CSA - Week 11

Well its now September, so time to start harvesting some apples!  Our earliest variety, Prima, is hitting peak ripeness this week and I picked 6 bushels on Tuesday for this week's shares.

The chickens have moved onto pasture and are enjoying adding grass, seeds, insects, and grubs to their diets.  The biggest challenge related to moving the chickens outside is getting them all back into the coop at night.  I put down a small amount of feed for them in the coop to entice them, but it usually takes several evenings for all of them to get into the routine and those evenings involve us chasing and catching several chickens to get them all put away.  This batch of chickens were fairly quick learners and so by night four there was no more chasing required. :)

This weeks shares will include:

• Potatoes
• Tomatoes
• Cherry Tomatoes
• Lettuce
• Green Beans
• Jalapeno Peppers
• Beets
• Cabbage
• Basil
• Oregano
• Apples

Don't forget you can use both the beets and the greens, recipes for both can be found at http://dfo-recipes.weebly.com/beets.html

The Prima apple variety is a softer apple so its not great for long term storage but its awesome eaten fresh, used in pies and crisps, made into sauce,  or sliced and frozen for later use.

More basil and jalapenos this week. If you can't use them all right away you can chop up and freeze the jalapenos for use in chili, nachos, and other dishes this winter when you need some extra heat.  And the basil will stay fresh longer if you keep in a glass or vase of water out of direct sunlight at room temperature, or you can also hang it up to dry.