| What's Growing This Week: | |
Tomatoes
Arugula
Garlic
Watermelon
Acorn Squash
Sweet Peppers
Asian Pears
Grapes
Melon (M,L)
Red Beets (M,L)
Green Beans (L)
Onions (L)
Items may be substituted without notice.
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| Storage Tips | |
Tomatoes should be stored outside the fridge until eaten. Refrigeration will turn them mealy.
Tomatoes that are ripe when you receive them should be removed from the paper bag we pack them in. Keep less ripe tomatoes in the bag to concentrate the natural ethylene gas they emit and ripen them faster.
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| Bulk Tomatoes | |
Thanks to everyone who helped us use up our surplus tomatoes -- we're sure you put them to good use. Tomato season is winding down and bulk tomatoes are no longer available for purchase.
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Contact Us:
| terrafirmafarm.com
csa@terrafirmafarm.com
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| CSA Rates 2011 | 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
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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
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News From Terra Firma Farm
Community Supported Agriculture |
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Greetings!
As if the words "First Day of Fall" on the calendars weren't clear enough, we got a physical reminder on Sunday that a new season is here: an hour or so of light, steady rain. As is usually the case with our first precipitation of the fall, it wasn't enough to do more than wash the dust out of the air, wet down our dusty farm roads, and give the plants and trees a nice rinsing off.
It was also a good day to test out some of the winter squash that we've been busy harvesting before we put it into your boxes this week. In my house we have a strict prohibition against turning the oven on during the summer, or any day that it's over 80 degrees at dinnertime. Friday night, for example, it was still a toasty 88 at 7:30 p.m. But Sunday morning it was still cool and cloudy at 10:30 in the morning when it started to drizzle, so we fired up the oven and sliced up a bunch of squash. The warm smell of roasting filled the house and mixed with the cool smell of rain-washed air coming in the open windows, a glorious combination. The squash passed the test: We left the skins still on and brushed the wedges with olive oil and salt and they caramelized nicely.
With the day still beautifully cool, it was time for another kitchen task that is verboten in the summer: canning tomatoes. The last two years summer has ended abruptly, shifting immediately from hot to heavy rain and leaving no window of opportunity. So I headed out to glean a box full of scarred and overripe fruit from our oldest tomato field. Back in the kitchen, the tomatoes got cored, cut into quarters and then pureed in the food processor -- seeds, skins and all. From there they went into the big pot were they simmered for 10 hours, cooking down to about half their original volume. For three of those hours, I wasn't even in the kitchen or in the house at all.
Had I attempted this task last Sunday, the ambient temperature in the kitchen probably would have topped out at 110 degrees. Instead, the post-storm breeze kept it cool and comfortable. The day ended with the age-old process of boiling jars and lids, pouring the hot tomatoes into them, and sealing them up before heading to bed. An hour of kitchen labor now for 6 quarts of tomatoes is an investment of time that will pay huge dividends when those jars of condensed summer get opened in the cold, dark gloom of winter.
I know that we delivered hundreds of boxes of bulk tomatoes to subscribers this summer, and I'm sure that with the benefit of the Bay Area's cool, foggy weather, many dozens of jars of Terra Firma tomato goodness were put up.
Thanks, Pablito |
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In your boxes
To start off Fall right, we're sending you the first winter squash of the year, a dark green Acorn. This squash is dense and starchy, filling and substantial. One of the traditional preparations is to cut it in half, bake it until tender, then stuff it and bake it some more. Alternately, you can use the natural shape of the Acorn as a guideline for cutting into wedges and then grilling or roasting them. When the wedges are done, eat them like slices of watermelon, down to the peel.
Fall greens make their debut this week in your boxes, and as usual, Arugula is the first act. This is the fastest crop we grow, maturing in just three weeks. With the recent heat we've been having, this batch of arugula is on the spicy side. Tossing it in a salad with sweet vegetables like Acorn Squash and the first of our fall Beets (such as in the recipe below) can turn that spicy kick into a nice contrast. Alternately, you could pile it onto pasta with a salty and sweet tomato and sweet pepper sauce.
Melons in your boxes this week are probably the last of the season, although there may be some watermelons next week. You may have heard about the terrible outbreak of listeria linked to cantelopes from Colorado. Remember that melons grow on the ground and are eaten raw. Bacteria or other contaminants on the peel can be transferred to the flesh when you cut the melon. So make sure to wash the rind of your melons before cutting.
Seedless Grapes in your boxes today may be either black Autumn Royals or red Crimson Seedless. Either way, they will most likely have a light coating of the yellowish sulfur dust that we use to control powdery mildew on them when you get them. It rinses off easily with water.
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Farm Day Tickets now available
Terra Firma's annual farm event for subscribers will take place on Saturday, October 22nd in the afternoon. We invite you to come out to the farm from 2 pm. to 5 pm. to picnic in the walnut orchard, take a guided tour of the fields, and pick your own strawberries. We will also have plenty of pumpkins available, just in time for Halloween. There will be live music, and Turkovich Family Wines will be sampling and selling their award-winning local Spanish varietals. For those who don't get enough TFF produce every week, we will have a farmstand with more stuff for sale.
Tickets for the event are $5 for adults and children over 12 and are redeemable for pumpkins or other produce items at the event. Subscribers are welcome to buy extra tickets and bring friends. To purchase tickets, go to your TFF account and click on "Web Store", then select "Farm Day Tickets".
Farm Day tickets have sold out in the past, so if you want to come, don't wait to reserve your space(s). You can refund the tickets up until 7 days prior to the event, or if the event is postponed due to rain.
For the first time ever, Terra Firma is also working with other local businesses to offer special deals for subscribers on post-Farm Day activities, so you may want to plan on spending the evening in Downtown Winters having dinner. More details to come.
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Recipe -- Roasted Beet and Acorn Squash Salad
Cook the squash separately from the beets unless you want it to turn red.
Preheat the oven to 425.
Cut the tops off 1 bunch of Beets and reserve them for later. Rinse the beet roots to remove any dirt, scrubbing gently if necessary.
Cut the beets into a large dice. Toss with 1 T. olive oil and salt. Place in a small roasting or pie pan in a single layer.
Cut 1 Acorn Squash in half across the middle. Remove the seeds and cut the stem off. One half into 1/2 inch thick slices. If the slices are more than two inches long, cut them in half. You are looking for about 2 C. of squash; you can roast it all and save some for later or bake the other half for use in a different recipe.
Toss the squash with 2 T. olive oil and salt. Place in a roasting pan or on a cookie sheet in a single layer.
Roast the vegetables until they are tender and nicely browned on two sides.
Mince 1-3 cloves of garlic and add the to the squash, and roast for another 5 minutes.
While the vegetables are cooking, dice 2-3 tomatoes and sprinkle with salt. After five minutes, add 2 T. olive oil.
Cut or break 3 oz. feta cheese into chunks.
When the squash is fully cooked, trim the skins off the wedges (or not).
Soak, drain, and spin dry 2-4 C. arugula leaves. Toss with the Toss the tomatoes and cheese, then taste and add balsamic vinegar sparingly to taste, as well as salt and pepper.
When the vegetables have cooled a bit, toss with the arugula/tomato mixture and serve.
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