Why (and How) We Love Seasonal Eating during Winter!
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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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Erik, Jasmine, and Michael behind our stand at Western Fair
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Farm Update
It is certainly soup season out here! A wonderful part of eating seasonally is that winter meals often offer just what we need at this time of year: comfort, heat, hydration, and heartiness that helps keep you warm.
This is a time of year when enthusiasm for seasonal eating can start to wane, as leafy greens run short in supply and we pause from the influx of new crops that mark the main season. The absence of hot-weather crops like tomatoes, peppers, and cucumbers might make the heart grow fonder for them. Though true, that absence also opens up a space for creative cooking.
Some vegetables have more direct winter equivalents: warm-season celery switches to cold-storage celeriac, fast-growing summer radish swaps for long-storing daikons. Beyond substitutes, what we love most about winter vegetables is their versatility. Green and red cabbage, carrots, kohlrabi, celeriac, beets, parsnip, root parsley, sunchokes, napa, rutabaga, turnips, and every winter radish can ALL be eaten raw, stewed, grated in salad, sauteed, roasted, boiled, steamed, pickled, and that list could go on! Potatoes, sweet potatoes, and squash (though they may also be eaten raw) can be cooked in endless ways, and even still make their way into a salad. There are too many options to count!
On the farm, if we feel tired of winter vegetables, here is what we do:
- Change the seasonings and spices in our standard recipes
- In a favourite recipe, use a different, but similar vegetable (red cabbage becomes green or sweet potatoes become squash).
- Use something we don't often eat (looking at you, Sunchokes!)
- Prepare something in a new way. Last year's discovery was rutabaga curry! The crew all loves kohlrabi raw so this year we will experiment with cooking it.
This helps keep things interesting, keeps diversity in your diet at a time when crops aren't growing, and (of course) supports robust local food systems.
However, if you are like us and itching for longer light hours, remember: every bite of those hearty winter vegetables came from summer's sunshine!
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Some incredible winter colours! Purple daikon on the top, watermelon radish on the bottom. |
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FARM STORE NOTES
FROM OUR FARM:
Kale is taking a break until temperatures warm up and it can grow some more.
From storage: Carrots, beets, sunchokes, celeriac, rutabaga, kohlrabi, winter radishes, red and green cabbages
From the Greenhouse and hoophouses: Parsley and cilantro.
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FROM OUR SUPPLIERS:
PRODUCE
HOPE Eco-Farms (Aylmer): Sweet potatoes.
Great Lakes Farms (Port Stanley): Macintosh, empire, gala, honeycrisp, ida red. ambrosia, sunpunch, golden delicious.
Pfenning's Organics (New Hamburg): Red and yellow onions, leeks, red, yellow, and russet potatoes.
Through Pfenning's: Ontario mushrooms, and red delicious apples. From further away, shallots, citrus, ginger, turmeric, broccoli, celery, and romaine.
DAIRY and EGGS
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
J&D Peters Tortillas (Aylmer): Spelt, whole wheat and unbleached flour tortillas.
La Houlette de vie (St. Thomas): Sourdough bread and pastry with grain that Seth fresh-mills himself
Artisan Bakery (London): Sourdough bread and pastries made with local flour
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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