CSA Pickup at the barn is on Tuesday and Wednesday (NOT Thursday) during Thanksgiving week!!

(No changes to the process for ordering a bag online: We will still have deliveries available Wednesday and Friday. The realty office in Ludlow is closed on Friday, so Friday Ludlow bags will be outside in front of their office that day… the weather looks fine for that!)

*Taylor harvesting spinach, photo by Adam Ford*

This Week’s Availability

This week we will have tetsukabuto squash*, leeks, brussels sprouts, butternut squash, kohlrabi, red beets, yellow beets, rainbow mix of daikon radishes (red, purple, and white), watermelon radishes, shallots, carrots, garlic, green cabbage, red cabbage, red and yellow potatoes (Atlas Farm), fingerling potatoes, celeriac, red and green napa cabbage, rainbow chard, baby bok choi, green curly kale, lacinato kale, brussels crowns, red butterhead lettuce, baby lettuce, spinach, mesclun mix, baby kale, pea shoots, claytonia**, frozen cherry tomatoes***, and frozen heirloom/beefsteak tomatoes***!

*Tetsukabuto is an amazing Japanese kabocha squash. We harvested these in early October, but the squashes need until about Thanksgiving to continue to cure off of the vine. It’s flesh is exceptionally smooth, with no stringiness that other squash varieties can have. It can be used like any squash; a simple way to enjoy it is to slice in half, scoop the seeds, and bake cut-side down on an oiled tray at 350 for about 30 minutes, or until soft. It has a wonderfully sweet flavor and a texture like pudding. This will probably be the only week these are available, and will be limited to one per share so that any CSA folks can enjoy one who want one. (Some are large enough to be a double sized item, so you can select “2” for a large squash.)

**Claytonia is a fun cold-hardy green we are growing for the first time this fall. It has little leaves with tender stems, and a mild sweet flavor free from any bitterness or acidity. It’s a nice green to serve on it’s own as a salad, to mix with other salad greens, to use in sandwiches or wraps, or to use as an attractive garnish over a dish.

***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

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

*aerial of the conrete day, 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

Last week’s excitement was having a 59 degree day to pour the concrete slab for the solar/equipment shed! The pictures mostly speak for themselves in terms of the fun and coordination it takes. There were two concrete trucks to have enough for the volume that was needed. Ryan and Cindy put a board down the middle of the pad to more easily float and screed the large area. And then as the second half was poured, they pulled that out. We knew there would be extra concrete from the pour, so we also poured concrete into a corner of the wash station that has been a slightly annoying gravel area for the past several years: The initial area that was poured for the wash station proved to be just slightly small as our operation expanded. It’s really nice to have smooth surfaces to be able to roll things on when we move such a large volume of veggies around in a cleaning dance throughout the wash station. So the day before the trucks came out, Cindy dug out the gravel area, removed an old sill on one wall, and prepped the zone to have concrete added. Now we can put stacks of bins on rollers to make things a bit smoother. Then the kiddos and I decorated some little stepping stones for their kids’ garden with the leftover concrete and shiny objects that I have accumulated as an art supply hoarder! It was a great day, and we will see if we get another day to pour the retaining walls, or if they will wait until spring. Either way is fine since we will be using this winter to harvest trees from our woods and have our neighbor turn them into lumber with his saw mill. It’s fun that many of the building materials for this new building will be coming right from here.

We hope that your Thanksgiving holiday celebration includes delicious flavors and some warmth during this time. Every year we love imaging all the beautiful, loving tables that some of these veggies might appear on besides our own: This week, like most weeks these days, we will be sending out almost 2000 pounds of food (through CSA, wholesale, and weekly food donations), and that’s 2000 pounds of goodness that will find it’s way to tables somewhere. So cool.

Our kiddos are starting to be old enough to start developing Thanksgiving traditions that reflect our values of acknowledging the original land inhabitants of where we farm: And if that is something that interests you as well, I have enjoyed this resource as a launch pad to learn about how to honor the historical reality of this specific holiday.

Thanksgiving is always a time that we reflect on the many ways we experience gratitude, and a big one is you all: Especially after our pandemic shift to predominantly being a CSA farm, we feel a tremendous amount of gratitude to have so many people choose to get their seasonal veggies through this CSA. Thanks for being a foundation to this little operation!

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

This Week's Recipe: Thanksgiving Leftover Tacos!