My grandfather loved farming. He was born and raised on the same piece of earth that he then farmed for the next 90 years. Starting out it was he and his father using horsepower to till, plant, and harvest the land. Eventually the farm changed hands and it became my father and gramps that tilled, planted, and harvested but this time with tractors. (He just recently relayed a story to me about an old farmer that used to live in the area. This old farmer speculated that farmers would eventually have as many tractors as they had horses. At that time farmers could own up to a dozen horses. Everyone thought he was nuts! Now looking at our menagerie of tractors here and at my parent’s farm I think that old farmer might have been a visionary.)

As he aged and with the realization that some farm jobs were too physically demanding, Monroe found ways to stay involved. He could be seen driving tractors through the fields or keeping watch over an open gate through the window of his little blue dodge truck. I would sometimes come upon him sitting with the windows open reading a novel and grateful that he could still help. During one of our last conversations he said he needed to go through with the operation because he hated seeing my dad out there working alone. A week before he checked into the hospital he was mowing hay. Monroe was a farmer to the end.

I have spent the last week thinking a lot about my gramps, more than usual I guess. He was always on the periphery of my thoughts; stories came easily about my grandpa while harvesting or during other daily farm tasks. He loved garlic, eating it like apples. He loved horseradish, onions, and sauerkraut. Now, I have been remembering his smile, his eyes, and the way he twisted his hand when he would tell me stories. He wore a cowboy hat to church and gave out 50-cent pieces to children that behaved themselves during mass. He was great.

Bob has shared some information about the anthroposophical view of death as well as some books on staying connected. It is comforting to know that my gramps will experience how much I love him. Also, that remembering memories is like a hug and I have been doing that daily. I have plans to plant some garlic next to his head stone, and let that come up in the spring. I imagine he would find it the most appropriate flower.

Please note: this box summary is written the week before you receive your box. It is updated but not all the boxes packed for your delivery day will be exactly the same, although it is likely that all the boxes at your dropsite will be the same. Some things may be in your box that are not listed, and some listed things may not be in your box. As always, be sure to thoroughly wash all your vegetables.

The page numbers listed below refer to cooking tips and recipes in Farmer John’s Cookbook: The Real Dirt on Vegetables as provided to all shareholders. Some recipes are listed at AngelicOrganics.com/RecipeService

ROOTS

• Celeriac-Perhaps saute steamed celeriac with onions and sprinkle with salt and lemon juice, pp. 270-273
• Carrots-Ginger, Carrots and Daikon. Yummers. pp. 163-168
• Daikon Radish-pp. 247-276
• Potatoes-We don't wash these. They store better when unwashed, pp 289-294

COOKING GREENS-pp. 81-94

• Swiss Chard-bunched, You can curry any of the cooking greens with potatoes.
• Red Russian Kale-young

BRASSICAS

• Cabbage-Fermentation Class coming up at the Learning Center if you would like to learn to make live sauerkraut-pp. 257-263
• Broccoli-pp. 248-252

ALLIUMS-pp. 121-128

• Garlic
• Onion(s)-maybe; yellow storage

FRUITING CROPS

• Winter Squash-a butternut; always pay special attention to the ripeness of the squash; if a particular squash begins to become overripe and has a soft spot, cut off that portion, bake the squash, and use for pie or quick bread or freeze for winter use. pp. 307-315
• Popcorn-an ear; This popcorn was just harvested and likely needs more drying time before all of its kernels will pop fully. We suggest putting it in a windowsill for a couple of weeks and then removing a few kernels and test popping it to see if its ready.
• Eggplant-maybe; pp. 215-222
  

HERBS-pp. 102-120

• Cilantro-likely

SALAD GREENS-pp. 136-141

• Lettuce- 2 heads from among the following varieties: Red Salad Bowl (a red oakleaf), Magenta (a red summercrisp), Cherokee (a red summercrisp), Winter Density (a green bibb-romaine) and/or Jericho (a green romaine)

While I have heard from many of you who do read their newsletters, I have also heard from many of you who do not. Whether one is too busy to read the newsletter (I certainly understand how one would fall into this category) or the newsletter is too long or not interesting enough, I hope to make our communications to you more compelling. As such, this week we are premiering a video dimension to our newsletter (which for those who read the print copy is available at www.AngelicOrganics.com/NL -- choose week 18).

I realize that technological advances (we even get broadband at the farm via “fixed wireless”) now afford us more possibilities of sharing our work with you. There are already many ideas of what we can share with you visually. Some of the video ideas are: meet a different crew member each week (I, Bob, am the first week’s featured employee); take a tour of the fields, of a process, a machine, an implement, a building, …; follow the flow of a given vegetable -- from seeding in the green house, to weeding in the fields, to harvest, to washing, to packing. There are even more possibilities. We will start simple and gradually add more. This winter I hope to have someone edit some of the harvest vignettes together. With this effort I hope to more effectively share the life of your farm with you and involve you in everything that comes together to create your box each week. Your feedback and ideas on this process will be welcomed at CSA@AngelicOrganics.com. Thanks.

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