Wow, this season flew by. We have arrived at Week 20, the final share delivery of the summer season. Thank you so much for joining us and weathering this roller coaster of a season. The pandemic set the stage for a challenging year, and the hail storm finished the job...
We are pleased to have avoided the need to pack lower-value boxes for members, but members were unquestioningly flexible and generous in many ways: accepting reduced diversity of items (heavy on tomatoes, I recall??) in shares in the weeks following the storm, and some scratch-and-dent produce ranging from eggplant and peppers to butternut squash in last week's box. And of course so many of you also helped us raise funds through cash donations or purchase of plants at our native plant sale fundraiser. We continue to feel so humbled by the way our community stood up when we needed help. So, from the bottoms of our hearts - THANK YOU!
With the combination of donations, volunteer help, forthcoming fundraising by our hot sauce partners, somewhat higher-than-expected wholesale pepper yields, and some newly announced federal pandemic relief aid, we are going into the winter feeling strong.
We also want to take a moment to thank our pickup hosts, who have accommodated our weekly distributions of farm shares during these unusual times. The season really went smoothly with very few logistical issues at pickup locations. Several of the hosts are also members, so we're doubly grateful :) I urge you to thank your pickup host if you happen to see them while picking up your share this week.
Final logistical note: please remember to leave any share containers in your possession at your pickup site, or for home delivery members, wherever Sarah normally leaves your share. For home delivery members who have not signed up for a winter share by next week, we will not be leaving the share box on-site next delivery, but rather taking the liner bag out and leaving that instead. Feel free to leave a cooler out if you want us to set the bag of produce inside.
We have seen a surge of Winter Share signups over the past week, but do still have spots remaining for those of you who haven't yet signed up. We have added some new pickup locations over the last two weeks, so if our initial winter pickups weren't convenient for you a month ago, you may want to check it again. You can sign up for a share by clicking "Place Order" on your Harvie member dashboard or by clicking here. We also have a one-time Thanksgiving Share that will be delivered 11/24, the Tuesday before Thanksgiving.
Farm News
Monday was our final wholesale pepper wash-and-pack day, so that marks a significant turning point of the season. We gain about a day or day and a half to work on other projects, of which we have many. We sprinted Thursday and Friday to continue with storage crop harvest ahead of this weekend's expected cold weather. We mass harvested carrots, watermelon radishes, rutabaga, and cabbage on Thursday and Friday, during which we were graced with a some unhelpful snowfall. This adds to our inventory of winter squash, sweet potatoes, turnips, beets, and potatoes that were already harvested. Our cooler is getting pretty full now!
Here's Ani with a cabbage leaf hat, because why not?
Notes on items in this week's shares:
- Acorn squash is divided into two rough size classes, so you may be receiving a large fruit and/or a small fruit.
- Carrots this week are frost-sweetened, orange carrots from our storage planting harvested on Friday. We have admittedly not had a great carrot year thus far, hindered by poor germination during droughty hot days in summer; others wiped out by deer grazing; and some plantings delayed by defoliation during the hail storm. But we think you'll be happy with these to round out the season :)
- Watermelon radishes get their name from their greenish rind with pink interior, reminiscent of a watermelon. While I won't pretend they're sweet like a watermelon, they are generally sweeter and less spicy than other radishes, although occasionally there's a spicy darker "core" right at the center of larger radishes. The rind is fibrous (designed to protect during storage), so I recommend peeling down to the pink interior before slicing. We typically eat these raw, as a snack, in salads, or grated into a slaw. But they are also lovely roasted and stir-fried.
- Garlic this week will be 'Chesnok Red' hardneck garlic. We set them up to go in shares in increments of two, since they're on the smaller end.
- This week's swiss chard bunches are a bit smaller than our standard bunches, so we've lowered their value in shares. These cool-weather greens have the best flavor of the year, in my opinion.
- Mixed kale is the same variety blend that showed up in some of our spring boxes. The greens will be somewhere between baby and "braising" size, tender enough to eat in a raw salad but great sautéed or wilted into a soup.
- I would describe the bunched arugula similarly in terms of its size and culinary use. We recently chopped up a bunch as the standalone green in a salad, and it was delicious. But the larger leaf size also makes it good cooked - in scrambled eggs or on pizza, for example. You may also try making a batch of arugula pesto.
That's a wrap! Thanks again for be a member - we are grateful for your support. Members who are signed up for winter shares will continue to receive communications from the farm before each delivery (every-other-week). We will be emailing all members within a few weeks with a season-end reflection and customer survey so you can share your experience with us.
Stay warm and well.
Dana
