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Jump into spring and get a taste of local foods this weekend! On Sunday from 11-3pm, bring your plate and fork to Flavors of the Valley at Hartford High School in White River Jct. This is the 16th annual celebration of local foods organized by Vital Communities with over 50 farm and food related vendors. We're excited to be part of this tasting event that brings together Upper Valley chefs, farmers, and specialty food producers.
At Flavors on Sunday, we'll be offering a taste of our sauerkraut and kimchi, carrots, and spring micro greens. We'll also have sauerkraut, kimchi, carrots, beets, sun-dried tomatoes, and our own Root 5 Farm honey for sale!
It's been a wild ride this spring, from huge snow banks to huge puddles and back to snow and ice again in just a few weeks! But despite the crazy weather outside it's been warm and cozy in our greenhouse. We've been busy seeding lettuce, broccoli, herbs, and potting up eggplants, peppers, and tomatoes.
We prepped the beds in our high tunnels and planted arugula, lettuce mix, radishes, and turnips so they'll be ready for the first CSA Shares in May. Our field tunnels are covered so we hope to get an early planting of swiss chard and broccolini in the ground as soon as the soil dries out.
If you've been meaning to sign up for a CSA share, don't delay! The growing season has begun and shares are going fast! Sign up today and receive your first CSA delivery in mid-May.  Tomorrow is the last day to take advantage of our early-bird CSA share pricing and also receive a $30 Market Card when you sign up for a Full Season Share. Sign up for your Full Season Share by midnight on Friday! Get the best price and reserve your share for the season. Monthly payment plans available. We're counting down the days till spring!
Learn more about our 2017 CSA pick up sites and add-on options.
Signing up for a CSA membership is one of the best ways to get to know your farmers and gain a deeper understanding for what it takes to grow the food you eat every day. We work hard so that you feel appreciated, included and connected to your food. We hope that with each CSA delivery, and most every meal, you feel more than the weight of your CSA box and taste more than food. We grow and harvest our very best for you, and we hope you can sense our intention and care, and that you're healthier and happier for it!
Now is the best time to sign up for your 2017 CSA Share! Take advantage of our early-bird pricing and also receive a $30 Market Card! Sign up for your Full Season Share before this Friday March 3rd! Learn more about our 2017 CSA pick up sites and add-on options.
When you become a CSA member of Root 5 Farm, you'll receive a regular supply of fresh organic vegetables each week at a significant savings over retail. Your membership gives you a direct connection to the people growing your food, and helps support our regional food system in the Upper Valley. Having a regular supply of farm fresh organic food is great way to eat healthier meals and help you to become a more creative cook. Don’t worry, we have lots of recipes and culinary tips to share! Sign up today! The day length has just tipped back over 10 hours, which is when plants slowly begin to break their dormancy and we start to see growth again. This is particularly evident inside our high tunnels, where the over-wintered spinach suddenly wakes up and starts to put on new leaves. It's one of the very earliest signs that the new season is on it's way!  It may still feel like the depths of winter, but we assure you, spring is coming! We invite you to Sign up for a Full Season CSA Share before March 3rd to take advantage of our Early Bird pricing and also receive a $30 Root 5 Farm Market Card!
Believe it or not, we're only a few weeks away from starting up our greenhouses and sowing our first seedlings. We're busy in the office now planning for the upcoming season. Sign up for your CSA Share today so we can plan to grow for YOU!
Come to the Norwich Farmers' Market at Tracy Hall this Saturday 1/28 from 10am-1pm! This is our final market for the winter season! This weekend you can stock up on beautiful sweet potatoes, winter squash, cabbage, kohlrabi, onions, garlic, and sun-dried tomatoes.  You'll want to grab a bag of our sweet carrots and colorful beets, plus our freshly picked winter spinach! Pick up a quart of our kimchi, sauerkraut and honey too! See you at the market!
 With sub-zero temperatures in the forecast we harvested the last of our greens for the season this week from under the protection of our cold frame and high tunnels. We'll have some beautiful kale and spinach for our final CSA shares next week. We've also been busy buttoning up and protecting all our crop storage spaces to keep thousands of pounds of carrots, beets, and cabbage, and over 40 barrels of kraut and kimchi safely in storage through the winter.
We'll have a full table at the Farmers' Market on Saturday at Tracy Hall in Norwich from 10-1pm. Come stock up on delicious local foods for your holiday meals. Try our crispy kohlrabi, snappy carrots, amazing kale, the darkest green spinach, and the sweetest sweet potatoes! We have a plethora of seasonal recipes on our website to help inspire your next meal!  Thinking back to sunnier times... we're sending you warm wishes from our crew to yours for a happy holiday season! Thank you for your continued support and an incredible season in 2016!
Winter arrived suddenly and looks like it's here to stay! Our fields are covered in snow, and the temperatures are forecasted to drop to the single digets over the next week. The good news is that we still have plenty of delicious food to fill our CSA boxes and market table. Join us at the Farmers' Market this Saturday at Tracy Hall in Norwich from 10am-2pm. (Note extended hours for the holiday market).  Have you ever wondered why vegetables are so sweet this time of year? When temperatures drop and frost hits, only the heartiest of plants are equipped to survive. The adaptation that keeps them from dying in the cold also makes them sweet and delicious. Some hardy vegetables have the abiltiy to convert some of their starch stores into sugar, and this keeps the water in their cells from freezing. So, relish their survival skills and enjoy the sweet taste of our winter carrots, cabbage, kale, spinach, swiss chard, kohlrabi, broccolini, and even parsley! You can pick up these vegetables at our market table on Saturday!  Check out this remarkable radicchio! We harvested them this morning from underneath the snow! Radicchio can survive uncovered in the field even when it's 20 degrees outside. This member of the chicory genus is loved for it's bitterness and incredibly fresh, bright flavor during this cold, dark, and snowy time of year. One of the best and easiest ways to explore the taste of bitter is through chicories. Pick up some raddichio at the market and try one of these recipes from NYTimes Cooking this week.  Our CSA Shares are still going strong with two more weeks left to go! This week you may have been uncertain about the mysterious, big, round green vegetable in your box. If you're not familiar with kohlrabi, don't be afraid! Simply peel the skin off and slice a piece to try a taste. It's incredibly sweet and crispy, and it's very versitile in the kitchen. You can eat it raw, saute, or roast. Learn more about kohlrabi on our website.  We're excited to have a new batch of kimchi ready for market this weekend! Our kimchi is a truly a labor of love, we grow each of the ingredients- cabbage, carrots, scallions, onions, garlic, ginger, and hot peppers- and we hand chop, mix, and ferment the vegetables in small batches. Our favorite way to eat kimchi is right out of the container! Pick some up at the market this weekend!
The Norwich Farmers' Market moves indoors this Saturday! You can find us at Tracy Hall in Norwich from 10-1pm with a full spread of fresh greens, herbs, roots, sweet potatoes and more! We have some super healthy foods to help you get through the dark days of November. At the market we'll have plenty of leafy greens, brussels spouts, and sauerkraut!  Root 5 Farm Powerkraut is made using a traditional method of lacto-fermentation. We use only two ingredients: our own organically grown, freshly harvested green cabbages and Maine sea salt! Traditional sauerkraut is a natural pro-biotic food that has many well-documented health benefits. You can find out more about our Powerkraut on our website.  Our fresh, young ginger will be for sale at the market this Saturday! The ginger we grow at Root 5 Farm is juicy and plump, with a pink blush. It has a translucent skin that doesn’t need peeling. Just wash, trim the cut surfaces, grate, or chop, and enjoy. Ginger is a nutrient-rich food considered to be especially beneficial for health and well-being. You can find recipes and more information about young ginger on our website.  We also have a beautiful crop of fresh, young turmeric root available right now! Fresh turmeric's bright orange flesh is earthy and peppery and it has a livelier flavor than the dried, powdered version. Turmeric offers many health benefits since it has both anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidant properties. Boost your immune system by making your own coconut milk curry (using ginger and turmeric!) or try this recipe for golden milk.
See you at the market! This is the time of year when so many varieties of winter squash are available and at their best. Winter squash are some of the most delicious, nutritious, and versatile ingredients of the season. Winter squash are loaded with antioxidants such as beta carotene and vitamin C. They also contain folate and omega 3 fatty acids! There are so many ways to prepare squash and they're easy to store. You can extend the season just by keeping a box of squash in a cool dry space in your own home.  We'll have all of our winter squash varieties on display at the Fairlee Market on Friday 3-6pm and the Saturday Norwich Farmers' Market 9-1pm. These are our final outdoor markets of the season! Come try a new variety this week! You can also order additional quantities to store your own for winter by emailing Danielle.  We grow nine different varieties of winter squash because they each have their own unique cooking qualities and storability! You can find a simple guide to the many varieties we grow on our website.  Delicata squash is one of the first to ripen in the field and it doesn't keep as long as other winter squash, so we try to use them up first. Delicata is one of our fall favorites because it's so simple and satisfying to cook up for a weeknight meal. You don't have to peel the tender skin, you can simply slice them into circles and roast in the oven.  Another one of our favorite this season is this mini butternut called "honeynut". These are the perfect portion size, just slice in half, scoop out the seeds, roast in the oven and you've got a meal. The flavor and texture of this squash is really outstanding! We love the story of how honeynut came into being and we think you will too!  Kabocha is another amazing squash variety, not to be overlooked. This late ripening variety has very dense, dry flesh that's remarkably sweet with a nice nutty flavor. Kabocha squash is very versatile in the kitchen, it can be roasted, steamed, or simmered into a smooth creamy soup. The skin is also tender enough to eat if you don't want to peel it. One of our late winter favorites is "winter sweet" grey kabocha because they continue to sweeten and the flavors improve after two months in storage.  Check out Ali's latest recipe Squash Apple Cheddar Soup. This hearty fall soup will warm you up! We recommend trying it with Buttercup or Kabocha squash this week!
It's the height of the season, we've reached the pinnacle. That short but sweet time of year when we're loaded with the beautiful fruits of our summer labor- tomatoes, peppers, watermelons, and cantaloupe. It's a great time to stock up and cook it all down into sauces and salsas, and maybe preserve a bit of that sweet summer flavor to save for the colder months. Check out Ali's Super Simple Tomato Sauce Recipe.  We'll have flats of Roma tomatoes for sale at the markets this weekend: Friday 3-6pm in front of Chapman's in Fairlee, and Saturday 9-1pm at the Norwich Farmers' Market. CSA customers can order from our online store for pick up along with their weekly share. All the ingredients you need to make a delicious Salsa Verde are available right now: tomatillos, garlic, cilantro, hot peppers. It's so simple, you're going to love it! Check out the recipe here.  This is the final week of our Summer CSA Shares, but there's still much more to come! We have a few spaces open for our Fall CSA Shares. Sign up today and receive the best of our fall harvest for the next 16 weeks, until the end of December. Weekly deliveries or Half Share bi-weekly deliveries available for the fall season.  |
Root 5 Farm
Danielle Allen & Ben Dana 2340 US Route 5 North Fairlee, Vermont 05045 (802) 923-6339 danielle@root5farm.com ben@root5farm.com |
