From the Farmer
Welcome Spring! It would seem that with the arrival of the Vernal Equinox (and the full moon) that we may have genuinely stepped out of winter and into spring. Mud is already drying up as quickly as it arrived and, would you look at that, plants are already pushing up out of the ground!
The end of March brings us to our final winter share pick up window - now through the 3rd of April. Thanks to our trusty walk-in coolers, our veggies have held up nicely all winter long. The vegetables are smarter than they look though, and they know what time of year it is, even from inside of a cold, dark walk-in. They'll start sprouting before too long, so now's the time to eat them up!
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Austin and Caralyn sow lots of seeds in the greenhouse.
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Spiders awake! The first spider threads adorn the orchard
on a misty, drippy morning in March.
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The arrival of mud season late last week pressed pause on our logging work. Before then, though, we'd been busy in the woods cleaning up some impressive damage from recent, and past wind storms.
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Though Nature's wild mess may be wondrously beautiful, it does seem that making order from chaos is deeply woven into our human nature. This neat and tidy log stack will head off to Cersosimo Lumber's saw mill in Brattleboro once mud season has fully passed (and the fields can handle a log truck driving on them) in April.
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Harvest Report
Potatoes, Onions, Carrots, Beets, Parsnips, Celeriac, Kohlrabi, Turnips, Rutabaga, Daikon Radishes, Cabbage.
If you haven't already grabbed your popcorn, don't forget to do that and check yourself off in the popcorn column!
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Recipe of the week, courtesy of South River Miso
Maple Miso Root Vegetable Medley
 This delicious dish was served recently at one of our company lunches. Photo by Annabel Levine.
Winter storage vegetables take center stage in this recipe for our Chef Jen's Maple Miso Root Vegetable Medley. Frost-sweetened roots, savory mushrooms, and a festive maple miso sauce help make this the perfect side dish for a holiday meal, or a great way to make an everyday meal feel like a celebration! Bon appétit!
Ingredients
Serves four or five
2 large turnips or rutabagas
6 large carrots
1 celeriac root (optional)
2 onions
1 bulb of garlic, peeled cloves
2 cups cremini or other mushrooms
Olive oil
Salt and pepper
½ cup South River Chickpea Miso
2 tbsp Maple Syrup
2 tbsp dijon mustard
2 tbsp mirin (optional)
2 tbsp brown rice vinegar
2 tbsp thyme, fresh
2 scallions or fresh parsley to serve
 Carrots grown across the river by Natural Roots Farm, cut on the bias before roasting. Photo by Annabel Levine.
Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350° F.
2. Bias cut roots and onions. Cut the mushrooms into quarters. Keep each vegetable separate.
3. Toss each vegetable separately in olive oil, salt and pepper.
4. Arrange the carrots, celeriac, turnips, and rutabaga in a single layer on a baking sheet. Roast for 30 minutes. Vegetables are done when they are soft on the inside and browned on the outside. If your baking sheet is too small for a single layer of roots, use another one to avoid crowding and ensure browning.
5. At the same time in the oven, on a separate baking sheet, roast the mushrooms, onions and garlic cloves for 20 minutes. Make sure to watch your vegetables while roasting and stir after 15 minutes.
6. To make maple miso mixture, combine Chickpea Miso, Blue Heron Farm Maple Syrup, dijon mustard, mirin, vinegar and thyme in a bowl.
7. When all vegetables are cooked, toss together with maple miso mixture and serve. Garnish with chopped scallion or parsley as desired.
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Sometimes, in this topsy turvey world, it's hard to tell which way is up!
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