This week your basket contains:  CELERIAC, broccoli, beets, carrots, leeks, sweet peppers, and salad mix (radicchio, spinach, and lettuce)

THANKSGIVING DELIVERIES:  Your 2-week basket will be delivered on Nov. 21^st; we will skip delivery on Nov. 28^th, and resume normal deliveries on Dec. 5^th. Please let us know if you have any questions or concerns.

PEAR UPDATE: OUR NEXT PEAR DELIVERY WILL BE WITH THE  BASKET BEFORE THANKSGIVING.  At that time, we will also have the 5# PEAR SAMPLE BAGS. These will have several varieties of pears and Asian pears for $12.  She’ll also have Comice and Bosc pears available. The cost for these  is  2 lbs $4: 4 lbs $7.50 25 lbs $30.  In addition, you can order canned pears in either water or light syrup (1 can $8; 3 cans $22; or a case for $80) and dried half Comice pears ( 4 oz $8; 8 oz $16 or 16 oz $30)As always, please email to order.

Celeriac, or celery root as it is also known, is a wonderful combination of celery flavor and potato texture.  The leaves, which are very similar to the herb lovage, can be used in soup stock or stews to add a celery flavor. To use the root, it must be peeled first.  It can be roasted with other root veggies, added to potatoes and mashed, or mashed on its own.  For more recipes, we have many, many celeriac recipes on our web site (see password in the footer).  Perhaps the easiest way to use celeriac is to grate it after peeling, dressing with mustard vinaigrette and serving cold.  This is the vinaigrette that we use:

VINAIGRETTE

1 clove garlic

1 tsp salt

3 Tbs red wine vinegar

1 tsp wet mustard

5 Tbs extra virgin olive oil

black pepper

Press garlic into the bottom of  your salad bowl.  With a fork, mix well with salt until it forms a paste.  Mix in vinegar and mustard until salt is dissolved.  Whisk in olive oil to make an emulsion.  Add black pepper to taste.  These proportions are in no way set in stone.  You should experiment to find the proportions you prefer.  Also, other spices, herbs and vinegars can be used to vary the dressing.

We have had several frosty mornings in the past week, and they have put an end to our summer crops.  In anticipation of this, we harvested and stored all the sweet peppers left on the plants.  If you are not in the mood to roast the peppers and make pimento salad, you should consider freezing some pepper strips for use in the winter.  All you need to do is remove the seeds and ribs, cut the peppers into strips and freeze in a zip lock bag.  No blanching necessary!  The peppers hold their texture well.  We use them all winter long in fajitas, soups, and stews.  It is a quick and easy way to store the bounty of summer.

Our winter beets have glorious greens which will not stand up to too many more frosty mornings.  The recipe below can help you make good use of them.

EASY BEET GREENS

While this recipe calls for discarding the stems, if you want you can use them too if they aren’t too woody. Just cut them into 1-inch segments and add them to the onions after the onions have been cooking for a minute.

1 pound beet greens

1 strip of thick cut bacon, chopped (or a tablespoon of bacon fat)

1/4 cup chopped onion

1 large garlic clove, minced

3/4 cup of water

1 Tbsp granulated sugar

1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes

1/6 cup of cider vinegar

Wash the greens in a sink filled with cold water. Drain greens and wash a second time. Drain greens and cut away any heavy stems. Cut leaves into bite-sized pieces. Set aside.  In a large skillet or 3-qt saucepan, cook bacon until lightly browned on medium heat (or heat 1 Tbsp of bacon fat). Add onions, cook over medium heat 5 to 7 minutes, stirring occasionally, until onions soften and start to brown. Stir in garlic. Add water to the hot pan, stirring to loosen any particles from bottom of pan. Stir in sugar and red pepper. Bring mixture to a boil.  Add the beet greens, gently toss in the onion mixture so the greens are well coated. Reduce heat to low, cover and simmer for 5-15 minutes until the greens are tender. Stir in vinegar. (For kale or collard greens continue cooking additional 20 to 25 minutes or until desired tenderness.)

There were several items left by subscribers after our Pumpkin Pick Up Weekend.  If you are missing something, let us know and we will reunite you with it!