Wk 40 | Fall 10      CSA Newsletter   Thu | Dec 5
Tractor, Field, Hoops & Sky

Call/text Robin at 708-370-8017 if you have questions about your delivery tonight. 
Notes from Chris  

 

Our first extended period of below average temperatures in a long time is upon us. I don't think it's been this cold for this long, relative to average, in months. When 30's and 40's for highs turn into 20's with lots of wind, hoop house spinach slows down dramatically. We could, just barely, have harvested and packed spinach for this week's box. It seemed smarter to take advantage of the brief and slight warming trend we're experiencing early this week to let the spinach grow as much as possible before harvesting it on Wednesday and Thursday for next week's box.

By week's end we're expecting highs in the teens and lows around 0 marking the third week of significantly below average temperatures. This is great for sweetening up spinach that's already sized up, but not good for growing and harvesting because spinach leaves need to be thawed out and "turgid" for either of those activities. When air temperatures drop into the teens, spinach leaves freeze, and while the spinach is okay, we can't harvest the spinach until it thaws out and "perks up" after going through a transitional wilted phase. It is this stress of freezing and thawing and having to deal with the related moisture stress that makes spinach so sweet this time of year. While these conditions do happen outside, the freeze/thaw cycle in the hoop houses is less drastic, and more controlled, especially with our lightweight row covers that modify even the coldest winter temperatures. When it's below 0 with a strong wind outside, the temperature under a piece of row cover, inside a simple, single plastic layer hoop house, seldom drops below the teens. Occasionally, the temperature can get into the single digits. With no wind, the plants themselves hang in there and, though they take a little longer to recover from such a deep freeze, they concentrate even more sugar as a result.

So, we'll put all the spinach we can in the last two boxes of the season starting next week. There will be more of it--and it will become increasingly sweet as we go through colder weather--in our Winter CSA that starts up next month. This next batch of singles digit lows will put the spinach into the very to extremely sweet category. The colder it gets, the slower it grows, and the sweeter it gets.

This week we're focusing on our whole roasted tomatoes, and a few sugary root crops that can go well with the tomatoes. For those of you who haven't used our jarred tomatoes, they're very simple, plain, and whole, in terms of the skins and seeds all being there. We halve, lightly salt, and roast roma/paste/plum tomatoes until they're slightly blackened. We blend them slightly to break up the skins into small pieces, no more, and jar them. This results in a base tomato cooking ingredient that's even better than fresh tomatoes as we generally cook off 20% of the water during roasting.

One good way to combine this week's offerings would be to oven roast all the root crops and add them to the tomatoes. Even the butternut squash those could be skinned, cubed, roasted, and added to the mix. I'd take a head of garlic, lightly saut� it, and add it to the tomatoes. After bringing that mixture up to temperature, cook the tomatoes down to desired consistency in whatever size pot you need, and then add the roasted veggies. Though I generally don't put beets or winter squash into my tomato sauces, I think it is a good idea to sweeten up the tomatoes and to cut down slightly on the acidity as everything else is more basic, and would serve to modify the acidity of the tomatoes. While many people really like the acidic quality of tomatoes, I do believe it is one of the reasons many people don't like tomato sauces, and why you often see sugar added to offset this flavor. There are many natural, healthy sources of sugar that do the job with more flavor and nutrition, and this week's box if full of them.

Were I doing this, I'd caramelize the onions beyond recognition, to sweeten them up and dry them out. I usually take a good 45 minutes in a saut� pan over a low flame for such onion "concentration" as I think of it. In this case, add the garlic to the onions about 5-10 minutes before the onions are as done as you'd like. This keeps the garlic from getting overdone and losing too much flavor. I do this all the time and use it in eggs, on Mexican food (in beans or as a burrito/taco filling), on burgers, in tomato sauces--anywhere I like onions and sweetness.
                                                                         -- Chris  
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IN THE BOX
   whole roasted tomatoes unlabeled qt
Ingredients: Organic Tomatoes, Kosher Salt


Please return the jars when you're done with them (no rush). We can sterilize and reuse them. Though we don't reuse the lids, it helps keep the rims intact if you return the jars with the lids on them.
 


WHAT'S COOKIN'
 
 Mmm....hot soup on a cold day. This simple Winter Squash & Tomato Soup is a natural with some of our Whole Roasted Tomatoes and fresh (or frozen) squash.




 
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