Welcome to the First Fall Share delivery of the 2025 Fall Season! We’re so excited to share with you the best of our storage vegetables. We worked so hard this summer planting, weeding washing, and packing. Packing up the Fall Share boxes feels like we’re polishing up our best gemstones and sharing with you the best of the best this year. There are no rosy tomatoes or juicy cucumbers, only hardy, dense, roots and fruits that will carry you into the coldest of the fall and early winter days. On the farm this Fall we have been wrapping up our field work faster than ever. We had an absolutely fabulous crew of helpers this year to help get the work done sooner than ever before. We’re already taking down the deer trellising that encircles the field that protects many of the deer’s favorite nibbles like lettuce, spinach, Swiss chard, and more crops that have already been harvested. Removing deer trellising is one the last jobs we do on the farm after all of the storage crops have been harvested. We have started tilling up beds for garlic planting this week already. Getting our garlic in the ground always feels like a milestone to accomplish each fall that is a turning of events for a season. Once the garlic is planted and tucked into bed with a thick layer of mulch before winter, we can sigh a big sigh of relief. Some fun happenings on the farm this Fall is that we are breeding our dairy sheep. Every summer we milk a couple sheep so that we have fresh milk on the farm for the family. This year we are breeding 4! We have a guest ram on the farm visiting the ladies and it’s exciting to be thinking about fertility on the farm this fall! Also a little fun is that we had a few broody hens this summer who hatched out a brood of 13 baby chicks. We are now watching those baby chicks grow into young pullets who may one day soon enough be productive layers in our flock of chickens. Likely half of them will be roosters that we will find homes for, but it’s been more about the experience and excitement of watching them hatch and grow up for the kids than anything else. Our children are busy finishing up their Halloween costumes before this Friday. After Halloween all of our children have birthdays in November and early December. So we are already planning how we can spend a day together as a family with the kids. Adam and I will celebrate our 15th wedding anniversary on November 6th. While we’ve only been married 15 years, we were together another 6 years before we were married. November is a busy month for the Varney family. We are looking forward to our slow season ahead where we enjoy a brief period of slowness around the holidays filled with lots of time together as a family before we begin planning for the 2026 season. We are honored to be part of your families traditions as well. Knowing that you’ll all be making fall soups and warming dishes to share with your family made from Small Family Farm vegetables makes my heart happy. Thank you for your continued support of our Small Family Farm and community. What’s in the Box? Butternut Squash- 3 butternuts per member. Butternut squash prefer a 50-60 degree storage temp. Farmer Adam was worried about how well they might keep in our storage space, so we gave three squash this week. We had more squash going bad in our dry storage room that other years, so we are worrying about it a little more this year. Acorn Squash- 1 acorn squash per member. Also prefers a 50-60 degree storage space. Red Potatoes– 5lbs per member. Red potatoes will keep nicely at room temp through January away from direct sunlight. They prefer a cold, dark and moist environment for long term storage. If stored longer than this they will prefer the fridge so they don’t shrivel and start to sprout. The countertop if fine for short-term storage but keep them away from sunlight. Onions- 5lbs per member. Onions also prefer a cooler, darker and dryer storage area away from direct sunlight. They will also keep nicely on your counter through January, but may want to sprout as well if kept longer. The fridge is a good place for long-term storage. Beets- 3lb bag of beets per member. Beets will keep terrifically long in a plastic bag in the fridge. Carrots- 5lbs per member. Carrots will keep for many months in a plastic bag in the fridge. Parsnip- 1lb per member. Parsnips will keep for many months in a plastic bag in the fridge. Leeks- 1 bunch per member. While leeks will keep for many months in the fridge they will dry out layer by layer. It is best if these are used up within a few weeks to get maximum use of this rare gem. Brussels Sprouts- 1 stalk per member. We left the work of snapping the sprouts off of the stalk to you. Snap the sprouts off the stalk and store them in a plastic bag in the fridge. Sprouts don’t keep too long so we recommend using them up in the next few weeks. They longer they are stored the more layers you may have to peel off of each sprout. Green Cabbage- One green cabbage per member. Garlic- 1 pound garlic per member. Garlic prefers cold, dark and dry storage like a refrigerator as well for long term. A few on the counter short term should be fine. Celeriac Root- Keeps best in a plastic bag in the fridge. Delicious boiled and mashed with potatoes for a celeraic mashed potato. Recipes Roasted Beets with a Balsamic-Honey Glaze (serve over salad with feta and walnuts or pistachios for heavenly results)  Parsnip and Maple Syrup Cake  Celeriac Mashed Potatoes  Butternut Squash Mac and Cheese  Shaved Brussels Sprout Salad  |
