Fall Forward

Mother nature still has her finger on the hold button for fall with another week of crazy warm weather. The leaves are coming off the trees and the wind is picking up but the temps are still more like early September. Besides being quite pleasant to work in for us humans, the plants are soaking up this weather and growing like gangbusters. We have lettuce heads that are twice the size and weight of our standard for this time of year, kale and chard are leafing out with the vigor of our August crop and the grass in our pastures is keeping the sheep busy trying keep up.

Kristin running the sorter
Kristin running the sorter
Sydney waiting for clean spuds to come out of the washer.
Sydney waiting for clean spuds to come out of the washer.

While the leafy crops are a large part of our weekly harvest, we have slowly been spending more and more time sorting and washing crops that were harvested in September and are coming out of storage. Winter squash, onions, and potatoes are all taken out of the fields en mass and we work away at them each week, cleaning and sorting them for the CSA. One of our biggest tasks is sorting the potato crop. Unlike most vegetables, potatoes are sown each spring using tubers from the previous years crop. “Seed” potatoes we save over the winter are set out and the new crop grows from these tubers. Unlike our other crops that come from true seed that is the product of a flower and pollination potatoes are clones, genetically identical to the previous years crop. While we grow spuds for all of you to enjoy in your share this fall, we are also growing our seed for the coming year. The whole crop is harvested and when we wash them to give to to all of you, the smaller tubers are sorted out to save. Many years ago we were lucky to find some old potato equipment that sorts by size, sending the bigger spuds into our washer and the smaller ones into bags that go into the cooler. The cooler keeps everything at about 35 degrees for the winter -cool enough to keep the potatoes asleep but not below freezing, which would kill them. Farmers are like squirrels, storing away the bounty on hand for the coming year….

Sign Up for 2014

Thanks to all of you who have signed up for the CSA again for the coming year. If you haven’t reserved your share yet follow this link to our no frills online sign-up page. The process takes just a few minutes and provides easy options to reserve your share for next summer. If you have friends, co-workers and neighbors who are interested in joining we will open sign-up to non-members on October 21st.

Order Lamb for the Freezer

We have order sheets for whole and half lambs for the freezer available. Pre-order and have the butcher process your cuts as you like them. Talk to us at pick-up or send us and email for a copy of the order form….

Upic

Cherry Toms

Flowers

Herbs

What’s in the Share

Broccoli

Delicata Squash

Potatoes

Asian Greens

Lettuce

Carrots/Beets

Kale

Chickories

Chard

Peppers

Red Onions

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