In this week’s share, members will find slicing tomatoes, rutabaga, sweet peppers, arugula, yellow onion, red fingerling potatoes, red cabbage, watermelon, thyme and Swiss chard.

News from the farm

As we enter the final weeks of the growing season, we are scrambling to harvest our root and storage vegetables and charting out the schedule of deliveries for both our final regular season CSA deliveries as well as our single delivery Fall Share.

This Sunday, we harvested all of our pumpkins, winter squash and decorative gourds from the field. In total, we planted 600 feet of these items, and it was no small task harvesting the vegetables and clearing the beds of all vines so that we can prepare these beds for next season. 

Thankfully we had a lot of help. 

John’s daughter Clara was in town for a visit and she joined Heather-Marie’s family as we filled up our delivery van several times and hauled everything over to the barn where we sorted, counted and cured these items. 

It was a stunning fall afternoon and the work went quickly thanks to so many hands. 

CSA members will see these items, along with many others, in their final deliveries of the season.

CSA final weeks at a glance

The end of our CSA season is drawing to a close. After this week, we have just two deliveries left in our summer season.  Where did the summer go?!  You’ll notice the lack of some items in your shares like, summer squash and cucumbers, and the appearance of new things like rutabaga and soon, Russet potatoes, arugula and more.

If you are a Half Share (picking up every other week), we are including you in the last TWO shares to fill you up and include you in the final share so you get pumpkins.  Full Shares (picking up every week) have three more shares.   

Here is the schedule for the rest of the season:

Sept 28: Full shares only

Oct 5: Full and Half shares

Oct 12: (Last delivery) Full and Half shares

Fall Share:

If you ordered Fall Shares, they will be delivered Oct 26. We’ll be sending out an email to all who ordered with pickup details and price. 

Potato shares: 

If you ordered Potato Shares, you will receive your Russet potatoes on October12, the last delivery day.

Recipes and notes on this week’s vegetables

There are a couple of new vegetables in this week’s delivery — rutabaga and arugula — and the return of an early season vegetable — Swiss chard. For the Swiss chard, here’s a recipe, Baked Feta and Greens with Lemony Yogurt, recommended by our fellow farmers in Saginaw, Farm Sol. 

Oven-roasted rutabaga

We’ve been enjoying rutabaga for a week or two now, though they are supposed to have better taste after a frost. Our favorite way to cook them is to cut them into cubes, toss them with a glug of olive oil and some salt and bake in the oven until they have a nice crispy exterior and a soft interior. This week, we used them in a chili, but these roasted nuggets are also good in rice bowls with eggs or you could even throw them onto some arugula while they are still hot so the arugula wilts a little bit.

Arugula

Arugula is a wonderful green that has a nice zesty kick to it. You can use it in salads or as a pizza topping. Also, you should really watch this scene from a 1990 Steve Martin movie, “My Blue Heaven.”

Arugula with grilled shrimp

This recipe is a variation on a dish that John made decades ago when his family would gather each year on the Outer Banks of North Carolina. As with so many recipes, this one is very simple, letting the quality of the ingredients do all of the talking. The secret to this recipe is to toss the hot, grilled shrimp into the arugula so that it wilts just slightly.

Ingredients

1 lb. medium or large size raw shrimp

5 ounces arugula

2 Tbsp. of extra-virgin olive oil, or extra if needed

Juice of 1 large lemon

A couple of sprigs of thyme

1 clove of garlic, minced

sea salt and fresh ground pepper

Instructions

In a small bowl, whisk together olive oil with lemon juice, thyme, and garlic. Toss this mixture in with the arugula and set aside. 

The shrimp can either be cooked on a grill or on a lightly oiled cast iron skilled on medium-high heat. Cook the shrimp for just 3 minutes on each side and then toss with the arugula and enjoy!

Harvest Dinner

Submitted by Carol-Ann Bloom

Ingredients

Plant-based sausage or trimmed chicken thighs or sausage

2 onions

1 garlic clove

2 peppers

2-3 tomatoes

Grated cheese of your choosing

Instructions

Start browning sausage or meat over medium heat in olive oil.  Add chopped onions, then chopped garlic. Turn over your meat.  As ingredients lightly brown, chop peppers, add to pan.  Saute peppers.  

Then chop and add tomatoes. Season with salt and pepper to taste.  Add fresh thyme, basil, or sage.  Top with shredded cheese and place in oven to allow to melt.

For the side: cook pasta or rice.

Check meat for doneness. Serve over cooked pasta or rice.