Dear CSA Members,
Just got back from a wonderful visit to the Tuscany and Umbria regions of Italy. We focused on food and farming of course. We (Becky and I plus our two daughters, Maddie age 11 and Millie age 9) stayed in a beautiful villa in the Medieval town of Cortona in Tuscany with a group of organic farmers. We visited no less than 12 very interesting farms, mostly in the province of Umbria, just south of Tuscany. These were all organic farms, growing truly delicious foods typical to their regions. Most of them had kitchens where they cooked meals for us using their farm grown ingredients. It was all very inspir- ing and we came home with some great ideas for Frog Hollow Farm.
We’ve been home for 4 days now and enjoying greens from our own winter garden. I am delighted at the quality of our produce, which is as good as any- thing we tasted in Umbria. I’m talking greens not fruit. This is our very first attempt at growing winter veggies and our two gardeners, Kristin and Mar- lene, are doing an amazing job. Several kinds of lettuce, arugula, kale, stinging nettle, radishes, leek and cabbages with lots more stuff coming.
Chef Anna made a stinging nettle pesto with garlic, kale and walnuts…. best pesto I’ve ever eaten, bar none. And then, Becky topped it with a pesto of mostly kale (no nettle), walnuts and our own EXTRA VIRGIN olive oil. Amazing! And healthy too!
Next year we will ramp up our winter garden production with enough volume to keep all of our CSA members supplied with all of their vegetable needs as well as fruit.
You’ll be “oohing and aahing” and may even become vegetarians!