New England is turning more grey and brown, typical of November.  Our rainbow palette of fresh food will surely brighten the day, though.  Giving thanks to the hard work of all the farms this year–it’s been an amazing harvest!

The hyperlinks on the vegetable names take you to a lot of recipes and information about those vegetables.  If you’ve never had popcorn from the farm, please check out the tips at the end of this post and Enjoy!

Use these within a week or so (or blanch or make a dish for freezing):

Brussels Sprouts, bag from Riverland ( roast, steam, braise, or blanch for the freezer),

Spinach from Picadilly (or blanche and freeze, or make pesto and store for weeks in fridge)

Arugula from Picadilly (or make pesto and store for weeks in the fridge)

Kale “curly” Winterbor—2 bunches, from Riverland—great in soups, grated and marinated for a salad, or kale chips!

These will keep for a couple of weeks in your fridge crisper drawer:
Leeks—keep whole or chop for soup and freeze (no need to blanch) from Picadilly

 

These will keep for many weeks in cold storage (keep moist in bag, with some ventilation):

Apples–storage varieties, 5#, from Cider Hill.  All apples today will store well, except for Empire which is good now, but should be used on the sooner side (won’t stay as crisp for as long as others). Most sources recommend storing apples separately from other cold storage items as they have a ripening agent which may hasten other items past their prime.
Carrots – 6#, from Riverland
Cabbage (red or green), from Riverland and Picadilly— sauerkraut or kimchi ideally is made asap

Potatoes – 8#, white from Picadilly

 

These will keep for many weeks in cool, dry conditions (40-55 degrees), like a shelf in your basement or unheated room as long as it doesn’t freeze; store in paper bags:
Garlic ½ #(can also be stored in a tightly closed jar in the refrigerator), from Riverland
Onions, yellow, 2#, from Harlow Farm in VT

 

These will keep for a several weeks in your kitchen or in a cool dry cellar:

Winter Squash, 3 pieces, from Picadilly. good idea to inspect these periodically and use (or peel and freeze) blemished ones.

These will keep for months at 50-70 degrees—NOT COLD STORAGE:
Sweet potatoes 4#’s, from Riverland

Popcorn Cellar, cool, damp, or room temperature if using within a couple of months
Once a week, shell a few kernels and try popping them. When the test kernels are popping well and tasting good, shell and store the rest of the kernels in sealed, airtight containers. If stored popcorn fails to pop, it may be too dry. Add 1 tablespoon of water to a quart of popcorn. Cover and shake at frequent intervals until the popcorn has absorbed the water. After 3 or 4 days, test pop a few kernels to see if it is ready. A number of winter shareholders have had good luck putting the cob of popcorn directly into a microwave.