Wow, it's Fall Program week 8 out of 8... This is the final week for 2020 subscriptions! We'd like to extend a special thank you for your participation and best wishes for a happy, healthy, safe holiday season and new year! It's been a strange, unsettling year, and we thank you for standing by us throughout it. We love our community of subscribers and can't wait to see you again next year.
With that being said, mugs are finally here! If you signed up for our 2021 vegetable subscriptions before November 26th, you qualified for our Early Registration rewards! This is a totally free gift so we can say thank you for showing your upfront commitment so early. You can pick up your mug this week at the store; if you're a delivery member, it'll be coming to you! We'd love it if you'd snap a photo of you using your cozy mug on social media and tag us so we can share it on our own page.
Introducing...
The December One-Time Kitchen Booster Share!
Although our season ends on December 12th, we know we'll have a bit of a surplus. We'd like to invite you to "boost up" your kitchen contents with this one-time pickup on Tuesday, December 22nd from 10:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. The value of the share will be $20 and will most likely include a mix of root crops, greens, and onion family crops. If we have more to spare, we'll open the store that day for some add-ons. However, this is the best way to guarantee farm fresh produce one last time, perhaps just in time for Christmas if you celebrate.
Click here to order your one-time share (which will include a typical newsletter, like this one!):
This week, we planted 190 pots of tulips, daffodils, and hyacinth to be ready for Spring 2021! We polled our social media followers and asked which name for tulips you liked better: Candy Club or Hocus Pocus. Hocus Pocus won by a landslide. Candy Club is actually a white tulip with pink accents and Hocus Pocus is a yellow tulip with red accents. We planted 5 or 6 varieties of tulips and 4 varieties of daffodils. These will stay dormant in our walk-in cooler to be protected from frost, and then we'll transfer them out to the greenhouse in April so they'll be ready for our Opening Day in May! Can't you just picture the beauty now?!
So many of you ask... "What will you do this winter?" Here is an overview of our off-season project timeline:
December: Clean up remaining plants in the greenhouse and shut off the furnace, turn off the walk-in coolers, shut down the coolers in the store, and shut down the main water system
January: Prepare seed orders and compare with previous years, map fields for dimensions to assist with seed ordering, complete maintenance on tractors and equipment, review previous year from a business standpoint, work on email marketing
February: Finalize all seed ordering, market subscriptions, compile supply list for irrigation parts and plastic mulches and greenhouse supplies (leeks and summer herbs are seeded!) finish construction of greenhouse #2, send out welcome packets to members, create online library of recipe resources, discuss changes and goals for 2021.
March: Receive grow mix for seedling trays, seed more herbs, spring greens, summer crops, and brassicas. Peas are planted on St. Patrick's Day! Plant Mother's Day hanging flower baskets.
April: Tend to seedlings, begin transplanting brassicas into the field, seed beets and carrots, and manage all growth in greenhouse. Our Onion Planting party and Seed Planting Party should take place around this time! (Stay tuned for dates, which will be emailed to you most likely in late March)
May: Continue our marathon of transplanting and caring for the greenhouse. Opening day should be on May 8th!
This fall has been so mild that we have been forgetting how late in the season it is. Monday's weather certainly reminded us. Beets and carrots were all frozen together. One of our lines burst in the greenhouse, the hose was frozen shut, and everyone's fingers were numb. But, this beautiful share wows us for the second week of December!
I also worked on setting aside some items for the one day share: delicata, acorn squash, onions, and garlic!
Finally, the store is all decorated for the holidays. We will not be ordering any more cheese, pasta, sauce, grains, tea, coffee, honey, or syrup for the remainder of the year, so we encourage you to stock up while we still have the items in store. We are getting one last order of meat on Tuesday morning. We're also offering some sales on the following items:
Coffee - Bags are regularly $15.99. They will now be 2 for $24 (must buy two).
Dried pastas - Regularly $4. Now $3 each.
Tea - Jars are regularly $10 each. They are now 2 for $18 (must buy two).
Cheese - 30% off
Spice Blends - 15% off
Yogurt - 4 packs are now $5 instead of $7
Spotlight on Kabocha and Hubbard Squash:
Kabocha squash (pictured first), is a Japanese pumpkin, and hubbard squash (pictured second) is actually a relative. Both are sweet winter squashes, and can be used like a butternut, pumpkin, or sweet potato. Blue Hubbards (the gray-looking kind) are actually an heirloom variety. Both types of squash will keep for 3 months because of the thick outer skin, so don't feel as though you need to eat them now if you're not interested.
Here's a set of directions about how to cook winter squash in the Crock Pot from RachelCooks.com:
Scrub squash clean.
Place squash in slow cooker and place the cover on. Cook on high for 3-4 hours or on low for 6-8 hours or until easily pierced with a knife.
Carefully remove squash and let cool slightly. Cut in half and remove seeds.
Scoop flesh of squash out of shell.
A Message from Randy:
The Uncrating:
Contents (In approximate order from shortest shelf life to longest):
Small:
1 bunch of Tokyo bekana
1 bunch of carrots
1 lb. of beets
1 lb. of onions
Garlic
1 small hubbard squash
1 small kabocha squash
Large:
1 bunch of Tokyo bekana
1 bunch of beet greens
1 bunch of carrots
2 lbs. of beets
1 kohlrabi
1 lb. of onions
Garlic
1 large hubbard squash
1 large kabocha squash
Caring For Your Share:
Wash all before using:
Store kohlrabi, carrots, and beets in a Ziploc bag in the fridge.
Store the Tokyo bekana and beet greens in a Ziploc bag in the fridge.
Store the squashes, onions, and garlic in a cool, dark place such as a pantry. Put in a location where they will get some air flow. Keep out of the fridge and keep onions away from any potatoes you might have. The squashes will last for months, but are ready to eat now.
LGF Cooking Club:
Blue Hubbard Pie with Maple Syrup:
Hubbard Squash Pie:
Chipotle Chicken Blue Hubbard Squash:
Hubbard Squash Sausage Soup:
Sweet and Spicy Roasted Kabocha Squash:
Chunky Curried Kabocha Squash Dip:
Kabocha Squash Risotto with Crispy Pancetta:
Sesame Ginger Tokyo Bekana:
Tokyo Bekana Rice Bowl Slaw:
Beet, Carrot, and Apple Cake:
Roasted Beets and Carrots with Tahini:
Beet and Carrot Hummus:
http://fullbellyfarm.com/recipes/beet-and-carrot-hummus/
Cooking Tip(s) of the Week:
7 Tips for Cooking with Onions and Garlic
https://www.splendidtable.org/story/2016/02/05/7-tips-for-cooking-with-onions-and-garlic
Biweekly Catch-up Time:
We hope you had a very happy Thanksgiving!
One of Randy's big tasks this past weekend was working with his dad, Ed, to frame the ends of our hardening house to become greenhouse #2. We felt that we weren't using the hardening house the way it was meant to be used (but in a good way - we didn't need it!) so we decided to close it all the way in to become a second greenhouse. Our greenhouse in the spring is packed too tightly with seedlings, potted plants, and hanging baskets, and so it's time to spread it all out, and even expand our early spring flower offerings. Both Randy and his dad are super handy, so the sides are framed, there's just a little bit more to do with finalizing the doors. The last step is to hang the plastic over the sides so that it's insulated.
Randy and I also received "his and hers" Johnny's Seed catalogs for 2021 planning purposes. Randy is in charge of all of the veggie seeds, and uses a few different companies to round out his offerings. Although he's nailed down which varieties he likes the best of certain crops, he always experiments with a few new things, too. We decided there are certain veggies we won't attempt again: sweet potatoes aren't impressing us, for one. We've also decided to grow less hot peppers, and no beet greens during the summer months. But there are also a few veggie varieties that I'm sure Randy has his eye on trying (remember the yellow watermelons that were a huge hit?!). I'll be in charge of herbs and flowers for the landscaping alongside our greenhouse, and even some seeds for our garden starter seedling kits that were super popular last spring (and another reason we need more greenhouse space!) We're looking forward to curling up with the catalogs this winter, and most seed ordering is done by mid-January.
Some cozy photos of the store all decorated:
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