In Your Box:

  • Carrots
  • Chard
  • Parsley
  • Red onion
  • Spinach
  • Sweet pepper
  • Tat soi or bok choy
  • Winter squash, “Butternut” 

Farm News

Thanks to the families who braved the rain and cold to visit the farm last weekend! The weather was definitely not what we were hoping for, but it was great to show some families around the farm and enjoy a meal together to start wrapping up the season.

Please continue returning your boxes. I will be picking up returned CSA boxes next week when I drop off your final box and again on Tuesday, October 20 when I return to all of our delivery sites to pick up any boxes that have been dropped off. Many of our boxes are still in good enough shape to be used again next year, so please help keep our expenses down by returning any boxes you have around the house.

Sadly, next week will be our last delivery of the season. It’s been a great year with an abundant harvest, but personally I’m starting to look forward to hibernating! For our Thursday sites, please note that our last box will go out on Wednesday of next week to accommodate anyone traveling for MEA weekend.

This week’s box

We are completely overrun with Asian beetles right now, so my apologies if any snuck into your box today. Asian beetles were introduced to help keep soybean pests under control, but no one bothered to introduce any bugs to keep Asian beetles under control! Now that some of the neighboring soybean fields have been harvested, the beetles start looking for places to live out the fall and overwinter. Since our farm is one of the last green places left in our region, thousands of them move here and take over the farm. They don’t cause any damage to our crops, but they are time-consuming to remove from their hiding spaces in our veggies.

This is our final offering of Swiss chard for the year. I realize chard is not the most popular veggie, so I wanted to share the Orzo recipe below for a great way to use it. The meal was a hit with 50% of our boys, which is progress, at least…. Orzo is a rice-shaped pasta that I had never cooked with before, but the texture was perfect with this meal. I ran the chard stems and leaves through a food chopper, saving time and leaving the greens nice and small. Spinach would work in its place, and could also be mixed in with the chard.

One Pan Orzo

adapted from NYTimes Cooking

Yield:4 servings

  • 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
  • 1 onion or 4 large scallions, trimmed and thinly sliced
  • 2 large garlic cloves, minced
  • 4 leaves chard, coarsely chopped
  • 1 teaspoon kosher salt
  • 1 ¾ cups low-sodium chicken or vegetable stock
  • 1 cup orzo
  • 1 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest (from 1 lemon)
  • ¾ cup crumbled feta (3 ounces), plus more for garnish
  • ½ cup frozen peas, thawed (optional)
  • 1 cup chopped fresh dill, or use parsley or cilantro
  1. Heat a 10-inch skillet over medium, then melt butter, 30 seconds to 1 minute. Stir in the onions and garlic, and cook until softened, stirring frequently, about 3 minutes.
  2. Stir in chard, adding in batches if it doesn’t all fit in the pan at once, and ½ teaspoon salt. Continue to cook, stirring occasionally, until chard is wilted, about 5 minutes.
  3. Stir in stock and bring to a simmer. Stir in orzo, lemon zest and remaining ½ teaspoon salt. Cover and simmer over medium-low heat until orzo is nearly cooked through and most of the liquid is absorbed, 10 to 14 minutes, stirring once or twice.
  4. Stir in cheese, peas (if you like) and dill, cover the pan, and cook for another 1 minute, to finish cooking and warm the peas. To serve, sprinkle with more cheese.

Coming up

We are expecting celeriac, beets, onion, garlic, Brussels sprouts, spinach and butternut squash.

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