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Dear winter farm folk, We are inside this morning, waiting for the greens to unthaw. In our process of winter growing in the hoophouse, we still feel that we are grandly experimenting. We tinker with what works for us here, in this place, on this farm. We are committed to providing winter greens for you all, but when we went out early this morning to cut greens, found that they were frozen, frozen solid. Not lying down frozen, but frozen solid and standing. We waited, went back after the hidden sun came alive, and found them still frozen. When we built the hoophouse 4 years ago, we installed a heater, thinking that we had to keep the space above freezing. Through experimenting and tinkering we realized that we didn't need the heat and so for two years haven't used the heat or heater at all. Now we find the need for heat. Jon has spent two hours trying to get the heater going to bring the temperature up and the greens are unthawing, but the stems are still frozen. The leaves have partially unthawed, but the stems are frozen so that the plant isn't able to uptake water. If you cut greens frozen this way, they turn to mush. If greens unthaw completely, they are fine. We are pressed by time and therefore, won't include greens this time and for that, we are sorry. We are humbled by this experience and hope that you won't be too disappointed! A lesson in "not being in control" for sure..... Boxes today include some interesting, exotic and unusual. We encourage you to take some chances with your cooking in the next couple of weeks. Try something different! After the traditional food and excess of thanksgiving, doesn't some asian-inspired fusion sound good??? Boxes include: sunshine kabocha squash, confection squash, either butternut or buttercup, purple potatoes, carrots, shallots, garlic, onions, green or purple cabbage and a mixed bag of daikon(big, long and white, peel first) and pink chinese radish(look inside), herb is a bag of dried rosemary, cut, dried and bagged by Ella and Eli. These radishes are a good reminder to look beyond and through appearances. We apologize for the dirt; these radishes were one of the last crops from the fall fields and by the time they were harvested, the water was shut down. Daikon radish is beloved by Chinese, Japanese and Korean cooks for their down home earthiness. They are really good for your immune system. You can use them in miso soup, grate them and make kimchi, pickle them or I've seen a delicious dumpling recipe too. The other radish is greenish and big and round, a cooking radish from china. Cut it open for a beautiful surprise! Like a watermelon sunrise. Find a recipe for miso soup and warm up your bellies... Instead of a recipe, I pass along a cooking technique. We had a delicious roasted rooty dish at thanksgiving and I tried this cooking technique to roast some winter squash. I melted 2 TBL butter, with 1 TBL honey and 2 TBL olive oil in a small pan. I cut a sunshine squash raw, took the seeds out and cut slices that were thinnish with the skin still on. The slices were about 3" long, kind of like a thin wedge of orange moon. I put the slices in a bowl, tossed the butter mix with the squash(with my hands) added salt and roasted them in a 400 degree oven until starting to have brown bits(read caramel). My family said they could eat squash every night this way, so if you have a stockpile of squash and aren't sure what to do, try roasting them like this. Also good would be potatoes, beets, carrots, parsnips, rutabaga and celery root. Next boxes will be Friday, December 14th, in two weeks. Thanks for understanding the greens dilemma and have a great, wintry two weeks. Love, the meadowlarks
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