Our family CSA is filled for the 2020 season.  With help from some dear friends we have launched a new program!   We are calling it We Give A Share Beyond CSA.  Individuals purchase a farm share that allows us to raise food for The Southside Kitchen to cook into meals for people living in affordable housing.  3500 meals per week.

http://www.wegiveashare.org

• Similar to a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) subscription where memberships enable participants to receive a regularly scheduled box of fresh produce and other farm offerings, We Give A Share offers supporters an opportunity to buy a nominal “share” of the farm dedicated to growing specifically for the Southside Kitchen .

• We will deliver fresh organic produce to the chefs at the kitchen weekly so their community meals are as nutritious and delicious as possible. Deliveries will be limited types of vegetables but in large volume in order to provide the kitchen with efficient and productive usage.

• Shareholders will receive weekly newsletters about the farm and what’s being produced, delivered and cooked at Southside Kitchen.

Sign Up at

http://www.wegiveashare.org

The last share of the regular season contains: 1 bunch each of orange and purple carrots, 1 pound broccoli, 2 heads of tom thumb lettuce (tiny), 1 pound gretel eggplant, 1 large red tomato, 4 pounds burgundy sweet potatoes, 2 pounds red onions, 2 bulbs garlic.

Still a little bit of hot summer crops going to ease you into fall foods.  The sweet potatoes are ready to eat but will also keep for a long time.  They are best kept in a dry, warm place.  Counter top or cabinet by fridge or stove are good places.  The purple carrots are yellow inside and make a beautiful salad when cut lengthwise.

Thank you for being a part of our CSA this year!  We hope you enjoyed it.  It gives meaning to our work to be growing food for you!

Eggplant Sauce

Saute 1 red onion, thinly sliced, and 3 cloves of garlic in olive oil until translucent.  Slice the eggplant into rounds with the peels on and add to the onions.  Continue to saute until eggplant are soft.  Add 1 diced tomato and 1 teaspoon greek oregano and cook 5 minutes more.  Puree all together and return to the pan.  Salt and pepper to taste.  We like toasted fennel seed in this as well.  Let it cook all together, adding a little red wine or water to keep it from burning, for 20 minutes or so.  I like this sauce over pasta with canellini  beans or over mashed potatoes or baked sweet potatoes.

Those of you who are buying another 4 weeks, we’ll see you next week.  Those of you who have credit to spend can do so until the Saturday before Thanksgiving at the North Asheville market and/or RAD market until November 6.

2nd to last share of the regular season contains:

1 pound broccoli, 3/4 pound kale, 1 pound Romano beans, 2 kohlrabi, 1 bunch carrots, 1 bunch hakurei turnips, 1 bunch radishes, 2 butternut squash, 2 pounds potatoes, 2 bulbs garlic.

We have had a little rain here to help these fall crops along.  Hopefully the predicted cooler temperatures arrive end of the week and we can breathe a sigh of relief.  Next week you will get sweet potatoes!

Kohlrabi, Turnip n’ Carrot Slaw

2 kohlrabi, peeled and grated

several carrots, sliced thinly on the diagonal

several white turnips, either grated or thinly sliced

the greens of the turnips, washed and sliced into thin ribbons

1 small red onion, thinly sliced

1 clove garlic, minced

Dressing: 1/2 cup sour cream, 1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil, 2 cups red wine vinegar, 1 &1/2 teaspoons of chili powder or berbere or cumin, 1/2 tsp salt, black pepper.

1. Toss the vegetables together in a large bowl.
2. Whisk the dressing ingredients together in a separate bowl.  Taste and adjust salt, pepper and spices to your liking.
3. Pour the dressing over the vegetables and toss to coat.  Cover and refrigerate for 2 hours before serving.

Share contents:  2 small heads lettuce, 1 head radicchio, 3 yellow onion, 1 garlic, 1 pound yellow wax beans, 1 pound green Romano beans, 2 pounds red beets, 1.25 pound Turkey Red wheat flour.

Both varieties of beans are string-less. The beets were dug yesterday but the tops are unsightly so we removed them.  The flour, if not used right away, will keep best in the freezer.  Onions and garlic can be kept out of the refrigerator.

It is time for my annual nudge to eat your bitter greens.  The radicchio is great for your blood.  Eat it combined with other flavors if the bitter alone is too much for you.

Here is a salad we have been eating.

Equal parts lettuce and radicchio, shredded raw beets, fresh herbs (cilantro, dill, mint), red wine vinaigrette, toasted sesame seed nuggets.

To make the vinaigrette finely dice a shallot and let sit in red wine vinegar for 30 minutes.  Add to it extra virgin olive oil, salt and black pepper.

To make the sesame seed nuggets toast half a cup of sesame seeds in a skillet on the stove.  When they start popping, remove from heat and drizzle over them some sorghum molasses or honey.  Stir to coat well.  As they cool, break them apart into little balls and sprinkle over the salad.

After this weeks’ share, there are 2 more weeks in the CSA.  We dug the orange sweet potatoes on Monday so you’ll be getting those in the last couple boxes.  Broccoli is starting to make heads and carrots are getting bigger.

This weeks’ share:  1 pound red onions, 2 pounds Satina Potatoes, 3 butternut squash, 1 pound green curly kale, 2 heads of lettuce, 1/4 pound French Gray shallots.

The shallots are tiny but pack a-lot of flavor.  They are great added to salad dressings, slowly sauteed in butter until they become crispy, or in any recipe calling for shallot.  We planted these last fall, harvested them mid summer, let them cure in the barn loft, and are enjoying them immensely.  We hope you enjoy them too!

On the menu at our house this week are:

Baked butternut squash with crispy shallots sprinkled on top

Chunked and boiled potatoes served warm with minced shallot, parsley, butter, and sour cream

Sesame Kale

Red onion and lettuce Salad with shallot vinaigrette.

There’s also a traditional Portuguese soup of Kale and Potato

about 1 pound kale, 2 pounds potatoes, 2 quarts water, 1 teaspoon salt, extra virgin olive oil

Remove stems from the kale, wash the leaves, and cut into ribbons.

Peel the potatoes and chop them very fine.  Bring the water to a boil with the salt.  Add the potatoes, return to a boil, and cook for 2 minutes, covered.  Add the kale and cook 2 minutes more.  Taste for seasoning.  Add salt and pepper if desired.  This soup is good served with a spicy sausage.

Next week you will get another  bag of red turkey wheat flour.  Sweet potatoes are coming soon as well as more greens and lettuces and broccoli.  Hopefully the next carrots will be ready early October.