January, Winter Newsletter #4
Happy New Year!
The January box includes the following items: Apples (Macoun and Mutsu), Winter Squash (Butternut and Sunshine), Potatoes (traditional white and all-red), Sweet Potatoes (orange), Onions (cippolini), Shallots, Garlic, Carrots, Parsnips, Rutabaga or Macomber Turnip, Kohlrabi, Cabbage (any mix of green, red, savoy, or red napa), Bok Choi, and Stillman’s Farm Hydroponic Lettuce.
*Contents and amounts of Individual Share may differ slightly.
January CSA Box. And we hit ROOT season! The cold nights and short days limit the number of greens in January. We were able to squeeze out some gorgeous Bok choi from the greenhouses, great for stir-fry or soups. And Lady Luck was in our favor, Grandpa Glenn has a surplus of hydroponic lettuce over at Stillman’s Farm, so we were able to grab some for this month’s shares! I see lots of hearty slaws or soups in this month’s line up with all the cabbage, kohlrabi, parsnips, carrots, squash, and turnips…that’s fine with me, these cold days make me yearn for a good cup of soup after working outside in less-than-ideal conditions. Including some cippolini onions this month – super sweet Italian style onion that is great whole roasted with balsamic but can just as easily go into any onion recipe. And we have all-red potatoes, these are on the drier side, so they make great home fries and chips.
Remember: CORRECT STORAGE is key to using your winter CSA share to its potential.
Happenings on Still Life Farm. I feel like I have been through one of the more grueling months of my life. As many of you are probably aware, our small right-to-farm town of Hardwick just had a major upheaval brought upon by the proposal of a Thoroughbred Racetrack and Sports Betting operation. After months of hard work, research, canvassing, social media posts, press coverage, and town politics I am happy to announce that Hardwick voted the proposal down with a landslide vote of 830 No to 312 Yes (and yes, our town is that small, only 3000 residents). It was doubly scary for me, Curt, and many farmers in our town because the project was proposed on APR land (State protected farmland). Had this non-agriculture venture been allowed on protected farmland it would have set a horrible precedent for other protected MA farmland to be gobbled up by non-farming endeavors – eventually making farming in MA obsolete. Available affordable farmland is the number one issue facing your local farmers. I hope this matter is completely behind us. That was more stress than I care to admit. For all of you that aided us in any way throughout this ordeal, we thank you from the bottoms of our hearts…you are our farm warriors.
Anyway, that whole situation has left us a bit backed up with farm business, such as ordering seeds, revisiting seeding schedules, crunching numbers to see how badly inflation has affected us, doing our taxes, catching up on house projects, etc.…oh yeah, and having any free time/family time. Hoping to remedy that this coming month.
Recipes.
So, we have been blessed with a very bountiful harvest of sweet potatoes this year…knowing this translates into eat more sweet potatoes, I thought I better try to find you a new recipe to use them up. This past holiday, I was gifted a copy of Vegetables Illustrated cookbook by a thoughtful CSA member, and it is filled with good stuff! Here’s a new sweet potato recipe that could go into the regular dinner rotation.
Sweet Potato Biscuits
2 ½ pounds sweet potato, unpeeled, lightly pricked all over with fork
2 T cider vinegar
3 ¼ cups cake flour
¼ cup packed dark brown sugar
5 t baking powder
½ t baking soda
1 ½ t salt
8 T unsalted butter, cut into ½-inch pieces and chilled, plus 2 T melted
4 T vegetable shortening, cut into ½-inch pieces and chilled
*I cooked 2.5# of potatoes and had plenty of extra, you could get away with 2#. I also am not fancy enough for cake flour, so just cut back a bit on the amount and used traditional flour. And I don’t have shortening in the house so subbed more butter. Everything came out fine.
1. Bake or microwave your sweet potatoes until very soft. When cooked, immediately cut potatoes in half. When potatoes are cool enough to handle, scoop flesh into large bowl and mash until smooth. You need 2 cups mashed for the recipe.
2. Adjust oven rack to middle and heat oven to 425 degrees. Line rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper. Process flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in food processor until combined. Scatter chilled butter and shortening over top and pulse until mixture resembles coarse meal. Transfer flour mixture to bowl with cooled potatoes and fold in with rubber spatula until incorporated.
3. Turn out dough onto floured counter and knead until smooth, 8-10 times. Pat dough into 9-inch circle, about 1 inch thick. Using floured 2 ¼- inch round cutter, stamp out biscuits and arrange on prepared sheet. Gently pat dough scraps into 1-inch-thick circle and stamp out remaining biscuit. (You should have 16 biscuits in total).
4. Brush the tops of biscuits with melted butter and bake until golden brown, 18-22 minutes. Let biscuits cool on sheet for 15 minutes before serving.
Macomber Turnip Soup
*This a great share from a market customer – just delicious. You can sub rutabaga for the Macomber, they interchange well.
1 stick salted butter, plus a bit more for the pan
1 large leek, trimmed and thoroughly cleaned, diced
3 lb Macomber turnips, peeled and 1-inch diced
4 cups low-sodium chicken or vegetable stock
4-5 cups water (you can also use extra stock here)
1 cup crème fraiche
1 ½ tsp Kosher salt, plus more for seasoning leeks
½ tsp fresh-ground black pepper
In a large heavy-bottomed pot, melt enough butter to coat the bottom of the pot. You shouldn’t need more than 1 TB. Add leeks, season with a pinch or two of salt, and sauté until soft and translucent.
Add diced turnips and stock to the pot. Add enough water (or more stock) to cover the turnips by two inches of liquid. Season with 1 ½ tsp salt and ½ tsp pepper and bring to a boil. Once soup is boiling, reduce to a simmer and cook 15-20 minutes or until turnips are thoroughly cooked and easily mashed against the side of the pot.
Blend soup in two batches in a high-powered blender like a Vitamix. To each batch, add half of the turnips, half of the cooking liquid, ½ stick of butter and ½ cup crème fraiche. Put the blender lid on, being sure that it’s secure, and remove the lid plug. Place a clean kitchen towel over the opening and hold the lid down tightly. Start the blender on low speed, slowly increasing to high. Blend until very smooth and transfer to another pot or serving bowls. Repeat process with second batch. Taste and adjust seasoning if needed. Serve hot, topped with fresh chives and an extra grind of black pepper.
A few important tidbits to know for the season:
- Please be at your monthly pick-up or find a sub to pick up for you. We deliver monthly and do not have the flexibility to accommodate missed boxes. If you need to change your pick-up location, please email in advance and we will be happy to bring your box to a different location if possible.
- Boxes. We reuse our boxes. Please return your empty box when you pick up your next share. Do not rip the boxes. If you cannot figure out how to break down your box, please leave it assembled, we will do it for you. Please be careful! Otherwise, you will be subject to “Halley’s Box Tutorial Session” (No, this is not a joke). We have been running very short on boxes this year, so if you want to bring a bag and repack when you pick-up that would give us a bit more flexibility.
- Email us! We love to hear from our members…share feedback, recipes, agriculture-related articles, whatever…
Love your food,
Halley Stillman
stilllifefarm 