Dear Members,
The Farm Gods have spoken, and it is time to start harvesting this year’s corn! We wanted to invite you to this magical, fun, and kid-friendly harvest tomorrow morning, Wednesday, September 30th, from 9am - 12 noon.
We’ll be pulling husks and popping off ears of our beautiful Hopi Blue and Dakota Black popcorn.
We hope you can join us!
See you in the fields,
David and Kayta
Halloween is coming and our fourth annual lil’ GVCFarm Pumpkin Patch is now open! 243 Plumpy Pumpkins are out there waiting for you between the farm shed and the corn this week until the first frost threatens or they all get taken home!
Season limit this year is 1 pumpkin per share for shares without kids and 2 pumpkins per share for shares with kids. Enjoy!
New Harvest Moon Potatoes, Heirloom & Slicing Tomatoes (See Week 13’s newsletter for variety descriptions), Sweet Peppers, Poblano Peppers, Chard, Green Magic Broccoli, Escarole, Pink Lady Slipper Radishes & Hakurei Turnips, Carrots, Eggplant, Summer Squash & Zucchini, Olympian Cucumbers, Cherokee Head Lettuce, Salad Mix (with Mustard Greens, Arugula, Frisée, Bel Fiore and Oak Leaf Lettuce) Metechi Hardneck Garlic, Cabernet Onions
Check the u-pick board for updated weekly limits. With the ash settling on produce, we recommend washing all u-pick produce before consumption
🌟NEW Green Beans: A new bed of U-pick Green Beans is just getting going down in Field 5.
Albion Strawberries: Gleanings
Cherry Tomatoes: No Limit | See week 10’s newsletter for variety descriptions.
Frying Peppers: Shishitos, Padróns | See week 5’s newsletter for harvest tips
Jalapeños: Located below the Padróns
Yellow & Red Thai Hot Peppers: Located next to the Jalapeños
Husk Cherries: Located just above the gnome homes in the garden | See Week 9’s Harvest Notes for tips
Herbs: Rosemary, Thyme, Tulsi Basil, Thai Basil, Purple Basil, Oregano, Marjoram, Onion Chives, Garlic Chives, Vietnamese Coriander, Culinary Lavender, Culinary Sage, French Sorrel, Lemon Verbena, Lemon Balm, Green Coriander
Green Beans: Our new u-pick crop this week is a classic, tried and true Green Bean located down in the upper half of Field 5, above last week’s Flambo Shelling Beans. These green beans should be with us for the next 3 weeks.
Harvest Moon Potatoes: Debuting our 2nd of 4 potato varieties this week. The Burpee’s catalogue copy writer says it best: “Potatoes as objects of beauty? Let your eyes linger on ‘Harvest Moon’, with her velvety dark-purple skin and dense, sumptuous golden-yellow flesh. A seductively gorgeous purple potato princess, she’s as gorgeous to behold as she is tasty. Infused with creamy, nutty flavor, ‘Harvest Moon’ is a culinary triumph on her own, no butter or salt required. Multitalented, crack-resistant medium-sized potato can be enjoyed every which way: mashed, baked, boiled, fried—or adding color and flavor to a potato salad." New potatoes are potatoes that harvested fresh while the plant is still green and the skins haven’t hardened. They are crisp, turgid, fresh vegetables and something of a delicacy.
Escarole: See below for a great Escarole recipe and tips on how to use other chicories — or try the simplest way to prepare any succulent chicory: Quarter the head, coat the leaves in olive oil and to broil it in the oven until it is nice and melted and the tips are crispy. Toss with garlic, salt, parmesan and lemon juice and voila!
Our potato and corn harvests are approaching — likely in the next few weeks. Keep your eyes peeled to future newsletters where we’ll let you know the dates and times in case you’re interested in joining us for these fun community events!
Come out for our weekly volunteer morning, 9am - 11am Wednesday mornings. Sometime’s we toss squash, sometimes we do something much more mellow like deadhead flowers! Find us in the garden or fields. All ages and abilities welcome!
In the Fall, we harvest a lot of chicories (a family of leafy greens including Dandelion, Frisée, Radicchio, Endive, and Escarole).
People who are unfamiliar with them are intimidated by chicories at first, not knowing how to use them, because they are bitter. But once you break on through to the other side, they is no turning back and they become a staple.
Chicories are pleasantly bitter, with a succulent, crunchy sweetness, especially near the base of the stems. They are thicker in texture and heartier than lettuce, and softer and more easily cooked than cabbage. Generally they can be used like you would any cooking green like Kale or Chard — you can sauté them, use them in omelets, casseroles, pastas, or raw on salad with a rich dressing. Their sweet bitterness offers a wonderful counterpoint to savory, fatty, and spicy flavors. For your Escarole this week try Utica Greens, a staple dish among Italians in upstate New York.
The 2020 harvest season runs from Saturday, June 13th til Tuesday, December, 8th.
Saturday pick-up runs from 9:00am - 2:00pm
Tuesday pick-up runs from 1:00 pm - 6:00 pm
The farm and u-picking are open 7-days a week, sunrise to sunset. Please close the farm gates behind you on off days.
We’re in the harvest groove now. This week was the second week of the year oriented primary around a large harvest — the Winter Squash! Which is now all tucked away, curing in our greenhouses. It’s a beautiful sqwoard this year (a sqwoard = a hoard of winter squash… on this farm at least). We have 8 varieties in there which we will start dolling out soon, once their skins harden and they undergo their magical process of turning starch into sweet sweet sugars.
Preparations started on Tuesday afternoon after harvest, as we moved another batch of pallets and tables back inside the greenhouses from their summer residence in the cold-frame. A yearly ritual marking the completion of a circle, wherein our greenhouse tables now support the curing fruits of the plants that were seeded on them on the 15th of May!
Wednesday was Squash Toss Day. All four of us started bright and early, before the sun hit the fields, clipping and lopping squash stems and laying them out in lines. We had not yet finished when our Squash Toss teammates began to arrive — a sweet volunteer group of 4 adults and 9 kiddos! We all felt like kiddos forming big firelines and of tossing the squash to the truck — each beautiful orbs lovingly passing between numerous pairs of hands. Then it was back the greenhouse to fireline them onto the tables from whence they came.
In the quiet of the evening, you may now find one of your farmers leaning on the door of a greenhouse, grinning over our beautiful sqwoard. You should come grin sometime!
On Thursday it was back to the steam room, with tractor prep mowing the Harvest Moon potatoes in preparation for harvest; prepping some the final field beds for lettuce and salad greens; and harvest and washing. Later in the day we transplanted a small patch of Kohlrabi, seeded Mustard Greens and Arugula, and cleaned up (weeded) last week’s salad greens. In the afternoon we busted our first 70 bed ft of beautiful Harvest Moon potatoes — our favorite potato around here. We can’t wait for you to try them.
Today was a beautiful, clear morning of harvest, washing, and prepping for the harvest spread of Week 16 — truly one of the most abundant times of the year wherein Summer meets Fall and they party on the same harvest table.
See you in the fields!
David for Kayta, Kate, and Anna
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New Red Thumb Fingerling Potatoes, Heirloom & Slicing Tomatoes (See Week 13’s newsletter for variety descriptions), Sweet Peppers, Lacinato Kale, Green Magic Broccoli, Celery, Escarole, Green & Purple Daikon, Carrots, Eggplant, Summer Squash & Zucchini, Olympian Cucumbers, Cegolaine Little Gems, Salad Mix (with Mustard Greens, Arugula, Frisée, Bel Fiore and Oak Leaf Lettuce) Metechi Hardneck Garlic, Cured Onions, Assorted Melons
Check the u-pick board for updated weekly limits. With the ash settling on produce, we recommend washing all u-pick produce before consumption
🌟NEW Flambo Shelling Beans: See Harvest Notes below for tips
Albion Strawberries: Winding down
Cherry Tomatoes: See week 10’s newsletter for variety descriptions.
Frying Peppers: Shishitos, Padróns | See week 5’s newsletter for harvest tips
Jalapeños: Located below the Padróns
Yellow & Red Thai Hot Peppers: Located next to the Jalapeños
Husk Cherries: Located just above the gnome homes in the garden | See Week 9’s Harvest Notes for tips
Herbs: Rosemary, Thyme, Tulsi Basil, Thai Basil, Purple Basil, Oregano, Marjoram, Onion Chives, Garlic Chives, Vietnamese Coriander, Culinary Lavender, Culinary Sage, French Sorrel, Lemon Verbena, Lemon Balm, Green Coriander
Flambo Shelling Beans: Shelling beans are like your pantry dried beans — but fresh off a plant. They harken back to another age when old grandmas sat on stoops shelling beans in the waning light. Why though? Like other vegetables, fresh beans, (like, really fresh) are a revelation compared to the old dried ones on your shelf. We’re running them as a u-pick crop in Field 5. It’s a great time to check in on your fall crops in field 5 and spend time in that peaceful valley. If you don’t know where field 5 is check with one of us farmers in the pick-up barn. To cook your shelling beans…
Remove the beans from their shells: slice off each end of the pod, and pull the pod apart at the seam, or use the tip of a knife to break the seam.
Give the beans a rinse, and add to a large pot. Cover with at least two inches of water and add salt and aromatics: crushed shallots or garlic, bay leaf or oregano, and dried chili.
Bring to a boil on the stove, then reduce the heat and simmer until tender. Check occasionally by taking out a few beans and trying them – they should be smooth and creamy without any resistance when you bite. This can take anywhere from 10 to 40 minutes depending on size and age of the beans.
When tender, remove from heat and add salt to taste. Let the beans cool in their liquid, then drain (you can reserve the liquid as a broth). Add to pastas or salads, sauté with onions and garlic, or serve on their own with a little olive oil, or freeze for use later!
Escarole: A staple in Italian kitchens, this leafy chicory (related to radicchio and endive) is a hardy, sweet, and slightly bitter green that’ll help invigorate your digestion and add punctuation to any rich and fatty feast. Our favorite way to prepare escarole is to quarter the head, coat the leaves in olive oil and to broil it in the oven until it is nice and melted and the tips are crispy. Toss with garlic, salt, and lemon juice and wallah! It also makes a delicious raw salad component.
New Red Thumb Potatoes: We dug up our first potatoes this morning! “New” potatoes are potatoes that are harvested fresh, not quite cured, and the skins haven’t hardened. They are crisp, turgid, fresh vegetables and something of a delicacy. Use like you would a normal potato Try making home-fries to show off their freshness and delicate texture.
We had a great time tossing squash with volunteers this Wednesday morning. Come out for our weekly volunteer morning. Find us in the garden or fields from 9am - 11am on Wednesday mornings. All ages and abilities welcome! We’ll be tossing more squash this coming Wednesday morning!
The 2020 harvest season runs from Saturday, June 13th til Tuesday, December, 8th.
Saturday pick-up runs from 9:00am - 2:00pm
Tuesday pick-up runs from 1:00 pm - 6:00 pm
U-picking is open 7-days a week, sunrise to sunset. Please close the gates behind you on off days.
At 6:30 AM this Tuesday morning, the sun will cross the plane of the equator — the autumnal equinox.
It struck me today how the tasks of pulling off the farm year harmonize with the seasons in such a way that it always seems like there is just enough time to accomplish what needs to be accomplished by the skin on our chinny-chin-chins.
The Byrds were right: To everything, there is a season.
In the Spring, you aren’t harvesting yet so you have all the time in all the medium-length days to prep the canvas and plant out the farm; to expand the propagation zone and build new irrigation systems; to fix gates; to seed 60 trays a week in the greenhouse; to pot up tomatoes, to stake tomatoes, to trellis tomatoes; to mow cover crop and turn soil and shape beds and plant! plant! plant!
The sun setting on Summer 2020
Then harvest seasons starts and two, then three, then then four days of the week are consumed with reaping the fruit of Spring’s labor. You put down the hammer and take up the harvest knife. All other projects cease. Planting and harvesting are your life — some weeding if you’re lucky. The days are at their longest. If there is ever a time to be harvesting 1,000+ pounds of cucumbers, tomatoes and squash in the morning, prepping and planting out half mile in the afternoon, it is when there is 16 hours of daylight.
Before you know it, it’s late Summer. The tomatoes start exploding, the cucumbers already are, you’re still planting like crazy and then the melons come in — and just when you think you’ll break, that there isn’t enough time in the day, you scroll down on your crop plan and you see that plantings are nearly done. No more compost spreading; no more bed shaping; greenhouse seedings shrink. You plant the last Fall brassicas in the field, the tractor sits quiet for a minute, and you can spend all day amongst the vines and in the cooler playing Tetris with boxes of Summer fruit.
Then comes the Autumnal Equinox.
The tomatoes are still pumping and the potatoes and winter squash start to die back; the corn fills out, crisps up. The big harvests are coming. Space needs to be cleared. Winter is just around the corner so you need to establish garlic and strawberries for next year; mow and hold over spent beds, lime new fields, and get ready for cover cropping — and just when you think you’ll break, that there isn’t enough time in the shortening days the heat ebbs, the tomatoes start to show signs of slowing down. A light frost will soon roll through the farm. Smiling friends will come to help you harvest your winter squash. Chilling morning air goes down like a draught of ambrosia. You seed the last lettuce of the season. You have a moment sit down and calculate your garlic seed and cover crop order.
All this is why you won’t ever hear a farmer say, “Shucks! Summer is over.” We are greedy for the turnings. We love nothing more than a first harvest. But first tomato harvest glory fades under the weight of tomato crates and we crave cold hands and cozy coats and the crisp snap of the stem of a plump radicchio glowing in morning sun. Lucky for us, when scolding kiddos for running through the corn becomes sad and hackneyed, Autumn comes, and we can yell, “Come! Knock it down! Gather armfuls of cobs!”
Change is our tonic — one of the great sustaining elixirs of farm life.
Soon, Winter will come. It’s so close now we can almost taste it. The rains will fall and we will turn in — to rest, rejuvenation, and internality. We’ll clean up our books, do our taxes; we’ll look back on the year and create next year’s crop plan and next year’s budget. We’ll open CSA sign-ups. We’ll look at spreadsheets, sit, think, build, fix things, and sleep.
But ample sleep turns into insomnia; too much internality into angst. We will get pudgy, our harvest muscles will atrophy, and we will forget for what we are doing out in the wet and the cold — and just when we think we’ll break, that there is too much open-endedness in the too short days, the sun will return. We will hear the Swainson’s Thrush calling us, beckoning us, “Come out! Build it up again! Plant! Turn! Turn! Turn!”
See you in the fields,
David for Kayta, Kate, and Anna
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