Lettuce Rejoice! October 3. 2024 - Summer Share Week 18 (FINAL WEEK)

It’s Week 18 of the Summer Farm Share (It's the final week before the winter share begins, you can sign up here)!

*If you are picking up in Bayfield this is the last Copenhagen's pick-up

before it switches back to Shopbike October 11, 2024*

Administrative Details

*Since it's the last summer share, it's even more important to remember to return your cooler bags and clips:)*

You are getting this email to let you know it’s time to customize your share, you will have until 9:00 p.m. on Monday October 2nd to do so.   

Here’s a how to file: https://harvie.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/1260802865550-Customizing-Your-Box-

If you run into any issues, please email support@harvie.zendesk.com, you can also reach out to me at firmlyrootedfarm@gmail.com 

If you run into issues at your pick-up, please reach out to me at 519 441 1556.

Harvie University

Harvie has excellent help files on all sorts of topics, they call their help file database ‘Harvie University’, you can find it here:

https://harvie.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/categories/115000048773-Harvie-University-Members

What’s in the Box?

The cooking greens, swiss chard and kale, are in their glory.  They are sweet and abundant.

The cauliflower is just getting started, with a handful of heads ready to cut.

The bell peppers are perhaps our best ever.  They are not, however, frost hardy so there will be a sharp end to their days.  They freeze beautifully for winter soups, stews and other meals if you'd like to stock up.

All the spinach on the farm has small spots on it.  This has never happened before and we are pretty concerned.  I plant spinach every week, always planting 3 different varieties in case there is a disease issue with one; in this case all of our spinach, young or old, and every variety has the same spots.  I can only hope it resolves, as spinach is one of our major winter performers, and according to the literature this issue is weather related and cannot be controlled organically.  As far as we can tell, the shelf life and flavor of the spinach is unaffected and we've decided to continue to offer it.   

On the Farm

All of the greenhouse hot crops have been cleared and replaced with winter crops like lettuce, spinach, arugula and kale. 

We've just about run out of time to plant anything that will be harvested in 2024 but in a few weeks we'll tuck in a few beds of greens that will basically hibernate over winter then start growing in February.  Some market gardeners don't bother with these overwintered crops but I like them because when they work they give you a 2-4 week headstart on spring.  Spring veggies can never come early enough, am I right?

Brian's been trying to grow giant pumpkins for over a decade and while these won't win any fall fair prizes, we are very pleased.  I wonder if he's fulfilled the urge or if he'll want to go bigger in 2025.  I guess we'll find out!

That’s all for now, happy eating until next time,

Farmer Tamara