November 28, 2022
Spinach Season
by Farmer Derek

Late Fall Harvest #2 (Week B) should include sweet potatoes, beets, spinach, salad radishes, hakurei turnips, radicchio, lettuce mix, garlic, rosemary, arugula, red mustard, and kale. Some items will be a choice.

November 28, 2022
Late Fall CSA Essential Information
by Farmer Derek

November 28, 2022
December Dreams
by Farmer Derek

I hope you enjoyed your Thanksgiving feast with family and/or friends. Like me, you're probably looking forward to vegetables and salads before the next round of holidays engulfs us. Fortunately there will be a lot of healthy and fresh greens coming your way during the remainder of the season. Tunnel greens survived the serious cold+wind event two weekends ago and may not need additional interior cover for a while (until lows drop below mid-20s again). Field kale took quite a beating from the wind and subfreezing temperature and its fate waits to be seen. It may be harvestable or it may be fertilizer for next year's crops.

We're now within the Persephone Period of cold-season growing when daylength drops below ten hours and crop growth is minimal. For us in this latitude the timeframe is November 15 - January 30. It's essential to have all crops established well before the period begins, but not too early to increase susceptibility to cold injury. There is a 'perfect time' to plant for Dec-Feb harvests. Lucky for us our goal is no longer to grow through the winter and instead wrap up the harvest season when fall departs (the exception being an occasional flash sale). It's nice to know that growing in the dead of winter in this location is possible, however. Us middle-aged farmers (I am now 40!) need some time off to recover, travel, plan, and dream.

Over this next month I will be finalizing most of our 2023 growing plans and securing all materials and supplies to run the farm for another year. On a daily basis this will hopefully be balanced by a walk outside coupled with some physical labor and a good stretch. At least two days each week will be spent harvesting and distributing shares. The Winter Solstice will be here before we know it, real winter will descend, but daylength will slowly increase, then rapidly increase, and spring will be right around the corner. Let's take it slow.

November 21, 2022
Welcome to Late Fall CSA!
by Farmer Derek

Late Fall Harvest #1 (Week A) should include sweet potatoes, beets, napa/chinese cabbage, salad radishes, hakurei turnips, green/savoy cabbage, radicchio, swiss chard, lettuce mix, garlic, rosemary, arugula, red mustard, and kale. Some items will be a choice.

November 21, 2022
Real Cold Arrives, Briefly
by Farmer Derek

I'm perennially hopeful that we can make it through the end of the year without the need for extra protection inside the tunnels, but that has yet to happen in 10+ years of Late Fall CSA. It's okay, though. Once we go through the trouble of erecting interior low hoops, placing sandbag anchors, and unfurling the inner cover, crops can safely endure outside cold temperatures down into the single digits. That kind of cold typically doesn't arrive until after the New Year and we're not pushing crop production that long anymore. Over the years it has been very interesting to observe the tolerance of plants in unheated spaces throughout the fall and winter months. For now, though, our goal is providing great harvests through the five weeks of Late Fall CSA. Depending on the regrowth of greens, status of storage crops, and farmer interest, we may do an occasional flash sale after the New Year. This week we embrace the Thanksgiving holiday. Hope you have a good one!

November 21, 2022
Late Fall CSA Essential Information
by Farmer Derek

November 13, 2022
In Conclusion
by Farmer Derek

Harvest #26 (Week B) should include sweet potatoes, beets, napa/chinese cabbage, salad radishes, hakurei turnips, green/savoy cabbage, radicchio, swiss chard, bok choy, fennel, lettuce mix, garlic, arugula, red mustard, and kale. Some items will be a choice.

November 13, 2022
Until the Spring
by Farmer Derek

I guess we made it! Week 26 is here, the final Main Season harvest. It always seems to arrive unexpectedly for some reason. Perhaps because much of the growing season speeds by in a blur while the infinite work surrounds us. Fortunately time moves more slowly with diminished daylight/length in colder temperatures. At least from a farmer's perspective. This is the mind over matter time of year for us. We dive deep into the recesses of our brain while reflecting on the successes and failures that occurred during this growing season and how to improve next year. Next year is a big one. It's the 20th season of Anchor Run CSA and our 15th leading the way. To the many of you have been here with us since the beginning and those that have hopped on and off along the way, we sincerely thank you for your support. Farming is our life's work, our passion, our interest, our love, and we graciously appreciate being able to share the harvest with you. Please have a good and restful winter, enjoy the holidays, and bask in the warm low sun that filters through the windows on a cold day. Spring will be here before we know it.

November 13, 2022
Herb of the Week: Cilantro
by Gia Yaccarino

Safe for Cats: Yes

Safe for Dogs: Yes

November 6, 2022
How Sweet It Is
by Farmer Derek

Harvest #25 (Week A) should include sweet potatoes, beets, napa/chinese cabbage, salad radishes, hakurei turnips, green/savoy cabbage, swiss chard, bok choy, fennel, lettuce mix, garlic, arugula, red mustard, and kale. Some items will be a choice. U-pick will include flowers. The herb garden needs to rest and recover.

November 6, 2022
Registration Reminder
by Farmer Derek

Don't forget to sign up for your share of the harvest!

The 5-week Late Fall CSA commences the week of November 21 and wraps up the week of December 19. Follow this link to join.

2023 Main Season CSA will run 28 weeks from Mid-May through Thanksgiving. Sign up and pay in full by 12/31/22 to receive the current 5% discount on share prices. Follow this link to join.

November 6, 2022
2023 Garlic is In!
by Farmer Derek

We're enjoying some seriously warm and strange early November days. It makes for a great time to work and play outside. With the forecast looking so good from the perspective of last weekend, we made a push to plant and mulch the 2023 garlic. Soil was just barely workable last Monday before that small rain event and we began planting the next day. Besides harvesting for CSA pick up, about all we accomplished last week was preparing beds for and planting and mulching the garlic, in addition to continued hoop tunnel endwall modification. In total we planted around 300 pounds of garlic cloves at 6 inch spacing in 3 rows on 11 250-foot beds then used 14 large round straw bales to cover those beds. The straw will smother weeds, provide moisture retention, and insulate the soil over the winter so the garlic doesn't frost-heave out of the ground.

We're into in the final two weeks of Main Season. With the five additional Late Fall weeks following that, the finish line is in sight and we're now in try-to-distribute-all-farm-produce mode. That means identifying and calculating exactly how much food is still in field, what the yields from the tunnels might be, and the amount of crops in storage. Late Fall membership is approximately 35% of Main Season so we have these next two weeks to really pare down supplies. Our goal is to try to unload as much as we can without overwhelming you while providing a nice balance of goods. We could send you home with 10 pounds of radishes at one pick up, but instead will spread those 10 pounds out over 7 pick ups.

This will be the final week of pick up for some Half Share A members. Thank you for joining us and the farm on this journey, thank you for your patronage, thank you for your support. We hope you have a nice restful winter and plan to return to the farm in the spring.

November 6, 2022
Eat Your Greens! Instant pot greens and beets
by Mindy Bence

Farm Members,

Perhaps some or many of you already know this secret, but I made an amazing discovery this week and I would call it life changing! I was really last on board the train when the Instant Pot craze hit - I admit it. But after 2 weeks of using it, that was life changing as well! So why did it take me like a year or so after using my instant pot to think, Hmmm. how bout I cook up a whole batch of greens in my Instant pot, put it in the fridge and eat it all week? This past Tuesday I had that brilliant thought and then I went online to see if someone had posted a "recipe" and voila - YES and was written by a Registered Dietician that gave more amazing advice about how to optimize your greens for the most bioavailable form! So the guesswork was already done - And here is that website so you can read all the science about sprinkling on a magic ingredient to help our bodies absorb all the green goodness https://fueledbyinstantpot.com/instant-pot-insta-greens/ (hint mustard powder - I forgot to do that this week).

So basically I took my whole batch of greens, cleaned them, removed the stems of the kale and chopped the bottoms off of the dandelion greens. The hardest part really was chopping them all up into small pieces. As far as prep goes, I washed and chopped the dandelion and kale first, then the mustard greens and about 2 cups of arugula. (I measured 19 cups of raw greens).

I set my Instant pot on saute and added about 2 tsp of my pastured bacon fat until it melted then turned the pot off. Into the pot went the greens layered with the "hardest" greens on the bottom kale, then dandelion then mustard and arugula (remember that greens have water and cook way down, so 19 cups of chopped greens all went into the pot even though it was a tad over the do not fill line). I then added 3/4 cup organic pastured chicken broth. Usually for the 6 Qt. Instant pot you usually use 1 cup of liquid. The original recipe called for 1/2 cup of broth, but I didn't want to chance getting the burn notice and I thought the 3/4 cup was perfect. So I poured the broth into the pot. I may have tamped down the greens, secured the lid and set for 3 minutes on high pressure. I did a natural release for 5 minutes, vented the rest of the steam until the button falls and then opened the pot. I used tongs to mix up all the greens and the subtle bacon flavor from the little bit of fat on the bottom was amazing! Otherwise, I didn't season them at all. Into a 10 cup rectangular ziploc container set on my counter to cool and into the fridge they went. Of course you can season them or add leeks, onions and garlic or season as you use them throughout the week!

Before I cooked the greens, I also cooked all of my beets in the instant pot. I put 1 cup of water in the pot, then added a trivet and steamer basket and layered all of the beets in and set on 20 minutes on high pressure. I did a natural release, removed the basket, filled the pot with cold water and let the beets sit in the water and the skins slipped off way easier than using the stovetop method. Then I sliced and put them all in the fridge to eat, use for salads, etc. and are amazing topped with a bit of balsamic vinegar or balsamic reduction! Using my Instant pot for beets was amazing - you don't need to watch the pot and regardless of the size of the beet, they were all cooked evenly from large ones to small ones!

My husband commented this morning that it was amazing to have the cooked greens in the fridge. Our household now only consists of us and a full share - and ALL of our greens were gone by Friday night! The original website recipe gave ideas for how to use them - also think pizza topping. (I've been going through dental work so I've been on a soft diet for the past couple of weeks so this "discovery" was a welcome addition to my diet!) Twice I used about 1 to 1 1/2 cups of greens in a skillet with 3 eggs topped with avocado. I made my "Instant pot Stroganoff" with mushrooms, leeks, garlic, a pound of ground turkey and a box of "Chickpea" brand pasta (made from chickpeas and red lentils). I saute 2 cups of leeks in 1 T of olive oil in the Instant pot, then add the meat and garlic, loosely cover the lid and let it cook for a few minutes then break it up until it's cooked then turn off the pot. (I add about 1 T coconut aminos and 1 T Bragg cider vinegar plus pepper, 1 T smoked paprika and some onion and garlic powder at this point). Then I dump in the box of 8 oz pasta, pour in a quart of broth and mix. Then I top 20 oz of sliced or diced mushrooms (either white or brown - do not re-mix). I sealed the pot and set it for 6 minutes on high pressure. When the pot beeps, I do a gradual release right away - gradually letting the steam escape - when the button falls, open the pot. Then I add 1/2 cup Kite Hill almond yogurt and 1 1/2 T of dijon mustard.

The pasta does break up some, but even my husband calls it a "go to recipe" (and he's not gluten or dairy free like me). When I first came up with the recipe he said, "Wow that really tastes like stroganoff!" This week after my amazing greens discovery, he added a helping of greens to the stroganoff & said it was amazing. I've also made this "stroganoff" recipe following the same instructions, but rather than a ground meat, I've sauteed the mushrooms with the onion or leek and after adding the pasta & broth, I set a couple of pastured pork chops rubbed with spice on top. When it's done, I remove the pork with tongs, then add in the rest of the ingredients, cut the pork up and add in. If you are a non-meat eater, I'm sure you can use any plant based crumbles and adjust any spices to your liking.

November 6, 2022
Herb of the Week: Basil
by Gia Yaccarino

Safe for Cats: Yes

Safe for Dogs: Yes