Ok, I know it's been way too long since our last blog post. 

Between all the planting, weeding, harvesting, washing, packing, delivery, 3 markets, 3 kids, working until dark; weekly farm news takes a back burner. We tried to fill in the gaps with the ease of social media, but feedback from some members who actually read our blog, that wasn't quite enough. We realize not everyone is on social media, or checks their emails daily, and this has created a roadblock in communication with our CSA members. 
I'd usually be trying to compile thoughts to write a blog after a very late dinner (after the sun goes down in the summer is too late) or in the wee morning hours before anyone wakes. I chose to make my family a priority this past summer. Maybe it was the multiple setbacks of being short handed, having one of the coolest, wettest seasons in remembrance, or the multiple knee blowouts and a slipped disk, or a totaled delivery vehicle in the fall,  but not spending the very little free time  I find in front of a screen in the office was not an easy choice, but a necessary one for my sanity and family. There are many drafts saved on  our site I never finished because after 4 years of writing them, I was bored, they were feeling deathly repetitive and when I was hearing from customers they didn't know because they didn't read them. It was very discouraging after taking the time write them to say the least. 

This year I'm aiming to find more balance in our very full, often hectic schedule and get weekly newsletters out every Monday night once the CSA starts. One thing I have to remind myself (and our customers) is that almost every other farm I know hires  someone to take on the tasks of newsletters/ social media and/or doesn't have young children to care for. While this thought has been thrown around by Travis and myself, I always come to  the conclusion that who better to write the newsletters and connect with customers than the farmers themselves; putting that in some one else's hands did not make sense.  The boots on the ground so to speak. We will continue using Facebook (and our newly created farm discussion group, where we encourage folks to share recipes, and other pertinent articles and info)  and Instagram posts to share information.

Another setback we experienced this past season was the untimely loss of a great mentor and family member, my uncle John Mahardy. He was one of the first inspirations to me in the world of organic gardening from a young age. My uncle, along with my (grandfather until his passing) always maintained a beautiful organic garden that kept the root cellar stocked with squash, carrots, potatoes, onions, etc. and a plethora of canned goods on the 100 acres homestead my great grandparents founded in Cleveland NY, shortly after settling from Ireland at the turn of the 20th century. This garden fed the immediate family of 9 siblings and their kids with fresh veggies all summer long. As time passed, John opened offerings to neighbors and started a small CSA; which as a young adult was the first time I'd heard of the concept of a CSA.  Every time I pull a fresh carrot from the good earth it brings me back to a sort of nostalgia from childhood when, if we were around, we'd get a treat of a sweet orange spear rinsed under the garden hose. There is nothing quite like that sweet earthy smell and taste to this day.

John was always an adept teacher of all things he knew, whether it was music, religious studies, or organic farming. When his health took a turn for the worse about 6 years ago and he could no longer garden, he turned to sharing all he knew with Travis and I, sharing books, tools, and knowledge. We in turn shared our produce with him, as he missed the fresh harvests dearly, and was always disappointed in the quality of what was available in the local grocery stores. In the spring the back room was always filled with seedlings under lights, in the summer it was shelling peas and picking the wild blueberries that surrounded the garden, and the fall was family get-togethers to harvest apples and press cider with an old hand press, winters were the warmth and sweetness of the sugar shack, and a pot of vegetable soup simmering on the old wood cook stove. 

While it feels odd to not be getting the spring phone call from him "What varieties are you planting? are your fields drying out? try this or try that, I came across this book you might find useful..."  we are honored to continue his tradition of feeding our friends and family the freshest healthy organic veggies. And if farming has taught us anything at all, it's to be in tune with the cycles of the seasons, of life and death and birth again. We dedicate this season in his memory, of all he shared, taught and most of all loved. And he loved his garden and family more than anything. 

As we move into a new season, waiting for it to warm up, and dry out,  we have a little less pressure in the way of erecting greenhouses, installing coolers,  and barn repairs; tasks we took on over the last few springs which are caught up on (mostly) and can focus solely on the production of great produce for our CSA members and markets. 

We are looking forward to another great season with you. This will be our 5th season in business, and while we've made some changes (i.e no longer offering spring shares, as the weather has become so fickle in the spring) adding a new greenhouse into production, and working on creating a community cooking space for classes and value added products; some things will not change, such as providing our members with great food and the opportunity to support their local small family farm. While many other farms have gone to a "subscription" box, like blue apron, sourcing food from other suppliers to offer more, we have tried developing a similar coordination in the past and found it put more work and responsibility on us, and takes away from the founding concept of what a CSA is supposed to be. While we do source asparagus, and blueberries from our neighbors at Grindstone Farm and eggs from our Amish neighbors Mannas and Lydia for our CSA, we don't seek to fill your boxes with stuff we don't grow.  

That is one of the founding principles of a CSA;  prepaying, or contracting to make payments with 1 small farm and receiving the bounty of the harvest through out the season.  While we respect other farm's decisions to take on being middle man, it's not our path. The point of CSA, and direct marketing is to eat seasonally, and give the middle man the boot. Too many farms are struggling to stay afloat selling wholesale (ie the dairy industry and commodity farmers) and the middle man makes off with the profits while farmers struggle to stay out of the red and bigger and bigger corporate farms eat up valuable farm land. As costs increase to us, our profits don't. We have not changed the price of our CSA in the 5 years we've been doing this, because we know our customers have a budget too. While other farms are offering more options with less value, our box sizes and prices remain the same. 

Another new thing we've started this year, inspired by a study we've been participating with Cornell Cooperative Extension, is developing a "cost offset" CSA for low income families. We are accepting donations to be applied to shares for low income members, and we match every dollar donated.  So far we've raised, with matched funds $160. We firmly believe that all folks, regardless of income should have access to quality healthy fresh produce, and donate often to various local food pantries. Being able to include families who might otherwise not be able to afford a CSA hits home to us. We started farming as a way to feed our own family better on a limited budget. The Cornell study offset the CSA cost by half with grants for over 30 families over the 3 years, and is in it's last season this year. While some counties have money ear marked for such support the counties we serve do not, and are among 3 of the poorest in the state. Between the rural communities with limited access to grocery store options, and urban ones with lots of stores full of processed junk, we are aiming to provide a minimum of 5 families a cost offset CSA. If you share in our vision, and can spare, please consider a donation towards this worthy goal. ​

The greenhouse is filling up with happy seedlings, awaiting warmer weather, just like us!

    Well, its almost officially summer, which for a while there I think we were all wondering if it would ever show up. So fitting that the Summer CSA should start with some great fresh produce to welcome summer in with! While a couple weeks later than initially planned, it was worth the wait. The bit of rain we got Sunday really gave everything a boost for this morning's harvest, brought on some more blossoms on the summer squash and peas, which we anticipate to be in shares next week , but weren't quite ready today.

I realize I've been slacking keeping up with weekly newsletters so far this season, and I mentioned some of the reasons in the previous entry which I will elaborate on.   Some of you who know us personally might already be privy to this info; others not so much. Farmer Beth did some serious damage to her knee back in March which is finally starting to get back to normal, so that has slowed us down a bit along with the weather. We also are short our one full time employee for the summer for personal health reasons, and it's been basically just Travis and Beth running the show with the blessings of a couple part time friends and family since May. We have been getting along fine so far and are looking forward to Farmer Rich's return for the summer from his farm in Florida. But this has left way less time for Beth in the office, which is ok with me because I'd much rather be in the field in the soil and sun. 
   
   Another reason I cited previously was writer's block. I usually flow pretty well when I have an hour or so of free time to compile a newsletter/blog; some of you have even complimented me on my  writing and that you enjoy reading the newsletters; a compliment I'll humbly take. But this spring there seem to be too many  distractions of thoughts from political climates to actual environmental climates to wrap my head around let alone put into words.
  
While I could go on for paragraphs about the importance of food security, farm workers rights, cuts in USDA funding, massive biotech big agri mergers underway, environmental protections, food justice, corporate greed, farms folding left and right, pollinator die offs, invasive species brought in from international food trade,  balances of farm and family etc etc, I cannot seem to keep my mind focused on one without delving into another. 

    Working with food gives us a distinct advantage to see our customers, meet them see the bond that food creates. Working with folks who seek out local, organic, from small family farms in many ways sets us on a whole other stage from most of the nation's agriculture built on exports.  It sets us apart in that we get to deal with the end user of our food, hear the stories and recipes; share ours. We know with our CSA that a certain amount of what we grow will be harvested with a home and a kitchen and a family trying new things and enjoying old favorites. We learn that no matter how polarized things are (and at an increasingly alarming rate) across the country, our CNY community comes together. And food is one things that pulls us together. We all eat to live, but preparing food at home, using fresh seasonal ingredients is something that most Americans have come a long way away from our the past few decades is something that instills pride, creates memories and is the very foundation of most ancient civilizations.

We come together over meals and in the kitchen, we swap recipes at drop sites and farmer's market stands, we learn names of our favorite foods in different languages.  It was once quoted by some nefarious world puppet master that if you control a nation's food, you control the population. When we take control of our food from the soil to the kitchen to the plate we prevent the usurpers from dictating what we put into our bodies, and our right to good clean food; we fight the good fight in my opinion. 

   All that being said, welcome to all our 2017 Summer CSA members. Thank you for your support of our farm this season, and for fighting the "good food fight" with us!



This week's CSA shares:

Small:  1/2lb asparagus from our friends at Grindstone Farm
             lettuce- red leaf, green leaf, red bibb or green romaine
             green swiss chard
             garlic scapes
             oregano
             radishes- red or mixed

​Regular:  1 lb asparagus from our friends at Grindstone Farm
             lettuce- red leaf, green leaf, red bibb or green romaine
             green swiss chard
             garlic scapes
             oregano
             radishes- red or mixed
             Kale- red or green curly
             mustard greens or braising mix
             green garlic


Below are some links to some great recipe ideas for this week's shares, just click on the recipe and it will bring up the original:

Oregano scape pesto 
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We hope you enjoy the first week's shares and just want to remind folks that as the season goes on the shares and selection will change. Also to visit our "crops we grow" section of the website for more recipes, timeframes to expect to see them in season, as well as nutritional information.  We also strongly encourage folks to share their favorite recipes on our facebook page for other customers to try. We are simple eaters here on the farm, especially during the growing season, so many times the recipes I share are ones that we throw together quickly and know our kids will eat. If you have one your kids loved, or got your spouse to eat his/her greens, please share. Sometimes how it's prepared is all it takes to turn a veggie hater into a veggie lover. 

Happy eating!

    March is upon us, which means work in full swing, getting geared up for the season ahead.  The heat mats are rolled out and filling up quickly with seedling trays sprouting with new life. 

   As we shared last month, we have invested in some infrastructure for the farm in the way of a new greenhouse (which will eventually transition to become our seedling starting greenhouse, leaving the other one for full production) and a walk in cooler twice the size of our farmhouse kitchen. Both have been dismantled and brought to the farm awaiting a window to get to work erecting them. The greenhouse was purchased from an old friend and fellow farmer who is getting out of the "game" and he had many other goodies to offer cheap or free to us, including a substantial amount of red raspberry plants. Our oldest, Gavy has decided that this is where her niche is on the farm- in fruit. We have decided to not do strawberries this season, as they were overly labor intensive, and the drought last year made the crop less than worth the investment. We may still do a bunch in the greenhouse, but this season, field strawberries aren't going to happen; but there will be raspberries, which will help springboard  Gavy's farm projects.

   For the last four years we have had the opportunity to attend organic growers conferences in Wisconsin, NJ and NY. Last year we decided that this would be the year we bring the kids to the NOFA conference in Saratoga Springs, and set money aside for the conference and hotels with pools in the middle of the winter. We always find these conferences to be a great jump start to the season, learning from intensive workshops; meeting and talking shop with other organic farmers, seeing new products to make our jobs easier etc.

  It's become such a tradition to get out of the slump of the cold winter months, shoveling snow, bringing in firewood and dreaming of spring to mingle with farmer kin.  But when we had the opportunity to work with Rich last summer from Earth Perks Farm, our conference funds transferred to Florida funds, to take our educational field trip to immerse ourselves in his permaculture farm for a week, as he immersed himself in our farm for 2 months in 2016.  While a much smaller farm than ours,  we learned a lot about high  production on a smaller scale, bio-char production and use in the fields, and marketing, and his experience having run a large multi-farm CSA in NC prior to moving the farm to FL.  This sort of hands on experience was more valuable (and cost even less) than many of the conferences we've attended in the past. Seeing organic production in a different climate (certainly having 80 degree days but the sun still setting at 6pm was quite a transition) opened our minds to various methods of simplifying some of the work we do here. He is growing in virtually beach sand amending with loads of compost and biochar, and with the longer growing season, is able to get multiple crops where we'd only see one. With many perennials starting to produce including 100 plus citrus trees, and a few mangoes and ginger we are excited to see his farm grow and  work with him again this summer. He will be back at Freedom Rains Farm in July  for another two months of farming with us in his off season of oppressive  summer heat. It was very inspiring for us to get away from the farm for our first real family vacation, and see great food growing, and enjoy eating some that we won't see for months here. The drive home brought us from summer through spring right back to the winter we left behind.

  With another cold snap the forecast, it looks like it will be a lot of inside and greenhouse work and stoking the fires at night to keep the seedlings happy and warm. Here's hoping that March will go out "like a lamb" as the saying goes so we can get busy!

    Fall keeps us busy here on the farm, with bulk harvests of carrots, beets, and rutabaga, pegging away at planting garlic, and securing everything from waterlines, to greenhouses, to storage crops and firewood for the long short days ahead. This past week was a stern reminder of how predictably unpredictable the weather can be. The past few falls have been very kind to us allowing the window to offer fall shares. While we planted and harvested many times over the storage crops we normally do in preparation for for our fall shares and winter markets, there are plenty of greens to be harvested weekly that can take the cold, and shed a light snow. Brussel Sprouts, swiss chard, kales, endive, lettuce, cabbage, arugula, leeks etc all will keep growing (albeit much slower in the short day lengths) to provide you with fresh greens. Another pro to growing and harvesting this time of year, greens when harvested cold tend to hold and have a longer shelf life than summer harvests in the heat.

   We apologize to our Summer CSA members that we were unable to keep up diligently on our weekly newsletters through Sep and Oct. Again, we become short handed this time of year, and it is mostly Travis and I doing all of the work, harvesting, washing, packing and delivering for 130 shares, which is truly A LOT of work for 2 people. Add to that school stuff with the kids, we sometimes have a hard time remembering to breath! There may have been some odd ball veggies in your shares, such as kohlrabi, arugula, rutabaga, that hopefully everyone was able to figure out what they were and how to prepare without our newsletter. 

   Being shorthanded this time of year is nothing new to us, and we actually had more outside labor this season than we had the previous two years. One of our farm hands this season, Rich,  as I think we've said before is a small permaculture farmer from Florida. His help and experience (especially with the massive drop irrigation system that saved many crops this season)  was invaluable and a lifelong friendship was made.  

His farm, Earth Perks Farm, just South of Daytona, was hit pretty hard by Hurricane Matthew. Luckily all structures and the majority of fruit trees were unscathed, but all his plantings, started as soon as he got home in August, were destroyed. As he said, fortunately the growing season is long enough to start again, if something like that happened here, we'd have to forgo many crops in our short season.  We are planning a family trip down there this winter to help him out on his farm and enjoy getting out of NY for a bit this winter. I'm excited to see the citrus and other more tropical foods being grown, as well as his permaculture techniques producing much food from little land. 

  Folks often ask us if we plan to expand, grow on more land, and usually our answer is no. We have land here we haven't even used, and have utilized different methods to get multiple crops from the same spot to maximize our yields per sq ft.  To expand, we don't necessarily need more land, but to maximize what the land can sustain. And we certainly don't need more work!

Our Fall shares start next week, members signed up should have received an email regarding their delivery schedule this morning. 

    Here at the end of our Summer share season, we want to thank all our members who supported our farm this season. It was the hottest and driest season in recent history for this area. After the 6 inches of rain we got over the weekend last week, our wells are fully refilled from the dry summer, and our fields are mucky messes, Pulaski even had to shut down the Salmon River during peak salmon season due to the dangerously high water levels! If there's anything certain, it's that nothing is certain, and we have had to flow with the extreme weather along with all our other fellow farmers this season. And aside from the ecological climate uncertainties, the political uncertainties and trade deals shipping in cheap food from poor countries, lowering the market value of our locally grown food, there is one certainty; everyone needs to eat. If we continue to delegate en masse  the responsibility of our food supply to foreign countries, or large corporations, the ability to eat clean food becomes more uncertain. Your support of local farms, ensures our continuation  and ability to serve our communities.  Whatever else pans out in the world stage, you always have the immense power to vote with your wallet, which in the end is really the only vote that counts, however small or large,  you empower and strengthen your local economy and communities with every local purchase you make. Your commitment to our farm does not go unnoticed or unappreciated.

 As thanks to our members we have added a couple bonuses for continuing membership. Everyone should have received an email regarding the automatic rollover. As explained, every 2016 member was automatically enrolled in our 2017 season for the same shares they had this season. We know sometimes people get caught up and forget, or wait for taxes to come back to sign up. We hope that in doing this it simplifies the sign up process for next year. If you wish to NOT be enrolled for 2017, please log into your account to make these changes, or email us.  The program we use for organizing our CSA and harvests charges per member, so if you definitely know you will not be joining us again next year, or are unsure, we need to know. 

We have also extended discounts for returning members for 2017. Returning members receive 10% off their summer shares if paid in full by May 31st, (while new members have until Jan 22) or 5% off if making payments. 

-If you are a new member interested in next season's shares, please visit our Community Supported Agriculture section of our website.

-We will be moving inside to shed F ate the regional market for the months of November and December.

  Thank you all for a great season, which is far from over!
   

    If you thought you missed last week's newsletter, you didn't because there wasn't one. It's always a bit of a chaotic transition for us when the kids go back to school, as I'm sure it can be for so many other parents.  For us it means waking up earlier, yet starting work a bit later. As the days just get shorter, we start working by work light cleaning onions and other busy work we can do while the kids work on homework, while trying to cram all the weeding, winter prep, cover cropping,  and harvesting into the daylight hours. 

   We have been working on getting winter squash out the field that are ready, and are pretty happy so far with the yields (a little disappointed with the spaghetti squash though, so sorry if that's your favorite.)  The cool nights make for sweeter and sweeter squash, brussel sprouts and other cool weather crops while the tomatoes and summer squash keep coming. We've also been getting all the drip tape out of the fields, which kept our crops happy and alive to this point, but is way more work than laying it was. We've been trying to salvage as much as we can for reuse. This is usually thrown out, but we feel that's a waste of money and nonrenewable resources.

   Our last few rotational plantings of lettuce are all coming on at once. We seed these as transplants every 2 weeks, but it seems due to the heat and dryness they all came on at once. Sometimes even the most meticulously planned things can still be held slave to the weather. But we are grateful they didn't all bolt, or get eaten by deer or woodchucks, as has happened many times before. So enjoy some salads this week! Other greens are coming on beautifully as well. Our fall plantings of swiss chard and kale are growing and we will be able to cover and harvest these into the cold days of fall shares, and the earlier plantings of kale are coming back with new growth after stopping harvest during the dry spell. So those of you who really love your greens can look forward to that!

   Tuesday members who did not get their eggs can expect double egg shares this week. Again we apologize for the absence of the eggs last week. It was beyond our control and we know a big inconvenience to many folks. Also, we know many members look forward to seeing the occasional fruit in their shares and may be looking forward to apples, but we have been informed by our usual apple providers that the cost has nearly doubled, and this is out of our budgeted price range. As many may know this spring was a bad one for apple growers across the state with a late heavy frost killing buds and the dryness setting fruit back. We will try to source some organically grown (non certified) apples from another grower, but if this doesn't work out, rest assured there will be plenty other great produce coming your way.

While we have been busy getting potatoes, squash and sweet potatoes out of the fields, and have been watching more carrots bulk up, there are so many warm season crops that are still coming on that we want to make sure we get these to you while they are prime and hang onto storage crops for later and fall shares. If you'd like to add the fall share, please email us. It seems the system is giving folks trouble signing up. Please keep in mind there are no egg shares for the fall season, all egg shares end the last week of October. 


This week's shares are as follows:

Small Shares:  2 heads of lettuce, 1 lb onions, hot peppers, cilantro, tomatoes, garlic, oregano, red mustard greens, summer squash.

Regular Shares: 3 lettuce, braising mix (a mix of various brassicas great lightly sauteed or in salads) broccoli florets, chinese cabbage, onions, hot peppers, cilantro, tomatoes, spinach (we only had enough for Tuesday and Wednesday's shares, we will substitute something for Thurs and Sat) garlic, sweet peppers, oregano, and summer squash.

We have been waiting all season for cilantro. We reseeded this 4 times to get to this point. The bunches will be small, but we wanted to make sure we got it to members for making some fresh salsa. Oregano, I recently learned  is another herb that you can add to fresh salsa and is traditionally used in Mexican cuisine. 

We hope everyone enjoys their shares this week, and some of the last weeks of warm season crops. We can usually expect a frost at the end of September in or region, and though we can cover many crops to protect from frost, we don't have enough row covers to cover them all. Before we know it it will be time to get the woodstove going and to get the doors back on the greenhouse and high tunnels. So we are enjoying these warm days of September (albeit very chilly mornings!)

    Week 14 is here, with only 8 more weeks of the summer CSA left. If you'd like to keep receiving the bounty until the snow flies in December, we still have a few Fall shares available. Don't wait, sign up now before they fill up!
    The days are getting shorter, which means shorter work days, which can be both a good and bad thing on the farm. Good in that we can't do too much work after the sun goes down, but bad because there's so much work to be done! We've started working on lifting potatoes, and will have some beautiful spuds for members soon. One of the biggest challenges we have is food storage. While we lease cooler space, we will have a lot of storage crops that will need a home to hold into the colder months, and our present situation of shared space only allows us so much space and can only keep things cold, and can't keep them warm when the temps drop too low. There are grants (which we find out about all too late) for food storage, and loans as well, but we are thinking of starting a go fund me project to get some of the barn repairs done, and build a walk-in cooler of our own here at the farm. These things were in the budget this spring but we ended up using much of the funds earmarked for that project for much needed irrigation supplies. We'll let everyone know when it's up and running, so if you'd like to contribute something you can.

   Celery is in shares this week again. Some is regrowing some nice dense hearts, and we have a ALOT. If you're interested in bulk celery for making stock, juicing, etc, please shoot us an email and we'll get it to you with your CSA share.  We pulled the remaining cucumber plants out of the ground to make space for more fall plantings of swiss chard, kale, escarole, lettuce, bok choi and broccoli. Our Amish Paste tomatoes made their way into regular shares this week, and if you'd like more we have plenty for canning and will be adding them to online store until they are done. They are a meatier tomato with less juice than some of the other heirlooms which make for great sauce that cooks down quicker with a higher retention rate.  Also mixed hot peppers will be available by the pound for preserving. The cilantro is finally catching up to speed and we'll have some for salsas within the next two weeks after having to reseed 4 times. 

   It has been tradition to have an annual open  house ever since our days at Grindstone. Neither farm organized one this year, partly because of the time it takes, and partly due to lack of  participation.  We all love to make time to show customers around the farm, and many other local farms have now created weekly or monthly events, which makes me feel like we're missing the bus or horrible slackers. We are currently scheming up a harvest dinner at the end close of the CSA when things slow down some. While it may not be the best time to tour the fields, it will still give everyone the opportunity to get out to the farm, enjoy some great food, and meet their farmers. We will keep you posted as we solidify this event.

   We took a break from the eggplant and peppers this week to give them time get bigger and ripen up. While peppers were on crop we had more than members really wanted last season, this year is a different story. The hot peppers are loaded but the sweet are not. Each season different crops fare differently, but they both have a lot more blossoms and fruit starting after getting some good rains. 

This week's shares are as follows:

Small: Basil, fennel, celery, broccoli florets, lettuce, heirloom tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, onions, &  summer squash.

Regular: Basil, fennel, celery, brocolini, lettuce, heirloom tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, onions, summer squash, carrots and  winter squash (delicata or spaghetti)

We've been happy to hear some of the feedback from members as to how much they've been enjoying the fennel, because it is certainly one of the crops we are the most proud of this season, especially after seeing what other farms have on their market tables. Fennel is a traditional staple of the Mediterranean region, and is snacked on raw in parts of Italy. It has medicinal uses as a stomach calmative as well. One CSA member shared a recipe for using the fronds as a base for a pesto. You can also roast the fennel, which brings out it's sweetness and mellows out the anise flavor a bit. We had thought that the summer squash would be done by now, as it usually is, but it still keeps fruiting, and has stayed healthy. We will keep picking as long as they keep growing. Try freezing some to use later in soups or to make some chocolate zucchini muffins, or squash tots. (all summer squash is interchangeable in recipes, so even if you don't have dark green zucchini, the yellow squash and light green koosa squash can be used to make breads and muffins too.)  Brocolini or the broccoli are also interchangeable in recipes, and there is a lot of nutrients and flavor in the stems and leaves as well, which is why we leave the stems long and most of the leaves on.   They can also be easily blanched and frozen for later use in stir-fries and soups.  Winter squash holds very well just sitting at room temperature, and while we know it still is too warm to think about firing up the oven to cook the squash, they can be microwaved, and delicata squash can be sauteed with the tender skin left on.

Enjoy your shares this week, and keep in mind that this is truly the season of harvest. While fall crops come in summer crops are still producing, so you can expect to see much more bounty in your shares through the next few weeks.
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