CSA For September 16th!

The tomatoes came through our cold spell nicely,
under their fleece cover! 

Well, the cold spell has come and gone!  The forecast is warm for the next five days.  We definitely had frost - there are touches on the summer squash, the cucumbers that we didn't cover look crispy.  Everything we covered is fine - and hopefully will keep going as the weather improves now!

We started digging our garlic...and what a disappointment!  The heads are small to, well, tiny!  Can't figure out why when there has been such consistent moisture this season.  We knew something was 'up' when they didn't flower or scape.  We love the scapes and we missed them this year!  The garlic is tasty, but some of the cloves are just little slivers.  We found, when we dug some on Sunday to go with our lamb shank (see our Facebook page) that it is just too much hassle to try to completely strip the papery covering off the tiny cloves.  And you know what?  It didn't matter - it was so light it just disappeared during the cooking.

Spaghetti squash is coming nicely.  It's so unique in that the flesh comes out, well, like spaghetti rather than a nice soft puree.  Here's a great recipe for using it just like pasta, gluten free! Try Spaghetti Squash with Turkey Meatballs on a cool autumn evening!  Or how about stuffed with lasagna!  This would work well with any winter squash.  The seeds of all winter squash are edible, once roasted!  Pumpkin seeds are the best known, of course, but they are pretty much all good and great to toss on salads, roasted veg or even to top your muffins and such!  Here's an great link with basic instructions for harvesting and roasting the seeds.  This vegetarian stew with winter squash, crushed tomatoes and beans sounds delightful! A rift on Mexican posole, it would be rib-sticking and warming on a cool Fall night.

Feel like a little baking?  Here's Pumpkin roll with maple frosting!  This would be wonderful with Sugar pumpkin, Kabocha, Hubbard, Boston Marrow or even Delicata!  These Winter Squash Brownies sound fabulous - and the link has a bunch of other links for pumpkin/winter squash goodies!

Fall is a fantastic time to start making casseroles.  The house smells good, having the oven on warms things up a bit on a cool evening.  Comfort food indeed, and casseroles are often quite simple!  Here's a great link from The Kitchn with 10 Casserole Recipes including vegetarian lasagna and a potato, squash and cheese version.

Got zucchini or other summer squash to use up?  These zucchini and cheddar hand pies sound good.  If you're not into making the dough from scratch, I'm sure those tubes of crescent rolls in the grocery store would work just as well!

Today, for The FULL SHARES:  Garlic, Lemon Ball cucumber, carrots, beets, zucchini, mixed Largo and Crookneck summer squash, Sangria potatoes, spaghetti squash, Delicata winter squash, tomato, apples.

PART SHARES:  Garlic, Lemon Ball cucumber, carrots, beets, zucchini, Crookneck summer squash, Sangria potatoes, Spaghetti squash, Delicata winter squash, tomato, apples.

SINGLE SHARES:  Garlic, Lemon Ball cucumber, carrots, beets, zucchini, Crookneck summer squash, Sangria potatoes, spaghetti squash, Delicata winter squash, tomato, apples.