Four more week! Four more weeks! What’s up this first of the four? Find out after these brief announcements.
One last reminder about the Garlic Planting Gala this Saturday from 1:00 until done, followed by a potluck and a bonfire! This is a great opportunity to meet your fellow farm members, see where your food comes from and enjoy some nice weather (my forecast calls for temps in the 60s and plenty of sunshine! But if there is a threat of rain please contact me, check the website or facebook page before coming out). Please let me know if you can make it. The more people the faster the project and the sooner we get to eat! There are activities for all ages and physical abilities so don’t let that stop you. In the past we’ve had helpers from 1 year old to over 70! Let me know if you can make it.
We are taking orders for 2018 VeggieShares! To reserve your share all we need is a check for $100, $100 cold cash or if you are clever you can send $100 through PayPal to my email address. If you want to purchase using a credit card unfortunately you’ll have to order online and pay the full amount for 2018; our online store doesn’t allow partial payments. We sold out in 2017 and hope to do so in 2018 so tell all your jealous friends that now is the time to reserve their share!
FlowerShare this week (actually started on Friday) is three pumpkins. You can pick them up at your usual pick-up location. If you don’t have FlowerShare please do not take a pumpkin. We will have pie pumpkins for VeggieShares later this season.
We still have honey and maple syrup for sale. On-farm members can purchase them in the pick-up tent. Drop site members can send me an email to order and we will include it in your next delivery; payment can be made either through PayPal or by sending a check. Honey is $10 for a 12 oz jar. Syrup is $10 per pint, $6 per half pint.
WinterShares will be going out over the next couple of weeks as we assemble them. They may come in multiple shipments i.e. onions one week, potatoes the next, etc. We may have extras if those who haven’t yet ordered one want to purchase one. We’ll know more as the season progresses.
Farm News
This past week we harvested the winter squash, pie pumpkins, gourds and ornamental pumpkins. This is a large task that we typically undertake after a frost. Once the frost hits the plants die and the squash are easier to find. This season we don’t see frost in the forecast so we decided since it is October it is time for squash.
We have a few varieties of squash. The most abundant are the carnival squash. These look similar to acorn squash but are mottled with various fall colors — quite festive! They are delicious with a flaky consistency. For a quick squash meal they can be cooked in the microwave. We’ll hand these ones out first.
A similar squash we grew this year is the sweet dumplings. They are smaller than carnivals with fewer fall colors on the outside. We didn’t get very good germination from these so there aren’t many of them. We also had germination problems with our acorn squash so those are not very abundant either.
Another similar squash is the delicata. It is a longer, slimmer version of the sweet dumpling. It has a sweet flavor with a flaky consistency. People like to use them for stuffed squash since they are boat shaped when cut lengthwise.
Spaghetti squash is a unique variety where the flesh, when cooked, can be scraped out into spaghetti-like strands. It is a great pasta substitute. We cook it by boiling the whole squash until it is easily pierced by a fork, then we cut it in half and scrape out the seeds with a spoon. Finally we switch back to the fork to scrape out the spaghetti strands. It looks like a yellow football without the laces or NFL logo.
Butternut is a favorite of mine. Its fine-textured flesh is quite sweet and flavorful. Plus with a small seed cavity there is a lot of good eatin’ on these bad boys. We cut it in half, scoop out the seeds and bake it in the oven until done. A little butter on the cut side makes it even better. Butternuts are the squash that look like jumbo peanuts.
You might also see a few hubbard squash. These are the extra large, grey squash that look like something out of the horror movie “Invasion of the Body Snatchers”. We grow these as a trap crop for the cucumber beetles. The beetles seem to prefer hubbards over the other squash so we reduce the beetle pressure on our main crop by planting the hubbards. Some years the hubbards survive and we get squash off these plants. Typically we don’t send them out to delivery sites because they would take up the whole delivery box — they are that large (see picture).
Finally we have the pie pumpkins. These look like small pumpkins but the flesh is less stringy and sweeter than the typical ornamental pumpkin. They are great for pies, muffins, soup (inside the pumpkin) and decorating until you are ready to eat them.
Once we harvest the squash we cure them for a week in our greenhouse. The curing process helps seal any wounds and hardens the skin to reduce future damage during storage. We’ll be giving out the first of the squash before it is fully cured but that shouldn’t be an issue. It can be eaten right away or you can store it until later in a cool, dry spot in your house. The butternut squash will get sweeter the longer it is stored — of course don’t wait until it rots though because it will suddenly be less appetizing.
So besides squash what else will we have this week? The usual onions and garlic. The tomatoes are still going even though it is October! The warm weather has allowed the eggplant to keep producing. Some may say the continuation of eggplant are the yang of the warm weather ying. Carrots, the last row of the second planting. We have a few tomatillos, a few okra, some storage cabbage (great for storing), kale, a bit of chard, peppers, and probably a few things I am forgetting.
FlowerShare is the only additional share this week except for MeatShare arriving on Friday.
I think this is long enough. What do you expect when it is raining? As always, do not hesitate to contact me with questions, comments, suggestions, jokes, etc.