Week 19

We are soooo proud of this broccoli! We weren't sure we'd have any at all to harvest, so ending up with some big, beautiful heads definitely made us crazy happy! — We are soooo proud of this broccoli!! 🙂 After our sad broccoli from last season, we weren’t getting our hopes up about this season. We tried out two different varieties this season. While one definitely produces bigger heads (the one shown in this picture) than the other, we are crazy happy with the results from both!

Hi all, Alli here.

Well, another month has flown right by and here we are in October already! I actually feel like I blinked and September was over just like that. October loudly announced its arrival, though, with a drastic shift in the temperature on Friday and Saturday. We spent some very cold and wet days harvesting, marketing, and bundling up in as many warm layers as we could find! For us, this was a great reminder to take full advantage of the beautiful days to come this week. By getting as much done in the fields as possible this month, we’ll be able to spend some of the colder days in November (that are sure to come upon us as quickly as October did!) indoors, doing organization and record keeping tasks that we’ve been putting off for just that reason. Farming and working outdoors everyday has definitely made us more aware of the shifts in the seasons and their impact on us and our work.

Rainy days are great for hanging out in the hoophouse and prepping onions for distribution! As mentioned in an early post, this year was not great for onions at all. We had a significantly smaller harvest than last season, and even the onions we have are much smaller in size. That's part of what makes farming so interesting--every season is different and we get to see how various crops fare in different conditions. You, in turn, get to experience it too, through eating more of the crops that do well and less of those that don't! — Rainy days are great for hanging out in the hoophouse and prepping onions for distribution! As mentioned in an early post, this year was not great for onions. We had a significantly smaller harvest than last season, and even the onions we have are much smaller in size. But that’s part of what makes farming so interesting–every season is different and we get to see how various crops fare in different conditions. You, in turn, get to experience it too, through eating more of the crops that do well and less of those that don’t. That’s what eating seasonally and locally is all about!

We’re quickly nearing the end of this season’s CSA, with just 4 more distributions this month and 1 around Thanksgiving. While the tomatoes and peppers are still coming in (though more slowly, of course), you’ll soon start to see the change in your shares from the colorful variety of summer veggies to even more leafy greens and the hearty roots that satisfy us through delicious roasts and stews. Be sure to savor the last of those summer flavors, though, as October is the month when we begin to closely watch the upcoming overnight temps and wonder when the frost will show up. Frost is a truly magical thing that does the double duty of ending our harvests of summer veggies and sweetening up our fall veggies in preparation for their harvests.

Who needs scissor-hands when you can have spinach-hands?!

And with that, here are some of the things you’ll receive this week:

Tomatoes

Garlic

Choice of: Beans, Cherry Tomatoes, Okra, Tomatillos, and Shishito Peppers (with the harvests of most of these dwindling, the majority of you will get Shishito Peppers–this is definitely the week to try them if you haven’t yet!!)

Lettuce

Arugula

Spinach or Yukina

Sweet and Hot Peppers

Kale, Collards, or Chard

Onions

Broccoli

….among other items, as usual!