Week 20

Wow! This week marks the end of our 2009 CSA season and what a season it has been. We would like to thank every one of you for being with us for these past twenty weeks. You have played an enormous role in the success of our farm as well as our community's health and the progress of local foods. According to Debbie Roos, a Chatham county extension agent, in 2002 there were only around 30-35 CSAs in the state. Now there are around 100!

We are now going to shift gears and try to focus on getting our house built this fall and winter. Just yesterday our first shipment of lumber arrived so we hope to get started in a big way this weekend. It is a very exciting project and one we hope to see to fruition by this spring. Wish us luck!

A few final notes for everyone:

1. Please consider voting for the Durham Farmers Market in the national love your farmers' market contest. We are in sixth place and if we bump up to fifth place our market will receive a much needed $1,000. There are only two days left, so put in your vote soon and spread the word! Here is the link--

http://www.care2.com/farmersmarket/

2. Please remember to bring back your boxes this week. We are going to put everyone's box this week in a plastic or paper bag so that you do not need to come back to Foster's market or to the Anthonys' place at Falconbridge the following week with an empty box. This years CSA has been the best so far with returning boxes, so we thank you for being so considerate and remembering to bring them back. It makes things easier for us.

3. We will begin signing up returning members in mid-October. We will send out an email to all of you around a month from now so you have first dibs on joining our CSA for the 2010 season. We have seen an increased interest in the CSA and we will not be opening up too many new spaces, so it will probably be best for you to let us know sooner than later if you'd like to reserve a space.

4. We will send out a member survey by email. Please, if you have a moment, fill this out and return it. Customer feedback is one of our most important methods of improvement. This information will help us to make our CSA that much better and customer satisfaction.

In your boxes this week:

Half-shares

Falconbridge

okra

arugula

salad mix

french breakfast radishes

red peppers

cherry tomatoes

romas

Foster's Market

instead of okra you will get more red peppers and roma tomatoes

Full-shares

extra arugula

green peppers

were not sure about the next item

Recipes

We are delighted to have arugula in your boxes this week. This is a really delicious green that most people eat as a salad, but it can also be lightly sauteed to add zest and a green to pasta or a stir-fry. We usually eat it as a salad with some coarse salt, lemon juice, pepper, and a little balsamic vinaigrette. Some goat cheese chevre or any kind of feta pair really well with the greens, as does fruit as it contrasts with the mild spice of the arugula.

Delicious!

Here are eight great looking arugula recipes from Seasonal Chef's website.

Tomato and Sweet Pepper Salad adapted from The Vegetable Market Cookbook by Robert Budwig

3 sweet peppers
4 ripe tomatoes
1/4 preserved lemon (or 2 teaspoons grated zest with some of the lemon's juice)
2 cloves garlic peeled and crushed pinch sweet paprika
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 t black pepper

Grill or roast peppers, remove skins, cut into small cubes and set aside. Blanch tomatoes for 15-20 seconds in boiling water. Drain and remove skins and stems. Cut in half and remove seeds. Cut into small cubes. Rinse the preserved lemon under running water and remove the pulp. Cut the rind into fine dice. Arrange peppers, tomatoes and lemon in a dish. Mix remaining ingredients to make a dressing and pour over the salad. Mix well.

Flower Shares This week there will be a couple stems of our newly blooming tithonia, also known as Mexican sunflower. Be sure to feel how soft the stems are on this one! And what a great and vibrant orange to have right now.

Thanks so much everyone, you have been great!!!!!

Week 19

Did any of you happen to catch the full moon this past week? We couldn't believe how bright and beautiful and seemingly huge it was. September's full moon is known as the 'Harvest Moon'. We are keeping our harvesting steady here on the farm, but when we hit the equinox on the 22nd and the light begins to wane more and more (along with the temperature dropping), things will slow down quickly.

This is what our farm should look like in a little over a months time. Cleared fields, winter cover crop sown, and overwintered items planted. It's always such an amazing process to get the farm to this point. The fields are an overgrown mess right now, so you can imagine how good it feels to mow it all down, till it a couple times, and plant a nice, thick, lush cover crop. Put the soil to rest so to speak.

We will also be ending our CSA soon as next week is week 20 and our final week. We'll go ahead and put out the reminder to bring back any boxes you may have lurking around your house or garage or porch so we can reuse them. It has been a wonderful season with you all; next week we'll include a quick questionnaire for you all to fill out if you have a moment. This really helps us to plan our future CSAs and to improve each season, so be thinking about what you thought about our CSA and how it could be better.

In your boxes this week:

half shares

lettuce mix

green beans

green peppers

carrots

romas

cherry tomatoes

Foster's CSA members will receive okra

Falconbridge members will receive padron peppers and a couple mole peppers (Falconbridge members, next week you will receive okra)

Large Shares

We're not completely sure what we'll have extra of yet, but this is what we think we'll have for you all, just know this is subject to change!

same as half shares with

sweet red peppers

extra green beans

if we have it extra salad mix

eggplant

RECIPES

We had a couple people email us that the padron peppers were a little hot for them, but since then we have tried to pick them smaller so they are less hot. This is the only way we cook them, sauteing them with a couple tablespoons of olive oil on high heat for 7-10 minutes or until they've deflated, then putting course salt on them. Delicious. There is even a festival held for them every August in Spain.

If anyone else has tried them differently, please let us know your recipe!

Fairy Tale Eggplant in Ginger and Garlic Sauce Recipe from Coconut and Lime Blog

Sauteed Chicken with Cherry Tomatoes from Epicurious

Flower Shares

This week we'll have some lovely bouquets with gomphrena, zinnias, and cat's claw. Hope you enjoy them!

thanks everyone and have a fabulous week!

Week 18

Congratulations everyone! You have made it to week 18 in the third year of our CSA program. We are now down to only two more weeks and the produce is slowly beginning to shift. This week we picked some delicious carrots for everyone and we hope to have them next week as well. We also sowed some arugula last week that germinated well and looks like it will be ready (we hope!) for your last box, along with some lovely radishes. We are feeling very chipper here at the farm with these incredibly comfortable and cool days. 80 degrees and a nice breeze, upper fifties at night?! We are so lucky! Even if it only is for a few days, it lets us know that September has arrived. We are starting to wrap things up for the season at the farm; pulling up tomato stakes, bushhogging old crops down, cleaning up and getting organized for the fall and winter. Next season's strawberries will arrive in the next two weeks! I can taste them already. We hate to tease all you half-shares with the okra picture, but we think next week we should have enough for one drop off point and then rotate to the other drop off point for the final week.

In your box this week:

half shares

carrots

edamame (last week!)

green beans

cherry tomatoes

roma tomatoes

elephant garlic

Full shares

same as half with additional

okra

slicing tomatoes

sweet peppers

RECIPES

Carrot Salad This is from Alice Waters The Art of Simple Food. She says her daughter loves it and she would have it for lunch.

Peel and grate (or chop since yours are on the smaller side) 1 lb of carrots

Make the vinaigrette by stirring together in a small bowl:

1 tsp red wine vinegar

2 tsps fresh lemon juice

salt

fresh ground pepper

Whisk in:

2 tbsp olive oil

taste and adjust as necessary

Toss the carrots with the dressing and add:

2 tbsp chopped parsley

Let stand for 10 minutes, taste again and add salt, pepper, lemon juice or oil as needed.

Roasted Romas We had a fellow vendor at market give us this recipe which sounds familiar; he went on and on about it so it must be really good.

Slice romas in half, sprinkle with salt, and roast on 300 for an hour to hour and a half. De skin and top pasta with them.

I think putting some chopped elephant garlic on them about thirty minutes in would do wonders as well. We're going to try this recipe this week.

OKRA- We hope everyone gives this a whirl. We LOVE it. Fried or sauteed is how we typically cook it, but I do love a gumbo with okra in it. If you ever go to a southern food restaurant, try the fried okra. Q-shack in Durham does a particularly fine job with it.

Fried Okra from Epicurious

Okra Cornmeal Fritters also from Epicurious

Flower Shares

This week there will be a mixed arrangement with zinnias, ornamental grasses, and gladiolas.

Thanks everyone and have a great week!