So….how is the veggie consumption coming along? How are your Spring ambitions to eat more fresh vegetables living up to your promise to yourself? How has the look of your dinner table changed since the vegetables from the farm started filling up your refrigerator and countertop? How has this experience changed your lifestyle…or hasn’t it? Mid September’s Offerings
My biggest fear is that one week of your life blends into the next week so quickly and one week’s worth of vegetables piles on top of the last week’s worth that the next thing you know you’re scratching your forehead and wishing it would just stop and that you had never signed yourself up for this in the first place. Maybe in the drear of March (the month of green-food deprivation) you signed up for this CSA thing and then had 3 good months of a promise you had made to yourself that ‘starting in June’, you’d begin eating all fresh food again. If the thought of one more tomato in your CSA box is beginning to turn your eyes yellow, I beg you recall that day in March when you would have done anything for a local, in-season, ripe tomato.
If I’m describing you, if your head is hung low and you’re feeling guilty about zucchinis and tomatoes gone bad, I’m here to say that it’s not too late! You’re being blessed with a large quantity of fresh, local, seasonal and organic produce that many families across the world would feel so lucky to receive. We live in a part of the world where our groundwater is not so polluted that we can safely drink from it, our soils are so rich we are referred to as ‘the motherland’ and our environment is so vast that we must take highways from one city to the next, all the while breathing in fresh air. What I’m saying is, REALIZE how lucky you are to have so much live, colorful and fresh food in front of you! Know that by eating this food it will make you more lively, colorful and vibrant of a person!
Each morning our little Small Family of worker shares, farm helpers and farm owners convene at 8am on this little patch of earth and literally sew into it laughter, community, intention, health and love. We spend our mornings, evenings, weeks and months of our lives concerned with the wellbeing of this little farm, these little animals and the people who will eat the food that is grown here. We really believe that this is more than just a regular ‘ol tomato. Because if you held one of our tomatoes in your hand and you held a miscelanious tomato from the super market in your hand, which one would feel more alive? Which one would you want to eat to nourish you?
In turn, I imagine you, in your kitchen, with your spouse or your room-mate or your children chopping vegetables together. I image you talking about who will peel the garlic gloves and chop the onion while someone else cleans up the potatoes. I imagine someone clearing the day’s mail, books and lap-tops off the kitchen table to make room for dinner plates and silverware. I image you with your family sitting down together and holding hands over a meal that came from a farm that you know and was prepared by the hands of your household. I image a prayer or a blessing or at least a moment of pause or awknowledgement. Then I imagine your family feeling truly nourished by healthy food.
Of course, then, I imagine everyone working together to clean dishes, sweep the floor and then someone turning the overhead light off above the sink just before leaving a kitchen that still smells of good food, family and contains a warmth that only a family that works, talks and eats together can infuse into a room. All because of a little meaning behind a little basket of fresh vegetables from a farm you know of.
Youkon Gold Potatoes- More of these creamy, golden beauties for your mashing delight! Remember that we don’t wash potatoes becuase of the tremendous amount of work involved, the potential for scuffing and because the potatoes are easier to handle, store and bag when they’re dry with a bit of their own dirt on them. As my grandparents alwasy used to say to me, a little dirt never hurt anyone;)
Scarlet Nantes Carrots- Bright orange roots, WOW!
White Onion- Quite possibly the final white onion giving. We’ll be on to our yellows and reds soon!
Cayenne Pepper- The long, red and skinney hot pepper in the box. These are nice stuck whole into a pot of chile.
Cherry Tomatoes- We ran out of our plastic clamshells, so many of them are delivered in brown paper sacs this week. We’ll have more plastic clamshells for next week.
Lottsa Sweet Peppers- Everyone received at least 5 or 6 colored bell peppers this week that were red, orange and yellow! Everyone also receivd I was actually dreaming about bright yellow peppers on Monday night in my sleep! You may have received a small eggplant instead of a 6th pepper.
Yellow and Purple Beans- Hopefully we don’t loose our beans to the frost on Wednesday night! We predict that we have at least another week or two of production from these plants!
Lottsa Tomatoes- Another huge bag of tomatoes! 5.25lbs of tomatoes for everyone consisting of a nice mix between the heirlooms, romas and regular ‘ol red slicers.
Curly Leaf Parsley- Yummmmm! Fresh parsley! Dehydrate these leaves in your dehydrator and store it for dried use in the off season.
Swiss Chard- More fresh cooking greans. The leaves are young and tender this week!
Lettuce- Finally a fresh head of red or green lettuce again!
