Four More Weeks, Four More Weeks…

Since it is already autumn, we are now taking orders for 2027. Existing members can rejoin by sending in or bringing in a $100 deposit or you can order through our online store. For new members please go through our store. At check-out you can select deposit plan if you just want to put down a deposit or select any other the other options if you prefer to pay upfront for your share. We also accept payment plans if you want to pay over time. Select “payment plan” at check out.

We’re still planning on garlic planting on Saturday October 3rd — weather permitting. We’ll start at 1:00 and go until we are done. With enough help it should take a couple of hours. Without enough help it will take more hours so I hope we can find enough help. Let me know if you can make it!

We still have WinterShares available. WinterShare is a bunch of easily storable veggies. It includes potatoes, onions, garlic, shallots and winter squash. You pick it up at your usual pick-up location over a couple of weeks here at the end of the season (e.g. garlic, onions and shallots one week, squash the next and potatoes the week after that). Feel free to order it online (be sure to select 2026 as the year otherwise you’ll get next year’s WinterShare).

Speaking of WinterShares, we will be giving out the garlic, onions and shallots this week. Maybe the squash as well. Be sure to look for yours at your usual pick-up location if you ordered one. We’ll most likely send out the winter squash next week if we don’t get to it this week.

What will we have this week?

We have onions, shallots, garlic, potatoes, winter squash, lettuce, arugula, some peppers, some eggplants, some okra, some daikon radishes, some cherry tomatoes, some beans, some cauliflower, a few Napa cabbages, and some other things that escape my memory.

It is an egg, fruit, ‘shroom, flower and winter share week. Eggs are chicken eggs. Shrooms are FILL IN THE VARIETY HERE. Fruit is apples, pears, grapes, and strawberries. Flowers are decorative gourds. Winter share is garlic, onions and shallots (maybe winter squash). Be sure to pick-up each of your items at your usual pick-up location.

Farm News

As I was considering what we have left for the shares these next four weeks I started thinking about Community Supported Agriculture (CSA), you know, the thing this farm is and what you joined. Unlike a lot of “CSA” farms, we are a pure or true CSA farm. What I mean by that is everything we grow we give to our members or to a local foodshelf. Other “CSA” farms have other produce outlets like farmers’ markets or restaurant accounts. And some large wholesale farms also claim to be CSA farms. In these situations you could buy the exact same produce they grow at your local grocery store. The only difference is at a grocery store you can buy what you want. In the case of the “CSA” you get a prepacked box.

Anyway, the reason I thought about it is that if my predictions are correct you can count on potatoes, winter squash, onions and garlic every week for the rest of the season. The potatoes is a bit of a mystery since they are still underground and we don’t actually know what we will find under there but the others are already harvested and just need to be given oexactlyut.

Then I thought, is this a good thing? My preference would have been to have more variety each week. You know, winter squash this week, potatoes next week, etc. But this is what we have so this is what you get.

So that begs the question, what will we have for the last four week of the season? Funny you should ask. We just went over this yesterday, planning out what’s left in the field and in storage. As mentioned above, we have lots of onions, garlic, winter squash and potatoes in storage. We also have a week or so of shallots and maybe a couple weeks of sweet potatoes. I think that is everything in storage.

What do we have left out in the field? These are all approximations so you can’t hold me to any of this — I will deny I wrote it. Let me break it into two categories: those items that will end at the first frost and those items that will survive the frost.

Frost sensitive plants left are tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, peppers, okra, and eggplants. I would add beans into this category but after this week they will be done anyway. Some disease already did in our tomatillos otherwise they would be on this list. We have lemongrass as well. It will most likely be a one time thing when we get around to it or there is a frost warning — whichever comes first. All these plants are slowing down dramatically so there won’t necessarily be a lot from them but we will continue to harvest whatever they provide.

Plants that aren’t as sensitive to frost that we’ll harvest as they produce include but are not limited to lettuce mix, arugula, spicy salad mix, radishes, daikon radishes, carrots, Brussels sprouts (though the rabbits got a lot of these early in the spring), kale (flea beetles did a number on the kale but I’m hoping it comes back) and leeks. We also have a number of herbs we could harvest like parsley and thyme. There are some smallish celery stalks out there (why do I keep trying to grow celery?) which we will harvest at some point. The cauliflower is producing better than in the spring but not as good as the variety we grew in the past. The broccoli is getting sick with either black rot or alternaria due to the high moisture levels from the rain and dew so likely not much broccoli.

There could be other things I am forgetting but that gives you an idea that the season is hardly over. There are still a lot of items left to harvest and more to give out. So keep coming to get you goodies!

Recipe of the Week

Probably should have put this in last week’s newsletter but if you still have a pie pumpkin give this a try!

Joke of the Week

Why are farmers always running late?

Something always seems to crop up.

As always, send in your questions, comments, suggestions, 2027 share orders or any other things you think would be pertinent.