Fall Week 5 (of 6)                Geauga Family Farms CSA                            Nov. 30, 2017             

The Fair Share     

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Shop local!
Welcome to Week 5 of the Fall CSA season! 

We hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving surrounded by family and friends and lots of good food. As we put away our fall decor and use what were decorative pumpkins to make pies, we are thinking of the upcoming season of giving. 

We have included in this week's newsletter our annual local gift-giving guide for ideas of ways to keep your dollars in Northeast Ohio. These ideas are for our partners who so willingly provide us a place for our members to pick up their shares all season.

We can't think of a better gift than the gift of fresh produce! Add Geauga Family Farms Summer 2018 shares to your holiday gift list. They'll fit perfectly under your tree.

Warmly,
Laura Dalheim

~ with Rachel Machesky and the farmers and famili es of Geauga Family Farms
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In this week's shares
Look for some of these items in your share this week.

Apples, shallots, micro-greens, candy onions, storage onions, sweet potatoes, acorn squash, colored bell peppers and kale.

NOTE: You will not receive all of the types of produce listed above. This is a list of possible items. Different size shares and shares received at different times of the week may include different items.
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Available in our farm store this week
The list is getting shorter, but there are still a few goodies to stock up on for the winter to keep the taste of local food fresh in your mind, and on your taste buds!

Acorn squash - $3.50/each
Butternut squash - $2/each
Storage onions, red & white - $1.50/each; $5/5 lb. bag; $8/10 lb. bag
Sweet Potatoes - $3.50/2-lb. bag
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Jam sale
The below jam flavors are on sale while they last, p int sizes only. They are $4 each. Find them in our farm store here.

Strawberry rhubarb
Elderberry
Blackberry w/seeds
Blackberry - no seeds
Red raspberry w/seeds
Black raspberry w/seeds
Pumpkin butter
Apple butter
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Local gift guide
Looking for a locally themed gift for the locavore in your life? Here are some great ideas.

Food:
Geauga Family Farms - A share for the 2018 Summer Season is the ultimate gift for the locavore in your life. Keep an eye on your inbox for an early-bird sign-up announcement in the next few days. 

Middlefield Original Cheese Co-op - Local cheeses, meats, jams, noodles and more. This is a great spot for delicious local gifts in the heart of Amish Country.

Mustard Seed Market & CafĂ© - This family-owned, local retailer of natural and organic products has been providing natural and organic foods along with education and information on food issues and the environment since 1981. 

Sports:
Hill's Family Karate - Instead of more stuff, treat your family to the health benefits of classes at Hill's Family Karate in Mentor. 

Greenhouse:
Lowe's Greenhouse, Florist & Gift Shop - This is the perfect local spot for great decorations, plants and holiday surprises. Check their website for fun events during the holiday season and beyond.

Restaurant:
Market Cafe and Wine Bar - Give the gift of a locally sourced lunch or dinner to your favorite downtown resident or co-worker. 
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Recipes
We include recipes each week using the items in your share. While we always find great recipes to share, we'd love for you to send us your favorite recipes as well. We will include them in the next newsletter. Please e-mail them to LDalheim@geaugafamilyfarms.org.

Leftover Turkey Soup
If you haven't made this already, I hope you've frozen your turkey carcass and it's just waiting in your freezer for you to take it out and make this wonderful after-Thanksgiving treat.
For the stock:
1 turkey carcass, including any leftover drippings or giblets 
Cold water
1 medium to large yellow onion, quartered or cut into thick wedges
1 to 2 carrots, roughly chopped
Several sprigs of fresh parsley
1 bay leaf
1 celery rib (roughly chopped) and some celery tops
5 to 10 peppercorns
Salt and p epper
For the soup:
1 to 1 1/2 cups each, chopped carrots, onion and celery
A few sprigs of fresh parsley, leaves chopped (2 to 4 Tbsps.)
A couple cloves garlic, minced
Seasoning  - a couple teaspoons or more of poultry seasoning, oregano, rosemary (to taste) 
2 cups or more of leftover chopped or shredded cooked turkey meat
Salt and pepper to taste
Egg noodles or rice
Making the stock
Remove all the usable turkey meat from the turkey carcass to save for making sandwiches later and for adding to the soup once the stock is made. Put the turkey carcass, neck, leftover skin and bones and drippings in large pot and cover with water. 
Add onion, carrots, celery and celery tops, parsley, bay leaf and some peppercorns to the pot.
Bring to a boil on high heat and then lower the heat to keep the stock to a bare simmer. Add salt and pepper to the pot, about 1 tsp. of salt, 1/2 tsp. of ground black pepper and cook for at least 4 hours, partially uncovered, occasionally skimming off any foam that comes to the surface. Strain the stock through a fine mesh sieve or strainer. 
Making the soup
In a large soup pot, heat butter or olive oil on medium high heat. Add chopped carrots, onions, and celery in equal parts. Cook until the onions are softened. Add a couple cloves of garlic, chopped, and cook for a minute more, until the garlic is fragrant. Then add the stock to the pot. Add some parsley and seasoning-salt, pepper, poultry seasoning, sage, thyme, marjoram.
Bring to a simmer and cook until the vegetables are just cooked through. Add turkey meat, noodles: Add rice, noodles, or even leftover mashed potatoes.
Take the remaining turkey meat you reserved earlier, shred it into bite-sized pieces and add it to the soup.  Add salt and pepper to taste and serve.
Recipe adapted from SimplyRecipes.com

Rustic Cabbage Soup
Serves 4 
1 Tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil
Salt to taste
1/2 pound potatoes, skin on, cut 1/4-inch pieces
4 cloves garlic, chopped
1/2 large yellow onion, thinly sliced
5 cups stock 
1 1/2 cups white beans, precooked or canned (drained & rinsed well)
1/2 medium cabbage, cored and sliced into 1/4-inch ribbons
More good-quality extra-virgin olive oil for drizzling
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese, freshly grated
Warm the olive oil in a large thick-bottomed pot over medium-high heat. Stir in the salt and potatoes. Cover and cook until they are a bit tender and starting to brown a bit, about 5 minutes - it's o.k. to uncover to stir a couple times. Stir in the garlic and onion and cook for another minute or two. Add the stock and the beans and bring the pot to a simmer. Stir in the cabbage and cook for a couple more minutes, until the cabbage softens up a bit. Now adjust the seasoning - getting the seasoning right is important or your soup will taste flat and uninteresting. Taste and add more salt if needed, the amount of salt you will need to add will depend on how salty your stock is (varying widely between brands, homemade, etc.)... Serve drizzled with a bit of olive oil and a generous dusting of cheese.
Recipe from www.101cookbooks.com

Kale and Apple Salad
3 Tbsps. fresh lemon juice 
2 Tbsps. extra-virgin olive oil 
Salt 
1 bunch kale, ribs removed, leaves very thinly sliced 
1/4 cup dates 
1 apple 
1/4 cup slivered almonds, toasted 
1 ounce pecorino, finely grated (1/4 cup) 
Freshly ground black pepper 
Whisk together the lemon juice, olive oil and 1/4 tsp. salt in a large bowl. Add the kale, toss to coat and let stand 10 minutes. 
While the kale stands, cut the dates into thin slivers and the apple into thin matchsticks. Add the dates, apples, almonds and cheese to the kale. Season with salt and pepper and toss well. 
Recipe from FoodNetwork.com
 
Baked Sweet Potatoes
Scrub and thoroughly dry sweet potatoes. Pierce with a fork several times. Rub with a little bit of vegetable oil and bake in a 400 degree oven for 45 minutes. Do not wrap in foil.  Try topping your sweet potato with cinnamon and coconut milk, or butter and crunchy pecans.
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Local food, farming, environment in the news
We have so many things we'd like to share with you regarding the local food movement, what is affecting the food you eat and the world around us, and much, much more, but we don't want to make our newsletter any
longer. So, we include links to articles you may find interesting. Here are a few. If you run across any articles you find interesting and think other members would be interested in reading, feel free to send us the link for inclusion in an upcoming newsletter.
 
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CONTACT US
(Between the regular business hours of 9 a.m. - 5 p.m. Monday - Saturday ONLY PLEASE!)
 
Farm Representatives

Laura Dalheim, 440-478-9849, LDalheim@GeaugaFamilyFarms.org  

Geauga Family Farms, Middlefield, Ohio 44062