Farm Update
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| The kale is still going strong! |
Hello everyone! The
farm feels like we are on the downswing now, as more and more of the fields are
emptied of veggies, tilled under, and planted with cover crops. We are just on the border between summer and
fall, where we still have abundant summer veggies, but we’re also getting into
our fall favorites. The tomatoes have
really excellent flavors right now, and they’re still pretty abundant, although
they are starting to slow down a little.
We’ve also been canning plenty of tomato sauce at home in preparation
for the long cold winter ahead. We just
started harvesting the first sweet potatoes today, and yesterday we ate the
first of the winter squash. We’ve had
plenty of rain over the last two days after a pretty dry week, which was
especially good for the Brussels sprouts, carrots, and lettuce. In other good news, we passed our final GAP
inspection on Monday, and should be certified in the next few weeks! It’s been a lot of work and a lot of details,
but it will allow us to expand into new arenas for selling our produce. I’ve had a few people ask if we’re still
planning on doing the CSA now that we’ll have the capacity to sell to larger
markets, and the answer is a resounding yes!
The CSA is our first love and our first priority, and that isn’t going
anywhere. The community aspect of the
farm is a huge part of why we do what we do, and makes all of long hours and
hard work worth it.
What to Expect in Your Share This Week
At the regular drop-offs:
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| We'll have plenty of broccoli and cabbages as choices in the shares this week! |
- Cherry tomatoes
- Tomatoes or beets
- Kale or cabbage
- Lettuce or snap beans
- Winter squash or Brussels sprouts
- Broccoli or carrots
- Fennel, frisee, or shallots
For home/workplace delivery:
A Share: B Share:
Cherry tomatoes Cherry tomatoes
Tomatoes Beets
Kale Cabbage
Lettuce Snap beans
Winter squash Brussels sprouts
Shallot Fennel
Carrots Broccoli
Veggie Spotlight: Winter Squash
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| Delicata squash is one of the main varieties we grow. |
The winter squash is actually one of the oldest cultivated
vegetables known to mankind, and its domestication can be traced back 8,000
years in the Americas. Like most early
vegetables, these first squash were eaten mostly for their seeds as the flesh
was not very palatable. Over time Native
Americans selected varieties that had a more palatable sweet flesh, that more
resemble the winter squash we think of today. Even though squash was grown from
the area that is now Southern Canada to Chile for millennia, it was not known to
the rest of the world until Columbus came to the Americas and brought it back
with him to Europe. Now common
throughout the world, most squash is produced in India and China.
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| Butternut squash is another variety of which we grow a lot. |
On our farm we grow mostly Delicata and Butternut squash, and
just a few Acorn squash. In mid/late
April we seed greenhouse flats with our winter squash seed and then let them
grow in the greenhouse for a few weeks. After that, we put them outside for anywhere
from a few days to a couple weeks to “harden off” the plants, or get them
acclimated to outside conditions before planting them in the field. Then we transplant them into raised black
plastic beds and water the plants. We try to plant them just before some rainy
weather to help the plants get a better start.
The black plastic also helps the plants grow more quickly early in the
season, because it keeps the soil surrounding them warmer. This year we planted them the last week of
May, and then we got a freak freeze on June 2nd, which is extremely
unusual (and detrimental!). After that, we weren’t sure if
we would have any squash at all because that is quite a shock to the systems of
a delicate new transplant. The plants
never did look very good the entire season, but they pulled through, and we now
have some great tasting squash. The
other squash-related mystery of the year is the unexplained lack of pests this
year. Most years, we have a major squash
bug infestation that all but decimates the planting. Hope springs eternal I guess, because we keep
putting it in the ground every year despite the fact that we usually don’t get
much out of it. However, this year a greatly reduced population of bugs came
out, and the insects who did show up seemed to be much weaker than usual. We’re not entirely sure what happened to them;
maybe an insect disease, or maybe some natural predator helped keep them under
control. But either way, we are thankful
they have been such wimpy foes this year!
Just yesterday we ate the first delicious butternut squash after curing
them in the greenhouse for a few weeks, and we look forward to giving them out in
the CSA shares over the next few weeks. Enjoy!
Recipes
So if you're looking for something to do with your squash this week, check out this recipe for Butternut Squash Risotto! This creamy comfort food is perfect for the cooler days we're likely to see in the near future!
Or if you're trying to hang on to summer as long as you can, try these Green Beans with Cherry Tomatoes for a quick and easy side dish.
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