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Winter Squash and Cider Season

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Winter Squash and Cider Season
This Week's Vegetable Harvest:
  • Italian Parsley
  • Arugula
  • Rainbow Swiss Chard
  • Green Peppers
  • Garlic
  • 'Jester' Delicata Winter Squash
  • Celery Root
  • Green Peppers
  • Green Tomatoes
  • Yellow Onions
This Week's Fruit Harvest:
  • Honeycrisp Apples
  • Jonagold Apples
  • Cortland Apples
  • Bosc Pears
  • Apple Cider
What's New at the Farm Stand
  • Handcrafted Notecards Return - Jeff's mom, Candy, creates beautiful artwork inspired by the farm and the natural world. She's drawn several of our vegetables and plants, which are printed and featured on notecards (blank inside). They are perfect for holiday gifts or thank you notes.
  • Autumn Mums - We have replenished the mums! Enjoy them while their lovely blossoms are here.
  • Hours: Open daily, 7am-7pm 
Winter Share Registration - Save Up Early to Save!

The Winter Produce Share includes a combination of fresh, winter-sweetened greens, stored crops, and our most popular summer vegetables harvested and preserved at the peak of ripeness when they are most nutritious and flavorful. 

The Winter Egg Share consists of one dozen fresh free-range brown eggs every other week from Joe's Farm. Joe's Farm produces pasture-raised, beautiful orange yolked eggs. 

Both Winter Shares include six (6) every other week pickups from December through March at our Grayslake Farm location*:

  • Wednesday, November 30th
  • Wednesday, December 14th
  • [No pickup in late December]
  • Wednesday, January 18
  • Wednesday, February 1
  • Wednesday, February 15
  • Wednesday, March 1

*Due to family reasons, all winter pickups will take place on Wednesdays at our farm in Grayslake. We acknowledge this may not be convenient for our loyal winter CSA members. We will offer pickup accommodations for those traveling distances to the farm. Please contact Jen directly to arrange: jen@prairiewindfamilyfarm.com. Thank you for your understanding and patience as we respond to questions.

Sign up early and save! Sign up before Friday, October 7th and use the code winter23 to save $7 on your Winter Produce Share. 
Reserve Your Local, Pastured-Raised Thanksgiving Turkey 

Reserve a local, pasture-raised, organically-fed heritage turkey for Thanksgiving dinner from our friends at All Grass Farms.

Farmer Cliff raises Broad Breasted Bronze turkeys which are moved to pasture at 3 weeks of age.  They are free-range in and around portable shelters with their shelters being moved daily.  They are fed certified organic, non-GMO feed mixture from day one with no antibiotics or growth hormones.  They are processed at 17-19 weeks for maximum flavor and they are humanely processed at local, family-owned USDA-inspected facility.

Weights range from 12-25 lbs. We will do everything we can to provide you with a turkey in your desired weight range. Turkeys are frozen and packaged in a vacuum-sealed bag. Heart, liver, neck, and gizzard included inside each turkey.

Reservation: $35 deposit per turkey due at time of order.
Final Price: You will be invoiced with your total at $7.50/lb (less your deposit) due upon pickup.

Turkeys will be available for pickup from the Grayslake farm on Saturday, November 12 and Sunday, November 13 from 7am to 7pm. 

Place your reservation here. Thank you for supporting local farmers!
Farm Journal
Hello to you, from your farm!
We're settling into our autumn routines as we receive the first touches of frost at the farm. Each evening, Jeff closes up all of the sidewalls of our hoophouses to trap warmth within and protect sensitive crops from nightly lows. In the mornings, we roll the sidewalls up again after the sun has warmed them up allowing trapped moisture to evaporate. As the weather cools down moisture and temperature management are a non-stop job to ensure that each individual crop has the best growing conditions we can provide.
Fortunately, one of the blessings of fall is that our crops receive some moisture and sweetness from these early morning frosts and dews. Many weeds are also frost-killed so fields remain gloriously weeded, and we are still planting. We're seeding and planting winter and fall lettuces and spinach as well as our early 2023 spring crops like over-wintered spinach, over-wintered onions, and garlic. If the weather continues to be mild, we'll continue harvesting from the field for at least through November and maybe into December!
Beyond the field, we're getting into fall time family routines, too. After a competitive family touch football game this weekend, we sorted closets and prepared our mud room with warm clothing, plenty of dry layers, winter boots, jackets, and gloves to keep us warm as we work outdoors. 
Each autumn, we enjoy Tyler's delicious pumpkin donuts and stories from his family's fall harvest farm. To add to the fun this year, we're learning more about the diversity of flavors and cooking techniques of tamales from our crew members. We all cherish the routine of cozy warm beverages and warm food for meal times on chilly workdays.

Adding to this, we heard from a few of you that you enjoyed learning more about the team of people who work with us and grow your food. We will be sharing more in an upcoming newsletter. In the meantime, we wanted to thank you for the kind gently-used clothing donations made for Cleto's young niece and nephew that we wrote about in last week's letter. He, and we, are very moved by the care and generosity of this community. 

Thank you for caring about us all!
With that, the harvest routine continues! Given the wonderful weather and repairs we're making on our barn, we will host this week's Grayslake pickup al fresco -- as we periodically do! Grayslake CSA members: Please pick up from the white tents in front of the long white barn.

Enjoy your own late summer routines and the late summer harvest!

Warmly,
~ Jeff, Jen, Owen, Gavin, Arlet, Cleto, David, Yamany
 
Notes from the Farm Kitchen
As is the tradition in late summer, we are including a favorite in fruit shares this week -- Mick Klug's apple cider. The Klug's cider is nothing but apples and UV-treated for safety.

This cider can be enjoyed fresh, heated, mulled, spritzed or spiked as you like! Fruit shares also include a variety of the Klug's apples this week including Honeycrisp, Cortland  and Jonagold varieties.

Honeycrisp are, well, most kids' favorite! They are perfect for eating as you carry your shares to your home. Cortland and Jonagold are both great for eating and since they hold their shape well, they are great for baking as well.

Celery root, also known as celeriac, is a funny-looking but delicious relative of celery. Use a sharp kitchen knife to trim the outside layer from the bulb before chopping it. Because celery root has a mild celery flavor, we use in place of celery, as a roasted vegetable or shredded and combined with apples to make a delicious slaw. The bulb will store for weeks to months in a plastic bag in the refrigerator. 
For many years, we didn't grow delicata winter squash as we noticed that with the increasing moisture levels, the squash would tend to rot in the field. However, we decided to give it another go in the past few years and we're glad we did. We had another great growing season for squash: plenty of sunshine, warm temps and rain-free days. The jester variety of delicata is more oval than the oblong, but can be used in the same ways. Delicata squash have a shorter shelf life than most winter squash, so store in a cool, dry location and enjoy within a month.
Seasonal Recipes in the Farm Kitchen

Green Tomato Salsa Verde

Mulled Hot Apple Cider

Squash Bake with Tahini Sauce - Remember, you can eat the delicata skin, no need to peel!

Celery Root Salad with Lemon & Capers 

Spanakopita Stuffed Peppers - Try using swiss chard in place of spinach in this recipe
 

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