So we have a few items in the CSA this week that I think most of our members will find a bit unusual. For Heather and I, they are also new… the watermelon radish and the Asian red noodle bean. The watermelon radish we actually tried growing a couple years ago and we had a crop failure so we shelved that idea until I noticed that it was really getting rave reviews and decided to try it again this year. To my delight, we have success! I only tried them raw so far, but interestingly enough I found that the red centers of the radish are much more sweeter then the light green outer flesh is. I can’t wait to try these out roasted or in a salad.
The red noodle bean I sort of threw in the ground on a whim back in July. It was rather late in the year to get these started but I had a small pack of seeds and wanted to test them out this year before committing to a larger planting of them. We just started picking them and there are a lot of small immature ones hanging so hopefully we get a decent harvest yet before the frost hits. Again, I only tried these raw. A very unusual taste all its own. I can’t wait to try these in a stir fry. Let us know what you think!
The broccoli harvest this fall looks like it will be our farms best ever. We also have a bumper crop of red beets that we just started to harvest and they should last for a few more weeks! The sweet potato crop, while not very plentiful thanks to the deer, should last a week maybe two between all our members. And although our “taste of the south” okra crop is pretty much done with for the year, the collard greens are just starting to size up and we’ll some in the share this week for everyone to enjoy or according to folklore you can place one of the fresh cut leaves on your forehead if you want to relieve a headache!
Here’s to a headache free month!
Greg