*claytonia growing in the tunnel…. if you haven’t tried this salad green yet, it has rocketed to on of our favorites, and it’s super fun in wraps and sanwhiches as well, photo by Adam Ford*

This Week’s Availability

This week we will have leeks, kohlrabi, yellow beets, rainbow mix of daikon radishes (red, purple, and white), watermelon radishes, carrots, shallots, red and yellow onions (Juniper Hill), garlic, green cabbage, mini red cabbage, red and yellow potatoes (Atlas Farm), fingerling potatoes (Clearfield Farm), celeriac, red and green napa cabbage, baby bok choi, green curly kale, mini-lettuce heads, baby lettuce, spinach, mesclun mix, tokyo bekana, baby tatsoi, baby kale, claytonia, frozen cherry tomatoes, and frozen heirloom/beefsteak tomatoes.

CSA Bag Delivery Order Form

Fill out the delivery form by noon on Tuesdays.

You do not need to fill out the form if you plan to come to the barn on Wednesdays or Thursdays to pick out your items yourself.

CSA pickup and delivery days and times

Bulk vegetables available for processing

If you are interested in getting a bulk amount of anything, send us an email. Thanks!

Red and Green Napa: $1 per pound

Daikon radish (red, purple, or white): $1 per pound

Watermelon radish: $2 per pound

Carrots: $2 per pound

Green Curly Kale: $14 for 5 bunches, $24 for 10 bunches

Garlic: $12 per pound

Farm News

This is the last week of the Fall CSA season… THANK YOU for all your support! As we mentioned a few newsletters back, we are taking a few weeks off from CSA between this fall season and the winter/spring CSA season: if you are hoping to make up any missed items, this is the week to do it. The winter/spring season starts back up in February, so sign up now if you haven’t yet. (If you have any questions about the new software platform when you sign up, reach out. If you want to sign up, but are gone for a chunk of the next season: the new platform still lets me make that adjustment.)

Thanks to many factors, including this year’s use of a soil steamer for the first time to manage weeds and soil-borne diseases, we are experiencing our best year of winter greens growth yet…. Originally we planned this little break during a historical lull of greens growth, but many greens are still doing great, and want to be harvested out to regrow well for the later winter/spring CSA season. So during this CSA break, we are still harvesting for wholesale orders, so we will turn our weekly online store back on in case you want some veggies, including in bulk amounts, during the break. (The online store will open for order on Saturday, January 8th.) You can get veggies at all the same location options (including the barn) by using that online store during the CSA break.

At the end of each CSA season, we like to share our gratitude for all the ways the CSA community carries this farm. Starting back in 2011, CSA was a significant focus of our farm. Even though it was a big shift to go completely CSA when we dropped farmers’ markets in March 2020, it has been an incredibly positive change to have nearly all the veggie production be for the CSA. One especially sweet sparkle to our work has been hearing from so many of you throughout the year about how positive of an experience it has been to get weekly veggies. Some folks who are new this year have called CSA pickup “Christmas every week,” and some of you have been with us for a decade and have shared positive health changes you have noticed in yourself and your family from including a larger amount of veggies in your diet each week…sometimes even from actual lab results form your doctor’s offices! Back as 20-somethings, we got into farming in part because it felt like a way for us to make a positive contribution towards the climate crisis, and enjoyed the work of growing vegetables…we hadn’t considered the many ways that being a part of this farm would bring be a positive part of CSA member’s lives. Over the years it’s been a real joy to hear how being a part of this farm helps make a difference for people’s well-being. So thank you for being a part of this farm. Our CSA community makes it possible for us to do all the good work that happens here. And I also like to periodically take stock of some of the other layers of good work that your support makes possible. Growing vegetables for CSA allows our farm to donate thousands of pounds of food throughout the year to address food insecurity and access in the Rutland, Ludlow, Brandon, and Springfield regions: At our production scale there is always food that doesn’t make the cut for CSA and wholesale, and we are lucky to have a robust charitable food network to tap in to. There’s a lot of tangible community benefits that come from investing locally in food production…thank you for helping to make this farm what it is, and what it will continue to become.

Here’s a lovely Amanda Gorman poem for the new year: “New Day’s Lyric”

Have a great week,

-ESF Team: Kara, Ryan, Molly, Morgan, Taylor, Cindy, and Katie

This Week's Recipe: Mashed Potatoes with Baby Kale