CSA For Sept. 25th

CSA 2012 is not going out with the bang we might have wished for.  It hasn't been a great harvest and we're just squeaking by the value set on everybodys' share.  In better years, we'd meet the value on the final pick up day and then have a bonus day - but this is not that kind of year.  Still, the last CSA pick up is always a sad day for us: we have so many delightful people within our CSA families and we won't be seeing them for a while now!  Oh, we'll see a few of them at the remaining Global Markets, some will come to the farm to buy eggs or potatoes through the winter, but mostly we're saying 'good bye' today - until next year!  The last CSA day is also a wee bit of a relief for us - the work, the toil is done for another year; maybe next week on Tuesday I'll finally give this house a really good cleaning!  Or maybe the dogs will finally get a haircut....

It's a spaghetti squash kind of a day - 'cause that is what the harvest is!  Everyone is getting spaghetti squash, in varying amounts, depending on the share size!  It's the most unique of Winter Squashes: once baked, it comes out of the skin like threads of spaghetti pasta!  It's nice as a side dish, either served savory with spaghetti sauce, or sweetened up a bit with maple syrup or brown sugar.  Treat is like a pasta, and toss it with veggies and feta cheese.   Keeping with a Mediterranean theme, how about a Chicken and Spaghetti Squash dinner?  Spice it up Moroccan style - yummy!  Cook up a big one, 'cause there is soooo much more to do with it:  we love these spaghetti squash pancakes from the divine Mollie Katzen!  How about a Spaghetti Squash and Meatball Muffin?  Or, mash it up good and use it in a snack muffin, like this recipe!

Everyone is also getting a 'Sorcerer' pumpkin, a medium size pumpkin.  Yes, it would make a good carving pumpkin for Halloween, but it's also good eating.  Not quite as smooth a texture as Sugar Pie' pumpkin, not quite as sweet, but still good eating!  Hmmm, pumpkin spice pancakes!  Yes, just roast a the pumpkin, mash up the meat for fresh pumpkin puree!  We've made a version of these before: just delightful, and the house smells so good!

We brought along a variety of potatoes, and everybody got a selection, based on the size of their shares.  There was a basic good red, 'Roko, the classic baked potato 'Russet', the delightful 'Island Sunshine', the very tasty 'German Butterball' and another red 'Purple Viking'.  Everyone also got to pick from a selection of tomatoes: cherry, classic red slicers, low-acid yellows, Brandywine or Aunt Ruby's German Green.

We also brought half of the watermelon and cantaloupe harvest; the other half will go to Thursdays' families.  It wasn't a big deal: they are generally small and unripe.  We've been covering them every night for almost two weeks - there's another chore we won't be sad to see finished.  On the kitchen counter, they should ripen within a week, you'll know when the fragrance of the fruit is apparent.  We're not sure how a family of four will split these little guys: maybe a spoonful for everybody in yogurt or on ice cream!

We've so enjoyed our Tuesday CSA families!  We hope you've all enjoyed the fresh-picked food - harvested just for you!  We hope we've introduced some new food to some of you and shared some good recipes!  We've love to hear from you and get ideas for next year:  Caryl mentioned at today's pick up that she'd love sunflower heads, ready to harvest sunflower seeds to roast!  That's doable!  What would you like to see next year?