We hope you all had wonderful holidays and are enjoying this start of real winter! Tomorrow will be the last winter share box, but it has a lot of storage crops so the veggies can last for a while yet in your refrigerator or pantry.  The winter squash won't store as long as the other things, but it can be easily frozen if cooked first. Potatoes will sprout if they are too warm, but they can be kept in a refrigerator or cool, non-freezing room.  

I (Wendy) am speaking on a farmer panel at the NY Agriculture Society's Annual Meeting tomorrow.  The subject of the conference this year is climate change so it should be interesting and sobering.  The moderator of the panel sent me a link to a TED Talk  he gave, talking about climate change that is worth a listen.  I think they asked me to speak because I was filmed speaking about climate change for the Cornell Institute for Climate Change and Agriculture, which is here.  I think it's great that the NY Agricultural Society has chosen to focus on climate change this year - traditional farmers tend to be conservative and conservatives don't always want to address climate change so I think it's really positive that it's front and center.   So, the rest of this email is going to be a bit brief because I'm still prepping for tomorrow...

We'll be sending out a winter share survey within a few weeks  and we would love your participation - your input is very important in planning next year's winter share.

The vegetable list is on our website on the what's in page.  We still have a few hardy herbs left in the field that are open for pick your own. 

This is the best time of year for roots.  Roasted roots, root soups, root slaws, mashed roots, crudite.  Just a heads up, the kohlrabi looks quite ugly but the ones we opened were lovely inside, so just peel the outside off and enjoy the inside.

We weren't planning on greens for this last box, but was warm enough that we picked unprotected greens in November so we still had spinach and kale to pick under the caterpillar tunnels.  We also had warm enough afternoons this weekend that we were able to get in there to pick when they weren't frozen. So, yay, a few more greens!

We put some extra potatoes in this last box and so fit in three different varieties: a white one (Salem), Adirondack Red (red/pink skin and flesh), and a fingerling variety called Papo Cacho that is also has red skin and pink flesh.  I love fingerlings they are fun shapes and many of them are more waxy and moist and make great roasted potatoes.  

Lydia was especially excited about the celeriac today and said she made a great soup with celeriac, apple and another root... maybe carrot?  I have found apples are a great secret ingredient to pureed root soups.  

If you haven't signed up for the 2016 CSA season yet, you can find forms at http://commonthreadcsa.com/our-farm/become-a-member/

Wendy and Asher