Leafy greens and the spicy, peppery flavors of fall
The recent chilly weather is welcomed by our fall garden, full of cool season produce. As the sun starts to slowly lower in the mid day sky, these brassicas, greens, and root vegetables really thrive with the resulting cool air and damp soil.
Our warm season/summer crops are less appreciative and are signaling that they’re about ready to call it quits. We hate to see them go and are milking the harvest as long as we can, but the end is near.
This week’s harvest is simple, filled with leafy greens and the spicy, peppery flavors of fall:
Butternut Squash, Mild Peppers (Shishito, Bell, Carmen), Hot Peppers (Jalapeno, Anaheim, Hungarian Hot Wax), Red Okra, Arugula, Swiss Chard or Spinach (as available), Kale Salad, Herbs (as available), Eggs, and Flowers.
We’ve begun collecting winter squashes and allowing them to cure in the hoophouse for long term storage. Butternuts are getting fewer and farther between and our remaining fruits are more “snack-sized.”
Spaghetti squashes are continuing to ripen but ought to be less prolific. Our first summer block has officially transitioned from a series of well-defined 100-foot rows of peppers and tomatoes to a wild tangle of pumpkin vine volunteers of various colors and sizes.
It’s hard to find a nice looking mature radish or beet out there right now. September gave us some variability and inconsistency that led to funky roots. Many of our radishes split and some beets developed some rot. We always try to get our best produce to our shareholders and save the misfits for ourselves and our livestock. It can be disappointing, but when we pull a mangled mess of a radish or beet root out of the soil, we’re trying to look on the bright side- more for us!
We checked on our sweet potatoes this week. There is good news and there is bad news. Good news is we have some fingerling tubers protected and developing deep in the soil, a few of which have passed our preliminary taste tests (with flying colors). Bad news is some really nice, big sweet potatoes emerged and exposed themselves-becoming an opportunistic treat for the critters. We’ve found some really nice tubers out there half-sampled by Bambi. We’re going to protect the patch and set up an electric fence perimeter in an effort to increase our odds this time. We want to give the crop as much time as we can to mature. The current plan is to keep them in the ground right up until it frosts in mid October, but we will see (we aren’t immune from impatience).
We’re not surprised to observe some molting going on within our bird population. Often when they sense the weather changing in the fall, the chickens will start shedding feathers to prepare for new growth. They can seem kind of depressed and vulnerable at this time with some breeds and individuals being more susceptible than others. Sometimes, they hold back on producing eggs when they molt.
As has always been the case, our goal is to provide each share with a dozen eggs, but we appreciate your patience if we have to make adjustments. As we’ve said before, we think you can be especially assured by the fact that the oldest eggs we could even have available are just 3 days old, with most being laid the day before, or day of your delivery/pick up. That’s pretty fresh!
Just as a reminder, our meat harvests are ongoing through the fall. Thanks again to those families that have filled their freezers. We think you’re making a compassionate, mindful, responsible decision about ethically sourcing protein and we really appreciate your participation.
The recent comfortable conditions out in the fields have been a pleasant reminder of how lucky we are to have been given this opportunity and responsibility. It’s a good time to be farmers.
Thank you all again and have a wonderful first week of autumn.
Erin & David