C.S.A. Week 14 September 25th/26th

This is it, the last week. Thank you to all our members for participating in this year’s share. We hope to see you all next year. What will we do all winter!? Besides enjoying some much needed relaxation and winter hiking and skiing once the snow comes, we’ll be busy over the next couple of months or so packing away storage food. We’ll be attending the Bridgton Maine farmers’ market for as long into the winter as we have food available. We’re also looking forward to taking part in a collaborative winter C.S.A. that has provided shares to about 100 members in the Mount Washington Valley over the last several years. The winter share is almost more exciting than the summer. There is something really special about participating in a cooperative arrangement with other local farmers. It’s also an unbelievable feeling to trudge through snow and ice to find cold hardy greens safe and sound in our high tunnel in the dead of winter. If you want to learn more, check out www.foothillfarmalliance.com We are the contacts for the group, so please reach out with questions. Have a fabulous winter and thanks again for a wonderful season!

In the share:

• Broccoli

• Head Lettuce

• Joan Rutabaga

• Cippolini Onions

• Yellow Onions

• Butternut Squash

• Potatoes

• Kale

Optional: Elderberries

Rutabaga

1) Do as the Swedes—and Finns—do. In England, the rutabaga is called a swede, or Swedish turnip. —boiled and mashed, sometimes with carrots. But in the next Scandinavian country over, Finns make a slightly jazzier version, called Lanttulaatikko. This casserole adds milk, eggs, nutmeg, molasses and bread crumbs to the rutabaga.

2) Add fruit. With its slightly sweet, slightly earthy flavor, scrumptious-sounding recipe for smashed rutabagas with ginger-roasted pears. Sandy Smith, who blogs at Eat Real, tosses rutabaga with caramelized onions and apples.

3)Put it in a soup. a creamy rutabaga chipotle soup. It calls for a lot of heavy cream, but I suspect it would still be good with quite a bit less. Chow does something similar, but with smoked paprika instead of chipotle, in this rutabaga bisque.

4) Make fries. I've heard of sweet potato fries and carrot fries. Apparently you can make rutabaga fries, too. Stephen Smith, a diabetic who loves to cook, devised a healthy recipe for rutabaga oven "fries" baked with rosemary, garlic and olive oil, or other flavors (the garam masala version sounds particularly good).