Hello, and welcome to our Fall 2022 CSA!

You will receive an email from me, Brittany, your farmer, every week of the share. I'll talk about what's going on at the farm and then list what vegetables we are harvesting that week. Please know that I do my absolute best to guess what the choices will be when you pick up your share, but for a variety of reasons, things can change between when the email is sent and your pick up. We actually grow all these veggies, and the reality is, sometimes nature has plans that differ from our own!

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Use this from.

This fall will be remembered as the fall of the sweet potato and carrot! As many of you know (since most of you were with us in summer too) it was a hard summer for the farm during this drought. Even with the best irrigation systems (like some of the big, multigenerational family farms north of us in Hollis) it was hard to get crops enough water. We did our absolute best to use the water we had wisely, and we believe it has paid off. Some crops like winter squash did ok, but not great - there will be squash in the share, but not loads. I couldn't get the purple top turnips to germinate in time to size up, but I know 99.9% of you don't care or are secretly glad!

But sweet potatoes love heat, and we gave them just enough water when they really needed it to have a great harvest. It is still early to be eating them (they like to "cure" for a few weeks at least in a warm, moist environment) but we've been able to create that for them with one of our walk-in coolers turned into a heating room. I suggested allowing sweet potatoes to cure further on your counter top after bringing them home - the warmth of your home will actually convert some of the starches in the tubers into sugars, making them sweeter!

And as for carrots - we did everything right, we just couldn't get them quite enough water, so they are taking a little longer to size up, but the ones that we are picking now ("Yaya", and early variety) are so, so sweet. The crew was picking up all the carrots that broke off of their tops during harvest for snacks!

Oh, and lettuce and greens. About 6 weeks ago, before it actually started to rain again and our irrigation pond was dry, I took a deep breath and asked myself - where do I have control? And the answer was, in the high tunnel where I had just ripped up the cucumber planting (which was fabulous this year, but organic cucumbers are hard to keep alive for a full season for a variety of reasons). I shifted a field planting of lettuce to the high tunnel where it could get water. And then it started to rain so the field plantings started to grow and now we have a LOT of lettuce. So, get a bottle of your favorite dressing and make some salads! 

Plenty of other crops look fantastic, and we will continue to provide as much choice as possible in our shares. We ask you, as always, to be flexible and eat with the season, based on what our farm is able to produce, and in return we promise to continue to do our very best to provide you with the highest quality organic produce we can.

Fall Flower Share :

lots of pretty zinnias in this week's bouquet!

Last week of the extended flower share!

We will have bouquets for sale this week, and until frost! Which may been sooner than we would like!

Fruit Share

Learn more about the fruit in your share this week: click here to visit the Autumn Hill CSA page. Next week is the last week of the fruit share.

Mushroom Share: The Mushroom share starts this week and it's fresh shiitake mushrooms! Here is a link to Elizabeth's website so you can learn more about her and her business - mushrooms share members will receive a separate email soon with information from Elizabeth about the mushrooms. 

Remember to store your mushrooms in the bag they come in, in the fridge until you use them!

So . . .What's in the (Vegetable) share?

Head lettuce: take one head

Greens, choose one bag: lettuce mix, arugula, pea tendrils, micro greens

Bunches, etc, choose 3: carrots, beets, radishes (yes, these are big, but solid throughout and very good!), scallions, bok choy, kale, chard, frisee (our favorite fall green, delicious sauteed with garlic) and a few other items

Mix and Match 4 pounds: sweet potatoes, tomatoes, acorn squash (limit one squash/share), potatoes, leeks, onions, eggplant, green peppers

Recipes

Hi - Jess Girotti here. If you have a recipe that you love that you'd like to share with other members or if a recipe link isn't working for you, feel free to email me at jgirotti@live.com. (Please note that I can't re-print a recipe from a cookbook that isn't already online.) Don't forget to check out the recipe pages on the Upswing website if you need more ideas for your other veggies. I just added a bunch of new recipe ideas to the Frisee page.

FRISEE SALAD WITH APPLES & GOAT CHEESE AND MAPLE VINAIGRETTE

Simple, but perfect fall salad with just 4 ingredients (plus the dressing).

APPLE & CARROT SUPERHERO MUFFINS

I know what you're thinking: "Can a muffin REALLY be a superhero?" If it can make my kids eat breakfast (which it can) than yes!

CHEESY SWEET POTATO AND CHICKEN BAKE

Super simple and packed with flavor. This would be great paired with one of the frisee salads!

HEALTHIER SLOW COOKER CREAMY TORTELLINI VEGETABLE SOUP

This is one of my favorite crock-pot recipes! Easy, loaded with veggies (like carrots, onions and kale) and it's packed with flavor which makes it a big crowd pleaser. 

FRISEE & CARROT RIBBON SALAD WITH ZA'ATAR-LEMON VINAIGRETTE

Za'atar seasoning is becoming more and more popular (because it's amazing). It is available in most supermarkets or online or, if you don't want to bother, just substitute Italian Seasoning.

POTATO, CARROT & LEEK SOUP

The veggies are all tossed with spices and roasted to bring out their natural sweetness and then pureed into this gorgeous, creamy fall soup.

Sincerely,

Your Farmers

Brittany and Kevin

Thanks for the spring pic, Melody!

...maybe we need a fall pic? Good luck finding us in the same place at the same time! Our current 'M.O." is "divide and conquer"!

Storing Produce

Greens: In a plastic bag in the fridge, not near the freezer. (Ideally between 34 and 40 degrees with 98% humidity.) If they don't come in a bag, undo the twist tie when you get them home and put them in a bag. They will wilt without one.

Root veggies: All roots (except potatoes, onions and sweet potatoes) want to be in the fridge. You should twist roots like radishes, beets, turnips and carrots off of their greens before storing. The greens are all edible - so you can store them separately if you plan to eat them.

Sweet Potatoes and Winter Squash: Store at room temperature - your countertop or in a cabinet in your kitchen is best.



Onions and Potatoes: These crops like cool and dark, but dry, not moist like inside your fridge. If you plan to use them up in a week, on the counter is fine. If trying to store them for longer a dark (inside a brown bag), dry and cool environment like a basement or garage where they won't freeze is best - although don't forget about them!

Herbs and scallions: Unless you are drying them, they can go in a plastic bag in the fridge.

Tomatoes: Don't like the fridge! Store on the counter at room temp.