Hi everyone!
The shift into fall produce has happened. This week’s shares feature iconic autumnal favorites.
We we’re so glad to see a number of CSA Club members at the Next Door Dinner last week. Doing these dinners is always a lot of fun for me. Working with the produce for the CSA Club is gratifying knowing that you all will be cooking up tasty meals, but serving finished dishes just hits a little different. In addition to the tasty food we we were able to share with guests, the dinner raised over $1200 for El Paseo Community Gardens plus another ~$600 of food purchased from local growers and producers. It was a beautiful night. If you weren’t able to make it, definitely keep an eye out for the next one!
Friendly reminder to please rinse/wipe out containers so that they are free of any food remnants before you put them back into the totes to bring back. We always clean the inside of totes when we get them back but when the containers are particularly dirty, it makes the task somewhat more difficult.
Hope you all enjoy the share.
—Ben
If you were with us at the very beginning of the season, you’ve already seen these. But since we’ve had lots of CSA Club members join since then, we left the popcorn on the cob for the novelty like before. Just put a full cob into a large paper bag and use the popcorn setting on your microwave (3.5 oz, ~1.5 mins). Most of the popcorn will pop off the cob into the bag, but some will stay on the cob so you literally have popcorn on the cob. If you’d rather, you can always break the kernels off the cob and pop on the stove top like you otherwise would loose popcorn. Season with some Cherry Bomb Pepper or Green Garlic Salt.
I said in the last share that I thought it would be the last of the green beans, but here they are again. I was pretty surprised with how good I thought the green beans were last week. They were crunchy and tender at the same time with a complex flavor. I’d say the best of the season, and these green beans this week are right there with them. Late season green beans for the win.
We end up cutting the squash for you all out of necessity more than anything else. Because it ends up being one squash per full share from Nichols, to make half shares work we have to cut them so we figure best to do them into nice wedges for everyone. That way all you have to do for a simple preparation is oil and salt the wedges and put them into a 400F until tender (~30-45 mins).
These are a fun deeply purple potato. The color comes from anthocyanins; the same pigment that give grapes and wine their color. Anthocyanins are water soluble so I would guess that boiling them will cause the color to fade, but I haven’t tried it. If anyone tries it, let me know! If the color doesn’t fade, bright purple mashed potatoes would be pretty fun.
As I was cleaning the kale this morning, it inspired the still-to-be-written recipe for this week. Otter Oaks supplied us with an abundance of this kale. It has an awesome brassica-y flavor and toothy bite that I think will be perfect for a light braise and the funkiness of a bagna cauda sauce.
Honeycrisp, a prized apple bred for taste, was developed by the University of Minnesota and released in 1991. They are a mix of green and blush-red and are sweet, tart, and fragrant.
What corn is to summer, brussels sprouts are to fall. Simply halved and roasted, these are a treat.
