2023 CSA Farm Update: Week 18
From the Farm: Sweet Potatoes
Hello Everyone and welcome to week 18 of the Katchkie Farm CSA. Fall weather is upon us this week with temperatures in the 50s and 60s. The leaves have also begun their show off their fall colors, making early mornings extra colorful. As the season begins to wind down, we are slowly making our way through all that needs to happen. There is a balancing act of field work, bulk harvesting hardy crops, finding space in our coolers, and getting our garlic prepared for planting.
This past week, we took advantage of the summer-like temperatures and harvested our sweet potatoes. We had planted about a linear mile of plants spaced at one foot intervals way back in the first week of June which was also our last dry spell in the weather. Nearly four months later, it was time to harvest them.
One is never quite sure about what is held tucked away under the soil when harvest time comes. Was it a good year? Did we get too much rain? Did the mice and voles get to them before we did? All of these questions are answered as the harvest unfolds and the radiant orange and purple hues are pulled from the earth piled layer upon layer in our wooden crates. Little by little we made our way down the rows, filling up one bin after the other.
After about 50 person hours of labor the last sweet potato was harvested and tucked away. I was not sure how they would produce given the mild summer, but they were very close to last year’s yields. Our purple skin white flesh sweet potato seemed to need a little more heat to perform its best, but the orange variety did very well. All in all, our harvest was around 6000 lbs. Now they are enjoying a balmy 90 degrees in our walk-in cooler in order to cure and convert those starches to sugars. This is the opposite of most of our vegetables this time of year, which need colder weather to convert their starches to sugars. These treasures will make their first appearance in next week’s CSA shares.
After their own curing process, we will add butternut squash to the shares. The smell of butternut squash cooking away in the oven always reminds me of fall and the comforts that come with autumn meals. The other day I took a walk with my daughter around the fields to see what was ready (this time it was during the day with no deer in sight) and the tatsoi seemed to have leapt out of the ground over the past week. We sampled a few leaves, and it was wonderfully succulent, and I could not resist adding it to the shares. As we walked around the garden some more, we entered a fennel forest with fronds over three feet tall! We sampled some of the bulbs, and decided it was delicious as well. With ample rain, the fall fennel is extra tall and sweet right now. It will make a wonderful dish raw or roasted.
Until next time,
Farmer Jon
WEEKLY HARVEST INCLUDES*
*We try our best to provide the most accurate CSA list in the newsletter! However, there’s always a chance of last minute substitutions in some bags if we don’t harvest enough of a vegetable.
recipe: SWEET POTATO GNOCCHI
Serves 10-12
The possibilities are endless with this Sweet Potato Gnocchi. Keep it classic with a sage brown butter sauce; mix it up with some sauteed tatsoi and pesto; or even toss with roasted vegetables from your basket.
Ingredients
2 1-lb red-skinned sweet potatoes, rinsed, patted dry, pierced all over with fork
1 12-oz container fresh ricotta cheese, drained in sieve 2 hours
1 cup finely grated Parmesan cheese (about 3 ounces)
2 tbsp (packed) golden brown sugar
2 tsp plus 2 tbsp salt
½ tsp freshly ground nutmeg
2¾ cups (about) all-purpose flour
Procedure
Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper. Place sweet potatoes on plate; microwave on high until tender, about 5 minutes per side or bake at 375 degrees until soft, about 20 minutes. Let cool.
Cut in half and scrape sweet potato flesh into medium bowl and mash; transfer 3 cups to large bowl. Add ricotta cheese; blend well. Add Parmesan cheese, brown sugar, 2 teaspoons salt and nutmeg then mash to blend. Mix in flour, about a ½ cup at a time, until soft dough forms.
Turn dough out onto floured surface; divide into 6 equal pieces. Rolling between palms and floured work surface, form each piece into 20-inch-long rope (about 1-inch in diameter), sprinkling with flour as needed if sticky. Cut each rope into 20 pieces. Roll each piece over tines of fork to indent. Transfer to baking sheet.
Bring a large pot of water to boil; add 2 tablespoons of salt and return to boil. Working in batches, boil gnocchi until tender, for about 5 to 6 minutes.
Divide gnocchi and sauce among shallow bowls.