!!!

Elizabeth and I reviewing paper work on the farm tour. It was a chilly morning. Brrrr

Survey Time!!! Every year we ask our CSA members to fill out a season end survey so we can get a feel for how we did in regards to quality, quantity, vegetable preference etc. I am using survey monkey this year so poeple can fill it out online. I am very curious to see the results and suggestions and comments members have about the 2010 season.