Farm Update
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| We harvested the last of the sweet potatoes on Friday, just in time for the light frost we had this morning! |
Hello everyone! Even
with the weather cooling down, we’ve still had fairly pleasant working
conditions at the farm so far. We had
our first very light frost this morning but any crops that would be affected
are already in storage or done for the season.
We got the rest of the sweet potatoes dug up from the field on Friday evening,
so now they are all curing in the greenhouse.
Because sweet potatoes are actually a tropical plant, they need a lot of
heat to get as big as we sometimes see them.
It was a pretty cool summer in general, so the sweet potato harvest wasn’t
large, but there are still plenty for the remaining weeks for the CSA. The fields are starting to look significantly
emptier and large swaths of the field are now planted with cover crop. The tomatoes vines are on their way out after
the huge influx of tomatoes we had a few weeks ago, and the cooler weather has
also started to take its toll on the health of the plants. The plantings of
carrots are still looking very robust and healthy. The yield and quality on the
last planting were some of the best we have ever had on the farm. At home we have definitely transitioned to the
hearty fall comfort foods, cooking a lot with the Brussels sprouts, sweet potatoes,
and other root veggies. Fred is already
starting to look at ideas for next season, including a new system for our
tomatoes and how to improve a few areas of the farm that struggled this year. On Thursday we had our final food safety
inspection for our farm, which went very well.
It looks like the Group GAP food safety program we were involved with
(where several farms work together to become GAP certified, thus minimizing the
expense to each individual farm) is a template that will be used increasingly
around the state in coming years. It was
a success for some small farms in the U.P. last year and again this year with a
small group of farms (including ours) here in the Lower Peninsula. We are hoping that being involved with this
program will eventually open up more markets, help us be ready for the
implementation of the federal government’s Food Safety Modernization Act (read more about that here), and
aid in the original goal of better ensuring the safety of the great veggies we
produce.
What to Expect in Your Share This Week
At the regular drop-offs:
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| Our purple kale, aside from being yummy, as also gorgeous to look at! Its intense color and lovely frills make it a favorite in ornamental gardens and on the table. |
- Choice of sweet potatoes and beets
- Choice of Brussels sprouts, spinach, or lettuce
- Carrots
- Choice of broccoli or cabbage
- Choice of winter squash or kale
- Choice of parsley, cilantro, chives, or celery root
- Choice of onion, shallot, or leeks
For home/workplace delivery:
A Share: B Share:
Sweet potatoes Beets
Lettuce Spinach
Carrots Carrots
Broccoli Cabbage
Kale Winter squash
Cilantro Parsley
Onion Leeks
Recipes
cool
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