CSA AUTUMN SHARE WEEK #12 Thank you for supporting our farm and helping us grow as growers!!! It is the last week of our CSA season...even though there are crops for next season already growing. It has been really helpful to read the surveys that have come back thus far. It has also been quite heart swelling reading some of the comments. Peter and I really love growing food and feeding local families. We are thrilled that so many of you enjoy the food and hope that we can refine our service to better suit your families. We will take the time during Winter to share the results as they do affect how and what we will grow next season. If you have not yet done so, please do take the 5 minutes to fill out the survey.

NOTES ON WHAT'S GROWING This weeks box includes crops especially planned for this week. We have also been cleaning out the fields, harvesting what is left of some crops and dividing this between the members. One of the things I love about our CSA is that their is no food wastage on our farm. If things are no longer of high quality for the box, we either feed them to the chickens or compost them.

We had planned to have Brussel Sprouts, celeriac, romanesco broccoli and raddichio in the boxes these last few weeks. The brussel sprouts are filled with aphids. I am sure they are lovely but they way off the quality we like to have. While the celeriac stalks are lovely, and their taste would add alot to a stock, the roots (which is the part you eat), are not fully developed. We have a few ideas why and will try again next year!. the raddichio is just now starting to form heads. We may end up with 200 heads ready in three weeks! The romanesco broccoli is slowly forming heads but again, it looks as if we will be harvesting this through the Winter. We apologise for not being able to include these crops this year.

The pea crop this Autumn has been very disappointing. The peas we have harvested have been wonderful. But the germination was about 50% and of that, the crop was very damaged by winds resulting in very small harvests each week.

We also had a lovely braising mix and more spinach planted for these last few weeks of boxes. The cool Autumn has not allowed for these crops to grow at the speed that they did last year. They too will be ready in the deep winter.

We appreciate how the lack of these crops affects the diversity of the boxes and also appreciate you being along with us in this growing adventure. Our boxes are a direct representation of what is growing well for us, here on this farm during each season. We enjoy sharing that story with you.

With the solstice this weekend, our sunlight hours will slowly increase each day. Happy Winter!

THE FARM WILL BE CLOSING FOR WINTER ON SATURDAY 20 JUNE AT 11AM.

This week, the boxes will be ready earlier for Farm Pick Up. Please come on Friday from 11am - 5pm or Saturday from 8am-11am.

Any boxes left on the farm on Saturday 20 June after 11am will be donated to families in need.

NOTES ON STORING THE HARVEST Please check out our Vegetable & Fruit page on the website to find tips on maximizing the life of your veggies. We envisage that many of the vegetables you are receiving this week will last for two weeks with careful attention to storing upon arrival. Although we do wash all the greens after harvest, we are washing to take the heat out of the plants and wash away some surface dirt, not to prepare them for consumption. We also spray a seaweed/herb brew about every ten days. While this will not harm you, it does have a taste. We do suggest washing your produce prior to eating.

WHAT’S IN THE BOX The following are the items harvested this week. Items and quantities in your box may vary depending on your harvest day and the total harvest of each crop. The boxes are completely governed by what is ripe and ready for harvest and how much of it there is. We endeavor to divide the harvest fairly. 1/4 share: 5-7 items 1/2 share: 8-10 items Full Share: 10-12 items

Apples Baby Red Bok Choy Broccoli Carrots Fennel Garlic Kale Leeks Onions Pumpkin Tatsoi Thyme Turnips

Extras Cabbage Celery Lettuce Radishes English Spinach Rosettes Snow Peas Sugar Snap Peas RECIPE SUGGESTIONS Sesame Salmon with Honey Bok Choy - This recipe is great with tatsoi too! Tatsoi and Cabbage Stir Fry Fennel and Radish Salad Warm Kale and Roasted Vegetable Salad Fennel, Lemon and Thyme Roasted Chicken

I found the following on the internet, which includes great photos. I altered the recipe slightly as per below.

Ingredients 2 lemons 1 whole fennel 2 cloves garlic salt pepper olive oil Method 1. Preheat oven to 180C. Slice lemon and fennel root. 2. Crush garlic and combine with 1 tbsp fresh thyme, salt and pepper. Gently separate the skin of the chicken breast from the meat (without removing it). Place 2 tbsps butter, some of the fennel leaf fronds and the herbs in between the skin and the meat. 3. Salt and pepper chicken and rub it with olive oil. Put the chicken on a roasting rack in a roasting pan. 4. Add fennel root, lemon, and thyme to the cavity of the chicken. 5. Add the leftover fennel fronds and lemon on top of the bird around in the roasting pan. 6. Bake until the internal temperature reaches 65C degrees. Remove from oven and let rest for 10 minutes before carving (temperature should now be 75C)

You can search our recipes by looking for the key ingredients on our website recipe page

Please note - Photo is a randomly selected full share box.