11/4/2022 - Week 22 - Fall is Metal

THIS WEEK’S HARVEST

Fancy Fall Salad Mix (with Arugula, Mustard Greens, Frisee and Radicchio), Little Gem Lettuces, Rainbow Chard, Bok Choi, Scallions, Leeks, Celery, Fennel, Cauliflower, Daikon Radishes, Murdoch Cabbage, Carrots, Asterix Red Potatoes, Cabernet Red Onions, Sweet Dumpling Winter Squash, Lorz Italian Softneck Garlic

We’ve got some big, beautiful frost-kissed Cauliflower in the share this week!

U-pICK

  • Albion Strawberries: Gleanings

  • Herbs: Thyme, Oregano, Marjoram, Tarragon, Onion Chives, Garlic Chives, Culinary Lavender, Culinary Sage, French Sorrel, Various Mints, 🌟Lemongrass (located near the picnic bench next to the far oak tree & strawberries, look for the tall grass and sign)

HARVEST NOTES

  • Sweet Dumpling Winter Squash: This adorable little squash is a Delicata variety, bred to be adorable, round and squat. This one is new to us this year. Let us know how you like it!

  • Lemongrass: Lemongrass is now available in the garden! Common in Thai cooking, the part that us used is generally the fat, fibrous lower portion of the stem (although with this fresh, garden lemongrass, even the tips of the leaves are delightfully fragrant). Harvest by following a blade of grass to the very base of the plant where it meets soil/root system and snap a stem off from there. In Thai soups this fibrous bottom-stem is smashed and cooked into the soup, imbuing it with that incredible lemony-flavor.

The flower garden is winding down and it is time for cover crop — slowly but surely over the next 3 weeks we will start transitioning our annual flowers to bed for the winter.

WHEN DOES THE CSA END?

Our 2022 harvest season runs until the first week of December. The last Saturday pickup will be December 3rd, and the last Tuesday pick-up of the year will be December, 6th.

WHEN CAN I RESERVE MY SPOT FOR 2023?

We are deep in the planning phases for next season, rest assured, current members will be given the first chance to reserve a spot in 2023 CSA program!

Grace and Ashlynn take down the tomato trellises on Thursday’s frosty morning. Until next year, dear tomatoes!

FARMER’S LOG

Another busy week in the books! This week, like last, had at it’s center carrots, carrots, carrots and cover crop, cover crop, cover crop!

Thanks to another group of volunteers on Wednesday, we harvested another 1,500 + lbs of carrots, now stored safe in our cooler.

On Thursday, Ashlynn, Grace and Kayta got to work taking down the tomato trellises on one of the coldest mornings we’ve had on the new farm! David spent most of the week on the tractor highly caffeinated and listening to Metallica in the headphones (a great combination, in turns out, when you’re racing the rain and need to speedily spread compost and cover crop seed.)

Just like that the farm is quickly transitioning into it’s winter clothes….

Here’s a pretty heavy metal poem by Mary Oliver about the changing of the guard.

Master of Puppets is by far the best metal album of all time…

Lines Written in the Days of Growing Darkness

by Mary Oliver

Every year we have been
witness to it: how the
world descends
into a rich mash, in order that
it may resume.
And therefore
who would cry out

to the petals on the ground
to stay,
knowing, as we must,
how the vivacity of what was is married

to the vitality of what will be?
I don’t say
it’s easy, but
what else will do

if the love one claims to have for the world
be true?
So let us go on

though the sun be swinging east,
and the ponds be cold and black,
and the sweets of the year be doomed.

* * * * *

See you in the fields,
David & Kayta