Today I thought I would open our newsletter with a land acknowledgement.
Your farmers at A Rocha are grateful to live and farm within the TATALU (Little Campbell River) Watershed on the unceded traditional territories of the Coast Salish people: including Semiahmoo, Kwantlen, Stó:lō and W̱SÁNEĆ First Nations.
This past Friday, after rushing to harvest and pack CSA shares, our team paused to make space to engage in the day of Truth and Reconciliation.
Some of us headed out for a walk in White Rock led by the Semiahmoo First Nation. It was a powerful event as we carried the weight of truth and walked ahead in love together being invited into a new way forward. I was really struck by the generosity of Chief Harley Chappell on behalf of the Semiahmoo First Nation at this event and his raw honesty and grace-filled response, as he held anger alongside love and celebration for how far we have come alongside grief for how far we have to go.
I left the event grateful for the generosity of the Semiahmoo folks who spent their time educating our community, inviting us in and inspiring us to continue learning. At A Rocha, we are privileged to work alongside the Semiahmoo people in some of our conservation work, building relationship and caring for this watershed together. I look forward to listening and finding more ways to do that in how we farm this land with its complex history. I hope that you have enjoyed this long weekend and found spaces to engage alongside our local First Nations communities.
And now a few notes about this weeks shares. With the help of some of you, we harvested all of our winter squash Saturday! And we had a HUGE haul this season.
We will be offering a different winter squash each week for the remainder of the season. We are also going to be offering lots of 'extras' winter squash and bulk winter squash for you to choose from if you want to add on to your weekly share. These squash are a great storage crop that will hold through the winter, so not a bad thing to stock up on!
This week we will be sending in your share pie pumpkins for your Thanksgiving pumpkin pies! We will either send a Winter Luxury Pumpkin or an Autumn Crown. Both have a particularly smooth and sweet flesh that makes for a great pie base (or puree for any other baked good, and as with most winter squash, a fantastic soup :)).
We are also going to be offering a few other add ons that we imagine folks might want for Thanksgiving (or Friendsgiving) celebrations:
- classic Thanksgiving herbs - Sage, Rosemary and Thyme
- Brussel Sprouts
- Leeks
- Fennel
- Spinach
- bulk Red Russian Garlic! From Farmersdotter farm in Cawston, BC
- Casperita mini white decorative Pumpkins - perfect for the thanksgiving table! We are selling them 3 for $6 or 5 for $9.
- and finally some decorative Large Gourds that would be lovely on your front porch
Cheers,
Farmer Carly
