Hi everyone!
Hope you all are are enjoying the shift into the fall. I’m a big football fan so the season starting is always a major indicator of the shift from summer to fall for me personally. The shares this week have a nice mix of summer veggies still along with fall staples. Zucchini and bell peppers are a couple of the last summer items to go with fall classics like brussels sprouts and kale.
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
One of our favorite aspects of carrots is how long they’ll last. Lisa and I still have carrots from the last time we received them in shares, back in early August. Every now and then we’ll use half a carrot here or there for something but usually preferring to use up other veggies.
As I was cleaning kale last week, it inspired the recipe for this week. The kale 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.
Snowsweets are a University of Minnesota breed variety introduced in 2006. They have a somewhat savory flavor that’s almost buttery as well as bright white flesh that oxidizes slowly. With those two attributes in mind, these apples would be great for salads or on a cheese/charcuterie board.
We had the grey zucchini from Otter Oaks earlier in the season. To switch it up, I had asked for the yellow zucchini for this week but with the season winding down Otter Oaks asked if a mix would be okay to fill the order. As a small urban farm, Otter Oaks’ availability will start to diminish quickly as we get into fall. This can be challenging at farmers markets since shoppers often avoid emptier looking stands. The CSA Club though will happily take whatever Otter Oaks has available through the rest of the season, hopefully helping out the people who worked to provide us delicious produce all season long.
Also called celeriac, celery root is a favorite of ours. It’s from the base of the plant that celery shoots up out of the ground from. We’ve cleaned them up to the point that all they need is a quick easy peel and they’re good to chop. They have a deeply celery flavor but a much heartier texture. It does great chopped and roasted, in soups or stews, or anywhere that you would otherwise use celery.
Jonathans are an old school apple. The origin story for it is a bit misty, but they’ve been around since the early 1800’s. With a relatively thicker skin, Jonathans have a nice sweet tart balance mild aromatics.
Recently I’ve been opting to lightly blister peppers before chopping them to add to a salad, pasta, or vegetable medley. I lightly toss them in oil and then use high heat from either the grill or broiler to char slightly while softening the peppers without going all the way to mush.
What corn is to summer, brussels sprouts are to fall. Simply halved and roasted, these are a treat.
Spaghetti Squash is named such because of the way the the flesh breaks apart when cooked. You’ll often see it in recipes replacing pasta but I think it stands alone pretty well with just some butter. Roasted is a sure-fire way to cook it, but if you’re in a rush microwaving it works as well.
