CR
Crop Talk
The Newsletter of Great Country Farms
October 19, 2015: Survey Season

18780 Foggy Bottom Road
Bluemont, VA 20135
Thank you for spending a great CSA season with us! It was our pleasure to farm on your behalf and provide you with fresh, sustainable-grown produce for the past 20 weeks. The farm remains open until November 24, with seasonal items available in the market, and U-picking as long as the apples and pumpkins last. Events include pumpkin chunkin' November 1 through 3, and the Lucky Duck Giant Pumpkin Drop for Boulder Crest Retreat on November 1 at 2:00.


Take the 2015 CSA Survey to 
Help Us Serve You Better

Dear CSA Members,

   We are honored that you chose to be part of our CSA program at GCF, and we thank you for your support of our family farm.  As our next generation begins to come back to work at GCF, Bluemont Vineyard, and Dirt Farm Brewing, we are even more energized about farming here in Loudoun and being your farmers.

We'd be grateful if you could take a couple of minutes to share your thoughts on this year's CSA program. The survey you'll find at this link includes six questions that go to the heart of the CSA experience, and your answers to those questions will help us improve the program next year.  Thank you for asking us to be your farmers in 2015 -- looking forward to another season! 
Sunflower Logo
In This Crop Talk:
This Week in the Farm Market
Apples
Tomatoes
Potatoes
Sweet Potatoes
Pie Pumpkins
Buttercup Squash
Carnival Squash
Delicata Squash
Acorn Squash
Broccoli



UPICK Bonus:
October 20 - 27

6 Cameo apples ~
$4.47 
 
Year to date Upick Bonus Value:
$189.14

2015 Bonus Ticker
What is this?  Each week we offer a bonus u-pick item for members visiting the farm and this ticker  tracks the dollar value of the bonuses.  Many members find that month picking adds a nice extra value to their CSA share. 

October 20 -- 26 

 

 














The CSA season is over, but the growing season continues, despite last night's sub-freezing temperatures. We'll have broccoli available in the market this week -- it loves cold nights and sunny days. Tomatoes, on the other hand, fare poorly in the cold because they contain so much water, so we picked all the remaining tomatoes before the freeze arrived. That means we have a lot of tomatoes available in the market as well. And we'll be picking Cameo apples this week, so come out and stock up.







 
Seasonal Bonus
To celebrate the harvest season, all members receive a jack-o-lantern pumpkin, a neck pumpkin, and a bundle of corn stalks as a one-time bonus. When you take yours home, please put a check mark in the Seasonal Bonus column beside your name.

Remember that we're open through November 24, and member bonuses will continue, so keep watching Crop Talk, and keep coming out to the farm.  
Fall Pumpkin Harvest Festival

   Each of those yellow stars represents one of our celebrity porcine athletes -- Hoglary Clinton, Donhog Trump, Miley Swinerus, Kim Porkdashian, Peyton Hamming, and Tom Boar-ady. These cleft-footed competitors will be racing at 11:00, 1:00, and 3:00 this weekend. Between races, P-Rex, the pumpkin-eating dinosaur, will re-emerge from seasonal extinction to gorge himself on orange globes, and Farmer Bob will be pressing cider on the North Stage, near the marshmallow-roasting pit. The pumpkin patch will be open for U-picking, so come on out and celebrate the season with us!
Featured Recipes


"This pie has an old fashion look and taste to it because I use a fresh pumpkin not pumpkin from the can. I make this recipe myself because I like squash and have always liked the smell of the jack-o-lantern as a child. I have also used an acorn squash. This is for the person who likes to "putter" in the kitchen. Yes, it's time consuming. This recipe will make one pie plus one quart pumpkin custard see directions."

Read more here.
 
 Braised Carnival Squash


   " Personally, I think squash is best all by itself, just cooked plain and served - it's naturally delicious. But since I had a second squash this week, I figured I would do something a little bit different.  I used a carnival squash, although you could substitute butternut with this recipe. The flesh of the squash was much heartier than acorn, almost more like potatoes. If you wanted, you could also puree this recipe with some chicken stock and have a yummy winter squash soup."

Read more here.



Granny Smith apples are the key to this crisp, because their tartness is delicious with the sweet, crunchy oat-flecked crumb topping.

Read more here.