Mid October on an organic vegetable farm looks very much like a Fall scene. Brown earth exposed where the potatoes, carrot and beet beds have been dug. Shades of tan, brown, yellow, red and even purple where there are weeds and retired vegetable plants that are holding ground, holding space and waiting for Spring.
Much of the work left to do on the farm is harvest and clean up. Crops that we still have left to harvest are fall carrots, a couple more beds of beets, cabbage, fall radishes, kale, brussels sprouts and a couple rutabaga and kohlrabi beds. We are now harvesting the broccoli and cauliflower beds that we have been anxiously awaiting and that are hitting very strong now- and who are loving this cool weather.
As I write this newsletter on Monday night, we are expecting the first widespread frost tonight. Frost will take down the tomato and pepper plants that have been so generously providing for us all summer. These are the only crops that we will feel sad to lose at this stage in the season. We are finished harvesting from all the other summer crops. Everything else out there can handle frost and will become sweeter still as their starches turn to sugar in the cold. We will enjoy sweeter brassicas this Fall because of the frost. Tuesday night the frost is expected to settle again followed by a few days of rain.
We continued harvesting in the fields until 6pm on Monday afternoon/evening. The sun was so low on the horizon at this hour that it was in our eyes as we walked our pepper bins to and from the truck at harvest in anticipation for the frost. The crew was joyful, the weather lovely, but I felt a bit of sadness knowing that it would be our final pepper harvest of the year. The sun was nearly setting as we quit for the day. The waning sunlight a reminder that our time in the vegetable fields is running out.
We have one more summer share delivery left after this week. There will be a one-week break with no delivery after the summer shares end where we will use that time to harvest our storage carrots, beets, radishes and parsnips. We may also use that time to begin breaking open seed garlic and prepare for planting at the end of the October and beginning of November. As a field-rotation plan we will be taking down our deer fence and moving that to encompass new fields. Even though the delivery season is winding down, we will still be keeping our crew employed full time right up to the day before Thanksgiving which is when the actual final CSA delivery of the year is made for our farm.
Tomatoes- 2 lbs tomatoes mixed varieties. A reminder to remove your tomatoes from the bag and allow them to air out and sit at room temperature outside of the plastic bag at room temp. Allow them to ripen at room temp. Quality goes down a little this late in the season. We allowed a few more cracks and blemishes than what we were allowing earlier in the year.
Acorn Squash- A classic winter squash. Do not refrigerate.
Sweet Potatoes- 2.5lbs per member. These were harvested just last week and they weren’t cured quite as long as we typically like. Do not refrigerate sweet potatoes.
Brussels Sprouts- We harvest Brussels Sprouts by the whole stalk. We left the work of snapping the sprouts off the stalks to you. We took a couple minutes with each stalk to make sure they were cleaned up a bit. Did you know that Brussels Sprouts is spelled with an ‘s’ at the end of the world Brussels?
Sweet Peppers- 2-4 sweet peppers per box. We harvested peppers a little more aggressively this week with the anticipation of frost in the forecast. Not all peppers have as much color as we like. Many of them are only half-colored.
Leeks- Leeks are a fall onions. They can be used from the base of the leek at the white point all the way up the stalk.
Broccoli- 2 large heads broccoli per member. Broccoli loves the cool weather in the fall. Thanks to Farmer Adam’s had work irrigating this summer, we have gorgeous Fall Broccoli this year!
Cauliflower- Two large cauliflower per member this week. Loves to be kept cold.
Kohlrabi- One per member. You may remember from receiving kohlrabi in the spring to peel the outer skin off the outside of the bulb and enjoy the crispy, apple-like centers. The leaves are edible like kale.
Rutabaga- These are the large, whitish root with purple shoulders that is commonly confused with turnips. A low-glycemic potato-substitute. Rutabagas can be peeled, boiled and mashed like potaotes and your family will never know the difference! We also cut them into small pieces and add them to any of your fall stews, soups or roasts.
Next Week’s Best Guess: brussels sprouts, sweet potatoes, leek, fennel, cauliflower, broccoli, green/sweet peppers, tomatoes?, butternut squash, rutabaga
