Week 20 - the last regular Fox Creek Farm CSA share for the 2019 season. Yes, this was an extraordinarily good growing season!
Fox Creek Farm CSA Newsletter, week of October 21, 2019
In this newsletter:
Farm News
Winter Storage Share Update
2019 Healthy Food for All fund
Eat your beets!
Fox Creek Farm CSA Fall Membership drive
This week's share and U-pick update
Farm News
If you would ask us in August, if we're having a good season, we've learned to be hesitant to answer. As a farmer, you never know what will happen. We've seen floods, droughts, snow, hard frosts, pests and what not that can turn what appears to become a good season into something, let's say. not so good.
But while writing this last newsletter of the 2019 CSA growing season, we can wholeheartedly say that we have had an extraordinary run. Most crops did very well. We've seen a lot of our members take advantage of the opportunity to visit the farm and enjoy the U-pick garden. We've welcomed your positive comments about the CSA experience. Our volunteer hosts at our pick-up sites did an excellent job.
So as we are finishing up our 16th season, we would like to say 'thank you' to you, our friends and CSA members. Thank you for giving us the opportunity to grow amazing food for you, your families and friends. Thank you for giving us the opportunity to keep on farming.
We hope you enjoy the last regular CSA harvest of this season, and we are looking forward to seeing you again in early June at our first CSA harvest for 2020!
Your farmers,
Raymond and Sara
Winter Storage Share Update
This week, we deliver the last of the regular CSA shares. Next week (Monday, October 28, Tuesday, October 29, and Thursday, October 31), we deliver the first winter storage share.
If you have signed up for the winter storage share, we will send you an email reminder by next weekend. We also will have lists at the sites this week for you to check if you've signed up.
Fox Creek Farm's Healthy Food for All Fund is intended to help people with financial hardship to participate in our CSA. This year, the fund collected over $ 1,800. As in years past, any remaining balance goes towards our produce deliveries to the Schenectady Inner City Ministry Food Pantry on Albany Street.
Did you know that all left-over produce at the end of the CSA pick-ups get donated to hunger relief efforts?
Eat Your Beets!
Well, we did something very right with the fall beets this year. We got the fertility just right. We changed from a 3-row to a 2-row spacing. And we found a way to control septoria leaf spot, a pesky fungal disease that does a job to the beet leaf (limiting photosynthesis, as Johanna will tell you). As a result, we are harvesting an ample amount of large to very large beets.
In our kitchen, we tried some of the largest beets we could find in the field, and found that they are very tender, despite their size.
Some cooking suggestions
Roasted beets - two newsletters ago we already shared the recipe for roasted fall vegetables. Roasted beets are delicious!
Pickled beets - either the quick refrigerator type, or the true canning type. As always, find a good recipe if you are going to try the canning route. We like to go by the "Ball Book" (from the canning jars).
Candied beets
As an important ingredient of Borscht soup,
etcetera.
Fox Creek Farm CSA Membership Fall Membership Drive
If you've already renewed your Fox Creek Farm CSA membership for 2020, thank you! We are working hard to get towards our goal of at least 150 CSA members by November 30, which is the cut-of date for our T-shirt give-a-way.
Do you know about our cash or check payment discount, in addition to our early full payment discount?
This week's share: Butternut squash, potatoes, onions, garlic, Nantes carrots, beets, and lettuce. We are rotating spinach, Swiss chard, and kale.
U-Pick update. There's still some herbs out in the U-pick, But this season's U-pick garden was probably the most spectacular to date!
Thank you for your support of our family farm!
We pride ourselves in providing our CSA members with an experience that exceeds your expectations. Please don't hesitate to contact us with any of your questions or concerns regarding the farm.
