CSA Harvest #18

Happy Fall! As much as we love the long summer days the beginning of Fall excites us as well. Fall on the farm is all about cleaning up the remains of the season. Much of this clean-up is done after the first hard frost when the last, brave tomatoes, eggplant and peppers succumb to the freezing weather. At this time we can pull out the weed mat, roll up the drip tape, and pull out t-posts that we use for staking tomatoes. This season we planted 520 main season tomato plants in addition to the 120 early Glacier and Oregon Spring toms. We get a little nutty for tomatoes over here!

Fall also means the time to plant garlic (helpers anyone?) and also prepare the ground for planting our overwintering cover crops.
For cover cropping in the winter we plant a cold hardy mixture of vetch, bell beans and cow peas. These three plants are legumes which fix nitrogen (a crucial nutrient needed by plants. Cover crops also help hold the soil in place with their roots to prevent soil erosion. Insects and other animals love cover crops too since it provides a habitat for them to live in. Last it is much more beautiful to us to look out and see cover crops growing then bare mud in the fields and we rest easy knowing we are doing right by the soil.
Winter time for these farmers means some R&R and road trips so unlike many of you who greet the upcoming winter with dread we tend to mark our calendars and count down the days!

In that spirit please enjoy your 18th week of produce.. there are 8 more weeks of CSA left.. 8 more weeks until Thanksgiving.. yikes!

The Big Lick Crew: Suzie, Asinete, Tione, M.A, Violet, Sally and Grandma GG

Harvest This Week Includes:


Salad Turnips (no need to peel... super buttery and sweet!)

Corn

Strawberries OR Raspberries (with shortening/cooler days now not as many)

Salad Greens (please wash again and remove excess water to keep uber fresh)

Summer Squash

Red and Yellow Sweet Onions (get ready for the massive onion onslaught! We have loads of them!)

Eggplant (Purple is called Dancer and the smaller with white stripes is called Fairy Tale)

Garlic

Cilantro (salsa time!!)

Cherry Tomatoes

San Marzano Roma Tomatoes

Hot pepper mix (Hungarian Hot Wax, Jalapeno, Serrano and Poblano)


Carrots


*No recipes again this week.. our apologies.. This farmer/mommy cannot keep her eyes open any longer as the time now is 10:38pm Tues eve) For recipe ideas please check out allrecipes.com

Thank you!