We love the holiday season and the extra family time that comes with it.  The best part about Thanksgiving is reflecting on everything we have to be thankful for and teaching our kids to be thankful.  On the other hand, Thanksgiving week is pretty intense when it comes to food.  The build up of everyone advertising dinner ideas, the shopping craze, the sad turkey industry and the over eating.  Every year we put together a CSA share for you to pick-up on the Saturday after Thanksgiving and we tend to focus on cleansing.  We're assuming most fridges will still contain some leftovers and most of you will be glad to stock up on light, quick and easy veggies for the upcoming week.

It's hard to say who is the star of this week's share, but if I had to choose I'd say it's the French Farms purple sweet potatoes.  Chris planted them back in the spring, watched over them all summer (lots of weeding and pest management to be done) and finally made the big decision to dig em up yesterday!  What a journey.  It took his crew a few hours to gather up a couple hundred pounds for all 130 of our CSA members.  He's been digging up small amounts for the past few weeks so we've all had a chance to try them.  Their color is completely out of this world, you're going to love cooking these things. 

Alderman Farms in Boyton Beach specializes in organic vegetables that are botanically defined as fruits, things like zucchini, eggplant, peppers and tomatoes. This week we're including their beautiful large zucchini in the CSA.  Zucchini is one of the most versatile vegetables.  While some require cooking, others can be prepared in every conceivable way: raw, sautéed, grilled, steamed, boiled, broiled, baked, fried, microwaved or freeze-dried.  Easily puréed for soups, cakes, pies and quick breads, it also can be spiced and added to rice pilafs, cubed and grilled on skewers, added to stews and made into famous dishes like ratatouille and pumpkin pie.  Served alone or as a side dish, the diverse flavors of zucchini lend itself to any occasion.  Did you know that every part of the squash plant can be eaten, including the leaves and tender shoots, which can be cooked in omelets or made into soup. And, did you know that it is remarkably high in antioxidants and calcium.

Empower Farms is a local Homestead farm with a non-profit status and a focus on programing for individuals with disabilities.  They have been doing amazing work for the past few years, building a beautiful eco-friendly farm model and growing top quality produce.  Our favorite crop to source from them is turmeric, which is an important cleansing ingredient in this week's share. Turmeric is a root native to tropical areas that promotes healthy inflammation levels all over the body.  In Ayurvedic medicine it is traditionally made into a calming tea before bed to promote restful and restorative sleep.  Turmeric is widely available as a dry spice, but using the fresh root is preferable for optimum health benefits and using freshly harvested local turmeric root is a straight up luxury.  You can add it to foods like you might add fresh ginger and you can add it to juices and soups.  If you've never had golden milk, the Ayurvedic bed time tea, give it a try this week.  Your body will thank you after all of that Thanksgiving food drama.  Here's a link to a luscious vegan golden milk recipe, just note that you'll be replacing the ground turmeric with 1-2 tablespoons of grated fresh turmeric (and in our opinion you can do without ginger if you don't have it).  

Starfruit is also known as carambola and it's considered an exotic fruit in most of the country, but for us in South Florida it is a common backyard fruit.  Carambola are beautiful small trees so many people have them in their yards.  They grow really well in our hot tropical climate and produce fruit two to three times per year.  This week we've connected with Cool Runnings Farm in Homestead to include their beautiful startfruit crop in the CSA.  Starfruit is a sweet juicy fruit that is best eaten right out of hand, but cutting star shaped slices is pretty irresistible and adds a special touch to a breakfast plate or a snack.  They are a good source of fiber and vitamin C. 

ENJOY :)