CSA Week 17

***This is your second to last CSA share.  Your final share will be next week.  Please bring back any CSA bags you have at home!***

In your share week 17:

Winter squash: Butternut or Red Kuri
Yellow Finn Potato
Napa Cabbage or Red Cabbage
Fennel
Parsley
Broccoli

Full shares only:

CSA Secret Surprise!

Next week is the final week of the CSA!  I encourage you to look around for any extra CSA bags to return, and then bring your own bag to transfer the share into so you don’t have to return the last bag.  We will also have paper and plastic bags available at all the drop sites so you can use those if you forget your own.  Thank you for being a member!

The last couple of years we have found ourselves running short on produce in the fall, so this year I put an extra focus on late season crops. While the shares are always going to be a little more limited this time of year, I think we’ve succeeded in having some really nice shares to close out the season. Today’s share is a great share for fall, with excellent ingredients for soups, stews, or roasts. I made a lamb stew this weekend with potatoes, carrots, and cabbage, perfect for fall.

New today (and new to the CSA altogether) are butternut or red kuri squash. Butternut squashes usually need a longer season to ripen, but this variety seems to have done really well this year. Red kuri is a short season squash I thought I’d try, and I plan to make it a permanent part of our squash line up!

Butternuts are probably familiar to you; they are tan and oblong with smooth skin. They can be cut in half and roasted in a pan with a bit of water. I more often peel them with a peeler, cut them into cubes, and either roast them with olive oil or use the cubes in tacos, stir fries, soups, or pasta dishes. Some of the butternuts had a few lesions on the skin; if yours has one I’d recommend eating it sooner rather than later so the lesion doesn’t go deeper and cause the squash to spoil.

Butternuts have a buttery, sweet flavor and soft texture, while the red kuris have a flaky texture and chestnut flavor, similar to a kabocha squash. Kuris have a tougher skin, so I recommend roasting them in half with the skin on and either eating them by themselves or scooping out the flesh to add to other dishes. They would be excellent stuffed. Either squash should be stored at room temperature and makes a nice decoration until you are ready to eat it.

The share smelled really good as we were packing it with the parsley and this beautiful bulb of fennel! I think fennel really shines in the fall; the cooler weather brings out the sweetness and makes it more tender, and its flavor is excellent in roasts and soups. It would be delicious shaved into a salad with your cabbage, maybe with some fresh parsley! Most folks got the last of the napa cabbage, but we were just a little short so some got a second red cabbage. We have a lovely late rotation of broccoli coming on just in time for the last couple of shares, so most people got a head or two of the hybrid type, and a couple got a bunch of broccolini. It can be tricky this time of year to find 60 servings of every crop, so full shares get a “secret surprise” to round out your share!


Asian Cabbage and Fennel Slaw

By Emily Clifton for the Nerds With Knives blog. This calls for both green and red cabbage; it will work with any kind of cabbage but having 2 colors makes for a pretty salad!

  • 2 tablespoons canola oil
  • 1 tablespoon toasted sesame oil
  • ¼ cup rice-wine vinegar
  • Juice of ½ lime
  • 1 tablespoon soy sauce
  • 2 teaspoons finely grated fresh ginger
  • 2 teaspoons sugar
  • 8 cups finely shredded green cabbage (regular, savoy or napa)
  • 4 cups finely shredded red cabbage
  • 1 cup thinly sliced fennel
  • ¼ cup finely grated carrots
  • 3 scallions, white and light green parts, thinly sliced
  • Coarse salt and freshly ground black pepper
  • Toasted sesame seeds (for garnish)
  1. In a medium bowl, whisk together canola oil, sesame oil, vinegar, lime juice, soy sauce, ginger, and sugar; set dressing aside.
  2. Place both cabbages, fennel, scallions and carrots in a large bowl; toss to combine. Add just enough dressing to coat and toss. Season with salt and pepper, sprinkle with sesame seeds and serve.

Stuffed Red Kuri Squash

Lifted from Soil Born Farm’s CSA recipes. You could also use this recipe with your acorn squash from last week if you haven’t used them yet. Butternut is a little harder to stuff, but you could scoop out some of the flesh after cooking and fill with stuffing, or roast the squash and serve it on the side.

1 whole Kuri Squash, cut in half and seeds removed
4 tablespoons of butter
Salt and pepper to taste
2 tablespoons red onion, diced
1 teaspoon minced garlic
2 teaspoons olive oil
2 cups COOKED rice
1 cup COOKED sausage (chicken or pork sausage)
2 teaspoons fresh parsley, chopped
4 tablespoons coconut milk

Preheat oven to 375. Place both squash halves in baking dish face up. Add salt, pepper and 2 tablespoons of butter to each half. Bake squash for 35 minutes. Check the squash and see if it is still firm, if so, bake a bit longer.

While squash is baking prepare the filling. Sauté the onion and garlic in olive oil. Add the cooked rice and cooked sausage. Taste mixture and salt and pepper accordingly.

Remove baked squash from oven and fill the centers with the rice. The butter that has melted should be soaked up by the rice. Add the 2 tablespoons of coconut milk and sprinkle with the parsley.

Return to oven and bake for 10 minutes. Serve a half to each person. Enjoy!

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