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Greetings from Sweetland

The sun is out! Wait, it’s in… It’s hot! It’s raining… Yes, it’s been a stretch of weird weather lately and we farmers are just trying to keep up! I know the saying goes “if you don’t like the weather in Vermont, just wait a minute” but these swings from 90 degrees to 33 are starting to feel a bit more extreme than we’re used to. 
A hot topic (so to speak) in the sustainable agriculture world is focused on agricultural resilience in the face of a changing climate. At Sweetland, this means planning ahead to mitigate drought and heat with irrigation, floods with drainage, frost with row covers, and wind with extra sand bags on the row cover edges. We are always fine-tuning our crop varieties, and more than ever that is with an eye towards heat-tolerance, bolt-resistance, and disease resistance. 
Farming has always been about working with the vagaries of mother nature. We plant “hail Mary” crops of early corn, gambling on the risk of a late frost against the reward of an early harvest. We cross our fingers against hail when a thunderstorm looms and do rain dances to conjure steady, soaking drizzles. We have weather apps on every device and an eye on the sky all day long. But despite farmers having a near pathological patience with the weather, we are worried. We’ll keep doing our part to swap fossil fuels for renewables in hopes of a longer-term mitigation, and spreading the word through our growing network of supporters to encourage others to do the same. If you haven’t already, check out the carbon reduction pledge we made this winter.

Despite this “weather weirding” we’ve got a great harvest lined up this week. Here’s what’s on tap.

Cheers, The Sweetland Crew

Week 3 harvest, Brimming Basket

• Lettuce, 1 head
• Hakurei turnips, 1 bunch
• Radishes, large bunch
• Scallions, 1 bunch
• Asparagus, 1/2 pound*
• Pea shoots, 1 bag

Week 3 harvest, Half Pint

• Lettuce, 1 head
• Radishes, small bunch
• Mesclun mix, 1/3 pound
• Scallions, small bunch
• Rhubarb, 1/2 pound*

*A note about equitability: From time to time we have quantities of a crop that can’t be divided meaningfully between all our CSA members. (We try not to send anyone home with so tiny of a quantity that it’s not useful for cooking.) In that case, we try to give it out equitably. This is one of those moments; our asparagus and rhubarb patches (both perennials so we can’t quickly increase their scale) are producing at their usual rate. We’ll be rotating around the member list over the next couple weeks to make sure that everyone gets some of each. If you get rhubarb at one pickup you’ll get asparagus at the next, or vice versa. Hope that helps explain our thinking!

Recipes of the Week

• *Well, we can’t grow avocados yet, but the lemony dressing on this spring salad sounds divine with this week’s lettuce and radishes.
• *I love rhubarb oat crisp, and here it is in cookie form!
• *Try any of these 5 ways to use your scallions!

Good morning from Sweetland 

With the hot weather this week we have had a rapid shift in daily farm activity. Just 3 weeks ago we were covering every plant we set in the field to protect it from cold damage, and we still lost a few to frost. Now it’s “off with the row cover!” and keep the irrigation running. Monday night, by the light of headlamps, we put the finishing touches on the irrigation system feeding our new veggie field. I could almost hear the sweet corn’s excitement! And now we are keeping our fingers crossed for a steady, soaking rain.

Our first week of contactless CSA pickups went great, thanks to our amazing farm crew (here they are!) and members readily adjusting to our new system of pre-packed boxes and “drive through service.” We are being extra careful about virus transmission right now, so we are not taking boxes back. We’ve switched from waxed or plastic to “plain” cardboard boxes so that they are recyclable (paper tape is coming!). We will keep you posted as the season unfolds if we are able to start reusing them. In the meantime, they make great recycling containers, weed barrier in your garden, or sleds for sliding down grassy slopes! 

Now on to this week’s harvest. Stay cool out there this week, and enjoy your veggies! 

Cheers, The Sweetland Crew

Week 2 Harvest, Brimming Basket

• Asparagus, 1 pound (we’ll be alternating between asparagus and rhubarb for the next couple weeks, as neither patch is quite big enough to feed everyone every week!)
• Arugula, large bunch
• Radishes, large bunch
• Hakurei salad turnips, large bunch (the “grown up” version of last week’s braising greens. You can still eat from “top to tail”)
• Wild leeks (aka ramps), bunch of 8
• Spinach, 1/3 pound

Week 2 Harvest, Half Pint

• Rhubarb, 1/2 pound (we’ll be alternating between asparagus and rhubarb for the next couple weeks, as neither patch is quite big enough to feed everyone every week!)
• Arugula, small bunch
• Radishes, small bunch
• Hakurei salad turnips, small bunch (the “grown up” version of last week’s braising greens. You can still eat from “top to tail”)
• Wild leeks (aka ramps), bunch of 5
• Tatsoi, 1/3 pound

Recipes of the Week

• *I’ll be honest, I was never a radish fan until I tried roasting them. Now I can’t get enough! Add your hakurei turnips bulbs for a beautiful bi-colored medley.
• *Rhubarb coffee cake was an early summer staple in my house as a kid
• *Grill baby grill! Grilled asparagus salad is the perfect hot-weather way to eat your asparagus and arugula.
• *And since you’ve already got the grill fired up, top your steaks with Ramp Chimichurri Sauce

Good Morning Sweetlanders
Happy Week 1 of the CSA! We’re working hard to make your pickup as safe and efficient as possible; we have new contactless pickup procedures in place to keep you and our staff safe during the pandemic. Thanks for your support during this strange new normal.

When we started Sweetland 8 years ago our goal was to grow delicious and nutritious food for our community while being good stewards to this beautiful piece of farm land. Today, it seems like that that goal has never been so important. Local food makes us a resilient community in the face of adversity, and you can’t grow local food without healthy farm land! 

I recently got a sweet email from a CSA member, who said “There is something timeless and fundamental about Sweetland Farm…Isn’t it magical to be starting another planting season?” So true! As I write, the sun is bathing the leaves of the tomato plants in our greenhouse and washing over the veggie fields. We’ve been seeding, planting, planning and weeding all spring and it’s time to reap what we sowed. We are so excited to share the harvest with you all!

Here’s to a great CSA season!

Cheers, Norah and the Sweetland Farm Crew (Emily, Daley, Sawyer, Bob, Taylor, Steve, Risa, Dan, Chris, Jacob & Kate!)

Now, on to this week’s bounty!

Week 1 Brimming Basket

• 4 pounds parsnips (so sweet after a winter in the ground!)
• Bunch of 12 wild leeks (aka “ramps”)
• 2 bunches tatsoi (a delicate Asian green, great fresh or sauteed)
• 2 bunches spring braising greens 

Week 1 Half Pint

• 2 pounds parsnips (so sweet after a winter in the ground!)
• 1 bunch of 8 wild leeks (aka “ramps”)
• 1 bunch tatsoi (a delicate Asian green, great fresh or sauteed)
• 1 bunch spring braising greens (aka baby Hakurei turnips, cook the whole plant!)

Recipes of the Week

• *Dessert first? You’ll think so if you make these roasted parsnips!
• *Ramps are a spring treat, and we love using them whole, artfully arranged as a pizza topping 🙂
• *I plan on combining my tatsoi and braising greens into one bright green, succulent celebration of spring cooking! 

We’re pleased to have some time this winter to write about something really important. At Sweetland we recently committed to seriously getting our act together on climate change. We’ve vaguely been working on this goal for years – you know swapping to LED light bulbs, sealing air gaps, a few solar panels. But for the first 8 seasons, building the farm into a sustainable business – where sustainable has more of a financial meaning – has occupied the front of our minds. This year we got serious and made a real climate action plan and along with it a pledge: We are pledging to reduce the farm’s fossil carbon emissions by 90% in 10 years.

Yup. 90 in 10. Starting from a 2018 baseline, when we’d already done some cutting. It’s ambitious. Ludicrous even. More ambitious than any other goal we’ve heard any local company or municipality commit to.

But plenty of people told us 8 years ago that starting a new farm was somewhere between ambitious and ludicrous too! And this rate of reduction is just what needs to be done. Factoring in our carbon-sensitive forest- and soil-management practices, the farm will be carbon-negative by 2022 and will sequester about 100 tons of carbon per year by 2028.

We honestly aren’t sure if we can meet our pledge. It’s gonna be hard work and might cost some money. But, when we started scratching our heads about what we needed to do to erase fossil carbon from the farm, things actually started to seem pretty doable. In 8 years since we took over the farm, we’ve remodeled and/or refurbished every building on the property. Why not remake all of our energy systems in the next 10 years? We think we can do it. Read on if you are interested in all the nitty gritty details of our plan for achieving our pledge. The plan will likely evolve as we evaluate costs and feasibility, and as new products become available, but the 90 in 10 pledge is a commitment we expect to be held to. We hope you’ll continue to support us as we make good on this pledge. Also, challenge other businesses you patronize to do the same! Tell them to get serious. Ask them to make and publicize a plan to achieve their 90 in 10 commitment!

Cheers, Sweetland Farm

The Nitty Gritty Details; Sweetland Farm’s 90 in 10 plan

In 2018 (our baseline year) the farm already had a solar thermal system for our domestic hot water, got more than half its heat from wood, super-insulated the farm crew housing, and had about 10.7 kW of solar PV panels operating. Still, we used:

This resulted in a net emissions of 41 tons of CO₂ based on the energy mix supplying the New England Grid in 2017 and carbon contained in these fuels. Our pledge is to eliminate 90% of these emissions in 10 years.

The outline of the plan is simple.

1. Increase efficiency.
2. Replace fossil fuel burning equipment with electric equipment.
3. Install more PV panels on existing roof tops to generate the electricity cleanly.
4. Buy liquid biofuels for infrequently used equipment not worth replacing.

Specifically here is what we plan to do:

2019:   Focus on electricity generation and efficiency. Install 19.4kW of solar PV to make the farm net neutral on electricity draws from the grid. Rooted out old non-LED light bulbs. Even in seldom-used locations. Spray foam air leaks.

2020:   We plan to update the walk in cooler with more insulation and greater efficiency. We’ve applied for a grant to do this and hope we get it! Grants and government programs will be key to achieving this rapid transition and we will take advantage of any program we can. We’ll also replace leaky doors and weather strip our farm house.

2021:   We plan to convert greenhouse space heating from propane to mostly wood. This will enable us to use implement the timber stand improvement practices called for in our forest management plan while utilizing the low-value trees for on-farm heating needs.

2022:   We plan to replace remaining fossil burning heaters with air source heat pumps in our farm crew house and our woodshop. The efficiency gain from our walk in cooler project will make the electricity available from our existing PV. We’ll replace the leaky windows in our house too.

2023:   We plan to replace our fossil-burning cultivating tractors with electric versions, or convert the existing tractors, installing solar panels to meet added electric demand.

2024:   At the end of our current truck’s useful life we plan to replace our delivery truck with an electric vehicle. We sure hope such a device is in reasonable mass production by then! C’mon Elon Musk. You too Toyota. We only need 100 miles of driving range tops! This is possible now!

2025:   We plan to replace our main tractor, the one that runs our heavy implements, with an electric version. This may require more solar panels and a battery storage solution to enable us to store up power while the tractor is in the field working. We sure hope John Deere will have gotten serious about producing electric farm tractors by this time.

2026:   We have a lot of other vehicles and small engines that would not be economical to replace because we use them so infrequently. We plan to switch to biofuels in most remaining liquid fuel combustion engines. We hope a reasonably carbon neutral fuel is widely available by this point – we’ll buy it. Electric irrigation pumps will replace our gas powered pumps and we’ll get an electric lawn mowing tractor.

2027:   That wasn’t so hard – we have a whole year extra to make up for stuff we missed and to wander around the farm hunting down the last fossil burning culprits. We’ll probably remember to do something about the old oil heater in the mechanic shop that runs only a few days a year.

2028:   Year 10! We are basically done burning fossil carbon. Fossil emissions are a few percent of 2018 values: from propane cookstoves, backup greenhouse heat, and a few small engines that require traditional fuel. It will be time to turn our energy to any remaining embodied carbon in the things we buy.

Note that the first 5 years of the plan are all things that we know how to do and should do immediately. We are almost ashamed to admit the reality that it will take us a few years to get them done. If we had the time and money we could knock off the first 5 year list this spring! Later years of the plan require a few advances in equipment availability. We are really hoping that things like electric delivery trucks and large electric tractors make it into mass production by 2024 or so. But all in all, it’s not that painful of a plan and it’s pretty easy to see how we achieve what seems to be an ‘impossible’ pledge. Maybe now that you’ve looked over our pledge and plan, you can make your own!

The fine print. Someone is going to ask about details. Good. On carbon projects details matter! Here’s our details.

1. How we do our accounting for our pledge: Pick up a Sweetland carrot in 2018. Pick up a Sweetland carrot in 2028. Making the second carrot we’ll have emitted 90% less fossil carbon. About what you expected right? This is how we are doing the math too. There’s a reason we do the math this way. We want to continue to be able to grow the business. We want to continue to replace food in your diet that comes from industrial farms far away with low carbon, high nutrition local food that nourishes you, our landscape, and our Vermont traditions. So we make our commitment for a 90% reduction based on a dollar value of our products, properly adjusted for inflation. If we grow more food, hay, lumber, etc. our emissions allowance will grow. The point is we pledge to reduce the fossil carbon intensity of our activity by 90%. The carrot you eat from our farm in 2028 will emit less than 10% of the carbon than the one you ate in 2018 did. Sure using dollars of farm product value is an imprecise way to do this. Pounds of food could work, too, except we grow hay, cut firewood, raise meat, etc. Honestly, we intend to beat the number by enough to not worry about the details. 
2. Off farm, indirect, and embodied emissions: We do include our delivery vehicle emissions, which happen off farm but are within our direct control, in our emissions calculations. We also include emissions of our house and our farm crew house. We don’t include our personal vehicle, partly because we don’t track fuel use in it, but we’ll swap that to electric soon too. We know that the whole of the farm’s emissions really also include emissions embodied in the things we buy. For example, the seed supply company also has carbon emissions and so does the FedEx truck delivering packages. Our spending made both of these entities emit more carbon. These indirect emissions are a bit harder to quantify, but likely are 30-50% of our overall emissions. Sorry, they are not part of the 90 in 10 pledge. I know – sounds like a cop out. We are still going to work hard on reducing them though! If we figure out how to handle this better, we may codify it into some more specific pledge in the future. Right now we don’t even really have the tools to calculate the embodied carbon in everything we bought in 2018 to track against. What we will do is reduce our use of products that embody large amounts of carbon emissions, and seek to get our supplies from companies that offer the least emissive alternative. This will create demand signals for our supply companies to take their own emission reduction pledges.
3. Non-fossil Carbon – We also burn 8-12 cords of wood per year, and have a brush and waste wood bonfire each year to clean the place up. Combined, these emit something like 15-20 tons of carbon. The brush is usually short rotation – stuff that grew in the last 10 years. We’re willing to call that net-zero since it the sequestration and emission is over a very short time frame. The firewood is from older trees, and has been stored longer so there is a short term release of carbon. Still, in aggregate, our forest has grown substantially in biomass since we have owned the farm and is significantly net-sequestering. We are not promising to maximize forest sequestration right now. One major concern with carbon offsetting programs that we’re watching carefully is that they may cause poor forest management if they prohibit the short term carbon releases too strictly. Short term carbon release is often needed for responsible long term forest stewardship and soundly managed biomass energy is a piece in the climate puzzle. Our forest management case is particularly challenging. Due to heavy cutting before we owned it, our forest is young but also stocked with a lot of poorly formed larger trees. Proper silviculture will have us slowly removing the larger poorly formed trees and thinning the crop of young regrowth that started in the late 1990’s. The strategy can be carbon sensitive, but requires we do make some emissions as we clear out malformed trees to produce valuable long rotation saw timber growth (and ultimately a higher long term carbon sequestration). Along the way to a steady state of maturity, we expect that our 150 acres of young forest will sequester a couple thousand tons more carbon. We may slow the rate of sequestration some in the near term to achieve these longer term goals and meet our biomass energy needs. Similarly, our soils have also increased in organic matter and will continue to do so as we bring in more aggressive cover-cropping rotations, which also conserve nutrients in our soil. Someday we may actually set specific carbon sequestration goals and/or sell our sequestration capacity. For now, we simply pledge to manage our forest and fields in a state of overall net sequestration as much as possible.
4. Load Matching: Our plan assumes that as our electric demand grows with reduced reliance on liquid fossil fuels, we can just install more PV panels and net meter our electricity to meet the needs of our increasingly electrified farm. We recognize that as solar provides more and more of our energy on the grid, matching demand to availability will increasingly be an issue for the utility. Luckily the farm’s demand curve (higher in summer and particularly on hot, sunny days when refrigeration needs and tractor power needs are highest) matches well with solar generation. For some activities, however, we will probably have to increasingly consider load dispatching and load matching in later years of our plan. We are aware of the issue but don’t feel much planning can be done right now. We will cross the demand dispatching bridge when the time comes.

That’s all there is to it. We’re ready to start! Are you?!?

It’s been a long season of bounty, from the first delicate mesclun leaves you took home in May through mid-summer cucumber madness and on the the sweet potato finish line! Thanks for being part of our CSA this season and feeding your family with local, sustainable sustenance. Come celebrate a successful season with us this Saturday 2-4 pm at our Sweetland Harvest Festival. We’ll have pumpkin carrot cake to snack on by the camp fire and the last of our apples to press into cider. Wear your costume and be in the Harvest Festival Photo at 3pm!

And don’t forget to limber up for the hay bale tossing competition at 3:15. Winner gets unlimited invitations to 2020 hay days! Smaller Sweetlanders can practice their tossing skills on the corn hole court. Our goal when we started Sweetland was to feed our neighbors, be stewards to our land, and bring our community together through healthy food and honest work.

Together with our amazing crew and our extended community of CSA members, 2019 has felt like a true realization of that goal. While we’re excited for a few months of rest and rejuvenation, we’re already brainstorming how to make next season even more fun, bountiful, and sustainable. Many, many thanks to all of you for being part of this mission to make the world a better place through small-scale farming. If we don’t see you at the Harvest Festival or the Holiday CSA (still a few spots left!), we’ll see you in the spring!

Cheers, Norah and the Sweetland Crew

Week 24 Harvest, Brimming Basket

• Winter squash, 2
• Sweet potatoes, 1.5 pounds (plus LOTS of free seconds in the back room!)
• Onions, 3 pounds
• Carrots, 3 pounds
• Rutabaga, 1 pound
• Brussels sprouts, 1 stalk
• Celeriac, 2 bulbs
• Kale, 1 bunch
• Garlic, 2 heads
• Kohl Rabi, 2 bulbs

Week 24 Harvest, Half Pint

• Winter squash, 2
• Sweet potatoes, 1.5 pounds (plus LOTS of free seconds in the back room!)
• Onions, 2 pounds
• Carrots, 2 pounds
• Rutabaga, 1 pound
• Brussels sprouts, 1 stalk
• Celeriac, 1 bulb
• Kale, 1 bunch
• Garlic, 1 head

Recipes of the Week

• I’m planning to use my acorn squash, carrots, rutabaga and onions in a variation on this Shepherd’s Pie
• If you haven’t tried pan seared brussels sprouts you must!
• You’ve all had sweet potato fries, now add Garlic & Herb Celeriac Fries to the list!

While spring cleaning is the norm in most households, at the farm our cleaning season comes in the fall. As the days shorten and the work load slows down we are starting to put the farm to bed. In the field we are plowing under each crop after its final harvest and planting oats or winter rye as a “green manure” cover crop to sop up any extra nutrients and prevent erosion over the winter. We’ve rolled up the electric chicken fence for the season and will soon do the same with the pig fence. (The pigs are “off to greener pastures” this week after a summer of making good use of our vegetable scraps and tilling up a new garden patch in our own green pasture.) 

Fall cleanup also involves an overhaul of our tools and equipment, as we clean, grease and repair each implement before storing it in the barn for winter. It’s satisfying to take stock and put each farm tool in its place after a busy season of grab-and-go use. From hand tools to tractors, we want everything put away clean and functioning so that next spring we will be ready to start a fresh season with smooth fields, orderly tools and re-stocked supplies. I love that as we pressure wash the chaff off the haying equipment, repair frayed fencing, or sharpen the edge of a scuffle hoe, we are getting ready for a quiet winter while at the same time looking ahead to another busy spring! But we’re still harvesting as cleanup begins! Here’s what’s in store this week.

Cheers, Norah and the Sweetland Crew

Week 23 Harvest, Brimming Basket

• Sweet potatoes, 3 pounds
• Purple Carrots, 2 pounds
• Butternut squash, 1 large
• Kohl rabi, 2
• Asian greens, 2 bunches
• Rainbow chard, large bunch
• Onions, 2 pounds
• Watermelon radishes, large bunch
• Green tomatoes, 2 pounds

Week 23 Harvest, Half Pint

• Sweet potatoes, 2 pounds
• Purple Carrots, 1 pound
• Butternut squash, 1 small
• Kohl rabi, 1
• Asian greens, 1 bunch
• Rainbow chard, small bunch
• Onions, 1 pound
• Watermelon radishes, small bunch
• Green tomatoes, 1 pound

Recipes of the Week

• I’m planning on getting a bit creative and using my butternut squash and rainbow chard in this recipe for Stuffed Roasted Delicata Squash
• One last hurrah of tomato season: Green Tomato Mincemeat Pie or Fried Green Tomatoes
•  Don’t toss those radish greens! Cheezy Greens & Artichoke Dip
• Perfect for fall: Sweet Potato Carrot Soup

With over 100 types and varieties of vegetables growing in our fields over the course of the season, we know that each year some will really thrive, many will produce an average harvest, and a few might come up short. On a dry year the melons might be particularly sweet while the lettuce is bitter. An infestation of flea beetles might wipe out the arugula while the peppers in the next bed are unaffected. A newly learned growing technique could result in feast or failure. We learn new lessons about each crop every season, and bank on the fact that our extreme diversity will result in a well-rounded harvest no matter what.

This week we had an example of each end of the spectrum of productivity in our harvest. On the down side, after modifying the planting date of our pumpkins in an attempt to have them ripen closer to Halloween than they have in years past, we learned that we swung the pendulum too far and planted them too late. The result: total crop failure. We tilled under the beds after harvesting the few small pumpkins that had managed to ripen. Lesson learned. We were feeling pretty sad until the next day when we went out to harvest the sweet potatoes. Planted on black plastic to warm the soil and allowed to vine out over the neighboring beds, the plants thrived and we harvested 3,000 pounds of potatoes!!! We’ll take it! This was such a perfect back-to-back example of why we have chosen not to depend solely on any one crop, and why we are grateful for the flexibility of our CSA members to join us as we roll with each season’s punches and bounties.
Still a great harvest in store this week, and we’ll be happy to decorate our stoop with a pumpkin from another local grower this year.

Cheers, Norah and the Sweetland Crew

Week 22 Harvest, Brimming Basket

• Winter squash, 1 large (blue hubbard, kabocha, or red kuri)
• Sweet potatoes, 3 pounds
• Shallots, 0.5 pounds
• Garlic, 2 heads
• Carrots, 2 pounds
• Spinach, 0.6 pounds
• Brussels sprouts, 2 stalks
• Tomatoes, 3
• Pepper, 1 large

Week 22 Harvest, Half Pint

• Winter squash, 1 small (blue hubbard, kabocha, or red kuri)
• Sweet potatoes, 2 pounds
• Shallots, 0.5 pounds
• Garlic, 1 head
• Carrots, 1 pound
• Spinach, 0.3 pounds
• Brussels sprouts, 1 stalk
• Tomatoes, 2
• Pepper, 1 small

Recipes of the Week

• I plan on adding my squash, spinach, pepper and shallots to this thai pumpkin curry recipe (would be great with any of the squash varieties this week)
• I can’t decide if I’ll make sweet potato fries or sweet potato enchilladas…
• But I WILL be making these garlic brown butter roasted carrots and brussels sprouts!

We all know that Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers, but did you know that his picking spree was in anticipation of a hard frost?!?

Last Friday afternoon the farm crew picked several pecks of peppers, both sweet and hot, stripping the plants of their hot-weather-loving fruits to save them from freezing in the imminent cold. When we woke up Saturday morning to the fields covered in a thick layer of dazzling frost we were glad we had! Though the dahlias sparkled beautifully in the first rays of sun, as soon as they had thawed they turned brown and wilted. We were happy we had seen so many beautiful end of season bouquets harvested last week. The farm will start to look a bit different now, with summer crops being plowed under to return their nutrients to the soil, but there are plenty of cold-tolerant cold crops that are still growing quite happily in the fields.

Don’t hesitate to pick an extra bunch of herbs and hang them to dry in your kitchen for use this winter. The brassica family also loves the cooler weather, and the kale will start to sweeten up with the frost. And of course the root crops, tucked in their underground beds, will be just as cozy as ever as the temperature drops. In other words, though the jungle of summer is over, there’s still plenty to eat out there! Here’s what’s in store this week.

Cheers, Norah and the Sweetland Crew

Week 21 Harvest, Brimming Basket

• Sweet peppers, 5 large or 10 small
• Hot peppers, 8
• Purple carrots, 2 pounds
• Purple kohl rabi, 3
• Beets, 1 pound
• Kale, large bunch
• Delicata squash, 3
• Apples, .5 pound
• Onions, 2 pounds
• Tomatoes, 3

Week 21 Harvest, Half Pint

• Sweet peppers, 3 large or 6 small
• Hot peppers, 4
• Purple carrots, 1 pound
• Purple kohl rabi, 2
• Kale, small bunch
• Delicata squash, 2
• Apples, .5 pound
• Onions, 1 pound
• Tomatoes, 2

Recipes of the Week

• I was excited to find this Super Easy Hot Pepper Jelly recipe that doesn’t require canning!
• Just because it’s not Thanksgiving yet doesn’t mean you can’t stuff things! Fire up the oven for stuffed peppers and stuffed kohl rabi
• We’ll be digging the sweet potatoes next week, but in the mean time I plan to use my delicata, purple carrots, beets and onions in this Roasted Root Vegetables recipe

October is here, and with it comes Cooking Season! Farm work has a way of filling all available daylight hours, and mid-summer that means that dinner is a late and hasty affair. But as the days shorten and we are chased inside by dusk earlier and earlier, with time to assemble the week’s harvest and peruse related recipes, I find both comfort and inspiration in the kitchen. Both are welcome after a summer of hard work!

On the comfort side of things are the recipes that have been handed down through the family. I hardly have to glance at my mom’s loopy handwriting outlining the steps for potato leek soup, and sitting down with a steaming bowl of it brings me back to her kitchen in an instant. The little booklet of recipes that she diligently copied down at the elbow of her grandmother tells me she valued the same sense of comfort through cooking. When I am feeling bold and creative I head for the overloaded shelf of cookbooks that I’ve acquired over the years. From old standbys like the Moosewood to the glossy pages of Vegetable Literacy I gather new tips, tricks and ingredient ideas to add to my repertoire.

Cooking a new recipe scratches the itch of adventure and life-long-learning for me. And who can complain about an adventure that ends in a gathering of friends and family around a laden kitchen table?!?
So, here’s what we’ll be cooking with this week from the Sweetland fields.

Cheers, Norah and the Sweetland Crew

Week 20 Harvest, Brimming Basket

• Lettuce, 1 head
• Leafy greens, 2 bunches
• Leeks, 3
• Potatoes, 2.5 pounds
• Celeriac, 1 large bulb
• Apples, 2 pounds
• Peppers, 2
• Tomatoes, 3

Week 20 Harvest, Half Pint

• Lettuce, 1 head
• Leafy greens, 1 bunch
• Leeks, 2
• Potatoes, 1.25 pounds
• Celeriac, 1 small bulb
• Apples, 1 pound
• Peppers, 1
• Tomatoes, 2

Recipes of the Week

• Leafy Greens: This mix of baby mizuna, kale and red cabbage can be eaten fresh or cooked. Try using them in Baby Kale Salad with Roasted Chickpeas or Suateed Baby Kale
• Celeriac: A lesser-known vegetable that is one of my favorites! Trim/peel off the rough outer skin and dice the creamy white flesh of the root into soups, stir-fries and casseroles for a hearty celery/parsley flavor. You can also use the stems diced in to soups and the leaves as a flavorful garnish! I plan to warm up with a bowl of Celeriac Potato Leek Soup.
• On my list of new recipes to try this week is Fresh Apple Salsa. Frost is coming and the hot peppers in PYO aren’t long for this world!