(CSA Newsletter: Week 3)
Meet this week’s vegetables:
This time of year is an unusual season for eating locally grown vegetables, so I thought I’d take a moment to share some ‘behind the scene’ details of how we’re making weekly winter share possible for 90 households (the current size of our CSA program).
Believe it or not, the majority of the vegetables we’re providing right now are coming from the fields. Only the winter squash, garlic, and onions have been stored in a dry cool space.
Keeping our roots and greens in the fields means that we harvest them fresh each week for you: this week’s carrots, Jerusalem artichokes, cabbages, Asian greens, celery root, and potatoes were all harvested for the first time just this week. This method of winter growing and storing is easier for us: we’d be harvesting non-stop all fall to put-up everything for winter, and we’d have to build an extremely large storage space to be equivalent to the space in the fields. But, we’ve found that the fields are also a better storage space than anything we could construct. Roots stay moist, tender, and sweet (no drying out or shriveling), and greens stay alive and then put on tender new growth as the days lengthen and warm.
To make our field storage method work, we have to be intentional about how, when and what we plant for fall and winter harvest. Obviously, not all plants or varieties are hardy enough to survive below freezing temperatures. It helps a lot that our farm has well drained sandy soils (so that roots don’t just rot in the ground) and that our winters are relatively mild. Even then, we lose some crops every year to unexpected weather events and pests — so we over-plant as a general rule.
This is only our second year harvesting for the CSA from February through mid-December, but we feel good about it again this year. To be honest, when last December’s winter storm hit, we wondered why in the world we were trying to be a year-round CSA. But, through some diligence on our part, a little luck, and nature’s grace, we survived with food still in the fields. And, now that we’re harvesting again, we have absolutely no reservations about it: we think the winter CSA is awesome! Personally, we love eating freshly harvested vegetables even in these cold months, and we hope that you’re enjoying it too!
One of the unexpected joys of seasonal eating for us has been discovering new foods. When we receive seed catalogs in the mail, we briefly skim through the tomatoes and beans, and then settle in for a careful search for the hardiest winter vegetables. If a catalog claims a green will survive 13°, we buy that seed and try it. In our search for the hardiest vegetables, we’ve found many new favorites. This week we’re giving you two new vegetables for us: Jerusalem artichokes (a perennial native) and ‘Tenderleaf’ Asian greens. Both are yummy, and I’m sure we would never have grown them if we were a summer-only CSA.
We’ve also learned that some vegetables just plain taste better when harvested in the winter (for example: Asian mustard greens, cabbage, parsnips, kale, potatoes). We still grow some of these things for spring and summer eating but find ourselves especially cherishing them in the winter.
We hope that everyone is embracing the challenges and joys of winter eating! Now that we’re three weeks into the winter CSA, you’ve gotten a ‘taste’ of how the experience will be for you this season. We’ve aimed to provide you with plenty of diversity and a good balance between traditional veggies and new ones. If you ever have a question about how to prepare a new vegetable that isn’t addressed by a newsletter, please ask us at pick-up for ideas (your fellow CSA members are also a great wealth of information as well).
Seasonal eating is a learned skill — very few of us walk into farming or a CSA knowing how to prepare every vegetable so that we enjoy it. Casey and I have learned a ton about cooking since we started farming in 2004, and we’re still trying new recipes and preparation methods all the time. We’ve found the new vegetable challenges to provide fun and exciting variation in our diet, but we also know that sometimes we get busy and want the same-old stuff for dinner. Hopefully our weekly CSA shares strike an appropriate balance for you and your household.
On a final note: Don’t forget! No CSA harvest next week, since we will be out of town — soaking in the renewing hot springs at Breitenbush. We’ll be back and harvesting again for you the first week in March.
We’ll see you then, and in the meantime, enjoy this week’s vegetables!
Your farmers, Katie & Casey Kulla
