Terra Firma Farm
In This Issue
What's Growing This Week?
Out with Summer, in with Fall
This Week's Recipe
Bonus Recipe
What's Growing This Week?
Salad mix
Broccoli
Seedless Grapes
Fuji Apples
Potatoes
Garlic
Green Beans
Tomatoes (S)
Sweet Corn (M,L)
Cilantro (M,L)
Carrots (M,L)
Collards (M,L)
Gold Beets (M,L)
Bok Choy (L)
Peppers (L)

Items are subject to substitution without notice.

Coming soon:

Next week:  Sweet Potatoes
3 weeks:  Satsuma Mandarin oranges


Direct Debit payments, coming soon

In a few short weeks, we will have finished setting up our account management software to directly debit your recurring payments from your bank account -- with your approval, of course.  For those of you who don't like Paypal but still want the convenience of automatic electronic payments, this should be the perfect solution.  Stay tuned for more info.
Newsletter Archive
We've finally got this up and running right, and all the recent newsletters are now available.
Quick Links
Contact Us:
terrafirmafarm.com
csa@terrafirmafarm.com

CSA Rates 2010
Boxes are  charged on Monday for the week's deliveries at:

$14  Small
$24  Medium
$32  Large

For a payment of $300, get a 3% bonus. Your account balance will be $309.

For a payment of$850,  get a 5% bonus.  Your account will be posted as $892.00

For a payment of  $1,400, get a  7% bonus. Your payment will be posted as $1,498.
 
Vacations are charged weekly when notice is given as a fee, no charges occur during the vacation week.

$4 Small
$8 Medium
$11 Large

Payments, Billing, and Changes
Schedule vacations, change box sizes, make payments or sign up for autopay by logging in to your subscriber account at terrafirmafarm.com

News From Terra Firma Farm
Community Supported Agriculture
Greetings!
Mid-October is not a bad time to get a little bit of light rain, especially on Sunday, when there's no work to be done on the farm and we could enjoy it.  It even held off until the day after Farm Day!  We couldn't have asked for better weather for our annual subscriber event, coming as it did right on the transition day from hot and windy to cool and showery.
The rain we got on Sunday was gentle and gradual, and was much appreciated by the heat-stressed winter crops that suffered through last week.  Outside our fields, the deep dust soaked the rain right up.  While it's true that the first storm of the fall almost certainly marks the end of the season for our tomato field, most of the fruit remaining in the field had been pretty well cooked by the heatwave anyway.
Now that the puddles have dried and the sun is out, though, we have lots of work to do in preparation for the big event -- next weekend's predicted soaker, the first big Pacific storm of the season.  We're almost done bringing in all the winter storage crops (winter squash, sweet potatoes).  But we've still got a few important fields left to plant, both with food crops (garlic, broccoli) and the cover crops that will fertilize next summer's harvest.  Once the real winter weather starts, we never know how much we'll be able to get done.


          Thanks,
                     Pablito
  Out with Summer, in with Fall
As I mentioned in the previous newsletter, we left several fields unharvested last week rather than risk sending you highly perishable cool weather crops in the middle of a heatwave.  As a result, this week may feel like a sudden shift as we put those crops into the spotlight: broccoli, baby bok choy, salad mix and collard greens.
The heatwave also kicked our Beet field into overdrive, forcing us to harvest it more quickly than anticipated to prevent the roots from getting too big (think softball sized).  When we do this, the tops are left in the field, which allows us to bag the roots and store them for a few weeks.  We have included some of these topped beets in your boxes today, Gold ones.
We are still harvesting a token amount of peppers, tomatoes, and sweet corn, as well as our last, big, field of green beans.  These are scattered through this week's boxes and will probably make their last appearances next week.
What would a Fall CSA box be without Apples?  We have harvested our first Fuji apples and are augmenting them with fruit from our neighbor and primary apple supplier, Coco Ranch.  These will be a regular feature of your boxes, as will the Pink Lady variety once harvest begins in December.
Stuffed Collard Greens -Collards can be cooked like most other cooking green, but they are can be used the way you'd use tortillas or pasta -- to stuff full of other things.  In this recipe they are cooked like Greek Dolmas
Dice 1 onion and saute in 3 T. olive oil until soft.
Meanwhile, mince 2 cloves of garlic, cut sweet corn kernels off the cob to make 1 C., and finely dice potatoes to make 2 C.
Add the vegetables to the pan and cook for 10 minutes.
Dice 2-3 tomatoes and add to the pan and cook another 10 minutes. 
Mince cilantro to make 3 T. and add to the mixture along with salt and pepper to taste.
Crumble 1/2 C. of feta cheese.
Remove the stems from 1 bunch of collard greens.  Dip into the boiling water in batches and blanch for two minutes, then cool in a bowl of ice water.  Gently squeeze out excess water and set aside.
Oil a large cast iron skillet.  Fill each collard leaf with 1 T. of the filling and 1 T. of feta crumbs, carefully folding the leaf up around the contents.  Place the filled leaves in the pan, seam down, and pack them in tightly.
Drizzle with 2 T. each olive oil and lemon juice.  Cover the bottom of the pan with water and top with a plate to keep the rolls from opening up.  Cook on the stovetop, bringing the water to a boil and then simmering until the leaves are tender, 30 minutes or so.

Bonus Recipe:  Seared Mackerel with Sweet peppers and Thyme
I haven't had a chance to try this New York Times
Recipe yet, but it did jump out at me because of the combination of vegetables:  sweet peppers, carrots and leeks.  You can certainly substitute onions for the leeks (which we will begin harvesting in another month or so).  If you got some peppers in your boxes this week, or still have some left from last week, you may want to give it a try.