- Carrots
- Turnips
- Winter squash (Kabocha, Acorn or Butternut)
- Lacinato kale
- Napa cabbage
- Potatoes
- Leeks
- Celeriac
- Lettuce
- Strawberry spread
Special Announcements…
*As this will be the last week of delivery, we would sure appreciate if you would scout around and find any stray CSA bins that might have made their way to your house…we will be coming around to all of the delivery locations next week to collect them. Thank you!
*If you would like to reserve your share for the 2016 season, please do! We would love to feed you next year!
Recipes!
Celeriac Recipes from Huffpost Taste
Squash and Pumpkin Recipes from Martha Stewart
Asian Stuffed Napa Cabbage Rolls from Aggie’s Kitchen
Views From the Field…
The farm was covered in a thick fog the morning I went out to take photos of the last week of the CSA. I can’t believe it’s here already, it’s amazing how quickly 24 weeks pass by. Poodle Creek snakes its way around the home farm land, making for misty mornings most days, and in the winter, the gray can last all day, sometimes breaking in the late afternoon just in time for the sun to go down. This day, the sun was making a valiant effort to break through the clouds overhead…
The crew was working hard, trying to finish up a big wholesale burdock order so they could get out to the fields to harvest in the afternoon. There are only a few people left this time of year, but still much to do, so they weren’t wasting anytime! Jimmy was washing the burdock roots on the barrel washer…
He sends the roots down the barrel as it rotates, water spraying off all the soil and depositing them out the other side onto a conveyor that dumps them into a clean tote to be taken to the folks in the processing room. They sort and chop the roots into ten pound boxes that we sell to Organically Grown Company, who then distribute to stores around the west coast. There is much time spent with burdock during the winter months on the farm, and it is good to be able to keep a small core group of people employed throughout the season with this healthy storage crop.
Winter brings burdock chopping, and also time spent bedding down the cows in the barn. The herd goes into the barn this time of year, in the middle of November, to spend the cold, wet months inside, where they are out of the harsh elements, and also prevent the pastures from being torn up in the soggy Oregon winter. We lay fresh straw down for the cows three times a week and feed them round bales of hay as well as baylage, which is grass that has been cut in the morning when it is wet and then wrapped in plastic so that it will ferment and create a delicious, nutritious, probiotic food the cows love…
In the Spring, we take the hay/manure mixture out of the barn and use it to make compost. It’s a wonderful fertility loop, and it’s great that the majority of the fertility used to grow your vegetables is produced right here on the farm.
They just happened to be moving the cows into the barn on the day I was there, so we were able to watch as they rounded them up to their winter abode, Genevieve did a lot of “moo-ing right along with them…
They looked pretty happy in there, the sweet smell of the hay drifting up from their manger…
I wasn’t able to stay and take photos of the crew harvesting the last of your vegetables for the year, as Miss Genevieve was getting sleepy, so Jabrila sent me some lovely photos she took of the leek harvest and the colorful turnip and carrot bags…
Winter on the farm is quiet and peaceful, a time to reflect on the season past, and a time to plan for the future season and before we know it, seeds will be sown once again in the greenhouse and the circle of life on the farm continues.
We are so thankful this time of year, for the people who work this land, the earth that sustains us, the bounty of the harvest this year, and for you, who continue to support us by being a part of the farm, and letting us feed you and your families throughout the season. You are the reason we are able to continue in this work, something we are all passionate about, growing healthy food for a healthy world. We hope you all have a wonderful and warm winter, full of hearty meals, long relaxing evenings, and time spent with loved ones. We hope to be growing your food again next year!
Many thanks, Sara and all your Winter Green Farmers
Winter Green Farm 