Hello, and welcome to the first week of the Featherstone Farm Winter CSA program!

This is going to be my last box user guide video, so from now on, Abby will take over. She's been doing these videos off and on throughout the summer, and she'll do a great job talking about how to maximize your use of the crops in your box each week.

We're entering a period where the crops will be more consistent week-to-week, and Abby will likely dive deeper into specific vegetables periodically. But this week, we’ll go through everything together and highlight what stands out.

I'm a long-time winter squash lover, especially the Cucurbita maxima types, and we’ve got an absolutely lovely crop of cabbages this year—possibly the best in the last decade. We also have a great supply of the famous Featherstone carrots for everyone this week, and hopefully throughout the winter. The weather’s been perfect this fall—dry and warm—so the carrots are still growing and sweetening up. We've harvested about half of them so far, and we're excited to share them with you all winter long.

Abby handles carrot harvesting, and when she’s excited about carrots, I get excited too! It’s a major crop for us, and one that our customers really enjoy. Potatoes, beets, and storage radishes are also in the mix, and Abby will talk more about those. As for beets, we've finished most of the harvest, and they’re looking great. Just keep them in your fridge wrapped in plastic, and they’ll last a long time.

One thing to note about all these winter storage crops: we’re picking them now in October, but they’ll last through February or even March, so you can expect to see them reappear in your boxes throughout the winter.

We also have some beautiful field-grown greens this week, thanks to the fantastic fall weather. We’ve got purple radishes as well, and later in the winter, we’ll be including crops from the high tunnels like celery. The celery has been harvested for a few weeks now to make room for salad crops that will come later. If your celery seems a bit dry, trim off about half an inch from the base, set it in water to rehydrate, and it’ll keep for weeks.

I volunteered to talk about the Hakurei turnips because I really love them—maybe I’m an outlier, but they’re one of my favorite crops! They’re great raw, straight from the field, or sliced thin and cooked with a little butter until they’re just tender. Once you get them home, cut the greens off and store the turnips in a plastic bag in the fridge, where they’ll keep for a long time.

Abby, will we have more Hakurei turnips coming, or is this a one-off? There are a few more in the field, but we’ll be transitioning to storage turnips like purple tops and scarlets soon, and those will require a different approach.

Lastly, I want to mention the tomatoes. This might be the first time we’ve ever included tomatoes in the Winter CSA, especially from the high tunnels. We’re still pulling nice, red slicer tomatoes out of the tunnels, though some are a bit green and will need to ripen on your counter. We’re hoping to have them for another month.

Now, onto the bitter greens! This week, there are three or four varieties in your box: Red Russian kale, green mustard, and tatsoi. The kale is beautiful and tender—perfect for eating after a couple of frosts. The mustard greens are more bitter and develop a nice heat that works well in curries, lentil dishes, or stews. The tatsoi is also in great shape thanks to the weather. Its peppery stems are fantastic for adding crunch to salads or stir-fries.

We also have spinach coming up—both field-grown and high-tunnel varieties. The spinach in your box this week was featured in the newsletter with recipes, so be sure to check that out. It’s nothing like the spinach you’ll find in stores. This spinach is large and sweet, thanks to the ideal growing conditions. It’ll take some effort to clean, but it’s well worth it.

That wraps up the first week of Winter CSA and my last week doing these guides. I want to give a big thank you to Karin Wollan, our filmmaker, for all her work this summer. Abby will do a fantastic job with the videos moving forward, and I’ll be watching from home!

Thanks, everyone. See you next week!