Harvest Celebration! Potluck and Yoga this Thursday

Our final week's Kitchen Sink Share showcased the full palette of the fall harvest

Come celebrate a successful CSA season with us! Thursday, October 30th we're toasting the good harvest and enjoy each other's good company. We'll start the evening with some yoga upstairs with Maureen St. Croix at 5:30, then potlucking in the CSA room at 6:30. Come to either or both!
What to bring: for yoga, bring a mat and wear comfortable clothes. For potluck, bring a soup, salad, or appetizer if your last name is in the first half of the alphabet, and an entree or dessert if you're in the second half.
Hope to see you there!

Kitchen Sink Share!

Our last share of the season is a big one! We've got all the good stuff in here--classic fall root veggies, long-holding storage crops, another winter squash, plus a big mess of greens, including some we haven't seen since the spring. The last of the Weir River veggies will hold you over for quite a while!

Now that the temperature's been dropping into the 40's (and lower!) at night, our carrots, beets, and leafy greens are starting to sweeten up. Veggies do this cool trick of increasing the sugar content of their cells in order to prevent being frozen during cold nights. It protects them AND benefits us!

Don't forget our CSA Harvest Celebration: Yoga and Potluck Feast next Thursday, Oct. 30th: 5:30 for yoga, 6:30 for potluck at the Yellow House. Come to either or both, no RSVP necessary. We'll be upstairs in the Yellow House for yoga class and down in the CSA room for the potluck. If your last name is in the first half of the alphabet, please bring a salad, soup, or appetizer; names in the last half of the alphabet, please bring an entree dish or dessert. We'll toast the harvest and say goodbye to our fabulous farm apprentices, Joe and Sophie, who are on to new adventures at the end of the month.

Joe and Sophie planting spinach back in April

Our great CSA season this year wouldn't have been possible without the help and hard work of so many, starting with our vital soil microbial community. Our soil food web is the base that supports and nourishes our crops as they industriously convert sunshine into food day in and day out. Our crops support and are served by our honey bees and many native pollinator species, and our insect defense force of parasitic wasps and predatory beetles and nematodes. Our fabulous field crew worked tirelessly no matter what the weather to bring out the best in our crops in the field and bring in the best of our crops for harvest. The diverse talents and cheerful work of so many of our CSA members and volunteers made me so grateful to be a part of the ecology of this beautiful place. I hope you're as proud of it as I am. Thank you.

In your share this week: Brussels sprouts!!, carrots, watermelon radishes, leeks, beets, onions, garlic, lettuce, kale, spinach, chard, bok choy, potatoes from Moraine Farm, and butternut squash from Langwater Farm, plus a Pick Your Own herb bonanza: parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme (and chives even though they got no love from Simon & Garfunkel). See you next season!

Recipe of the Week

Wondering what to do with the watermelon radishes? I usually cut them into wedges and add to them to my roasted root medley along with beets and carrots and onions and maybe a winter squash. You can also roast them on their own--wedge them, drizzle and toss with olive oil, sprinkle with sea salt, spread on a metal cookie sheet and roast at 375F, turning every 15-20 minutes. They roast in 30-60 minutes, depending on how fat the wedges are.
Roasting is also my favorite way to serve Brussels sprouts-- Ina Garten aka the Barefoot Contessa has a simple recipe here.
Several years ago I did some WWOOFing for a woman whose previous career had been camp cook for an African safari company. She taught me this kale recipe that she had picked up working there. It's easy and a nice twist on the standard sauteed kale that I make so often.

Peanut Butter Kale

Olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 small onion, chopped
1/2 cup peanut butter
1-2 Tbs Braggs amino acids
1/4 tsp cayenne or chili powder (more if you like spicy)
1 bunch kale, washed, rib removed, and leaves torn roughly
salt to taste

In a large saute pan, saute the onions and garlic until translucent. In a small bowl, make the peanut butter sauce. Add hot water (start with 1/4 cup) until the peanut butter has a consistency slightly thicker than cake batter. Stir in the Braggs and the cayenne/chili powder and set aside.
Add the kale to the saute pan and cover the pan for a few minutes to help wilt the kale. Once the greens have wilted, stir in the peanut butter sauce and adjust seasonings to taste. Serve immediately.

October in the fields

The polls have closed! No, you didn't miss the mid-term elections, but we have a date for our end-of-season CSA Harvest Celebration: Yoga and Potluck Feast and it's Thursday, October 30th. Yoga class with Maureen St. Croix will begin at 5:30pm followed by a potluck feast beginning at 6:30. Can't make it to both? No worries! Come to either or both, no RSVP necessary. We'll be upstairs in the Yellow House for yoga class and down in the CSA room for the potluck. If your last name is in the first half of the alphabet, please bring a salad, soup, or appetizer; names in the last half of the alphabet, please bring an entree dish or dessert. Here's to the abundant harvest this year!

Fall work around the farm in October divides mostly between harvesting and putting the fields to bed. Our excellent crew members Casey and Maddie are gone for the season, leaving a pared-down field crew these days. Our harvest mornings are full-speed-ahead as we try to get everything in from the field in time. In the afternoons we work on breaking down the remnants of our summer crops and getting beds ready for their winter cover crops. Last week we started work on the other major fall project: planting next year's garlic. Garlic is a looooooong season crop and requires the frigid temperatures of winter to break dormancy and properly establish a strong root system. Garlic planting is slow work (and muddy with all the recent rain), but it feels good to be paying it forward to next season in the afternoon after a morning spent harvesting so many of this season's happy, healthy crops.

In your share this week: beets, carrots, lettuce, hakureis, leeks, chard, kale, another butternut squash from Langwater Farm in Easton, potatoes from Moraine Farm in Beverly, and Pick Your Own parsley from our PYO section.

Recipe of the Week
CSA member Lindsay Grimes (of the lovely and tantalizing blog I Will Feed You) is on a quest to become a beet lover this year. When we had beets in the share earlier this year she brought us some beautiful pink beet hummus that she had made--it was delicious! Her recipe is simple and the photos of the process on her blog are beautiful--take a look here.

Beet Hummus,
Lindsay Grimes at iwillfeedyou.com

4 large beets, stems and greens removed
2 – 15 oz. cans of chickpeas, drained, and rinsed, peeled if so desired
1 clove garlic
1/2 cup quality olive oil
zest and juice of 1 lemon
1 tablespoon tahini

sea salt and pepper to taste

photo: Lindsay Grimes, iwillfeedyou.com

Preheat oven to 425, wrap each beet in tin foil with olive oil, salt and pepper.  Bake for 40 – 45 minutes until tender. In the mean time, drain and rinse chickpeas. Remove the external layer of skin from chickpeas if you deem you have time. This step will yield a creamier texture.

Once the beets are out of the oven, let them cool to room temperature. At this point it should be easy to peel away the skins with your fingers. Once skinned, roughly chop the beets. In the bowl of a food processor blend the chickpeas, beets and any roasting juices, garlic clove, olive oil, lemon zest + juice, and tahini until well combined. Taste for seasonings and adjust. Check for any lumpy bits of beet that may have missed the blade. Garnish well with good Olive Oil.

Serve this eye catching dip with toasted pita chips or crisp vegetable crudité.  Beet Hummus will keep well in the fridge for 3-5 days and freezes beautifully if you want to save it for another day. Just be sure to give it another good whip once it thaws as it may separate a bit.

Enjoy your share this week!

Farm Fresh Yoga & CSA Harvest Celebration Date

Sunrise Yoga this Saturday!

Farm Fresh Yoga continues this Saturday with a sunrise class at 6:30am. Wake up with the sun and
enjoy an early morning practice while the farm is quiet and still. CSA member and yoga teacher Maureen St. Croix will lead class at the Yellow House. Class is free for CSA members and donation requested for friends and neighbors. Proceeds benefit our Food Access Fund. Please RSVP to Rory at rodwyer@ttor.org and bring your mat!

CSA Final Week and Harvest Yoga & Potluck

While we've still got a few weeks of yummy CSA veggies ahead of us, it's suddenly October! Fall is flying by here on the farm! Our last CSA pickup of the year will be Oct. 21st (for Tuesday shares) or Oct. 23rd (for Thursday). It's time to start thinking about our end-of-season CSA Harvest Yoga and Potluck Celebration. Here's a link to a quick poll to determine which day will suit everyone best:

http://doodle.com/5aksi75ytv48kkzt

In next week's newsletter I'll announce the date. I'm looking forward to sharing a fun & delicious dinner with all of you!

Delicata-licious

Lots more fall goodness in the share this week as we finally get into our late season carrot crop, and

also bring in some classic fall veggies from local farms. This week we have more potatoes from our

sister farm in Beverly, Moraine Farm, and from Langwater Farm in North Easton, we have butternut squash and delicata squash. Delicata, an often unheralded winter squash variety that's overshadowed by the classic butternut, is one of my favorite varieties, both for its excellent sweetness and its ease of preparation. It's delicious all by itself--I hope you all like it as much as I do.

Weir River Farm's first beef sale of the season is this week! Wednesday, Oct. 8th, we'll be open at the Yellow House from 1-6pm. Our pasture-raised Belted Galloway cattle produce beef that is very high in flavor and low in fat and are free of any growth hormones, steroids, or antibiotics. We'll be offering almost a dozen steak cut choices, several roast choices, as well as ground beef, short ribs, and bones for stock. The best cuts go fast, so make sure to get here early! Call us the farm office at 781.740.7233 if you have more questions--see you at the beef sale!

In your share this week: yellow storage onions, beets, carrots, kale, chard, salad mix, potatoes and winter squash--butternut and sweet delicata. We'll take a break on Pick Your Own crops for the first time in a long time, but don't worry--there's more coming before we finish up this season!

Recipe of the Week

Roasted Delicata

2 Delicata squash
2 Tbsp olive oil
salt to taste

Preheat the oven to 425F.
Delicata don't need peeling like other winter squash varieties, so just rinse them off and trim off the button end and the stem. Cut the squash in half the long way so you have 2 boats, then scrape the seeds and gunk out. If you like, you can save the seeds and roast them as you would pumpkin seeds. Cut the squash into a 1/2" to 3/4" dice. Toss with the olive oil and salt to taste.
Spread the squash evenly into a single layer on a metal baking pan or cookie sheet. A metal pan is best to get the most caramelization. Roast, turning at 10 and 20 minutes, for 25-30 minutes. When the pieces are fork tender, they're done. Serve hot.

Some of my favorite variations: After tossing with olive oil, you can spice them with cumin (1-2 tsp) or with cayenne (1 tsp or to taste). You can also include delicata in a roasted root veggie medley with carrots, beets, onions, garlic, parsnips, celeriac, or rutabaga.