2021 CSA Season Week Twenty-Two

Welcome to the third week of the Late Season! We are halfway through, with only two more weeks of the 2021 CSA Season, and we’re so glad you’ve elected to join us for these five weeks. As we get closer and closer to the holidays, we hope to be able to provide you with delicious food to fill your table, and recipes to inspire your meals.

Special Announcements

Don’t forget to check your name off the checklist each week so we know you’re getting your share! With only a couple weeks left, we won’t be able to do any kind of a makeup share for those that scheduled vacation holds, nor will we be able to reroute your box if you miss it, due to the reduced number of delivery days. If you know you will be unable to pick up your box, please fill out a vacation request form so we can accommodate you. We do require at least seven days notice to issue a credit or mark you for donation. If you know you’re going to be late the day of, please give your site host a call as soon as possible to see if you can make arrangements for your share. Please remember our site hosts are volunteers, and our market vendors are only on the clock during the delivery windows listed for those days. We will not be available after hours or on the weekends to reroute the box to another location.

We’re getting closer and closer to getting a new database system in place, and we’re hoping to get the 2022 signups up and going on our website in the next month or so. Keep checking our weekly blogs during the off season for more information on this. If you’re worried you won’t get a spot, you can rest assured that we will be offering our spots to our current members first, before opening it up to our Wait List members, and then finally the public. If you know someone that’s considering joining next year, have them join our Wait List so they don’t miss out. This information will also be displayed on our social media pages as it comes available. We hope you join us next year!

Have you heard of Fill Your Pantry?

Fill Your Pantry is an event held each year that allows the community to purchase food from local farmers at a wholesale price. Our local chapter is in Eugene and will be held at the Lane Events Center Agricultural Pavilion on November 14, 2021 from 12 to 4pm. Though Winter Green Farm will not be there the actual day and will only be delivering presale orders to the event, you can still get ahold of us here at the farm to place an order, and we can deliver it to one of our market booths at either the Lane County Farmers Market in Eugene, or the Hollywood or King Markets in Portland. You can find the list of what Winter Green Farm is offering on the Fill Your Pantry website, though please be understanding as we have a limited amount of crops to sell and some may have already sold out. You can submit an order directly to us until Tuesday, November 9 by emailing [email protected].

We’ll have strawberry spread this week!

Fear not, Late Share members, we have strawberry spread in your boxes this week! Over the last two weeks, we’ve given you pears from Mt. Hood Organic Farms, and next week they’ll help us give you apples, but this week, we wanted to remind your tastebuds what delicious Winter Green Farm strawberries taste like in the form of our organic strawberry spread. We will have a limited number available in our shop as our batch was a little small this year, but we wanted to make sure you all received some season. You can also purchase our Winter Green Farm Tomato Sauce by the jar or the case! Just make sure you get your order in well before the last week of the season so we have enough time to get it to you before the season ends.

What’s going on at the farm?

This week, we’re working on filling orders for the Fill Your Pantry event coming up and preparing the farm for winter. The crew took skins off the green houses in the field as they get ready to cultivate next year’s crops. Chris, Shannon and Chad are in the process of discussing the addition of germination chambers and propagation houses to the farm as they begin the process of getting everything ready for next year’s harvest and accounting for climate change with its hotter days and colder winters like we experienced the last few seasons. It may look like we’re all just walking around in the rain, but each and every person on this farm is integral to not just the success of this season, but of next season and years to come.

“Thunder in November indicates a fertile year to come.”

-November proverb

Welcome to November!

This is the tie of year when Fall transitions into Winter, and Mother Earth shows off the seasons in all their glory. The leaves have fallen, covering the ground in a haze of orange, yellow, and brown, and the trees prepare for the impending cold. This year, Daylight Savings will end early on November 7, giving us a little more light in the mornings as we all begin our days. But as we inch closer and closer to the Winter Solstice, the days will get shorter and the encroaching night will limit the time we can spend in the field. Hopefully the November proverb will prove correct, and we’ll get plenty of rain to help with next year’s crops.

What’s in your box this week?

• Kale
• Carrots
• Beets
• Leeks
• Potatoes
• Lettuce
• Delicata Squash
• Red Kuri Squash
• Parsley
• Strawberry Spread

We aren’t always able to harvest our veggies in equal share, but we’re still keeping excellent notes! The Late Season doesn’t give us a lot of opportunity to give out crops that aren’t cooperating as well as we would like (like the Stir Fry mix), but we’re always doing our best to get you as many of the projected crops Mother Earth allows.

Handy Tips:

• Parsley: Wrap your parsley in a damp towel or place upright in a container with an inch of water and refrigerate for short-term storage. For longer storage, parsley can be dried. Check your favorite cookbook for dehydrating info. Parsley can be tossed into salads with other greens, or chopped into any chilled pasta or vegetable salad. It is excellent in soups, stews, and stir-fries, only remember to add it toward the end or after cooking is completed to retain color, flavor, and nutrition.

What We’re Making:

• Looking for a tasty and colorful way to mix all your veggies? Try these Rainbow Bowls with Almond-Ginger Dressing.

• Sometimes it’s easy to get in a cooking rut, where you’re making the same meals over and over. So what about these Roasted Carrots with Tumeric Couscous?

• Beets are sometimes an aquired taste, but maybe this Beet Ravioli with Goat Cheese, Ricotta, and Mint Filling will silence even the most stubborn naysayers.

• Leeks are definitely in season right now, and they go great in these Steamed Winter Veggie Bowls.

• This simple recipe for Melt in Your Mouth Potatoes is one I’m dying to try.

• Tis the season for this Holiday Lettuce Salad!

• Delicata squash is a staple this season, and we have a lot of it. So, if you’re looking for something new to try, give this Vegan Cassoulet with Delicata Squash a go.

• This Red Kuri Squash Soup is a recipe I’m dying to try.

• Parsley is a versatile herb, and works wonders in this Parsley Pesto Pasta.

One of our members made this beautiful Tamale Pie using Winter Green tomatoes. (Seriously, Lisa, I’m coming to your house for dinner!) It looks delicious and now I want the recipe. What are you making? Send us a photo or a recipe at [email protected] or tag us on social media and you might see it on the blog! You can find us on Instagram (@wintergreenfarm) or on Facebook (Winter Green Farm). We’d love to see what you’re making!

The days are getting colder, the nights are getting warmer, and more and more I find myself wanting to curl up with a book and warm bowl of soup filled with Winter Green veggies. We hope you’ve had a marvelous autumn and continue having wonderful food and making memories with your loved ones as we ramp up for the holidays. As always, thank you for allowing us to tag along this season.

Many blessings,

Chelsea and your Winter Green farmers