We try to get as many cover crops seeded in the fall as field space permits. Many beds are still in use with late season crops at the moment, but over half the farm is now seeded to cover crops. Also called "green manure", a cover crop does several things: it protects the soil from compaction and erosion caused by winter rains; it uses and holds any available nutrients released as the residues of summer crops decompose in the soil; the living roots of cover crop plants in the soil feeds a thriving community of soil-dwelling creatures (bacteria, fungi, etc.), and incorporating a cover crop back into the soil in spring builds soil organic matter.
In the accompanying photo, a crop of triticale (a cross of wheat and rye) is coming up nicely in one of our fields. There are also legumes (peas, vetch, clover) mixed in but they are slower to emerge so you'd have to look hard to locate them in the photo!
Feature squash this week is kabocha/buttercup. We grow a number of varieties of squash in this group - some have a button at the blossom end, some varieties have a "turban" at the blossom end. Some are dark green, and some are bright orange. All are very sweet with flesh that is dense and on the drier side. They are all good keepers and excellent for all kinds of cooking.
Celeriac and "celery leaf" are here. The first is a weird root with a lovely mild celery flavour. The second is a celery with strong flavour (great for soups and stocks) with thin stems. It looks more like parsley than like celery!
If you'd like to stock up on some winter squash we have spaghetti, acorn and delicata squash this week on special as add-ons. This week we also have something free for everyone! Red onions and shallots - we didn't have a great crop of these, compared to the fantastic yellow onions that we have been able to send out to you the past few weeks. We've discovered that some of our red onions have soft spots and it isn't always easy to tell which are affected, so we've not been putting them into Harvie. You won't see onions in the list of items this week, but everyone will get a handful of free onions in their box and we hope that most of them will be edible.
The farm team bottled up fresh batches of hot sauce and sauerkraut last week. Our legendary hot sauce is fermented - the only ingredients are peppers, garlic, salt and water. For the smoked hot sauce, the peppers spend a day being smoked with alder wood, imparting a rich smokey flavour. Sauerkraut varieties are "Deluxe" - Green cabbage, carrots, onion and Kale and "Kraut Chi" - Green and red cabbage, carrots, onion, garlic, ginger and hot peppers. These are all available as extras for the end of the season. Stock up on ferments for winter!!
For some of you who are on an every-other week box pickup schedule, this will be your final box of the season! Thanks you for supporting our farm and committing yourself to local, sustainable eating these past months. We hope that this has been an enjoyable and tasty experience for your household.
Please stay tuned for important announcements from the farm in the weeks to come!
