Fall CSA Week One | Welcome!
Week 1: September 10th - September 13th
Hello and welcome to the 10th Street Farm & Market Fall CSA! We’re so excited to have you here with us. It feels like Labor Day passed and immediately temperatures started to slowly descend into fall-like weather. The afternoons are still plenty hot, but there’s just a tinge of autumn in the air - a reminder that the seasons they are a changin’.
We love fall on the farm, although contrary to popular belief things don’t really slow down on the farm this time of year. Quite the opposite: we’re doing double-time trying to keep up with the last summer harvests of tomatoes and peppers, planting and transplanting vegetables for our winter tunnels, and bringing in storage crops like fall radishes, onions, and squash.This year we’ve got a good headstart on fall harvests, although a few crops are coming in lighter than we’d hoped due to an early summer hail storm. Glad we’ve planted more veggies than ever this year!
Fall is a mixture of beginnings and endings. The first sweet potatoes of the year come in as the cucumbers fade away. The final weeks of our summer salad mix slowly give way to our first Persephone Days mix. The outdoor growing season concludes and our high tunnel and greenhouse growing kicks into high gear. We always say that getting a weekly CSA share is like subscribing to the rhythm of the farm, and at no point does that feel more true than in the fall. We hope you enjoy filling your bag each week and seeing how the seasons change over the course of two and a half months.
About the share
If you’ve been a share member for a previous season this year, you know that we’ve shifted to a “market-style” CSA pick-up. The feedback has been unanimously positive, and we’re really pleased to be able to offer you more choice in your share. Rather than packing a predetermined bag for you, we’ll be laying out vegetables in our walk-in cooler for you to fill your own bag, often with some items for you to choose between. For example, this week you’ll have the option to select carrots or salad turnips as one of your veggies, and you have a choice of flavor mix microgreens, power greens, or a radish bunch.
We stock these choice bins based on available produce and our best guess of what people will be interested in - and whenever possible we try to maintain the choice throughout the entire pickup period. There may be times where a “choice” bin only contains one item for people picking up their share. Even in that case, this new system results in bags that are more tailored to your tastes than a completely pre-packed share. Please get in touch if you have any questions or suggestions, and let us know how you like it!
Also, some quick housekeeping:
Please make sure to check your name off of the list when you pick up your CSA share. This helps us track how many people have yet to pick up their bag, so we can try to maintain the appropriate choices.
If you didn’t receive our welcome email, with instructions on how to pick up your bag and other relevant details, please let us know. That email should answer most questions you might have about the pick-up process!
If there’s anyone else in your household you would like to add to this newsletter distribution, please let us know and we can add them to the CSA email list.
Please bring your bag back every week so we can re-use the bags throughout the season. This helps us keep costs down!
Thanks again for your support - we’re so excited to share the fall with you.
Have a week full of kickoffs,
Chris, Ashley, and the 10th Street Farmers
In Your Share This Week
Peppers: Sweet peppers are amazing raw, with dips, or added to a skillet or grill. Store in an airtight bag or container in your fridge.
Choice:
Carrots: These carrots are sweet, crunchy, and oh so addicting! Remove tops and store in an airtight bag or container in your fridge.
Salad Turnips: Also called Hakurei Turnips, these fresh-eating turnips are tasty and versatile. Slice them up with hummus, sauté them, roast them in the oven, or even try them on the grill. Store in an airtight bag or container in your fridge.
Choice:
Green Beans: These green beans are flavorful and ready to rock. Store in an airtight bag or container in your fridge.
Broccolini: Tasty tender broccoli shoots - eat them leaves and all. Store in an airtight bag or container in your fridge.
Broccoli: Broccolini’s bigger brother! Broccoli heads love the fall weather. Store in an airtight bag or container in your fridge.
Choice
Kale: Hearty yet still tender, the kale is tasting great. Maybe time for some kale chips? Store in an airtight bag or container in your fridge.
Spinach: The reappearance of spinach is the first sign of seasons changing here on the farm. Use as a salad base, sautéed as a side dish or bake into a casserole. Store in an airtight bag or container in your fridge.
Farm Mix Salad Mix: A diverse mix of tasty red and green lettuces. Delicious with just olive oil and salt, or dress it up! Store in an airtight bag or container in your fridge.
Choice:
Flavor Mix microgreens: Mild and tasty, these make an easy salad on their own or can add some color to any other salad. Try them on eggs or sandwiches – or anything, really! Store in an airtight bag or container in your fridge.
Power Greens Micro Mix: Our newest micro mix! A nutrient-dense blend of broccoli, kale, daikon, and bekana sure to power up any dish!
Radishes: Beautiful red radishes have a mild heat and a great crunch. Add to salads or sandwiches for a little extra flavor. Store in an airtight bag or container in your fridge.
Choice (Full Shares take both):
Delicata Squash: The first winter squash of the season - really more of a late-summer or early-fall squash! Edible skin means you can just halve, take out the seeds, and then roast & eat! Store on your counter.
Cherry Tomatoes: A rainbow of flavor, packed in a pint. Store on the counter - never in the fridge!
Full Share Choice:
Slicer Tomatoes: The taste of summertime! Store on the counter - never in the fridge!
Eggplant: Versatile and tasty. Make some baba ganoush or grill for a sandwich, pasta, or parm. Store in an airtight bag or container in your fridge.
Kitchen Inspiration
If you’re a new member and you haven’t had our microgreens before, think of them like a versatile seasoning - a sprinkle on top makes almost every dish better! It’s also super easy to just toss them into a salad or onto a sandwich for a little more flavor and texture. If you’re anything like us, once you start eating them you won’t be able to get enough!
We’ve got a choice between green beans, broccoli, and broccolini in the share this week. All three can swap for each other in a lot of recipes, realistically. Try something simply like sauteed broccolini, or go for something more extravagant like roasted broccoli or broccolini with lemony tahini and medjool dates.
We’ve kicked into preservation mode as well. We love dehydrating cherry tomatoes to use a sundried tomato alternative in the winter. Maybe time to make some lacto-fermented carrots or chop and freeze some sweet peppers?
Please remember to check your name off on the list! And please bring back your Purple or Blue bag each week! Thank you.
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