This week, despite summery temps, we continued the transition towards fall. We had our first good sized storage harvest, bringing in just shy of 5000 lbs of carrots from less than half of the field. In fact, all the winter squash and root crops are coming in so heavy that we ran out of bulk storage bins and had to drive down to Iowa to pick up 18 more 20-bushel bins!
The crew pulled tomato plants out of one of our two high tunnels to make way for salad mix to be transplanted next week. Don't worry, we have one more week before our other high tunnel get's transitioned from tomatoes to greens. But this will certainly be the biggest tomato week left in the season, so enjoy them for a bit longer!
We also said goodbye to Monika and Sergio, who joined us for about six week and helped us get through the busy peak season, where our wholesale pepper efforts overlaid all of our usual CSA-related tasks. Sergio is heading back to Mexico for the off season, and Monika is returning to her home in Del Río, TX. We wish them both the best on their next adventures! We unfortunately overlooked a formal crew photo this season, but did snag one with everyone working this Friday (which excluded Sarah and Haley, who were off :-/).
While our family is still decidedly anchored by the sedentary lifestyle with a newborn in the house, we did manage to sneak away for quick outings to nearby parks in the last week. First, a daddy/daughter outing to beautiful Caron Park near Northfield and then a whole family picnic and hike at Nerstrand Big Woods to celebrate our 7th wedding anniversary! We had fun (and learned that travel and transitions with a refluxy newborn is hard).
Notes on select items in this week's share:
- Acorn Squash: This week's featured squash is the sweet and creamy acorn, a great early fall squash with no curing requirement. We don't typically get much more creative than baking cut side down on a water-filled baking pan, but they're also tasty stuffed or roasted cut side up with a cinnamon, butter, and a drizzle of maple syrup.
- Salad Radish: One last hurrah for these little beauties. The roots are creamy/crunchy with a bit of zest, but not the fire that can sometimes accompany early summer radishes maturing during long, hot days. And the absence of flea beetles in fall make for attractive greens.
- Assorted Sweet Peppers: Like two weeks ago, this will be a blend of ripe and green bell peppers, heavy on red.
- Broccoli: After several very mediocre plantings of broccoli in spring and late summer, we are pretty excited about these beautiful heads. As a way to deal with some different sizes of heads, we are offering some single, medium heads as well as groupings of two heads that will be either a large and a small, or two mediums.
- Arugula: Just a bit bigger and zestier than last week's arugula; closer in size to most of the spring arugula. Just fine to eat fresh, or wilt on the stove to cook it down a bit and cut the pungency. The last of the season!
- Mixed Baby Kale: This blend of several kale varieties is a great addition to lettuce mix, but can also be eaten straight as its own salad or sautéed like fully sized kale.
- Heirloom tomatoes: This is the last big week of heirlooms (or tomatoes, period, for that matter). There will just be smaller amounts available over the final two weeks of deliveries. Savor what's left of summer!
As a reminder, this is week 18 of 20. Two more deliveries to go, or just one for every-other-week members. We still have some openings for fall/winter shares, and promise I will get my act together with some more direct communications about Winter Shares next week. But if you're reading this and haven't signed up (and want to), now's the time!
Have a great week,
Dana
