Three of the big boys, being machos.
THIS WEEK’S SUBSCRIBER MENU:
• “Sangre” Potatoes
• Candy Carrots
• “Three-Root Grex” Beets
• “Buttercup” Winter Squash
• Kohlrabi
• Collard Greens
• Italian Parsley
Click on the links above for information and recipes about these crops.
COMING SOON: Arugula, Pie Pumpkins, Baby Turnips
Kohlrabi are the alien spaceships of the vegetable world.
Summer is clearly past. We’ve had our first, albeit very late, frost. Day after day of thick fog that burns off just in time for darkness to fall. And lots of roots and leaves to eat. It’s been a mild fall so far, and I was surprised to see the bees busy and about as October came to an end—not even 50° outside and they are still hard at work.
These bees are amazing. Late October, and the girls are all out bringing in groceries from somewhere. Is anything even blooming?
Welcome to the first harvest of our Winter season. Really, we should call it the Fall season, and we’re working on that for next year. But this year we’re still calling it winter. Things are a bit hearty this week, but there are tender greens and baby turnips on the quickening horizon.
You should be able to find clues to all the vegetables you don’t usually eat by following the links in the menu list above. Kohlrabi is a strange one for most people, but beets, collard greens, and squash are easy enough to use with a little hint or two. If you have any suggestions please post them in the comments or email me and I’ll include them on their respective pages. “Buttercup” squash is one of my favorites—they’re terrific for soups, pies, pancakes, and they make a tasty purée. Sweet, but not sugary sweet, and richly-flavored and dense. They can also be peeled with a vegetable peeler and cut into cubes, then roasted with garlic and olive oil.
I apologize for the late notice regarding Wednesday farm pickup. We just realized this weekend that we have an very large delivery roster. It became clear that we couldn’t possibly do all the harvest for the delivery and farm pick up in one day, especially if we have a frosty or very rainy Monday.
Most of the vegetables are outside, where they are the most delicious, and frost makes them even more so. However, if it’s frozen, we can’t pick anything until everything thaws out. Heavy rainfall makes for a lot of mud, which makes picking very slow, which takes more time. We don’t want to be perpetually behind our pickup and delivery deadlines, so we split it into two days. Farm pickup is on Wednesday for the winter, and delivery on Tuesday.
Countdown to Thanksgiving.
Whistling Train Farm 
Mmm, kohlrabi! 🙂 It reminds my family of broccoli stalks. We usually steam it or put it in a stirfry or soup – anywhere we’d ususlly use broccoli. This week we picked up a yummy spicy peanut vinagarette from Trader Joes. We decided to trim the kohlrabi and chop it into matchsticks. With some grated carrot, green onions, parsley, and some of the kohlrabi leaves it became a great Asian style slaw. Yum!
Della’s brownies are delicious…please thank her and tell her that she can make brownies for us any time she feels like baking!