Week 3: In which we give thanks and Pooh gets stuck in a tight place

Andrea wants you all to know that this is a guest post, by me, Scott.

This week, you will receive:
Carrots
Beets
Leeks
Celeriac
Brussels Sprouts
Butternut Squash
Acorn Squash

Full share members also get:
"Other" Squash
Kohlrabi

Some of you have asked about potatoes in the future, and I am afraid to say that you have seen all you will from our farm this year. Despite a dry spring, excellent planting team, and good hilling, the plants never seemed to recover from the cold and too wet June weather. Next year will be perfect.

This week, we are distributing one of my all time favorite vegetables, the mighty celeriac, aka celery root. With it's mild celery flavor and somewhat nutty qualities, it gets it's own part of my heart. On the bottomland farm that we worked at in Grand Rapids, MI, the celeriac grew to the size of softballs. We've never achieved that on our own mineral soil. The flavor of our much smaller roots continues to make it worth growing though. You can slice them thin and eat them raw, with cheese and crackers, or add them to soups. You can roast them with other root vegetables. I tried a new approach this evening, sauteed in olive oil with salt and pepper.

1/4 cup Leeks, cut into 1 inch long pieces, large ones sliced in half lengthwise
1/2-1 cup grated Celeriac
3-4 tbls Olive Oil
Salt and Pepper to taste

I tried to grate the celeriac using a cheese grater with limited success, and ended up slicing most of it into thin pieces, however, the grated pieces were much better than the sliced, so I highly recommend using a food processor to shred or grate it if you have one.

Heat the frying pan and olive oil to low-med heat and then add the leeks. Stir after 1 minute and add the celeriac. Cook for around 5 minutes for grated and more for sliced.

I envisioned this to be served with mashed potatoes and gravy, and although I didn't try it, I stand by the vision.

Winter Week 2: Farm Fairies

I frequently joke about farm fairies. Mainly the jokes tend towards irate mutterings about the fact that farm fairies do not exist.

I'm pretty sure that most non farmer folks who fantasize about bucolic farm life are unwittingly imagining farm fairies.

You see, unless a farm has fairies to take on some of the workload, farmers have very little time to simply bask in the pleasures of farm life.

But this harvest season, we've had fairies.

That's not me and Scott harvesting carrots!!!

Jake and Ashley, the fabulous farmers of North Harvest CSA in Calumet have been moonlighting at Wintergreen. They're helping us bring in the harvest.

Skilled workers are about as close as we can get to farm fairies :)

This week, half share members will receive 3 pounds Carrots, Carnival Squash, Rutabaga, Brussels Sprouts, 1 pound Winter Radishes, Cabbage, Leeks, and Chard.

Full share members will get all of that plus 2 more pounds Carrots and 1 more pound Radishes, Acorn Sqush, additional Leeks, and Celery.

Our members have seen more than a few winter radishes over the years, and this year's winter members will be seeing several more of them. I get that they are strange things to cook with if you aren't accustomed to them. I try to feature them frequently in the share descriptions with preparation ideas and recipes.

If you like them raw, I'm especially fond of the slaw recipe in this post.

If you prefer your veggies to have slightly less heart-burn-inducing fire to them, then you should cook your winter radishes. We like to cut them into chunks and roast them along with rutabaga, carrots, and whatever other root vegetables we have on hand. 

They're also good like this:

Orange Glazed Carrots and Daikon

• 1 lb carrots, cut into 1/4 inch slices
• 1 lb daikon radishes (I used a mix of white and purple), also cut into 1/4 inch slices
• 2 teaspoons olive oil
• 1/4 teaspoon powdered ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup orange juice

Heat the olive oil in a large saute pan over medium/low heat. Add the ginger and cinnamon and stir until well combined. Add the sliced vegetables, stir together well.

Add the salt and orange juice. Cook, stirring frequently until the vegetables are just tender and the orange juice has reduced by about half, thickening into a glaze, about 10-15 minutes.