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It's Frozen Outside, but There's Still Lots to Eat!
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Have a veggie subscription with us? You are getting this email because you do not have a box scheduled for this week, but can still make a regular order through our store. If so, please complete the checkout process to submit your order.
Order vegetables before Wednesday for pickup and delivery this week.
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Adding wickets to Hoophouse 3. These wire hoops will hold up row cover in this space and maintain a warmer microclimate right where the plants are. In this space, we have already harvested radish, arugula, dill, and cilantro. These awesome-looking salad mix and hakurei turnips are next on the harvest list.
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Farm Update
Well, all of a sudden, it's December! We can say the same for Winter, which feels like it has begun in earnest. Our 14-day forecast only shows temperatures below 0°C, so we expect to be largely finished in the field for now.
In anticipation of the ground freezing, we made sure to harvest lots of leeks. Though leeks can survive being frozen, they're more work to harvest and prep for sale once they have been. We are happy with the amount we have stored for now, so maybe if we have a brief January or February thaw, we will take the opportunity to harvest more.
Some other crops still in the field are sunchokes, kale, and collards. Sunchokes will be frozen in the ground, but similar to leeks, we estimate that what we have stored will take us through most of the winter, and we will dig more in early spring.
Kale, on the other hand, will continue to be harvestable (since it's aboveground) but will be bagged instead of bunched. We make the switch because though kale keeps its leaves in the winter, it doesn't tend to grow new ones. The leaves we have available become smaller as we continue to harvest, but we also find that winter kale keeps best in bags. Collards, however, aren't as hardy to subzero temperatures, so we will have to keep a close eye on how they're faring.
We tightened the ropes on our newly moved caterpillar tunnels last week. We add these criss-crossing ropes to hold the plastic in place, but they generally need to be tightened a few weeks after a tunnel is set up and everything settles. The tightening had been lower on our to-do list until the high wind event last week. Then it shot to the top of the list! We are thankful to say everything fared well through the wind.
We are looking forward to a winter season full of good, local food!
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Laura made team lunch last week, and we remembered to take a photo before digging in!
Ricotta pasta with wilted arugula, and a purple kale salad with rosemary-roasted squash, fresh dill, grated carrot, kohlrabi, and Dijon vinaigrette. Wow!
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FARM STORE NOTES
FROM OUR FARM:
Root roast pack: A combination of the root veggies we have on rotation. Chop it all up and roast, use as a soup/stew base, or use components separately. This is a great way to get a little bit of everything. Bags are 2.5-3 lbs and a mix of carrot, potato, beet, sunchoke, turnip, and a little radish or two.
From the field: Kale, collards.
From storage: Carrots, beets, potatoes, sunchokes, celeriac, rutabaga, kohlrabi, winter radish, cabbage, leeks.
From the Greenhouse and hoophouses: hakurei turnips, spinach, arugula, salad mix, green onion, radish, chard, arugula, dill and cilantro.
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FROM OUR SUPPLIERS:
PRODUCE
HOPE Eco-Farms (Aylmer): Tetsukabuto, stripetti (striped spaghetti), butternut, and black futsu squash. Sweet potatoes.
Great Lakes Farms (Port Stanley): Macintosh, empire, gala, honeycrisp, spy, sunpunch, golden delicious, fuji.
Forest City Microgreens (London): Fresh microgreens
Daryl Myny (Aylmer): Spanish onions
Pfenning's Organics: Red onions, parsnips, red, yellow, and russet potatoes.
Through Pfenning's: Ontario Gala apples, shallots, and mushrooms. From further away; cranberries, lemons, limes, ginger, turmeric.
DAIRY and EGGS
Mistyglen Creamery (Belmont): Non-homogenized and vat pasteurized milk, yogurt, and cheese curds. Seasonal milk: Eggnog and mint chocolate
HOPE Eco-Farms (Aylmer): Eggs.
Through Pfenning's: L'Ancetre butter and grass-fed cheeses
Gunn's Hill (Woodstock): Brie, Handeck and Five Brother's cheese
FROZEN
3Gen Organics (Wallenstein): Ground pork, sausage, bacon, ham, tenderloin, chops
YU Ranch (Tillsonburg): Pasture-raised ground beef, beef patties, stewing beef
New Leaf Foods (London): Plant-based beet burgers
BAKERY
Seth/La Houlette de vie (St. Thomas): Organic sourdough bread made using local grain that Seth mills himself.
Artisan Bakery (London): Sourdoughs and pastry made with local flour.
J&D Peters Tortillas (Aylmer): Corn, spelt, whole wheat and unbleached flour tortillas.
Lewis Baked Goods (St. Thomas): Organic flour ready-to-use pizza crusts.
PANTRY
Aldred Maple (West Lorne): Amber, dark, or whiskey barrel-aged maple syrup.
Wildflowers Honey (St. Thomas): Unpasteurized honey from hives all over Elgin County, including our farm!
Mat's Fine Oils (Staffordville). Fresh, organic and cold-pressed, hemp and sunflower oil. Store in the refrigerator.
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PICKUP / DELIVERY OPTIONS
Western Fair Market: Saturday 8 am to 3 pm / Sunday 10 am to 2pm
Farm pickup: Thursday 4 to 8 pm
Kitchener Farmer's Market: Saturday 7 am to 2 pm
Delivery: Thursday / Friday in London & St.Thomas and area, Saturday in KW / Cambridge (schedule will be sent out Wednesday night)
RETURNING CONTAINERS
We love to re-use wherever possible! We can take our CGF boxes and liner bags, strawberry and blueberry baskets/boxes, milk bottles, and egg cartons.
For delivery, please leave these return items out where you would like your order dropped off. Thank you!
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Why am I on this list? At some point you signed up for our previous "farmstand" list or our newsletter list. Want to get off the list? No problem: . Common Ground Farm 6986 Middle River Road St. Thomas, Ontario N5P 3S9
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