CSA Week 18 – The Final Box

the weekly News

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The cold has arrived; we were ready for it. We did a ton of preserving this week, capturing the food that needed to be brought in from the freezing nights, and maintaining it for enjoyment this winter or next year.  Huckleberries, ground cherries, green tomatoes, peppers, and salsas were canned and pickled and jarred and dried.

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We took advantage of All Wheel Drive and a lot of exploring the crazy dead end network of narrow two-track logging “roads” that surround us out in the Barrens.

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the waxy mystery stump found in the woods off a dead-end logging road. A piece of plywood is cut to shape and nailed to the bottom of the hollow log, the thick slab is covered in some kind of black wax. WHAT

 

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the hollowed out log may or may not have been some kind of secret cache, but the slab was definitely used by one – we found this cache of acorns beneath it

 

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yes, a bear does this in the woods

 

This morning, the field was covered in sparking white beneath the lunar eclipse – frozen again. Most vulnerable crops were already dead, but even some cold-hardy plants took damage.

 

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We finished the upgrade of the old pit outhouse, adding a window and some art as we transformed it into a raised composter.

 

the Weekly Box

(Well, it’s a bag this week – we didn’t have enough boxes to give out and figured this was best for everyone.)

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Kristin, Mark, & Florian washing veggies & packing the boxes

 

  • Salad mix – with arugula, red and green lettuce, baby spinach,  green and Ruby Streaks Mizuna, pea tips, baby kale, sheep sorrel, and baby Bok Choi
  • Potatoes
  • a Gourd or three
  • Peppers
  • Parsnips – best roasted. Most people don’t love them on their own, but they are a great component in a soup or roasted vegetable mix. We cut the greens off not only to maintain fresh crisp texture, but because they are toxic – they make any skin that they contact prone to being burned by the sun. So we didn’t include those in the box.
  • Broccoli – from the fall planting

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  • Green onions
  • Kale (Dino, Red Russian, & Dwarf Curly Blue)
  • Parsley – dries well if you want to save it or later – simply tie the bundle and hang it somewhere dry and out of direct sunlight, leaves down/stems up.
  • Carrots
  • Daikon Radish – we left the greens on these so you could easily tell them apart from the Parsnips – cut them off when you get home though, to keep the radish from getting soft prematurely.

 

the Weekly Pics

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bi-color tri-globe potato

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accidentally-matching outfits yet again

 

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