Date: November 6th 2007

Henry’s CSA
Food & Farm Notes
Week 24 – November 6, 2007

In Your Share This Week:
Lettuce
Komatsuna
Fennel
Bok Choi
Kale
Chinese Cabbage
Ruby Streaks (Red Mizuna)




FARM NOTES: Rescue mission

Each week, the “In Your Share This Week” list is a reflection of the weather we have been having and the weather we are expecting. This week’s list spells F.R.E.E.Z.E. With the weather forecast calling for lows in the high 20’s on Monday night and mid-20’s on Tuesday night, it was time for a rescue mission, pulling your produce out of harm’s way. We spent Sunday harvesting all your greens, as well as a healthy portion for us to put in our freezers for the winter. On Monday we were out pulling all the more freeze-susceptible roots, mainly the different kinds of turnips and winter radishes. Those roots stick slightly out of the ground and when it starts getting down in the 20’s, the part that sticks out of the ground freezes solid. It thaws out during the day and the plant keeps on growing, but once frozen like that the root won’t store nearly as long and the frozen part loses some flavor and texture. We pull the plants, tear off the tops and put the loose roots in boxes. Late
r this week, I’ll wash all the roots and most of them will be used up over the last two CSA (yes, two more to go after today!) and my last Evanston market. What’s left will go into the storage pit for our winter usage.
So, you might well ask, why is our share all greens this week? Why no roots? The answer, of course, is that the topped roots will store just fine until next week. Actually, at this time of year I could hold the greens for a week without much decline in quality at all, but still it is better to get them to you as soon as possible. In plastic bags in your refrigerators, they will last a couple weeks in near perfect condition.
Next question? What am I going to do with all those greens? Well, I picked an extra 3 ½ boxes of choi just for us to freeze. You should do the same. Take any of the greens you don’t think you’ll be able to eat this week—I would recommend the kale, komatsuna, bok choi and Ruby Streaks—and put them into the freezer for winter stir-fries, soups and anything else. All you need to do is blanche the greens in boiling water for a couple minutes, then cool them rapidly in cold water, squeeze out excess water, pack in ziplock freezer bags and place them in the freezer. Look in your Henry’s CSA Recipe Booklet for more details as well as blanching times.
Also, don’t be afraid to use the greens for salads. Make your own mesclun this week. Chop up some Chinese cabbage, komatsuna and Ruby Streaks and throw it in with your lettuce. Slice the bok choi stems into hefty slivers for a nice crunch. I like to sliver up fennel as well in my salad. Even the kale, if you sort out the smaller leaves, is tender enough to eat raw.
For recipes for cooking the greens, you can search the Food and Farm Notes archives on my website (www.henrysfarm.com) or go back to the Henry’s CSA Recipe Booklet.
(In case you are wondering why no recipes today, Terra is in Mexico this week, so it is me—Henry—doing the writing.)
Finally, you can hold the greens for a few weeks just by putting them as they are in a plastic bag in your refrigerator. The Chinese cabbage, in particular, can be stored for a month at least. You might have to throw away some outer leaves at that point, but the rest will be perfect.
One final point about the greens. Just because we went through a couple really cold nights and just because we went out on a rescue mission doesn’t necessarily mean you’ve seen the last of the greens from the field. As a matter of fact, there is a very good chance that I will be harvesting greens from the field for the last two CSAs as well. All the greens that we are picking now are very cold-hardy. They won’t be killed off until we start getting days when temperatures don’t rise above 32 all day. The last two cold nights did hurt these cold-hardy veggies. The outer leaves freeze, which means the water in the plant cells freezes, crystallizes and ruptures the cell walls. That causes the leaves to wilt and droop and if you tried to eat them they would be soft and rubbery.
However, the plants themselves are still alive and still growing. If before next week’s CSA we have some more good growing weather--mainly a string of nights that don’t go below freezing—the smaller interior leaves that were protected by the outer leaves will keep growing, brand-new leaves will develop and I’ll be harvesting those next Tuesday. The accumulation of these hard freezes just makes it harder and harder for me to find enough of those good, undamaged leaves.

SIGN UP FOR NEXT YEAR’S CSA!

I’ll be handing out sign-up forms to everybody this week. Those of you who have been with me for years already know the deal, but for the new members this is the way resign up works:

Current members have first dibs on joining for the next year. As soon as I know how many returning members I have, I open the doors to new members. So I don’t have to chase after people all winter long trying to make sure every member who wants to resign up has actually signed up, I now try to get a yes or no answer from each and every one of you before we meet for the last time this year.

For those of you, who want to rejoin, your “yes” answer comes in the form of a check made out to me (Henry Brockman) for the amount of $364. However, I will not cash your check until
February. I don’t actually need your money now, but your check in my hand allows me to plan out next year’s season with a good idea of how many members I will.

I know it is hard to think about next spring now, but as a farmer, as soon as this season ends, I have to start not only thinking, but making hard and fast plans for next year—starting with figuring out how many seeds to order. To encourage you to think about the spring now, I have a carrot and a stick. The carrot is that by signing up and giving me your check now, you will pay the 2007 price for the 2008 season. I’m thinking of raising the price by a dollar a week for next year, so you pay $364 instead of $390.

The stick is that if you put off paying now and then decide next spring--when you start dreaming about asparagus and lettuce and other spring delicacies--that you really do want to join, all the CSA openings might already be filled with new incoming members and I’ll have no spot for you.

For those of you who have decided—for whatever reason—not to rejoin, please, please, hand me back your sign-up form with the “no” box checked. I already have a waiting list of people who want to join in 2008 and as soon as I know a current member is not coming back, I can let a new member in. Every year there are always some people who don’t give me a yes/no answer and then I worry all winter if they really didn’t want to rejoin or if they just forgot or I lost their check, etc. etc.
So, please return your sign-up forms, with your check if you are rejoining, before our last meeting of the season on November 20th.
Finally, please use the back of your sign-up form to make any comments and ideas on how I can make the CSA better next year. I am also always eager to hear which vegetables you really like and which ones you really dislike.
TERESA’S TEAS
Teresa, of Teresa’s Fruit CSA, will also be handing out her sign-up forms tonight and selling her delicious herbal teas—all handmade from her own organic herbs—so bring your checkbook or cash and fill your drawer with herbal teas for the cold winter nights to come.