In Your Box:

  • Arugula
  • Beets
  • Celery
  • Head lettuce
  • Onion
  • Sweet pepper
  • Tomatoes
  • Winter Squash: “Spaghetti”

Farm News

It feels like fall is suddenly upon us, with a rapid change of weather that makes the state fair feel like it was weeks ago. I’m still busy on the farm, harvesting and wrapping up projects and packing in as much as I can even as our time of daylight shortens daily. After this week we have just four more weeks of delivery left. We’ll wrap up the season the week of October 13th. We hope you enjoy the rest of the year!

We hope you can join us on Saturday, October 3rd for our annual harvest party starting at 3pm. We’ll have yard games, pumpkin picking, farm tours, and a potluck at 5pm. Our address: 17250 County Road 122 / New Germany. Hope to see you on the farm!

This week’s box

This week brings us celery for the first time this year. Unlike California celery, which is mostly water and flavorless, our celery has smaller stems with great crispiness and incredible flavor. It’s perfect for soups and stews, where the flavor really shines. 

We also have arugula, a spicy member of the mustard family that tastes great mixed into salads or on its own. If you find it too spicy, you can also lightly wilt it or blend it into an aioli or pesto sauce.

So far it looks like our winter squash have performed very well this year, so we’ll begin their harvest with Spaghetti squash. These have a unique texture to their flesh, truly resembling noodles once they are cooked. To use them, cut in half lengthwise and bake facedown in a pan filled with ½” of water. Depending on the size of the squash, baking at 375 degrees for 45-60 minutes usually leaves them nice and tender. After they are baked, lightly fluff the insides with a fork and add spaghetti sauce or pesto. You can eat the meal right out of the shell for a great, quick meal.

Beet Red Velvet Muffins

from NYTimes Cooking

  • 3 medium beets
  • ¾ cup butter, plus more for greasing pan
  • ¾ cup buttermilk
  • Juice of 1 large lemon
  • 2 teaspoons white vinegar
  • 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 2 cups cake flour (sift before measuring)
  • 3 tablespoons Dutch process cocoa powder
  • 1 ⅛ teaspoon baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • ½ teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 ¾ cup granulated sugar
  • 3 eggs
  • Cream cheese frosting, or other icing
  1. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Wash beets and wrap in aluminum foil. Bake until the tip of a knife slides easily into the largest beet, about 1 hour 15 minutes. Cool until beets can be handled, then peel. (This may be done up to a day ahead.)
  2. Butter two 9-inch cake pans. Line the bottoms of the pans with parchment and then butter again.
  3. In a food processor, chop beets to pieces about the size of finely diced onions. Measure 1 cup and set aside (remaining beets can be reserved for another purpose). Return cup of beets to the food processor. Purée with buttermilk, lemon juice, vinegar and vanilla until smooth.
  4. Sift together flour, cocoa, baking powder, salt and baking soda. Set aside.
  5. In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat butter until soft. Slowly add sugar and beat until creamy. Beat in eggs one at a time, scraping down the sides of the bowl after each addition.
  6. Alternate adding flour mixture and beet mixture to butter mixture, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients, and beating for 10 seconds after each addition. Scrape down the bowl after each addition of the wet ingredients.
  7. Divide batter between prepared cake pans, smoothing the tops. Bake until a cake tester inserted in the cake comes out clean, about 20 minutes. Remove pans from oven and cool completely on a wire rack.
  8. To assemble, remove one cake from its pan and peel away parchment. Place flat side down on a serving platter. Drop about 1 cup of icing onto cake and, using a flat spatula, spread evenly over top. Remove the second cake from its pan and remove parchment. Place flat side down on top of first layer. Use remaining frosting to cover top and sides of cake.

Coming up

Next week, we are expecting onions, tat soi, head lettuce, radishes, tomatoes, pepper, arugula, garlic and carrots.

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