*L:ots of fall greens in the barn field, photo by Adam Ford*

This Week’s Availability

This week we will have leeks, brussels sprouts, butternut squash, green kohlrabi, red beets, yellow beets, chioggia beets (pink and white striped), rainbow mix of daikon radishes (red, purple, and white), watermelon radishes, red and yellow onions*, shallots, carrots, rainbow carrots, garlic, green cabbage, red cabbage, red and yellow potatoes**, celeriac***, baby fennel bulbs, sweet peppers, painted mountain flour corn, jalapeno peppers, serrano peppers, red and green napa cabbage, rainbow chard, baby bok choi, salad turnips, green curly kale, lacinato kale, brussels crowns****, cilantro, arugula, red butterhead lettuce, baby lettuce, spinach, mesclun mix, pea shoots, spicy greens mix, baby kale, parsley, frozen cherry tomatoes*****, and frozen heirloom/beefsteak tomatoes*****!

*Sourced from Juniper Hill farm, certified organic.

**Sourced from Atlas Farm, certified organic.

***Celeriac? If celeriac is new to you, it’s also known as “celery root.” Genetically related, this plant is selected for it’s root versus green tops, and is a gnarly looking root ball that is used like a potato, but tastes like celery. It can also be enjoyed raw. Grate it over salads for a fresh celery taste, roast them, mash them, fry them, put them in soup. They have the taste of brightness and summertime with the feeling of warmth and fall.

****Brussels Crowns? Brusels crowns are the tender tops of brussels sprouts. THey taste like brussels sprouts, but work like a cooking green. They are my favorite cooking green of this time of year. If you have every loved making a shaved brussels srpouts salad, or finely chopped brussels sprouts to bake and have cripsy little strips of brussels sprouts, you can try those same recipes with these tops.

*****Frozen tomatoes?! During the summer we vacuum seal surplus tomatoes. The cherry tomato bags are a pint’s worth, and they are 1 item each. The larger tomatoes are 2 1/4 pounds of a mixture of heirlooms and beefsteak tomatoes in each bag, and they are 2 items per bag. These taste wonderful… a reminder of summer… but they are only good cooked. We use the cherry tomatoes blistered in pasta dishes and we use the tomatoes stewed or in sauces.

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

Please make a note that the Ludlow delivery spot is now at Four Seasons Sotheby’s International Realty from 1 pm to 5 pm.

Bulk vegetables available for processing

When we have bulk amounts available with veggies, we like to pass along our wholesale prices to CSA members in case you want to do some processing. This is a good time of year to make kimchi with napa, daikon, carrots, garlic, and hot peppers! Below are the current wholesale prices for certain veggies. If you are interested in getting a bulk amount of anything, send us an email. Thanks!

Spinach: $8 for a 1-pound bag, $22 for a 3-pound bag, and $35 for a 5-pound bag

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

Lacinato Kale: $14 for 5 bunches, $24 for 10 bunches

Garlic: $12 per pound

Seed Garlic: $14 per pound (German Red and German White available)

Jalapenos: $6 per pound, $25 for 5 pounds

Serranos: $6 per pound, $25 for 5 pounds

CSA Balance Due

Payment for your fall CSA share is due unless you need a different payment plan. (And please reach out to us if you need a different payment plan, we are happy to do that.) You can mail a check to Evening Song Farm, 48 Nice Road, Cuttingsville, VT 05738, leave cash or check in the box at the barn, use this link to pay online, or call or email us to pay with EBT or F2F coupons.

*The greens in the BFG are ready for winter!*

Other Great Regional Food

It’s no secret that this little pocket of the world is full of wonderful food producers.

Our friends over at Squire Family Farm raise certified organic, grass fed beef and offer a beef CSA option as a way to buy in bulk and save money. They describe their operation here, and you can learn aout their CSA here.

And if you are looking for some of the best fermented veggies that I have ever had, reach out to Alchemy Gardens for any of their certified organic fermented hot sauces, krauts, kimchis, and cortidos.

Farm News

The cold and rainy weather at the beginning of the week helped me remember one of the more challenging times to be working on a vegetable farm: windy, cold, and rainy days when we need to be out harvesting! We managed to harvest this week’s green in good cheer and felt extra appreciative for the slightly warmer and much sunnier days of the end of the week.

This time of the year is a time when our high tunnels look especially beautiful. The greens in these tunnels have mostly grown to maturity, and we will harvest them from November all the way through April. Some greens will be harvested in one pass and replanted, others will be cut and allowed to regrow for a 2nd and 3rd harvest. Because these three tunnels are our only places to harvest from in the winter, we give these greens extra attention and care. In October we meticulously weed the tunnels, and we pay close attention to our watering and soil amending so that the greens will be able to grow as well as possible. This time of year we begin hardening off these plants for winter: allowing them to be exposed to colder temperatures and stronger airflow that will signal the plants to grow stronger cells, better adapted to withstand the below zero temperatures that will come our way this winter. Soon we will place wire hoops over each of these beds to support lightweight row cover that will give the plants extra protection from cold. Right now most of our greens are still being harvested from outdoors, but by the end of the fall share we’ll be harvesting hundreds of pounds of greens from these tunnels every week!

Next week we hope to mulch our garlic, finish up some fall harvest, bundle up some outdoor greens to keep them going through the colder nights, and organize around our fields before we get surprised by the first snowfall.

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

This Week's Recipe: Brussels Crowns, Bacon, Yellow Beets, and Penne