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📷 2019 Growing Season in Photos & The Final Week of Fall

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📷 2019 Growing Season in Photos & The Final Week of Fall
This Week's Fall Vegetable Harvest:
  • Carrots & Parsnips
  • Asian Spinach
  • Mixed Roots Bag (Beets, Rutabaga, Celery Root & Scarlet Turnips)
  • Shallots
  • Sweet Potatoes - from PrairiErth Farm, Atlanta, IL
  • 'Cameo' Apples - from Mick Klug Farm, St. Joseph, MI
  • Cranberries - from Mick Klug Farm, St. Joseph, MI
  • Pie Pumpkin - from Big Patch Farm's Amish Community Growers, Platteville, WI
Farm Photo Journal
As the outdoor growing season wraps up, we want to again express our gratitude to our farm share members. There's nothing more fulfilling than sharing our harvest with you! To celebrate the growing season, here's a photo journal of the farming year. 
February
Starting a seed in the greenhouse symbolizes the first act of faith we take in the growing season. We kick off the spring by placing seeds into soil that (weather willing) grow into your food.
March
New chickens arrive, new crew members arrive and fellow farmers visit to learn and lend a hand planting the first hoophouse crops of spring.
April
We accomplish the first (chilly!) field plantings outdoors, while greens thrive indoors. The farm crew arrives and together, we bring in the first spring harvest.
May
After a late April snowstorm takes some early crops, our experimentation continues across the farm. A successful hoophouse cucumbers experiment allows us to learn more about this crop's indoor needs and provides members with another early sweet flavor to add to spring meals. Food forest trees, shrubs and understory plants arrive, ready for planting.
June
The stormy, wet harvests allow for bountiful market baskets and beautiful, healthy spring food creations in the kitchen.
July
Warm temperatures arrive, tomatoes to ripen and Pizza Nights on the Farm to gather our community from near and far to enjoy the cooler evening sunset.
August
Sunshine comes in many forms. Yellow swallowtails greet us in the field and Abbey and Arlet shine brightly as they present the result of their hard work -- the weekly farm share!
September
Despite fields filled with water causing challenges with our broccoli crop, precious jewel-colored tomatoes still stream from the field. 
October
With an eye towards the future, we invest in our fourth hoophouse and begin to prepare the hoophouse soil for 2020 crops. We celebrate a bittersweet end of our 7th Oak Park Farmers' Market season.
November
The hoophouses are filled with greens to share this winter and we prepare the food forest for winter. Thanks to the generous donors to our crowd-funding campaign, we met our goal! We purchased tree protectors for our food forest trees and our crew and volunteers installed many of these protections last Friday. We celebrated the hard work with a good old fashioned snowball fight and group cartwheel.

Thank you for joining us in this journey of seasonal growing and eating. We wish you and your family a healthy Thanksgiving feast!

Your farmers,
The Miller Family and the farm crew (Tyler, Abbey, Mark, Arlet, Karolina, Scott, Peter, Andromeda, Danielle, Jacob, Kathryn)
 
2020 Prairie Wind Farm Share Registration Open
Please join us for the 2020 growing season!

We're grateful for your support and to show our gratitude, we are again offering discounts for our renewing members:
  • Save 5%.  The 5% discount is available to all members through December 25th and can be applied to the Spring/Summer/Fall Vegetable Package Share and/or the Summer Fruit Package Share. Please use discount code renew at checkout.
  • NEW! Save 3%. We value your help to share us with your friends and family! The 3% discount is available to your friends and family through December 25th and can be applied to the Spring/Summer/Fall Vegetable Package Share and/or the Summer Fruit Package Share. They can use the discount code friends at checkout.
Sharing food with our community is at the heart of our farm. Your membership and support makes this possible. Thank you for making us your farm! 
Notes from the Farm Kitchen
This week's share includes a tender Asian Spinach, also known as tatsoi. You may be familiar with baby tatsoi, as its mild mustard flavor often appears in salad mixes. This week, we're providing you with a very tender, mature version which can be gently washed, stored in plastic in your refrigerator and used in any dish you would normally add spinach. We find each of these greens has a distinct flavor which often help to offset naturally sweet flavors found in vegetables like tomatoes and carrots. It makes a wonderful addition to stir fry and is also great within salads, pasta dishes and soups.
Recipes and Ideas from the Farm Kitchen


Simple Tatsoi Avocado & Egg Toast
A handful of shredded tatsoi
One egg
Bread
One avocado
Salt and Pepper

Lightly sauté the greens with a small amount of olive oil until cooked down. Make the egg to your liking, toast the bread and slice the avocado thinly. Assemble toast with slices of avocado, then greens and then top with egg. Sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste.

Root Vegetable Chips
Peel vegetables and slice as thinly as possible (a mandoline works perfectly for this, but a sharp knife and steady hand works just fine).
 
Rinse starchier vegetables, like potatoes, with cold water. Pat thoroughly dry.
Heat oil from 350 F to 375 F. Fry chips in small batches (they should form no more than a single layer in the oil) until browning along the edges.
 
Use a slotted spoon to transfer fried chips to a cooling rack or paper towels to drain and let cool. Sprinkle with salt while still warm, but allow to cool (and crisp) completely before serving.
(source: www.spruceeats.com)

Cranberry Salsa & Goat Cheese Crostini
3 cups fresh cranberries
1 cup light brown sugar
1/2 cup chopped shallot or red onion
A chopped seeded jalapeño
Zest and juice of 1 lime 
Cilantro
Toasted baguette slices
Goat cheese

Pulse cranberries, brown sugar, shallot, jalapeño, and lime zest and juice in a food processor until coarsely chopped and combined. Let stand at room temperature about 15 minutes. Stir in a handful of chopped cilantro and more lime juice to loosen, if needed.

Spread goat cheese on baguette slices and top with teaspoon of salsa in center. Arrange on platter and serve.

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