CSA week 4

We are growing our winter squash cooperatively with two other farmer friends on the town forest land in Albany New Hampshire. The town has big fields adjacent to the Saco River where there are recreation trails, soccer fields, and farm land. When the town acquired the land, a certain percentage of it was to be in agricultural use. It is currently being used by Grand View Farm, and Davis Natural Produce. Jake Davis has lent us space and the use of equipment in his area of the fields to grow our squash and sweet potatoes. Both those crops take up a lot of garden real estate and benefit from the light sandy soils near the river. Last year I think we got lucky. With very little input and no problems we went back in September to harvest thousands of pounds of beautiful Butternut and Delicata squash that fed our winter CSA, friends, and us well into March. This year we are having a bit of a reality check, with heavy cucumber beetle pressure, and some plants with a weird looking unidentified disease that was most likely seed borne. In any case its been a fun project, and gets us out to experience different land, and knowledge is inevitably passed back and forth between all of us by working together. Kyle and I were up at the Albany location late Saturday afternoon hoeing the grassy edges between the beds and were treated to a rainy but pretty evening near the mountains. Flingers crossed for good haul of winter food later in the season.

In the share:

Broccoli

Green Cauliflower

Green Sweet Peppers

Crisp Lettuce

Sungold Cherry Tomatoes

Summer Squash/Zucchini

Red Scallions

Roasted Cauliflower over Pine nuts

Ingredients

• 1 pound cauliflower, cut into 1-inch florets

• 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

• Salt and freshly ground pepper

• 2 tablespoons pine nuts

• 1/3 cup chopped pitted green olives

• 1 tablespoon chopped flat-leaf parsley

• 1 tablespoon green peppers

  Directions

  • Preheat the oven to 425°. In a shallow 1 1/2-quart baking dish, toss the cauliflower with the oil and season with salt and pepper. Roast for 20 minutes, or until the cauliflower is lightly browned in spots. Add the pine nuts, olives, parsley and peppers, toss and roast for about 10 minutes longer, until the pine nuts are lightly toasted. Serve warm or at room temperature.