Birch Point CSA Week 14-15: Fall Bounty

This Saturday, Oct. 4: Grawndezvous!   Brenin and his dad  Tom are your hosts for this end-of-summer festival at the farm in Grawn.  Early evening through ???  Potluck and cookout over the fire.  Bring musical instruments, beverages, and a dish to share if you like. Dress for cool, maybe wet, fall temps. If you've never been to the Grawn farm, this is a good time to take a tour-- just come before dark. Follow the link for a map; take a south on Sunset Breeze all the way to the end-- look for the party tent!
Keep in mind: October 18 is the Garlic Planting and Farm Member Appreciation Potluck at Birch Point-- bring a friend! More details soon.

In Your Share This Week:

The very first Winter Squash- Acorn, Delicata, or Sweet Dumpling
Broccoli OR Cauliflower
The first fall Cabbage
Some of the first fall Carrots- either all orange Mokum or mixed Rainbow
A rainbow of Sweet Peppers
Sweet Onions or Red Tropea Onions
Potatoes- large red Strawberry Paw or white Bintje, or white/purple fingerlings (if you were part of the volunteer potato planting at Birch Point, these fingerlings are some of the roots of your labor)
Kale OR Collard Greens
Italian Parsley *think Parsley-Potatoes*
Salad Mix OR Head Lettuce

Delicata

Sweet Dumpling

Acorns come in many colors!

Tropea Onions

Announcements

1. Fall/Winter Shares available: Join us for eight weeks of fall and winter bounty (yes, "winter bounty" is a thing when you have a hoophouse!).  Starting Saturday November 1st, pick up shares every Saturday at the indoor winter market at Bldg. 50 @ The Commons (Sat. 10 am- 2 pm; market runs November through April).  Fall/Winter shares will include plenty of root veggies like potatoes, carrots, beets, leeks, onions, turnips, radishes, celeriac; as well as leafy greens like kale, collard greens, spinach, Asian greens, lettuce, cabbage, Brussels sprouts AND greens; winter squash, herbs like parsley, thyme, and rosemary, sexy hoophouse greens like arugula, baby salad mix, baby spinach, and possibly a few surprises. Shares cost $250 and are intended to feed 2-3 adults or a small family. Since there will be so many storage crops, don't worry if you have a small household and can't use the entire share in a week; many things will keep well for weeks or months if you have a root cellar or cool storage area.

2. Honey from our girls (the honeybees!) will be available soon! Beekeeper Greg Griswold collected supers last week and  is extracting honey this week, so we could have honey available as soon as next week. Last year honey was $12 per quart; I anticipate it will be similar this year. The way it works: You bring jars, labelled with your name, to CSA pickup. Tuesday people will fill your own jars on site from the bulk bucket. Sat, Mon, and Wed people will leave your empty jars with your empty boxes, and next week your jar will be in your box, full of honey!  I'll send an email shout out as soon as we get the word (and the goods) from Greg.

3. Three more weeks of CSA after this wek! (Four for those who joined before the end of February) 

Recipes

Click here for a simple variation on Colcannon, a traditional Irish potato-and-greens dish (note: you can use any onion; it doesn't have to be green; my guess is that since it's often a St. Patrick's Day dish in Ireland, green onions are what's in season there in the March, therefore that's what's in the recipe, but any allium will do nicely)

And speaking of internet recipes, here's a nice suggestion for Five Spice Roasted Delicata Squash, which you could use for any of the squash you'll get this week (any small, thin-skinned squash, basically, not just Delicata). 

Sweet Dumpling Squash with Quinoa (note: any small squash will do nicely!)

Courtesy of Buy Haywood

1 cup quinoa
2-3 sweet dumpling squashes
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 diced yellow onion
1/4 cup chopped nuts of choice
1/4 cup chopped dates or raisins  
2 tbsp brown sugar
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
Salt and freshly ground black pepper (to taste)

1 tablespoon maple syrup 
6 tablespoons butter

Preheat oven to 350 F. Cut the squash in half and remove seeds with a spoon. Use a fork to poke several holes in the skin of each half of the squash. Place squash in baking pan with hollow side up. Add 1” of water to bottom of pan. Bake uncovered on middle rack for 30-45 minutes or until the flesh is soft. Rinse and cook quinoa in 1 and ½ cups of boiling water then let it simmer in pot covered with lid for about 15 minutes. Saute chopped onions in olive oil until translucent and then add nuts, spices, and raisins or dates and sauté an additional minute. Mix in the cooked quinoa and salt/pepper to taste. Divide mixture into squash halves, along with butter, nutmeg, and cinnamon. Drizzle with maple syrup and bake for 20 minutes.

lifted from http://www.motherearthproduce.com/pages.php?pageid=28