Greetings!   

This week marks an interesting turning point in the winter season.  Despite spring like conditions this past weekend, it is still the dead of winter.  This week we'll exhaust almost all of our field crops - the outdoor grown mustard greens, brussels sprouts, and winter squash - and leave only some storage staples, like potatoes and carrots, for the coming months. 

Starting next week you'll start to see more "put up" items, like frozen cauliflower, tomatoes, and berries, and "value added" items like pasta, tomato sauce, and preserves to pair well with the coming meats, cheeses, and grains. 

This warm weather last week did wonders on the mustard greens.  David, our farmer, had them covered with row covers outside.  That was great, except the foot of snow crunched the row cover and the crops down to the ground.  The snow acted as an insulating factor and kept them from getting abused by the harsh temperature drops at night.  With the blast of warm air, it melted the snow and made it so he could get at the mustard greens and the greens didn't complain much either.  Now today he's out cutting fresh greens for this week's bag.  

Also in the coming week's we'll start looking forward to grassfed beef.  It was my plan to feature grassfed beef this week or at latest next week, but the cattle that we are finishing on baleage and hay right now just aren't finishing as well as I would like them (and trust me, at the price of hay I want them to finish really really fast).  We have postponed their harvest until late February, so we'll be trying to get you more beef cuts - like roasts - in March.  Sorry for the delay on these tasty items!   

ALSO, will someone in Lakewood please remind us to switch the potatoes over to sweet potatoes this week?  We forgot to do this last time we had potatoes in early December, so I have found some more sweet potatoes and want to get them to you this week!  

So, this week's complete contents:

 Winter Week 7: 

1 pack pork loin chops, boneless 2 count

1 lb grassfed ground beef

1 dozen eggs

1 stalk brussels sprouts

1 head napa cabbage

1 lb carrots

1 bag mustard greens

1 bunch green onions

2 lbs cornmeal

3 lbs yukon gold potatoes

2 acorn squash

1 quarter peck apples, melrose (red) and granny smith (yellow/green)

1 bag mixed salad greens