Welcome to week 1 of our inaugural fall share! We are excited to keep the local food train chugging along and thanks for joining us on this journey! We've got a big list of items this week, including some newcomers (spinach, broccoli florets!) some old friends returning (beets and bok choy!), fall favourites (carrots and leeks!) and some special brought-in items (fingerling potatoes, squash, celariac, sweet potatoes!) We also have two sizes of honey now to purchase. Log on to customize your share and enjoy good fall eating.
On The Farm
We were blessed with some warm sunny fall weather last week that allowed us to get some bed prep done. We got a new load of compost in and Alex spent some time upgrading our compost spreader so that he could load it with the tractor rather than by hand. Once he troubleshooted his way through that, he was composting in style (and speed!). We want to work this fall on getting beds prepared for next spring. Since we have such wet, muddy springs its near impossible to prepare beds in the spring, especially with our clay soil. And there's not much time to do it anyhow. We flail mow, compost, and lightly till with our power harrow. Ideally, we'd get a cover crop in there too but we are still working on that timing. Instead, we'll tarp many of the beds that we'll be using in the spring. That will reduce erosion over the winter as well as warming the soil and keeping the beds free of weeds before planting.
We got half our garlic planted. We didn't have a great year for garlic, but we have high hopes for next year with our well-composted beds. We are growing more garlic next year, because we want to have a good supply of garlic braids for the fall. We find they make excellent gifts. We're also trying a new variety of garlic this year called Duganski. We'll grow it as well as our popular music garlic. Duganski has a beautiful purple wrapper and red cloves.
I really love the fall season on the farm - it's perfect for dreaming.
Veggies This Week
With the start of our season we are beginning to harvest from our hoophouse greens that we planted in September. So we will have bok choy and spinach from there this week, as well as some chard and kale. We also grew dill and cilantro in there and it's just gorgeous right now.
The fall frost has worked its magic, and you'll really be able to taste that in our turnips, kohlrabi, beets, and carrots.
Our leeks are pretty fantastic this year. I made a creamy leek and sausage pasta, which I am already craving again.
We are currently harvesting our smallest fennel or "mini fennel". I like adding them into roast veggies!
Brought in from Common Ground, HOPE Ecofarm and Daryl Myny this week we have: red onions, spanish onions, sweet potatoes, butternut squash, delicata squash, celariac, rutabaga, and arugula. Some of these will go into your shares automatically and some are available just to swap in or add.
Have a great week!
Your farmer,
Kim
