Sadly, today was our last vegetable delivery for the season (although we do still have one more week of fruit, and an option to order pork for delivery after Thanksgiving). Our shares this week included a variety of winter squash - acorn, delicata, and pumpkin. If you don’t want to eat this right away, it can be stored for a month or two in cool, dry, dark place.  Winter squash has lots of vitamins A, C, and potassium, so eat up before we head into cold season!

I often get home from work exhausted and in no mood to cook, so I love this idea for sweet and spicy acorn squash. Sounds like a perfect lazy vegetarian dinner, although it could also probably work well as a side dish. And this pumpkin bread pudding sounds really yummy too (replace the canned pumpkin with fresh, obviously).

Parsnips, a member of the umbelliferae family, closely resemble their relatives parsley and carrot. Parsnips are generally thicker than carrots and paler in color. Their flavor has been described as nutty, spicy, or peppery, and they are a good source of fiber and folate. Parsnips are available from fall to early summer - they can stay in the ground over winter and tend to be sweeter after a frost.

Storage

• Remove greens from the tops of parsnips and then store in a paper bag in the refrigerator drawer.
• Although they will keep for up to a month in the fridge, parnsips become more bitter with age and are best eaten fresh.

Preparation

• Scrub parsnips well and slice or chop as you would a carrot.
• Very large parsnips may need to have their woody cores removed. Cut off the thin end and set aside. Then cut the thick portion in half and dig out the core with a sharp spoon. Discard the core and chop the vegetable as usual.
• Parsnips can be eaten raw like carrots, but are more delicious and digestible when cooked. They are well suited for prolonged cooking, as in casseroles, stews, or oven roasting. To preserve nutrients, cook with the skin on and eat it, or peel after cooking.
• Parnips can be steamed, boiled, sauteed, or braised. Try combining parnsips with other root vegetables like beets, carrots, and potatoes. Toss with olive oil, garlic, salt, and pepper and roast in a 400 degree oven, stirring occaisionally until browned and cooked through.

Recipes Ideas

• Cinnamon and Maple Roasted Parsnips
• Parnsip Chips
• Potato, Carrot, and Parsnip Soup

(Big thanks to Just Food for the Veggie Tip Sheet book)

Here’s what we’re expecting from Woodbridge Farm tomorrow:

1 - Carrots
2 - Parsnips
3 - Broccoli
4 - Pac Choy
5 - Winter Squash
6 - Garlic
7 - Onions
8 - Choice of Potatoes or Sweet Potatoes

Besides basic cole slaw, I never know what to do with cabbage, so was happy to find this post on Learning to Love Green Cabbage at The Kitchn. There are some good ideas for wine braised cabbage, cabbage casserole, and other recipes.

Celeriac is another veggie usually stumps me. My old standbys are to either combine it with mashed potatoes, or roast it with whatever other root vegetables I have on hand, but neither of these methods are terribly exciting. Does anyone have any other interesting recipes to share?

Here’s what we’re expecting from Woodbridge this week:

1 - Sweet Potatoes
2 - Cabbage
3 - Celeriac Roots
4 - Salad Greens
5 - Herbs
6 - Kale and/or Swiss Chard
7 - Gourds
8 - Garlic
9 - Cooking Apples

Here’s what we’re expecting from Woodbridge Farm tomorrow:

1 - Potatoes
2 - Hot Peppers
3 - Tatsoi
4 - Salad Greens
5 - Onions
6 - Winter Squash
7 - Swiss Chard
8 - Herbs
9 - Carrots

Here’s what we’re expecting from Woodbridge Farm tomorrow…

1 - last peppers, tomatoes, eggplant for this season
2 - hot peppers
3 - celeriac root and greens
4 - salad greens
5 - kale
6 - turnips and/or radishes
7 - garlic
8 - herbs
9 - last beans

Due to the rain this weekend, our trip to Woodbridge Farm has been postponed to next Saturday, October 4th. Check your email for a new Evite coming soon. We’ll need to move fast to arrange transportation, so please RSVP as soon as you can.

Our friends from the new Grand Street CSA in Manhattan will be there too, and David will be roasting a pig for lunch! Members will also be bringing pot luck food to share, so there will be vegetarian options as well. Don’t miss it!

Those of us with fruit shares have been getting a lot of pears lately. They’re great plain just for snacking, but that does get a bit old after a while, and unlike apples and peaches you can’t just toss them into a pie (or can you? maybe I’m wrong). In any case, I found this recipe for poached pears in the NY Times which sounds simple and tasty.

Ingredients

2 1/2 cups sugar
3 star anise
5 slices ginger
2 cloves
1 3-inch cinnamon stick
4 pears

Method

Combine sugar and spices with 5 cups water in a medium saucepan (large enough to accommodate the pears upright), and turn heat to high. Peel pears, leaving stems on, then core them. 2. Lower pears into the water, and adjust heat to gentle simmer. Cook pears, turning them every 5 minutes or so, until they meet little resistance when prodded with a thin-bladed knife, usually 10 to 20 minutes. Turn off heat, and cool pears in liquid. 3. Place pears on serving plates. (At this point they can also be covered and refrigerated up to a day; they should be brought to room temperature before serving.) Reduce the poaching liquid to about a cup (it can also be stored for a day), then spoon a little over each pear before serving.

Just in case your CSA produce isn’t fresh and local enough for ya, Slow Food NYC is planning an urban foraging expedition in Central Park next Saturday, led by ethnobotanist Nat Bletter. Come taste red-fleshed apples, rosehips, sassafras, mustard greens, lamb’s quarters, epazote, mugwort, burdock, cornelian cherries, and more. Bring bags for collecting food and a fork for tasting some delicious park salad.

Foraging starts at the NW Corner of 79th St and 5th Ave at 12 noon on Saturday, October 4th (rain date Sunday Oct 5th). Check the Slow Food NYC site for more details on this and other upcoming events.