Last night's freezing temps were a great reminder of the season ahead of us. The nights will just get colder and colder as will the days, and before we know it the holidays will be here. And, with winter looming ahead of us the CSA season finally comes to a close.
This is the second to last week of our 2016 CSA. We couldn't be more grateful for your support this season. Thank you for being a member, eating our veggies, and for offering so many kind words of encouragement along the way. Farming isn't always or even often easy, but it is a lot more fun when you have a supportive community.
Next week will be the very last week for CSA shares. Half Share folks - you will ALL (both A and B schedules) receive a share. EVERYONE gets a share the last week. So, pickup at your normal location or expect a delivery.
Just a reminder, that If you are already dying to get your CSA Shares for next year we have 2017 CSA Share sign-ups available on the website. Follow the link below to sign-up for your shares today! Currently we have Veggie, Fruit and Egg Shares available for sign-up, hopefully in the coming weeks we will add a couple additional share types (think flowers and maybe, just maybe the return of bread shares!). We are doing our usual Early Bird (B.U.G.) Sign-up Special. Sign-up before January 1st, 2017, and save $50 on Full Veggie Shares and $25 on Half Veggie Shares. To save use coupon codes:
2017EARLYBIRDFULL - For Full Veggie Shares
2017EARLYBIRDHALF - For Half Veggie Shares
We are done with markets for the season, but are planning to be at the Winter Market for part of the season. We will be sure to keep you updated on when we will be at market, and what we will have.
Happy Eating,
Carly, Coleman, Andy... and all our fabu work-traders Your B.U.G. Farmers
All the colors of fall. The magentas and navies of the Virginia Creeper, the dirty whites of garlic, and the bright purples of our purple daikon (farm favorite).
Last week Carly escaped to the Carolinas for a week. Of course she couldn't stop herself from checking out at least one farm. This is our friend Liz's father's farm in North Carolina just outside of Asheville - called Thatchmore Farms. It is always so fun to see what other small farmers are up to. He was a high tunnel hoop house magician, a leafy green expert, an unsuccessful kiwi grower, and a shitake hustler. We loved seeing his operation, and his truly dreamy farm.
VEGGIE SHARE: WEEK 22 (B)
More fall veggies are here, squash, radishes, greens. The tomatoes keep holding on, even though them temps keep getting cooler. More of our super fabulous, unbeatable popcorn. Read at the very bottom of this section to see how you can use it now!
TOMATOES or LUNCHBOX PEPPERS or EGGPLANTS or BELL PEPPERS - There are a million things to do with tomatoes, we all have our favorite. This first harvest might be a little to precious for cooking or sauce making, it would be perfect for bruschetta or a tomato sandwich. For easy bruschetta: toast slices of your favorite local baguette, rub with a clove of garlic cut in half, drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with salt, OPTIONAL: add a slice/schmear of mozzarella (or housemade burrata from Caputo's), then top with tomatoes chopped into chunks mixed with olive oil and salt and pepper to taste, garnish with a leaf of basil, and yum!
BUNCHING GREENS - This week we have bunches of Blue Vates, Lacinato, Red Olympic Kale, Rainbow Chard or Collards in your shares. Each CSA Share will have one bunch of these greens. Kale and Chard are both considered to be some of the most nutrient dense foods, we are proud that they are a CSA staple! Here is a web article listing the Top 10 Health Benefits of Kale to make you feel even better about eating this green. It is very versatile, wonderful enjoyed both raw and cooked. Here is a good article from eatlocalgrown.com about 10 Ways To Prepare Kale for more cooking ideas and video cooking tutorials. These bunched greens are best stored in a plastic bag, or upright in a glass of water in the fridge with the stem end down like a bouquet. Chard is similarly versatile. Use it as a braising green, throw it in your frittatas or at the end of cooking your scrambled eggs for an vitamin boost. Use it as a substitute in recipes that call for beetgreens or to jazz up a recipe that normally calls for spinach. Or, you can use any of these in your morning juices and smoothies. Mix it up!
HOT PEPPERS -The hot peppers keep coming. So exciting. Just be sure not to get these mixed up with the sweet peppers you will be receiving this week. We try to keep it straight forward, but be sure to take a small sample before popping one into your mouth and munching. You will see some large, anaheim-style red peppers, some smaller Orzco orange, pointy peppers, green Poblano peppers and the usual Jalapeno and Serrano peppers. These little fellas are easily recognized, and are the workhorse, the go-to, the popular kid of the pepper world. Throw your jalapeno into the mix with your fresh garden salsa, dare your friend to eat the whole thing, make some spicy fajitas, do something to celebrate the heat of summer with a hot pepper.
DELICATA SQUASH or BUTTERNUT SQUASH - Butternut Squash improve in flavor if you cure them. This involves leaving them in a warm sunny spot for at least a couple weeks. This will help improve the flavor and storage life of your squash - but, don't worry, if you just can't wait they will be delicious now too. Both of these cucurbits are great for eating. Their orange flesh is delicious roasted or in soup. Try cutting either squash in half, scooping out the guts, rubbing with oil or butter, roasting at 400 degrees until the flesh is fork tender, then cut it into large chunks and serve as a side. Or, oncec roasted scrape out the inside and add to a broth (maybe even add some coconut milk), blend and season to taste. You can substitute either of these in any recipe calling for a winter squash.
WATERMELON RADISHES - some of theseradishes are HUGE, like for realz. But, don't let that intimidate you - they are good at any size. These beauts have green to soft pinkish skin and a vibrant red flesh. They are quite the treat whether you eat them with butter and salt on toast, in a salad, roasted or dipped in some hummus. They are not overly spicy or woody, and if you get a big one it goes a long way.
MIXED MUSTARD GREENS - An amazing palette of greens and reds in an array of leaf shapes and textures. The flavors are equally diverse: spicy to mild to slightly sweet. This mix includes Red Mustard, Green Mustard, Chinese Cabbage, Pac Choi, Tatsoi, and we added some arugula too! Use these greens for a slightly spicy, mildly sweet braising or fresh eating mix. These greens could be eaten either raw in a salad, chopped finely and added at the end of a soup, chili, or stew. Do note that once they are lightly cooked or steamed, some of the real spicyness is cooked out, leaving the greens more mild if you aren't a fan of "spicy" greens.
MICROGREENS -These little babies are packed full of nutrients, and have a fresh, slightly spicy kick. They are wonderful as a topping on any dish, I especially like them on top of a scrambled egg/omelet or on a stew. They also blend in well into a smoothie, and that hides their spiciness if that's not as much to your liking. These are best eaten raw, and also mix in wonderfully with a fresh salad.
DYNAMITE POPCORN - If you never had had homegrown popcorn this Dynamite Popcorn will be a real treat. The heirloom popcorn varieties often have a sweeter, more buttery flavor than the varieties available at the store. These cobs just came off the plants and are NOT fully dried. You can store the cobs out of direct sunlight in a warm dry area, or you can follow the instructions below to dry the corn for immediate popping. To test your corn to see if it is dry enough for popping, just simply drop a kernel into a pan with warm oil, if it pops poorly, burns or sticks to the bottom of the pan it probably needs more time.
To oven-dry your shelled popcorn, just preheat the stove to 300 degrees Fahrenheit and put a large pan (a turkey roaster will do) of kernels on the rack. Then, turn the oven down to its lowest setting immediately, and dry the corn — stirring it occasionally — for five hours. After that time you can turn the heat off and leave the kernels in the oven to cool overnight. They'll be "poppin' perfect" by morning.
(It is possible to dry corn too thoroughly, though. I forgot to turn my preheated oven down, once, and returned a little later to a house that smelled suspiciously like cooked corn. The kernels were so dry that they wouldn't pop at all! But, I just sprinkled the popcorn with a little water, put it in a tight-lidded bucket, and left the closed container in the fridge for a week. The remoistened corn popped just fine.)
RILEY'S FRUIT SHARE: We will have apples for the last few weeks of fruit shares. Enjoy these late season apples.
GOLDEN DELICIOUS - These apples have a range of flavors throughout their post tree life. When they are fresh and green they can be very acidic, tart a real puckerer. They also have a firm, crisp flesh that makes for great eating. As they ripen to yellow the acid fades and they can have a nice well rounded sweetness. They can get a little mealy when they are fully ripe, so if you would like to avoid that store them in your fridge until you are ready to eat them.
CSA PICK UP/DELIVERY DETAILS:
HALF SHARE HOLDERS:Remember you will get a CSA Share every other week based on your pick up or delivery location.
WEEK B (this week AND next week) HALF SHARE LOCATIONS:
SUGAR HOUSE - 1998 South Windsor Street
UPHILL DELIVERIES
WEEK A (next week) HALF SHARE LOCATIONS:
B.U.G. FARMS HEADQUARTERS - 1364 South Cheyenne Street
U OF U: BRIGHT HORIZONS - 418 Wakara Way, #100
DOWNTOWN - UTAH HUMANITIES COUNCIL - 202 West 300 North
FLATS DELIVERIES
DELIVERY SHARE HOLDERS: Please remember to leave out a cooler with an icepack for your shares. This will help them stay fresh until you get to them. We will be delivering from 9 am - 3 pm, so please have the coolers ready for us by then.
PLEASE REMEMBER TO BRING YOUR BAGS BACK TO YOUR NEXT CSA PICKUP OR LEAVE THEM IN YOUR COOLER!
Nutrition and wellness goddess Anne Dorsey of Milk and Honey Wellness has brought us another amazing recipe this week. Anne has a great recipe using collard greens on the blog this week. Try it with the collards in your shares this week, or substitute another type of bunching green to mix it up.
There have been some great recipes on Anne's blog lately. We hope that you all are taking advantage of this great resource. Some recent favorites are carrot top pesto, zoodles (zucchini noodle) with marinara, and a carrot mule cocktail. Don't forget each week you can visit this link to Anne's Blog for a new recipe using fresh, seasonal veggies that will be in your CSA shares, available at the farmers market, or that you are harvesting from your own gardens.
NEW BAGS: Y'all we are so excited about our new, reusable, insulated B.U.G. Farm tote bags. But, we will need your help to make the system work. We have two totes for all our CSA members. Each week we will have your share packed and ready in a tote bag. This week and next week (for Week A Half Shares) you will receive your first tote bag, when you pick up (or your share is delivered) your next packed and ready share you need to bring the first bag back. If you don't we will have to unpack your share and put it into a plastic bag - please don't make us do it. Just bring them back every week, keep 'em in your car so you don't forget, or put them right back in your cooler if you are a delivery share. We don't want to be the jerks, but will if we have to. Remember to bring back those orange rubber bands too! We can reuse them if you haven't found a million uses for them yet...
INSTAGRAM CONTEST:
We are so excited about Instagram lately, we think it is a super neato way to share information and interests. And, we know you love it as much as we do. So, we are going to host a contest. We want to see what B.U.G. Farms looks like at your house. Whether it is a picture of your share fresh from pick up, a bunch of radishes, your B.U.G. vegetables all cooked up, or maybe one of your favorite Add On Shares of the week - it doesn't matter. Hashtag #bugfarmscsa and you will be entered into our contest. At the end of the season we will have our members vote on our top ten favorite member photos, and the winner will receive a half veggie share for the 2017 season! You can't beat that!
BUNCHING GREENS - This week we have bunches of Blue Vates, Lacinato, Red Olympic Kale, Rainbow Chard or Collards in your shares. Each CSA Share will have one bunch of these greens. Kale and Chard are both considered to be some of the most nutrient dense foods, we are proud that they are a CSA staple! Here is a web article listing the 
DELICATA SQUASH or BUTTERNUT SQUASH - Butternut Squash improve in flavor if you cure them. This involves leaving them in a warm sunny spot for at least a couple weeks. This will help improve the flavor and storage life of your squash - but, don't worry, if you just can't wait they will be delicious now too. Both of these cucurbits are great for eating. Their orange flesh is delicious roasted or in soup. Try cutting either squash in half, scooping out the guts, rubbing with oil or butter, roasting at 400 degrees until the flesh is fork tender, then cut it into large chunks and serve as a side. Or, oncec roasted scrape out the inside and add to a broth (maybe even add some coconut milk), blend and season to taste. You can substitute either of these in any recipe calling for a winter squash.
DYNAMITE POPCORN - If you never had had homegrown 
