Growing for the Winter season means intentionally producing and storing fruits and vegetables to be enjoyed at a time when growing and harvesting don’t necessarily come easily. This is one of those days. After clear skies and deep freezing over the weekend, and the sun didn’t bust through the clouds until it was just about to set this evening, hours after the crew called it a day. This means that we still won’t be able to evaluate what will be thawed and therefore harvestable from our fields and greenhouses until tomorrow at the earliest. Weeks like these, it is good to have a couple of coolers worth of veg stored up and remember that we’re part of a really great local food system. I plan for times like these, the ones where we I could use to give and receive a bit of comfort and ease, in nourishment or otherwise.

So, this seemed like a good time to tap into the bin of Butternut Squash that I’d been saving for a Winter’s day when only the very easiest and most coveted squash would do. Butternut is an absolute darling. That oddball, oblong shape and smooth exterior make it easy to peel in long swathes, and the seeds sit in one tidy little burrow. This makes it a sinch to scoop out, cube up and cook with, and this is one of the reasons that there’s a disproportionate number of recipes published in cookbooks call for Butternut over all others. If only were as effortless to grow as it is to work with post-harvest. It takes so much longer than the other squashes and pumpkins, and this year might be as close as we have come to the sweet spot. We’ve taken the notes and will rinse and repeat for next year! It also seemed like kismet that I was able to source locally grown Broccoli Raab (Rapini) in quantity for the CSA this week. Being in NY rekindled just enough of our family’s love for these leafy, Italian Mustard Greens and we’ve been kicking ourselves for not sneaking in a rotation to grow our own sooner. It is fantastic in pasta, with squash and/or sausage, and it is one of my favorite comfort foods. I hope it brings you a bit of comfort too this week.

Take Care (and hope to see you this week!),

Katie

I guess Purple Sprouting Broccoli wanted to be a January crop again this year, and you won’t find me complaining. I’ll take the little glimmers and delights where I can find them. For those of you who joined us last Summer and may not have had the pleasure, PSB is one of our favorite overwintering crops. We plant it in late Summer and typically get to harvest it in early Spring/late Winter; however, this temperate January weather (excluding the past couple of frosty mornings, of course) seems to have coaxed it along a little early again this year. Unlike typical crowning broccoli, the sprouting stuff flowers into tender little shoots that are to be eaten leaf, stem, floret and all. The crew went through and did a first round pick this morning, and we’ll have a nice little bit to share with folks this week. Yum! These cold mornings have me craving warm, nourishing bowls of soup all hours of the day, so it seemed as good a week as any to break out another round of aromatic Celery Root to go with Potatoes and Leeks that I’ve sourced from fellow organic growers in Washington for this week. No matter how you slice it, mash it or roast it, you’ll have good stuff to work with this week.

Winter 2026 #1/10: We’re BACK!
We’re looking forward to welcoming you all back to the Wild Hare Farm Stand this week! Our Winter Hours and CSA Season start on Tuesday, January 13th (Noon-7pm) & Wednesday, January 14th (10am-5pm), and the crew is back together putting together a really great offering, ringing in the 2026 harvest with one big beautiful haul of Brussels Sprouts and much more.