The last few times we've planted lettuces have been on these LONG 100' beds, it sure is nice to have less beds to plant, but as we've all noted it's a whole different feeling looking down the line at what you have left to go when it's so far away!
It's week #17 which means for some of you, it could be your last week of the CSA this season. So first things first, let me assure you that in case you've become addicted over the season, there will still be some Hoot Owl produce around for a while after the CSA season ends. Here are the highlights...
- The Farmers Market will continue through the end of September, with the last market being the 29th.
- Right after the last pick ups of the CSA, is the Kootenai Harvest Festival on September 17th. We'll be attending as vendors, and there will also be a delicious locally sourced meal, music, dancing, kids activities, raffles, and many great vendors. It'll be a fun day, 12 - 6!
- We plan to continue to do Farm Stand boxes as long as the weather and our plantings allow. We never know how far into the fall we'll have produce, but the Farm Stand boxes are a great way for us to slowly decrease our harvests as the weather cools down and the available crops return to those cold-hardy few. We'll make sure you guys as CSA members know when and where you can get a Farm Stand box if you choose to.
- The Troy Farmers Market puts on a 'Fall Bounty Market' that we often attend if we have enough produce. This market is typically in early-mid October, we'll let you know when we know if we're attending and when the date is!
While we'd like to run the CSA season longer, we've learned that 18-weeks works well for us because it gives us some wiggle room at the beginning and end of the season to allow for extremes in both weather and early/late crop failures. So we certainly hope to continue to see you and provide food for you beyond the main season, in case we don't, we have really enjoyed the season and want to sincerely thank you for your support and willingness to do a CSA program this year. It's not the absolute simplest way to get your vegetables, but we hope that you've found it rewarding! Also, keep your ears and eyes open this fall for news about a CSA member appreciation event out at the Farm, we've been wanting to do one for years and it just hasn't worked out, but this year feels like the year, it will be great to interact with you guys without the frenetic pace of the market going on around us!
Alright, now, down to business. It's the second to last week of the season, so it's time to customize your shares and for those of you that want to...time to load up. In addition to our regular offerings we also have several bulk options this week:
- Garlic - we have garlic available by the pound. This is the same garlic that we use to plant next year's crop this October, so it's great for seed garlic. But it's also culinary quality and will last well into the fall/winter for use in the kitchen. If you're like us, cooking at home can use A LOT of garlic! We have 2 options - Porcelain (garlicky, but less spicey) and German Red (the most intense garlic flavor).
- Potatoes - right now we have bulk options for our Adirondack Blue (purple) potatoes and Norland Reds. We will also have Yukon Gems available soon, but have not dug them yet. We have them available in 10# bags either single variety or mixed at $2/lb.
- Onions - we have bulk options for both red (Rossa di Milano) , yellow (Patterson) or mixed storage onions. These onions are amazing and last us through the whole winter. In fact, we've even had members that have saved their onions from last year beyond when the onions from the next year are ready. These onions are available in 10# bags at $2/lb.
- Tomatoes - We have 10lb flats of slicer and roma tomatoes available for those that would like to can (or just really like tomatoes!).
- Winter Squash - our winter squash is a bit later this year due to the cool Spring so there will be more coming in the next few weeks, but it is certainly something that you can stock up on and save for many weeks or months before eating. Right now we have some Spaghetti, Kabocha, Red Kuri, and Acorn squash available, but will soon have more of those varieties as well as Delicata squash.
There are no breads available this week, as Baker Mandy is away, but they'll be back for the final week and any Farm Stands that we do beyond that! So get in there and customize away. Let us know if you have any questions!
Cheers, Bonnie & Rudy
PS. You'll notice that there are NO melons available in our harvest estimate. We are so happy that you've enjoyed the melons and we REALLY wanted to include whatever melons we could in this estimate, but we JUST walked the field and though there are still melons out there, they are still growing and could not be counted on to be ripe by next week. So, the melon pulse has passed, we'll still have some trickling in, but they are likely to be market melons because they'll be ripening over the next few weeks.
