by Sophia Chiparus
Boo!
Does the end of the CSA scare you? It certainly evokes a level of fear within me.
We’re on Week 19, though you’d never know it from the summery weather we’ve been having.
In specific farm updates, we will have a new patio! This beauty is courtesy of Kyle Daniel and the landscape construction class.
I think it’s so cool that the farm’s improvement can be facilitated by a Purdue class I didn’t previously know existed. It’s one of the benefits of being a university farm: the community contributions can more easily come from within.
It’s something I’ve been thinking about a lot as this season tapers off. I’ve spent a lot of time interviewing Student Farm contributors for these emails. When I think about eventually starting my own farm, the lack of community investment is something that scares me. We get labor from classes, products from research, and have all kinds of wonderful connections that can surprise us with how fruitful they are. And yet there’s still so much to do!
As you may be aware, our produce not only goes into your home, but also into the kitchen of The Lawerence, a new restaurant on Purdue’s campus. Chris (who is now back!), recently received a gift from the head chef: pickled butternut squash.
He had me try it before telling me what it was, and I thought it tasted great, but had no idea what it was. When I realized it was squash, I was floored. I had no idea that something like winter squash could be pickled. I’ve been hounding him to ask for the recipe. He has yet to deliver, though I have found several online, which I’ll link in the inspiration station.
Ever since then, pickles have been on my mind. I hope to pickle some banana peppers this week, and maybe even some onions. This week, we had a lot of watermelon radishes with high spice levels as well. Chris thinks they’d be great for pickling.