Sweet Week 16 CSA Newsletter

the Weekly News

After the cold snap, this weather has been like an idealized childhood summer memory … bright, sunny, very warm but never too hot, not humid, hardly buggy … days so nice you’re sad to notice that the daylight is ending hours earlier.

This week, we finally cut down the “Ultimate Ticking Time Bomb” – the dead oak that leaned over the trailer and loomed over our bed. Neighbor Dave brought his tractor and a long cable over, and pulled the tree away from our home while Kristin worked the chainsaw.

Kristin celebrates a textbook tree-felling

The UTTB was quite picturesque, and we enjoyed its constant threat as an opportunity to truly embrace the “que sera, sera” philosophy, especially as we slept through a windy storm … but at the same time, it’s nice to have it gone.

Of course, the old tree didn’t go without a fight – after it was safely down and we were removing the branches, one of them broke under tension and came flying freakishly up off the ground, broken end spinning around to punch Gabe just above the upper lip, splitting his face open. Dave got us a razor to shave it to the skin, so that tape strips would hold the wound closed – although it was deep, it was remarkably clean, allowing it to mend nicely.

We “shocked” the old shiitake logs – soaked them overnight in one of the clawfoot tubs, in an effort to get them to fruit again … but to no avail. Little tiny numbs started to form, but they retreated after a day or so. We’re probably going to re-shock them this week and see if that will get em in gear.

We finished snow-bracing the greenhouse, visited the logging across the road & saw bio-luminescent foxfire fungi, repaired the rotting semi trailer door, made sauerkraut with support from Market Marv (advice and materials!), cut up and stacked plenty of firewood, and built the interior of the Hugelkultur mound up way higher and thicker …

our growing woodpile (all from standing-dead or recently-fallen oaks in our wood lot) seems pretty big – but we know it’ll go fast once the cold begins in earnest … and it really seems tiny next to the massive corridor they’re amassing in the logging operation across the road:

hundreds and hundreds of old, live red oak logged from the Governor Knowles State Forest across the road – to profit the state’s General Fund. :(

sauerkrauting – using Market Marv’s Sauerkraut Kit … whey culture, red cabbage, plus his “rubber glove and cutting baord circle” method

the Weekly Box

Fall Salad Mix! featuring Arugula, Red & Green Mizuna, Sunflower greens, baby dino kale, baby red Russian kale,Tatsoi , Bok Choi, baby Swiss chard, Sheep Sorrel (a lemony & sour wild edible that we let grow where it appears), & Pea Tendrils.

the pea tendril & mizuna upper layers of the Fall Salad Mix

Pie Pumpkin – you can use these exactly the way you would any otherwinter squash; cut in half, scoop out the stringy stuff, and bake. Roast the seeds in salt and oil. Or roast in chunks. Or puree it into soup. Or make it into muffins or bread. Or make a small jack-o-lantern!