• Farm News - Another season is coming to an end - thank you for your help!
• Recipes: Grated beet salad, Curried Butternut Squash Soup
• U-pick, and this week's share 

Farm News

It's cold outside. Yesterday the mid-day temperatures here at the farm barely made it to the 40-ies. Top that with a blustery wind, and you can imagine that washing carrots, beets, and potatoes isn't anything that fits a romantic idea of farm life at all. Richard and Barryton have been telling us three or four times a day how warm it is right now in Jamaica!  

Garlic. We got another big project out of the way. Friday we planted 20,000 cloves of garlic for the 2019 crop. It's nice to work well drained soils, so even with the frequent rain showers of last week, things dried enough to get the equipment in. Phew.  Done! Now we just need to mulch. We're picking up 180 bales of straw on Tuesday!

This is the last newsletter of this season. And what a season it was. The March snow lasted to the end of April, which delayed some of our earliest field plantings. But after the snow went, we had what we think a very good growing season. High temperatures and ample water made a lot of the crops exceed our expectations. We hope you enjoyed the bounty - in the shares, and maybe from your pickings in the U-pick.

Thank you! Thank you for being part of our CSA this season. Small farms like ours need farm direct sales to keep economically viable. And it is with your help as a Fox Creek Farm CSA member that we have the opportunity to do what we like best: farming (even when it's getting a little bit cold outside).

Renew you share! We hope you continue your CSA membership next year. If we already received your membership form (or if you already signed up online), thanks! If we have not, please remember it's until November 15, 2018 that you can purchase or reserve a 2019 share at 2018 prices. After that date, we’ll have to increase our pricing by 3.5% to cover for increased operating costs. If you have not done so yet, renewing your share is easy. Either return the membership form to us by mail or visit our website to sign-up online.

Enjoy the last regular CSA share of the season, We're looking forward to seeing you at our CSA sites or at the farm next spring!

Your farmers,

Raymond and Sara

Recipe: Grated beet salad

Mimi McGiver shared this recipe with us - it's a raw grated beet salad, adapted from the NYT cookbook.

Ingredients:
1 pound beets
1 clove garlic
2 tsp dijon mustard
1 TBS olive oil
1 TBS sherry vinegar or other good vinegar
minced herb of choice (parsley, dill, chervil, rosemary)
pepper and salt to taste

Directions:
Grate beets and garlic in a food processor. Mix all other ingredients together and toss. Adjust with salt and pepper to taste.

Recipe: Curried Butternut Squash Soup

This vegan creamy Curried Butternut Squash Soup is made with ginger and coconut milk.Topped with roasted squash seeds!

Ingredients
For the soup
1 Butternut Squash, peeled and cubed (reserve the seeds)
1 large onion. chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 teaspoon fresh ginger, minced
2 teaspoons curry powder
2 teaspoons olive oil
14.5 oz can of coconut milk
4 cups vegetable stock
Salt and pepper to taste

For roasted seeds
1 cup squash seeds washed
2 teaspoons olive oil
1 teaspoon cumin
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
Salt and Pepper to taste
 
Directions:
Saute the onions in olive oil until softened. Add the garlic, ginger, salt, pepper, and curry powder. Stir with a wooden spoon for 1-2 minutes. Add the butternut squash cubes and let them saute for 2 minutes. Pour in the coconut milk and vegetable stock. Cover your pot and cook until the butternut squash is tender. Using an immersion blender, blend the soup until creamy. Check the seasoning and add more salt and pepper if needed.

And while the butternut soup is boiling, roast the seeds. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In a bowl, mix the squash seeds, olive oil, cumin and cinnamon, salt and pepper. Line a sheet pan with aluminum foil, spread the seeds on the sheet pan. Bake for approximately 20 minutes or until crispy. Top the soup with seeds and enjoy!