…then work your plan.
With farming you have to do a lot of planning. With CSA farming, planning takes on a whole ‘nuther level. When growing 40 different types of veggies and 150 different varieties it takes a lot of planning to make it all work. This past week highlights the need for planning.
Early last week we looked at the weather forecast and based on the prediction we planned to harvest potatoes on Thursday. It rained on Thursday thus preventing us from digging potatoes. So then we looked at the forecast again and based on the forecast of nice weather for the foreseeable future we planned to put off potato digging until Monday of this week. That way we’d give the ground a weekend to dry. It rained on Monday. So then we planned to dig potatoes on Tuesday hoping the ground would be dry enough since it didn’t rain too much on Monday. Then we saw the weather forecast for temps in the 30s on Tuesday night. Temps in the 30s can result in frost here at our farm. So today we planned on getting all the frost sensitive plants harvested prior to the cold temps and then planned again to dig potatoes tomorrow Wednesday. So as you see there is always a lot of planning to do here on the farm.
The items we harvested prior to the potential frost are sweet peppers, tomatillos, eggplants (very few), hot peppers and lemongrass. Typically we’d harvest all the tomatoes (including the green ones) but unfortunately the tomato plants are already dead from the blight. We’d also typically harvest the beans but the last planting of beans has already been picked over pretty well. The lack of tomatoes and beans made this season’s frost harvest far easier to plan than past seasons.
Speaking of planning, don’t forget to plan to come to this year’s Garlic Planting Party. It is the social event of the fall social season! It will be held on Saturday October 10th from 2:00 to 5:00 with potluck and bonfire to follow. It is a fun even for the whole family! Let me know if you can make it!
We plan to start handing out/delivering partial WinterShares this week for those who ordered it. So far we have the onions, garlic and shallots put together. We plan to get the squash portion put together this week for distribution next week. The plan for the potatoes is to wait for a variety that stores well.
As mentioned last week you can purchase any of the items from WinterShare a la carte. If you’d like extra garlic ($10/lb), onions ($1/lb), shallots ($2/lb) or potatoes ($1/lb) you can purchase them in the tent when you pick-up your produce. We can deliver them to drop sites; just give us sufficient notice to put it together. We’ll also have 5# and 10# bags of onions pre-made for your convenience. Please plan accordingly.
What do we plan to have this week? New this week are pie pumpkins (see below for a more detailed description of pie pumpkins)! We also are giving out lemongrass. Plus we have a bunch of hot peppers. Why do I mention these? Because there are recipes out there for Thai pumpkin soup that use all three! I’ve never made any myself but I’m planning on it this week. Use the google to find one for yourself! If you find a good one plan on sending it my way. In addition to these three things our plan is to have potatoes, onions, kale, chard, radishes (lots and lots of radishes), beets, winter squash, garlic (that could go well in the Thai pumpkin soup!), leeks (hmm, maybe in your Thai pumpkin soup?), some salad mix, tomatillos, cabbage and peppers — lots and lots of peppers. There might be a few other things available that currently are not it the plan.
Pie pumpkins are a bit different from ornamental pumpkins. First they are smaller. The flesh is less stringy and thicker. Plus they are tastier. You cook them just like winter squash. And of course you can roast the seeds for an additional treat! Plan on making a pumpkin pie using a pumpkin instead of canned pumpkin; it is so much more delicious. We also have a really nice recipe for soup cooked inside a pumpkin. I highly recommend it. Plan on giving it a try!
For those of you unfamiliar with Lemongrass the main thing to know is that you do not eat it. Instead, you wash it, cut it so that it is mostly stem, then smash it with a whack prior to adding it to your dish. This smashing will help release the effervescent oils that flavor your dish. Once your dish is cooked, fish out the lemongrass prior to serving; you don’t want one of your guest trying to politely choke it down.
The plan for FruitShare is this week is Honeycrisp apples; black grapes; Kosui Aisain pears; and Concord and Bartlett pears.
EggShare and CheeseShare are also planned for this week.
If you haven’t picked up your Seafood or Salmon plan on getting those this week as well.
The plan is for MeatShare to arrive on Friday.
I think that sums it all up all the plans for this week. If you have any comments, questions, concerns, suggestions, etc. plan on sending them in soon. We plan on having only four more week to go this season!