Week 1: December 5 - 8
Hello and welcome to the 2024-2025 winter CSA!
For the first time this year, we’re kicking off a CSA season with weather that feels meteorologically timely. After a long, warm fall, the cold arrived in full force last week. Overnight lows in the single digits meant we said goodbye to the last greens, red radishes, and salad turnips that were hanging on in our season-extending caterpillar tunnels. That means we’re down to our true winter footprint - all of the fresh greens you’ll get in your bag over the next few months will be grown in our greenhouses, minimally heated high tunnel, or unheated spinach tunnels.
In some ways, the shrinking of our growing space is a welcome change - for the next few months we can focus on a smaller area rather than feeling pulled hither and yon among the hundreds of beds on the full farm. But that streamlined set of responsibilities comes with heightened importance of every square foot of growing space. In warmer months with longer days, we can count on quick plant growth and regrowth. In winter, things slow to a crawl and we wait weeks for crops to put on new leaves. It can feel, sometimes, like walking a tightrope at a very slow pace.
Which isn’t to say that everything slows down on the farm. We somehow still find our days packed in the coldest months of the year. We uncover spinach beds to give the plants light and then recover them a few hours later to protect from cold. We harvest, wash, and plant just like always. And we’re already busy planning for next year, preparing seed orders and planting the 8,000+ tulip bulbs that recently arrived from the Netherlands.
We love winter on the farm, and hope you do too. It always feels like a triumph to fill bags with fresh vegetables and greens when it’s frigid outside, and we’re grateful for our CSA members who help support the farm through these slower months. Thank you for joining us for the next four months, and we look forward to seeing you soon!
Have a streamlined and slower paced week,
Chris, Ashley, Hallie, and the 10th Street Farm Crew
Reminder: Your bag is hanging BELOW your name on the bag rack. Please bring your purple bags back each week so we can reuse them!
In Your Bag This Week
Carrots: Our winter carrots are sweet, crunchy, and oh so addicting! Store in your fridge.
Flavor Mix microgreens: Mild and tasty, these make an easy salad on their own or can add some color to any other salad. Try them on eggs or sandwiches – or anything, really! Store in a bag in your fridge.
Persephone Mix salad greens: Our fresh-cut winter blend of lettuce and cold-hardy greens. Store in a bag in your fridge.
Swiss Chard: Stunning rainbow chard offers a pop of color with an earthy, spinach-meets-beet flavor. Store in a bag in your fridge.
Kohlrabi: These alien-like roots are a cousin of radishes and salad turnips - mild and delicious. They’re a little rough on the eyes, but once you peel them they are crunchy and delicious raw or cooked! Store in a bag in your fridge.
Arugula microgreens: Peppery micros add a little punch to pizza, salads, pestos, sandwiches, eggs, and more. Store in your fridge.
Spinach: Spinach gets sweeter the more it freezes and thaws, as the plant produces sugars to use as an anti-freeze to keep the plant alive. That’s why our winter spinach is the tastiest you’ll find! Use as a salad base, sautée as a side dish or bake into a casserole. Store in a bag in your fridge.
Potatoes - Russet: These potatoes are famous for a reason - great baked, fried, steamed, or mashed. Store in a dark, dry place. Give them an extra rinse before using.
Garlic: The best cooking advice we ever received? When a recipe calls for a clove of garlic, use two or three! Store on your counter.
What should I make with what’s in the bag?
Compared to other seasons, our winter bags are often fairly greens-heavy - it’s what we can grow this time of year! So it’s helpful to have a few recipes in your back pocket that can adapt to a variety of leafy treats. We love this baked spanakopita pasta for that reason (and our kids do too). Other greens-adaptable go-tos for us include frittatas, greens grilled cheese, quesadillas, or a simple sauté with lemon juice, red pepper flakes, and garlic.
This week in the bag we’ve also got kohlrabi, which sometimes stumps people. These are a storage variety, so they look a little rough on the outside, but once you peel them they’re crisp, mild, and tasty. They’re great in soups and stews, like this beef and barley stew with kohlrabi and carrot or Polish kohlrabi soup. Or, try it sliced fresh with some hummus. For the adventurous our there, you could even try pickling it!
If you've found a recipe you're loving, please send it our way. We're always looking for new things to cook and share with other members!
We wash everything in your bag but we wash them in bulk so some things may need an extra rinse at home. Thanks!
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