Glyphosate: An Important Update

By Andrea Yoder

We’ve included reports about glyphosate in our newsletters in previous years, but sadly this chemical and its issues have not miraculously disappeared from the headlines or from our lives.  We all have reason to be concerned about this chemical as it is now the world’s most widely used herbicide and can be found extensively throughout our environment, our food supply and in human bodies across the country and world.  Glyphosate has been in the headlines recently, including just last week when the European Union held their initial round of votes on October 25, 2017 regarding the proposed 10 year re-license for glyphosate use within the European Union, which expires on December 15, 2017.   The majority voted against the re-license and has voted to ban glyphosate completely by 2022.  Additionally, they have voted to impose restrictions on its use starting in 2018.  While we could write volumes about glyphosate and the controversy and health & environmental impacts it has caused, we wanted to provide you with a brief update.  For those of you who are not as familiar with glyphosate, its use, etc, we’ve also provided several resources for you to further your own understanding of this dilemma we’re all in, whether we like it or not.  As consumers, we need to practice our right to make informed decisions regarding our purchases, and in this case specifically food purchases.  The choices we make can have great implications on our own health and well-being as well as casting a vote in the marketplace.

Glyphosate, the active ingredient in Monsanto’s Roundup herbicide, patented in 1974, is now the world’s most widely used pesticide.  When it was initially introduced into the market, farmers used it as a pre-emergent herbicide to kill weeds before planting their fields as well as for weed control in non-crop areas.  In 1987 6 to 8 million pounds of glyphosate based herbicides (GBH) were applied in the US.  The first genetically modified (GMO) seeds were commercially planted in 1996 and were made to have resistance to glyphosate, thus the two were meant to be used together.  By 2007, the amount of GBH being applied in this country rose to 180-185 million pounds.  In more recent years GBH have been used as a pre-harvest desiccant for small grain crops including wheat, barley, oats, lentils, flax and dried beans with the intention of accelerating the dry down of the crop before harvest.  Because the chemical is applied so close to harvest, high levels of the chemical are found in the crop and the food products made from them.  GBH are now being used quite extensively on both GMO and non-GMO crops which has led to even more chemical being applied on US agricultural land.  In 2014, approximately 240 million pounds of GBH were applied in the US alone.

While the manufacturers of GBH continue to claim it is harmless, there is plenty of evidence to the contrary.  In 2015 the World Health Organization’s (WHO) International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) classified glyphosate as a probable carcinogen to humans.  On July 7, 2017, California’s Environmental Protection Agency added glyphosate to their Proposition 65 list of chemicals known to cause cancer.  The IARC’s classification of glyphosate as a probable carcinogen prompted many to file lawsuits against Monsanto by people alleging that exposure to Roundup herbicide caused them or their loved ones to develop cancer.  There are currently more than 50 lawsuits pending in the U.S. District Court in San Francisco.   

There are many problems with the use of glyphosate, making it overwhelming to even know where to start.  The use of GBH as a desiccant so close to harvest has led to a significant increase in glyphosate and its primary metabolite in food products including seemingly benign foods like Cheerios!  While food products are not being extensively tested for glyphosate, Food Democracy Now in coordination with the Detox Project requested testing of some food products at a FDA-registered food safety testing laboratory.  They found extremely high levels of glyphosate in common food products including Cheerios breakfast cereal, Ritz Crackers, Oreos, Doritos and even Goldfish crackers.  Glyphosate has also been found in honey, beer and wine.  Last week a research letter was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) regarding the findings of increased levels of glyphosate in urine specimens collected from participants in a prospective study being conducted in Southern California.  The mean glyphosate levels in urine specimens increased from 0.024 ug/L in 1993-1996 rising to as much as 0.449 ug/L in 2014-2016 for 71 participants with detectable levels.  This was a very small study, but nonetheless it raises concern for the rest of us in the population and demonstrates a need for future research to study the relationship between chronic glyphosate exposure and human health impact.

Monsanto has laced the industry with lies and deceit in exchange for economic gain.  They’ve influenced governments to make regulations, or drop regulations based on their proprietary studies which are not available for independent review and the credibility of which are very questionable. Last week a German publication, Spiegel Online, released an article reporting on the recent release of the “Monsanto Papers” which included internal emails, presentations, and memos suggesting they have participated in ghostwriting, scientific manipulation and withholding important information from government regulatory agencies and the public. 

So, where do we go from here?  Do we really know and understand the full impact glyphosate has and is having on human health and our environment?  If we continue on the current trajectory, where will we be in another 10, 20, 30 years?  Cancer, allergies, birth defects, endocrine disorders and the list of possible health concerns associated with glyphosate goes on.  I mentioned the Detox Project earlier.  This is an organization that has set up a means for testing glyphosate levels in participants all across the nation.  Anyone can participate as long as you’re willing to purchase a test kit and submit a urine sample.The purpose of their study and testing is to start tracking glyphosate levels in the population, but also to help individuals understand what their personal exposure is based on the levels found in their own body.  The Detox Project website also has a lot of informative resources for the general public as well as links to scientific research and papers.

The research group that published the research letter in JAMA mentioned above is expanding their work at the University of California, San Diego.  They have initiated the Herbicide Awareness and Research Project to conduct research in the areas of how glyphosate exposure might have changed over time since the introduction of GMO foods and to set up longitudinal epidemiological studies to look at glyphosate exposure and human health. 

A picture of one of our CSA share boxes.
This has become our medicine!

All of these things are good moves in the right direction, but do we have time to wait for the research?  What can we do in the meantime?  Organic food has become our medicine now more than ever.  For those who do not feel comfortable wondering if the foods they eat have herbicides and pesticides in them and/or don’t want to wait to find out if there really are negative health consequences, choosing to eat certified organic food may be the best choice.  Taking it one step further, knowing more about your food and where it comes from is more important now than ever.  Sadly, there is corruption within the organic industry as well and the organic credibility of some companies, both domestic and  international, have been questioned.  “Know your farmer, Know your food” is not just a catchy phrase to support a feel-good campaign to support local farmers.  It’s an important tool in your tool box to help you make informed food purchasing decisions.

I’ve included several resources below and encourage you to do some further investigation into this topic on your own. There really is something for everyone here.  If you’re interested in health and want to read the scientific papers, I’ve included a consensus statement published in Environmental Health.  If you’re interested in the legal issues, policy, etc you might find it interesting to look into the “Monsanto Papers”.  If you just want some easy to read documents to bring you up to speed and guide you in making decisions for your family, I’ve included several good resources for that as well.  I hope you’ll take the time to become more informed, if you are not already, about the realities of glyphosate in our food and environment today.  It’s an issue that impacts us all and we all have the right to know about it.

• Glyphosate:  Unsafe on any Plate-- Food Testing Results and Scientific Reasons for Concern.  www.fooddemocracynow.org
• DetoxProject.org—Information about glyphosate and testing
• US Right To Know (usrtk.org)—Information and links to resources about many different topics related to glyphosate, Monsanto, etc.
• Bethge, Philip.  Monsanto Faces Blowback Over Cancer Cover-Up, Spiegel Online, Oct 24,2017 
• Mills, PJ, et al.  Excretion of the Herbicide Glyphosate in Older Adults Between 1993 and 2016.  JAMA 2017; 1610-1611. 
• Myers JP, Antonious MN, Blumberg B, et al.  Concerns over use of glyphosate-based herbicides and risks associated with exposures:  A consensus statement.  Environ Health  2016;  15:19 
• UC San Diego School of Medicine, Herbicide Awareness & Research Project 

November 2, 2017 - This Week's Box Contents, Featuring Brussels Sprouts

Cooking With This Week's Box

Today marks the first day of November and we are into our final two months of CSA deliveries.  Where has the time gone!  This week’s brisk, cold temperatures are a reminder that winter will be coming soon.  We’re scrambling to harvest the remainder of our root crops before the ground freezes and is covered with snow.  Even though our growing season will soon be coming to a close, we have a lot of delicious cooking yet to accomplish!  This week we’re excited to be sending one of our farm favorite vegetables, Brussels sprouts!  They are best after a frost…which they got over the weekend and earlier this week.  There are many things you could do with Brussels sprouts.  Often I don’t get any further than a quick saute in butter or bacon.  However this week I’d encourage you to try the Spicy Asian Chicken with Brussels Sprouts featured in this week’s newsletter (see below).  I don’t often equate Brussels sprouts with Asian flavors, but it works!

Have you checked out our Facebook Group lately?  There have been some tasty recipes shared by members lately including this one for Thai Curried Butternut Squash Soup.  If you receive the Butterscotch butternut squash in your box this week, I’d recommend using them to make this recipe.  If you receive the sugar dumpling squash, consider trying this recipe for Baked Stuffed Acorn Squash that was recommended by another member who made this recipe using the sugar dumpling squash from a previous week.

Photo from minimalistbaker.com

Another recipe that was recommended in the group was for a Sweet Potato & Black Bean Burger.  I can’t wait to try this--it looks delicious!  I’m telling you, there have been a lot of great recipe suggestions in the group lately.  If you haven’t joined our Facebook group yet, I’d encourage you to do so.  It’s a great place to share recipe ideas and ask questions.  This would be good with a few slices of avocado from this week’s fruit share!

Speaking of the avocados in the fruit share, our fruit newsletter features a recipe for Avocado & Beet Salad with Citrus Vinaigrette that was borrowed from one of Alice Water’s cookbooks.  This will be a great way to use the beets in this week’s box…regardless of whether you have the baby beets, medium sized beets or the muy grandes (BIG ONES!). Just vary your cooking time….everything else will be the same.

The bunches of Red Mizuna and Tat Soi in this week’s box are gorgeous!  I love these greens this time of year for both their flavor and color.  Both may be eaten raw or cooked, but since we don’t have any other “salad” greens anymore, I think a big salad is in order!  I’m going to make one of my “catch-all” salads using some of both the tat soi and red mizuna, partly because it will taste good and partly because it will be beautiful!  This Sesame Ginger Vinaigrette will be the dressing for the greens and I’ll top it off with toasted almonds, shredded carrots and some thinly sliced, seared flank steak.  With the remainder of the greens, I’m going to make this Turmeric Roasted Carrots with Seeds recipe.  This is kind of a “composed” salad that has a base of greens.  The red and orange carrots in this week’s box will be so sweet and delicious once roasted and will look stunning on top of a bed of tat soi.  Eat this salad with a bowl of lentils or roasted chicken for a warm, comforting meal. 

This week’s spaghetti squash and lacinato kale will come together in this Roasted Garlic, Kale and Spaghetti Squash dish. Hopefully there will be leftovers of this one for lunch the next day!

Well, that’s it for another week of cooking with the box.  We don’t have vegetable CSA deliveries next week, but we’ll be back for another vegetable share delivery the week of November 16/17/18.  This is the week before Thanksgiving, so if you haven’t planned your menu yet, it’s time to start!  We’re planning to send more sweet carrots, although the next bag you receive will have another pretty color to go with the orange carrots.  We’ll also have more sweet potatoes, winter squash and hopefully more Brussels sprouts.  That’s by no means everything that will be in the box, but just a few items to get you started!  While I haven’t seen the list for our next fruit share delivery yet, I am pretty certain we’ll have cranberries in that box.  Ok, the rest of the shares will have to be a surprise.  Have a great week!
—Chef Andrea

Featured Vegetable:  Brussels Sprouts

“Brussels sprouts are the only vegetable I cannot eat unless the weather is cold.  No frost, no sprouts.  I am not alone …Frost makes the sprout.…Eaten at the wrong time of year, cooked too long, or served with too much else on the plate, the sprout is hard going.” –Nigel Slater in Tender

Brussels sprout harvest.

Brussels sprouts are a highlight of fall and its transition to winter in the Midwest.  They grow on a tall, thick, sturdy stalk.  The sprouts spiral up the stalk and are shaded by a tuft of leaves at the top, but also down the stem.  Chef Deborah Madison describes them like this:  “There is something so silly and Dr. Seuss-like about a stalk of Brussels sprouts with its little hat of leaves that it makes you smile and want to eat the sprouts.”

There are several important points that are very important when it comes to Brussels sprouts.  First, as stated in the opening quote from Nigel Slater, frost and cold temperatures contribute significantly to the eating quality of Brussels sprouts.  After a frost, the flavor of the sprouts is sweet, slightly nutty and pleasant.  California is a major Brussels sprouts producer for the United States.  While Brussels sprouts do grow well there, there are many who are of the opinion that the mild California coastal climate just isn’t quite cold enough for Brussels sprouts.  Thus, consider yourself lucky that you live in Wisconsin & Minnesota where we can grow some delicious, sweet sprouts!

The second point of importance is DO NOT OVERCOOK THEM!  When the color fades from bright green to a dark olive color, the flavor fades too.  Overcooked Brussels sprouts go from crisp & tender to soft and mushy in texture and their sweetness is traded for a strong, unpleasant flavor with a pungent smell to accompany it.  Larger sprouts should be cut in half or parcooked if left whole.  Smaller sprouts may be left whole or cut in half.  When you are ready to use them, simply trim the end and remove any spotty leaves.  Rinse and then you are ready to use them.  They can also be shredded by cutting them in half and putting the cut side down and slicing them thinly with a knife.  Brussels sprouts may be sautéed, roasted, or lightly steamed just until the color is bright and they are tender to slightly al dente.  While most frequently eaten cooked, Brussels sprouts may also be eaten raw.  This week’s boxes include 1 pound of Brussels sprouts.  One pound of Brussels sprouts is equal to about 4 cups halved.

Brussels sprouts pair well with smoky and salty foods including bacon, ham, aged or sharp cheese, and blue cheese.  Additionally, preparations often include mustard, walnuts, pecans, lemon juice, onions and garlic.

They are definitely worth eating from a nutrition standpoint.  They are high in fiber, folate, magnesium, potassium, and vitamins A, C, and K and are packed full of powerful, cancer-preventing properties as well.  Store your Brussels sprouts in the fridge in the bag we packed them in.  You should open the bag a bit though and let them breathe.

Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Maple Walnuts

Yield:  3 to 4 servings

Maple Walnuts

¾ cup walnuts, raw & unsalted

1 Tbsp pure maple syrup

2 pinches of flaky sea salt

Maple-Mustard Dressing

3 Tbsp cold-pressed olive oil

1 ½ tsp pure maple syrup

1 Tbsp Dijon mustard

1 Tbsp apple cider vinegar

Pinch of fine sea salt

Freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Brussels Sprouts

1 pound Brussels sprouts

1 ½ tsp coconut oil, ghee or butter, melted

2 pinches of fine sea salt, to taste

Freshly ground black pepper

⅓ cup pomegranate seeds

1. Prepare the walnuts:  Preheat the oven to 350° F.  Place the walnuts on a rimmed baking sheet with the maple syrup and salt.  Toss to coat and bake for 7 to 10 minutes, tossing once after 5 minutes when the walnuts begin to bubble.  Remove from the oven and let cool completely.
2.  Prepare the Dressing:  In a small bowl, whisk together the olive oil, maple syrup, mustard, and vinegar.  Season with salt and pepper.  The dressing will keep, refrigerated in an airtight container, for up to 1 week.
3. Roast the Brussels sprouts:  Slice the sprouts in half lengthwise.  Place them on a rimmed baking sheet and toss with the coconut oil to coat.  Roast until the sprouts are tender but not overcooked, about 15 minutes.
4. While the sprouts are roasting, roughly chop the cooled walnuts.
5. When the Brussels sprouts are cooked through, remove them from the oven and immediately drizzle them with the Maple-Mustard Dressing, toss to coat, and season with salt and pepper.  Place them in a large bowl or serving platter, then scatter the pomegranate seeds and Maple Walnuts on top.  Serve warm.

This recipe was borrowed from Sarah Britton’s book, Naturally Nourished.  She recommends serving this recipe over cooked lentils for a vegetarian dinner.

Spicy Asian Chicken with Brussels Sprouts

Yield:  4 servings

1 cup long-grain rice

Photo from realsimple.com

½ cup cornstarch

1 large egg

1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breasts (2 large), thinly sliced

3 Tbsp vegetable oil, plus more if needed

½ pound Brussels sprouts, thinly sliced

1 1-inch piece fresh ginger, peeled and cut into matchsticks

2 cloves garlic, thinly sliced

3 Tbsp soy sauce

3 Tbsp rice vinegar

2 Tbsp light brown sugar

1 red chili pepper, thinly sliced OR red pepper flakes, to taste

1 tsp toasted sesame oil

2 Tbsp chopped roasted peanuts, almonds, or toasted sesame seeds

½-¾ cup chopped cilantro

1.  Cook the rice according to package instructions.
2. Meanwhile, place the cornstarch in a shallow bowl.  In a large bowl, beat the egg;  add the chicken and toss to coat.  A few pieces at a time, lift the chicken out of the egg and coat in the cornstarch, tapping off the excess;  transfer to a plate.
3. Heat 2 Tbsp of the oil in a large nonstick skillet or a wok over medium-high heat.  In 2 batches, cook the chicken, turning occasionally, until golden 3 to 5 minutes (add more oil for the second batch if necessary);  transfer to a plate.
4. Reduce the heat to medium and heat the remaining tablespoon of oil in the skillet.  Add the Brussels sprouts, ginger, and garlic and cook, tossing occasionally, until beginning to soften, 2 to 3 minutes.  Add the soy sauce, vinegar, sugar, and ¾ cup water and cook, stirring occasionally, until the Brussels sprouts are crisp-tender and the liquid begins to thicken, 2 to 3 minutes more.
5. Return the chicken to the skillet, add the chili, and cook, tossing, until heated through, about 1 minute.  Toss with the sesame oil and cilantro, serve over the rice and sprinkle with the peanuts or almonds.

Recipe adapted from Real Simple: Easy, Delicious Home Cooking, edited by Allie Lewis Clapp, et al.

Fall "Crunch Time" is Here!

by Farmer Richard

Do you remember the three foot deep snowfall on October 29, 1993?  I do!  I remember harvesting carrots by hand in the melting slush of that snow, not fun!  We love the cool, sunny days of fall, harvesting roots to take us through late fall and early winter boxes and wholesale sales.  Planting garlic, horseradish and sunchokes for next year after first selecting our seed pieces.  Preparing fields for winter by chopping crop residue, composting and planting cover crops—have to get ready for a new year! We have a long “to do” list and time is quickly slipping away.  The reality we face is we need 2 to 3 weeks of dry weather to get everything finished! 

Austraian Peas already doing their job,
growing nitrogen fixing nodules!

Four weeks ago we were caught up, every available acre was composted and cover cropped, some 60 acres of very nice cover crops with the Austrian peas already producing impressive nitrogen fixing nodules on their roots.  They were planted into very dry soil, but came up nicely with the first rain.  But then it rained again, and again…  We’ve had 6.42 inches of rain in October alone.  We still have about 30 acres of fields that need to have cover crops planted and we have fields to clean up including removing plastic and tomato stakes from the tomato, eggplant, pepper and basil fields.  Last Saturday afternoon we started planting our garlic fields, but only got 2 beds planted before the end of the day…and then it rained another inch that evening!

Do you sense some urgency here?  Some nervous apprehension?  We do!  We can harvest greens and herbs in the rain or wet soil, but those crops are almost done.  The warm weather of September and October (still no frost) has sped up the maturity rate of all crops.  We did some late plantings of beets, red radishes, cilantro, baby bok choi, etc knowing they might be a gamble if it got cold earlier.  We’re harvesting those crops this week and many will be finished for the season by the end of the week.  We’re thankful to be able to continue these harvests this late in the month and we’ve saved huge amounts of time and the expense by not having to put covers over crops to protect them from frost!  We expect our first frost to be more of a freeze (lower than 25°F), but by the time we see that, all of the vulnerable crops will be out of the field.  Now that it’s getting colder, the soil isn’t drying out as fast as it does when it’s warmer.  With more rain in the forecast, we’re concerned we won’t see the two weeks of dry weather we need to wrap this season up. 

The harsh reality is winter is coming.  As I sit on the back porch writing, I can hear the coyotes howling on the hillsides.  I love it!  They too sense the coming winter!  But we still have that garlic field to finish planting, plus most of the burdock field, parsnips, carrots, radishes, turnips and rutabagas to harvest and almost 2 acres of sunchokes to both harvest and replant!  This fall is much different than last fall.  Despite the challenges we face this fall, we’re thankful to have such a plentiful harvest in contrast to the crop losses we had last fall.  When we had extra crew time last year, we gambled and planted extra sunchokes and horseradish, with hopes of having a really good harvest this fall to make up for some of last year’s losses!  Well, our strategy worked and these crops have done well and sales are good.  But we still have to harvest and replant so we can do it all over again next year! 

Rufino, Luis, Jose Antonio and Alejandro coming
to the packing shed with broccoli romanesco,
cauliflower and broccoli.

Earlier this week on Monday, we mudded out some more daikon radish and finished our first fall carrot field.  I only got stuck in the field one time while pulling out a load of carrots, but despite the mud the harvest went pretty well.  We also went through our last three broccoli fields to find the small heads that continue to grow off the sides of the plant.  The pieces aren’t big, but they are tasty!  The broccoli romanesco field looks great!  This crop will survive a frost as low as 20°F and will actually sweeten a bit with the frost so we aren’t in a big hurry to harvest them.  There are still Brussels sprouts coming too!  We’ve intentionally held off on harvesting them because we want them to have a few frosty nights to sweeten them up.  We plan to harvest cabbage before the weekend freeze-up when our temperatures are forecasted to be 27°F.  It can sometimes be colder in the valley, so we’ve already started preparing so we aren’t caught off guard.  Irrigation pumps, filter trailers, etc are all drained and put away for the winter.  Bins of firewood are in place and I am back on winter wood stove duty.  We have a beautiful fire burning in the fireplace as I write.   It sure helps to take the chill off on cold evenings. 

Some of our crew 'cracking' garlic to get ready to plant!

Or crew is anxious to return home to their families and they are waiting for our final decision as to when they can start booking plane tickets to go home.  While some crew members have asked and volunteered to stay late this year, others are anxious to make it home in time to be with their wives when the babies they’re expecting are born!  Others have fields of hay on their family’s farm waiting to be cut and baled.  There will be coffee and corn to harvest, and of course there are anxious kids counting down the days until their dad comes home.  It’s hard to predict when our workload will lessen, but we do our best to make estimates and work efficiently.  We are trying to make the most of our time, spending frosty mornings and rainy days cracking garlic for planting, cleaning garlic and onions, trimming root crops stored in the cooler, washing sweet potatoes, etc.  But the bottom line is that we need those dry, sunny days!  Wish us luck and lets hope Mother Nature offers us a brief reprieve with some nice weather!  

October 26, 2017 - This Week's Box Contents, Featuring Sugar Dumpling Squash

Cooking With This Week's Box

Can you believe Thanksgiving is only about 4 weeks away!?  Have you started gathering your recipes and planning your menu for the big dinner?  Brussels Sprouts with Ginger & Cranberries, Whipped Sweet Potatoes with Caramelized Apples,  Grandma Yoder’s Squash Pie . . perhaps I’m getting ahead of myself.  Well, you still have some time but I would encourage you to start planning for the big day! 

As the weather becomes more chilly, I’m more in the mood to eat some of these warm, nourishing foods like winter squash and sweet potatoes.  This week’s featured vegetable is the sweet little sugar dumpling squash.  Use this squash to prepare Andrea Bemis’s recipe adaptation for Autumn Spiced Pork Sausage & Kale Stuffed Squash (see below).  She used delicata squash in her recipe, but this will work with any squash that has a little cavity to put a filling into.  This recipe also makes good use of the tender kale in this week’s box.  The other squash in your box, either honeynut butternut or butterscotch butternut, is a great variety to bake or roast and both are naturally sweet & flavorful.  Melissa Clark has a tasty recipe for a Roasted Mushroom and Butternut Squash Tart featured at cooking.nytimes.com. 

Red Lentils with Winter Squash and Greens   

I’m excited to have so many different greens in this week’s box and I have a use for each one.  The tender bunched kale will go into the stuffed squash recipe, but I’m saving the spicy mustard greens to make a recipe we featured in our newsletter back in 2015.  It’s a recipe for Red Lentils with Winter Squash and Greens.  You’ll likely have enough butternut squash to make both the lentil recipe and the tart recipe mentioned previously.  I really enjoy this recipe prepared with the spicy mustard greens.  It makes a flavorful, nourishing meal and may be served with rice. 

Bok Choi Salad with Sesame Almond Crunch

The baby bok choi is going to be used to make the Baby Bok Choi Salad with Sesame-Almond Crunch featured in our June 2016 newsletter.  Trust me…it’s delicious! 

This recipe for Crushed Potatoes with Cream & Garlic is one of my simple go-to recipes for busy weeks. This recipe works well with the waxy potatoes like we have in this week’s box.  I usually just serve it with a seared steak or pork chop.  This week I think I’ll add roasted Broccoli and/or Cauliflower or Romanesco with Lemon and Garlic to this meal. If you’re going to eat garlic you might as well go big and put it in nearly everything!

I came across this recipe for Carrot Salad with Tahini and Crisped Chickpeas at Smitten Kitchen.  I think I’ll serve this salad with a roasted sweet potato for a simple vegetarian dinner.  Of course….there will be leftovers for lunch the next day! 

And once again we’ve reached the bottom of another delightful CSA box!  Next week we’re hoping to harvest Brussels sprouts and Tat soi for your boxes.  These are two of my favorite fall vegetables.  Even though we’re nearing the end of this year’s CSA Season, we still have a lot of interesting vegetables to include in your boxes!  Don’t forget that we change our delivery schedule a bit next week.  Please check your CSA calendar so you don’t miss any deliveries!

That’s a wrap for this week.  Have a good one!
-Chef Andrea

Vegetable Feature:  Sugar Dumpling Squash

Sugar Dumpling Squash

The world of vegetables is so diverse, and even within a category such as “winter squash” there are very different varieties.  This week we’re featuring the sugar dumpling squash, which has different qualities and characteristics in comparison to the two other squash we’ve featured this year.  Sugar dumpling squash is a variety that was developed out of collaboration between the University of New Hampshire and our friends at High Mowing Organic Seeds, an all-organic seed company in Vermont.  This variety is similar in shape to an acorn or festival squash, but is a bit more squatty and rounded.  It has yellow and green markings on the skin with a light yellow flesh.  The flesh is not as rich as a kabocha squash, but is very flavorful and sweet.  While they have been storing very well this year, they do have a higher sugar content which makes them less of a candidate for storing deep into the winter. 

Sugar dumpling squash is delicious when simply cut in half and baked until tender.  You can serve it with nothing more than a pat of butter and a little salt and pepper.  It also is a good squash for serving with a filling.  In late fall and winter I actually enjoy eating this squash for breakfast.  I cut it in half and bake it with apples, cranberries, and/or raisins in the middle and sprinkle it with a little cinnamon, a drizzle of maple syrup and sometimes I eat it with the toasted squash seeds on top.  You can fill it with any variety of fillings ranging from fruit to all vegetables, rice, meat, cheese, etc.  As I was thinking about the recipe I wanted to feature in this week’s newsletter, Andrea Bemis of Dishing Up the Dirt blog popped one right into my inbox!  Check out her recipe for stuffed squash featured in this week’s newsletter.  It was a perfect recipe that utilizes not only the sugar dumpling squash in this week’s box but also some of the onions and the tender kale. 

This squash variety also has tender seeds that toast up nice and crispy.  Last week Heidi Swanson did a very nice feature on her blog, 101cookbooks.com, about toasting pumpkin seeds.  The process is the same whether the seeds come from a pumpkin or a squash.  She has step-by-step pictures and several variations for how to flavor and season them, one of which is included in this week’s newsletter.  If you’ve never saved the seeds from your squash, or don’t have a good process for doing so, I’d encourage you to give it a try this week.  You might as well take advantage of using as much of the squash as you can!  

Autumn Spiced Pork Sausage & Kale Stuffed Squash

Photo from Dishing Up The Dirt blog

Yield:  4 servings

2 medium or 4 smaller sugar dumpling squash

1 small yellow onion, finely chopped

2 cloves of garlic, minced

1 pound ground pork sausage

¾ tsp ground cumin

½ tsp ground cinnamon

¼ tsp ground cloves

Salt and pepper, to taste

1 small bunch of kale, leaves torn into bite sized pieces

½ cup dried cranberries, soaked in hot water for 10 minutes and then drained

¼ cup pecans, finely chopped

Drizzle of pure maple syrup (optional)

1. Preheat the oven to 425°F.  Cut the squash in half and scoop out the seeds.  Set them aside so you can clean and prepare them to toast (an optional step, but highly recommended).  Drizzle the cut side of each squash half with a little olive oil and place each squash cut side down on a baking sheet.  Roast them in the oven until the squash is tender, about 25-30 minutes.  Cooking times will vary depending on the size of the squash.
2. Heat a little olive oil in a large, deep skillet over medium heat.  Add the onion and cook, stirring often, until they are translucent.  About 5 minutes.  Add the garlic and continue to cook for about 2 minutes longer.  Add the pork, spices, salt and pepper and use a wooden spoon to help break up the meat.  Continue to cook, stirring occasionally until the meat is cooked through and no longer pink.  Add the kale leaves and continue to cook until the kale turns bright green and becomes tender, about 5-8 minutes longer.  Stir in the drained cranberries. 
3. Once the pork and the kale are fully cooked, remove from the heat.  
4. Divide the sausage mixture between the squash halves and sprinkle with the toasted pecans and a drizzle of pure maple syrup.  Put the squash halves back on the sheet tray and put them back in the oven just long enough to wam up all the ingredients.  Drizzle them with a little maple syrup just before serving. 

Andrea & Author’s Note:  If you have extra filling left over, put it in the freezer. You can use this filling for a future delivery of sugar dumpling squash or with the festival squash coming before the end of the season. This recipe was adapted from Dishing Up the Dirt.

Sweet Curry Squash Seeds

Yield:  1 ½ cups seeds (or however many seeds you get out of your squash!)

1 ½ cups winter squash or pumpkin seeds, well-cleaned, well-dried

2 tsps olive oil
2 tsp curry powder
2 tsp brown sugar
Fine grain sea salt

1. Preheat your oven to 375°F, and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
2. In a medium bowl, toss the squash/pumpkin seeds with the olive oil and sea salt. Transfer the seeds to the prepared baking sheet in a single layer. Bake for 25-35 minutes, or until the seeds are deeply golden. A zap under a broiler is a nice finishing touch, but not necessary.
3. Remove from the oven, allow to cool for a minute or two, and then stir in the curry powder and brown sugar.  Sprinkle with additional salt if necessary.

This recipe was adapted from Heidi Swanson’s blog, 101cookbooks. com.  Just last week she did a great blog post all about how to save and toast pumpkin seeds, but she does mention that all the techniques also may be applied to seeds saved from a variety of winter squash.  Her post includes step-by-step pictures and instructions as well as a few other tasty seasoning variations.  You may need to scale this recipe to whatever quantity of seeds you have available from your squash.  

Sweet Potatoes

By Farmer Richard

Sweet potatoes are a tropical plant originating in South America. The remnants of sweet potatoes have been found in Peru dating back 10,000 years and there is evidence of cultivation in Central America at least 5,000 years ago. Cultivated sweet potatoes spread to New Zealand, Polynesia and Africa. Today, Uganda is the second largest producer of sweet potatoes behind China.  In this country, sweet potatoes have been traditionally grown in the southeast. North Carolina is the leading producer, with California in second and Louisiana and Mississippi also being significant producers. 

Southern farms ‘plant’ selected sweet potatoes taken from last year’s harvest pretty close together in a bed of sawdust or peat moss.  The tubers send up green shoots which are cut off (called slips) and sent to us in bundles of 25 each.  They don’t look very good when we get them, but if we get them planted promptly, most of them will grow! 

Sweet potato blossoms

Farmer Richard digging sweet potatoes at our Harvest Party!

Researchers continue to experiment with new varieties. A new variety is created by cross pollinating flowers and planting 2 – 4 seeds that a flower produces.  We continue to trial them when the slips are available to us.  Our favorite slip producer is New Sprout Organic Farms. This year they offered some new varieties that we trialed. As we dug them this year, we looked at ‘marketable yield’, like tuber shape, set (how many tubers per plant), and color, both inside and out. Varieties ‘set’ 6-8 tubers in a banana like cluster from the main stem.  If 5-6 grow to a nice shapely size, it will be a good yield.  If only 2 or 3 fill out and one a 4 pound jumbo, maybe not as good.  It may be a photo opportunity at our harvest party when a 40 pound child joyfully lifts out a 5 pound sweet potato, but those jumbo’s may intimidate other CSA members who may not know how to cook a ‘monster’ that size or know how easily it will reheat in the oven. So, we try to avoid the ‘monsters’ by planting some varieties closer together, like 8 inches versus 12 inch to keep them to a manageable size!  Every variety has its learning curve. And of course every year has different growing conditions, so varieties need careful evaluation over time!

Plastic bed ready for sweet potatoes!

Newly planted sweet potato slip

Around the world there are 1,000’s of different sizes, colors and shapes of sweet potatoes, from white to yellow and orange to deep purple. But, since they are a tropical plant, we are very limited in what we can grow in Wisconsin. First, we use a system of dark colored plastic on a raised bed to hold extra heat in the ground and the plastic limits the rain water to a plant that thrives on limited moisture. We are limited to the varieties that will mature in 90-110 day range. That eliminates the purple flesh and white flesh varieties that we have tasted and would like to grow, but only produce stringy ½ inch thick roots when we tried them.  Andrea wants to develop our own breeding program for them since no one that we know is working on that! While we may have limited options to choose from, some of the new varieties from sweet potato breeding programs from North Carolina and Louisiana do/may work for us. We have several new varieties this year that we could use your help in evaluating!  We need a certain level of successful yield of shapely, not too big not too small tubers, but we also value flavor!

Once we were limited to only ‘Georgia Jet’ variety that would produce sizable yield in the North, but oh so ugly! Then came ‘Beauregard’ which, if planted close (8 inches), yielded pounds but had limited numbers of nice “saleable” shapely potatoes.  The plus to Beauregard is that it had good flavor! Then we found ‘Covington’, gave it 12 inch spacing and we got a much higher percentage of shapely tubers but don’t forget the flavor! We like naturally sweet sweet potatoes without added sugar or even maple syrup. We like the deep orange flesh color which has higher lycopene. But, there are other factors to consider. Different varieties of sweet potatoes have very different levels of at least 3 sugars, sucrose, maltose, and fructose. Each gives us a different perception of sweetness and they have different flavor profiles.   The sugars also change during the curing process.  Curing, yes that is also very important!

Harvesting sweet potatoes

Because Sweet potatoes are tropical, they are a perennial and never stop growing, so when we harvest them, their skin is very thin and delicate and can come off or be broken with any rough handling.  We gently lift and pull the banana-like cluster by the stem from the soil.  Then each bunch is placed (with cotton gloves) into the crate that will transport it to the ‘curing’ room.  Curing is a process we put the sweet potatoes through where we hold them at a high temperature of 85-90°F with 90-95% humidity to thicken the skin and heel any harvest scrapes.  The curing process also concentrates and converts the sugars. We measure the sugar with a refractometer and with the older varieties we generally see a Brix (unit of measurement) of 3-6% directly out of the field.  After 7 days curing, the Brix level increases to 10-12%.  That is a sugar level that I think says “add only a little butter and it is delicious!”

So, our ‘from the field’ Brix test on our new trial varieties is quite interesting!  Our recent ‘standard’ ‘Covington’ came in at the usual 3-5%, but several of the new varieties came in at 8-10% Brix. Wow, if that doubles in storage we have a whole new ballgame!  However, I was very surprised to measure the Brix after 6 days of curing and found that two of the varieties that originally had high levels had dropped!  What’s going on!?  The best I can conclude is that it’s not just a matter of looking at total sugars in the potato.  It depends on which sugars are in the potato and their ratios.  Sucrose gives us a stronger sense of sweetness, so even if the overall sugars are lower in a potato with a high percentage of sucrose, it might be perceived as being sweeter than another variety that had a high Brix level.  The bottom line is we have to eat them and evaluate each variety individually.  Please help us evaluate these new varieties!  There are other factors that Brix readings cannot account for. Differing levels of the different forms of sugar also may lend different flavor qualities to the different potatoes.  Also, when doing the pre-curing Brix test, I noticed quite a difference in texture, like when in the garlic press to squeeze them for juice for the refractometer; some were soft and juicy while others were much firmer and dry. These factors may affect cooking time and you may consider one texture more desirable than another. We want to know your observations; even a simple email would be appreciated.

Chart of Farmer Richard’s Brix testing. He tested two potatoes from each variety, each of those test numbers are listed in the corresponding cell.

Variety Name	Pre-Curing Brix Number	6 day Curing Brix Number	Richard’s visual notes
Covington	4.5/2.5	8.0	Light Orange
Bellevue	7.5/7.5	4.0	Dark orange/tan skin & small, but good yield
Burgundy	9.0/8.5	8.0….hmmm	Intense orange/ dark burgundy skin
Orleans	10.0/8.0		Orange/red
Carolina Ruby	8.5/9.0		Orange/dark red/some rot

Can we develop our own regional sweet potato variety, absolutely yes! Do we need a global distribution network with unknown inputs and unknown or known consequences, absolutely not! We can eat the best from our region with known inputs and know how it affects our environment and our fellow human beings!