New this Week: Green Leaf Lettuce and Dill! Scallions, Carrots, Celery and Hakurei Salad Turnips are back!
This Week at the Farm:
No rain again this week, but the weekly forecast ahead looks promising. Aside from the small detail about the plants needing water, we can not complain about the absolutely beautiful weather this past week with blue skies and temps in the 60s and 70s.
Last week, we continued field clean-up of warm season crops, including pulling tomato cages, mowing, rototilling, weeding, and sowing cover crop seeds. On organic farms, we aim to cover all of our soil for the winter to prevent erosion, and protect all the organic matter and nutrients that we are building in our soils. Some of our favorite winter cover crops are white clover, rye, oats, and tillage radishes (these radishes are not for eating, but their long taproots mine nutrients from deep in the soil and bring them to surface for our plants to use).
We also seeded just a few beds of cold-season greens, and planted some leeks for overwintering. Cold season lettuces also got planted outside (we're almost done planting, we promise!). Actually, we are trying some different cold hardy lettuces this season to see just how late we might extend the season.
We also continue to harvest winter squash as they become ripe in the fields. We harvested some butternut, more acorns and spaghetti squash, and a really fun red hubbard called Red Kuri. Our pie pumpkins are turning orange as well, and it looks like they will be making an appearance in shares just in time for Halloween. If left uncarved, they will make delicious pumpkin pies for Thanksgiving, which will be here before we know it!
This week, we are excited for the return of our beloved Hakurei salad turnips. We just love these little turnips, and if you haven't tried them, you will want to be sure to add some to your order this week. Eaten raw, the flavor is sweet and fruity. You can roast them, but ours never make it to the oven. They are so good, we just eat them like apples!
Have a great week everyone!
Value-Added Products:
In case you missed this week's announcement about our new give back initiative, here it is!
In the month of October, we will be donating 20% of the sales of our lip balms to the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank. Each month thereafter, we’ll be selecting a new charitable organization to support.
The Food Bank understands the importance of being able to provide children, families, and seniors with access to fresh, nutritious foods. For every $1 raised through this fundraiser, the Food Bank can help provide up to 5 meals. That’s truly amazing!
To learn more, visit their website here: https://www.pittsburghfoodbank.org/
The seasons are changing, cool weather is here and you all need a lip balm! Please help us in supporting the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank, and other non-profits in the coming months…
IMPORTANT NOTE FOR FLOWER BOUQUET MEMBERS:
Unfortunately, the Harvie platform scheduled some of the flower bouquets after the end of flower season in late October or early November. We have taken the first step to move these bouquets to the weeks between now and mid-October. For every four week or biweekly flower subscribers, this may mean that you will receive a bouquet on a week you weren't expecting. If you are a weekly bouquet subscriber, some of your bouquets will be doubled up. Of course, these moves are just place holders. If you wish to cancel these bouquets or you wish to reschedule them to different weeks, you are able to do so via your Harvie profile. Or drop us or Support an email and we'll help! We will even substitute a dried flower bouquet by request. We hope you have enjoyed your bouquets this season, and we apologize for this inconvenience.
If you have any questions, please reach out to jodi@cherryvalleyorganics.com or to support@harvie.farm at any time. Thank you for being a farm share member this season!
Jodi, Emily, Annie, Allie, Meghan, Nicole, Hannah, and Vanessa
The CVO Team
