*beautiful colors in the open field… green and red napa cabbage plantings in the foreground , 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 (Juniper Hill Farm), shallots, carrots, rainbow carrots, garlic, green cabbage, red cabbage, red and yellow potatoes (Atlas Farm), celeriac*, baby fennel bulbs, sweet peppers, jalapeno peppers, serrano peppers, red and green napa cabbage, rainbow chard, baby bok choi, green curly kale, lacinato kale, brussels crowns**, cilantro, red butterhead lettuce, baby lettuce, spinach, mesclun mix, spicy greens mix, baby kale, frozen cherry tomatoes***, and frozen heirloom/beefsteak tomatoes***!

*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

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

*The four beds on the left are all greens that get harvested and mixed together for winter mesclun mix, photo by Adam Ford*

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.

Farm News

The team mulched all the garlic this week. They set up all the large, bulky electrical conduit hoops over the outdoor greens that we still count on harvesting for the fall share. And they dragged the heavy duty row cover over all the outdoor greens. They also set up the hoops and row cover for the winter greens to make sure that they didn’t get damaged from the temperatures in the lower 20’s. And we continue to harvest storage veggies from the field into the root cellar. We still have plenty of items we harvest directly from the field these days because so many items store better and longer if we are able to leave them growing in the field as long as possible, such as leeks, cabbage, brussels sprouts, and napa.

But things are starting to slow down with field work a bit. People always ask us if we start to get a “bit of a break” this time of year. My answer is always, “I really wish that’s how it worked to run a year round veggie farm.” As field work slows down, we are able to squeeze in many of the other tasks that get away from us during the more hectic part of the growing season.

The biggest task I am working on these days is getting all the back end work set up for the new CSA software system we will start using in March this year. When we made the rapid switch from a CSA/Farmers’ Market/Wholesale farm back in March 2020 to a CSA/Wholesale farm, we created so many home made, cobbled together systems to continue to offer a free choice, delivered CSA option to folks who aren’t close enough to come to the farm. It’s worked well enough, and we know many of you are really happy with it. But there is still room for improvement, and making the switch to this CSA software platform will smooth out some of the minor wrinkles we have experienced with our homemade systems.

But, it takes a lot of time behind the computer to customize the platform so that it works for our specific CSA model: Most CSAs don’t offer as many days and locations for drop offs, payment plans, ability to skip weeks and make up items, or the level of vegetable selection customization we are committed to. So any CSA software needs a fair bit of customization on our end to maintain those levels of flexibilty we feel are essential to our particular CSA model. And that’s what I am up to these days. Although computer work isn’t what actually makes my heart sing, I am excited for the improvements this platform will bring to future CSA management, as well as improved ease of use for all of the CSA members who use the option of getting a CSA bag delivered. (Who wouldn’t love more time to submit an order for a delivery bag?! Fancy software can do that!)

Hope you all have a great week,

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

This Week's Recipe: Seared Napa with Miso Butter by Chez Jorge