Newsletter # 19: Week of October 21st

Basket contents: Celeriac, Choice of beets or onions, red pepper, kale, garlic, potatoes, choice of parsnip or rutabaga, choice of celery or broccoli, tomatoe, parsley, carrots

Recipe of the week: Celeriac Slaw With Creamy Rosemary Dressing

Well, dear partners, this is the last of the summer baskets we’ll share together.  For those of you continuing on with winter baskets, we look forward to continuing to see you for a few more months, if only every other week.  A few baskets do remain if you haven’t yet sign up, and you can do so here.  And you can all expect to hear from us in December for early registration for summer baskets 2014!

We want to sincerely thank you all for your support, help and encouragement this year.   Getting to know the consumers of our veggies adds meaning to our work.  It is wonderful to feel so surrounded by an engaged and caring community of veggie lovers!

Thank you also to everyone who has taken the time to fill out the survey.  We love getting your comments, so keep them coming! It can be found here: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/J5W73G8. We’ll get back to you in the next few weeks to share the results, as well as the ways in which we hope to adapt our production to better suit your preferences.

And now, we’ll leave you with some ideas for a new vegetable you’ll receive in your basket this week- Celeriac!  Do not be turned off by its dirty, twisty exterior- it’s humble appearance is a disguise for its incredible flavor.  This vegetable is relateceleriacd to celery, both botanically, as well as by taste, but it is mostly sold for the enlarged root ball at the base of the plant.  In your basket we give you the stalks still attached, because although they’re a little more fibrous than regular celery, they are a great flavor addition to soups and stocks.  To maximize storage life, cut off the stalks and store them separately in an opened plastic bag in the fridge; the root can just be stored loose in the fridge.

We’ve included a recipe for a celeriac slaw, but you can also add other veggies (carrots, apples, etc.) for a mixed grated salad.  You can also use it to season soups and stews by adding it at the same time as carrots and onions, or purée cooked celeriac with cooked potatoes or other root vegetables and serve in place of mashed potatoes.  Or simply roasted in the oven, as baked celeriac fries, or mixed in cubes with other roasted root veggies.  Enjoy!