Almost immediately after arriving home from Christmas with my parents I drove to the cooler at the farm in Franklin where the majority of our root vegetables and cabbage are stored because I just needed to see them. Give them a few loving, yet judgemental squeezes, and make sure everything was still storing well.
You might put your savings into a bank account, but most of the money I will make from our 2019 season is still in those piles of heavy vegetables stacked in a cooled room 15 minutes from my house, and in a root cellar in Dover. Yes, you already paid for your CSA share, but if the veggies somehow went bad I’d either buy in more to fill your shares or give your money back, so I worry about them, a lot. And I definitely question my life choices once in a while.
We aren’t going to be able to do a winter share next year because of our limited land base, and around Thanksgiving this year, that was feeling like a great thing. Nothing to worry about and monitor all winter. No weeks on end of picking and bags and loading and carrying thousands and thousands of pounds of vegetables through a tiny door, only to pull them out again, bag by bag, to be washed, sorted and distributed . . .
And then I remember that when I started on this venture the systems we are forced to use now were never meant to be long term. I envisioned living on my farm, building efficient, sustainable and ergonomic spaces to store/wash/distribute produce. I still see that for our future, plus LOADS of greenhouse space for spinach, kales, lettuces and arugula. I love the winter share. Bright vegetables and cheery customers during the grey doldrums of a New England winter bring me a wonderful amount of joy.
This share is a little close to the last share (we try to space them about a month apart), so I hope you have been eating up! If you still have produce from the last share, making a big soup or a batch of roasted sweet potatoes might be a good idea for tonight or tomorrow to make room for this new batch of produce.
There are less greens this time. The darkest days of winter kept the spinach small, so we will wait to harvest it for the next share. But we do have lettuce and cabbage!
What’s in the Share:
Lettuce
Popcorn!!
Garlic
Pint Fingerlings
Pint Sweet Turnips
Mix and Match 11 pounds: Carrots, beets, parsnips, celeriac, red cabbage (limited), savoy cabbage, red onions, yellow onions, potatoes, sweet potatoes, carnival squash
Mix and Match 6 pounds: Butternut, kohlrabi, rutabaga, turnips, daikon radish (white and purple)
Jess’s Recipes
I hope that everyone had a relaxing and delicious holiday season! For the first share of 2020, I thought I’d give you a few light and easy recipe ideas and then I also found some fantastic recipe lists so if you find yourself having a hard time coming up with ways to use a particular share item, these lists will definitely get you out of your rut!
CELERY ROOT SALAD WITH APPLES AND PARSLEY
This crispy, bright salad will brighten up any cold January day!
I love learning about food customs in other cultures. This soup (known as Ozoni) is said to bring good luck. It will definitely bring good health!
ROOT VEGETABLE MINESTRONE WITH BACON
We just made a double batch of this delicious minestrone and it still disappeared too quickly.
STUFFED SWEET POTATOES
If you’re getting bored with baked sweet potatoes and sweet potato oven fries try stuffed sweet potatoes. I’ve been doing variations on this theme all month. I bake the sweet potatoes for about 40 min. Meanwhile I sauté onions and add whatever everyone is in the mood for: corn, black beans, chorizo. When the sweet potatoes come out, I slice them open and top them with the filling. I sometimes sprinkle them with lime zest and serve them with sour cream and sometimes top them with cheese and broil them up in the oven. Whichever way you do it, they’re delicious!
HOW TO POP POPCORN ON THE COB
Rumor has it we’ll be getting some popcorn in this share! Don’t be scared if you haven’t popped popcorn this way before – it’s super easy! Just put one ear in a brown paper lunch bag and fold it over a few times. Microwave for 2 minutes and then top with melted butter and salt.
20 WAYS TO USE UP A BAG OF CARROTS
10 EASY BUTTERNUT SQUASH RECIPES
47 RECIPES TO MAKE ANYONE LOVE CABBAGE
9 SURPRISINGLY SIMPLE WAYS TO EAT RUTABAGA
14 WAYS TO USE A BAG OF ONIONS!
Upswing Farm 