End of the CSA Season

Wow, quite a season!  After just coming  back from the last CSA delivery, I'm always reflective.  This season was probably the hottest since I've been farming in Otter Tail.  It was also one of the driest.

Kids on Way to Farmers Market

This made for great crops which love the heat like melons, tomatoes, and anything in the cucurbit family like cucumbers and summer and winter squash.  The way the season ran allowed these plants to get established well with heat and moisture and then ripen under dry conditions.  It's a good recipe for good looking produce.  Some other things, however, didn't like this weather.  For example I always plan for  a planting of brassicas like broccoli and kohlrabi in the fall as well as the spring, but the fall set didn't go anywhere with little fall rain.   Any which way, each season is it's own beast and I thank each of you sharing the ride with us.  

In the box: 

Komatsuna bunch: a green with a stalk kind of like boc choy.   This is an Asian green which is good in a stir fry.  You simply chop up and add at the end until wilted a bit.  Here's a link to a Komatsuna recipe which looks simple and quick since it's one of those odd "crazy" greens:
http://woodwart.blogspot.com/2005/10/komatsuna-saute.html

Spinach: the one with dark green and round leaves.  You could use for either a salad or cooked. 

Butternut squash: big tan squash 

Celeriac: The strange-looking bulb on the end of a small stalk of celery.  You can use it in replace of celery in recipes  It has the same flavor and also keeps well in the crisper in your fridge.    

Delicata squash: yellow and green-striped squash.  This one should be baked without a water bath because the outside shell is pretty thin. 

Buttercup squash: the dark green squash with the little button the bottom

Russet potatoes

Carrot bunch 

A couple onions 

A head of garlic

A few small turnips

"Better than Nothing" beets