Two Small Farms Dec. Winter Newsletter #423

Welcome to our Winter Newsletter. Below find recipes for butternutsquash and carrots, job postings, events, and where to find ourproduce during the winter.

Where can you find your vegetables in the winter? 4 places:

1) Yuletide Boxes (week before Christmas)

2) San Francisco Mariquita Mystery Thursdays

3) Sunday Mt. View market: High Ground

4) Watsonville Redmond House Fri, Sat and Sundays

Andy’s Writing Blog

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Holiday Gift Certificates and December Yuletide Boxes: You can ordergift certificates anytime. Email or call our office for info. Gift Certificates can be purchased for 4, 9 or 36 weeks for 2008. Wecan email you a gift certificate you can print up so you havesomething to wrap up if you like.

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Job Announcements:

CSA Administrator-40 hours a week m-f- located in Watsonville/Corralitos- $12-15/hour, doe- Organizational, office and computer skills essential; knowledge ofvegetables and cooking a plus;- Job begins mid jan.- This job involves a lot of contact with customers via phone andemail.- contact Julia at csa@mariquita.com. please attach resumes in an email. Thank you.

Driver Jobs

We're looking for two drivers for our 2008 season. Must be reliable,on time, and have an excellent driving record (you need to show yourdmv print out), (no special drivers license needed) 20-30 hours aweek, Tues-Friday, or Wed-Thursday; some lifting involved. pay =$13-$14 depending on experience. Located in Watsonville contact Jeanne or Steve via email or phone:csa@highgroundorganics.com or 831 786 0286

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Here are some adorable letters from a field trip with a local school. (it's the one Andy and Julia's kids currently attend.) These letterswere written to 'farmer Andy' by first and second graders from Mt. Madonna School. One little girl 'wishes she knew our son' and another boy wants Andy to have all the gold in the world. (I'm linking to the photos of the letters via my flickr account due to some computer changes we're making that are taking longer than expected.)

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Winter Habitat Restoration at High Ground Organics Farm

Come celebrate the winter rains & the New Year by planting thousands ofnative grasses and wildflowers in order to restore the farm edges to adiverse and thriving habitat. We will work from 10 am - 12:30 pm followed by a potluck lunch, a farm tour and bird watching. Sat. Dec.29, 2007 & Sat. Jan. 12, 2007 Call Laura Kummerer at #831-761-8694 for directions & information.

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Butternut Squash Risotto Recipe from my friend Elise at Simply Recipes, the photo alone is worthpondering making this recipe. Maybe you still have a butternut squashsitting in your kitchen! I have a few winter squashies waiting to becooked outside my kitchen door –Julia

If you want the simplest preparation for your lingering butternut butare not a frequent squash-cooker: cut it in half, remove seeds, andbake it in a glass dish cut sides down until it’s soft all the waythrough. THEN you can puree all the meat (remove from the skin first) for pumpkin bread and pie. You can make soup. And when you pull the two halves out of the oven: you can serve onewith butter, salt and pepper with dinner. One side dish done! Sweet, savory, healthy.

Cumin Colored Carrots

2 pounds carrots: many colors, 2 colors, or all

orange juice and zest from one lemon or orange

2 tablespoons walnut or olive oil (I used a fresh bottle of walnutoil and it was divine)

S & P to taste

1 teaspoon cumin powder

Freshly chopped parsley or cilantro

Whisk together the citrus juice, zest, salt, pepper, cumin and oil.Julienne carrots on a mandolin or other grater. If you've got sharpknives and the skill julienne the carrots with just your knives andknowledge. Pour dressing over carrots. Stir in parsley or cilantro, orjust use it as garnish for the top if presentation matters to yourtable.