Full Shares: Russet potatoes, French Red Fingerling Potatoes, Music Garlic, Salmon River Squash, Acorn Squash, Jack B Little Pumpkins, Red/yellow/Sweet onions, and Carrots
Partial Shares: Russet potatoes, Music Garlic, Salmon River Squash, Jack B Little Pumpkins, Red/Yellow/Sweet onions, and Carrots
Hello CSA members!
Well, it’s true, it’s the last week of CSA. Week 20. As always, it’s a bittersweet week. We have really enjoyed providing you all with fresh produce all summer, but 4 1/2 months of CSA ( which involves about 8 months of farming) at this pace is pretty exhausting. And you are to be commended for making it to your CSA pickup for the past 20 weeks, and making the choice to support local food and agriculture. Hopefully it has been a positive experience for you. Maybe challenging at times, maybe overwhelming, but hopefully it has expanded your view a bit on what is possible here in Montana regarding food. You have now had the experience of eating extremely fresh food. Most everything you received this season was picked the same day, or at least within 24 hours of you getting it. Food at the grocery store doesn’t even come close to that. The food was also grown with great care and attention….again, not the same can be said for much of the food at the grocery store. And given so much of the feedback we received this year, we can tell that you notice the difference. And that’s good. The general decline in food produced by much of our nations food system should proceed unnoticed. We should push back for what is right, and we should have alternatives to the status quo. And you all have made the choice to seek out an alternative when you signed up for our CSA, and we thank you for that.
Taking a moment to enjoy a fall sunset on the farm.
So, it’s definitely autumn out there. We’ve had more than a few frosts and freezes at the farm by this point, and so to end the season we feel it’s apropos to provide you with some fall storage crops. In keeping with our “work smarter, not harder” rule, we traded in the 35 pound pumpkin variety from last year for Jack B Little pumpkins this year! My lower back is so much happier! Actually, it was an error in our seed order, but they sure are cute! And tasty! Can anyone say Candied Pumpkins!
And if any of you have made a bulk order (see the previous newsletter) here are some general rules for ideal storage. Potatoes must be kept in the dark, and as close to 40 degrees as possible. Carrots like dark, humid and 33 degrees. Garlic, onions, and winter squash are fine at room temp. I’ve been grating the russet potatoes and making hash browns of them, which go great for breakfast, lunch or dinner. Rebecca also wanted me to mention that we have a bit of a surplus of slicing tomatoes that we harvested right before the freeze which would be excellent for canning. She is offering them in 15# boxes for $30. Just email us if you are interested.
Well, I think that’s a wrap. Thank you again so much for supporting our farm and local agriculture. Sign up for the 2017 CSA will commence online on January 1st, so if you would like to join us for another go round, we’d love to have you participate again. We hope you have a safe and enjoyable winter, and hopefully we’ll see you around the valley or on the slopes!
Todd and the Two Bear Farm Crew
