Time to Sign Up for a New CSA Season!

It is time to sign up for the next cycles of Luna Bleu Farm CSA Shares. We are very excited about this next year. (Do I always say that at this time of year???)
The greenhouses are doing well in their winter production and we are looking forward to some yummy early crops.
Our current winter season share will continue into April. CSA members are getting a bountiful amount of roots from the root cellar and greens as they are available from the greenhouse. If you want to join in this winter food fun next winter, NOW is the time to sign up. Don't hesitate. We always run out of winter shares. I know it seems so far ahead, but we plan now for that fall harvest.

June starts our Harvest season shares. At this time of year we just yearn for those fresh ripe vegetables.... crisp lettuce, juicy tomatoes, luscious melons, buckets of zucchini! The Mill Bridge was rebuilt last summer so access to the farm will be quick and easy. We are excited to really use our pizza oven under its newly built "Pizza Hut" during the warmer weather. We will have CSA pizza days on some of our Monday farm pickup days and some Sundays during the summer.

We do deliver CSA summer shares to Randolph, Norwich,South Strafford, and White River VT and Hanover and Lebanon NH. We would happily consider other sites if there are enough customers. Maybe there are people at your workplace that would be interested in getting shares. We could potentially deliver to your workplace. Let us know if you have some ideas.

We have been doing this CSA thing for such a long time.... in fact we are one of the three longest running CSAs in the state. We still have some of our original CSA members who have been with us since 1991! We have been a little lax in promoting our CSA over the last years. I think that can kinda just creep up on you when you have been zooming along for such a long time. So think of all of those people that may not even know about us because we are so good at keeping a secret! Now it's time for us to let the cat out of the bag again. If you've been happy with your Luna Bleu CSA experience, let others know! If you haven't.... well, let ME know!

Alright, enough of all that. Let's see if I can link a CSA form right here... If not, it is on our website. That is a good place to get more info about our CSA. (Oh, the links did work! Brilliant!)

Tootle Loo!
Suzanne

WInter Salad Ideas

Peel, Pare and Chop (or Grate). Add a dressing and voila!... good and good for you.

Here I have white daikon radish, orange carrots and green kohlrabi ---- and it took me hours to arrange the peelings and slices for this photo. But you could just be minutes away from a great salad. Here are some ideas.

Here is a basic sweet carrot and daikon salad recipe (Sweet vs spicy)

You could mix some other of our winter vegetables... notably, kohlrabi and celeriac into this... perhaps you double the recipe and use about 1 1/2 lb daikon and 1 1/2 lb mix of carrot, kohlrabi and celeriac .....

1 1/2 pounds daikon radish (about 14 inches), peeled

1 large carrot, peeled

1 tablespoon salt

2 tablespoons sugar

1/3 cup unseasoned rice vinegar

2 dashes light soy sauce, or to taste (optional).

1. Cut daikon and carrot into thin shreds, or grate. Combine vegetables in a bowl, sprinkle with salt, and toss well. Set aside 20 minutes. Drain off liquid as it collects in bottom of bowl. Squeeze out excess liquid and transfer vegetables to a new bowl.

2. Dissolve sugar in vinegar and pour over vegetables. Toss. Refrigerate, tossing occasionally, at least 1 hour or overnight. Remove from refrigerator at least 30 minutes before serving; dish should be served at cool room temperature. Just before serving, taste; if desired, add soy sauce and toss.

Yield: 6 servings.

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Ginger and sesame go really well with these vegetables too. Again, I wouldn't hesitate to double the recipe and add in some kohlrabi or napa or regular cabbage

2 thumbs ginger, minced
1 teaspoon sesame oil
2 teaspoons canola oil
1 tablespoon rice wine vinegar
3 tablespoons soy sauce
1 large daikon radish, peeled and thinly sliced
2 medium carrots, grated or prepped like daikon
3 green onions, white and tender green parts, thinly sliced

In a large bowl, whisk together the ginger, oils, vinegar and soy sauce. Prep the daikon and carrot by peeling it, cutting it into 2-inch chunks, then slicing it into matchsticks. Toss all the vegetables in the bowl with the vinaigrette, and season to taste with salt and pepper.

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SOME OTHER NOTES

I rarely have rice vinegar, so I use apple cider vinegar... it takes away from the Asian flair a bit... but I still think it tastes good.

You don't have to eat these sorts of salads all at once. They kept fine for me in the refrigerator for two weeks or so. In fact, I think a day or two lets the flavors meld and it is even better! Have fun.

Anyone have a good Kimchee recipes? Your winter vegetables would make great kimchee.

January winter share

Winter CSA shares are bountiful this year. We packed boxes to take to the market yesterday and I think the medium share boxes were over 50 lbs. Next time I will split them into two boxes so we don't hurt any of our members. I did joke at market that our goal is to make our CSA members strong by feeding them well and making them lift very heavy boxes....

We had Daikon radish and parsnips in the shares this month. To the unpracticed eye, they may be hard to distinguish.... daikon are usually smoother and not as pointed at the bottom. Our parnips are not as white as our daikons... Here is a photo of some of the less familiar winter vegetables in their unwashed state. In the top left corner is daikon radish, bottom right are parsnips, the green bulb is kohlrabi, the other bulby thing is celeriac.

Celeriac made its first appearance in the shares this year. It is the VERY lumpy bulby thing. This year we had a poor crop and thus they are much smaller than usual and we just do not have very many. Enjoy them while they are here!

Then of course there is Kohlrabi! This is a storage type and usually is much larger (difficult fall growing conditions stunted it this year). Still, it is crisp and juicy (do you have a better word to describe the texture?) Great raw in salads (grate or cut into thin strips) or cooked in soups, or roasted roots or, my favorite, add to a stirfry.

I will post some recipes for each of these winter vegetables. Let me know if you have some good ideas.

Its a NEW YEAR!

Phew! Happy New Year!

I thought that since nothing had been posted on this blog since Irene hit VT, it may be good to let folks know that we are still really here. I know most of you DO know that but it seems from that blog that nothing has happened on the farm since then... indeed, it almost feels that way some days.

Our farm was not directly affected by the storm or flooding but our detour was detoured and travel was difficult. More serious was the damage to friends and neighbors in our town and surrounding towns. It threw us all off kilter to some degree or another. Like so many, we were so uplifted by how the communities came together and now I think we all have a new appreciation for what we have.

We are happy to put last year behind us and move forward into the winter growing season in the greenhouses and planning for next years' crop and activities.

I plan to post some photos from the greenhouses and recipes for storage vegetables and our meats later this week. So, stay tuned....
If you are on Facebook, the farm now also has a facebook page... at least there I have posted a few things since the flooding. We love it when you give us good ideas and give us feedback about the farm or what you are finding (or perhaps more likely, not finding) on these pages.

Here's to a Vermont winter (if it ever really gets here!) and to the next growing season!

Cheers!
Suzanne