October 23, 2009 - Week 1 Extended Season

Pick-Up Information –Oct. 23 – Extended Season

BUG INFO – There might be a cabbage worm or two on the broccoli and possibly a borer in a turnip (small white worm). You can soak the broccoli in salt water and just inspect the turnips and cut around any tunnel. Also – I have seen slugs in the lettuce.

I wouldn’t compost the kale due to possible fungi issues.

I again left the tops on everything today – you might want to use these to make soup stock.

Your Pre-Packaged Box this week includes:

• A bunch of carrots
• A large batch of sweet peppers (not bagged) – They’ve been in the garage for a few weeks so some are a little softer than just-picked. But, they’re really good sautéed – try them with a little onion on a brat!
• A bunch of kale
• A bunch of salad greens - banded
• A bunch of spicy salad mix (Arugula, spinach, etc.) - banded
• 4 or so turnips – eat fresh or make a mash with salt and pepper
• 4 beets – the greens are great sautéed.
• 1 kohl rabi – if these are stringy inside, they’re not very good – they should have more of an apple-like texture – not as sweet as an apple but sweeter than a turnip. Eat fresh with a little salt and maybe a little lime juice (same with the turnip)
• Broccoli – these are side shoots. The leaves are tasty as well. Broccoli after the frost – it just doesn’t get any better
• 2 or 3 cooking onions. I just picked these yesterday so they still need to dry a bit. Just set them apart from other things in a dark, cool area and they’ll dry out. Let the ends dry up and fall off, don’t pull them off. Or, use them right away J.
• A pie pumpkin – you can eat this like squash or make soup with it also – it’s not strictly for pies
• A small baggie of Brussels sprouts
• About 20 roma tomatoes. These aren’t perfect but they’re still tasty and are great for sauce. Just throw them in boiling water and when the first one splits, take them all out, throw them in cold water, slip the skins off then cut off any additional bad spots and use for cooking. Or, cut off the bad spots and use fresh.
• A bag of tomatillos. These are great for green fresh salsa or salsa verde (spicy and good with pork). I take off the husks, boil for 10 minutes then blend in a blender and use in the recipe. They’re a bit like a cross between a tomato and a lime. Good combined with the serrano peppers.
• A few radishes

Optional/extra Items – Please take:

• Optional herbs – sage, thyme, oregano, cilantro, mint
• Spicy peppers which may include: jalapeno, pablano (large green spicy pepper), cayenne (skinny red pepper), mole (longer thin greenish-purple pepper – about 8” long), and serrano.

Suggestion: In terms of fragility, the tomatoes won’t keep for very long. If you keep your squash (and pumpkins) in a cool, dry, dark place (like the garage if it doesn’t freeze) or your root cellar, they should keep for a few months (same with potatoes, onions, etc., if you have them). The peppers and tomatillos should keep well in the crisper of the fridge (a week?). If you take the tops off the carrots, turnips, beets and kohl rabi and seal in an airtight container, these will keep for weeks if not months in the fridge.