So Long Till Next Year…

With orange leaves and frosty mornings we come to our last week of the season for the CSA. It has been a great year and we are so thankful for mother nature giving us a great stretch of weather and for all of you sharing this trip through the farm season. In the modern, busy, and choice-laden world we live in, I find it amazing that so many of you are excited to commit the time and money to come to the farm each week and be given your menu, in the raw. That sustained commitment from all of you is the foundation for this community supported farm. From all of us farmers, we sincerely thank you.

Survey… We appreciate the 130 responses to our survey so far and hope that many more of you will be able to respond in the next week. So many of the great details of what happens here each week are the result of suggestions from years past. We really do look hard at your opinions and ideas when we begin planning for 2011 (next week). http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/3GT5H2N or grab a paper copy at pickup and hand it back.

Bring Boxes, Bags, Porters. We are planning on loading you up this week with many things so please come prepared! More bags, boxes and family members to help tote will be needed!

Rutabaga and Parsnips. The fall root line up is complete with rutabaga and parsnips. If you are perplexed about either –think roasting. $00 degree oven, chopped into one inch pieces, tossed in oil/butter and you are ready to roll. Check the website for more detail and ideas. http://crystalspringcsa.com/archives/category/recipes/rutabaga

http://crystalspringcsa.com/archives/category/recipes/parsnip

No justice, no peas. With all of the gifts we were given this year there has to be a martyr. Our planting of fall peas has fallen to a sudden 25 degree night last Tuesday. Peas are a hardy bunch but when the temps dip suddenly and severely they have no time to acclimate and they get burned. This is why we grow fifty crops –we like the overall odds for success.

CSA sign-up for 2011. Many thanks to all of you who have signed up for next year’s share. It’s been a great year and we hope to make next year even better. Your commitment to a share this fall helps us plan for the coming season. By signing up now you also get on our winter payment plan which divides the share cost over three payments in February, April and June. As always, payment in full is great too.

What to expect in your share this week…

Lettuce            Potatoes            Rutabagas

Brussels Sprouts            Carrots            Sweet Potatoes

Kale                                    Chard            Winter Squash

Parsnips                        Chickories

Winter Work. As winter approaches we have a long list of projects to tackle. The first in the queue is putting a new roof on the CSA barn. CSA member extraordinaire Phil Dostie is leading the effort to help with this along with support by longtime CSA member & friend Mark Wild of G.M. Wild Construction (gmwild.com). We are planning to strip and re-roof the barn Halloween weekend. If you would like to lend a hand (we need lots of on the ground help with shingle gathering) shoot me an email and I’ll sign you up.

Turkey for Thanksgiving. If you are looking for a locally raised turkey The Turkey Farm in New Sharon is still taking orders. These are naturally raised pastured birds and the best part is they deliver right here to the farm the day before Thanksgiving. Check out the website for more info… http://www.theturkeyfarm.com/