The return of the salad mix!

Spotty belly!

Konichiwa!  Happy rainy and cloudy week everyone!  That rain is giving our crops a much deserved drink and should give them a nice boost before they get to your dinner plates.  We enjoyed a rain day Monday and got to organizing lots of things that needed it.  We also had time to cook!  We made some delicious potato dishes and finally, after 6 weeks, we made chili with lots of hot peppers and some tomato sauce with herbs and green peppers.  We also got to cooking lots of apple treats including apple sauce, apple rolls and apple pie!  Ain't apple season grand?  We were happy to be able to include a couple apples in your shares a few weeks back.  Apples aren't typically something we harvest for the shares, but we were able to share this year's bounty from our 2 apple trees.  Everybody knows time flies (stink bugs fly too), but we really can't quite believe that this week is our 17th share.  Including this week, we've got just 3 more weeks together for this season  :(    boo......hoo...  We will be having another shareholder picnic though, so we can all look forward to that.   :)    Anyway, next week, we'll be giving out a shareholder survey to get your very, very valuable feedback.  It will be anonymous.  So sharpen your number 2s.  No, you don't have to use a No. 2.  Let's move onto your share info for this week, shall we?

Just as everything is about to turn gold out there, we will be giving you more greens this week.  Tomorrow and Friday in your shares, we'll be giving out salad mix (it's a mesclun mix with mustard greens, baby kale, tat soi, mizuna and other microgreens).  We'll also be including radishes and arugula, aka rocket, in your shares.  We have a couple shareholders who go bananas over arugula.  Us farmers are into it as well, and this fall's crop seems to be extra delicious.  Arugula is high in vitamin C and potassium.  We've been eating whole salads using arugula as the only "lettuce."  Radishes, which Stef despises, are high in ascorbic acid, folic acid, and potassium.  The other very exciting thing in your share this week is the cheese pumpkin.  

CROP OF THE WEEK.

CHEESE PUMPKIN

Cheese pumpkins are one variety of squash known as cucurbita moschata.  A more common variety of cucurbita moschata is the butternut squash.  You will recognize their familial ties because they are pretty much the exact same color.  Cheese pumpkins earn their name because their exterior looks like a wheel of cheese.  They are a medium sized, flattened pumpkin and have a tan, smooth, ribbed exterior.  We are proud to announce that out of the pumpkins we grow, cheese pumpkins, in our opinion,  make the best pumpkin pie.  They are sweet and contain dark orange flesh.  They are also known as the Long Island Cheese Pumpkin.  Anyway, pumpkin pie.  I want to write it one more time.  Pumpkin pie.  This variety of winter squash seems to be more tolerant of hot, dry weather than others.  And with all that heat and dryness this summer, that sure means a lot.  Cucurbita moschata also seems to be more resistant to the nasty squash vine borer.  Cheese pumpkins are high in potassium and beta carotene and are great for people watching their weight.  We hope you enjoy your cheese pumpkin.

RECIPE OF THE WEEK

CHEESE PUMPKIN BREAD

Ah ha, thought you were going to see a recipe for pumpkin pie, didn't you?  We've decided not to include one on here because, well, most people already have their favorite tried and true pumpkin pie recipe.  Sometimes they are family secrets passed down from generation to generation.  I don't have access to my family's yet, so what do I know?  I'm just the one who pours the molasses in.  So, instead, here is a delicious recipe from Rodale's Whole Foods Cookbook:

4 eggs

1 cup honey

15 oz. cheese pumpkin puree (Cut cheese pumpkin in half and roast in skin in a pan in a 400 degree oven for 60 minutes or until flesh is soft; peel away skin and puree.  If pumpkin is browning in oven, pour in some water or coat in oil)

1 cup vegetable oil

2 cups whole wheat flour

1 3/4 c unbleached all purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking soda

3/4 tsp salt

1 tsp nutmeg

1 tsp ground cloves

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 c plain yogurt or buttermilk

Preheat oven to 325.  Butter two loaf pans.  In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs and honey.  Whisk in the pumpkin and oil.  In a medium bowl, whisk together the  flours, baking soda, salt, nutmeg, cloves and cinnamon.  Alternately, add portions of the flour mixture and the yogurt to the pumpkin mixture, beginning and ending with the flour mixture.

Pour the batter into the loaf pans.  Bake for 1 hour 30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.  If the loaves are overbrowning, tent with foil.  Remove from the pans and cook on a rack.