End of Summer Happenings

Crops have been coming in from the fields in waves. As you are well aware, onions and garlic are drying/curing on tables for fall storage, Cilantro, Kale, and Cabbage have also been harvested in greater amounts. Most recently Acorn and Delicata Squash and soon the remainder of the squash and pumpkins: Sugar Baby pie pumpkin, racer pumpkin, kabocha squash and butternut squash. On the list too are our carrots. Due to the wet flooding this summer we lost almost mature carrots at the main farm and oxbow carrots had to be replanted, however the first wave of mature carrots have been coming in from the field. We harvest and then (when we can) immediately wash the carrots for storage.

You will find carrots of all shapes and sizes in Meadowstone Farm carrot bags: long, short, fat, thin, small, large, crooked….all shapes and sizes. Our sweet carrots taste excellent raw or cooked, we hope you have been able to enjoy them.

As a farm, we aim to grow produce that tastes great and our carrots are one item coming out of the field that we are excited about. The Brix scale measures the percentage of Sugar in an aqueous solution. A higher Brix value typically indicates a sweeter taste. Typically a carrot Brix value can range from around 4 to 12 degrees, by the sweet flavor of many of our carrots we can guess the level is somewhere in the 10-12 range if not higher. Higher Brix levels in carrots not only indicate sweetness but also can suggest better flavor and overall quality. They are influenced by various factors, including soil health, proper watering, and the maturity of the carrots at harvest.

Using our root washer Colin washed hundreds of pounds of carrots coming in from the Oxbow. Once washed we store the carrots in walk-in fridge to be bagged as needed. The root washer sprays and spins to adequately wash, carrots, beets, potatoes, turnips, and more.

GH4 Basil ready to come out after a productive season.

GH4 newly planted spinach. This bed also once was home to summer Basil. 

Summer Basil was pulled out of GH4 to make room for fall/winter spinach. We hope to harvest the growing spinach a few times this fall before covering and protecting for the cold winter months. In the spring when the sun light hours increase and the weather warms up some, we will begin harvesting again.

Shishito Pepper

The Shishito pepper, a mild chili with deep roots in Japanese cuisine, has been cherished for centuries. Its name, derived from the Japanese words "shishi" (lion) and "togarashi" (chili pepper), reflects its distinctive shape, which some say resembles a lion’s head. Although native to Japan, the Shishito pepper shares its ancestry with all chili peppers, which originated in the Americas. It's likely that this pepper made its way to Japan through early trade routes, possibly during the Portuguese influence in the 16th century.

In Japanese culinary tradition, Shishito peppers are celebrated for their mild heat and subtle sweetness. They are typically prepared by blistering in oil and served with sea salt, making them a popular snack or appetizer. These peppers are also a staple in dishes like tempura and yakitori. A unique characteristic of the Shishito is that while most are mild, about one in ten can surprise you with a spicy kick, adding a playful element to the dining experience.

The Shishito pepper began gaining international recognition in the early 2000s. Its ease of preparation and the thrill of its occasional spiciness contributed to its widespread popularity. Today, Shishito peppers are grown and enjoyed worldwide, from the U.S. to Spain, and are featured in a variety of dishes beyond Japanese cuisine.

Shishito peppers rank relatively low on the Scoville scale, which measures the heat of chili peppers. They typically range from 100 to 1,000 Scoville Heat Units (SHU). This places them in the mild category, similar to bell peppers, which have a SHU of 0, and significantly lower than jalapeños, which range from 2,500 to 8,000 SHU.

For perspective, as of now, the spiciest chili pepper in the world is the Carolina Reaper. It holds the Guinness World Record for the hottest pepper, with an average of 1.6 million Scoville Heat Units (SHU), and individual peppers have been recorded at over 2.2 million SHU.

Pickup
Come anytime between 3 pm and 6 pm to choose your share on the day you chose when you signed up, so either Monday or Thursday.

Please bring your own bags or box to gather your choices.

If you signed up for an add-on, don’t forget to pickup your

Eggs, Pork sausage and Flowers!

 Remember to contact us in advance if you will be unable to pick up on Thursday, so that we can store your share in our walk-in refrigerator to keep it fresh. You can email or call us to let us know. Thank you to all of those who have already arranged another time to pickup!

Here's what you will find in this weeks share:

You get to take Shishitos home with you and…

Full shares receive an additional 11 choices.

Small shares receive an additional 7 choices.

WANT SOME RECIPE IDEAS?

CHECK OUT THE CSA RECIPE PAGE!

Enjoy! Thank you for supporting local agriculture. See you Thursday if not before.

Your Farmer,

Sam (For Tim, Matt, Mikaela, Jeannie, Jim, Jaime, Evrald, Shawn, Colin, and Gal)