4th Week of Winter CSA: Feb 17–19
This Week’s Availability
This week we will have yellow onions, red onions, garlic, celeriac, yellow beets, red beets, carrots, red potatoes, yellow potatoes, watermelon radish, green cabbage, red cabbage, sweet potatoes, mini mixed roots, spinach, kale, and parsley.
Mini mixed roots are bags of an assortment of smaller root veggies, often a mixture of potatoes, carrots, beets, and watermelon radishes. They are perfect for roasting whole, or adding to soups and stews.
*wow, if it’s possible, I am enjoy the sweet potato varieties from Laughing Child Farm even more!
This week’s greens limit:
Mini shares: 1 greens item
Small shares: 2 greens items
Medium shares: 2 greens items
Large shares: 3 greens items
Super shares: 3 greens items
You do not need to use the order form if you are coming to the farm to pick out your veggies from the display cooler.
All delivery days and times are provided as a reminder at the bottom of the newsletter.
Planning a garden for this summer?
Reminder to sign up for a Spring CSA Share now
We will probably need to turn our Spring CSA signup into a wait list in a few weeks, so sign up now if you haven’t already.
Farm News
(Feel free to stop reading anything below here.)
Ah! This blog post was deleted! What a bummer! I roughly recreated just a portion of it, as I have been enjoying learning and compiling bits of information about agricultural Black history this month. Alas, it’s far less refined and thorough than the original post.
This week I highlighted Dr. Booker T. Whatley, who was a farmer and professor with a law degree who taught at Tuskegee University. He is credited with developing the earliest CSA model with his Clientele Membership Club. Many different farms, farmers, and locations, are claim to have introduced the CSA model to the US, but if Dr. Whatley was not the first, he was certainly a pioneer in subscription based produce marketing.
Dr. Whatley developed a “10 Commandments” for farmers, and popularized the Pick Your Own model as a way to effectively connect eaters and farmers. He is most well known for is contributions to regenerative farming practices. But what does that jargon mean? When Dr. Whatley was professionally active during the post WWII era, commercial agricultural was getting bigger and relying more heavily on incorporating unused chemicals from the war effort in food production. (Gross sounding, I know, but check out Will Allen’s War on Bugs for a comprehensive history of chemical agriculture if you are interested in this topic.) He saw how devastating chemical agriculture was on the earth and communities, and also how consolidating farms into larger and larger operations was squeezing out the small farmer. Through the lens of regenerative farming, Dr. Whatley emphasized the importance of building soil and increasing soil health, increasing biodiversity, and managing and conserving water, which are all essential pieces of organic agriculture. He believed it was possible to build and expand a Black middle class through the agricultural industry if farmers’ focused on regenerative practices, growing high value, fresh eating food (versus commodities like grains and animal feed), pick your own operations, and the Clientele Membership Club. Thank you, Dr. Whatley, for introducing forms of stability to such an unpredictable industry!
Have a great week,
-ESF Team: Kara, Ryan, Molly, Katie, Grace, Taylor, Cindy, and Sam
BEET AND ROSEMARY VALENTINE’S COOKIES
The combination of beets and rosemary are one of my favorites, and so is the ability to hide vegetables in desserts for my kids! (Also these can be vegan with coconut oil instead of butter.)
2 cups flour
3 TBSP sugar
2 TBSP maple syrup
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp rosemary, powdered in a (clean!) coffee grinder, or just chopped up small
1 cup raw beets, shredded
3 TBSP coconut oil or butter
1 tsp vanilla extract
Cream together sugar, maple syrup, coconut oil or butter, salt, and vanilla. If you have a food processor, process the shredded beets for a bit. The smaller the beet chunks, the more even the pinkness in the cookies are. (Don’t used cooked/pureed beets for this recipe, though.) Mix in the flour, rosemary, and beets. Roll into a ball, adding tiny bits of water as needed to form a ball. Chill in fridge for at least two hours. Roll the dough to 1/4-inch thick, and cut into any shapes. Bake at 325 for a few minutes until they are just cooked through, but not lightly browning. Let cool, and eat as is. For Valentine’s Day our kids decorated some with powdered sugar and some with chocolate buttercream icing and sprinkles. Enjoy!
How to get veggies during the Winter CSA Share
All online orders are due by noon on Tuesdays. Harvesting winter greens requires many factors to be just right, so we need the flexibility to know exactly what we are harvesting as early in the week as possible.
Oh no, I missed the order deadline! No worries. (I would probably miss it pretty often myself.) You are welcome to come to the barn on Wednesdays between 9 am and 7 pm to pick out your veggies. Or send us an email, and we will pack whatever we are able to deliver. It just might not include any greens if the many harvesting conditions don’t allow after the order deadline.
Pickup at the farm: The display cooler will be set up to pick out your veggies from 9 am to 7 pm on Wednesdays. Shunpike Road can be narrow during the winter months, and slippery on actively snowy days. If you are not comfortable coming to the farm any week, consider getting a pre-packed bag at either Stewart’s or Pierce’s in Shrewsbury, or in Ludlow or Rutland. We will try to make a note of Wednesday’s projected weather each week in the newsletter. (So far it looks like it won’t be snowy this Wednesday for pickup.)
Pickup at Pierce’s Store in Shrewsbury: Fill out the weekly order form by noon on Tuesday and pick up your bag from Peirce’s Store on Wednesday between noon and 6 pm.
Pickup at Stewarts Maple Marketplace in Cuttingsville: Fill out the weekly order form by noon on Tuesday and pick up your bag from the Stewart Maple Marketplace on Route 103 on Friday between noon and 5 pm.
Pickup at the Rutland Area Food Co-op in Rutland: Fill out the weekly order form by noon on Tuesday and pick up your bag from the co-op on Wednesday or Friday between noon and 7 pm.
Pickup at Knight Tubs, Pools, and Spas in Ludlow: Fill out the weekly order form by noon on Tuesday and pick up your bag from Knight Tubs between 2 and 5 pm on Wednesday. They are curbside only, so call or knock when you arrive, and they will bring your bag out.
All of these pickup spots love supporting their community, like offering us this favor to use their spaces. If you have any trouble getting your bag, let us know.