Farm members, welcome to the mid-point of your winter membership! This week’s message, original veggie art (below), and member hosting time is brought to you by Sabrina, SweetRoot’s first year-round farmhand and critical member of the team. She came to us late this summer with lots of farm experience, excellent cooking and farm eating skills, and a sweet-crazy little dog to keep Malaya on her toes. We’ve been so grateful to have her as part of the team, and the winter membership truly wouldn’t be possible without her. This week we asked her to introduce herself to you all as well as introduce you to the veggies, and she’ll be running the member pickup this Tuesday, so you’ll get a chance to visit in person. Happy eating! -M

Chances are, in your last few months of farm store visits, you have seen a new, very wiggly black and white pup with bat ears. She’s probably barked at you (she loves to bark at friendly shoppers), or stared at you while gnawing on a bone (she has no manners at all, we’ve tried). Her name is Willa and she came with me (Sabrina) to the farm from a small western Washington vineyard by way of New York, as any young semi-nomadic farmer is wont to do in a year like this. 

True to any proper Farm Dog, Willa is my right-hand-gal and Inspector General of any and all produce I bring home- samples and seconds of this week’s bag are no exception! While the soft mustard greens tend to bore her, Napa cabbages are always a blast to tear up and eat (It’s exactly 5:38pm, Monday and she just jumped up to grab a huge chunk for a snack off the counter!), and carrots are consistently the best, but that won’t stop her from begging for any bites of stir-fried greens or spoonfuls of squash.

Per usual, bags will be available for pick up after 3 tomorrow (Tuesday) at the farmstand. In the greens bag you’ll find spicy salad mix- my go to for adding to the daily lunch ramen with a soft boiled egg or fried tempeh on top- and a bag of stir fried green mix, as well as a head of Napa cabbage (I’m already dreaming about a stir fry with some carrots on top of jasmine rice). Roots will bring the usual carrots, cylindra beets, and radishes, as well as German Butterball potatoes. 

Allow me a moment to wax poetic about these spuds for the uninitiated. 

Some backstory: I’ve spent the last few years working on a farm that specializes in potatoes; we grew almost two dozen varieties and for market you had to be well-versed in all of them to help customers suffering from Tater Choice Overload. German Butterballs are one of my top three varieties, and it was hard-won. They are a very versatile potato, with delectable golden flesh, and need little more than butter and salt to coax out stunning, fluffy, luscious insides. I love these guys. They are especially well suited for light frying, and I’m not going to tell you how many pounds of them I’ve eaten simply thinly sliced and lightly fried in butter with salt, pepper and paprika. I’m not ashamed of it, but not so proud as to share. Ahem. 

Continuing on, lastly there will be a spaghetti squash and small packet of Italian-inspired herbs which seem like a winning combination to me- add a jar of tomato or alfredo sauce, saute up some onion or ground beef with the herbs and BAM, low-carb GF pasta. There is an important note here though; if you’ve never made the mistake of eating a big bowl of spaghetti squash and expecting that to be as satisfying as a bowl of actual pasta, be sure to add some kind of protein or other *really filling* meal aspect to your dish or you will end up hungry sooner than later. 

It’s inevitable, sincerely someone who somehow still makes this mistake every. single time. 

This week’s bag is full of deliciousness and Willa and I are both so happy to be part of the team growing it all for you all (even if Willa’s contribution is mostly moral support and gross kisses). I’ll be around the farmstand hosting tomorrow from 3 to 6, although the bags will be available through Wednesday if you can’t make it here in those three hours. And as always- if you can’t make it at all this week just give us a heads up so we can donate the bags to a family who could use it. 

Thanks from all of us, and remember what I said about the squash!

Your Farmers, Sabrina, Noah, and Mary

(and their pups, Malaya and Willa)