2022 – Fall Week 4 Newsletter

*This is box #4 of our Fall Share, our final delivery is in 2 weeks on Dec. 15th

*Our 5 bi-weekly Winter Share begins on Thursday, January 5th – I hope that you can join us!!

*Beets are an organic Chioggia that are very pretty on the inside with excellent flavor

*Greens mix includes a leaf lettuce, asian greens, and spinach

*Napa is more leaf than solid head but perfect for salads or stir fry

*Kale and collards have definitely survived some cold temperatures in the field and thus are loaded with phytochemicals

*This is the last delivery of lettuces, collards, and red radishes for this season

*Our herb this week is a farmer’s choice of thyme, sage, or savory

*We hope that you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday!

Here on the farm I often feel that our crops do not look as big or as ‘perfect’ as one sees in the grocery store.  This is mainly a good thing as we do not use lots of chemicals for bugs, weeds, fungi, or after-harvest agents for looks or preservation.  We do not have a sophisticated irrigation setup.  I have always had the mindset that some stress on a plant may make it stronger and more able to produce a crop higher in nutrient value.  Recently I read about the idea of phytohormesis in plants.

Phyto means plants. Hormesis refers to a low level stress that is ultimately beneficial to an organism (like exercise, or xxx,). Plants, with many more genes than animals, are able to produce an enormous variety of phytochemicals in response to environmental stressors to help them survive. These plant metabolites, including resveratrol, quercetin, curcumin and many yet unnamed by science, are thought to have very positive effects on human health. Organically grown vegetables consistently show more variety and higher levels of these nutrients than conventionally grown produce.

~Farmer Norm~

With root vegetables on the mind, it is a nice surprise to see greens in your box this week. For that reason we are featuring collard greens as the crop of the week. Collards are a loose leaf cultivar of the brassica oleracea group, the same species of many common vegetables like cabbage and broccoli. The word collard originates from the medieval word colewort which is a term for non heading brassica crops. Collards are incredibly popular in Africa, the Southern United States, and in Brazil.

Collards, like any dark green, are rich in vitamins A, K, C, and B6. They are generally a low calorie food, often paired with meats or a salty dish to counteract its natural bitterness. Most recipes you find online for Collard Greens will have you saute or slow cook them with meat, usually smoked. As the months get colder and harsher, we try our best to give y’all a variety of crops in each box. I hope you enjoy this week’s selection.

-Farmer Dylan