It’s that time of year, isn’t it? The days are becoming noticeably shorter, the nights are noticeably cooler and the reality that summer is waning is beginning to set in. The kids are all going back to school, the pools are closing, and everyone you know with allergies is walking around with pinched noses and handkerchiefs. The infamous end-of-summer Labor Day Holiday is here and the school year routine is soon to be re-established. The summer “thrill is gone”, so to speak.Jillian, Adrianne and Kate all showed up for work in Coveralls on Tuesday! We rock the farmer-chick look!
Even the most enthusiastic gardeners I know have all lost their gardens to the incessant weed pressure and are picking the last of their green beans, sifting through the overgrowth for any more tomatoes that might be hiding in there, and are plucking that last of the beets and boat-sized zucchinis from their patches. Let’s face it, you don’t even want to mow the lawn any more, much less think about planting fall spinach. That excitement that tickles the inside of us in early Spring that tricks us into making big plans for herb gardens, tomato patches big enough to can tomatoes to share with immediate relatives, and planting enough lettuce that there will be enough for both you and the rabbits, are all starting to fade. With my own overalls fitting a bit snug these days, I too am looking forward to raking up the last of the fallen November leaves and snuggling in with a new babe.
But your farmers will persevere! We’re a bit dry out here with experiencing the closest thing to a drought that we’ve ever seen and a couple days in the 90’s later this week, but still optimistic that fall rains will come and the weather will cool. This week we watched a few of our fall successions of cilantro, radish, mustard, spinach and lettuce germinate. We’re cultivating our fall broccoli, cabbage and kohlrabi and we’re still picking strong off of the most beautiful patch of tomatoes that we’ve ever grown! We’ve still to unearth thousands of pounds of carrots, potatoes, parsnips and wagon-fulls of sweet storage winter squash! I think I feel a second wind coming…
While mustering up the energy to finish all the projects we began in the hypnotizing Spring becomes challenging, we rock on. While remembering why, exactly, it was that we wanted to become farmers for a living is a bit hazy and how, precisely, we thought we would be able to harvest all of this food becomes a bit foggy-we rock on. It’s our commitment and promise to you that keep us picking all of this food up off the ground and planting the seeds of tomorrow still today. And with the healthy reminder that before we know it we’ll be stuffing our wood stoves and shoveling our decks, it helps us appreciate the loveliness of today.
Youkon Gold Potatoes– Beautiful, golden and freshly dug potatoes unearthed just days ago! Remember that we don’t wash our potatoes because it’s a tremendous amount of work to wash, dry and then bag them in addition to the labor-intensive process of growing and harvesting them. They also keep much better with a little dirt on them;)
Carrots- We harvested bulk carrots this week instead of bunching them in the field!
Sweet Corn- We harvested some of our own sweet corn and we purchased some this week to help make up for what we lacked. Really, really sweet corn! Yum!
Cantelope or Eggplant– I hope you got whichever one you wished for the most! Cantelopes were in very short supply and eggplant production is down a bit from the dryness.
Zucchini, Yellow Squash and Patty Pans- Squash production is waning pretty dramatically now! Enjoy it while it lasts, it’s almost over!
Sweet Colored Pepper and/or Sungold Cherry Tomatoes– You may have received a yellow, orange, red or purple pepper. You may
White Onion- More where these babies came from! 
Corning around after CSA Box Packing. Jillian, Adam, Adrianne, Evan, Cory and Steven all mowing on some sweet corn!
Green Beans- Next week our yellow and purple beans will begin, I promise!
Tomato Mix- A mix of ripe and unripe, heriloom and hybrid, roma pastes and slicing tomatoes. We tried to mix it up for everyone. About 5+ lbs of tomatoes this week!
Sweet Basil– A small bunch of basil for your sauces, gazpachos and ratattouis!
Rainbow Lacinato Kale- A bunch of cooking greens to hold us over until the lettuce picks back up again! This is a cool new variety of Kale that Fedco seeds was selling this year! We had to try it!
Chunky Celery Soup Recipe– This recipe was shared with us by a West Salem member if you still have celery left over from last week…
Gazpacho– A spicy summer tomato drink if you have a couple cucumbers left over.
Ratatouille– A summer jumbo of all of your favorite items!
