PUMPKIN PATCH OPEN!
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!
THIS WEEK’S HARVEST
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
U-PICK
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
HARVEST NOTES
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!
FALL HARVESTS APPROACHING!
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!
VOLUNTEER WEDNESDAYS
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!
HOW TO USE ESCAROLE, RADICCHIO AND OTHER CHICORIES
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.
PICK-UP SCHEDULE
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.
FARMER’S LOG
SQUASH TOSSIN’
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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