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Community Supported Agriculture (CSA), CSA Newsletter

Jupiter Ridge 2020 CSA | Week 16 (And Happy Halloween!)

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Well, we can admit it now: summer is definitely over! With brutally cold (for October) temps tonight, our tomatoes have finally kicked the bucket, all crops are out of the field, and it’s time to think about a whole different approach to using those CSA vegetables. (Soup, anyone? I know we’re thinking it….)

With this in mind, this week’s box is meant to give you a little “break” from the summer stuff, and help you stock up on those “stock” needs. (Pun intended!) We’re giving you a little extra potatoes and onions to get ahead, plus parsley (fantastic in stock!) and a much larger head of garlic to get the dang thing done.

Just because we’re talking about soup so much (because we have soup and chili on our minds in this cold weather….), doesn’t mean you have to be making soup, though! With some greens (red kale), spring radishes, and green peppers, there are still some “summery” (or “spring-ey”) things you can make if you’re just not ready to let go of the warmer times….

This week, CSA will contain:

  • Potatoes (1.5 pounds)
  • Red kale bunch
  • Green peppers
  • Spring radish bunch
  • Yellow storage onions (1 pound)
  • Garlic (1 large head)
  • Kabocha squash (Japanese pie pumpkin) New!
  • Shallots (2 cloves)
  • Parsley bunch

Our past couple days pulling out and doing an inventory of the season’s last veg will give you a little preview: we’ll have tons of root veg on the way! Turnips and storage radishes are one of our favorite bits of of fall produce to share with people. We know most people don’t like them, but we’re convinced it’s because most people haven’t eaten them the RIGHT way! And we’ll have lots of ideas to share with you.

And around the corner, we’ll have lots of squash, cabbage, and leeks, plus some of the season’s last carrots, too (we can’t help but start thinking of soup again…especially with leeks in that lineup!)

Winter Radishes | Jupiter Ridge Farm
People think turnips are boring, but we don’t! (These are winter radishes by the way, which are a lot like turnips.)

And since it’s Halloween, we couldn’t resist sneaking our members a pumpkin! Specifically kabocha, which is a bright orange Japanese type of pie pumpkin. Completely edible too, and one of our top favorite squash because of its sweetness and creaminess when you roast it (almost sweet potato-like). Perfect for pumpkin pie, soups, or even just roasted (yep, just like a butternut).

Not quite ready to eat pumpkin yet? That’s OK. You can use your kabocha decoratively and set it some place in your home at room temperature– the kitchen table is a nice spot! Kabocha has a long storage life and you can wait almost another month to eat it, especially if you’d like to think of more ideas of what to do with it.

Just make sure to eat it quickly if it shows spots or its skin starts to look a little wrinkly. Even in that stage of its storage life, it’s still mind-blowing to eat.

Wellness Spotlight On: Parsley

So, it’s a little crazy that I haven’t talked about the health benefits of parsley yet. Because, as a healing herb (in the field of herbalism), a nutritious vegetable, and a culinary seasoning, it really makes for a killer combo and a triple threat.

Fresh Parsley | Jupiter Ridge Farm
Yep, it’s parsley!

Parsley’s flavor, whether fresh or dried, makes it so the herb can really be at home in just about any dish. Though we really tend to associate it most with eastern Mediterranean dishes like tabbouleh, baba ganoush, things like that….you can really put it in just about anything and reap the benefits. (Try roasting or mashing potatoes sprinkled with parsley. Understated but super yum.)

And you know what health nuts are starting to do? Put parsley in their juices and smoothies. Yes, it tastes good. Yes, you could think of it as a “superfood.” No, it’s flavor doesn’t really interfere with the enjoyment much. I mean, if you already hopped on the celery bandwagon for all that vegetable’s health benefits, then you’ll soon be crazy about parsley. (Parsley has similar flavor but is more “carroty”, less watery.)

Even more so than celery, parsley is nutrient-dense. Rich in vitamin K, vitamin C, iron, magnesium, potassium, and even some stunning antioxidants that are superb for your heart, fighting cancer, the whole she-bang.

Parsley’s got its own history in herbalism, too, and a pretty impressive arsenal of health benefits. It’s great for inflammation and allergies, helping keep histamine down in the body. Great for digestion, too. (If you’ve ever eaten a sprig of parsley you might have noticed it calmed your stomach a bit, didn’t it?)

For women, it can be estrogenic and good for balancing hormones, especially the parsley root. (If you ever get your hands on parsley root, toss it into soup stock – yum!) But men should also be aware that it’s great for balancing your hormones, too. And if you’ve ever heard of that pesky pseudo-condition “Adrenal Fatigue,” parsley is supposedly great for helping smooth that over with a little energetic nutrient “boost.”

As always…

If you EVER have questions about items in your CSA or farm share box, please let us know! Whether it’s how to use them, what they are, or anything that might make you curious.

We love to talk food! | – jupiterridgefarm@gmail.com –

Thank you for choosing us to be your farmers!

Adrian & Will | Jupiter Ridge Farm

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Community Supported Agriculture (CSA), CSA Newsletter

Jupiter Ridge 2020 CSA | Week 14

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Greetings CSA Members! We probably sound like a broken record at this point, but it really does seem like summer doesn’t want to let go. With highs in the 80’s this past week during the peak of fall colors, it’s been a pretty surreal autumn thus far…but we’re far from complaining about it!

That said, we’ve still got quite a few summer veggies for you. Our tomatoes have yet to shut down, plus we have plenty cold-picked green tomatoes ripening up in our storage that are helping our hot weather crops go the extra mile…I don’t think we’ve ever had this much abundance of tomatoes this late in the season!

Still, we’re pretty happy about it for the sake of our CSA members! After this week, with lows dipping back toward the lower 30’s and freezing, it’s more than likely that we’re seeing that last of summer this week and next.

Without further ado, this week’s box will contain:

  • Cherry tomatoes
  • Tomatoes
  • Mushrooms (Shiitake or oyster, but most likely shiitake!)
  • Potatoes
  • Small/Medium green cabbage
  • Sweet peppers
  • Rainbow hot pepper blend!
  • Shallot
  • Onion
  • Garlic
Cherokee Green Tomatoes | Jupiter Ridge Farm
Cherokee Green Tomatoes.

While our cherry tomatoes continue to be picked fresh (and are still bursting with flavor!), a heads up that because of the cooler seasonal conditions, our slicer tomatoes may not be as flavorful as they usually are during the summer! I personally can’t tell the difference, while many others out there can and do. That said, you may enjoy these more as cooked tomatoes, but again, everyone is different.

So Many Hot Peppers! And What to Do With Them

This week you’ll notice that we’ll be unloading quite a few hot peppers on you! Some of you spicy hot food lovers will be thinking “bring it on!” While maybe some of you might be feeling a little overwhelmed by the idea.

The great thing about hot peppers: you can do easy things to get them to last a long time, and even then, you can control how much you add to meals for a bit more interesting flavor and dimension.

Me (Adrian), personally, I love a bit of heat – but not too much! It’s a fine balance. Will can handle a pretty intense dose of heat, and he loves it. But not everyone is that way.

Here’s a few ideas for how to handle these hot peppers:

  • Dehydrate them! You can easily do this at home even without a dehydrator. You can put them on a clean baking sheet and let them slowly dry at a setting of around 200 degrees F. After they’re dried you can keep them whole in a bag in your pantry at room temperature, to use bits and pieces here and there to add a little heat to things, as much or as little as you want. Or, you can try drying out multiple hot peppers together and then powder them into a sort of chili powder! (Warning: if you dry hot peppers by chopping them up first, be sure to wear gloves while chopping….I learned the hard way!) Some folks hang dry their hot peppers with string in their kitchen, this is certainly an option too and looks really beautiful.
  • Make a simple hot sauce. Really, an easy hot sauce is just throwing hot peppers, garlic, maybe onions, a bit of vinegar, and herbs together in a food processor and blending until smooth (and then adjusting /adding certain ingredients for taste). We personally LOVE blending in squash (cooked of course) into hot sauces, but you can also use mango, tomato, you name it. Keep it in the fridge and it will last you a week or two and help you turn up the flavor as much or as little as you want. There’s tons of really simple and delicious hot sauce recipes online, too.
  • Spice up soup or chili. If you’re a bit more daring, try throwing a whole one of these hot peppers in whole into the next soup or chili you make (it is fall, after all, and time for these sorts of dishes even if it’s warm! Right?). If you think you’re sensitive to heat, maybe hold off on throwing one of the whole habaneros or jalapeños in there, that could be too intense. But you might like the little upgrade of heat that an Anaheim, poblano, yellow pepper, or Chinese red pepper might give it. (And if it’s not hot enough…you can always throw in another!)
Rainbow Hot Peppers | Jupiter Ridge Farm

If you EVER have questions about items in your CSA or farm share box, please let us know! Whether it’s how to use them, what they are, or anything that might make you curious.

We love to talk food! | – jupiterridgefarm@gmail.com –

Thank you for choosing us to be your farmers!

Adrian & Will | Jupiter Ridge Farm

Community Supported Agriculture (CSA), CSA Newsletter

Jupiter Ridge 2020 CSA | Week 13

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Warm greetings to our CSA members – especially after these last few chilly fall days!

We’re just coming out of a busy week doing a frantic (but expected) harvest of all our sensitive crops: tomatoes, peppers, and squash from out of the field, and packing and moving all our onions, garlic, and shallots to dry storage in order to protect them all from the threat of these recent frosts.

Despite all that: it looks like the frosts missed us! Crazily enough, our tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, and even basil plants are all still alive, thanks to our unique spot up high on our ridge (which can make frosts settle lower than us in the valleys and rivers, etc.). And with the week ahead looking warm and sunny (highs in the 70’s, lows above freezing), some of our warm-loving crops may not be done producing yet, which will make for an interesting next couple weeks for our CSA…

That said, here’s what to expect this week!

  • Beets
  • Cherry tomatoes
  • Sweet peppers
  • Cucumber (lemon or green)
  • Kale and Chard “Bouquet”
  • Onions (2)
  • Garlic
  • Hot pepper
  • Thelma Sanders winter squash
  • Acorn squash

You might be seeing the return of a familiar item: cucumbers! We were almost certain that these plants, which have been thriving in our greenhouse, were completely shut down and that these recent cold temperatures would finally do them in. Not so!

Summer is hanging on for dear life, so we’re happy to share this last burst of cukes with you….all thanks to the greenhouse. It’s amazing to have summer vegetables like this in a month like October!

Lemon cucumbers

What’s up with the “kale and chard” bouquet? It’s just our fancy way of saying “a bunch of chard and kale” which, obviously, really doesn’t sound as good as a bouquet….right? These bunches will simply be large leaves of kale and chard mixed together. Should be colorful, delicious, and not to mention…healthy!

And since it’s *really* fully autumn now with this weather lately, we’re stocking you up on some winter squash (two in this share) so you can really match your eating with these autumnal surroundings. Though this next week is really not fall-like at all….that’s OK. You can save your winter squash for a colder time and store it at room temperature, it stores quite well like that for weeks….even months!

Wellness Spotlight On: Onions

We don’t think about the healthiness of onions a lot. Do we?

Which is kind of funny, considering that onions might be the most ubiquitous vegetables around. There’s an Eastern European saying: first, you chop up and fry your onions. Then you decide what you’re cooking for the evening.

Onions are flavorful in different ways (sweet or pungent, whether fresh or cooked) and have woven their way into the fabric and cuisine of every country, region, and recipe you can imagine. So when it comes to wellness what are they good for? I’ve been thinking this question a lot, especially after just planting, cleaning and hauling hundreds of plants (and pounds) of them over this past season.

Onions | Jupiter Ridge Farm

Since they’re relatives of garlic, it may surprise (or not surprise) you that they have similar benefits to the bulb vegetable (though not as powerful). They can boost immunity, fight inflammation, and keep you from catching illnesses like colds and flu. And yes – onions contain that medicinal compound, allicin, just like garlic does, only less. (By the way allicin is responsible for onions’ wonderful smell!) Also, you can use onion juice for hair care and stimulating hair growth (weird I know – I wrote about it for Healthline here).

One benefit of onion that makes it better than garlic in some ways: it’s really an excellent vegetable for your gut! Consume tons of onions, and you’re getting way more fiber than you would from garlic. Combined with the antimicrobial compounds (including allicin) you get an amazing combo probiotic/prebiotic for your digestive system. Not to mention: onions are also rich in vitamin C, B vitamins, magnesium, trace minerals, calcium, potassium, and lots more.

If you EVER have questions about items in your CSA or farm share box, please let us know! Whether it’s how to use them, what they are, or anything that might make you curious.

We love to talk food! | – jupiterridgefarm@gmail.com –

Thank you for choosing us to be your farmers!

Adrian & Will | Jupiter Ridge Farm

Community Supported Agriculture (CSA), CSA Newsletter

Jupiter Ridge 2020 CSA | Week 12

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Hi there CSA Members! Happy Fall!

We’ve just returned from a much needed respite and camping trip with a good group of friends this past weekend, and we’re feeling energized and ready to finish out the farming season with a bang. (Also, for that reason, we’ll be keeping this newsletter a tad short!)

You might have noticed that we’ve missed the past couple weeks of newsletters (oops!) while we were having such a huge surplus of shiitakes during our add-on rush…sorry about that! We apologize for any inconvenience. Though it’s good we haven’t heard any complaints thus far…(and we made sure to let you know what will be in the box personally by email, at least!)

This week our amazing bounty of shiitakes continues, and it seems like summer is still holding on for a little while! Here’s what to expect:

  • Shiitake mushrooms (1/4 pound)
  • Heirloom tomato
  • Cherry tomatoes
  • Sweet peppers
  • Habanero pepper (New!)
  • Kale bunch
  • Potatoes
  • Onion
  • Garlic (Extra this week – two heads!)
  • Cabettes! (New!)

A couple notes on things: yes, we’ve got some new items….

We’ll have habanero pepper this week, one of the new and exciting things we’re growing in 2020. (We don’t have a whole lot of experience with them!) Watch out, these are HOT! Use them sparingly if you’re sensitive…but when used correctly they impart tons of flavor, and even have a fruity, juicy taste to them too.

Habanero | Jupiter Ridge Farm
Habanero.

We’ll also have cabettes! These are smaller cabbage heads that grow on plants after the first main cabbage head is harvested. Think of them as (obviously) small cabbage (or very large Brussels sprouts) and prepare them accordingly!

Cabbettes
Cabettes

If you EVER have questions about items in your CSA or farm share box, please let us know! Whether it’s how to use them, what they are, or anything that might make you curious.

We love to talk food! | – jupiterridgefarm@gmail.com –

Thank you for choosing us to be your farmers!

Adrian & Will | Jupiter Ridge Farm

Community Supported Agriculture (CSA), CSA Newsletter

Jupiter Ridge 2020 CSA | Week 9

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Hi CSA Members and Supporters! We’re at about the halfway point in our CSA season, and it’s been a wonderful ride so far.

We had the first feelings of fall this week with this cooler weather, that’s for sure! Many of our summer crops like tomatoes, peppers, and squash still seem to be going strong, but soon enough we’ll see veggies begin to phase out into autumn – and with it more cool weather crops like beets, storage radishes, turnips, winter squash, and more coming on the way!

This week before the rains, we got some cool weather crops for the last few autumnal weeks of our CSA! Spinach, arugula, spring radishes, and more are in the ground for the next seasonal transition coming on. A lot to look forward to – but for now, we do think we have a few weeks left of summer’s flavors for you!

This week, the CSA will contain:

  • Heirloom and slicer tomatoes
  • Sweet peppers (New!)
  • Hot peppers
  • Rainbow carrots (New!)
  • Lemon or Green Cucumber
  • Summer squash (Yellow or Patty Pan)
  • Kale leaf mix
  • Thelma Sanders squash (New!)
  • White onion
  • Garlic
  • Shallot
  • Fresh parsley bunch

As you can see, we still have lots of good summer stuff – and even some new and exciting items, like sweet peppers! The varieties we’ve grown are deliciously sweet and great for both both cooking and eating raw, and are very colorful – a combination of some bell types, lunchbox types, and “cornio del toro” (bull’s horn or pointed) types.

Cleaning Rainbow Carrots | Jupiter Ridge Farm
Rainbow carrots just after getting washed for Dubuque Farmers Market.

We’re also pleased to have rainbow carrots for you this week, too! These carrots are sweet, delicious, and a very colorful bunch that we’re sure you’ll appreciate – and are a beautiful change of scenery from typical orange carrots (though those are of course very beautiful and delicious, too).

Thelma Sanders Winter Squash – What Is It?

If you get to know Will and I on a personal level, you’ll quickly learn how much we love winter squash. Will loves it so much he has an entire website dedicated to it: www.squashinit.com . Check it out!

One of the heirloom varieties we’ve grown the past couple years, and that Will is enamored with, is the Thelma Sanders squash. You’ll be getting it in your share this week, and if you like delicata and acorn squash, then you’re in for a real tasty treat.

Thelma Sanders Squash | Jupiter Ridge Farm

A funny anecdote: I had a hard time remembering the name of this squash and kept calling it the “Thelma and Louise” squash at farmers market. Then I realized that it had a sandy sort of appearance – aha! Sandy Thelma Sanders. (Not to mention we had a lot of canvassers for Bernie Sanders hitting up our stand last year around the time this squash was in season, so that’s been a helpful association too.)

Anyways. We think you’ll like Thelma. If you like acorn squash, this is technically an “acorn” breed – only it has smoother, “creamier” flesh (less stringy and fibrous) more like butternut or kabocha. If you like the flavor of delicata, too, then you’ll also love this one! It is often also called the sweet potato squash because it makes for a very similar replacement, it is starchier and sweeter, like the delicious delicata.

Just like delicata, butternut, pumpkin, and any of its winter squash kin, you can roast up Thelma Sanders for the best result. Slice in half, remove the seeds, and set upside down on a baking sheet that has been well oiled or buttered. I like 400 degrees F for roasting and take it out of the oven when its done – and the skin is edible when roasted thoroughly. Or you can always cube up the squash and season it before roasting it!

How Do I Make My CSA Items Last? I Can’t Eat All This Food!

If you feel like you’re getting more food thrown at you than you can handle (a common feeling people struggle with in CSA’s), there’s a little shift in perspective you can take to make all the food you’re getting go the extra mile…and seem more exciting! Because you don’t have to use it all right away.

I’ve been wanting to put together a little section like this for our members for some time, because the pressure to use all your food really doesn’t have to be there. If you have a little time on the weekend or in the evenings, putting away your food for later (or even for winter) can be a fun project and give you a lot to look forward to. Once you learn that you can do this, it really becomes second nature after a time.

CSA Share | Jupiter Ridge Farm

I’ll break this down category by category of what you can do to save your surplus food! Save fresh greens like lettuce and arugula (except cooking greens)

Blanch It! | Steam in a colander over boiling pot of water, then freeze in bags for later

  • Any cooking greens! (Kale, spinach, chard, collards)
  • Winter squash
  • Summer squash
  • Snap peas
  • Okra
  • Cooking peppers
  • Garlic scapes

Roast and Freeze It! 

  • Tomatoes
  • Cooking peppers
  • Winter squash
  • Beets
  • Carrots

Store It! | These veggies you really don’t have to eat right away –  some of them can even be stored at room temperature, and can last even from weeks to months.

  • Refrigerator Crisper Drawer or Root Cellar:
    • Cabbage
    • Potatoes
    • Beets
    • Rutabagas
    • Storage radishes
    • Turnips
    • Parsnips
    • Carrots
    • Kohlrabi
    • Peppers (a few weeks shelf life)
    • Eggplants (a few weeks shelf life)
  • Room Temperature:
    • All Winter Squash (Delicata has shortest shelf life – and all squash will get sweeter the longer they sit!)
    • Pumpkins
    • Onions
    • Garlic
    • Shallots

Dehydrate It! | These can then even be powdered and used as spices and seasonings on your food in the future.

  • Tomatoes (cherry, heirlooms, slicers)
  • Sweet peppers
  • Hot peppers
  • Onions
  • Garlic
  • Shallots
  • Mushrooms
  • Kale
  • Collards
  • Culinary Herbs

Hang Dry It! | Applies to any culinary herb bunch you get in your CSA box, pretty much.

  • Basil (sweet green, purple, Thai)
  • Oregano
  • Parsley
  • Sage
  • Thyme

Pickle It! | I would recommend lacto-pickling with a brine, which takes a little more work but preserves your veggies for longer.

  • Cucumbers (obviously!)
  • Shiitake mushrooms (sounds weird but amazingly good)
  • Asparagus
  • Garlic scapes
  • Garlic
  • Kohlrabi
  • Sweet peppers
  • Hot peppers
  • Summer squash
  • Beets
  • Carrots
  • Okra
  • Turnips
  • Beans
  • Leeks
  • Cabbage (mmm sauerkraut)
  • Rutabaga

Making Fire Cider | Jupiter Ridge Farm
Making a unique take on fire cider (a medicinal quick pickle) with our farm’s veggies: jalapeños, sweet onions, garlic, daikon radish, ginger, thyme, and oregano

If you EVER have questions about items in your CSA or farm share box, please let us know! Whether it’s how to use them, what they are, or anything that might make you curious.

We love to talk food! | – jupiterridgefarm@gmail.com –

Thank you for choosing us to be your farmers!

Adrian & Will | Jupiter Ridge Farm

Community Supported Agriculture (CSA), CSA Newsletter

Jupiter Ridge 2020 CSA | Week 8

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Greetings CSA Members! It’s been a brutally hot week, followed by what might *finally* be the first wisp of fall and cool weather….and some very helpful rain, finally!

With a few more hot days looking at the weather ahead, our summer crops will still be pumping out some produce yet! Cherry tomatoes, heirlooms, and sweet peppers are still going strong. Okra is flowering abundantly (we’re excited about that) and it does still look like we have the summer phase of vegetables for a few weeks out, at least!

Get a taste of it all in this week’s share:

  • PLENTY of tomatoes! (Heirlooms, slicers, cherry tomatoes)
  • Eggplant
  • Delicata squash
  • Lemon cucumbers
  • Anaheim peppers
  • Large head green cabbage
  • Garlic
  • Onions (1 red, 1 white)

Yet again it’s a GREAT week for tomatoes! We’re excited to say that we’ll be able to get you some of ALL the varieties we are growing this year into your share: Green Cherokee, Brandywine, Martha Washington, cherry tomatoes, and many others.

Pretty Delicata | Jupiter Ridge Farm
Delicata has been making the rounds in the last few shares….and it’s delicious!

We’re excited to share our Anaheim peppers with you, too. They’re beautiful, though not quite a spicy as we’d hoped – but they still make up for it with some pretty impressive flavor. This harvest reminds me a bit of shishito peppers, though not quite!

Wellness Spotlight: Cabbage

Greens are great for you– and you hear a lot about them, especially ones like kale, spinach, and arugula, and all the health benefits they have. People have become especially enamored with kale over the years. And it must be because it’s the healthiest of all greens! Right? Well…

Enter cabbage, which is a close relative of kale. And when you break it down, cabbage has all the same good stuff that kale has…and you can have it last you much longer in your fridge!

Adrian with Cabbage | Jupiter Ridge Farm

All those fancy antioxidants you hear about being in kale (like sulforaphanes, etc.?) Yep, they’re all in cabbage, too….and quite a bit of them.

Not to mention, you get plenty of fiber, plant-based proteins, vitamins, and minerals with cabbage too, regardless of it being in a coleslaw or cooked!

Get to Know Your Onions! | Red and White Onions

You’ve probably noticed over the last few weeks that you’re starting to get onions (and garlic) in pretty much every weekly share.

Onions are used so much in cooking, we figured that having a few in each box every week is something that wouldn’t wear out our members at all! Plus, garlic and some onion varieties last pretty well in storage if you don’t get around to them right away.

This week, you’ll be getting red onions and white onions. While not always, red onions tend to be sweeter and gentler flavored (though they’re by far not the sweetest variety of onion). They’re best used raw and on sandwiches etc.

White onions, on the other hand, are meant to be cooked! (Unless you’ve got an iron stomach, you love heat, and got a strong constitution). They’re pretty common in Mexican cuisine but are also great in Italian dishes, and are very uplifting of meaty flavors. They’re on the hotter side with a slightly longer storage time, though not as long as yellow storage-type onions.

Red and White Onions | Jupiter Ridge Farm

If you EVER have questions about items in your CSA or farm share box, please let us know! Whether it’s how to use them, what they are, or anything that might make you curious.

We love to talk food! | – jupiterridgefarm@gmail.com –

Thank you for choosing us to be your farmers!

Adrian & Will | Jupiter Ridge Farm

Community Supported Agriculture (CSA), CSA Newsletter

Jupiter Ridge 2020 CSA | Week 7 (Deliveries and Pick Up Back to Normal!)

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Greetings CSA Members! This is another newsletter we plan on keeping short, as we’re still adjusting to strange times. We’re hoping that all our members in Cedar Rapids have regained some sense of normalcy after the derecho….and more importantly, that all of you have power back!

We sent out an email directly to all our members in Cedar Rapids, Marion, and Hiawatha just to make sure you all have power back and can receive this week’s share (home delivery tomorrow, Rodina pick up on Wednesday). Please do get in touch with us as soon as you can if you can’t take this week’s share owing to derecho complications! (Dyersville, Peosta, and other area deliveries will be scheduled as normal).

What to expect in CSA shares this week:

  • PLENTY of tomatoes! (Heirloom, slicer, Roma, and/or cherry tomatoes)
  • Potatoes (new!)
  • Hot pepper medley (jalapeño, yellow pickling, Chinese red hot, Anaheim)
  • Cucumbers (lemon or green)
  • Carrot bunch
  • Kale bunch
  • Garlic
  • Onions (1 sweet, 2 storage)
  • Culinary herbs (curled parsley, oregano, sage, thyme, or any combination of these

Our tomato vines are really pumping out fruit, and we’re officially in the midst of tomato season! Since this tends to be a beloved and prized item among CSA members, we’re going to make sure you have plenty in this box (though there will be plenty more for weeks to come). We’ll have LOTS of heirlooms, red slicers, and pink slicers, plus more cherry tomatoes and maybe your share may get the occasional speckled Roma. (It’s a very beautiful-looking tomato.)

We’re also sharing some of the season’s very first fresh-dug potatoes with you, and we still have plenty of delicious orange carrots for CSA this week! (Rainbow carrots are on the way soon too, which is exciting). We’re also seeing the return of culinary herbs and some fresh greens (kale)!

We’re holding off this week again from putting together a full-length newsletter, but hope to get to some ideas and tips again next week – our hands are extra full this week coordinating food donations to bring down south to Cedar Rapids, but we’re hoping we have more extra time for what we regularly do sometime soon.

If you EVER have questions about items in your CSA or farm share box, please let us know! Whether it’s how to use them, what they are, or anything that might make you curious.

We love to talk food! | – jupiterridgefarm@gmail.com –

Thank you for choosing us to be your farmers!

Adrian & Will | Jupiter Ridge Farm