On the sixteenth CSA delivery week out of 20 summer share deliveries, the farm is looking like it has had a season. The crew is in miraculously good spirits while your farmers are looking a little tired and worn. While tired, we also feel excited and energized knowing that we are in the home-stretch part of our season. The Fall Harvest season brings a warm, festive feel as we pile up our winter squash, begin to harvest our fall root crops and start to think about garlic planting.
This week we harvested some beds of beets that were needing to be cleared out and started the celeriac root harvest. We weeded some of our Fall carrot and beet beds. We are also continuing on with our winter squash harvest. We have run out of the large macro bins that we usually put our winter squash in and are waiting for this week’s delivery of CSA boxes to go out so we can empty out a few more macro bins so that we can fill them up with more winter squash and root storage crops.
We are excited to start sharing some of our favorite fall veggies with you in the coming weeks such as Brussels sprouts, celeriac root, sweet potatoes, leeks and a variety of winter squashes. Sadly this was the final giving of tomatoes this week. This year was not our best tomato harvest season due to the mid summer storms and rains that fired up the blight on the tomato plants.
We are excited about our Fall Potluck next Sunday, September 26th from 3-6pm. We hope you can make it out to the farm where we will offer wagon ride tours of the farm, apple cider pressing, Turtle Stack beer and a fabulous potluck dinner from 5-6pm. We hope you can make it out the farm. This event is usually well attended and we hope you can make it out! This is a chance for you to come out the farm and see the place where your food is grown, have an experience here that leaves an impression on you to take home and hold the farm in your heart for the future seasons to come.
We are also selling more Fall Shares and Thanksgiving Shares this time of year. If you have loved the summer veggies and are wanting to make sure you have plenty to carry you into the winter months ahead, consider signing up for a Fall Share and a Thanksgiving Share. The Fall Share/Thanksgiving Share boxes contain larger quantities of your favorite storage veggies with 5# bags of carrots, 5# bags of potatoes, 3# bags of onions, 3# bags of sweet potatoes and plenty of winter squash, celeriac, rutabagas and more! The boxes contain many items that will store in your fridge and will keep you eating locally and seasonally for weeks after the deliveries have ended. Last year these Fall Shares sold out rather quickly, so don’t hesitate to reserve yours now.
We are loving working in these days with cool mornings where we begin the day with our sweaters and even winter hats and then shed our layers as the day warms up. We watch the leaves turn on the horizon around us while the crickets play their music for us throughout the day.
Soooo….What’s in the Box????
Spaghetti Squah- These are the large yellow round items toward the bottom of your box. You may have received 1 large spaghetti squash or two smaller spaghetti squashes. These guys will keep at room temperature for a good month or more. Make sure you use them up if they develop any spots. Noodle like flesh once cooked up!
Beets- About 1 pound of beets per member. We had a nice beet harvest this week that we’re happy to share with you. Will keep for months in a plastic bag in the fridge.
Carrots- 1 pound of carrots per member. Carrots will also keep for months in a plastic bag in the fridge. For all of your fresh salads and fall soups!
Sweet Peppers- Sweet peppers are in good production now. We’re happy to be sharing three to four pepper per member this week. They may be red, yellow, orange or shades of pink. Enjoy this seasonal delicacy.
Tomatoes- .5lbs per member. A very small giving of tomatoes this week. This is likely our final giving of tomatoes for the season. This late in the season quality is lacking a bit, so feel free to use these up quickly as they likely won’t keep long.
Jalapeno- In the bag with your tomatoes. These would be a nice addition to your spaghetti squash hash!
Hungarian Hot Wax Pepper- In the bag with your tomatoes. A nice addition to your salsas or even your soups to keep your immune system awake and active! It never hurts to add a little spice to your life!
Eggplant- For some reason we’re having a really great eggplant year! Wowzers! When we go out to harvest there are fruits almost every week, and lots of them! I’m hoping you’re finding ways to learn to love eggplant if you didn’t already! I do believe that everything tastes delicious when prepared correctly or to your liking! Find a way to love this seasonal fruit!
Potatoes- 2lbs. Red potatoes again this week. It’s not hard to find ways to use these papas up!
Onion- 1-2 yellow onions per box this week.
Green Cabbage- Lovely, tender heads of fall cabbage that we’re happy to share this week. Should keep in your fridge for a good month or so, although this is not technically a storage variety of cabbage. Egg rolls? Did you make enough of your favorite cabbage slaws this summer?
Green Curly Kale- To keep you stocked in cooking greens.
Basil- We finally found some time this week to harvest a fresh herb for the box. The basil plants this late in the season are looking less then young and fresh. We’re sorry for the mix of quality in the leaves, but we thought you could pluck the good leaves off of the stems and use what you can. Basil does not refrigerate well, it turns black in the refrigerator. Stick in a glass of water and keep like fresh cut flowers, but they won’t re-hydrated as well as they may have if they had been put in water right away. Try re-trimming the stems to see if they will take to the water.
Mini Sweet Peppers/Cherry Tomatoes- A very small final harvest of cherry tomatoes and also a surprisingly small mini sweet harvest this week. So we weighed them out and shared the weight amongst us all in these cute little paper bags.
Next Weeks Best Guess: Potatoes, celeriac root, carrots, sweet bell peppers, hot peppers, mini sweet peppers, swiss chard, onion, garlic, sunshine kabocha squash, kohlrabi?
