Birdsfoot Farm

Click HERE to download Winter CSA sign-up form

Dear All,
I hope you are all enjoying the last box of veggies for the summer season.  I did not go to Potsdam today and spent the afternoon chucking garlic into individual cloves to be planted soon.  If it had not rained we would have harvested beets and potatoes.  We had 6 students from the green house coming to help and got 1/2 of the 16,000 done.  We also baked banana bread and had tea with a wood stove fire, not bad for a rainy day's work.  We are getting wonderful potatoes from the last field and the carrots are still growing, maybe we will get a decent yield. 

Katie started her work at the Potsdam Canton hospital and we miss her dearly in the gardens.  We had to work late on Monday to get the greens washed and I had to ask Steve to finish picking up potatoes from the field yesterday, so I didn't have to lift 400lbs after my monthly massage with Valerie Summer, ahh, such a treat!  I get to look forward to the massage for a week and benefit from it for a week and than there is a other one coming soon.  I highly recommend the investment for body and soul into massages.  I think Steve enjoyed the exercise.
So, it is Zach and me working the fields with the help of SLU students.  We are grateful for every warm day, but I must say that the colder days remind me to hurry up to get the crops in.

Attached is the paper work  for the winter CSA, please let me know soon if you are interested, so I know how many new people I should find.  There might be more carrots, they are still growing.
peace, Dulli

Dear All,
here are a few hints on what to do with the new crops.

 The round white scrawny looking is celeriac.  Always peel first.
Add raw celeriac in grated beets, carrot, or apple salads ( great to mix them all, the celeriac or even added cabbage turns pink from the beets, the apple or raisins make it sweet)
Use in recipes for celery as a substitute.
Add cooked celeriac to mashed potatoes.
Potato, leek, celeriac soup is a favorite.
Celeriac is great in soups, and so are

Parsnips: the long white carrot like things
Steam or boil parsnips and season with butter or oil.
Bake them oiled , cut into small pieces on a cooky sheet.
Saute them with butter and garlic and parsley.
They are great in soups.

The green bulb with feathery leaves is fennel.
You can boil it and eat it with fork and knife for its full flavor by itself.
You can add it to a soup.
You can make salad, thinly slice the fennel, add cut up orange pieces raisins, walnuts, olive oil.

The hard round heavy things are winter squash.  Delicata squash has green and yellow stripe, butternut squash is tan and pear shaped. Always cut open squash and take the seeds out with a spoon.  We usually leave the rind on, if it is too tough it is easier to take off when cooked.
You can cut squash in pieces, oil and bake till soft 20-3-minutes
You can cut into squares and stir fry.
You can cut up and make soup , first fry onions and add a little celeriac, spice with nutmeg, salt pepper, garlic.
You can steam pieces of squash

I will send you some of our favorite cookbook recipes when I can figure out to scan them in.
I highly recommend the "From A-Z Asparagus to Zucchini" cook book of which we have several copies for $16 available and
the "Farmer John's Cookbook"  both are written for CSA with seasonal recipes

Have a good weekend and enjoy the warm weather and fall colours.
Dulli.