CSA Newsletter, Week 22

This Weeks Veggies

Chard or Kale – Sweet Chard or Red Russian Kale

Beets, Turnips or Rutabaga – These mixed bunches of beets would be great micro-waved and added to your salad.  Learn about Rutabagas in the “Featured Veggie of the Week” section below.

Fennel

Spinach

Broccoli Raab

Leeks

Winter Squash

Green Onions

Farm Life

Winter is here.  The rain season has started.  The change in the season is apparent in my activities.  I am spending more time indoors catching up on all the paper work that has stacked up in my “in” box during the season.  The first thing to work on is the bookkeeping.

Though the harvest is ending, there are still a lot of things happening on the farm. In fact, we are going to have a busy winter.  The first item of business is to work with our landlords and the Tualatin Soil and Water Conservation District to develop a 10 year Conservation Plan for the entire property.  This plan will include everything from acquiring a herd of goats to help control blackberries, to planting native trees and shrubs along the creek.  If you would like to be involved in this project, please let us know.

Other projects for the winter include building a packing house and installing a walk-in cooler, building portable “egg mobiles” to house several new flocks of chickens, installing a green house, and fencing pastures for sheep.  This in addition to the usual winter activities of developing detailed cropping plans, ordering seeds and supplies, routine maintenance of our tools and equipment and attending farm workshops and training programs.

And, sometime during the winter, I will take a vacation.  You can bet I will go somewhere with a hot spring.  I hope you will also find some time do something restful and relaxing during the winter season.

Featured Veggie of the Week

As a Child, when  I asked my Mother what was for dinner, she always answered “Rutabaga Pie”.  Since there were no cans labeled “rutabagas” in the pantry (we never ate fresh vegetables) and we certainly weren’t having pie, I concluded that “rutabaga” was a word my mother made up to get rid of annoying little girls.  I was an adult before I realized that a rutabaga was truly a vegetable and a mother myself before I ever saw one.

Rutabagas, known as “Swedes” in Europe, require a cool growing climate.  The following web site gives a good history of this root vegetable.

http://www.vegparadise.com/highestperch4.html

You’ll notice that this web site recommends purchasing Rutabagas in the early Autumn.  In our climate however, we do not plant them until late summer so that they do not mature when it is still warm.  This means that they are in season in early winter here.  In fact, if it is a mild winter, we can grow them all winter long.

Ratabagas are great oven roasted.   Or, try this recipe for Rutabaga Puree with Cardamon and Thyme from Epicurious.com

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Rutabaga-Puree-with-Cardamom-and-Thyme-236250