The F-Word

Sorry for the late newsletter. The explanation is in the “Farm News” section. Wait. Farm News is back?

First of all, thank you to all those who helped plant garlic last weekend! We got all the garlic in before sunset which was the goal. We still have to lay drip tape and mulch it for the winter but at least the time consuming part is done.

We are taking orders for the 2026 season! To reserve your share all you need to do is send in a $100 deposit. You can also purchase your share from our online farmstand. You can choose “Deposit Plan” at checkout. If you want to use a credit card you’ll have to pay the full amount. New customers should order online. To send in a deposit you can use Zelle, PayPal or send/give me a check (or hand me a wad of cash when you pick-up your produce). Use my email address for Zelle or Paypal. Let me know if you have any questions!

Our initial plan was for the season to end the week of October 27th however we will evaluate what is left in the field this coming week and have a better assessment as to whether this is feasible. Stay tuned.

We still have honey for sale. We can deliver it to drop sites for our delivery members. Purchase it here! or for on-farm pick-up people you can just pay me directly.

What will we have this week?

Sorry this is a little late. Maybe it will help you understand what was in your share this past week! More winter squash — butternuts this week! We also have some celery. We’ve never been able to grow the nice big heads of celery you find in supermarkets. Either the deer eat the tops, the gophers eat the bottoms or some disease kills the plant. Not sure why we keep trying. Wait, I know why. Because it tastes like celery unlike the blanched store version! I would recommend using it for cooking and not so much for eating raw — unless you really like the taste of celery. Wow, that was a long explanation. What else? Hmm, the last (?) of the tomatoes, eggplants, cherry tomatoes and tomatillos. Maybe the last of the beans. Potatoes, the last of the radishes, arugula, some spicy salad mix, and of course the items I forget.

It is a Fruit, Flower and Egg week. Flowers this week are ornamental pumpkins. We’ll probably have a few more ornamental pumpkins next week.

Farm News

We’re back baby!

Fresh Earth Farms, which owns “Farm News”, said in a statement on Monday that Farm News had been indefinitely pulled off the air on September 30 to avoid escalating tensions during an “emotional moment for our country”.

“It is a decision we made because we felt some of the comments were ill-timed and thus insensitive.”

The statement added further: “We have spent the last days having thoughtful conversations with Farmer Chris, and after those conversations, we reached the decision to return the column on Tuesday.”

Experts say Fresh Earth Farms’s decision to bring Farmer Chris’s column back to the blog was probably motivated by business interests, since many consumers were ending their subscriptions to Fresh Earth Farms’s streaming services. (Who knew Fresh Earth Farms had a streaming service?)

“Consumers were exercising their own First Amendment rights and ending their subscriptions to the company’s streaming services,” Susan Campbell, a media studies professor at the University of New Haven in Connecticut, told the Farm News.

Welcome Back Farmer Chris!

In other farm news, I hate to say it but we had the f-word Tuesday night. It was later than usual which was good but if the forecast holds true (edit after this was written: the forecast did not hold true) it is only one night of frost followed by reasonably warm weather. So it is unfortunate that we had one night that killed off any unprotected warm season crops. It looks like they could have survived and produced for another week at least.

Anyway, it came at an unfortunate time. Tuesday is our busiest day of the week. We have the most boxes to pack and deliver. We have the most on-farm pick-ups. And this week was a FruitShare week so we had fruit to pack as well. And the day of the first frosty night is the busiest day of the season. When there is frost in the forecast we try to harvest everything that can be saved and protect everything that can be protected. So we harvest all the eggplants since they are edible and delicious even at a small size. We harvest all the tomatoes since you can make fried green tomatoes. We harvest the lemongrass since it is a tropical plant. We harvest a lot of the peppers but we also run the sprinklers on them overnight to protect them. You can learn more about why this works in this newsletter here. We put floating row covers over the beans if they are still producing.

So having both the busiest day of the week and the busiest day of the season being on the same day made for a busy day. We got as many things harvested and protected as we could and still managed to send out all the boxes and have the tent ready for pick-up. I had to work up until about dark to finish getting the protection set up. Hopefully the breeze didn’t blow off the floating row cover from the beans. (Edit after this was written: it didn’t blow it off but the deer having nothing else left to eat decided to finish off the beans on Thursday night).

All the previous was written before Friday night. On Friday night with a temperature forecast of 40 degrees, and after a busy, exhausting week, we did not protect any of the warm season plants. Why should we? The forecast isn’t even close to 32 degrees! This morning the temperature was33 degrees. That is cold. Frosty cold. And having a forecast of 40 degrees makes it even worse. We would have done things differently on Friday if the forecast was more accurate. Oh well. That’s the way things seems to go most seasons.

So with this cold weather we no longer have many of the warm season crops. All the tomatoes, tomatillos, hot peppers, most of the eggplants, most of the okra, and some of the peppers are all dead. The beans were consumed by the deer. This changes our calculus for how much longer the season will go so as I mentioned in the announcement section this week we’ll evaluate what is left and come up with a plan for the remainder of the season. In this fast paced farm world so much can change from the time you start writing a newsletter ’til the time you finally finish and publish it!

As always, do not hesitate to send in questions, comments, suggestions, jokes, brain teasers or 2026 share orders!

Recipe of the Week

So many to choose from! Here are a few butternut squash recipes.

Oven Roasted Sausage and Squash

This is a great all-in-one recipe for those cold winter nights. You can use chorizo, Italian, Andouille or other spicy sausage. Butternut squash works quite well though other winter squashes could substitute if needed.

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Prep Time 10 minutes mins

Cook Time 25 minutes mins

Total Time 35 minutes mins

Course Main Course

Servings 4 people

Ingredients

  

• 1 butternut squash peeled, seeded and chopped into bite sized pieces
• 1 lb spicy sausage cut into bite sized pieces
• ¼ c olive oil
• 1 Tbs lemon juice
• 1 15 oz can garbanzo beans rinsed
• 8 oz feta cheese crumbled

Instructions

 

• Heat oven and sheet pan to 425 degrees (insert sheet pan into oven while it heats).
• Peel, seed and cut squash into bite-sized pieces. Transfer to a large bowl.
• Cut sausage into bite-sized pieces. Add to squash bowl.
• Add olive oil to bowl and mix, coating the squash and sausage.
• When the oven is up to temperature, carefully pour squash and sausage unto heated pan.
• Roast, stirring occasionally until sausage is cooked and squash is soft. Approximately 25 minutes.
• For the final five minutes, add rinsed garbanzo beans to heat through.
• When done, remove from the oven and transfer to a serving bowl. Add lemon juice and crumbled feta cheese. Mix. Serve warm.

Notes

This recipe would work with other vegetables that roast well, such as potatoes, carrots , onions and sweet potatoes.

Keyword Carrots, Onions, Potatoes, Sweet Potatoes, Winter Squash

Thai Butternut Squash Red Curry

Here is a simple recipe I concocted while trying to find it on the internet. Once the squash is peeled and chopped everything else is quick! It can easily come together in 30 minutes or less, except if your chosen rice takes longer than 30 minutes to cook.

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Course Main Course

Cuisine Thai

Ingredients

  

• 1 butternut squash peeled and cubed
• 1 medium onion chopped
• 3-5 medium carrots cut into bite-size pieces
• 3 Tbs Thai red curry paste
• 2 cloves garlic minced
• 1 red bell pepper sliced into strips
• 2 Tbs coconut or other cooking oil
• 15 oz can coconut milk
• ¼ tsp turmeric
• ¾ c chicken broth or water
• 2-3 leaves kale roughly chopped
• 1 small handful of Thai basil optional
• cooked rice for serving

Instructions

 

• In a large pot or wok, heat oil, onions, carrots and squash until onion is translucent, about 8 minutes.
• Add curry paste, garlic and red pepper. Stir and heat for another minute or two until fragrant.
• Add coconut milk, turmeric and broth. Stir.
• Heat to boiling then reduce heat. Simmer for 10-15 minutes stirring occasionally until squash is tender.
• Add kale and basil. Stir.
• Heat for another minute or two until kale turns bright green.
• Serve over rice.

Notes

For a hotter curry, add Thai chilies when adding the curry paste.

For a Thai curry soup add more water or broth.

Garbanzo beans can be added for more protein. Add them before you add the kale to give enough time to heat them through.

Other possible ingredients include, but are not limited to, eggplant, green beans, cauliflower, really any vegetable that you cook.

Keyword Bell Pepper, Carrots, Cauliflower, Eggplant, Green Beans, Kale, Onions, Thai basil, Thai peppers, Winter Squash

Joke of the Week

What do you call a cool vegetable?

A rad-ish.