Circle M Farm

Yuck! What a dismal ending to the growing year. We’ve spent this week slogging through some very messy fields to bring in the last of the crops. You always wish your final days in the garden could be balmy and warm, but they rarely are. You imagine yourself triumphantly plucking great beautiful brightly colored beets like jewels out of the black dirt, but you generally get to bring in some cold muddy lumps that only reveal their beauty with a firm scrubbing. The great thing about a rainy cold fall is that it makes you wish for snow! And that is just where our thoughts are turning. How much fun would it be to cook up a hearty Potato Leek Soup with Pumpkin Pie for dessert while watching clean white snow cover up the mucky driveway? I guess there will be plenty of time for that sort of fun soon. Here’s what else is in your final box:

Arugula – So pretty and bright after the frost! These are like a touch of spring in our lower garden – such a very welcome sight right now. Combine with radishes for a strong autumn salad, but save some for a special treat: chops and scatter on top of a pizza, then bake and find how amazing and crispy these are to eat!
Potatoes – These tasty storage potatoes will be great now, with leeks in soup, or saved for a chilly day in the winter.
Leeks - We thought these would beef up and be bigger, but the summer just wasn’t warm enough. These are delicious, though, and will cook up faster than the baseball bats we anticipated.
Brussels Sprouts – You love ‘em or you hate ‘em. We sure hope you love ‘em! We do! I am always so excited for the first frost as we cut the brussels sprouts stalks immediately after. The freeze turns more of their cell structures to sugar, and the taste improves. You’ve each received a whole plant! I had to cut most of them in half, and some in thirds to fit in the boxes. If you can fit the whole stalk in the fridge, go ahead and store it in there until you are ready to eat it. Otherwise, pop or cut each little cabbage off and store them in a plastic bag in the fridge. We rinse, peel and blanch these for a few minutes in boiling water, and then saute in garlic and butter. Sublime!
Hon Tsai Tai - This Asian cooking green is meant to be sauteed whole, with it’s pretty yellow flowers and lovely purple stalks. But the end of summer was too cold to produce many flowers, so we’ve been chopping these and eating them like collards, or other cooking greens. We were surprised that these turned out so amazingly pretty after the frost, which really did a number on other crops we think of as cold-hardy, like kale and collards.
Salad Turnips – Yummm! Nice raw, or in a soup.
Radishes – You’ve got red French Breakfast and big Chinese White Winter. The white ones are stronger, and could grow to be nearly nine inches long! Shred them into a salad, or enjoy in generous slices.
Celeriac or Celery Root – This is a relative of celery, selected for the knobby roots it produces. Peel and use in soups, just like celery. Also delicious in cheesy au-gratin with potatoes. Or try Deborah Madison’s fabulous salad with apples below.
Pumpkin - These small round pumpkins are sugar pumpkins, sweet and dense and perfect for pies.
Kale and Collards - We hoped to have a lot of these at the end of the season, but really there wasn’t much left after the hard frost. Chop or ribbon these into hearty soups (add to the simple Potato Leek recipe below) or saute with garlic for a rich side to pork chops. These greens are the healthiest we can offer you besides nettles!
Onions – One golden Frontier, one yellow Cippollini and one Red Shallot. So pretty! And tasty, too.
Sage – You’ll want to dry this and save it for your Thanksgiving turkey (which we hope you’ll purchase from us!) or stuffing.
Bittersweet Bouquet – A dear friend brought me a bouquet of these this week when I was sick. They brought the lovely cheerful colors of fall into the house. Then she told me her secret place to cut them off a broken-down field fence! I was given permission to share them with you, so I ran out and got them when I felt better. These grow wild all over the hillsides and fences of our farms out here, and if you look carefully while you drive you can see them brightening up the brown landscape. “BitterSweet” is a good name for this good-bye bouquet for you. We’ve so enjoyed growing and eating with you this year! Thanks for your support of our little farm!

Potato Leek Soup
This basic recipe from Joy of Cooking is my favorite starting point, but I generally embellish it a bit. This week we added celeriac, because we had it, and the next time we’ll probably add chopped kale. My kid’s friends find it a bit too plain and add shredded cheddar on top when they are visiting.

3 Tbsp butter
6 medium leeks, chopped
1 1/4 lbs potatoes, peeled and thinly sliced (I don’t peel them unless I’m using russets, but the reds you received this week don’t need peeling)
6 cups chicken or vegetable stock, or water

Melt butter in a soup pot over low heat and cook leeks until tender, but not browned (about 20 min). Stir in potatoes and stock. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer until potatoes are soft, about 30 min. Puree until smooth (I just use a potato masher and do a partial job, because I like some chunks of potato). For a finer texture, push through a siever (or use a mixing wand). Season with salt and pepper to taste. I also add some heavy cream before serving.

Celery Root and Apple Salad
This unusual fall salad is from Deborah Madison’s Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone.

1 lg or several smaller celery roots
1 lg Granny Smith apple, cored and sliced into slivers

Make the vinaigrette. Thickly peel the celery root, then slice into 1/8 inch thick rounds. Then stack the rounds and julienne into long thin strips. Drop the celery root into a pot of boiling salted water for 1 minute. Don’t wait for the boil to return when you time, or the celery root will be overcooked. Drain, rinse with cold water and pat dry. Toss with the apple slices and vinaigrette. A nice variation is to use walnut oil instead of olive oil in the vinaigrette and toss with a half cup of chopped toasted walnuts.

Mustard Vinaigrette

2 Tbsp aged red wine vinegar, sherry vinegar or lemon juice
2 shallots, finely diced
1 garlic clove
Salt and pepper
1 Tbsp Dijon mustard
2 Tbsp creme fraiche or sour cream
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
2 Tbsp snipped chives
1 Tbsp chopped parsley
3 Tbsp capers, rinsed.

Combine the vinegar, shallots, garlic and 1/4 tablespoon salt in a small bowl. Let stand for 15 minutes, then vigorously whisk in the mustard, creme fraiche and oil until thick and smooth. Grind in a little pepper, then stir in the herbs and capers.

Try this Peanut Marinated Flank Steak with Hon Tsai Tai from Harmony Valley CSA. Delicious!